Title: Puppy Love - Stargazing Part I
Author: juxtaposed
Summary: Remus and Sirius' lives and relationship - as seen from Remus' point of view.
Companion to Puppy Love – Lunar Love Part I.
Timeline: From when they meet, up til when Harry is born. Aka, 1971-1980.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Slash!! That means guy-on-guy lovin'. Dont like it? Dont read it! Simple enough.
Pairings: Sirius/Remus, James/Lily
Disclaimer: I do not own Remus, Hogwarts, Platform 9 3/4, etc...I do own Sirius, James, and Lily, cause JK Rowling killed them off, and we all know you cant lay claim to dead persons, right? Mwahaha. Nah, I dont own them, so dont sue me for dreaming. Bah.

Puppy Love - Stargazing Part I
by juxtaposed

Chapter Three: Hogwarts

The rest of the train ride went on in similar fashion, we kept on talking even as I saw the sky outside dim slightly, which indicated it was fairly late, and I was about to ask how long the train ride was when I felt the Hogwarts Express start to slow.

Sure enough, the blur of scenery outside was slowly coming to focus, and then there was a loud chug of the train, a whistle, a long shudder of the floors and walls – and we had reached our destination.

Hogwarts.

As we stepped off the train, we were swept up in a complete throng of people, all the students who were eager to get off of the train and stretch their legs. I turned to Sirius, James and Lily questioningly, as we all stood nervously at the station, holding onto our luggage, staring at the crowd around us.

"Where do we go?" I asked. James shrugged.

"Beats me. It's my first year too."

Just then, we heard a loud, gruff voice yelling out across the crowd, barely audible over the commotion.

"Firs' years! Firs' years! This way!" The owner of the voice was tall – very tall. More than twice the height of any of the older students and easily thrice of mine, and he was large as well. He had long unruly hair, and a long unruly beard, which hid half his face, although dark eyes peered out from under bushy eyebrows.

"Well, I guess that answers our questions. Let's go." Lily picked up her suitcase and started to make her way over to the over-sized man. James made as if to take her luggage from her, but a quick glance at the size of his own trunk quickly changed his mind. Sirius caught my eye and we exchanged grins.

The gigantic man was standing by the large dark lake beside a large fleet of boats, and beamed warmly at us as we went up to him. "Firs' years?" he asked.

Sirius nodded. "I'm Sirius, this is James, Lily and Remus," he pointed to each of us in turn, and at the end he stared at me for a bit, smiling at me before turning back to the man.

"How are yeh?" the man boomed, nodding at us. "I'm Hagrid. Groundskeeper." He waved to a boat. "Yeh all get on in. Its four to a boat, so yeh just right."

"Thank you," Lily said politely, smiling shyly. He beamed down at us again.

"No problem. Now, if ever yeh four be wantin' t' visit, feel free t' come down t' my hut!"

"Will do," James grinned eagerly, and Sirius mimicked him, as we began to move to the edge of the lake. We waved goodbye to Hagrid as we clambered on our boat.

"See you around!" I called out. Hagrid simply waved back before attending to the other students who had just appeared around him. When they were all in their boats, the entire fleet began to glide across the lake smoothly, all in sync. I knew Lily was as impressed as I was, even though Sirius and James seemed nonplussed.

Halfway during the ride, I couldn't help but notice that James and Lily kept stealing glances at each other, and blushing and smiling. It was then that I noticed Sirius was observing the same thing, and our gazes met. When that happened, Sirius' face seemed to turn a bit pink – or was it my imagination? The thought of it made me flush a little, and I smiled shyly at him.

We were close to arriving a little while later – I could see the castle, and it was breathtaking; I couldn't help but gasp audibly. It was amazing – like one of those castles you see in fairytales, or in history books, from the Middle Ages – in fact, I wouldn't have been a bit surprised if it was from the Middle Ages, it looked positively ancient, but still lavish and splendorous. There were wide, sprawling grounds, with its own forest and the lake was surrounding the castle itself – which was simply enormous, with all sorts of towers and turrets that seemed to rise straight up to the heavens, the tops of the taller ones obscured from view by misty clouds. It looked like an enclosed labyrinth; it was so large and confusing-looking.

"I think I'm going to get lost very often," I muttered aloud, feeling extremely daunted. Sirius, who was sitting next to me, and therefore within range, looked at me with a grin.

"Don't worry," he said confidently. "I've got an excellent sense of direction."

"Well, hurrah for you. Fat lot of use that'll do if I'm alone." My nervousness was making me snappish, and I winced slightly. Sirius, however, didn't seem to care.

"Well then," he said, rather cheerfully, "we're just going to have to make sure that wont happen, wont we?" He gave me a wide, charming smile, and I immediately felt myself heat up, and my knees went weak – I would have fallen over if I hadn't been sitting down. Still, I managed a smile in return, but cast my gaze down at my hands, both out of nervous habit and slight embarrassment over my earlier behavior. Had I just been rude to Sirius? When all he had been doing was being nice? I groaned silently. This was probably not a good way to make, or keep friends. Lucky for me Sirius seemed to take it all in stride – yet another wonderful trait of Sirius, I thought as I snuck a glance at him.

When I looked up, Sirius and James seemed to be having some sort of face-off. They took turns giving each other rather knowing, smug looks and laughing silently. I couldn't help but smile – Sirius looked adorable. Then James whispered something to Sirius, who nodded and suddenly a pang of jealously flashed through me, although it immediately dissipated when James returned to staring at Lily, and Sirius grinned at me.

His smile sent a shiver straight through my spine, and blood was rushing to my brain all at once, leaving me more than a little woozy. God, his smile ought to come with a warning of sorts – "In small doses, this smile is likely to cause flutters and giddiness. In larger doses, you might experience full-out weakness and swooning may occur, as well as a slowing of mental functions." It really was the most disarming thing, and I usually found it hard to think when it was aimed at me, and though it was good that it seemed to happen often, it was bad when I was trying to appear at least marginally smart and witty.

I wanted to sigh at the thought that I might be making a complete fool out of myself in front of Sirius, who was just so perfect that for the hundredth time since I'd laid eyes on him, I doubted that he would ever want to have anything to do with me. Especially if he ever found out the truth about me…

Of course, the fact that Sirius was still smiling his beautiful, perfect smile at me lifted me out of my funk straight away, and I found myself grinning beatifically back at him.

"Hey, check that out!" James suddenly exclaimed, and Sirius and I broke our gaze to look out across the lake where James was pointing.

There was a large tree; it vaguely resembled a giant willow tree, except that it was moving. It wasn't as if its branches were being blown by a strong wind, they were simply just whipping around, seeming to grab out at the air, swinging down low to scrape the ground, going every which way in a menacing sort of manner.

"Whoa," Sirius breathed in awe. "I wonder what that is?"

Lily was gaping in silence, but she spoke up curiously. "Is it just me, or does it look like a monstrous tree?"

I nodded, curiously captivated by the sight like the rest of them. "Its gigantic."

"No, I mean…it seems like its…possessed, or something." She seemed to be rather agitated that she couldn't find the right words. "It's moving so wildly, and there isn't even wind."

"Well," James said, and I glimpsed an excited look on his face when I glanced up. "It'll be our mission, then, to discover what it is."

"Mission?" Sirius repeated, a smirk on his face. "Wasn't your mission to, and I quote, 'induct Remus and Lily into the wonderful world of Quidditch'?"

"That's my personal mission," James said as if he was talking to a five-year-old. "This is going to be our mission. All of us." He waved his arm around at all of us.

Lily raised an eyebrow. "We all have a mission now?"

James nodded happily.

"We could always just ask someone, you know, James."

I nodded my agreement, but James and Sirius both didn't seem too pleased with her logic.

"But that would just take the fun out of it!" Sirius exclaimed, in almost-horror.

"Fun?" I repeated doubtfully. "There's fun to be had in trying to learn about a tree?"

"Of course!" Sirius and James insisted simultaneously. Lily and I exchanged glances. We seemed to be doing that rather a lot, and I had a sneaking suspicion we would be doing it for years to come, if we all remained friends. Especially if we remained friends with Sirius and James, who seemed to have their act down to an art.

"I mean, we could sneak around -" Sirius began.

"Have secret conferences -" James cut in.

"Spy on people -" Sirius continued.

James was about to go on, except that Lily and I were laughing by then. Hard. "What?" James asked, looking slightly hurt. "Why are you two laughing?"

"Oh, James," Lily shook her head affectionately, then dissolved into laughter again, leaving a very confused James Potter to stare at her.

Meanwhile, Sirius was staring at me. "What is it?" he was asking, looking so earnestly befuddled that I couldn't help but smile warmly at him.

"Nothing, nothing, it's just…it's nothing."

I was spared from trying to explain further by the halting of our boat in a dark underground harbor. We all immediately forgot about the conversation and climbed out of the boat eagerly. We hurried up the path and ended up in front of massive oak doors on the wide stone steps, looking up at the enormous castle that would soon become our home for three-quarters of the next seven years.

Hogwarts.

AN: Yay, Remus' POV is up! Oh, and I got a couple of reminders that the first years go to the castle via boat and not carriages, so I've fixed it accordingly, and yes, that means that I've reposted the Sirius one, so you can check it out again (or not, cause its minor changes) too.

Anyway, thank you and chocolate-dipped-double-chocolate-chunky cookies to my reviewers,
musicgirl141, X-mas Gurl, Affected MangoO (I havent actually decided if Remus will be poor or not, but Sirius is just being gallant and paying. :)), LythTaeraneth, Lilsi, StolenSoul4818, and Azure Luna (unfortunately, yes, the rat shows up eventually. I'm trying to put it off. (grin))

Now, you know what's coming...review, visit my LJ, and have a good week!