Chapter 7- Back to School

"How's you're mom doing?" James asked as he Peter, and Sirius took seats around me.

"She's getting better, but it's off and on." I replied looking at my plate, unable to look them in the eye.

"You don't look too good yourself, mate," Sirius commented, ladling scrambled eggs onto his plate, "Did you get any sleep?"

"A little," I said, desperately wanting this conversation to end, "What did I miss?"

"First flying lesson on Wednesday, charm's quiz yesterday. 12'' essay summarizing chapters 1 and 2 of Basic Transfiguration Year One..." James went on for another minute or so before saying, "We'll help you on the stuff this weekend."

"How'd the flying go?" I asked, feeling a little disappointed that I'd missed that.

"James is a natural," Sirius said through a mouthful of toast.

"You're not too bad yourself," James said

"Yeah, Marina's noticed you," Peter smiled mischievously, Sirius didn't smile back.

"She called me Siri," he said this as if it should be illegal, "Is it that hard to just put the 'us' on the end?" James, Peter and I snickered, "Don't you three be getting ideas," Sirius frowned,

"Never!" James acted hurt.

The rest of the day passed relatively unstressfull, though my pile of work grew rather alarming. It took me more than 8 hours to catch up, but since I had done it all on Saturday, I had Sunday off.

We roamed around rather aimlessly, where Sirius was confronted by Marina. Much to our pleasure as now we had a topic to talk about. Later, we met that large man again. His name was Hagrid, and, as he put it, he was the Keeper of key's and grounds.
He invited us into his house, which was on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and we talked about different things ranging from Hogwarts to professional Quidditch. After spending half a month with James, Peter, and Sirius, I had to admit I was growing to like Quidditch, though I knew only a little about it and when I said so both Sirius and James gapped at me for a few moments.

"Ok, there are 7 players," James explained this as if every person in their right mind would know, "There's a Keeper, a seeker, 3 chasers, and 2 beaters." As he spoke, his arms seemed to illustrate the way these 7 players would move, "Now, the 3 chasers handle a ball called the Quaffle, they try to put it through one of three of the opponents hoops," I, of course, knew the basics of Quidditch, but since James was so wrapped up in what he was saying, I didn't bother to stop him, "The Keeper protects the hoops. The beaters have clubs and use them to hit these hellish balls towards the other team." His eyes began to glint, "But the seeker is the key player. He flies around looking for a tiny little gold ball called the snitch. Now, if he catches the snitch the games if over, but it doesn't necessarily mean his team wins the game, his team gets 150 points, although, teams who catch the snitch usually win. Got it?"

I nodded, trying to look enlightened,

"You knew that didn't you?" James squinted at me

I smiled.

We didn't leave Hagrid's until 6:00, the four of us made for the Great Hall.

"Oh look who it is...Blackie and his bitches." I heard the familiar voice, we turned around.

"Go away, Malfoy." James said,

"Oh yeah, I'll be sure to do that, Potter," He sneered, "So, Black,"

"What?" Sirius growled,

"Temper, Black, if might get you in trouble some day,"

"No, we haven't seen your boyfriend, Malfoy, though I suggest looking in your dormitory, he might be waiting for you there," James said loudly, causing some students to look over at them.

Malfoy looked Murderous, but didn't retort, instead he grunted and walked off.

"Why did he do that?" Peter asked as we sat down,

"Nothing better to do, I suppose," Black grumbled, "Sometimes I wish I wasn't pure blood,"

I remembered the letter Sirius got on our second day. It had been from his mother saying how thoroughly disappointed she was that he was sorted into Gryffindor, not Slytherin.

"Don't worry about it," I said, "You belong in Gryffindor,"

I couldn't sleep that night. After tossing and turning for more than an hour, I got up and went down to the common room. I had left my stuff there so grabbed a quill and a bit of spare parchment.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I miss you but I'm having a lot of fun. I have 3 friends named James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew. They don't know and I'm afraid they'll desert me if they find out. Madame Pomfrey gave me this potion after and in just a few hours a lot of my bites had healed, and I only got half the scars I would have! I'm learning a lot, I feel so lucky. The only thing I don't like is the way I'm treated. The professor's treat me special; all I want is to be a least a little normal. Hope you're having fun at home.

Love you,
Remus

I read it over then folded it up and set it by my homework. I stayed up for a little while before heading back up to the dormitory to get a little more sleep.

"Remus, Remus!" I opened an eye, then the other.

"What?" I mumbled, trying to pull my blanket over my head,

"It's Monday, come on, get up! We're going to miss breakfast." James was standing over me, already dressed.

"Don't make us drag you out," Sirius joked, "Or, better yet, get a bucket of water. Oy Peter!"

There was a muffled 'what' coming from the bathroom

"Bring a bucket of cold water in here."

"No. I'm up." I said loudly so Peter would hear.

Once Peter was out, I made for the bathroom to take a shower. All three of them knew that I took showers alone and respected that even though they said things like, "It's nothing we haven't seen you know,"

I just didn't want them to see my scars.

School passed normally. I was pleased that we had flying lessons that day. It was apparent that both Sirius and James were naturally talented on the brooms.

Before lunch, I went to the Owlery and sent my letter.

I was happy to get to Defense Against the Dark Arts, it was my favorite subject and our teacher wasn't old. Professor Lynch was only 25. This was her first year here.

James and Sirius accused me of having a crush on her, but I didn't. She was pretty, but I wouldn't be ready for a relationship like that even if it was someone my own age.

Yeah...I didn't know of many of the teachers in their year. Please review, I know you wanna ;-)