Nearly a week had passed since the start of term at Hogwarts, classes were well underway, and most first-years had become quite at home in their house towers. Emphasis on most.
It was the first Friday after school had started, five days, no more. In a dimly lit corner of the crowded Gryffindor common room was a small wooden table and chair, lit only by a nearly-spent candle surrounded by wax drippings. This evening, the table was home to a very aggravated Ms. Evans. She was bent over a pile of parchment (her mangled notes), quill in hand, staring at the numerous inkblots on the uppermost page-testimony to her skill at using a quill. Stray strands of hair fell unhindered into her face as she struggled with her notes. She really hadn't had the best first week, and found herself struggling to keep up, and astonished by things like gobstones and wizard's chess, and-ARGH. When a particularly bad inkblot smeared out the only legible bit of writing on the page, the normally calm and collected Lily-completely lost it.
"ARGH! Why can't these slack-jawed idiots just use pens like normal people?"
Immediately after speaking, Lily jabbed her thumb over her shoulder, groaning inwardly. "You just watched that whole thing, didn't you?"
Damn, how did she do that? James allowed himself to chuckle. "Having trouble much, Evans? That really hurt you know. Our jaws aren't that slack, honest." Gosh, that girl was hilarious, even when she was angry, and he should know, even in one week, she seemed to have developed something very close to hatred for him. Of course, he had no idea why, who could possibly resist the charm of a kid who proclaims that he's a lizard?
"Sod off, Potter."
Of all the arrogance, he had the nerve to come up to her, expecting her to be nice? Not a chance.
"Aw, c'mon, isn't that a bit harsh? After all, it's not my fault you never learned to write."
"Ha, don't worry about him, Lily; he's just jealous that you can even read." It appeared that in the midst of the 'conversation', Elham had snuck up unnoticed with one of her friends, Kara.
"Hi all!" Kara smiled brightly at the pair, toying with a gold hairpin setting her hair into an elaborate bun. With her long brown hair out of her face, her most unusual eyes were emphasized. One was a rich, almond brown, but the other was half-brown, half-blue- her most distinguishing feature.
Kara had already become acquainted with the other Gryffindors during classes, having been grouped with them in transfiguration.
Perhaps James would have been able to make up a sufficiently witty retort for Elham's jab, but was spared the need to by a light tap on his shoulder.
"Leave her alone, James, she never did anything to hurt you."
"But Reeeeemussssss... it's funnnnnnnn"
Remus cocked an eyebrow, smiling as if at some secret joke. "Alright then, you've left me no choice. Leave these fine young ladies alone or I shall have to tell them just how many hours of practice it took you to get 'wingardium leviosa' right."
"Fine young ladies? Why, Mr. Lupin, I never knew you ca-ARGH!"
Aw, poor Kara. Her lovely bout of charm and wit had been cut off by a considerably huge mar. Black pouncing on her, throwing her to the ground. "ARGH...Sirius...gerrof!"
"Aw, cous, I knew you loved me."
"Get. Off...NOW!"
Sirius obediently stood up, pulling Kara along with him.
Kara glared furiously at Sirius, pointing her finger in his face. "Cousins or not, if you do that again, I'll hang you from the top of north tower by your knickers."
"Erm...hello?" Lily raised her hand tentatively. "As long as you're all here, will someone please help me write?"
"I will", offered Peter timidly, causing everyone to jump-no one had even seen him come.
And so, Lily learned to use a quill, Peter proved himself helpful, James was a pain in the neck, Kara had a pain in her neck, and they all lived happily ever after. Ha-ha no.
On the bright Saturday morning of the 27th of October, students made their leisurely way to the Great Hall for breakfast. Remus had been ill and in the hospital wing two days before, but was now looking happy and whole, if not entirely healthy. Everyone, even Lily had become accustomed to goings-on at Hogwarts, rarely got lost anymore, even stopped jumping when the morning post arrived by owl-ah, here it was now.
Hundreds of owls of every size and description swooped into the great hall, their letters aloft. Extra socks, mittens, tins of chocolate, you name it, all made their way to their owners.
But on this day, only one owl caught Remus's eyes, and apparently everyone else's, too. A sudden hush fell over the hall as a plain brown barn owl made its sedate way to Remus's side as he knew it would, but desperately wished it hadn't. Tied around a foot of the owl by a silver ribbon was a single unadorned black envelope. Everyone born to a wizarding family knew what that meant. Remus delicately unlaced the ribbon and sent the owl on its way, a shadow coming over his face. He took one swift look at the table, informed everyone that he wasn't feeling hungry at the moment, and calmly, ever so calmly, left the Great Hall.
Only when he reached the safety of his bed did Remus allow himself to cry. He did not need to read the letter to know what had happened. The full moon was two nights ago, and his parents were far too old to fight off an attack-and now they were gone, both of them. It was in that instant that Remus was so overcome with self-loathing that he resolved never to let himself get close enough to someone that he may hurt them, monster that he was.
He stared blankly at a poster over Sirius's bed and remembered, as if from a different life, a conversation from the night before. They all came from different backgrounds, Sirius coming form muggle London. He had explained that muggle posters didn't move, they just sat there. It was a picture of a muggle punk band, with their oddly-shaped haircuts and numerous piercings. "The Oi Scouts", he had called them. But this was last night, and his parents had already been dead by then. So now, he must never allow himself to get close to these people, people he would so willingly have called friends, lest he hurt them.
He stayed on his bed throughout the day and vaguely remembered Peter coming in, trying to help, and asking what had happened to his parents. "Wolf" was all he had managed to say through his dry throat. Then the rest came in, he evaded Sirius's attempts to cheer him up, they went to sleep, and he sat against his headboard, eyes dry, wide awake all night. "Never again", we vowed silently, thinking of the people he longed to call friends. "Never again."
