Disclaimer: I own nothing, except for Robin Hart; I had a feeling that there should be five Gryffindor boys, not four.

A/N I forgot to mention that in chapter 5 (the previous chapter) that McGonagall's speech to the first years was taken from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone, because I decided that she has said the same speech inviting first years to Hogwarts for years, okay? Oh yeah, and I've also decided that it would be good if the marauders had the same dorm as Harry and Ron and Lily and the other girls have the same dorm as Hermione. Anyway, to the story…

Chapter 5: New Homes and First Days

'This is your common room,' the prefect continued, 'where you can spend your spare time. Girls, your dormitories are through this door and up the stairs,' he informed them, gesturing towards a door in front of them. 'Boys, your dormitories are through the door to the right of the girls'. Now I suggest you all get a good night's sleep now, as your first day at Hogwarts begins tomorrow.'

James yawned. He was certainly tired. He saw Sirius yawning too, and laughed.

'What? Your yawning's contagious!' Sirius protested, and then looked towards the door and his fellow first years. 'Well, are we going to see our dormitories or what?' he asked impatiently.

They opened the door and climbed slowly up the spiral staircase, and, after what seemed like an age, reached the top.

'Wow! Four poster beds!' a boy James had not noticed exclaimed. The beds were, indeed, four poster beds, with red velvet curtains. He noticed the others looking at him curiously, and gave them a nonchalant look. 'I'm Robin Hart, by the way.' He told them, and walked towards the bed with his belongings near it.

'I'm James Potter.' James announced, shaking Robin's hand.

'Sirius Black.'

'Remus Lupin.'

'P-P-Peter Pettigrew.'

'Now if you'll all excuse me, I'm shattered, so I'm going to go to sleep now.' The others nodded.

'Good idea.' Sirius agreed, and the others nodded, getting changed, finally ending up in their beds. James noticed that they were incredibly comfortable, and sank into the mattress, dreaming.

'Up! Wake up!' Robin called to his roommates early in the morning. 'It's our first day; we don't want to be late!' he exclaimed. Sirius groaned.

'If you do that again, I swear I'm gonna hex you to kingdom come.' He growled, pulling his covers over him.

'Oh yeah, and how're you going to do that? You don't know any curses.' Robin retorted; pulling an ugly face at Sirius, who didn't see as his head was currently secured underneath his covers.

'That's what you think.' Sirius scowled, pulling his sheets off, standing up to have a go at Robin. 'I grew up in a house of Slytherins. You really think I haven't picked up a few curses and hexes by now, do you?'

'Woah, calm down mate,' James said, getting up to make sure that Sirius didn't do anything he would regret. Sirius scowled at Robin, and began to get dressed and ready for breakfast.

'Next, time, next time.' he muttered to himself, putting his hat on.

Peter yawned, getting up from his bed, apparently oblivious of what had happened between Sirius and Robin, said cheerfully, 'Breakfast awaits!' He bounded towards the door, but Remus decided to stop him before he embarrassed himself.

'Peter,' he began, 'are you sure you want to go down to the Great Hall in your pyjamas?' James and Sirius began sniggering, and Robin gave them a snobbish look. Peter blushed heavily.

'Oh, right. I suppose not.' Sirius and James both gave huge snorts of laughter at this, and Remus gave them a disapproving look.

'What?' James asked in a would-be-innocent voice, but Robin interrupted them, saying, 'I'm going down to breakfast now.' and walked out of the door, not noticing Sirius pretending to curse him behind his back. He closed the door, and Sirius let out a long sigh.

'Finally,' he said gladly. 'I thought that git was never going to get out of our sight.' James and Sirius both burst into laughter again.

'Have you lot ever heard of the term, 'inter-house unity'?' Remus asked them stoutly, his arms folded across his chest. Sirius and James looked at each other, and said, 'No.' very unconvincingly.

'Well, maybe you should look in a dictionary.' Remus told them.

'You guys,' Peter said weakly, 'I think I need some help here.' They all turned around to where Peter was standing, and James and Sirius didn't even bother to contain their laughter. Remus rolled his eyes and walked towards Peter. 'Honestly you two, grow up.' he said to them, irritated.

'But – but it's so funny!' Sirius exclaimed through fits of laughter. James, who was giggling by now, said, 'Yeah, it's not every day you see someone manage to put their robes on upside down!' After saying this, a fresh wave of laughter engulfed him. 'I'm sorry,' he said, gasping for air. 'It's just so hilarious!'

Remus made a tutting sound, and began to help Peter out of his robes. 'Come on, just lift your left leg out of the arm hole, and you can put it on the right way around.' Remus said sympathetically to Peter. Poor guy, he thought. After Peter had freed his left leg, Remus helped him put the robes on the other way, and turned to Sirius and James, who were nowhere in sight. He turned back to Peter, and asked, 'Where did they go?'

Peter replied by saying, 'Oh, they left for breakfast. Didn't you see them leave?' Remus shook his head. 'Oh.' Peter said, looking at Remus in a pathetic way.

'We should be going to breakfast, we're already –' Remus began, looking at his watch, '-five minutes late.' He ended, and dragged Peter across the dormitory, down the staircase, through the common room and towards the Great Hall. They reached the table huffing and puffing, and made their way next to James and Sirius. Remus gave them an annoyed glance, which made Sirius open his mouth to apologise, but instead he ended up spraying his breakfast over everybody.

'Ew, gross!' Andromeda exclaimed from across the table. 'Sirius!' she looked at him angrily, along with a handful of other Gryffindors who had been sprayed with Sirius' food.

James snorted, having managed to be spray-free himself, and turned to Remus. 'What he meant to say,' he began, 'was: 'the prospect of food was too much for us, so we left you. Sorry.'' he smiled at Sirius, and only just managed to stop himself from laughing. Remus nodded, accepting their somewhat odd apology, realising that nothing would come between the two and food.

'Oh, you two,' Andromeda began, 'here's your school timetables.' She passed them a piece of paper each, and Remus looked at it to see what lesson they had first. 'Double potions.' he said out loud, and Andromeda grimaced.

'Rather you than me.' she said, looking at her timetable. 'I've got, let's see… Charms.' she gave a little smile. 'This'll be fun.'

'Why?' the four of them asked her, but she just shook her head, dismissing them. She immediately tried to change the subject.

'Who're you having Potions with?' she asked, Remus.

'Professor Frux.' he told her. She gave a little laugh.

'I know who's teaching you. I meant what house are you doing the lesson with? Hufflepuff? Ravenclaw? Slytherin?' she asked them quickly.

Peter groaned and said, 'Slytherin.' The others groaned as well.

'Slytherins are just so stuck up!' James exclaimed, and then glanced at Sirius. 'Er, sorry.' he mumbled.

'Sorry? Just what for? I'm not a Slytherin!' Sirius exclaimed, and laughed at James' expression. 'Seriously mate, if you want to have a go at Slytherin, then please do. I don't give one hoot about what you say about them. It's not as if I'm proud to be related to my family!'

'Hey!' Andromeda protested from across the table.

'Except the non-Slytherin members.' Sirius added, grinning at his cousin, who grinned back.

'Good!' she exclaimed. For the rest of the breakfast, they spent their time wondering about what the lessons would be like, with Andromeda telling them what to expect. Finally, the bell rang, and students filed out of the Great Hall – some light-hearted, some with frowns on their faces. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter made their way towards the dungeons, and managed to get to their potions room in ten minutes. Other first years were already waiting outside in the corridor.

'Sirius.' sneered a girl with tangled black hair, who - James noticed - resembled his best friend slightly.

Sirius scowled. 'Bellatrix.' he addressed her.

'I got an owl from your mum today,' the girl named Bellatrix informed Sirius, 'and guess what? She wants me to make sure you keep in line, and was frankly disgusted at your behaviour just before we left for Hogwarts.' she had a smirk on her face, and Sirius was still scowling, his teeth clenched.

'What's up Sirius?' she asked mockingly. 'Family tradition finally got to you? Finally realised you're a traitor?' Her Slytherin friends around her started giggling, including Severus Snape, who was howling in laughter.

'What d'you find so funny?' James scowled at Severus, his face full of rage. Severus, who had no one to back him up (he was still a social disaster even with those from his own house), stuttered, 'N-nothing.'

James looked him up and down. 'Good.' he spat. The door to their potions classroom opened, and in the doorway stood a stern looking wizard. 'Hello,' he said, startling some of the students who hadn't noticed him. 'And welcome to your potions lesson. You may call me Professor Frux. Come in, come in and sit down.'

James, Sirius, Peter and Remus all sat on the same row, waiting eagerly for their first lesson at Hogwarts to begin. Once the class had settled down, Professor Frux spoke. 'Again, welcome to Potions. Potions are very powerful things, when brewed properly. I can teach you many things, from bottling fame to brewing glory, and even putting a stopper to death. However, you will need to learn to make some more basic potions first, so that you can progress to the others.' He waved his wand, and some instructions came up on the board. 'Today we are going to make a simple potion. Instructions and ingredients are on the board; I will be coming around to help you.'

The students fetched their ingredients, and began to follow the instructions. After that, the lesson was pretty uneventful, except for when Peter managed to burn a hole in his cauldron and had 5 points taken from Gryffindor for carelessness.

Next on the timetable was Defence Against the Dark Arts. James and Sirius were eager to see what this lesson would be like, as they had heard from Andromeda that they were excellent. However, they had also heard that the job was jinxed, and that no one teacher had managed to teach there for more than one year in a long time.

Their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was Mrs Hunt, who was the new professor at Hogwarts, a dark-haired, dark-eyed woman. She made the lesson lively, and it certainly lived up to Andromeda's words.

History of Magic, however, was nowhere near as exciting. Professor Binns droned on about, about something (James wasn't concentrating on what the Professor was talking about, he was concentrating on falling asleep), and no one listened except for Lily Evans, and at some times, Remus.

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter's first week went by with surprises, for example: the fact that they had to get up in the middle of the night for an Astronomy lesson on a Wednesday. Peter had not stirred when they had tried various methods of awakening him, and was therefore absent for the lesson.

Transfiguration had caught Sirius and James' eye as well as Defence Against the Dark Arts. Although the teacher – Professor McGonagall – was a stern woman, the lessons were no doubt interesting. Remus worried about James and Sirius' reaction to it though – they seemed to have hunger in their eyes when they were turning their matches into needles, and they had been the only ones to actually do something to them.

Herbology and Charms were good lessons too – they learnt about magical plants and Sirius, James and Lily managed to make them feathers fly in their Charms lesson, making Professor Flitwick very impressed (he had never had more than one student attempt the spell in their first lesson and execute it).

James was looking forward to the last lesson of the week: Flying. He had become almost restless during their lessons, fidgeting, impatient for the lesson to come. However, there was one drawback: the lesson was scheduled to be with the Slytherins. Many of the Gryffindor first years had moaned about this, but the prefects had just told them to 'quit whining'.

At three-thirty that afternoon, the Gryffindor first years made their way through the grounds towards the lawn on the opposite side of the grounds from the Forbidden Forest. There, Madame Hooch – their flying teacher – and the Slytherins were waiting for them. Madame Hooch welcomed them to their flying lesson, and then began teaching them the basics – how to sit on your broom, etc. Then, it was time to push off and fly. Madame Hooch checked that their grips were right, correcting those whose grip wasn't. Then she said, 'Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard,' said Madame Hooch. 'Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come straight back down by leaning forwards slightly. On my whistle – three – two – one!' She blew her whistle, and the students pushed themselves off of the ground. However, Peter pushed off and lost control, followed by Severus Snape, who seemed just as bad. James did exactly as Madame Pomfrey said, and landed back on the floor within a few seconds, as did Sirius, who took a bit longer.

When everyone had landed, and Severus and Peter were untangled from a bush, Professor McGonagall came up to the class and asked for Remus. 'A word with Remus Lupin, please.' she said, beckoning to him. Sirius and James gave him worried looks, but he did not return them. He knew what this was going to be about.

Remus followed McGonagall to her office, and sat down when he was told to. 'Now, Master Lupin, I am sure that you know what this is going to be about.'

Remus nodded. 'It's about my being a werewolf. What am I going to do?' he asked her simply.

There was a knock on the door, and Madame Pomfrey entered. She was the school's matron. 'Ah, I see the boy is here.' she said, looking at Remus sympathetically. Remus looked at her questioningly, and then back to Professor McGonagall, who began to explain. 'The headmaster has decided that this is what shall happen:

'On the evening of the full moon - before the sun has set – Madame Pomfrey will take you over to the Whomping Willow. There, Madame Pomfrey will use a stick to prod the knot at the base of the trunk which will stop the tree from moving. She will keep the twig on the knot until you have made your way into the tree, down a tunnel just underneath one of the roots.

'Then, you shall make your way down the tunnel until you get to the end of it, where you will come across a boarded up house. This is where you shall stay and transform overnight.

'On the evening of the next day, Madame Pomfrey will come to collect you, so that it will look like you have been out of the school to visit your ill mother or something else. Do you understand?'

Remus nodded, and looked at the calendar on Professor McGonagall's wall. Of course … He'd forgotten that today was the full moon – he'd been getting used to being a normal person.

Professor McGonagall saw him looking at the calendar and said, 'After dinner tonight, you will meet Madame Pomfrey in the Hospital Ward. That is what you will do every month.' Remus nodded to show his acknowledgement.

The bell rang to signify the end of the lesson. McGonagall stirred, and told Remus, 'You may go to your common room now.'

Remus nodded once again, got out of his chair, and left the room, returning to the common room. When the others asked him why he was pulled out of the lesson, he replied, 'Professor McGonagall came to tell me that my mother was ill. I'm leaving to see her after dinner tonight, and I'll be back tomorrow afternoon.'

'Shame.' Sirius told him. 'You missed James doing some wicked flying.' Peter agreed emphatically and James tried to be modest, but ended up boasting about what he had done, earning some disapproving looks from Lily and the other Gryffindor girls.

Remus looked at his watch. 'It's time for dinner.' he told them, and jumped up, speeding out of the portrait and towards the Great Hall. Sirius and James were surprised. They were the ones who usually noticed when it was time for food. They shrugged, and made their way towards dinner.

A/N: Sorry I've been so long updating, I've had school, and I kept getting writer's block every time I wanted to have a go at writing something. But now the holidays have returned, and I can rest and write! Yay for me! I took a few things that the teachers said from the first Harry Potter book, i.e. what Madame Hooch said and I decided that Snape can get his inspiration for his introduction to his lessons, from his Potions teacher. Anyway, I'm going to start working on the next chapter, it should be up soon. I think it'll be quite short, because it'll be mainly about Remus and turning into a werewolf. I'm also going to start working some more on my newer fanfic, although I've barely started the first chapter.

Thank you guys for the reviews!