Good morning, Severus. The nurse has just been here to feed you. It was strange to see her force-feed you spoonful after spoonful of potions that are to ensure that you do not starve and potions against pain. Were they to your taste, Severus?

Personally, had it not been for the used-by date which was last Monday, I think they were excellent. Did you hear me? Yes, last Monday. I believe the individual contents must have been deteriorating already, loosing their healing powers and turning into something quite different. The new mixture of the old ingredients certainly must have a rather interesting effect on your body, I think I will sit here and watch. I know that we were always warned never, ever to use old healing potions and I am curious to find out why.

You do not believe me, do you? It is a shame you are a Potions Master.

Oh, there comes the nurse. She smiles at me and nods at you, so let me just-

There, see? What a picture, it is almost sickening. The old, true friend at the bed of his fallen companion, holding his hand in support. Do not think I do not notice the thin frown that stretches over your forehead. How delightful! You do notice the things that are going on around you! That is very good news indeed. I was getting scared I might be wasting my time, talking to myself here, but I think you must be lost in reverie once more.

So was I, this morning. I, not having the luxury of being able to stow away whatever I find unpleasant or puzzling to the extent of being annoying in a Pensieve, have been forced to remember and think about something the whole day.

The first weeks were hard for Remus. Becoming used to sleeping in a room with the other boys turned out to be hard. He regretted the fact that Severus was not in his house more and more. It would have been good to have an ally around, especially against the other three boys. Peter was quiet and easy enough to tolerate, but Sirius and James were constantly at each other's throats. Sirius especially was not easy to stand, as he told everyone over and over again that he had been sorted into the wrong house.

Remus felt oddly out of place among these boys, he did not understand their interests very well and could not see how they were motivated at all. Every day started with him getting up first and sneaking out of bed, dressing quietly and going down to breakfast alone. When he got up, there was hardly ever anyone in the Great hall and he spent the time reading quietly or doing his homework until the other students started pouring in. He generally fled to the library then, until classes began.

Sometimes, Severus would also be up this early, he could see him at the Slytherin table, then, as alone as he was, reading or eating alone. Sometimes, they would nod at each other over the empty other tables. They barely every exchanged a word other than a short greeting nowadays, although they did work together in classes sometimes, when working in pairs was necessary.

Remus hated working in pairs. There was always that second in which everybody turned and looked for a partner, and there was always that strange vertigo-like feeling of not being able to find anyone. Almost frantic, everybody would turn to their half-known neighbours during these first days, eyes anxiously looking for the sign that the other was willing to comply to the new partnership.

There was no such partnership between Remus and Severus now. They were in opposite teams, although Severus' team seemed to be far more team-like than his own. Remus felt detached in his own house, there was no one he could talk to. Here, in this new world, the equal mixture of worlds which had made up his youth were polarised into one side, the rest cut off, not cared for, unknown to most people, for the moment.

The other three boys were all from ancient wizarding families, it seemed, two of them, Peter and James, had never even seen a Muggle and had the strangest ideas about what Muggles did. Remus felt embarrassed whenever they talked about Muggles and avoided them. He wished he would also belong to an ancient wizarding family, just like them and avoided them even more.

At the end of the second week at Hogwarts this was going to change. It had been a rather uneventful day for the boys. James had been bored all evening after doing his homework, trying to beat up Sirius twice - which had not worked because they were about as strong as the other and because they had been caught by Professor McGonagall in the end.

Now, perched on his own four-poster, he kept looking over to the silent boy in their midst. After a while, he started pacing the room until a thrown sock form Sirius, who was reading on his bed, stopped him in his tracks.

He considered this. They had already been told off once today and would have to sit detention tomorrow with the stern young professor, James did not fancy doing any more lines. He decided to ignore this thrown gauntlet and find other means to entertain himself. He resumed his turn about the room when another pair of socks plopped against his forehead. He turned, glaring. His opponent was sitting on his own bed, shooting him a calculating look. James glared back and turned. Uninvitedly, he went over and sat down on the third boy's four-poster.

Remus had sat on his bed, half obscured by the curtain, reading, as James decided to colonise one end of his bed, at first just sitting there, trying to read the title of his book by craning his head upside down, then sitting still and staring at him. He did not know what to do, so he just sat there, waiting for James to lose interest and go away again. James, however, was always hard to get rid of when he had something on his mind.

'Remus, I don't really know anything about you because you're always in the library and always really quick at meals and all that. But we are in one house, and this is supposed to be our family, so I feel I ought to know at least some stuff about you,' James had said in the slightly petulant voice he assumed, as Remus would find out years later, when he was uncertain about what to say and was reciting a prepared text. The "family" part he had said with a slightly elevated voice and Sirius had let out and exasperated sigh and thrown himself on his back in his four-poster.

Remus, no longer able to pretend that he did not even realise the other boy was there, shot him a glance over the cover of his book, only his eyes appearing above it.

'Oh,' he replied in a very small, almost reedy voice, blushing at the sudden attention. 'Uh, I see. Um. What do you want to know?'

James dark brown eyes lit up. It was obvious that he considered this to be a personal triumph, but then he suddenly frowned. He did not really have any idea what to ask next.

'Um... Do you like Hogwarts?' he said doubtingly after a pause, during which Remus' eyes had stayed locked in his patiently.

'Yes,' Remus said, still looking at James expectantly. The boy looked round for support. Peter, who had been pretending to be doing his homework on his own bed, had sidled over and sat down next to James. Remus felt uneasy due to the sudden interrogation. He shifted uneasily, wishing they would find something else to do, soon. He tried to avoid their eyes, not knowing what to say to them.

'Where do you live?' Remus' gaze shifted to the other boy.

'Uh, do you mean at home?' Peter frowned deeply at this,

'Well, yes, what do you think? I know that you live here at school!' James let out a loud, unpleasant snort of laughter at this that made Remus jump.

'I see. We - that is, my mother, my father and me, we live in London.'

'Ah, I see,' said Peter. 'Close to Diagon Alley?'

'N-not really. The house belongs to my Dad, it's close to where he works.'

'Where does he work?'

'He works in a bookshop.'

'Ah. Flourish and Blotts?'

'No.'

'What's it called?'

'The Aquarium.'

'Hm, never heard of that one.'

'It's… not a bookshop you would know.'

'Oooh, is it one of those places that sell books on dark magic and all?'

'Uh, not really. They do sell books on Tarot cards and crystals and stuff, though. And books with recipes.' Remus felt himself blushing. He felt he was concealing just as much as he could, one more question and he would have to reveal his guilty little - one of his guilty little secrets. His eyes dropped and he sighed, feeling a weight inside his stomach once more.

'Uh, you don't like it there?' said James, noting the change in the small boy's face.

'Yes,' whispered Remus behind his book, the words barely audible. 'Yes, I do.'

'Well? Then what's the matter?'

'Uhm... oh, nothing. What do your parents do?'

'They work for the ministry,' James said importantly. 'Both in the Department for Law Enforcement.' Peter gave him an acknowledging look at that and James smiled at him.

'I see. Sounds… very interesting.'

'Oh, it is, it is, they have to do lots of really dangerous things, they...' and he started telling them harrowing tales about his Mum and Dad, how they had battled all sorts of dark magicians and Remus felt tides of relief washing over him. James seemed to have lost interest in his story after all and by now surely was lost in the tale of his parent's achievements.

'Hang on, where in London is this shop?' came a sharp voice from the bed on the other side of the room after five minutes of monologue from James. Remus looked away shortly, then said quietly,

'In Camden.' This, for a short moment, did not get a reply, but James and Peter saw that Remus looking very worried all of the sudden and watched him with interest. Suddenly, Sirius clambered out of his bed and came over to them, arms crossed, his grey eyes boring into Remus', who seemed to grow even smaller in his bed.

'Isn't that a Muggle-part of London?'

'Yes…' Sirius looked at Remus with a calculating expression.

'Does that mean that is a Muggle shop?' Remus hung his head. The inevitable was bound to come out.

'Yes,' he said very quietly and looked round at their faces to see the reaction Remus felt the blush even now as he remembered how piercing their eyes had become, x-raying him with their looks as if looking for a cue which gave away his heritage.. Peter was frowning in a mixture of puzzlement and curiosity, James was torn between something akin to contempt and awe, Sirius was just glaring.

'Does that mean you are a Muggle?' he said in a cold voice.

Remus' throat was so dry he could not speak, so he merely shook his head.

'Whatever, Half-blood?' Remus nodded cautiously. Sirius just stared at him for a while, uncertain about what to do, the other two watching him. Then he shuddered ostentatiously and glared at Remus.

'Well, that was to be expected in this house, wasn't it?' he snarled and turned round, flung himself onto his bed and shut the curtains as haughtily as he could.

Remus had hung his head and looked away. After a moment, James had spoken up again, his voice suddenly less petulant and enthusiastic.

'Does that mean one of your parents is a real Muggle?'

Remus nodded, his eyes flitting back to this other boy's face.

'Your Mum or your Dad?'

'My father.'

'With real uh, non-existent magical powers?'

Remus nodded again and felt compelled to add,

'And he hates broomsticks.'

'Really? Well, he would, he can't fly, can he?' Now, this was somehow against the family honour.

'Well, he can, only that he can fly one of those tiny planes.' This met puzzled looks.

'A… small plane? You know?' They shook their heads. 'You must have seen them, they look a bit like... uh, birds I suppose? Just made from metal?'

'Oooh, those,' Peter said after a while. 'I've seen one of them once. They are huge! I never knew what they do with them!'

'Well, they are a bit like... a bus,' Remus hoped, never having been in one of the huge planes himself. The small plane his father sometimes flew was rather uncomfortable and bound to be different from the big ones. James considered this.

'Well, you have to have them, not having brooms,' he conceded. 'And your Dad flies around in his plane when he goes to work?'

'No, he only does that on holidays. My Dad doesn't - Muggles don't have their own planes. They are far too big. They only have cars,' Remus said.

It was dangerous, this sort of attention. On the other hand, it might take their thoughts of other matters that were also rapidly approaching as the days quickly succeeded each other in a routine of lessons, homework and meals.

How did your housemates react when they found out? I expect they took it worse than me. But then, you had the advantage that your mother was a rather accomplished Potions expert; there was no arguing in that. And the Princes were one the most ancient wizarding families, so there was nothing to be feared from that side. I don't know what you told them about your father, though.

Well, considering what happened later, it seems all too obvious now.

His housemates interest meant they treated him like a curiosity now and would come and ask him more and more questions about the life of a Muggle, as though his father was an alien pet his mother and he were keeping in their house. He also realised that whenever they were practicing a spell under the stern eyes of Professor McGonagall, they suddenly all three looked at him with interest, seeing what he would do. Whenever this happened, Remus would blush and lose his concentration and immediately get things wrong.

Still, he could see that there was something between them now, too, their team was on the way to grow into a team, it seemed to imply. James treated him as though he knew him well, so did Peter. Sirius avoided him with contempt, but, Remus thought, maybe that had had to happen. For Sirius, families were more important than houses, for James and Peter, it seemed to be the other way round. And still, there was a certain familiarity in his behaviour towards him too, Remus felt. Special circumstances forge special bonds between people, and you cannot share a room with someone for three weeks and not know them, not know things about them that constitute bits of their personality.

Since James and Peter were working together and Sirius made it all too plain that he had no intentions of working together with a Half-blood, Remus was still always anxious about working in pairs. Severus seemed more and more attached to his own housemates and worked together with another Slytherin in class, a rather huge and bulky youth.

Still, he was also always the first at breakfast and also hurried into the library when the other students stampeded into the Great Hall.

One day in the third week, rain was lashing against the high windows of the library and the whole castle was filled with a blue, unearthly gloom, Remus decided to try and talk to Severus, who was sitting at a table in the library without reading a book. Remus took his pile of books and quietly sat down next to Severus, who looked up in surprise and nodded at him, immediately lowering his eyes to the top of the table again.

'Hello,' Remus whispered. Severus looked up, probed him with his dark eyes, and nodded again.

'How do you like it so far?' Remus whispered. Severus looked out of the window for a moment, then rested an earnest look on Remus' face.

'Quite alright, I suppose...,' he said. The other boy nodded and briefly ordered the stack of books in front of him, bringing all their backs to one line with two hands.

'I wish I could have avoided telling them about father, though,' he blurted out. Severus eyes had assumed a very careful look and his mouth was thinner than before.

'Yes. Me, too,' He said, but his eyes were strangely stern. Remus recoiled a bit and decided to voice something else that had been on his mind lately.

'I wish I was also from an ancient wizarding family, just like them,' he said, thinking of the looks they gave him whenever he attempted a new spell. Severus' eyes curiously lit up at the thought and for a moment, he looked absent. Then, his lip curled into a very small, strange smile on his face.

'Yes, me, too,' he admitted, the smile still on his face.

'They can be really funny about it,' he said; glad to have found someone to tell this to. 'As though they have never - well, they have never seen a Muggle before. It's really strange.'

'Well, they are wizards. WE are wizards now, I suppose we have to get used to being like that as well,' Severus said earnestly and Remus nodded.

'True. Real wizards probably think that way about Muggles,' he added, not feeling quite on the same level as his illustrious housemates.

'We will be real wizards, too, shortly,' Severus said earnestly. 'It is just a matter of getting used to, I guess. And it's not really hard to share their sentiments about Muggles,' he added, the inflection on the last word very strange. Remus frowned, and then suddenly smiled.

'Hey, you are doing well already. Yes, true. Muggles are really strange,' he attempted, then frowned at himself. 'Will take some time for me, I suppose,' he added and looked at the other boy again, whose dark eyes had assumed a cheery glint.

Do you even remember that conversation? Probably you chose to forget it, did you not, Severus? It would be strange for you to remember anything of your non-pureblood past. You always considered yourself an honorary pure-blood, I know that.

Author's note:

Thanks to my two single readers, Lance and Whitehound for reading this, and thanks to my Beta, Rebecca.

Is this boring? I know it does not work as a fanfic the way I wanted this to, and I have the feeling that it is too fast-paced in terms of the developing relationship of the boys and too slow in terms of story writing.

As always, I'd be grateful for criticism.