Remus smiled as he exited Flourish and Blotts, a set of brand new schoolbooks in his arms, only to narrowly avoid getting thrown to the floor by two overzealous boys around his age. The youths were engaged in what could probably be considered a lethal game of tag, for both were on broomsticks, in the middle Diagon Alley, making vicious swipes for each other. He swerved out of the way of a boy with glasses and a mop of unruly black hair, only to collide with his comrade-in-arms, a taller, lankier youth with long, sleek, black hair and a laugh like a bark.
Why don't they have any supervision? Remus wondered. These two obviously need some.
"Whoa! Sorry mate!" The boy exclaimed, getting up from his crumpled up position on the floor and flipping his long hair over his shoulder with a slight toss of his head. He gave his bark-like laugh. "Guess I was getting a little reckless…caught up in the game, y'know."
Remus frowned and gingerly sat up as well, before starting to scoop up the books which had fallen out of his hands at the collision, giving no verbal response.
"Hey, I can help you; the least I can do, o'course…" The long haired boy said nonchalantly, making a slapdash grab for a few of the books. "Standard Book of Spells Grade 1…you starting at Hogwarts or something?"
"Oh, yeah, yeah I am." Remus replied distractedly, checking to make sure none of the covers of his books had been damaged.
"Wicked. It's my first year, too. And James'." The boy gave a nod in the general direction in which the boy with glasses had gone, while he casually tossed Remus' book from one hand to the other.
"Oh, um, grand." Remus replied. "Hey, watch it! You're gonna mess it up and I just bought it!" Remus reached for his book.
The boy smirked at him. "Aw, what's wrong? I'm not gonna drop it or nothin'."
"Serious! What happened to you?" The boy with the unruly hair and glasses had returned, smoothly pulling up his broom right next to the long-haired boy's elbow.
The long-haired boy was so startled that he misjudged his own throw and Remus' book clattered to the floor. "Whoops! Sorry!"
Remus gave a sigh and retrieved the book, flattening out one of the now-bent corners and brushing it free of dirt with his hand.
"I didn't mean to drop it, y'know…and really, if you think about it, it was all James' fault! If he hadn't come up all wild and unexpected, trying to make a grand entrance—" The boy chattered on; Remus thought he seemed the type that liked to hear himself talk, the type who needed to be the center of attention, no matter what.
"Trying to make a grand entrance?" The boy, James, echoed. "Yeah, sure, Serious. It seems like you made a grand enough entrance for the both of us…what did happen? You fall off your broom again?"
"No." The long haired boy replied petulantly, jutting out his chin in defiance.
James laughed at him, nimbly alighting from his broom without incident. "You're such a liar. Honestly, I'm surprised you parents would buy a Nimbus 1001 for such a disaster-waiting-to-happen."
The long-haired boy frowned at James. "Hey now! I resent the implication that I am a klutz!"
"Are you saying you're not one?"
"No, James, I said nothing of the sort, only that I resent the implication that I am one, regardless of whether I am or not."
"I suppose there was some sanity in that run-on sentence somewhere." James shrugged. "I couldn't tell you where though," He added with a wry smile.
The long-haired boy stuck his tongue out at James, but decided it might be appropriate to change the topic. "So, Jamesie, this kid here's going to Hogwarts, too."
"Oh, really?" James surveyed Remus with interested hazel eyes from behind wire-rimmed glasses. "So are we. I'm James, and this is my incurably clumsy and all-too-hyper friend, Serious."
Remus raised his eyebrows. "That's his actual name?"
"Apparently." James said dryly.
"Yeah, so?" The long haired boy, Sirius, challenged.
"Nothing, it's just interesting…"
"Well what's your name then? Something horribly common, I've no doubt. Probably Paul or David or something of the like."
"Actually, it's Remus." Remus replied, a bit affronted.
James and Sirius stared at Remus for several seconds without saying anything.
"OK, now I don't feel quite so bitter about my name." Sirius announced, giving his bark-like laugh.
James looked from Sirius to Remus and back again. "Wow am I lucky my parents are sane."
Remus felt that old familiar feeling of being ostracized coming back to him. He had not known these two boys for more than a few minutes and already he was being ridiculed, laughed at, mocked. More than sad, however, this time he felt angry. Who were these two kids to make fun of his name; they didn't even know him! This was almost worst than being condemned because of his "problem," although if he was going to school with these two, it was likely they would eventually find out and ostracize him for that too.
Remus looked these boys over while they laughed at him and instantly regretted his curiosity. His gaze took in their expensive clothes, made of the finest, most likely imported fabrics, their slightly scuffed shoes worth more than Remus' entire wardrobe combined, and finally, their broomsticks. It registered in Remus' head what type James had professed them to be: Nimbus 1001, the newest model on the market, a prototype limited edition, the fastest broom there currently was. Just one of them probably cost more than that of his parents' combined income of every year he'd been alive. It probably cost more than Remus' whole house…and here they were, two kids his own age, who each owned one and were just gallivanting around Diagon Alley with them out in the open. If Remus had one—not that he would ever be able to afford one, not in a million years—but if he had one, he'd have it locked up in a case of unbreakable glass, most likely.
Remus was suddenly all-too-aware of his shabby robes, old, frayed around the edges, patched in many places, and losing their color. He thought about his unshorn hair, flopping into his eyes, in comparison to Sirius' long, stylized and product-filled coif, and suddenly even James' untidy hair seemed to be just the kind of hairstyle a rich boy would have, as if to say 'I've got so much money that I don't even need to bother with fashion, I can set it.' Remus felt all-too-out-of-place, standing there, radiating poverty. He had felt so glad to finally be able to get his set of books for school in brand new, mint condition, a feat his parents had never been able to manage before…they had saved up for months, he was sure, so that he would not have to come to Hogwarts with secondhandbooks, secondhand like everything else he owned…and now he just felt sick at the thought that these two boys had probably been able to buy whatever they wanted, brand new, without batting an eye, while he had felt so excited over just having new books. Remus felt suddenly very exposed, very much lacking in comparison to these boys, and had to remove himself from the situation as soon as possible.
Remus quickly gathered up the rest of his books, looking forlornly at the bent corners of the one Sirius had dropped. "Um, hey, it was…nice meeting you both, but I've got to get going."
"Oh, so soon?" Sirius asked, surprised.
"Yeah, you don't want to han—" James began, but Remus interrupted.
"Oh, yeah, I've got to go and meet back with my parents. They'll be wondering what took me so long to get my books…"
"Oh, OK." Sirius replied, a bit despondently, a slightly hurt look in his eyes.
"Well, it was nice meeting you." James said haltingly.
"Yeah, yeah it was." Remus replied, and quickly turned and hurried on his way.
"See you at Hogwarts!" Sirius called out brightly. Remus nodded, but just before he moved out of earshot, he heard Sirius ask, concernedly. "James, did I say something?"
Remus did not wait to hear James' response.
A/N: I think I can understand how Remus felt…however I feel a little bad for Sirius. Poor kid thought it was his fault.