Chapter Two

Sirius' Friday

8:45 – Applied Mathematics

Sirius hated maths. Maths was boring. And the fact that he was rather terrible at it wasn't at all related; or correlated, as McGonagall was saying. And something about some guy called Pearson.

Sirius decided he hated Pearson, too.

9:40 – International Studies

Sirius was bored. It wasn't so much that internash was bad, per se; more that their teacher was over-enthusiastic to the point of lengthy, impassioned tirades about the plight of every oppressed people in the world – and there are a lot of oppressed peoples.

10:35 – Break

Sirius caught his reflection in the back of his spoon and decided he really didn't like his face. So he told James so.

"Are you bloody mental?" James exclaimed. "Do you even know how many girls want you?"

Sirius felt that James was missing the point somewhat. So he told him so.

"Isn't that the whole point of being good-looking though?"

Sirius just shook his head. He looked far too much like his mother to like his face.

But he didn't really feel the need to tell James that.

10:55 – Biology

Sirius only wished he could be bored in bio. To say that Dr Sprout preferred a "hands-on" teaching experience would be a gross understatement. She specialised in exotic plants from her many travels, most of which seemed to want nothing more than to digest each and every one of them. Not for the first time, Sirius hoped that Sprout would go to a barren, lifeless desert for her next holiday.

11:50 – Chemistry

Sirius was bored. And this time it really did have nothing to do with being terrible, because he was usually quite adept at chemistry (except for the maths-y parts, which, in his opinion, were completely irrelevant and stupid). In this case, however, his talent only increased the boredom, and he amused himself by watching James squirm as he struggled to understand any of what Dr Slughorn was saying.

(It served him right for being good at maths.)

12:45 – Lunch

James still didn't understand the face thing. Sirius suspected he needed other friends. James then abandoned him to chase Lily Evans. Suspicion confirmed.

1:45 – Double English

Bored again. So he lost some house points for complaining that he already knew English, then protested the punishment by setting Mr Flitwick's hat on fire. For his efforts he received a week of detention, and several phone numbers.

3:35 – School End

Sirius decided to alleviate his lingering boredom by taking one of the looser phone number girls for a not-too-quick quickie in an abandoned classroom. Both left extremely satisfied.

His typical day complete, Sirius met up with James and together they returned to their wonderfully chaotic dorm.

And typicality was thrown out the window.

"Why is there another bed in our room?" James grumbled loudly. Sirius waded through their horizontal closet and observed the new set up.

"Apparently some kid called Lupin is staying here," he informed James offhandedly.

James was nonplussed by this spontaneous discovery. "How did you –"

Sirius wordlessly held up a travelling case, upon which peeling letters read 'R. J. Lupin'.

They both snapped their heads around as the door to the bathroom opened. An average sort of boy stood in the threshold, his sharp eyes looking at them with partially-disguised fear.

"Hey," Sirius greeted lightly. He hated awkward situations – unless, of course, he had created them.

"Hi," the boy said impassively, eyeing the case Sirius was still holding. He quickly put it down.

James stepped forward. "New student, eh?" he said sociably. "So what does the R stand for?"

"Remus," was the quiet reply.

James snickered. "That's nearly as bad as this guy's." He gestured to Sirius. "Naming your kids after stars..."

He keeled over then, still laughing merrily, though partly to compensate for the tenseness in the air. Remus was looking quite bewildered at this point. Sirius rolled his eyes, letting them slide back to their new acquaintance. "That's James," he explained matter-of-factly. "He's a complete prat, of course. I'm Sirius."

Remus nodded, his lips curling slightly. He recognised his dorm-mates as the same pupils he'd seen mucking around earlier. Up close the long-haired boy was quite striking, but something of a pretty-boy.

"He's not going to die from that, is he?" Remus joked weakly, gazing pointedly at James.

Sirius waved his hand dismissively. "Doubt it. Though if those are his socks down there, maybe..."

"I heard that," came James' muffled voice, finally raising his head in a glare.

"It seems James' ghastly socks have given birth to some sort of deformed creature," said Sirius, with the air of one remarking upon the weather. He did that a lot, it seemed.

"How terrible," said Remus, his words faltering slightly from half-suppressed laughter. He offered a narrow hand to the boy on the floor, vaguely aware of Sirius still staring at him.

"So what do you think?" Sirius asked later, gauging his friend's response.

"He's nice enough, sure, but he seems a little weird, don't you reckon?" James replied, casually tossing a stray orange from hand to hand.

"Normal is overrated," said Sirius. It was his life maxim.

"Yeah, but I mean he's kinda weirdly polite, and did you see all those old books he was carting in?" He paused for a second, scratching his chin. "Hey; he must be the scholarship student!"

Sirius mused on this for a moment, then disregarded it. "Whatever. I like him."

James shrugged. "Okay, whatever."

And as simple and stupid as teenage conversations sound (especially those involving boys playing with their food), this one would change Remus Lupin's life forever.

a/n Peter is still on holiday at this point, by the way (semester 2 just started, remember). Never got a chance to bring it up.

History of Magic / History/ Binn

Potions / Chemistry/ Slughorn

Transfiguration / Maths / McGonagall

Charms / English / Flitwick

Herbology / Biology/ Sprout

Astronomy / Geography / Sinistra's predecessor

Divination / Drama / Trelawney's predecessor

Ancient Runes / French /

Arithmancy / Psychology / Vector

Muggle Studies / International Studies

Music

Art