Chapter Three

Remus awoke somewhere he had never awoken before. It was dark, too dark, and the covers were tootoo tight, and red, deep red; he couldn't get out... "It's just your new dorm room," he muttered to himself. "Calm down... please..." He let out a shaky breath; he could hear the blood pumping madly, willing him to run, run away...

"Bad dream?"

Remus swallowed, frantically looking for the source of the unexpected voice. "W-what? Who..."

He turned, and there on his left was Sirius Black, an uncharacteristic look of concern gracing his fine-boned features. He tilted his inky head to one side, puppy-like. "That bad, huh?"

"Um. No. Yes. But, it's nothing..."

He could feel those grey eyes on him still. It did nothing to calm his nerves.

"Okay," Sirius said quietly – clearly not believing his answer, but accepting it all the same.

It was only once they had showered and dressed in silence, and were on their way to breakfast with a dozing James in tow, that Remus wondered why Sirius had woken up before him.

"Evans!" James exclaimed as soon as they entered the Great Hall (yes, Veruca Swine had one of those). Remus looked up to see he was addressing a pretty redhead conversing with a round-shouldered boy with black hair. At the greeting the girl turned, her startlingly green eyes flashing with irritation when she saw James. She grabbed her companion's wrist and stalked off.

"Who was that?" Remus murmured to Sirius.

"Lily Evans," Sirius said with a smirk. "Prefect, babe, and eternal crusher of James' heart."

James threw a dirty look at him. "It is not funny."

"It's hilarious," Sirius contradicted.

"She's in complete denial about her obvious feelings for me –"

"Yeah, she's the one in denial."

"Why do I even bother talking to you?"

"Because Evans won't give you the time of day?"

"She's just shy!"

"You're right James; her regular attacks on your groin are just awkward attempts at foreplay."

James' eyes shone hopefully. "You think?"

By Sunday, Remus had finished moving in – thanks in no small part to his new roommates. It was good timing on their part, because the dorm was about to get crowded.

"Peter Pettigrew," Sirius had explained. "Not particularly bright... or interesting..."

"Sirius," James had chided, "quit it. He's not that bad."

"You're just saying that because he practically worships the ground you walk on."

This had, of course, spiralled into another pseudo-argument (which Remus was quickly finding an almost hourly event), and Remus had never found out what Peter was actually like. From what Sirius had disclosed, however, he was hoping for someone studious and shy – that way they could at least balance out the others.

James and Sirius, he had discovered, were exceptionally popular among the student body. James was Gryffindor's star soccer player, Sirius practically had his own line of pin-ups, and together they were a teacher's worst nightmare. So naturally everyone else loved them.

Where did Peter fit into that?

"Who are you?"

Remus glanced up to see a stocky, fair-haired boy with a pointy nose looking questioningly at him.

"This is Remus, Pete," Sirius said lazily. "New roommate."

"Oh." Peter smiled awkwardly at him.

Peter was pleasant enough, but it promptly became clear that Sirius' comments hadn't been that far off the mark. Altogether, Remus doubted he would have much in common with the boy – yet unexpectedly it seemed he and Sirius did. Remus was glad; he hadn't had many friends before, and the ones he'd had were quickly lost. But he knew it wouldn't take long for that to happen again. He just had too many idiosyncrasies to be likable in the long term – it was something he had accepted a long time ago.

Remus had a hard time calming himself down come Monday morning. Fortunately Remus and Sirius had almost every class together – the only difference was that Remus did French instead of internash – so he wasn't facing it alone. Surveying their class for first period psychology, Remus inquired, "James doesn't do psych?"

Sirius snorted. "No. Moron chose drama. The teacher's completely trashed half the week."

Remus raised one eyebrow – something Sirius had always wanted to do, but had never been able to. "I'd have thought you would love a class like that."

Sirius tugged at a glossy lock. "Sure, they never do any work, but the price is listening to her."

Dr Vector entered the classroom, interrupting their conversation.

"... Now we move on to predicting others' behaviour through our psychological findings. Observation on the human condition..."

This was about where Sirius tuned out.

He let his eyes wander around the room, noting that Lily's friend (and James' rival) Snape was smarming it up as usual... Mary McDonald's breasts had grown again... Zachary Goldstein was taking far too much interest in them for someone with a girlfriend – which mystified him really; he was more about faces than tits, and Mary's was nothing special. Hell, Remus was probably prettier than her. Better legs, too, he ruminated, surveying him out of the corner of his eye. He hadn't noticed that before...

Sirius blinked himself out of his reverie. Interesting, he thought.

a/n:

There's an art teacher at my school like the drama teacher. Short term memory of a gold fish.

Thanks to: marauders o.o, Padfoot's Blondie, Shout in a Whisper, Joelle8 (deal), Leelu's skittles (your review made me laugh :D) for reviewing ch2.