Prelude to the Holidays

Remus Lupin seemed to have something akin to a calming affect on Sirius Black and James Potter. Even though they were still relatively early in their first year all the teachers quickly recognized to a slight extent what exactly they would be dealing with for the next six and a half years as so. Within the first three months of school the two boys had locked the caretaker Argus Filch's cat in three different broom cupboards.

They had poured chocolate sauce down the back's of not two, not three, but four different students in the Slytherin house. They had been caught out of bed past curfew, roaming the school halls multiple times and cursed the nose of one of their fellow first year's, by the name of Severus Snape, completely off his face. The amount of detentions the two managed to accumulate within the first several months of school was rather alarming.

The Gryffindor Head of House, Professor Minerva McGonagall even went as far as to compose a letter to both boys' respective set of parents. The Potter's responded by sending their son his first of many howlers, to which the boy seemed to respond by subduing his mischievous behaviors for at least a day. The Black's never made a reply, or at least not to the knowledge of Professor McGonagall.

All the same Remus Lupin became something of a God send to the numerous professors at Hogwarts. Neither Black, Pettigrew nor Potter would apparently listen to rhyme nor reason, unless the one doing the telling was Remus Lupin, or Albus Dumbledore but he was much harder to come by.

To an outsider one might wonder exactly what this boy had in common with the three hooligans, as Professor Slughorn called them rather too affectionately for Professor McGonagall's taste one morning in a staff meeting. She had after all just spent the last hour cleaning up the remnants of a dozen or so exploded pumpkins from the front lawn. No doubt the handy work of those adorable little hooligans, Professor McGonagall thought savagely. No one would have ever thought that it had actually been Remus' doing for the most part.

Remus found himself feeling much more confident when they were around, James, Peter and Sirius that is. He felt for the first time in his life he could push the envelope if you will, be a bit daring, experiment with highly explosive devices. Yes, it was positively freeing to live as he did once he became James and Sirius's friend. For the first time in his life he was out of his shell and it felt good.

Sirius and James, as well as little Peter of course liked Remus just as much as he liked them. After all how could they not?

He had an extremely good disposition, was terribly friendly although not noticeably outgoing. In later years his classmates might notice him more for his quick wit and sarcastic sense of humor. But that would surely not happen for years to come, so at first it was only Sirius and James who really knew that about Remus. Peter was also extremely appreciative of Remus for all these reasons as well as the fact that Remus was kind enough to sit down with Peter every night and go over the lessons that they had had during the day and do his best to explain them to poor Peter. Sirius and James always secretly thought it took a saint to do this.

At first though it was one reason above all else that tied the other three to Remus.

It was this; Remus was the brains of the operation. Believe it or not.

Every group has to have someone in it that is the brains, the thinker, the intellectual. The one who figures out how to carry out all the ideas. The person who organizes and figures out how to execute all the plans. In short Remus quickly made himself indispensable to his friends. They all had a purpose, because not one of them could have solely, pulled off such a successful seven year assault on their school, or even done as well in a group of three.

James was the leader, as he always had a knack for knowing exactly what to do in the heat of the moment. Well except when it came to girls.

Sirius was the operant. He knew the secret passages, classrooms and secrets of the school better the any student most teacher's had ever met. He also had a fierce problem with authority figures and was too much of a daredevil for many people's liking.

Of course there was Peter also and although he lacked a great deal of ability in his school work he proved rather essential when it came to ideas. Yes little Peter Pettigrew was the idea man. So you see how the four boy's little operation certainly wouldn't have worked with out each other?

At first it bound them together, in time there were other things as well, but in those first few months of first year their ability to work as a team steered them on a path toward friendship.

Remus Lupin had come to Hogwarts worried that he would be unable to make a single friend, he was worried that his…er…handicap, would somehow prevent him from gaining any sort of social acceptance whatsoever. It was the small boy's greatest ambition to find a friend, imagine his pleasure when he found not one but three.

Year's later Sirius Black would jokingly say that Remus really lucked out when he made friends with the two best looking Gryffindors to date. This always caused Peter to add, "Yeah Me and Sirius you know." Then James would always feel the need to add, "Well I'm better looking then Sirius by a long shot." "Not according to your Mum, last night," Sirius would always without fail, finish with. Causing James and him to tussle and causing Remus to laugh. But know deep down it was essentially true, except perhaps the good looking part. Maybe not for the reason that they were so good looking, all though James and Sirius and yes, even in an odd animalist way Peter, were, but rather because the qualities of good friendship characterized the three in complete during those years.

It is not often that one finds a friend who would really do anything for you; however for Remus he found this quality in three individuals at the beginning of his first year.

Of course in spite of this fact Remus Lupin didn't object from telling his two friends when they hade been supremely stupid. In fact Remus Lupin was doing just that, at they exact moment as Sirius and James recounted how James had gotten it, for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"So when you say you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, you mean you were in between Arabella's fists and their target right?" Remus asked, clearly amused at the tale. James nodded, "Well of course, what else could I possibly mean?" James replied, as he and Sirius both starred at Remus as though he had lost his mind. "Well you know if I was talking to sane people it might have something to do with getting a detention…" Remus trailed off as he realized that James and Sirius weren't even listening.

"I say we get her back James," Sirius said with excitement.

"What? No. We can't do that to Arabella. I mean as funny as it would be and everything, she would go straight to Mary Alice and nothing good can come from Mary Alice being involved in something. She would beat us both senseless, take my word for it."

"James, your sister loves me! She wouldn't do anything of the sort to me, you maybe but not me."

Peter who had been sitting quietly on his bed looked up at Sirius with a laugh, "What are you kidding Sirius? You've talked to her maybe three times in three months. I really doubt that whatever Mary Alice is feeling for you has anything to do with love."

Sirius didn't answer, merely sneered at Peter and turned back to James.

"Peter's right Sirius, sorry to break it to you but I doubt Mary Alice would spare a second thought to you if you did something to Arabella."

Sirius pouted in the corner and muttered something dangerous about Arabella.

Remus shook his head and looked and James, "So the two of you have detention tonight then?"

James nodded and glanced at his watch, "Yeah in about five min- oh no! I'm supposed to be in the great hall in five minutes. I have to go!"

Sprinting down to the common room and then out into the hall James looked about wildly for Arabella hoping to catch her before arriving in the Great Hall and subsequently meeting Argus Filch.

Sighing Remus opened his Transfiguration book to the chapter that they had gone over in class that day and tried to decide where the best place to start his tutoring session with Peter would be. "I certainly don't understand why we couldn't try and get back at Arabella, I mean come on didn't any one see her try to assault me?" Sirius muttered out loud still clearly sore at James lack of compassion on the subject.

"I think James got off a lot worse then you mate," reasoned Peter as he stuffed a chocolate frog into his mouth. "Well all the more reason to do something to her then!" cried Sirius as he threw his hands into the air with annoyance. Peter glanced at Remus and shrugged, realizing that he would be fighting a losing battle if he attempted to reason with Sirius. "Sirius really I think you should get over it," said Remus evenly, "I mean you both said things in the heat of the moment, I'm sure you don't mean them. Its over, move on."

"What? No I meant every word I said. She is stuck up and rude and she does expect everyone to treat her like she is a princess! Plus she tried to hit me! Did no one see that, if James hadn't gotten in the way…well I might be in the hospital wing right now!"

Peter laughed out loud. "What is so funny about that?" Sirius snapped. "Oh well nothing really….I just find it rather amusing that your admitting a girl could beat you up is all."

Sirius narrowed his eyes at Peter.

Remus choose this moment to interject, "Whatever the case may be the fact of the matter is that if Arabella wasn't a girl I am sure you would have tried to throw a punch at her long ago, judging from the way the two of you normally talk to each other. It's sort of the same thing as Severus Snape."

Sirius nodded grudgingly, "Yeah I'd like to give that greasy little slime ball something to cry about."

"I think your missing the point," muttered Peter.

Remus rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to try and explain his point but was interrupted by Sirius.

"You know what Lupin its exactly the same! I wouldn't let Snape get away with this and I'm not going to let Chiavatti get away with it either in fact I'm going to go figure out a way to get back at her right now."

With that Sirius gave a whoop of excitement and dashed out of the dormitory. "Well that went well," said Peter fairly. "Yeah fantastic," agreed Remus sarcastically, "Well no matter let's try and have a go at these switching spells."

Peter reluctantly agreed.

"There you are" gasped James as he leaned over to catch his breath. Arabella looked up at him from where she sat back against the wall in the entrance hall. "Why are you out of breath?" she asked, with an eyebrow raised. "In room….time…late…detention….Sirius gone mad…revenge…Filch…tripped…here now," wheezed James not making sense in the slightest. "Er...right," said Arabella deciding against asking him to repeat it. "I just wanted to see you before Filch…" James was cut off from finishing as the dingy looking caretaker stepped into the hallway. "You two get moving," he barked, "I haven't got all day to sit around waiting for you."

James mouth twitched as if he would like nothing more then to reply with some sort of snappy comeback, for the moment though he refrained.

Following the caretaker up to the third floor Arabella did her best not to laugh at the very humorous faces James kept making at the caretakers back.

Finally Filch stopped in front of the Trophy room, "You will be polishing the trophies…without magic," he added menacingly. "I would have had you lot doing something a bit more unpleasant but your sister has been taking up all the other jobs lately." Narrowing his eyes at James as if to personally insult him. James cocked his head and looked at though keeping quiet was truly paining him, but again he managed.

"Well get moving," barked Filch as he pointed towards the room and a bucket full of rags which sat within it. James and Arabella watched him hobble away muttering under his breath about how much he disliked Potter's in general, if there was one thing Apollyon Pringle had told him when he had started was watch out for Potter's they had always been trouble.

"Oh he's just mad because Mary Alice put a color change charm on his stupid cat," whispered James, "He has had her in detention for a week."

Arabella snorted with amusement. James looked sideways at her, "Did you just snort?"

"No" Arabella replied quickly, as she turned slightly pink. "Yes you did. I heard you!" James laughed. Arabella glowered at him, "Oh shut up."

"I really think you should be a bit nicer to me," said James good naturedly as he grabbed a rag from the bucket, "after all you did nearly give me a black eye this morning." Arabella rolled her eyes, "Look I'm sorry ok? But you did get in the way and Black has had it coming for a while now." James shrugged, "Its alright, I'm used to girls punching me. Look at my sister. But why did it make you so mad this morning? I mean you two are always at each other's throats and its never drove you to violence before."

Arabella thought of the letter that Lily had received from her parents earlier that day and mechanically shrugged her shoulders, unwilling to admit that anything was wrong. James raised his eyebrows as he looked up from the trophy he was polishing, "Don't lie Arabella. Your not very good at it."

"What yes I am! My parents have never caught me in a lie in eleven years."

"Well your parents are idiots no offense."

Arabella made a small noise in the back of her throat, despite every intention not to. James looked up sharply, "Its about them isn't it, about your parents I mean?" "Nothing is wrong," Arabella repeated all though with much less conviction this time. "Shut up and tell the truth," commanded James.

"Fine! You want to know? You really want to know?"

"Well I really wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know."

Glaring at James irritably she proceeded to explain the entire situation of her parents, Christmas and Lily's parent's letter.

"…Its not their fault that they expect most parents to want to spend the holidays with their kids. I mean that's the normal thing isn't it. Problem is my parents aren't exactly what you would call normal," she finished looking supremely upset with herself.

James guessed, correctly, that the look on Arabella's face had to do with the fact that she had just admitted her life wasn't completely perfect and the feeling that she had just betrayed her parents by complaining about their lifestyle. Yet he found himself more confused then anything else. "Well why did you even bother going to Lily about it," he finally asked.

"Well I didn't mean to, she sort of shook it out of me if you know what I mean."

"No your missing what I'm saying, I mean why wouldn't you just come home with me and Mary Alice?"

Arabella looked up at James with surprise, "What? I just assumed…I don't know. I didn't want to bother you I guess."

"Well that's a bit stupid isn't it? I mean you spent the whole summer with us. Don't you think my Mum would be upset if you didn't spend Christmas with us as well?"

"Er…I just assumed that…I don't know…it just didn't seem like…"

"Whatever Arabella. Your coming home with us alright? That's the end of it."

Arabella looked up at James with a smile and yet again she let her emotions take over, something she really tried not to let happen, and leapt up and hugged a very surprised James.

Argus Filch chose that moment to walk into the room. "YOU TWO SEPARATE DETENTIONS RIGHT NOW! POTTER LETS GO!"

Arabella and James both laughed as the caretaker violently grabbed the bucket and stalked out of the room muttering about loose morals and disgusting pre teens.