Chapter 17: Reunited

James was so excited. Remus had written again to confirm that he could come to the party and, surprisingly, Sirius had done the same a few days later. James doubted that Sirius' parents were aware that the house their son would be staying at was the Potter residence but he also doubted that Sirius cared. James was glad that he could get Sirius out of his house and away from his dreadful family. From what Sirius had told him in his letters, they were treating him really badly and James hated it. He hated sitting at home, his perfect home, and feeling helpless to what his best friend was going through. He hated feeling worthless and a useless friend because he couldn't help. Once or twice he considered taking the Floo down to Sirius's house but he knew that his presence would not be exactly good. And Remus was going to be here in a matter of hours! James couldn't help but think that the time he spent here would be the first time that he actually had company for more than a day at a time since the holidays began. He hated the idea that Remus had been alone. Especially Remus. There is just something about Remus that made James feel like he needed to protect him. Not like Remus couldn't look after himself or anything, just that he always seemed to get the short straw and James didn't know how to help him. But they would both be here soon! He couldn't wait to see them! It had been far too long.

But what was going on with Peter? His letter hadn't exactly explained anything. What could possibly take up so much of his time that he couldn't even find five minutes to reply to the first letters that his friends had sent him? Once or twice James had also considered taking the Floo and dropping in on Pete but realised that he didn't know much about Peter's family and didn't want to get his friend into trouble. He was hoping that the party would be a great get together of the four of them but he supposed that it couldn't be helped.

James walked along the hall, checking in on the bedrooms that his friends would be staying in. He had chosen them as soon as he had gotten the replies that his friends would be attending. Sirius was sleeping in the room opposite James's. It was quite a large room, with a massive wardrobe in the corner of it. The walls were red with the skirting boards painted gold. Charles Potter had painted it in celebration when he heard that his son had been sorted into Gryffindor, just in case James wanted to move into a bigger room. James had considered it, but the room made him smile and he just had to keep it for Sirius, if he ever came to stay over. From his weeks of staying shut up in his miserable room, with his Slytherin mad family, James knew that Sirius would love the bright vibrant reds and gold with the moving lion poster along the wall with the Gryffindor logo painted on the ceiling. Sirius would like having that as the last thing he saw before he went to sleep. Remus's room also had a lot of thought put into it. It was also red but instead of gold, it had blue and purple. It was bright, just like Remus, but it also had a slight Ravenclaw tint to it. James, Sirius and Peter were always teasing Remus that he belonged in Ravenclaw with his incessant reading and cleverness. There was again a large wardrobe in one corner and a mini library in the other, with a door leading into the main library, which was about three times larger than the bedroom. James hoped that Remus and Sirius would like them. He couldn't help but think that the wardrobe gave it a more 'homey' feeling, which he thought they both needed.

'What time did you say Sirius and Remus were coming, James?' Maria Potter asked, glancing up from the book she was reading.

'I'm not sure. I think Sirius was trying to convince Remus to let him meet him at Remus's house and then take the Floo here at the same time but I don't think Remus was having any of it.'

'Well, why don't they just meet at Sirius's house and then come together?' Charles asked.

'Remus is a half-blood, dad. I don't think Mr and Mrs Black would appreciate that,' James sighed.

'Ah yes. I keep forgetting that Sirius is a Black. Remus doesn't take it personally, does he?' Maria asked.

'No, I don't think so. I mean, Sirius's family would automatically hate all of us for being friends with Sirius anyway, and we're all Gryffindors. Sirius isn't like them, though, he doesn't care that Remus isn't pureblood. Actually, I think he likes him even more for it,' James replied, smiling.

At that moment the flames of the Potter's fireplace turned emerald green and Sirius stepped out, bold as brass, standing tall and carrying two trunks along with him. He grinned at James and stood aside as Remus spun into view, coughing from the ash, his shabby clothes hanging off him even more than usual. James made a mental note to keep an eye on how much Remus was eating, but cast it aside as he ran at his friends and hugged them. Sirius wrapped his arms tighter and forced James and Remus into a massive bear hug, pulling James onto his tip toes and lifting Remus, who was much smaller than them both, right off his feet.

'Sirius...please...can't breathe...' Remus gasped, causing Sirius to laugh and let them both go, making Remus fall to the floor, clutching his ribs. James laughed and looked down at his friend, offering his hand to help him up. As Remus was pulled to his feet, James could swear that he saw a little jut in Remus's clothes, as though his torso was wrapped up in bandages again, but chose not to ask in front of his parents.

'How did you both get here? I thought you were going to arrive separately!' James said, unable to wipe the grin off his face.

'Honestly, James, did you really expect Sirius to listen to me?' Remus sighed.

'Well, you couldn't very well turn up at my house. My mother would kill you on the spot!' Sirius gasped, feigning shock and hurt.

'So you met at Remus's house?' James asked.

'Well, sort of. I was just heading to Remus's house just as he was heading here and we kind of met in the middle of the Floo ride. Naturally, he was quite surprised to see me, and didn't quite find the words 'James's house' and we ended up in some weird abandoned looking place, so we just came here after that.' Sirius grinned, looking incredibly proud of himself.

'Are those your cases?' James asked, pointing at the trunks that Sirius had set down at his feet.

'Yup. Since Remus didn't have any Floo experience, I thought I would be even more of a lovely, charming person than I already am and take his for him.'

Laughing, James called out 'Veccy!' and a small creature with large bat-like ears and eyes the size of tennis balls arrived with a small pop.

'Yes, Master James?' she asked, bowing low.

'Could you take these two cases upstairs, please?'

'Of course, sir!' Veccy replied happily, grabbing hold of the two trunks and disappearing again with another pop.

'James! When are you going to introduce me?' Charles piped up, suddenly standing beside his son, grinning at the other two boys.

'Oh yeah, this is Sirius and this is Remus. This is my dad and that's my mum,' James said, gesturing to each person in turn.

'Nice to meet you, Mr Potter,' Remus smiled, shaking James's father's hand whilst Sirius just walked right over and hugged James's mother.

'Just call me Charles. And that's Maria,' Charles winked.

'You boys go and have fun. We have to get the house ready for tonight,' Maria smiled. She was proud of her son. He had chosen some lovely friends.

As expected, Sirius and Remus loved their rooms. The second he opened the door, Sirius was frozen to the spot. James and Remus could swear they saw a tear come to his eye, but he turned around and gave James another rib crushing hug and sprung onto his bed, gazing up at the ceiling, constantly commenting on how this was 'definitely his room and he might as well just move permanently right now'. Remus was also frozen to the spot. Sirius guffawed at the Ravenclaw joke behind it but Remus stared, speechless, at the mountain of books that he had access to. He, too, turned to hug James and then promptly ran over to investigate the titles filling up the bookshelf. It took a while to drag him away from them but now the three of them were lounging on Sirius's bed since he refused to be parted from it.

'Don't take this the wrong way, Remmy, but you look awful,' Sirius said, still staring up at the Gryffindor logo on the ceiling.

'Have you been eating properly?' James asked, looking at his friend properly for the first time since they left Hogwarts. Remus looked almost skeletal. He had always been thin, but now he was scary thin. He had huge bags under his eyes and his skin looked slightly grey. He had long sleeves on, but every so often James thought that he caught a glimpse of a bandage on his friend's wrist. Why is it that Remus was always covered in bandages?

'Not really,' Remus admitted. 'With my parents being gone all of the time, I sometimes just forgot to eat.'

'For God's sake, Remus!' Sirius sighed angrily.

'It wasn't intentional!' Remus sighed. 'I just had to adjust to living alone.'

'So are you going to tell us what happened to your wrist then?' James asked, reaching over and pulling up Remus's sleeve to show the bandage wrapping up his friend.

'Blimey, Remus, what have you done this time?' Sirius wondered aloud, propping himself up onto his elbow to examine the thin boys arm.

'It doesn't matter,' Remus muttered, pulling his arm away. It had been the full moon two weeks ago. He was healed now, it was just this bandage for three more days and the one for his ribs for another two and he would be back to normal, but of course his friends couldn't know that.

'Of course it matters! What happened?' Sirius demanded.

'I...I fainted,' Remus mumbled, which was, in fact, true.

'You can't break your wrist by fainting,' Sirius sighed.

'Well, remember he did do it that one time at Hogwarts?' James recalled. 'But it can't have just been that, mate.'

'It's not broken, it's sprained,' Remus defended himself.

'Yes, but what else happened?' Sirius persisted.

'I fainted and...and fell down the stairs.'

'Bloody hell Remus. What did your mum say?' James asked.

'She doesn't know.'

'She wasn't there?'

'No, I just woke up at the bottom of the stairs and tried to just deal with it but it was quite swollen so I told her that I was putting a book back and it fell on my wrist. It's alright now though,' Remus explained.

'Do you understand why we didn't want you to be alone now Remus? You clearly can't handle yourself,' Sirius sighed in exasperation, winking at his friend.

'Enough about me,' Remus said. 'What about you?'

'Me? Not much to tell, really. I've been locked up in my room the whole time, haven't I?' Sirius answered. 'It was incredibly boring. It's not that fun sitting alone for two weeks, but at least your letters kept me sane.'

'It did make things a lot better to know that I was coming here,' Remus smiled shyly.

'Yeah, same here,' Sirius grinned.

'I'm glad I could be of service!' James laughed.

The three friends continued talking all through the day, until the sun of New Year's Eve sunk down behind the mountains and James grinned at his two friends. Party time!