A/N: And here comes the next chapter. I love all you readers. Please leave a review to let me know what you think.
Chapter 3: Take me away, Scarlet
"Wait a second. I'll see if I can find us a trolley for that blasted thing" his mother panted after they had carried Remus's crushingly heavy trunk from the car to the main gate of King's Cross. Sighing with relief he sank down onto his trunk and silently cursed himself for having insisted to pack far too many of his favourite books.
"Come on, honey, help me get that thing on here. I've just spotted the Potters ahead. If we hurry you could go with James" she said a moment later, having found a small luggage cart. Since the day the headmaster of Hogwarts had suddenly turned up in the Potters' living room to have a little private chat with him, Remus hadn't seen James and he was rather looking forward to meet him again. Carefully he loaded his trunk on top of the trolley, trying hard not to drop it onto his foot again which was still sore from when it had first made contact with it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a small group of people strut past him. Taking a closer look he recognised the white-haired boy who had elbowed him in the ribs in Diagon Alley more than a month ago. He was accompanied by a blond girl and three or four boys, all of them wearing similar expressions of disgust and arrogance. He couldn't help but notice that they were all already clad in their Hogwarts uniforms and realised that they must belong to Slytherin-house, judging by their green sleeves.
He snorted and got back to tugging his trunk safely onto the cart. That done he wiped the sweat off his forehead and started wheeling past the crowd of people which had gathered at the main gate. It was easy to spot the Potters who stood there waiting between Platforms 9 and 10, craning their necks and all looking rather peculiar. As James's and Remus's gazes met, he lifted his right hand to wave at him. That little moment of carelessness was enough to lose him the control over his trolley and he bumped right into the luggage cart of a girl in front of him. For a moment they both stared at each other, shocked. The girl seemed to be roughly his age and had brilliant green eyes. Her dark red hair fell over her shoulders and caught the light beautifully.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I hope you didn't get hurt" the girl cried out concernedly. She had a very melodious voice.
"N-no. I'm okay" Remus stuttered, blushing furiously. His mother, who was watching him, rolled her eyes over his display of clumsiness. Somewhere in the back of his mind Remus noticed that the girl had just apologised for his mistake but before he could point that out to her, his mother had taken hold of the trolley and was dragging it towards the waiting Potter family, pulling her son behind her.
"That looked – painful – amongst other things" James snorted with laughter, clapping Remus on the back and wiping his eyes. "Anyway, we have to hurry. Train's about to leave in fifteen minutes."
"Right. So where's that mysterious Platform 9¾?" Remus asked, adopting a businesslike tone to distract from his burning red face.
"Just follow me, my green friend" James said superiorly, wheeled his own trolley through the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10 and vanished.
"Right" Remus said once more, took a deep breath, pressed his eyes firmly shut and followed.
Walking through the barrier felt like plunging into cold water but the eerie sensation lasted only for a short moment. When he opened his eyes again, Remus found himself in the middle of a huge crowd of people, all dressed in strange, multicoloured robes, hugging their children goodbye or helping them with their luggage or simply standing around, waiting. His gaze was immediately caught by a large steam-engine which stood at the platform, waiting patiently. It was scarlet and the inscription Hogwarts Express was imprinted on its side. It gleamed magnificently in the sunlight, constantly breathing steam into the air.
Remus turned around to look for James but couldn't spot him anywhere. He looked for his parents and his own mother, but couldn't find them either. His wristwatch told him that he only had a few minutes left before the Hogwarts Express would set off. Feeling a little left alone, he pushed his trolley towards the train and made to lift his trunk up. It didn't budge. He tried some more, only succeeding in making the white-haired Slytherin and his gang, who weren't standing far from him, laugh with malicious joy.
A tall, rather burly looking boy who was already dressed in his crimson-sleeved school robes took pity on him and helped him lift his heavy trunk onto the train and into an empty compartment. Gasping, Remus dropped into a seat and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He managed to gather enough breath to start wheezing out this thanks as suddenly James sprang out on the boy from nowhere.
"Quigley, my lad! How was your summer? I heard they finally let you play against Puddlemere United last July? Wow. Big game, that one" he said without blinking, all the while vigorously shaking Quigley's hand.
"Who the hell are you?" the tall boy said with popping eyes.
"James Potter, future Quidditch captain, multiple winner of the Quidditch cup and sportsman of the century. Pleased to meet you."
Quigley just gaped at him, as did Remus.
"You need to help me, Quigley" he continued, adopting a rather desperate look. "First years usually don't get on the house team, I've been told. Surely you can help me there, can't you, what with you being Gryffindor's captain an all. I'd do practically anything…!"
"Sorry, kid. I don't think there's much I can do for you. The minimum requirement to get onto the team is that you're tall enough to look past your broom" Gryffindor's Quidditch captain said, grinning maliciously, obviously having recovered from the initial shock of being sprung at so suddenly and called a lad by a boy who hasn't even reached puberty yet.
"A minor hindrance" James noted loftily. "True grandeur has nothing to do with size."
Quigley appeared dumbfounded for a second, than burst out laughing. "You've certainly got spirit, kid! Would you like to come to my compartment? Maybe you could show me some of that true grandeur of yours."
James beamed and followed him, leaving Remus behind, who just shook his head, smiling. Then he remembered that the train was about to leave any minute and he rushed out onto the platform to look for his mother. He found her deep in conversation with Mr and Mrs Potter.
He took a deep breath, trying hard to straighten out his jumbled emotions. He had never been separated from his mother before. All these years she had been the only one who had known about his secret and still found it in her heart to love him unconditionally. She had been the only one who knew about his personal hell and loved him enough to go through it with him.
But it was time now. Time to show her that he was finally strong enough to face it without her.
He fought back the tears that pricked in his eyes, dreading to betray his true emotions, went up to his mother and extended his right hand for her to shake. She stared at it as though it were from outer space.
"Idiot" she said, pulling him into a tight hug. She felt his shoulders starting to shake slightly in her arms and knew that he was desperately fighting his emotions. "It's all right. I'm going to be fine, even without you, love. And you're going to be fine too. Don't forget, Professor Dumbledore knows. Whenever you're in trouble – you know what I mean – you can go to him. He promised to help you."
He nodded, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Good boy. Now, be good, study hard and don't forget to write. I have no owl so I'm really dependant on you" she whispered softly in his ear. She gave him a final rib cracking hug, obviously trying to squeeze as much love into him as was possible, before the conductor gave the sign that the Hogwarts Express was about to set off. Remus gave a last, rather watery smile to his mother and Mr and Mrs Potter before he turned around and hopped onto the train to go and look for James.
Remus lost his balance as the Hogwarts Express suddenly set itself into motion and tumbled backwards right into the red-haired girl he'd previously run over with his trolley at King's Cross's main gate.
"Whoops, careful" she said, grabbing his arm to prevent him from falling. "That was a close shave!"
"S-sorry. Thanks" he mumbled, blushing again as he steadied himself.
"Don't mention it" she said cheerfully. "I'm Lily. This is my first year at Hogwarts. Yours too, right? Isn't it all exciting?"
At that moment a boy poked his head out of a compartment to Lily's right. "Are you coming? I saved you a seat" he said to her morosely. He had rather greasy, black hair and a very long, hooked nose.
"Coming" she said, flashing Remus a big smile and vanishing into the compartment after her friend.
That left Remus to continue looking for James. Glad to have no further accidents in the quickly moving train, he finally found him in a compartment with Quigley, the Gryffindor captain. They were surrounded by a crowd of people, all of them animatedly discussing Quidditch and Quigley's latest performance against Puddlemere United. Feeling a little uncomfortable, Remus squeezed himself into the last empty seat opposite a rather round boy with small, watery eyes and very light brown hair. To his amusement he noted that the boy was reading Magic for Dummies. He pulled his own copy of the book out of his shoulder bag, having checked before that James was properly occupied and wouldn't notice.
