Chapter Two- The Return to Hogwarts

The hot fire whisky burned in his chest as he sat down, flicking his hair from his face. The common room was getting more and more crowded, and the sofa was getting more and more hard the longer he sat in it.

"Remus!"

He looked up.

It was Longbottom, a round faced, clever boy in the seventh year. He had guided Remus through numerous tasks around the school when he had been prefect, and had helped Remus when he took his role a few years later.

"Hi."

"How are you?" Longbottom asked, sitting down next to him, making the sofa crowded. Several of the fifth year girls, who were cooing over Sirius, tutted angrily, and glared at Remus and the seventh year.

"I'm…tired, you?"

"Yeah, I know how you feel."

Laughter erupted from Longbottom's friends in the corner. "I better go, Remus, let me know if you need anything."

"I will…" Remus mumbled as Longbottom walked away, crossing his arms and leaning further back into the sofa. He clutched the fire whisky bottle hard, making his knuckles whiten as he turned to Sirius, covered in girls.

Remus' handsome friend pushed the girls off, casually flirting with just one of them- the fifth year by the name of Josephine. Remus had to admit, the girl was pretty with her long, curly brown hair and huge, bambi brown eyes…yet she was almost insufferable to hold a conversation with! Remus edged closer to Sirius, who was wiping his mouth and blushing viciously.

"Girls, Sirius?" he asked lightly, with a small wink. Sirius sighed heavily and groaned.

"They won't leave me alone, mate!"

"Ha! But you only made them leave once you saw-"

"Saw what, Moony?"

Remus turned red, his tongue freezing and he just stared. He couldn't finish the rest of the sentence, that was sure, and he sipped from his bottle. He didn't know why seeing Sirius with so many girls made him so…angry. He shrugged of the thought, returning to glare at his best friend.

"Once you saw someone you like." Remus muttered. "It always happens."

"You're an amazing observer Moony, with a mind of a mad man if you were concentrating on that instead of the hot female arse in front of you."

Remus sighed as Sirius laughed lightly. He pated Remus on the back gently, and his friend winced and went pale.

"Furry problem?" Sirius guessed, thinking he had patted a new scar from the last transformation. Remus turned grey and shook his head.

"I…we'll talk of it later, okay?" he rolled his shoulders. "Now, let's go get some more Fire Whisky from Rosmerta…"

"Or better." began James, who had just heard the words 'fire whisky'. He was followed by Kit and another girl, who were gossiping with their heads together as they say down on the sofa. Someone would have to move soon, otherwise Remus was going to end up over the floor in an angry, squished mess. "We can just get that squirt in the third year to get it for us. His dad helps Rosmerta out with the pub." James took a deep breath. "LORTON! CLARENCE LORTON!?"

A small, blonde boy came running to James, his head help high. Out of the corner of his eye, Remus saw Lily roll her eyes in disgust and wander up to bed: it was obvious she watched everything that James did, waiting for something bad so she could correct it…or, in a weird twist of fate, Remus thought, she may watch James because she looks for a reason to praise him…Hell would have frozen over when that day came.

"Lorton, will you get us some Fire Whisky and give your dad three sickles?" James pushed the money into the boys hand and gave him a smile. The boy nodded eagerly and set off, giving the Marauders a thumbs up before leaving the common room.

"Wake up." Remus snapped at James, who was asleep on the sofa holding a bottle of Fire Whisky. He was pale and had deep bags under his eyes. Remus nudged him, but his friend didn't move. He turned to Peter, who was groggily waking up on the floor.

"Mornin'." he yawned, getting up. "I'm g-going to go get changed..." Peter got up, his fat wobbling, which made Remus gag, and the short, fat blond boy walked up the stairs to the boys dorm.

Remus turned to Sirius. He looked so angelic asleep, his mouth slightly agape, his eyes shut, his dark hair a mess. He was curled up in one of the armchairs by the fire, holding a flask of coffee. Remus knelt down and shook his best friend. Slowly, Sirius opened his eyes and looked at the young werewolf. He smiled warmly and sat up, stretching.

"Thanks Moony." he said, his voice dripping with tiredness. He rubbed his eyes, and got up. Sirius, without another word, he walked up to the dormitory to get changed for their first day as sixth years.

Her uniform was worn as short as possible, her grey pleated skirt half way up her thigh, and her blouse undone to the third button or more, and her tie completely absent. She strutted over to the Marauders and sat next to Sirius.

Bitch! Remus thought, and had to engage himself in conversation before he lost the plot. Sirius wasn't interested in you last year, he thought bitterly, so go swagger off and pluck your already too thin eyebrows!

Sirius sneered at her, turning the expression into a smile quickly before shooting a quick glance at James.

"Louisa," came a strong voice, "I suggest you get out of my seat and go torture some other poor, undeserving soul whilst you can, otherwise, I shall personally remove you myself."

It was Giz, small but mighty as she pushed the Hufflepuff Louisa off her seat and sat down herself, holding her wand and a small capsule of lip-gloss of a natural colour. Kit came trotting down after her, followed by Storm.

Storm frowned carefully, keeping her mouth sealed. Kit was actually being friendly to Giz, not just civil, as she always was. She thought of it as weird, and it made her uncomfortable…she didn't like Giz, and Giz didn't really like her, but Kit had always been her best friend. Kit wasn't ignoring Storm, but something wasn't quite right…

Storm sighed and grimaced at Remus, who sat over the other side of the long table.

"It's going to be a long day." She sighed. Remus let out a small laugh.

"You didn't need your Seer blood to tell me that." he grumbled with a small smile, and poured himself some juice. He hadn't seen Storm since last year. She was a quiet, odd girl, with pure white hair, pale skin, and blue-purple eyes that always seemed to stare, which unnerved people. She was a seer, meaning she could see into the future. Her power only flared up every once in a while, usually if the future involved some horrible disaster that other could not foresee.

"No, I didn't." she smirked slowly, adjusting her red and gold striped tie. "So, did you see anyone over the summer?" Her voice was quiet, gentle, and was easy for Remus to hear- being a werewolf had made him have good senses.

"No, not really." Remus muttered, rolling his shoulders calmly and looking over at James and Sirius. "I didn't see anyone except my cousin. My mum's been ill, so I have been looking after her…what about you?"

Storm cleared her throat.

"Nothing much, really. I saw Kit, went to London with Ophelia…"

"Talking of Phee, where is she?" asked Remus, his brow furrowed. He hadn't seen half of the girls in his year, not on the train or in the common room…

"They've been up in the dorm since they arrived." Storm muttered, grabbing a piece of toast form the rack in the middle of the long Gryffindor table. "Kit and Giz have been hanging out…Lily keeps talking to that Ravenclaw…Y'know, that girl Lisabet talks to as well…."

"What, Calandra Smutty?" Remus asked, confused.

"No!" snapped Storm, "Calandra's the Ravenclaw Seeker…Emma! Emma O'Hare, that's it!"

"Lily talks to Emma O'Hare?" Remus asked, his eyes wide. "She was my library buddy in our first year…"

"Yeah yeah, whatever….but Lily's hanging around with her and Calandra a lot. It's really odd…"

"Maybe she's making more friends outside her house?" suggested Remus, "I mean, it's good to have friends outside of Gryffindor. I'm friends with some Ravenclaws, a few Hufflepuffs, and a Slytherin."

"What?!" Storm laughed lightly, the first time in ages Remus had seen her laugh. "Name them!"

"Well, I'm friends with Emma, Rylla Wattington, John Rotwell…they're in Ravenclaw! And Iona Grey, Cy Luttly…Martha Toneswell-Rhones…"

"Hufflepuffs?" Storm ventured. "I only know because Cy's the Keeper for Hufflepuff! He's soooo useless, y'know…I can beat him with my eyes closed."

"That's because you're a great Keeper, Storm, Cy's average, I'm sure." Muttered Remus slowly, still thinking. "Oh, and the Slytherin?"

"Yeaaah…?"

"Fay Jones."

"Oh, her." Storm said.

"Yes, her." Remus reported, frowning. "She's nice, you know."

"She hangs around with Snape, and no one else."

"She's really nice!"

"Whatever Remus." Storm said, and went back to eating her toast.