A/N: thanks to RiddledWithWolfstar for reviewing the first chapter! I hope you've stuck around.
Year 7
Early September 1977
Remus was leaned against the wall of the Prefect's compartment on the Hogwart's Express. He looked out the window with a tiny smile as he studied all the first year students and parents, the older ones pretended not to be scared. They were like himself and already lost something in this quiet war. His golden eyes found Mrs. Potter and Prongs standing underneath an archway off to the side. Remus watched as his friend clung to his mother tightly, he could clearly imagine the glistening tears in both of their eyes, and the angry way James would be swiping at them when he pulled back from the embrace. Mr. Potter had been murdered a month ago. The other three Marauders had spent turns sitting at the house with James and his mother throughout the month of August. Remus closed his eyes remembered the first time her relieved Sirius of his duties there.
It had been a week after the funeral; Mrs. Potter was doing her best to be her normal chipper self at this point. She fawned over Remus and fed him at least five times each day. Remus had allowed this, most importantly because he knew it was helping her to cope, but also because their house elf, Penny, made some damn-good food.
The first night he had been there, James had broken what Sirius had called his 72 Hours of Silence. He hadn't suddenly started for Remus to pass the salt at dinner one evening, no, he had shattered the self-imposed isolation as he smashed the mirror in his bathroom to pieces, with his fists. Mrs. Potter and Remus had been quietly drinking tea and reading in the Potter's library when they heard the sound.
"Oh my." Mrs. Potter had said in a hushed tone as Remus sprinted up the stairs, wand out, expecting to see James fighting of Death Eaters (his imagination did sometimes get the best of him, the Potter's house had been so heavily warded over the last few days that Remus was sure the Secret Keeper knew whenever Remus took a piss). Instead, his saw his friend standing at the basin, shoulders and chest heaving as snot dripped out of his nose. His left hand was flecked with bits of glass, blood was dripping along the rim of the white ceramic sink, the white tile was splashed with it, and James didn't seem to notice or care. Remus approached carefully.
"Prongs?" he had asked. There had been no reply. "Prongs, mate, let me see your hand." James had looked over his shoulder then, glancing at Remus with red, wet eyes, before he looked down at his shredded hand.
"Yeah, okay." he had mumbled, holding out the appendage for Remus, who had quickly performed a few healing spells.
"Is it okay if I clean this up?" he had asked, placing a hand on James's shoulder. The other young man had nodded. All Remus had needed was a quick scourfigy and everything was removed. He hadn't bothered repairing the mirror, he had a feeling that James would just shatter it again.
"Let's get you to bed."
After Remus had helped James out of his clothes and under his fluffy scarlet duvet, he had smiled briefly and turned to leave.
"Moony?"
Remus had turned around quickly. "Yes?"
"Would you stay?" James hadn't been looking at him as he spoke, but instead studying the glow-in the dark stars the boys had pasted to his ceiling sometime during the summer between their fifth and sixth years.
"Sure thing."
Neither of the two had slept. Remus had occasionally glanced over at his friend and saw large bags under his bloodshot eyes, sometimes heavy with tears.
"Do you want to talk about it, James?" Remus had asked after two hours of laying in perfectly still silence.
"Not yet, Remus. Not yet." James and squeezed his eyes shut, desperately hoping to keep the tears confined but it was no use. They spilled over and when Remus dared to glance at his friend, he saw his cheeks glistening in the moonlight.
"We're joining the Order, Remus. My mother was wrong and we can't give up now. Especially now that my father is dead. I can't just sit in my room in the dark for the rest of my life. It's been getting worse the last three months, Remus. And it's they're only going to keep getting stronger the longer we hold off doing anything."
"Prongs, Kingsley said the Order is for full-wizards. We're still students."
"I'm sure there are student Death Eaters too." James had said with a shrug, his hands behind his head. Remus noticed he looked relaxed now, while talking about the secret resistance force led by Dumbledore.
The idea of fighting back was calming him down in a way nothing else had been able to.
"You're right." Remus had said, turning on his side to look at James. "What do you think we should do?"
"I'm not sure yet, Rem. But it's a relief to know you agree. If I can convince our level-headed Moony, Pete and Sirius won't be a problem."
"Of course I agree. Just like any decent wizard."
The two didn't sleep the rest of the night, nor did they speak again and when the first rays of sunlight had crept over the hills in the distance, James had immediately thrown his covers off and jumped out of bed. Remus flopped down onto the barely ruffled duvet and rubbed his exhausted eyes.
Remus was sucked out the painful memories of his broken friend by a voice carefully whispering, "Hello, you." He turned around to greet the smirking face of the 6th year Hufflepuff Prefect, Fred.
"Hey there." Remus whispered back, eyes dropping down to the boys thin pink lips. Fred leaned forward and kissed him briefly.
"How was your sum-"
"Let's not talk about that." Remus interrupted, placing his hands on the other boy's hips and pulling him back in for another kiss. He felt Fred's smirk grow against his own as the boy backed him up against the wall. His mouth started trailing down Remus's neck, his hands slipping up the front of his sweater, feeling Remus's slight body.
Remus didn't find Fred particularly attractive, he was somewhat average looking, brown hair, brown eyes, freckles across his nose, but what Remus did like is that Fred was a head shorter than him, which made it very easy for the boy to spend a nice amount of time working Remus's favorite spot where his shoulder met his neck.
Ties were starting to be loosened and hands were roaming further south when the sound of Lily Evan's voice floated through the partially opened door. When she slid it open she was greeted with the back of Remus (as he fixed his tie), and Fred sprawled across one of the chairs.
"Hello, Fred." Lily said with a quick smile.
"Nice to see you again, Evans." he responded in kind.
"Hello, Lily." Remus said turning away from the window now that his tie was (he hopped) tied properly. Lily raised her eyebrows and her vibrant green eyes flitted between Remus and Fred as she stepped up and deftly straightened the knot.
"Still on with that, are you?" she asked in a whisper. Remus shrugged and blushed slightly. Lily moved away with a wink and pat on his shoulder to take her spot at the front of the room. The rest of the Prefects arrived while she pulled out sheafs of parchment and her quill for roll call. She didn't bother to call the names out loud and instead placed a check next to each person's name after she greeted them politely, even the Slytherins. After three minutes of staring at her watch and huffing loudly, Lily looked up and glared around the room.
"Has anyone seen Potter?" she demanded, cutting off the quiet chatter that had filled the compartment.
"I'm here!" he cried, stumbling through the door as the Express lurched forward. He flitted to the front of the room and stood next to Lily. His smile, Remus noticed, was still strained and held none of its usual careless charm.
"What's he doing in here, Evans?" Avery demanded from the back of the room. Remus was amazed how his voice could be so commanding and also sound so uninterested.
"Right well, I'd just like to say welcome back to everyone, it's lovely to see your faces again."
At this Remus snickered slightly, Lily purposefully avoided looking at the group of Slytherins, six scowling blobs glaring in her direction. Her snub hadn't gone unnoticed.
"For today's patrol you'll pair up by House and year. Ravenclaw has the first shift, followed by Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and finally Gryffindor. Please remember to return her and sign out with Potter or myself after your patrol. Our first meeting will be tomorrow evening at 8pm, I expect the older students to show our new Prefects the meeting room. Will the seventh year Prefects from each house please come see Potter and I for their common room password? If there are no questions you're free to go. Ravenclaws please see to it that the younger student's aren't having trouble finding seating." Lily shuffled her papers neatly and smiled brightly around the room.
Remus waited patiently at the end of the line of seventh years to speak with Lily and James. Since Dumbledore had chosen James as Head Boy, he had left Gryffindor with three seventh year students and Remus without a patrol partner. He took the time to study the other students in line in front of him. In a short ten months, they would all be out in the world, fighting, fleeing, or hiding. The division in the room was very clear. The two Slytherins, Avery and the willowy Narcissa soon-to-be Malfoy, were standing in front of Lily and James. Anita and Jasmine from Ravenclaw were standing at least five feet behind the other pair, their backs turned as they conversed with the boy and girl from Hufflepuff.
For Remus, it was both incredibly sad and interesting that they had ended up this way. They had grown up together, little 11 year-olds crossing the Lake, afraid the Sorting Hat would swallow them whole (alright, so Remus was fairly certain that fear alone was his, but he knew that the Sorting was a very stressful event even for the purebloods), terrified of McGonagall until he realized she was perhaps the one teacher rooting for him most strongly, and the list went on. Somewhere along the way, certain students had lost their footing along the path and slipped off. Some of them, like Jasmine and her Hufflepuff boyfriend just seemed to be a bit lost, wondering in circles.
Remus had heard her claiming earlier that her mother (who worked in the Ministry of Magic, Department of Magical Security) had told her daughter that all of this talk about war was absolute nonsense and that the stories of muggles and muggle-borns going missing were all just fabricated by that blasted new reporter, Rita Skeeter.
The others though, they had just found a different, darker, path.
"Hey, Moony." James said, mustering up a real smile for his friend when he arrived at their table.
"Hello, Prongs." Remus replied, dragging a chair over to sit next to his friends.
"Let's see, our password for the year is, 'Saggy centaur balls'." James informed him with a very serious nod and quick twinkle in his eye that would have made Dumbledore proud. Remus laughed openly as Lily smacked him on the back of his head.
"Okay, so it's actually 'The Woods of Lothlorien'." James said with a clueless look on his face.
"Tolkein?" Remus demanded of Lily.
"I just wanted to spice it up a bit, remind everyone the Head Girl is a precious mudblood." Lily said with a shrug. James frowned sharply at her use of such an ugly slur.
"Hardly anyone will even get these references." Remus said.
"The muggleborns will, and that's what's important. Dumbledore agreed." Lily said, taking the paper from James's hands and sliding it to Remus. He read the following aloud, nodding approvingly when he reached Slytherin:
Gyrffindor- The Woods of Lothlorien
Hufflepuff- Tom Bombadill
Ravenclaw- Gandalf the Grey
Slytherin- Gollum
"These are references?" James asked them.
"Yes." Lily replied simply, not feeling the need to elaborate further.
"It's a popular muggle fantasy book. Elves, wizards, dwarves, evil covering the world in shadow." Remus explained. James nodded his head, still frowning.
"Can I read it?" he asked Remus.
"I didn't bring mine with me. They're at home, I can have Dad owl them."
"You can borrow mine, Potter. But if there's so much as a finger-mark on the pages I'll castrate you." Lily said, pointing her wand at his lap for emphasis. James gulped.
"So who should I patrol with?" Remus interrupted, hoping to save his friend from such a gruesome fate.
"I was thinking that either James and I could split the time with you. I'll patrol the first half-hour, he can patrol the last half-hour with you. Tomorrow night we'll have to come up with a more permanent solution. That's what I'm working on now." Lily showed him the tables she was drawing up, divided by house and then year. She also had all possible scheduling conflicts listed, club meetings, Quidditch practices, and extra courses, drawn on the calendar of another sheet of paper.
"Great." Remus said, pushing the charts back to her. "Well, I'm off to find Sirius and Peter. I'll be back here in a few hours. See ya' Lils, Prongs."
"Wait!" the two shouted at the same time as he stood up. Remus raised one eyebrow and crossed his arms.
"Are you sure you have to go? I mean, I could use your help with this." Lily said brandishing her quill and the calendar.
"That's what James is for, Lily." Remus said, eyes flicking to his friend who, oddly enough was looking quite desperate. Stay, he mouthed at Remus. What was going on here?
"Okay." Remus said, sitting back down cautiously. He scooted forward and pulled one of the charts towards him.
"Well, it would probably be best to pair the Slytherins with the Ravenclaws. I don't trust them with anyone else, really." Remus said, looking down the list and furrowing his brow. All of these names, Avery, Mulciber, Lestrange, Black (Narcissa and Regulus) had been tied to the violent Death Eater group. He threw the paper down and rubbed his eyes.
"What the fuck was Slughorn thinking?" He asked James and Lily.
"It's just like Kingsley said." James said with a nod.
"Who's Kingsley?" Lily asked, chewing her bottom lip.
"He's an auror who worked with my-" James started, frowning and looking down at the table as his throat constricted around the word 'dad', making it impossible for him to squeeze the syllable out.
"He came and spoke with us, James, Sirius, and me. Mrs. Potter wasn't very happy when she found us all huddled in the library, but he said what needed to be said."
"Which was?" Lily probed, glancing between the boys. She noticed their brief eye contact, a moment in which it was clear they were communicating in ways she couldn't. Or maybe they were simply Legillimens. Lily had always suspected that was the case.
"Dumbledore came to visit me this summer," she began, carefully constructing the hints in her head to let them know she was in on it too. "It was after these men found me in a muggle book shop, just down the road from my house. They killed the shop owner in front of me. I brought the bookshelves down on top of them and ran. I think the only reason it worked is because I surprised them because as I was running down the aisles, one of them shot a curse at me. The Ministry had to obliviate half the street. When Dumbledore showed up at my house less than an hour later, as that dolt Crouch was interrogating me, he told me, the time for fighting wasn't here yet, that it was good I had run, that we would rise from the ashes and end this war when the moment came."
The two boys studied her for another moment for grins broke out on their faces.
"I knew it." James said, slapping Lily a bit roughly on the back, like he would one of the boys. Lily smiled back at them.
A huge weight lifted off her shoulders. Dumbledore had said she couldn't talk about the Order through the post, it was too risky. The Death Eaters, he told her, were everywhere. They were slowly infiltrating the highest positions of the Ministry, like a cancer that was growing silently but exponentially inside of an old man's body. She had been secretly thrilled and frightened by the prospect of fighting men like the ones who had attacked her. She had sat on her mother's sofa, her parents trying to eavesdrop from the kitchen (impossible, she had cast the muffliato charm Severus had taught her before their break), and listened as Dumbledore explained the bare bones of the Order of the Phoenix. A secret group of young, and old, aurors, witches, and wizards who weren't going to take the destruction of their world sitting down.
Lily Evans was not afraid of dying, but at the end of the conversation she had paused on her way to the kitchen to tell what she could to her parents. She stood in her living room, eyes unfocused as she unconsciously rubbed the new scar that ran under her collar bone to contemplate the classmates who would be standing with her and those she would be fighting against.
"Where was Peter?"
"He left straight after the funeral. There have been a lot of attacks around his home, he was too anxious leaving his mom and sister there." James leaned back in his chair, resting on the two back legs and teetering precariously every now and then as he let go of the table.
"Does he kno-" Lily started to ask.
"Shh!" Remus said quickly as the three heard footsteps outside the compartment. Lily began blabbering on about patrol schedules as the door opened. James and Remus crowded around her anxiously, boisterously pointing to names and repeating whatever Lily said.
"Well, isn't this just adorable!" Sirius proclaimed, clapping his hands together. Everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief. Lily herself was so happy to see it was Sirius and not someone else that she smiled at him brightly and said, "Had a good summer, Black?"
Sirius frowned at Lily while James picked anxiously at his nails and avoided eye contact with everyone in the room. Lily winced at her own stupidity and mouthed, sorry at the other two. There was an awkward moment of silence before Sirius stepped up behind Remus, placing his hands on his friend's shoulders and demanded to know what everyone was getting their panties in a bunch about.
"Patrol schedules? Really?" he teased as he leaned forward, his stomach brushing Remus's head, to study the papers on the table.
"Yeah, mate, you know how things get, sit down, we could use some help getting things in order." James said, very business-like. He placed his hands flat on the table, and raised his left pinky, Marauder code that announced secret business.
Sirius glanced over his shoulder and shot a quick spell at the door, shutting it and pulling down the blinds. He pulled a chair up and sat next to Remus as Lily whispered a few hurried charms, ensuring the four would hear anyone who walked outside the door.
James grabbed one of Lily's papers and turned it over, snatching her quill from her hand.
"We've started a list," he began, glancing up at the witch. He furiously started writing down names, most of which Lily knew were muggle borns or half-bloods. "Kingsley told me it would be important to make new friends in my time of grief." James added with a dark smile. Remus and Sirius nodded when Lily looked up.
She turned to James and demanded, "Do they always do that?"
Sirius and Remus were seated shoulder to shoulder, both with their right leg crossed at the knee, hands folded in their laps, with identical looks of intense concentration. James smiled at his friends.
"Yeah, mostly."
"He just can't help it, wants to be just like me." Sirius grinned, pinching Moony's cheek.
"Padfoot, get off." Remus said slapping his hand away as James drew a heavy black line under his short list.
"He also said to watch out for those who wouldn't be sympathetic." James murmured, beginning a new list. Sirius watched him carefully this time. When James sat back, finished, he pulled the paper towards himself and scribbled one more name at the end: Regulus Black. Remus placed his hand on Sirius's back and no one spoke for a moment as Lily leaned forward and studied the list. Her finger trailed down the paper, sometimes pausing at a name before she would eventually nod and move on. Her finger halted at Severus Snape and Remus knew it wasn't out of doubt, but sadness.
"Very well, memorize the password list, James. We need to destroy the paper so no one else finds it." Lily sat back and bit her lip as each of the boys studied the list they had spent three hours constructing in the Potter's home the afternoon of the funeral. As everyone sat back James flicked his wand and the paper went up in flames. The four seventh years sat silently for a few moments, each of them contemplating the war in their own way.
"We need more friends." Remus said quietly, voicing something he knew everyone was thinking. The list of so-called enemies had been twice as long as the other.
Lily was white knuckled as she gripped her wand.
"Yes." She said shortly, glancing up at him. "I'm sure we can find some, we're all generally likeable people."
The attempt to lighten the mood was weak and no one felt any better about it. Remus wondered if he was the only one who had started having dreams of fighting, truly fighting, and not just some stupid school-duel, with the seventh year Slytherins.
"I'm starving. Moony, come with me to find the trolley, will ya?" Sirius said while standing and stretching. Remus caught himself staring at the outline of his friend's body through his muggle jumper and jeans. Actually, Lily caught him staring and kicked him from under the table. Luckily James was frowning into space and hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary.
"Yeah, sure." Remus said jumping up and glaring at the redhead who was regarding him with a sad smile.
The two wandered the train's halls for a few minutes as they searched for the plump old woman selling sweets. Once they had bought their fill of chocolates and cakes, the two decided to not waste time searching for an empty compartment, which both were sure was non-existent, and instead sat down in the narrow hall across from one another. Remus loosened his tie and unbuttoned his shirt a bit, miming gasping noises as he relaxed.
"Moony, do you have a hickey on your neck?" Sirius asked mischievously, wiggling his eyebrows at his reddening friend. Remus slapped his hand over the spot he assumed there would be a love-bite and Sirius laughed.
"Not there mate, other side."
Remus glared at him and dropped his hands, stuffing a chocolate frog in his mouth instead of responding.
"So who's the bird then?" Sirius asked, twirling some licorice around before he snapped off a large bite.
"No girl, Sirius."
"Mooney, I'm staring at the trail of marks on your neck. Either you're showing new symptoms or there's a girl."
"There's no girl." Remus emphasized. "I want a smoke, let's see if the bathroom's free."
Sirius stared at him for a moment, and Remus could hear the cogs working. Remus knew he knew. Peter had caught him in a lonely corridor with an older Ravenclaw boy last year and he had told James, who had told Sirius, but only James had asked him about it. Remus knew his oversimplified; "I like girls sometimes and boys other times, Prongs" had made it back to the others.
"What's his name then?" Sirius asked, as they gathered the rubbish from the floor and collected the rest of the uneaten candy. Sirius brought out a small pouch from his pocket and dropped the left-overs inside.
"This is new." Remus said hesitantly when he slid the toilet's door closed behind them. He turned and opened the narrow sliding window. As he rolled Sirius and himself a cigarette, Padfoot expanded the window to the best of his ability (it was the Hogwarts Express, after all, and the train resisted any magic performed on it, no matter how innocent).
"What? I just want to know who the bloke is." Sirius said with a shrug. Remus handed him the tightly rolled cigarette and lit his own with his wand.
"His name's Fred." Remus said lightly.
"Fred?"
"Fred Wintringham."
"Who's that?" Sirius asked.
"6th year, Hufflepuff."
"So you like 'em younger, then Moony?" Sirius teased. Remus rolled his eyes and flicked the ash at him
"Is it serious?" Sirius asked after a few seconds filled with the sound of the train chugging and the smell of tobacco in the air.
"Gods no." Remus muttered as he took a drag.
"Oi! Who's in there! No smoking on the train!"
Sirius closed his eyes and leaned his head back at the sound of his brother's voice.
"Did you hear him? Get out here!" A shrill voice shouted. Two fists pounded on the door. Remus flicked his cigarette out the window and cast a quick charm to get rid of the smell. Sirius, cigarette still between his lips opened the door and stared at Regulus.
"Sirius." Regulus said stiffly. The black-haired girl beside him tittered nervously, taking a step back. Remus eyed his friend cautiously. Encounters between the Black boys easily got out of hand. In seconds it could go from a silent stare-down to a full on duel that ended with both in the hospital wing. The older Slytherins had taught Regulus quite a few nasty spells.
"Reg." Sirius said with a nod.
"No smoking on the train." the girl tried again.
No one moved for a very long minute as the boys stared at each other.
"Let's keep going," Regulus said to his partner, squeezing past Remus and Sirius as he continued down the hallway. Sirius stared after his younger brother, anger and pain mixing together on his face. Remus reached out his hand but Sirius stepped away and stubbed his cigarette out on the carpet of the train.
"I'm sure James is hungry." Sirius finally said, striding towards the Prefect's compartment. Remus watched him walk away before he looked again at the black burn mark on the ground. He didn't bother to charm it away.
The two found James alone in the compartment, staring out the window watching the landscape roll by. He turned, saw it was only they, and decided not to move.
"Brought you some snacks, Prongs." Sirius said, his right arm raised and pressed against the window. He leaned forward to rest his forehead on his arm and breathed heavily onto the glass. When his breath appeared he traced a picture of a scruffy dog.
Remus pulled his weightless and shrunken school trunk out of his pocket. Placing it on the ground he restored it to normal size and carefully opened it. Most of his belongings had stayed neatly folded, but his carefully organized piles were no more. He sighed and fished around for his book. Once he had found it he re-shrunk the trunk and replaced it in his pocket.
"Where's Lily?" Remus asked James, opening the book to chapter two.
"She went to meet her friends, said she'd be back before the Slytherin's patrol was up." James took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He sifted through the pile of junk food and pulled out the half-finished bag of sugar mice Remus had been eating earlier. He shoved a handful in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully.
"Has anyone seen Peter?"
"He's with that new girlfriend of his." Sirius said, still glaring out at the trees and shrubs as the whizzed by.
"Sirius, she's not exactly new, they were together all last term." corrected Remus
"Yeah." Sirius said with a shrug.
"What was up with you and Lily, earlier?" Remus asked.
"Not sure what you mean." James said, purposefully being obtuse.
"Something's going on with you and Evans?" Sirius asked, pushing his hair from his eyes and looking at James. "Go on, tell Moony and Padfoot." He sat down across from him and placed his elbows on his knees with his hands folded under his chin. The perfect picture of intense interest.
"Nothing is going on there." James said with a sigh.
"I don't believe you." Remus said stubbornly.
The door slid open, James turned again, expecting Lily, only to be greeted with the sight of two Hufflepuff prefects.
"Hullo." he said with a fake smile.
"Er. Hi. We're a bit early," said the girl who was tall with bobbed curly blonde hair.
"No problem." James said, standing and walking back to the desk with Lily's list on it. He scanned the names of the Hufflepuff prefects for a moment before he looked up at the two who were still standing awkwardly in the middle of the room.
"You can sit," he offered as two more Hufflepuffs entered. Sirius noticed the shorter one cast a broad smile at Remus as he walked over. Sirius narrowed his eyes at the boy's quiet tone.
"Hello, Remus. What are you reading?" This must be Fred, Sirius thought, noticing how his eyes lit up as he glanced down at his friend, and how he stood just close enough that Remus's shoulder would brush his hip if either of them moved ever so slightly.
"Just starting this year's Defense book."
"Anything interesting?" Fred asked, leaning down and placing his hand on Remus's shoulder, squeezing it gently as he read, "Defensive Spells Against an Unforgivable. Well, that's a bit dark."
Sirius snickered and Remus looked up sharply as his friend spoke.
"It is Defense Against the Dark Arts, you know."
"Black." Fred said smiling tightly, "how nice of you for your friend to let you sit in our compartment."
"Yeah, it was, wasn't it?" Sirius taunted, crossing his arms. He glared pointedly at Fred's hand that was still on Remus's shoulder. Fred got the message, dropping his hand and muttering a hurried goodbye as he went to sit by his fellow Hufflepuff prefects.
"I don't like him." Sirius whispered heatedly sitting down next to Remus.
"Oh? I couldn't tell." Remus drawled. Sirius glared, thinking he wasn't taking this seriously enough.
"What do you like about him anyway? He's quite short."
"Honestly?" Remus asked with a tight smile. Sirius nodded enthusiastically.
"He gives great he-"
"Potter. Black." The sleazy voice of Avery cut Remus off as the Slytherins trooped into the room. The Hufflepuff's didn't say a word as James, Sirius, and even Remus, stood placing their hands in their pockets in what appeared to be a casual manner. Their forearms tensed as each gripped his hand tightly.
The showdown was cut short as Lily entered the compartment, breathless.
"Excellent, everyone's here. Well, the Slytherins are finished. Hufflepuffs off you go! Don't forget to remind students to change into their robes!" Lily tried to smile as she gripped the stitch in her side tightly. No one moved for a moment and she bit her lip, her green eyes hardening.
"I said move it, everyone," she said tightly. The Slytherins turned on their heels and bumped her on their way out. Fred and his fellow badgers trailed out miserably.
"Could have used some support there, Potter." Lily snapped.
"I don't think you wanted my type of support, Lily." He responded, twirling his wand in his fingers.
"Yeah he probably would have just hexed them all." Sirius said with a snigger, his cheeks still flushed with awkward embarrassment at the image Remus had presented him of Fred.
The rest of the train ride went smoothly, Remus and James spent a half-hour walking along, hardly paying attention to anyone, with their heads together and whispering furiously. Most of the other students assumed they were planning another prank. Remus was, in fact, trying to convince James to not bring the war inside of Hogwarts by attacking some of the student Death Eaters. After fifteen minutes of intense arguing (and busting one noisy couple in a compartment near the front of the train) Remus managed to convince James it was better to recruit possible 'friends' rather than start waging battles in the halls of Hogwarts.
Sirius, for his part, spent the last two hours holed up in the toilets with two Ravenclaw girls, desperately trying to ignore the replaying images of Remus and Fred in his mind.
And Peter, well he and his girlfriend had a lovely train ride, playing gobstones, wizard's chess, looking through a magazine about Nifflers, and (Sirius would be quite proud of this bit) snogging for, Peter was sure, at least thirty minutes. It was, in his humble rat-opinion, the best train-ride ever.
The Welcome Feast provided much needed respite from the stress of the outside world and the four boys, finally reunited with Peter (who had blushed tomato red when Sirius hounded him about where he had been), gorged themselves, per usual, on the delicious food. At the end of the meal, Dumbledore stood and spread his arms widely.
"Prefects! Please show your new students to their new homes!"
James stood up and ambled over to Lily. Remus followed and all three simultaneously shouted "First Years!" They shared a brief smile, before surveying the newest Gryffindor recruits. Remus had, frankly, ignored every moment of the Sorting Ceremony, as he was too preoccupied with the places where his leg was touching Sirius's. These first years seemed as scrawny as ever, their hats much too large and drooping forward.
"This way, please!" Lily said pleasantly. A little girl tugged Remus's robes as the group set off.
"Excuse me," she said calmly. "I need to send an owl to my parents."
"Well, the owlery is in the West Tower. I can show you how to get there once we reach our common room." Remus said.
"No, I need to send it to them now. You don't understand." Her eyes were boring into Remus's.
"Alright. Let's go then." He grabbed her small hand and led her up the winding flights of stairs to the owlery.
James looked back at him questioningly, but he waved him on.
Once they had reached the top, Remus turned to the girl.
"I guess you don't have parchment or anything with you?"
"No. It's in my trunk." she bit her lip nervously while Remus sighed. He pulled his trunk out of his pocket once more and returned it to its original size. The girl did not seem very shocked, which led Remus to believe she was at least half-blood. He rifled around and pulled up a clean sheet of parchment and a quill.
"Thank you," she said, taking the items from him. She closed the lid of his trunk and used it as a desk. He watched her as she wrote.
Dear Mum and Dad,
I was sorted into Gryffindor. I hope Amy is proud of me. I'll be safe here, but I know that you need to leave because I remember what you told me this summer when Professor Dumbledore visited.
I love you,
Christie
The girl stood up and folded the letter while Remus tried to pretend he hadn't read it over her shoulder. She seemed to know, anyhow.
"My sister was killed this summer. She was an auror. She was in Gryffindor too. Dumbledore said it was a warning to my family." She looked up at him and Remus noticed how hard her young hazel eyes were. "I don't think I'll be able to find my parents again for a long time." She tied the letter to the foot of a large tawny barn owl and watched it fly through the window as Remus replaced his trunk in his pocket.
She turned and grabbed Remus's hand, "Let's go, its cold up here."
Remus stared down at the young girl as she led him back down the spiraling staircase. He had tried to tell James to keep the war out of Hogwarts, he had hoped, naively he now saw, that Hogwarts would be one last safe haven from the horrors outside.
When Christie and he made it to the Gryffindor common room Remus breathed deeply as he took in the sights of his friends scattered around the warm room. Lily and the other seventh year girls were grouped around some floor cushions, talking quickly about their summers. The marauders were joking around the fireplace, flicking dungbombs at each other, and Remus saw for the first time since his father's funeral, the desperate haunting look had left James's face. Maybe it was just the warm glow from the fireplace that created that illusion, but Remus found himself squeezing Christie's hand happily before he waved goodbye and strode to join his friends.
As he sunk into the deeply cushioned scarlet armchair that James, Peter, and Sirius had knowingly saved for him, he felt every muscle in his body relax. The stress of the last month, of the last year, faded into the background and Remus found he could ignore fears of the war for the first time in a long time, and simply enjoyed being around his friends.
"Oi, what'd that scrawny first year want?" Sirius demanded.
"Mail a letter to her parents. She wanted to let them know she was in Gryffindor."
"Because Gryffindor is the best house in Hogwarts!" Sirius shouted with a roar and flourish of his wand, releasing a shimmering gold lion's head from the tip of the dark wood. The other students around the common room cheered and clapped at his announcement.
Even Lily Evans cracked a smile. James caught her eye from across the room and his hand slipped into his robe pocket, touching the letter she had sent him the night his father had died. She nodded at him slightly and the two returned their attention to their own friends.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! Reviews are not only welcomed, but adored.