A/N: As our boys grow up the story will cover more mature themes (underage drinking/girls). There won't be anything too graphic, but as James and Lily do eventually conceive a son, I think it goes without saying that there will be SOME activity in that department. Consider third year a turning point!

...

Chapter 29 - When Life Was Simpler

Peter Pettigrew had heard from all three of his friends over the summer. James had written in great detail about his date with Charlotte, who they had all met together at his place at the start of summer. Remus had updated him on his mum (still very poorly, unfortunately) and Sirius had written him probably the shortest letter of all of them. It read simply:

Pettigrew. Can't make it to your thirteenth, but welcome to the teenagers club. Make sure you do some animagi practice. Lazy sod. SB.

Though not surprised Sirius' parents had been unwilling to let him come round (and insisting to his mother that it was 'perfectly OK'), he had done his best to enjoy the celebrations with Remus and James instead.

Richard Davidson and his gang had not come, and so it was just Peter, James, Remus, Clara, Annabelle, Clara's boyfriend, Annabelle's friend and Mrs Peters from next door.

"My goodness how well spoken you are!" Mrs Peters said to James as he, in true James style, engaged her in friendly conversation. "What school is it you go to again?"

"More tea, Mrs Peters?" Peter's mother called from the kitchen, successfully distracting her, and Mrs Peters left with her teacup.

"I don't know how you do it." Peter said to James, before he could turn and talk to someone else. "Don't you get bored of talking to everyone like that?"

James shook his head. "Not at all. She's really interesting. Did you know her husband used to own the bookshop in town?"

"So?!" Peter, who had no idea what could possibly be interesting about that, said.

James regaled them all with his latest on Charlotte, who he had successfully kissed outside her parents' house on their last date. "It wasn't too bad, once I figured out what I was doing." He told the others, who were leaning in eagerly. "In the end, I'd say it was actually rather good fun!"

Peter wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't sure whether he wanted a girlfriend yet. Girls were just so different to boys, what on earth would he find to talk about? He supposed that's where James had an advantage. He really could talk to anyone about anything.

"How's Sirius?" Remus asked. Peter knew James and Sirius kept in regular contact using the two-way mirrors James had given him before the end of term.

"Bored and irritated." James told them. "But he said he finally had a letter back from Moody. You know, that auror he's obsessed with. Apparently he overheard Malfoy and Lestrange talking about a ministry of magic employee who was a death eater and their plans to imperius more into carrying out their dirty work."

"What does imperius mean?" Peter said.

"It means control. They can do anything the death eaters want them to do. Pass laws, ignore crimes. I mean it's obvious there's someone already there or Yaxley would have been prosecuted."

"I was thinking that." Peter said. "Who do you think we'll have as a DADA teacher now he's gone?"

"We'll find out soon enough." James said, grinning.

And he was quite right. It felt like the summer holidays had only just started but, before Peter knew it, they were at an end. They were going from Remus' house to King's Cross together, having been there the weekend before and deciding it made sense to all go up to school together after too.

Remus hadn't been lying, his mum really didn't look well. But she seemed very cheered by the presence of the boys. She stayed mostly in an armchair in the front room, with a thick blanket over her. Peter noticed Remus' dad spending a lot of time sitting with her, holding her hand and saying nothing. From time to time he also saw Remus look away and wipe his eyes, but he didn't know what to say that might comfort him. Remus was usually the one doing the comforting for them.

When it came time for them to leave, she forced herself to her feet and moved to hug them all, though Peter thought he saw her wince in pain as she did so.

"Be safe darling." She said to Remus, and the pair of them hugged for a very long time.

Lyall Lupin said very little as he walked with them to where they would be taking a portkey to King's Cross.

"She's a wonderful woman, my Hope." He told them. "Hope by name, hope by nature. I never thought… I never thought I could ever lose her."

Remus hugged him and Peter and James stood helplessly by as Lyall sobbed into his son's shoulder. He'd never seen a grown man break down like this before.

He sniffed and gave them a watery smile. "I'm sorry. But she really is the love of my life. Losing her will be the hardest thing I ever live through."

"We don't know dad." Remus said quietly. "Miracles happen."

"Yes." Lyall said, wiping his eyes. "And you're one of them. Thank you, Remus. You've been such a wonder this summer. And thank you boys for cheering us all up too. Now you mustn't think on it anymore. You go off and have a good term."

They met up with Sirius on platform nine and three quarters. He wasn't alone this time, but was with his younger brother.

"Hello!" He said, and Peter saw Remus smile for the first time since they left Yorkshire as he saw his friend.

"Hi." Remus said, and the two of them hugged.

"You alright, James? Peter?" Sirius said to the others, shifting his case to the other hand so he could shake theirs.

He was grinning, though Peter thought he looked a little strained. "You chaps are going to have to go on without me I'm afraid. I, er, promised my parents I'd sit with Reg and Narcissa."

This surprised Peter. Since when had Sirius ever done anything his parents had told him to do?

"Can't we come with you?" James asked, seeming a little put out. "Nice to finally meet you in person!" He said, shaking Regulus' hand enthusiastically. "I don't see why we can't all sit together."

"Regulus Black, what are you doing?"

Peter jumped and looked up. A tall, dark haired witch had appeared beside them. She was glaring at them down her pointed nose and sniffed as she appeared to recognise who they were. "James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Yes I know exactly who you are." She turned to glower at Sirius who was avoiding her eye. "Well, you won't mind when I say my younger son will not be engaging in your company this year. Firstly, he will not be sorted into Gryffindor house, and secondly, he has far better taste than his brother."

James laughed. "Excuse me?" He said, seeming genuinely incredulous that anyone could be so rude.

She raised her eyes to look at him. "If the countless letters I've had home from Minerva McGonagall are to be believed, James Potter, you have been a positively atrocious influence on my son."

Peter saw Sirius mouth a 'sorry' at James and she turned her head back to him. "Well? Why aren't you already on the train? I expect Narcissa's waiting for you. Go on."

They watched as their friend grimaced back at them and went with his brother onto the train.

"Well, that was jolly." James, who still seemed a little ruffled by Sirius' mother's insult, said. "Come on, let's go and rescue him."

"But Sirius," Regulus said sadly as Sirius happily accepted James' offer of joining them in another compartment (once they were away from the platform). "I thought you wanted to sit with me."

"I do." He told his brother. "I just don't want to sit with them." And he nodded at Narcissa, Rabastan Lestrange and another dark haired girl who must have been a friend of Narcissa's. It seemed Malfoy must have graduated, as he was nowhere in sight.

Narcissa snorted. "Family loyalty goes out of the window as fast as the train does it? I must remember…"

"To write to aunty. When is anyone going to get it in their thick heads that I don't care?! Come on." He said to his brother. "I'm your brother, she's only your cousin. Don't you think your loyalties ought to be to me?"

Poor Regulus looked utterly miserable, looking from his cousin to his brother as though hoping someone else would break the stalemate.

"I've got an idea." James said, stepping into the compartment. "How about we have him for the morning, and we send him back to you after lunch. Is that fair?"

It made too much logical sense to argue with, and so the four of them headed off to a compartment with the smaller boy.

Despite Sirius' near constant complaints about his brother in all the time Peter had known him, the first year seemed pleasant enough to him. He gladly joined in their customary game of exploding snap, and treated them all to sweets from the trolley. "Mother gave me a galleon for it!" He said, handing it to the trolley witch and telling the others to help themselves.

"Thanks." Sirius said, taking a bag of sugar mice from his brother. "When did she give you that?"

"Oh, it was in my care package. Parchment, personalised quill, snacks for the train… you know."

"Sure I do…"

Though Sirius had been eager to hear about James' experiences with the muggle girls over the summer, James refused to say anything in front of Regulus. "He's just an innocent first year! He doesn't want to know who's snogging who yet."

The third years, it seemed, definitely did. The Gryffindor house table was abuzz with conversation that night, the girls all with their heads together, giggling madly and shooting the occasional glance over at the boys.

"Sirius?" Little Sylvie said bravely, approaching him once dinner was finished. "Will you be my boyfriend?"

"Er-" Sirius looked positively alarmed. "Yeah, alright." He said, but Peter wasn't sure how much it was due to him wanting to have a girlfriend as much as it was because he clearly couldn't think what else to say. Sylvie really could have picked her moment better. His friend was still reeling from his brother's sorting into Slytherin. Peter supposed it couldn't really have been a surprise, but he must have still been holding out some hope.

Sylvie insisted on sitting with them all in lessons over the next few weeks. Their DADA teacher, it transpired, was a young, cheerful witch called Professor Keatley, who had received outstanding in her DADA NEWTs and gone on to work in administration for the ministry before deciding she wanted a change in scenery.

"I'm muggleborn." She said, smiling at them all. "So it's quite different for us. We need to do at least three years' training - more, usually! If we want to qualify as a teacher in the muggle world. But here… well, the post was free, and I took it! How's that for happy luck?"

Sylvie beamed at her. Sylvie was beaming a lot these days. Peter hoped Sirius wouldn't hurt her too much when he inevitably told her he didn't want to go out with her anymore. She was positively skipping to her classes, had written her and Sirius' initials together on all her notebooks and even made a little sign with the two 'S's in their name and adorned it with love hearts.

"It's dead cute." James said, grinning as he intercepted a little note she passed him in transfiguration. "When's the wedding?"

Sirius wrote a hasty, 'thanks' back on the note and chucked it across the room at her, and then threw his quill (the only thing left to hand) at James.

While Sylvie might be delighted that Sirius Black had finally consented to go out with her, many girls were not. Sirius, it seemed, was quite as popular as James in that department and poor Sylvie was subject to many vicious remarks and hexes over the weeks that followed. Faith Rowle, who despite being a Slytherin didn't seem to object to Sirius' (very loud) opinions about her house, tried her hair severing charm on her again, but Sylvie took it all in her stride. She fashioned herself a bob haircut in which she pinned a little bow. "It's the price we pay for love." She was heard to say.

Poor Remus was going home regularly to visit his mother (for real, this time) as Professor McGonagall had given him special permission to do so. She must really be dying, Peter thought, and what a horrible thought that was. Hope Lupin was so lively, cheerful, so… alive.

"Can we come with you?" Sirius asked him one Friday as he packed a bag to leave for the weekend. "I like your mum. Maybe it would be nice for us to be there too?"

But Remus shook his head. "She'll feel she has to put on a good show for you. I think it's better like this. She's so… tired."

So the three of them stayed helplessly in Gryffindor tower as Remus left for McGonagall's office.

"Right. Animagi." Sirius said, clapping his hands. "What?" He said in response to James' disapproving look. "We're not going to help Mrs Lupin by moping around like old rags, are we? The least we can do now is try and help her son."

Though Peter wasn't really feeling in the mood for it either, they both humoured Sirius and practiced the first step together.

"I think we've got it!" Sirius said excitedly. "Now the next step is taking a perfectly round pebble from the bottom of a lake. Well, good thing we've got one of those nearby."

Putting off Sylvie, who seemed to want to spend her Saturday evening with him, Sirius led the others out of the castle and over to the lake. Seemingly without thinking, he threw off his shoes, rolled up his trousers and began to wade in.

"Er, Black. I don't mean to be rude, but has Sylvie run off with your common sense? How are we meant to get to the bottom of the lake by swimming?"

"What? Is it deep?" Sirius, who was nearly waist deep in water already, said.

James grinned. "You can take the boy out of the city…" and, grabbing a long branch from a nearby tree, poked it into the lake. It was so deep the branch vanished from sight. "I think we might want to think this one through."

"Nonsense." Sirius said, executing a very inexpert breaststroke out to the middle of the lake. "It'll just take one dive."

"Perfectly round, the book says. You really think you'll get that on one dive?"

"Well I won't if I do nothing." He said crossly, and next thing they all knew, he'd vanished under the surface of the lake.

He appeared a few moments later, spluttering but laughing, nothing but a few water weeds in his hand. "Ok, I'll try again!"

James and Peter watched in amusement as their friend continued to swim and dive. Peter had to admit it looked quite fun. He was just about to suggest to James that they go out and join him when there was the sound of hurried footsteps and a teacher's voice shouted "Sirius Black!"

It was Professor Keatley. She'd clearly been off for a drink with the other teachers, as Peter spotted a small group of them over by the castle walls, evidently none too keen to deal with this latest display of rule-breaking from his notorious friend.

"Get out of there right now!" The witch shouted and, spitting out a mouthful of water, Sirius swam over to the shore.

"What?" He asked her innocently as he climbed back onto the bank and shook himself off like a dog. "I was just pebble hunting."

"What?!"

"My brother has a thing for pebbles." He told her. "Regulus Black, first year. I told him I'd get him one from the bottom of the lake. Makes it lucky, you know?"

"No." She said.

"Oh well, if you say I can't do it he'll just have to go without. And he was so disappointed not to be in Gryffindor house, like me. I hope he won't be too upset."

"Oh for Merlin's sake. Accio pebbles." Keatley said, waving her wand in the direction of the lake, and caught the small handful that flew over. "Here you are." She said, handing them to him. "Now go inside and dry off before McGonagall sees you." And she hurried off back over to her colleagues.

"Well this is ironic. We need Remus' help to help us help him and he won't help us because he doesn't want us to help him."

"Don't talk nonsense Black, Lupin's not the only one who can do a summoning charm."

"Isn't he?"

"How hard can it be?"

Apparently harder than they thought. The pressure and depth of the lake seemed to act as obstacles, and after about an hour's attempts, the most they managed to get was one measly pebble.

"And it was only from the shore." James added dejectedly. "So I don't think it even counts."

Peter had to admit to not being too disappointed the second step of the animagi instructions had not been a success. Maybe his friends would give up on the whole idea now. Now third year had started and they were taking more classes he had more than enough to occupy his mind with.

But it seemed the others were leaving no stone unturned (quite literally) in finding answers. And, after several weeks' practice and many buckets of stones examined, they managed it.

"Brilliant!" Sirius grinned, holding up the perfect round pebble. "Alright chaps, your turn next."

Sirius did in fact let James have the pebble. James was training hard for the first match of the year (against Ravenclaw this time) and so Sirius agreed to pick up some of the slack for him. Peter was glad there wasn't another argument like there had been last year. Or maybe Sirius had simply grown more tolerant of James and his obsession with quidditch.

Gryffindor beat Ravenclaw 240 to 60 and Peter saw the Ravenclaw captain Wai Ming Chang put his head in his hands at the end of the game. Kiran and James were heroes that night in the Gryffindor common room, and the whole team was so swept up in the excitement and cheer that Freddie finally managed to succeed what James predicted he'd been trying for two years and kissed Kiran Kumar full on the lips, right there in front of everyone.

Sylvie came over to try her luck with Sirius too, who returned the affection, but Peter couldn't help but notice a little reluctantly.

James looked around grinning, perhaps wondering where the long queue of girls wanting to kiss him was, but all he saw was Lily Evans. "Well done Potter." She said stiffly. "I suppose you flew well, for an arrogant prat, that is."

"Well you give a remarkably good compliment, for a Slytherin's plaything, that is."

Peter thought he saw the corner of Lily's mouth twitch, but he must have imagined it, as Lily moved over to the table, helped herself to another butterbeer and went back to her friends.

"She's warming to me." He said to the others, running a hand through his hair and glancing over at her.

"Maybe by a degree." Sirius said. "She was at minus one, now she's at freezing."

"It's because you've not hexed Snape in a while." Remus said. Peter thought he knew why his friend was saying this. He hoped that if Lily liked James it would make him more likely to leave the Slytherin alone (if Lily liking James was something he wanted, that is).

Unfortunately, for Remus, it seemed James didn't care that much. Purely it seemed out of boredom they succeeded in transfiguring the back of his robes as he sat in front of them in potions. 'Greasy git', 'wipe my nose' and, a classic, 'kick me', all featured.

In retaliation, Lily dumped her whole jar of dragonfly eggs in James' cauldron, causing it to spit alarmingly. In retaliation to her he hexed her as they worked close by in transfiguration, her eyebrows growing so long they fell onto the desk. And in relation for that, McGonagall took ten house points.

She glared at him as they left the classroom, eyebrows mercifully restored by the transfiguration teacher. "Honestly Sylvie, how can you bear to spend so much time with those idiots?" He heard her say as the girls walked away. So that was the end of that fragile peace then.

Very unfortunately for Sylvie, Sirius broke up with her just before Christmas. "I haven't got time for a girlfriend." He told her as she sobbed and wailed in the corner of the common room. Peter had to admit he'd picked his moment very poorly. She'd just given him a Christmas gift, wrapped in pretty green and red tissue. And she sobbed even harder as he tried to hand it back.

"Busy doing what?!" She wailed.

Sirius glanced around awkwardly. Most of the common room was watching them now, though many were pretending not to. Peter had to admit it was a fair question from Sylvie. Sirius spent most of his time either fiddling about with muggle contraptions (a hobby he'd become even more enthusiastic about since starting muggle studies that year) or else trying to become an animagus. He rarely did any actual schoolwork.

"Just… stuff." He said. "Sorry Sylvie. I know you think I'm a prat."

But Sylvie shook her head. "I - I don't." She sobbed. "I think you're the most wonderful boy I've ever met. I'm the idiot." And she turned her back on him and ran out of the common room.

Peter and the others approached Sirius, who looked a little like he'd just been hit by a truck. "You alright mate?" James said, putting an awkward arm around his friend's shoulders.

Sirius nodded. "Yeah… why did she say that?"

"Say what?"

"Y'know, what she said?"

That he was wonderful? Well, he knew that already didn't he? Anyone with a pair of eyes and a brain could see how much Sirius Black loved himself.

James looked like he didn't know what to say. "Women." He said eventually, squaring his shoulders in an attempt to look in command of the situation. "They're not worth the bother."

Sirius nodded vaguely, but he was still looking over at the portrait hole, a strange mixture of confusion and regret in his grey eyes.

Fortunately for everyone, Sylvie quickly bounced back from her heartbreak. The Christmas break seemed to have done her the world of good and when they all came back in the New Year, she had a new haircut and a new spring in her step.

"She's dating David Cheshire in fourth year." Peter told Sirius, who had overheard the gossip as he worked in the library. David was a beater on the Gryffindor quidditch team and was also very popular.

"That's nice." Sirius said, and though Peter thought he saw him looking over at Sylvie in lessons a bit more than he might usually have done, he gave nothing else away that he was missing his ex-girlfriend.

In mid-Februrary, and shortly before his fourteenth birthday, Professor McGonagall came into the common room looking for Remus.

James and Sirius would have usually been inclined to make a joke right about now, but seeing the grave expression on their deputy head's face and knowing exactly what was happening in Remus' family life at the moment, they told her they'd go and fetch him, and all three of them scrambled up to the dormitory, where Remus was reading undisturbed.

"It's McGonagall." Sirius told him, never one to mince his words. "She looks grim."

Remus paled. He put down his book. He looked at them. And then he burst into tears.

"Oh Remus!" Peter said, unable to help himself. He scrambled onto his friend's bed and put his arms around him.

Remus sobbed for well over five minutes, by which time McGonagall seemed to have given up waiting. There was a quiet knock on the dormitory door and she entered.

"Thank you, Peter." She said to him and he let go of his friend, sitting back on the bed, tears in his own eyes as she came and joined them too.

"Mr Lupin, I'm afraid it really is time to go. The worst has happened. Your father needs you home."

Remus broke into renewed sobs, and Professor McGonagall handed him a handkerchief. "There now, it's alright." She said, quite kindly.

"Professor, can we go with him?" Sirius asked. "It might make it easier for him if we were there."

"I don't think so, Black." McGonagall said, still looking at Remus.

"But -"

"No." She said firmly. "Perhaps you can help Mr Lupin pack a bag."

All three of them set about doing so. It was the only thing they could do to help. Once Remus had his bag and cloak, he followed McGonagall out of the dorm and turned to give them a watery smile. "I'll be OK." He said.

Sirius had his fist to his mouth and was biting into it, James had tears in his eyes, Peter wanted to run to his friend. He couldn't let him just leave like that? Not when what he would find at home would be so awful.

"Thank you gentlemen." McGonagall said to them, and she and Remus left the room.

James sat down hard on the bed when the door had closed and so did Peter. Sirius stood very still for a long time and then said he was going for a shower. He didn't come out for a while.

When Remus came back three days later, he was a ghost of himself. They'd arranged the funeral quickly. As Hope had lost touch with so many of her friends and family with all the moving they'd done over the years, there weren't many people to invite. It had been a small, deeply sad affair, and her body had been buried in Wales, by her parents'. She had been thirty six years old.

"Oh Remus what can we say?" Sirius said for the hundredth time. This pain, it seemed, was something no amount of action could alleviate.

"Just say you'll be there. That's all you can do now."

"Remus, I've always been there for you. And I always will. I promise you, I'll never betray you."

Remus gave him a watery smile and began to cry again.

The girls were very good with Remus in the weeks that followed. They stopped to talk to him outside lessons and gave him sweets too. Mary MacDonald asked him if he'd like to go for a walk one day, and he said that would be very nice. The two of them spent a lot more time together after that.

While Peter supposed he ought to be glad his friends were spending more time in the company of others, they were all growing up after all, he still didn't like it. No one had ever asked him out, but then having said that, he didn't really fancy any of them anyway. He supposed Roma Lestrange was quite pretty, but she was a Slytherin. The others wouldn't allow him to date a Slytherin.

As term wore on however, Peter thought he felt something change in the group dynamics. It was somehow more blurred now. In their first and second year, it had just been them. A tight group of four. And now, whether because of James' position on the quidditch team or the interest in the dozens of girls who insisted on following them around, it seemed they were part of something bigger.

James and Sirius didn't seem to mind this. They took no time telling anyone who'd listen that when they left Hogwarts they 'needed to fight' and seemed to quite like having a group to convince of this. But Peter missed the old days. He missed their younger days. He missed when life had been simpler.

...

A/N: I have basically just written third year in one chapter, I know. There will be plenty more action in fifth year and above, and, like Sirius, I prefer not to waste my words!