Chapter 10: A Rat on the Hogwarts Express.
It was the end of August, 1971.
A month prior, the Lupin family had sent their official response by owl with their decision to go ahead and allow Remus to attend his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Scottish Highlands. He would be the first lycanthrope student ever to attend the school with special secret provisions.
It was only through the covert and compassionate efforts of the infamous wizard Albus Dumbledore that made it possible. Lyall and Hope would be forever grateful for the Headmasters' ingenious arrangements to secretly accommodate their sons' lycanthropy needs each month.
Remus lay with his head on the pillow of his bed feeling pretty sure he was not going to get any sleep that night. His mind was racing in excitement over the fact that tomorrow at 11 o'clock in the morning he would be boarded on the Hogwarts Express train and traveling between London King's Cross Station Platform 9 and 3/4 to Hogsmeade station.
Oh how his life was about to change!
Instead of being isolated and purposely avoiding other children his age, he would be thrust into nearly the constant presence of other kids in this school environment. He was thrilled with the idea that he would actually be allowed to make other mates and he hoped beyond measure they would like him.
Months ago, after the unforgettable game of Gobstones with Dumbledore, he slept with the acceptance letter underneath his pillow every night as one of his most treasured possessions.
It had felt so surreal to Remus and there was countless times for weeks after Dumbledore visited that he found himself running to check on the acceptance letter under his pillow; just to check if it had been just a dream or was indeed real.
Now, he slept with both the letter under his pillow and his new wand that chose him at Ollivanders wand shop in Diagon Alley. It was pliable, 10 and 1/4 " long, made of cypress wood and had unicorn hair core. He wondered what the future held in store for him learning to channel his magical powers through it.
Remus stared at his wand, taking in all the fine details of it including the round bulbous bottom shape of the handle. He looked at how the cypress wood had both dark and light grain patterns in the wood.
He wondered if it having more light wood than dark was symbolic of himself. Right then and there he made up his mind he would be representative of the wand that way.
There may be no cure for the darkness of lycanthropy... but there would always be a choice to spread more light through kindness to others when it wasn't a full moon.
The memory flashed in his head of visiting Ollivanders wand shop earlier that summer. His father had taken him to Diagon Alley to purchase all the items from the supply list included in the second page of the acceptance letter.
Remus felt honored to be matched to his wand by Garrick Ollivander who was widely considered the best wand maker in the world. However, there were cryptic and macabre comments Ollivander made after Remus was matched to his wand in the shop that made him uncomfortable.
As Ollivander was taking galleons from Lyall at the counter, he explained in a grim tone,
"Remus Lupin, I must tell you that it is a great honor to match you to a cypress wand today. Do you know why?"
Remus was standing next to his father looking puzzled with scrunched eyebrows. He shook his head and said awkwardly,
"No, sir. Why?"
Ollivander continued,
"I am a descendant a very long line of wand makers. One of them was my ancestor Geraint Ollivander, a great wand maker who lived long ago in the Middle Ages. He once wrote that he was always honored to match a cypress wand, for he knew he was meeting a witch or wizard who would die a heroic death.
Cypress wands are associated with nobility. Wands of cypress find their soul mates among the brave, the bold and the self-sacrificing; those who are unafraid to confront the shadows in their own and others' natures. We are living in blood-thirsty and uncertain times with the first Wizarding War upon us. I wouldn't doubt cypress wands that call upon their possessors to lay down their lives-"
"Enough!" Lyall angrily interrupted him. His father cast Ollivander a disapproving look and held up his hand.
"Quite enough, Mr. Ollivander. My boy is only eleven, and we're not in any hurry to throw him into battle. For Merlin's sake, he hasn't even stepped foot upon the castle grounds of Hogwarts yet."
Ollivander simply nodded and grew silent. He gave Remus a penetrating stare as if he could look deep into his soul. Then he gave a respectful bow to Remus that made him feel even more uneasy and disturbed.
"Keer-EEeee!"
Suddenly, Remus's new barn owl he had named, Cadbury, squawked in her cage on top of his chest of drawers near his bed. The owl was waking up from sleeping the daylight hours away and it flapped its wings.
She looked at him tilting her flat, heart-shaped face that rotated sideways. The colors of her head made Remus think of a toasted marshmallow. Her small, pointy, blonde beak moved outward in a sleepy yawn.
His mother had insisted he get a pet owl so that they could correspond regularly by owl post. He promised his mom he would write her letters regularly to keep her updated on this very exciting new chapter of life.
Remus was also delighted to just have a new feathered friend. It was his first pet. His parents only allowed the owl to fly outside well after midnight when Remus was almost completely sure Muggle neighbors were sleeping to not arouse any suspicion.
He opened the door of her cage, gently slipped in a treat and said,
"Good morning, Cadbury... we're in for a new adventure together soon. This could be the start of a very long day for you as I imagine the Hogwarts Express is not the most favorable sleeping arrangement for owls tomorrow. Well, on second thought...I won't likely get much sleep tonight either so perhaps it shall be a long day for both of us."
The next day, after the strange experience of running through a brick wall at Platform 9 and 3/4, Remus surprisingly found himself struggling to choke back tears as he said goodbye to his parents.
He had not expected himself to get so emotional at their parting. When he had laid awake the night before this significant departure, he had come to the conclusion that he was greatly relieved that him going to Hogwarts would ease the burden he had been on his parents lives for so many years.
They would likely be able to stay at their current address for the school year and not have the stress of moving again. They would not have to stress about his monthly transformations, him getting ill, and fixing damage after it happened. His mother could have time for herself and not have to homeschool him.
Thinking of the contrast of him suddenly being removed from their lives brought tears to his eyes as they stood staring proudly at him in the crowd of other families bustling around the platform.
He was so tremendously grateful for all his parents support and love over the years with his condition.
He was so tremendously grateful to Dumbledore, a man he had only vaguely heard of before the Gobstones game in his living room, making this opportunity possible.
He was grateful his parents would have a break from the burden of him.
Remus sheepishly wiped the tears away quickly with his sleeve. He looked around at other people and peers hoping they weren't staring at him getting weepy.
He wished he had more eloquent words to express his appreciation but all he could think to say was simply,
"Thanks Mum, thanks Dad, for everything."
Hope embraced him and said, "Good luck, sweetheart, you'll do fine... more than fine. Don't forget to write and tell me all about it."
"I won't. I love you, Mum."
"I love you, too, sweetheart."
Lyall was reaching in the pockets of his trousers a bit frantically and said, "Oh! Remus, I almost forgot..."
He handed Remus a small, cloth drawstring bag filled with a handful of gold galleons. Then he explained it was for the Honeydukes Express, a food trolley aboard the Hogwarts Express that enabled students to purchase food, beverages or candy on their train ride. Remus silently hoped there would be bottles of butter beer offered and lots of chocolate choices.
He thanked his father for the money and when Lyall reached out to shake his hand, Remus threw his arms around him in a big hug instead.
Then it was time at last to join the hustle and bustle of other students piling towards the train cars on his own. The platform by the big red steam train was a cacophony of sounds between reunions of older students after their summers apart, bewildered cat meows, and confused owls hooting in their cages.
Remus had temporarily parted ways with Cadbury in the designated carriage for all the caged owls. Part of him wished his owl could just fly to Hogwarts instead but he understood it would be a lot of unnecessary work for Ministry workers to conceal from Muggles to have this odd migration of owls suddenly flying north from London.
Remus passed two girls on the platform; one with dark red hair having an emotionally intense conversation with what looked to be her taller older sister. Both of their faces looked upset.
He noticed the girl with the dark red hair had been holding the sisters hand but the taller sister angrily tugged her hand away. Remus inconspicuously tuned in his sensitive hearing towards them to try to eavesdrop on their conversation.
" - you think I want to be a - a freak?"
"I'm not a freak. That's a horrible thing to say."
"That's where you're going. A special school for freaks. You and that Snape boy... weirdos, that's what you two are. It's good you're-"
Remus suddenly stopped himself from listening further as he begun to feel increasingly guilty for invading what was obviously meant to be a private conversation. He felt bad for the taller girl and guessed she was jealous she was not invited to Hogwarts like her younger sister.
Sometimes he had lamented the fact that he was an only child during his many moments of loneliness. But he knew his lycanthropy had been such a tremendous burden on his family that he usually concluded it was one less complication for his parents.
After watching the two girls interact on the platform he felt glad he didn't have the heartache of having a sibling who did not get invited to Hogwarts. He grabbed a black side handlebar and climbed the metal steps to board a train carriage into a crowded corridor.
"Evan! Evan Rosier! This way!" said a boy with dark beady sinister eyes motioning to another student. Remus was standing farther down the hallway of the train cars but quietly watched them out of the corner of his eye.
He needed to get seated but wasn't sure which passenger compartment to enter on the train carriage. He didn't want to intrude on any groups of other students that had already staked out a particular compartment.
"Hey Wilkes!" said the other boy cheerfully and Remus gathered he must be Evan.
There was another shorter boy with dirty blonde unkept hair standing near them gazing out the side window of the corridor and waving at someone. He had set his rucksack down at his feet.
Remus observed Evan and Wilkes were snickering and whispering with each other behind the back of the boy at the window.
Then the shorter boy stopped waving at the window, let out a nervous laugh and said, "Wilkes, hey hey, Wilkes, can I still join you in your compartment?"
Evan crept behind the shorter boy without him knowing it and snuck a hand toward his ruck sack on the floor. He flipped up a buckle and out jumped a toad.
Wilkes suddenly pointed and exclaimed with a little too much enthusiasm,
"Merlin's Beard! Is that your toad hopping away?"
The shorter boy immediately spun around and clambered after the toad who looked delighted to be making big leaps directly towards Remus.
Evan and Wilkes were suppressing sinister laughter. Wilkes took the opportunity while the boy had his back turned chasing the toad down the corridor to snatch his rucksack and tip it upside down spilling all the contents all over the floor.
Then the two of them disappeared into the nearest compartment and the door slammed shut.
"Wingardium Leviosa," Remus instinctively muttered after he whipped out his wand.
The toad seemed to freeze in midair in a cycle of jumps and then made an odd croaking sound as it floated strait towards Remus's hand.
Remus quickly put his wand away and grasped the incoming floating toad with both hands.
"Slippery buggers, aren't they? I think I much prefer to have amphibians in the chocolate form," Remus said with a smirk as the boy came towards him to claim it.
The boy stared at Remus with widened eyes in admiration of his quick wand work.
Then he nodded and said,
"Th-thank you, it's never done that before, I don't know how it got out, thanks for catching it, um, uh, that was groovy how you did that with your wand by the way.
Do, do you think you could maybe teach me that one?"
Remus smiled and replied, "It was no trouble at all. Glad I could help. I think it's probably better to learn the hover charm from our Charms Professor, though, rather than me.
I'm Remus Lupin, and you are?"
The boy was still wide eyed and awkwardly held his toad against his chest. If one didn't know he was holding a toad under his fingers then it could of easily appeared as if he was having heart problems like he was clutching his chest in pain.
"Peter, Peter Pettigrew. Pleasure to meet you, Remus. I'd um, shake your hand but, you know, I, I don't want this bloody toad to get away again."
Remus said, "Right. Yes, of course. I understand. Nice to meet you, Peter - you and your toad. Let me help you tidy up your other things while you get the toad contained again."
Peter looked momentarily confused about the offer to help him tidy up his things until he looked back toward his rucksack emptied out and then understanding washed across his face. He frowned and said with frustration,
"Blimey-o-Reilly ! How did that happen?!"
Remus glanced through the glass of the sliding compartment door where he saw the two culprits seated across from each other still snickering at their mischievous acts but trying to act inconspicuous about it.
"I think I have a pretty good idea. But it's no matter. Here, I got it. You take care of that Houdini toad and I'll make quick work getting the rest of your belongings tidied up."
A slow, toothy grin spread across Peter's face. He giggled and said, "Houdini. Ha ha. I like that. Hey! I think that's what I'll call it. I haven't picked out a name yet. Cheers for getting my stuff."
Suddenly, the grip of a hand clenched onto Remus's shoulder. Remus startled and spun around looking up. A taller male student was giving him a disapproving cold stare. He noticed there was a shinning pin on his robes with the letter 'P' with a green background. There was a green snake emblem embroidered on his robe.
The older boy had a pale, pointed face, with pale blond hair and cold grey eyes. Remus sensed a dark presence that surrounded him that made his skin crawl.
He asked scornfully,
"Was that your wand I saw you pull out a few moments ago?"
Remus felt his face get hot and his mouth grow dry in nervousness. He cleared his throat and tried to humbly explain, "I'm so sorry, I only did the levitation charm to help catch an escaped toad."
Peter who was quietly watching the interaction raised Houdini the toad a little too closely to the older boy with the 'P' badge on his robe. He took a step backward and curled his lips in disgust.
"Ew! Get that foul thing away from me. Gross. It's ridiculously appalling those things are even allowed as pets at Hogwarts."
He cast a hostile stare at Remus, pointed a pale finger at him and declared,
"My name is Lucius Malfoy and I'm the Prefect of Slytherin house. I'll let it slide just this once but just know I have the ability to take points away from whatever house you get sorted into at the castle. You wouldn't want to start out your first day with taking away points from your house, would you?"
Remus shook his head rapidly and said graciously, "No. No I definitely would not. Thank you, Lucius."
Lucius eyed the two of them like they were both a smelly dung heap and then he waltzed away in a uppity huff.
Peter and Remus gave each other a silent nervous grin after Lucius had disappeared down the train corridor, both relieved they had dodged getting in trouble. Peter carefully tucked his captured toad back into a buckled pocket of his rucksack.
Remus asked, "Would you care to join me in one of the compartments?"
"Yeah yeah, that would be swell!" Peter replied and then cast a suspicious frown into the adjacent compartment as if he was just now catching on to the fact that the other boys may have had something to do with his distressing situation.
Before they pushed their way farther down the corridor; despite the warning from Lucius; Remus couldn't resist slyly pulling out his wand in a way that neither Peter nor the boys that bullied him could see.
He concentrated extra hard on Wingardium Leviosa again but this time tried to inconspicuously cast it without saying anything audibly. He focused intensely on saying it non-verbally in his mind. Part of him was curious if he could do it without saying anything out loud.
He swished his wand slightly toward the luggage on the shelf which made it began to teeter on the edge over Evan's head. Then it tumbled off completely and burst open when it landed upside down on the floor. Remus quickly moved out of their visual range trying to hold back an impish grin spreading across his face.
He already knew the rules about not being allowed to do magic outside of Hogwarts even before the warning from the haughty Slytherin prefect mere minutes ago. But something told him it was worth the risk and he would not be caught this time.
Peter and Remus managed to find one of the last empty compartments and settled themselves across from each other on the benches. Peter pulled out a bag of crisps right away and started munching noisily. He offered some to Remus but he politely declined. He was saving his appetite for treats from the food trolley.
Peter ate his potato crisps and stared at Remus's face. After a few moments of awkward silence, Remus said,
"What?"
Peter replied, "Why do you have those scars across your face? There's magic to make those go away, you know."
The question startled Remus and he felt his heart rate speed up all of sudden.
Damn, he should of remembered to use some of his mother's make up this morning to try and cover it up.
He hated when people stared for too long at the faint scar lines on his face. They weren't that obvious, but still faintly there. He knew that Peter was probably just naturally curious and meant no harm.
He still felt flustered but somehow managed to say,
"Well, um, it actually can't entirely go away because it's an injury from a dark creature. My Dad is an expert in dark creatures, you see, and it was from a... grindylow! They're grindylow scratches. I live in Yorkshire and there is a lot of them there. One tried to take a swipe at me with its sharp claws and pull me into a pond."
Peter's eyes instantly widened as he listened and with a tone of dark fascination he asked curiously,
"Blimey... grindylows are real? My father said they were just made up to scare children away from pools, marshes or ponds and such where they could drown."
Remus gave a small wave-like gesture by his own face with a half smile and told him,
"Oh yes, take it from me, I can assure you they are quite real. I've seen them with my own eyes. Grindylows are also referenced in Newt Scamander's book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, that we had to get on our book list, haven't you read about them there?
Technically, we don't take Care of Magical Creatures class until our Third Year. But it might be for our Defense Against the Dark Arts class."
Peter continued to chew crisps with his mouth open showing masticated food that Remus would of preferred to not see. Then Peter shrugged his shoulders and said,
"Yeah? Well, 'books shmooks'... I haven't even cracked any of them open yet. Glad the nasty thing didn't pull you into the water."
"Yes indeed, you and me both. Although my Dad was close by with his wand at the ready, so I don't think he would of just sat idly by and watched the grindylow eat me for it's next meal."
A while later, the two heard a soft knock on their compartment door and turned to see it was the lady with the food trolley.
The compartment door slid open and the lady said in a sugary sweet voice,
"Anything from the trolley, dears?"
Peter bought nearly one or more of everything on the trolley. By the time it was Remus's turn, Peter had his items spread out over the entire sitting bench. The compartment filled with various sounds of him crinkling candy wrappers and his mouth smacking the different delights. Remus bought a pumpkin pastie, a bottle of butter beer, Honeydukes chocolate bars and some chocolate frogs.
"Bertie Bots Every Flavour Beans, have you tried them?" Peter asked with a mischievous snicker.
Remus shook his head and replied with a half smile, "No. I've seen them in the Honeydukes shop but never tried them."
Peter snickered, "Wanna try this one? It's either chocolate or farm dirt."
Remus smiled and said, "Sure, why not?"
Remus chewed the brown jelly bean and had no reaction. He enjoyed keeping Peter in suspense.
Peter asked impatiently, "Well?"
Remus responded thoughtfully,
"Well, I think an earthworm would likely enjoy it."
Peter laughed and went on to have Remus try many others. Much to Peter's utter amazement, Remus continued to not have much of a reaction to any of the disgusting flavors. Little did he know how they paled in comparison to the horrid tasting 'lycanthropy cure' potions he had taken in the past.
As the steam locomotive continued clacking along the track, the landscape changed to beautiful sweeping mountains of the Scottish Highlands in the last hours of the daylight. Peter and Remus changed into their Wizarding robes.
As Remus was savoring the last few sips of his bottle of butter beer there was suddenly a unexpected knock on the compartment door.
Both of them looked up surprised from the benches to the glass and saw it was a girl with dark red hair. It was the same girl Remus had seen initially at platform 9 and 3/4 before boarding the train who had been arguing with her older sister.
Remus noted she had kind blue eyes but they looked slightly red and puffy like she had been weeping. Though it was a day of such excitement, he felt a sudden pang of sorrow inside for her as he remembered the other taller girl she had been standing next to that had cruelly called her freak.
Standing behind the girl was a skinny boy dressed in his school robes with oily, black overlong hair, a thin face and sallow cheeks. He was wearing a bitter expression eyeing Remus and Peter with suspicion. The girl said politely,
"Pardon me, we were just looking for a place to sit because some boys inanother compartment were quite rude and, oh-"
She broke off talking when she looked down at the Peter's bench completely covered withunwrapped candy wrappers scattered all over as if a rubbish bin had been tipped upside down.
Remus had been smiling politely back at her and his smile quickly faded to awkward embarrassment. He had been uncomfortable with the way in which Peter was being slobbish in the compartment but couldn't bring himself to say anything about it earlier.
Peter looked annoyed at her staring at his bench and greedily grabbed at the candies that hadn'tbeen unwrappedas if she was about to pounce on them like a cat on a rat. The thin boy standing behind her shot Peter a look of repulsion. He tugged on the sleeve of her robe and muttered,
"Not this compartment, Lily, we can find more suitable and less littered like a pigsty."
Peter looked at the boy behind Lily and said angrily, "Hey, I heard that!"
The boy behind Lily stepped forward with even more look of disgust at Peter and replied aggressively,
"Yeah, well it's true, you've turned this compartment into a rubbish heap."
Peter's face was beginning to turn red from anger and he said, "A rubbish heap?!"
Remus and Lily exchanged pained expressions with each other over the escalating kerfuffle. Lily turned around and tried to coax her friend saying,
"Severus, let's just go. Leave him be. We can take a gander farther up."
Remus looked at Peter who had his arms folded and tried to deter the squabble by saying, "Peter, I can help you tidy up in a jiffy and then we could offer some more seating space."
Lily stated courteously, "No thank you. We'll be moving along now."
She slid the compartment door closed. Remus tried to smile politely at them as they left despite the awkwardness. Severus and Peter traded contemptuous glares.
As soon as they were gone, Peter commented,
"What an arrogant prat! I sure hope I don't get sorted into his house."
Remus sighed and told him, "They just needed another compartment to sit in and probably meant no harm. From what I understand the sorting hat is always spot on or recognizes ones potential for the future."
Peter rolled his eyes and not knowing the irony of his words said, "Yeah, his potential is likely nothing but joining You-Know-Who as a Death Eater. I would never do that."
His front teeth scraped rapidly across a bit of missed candy in a wrapper in a rat like fashion. Remus sensed a brief dark chill pass over him but he didn't know why.
"Well, speaking of the old sorting hat, we may be getting closer it singing it's yearly song soon," Remus announced leaning into the outside window and feeling relieved to be changing the subject off the quarrel with the Severus boy.
It had grown dark and the sound of the quick clackity clacking of the tracks was slowing as it was approaching Hogsmeade station. Peter and Remus stuck together as they made they're way off the train.
There there was an strange, giant of a man towering above all the students shouting gruffly,
"Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!"
Remus was surprised it was possible to see any of the enormous man's face as it was nearly totally hidden by a lengthly, straggly, unkept bushy beard. His eyes were shining like polished black gobstones. He directed the first year students down to boats on the Black Lake.
Remus and Peter seated themselves in the middle seat of a boat. Then two other boys that were laughing together approached there boat. One climbed in the front and the other climbed in the back behind Remus and Peter.
The boy in the front boldly started leaning over the front of the boat curiously gazing down into the depths of the water and rocked the entire boat.
The boy behind them leaned forward boldly to Remus and Peter. He held out his hand to Remus and stated,
"James, James Potter. How do you do?"
Remus smiled shyly back at him, shook his hand and said, "Fine, thanks. Remus, Remus Lupin. Pleasure to meet you."
Peter shook James's hand and said, "Peter Pettigrew. Pleasure. How long you reckon this boat ride takes? I hate being this close to the w-w-water." Peter glanced in fright at the surface of the lake.
The boy in the front answered, "No worries, mate. Just another seven hours. We'll make it to the castle in time for brekky."
Peter looked stunned.
The boy in the front burst out with a cackle of laughter and Peter frowned at him.
"Nah. I'm just yanking your wand. It's not that long. Sirius, Sirius Black. Nice to meet you Remus and Peter."
James chimed in, "Yeah, and don't take him too serious."
The four of them laughed which unbeknownst to them, it would soon become the first of many mirthful and mischievous times together.