Terrorizing me, it's his favourite hobby
James tugged Remus by the arm and spoke close to his ear as soon as he caught sight of him in the hallway. “Hey Quadruped, how was book club?”, he asked as if it was supposed to be a very secretive subject, gaining a confused expression on the werewolf’s face.
“-uh… alright, I guess?”
“Evans wouldn’t happen to have discussed any romance novels, by any chance?”, he pressed on, revealing the real sensitivity of the conversation: Lily Evans, who James stubbornly denied having the biggest crush in the universe on, but Remus had caught on to that since day one.
“I don’t think she has, no. Sorry to disappoint.”
“Pity”, James said. “That would have been totally embarrassing, could’ve pestered her for weeks”, he used as an excuse.
“Yes, sure… That’s the reason…”, Remus scoffed, but his last words fell silent as his nose caught a strange, yet familiar scent. He had smelled it plenty of times before, but it didn’t belong in a school. It was the smell of a dead body, and it wasn’t Sirius.
Even before Remus could say anything about it, Sirius and James had stopped dead in their tracks, as their eyes had already found the source of the smell. Sirius had gotten defensively in front of James and Remus nearly felt himself growl as they made eye contact with Regulus Black. The vampire had exchanged his black, three piece suit for more regular clothes. He wore black jeans and a dark green hoodie and his face had gotten some colour they all knew only make-up could have put there. He looked human, convincingly so, but everyone in their little group of supernaturals, and James, knew exactly who and what they were dealing with.
The three of them glared at Regulus, but he only crossed them in the hall, grinning, teeth bare but not a fang in sight, and only taking in one deep breath when he passed James. They kept staring at his back for a while, to stunned to speak, until he disappeared in the chaos of students. “What the hell is he doing here?”, Remus muttered under his breath.
“Terrorizing me, probably”, Sirius suggested. “It’s his favourite hobby.”
“No…”, James said. His eyes were still fixed on the spot where he had last seen the dark green hoodie. “Stalking me”, he corrected, then he swallowed some fear to continue, “…like a predator.”
“That he is”, Remus pointed out. He had already been uncomfortable with the idea of Sirius trying to be human enough to fit in this school, but the thought of Regulus being here made his stomach clench.
“Calm down, Remus”, Sirius said softly. His hand had gripped his arm in a comforting manner. When Remus looked down at it he saw his nails had grown sharp and dense arm hair peeked out from under his sleeve. The wolf inside of him wasn’t pleased with Regulus’ presence either. “He’s not worth the risk off you exposing yourself.” He took a slow breath and his body was human once more. Sirius was right. He’d throw his whole life away if his secret got revealed here; he’d get in trouble with his foster parents and he’d have to search a new home all over again. Regulus Black was not worth any off that.
Once they got to their classroom there was more chatter than usual. Students flocked together around desks to talk to their friends.
“Who would’ve thought. This town might actually become something interesting”, Marlene scoffed as a response to whatever her friends had said.
“What’s going on?”, James asked, all eyes for Lily. Of course he’d take any excuse to talk to her.
“Remus lost his reputation as the new kid already”, Lily said. “I’ve heard we’re getting another new classmate”, she smiled. Then her smile faded in a frown as she gauged the boys reaction. They couldn’t seriously be put in the same class as Regulus. Could they never catch a break anymore. “Don’t fret it”, Lily scoffed, unaware of the whole situation. “Nothing has ever stopped your lot from being attention attracters. I’m sure they won’t forget about you.”
“Hmmm, I wouldn’t know… I’ve heard the new kid is quite cute. He might get someone’s attention away from you, Potter”, Dorcas joked while giving Lily a nudge.
While the boys were left in infinite dread of what was to come, class started as usual, until someone knocked on the door.
“Ah, there he is”, smiled the teacher as she opened the door for him. To everyone’s surprise and the boys’ relief the student on the other side of it wasn’t Regulus. The mousy chubby boy with greasy, slicked back hair who anxiously made his way to the front of the classroom didn’t even look like him. Lily frowned at Dorcas. ‘Cute’? Really?, she mouthed unconvinced. Dorcas shook her head to express the misunderstanding.
The poor boy introduced himself as Peter Pettigrew and as he stumbled over his words, Remus couldn’t help but feel pity for him. James however was of another calibre. “Nice to meet you, P-p-p-peter”, he mocked his stutter with a mean grin and Sirius snorted next to him. Peter flushed red and hurried to an empty chair in the back of the class, almost tripping over his own feet.
“James!”, Lily told him of for it. “That wasn’t nice. You should apologise.”
“Sorry…”, James muttered sheepishly.
“Not to me, to him!”
“Oh… Right…”
So as soon as the bell announced their first break, James got to his feet and headed over to the back of the classroom, followed closely by Sirius. Remus listened in to their whole conversation from where he sat, keeping a close eye on his friends, but also on the door just in case any other unexpected visitors got in.
Peter shrunk in his seat as soon as he noticed James leaning against his desk, towering high above him. “I’m sorry about earlier”, James admitted. “That was very mean of me and I’d like to start over”, he said as he extended his hand for Peter to shake it. “I’m James, nice to meet you, Peter”, he said without fake stutter this time.
“N-nice to meet you”, Peter returned but his eyes still had a timid look in them. “I only stutter when I’m stressed”, he added with a faint smile. Then Remus felt something twist in his stomach when he saw Peter carefully looking Sirius up and down with a little more confidence on his face.
“Oh, right…”, Sirius woke up from whatever daydream he had. “Sirius”, he introduced himself with a smile. For some reason, Remus didn’t like anything about this entire exchange.
“Nice to meet you too”, Peter said when he shook his hand as well, with his gaze fixed on the vampire. He squeezed his palm for just a moment too long and his voice sounded just that little more solid when he spoke to Sirius compared to James or anyone else. It made Remus want to jump up and drag Sirius away from there, for whatever reason. “You have very cold hands”, Peter noticed. Sirius just smiled shyly and by now Remus couldn’t give a fuck about the door or anything else anymore. He needed this Peter to leave Sirius alone and he had no clue why. He had gotten up from his chair and was halfway across the classroom already when he realised this. He had put a hand on Sirius’ shoulder and felt him relax under his touch, fixing parts of the nausea Peter had caused him already.
“Remus”, he snarled grimly to introduce himself as well. He didn’t initiate any handshake. He just wanted Sirius to come back to their seats with him, for whatever reason. And Sirius complied, for whatever reason.
“So this means Regulus isn’t going to be in our class, right?”, James, who had come with them, asked still concerned.
“I don’t think so”, Sirius said. “Luckily.”
Marlene eyed them confused. “You two know the other new kid or what?”, she asked.
Remus could facepalm as he watched Sirius and James stumble over incomprehensible words, trying to come up with some sort of excuse. “He’s Sirius’ cousin”, he interrupted them. He judged Sirius wouldn’t like him to refer to him as his ‘brother’, seeing how estranged they were. And with all the stuff the Black family tree/wreath had going on, it was technically true anyways. “Biological”, he added to clear up some confusion about the Potter family.
“Oh”, Marline responded. “That’s nice. Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I didn’t even know you had a biological family?”, Dorcas added.
“Those fuckers aren’t my family”, Sirius snarled as he turned back around in his seat and looked pointlessly at some of the papers on his desk. This whole conversation had clearly pissed him off.
“There’s a reason mum adopted him”, was the only explanation James granted them before he shrugged and turned back around as well. His words and the eery mystery he left behind them seemed to live up to their expectations, since the girls collectively decided to leave it at that.
While the Potters quickly became their relaxed selves again, Remus couldn’t shake the feeling of someone’s eyes prickling in the back of his neck. When he turned his head, he was met with Peter Pettigrew’s cold gaze. Something dangerous loomed over his entire being, but Remus still couldn’t quite put his finger on it. The boy smirked as they made eye contact, but then quickly diverted his gaze elsewhere. Remus really didn’t know why he mistrusted the new kid so much. Even his werewolf senses couldn’t clock any reason for suspicion. He was just some human boy, but still, there was something very off about him.