Arrival
“Fuck you Pete you little shit!” Marlene tossed her king towards Peter’s face after having lost the chess match for what felt like the 40th time. James had given up on playing in their tournament long ago and left his friends to play on their own while he looked out of the window and watched the sheep and other animals grazing. He would occasionally turn to them to check how the game was going and, unsurprisingly, Peter was always winning. James had never been much good at chess, unlike Peter who had been captain of the chess club at their primary school for as long as James had known him.
“I’m so glad we’re all in the same house, I think I would have died without you guys” Marlene said as she started yet another game of chess with Peter.
“Are you seriously starting another game of chess?” James asked, “You know Pete’s going to win, he always does.”
“Eh, it’s fun, and I was trying to be all sentimental and shit” she replied, opening a bag of sweets James’s mum had packed for him and passed them around the group.
It was only a minute or two before the train pulled into the next station and they all started to look out for some new friends.
~*~
“-and if you dare fraternise with-”
Sirius couldn’t help but roll his eyes. His mother was always banging on about him hypothetically doing something wrong but he never actually did.
...Most of the time anyway.
Part of the reason the boy hated his family so much wasn’t because he was always yelled at – or worse – it was because his sister wasn’t. It was always ‘perfect little Aquila’ who ‘couldn’t possibly do anything wrong.’ It was insufferable. Sirius never understood why his mother always seemed to prefer his sister when he had done absolutely nothing to prompt this. He knew it wasn’t her fault, but he couldn’t help being resentful.
At home, every day was the same. Wake up, skip breakfast, stay in his room the whole day, try to keep his head down at the dinner table, sleep. It was exhausting. When they ate, his parents wouldn’t so much talk to him as at him. He had to talk over everyone else to so much as get a word in, and if he wanted to be listened to he had no choice but to shout, even if it ended in his parents shouting back.
As boring as school sounded, at least he wouldn’t be at home.
“Sirius! For god’s sake, the train is here! If you miss the train, I swear to god, I’ll-“
“Lay off it, mother! The damn thing hasn’t even opened the doors yet!”
He couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pride at the disgusted look on her face. Before she could do anything, he decided it was probably best to just get on the train.
Without warning, he saw movement in the corner of his eye. Upon further inspection, someone was waving at him. Not his mother, not his sister, but Sirius. He quickly stepped onto the train, only stopping to look back at his little sister, the girl who he’d protected with his life up until this point. He wished with everything he had, on every star, that he could take her with him. That he could save her. That he could get her out of that house. But he couldn’t. It was just a year until he could, anyway, what difference could that make?
He’d miss her.
Once the doors had closed, his heavy suitcase was weighing him down. He’d never been in such a small, crowded space before, and he couldn’t help but fiddle with the intricate handle of the abnormally heavy suitcase. Normally when he was near people, they were either family or family friends. The noise level was really bothering him. Sirius did not like loud noises, he never did.
He walked along the carriage, avoiding eye contact as he walked past the tight compartments. He hated small spaces, and this train was so damn repetitive, it was driving him insane.
Just after passing the fifth compartment, he heard the door shuffle open, and out stepped the same sun-kissed boy who had waved through the dirty glass.
“Hi! You okay? You look a little jumpy.” The boy was content and lively. He reminded Sirius of the sun. His voice was so gentle, just like his sister’s. He was just so warm and happy and perfect, everything Sirius wasn’t. Sirius wanted to be more like him.
“Yeah, I’m fine, just... Never really been around this many people before.” Nervous as Sirius was, The boy’s kind energy soothed him. It wasn’t something he saw often.
“You can come in our carriage if you’d like! I’m James, you?”
Sirius’ lips curled up slightly at the invitation. “Sirius.”
James looked slightly taken aback. “Like... The adjective?”
Both boys giggled a little at that. Sirius really hoped that those two would get on well.
He needed to get on with someone. He knew that his parents were the issue, not him, but he needed to prove it. To his parents, to James, to himself. He had to be better than his parents, because otherwise he’d simply join the cycle. The thought scared him more than anything, but it couldn’t possibly happen.
He was not the same as his parents, and he was going to prove it.
“No, the star. S-I-R-I-U-S”
“Mhmmm...” James nodded slowly, having never heard of said star.
They both stumbled a little as the train suddenly jolted, clearly preparing to accelerate. They both turned their heads as a loud gasp came out of James’ carriage.
“YOUR KING FELL OFF THE BOARD! I WIN! I FUCKING WIN!”
“That’s not how the game works, Marlene...”
“Pete, just let her have this.” James called into the carriage, not noticing the other boy’s slight flinch. Sirius took the slight tilt of his head towards the carriage as a sign to get in.
~*~
Despite the way he thrived when alone, Remus was anxious to meet new people. He grew up in a poorer area, so he wouldn’t recognise anyone at his fancy new private school. The only reason he even got the opportunity to go was his exceptional results on the entrance exams.
He read through his acceptance letter yet again, still shocked he even got one.
Dear Mr R. J. Lupin,
You have been accepted into Hogwarts School of Science and Mathematics.
Due to your financial state, you have been granted a scholarship and some ex-students have kindly donated you some uniform.
You will be in Gryffindor house and will be in dorm 13-A with three other pupils.
If you have any questions, please email your head of house, Professor McGonagall, at [email protected]
Kind regards,
Professor A. Dumbledore
Looking up from the letter, Remus pressed the small red button to indicate to the bus driver that this was his stop. Hogwarts was in the middle of nowhere, so he’d have to walk a few miles.
As the bus came to a halt, Remus raised a hand to the driver in thanks and stepped of the bus, luggage in hand, before embarking on his hike.
He was only a few minutes in by the time his back started hurting. It felt like his spine was grinding against itself and crumbling under the weight of his surprisingly heavy backpack. The only way he could easily describe it was a handful of rice krispies being crushed by a pestle and mortar. He hadn’t been diagnosed with anything, so he hadn’t had any treatment. Every half a mile or so, he had to stop, sit down, and take his bag off for a few minutes because if he didn’t it would hurt too much to continue.
After many breaks, he finally made it to the school gate, a few minutes before the train with the majority of the students was supposed to arrive. Once he got to his dorm for the night, he was going to avoid talking to people, look through his textbooks, and sleep. Quite a good plan, he thought. That was for later, though. He’d check out the library first.
After about 20 minutes of confusion and speed walking, he found the library. This school was bloody massive, how was he supposed to find anything?
He looked around, taking in all the genres they had, before deciding that if he was going to stay at this school, he’d need to be clever enough to do so. He grabbed about four textbooks and went to check them out. The librarian, Madam Pince, seemed cautious to give this many books to a first year of all people. The first classes of the year hadn’t even started yet. She must’ve thought he planned to burn them, judging by the look on her face.
He found a small desk in the labyrinth of shelves and began to read.
~*~
Peter opened the door for both James and Sirius while waving towards the two boys “It’s over here you morons!” he sighed, practically dragging him into their new dorm. He looked around at their new room, the empty walls, the bunk beds with intricate detailing carved into the frame, the bright red circular rug in the middle of the room, the bookcase that covered the whole back wall of their dorm.
He was just about settling into the room and starting to unpack his bags when he heard a shout coming from the entrance of the dorm “DIBS THE TOP BUNK!”
“NO! I WANT IT YOU LITTLE PLONKER!”
Peter couldn’t even tell who had said what before he calmly reminded the two boys “There’s two top bunks because there’s two beds” he sighed, realising that he would have to live with these two for another seven years.
“Right, I’ll have the bunk under James’ and the fourth person that gets here can have the last bed.” Peter said to the two boys who had sat themselves down on each of the beds. Sirius wasn’t paying too much attention to what he had said as he was too focused on unpacking his suitcase.
“Alright,” James had already started sticking photos of his cat, munchkin, to the wall as well as posters of every single music artist he had ever vaguely enjoyed.
“James how have you filled the whole wall already what on earth?” Sirius looked at James with a look of pure shock on his face at how much James had packed to decorate the room.
“Oh, I’m not done yet, I’ve brought fairy lights too,” James added as he started stringing them around the room “I don’t think I’ve got enough actually, might have to ask mum to post some more for me.”
“JAMES NO!” Peter shouted, even though he knew James wouldn’t listen. Every time they went on a residential trip at their primary school, James had brought a bag full of decorations, even if they were only staying for one night. He glanced over to Sirius and noticed the boy had stopped packing for a second and looked mildly uncomfortable.
He heard a gentle knock on the door, followed by a louder, much more aggressive bang on the door, “Let me the fuck in or I’ll kick your door down!”
“HI MARLS” James had shouted as Peter opened the door to see Marlene and a much taller ginger girl, covered in freckles and looking incredibly bored.
“Can you shut up? We’ve been at this school for less than a day and you’ve practically deafened the entire school.” the girl said, glaring at Peter like it was his fault his roommates were complete morons.
“Who even are you? You storm into our dorm with no regard for what we could’ve been doing and tell us to shut up?” James says to the girl, who was looking more and more like she was about to jump into the lake.
“Yeah, we could’ve been naked for all you know!” Sirius added and all three boys, as well as Marlene started giggling at the thought.
“I’m Lily, and my dorms, unfortunately, right next to yours and every single person in my room has complained about you three, so shut up before I tell our head of house on you!” the girl – Lily- threatened them.
“I’ve already got a fucking headache from you three, so, as much as I love you guys, shut the fuck up” Marlene told them, slamming the door on Peters face.
“Ok guys, no shouting, let’s be respectful neighbours and talk at a normal volume,” Peter told the two boys “James, I know it’ll be hard for you, but try please. I really don’t want detention on the first day.”
~*~
After an hour, Remus decided he’d done enough for the first day. He needed to be in his dorm in half an hour’s time anyway. Problem was, he had no bloody idea how to get there.
He wandered for a while, not quite sure how long it had been. He crossed the entire grounds before he found the small building draped in red and gold. He fumbled around in his pocket for his key card before opening the outer door and stepping inside.
The common room was large and streaked yet again with red and gold. Three fucking guesses what the house colours are, he mumbled. There was a fireplace on the back wall in front of a large rectangular rug with sofas and armchairs along the edges. In the middle of the rectangle was a coffee table and the walls had pictures of famous people who were once Gryffindors.
He hesitantly climbed the stairs to the side of the room, his hip cracking, snapping, and popping on the way. Fuck’s sake, of course my dorm would be on the top floor, he thought. After reaching the top floor, he saw the sign for dorm 13-A, and hesitantly knocked.
Sirius reluctantly jumped of his bed, landing loudly, and walked to the door.
“Look, if you’re just here to yell at us again, there’s no-” Sirius paused at the scrawny boy stood in the doorway. He was tall, skinny, and scarred. He had dark, messy hair that fell in waves framing his face. It took a minute to remember he was actually standing in front of an actual real person who was probably trying to get in.
“Sorry, I, um, thought you were someone else. Are you our roommate?”
“Think so, yeah. I’m Remus, it’s fancy, I know, I didn’t choose it.”
“Believe me, I know. Sirius is worse.”
Remus’s eyebrows raised. “Sirius? Bloody hell, you’re right, that is worse.” Remus walked in once Sirius had stepped aside.
The boy walked over to the bed that was obviously unoccupied and put down his backpack. He opened it and started unpacking his belongings. Sirius didn’t realise he’d been staring until he started talking.
“And what are your names? Quinton and Bartholomew?” There was a heavy sarcastic edge to his voice.
“I’m James, he’s Peter. But if you say so, I don’t see why we shouldn’t cha-”
“James, I am not changing my name to Bartholomew. I’d rather jump off the clock tower.”
“Boring.” James rolled his eyes, clearly disappointed. “How would you even get up there, anyway?”
“Trust me mate, it’s a curse having an unusual name. I mean, what were my parents thinking? Why would they choose Sirius?”
“It’s fine, Sirius is a nice name. At least no one asks which Sirius when someone talks about you.” Remus wasn’t the same as Sirius’ other roommates. He stood out more. He didn’t know why, but he liked Remus. They’d be fine sharing a dorm for the next seven years, surely. After all, it wasn’t often someone complimented an outlandish name like Sirius. Then again, Remus surely understood what it was like to have an unusual name.
Sirius was going to like this school.
~*~
“Oh yeah, Remus, you missed the girls coming and saying hi, there was this one girl, and her name was Lily and her dorms next to ours and she was so pretty and-”
“JAMES- oh poppycock no shouting- SORRY LILY- James shut up about Lily, you’ve literally barely met her. She said two sentences to you, and they were complaining about us all shouting too much so I’m not sure you know her at all,” Peter sighed “He’s not always like this I promise.”
“Pete, what else are we supposed to do, I might as well tell Remus here about what happened earlier, seeing as he wasn’t there.” James said, tapping his fingers on the side of the bedframe.
“I think I’ll live not knowing every last second of what happened before I got here. To be perfectly honest, I wish you would all shut up but that's looking less and less likely by the second.” Remus added, staring tiredly at the details on James and Peter’s bed. James realised that it was probably not worth forcing too much conversation on the first day, however it was James, and since when had he listened to common sense?
“Should we play Truth or Dare? I think it’d be-”
“NO” Peter and Remus interrupted him before he could finish his sentence, looking at him like he had cursed both of their families and their family’s cows by just offering to play a game.
“Actually,” Sirius added “it could be fun, we could get to know each other a bit more and maybe have something to do except listen to James talk about Lily for another hour.”
“We could play chess?” Peter suggested, and everyone seemed okay with that idea.
“I think I’ll opt out this time, I’ve never been much good at chess anyway,” James said, “I still have more decorations to put up.” He couldn’t help but notice that everyone in the room sighed at that, as he grabbed yet another carrier bag full of posters, bunting, and a whole lot more decorations that James had had in his room at home.
“Did you do all of this then?” Remus asked, gesturing to the wall full of posters and the fairy lights hanging off every piece of furniture as James started hanging a bright red clock over their door.
“Yeah, do you like it?” James asked “Oh crikey sorry, I completely forgot to ask you three what posters you’d want on the walls. I can get some more printed off tomorrow, does anyone know where the library is? And what musicians do you guys listen to? I’ll get looking at posters.
“James, I think you need some sleep first, we can sort the rest of the decorations out another time,” Peter calmly assured him “But if you really need it now then probably like Taylor Swift or Beyoncé”
“Uh, probably Mozart or Beethoven,” Sirius said.
“You listen to Mozart and Beethoven? Are you Serious?” Remus asked Sirius.
“I’m always Sirius,” he replied, smiling. James and peter laughed a little at that.
“But yes, I’m not really allowed to listen to much else. Any recommendations?”
“Bowie. Always Bowie.” Remus answered and James immediately knew he would like this boy. He had always been able to tell when someone was going to be a great friend , it was how he met Peter and Marlene, he had liked their vibe.
“Right ok, I’ve already got Bowie posters up, so that’s sorted.” Remus seemed pleased at that, “Sirius, you seem like a great guy, but there’s no way I’m putting Mozart on the wall, we’ll get you some better music taste. Pete, I sorted posters out for you about a month before we even found out we were going here so that’s all good.” He added “I’m going to sleep now, it’s the first real day tomorrow so I’ll need the energy, I suggest you guys do too but I can’t exactly force you.” James flicked the light switch and rolled into bed.
Throughout the next few hours, they fell asleep one by one.