Before the Moonlight Bonds - Remus’ Pov

2nd September 1971 

The first day of classes were a lot more boring than Remus was expecting, if he was being honest. 

Weren’t wizards supposed to do intricate spells and complicated potions? Instead, all Remus did all day was sit quietly in class, take notes, and try not to fall asleep. Not to mention, reading and taking notes took more energy from him than anyone else. He had to concentrate super hard to make the letters stay in their place when reading. 

Remus had woken up quite early on the first day. The first few rays of the sun shining through the small spaces left open in his curtains were the ones at fault for his rousing. He tried going back to sleep, but it didn’t work. He was up for the day now. 

Remus resorted to just dealing with it. He got up, stretched, and straight away headed for the bathroom. A floorboard creaked loudly right as Remus was passing James’ bed, and the other stuck his head out of his curtains.

“Mornin’ Lupin. Why are you awake so early?” James grinned. 

Remus sighed. “Could ask you the same thing.” 

James nodded. “Fair.” He grinned again, “I couldn’t sleep. Too excited. We get to have our first flying lesson today!” 

Remus smiled dryly. Quidditch. Again. If not for his new found hate for the sport, he would’ve stayed and had a lovely chat. 

“Cool.” Remus spoke, and speed-walked the rest of the way to the bathroom, removing himself from the awkward conversation. 

Remus could hear James waking the others up as he was brushing his teeth. James and Sirius seemed to rake straight back into their conversation about Quidditch that apparently never ended.

How could two eleven year olds be so passionate about something that involves sport and moving around? 

There was a knock on the door right as Remus was finishing up. He creaked it open, and was met with Peter’s absolutely gorgeous face, who wasn’t at all happy about James and Sirius’ antics.

“They’re going on about Quidditch again.” Peter whined, trading places in the bathroom with Remus. He had dark circles under his eyes, and did not look in the mood.

Remus nodded and held back an impolite laugh at the sight of the overtired Peter.

Walking to the sink, Peter continued to complain. “I like Quidditch, Lupin, but they just don’t shut up about it.” He picked up his toothbrush and dolloped a generous amount of toothpaste on it. 

Remus just stood there, not knowing if he should leave or not.

“‘Ey ‘oke up a’ free in the mornin’ and ‘Ames ‘ent on abouf flying ‘essons for a ‘ull hour!” Peter’s speech was muffled as he was brushing his teeth. The mirror above the sink had specks of toothpaste plastered all over it as Peter’s aggressive speech sprayed toothpaste out of his mouth.

Remus nodded awkwardly. “Yeah. Er, I’m gonna go get dressed now.” 

Peter nodded, held up a hand as a wave and went back to brushing his teeth. Remus left the bathroom and into the dorm where James and Sirius were getting changed. Thankfully, they had put their conversation on hold for now. 

James turned when he noticed Remus. James was peeking through the top of the sweater he was pulling on as he asked, “Is Pete done in there?” 

Remus nodded, picking up his shirt. “Almost. He’s only brushing his teeth, I think.” 

“Grand.” James said, pulling his jumper all the way over his head and making his way over to the bathroom.

Remus continued picking out his trousers and socks, just as Sirius started buttoning up his own white shirt. 

He looked over to where Remus began taking his pyjama top off over his head.

“Don’t worry, I’ll look away. Don’t have to ask a second time.” Sirius grinned. He turned away from Remus, and continued with his buttons. 

Remus nodded, even though Sirius couldn’t see, and continued getting changed. It was a less awkward silence than on the train — but awkward nonetheless. A few minutes went by where the only sounds being heard was skin pulling against fabric, until shouts were heard coming from the bathroom. 

“Get out, Pete, I’m trying to take a piss! We’re not that close!” James called out, before shoving Peter out of the bathroom and slamming shut the door. 

Sirius looked back over his shoulder and burst out laughing at the sight of the confused Peter. 

“Alright there, Pettigrew?” He laughed. 

“Oh shut up.” Peter grunted, and went over to his own bed to get dressed. 

Remus had successfully gotten changed without any of the boys spotting his horrendous scars, and was back to reading his book. Or, trying to, at least.

It was much harder without his mum there to help. 

Eventually his eyes started to hurt and he put the book down. James had left the bathroom and Sirius was entering to brush his teeth. 

James turned to him, “Will we go down for breakfast once Black is finished in there?” 

Remus nodded and got off the bed to wait by the door. He was stopped in his tracks by a bang and a frustrated shout coming from the bathroom. 

He looked to James, who gave him a look back and got up to check on Sirius. 

“Sirius, you alright in there, mate?” James asked, knocking on the bathroom door. 

“Yeah, I’m fine!” Sirius called back. “Just threw my hairbrush.” 

James turned around to share a confused look with Remus, who shrugged back, equally as confused. 

Why the fuck was he firing a hairbrush around the bathroom? 

A few moments later, Sirius opened the bathroom door and walked out. He had a slightly annoyed expression on his face and was patting his hair down. 

“You good there, mate?” James asked with half concern, half amusement. 

“Bloody hair.” Sirius grumbled, walking past James and standing next to Remus at the door. 

James tried to hide a smirk. “Will we go then?” 

Peter had just finished tying up his shoe and hopped off the bed. “Yeah.”

Four boys descended the steps from their dorm and into the common room together.

— 

Half an hour later, Remus and his dorm mates finally made it to the Great Hall for breakfast. They would’ve been there earlier if it weren’t for Sirius insisting he knew the way and there was no need to ask an older student for help. They ended up lost on the seventh floor. 

Remus, absolutely starving, made a beeline straight to the Gryffindor table and sat down across from Lily, Mary and Marlene. He paid them no mind though, and instead, he filled his plate with eggs, rashers, black pudding, toast and grilled tomatoes. 

James and Sirius sat down either side of him and Peter sat beside James. 

“Merlin, you’re hungry, Lupin.” Sirius commented. Remus just grunted in response. It was four and a bit days until the full moon and his appetite was huge. 

“You starved at home or something, Lupin?” James asked, laughing. 

Sirius gave an unusually nervous chuckle, and Remus had to stop gobbling down on his toast to give him a look. No one else noticed Sirius’ weird behaviour, however. James and Peter were chuckling at Remus and filling up their own plates, while Mary and Marlene talked, and Lily gave Remus an odd look but shook her head in amusement. 

Remus eventually slowed down eating and was now chewing his eggs calmly. Sirius was talking to a giggly Mary, completely oblivious to her blushing cheeks and her eyelashes batting an abnormal amount. Marlene was debating with Peter over something stupid and James and Lily were eating in silence. 

Sirius then broke off his conversation with Mary and leaned across Remus to nudge James, who turned around to look at him. 

“Offer Evans some pumpkin juice or something. Start a conversation with her.” 

James bit the inside of his cheek and nodded. “Er, Evans, would you like some pumpkin juice?” 

Sirius repressed a snort as Lily looked up. Even Remus had to admit it was painfully awkward.

James picked up the pitcher of juice and tried to pass it over to Lily. He misjudged the weight of the pitcher though, and ended up losing his grip and dropping it right into her breakfast. The juice went everywhere, splashing mainly on Lily and Marlene.

The two girls looked at James in shock and Mary let out a shout of surprise. Sirius was too shell shocked to even laugh. 

“Oh, shit. Sorry! Sorry!” James exclaimed, picking up the pitcher out of Lily’s sopping wet breakfast and placing it upright. Lily just sat there, pumpkin juice dripping from her hair and uniform. 

Sirius pulled James away from the table and led him out of the Great Hall with Remus and a laughing Peter following. James and Sirius started running far from the Great Hall, and Remus and Peter followed them, jogging slightly.

The four walked in silence up a few flights of stairs to find their first class, transfiguration with Professor McGonagall until James turned to Sirius, mortified. 

“Oh Merlin.” James slowed down, groaning and covering his red face with his hands. “What did I do?” 

“It’s not that bad, mate.” Sirius reassured, his hand on James' shoulder. 

That’s an obvious lie, Remus thought.

“It is! She probably hates me now.” James groaned again. 

“No she doesn’t, and even if she did, she’s just a girl, mate.” 

That didn’t seem to help at all and James just grunted in response. 

“Can we please move on from this?” Remus spoke up, to his own surprise. He hadn’t even wanted to engage in this conversation. 

James looked up and nodded solemnly. “Fine, but if she hates me after this, I’m blaming Black.” 

“Oh, give over.” 

“You’re the one that told me to do it!” 

“I told you to make conversation, not drench the girl.” 

“Well I tried, didn’t I?”

“Not well enough, apparently.” 

“Oi! You said-“

“Shut it, both of you!” Remus shouted over them. “Do we even know where we’re going?” 

The three other boys stopped walking, just now realising they were aimlessly wondering down a random hall and had no idea where they were going. 

Peter looked around. “Where are we?” 

They all quickly came to the realisation they were lost. Sirius had yet again gotten them lost. And it was only their first class. 

“Oh for fuck’s sake, again ?!” Remus exclaimed loudly. The three boys looked at him, shocked. Remus flushed slightly when he realised this looked very out of character for him to the others. 

He didn’t even have a good enough reason for him to be acting out like this, except for the fact that the full moon is close and his bones ache, but he can hardly tell the boys that the excuse for his temper is the fact that he turns into a murdering, blood-hunting wolf every month.

“I think I heard McGonagall telling that Forbes girl that the classroom was on the ground floor.” Sirius told them. 

“Right. Then why are we on the fifth floor, genius?” Remus replied, utterly done with them all at this point. 

James was starting to look more and more concerned at Remus’ sudden personality change. 

“We are ?” Sirius asked, turning his head to look around at the surroundings.

Remus was five seconds away from sitting on the floor and having a mental breakdown. He himself didn’t know where this mood had come from but he assumed it was more than likely because of the full moon coming up.

“Oh my fucking God.” He hissed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Sirius was starting to get on his nerves. Again. 

“Calm down, Lupin.” Sirius rolled his eyes. “We’ll just go to the ground floor.” 

“Yeah, and make sure you go downstairs and not upstairs since you apparently have no sense of direction whatsoever.” 

Sirius sighed and led the group to find the nearest staircase. 

—

They did eventually reach the Transfiguration classroom, with Remus and Sirius leading the way, the two fighting over which way to go the entire time. 

Standing outside the classroom door, Sirius and Remus were still bickering. James and Peter gave each other a look and James pushed past them to open the door where Professor McGonagall was teaching her class. 

“…You will eventually be able to perform more compl- boys, why are we late?” 

Sirius and Remus quieted down once they realised the whole class was looking at the four of them. Remus was still annoyed at Sirius but decided to let it go for now. 

“We got lost, Professor.” James answered. 

“Very well, I’ll let you off since it’s your first day. I do not tolerate this lateness usually, though, so I expect you on time from now on.” 

They all nodded and sat down in the free seats. 

The transfiguration lesson was shared between the Gryffindors and the Slytherins, and Remus spotted Snape sitting two rows away from the front, trying to catch Lily’s eye. Remus also noticed that Lily had her wet hair pulled into a bun and the collar of her white shirt was stained orange. She had a clean jumper on, though, so at least there was that.

James tried to offer her a weak smile of apology but she turned her head away from him, and pointed her nose upwards in disgust.

So she was annoyed. 

James turned to glare at Sirius who had, rather unfortunately, taken a seat beside Remus, and didn’t manage to catch James’ eye. Remus hoped to the gods above that they wouldn’t use him as a middle man to pass on messages. He just wanted to put his head on the desk and try to sleep.

McGonagall continued talking, and Remus turned his attention to her. She was explaining something that was in their textbooks, and was telling them what to take down as notes, and what to read. Remus was exhausted, so he couldn’t be bothered to actually pay attention. Especially since writing down notes will take a great deal of energy that he doesn’t have.

As much as he wanted to just drop his head and sleep, he didn’t want to look disrespectful to the teacher, and the only way for him to stay awake was to either take notes, or talk to Sirius. He turned to look at Sirius, and immediately took out some parchment and a quill.

—

There were two more classes before lunch, and both of them were as boring as the other. One was Herbology, in which Peter showed his try-hard side, and the other was History of Magic, where Remus had to keep on kicking Sirius so he wouldn’t fall asleep. 

The four boys actually managed to get to the Great Hall for lunch without getting lost, finally , and they sat down in the same spots as breakfast. Except this time, Lily sat diagonally across from James, obviously trying to get as far away from him as possible.

“Evans is mad at me.” James groaned. “I told you, Black.” 

Sirius laughed, “It’s not a big deal! Would you calm down already? It’s not like you’re going to get married.”

“You don’t know that! Maybe we will.” James protested.

“Right. Because she’ll magically stop hating you.” Sirius threw him a look of disbelief.

“Perhaps she will.” James turned his nose up at Sirius and continued scooping chicken broth into his bowl.

“She won’t.” Sirius leaned over to whisper to Remus, so that James wouldn’t hear.

Remus didn’t understand why he wouldn’t just leave him alone. How hard is it to keep your mouth shut? 

“Be supportive.” Remus whispered back. 

He was fully on James’ side. First, Sirius told James to make a move, then he laughed when it all went downhill, and now he wasn’t even trying to make him feel better. 

“I will be when he finds a girl who actually likes him.” Sirius grinned.

“You’re the girl that actually likes him.” Remus mumbled quietly. 

“Huh?” Sirius asked. Thank God he didn’t hear.

Remus shook his head, dismissing Sirius, and turned away, biting into his chicken drumstick. 

The rest of lunch was pretty uneventful, except for when Peter went to reach over for a spoonful of sweetcorn, and a ghost appeared from inside the bowl. Peter jumped and ended up spilling the sweetcorn all over the floor, causing surrounding Gryffindors to laugh.

The ghost then introduced himself as Sir Nicholas — making it clear how much he resented his nickname “Nearly Headless Nick” (Sirius won't stop calling him that now) — and quickly flew away, fleeing the sweetcorn filled crime scene.

Peter was pretty much ready to run far away from the sweetcorn so no one out of the staff would know it was him, even though Remus was sure they wouldn’t really care, so the four boys got up and set out to find where the Quidditch pitch was. The flying lessons were their next class, much to Sirius’, James’, and even Peter’s excitement, and even more to Remus’ dismay.

—

“I told you this door was the right way out of the castle.” Sirius bragged happily, as the four of the boys finally walked out into the fresh air.

“Shut up.” Remus sighed. He couldn’t take any more of Sirius’ antics. 

“We still have to find the pitches.” Peter reminded them. 

“I bet you that Potter can smell them out.” Sirius laughed.

“Oh yeah, the great smell of broomsticks, grass, and leather.” James grinned back.

Remus shook his head, completely done with James and Sirius’ jokes. The two of them continued laughing until Remus abruptly stopped walking and held out a hand.

“Not this way.” He breathed, deadpanning forwardly at a huge, leafless tree in front of them. 

A bird was flying past it just as the tree’s branches lashed out at it. In just a quick second, there was nothing left of the poor bird but feathers. 

“Oh.” James breathed. 

“What the fuck was that?!” Sirius exclaimed loudly, flopping his arms up and down.

“I don’t know. Let’s get out of here.” Remus ushered the group away from the tree, and back inside the castle. “Let’s try the other door.” 

‘The other door’ was the door that led to the courtyard and was another way to get to the Quidditch pitches. The boys had passed it on their way to the main door, but Sirius had insisted that it was the wrong one, and his way would definitely lead them to the right place. 

“Yeah, c’mon.” Peter nodded, a bit out of breath. He had gasped loudly when the bird met its end, and was now trying to regain his composure. 

“Who would put something like that in a bloody school ?” Sirius asked exasperatedly after a few moments of the four boys walking in silence.

James shrugged and shook his head, looking down as he did so. Remus stayed quiet. 

The silence returned, and the four kids continued on their way back to the other door. They left lunch early, so they had loads of time to make it to class. They walked slowly, digesting what had happened and why a tree would move. Remus was trying to figure out why they planted a moving, murdering tree.

Remus had remembered being told something about a tree last night, when he was at the matron’s office. That was definitely the tree they were talking about. There were only a few other trees around Hogwarts, but they were all small with tiny twigs, close to zero branches, and none stood out. Pomfrey had referred to it as “ the tree”, so it was obvious there was only one like that. Remus was dreading the full moon even more than before, if that was even possible.

“Right. Is this the door, Lupin?” Sirius spoke, pulling Remus out of his thoughts.

The four were standing in front of big double doors, just outside of the Great Hall. They had wooden arches over them, and metal bolts in the sides.

“Yeah.” Remus nodded, and pushed open the door. 

The September sun poured over the boys once again, blinding them for a moment. Once their eyes adjusted to the sudden change of light, James grinned broadly.

“There!” He pointed into the distance, where a huge, oval pitch was seen. 

There were towers off the side of it; one red, one green, one blue, one yellow and one black. Red and yellow on one side, while green, black and blue were the other. It was obvious the red, green, blue and yellow towers were for the students. Remus assumed the black one was for the faculty. There were flags on top of the towers, and there were three huge rings on poles either side of the pitch. 

“Oh it’s beautiful.” James melted onto Sirius’ shoulder.

“It’s a metal circle. What am I missing here?” Remus sighed, staring at the huge rings.

“The spirit.” Sirius grinned. “You need to get into the spirit of Quidditch.”

“Yeah, I’d rather pay another visit to that killer-tree.” Remus rolled his eyes.

“You’re so boring, Lupin. All you do is read.” Sirius shook his head, still smiling. 

The boys set on their way again to cross the field over to the pitch.

“Oh, well I’m sorry I don’t prioritise waking up at three in the morning to discuss a deathly sport that doesn’t even make any sense.” Remus replied. 

“I’d have sworn you were asleep when we were talking about that.” Sirius said, peering at him curiously.

“Pettigrew told me about it.” Remus nodded his head towards the quiet Peter, who was pretty happy to walk in silence up until just now.

“A traitor!” Sirius gasped dramatically. “I’ve got a rat for a friend!” 

The tone made it obvious he was joking, but poor, oblivious Peter took it to heart.

“Oi, I’m not a rat!” He protested angrily, crossing his arms. 

“Of course you’re not, Pete.” James patted his shoulder. “Black and Lupin have been having goes at each other all day and decided to bring you into it.” James reassured his friend. He had seemingly recovered from the exasperation of love at first sight with the Quidditch pitch.

James threw an arm around Peter and picked up the pace, obviously trying to get to the pitches faster. He was almost sprinting to the pitches, the maniac. That left Remus and Sirius to walk behind together, much to Remus’ annoyance. 

“Did you know,” Sirius smiled. “That the first ever recorded broom use by witches and wizards was in 962 AD in a German manuscript?”

“Would you just shut up about Quidditch?!” Remus half shouted. He immediately regretted lashing out, but what was done was done. And anyway, he’s not trying to make friends. 

“Oh. Sorry.” Sirius looked down and turned to pick at the hem of his sleeve. 

Remus sighed. Maybe making friends wasn’t too bad. “I apologise. Continue.”

Sirius looked up and grinned. “Really?”

“Go on, before I change my mind and snap again.” Remus shook his head, smiling slightly.

Sirius grinned broadly. “Well Remus, did you also know that until the nineteenth century, broomsticks were extremely uncomfortable and wizards came up with a spell especially for brooms, called the Cushioning Charm in 1820. And then, Elliot Smethwyck greatly enhanced…”

Remus tuned Sirius out and imagined he was in the dorm quietly reading his book.

They eventually reached the Quidditch pitches, where James and Peter were waiting for them. Marlene and Lily were there too, as well as a group of first year Hufflepuffs. 

“There you are!” James exclaimed once they reached him and Peter. “I thought you guys got lost or something.” 

“Wouldn’t have blamed you with how bad Black’s direction skills are.” Remus grunted. 

“It’s not my bloody fault you need a map to get around this place!” 

“Shut up, Black.” 

James just stood there while the two boys bickered. Peter had drifted over to Marlene and Lily and was talking to them, glancing at James, Remus and Sirius once or twice.  

“How’d you think you’re going to do?” James asked them eventually. It took Remus a second to cop that he was on about the lesson. 

“Er, bad.” Remus replied. If he had it his way he wouldn’t even be here right now. Honestly, this was taking away time that would be better spent in the library that he had yet to visit. 

“I don’t know, honestly.” Sirius said. His hands were in his pockets and he was scuffing the pitch’s grass with his foot. “I s’pose I’ll do well enough, I guess.” 

James nodded, excited. “I can’t wait! I’ve flown my broom at home with my dad but I never actually had a proper lesson.” 

“You have your own broom?” Sirius looked up from the ground, jaw dropped in awe. “My mum says I don’t deserve one.” 

“Yeah,” James grinned, seemingly choosing to ignore the last comment. “My parents got it for me last year for my birthday.” 

“Lucky!” 

They were interrupted by Peter walking over to them, smiling. 

“Guess what, James?” Peter said once he reached them. 

“What?” James asked curiously. Remus saw the slight alarm on his face as Peter had just come back from talking to Lily. 

“I was talking to Marlene, right, and she brought up the disaster at breakfast,” Peter rambled, not noticing James wincing at the mention of earlier.

“And Lily said that she thought you did it on purpose as a joke! So, I told her, no, you didn’t, and that Sirius told you to offer her the juice so you had a reason to make conversation with her! And that you lost your grip and didn’t mean to pour it all over her.” 

James paled and Sirius snorted. 

“You told her that I needed a reason to talk to her?” James asked, rather weakly.

Remus couldn’t help laughing. He covered his mouth straight away. 

God, he was acting like Sirius. 

“Did I do something wrong?” Peter asked, confused as to why James didn’t look happy. Remus felt sympathetic for him, but it was kind of funny. 

“Not at all, Peter.” Sirius smirked, throwing his arm over Peter’s shoulder and walking off to talk to James, Lily, Marlene and Mary — who had just arrived. 

James looked like he was about to cry so Remus decided to step in as Sirius clearly wouldn’t. 

He turned to James, and tried his best at comforting. “It’s not as bad as it seems, mate.” 

“Yes it is.” James huffed. 

“At least she’s not mad.” Remus said, though it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself it wasn't that bad as well. Yeah, comforting people definitely wasn't one of Remus’ strong suits. 

“Yes, but she knows I wanted to talk to her.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Remus asked. 

“It looks like I was desperate to talk to her!” James exclaimed, flopping his arms up.

“But…you were desperate to talk to her?” Remus didn’t understand. 

James opened his mouth to stare in shock at Remus, and Remus was about to protest his freedom of speech, but was interrupted by a sharp whistle.

All of the students turned to look for the source and were met with a woman with short, brown hair and bright yellow eyes, wearing plain quidditch robes. She held a broomstick in her left hand and a red ball under her right arm. 

“Good afternoon. My name is Madam Hooch. I’ll be your flying teacher for the rest of the year.” She informed them all loudly. 

Remus almost cried at the thought of doing flying lessons for the whole year. 

“We’re not going to be playing on this pitch today.” She announced. James groaned beside Remus. “Instead, we’re going to go to the practice fields.” 

Madam Hooch turned around and walked away, the first years following after her. Sirius and Peter joined Remus and James on their walk, Sirius smirking at James, who still looked upset. She led them all to an area closer to the castle and turned around, facing them again. 

Behind her, Remus could see two rows of brooms lined up. To him, they didn’t look much different from the brooms his mum used at home. He’d only seen a broom once or twice before, since his father preferred to raise him the muggle way, much to his mother’s delight. 

“Right, before we begin, I’m going to go over some safety rules.” She told the group. “These are put in place for yours and others’ safety. If I catch you breaking any of these rules, I will make sure you do not touch a broom for the rest of the year, am I clear?” 

There were nods of heads and a few murmurs of ‘yes’. 

“First off, you do not touch your brooms without my permission or if I’m not present. Secondly…”  

“I’m so excited.” James whispered to the group. 

“Me too.” Sirius grinned. “I’ve only been on a broom once before.” 

Remus zoned out from listening to everyone and turned to look over his shoulder, where he could see the silhouette of the massive, homicidal tree in the distance. 

Sirius saw Remus staring at the tree behind them and turned to see what he was looking at. When he realised it was the tree he rolled his eyes at Remus. 

“Honestly, what are they playing at, putting a tree like that in a school?” Sirius huffed. 

Remus sighed, “You said that already.” 

“I know, I just don’t understand the reason. Why do they have a tree that has a high chance of attacking kids?” 

Remus didn’t reply and turned his attention back to Madam Hooch, who was now explaining how to mount their brooms. 

— 

The group walked back to the castle after an hour of flying, Peter covered in mud from head to toe. He crashed his broom and toppled over, falling right into a huge mud puddle. Sirius, of course, found that hilarious, and couldn’t stop laughing for a full ten minutes.

James had had a ton of fun flying, and Remus was now sure James is Madam Hooch’s favourite. Sirius was really good up in the air too, racing after James and making sharp turns. Remus wouldn’t be surprised if Sirius and James were number one in the Quidditch team next year.

Remus had an absolute blast up on the broom, and definitely didn’t feel like he was about to throw up three times in the span of five minutes. But, in his defence, heights weren’t really his thing, and anyway, at least he tried the broom. Some of the Hufflepuffs absolutely refused to get on, so at least there’s that. 

But nonetheless, Remus blessed the heavens above that the class was over, and he wouldn’t need to get on a broom for a few days. He seriously considered going to McGonagall and begging her to let him take flying class off.

The four boys were crossing the field back to the castle now, Remus straying as far away as the mud-dripping Peter as possible. 

“What do we have now?” James asked no one in particular.

Peter huffed again, still annoyed he had no time to change before the next class. 

“Potions, I think,” Remus replied. He took out one of the timetables McGonagall gave them all this morning from his pocket, and was scanning it over with his eyes. “Then Defence Against the Dark Arts, then Charms, and then classes are over.” 

James nodded and they all headed to the dungeons. 

—

Ten minutes later, Remus was fuming. Sirius had gotten them all lost, again . 

“How do you get us lost so many times?” Remus snapped at Sirius, who was now leading them around another corner — that looked like the last one, and the one before that, and the one before that. 

“It’s our first day! Give me a break, Lupin.” 

“Yeah, I’m aware it’s our first day. I don’t think you are, though. Why do you keep insisting you know the way?”

“I do not !”

“Yes, Black. You do. We’ve been late for every class.” 

“Not every class. We made it in time for History of Magic, and flying just an hour ago. Is your memory failing you, Lupin?”

“Is yours? We passed this painting three times already.” 

“Oh.”

“Would you two be quiet? Me and James have had to listen to you two fight all bloody day!” Peter spoke up. 

Remus and Sirius went silent but still gave each other dirty looks every chance they got. Remus couldn’t believe he was stuck with this idiot for the next seven years of his life.

The group of kids eventually made it to Potions down in the dungeons, where pretty much every other student was already there. 

Professor Slughorn turned around to look at the four late boys.

“Got lost?” He asked, too chirpy for Remus’ liking. 

Peter nodded, James replied “Yes”, and Remus and Sirius gave each other looks again.

“That’s alright, my dear boys. It’s your first day!” Slughorn smiled. He then turned around to the rest of the class and started warning them about looking after the textbooks.

The boys went to sit at the free desks, splitting up in pairs again. Peter dragged James by the arm to sit with him at the back, obviously not wanting to be in the middle of Remus and Sirius’ fighting again.

Remus and Sirius sat down at their new-found desk, which was two rows up from Peter and James’ — and took out their parchment and quills. There was a textbook on the desk already, and Slughorn told the class to open it on page five. 

They had to share a textbook.

That will go over well, Remus thought.

He sighed and turned the first few pages of the book until he got to the right one.

“See?” Sirius whispered to Remus. “Slughorn realises it’s our first day. At least someone does.”

“Shut up.” Remus hissed. He didn’t know how much more of this he could take.

“No. I won’t. Blah blah blah…” 

Remus was this close to hitting Sirius over the head with the textbook with all his might. He took a deep breath, and started counting to ten in his head — like his mother helped him to do when he got angry. At least that stopped the urge to kick Sirius’ stomach until he passed out. 

“…Blah blah- Lupin, are you listening to me?” 

Remus inhaled and exhaled slowly. 

“No, excuse me. I wasn’t. You weren’t saying anything.” 

Being polite was exhausting.

“Okay. Would you like me to continue talking about brooms and Quidditch?” Sirius asked, and without waiting for an answer, he went on talking anyway. “Did you know that a game by the name of Stichstock that originated in Germany exists, and it consists of a single wizard acting as a goalkeeper, trying to protect an inflated dragon bladder?”

“I did not know that.” Remus sighed. He wasn’t listening, if he was honest. He was busy trying to understand what the words on page five of the textbook were saying. 

“Well, it does exist. Other players have to attempt to pierce the dragon’s bladder, and the first who does it is declared the winner. And then-“

“Boys, pay attention!” Professor Slughorn called out.

Remus almost let out a sigh of relief. Sirius finally stopped talking, and Remus had an excuse to not listen to him now without being rude. 

“He’s boring.” Sirius whispered after a few minutes when Slughorn went on another tangent about rat’s tails. Sirius turned his head towards Remus’ to whisper to him, but still kept his eyes on the professor.

“I think that’s a requirement for a professor.” Remus whispered back.

Sirius snorted, but quickly hid it in a fake cough as Slughorn turned to look at him.

“If you lads can’t behave, I’ll have to sit you apart.” He stared at them.

Yes, great idea, Remus thought. Please do that.

“No, it’s alright. Sorry, professor.” Sirius responded. 

Remus rolled his eyes, settling back into his seat and pulling the textbook closer to himself so he could take notes. Sirius noticed, and yanked it towards himself, instead. Remus gave him a look and slid it back to where it was beside him. That continued on for about a minute before Sirius got way too into it and pulled it too hard and it fell all the way off the table. It made a huge “ thump ” noise as it fell, causing everyone to look over at them.    

“Alright boys, sit apart.” Slughorn turned around for the hundredth time. He wasn’t happy. “Mr Black, sit up front.”

Sirius gave Remus a look, and gathered his stuff to sit at the very front desk. 

Finally.

Sirius kept turning around and giving Remus funny looks whenever Slughorn would trail off on another rant that had nothing to do with Potions for the rest of the class. And Remus would reply with a roll of the eyes and a deep sigh. 

He would not be able to live with this arrogant, self-absorbed, idiotic, weird, Quidditch-induced maniac for the rest of his time at Hogwarts. 

Remus tried to ignore Sirius as best he could, just staring at the textbook and trying to take notes. 

After an excruciating hour of crazy looks and not doing any work, Remus and everyone else was dismissed.

Remus was just about to walk out the door with Sirius, James and Peter, when Slughorn called him and Sirius back. 

“Mr Lupin, Mr Black, a word?” 

Remus glared at Sirius before they both turned around, Sirius telling James and Peter to go on ahead and not wait for them. 

They walked over to Slughorn’s desk, and surprisingly, he didn’t look annoyed. 

“Well, boys, as you know, today’s behaviour wasn’t up to the standards I expect in this classroom.” He said, causing Sirius to hang his head in shame — Remus on the other hand, didn’t give a rats arse what this professor thought.

Slughorn continued. “I shall let you two off today as it’s only your first day and there is no point deducting House Points when there isn’t many to begin with.” 

The two boys nodded at him.

“And, I will give you both one more chance to sit beside each other in this class, but I will warn you, any more trouble and you won’t be beside each other for the rest of the year. ”

Sirius’ face lit up while Remus’ dropped. 

“ Really?” Sirius asked, excitedly — much to Remus’ annoyance. 

Slughorn nodded and waved them off to their next class; Defence Against the Dark Arts. 

—

Walking through the hallways, late to yet another class, Sirius and Remus had inevitably started bickering again.

“Why’d you act all happy when Slughorn said we could sit together?” Remus had started it this time, to his own surprise.

Sirius looked up from picking at his sleeves and shrugged, smirking. “Dunno.”

“Was it ‘cause you would have more time to piss me off?” Remus accused. 

Sirius’ eyebrows creased and he looked confused. “No, why?” 

“Because that’s all you seemed to enjoy doing from the moment we woke up this morning!” 

“Well, I didn’t mean to. I thought you were having fun! I didn’t think you were actually mad.” Sirius huffed.

“What did I do today to make you think I was enjoying listening to you go on and on about Quidditch? Something I don’t give a flying fuck about may I add.”

“Maybe saying I could talk about it?” 

Remus gave him a look. 

“Alright, sorry. You could’ve just said so.” 

“You’d bite my head off. All you care about is the stupid Quidditch. I couldn’t care less about it. Idiot.”

Sirius gave him a hurt look and didn’t answer, making Remus feel immediately guilty, which made him feel annoyed he felt guilty. 

After a few moments of walking, Remus broke the awkward silence. “I’m sorry.” 

Sirius looked up and smiled. “It’s okay.”

“I, er, don’t fully mind you talking about Quidditch, by the way.” Remus lied. 

Why did he say that? Now he’d have to listen to yet another rant. 

“Really?” Sirius asked, looking excited now.  

“Yeah, sure. I mean, I absolutely hate it, but if you want to talk about it, it doesn’t really annoy me.” 

Yet another lie. 

Sirius smiled. “Really?”

“Yeah. I’m just tired, sorry for snapping.” 

Sirius grinned, and waved him off. “That’s alright.” 

He then went on to talk about the rules of Quidditch until they ended up outside the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. 

“And then, the chaser- ” Sirius was cut off by Remus knocking on the door, and leading the two of them into the classroom, where they took their seats beside James and Peter.

— 

After that, they had Charms — which was on the same floor as the Dark Arts classroom, so it wasn’t much of a walk. Thankfully , because Remus wasn’t in the mood to shout at Sirius again. Even though they seemed to work it out. 

The whole way, though, James harassed Sirius about what Slughorn said to them. He was certain that Sirius was lying about not getting in trouble and was just too ashamed to tell him. 

Remus and Sirius shared a look, smirking and then went back to talking to James and Peter.

Charms class was actually quite nice. Remus really enjoyed it, and plus, it was the only class all day where he actually got to use his wand. 

They practised the levitating charm, Wingardium Leviosa. Remus and James got it the first try — Remus being shocked he actually did it. Sirius got it after two or three, but Peter didn’t manage it at all. James had to reassure poor Peter that he really is a wizard and that he really shouldn’t worry if the only thing he was good at in Hogwarts is repotting plants. 

Their classes were over after Charms and Remus finally had a chance to visit the library. After dreaming of it the whole day, he was now getting to go. 

“So, we have an entire hour before dinner to do literally anything , and you’re willingly choosing to go to the library?” Sirius judgingly looked at Remus. They were all in the common room, Lily doing homework while the rest lazed around. 

“Well aren’t you just a ball of sunshine?” Remus smiled dryly. They had gone back to bickering - this time, lightheartedly. 

Sirius stuck out his tongue, and looked around at James and Peter for confirmation. 

“I mean, he’s been wanting to go since the morning.” James shrugged. 

“Thank you, Potter.” Remus nodded at James, giving a look back to Sirius that said ‘be more like him’. 

At least someone respects books, he thought.

“Okay, traitor.” Sirius scoffed.

“Can I go with you, Lupin? I want to see if there’s any books on how to be a better wizard.” Peter asked. 

“‘Course you can, Peter.” Remus smiled kindly at Peter. He then turned to Sirius, “Take notes, Black. Some people enjoy books.” 

Sirius made a mocking face and dragged James off to creepily stare out the window at the Quidditch pitch. 

“Well. Let’s go?” Peter turned to Remus after silently watching his best friend run off with a boy he met no less than two days ago and leave him behind. 

Remus nodded and the two set off to find the library. Thankfully, without arrogant Sirius with them, they made it to the library in no time. They met Leo in a corridor and Remus asked which way it was. Although, if he was being honest, if they didn’t find Leo, Remus wouldn’t have asked anyone. But Peter didn’t need to know about that.

The huge wooden double doors to the library opened and Remus wasn’t above admitting that he squealed a bit from happiness. Peter didn’t notice, thankfully, as he straight away ran to the librarian, Madam Pince, and Remus didn’t see him until they met back at the door to go to dinner. 

Remus had a blast in the library. Even though reading wasn’t all that easy, he borrowed many books to read later. Spell books, story books, and quite frankly anything that he could get his hands on. 

An hour later, Remus and Peter met up with Sirius and James at the Great Hall for dinner. The two boys were already sitting there, Sirius acting as a protective wall between James and Lily. Remus and Peter sat down, and Remus immediately started towering his plate with food. 

“How was the library? ” Sirius said mockingly, smiling.

“It was great. How was staring at the Quidditch pitch?” Remus mocked back, smiling slightly. Peter and James seemed to realise they were now joking instead of actually fighting, and looked from one to the other, confused but not annoyed. 

“Oh, just amazing. We saw the Hufflepuff Quidditch team practice, and we both agreed we can do much better.” Sirius grinned, nudging James. 

James grinned back. “Yeah. The poor Hufflepuffs don’t know what’s coming with Gryffindor’s soon-to-be two newest members.” James said.

Marlene gave him a look and James corrected himself. “ Three newest members, apologies.” 

Marlene nodded, satisfied and went back to talking to Mary and Lily.

Remus didn’t respond, stuffing his face with spoonfuls of stew. 

“Well, I read that I could be a squib.” Peter pouted. “I’m pretty sure I am.” 

James sighed, and patted his friend’s back. “No you’re not, Pete. You’re a great wizard. It’s just your first day, that’s all. You have plenty of time.” 

Remus almost rolled his eyes at Peter’s whining. 

“You were at the library?” Lily spoke up. She was sitting right across from Remus, her bright emerald eyes boring into his.

“Yeah.” He nodded. Why was she talking to him? 

“Oh great! I wanted to go, but I couldn’t find it.” She explained. 

Remus nodded. What was he supposed to reply with? Did she expect him to invite her with him? He didn’t want to be rude, since Lily seemed nice, but his social skills only went so far. 

“You can come with us next time, Lily! We’ll show you!” Peter lit up. 

Lily looked sceptically at James. He noticed.

“Oh, I’m not going.” He told her, shaking his head, slightly dejected.

“Right. Then thank you, Peter. If it’s alright, I’ll come along.” She smiled back at Peter. 

Remus breathed out his nose, but continued eating silently. He wasn’t particularly annoyed , he just didn’t want to have to entertain anybody. 

“Wait, but Lily, I don’t want to go to the library.” Marlene whined. 

“Then don’t?” Lily replied, biting into a piece of grilled tomato. 

“Well what else am I supposed to do?” Marlene sighed. She pointed at Mary beside her, who until just now was content with just eating and listening silently to the conversation. “Mary doesn’t want to go either.”

“I don’t mind.” Mary shook her head. 

Marlene nudged her with her elbow.

“Yes you do. You mind very much.” She hissed.

Mary shrugged.

“You two can come along with me and James then. We’re probably just going to be watching the Quidditch pitches.” Sirius offered. 

“Oh, we’d love that!” Mary suddenly spoke. She smiled at Sirius.

“You don’t even like Quidditch.” Marlene huffed. It looked like she knew something the boys didn’t. Remus couldn’t care less. 

“Yes I do. I love Quidditch.” Mary batted her eyelashes at Sirius. 

“No you don’t! You only agreed because you li-“ 

Marlene’s speech was interrupted by Lily stepping hard on her foot under the table. Marlene slapped a hand over her mouth and looked apologetically over at Mary, who until then didn’t even notice anything happening because she was too absorbed in Sirius.

Remus saw all this unravel, and something clicked in his head as he realised. 

Oh. Mary likes Sirius. 

He almost gagged at the thought of someone liking Sirius. He didn’t completely despise Sirius, but he was still shocked anyone would even consider dating him. And it was only the first day, what is Mary on?  

“Uh… so are you coming along?” James looked between Mary and Marlene. It didn’t look like neither James or Sirius realised that Mary fancied one of them, and Remus wondered if they actually were blind.

“Yeah, sure. Cheers, James.” Marlene smiled. 

“Will we organise to go after classes tomorrow?” Peter suggested. There were murmurs of agreement throughout the group.

The girls continued their conversation, Remus catching some words of “hair” and immediately tuned them out. The boys sat in silence, three of them finished their dinner and one almost choking on the amount of food he was stuffing in his face.

After a few minutes, Remus slowed down, and finished his last chicken leg. 

“You done, Lupin?” Sirius checked in. Remus nodded, swallowing. “Will we go then?” He looked around at James and Peter.

The boys agreed, and all stood up to leave. The girls bid them goodbye, (except Lily, of course) and they set off to the Gryffindor common room.

This time, they only got lost once. So, progress. Remus didn’t even have to get mad at Sirius for leading them around the same corner for ten minutes because they found the common room soon after. 

—

After sitting around the common room, doing homework — or in Sirius and James’ case, ordering dungbombs from Zonko’s — which Remus had heard was in Hogsmeade, James turned to Peter and Remus

“What time is it?” James asked Remus. 

“Er… eight twenty.” Remus said, checking his old battered watch. 

James nodded, yawning, and swiftly made his way to the dorm, mumbling something about ‘getting an early night’ to Sirius. Remus, who was exhausted from the day's events and the impending full moon, decided to follow suit and bid Sirius and Peter a good night. 

In the span five minutes Remus had brushed his teeth, washed his face, got into his pyjamas and collapsed onto the pillow, asleep.