18th September 1971 - The Map
18th September 1971 - Thursday
On a bright Thursday morning, Remus woke up with a bang. Quite literally.
“Merlin’s Beard, Black!” Remus could hear James’ voice.
From what he could see through the black dots in his vision he got from sitting up too fast, James and Sirius had apparently blown up half the dorm, if the mini fire Sirius was stomping out on the floor was anything to go by.
James was exasperatedly looking through his charms textbook for the incantation to repair Sirius’ part of the room, which Remus now noticed had been effectively destroyed; his curtains torn and frayed, his bed blackened with ash and a post having collapsed — leaving the bed dangerously close to falling apart altogether. Sirius’ wardrobe was even missing a door.
Sirius was left standing there stupidly after the fire was put out, holding his wand looking uselessly at his bed. That gave Remus the only assumption that the bang had come from one of Sirius and James’ ‘experimental spells’.
Sirius awoke from his trance, snapping, “You’re the one that told me to try it out, Potter!” He was now walking over to Remus’ bed and plopping himself right onto Remus’ legs — to which Remus groaned at and kicked the darker haired boy aggressively. Sirius, assuming Remus was still asleep, shushed Remus (as one would do when a baby was beginning to wake up) and patted Remus’ leg looking up at James for an answer.
“You told me it was ready!” James replied, still furiously scanning through his textbook.
“We have been working on it for only three days, obviously it’s not ready yet, you berk.”
Sirius and James had recently become fixated on making their own incantations ever since they learned about it in last week’s charms class. So far, they had not created any actual spells and had only achieved one result this far; blowing Sirius’ bed up.
“Then why did you say- okay, I found it!” James proclaimed, stopping on a page and holding his wand up to Sirius’ bed.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Dramatic, in Remus’ opinion. “Reparo,” James said confidently, waving his wand and pointing it at the broken bed. They hadn’t learned that spell in class yet and Remus had half expected it to not work but of course, knowing perfect James Potter, it did.
“What are you two at?” Remus said, finally deciding to speak up.
Apparently, the other two boys had completely forgotten about his existence, as Sirius violently jumped up from Remus’ bed and James had gotten spooked enough to drop his wand.
Sirius, looking traumatised, held his hand to his heart and started to breathe heavily — as if Remus had just hidden under his bed and suddenly grabbed his ankle in the middle of the night. “Merlin, Remus, what are you doing here?”
“I sleep here, for fuck’s sake!” Remus pinched the bridge of his nose exasperatedly. “Again, what are you two doing?”
“Practising spells.” James boasted.
“Nuh uh, we’re creating our own.” Sirius corrected the other boy, having ‘recollected’ himself from the fright.
“Yeah, I figured.” Remus rubbed his temples. He just woke up and was already starting to get a headache. “Why are you doing it in our shared dorm?”
“Why not?” Sirius grinned, which was followed with a deep, annoyed sigh from Remus.
James turned his attention back to Sirius. “Mate, we need to improve. Desperately.”
“Yeah yeah, I know.” Sirius shook his head. “We need more books.”
“There’s books that teach you how to create spells in the library?” Remus asked, impressed.
“Yeah, Flitwick told us, remember?” James replied and Remus vaguely remembered being told about that — which also came with a stern warning about not attempting to make their own spells.
“In the restricted section.” Sirius smirked, winking at James.
“Howare you getting into the restricted section of the library?” Remus responded, completely done with the two but a bit intrigued if he was being honest.
“Cloak.” James shrugged simply.
Remus gave him a look. “Yeah, that really explains it, cheers.”
Sirius gasped suddenly. “Jamesie, my boy! We never told him!”
“Oh, that’s right!” James gasped back. He then turned to Remus with what he assumed was James’ attempt at a ‘mysterious’ face.
“Prepare for your mind to be blown, mate.” James said, walking over to his bed and reaching under, pulling out what looked like a silver blanket, and waving it in a line over his head dramatically.
“Alright,” Remus said cautiously, as if afraid it would blow up with sudden movement. Which you couldn’t blame him for thinking, considering James. “What is it?”
“It’s an invisibility cloak!” James told him excitedly and Remus’ jaw dropped.
He was educated enough about the Wizarding World to know that invisibility cloaks were extremely rare. The real ones anyway. His father had told him about them before, when he was little, saying his father’s own grandad used to work as an Auror and used an invisibility cloak once for a mission. Remus had asked if he could wear one at all times, but the answer had obviously been a no. Remus had never expected to see an actual invisibility cloak in person before, after his father’s explanation that the Ministry was usually against them, so Remus was understandably ecstatic about having one right before his eyes right now.
“Is it real?” Remus asked James.
“Yeah! ‘S been in my family for centuries.”
“That’s…wow. That’s amazing.” Remus was in awe, mostly against his will. He couldn’t let James and Sirius’ egos get any bigger by them thinking he actually thought they were cool.
“Isn’t it?” James gawked at his own cloak in the same amazement as Remus.
“We’ve been using it for a few days now. We used it for the first time to visit you in the Wing when Pomfrey refused to let us in.” Sirius explained.
“Right. Well, that’s great, Potter.” Remus smiled, before dropping back to his serious face and turning to Sirius. “Don’t use it to go somewhere you’re not supposed to go.”
“Lupin!” Sirius exclaimed back, pulling on a sock. He had started to get changed, while still involved in the conversation. “That’s the whole point of owning an invisibility cloak!”
“You’re going to get in trouble.” Remus sighed.
“Not if they don’t catch us.” Sirius pointed out.
“You’re not even a month into school. Don’t get detention.” Remus responded sternly but exasperatedly.
To him, getting detention is the second worst thing that could happen to him. Everyone finding out he was a werewolf came first, of course. Plus, getting detention will attract attention to him, from teachers and students alike. And that was his worst nightmare.
“You’re no fun, Lupin.” Sirius said, flinging a sock at his head.
“Stop firing shit at me.” Remus grumbled and threw the sock back. “You two are just idiots, Pettigrew would agree with me.” He said looking around for Peter to agree, but was met with complete silence. “Wait, where is he?” Remus said, only now noticing that Peter hasn’t been partaking in their ridiculous conversation.
“Oh, he’s still asleep.” James shook his head, smiling. “Poor lad had been up ‘till all hours last night finishing that Potions essay.”
Remus nodded in response. “Well, still. My point stands.”
“So you don’t want to try out the cloak?” Sirius smirked.
Remus sighed, “Of course I do. Hand it over, Potter.”
“I trust you to be careful with it.” James said, as if it were able to smash, passing over the blanket.
“I’m not Sirius.”
That earned him a shoe aimed straight at his face from Sirius.
“Ow! What the fuck?” Remus didn’t manage to dodge it, the shoe striking him right in his left shoulder. “Again?”
“Don’t make fun of me.” Sirius stuck his tongue out.
“That’ll be hard.” Remus shook his head, pulling the cloak over his shoulder and around, wearing it like a shawl. “Oh wow.” He let out. His entire body up to his neck had disappeared completely. If only he could do this on command.
“Cool, right?” James grinned, to which Remus nodded enthusiastically in response.
Sirius was now fully dressed, bar his cloak and one shoe, the one he threw at Remus. Walking up to James and Remus to grab it, he gave them a judgy look for being excited over an invisibility cloak, (that prick, he’s acting as though he’d seen millions of invisibility cloaks before) and then over to a still sleeping Peter.
“It’s seven. Classes start at nine, and we still have to get breakfast. Who votes I wake him up with our new spell?” Sirius asked them, grinning wickedly while he picked up his wand.
“No fucking way I’m condoning that, Black.” Remus responded firmly. Did the idiot not consider what could happen to poor Peter if he aimed one of his new spells at the boy's head? Or did he forget the condition his bed was left in?
“Well you’re not a professor, you don’t have authority!” Sirius exclaimed. “James, what do you say?”
“I don’t want him to blow up, mate.” James said uncertainly, obviously afraid to hurt Sirius’ feelings but very hesitant to accidentally kill Peter. “But, you can smack him really hard with a pillow?”
James is always avoiding situations where he could possibly hurt someone’s feelings, especially Sirius’. The lad had too many feelings and James was always walking on eggshells not to crush them. Remus, on the other hand, couldn’t care less about Sirius and his stupid feelings.
“That’s boring!” Sirius flopped his arms up and down, stomping his foot.
Such a child, Remus thought.
“Pillow is better than blowing him up.” Remus shrugged.
“Hang on, Lupin approves? Good enough for me.” Sirius said, the beginning of one of his fits forgotten. Instead, he immediately grabbed a pillow from the nearest bed to him, which happened to be James’, and stood towering over the sleeping Peter, pillow above his head — ready to strike.
“Ready.” James grinned broadly, coming to the other side of Peter to watch.
“Three, two, one!”
There was a loud “thump” and Peter immediately started telling Sirius and James off as he woke up. A few feathers were let loose from the pillows and came falling back down onto Peter’s hair — which he disgruntledly brushed off while climbing out of bed.
“What was that for?” Peter half-whined, half-shouted at James and Sirius. He had stopped yelling at the two, but was still grumbling about. James and Sirius were clutching their sides laughing, mainly from the reaction they had gotten.
Peter looked over to Remus, who rolled his eyes at his friends and gave a tight lipped smile back to Peter, while the other two were rolling on the floor, catching breaths in between laughs.
“Knobsyou are,” Peter grumbled nodding towards the two boys dying laughing on the floor, making his way over to the bathroom. “Absolute knobs.”
James and Sirius laughed harder at that but eventually collected themselves enough for Sirius to sit on his newly repaired bed (thanks to James) and for James and Remus to get ready. Remus had decided to stay in the top and bottoms he had slept in so he wouldn’t need to hide away to get changed. He just threw on his cloak and tie, and he was ready.
James and Sirius had started a conversation about muggle football, which they didn’t know anything about, so they started interrogating poor Remus. He himself couldn’t care less about football, so he ignored the two and contemplated going to Dumbledore to ask for new dorm mates.
Peter finished up and got dressed all without even breathing in the direction of James and Sirius, and so the four boys set down into the common room and down for breakfast. Passing the couches by the fireplace in the common room, Remus noticed ginger hair on the side of an armchair.
He stopped. “Evans?”
“Hi, Remus!” She perked up. “What're you doing?”
“We’re going to breakfast.” Remus nodded up at the other three boys, who had already disappeared behind the portrait hole, apparently in a hurry.
“Oh, already?” Lily spoke, getting up from her armchair. Remus noticed she looked tired — she had dark eyebags and her hair was messier than usual.
“Were you here all night?” Remus raised his eyebrows.
She sighed, running her fingers through her hair — an attempt to tame it. “Sev wanted me to go through his potions essay for him, and it’s twenty-one pages long! And then he gave me questions on it!”
“Oh god.” Remus couldn't imagine staying up all night for anyone. “Why would you do it then?”
“Because we’re friends.” Lily sighed again. “Oh well, it doesn’t matter now. Can I walk down to breakfast with you?”
“Yeah, go on.”
The two crawled through the portrait hole and it just struck Remus that his so-called “friends” went on without him.
Great mates they are, Remus thought.
“Where are the rest?” Lily read his mind, skipping a little bit to keep up with Remus’ long strides.
“Went on without me, apparently.” Remus responded. “What about you? McKinnon and the other one.”
“They're still up in the dorms, probably. Marlene loves to sleep in more than she loves her own family, and Mary needs at least an hour to do her hair.” Lily smiled.
Remus nodded. Conversation with Lily was easy, but it still meant interacting with another human being, which Remus didn’t enjoy much. He just hoped Lily wouldn’t mind walking in silence.
“Oh, speaking of,” Lily started. Apparently she did mind. “Mary wanted to ask you if you knew when your friend Sirius’ birthday was.”
Remus thought for a bit. “Hasn’t come up. Why?”
“Oh, nothing.” Lily shook her hand dismissively. “She just wanted to get him a present.”
“Is it ‘cause she fancies him?” Remus asked. It was the only reasonable explanation as to why anyone would want to know anything about Sirius.
“You know!” Lily let out a breath of relief. “Oh thank God! I was getting tired of keeping that a secret. Mary doesn’t shut up about him.” She rolled her eyes.
“I don’t get it,” Remus frowned, “We’d barely been in school for a month, how does she know she fancies him? How does she know she fancies anybody? And why him specifically?”
Lily shrugged. “Heart wants what the heart wants.” Which didn’t answer any of Remus’ questions, but he kept quiet. Lily continued talking, “How do you know? Did she tell you?”
Remus shook his head, “No. It was somewhat obvious.”
“Yeah, I thought so too.” Lily nodded, finally getting into the rhythm of Remus’ footsteps. “Do you suppose Sirius knows?”
“Reckon not. He’s a bit slow.” Remus replied. Lily laughed, and Remus smiled, proud of himself for making conversation.
“I have a question.” Lily spoke again after a few seconds of silence. Remus was glad Lily felt so safe making conversation with him and asking him questions. At least he was doing something right.
“Go ahead.” Remus nodded at her.
“That incident with the pumpkin juice.” Lily looked up at him, almost tripping up her own feet.
“Oh, right.” This again. “Potter didn’t actually mean to do that. Lost grip, I think.”
“Okay, thank you.” Lily nodded, returning her gaze back down at the ground. “Peter told me something like that, but I thought I’d better ask you. You seem honest, and you’re not Potter’s childhood friend.”
Remus nodded in agreement. He himself wouldn't have trusted Peter to be telling the truth either. Peter always tries to suck up to James. Remus wouldn’t be surprised if Peter were to leave everything behind and die, just for James to tell him they’re best friends.
Lily hummed a quiet tune to herself, so Remus assumed she hated being in silence.
The sacrifices I make for friends, Remus thought.
“Who’s your favourite author?” He asked. First time he initiated a conversation with her.
“Ooh, good question.” Lily lit up. “I read a bit of everything, but I love Lucy Maud Montogomery. She wrote Anne of Green Gables, do you know it?”
“No, I don’t. Muggle?”
“Yes. It’s a bit of an old one, it was written in 1908.” Lily smiled. Remus assumed she loved talking about her interests, so he let her talk. “It’s about this girl, Anne. She’s an orphan and was taken into a horrible family, but after a while she found a home with two elderly siblings.”
Remus nodded. Listening to Lily talk about her books was much more interesting than listening to Sirius and James yap about Quidditch.
Lily continued, “She’s this really high-spirited girl. Ginger hair, green eyes, all that. Always happy.
“So, like you.” Remus supplied.
Lily laughed, “Sure.” Then her face fell. “My sister took my copy of it when I said I was going to bring it here. I think it was her way of taking a stand for me to not come, but I honestly just feel sorry for her.”
“You have a sister?” Remus wondered. It didn’t strike Remus that Lily would have siblings, for some reason. She seemed very much like him, except for the talking part.
“Yeah.” She paused, then continued with tense shoulders, “She’s a muggle, though. I think she hates me because I’m a witch.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t hate you.” Remus’ first try at comforting Lily.
“I hope she doesn’t. We used to get along so well.” Lily sighed. “Do you have any siblings?” She smiled.
“No.” Remus shook his head.
“It must be nice to have your parents all to yourself.” Lily offered.
“I guess.”
They had reached the Great Hall by then and walked in, making their way over to the Gryffindor table. Remus was quick to spot his three dorm mates sitting together — Peter and James talking and Sirius sitting on his own.
“You lads left me!” Remus accused Sirius while sitting down across from him, beside James. Lily had also sat down beside James, even smiling kindly as she did so. That caused some pink to show on James’ cheeks.
“James got flushed seeing you talking to Evans and ran away.” Sirius scoffed. “Got a bit shy.”
Sirius had apparently gotten a sharp kick under the table from James for that, but Sirius just smirked and continued what he was doing. Remus had already started piling food onto his plate when he noticed Sirius had returned to folding over a piece of paper with his tongue poking out.
“What’re you up to now?” Remus asked.
Sirius looked up at Remus and then back down to his paper. “Pettigrew just told me about orga- orig.. what’s it called again?” He said, looking over to Peter.
“Origami.” Peter replied, munching on his toast.
“Yeah, that.” Sirius said, looking back to Remus again. “He was telling me about how his aunt taught him how to make origami...”
Remus just nodded to Sirius’ rambling while filling his mouth with eggs, sausages and rashers. He had lost interest in the conversation the second he asked.
“…and then he showed me this butterfly he made and how his mum had charmed it to move. I told him it was really cool and-”
“You actually said that’s something a girl would make,” Peter interrupted, which earned Sirius a glare from Lily, “And then you went and called me a queer.”
Sirius rolled his eyes. “Fine, yeah whatever. Anyway, he tried to show me how to make it and it’s actually really hard.”
It was now Peter’s turn to roll his eyes. “No it’s not, you’re just mentally impaired.”
Remus snorted at that and Sirius sat up straighter, sulking. Peter then turned away to talk to Marlene and Mary, who had just walked in.
Remus pointed his fork to Sirius’ untouched breakfast. “Eat your food. I’m not listening to you complain later because you’re hungry.”
Sirius grumbled something about being used to being hungry but nevertheless, he started to eat. It was only then, that Remus realised James and Lily were making conversation. Remus was actually glad for James. They were finally getting along.
“What’s our first class?” Sirius asked Remus, clearly trying to get his attention again, much to Remus’ annoyance.
“Herbology.” Remus grunted at him, eating his food instead of entertaining Sirius.
“Ooh, fun! I like herbology. Even though it’s a bit gay.”
Remus huffed and rolled his eyes at that. Would he shut up about things being gay?
“And Pete’s the best at it, so it’s obviously really easy.” Sirius rambled on.
“If it's really easy, then why aren’t you the best at it? Or is Pettigrew just incapable of being good at something that’s hard?” Remus retorted, standing up for Peter, feeling a flash of protectiveness over the short boy.
Who did Sirius think he was, acting all nice and then saying mean comments about his friends and how he thought things were queer, or quote on quote, “something a poof would do”?
Sirius ignored Remus and instead flicked some scrambled eggs at Remus’ face with his fork.
“Fucker.” Remus grumbled, wiping the eggs off of his face. “First the broccoli and now eggs. Could you maybe stop throwing food at my face?”
“No.” Sirius replied, absolutely delighted with annoying Remus. He then picked up some more egg with his fork and flicked it, aiming right for Remus’ face again, which Remus managed to duck this time.
So bloody immature, Remus thought, but for a moment, he snapped and stooped to Sirius’ level, picking up a grilled tomato and flinging it at Sirius’ head.
One second, Sirius was dumbstruck, and the next, he started grinning wickedly and lifted up his plate, thrusting it forward, and letting his whole breakfast cover James and Lily, completely missing Remus. James, who was in the middle of nervously talking to Lily, turned around to see who just threw their breakfast at him and spotted Sirius. He smirked and threw a bowl of yoghurt at Sirius’ head.
Remus was laughing now at Sirius being covered in yoghurt, holding back tears of happiness. Lily gave James a disgusted look and moved away a little to talk to Mary. James looked a little dejected but was still too busy pissing himself laughing at Sirius covered in food.
All of a sudden, James and Sirius found themselves drenched in milk and soggy cornflakes. Looking over to see who it was, they saw a triumphant, equally-covered-in-yoghurt, Peter, holding his now empty bowl. Remus snorted at James and Sirius’ oblivious faces.
Marlene looked over and saw all the boys covered in food and laughed. She elbowed Mary beside her, who giggled at the state of Sirius. The two girls, wanting to get involved, picked up pieces of black pudding and started flinging them at poor James, who had unfortunately been targeted by the two girls.
“Ow, what the-?” James yelled, holding his arms to his face for protection, like it was raining food down on him. “Sirius started it!”
Mary laughed and picked up her own bowl of yoghurt, which was filled with different berries, and threw it at Sirius, the yoghurt flying all over him and Peter.
Remus couldn't stop laughing at that and saw Sirius just about to throw an apple at Remus for doing so when Sirius looked up to behind Remus’ head and paled slightly.
Confused, Remus and James looked behind them to see Professor McGonagall standing there, an unreadable expression on her face.
“My office. Now.” She told the four boys, gesturing for them to get up.
Annoyance washed over Remus and he stared angrily at Sirius for starting this whole facade. Now we’re going to get in trouble because of you, he thought. Which was quite stupid of him, as he had taken part too. That was the most infuriating part. He was going to get detention and he couldn’t even be excused.
Mary and Marlene got off scotfree, smirking at the sight of the four boys covered in food being taken away. Sirius mouthed something to the girls that Remus could only assume meant, “go fuck yourself,” and turned back to McGonagall calling to them.
“I said now! Hurry along.” McGonagall called out behind her, and Remus and Sirius had to speed-walk to catch up, James and Peter having already caught up with McGonagall and were now walking beside her.
Remus and Sirius walked in silence a good few steps behind the other two boys and the professor for a few minutes, until Sirius started whispering to Remus. To Remus’ greatest disappointment, Sirius seemed excited.
“D’you think we’ll get detention? Sent a letter home? Suspension?”
“Why do you seem so happy?” Remus whispered back.
“My parents are going to hate me for this, and I enjoy annoying them.” Sirius grinned. “Well? What do you think we’ll get?”
“Just a warning, hopefully.” Remus replied. “I don’t want detention barely a month in. Dumbledore tried really hard to get me here, I don’t want to cause him trouble.”
“Why did he have to try so hard?” Sirius raised an eyebrow. His tone suggested a suspicious question, but Remus could see genuine curiosity flashing in his eyes.
That didn’t mean Remus was going to tell him anything, though. “No reason. Shut up.” He regretted saying anything.
“What are you two on about?” James slowed down to whisper in with Remus and Sirius.
“Books.” Sirius shrugged. Remus almost gasped at the lie Sirius was telling his new best friend.
James nodded, then waved Peter over.
“Oh good, more people.” Remus muttered to himself.
“I hope we don’t get in much trouble.” Peter wringed his hands nervously.
“I hope we do. We have to build a legacy somehow!” James whisper-exclaimed. Sirius nodded enthusiastically beside him, agreeing.
Remus elbowed Sirius in the stomach. “You started this.” He said, holding Sirius by his collar from collapsing. “If I get in trouble for something you did, I swear to God, Black.”
Sirius tried to talk, but almost choked instead. Remus let go immediately, and Sirius breathed out, “Oi, you threw food at me too!” He tried stomping on Remus’ foot in payback, but ended up tripping over his own feet and James had to catch him. Sirius recovered, “You’re just as involved in this as I am. I’m sorry I’m trying to find the positive in this situation.”
“There is no positive!” Remus whisper-shouted. “We’re getting in trouble!”
“You don’t know that.” Sirius whispered back. “Maybe she’s storming us over to her office in anger because she wants to give us an award for having a super awesome food fight.”
“Sirius, I swear, I will break-“
“Here we are, boys. Come in.” McGonagall spoke sharply, her tone somehow cold but inviting at the same time.
The four boys followed McGonagall inside, and stood awkwardly in front of her desk. There were only two chairs, which meant the other two would have to stand uncomfortable above them.
“Please, sit.” McGonagall waved her wand, making two more chairs appear, and the awkward problem disappear. The four boys all sat down, exchanging looks. “You boys started a food fight.”
Remus almost snorted. No shit.
“You started a food fight, in arguably the most prestigious magical school in the whole world.” She continued. “This is not acceptable. Headmaster Dumbledore is disappointed — he expected more of first years.”
Sirius bowed his head down, fake guilt building on his face. Remus noticed Sirius was very good at faking emotions for adults. He’d seen it happen before, when Professor Flitwick was telling Sirius off for not doing his homework five nights in a row. Sirius played his sad and guilty boy part very well, and Flitwick let him off with no punishment. Remus wondered if Sirius was naturally a good actor, or if he picked that skill up somewhere like Remus had done with fighting. And lying.
The rest of the boys followed suit, and also bowed their heads down.
“I will be deducting 5 points from Gryffindor for each of you.” McGonagall spoke. Her voice made it seem like it physically pained her to say this, which it probably did, as she was head of Gryffindor house.
Remus almost sighed from relief that they didn’t get detention. Although, the food fight was very fun in the moment and he wouldn’t be opposed to being involved in more fun activities with the other three boys. Even if it meant getting in trouble. God, he’s gone soft.
“We are very sorry, Professor.” Sirius said.
“I expect better from you from now on.” McGonagall nodded at them. The four boys nodded back. “Now.” She smiled. “Who won?”
The boys exchanged looks again. This time, confused looks. Is this a strategy to get us in more trouble? Remus thought. No one spoke.
“Well? It looked like you, Mr Lupin. You had the least amount of food on you.” McGonagall gestured towards the small bits of egg in his hair, as opposed to Sirius’, James’ and Peter’s yoghurt incident.
“Er, sure.” Remus nodded.
“No way. I definitely won.” Sirius exclaimed. He was getting comfortable around McGonagall.
“No, me!” James joined in.
“Mate, you didn’t do anything!” Sirius grinned.
“I think it was me.” Peter chimed. “I poured my cereal on you lads.”
McGonagall nodded her head in amusement. “Is it a draw?”
“No!” “Yes!”
“Ah, you’re mad.”
“I’m the king of the food fighting arts.”
“You wish, mate.”
“Alright boys, calm down.” McGonagall held back a laugh at Sirius and James’ bickering. Peter had started to join in too, but was drowned out. Remus didn’t even bother. “I hope you can resolve this between yourselves. But, you still lost 5 points each. And I hope this teaches you not to start a food fight again. Dismissed.”
—
Leaving Defence Against the Dark Arts — their third class — Remus walked ahead of the other three boys, determined to find McGonagall.
He could hear Sirius calling him from behind but he ignored him. He had an idea and wasn’t about to forget it.
The idea had come to him in a stroke of genius. They were sitting together, James and Sirius, with Peter and Remus behind them. Remus had overheard James whispering to Sirius about pulling a prank, but needing to find a good area for it.
Remus had immediately rolled his eyes. Apparently the oblivious boys hadn’t thought about a map. Then he realised that a map was a perfect idea — they would know their way around, and they could also add onto it. Things that aren’t there already, like listing the secret passageways and the doors that have disguised themselves as walls.
He would actually prove to Sirius and James that he was able to have fun. As unfortunately, it still stung a bit when he thought about the comment Sirius made a few days back, about him being a baby who was too afraid to get into trouble. He had played it off with a roll of his eyes obviously, but still.
Compared to Sirius, he thought, I’m a full grown adult. If he was going to insult me, at least he do it right.
Once he reached the transfiguration classroom, he knocked on the door and let himself in. McGonagall was sitting at her desk, the classroom empty as it was lunch now.
She looked up from the essay she was correcting and smiled slightly. “May I help you, Mr Lupin?”
Remus walked towards her desk, wringing his hands nervously. He hated talking to teachers. At least, back in his muggle school. They were all terribly rude, taking in Remus’ scars as a free pass into thinking he was some child-delinquent, getting into fights and whatnot.
McGonagall seemed to have a bit more of an open mind, yes, but still. Remus was very nervous. On his own at least, — when he was with people, like Sirius, they would do most of the talking for him, which made it easier.
“Er, I was wondering if you had a map of Hogwarts?”
The teacher looked at him curiously, “May I ask why?” She asked him.
“Well I just- Y’know, Hogwarts is huge. And I get lost a lot. And my friends too. I just thought it’d be easier with a map.” He managed to say a few good words that sounded rather professional in his brain, at least for an eleven year old.
McGonagall nodded slowly before replying. “I see. You are very clever for that, Mr Lupin. Five points to Gryffindor.” Remus inwardly grinned with pride at that and McGonagall continued talking. “As for the map, I’ll see what I can do. Come to me after classes, and I’ll try to have one for you then.”
Remus nodded enthusiastically. “Thank you, Professor.”
She just smiled and nodded, leaving Remus to walk himself out.
—
As he sat down at the Gryffindor table with his friends, he was immediately questioned — particularly by Sirius.
“Where the hell did yougo?” Sirius demanded, while piling chicken skewers onto his plate.
Remus eyed Sirius’ plate for a bit, seeing if anything on it looked good, and immediately reached for the same chicken skewers, replying cautiously, “I went to talk to McGonagall about something.”
Lily, who was a seat down from where Sirius was, turned and saw Remus.
“Hello, Remus!”
He smiled back in greeting, trying to sneak a glance at her own plate. She held it up for him to see better, saying, “Do you like potato skins? There’s some up here.”
“What?” Sirius said, incredibly confused. “Who the hell eats potato skins?”
Remus rolled his eyes, though his usual annoyance wasn’t present. “Not actual potato skins.” He told the boy, taking the dish from Lily and showing him the half potatoes stuffed, with melted cheese sprinkled on top.
Sirius went slightly red at being corrected but reached out to take one and put it on his own plate. “Are they nice?” He asked Remus with uncertainty.
Remus held out a finger, chewing carefully on his potato. “Mm, not as good as the ones my mum makes, but pretty nice.”
Sirius nodded and dug in.
After a few easy conversations with the girls, Remus was on his second serving, listening to Marlene waffle about her muggle friends that read magazines, which she talked about as if a thin book containing unmoving images was rarer than an invisibility cloak. Lily, Mary and Remus all had a good laugh telling her they were pretty common, but Marlene was still in shock.
Out of the corner of his eye, Remus could see Sirius reaching over for his third potato skin. He bit into it, and turned to Remus to grab his attention away from the girls,
“So, what were you talking to McGonagall about?”
“Eh, nothing interesting.” Remus said. “Sort of a surprise, I guess.”
“Really? What is it?”
“Well it’s not a surprise if I tell you, is it?”
Sirius huffed at that. “When can I know about it?”
“I dunno. Have some patience.” Remus snapped. Then, seeing Sirius still not looking away, he added, “After lunch.”
Sirius nodded and went back to eating in silence. Remus looked over to Lily again and was pleased to see her talking to James. Lily had told Remus that she doesn’t like James like that, if not at all, and she mostly felt sorry for him. Remus couldn’t blame her. He was practically floating on air to propose to her.
Once they finished lunch, they got up and walked out of the Great Hall. Sirius and James going ahead together with Mary and Marlene, while Remus, Peter and Lily walked behind.
“What do we have next?” Peter asked Remus, nudging him.
Remus shrugged. He had only memorised the first few classes, and had left his own timetable back in the dorms. He had spilled tea right in the middle of it, and let it out to dry. James had gone above and beyond after that, saying if Remus had already almost ruined his timetable, how long was it until his own burst into ashes in his hands. James had Professor Flitwick place a waterproof charm on it and he had it stuck on the inside of his school bag. Which was a bit much in Remus’ opinion.
“Potions.” Lily replied for him. Remus sighed.
He didn’t mind potions, except for the fact he was no good at it. And Sirius — who was now his potions partner for the year, as Slughorn had informed them — was a slight bit better but he wasn’t all that great at it. Lily, on the other hand, was extremely good, which surprised Slughorn, who clearly thought she’d have more trouble for being a muggle-born. However, Lily wasn’t the only one good at potions. Her best friend, greasy Snape, (who Remus had slowly begun to hate for using poor Lily for her kindness) was insanely good at it. Even Sirius and James admitted that.
Peter groaned quietly at Lily’s reply. If Remus was bad at potions, then Peter was terrible. Slughorn was pretty understanding of Peter, telling him that he was barely three weeks in, and of course he won’t be perfect at it at first.
“What’s wrong?” Lily asked Peter, looking up from her timetable.
“I’m really bad at potions.” Peter grumbled back, hitching his bag further up onto his shoulders.
“No you’re not.” Lily replied back sympathetically and patted Peter on the shoulder.
“Don’t lie.” Peter said, scuffing his feet against the stone floor as he walked.
“If you’re really having trouble, I can ask Sev to help you.” Lily offered gently. That caused Peter’s head to snap up in alarm and Remus to scoff out a short laugh.
“What?” Lily asked with confusion, and then seeing the awkward looks Remus and Peter were giving her, she turned stern. “Look, I know Sev can be somewhat antisocial...”
Bit more than that, Remus thought.
“...but if you just gave him a chance-”
“I think it’s more he doesn’t want to give us a chance, Evans.” Remus replied to her, causing her to huff but drop the subject.
They reached the dungeons not even a minute later and were looking around trying to find their class in the labyrinth of cold corridors that all looked the same.
They had pretty much gotten the hang of getting around the school but the dungeons were still an issue, especially with Sirius.
The map will definitely come in handy, Remus thought to himself.
“I found the right way!” Lily called to the two boys, who were walking a significant distance behind her now. They hurried forward to her, desperate not to get detention from Slughorn for being late.
They split up once they walked inside the classroom, Lily going over to the far side of the potions classroom to sit with Snape, while Peter took his seat beside James, and Remus went to the bench in front of the other two boys beside Sirius.
“I’m shocked you made it here on time.” Remus commented to Sirius, who looked at him with mock hurt.
“You wound me, Lupin. I’m a genius.”
Remus snorted, “Sure you are, mate. No really, how’d you get here so quick?”
“McKinnon knows her way around the school already.” Sirius admitted. “I was just following her.”
“Ah, makes sense. Lily told me her older brother, Oliver or something, taught her all the ways around Hogwarts.”
“Do you think she knows about any secret passageways?” Sirius asked excitedly.
Remus thought for a second — if she did, she might help them add places to the map. They wouldn’t even have to tell her about the map.
“Yeah, maybe.” Remus replied, pulling a bowl of dead caterpillars over to him and beginning to cut them up.
“Wicked.” Sirius grinned, starting to help Remus chop up the caterpillars.
—
After potions was history of magic, then transfiguration and finally, charms. Once they left the charms classroom, James rounded on him.
“Black told me you have a surprise for us.” James informed him, and Remus rolled his eyes.
Of course Sirius couldn’t keep something to himself. And of course Remus couldn’t really expect Sirius to not tell James.He told James everything, it was almost sickening. How can someone trust another so much in such little time of knowing them. Didn’t Sirius feel vulnerable, having James know everything?
“Yeah, kind of,” Remus replied, “It's with McGonagall.”
James and Peter shared a confused look but nevertheless, followed Remus, who had started walking down the corridor — with Sirius racing to catch up with him.
A short while later, Remus was knocking on the transfiguration classroom door, the other three boys standing idly beside him. Once Remus heard McGonagall call out a muffled ‘enter,’ he opened the door and walked in, leaving his friends to be smacked in the face with the closing door.
”Hello, Mr Lupin.” McGonagall said to him, looking up from a book.
Remus nodded in return.
“I did manage to find you that map.” She told Remus, handing it over to him.
“Thank you, Professor.” Remus said, smiling.
“No worries at all.” She smiled at him.
Remus said goodbye and left the classroom. Once he walked out, Sirius immediately rounded on him.
“A map? Really? Ohh, I get it. I get lost a lot. So this surprise was just an attempt to take the piss out of me?”
Peter snorted and James had to lightly nudge him with his elbow, but not too hard so that he’d stop.
Remus rolled his eyes at the annoyed boy in front of him. “No, Black, you’re too in love with yourself. Not everything is about you. I got us the map to help us with pranks.”
Sirius’ annoyance melted away immediately. “As in the best way to get away after a prank?”
James clapped Remus on the back. “You’re a genius, Lupin.”
Sirius moved on to talk strategy with James (James trying to involve Peter and Remus in the conversation wherever he could), coming up with different charms they could add. One being to enchant it so they could see where the teachers and Filch were at all times — which Remus had to admit, was quite smart, even if it would be an incredibly difficult charm to perform.
James had the idea of putting some sort of locking charm on it, that you could only access the map if you gave a special password. He admitted that the idea came from the Fat Lady portrait.
Peter suggested that they put their names on it, but Sirius retaliated by saying that if it was ever found by the wrong person, they couldn’t deny it wasn't them. Which led to James coming up with the idea of nicknames, to which all the boys agreed. Bar Remus. Nicknames meant getting close with friends, nicknames meant trusting the others. He’d have to think about that.
“What about we ask McKinnon about the secret passageways and stuff?” Remus contributed.
“That’s a good idea!” Sirius exclaimed. He had taken the map from Remus and was now scanning it thoroughly as they walked.
Peter looked confused. “How would Marls know all the passageways, James?” He asked the two. James shrugged. Remus found it odd that Peter called Marlene by a nickname and addressed his question to James specifically, but then again everything about Peter was odd.
“She told Lily, who told Remus, that her older brother taught her them all before she came here.” Sirius said to them, not looking up from the map, which caused him to almost walk into a stone pillar, only being saved a split second before impact by Remus, who grabbed his arm roughly, pulling him out of the way and back on track.
“Matthew?” James asked, confused, ignoring the fact that Remus was still more friendly with Lily than he was. Remus was slightly grateful for that. Nowadays, most of the time Remus mentioned Lily, he would go all quiet.
“No, Oliver.” Remus replied, peeking over Sirius’ shoulder at the map, which now unfolded, was massive.
“That’s what Oliver told her that she refused to tell us!” James exclaimed.
“I cannot believe she didn't tell us.” Said Peter, half shocked, half annoyed. James nodded in response.
“I can.” Remus deadpanned, still examining the map with Sirius. He was telling the truth too — if he were Marlene, he’d keep that to himself too. “Are we heading to dinner?”
“Nah, let’s go back to the common room. We’ll have more time to work on the map.” Sirius swatted his hand at Remus.
“I’m starving, though.”
“Too bad.”
“Bastard.”
“Wait.” Sirius said, stopping abruptly, which caused Remus to crash into him.
Remus shut up to listen to what Sirius had to say.
“If McKinnon wouldn’t tell James and Peter about all the secret passageways, why would she tell us all?” Sirius continued.
Peter spoke up. “Easy, we just get Remus to ask Evans. She’ll definitely tell him.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Remus noticed James had started staring at his shoes as if they were the new issue of Quidditch Weekly since Peter had brought up Lily and Remus.
“Er, I already asked,” Remus said, choosing to ignore James’ sudden quietness, “She said she didn't know.”
“Guess we’ll just have to get it out of her another way.” Sirius shrugged.
“We could offer her a part in making the map?” Peter offered hesitantly.
“No!” Remus and Sirius exclaimed at once — it was meant to be a small circle of friends thing. Not that he didn’t like Lily, he did, sure, but she was a girl. Sirius was bad enough.
“We’ll offer her to help out on a prank or something then.” James said, finally speaking up. “But can we start walking again? We’re just standing in a random corridor.”
Remus nodded in response to James and the group decided to walk on again. After a few minutes of an awkward silence between James and Remus (Sirius was chasing Peter down the corridor with a worm he’d found), Remus decided to speak up.
“Hey, er, you know I don’t like Lily, right?”
James’ head snapped up and he looked at Remus in confusion. “If you don’t like her then why do you hang out with her?”
Remus shook his head, slightly amused. “No, I like her. But I don’t fancy her, y’know?”
James nodded slowly before answering. “Why are you telling me this?” He asked, very badly feigning confusion. James was good at a lot of things, but acting wasn’t one of them.
Remus raised his eyebrows at him and James went a shade of pink.
“Was it that obvious?” He asked sheepishly.
“Yes.”
—
Once in the common room, Sirius and James made it their mission to, without being noticed, get past the group of sixth years who were sitting in front of the fire. Remus and Peter rolled their eyes at the other two. They were acting as if the sixth years would give a rat’s arse about the map in Sirius’ hands.
Walking by the group of older students, who had definitely noticed them but paid the first years no mind, Remus and Peter walked up the winding stone steps to their dormitories.
When they opened the door, they saw James and Sirius sitting on Sirius’ bed. James had taken out his charms and transfiguration textbooks out and Sirius had the map splayed out fully.
“Can’t we do homework first?” Remus asked the two, knowing it was no use anyways.
“No, we’re doing this first, Lupin.” Sirius replied, looking over his shoulder at Remus briefly, before looking back to the precious map. That Remus doesn’t recall even getting a ‘thank you’ for.
“Could one of you grab some parchment?” James asked both Remus and Peter while scanning through the transfiguration textbook. Remus sighed, accepting his homework wasn't going to be done until later, and walked over to his bed and dumped his bag on it. After a few seconds of digging through it, he pulled out one of his brand-new notebooks (one he was very proud of owning) to which Sirius gave an odd look.
“We asked you to grab parchment.” Sirius said to him.
“Yeah, but I find this easier to take notes on.” Remus replied, barely paying Sirius a glance and instead taking a seat on the bed beside James’ with Peter — since the map took up most of the space.
“What is it?” Sirius asked, watching Remus flip open his notebook on a fresh page.
“You’re kidding me.” Remus sighed. “It’s a notebook, are you serious? Have you never-“
“I am Sirius.”
Immediate silence. Remus stared at Sirius with disappointment like a father realising their child was quite frankly, an idiot, while Sirius tried to hold back a laugh. The silence lasted a full 2 minutes.
“Well anyway.” Peter interrupted, clearing his throat suggestively.
“Right.” James said. “Pass over the paper, Lupin.”
“Notebook.” Remus handed James his precious book.
How stupid are purebloods? Are they really that conservative? They don’t know what a notebook is?
“I doubt we’ll get anything done on the first day.” Remus voiced. It was a fair assumption. They were first years that only had a month of school.
“You pessimist.” Sirius tutted. “We’ll get loads done, won’t we, Jamesie boy?”
“Sure we will.”
—
After two hours, they had one extra door scribbled onto the map, and bad moods from not getting anything done.
Even Remus was in a rotten mood, but not about the map. He had predicted this, after all. It was the fact that it was now nine in the evening, he had missed dinner, and the book he needed to get to finish his homework was unavailable as the library was closed.
He was grumbling walking out of the bathroom in his pyjamas as he realised that that specific bit of homework was due tomorrow and he’d have to work on it as soon as the library opened in the morning.
“Don’t worry Remus,” Sirius had noticed Remus’ mood. “We’ll get the spells right soon enough.”
“I’m not mad about that.” Remus spat, crawling into his bed.
“Is it because we didn’t have dinner?” Sirius offered.
Remus was about to snap again, but he thought for a bit and realised that yes, it was because he had no dinner. Which was still the other boys’ fault.
“Yeah, maybe.” Remus sighed, shutting his curtains on his bed. “G’night lads.”
There was a chorus of goodnights, and Remus was fast asleep.
***