First Journey
The station was so busy that it took Remus three minutes to get to the train doors. He’d squeezed himself through dozens of people saying goodbye to their families and colours were flying everywhere. It was chaotic.
He was walking through the train with his trunk behind him when he felt a pain behind his eye.
Not today, he pleaded. Any day but today.
His pleading hadn’t been enough apparently as the pain just stayed and was gradually getting worse. He found an empty compartment to sit in and shoved his bag above the seat next to the window, it was facing all the families at the platform so he wouldn’t lean his head against the glass just yet. Sitting down was helping a bit anyway. Suddenly, the door slid open and Remus was facing a greasy haired boy, hair reaching his shoulders, and a ginger girl with freckles looking expectantly at him from behind. The boy was extremely pale, contrasting with his dark hair. It didn’t suit him much.
He sneered at Remus and turned away from him, slamming the door in a way that made his head much worse. However he didn’t pay that much mind, he was seething with anger. Who did that boy think he was? Trying to impress a girl by doing that, thinking he was solid. Remus started turning his head to stare out the window when the doors opened again.
This time it wasn’t the greasy boy and the ginger but instead a new duo. A fairly tall boy with brown skin and eyes framed by glasses but jet black hair that looked like it hadn’t been brushed in days, and a shorter one with dirty blonde hair and a burnt face, he slightly reminded Remus of Connor.
“Do you mind if we sit in here?” The boy at the front asked, pointing towards the stubby boy behind him. “Most of the carriages are full now.” His accent reminded Remus of a toned down version of the Queen. He’d heard her speech on the radio when they had spent Christmas at his Grans house the year before. The accent made him grit his teeth slightly but was instantly flooded with guilt as he relaxed moments later, this boy wasn’t doing anything wrong.
“Yeah, on you go.” He said back, shrugging to show he didn’t really care that much.
The boys beamed at him while clambering through the doors to put their things in the empty spaces above. They finally succeeded after a few embarrassing attempts from the smaller one.
They flung themselves onto the seats across from Remus, sighing and leaning back slightly before the black haired one shoved his hand out to Remus.
“I’m James, James Potter.”
It seemed too formal for an eleven year old to be offering to shake his hand, so Remus crossed his arms to show James that it wasn’t happening. He didn’t seem bothered by the rejection, he just put his hand on his lap.
“Remus.”
“Nice to meet you, and this is Peter!” He pointed to the boy next who gave him a small smile and waved.
“Right.” His head was too sore for this energy, so he was choosing to ignore it and stare out the window instead.
James, however, was not getting the hint.
“I’m so nervous for Hogwarts, aren’t you? I imagine that I’m going to miss home a lot, and of course my Mum and Dad.”
“Naw, I’m not really that bothered to be honest with you.” He was spitting lies but he wasn’t about to spill his guts out to this random boy about how nervous he was. Not for school but for his Mum, what if something happened and she didn’t have anyone?
He looked at James, then Peter. Both of their expressions had faltered a bit. Remus revelled slightly in making people unsure how to respond.
“Why no- OW JAMES.”
James’ elbow had connected with Peters side. At least James had gotten the hint that he didn’t want to talk about his answer. This was the first time Peter had spoken, his voice was squeakier than James but the accent was pretty much the same. This time he didn’t feel as bad for clenching his jaw.
“Anyway, I’m excited for it too. Hopefully I can learn stuff that my Mum and Dad haven’t taught me already, and I can finally use the magic instead of just theory work.” James said.
His head was pounding and the proper English that the boy was speaking was too much for his brain to handle. He let his mind drift out of the train and back up North. His Mum was probably still in bed, his friends in classes and everyone completely unaware of how much was happening in Remus’ life right now. He felt a heaviness in his chest, he checked the clock to distract himself from it. It was a bit far for him to tell but it looked like they had five minutes until the train departed.
The door slid open, for the third time, and this time Remus wasn’t as quick to turn his head but when he did his eyes met with a boy who practically screamed aristocracy. His hair was wavy and reached down to just touch his shoulders. The ink black of it contrasted his pale skin in a way that brought all attention to him and by the smirk on his face it looked like he knew it. He pointed to the boys using his head, starting at Peter.
“Pettigrew,” His voice rung through Remus’ ears, the boy in front of him could’ve said he was the Queen in disguise and he would’ve believed him. He turned slightly towards James. “Potter.”
The other three looked at each other and back at the boy. Remus was wondering why they’d all been using last names. Maybe it was a wizard thing but he thought it was stupid.
“I have been told not to talk to you two, would you like to be friends?” He started laughing and slumped down next to Remus and just left his large trunk on the floor, making it so that if anyone wanted to leave or enter they couldn’t. “I’m Sirius-“
“You’re a black aren’t you?” Peter interrupted, looking slightly more nervous than before. Sirius sighed next to him and just nodded.
“Yes,” his head turned towards Remus “I do not know your name but I would like to…” It was a question and a statement, and his grey eyes were piercing into Remus’ soul, so he obliged him the answer.
“Remus.”
Sirius looked at him expectantly, probably for a last name, it was weird. Who did these people think they were? You don’t just call people by their last names, and you don’t usually ask them their last names either. It just wasn’t normal. He voiced this opinion.
“If you’re looking for my last name, I don’t get why. My name’s Remus, not my surname. It’s just strange to call folk by it and I’m not doing it.”
He was met with silence until Sirius burst out laughing.
“I did not… understand… half of what you just said…” He managed to get out. “But it sounded rude and defiant, I like you.”
For fucks sake, not this.
This had happened to Remus before, his Mum had taken him down to Wales to visit family a few times but they always stayed in Manchester for a day on the way down. Every single time someone had laughed about the fact he was Scottish and every time he hated English people a lot more. This was his limit.
“Well I-“ The train jolted and began trundling forward, Peter suddenly became a shade paler.
“Sorry, I get really travel sick and I just realised I’m facing the wrong way. Do you mind switching with me Remus?” Remus sat and thought for a moment, he’d be ending up in pretty much the worst seat. No window and across from that Sirius boy, his head was slowly becoming more painful and the idea of that seat made it worse. his decision was made.
“Yeah, I do mind actual.” Silence was brought upon the compartment again. It was uncomfortable and the only movement was Peter fidgeting with his hand and the curious looks from Sirius.
James was the first to try and ease the tension.
“You can swap places with me Peter, I don’t mind. Maybe sitting at the window would help?”
“Thank you.” The other boy whispered while they clambered around to get to their new seats. Apparently James didn’t mind the other black haired boy because they started talking straight away. They chatted excitedly about some sport called Remus had never heard of. Peter -who seemed to be over his travel sickness- eventually joined in too, seeming desperate to make sure everyone knew he and James played this sport together.
They were a bunch of posh, English wizards. Remus didn’t like them much.
He ignored them for most of the trip up, opting to stare out the window at the browning trees of the upcoming Autumn instead of joining the conversation. It wasn’t like he could anyway, he didn’t know what half the things they were talking about were. He sat in silence, drowning out the boys until he felt a tap on his shoulder.
“Remus?” Sirius’ hand waved in front of his face, startling Remus making him gasp slightly.
“Aye?” He responded. The other boys frowned slightly, they probably didn’t know what that meant. Remus didn’t really care though, they could figure it out from context.
“Did you not hear my question?”
“No.” He ran his hand over his head, he had hardly any hair left after Steven had tried to give him a buzz cut for Hogwarts. ‘It’ll make you look more scary!’ He’d told Remus. Why he needed to look scary he would never know. Stevey had failed miserably, leading to him being practically bald so there wasn’t much there for his hand to touch.
“He asked you what house you think you’re going to be in.” James said with an expression that Remus guessed was curiosity.
“House? Like school houses?”
“Yes…?” Sirius responded, as if he was answering an obvious question.
“They just randomly tell you what one you’re in, don’t they? Plus, I don’t know the names of them.”
“They don’t just randomly assign them!” Peter sounded offended, as if Remus had said something atrocious. “The sorting hat chooses for you based on your personality, it says it in Hogwarts: A History.”
That’s why he was completely behind. He’d been so preoccupied that he’d neglected the school books.
“Oh I didn’t read that.”
This caused the other three to look at him strangely, as if he’d just said something completely wrong.
“Do you want me to tell you about the houses?” James offered.
“Yeah cheers.”
“So, there’s four houses at Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. There’s a sorting hat that sifts through your brain and searches for traits to identify what house you belong to.”
“But if you don’t want to be in a certain one, you can ask it to put you anywhere but there.” Peter continued after James had stopped to take a breath.
“Yes, it usually takes your requests into account.” Sirius added.
“Exactly so you don’t need to worry too much about that part.” James started “It’s fairly simple, the traits.”
Remus was listening intently throughout their whole explanation of the houses, and he continued to do so when they all took turns in explaining all of their different values. He didn’t even care about them at first but now he was trying to imagine what one he was going to be in. He guessed Hufflepuff, mostly because he wasn’t that intelligent and wasn’t very brave either. The other house that he thought was Slytherin, it seemed to be frowned upon so that seemed just as likely as Hufflepuff.
After talking about the houses for a while, Remus relaxed slightly. He laughed with the others and actually tried to join in conversation when he could. When he couldn’t he didn’t dare ask for explanations, he didn’t want to seem stupid.
The sun set over the mountains of the Scottish highlands before they even reached the school. The sky was a mix of blue and orange clouds that looked like ribbons tangling themselves in each other.
Eventually the ribbons fell and the sky was black with only the stars in the sky visible, like blots of white splashed onto a black canvas.
Not that the boys would’ve noticed though, they were too busy stuffing their faces.
“These are so good.” Remus tried to say, it came out as more of a series of grumbles. his mouth full of jelly beans. One popped out onto the floor from it being packed full.
“REMUS!” James shouted at him, “Don’t eat them all at once, some of them have really disgusting flavours!”
Just as Remus heard this, he tasted fucking earwax. Who makes a jellybean that tastes of earwax? Wizards apparently.
The taste was making him gag slightly, which lead to colourful beans flying out of his mouth and onto the dusty floor. It was probably the most colour that the carpet had ever obtained.
His fit of gagging made them all hysterical with laughter that didn’t seem to calm down, even when they were told to get into their robes by an older boy. Remus eventually became very still as the castle came into view. It was the most brilliant building he’d seen in his life. Despite it being pitch black outside, he could make out the details of the large towers and some sort of… stadium? The place looked massive. Seeing it had brought him back to reality, forcing him to remember that the train ride was fairly insignificant compared to what was ahead of him.
No matter how much he would deny it if anyone asked, he was fucking terrified.
As the train got closer and started to slow down, they all began to get increasingly more restless. All four of them couldn’t draw their eyes from the large silhouette of a castle.
“This is it boys, are you all ready?” James was grinning so broadly that his lips looked stretched.
“Yeah.” Remus replied firmly. “I am.”
“Me too James!”
“Yes I am ready.” Peter and Sirius spoke at the same time. Peter seemed more unsure of his answer than the others.
The train finally came to a halt, they were all practically jumping out their seats by the time the exits had students streaming out of them.
“Right.” Remus said, slapping his hands against his thighs, making the others jump, and using them to get himself up. “Let’s go then.”
They were all broken out of whatever trance the castle had put them into and started attempted to climb over Sirius’ bag. There was a lot of bumping into eachother and not a lot of getting the door open. A few times Peter had managed to hit the still-healing cuts on his chest. Eventually, Sirius just moved his bag out the way.
They each grabbed their own bags and left the compartment. It was definitely messier than they had found it, but none of them seemed all that bothered anyway.