Chapter 2
1971 Hogwarts
"Give it back!"
"I don't think I will" he shouted straight into his face and even dared to spit on the gray pavement when the boy didn't let go.
"Give it back or you'll be walking around the castle with pig tail."
The boy laughed, moving from side to side several times.
"If you at least knew how to do it."
The young man, stabbed in the very tender heart, looked at his opponent in shock and swallowed calmly. Then he adjusted his robe around his shoulders and cleared his throat.
"All right. Take it, just don't cry if I get back at you later."
And then he looked at his self-writing pen, which was now in the hands of a boy with unhealthy fair skin. Of course, Sirius would regret the pen for many years to come, but there was one thing he couldn't lose above all else. Honor.
Remus didn't know much about him because he tried to stick to rule number two: don't hang out with naughty boys.
James Potter was tall and had a tanned complexion, oval glasses resting on his nose, and he had a permanent smile on his face. James seemed to fit the description of naughty that his mother had recorded in his mind. Remus watched him carefully as they sat at the table, whether he was messing around in class. He was famous for setting Dorcas's notes on fire in the common room, and then he couldn't control the fire, so someone from the fifth year had to pour water on everything and thus completely destroy every book that came within the spell's range.
Including Remus's, he never admitted it out loud, but he didn't have money for new books, so he had to borrow the one from the library for the rest of the semester. Yes, James was suitable for rule number two.
However, James had a weakness and that was Lily Evans. A short, redhead girl who was one of the few people who spoke to Remus. And it wasn't even to tease him, she actually gave the impression that she liked his presence! So Remus also liked Lily, and that's how their friendship started and, in a way, she bonded with the unruly Potter. Lily, of course, didn't like James, she preferred spending time with Severus, who came from the same town as her.
So James, like a real boy, hated Severus. Lily hated him, it was very complicated, Remus really got lost in it all himself sometimes.
This was not the end, James was not alone.
Running behind him step by step was always a short, fat, chubby little boy and whose eyes sometimes moved in different directions. Peter Pettigrew, because that was his name, probably wouldn't draw attention to himself, like Remus, but for some reason James found him funny. So he joined the group and sometimes he could actually say something funny, but Remus didn't always know whether he did it on purpose or he didn't realize how funny he sometimes sounded.
There is one more, the most mysterious, but at the same time the most interesting.
Sirius Black.
He had black curls that curled playfully over his forehead, he couldn't tie a tie, and he loved attention. It was a real paradox for Remus, because he was on everyone's lips, and at the same time no one knew anything about him.
Sirius, however, did not start his career as he wanted, because it was not due to any funny prank, or even a display of advanced magic, no.
However, Remus remembered that the entire room fell silent when the sorting hat announced that young Black was now a member of Gryffindor. Usually this brought smiles and cheers from the children, but not this time. Young Black slid unsteadily from the uncomfortable chair and with slow, uncertain steps hid in the rest of the Gryffindors in the crowd. It only happened once, because after that Remus didn't notice that he ever regretted the hat's decision, but when he heard that word, that plump, sweet "Gryffindor", he looked like he was about to faint.
Remus didn't fully understand why everyone was so surprised, why the reaction was different, but as he politely followed the crowd, he always subtly turned towards Sirius when he saw his black curls blowing in all directions.
Therefore, when he heard this stupid fight over a pen, he decided to listen to it until the end. However, when he saw Sirius losing unworthily because for once he was right in any conflict, he came out from behind the wall where he had been standing unnoticed until now and cleared his throat quietly.
"I can" he felt embarrassed and regretted his decision as soon as Sirius's gray eyes looked straight at him.
He felt weak in the knees because Black looked scarier than he seemed, but there was no turning back.
"You can?"
Remus nodded silently.
"So show it."
So he slowly took his wand out of his pocket and then pointed it clumsily at the departing boy. He opened his chapped mouth to say a spell, but felt someone's breath on his cheek and he stole a glance at Sirius, who was now leaning excitedly over Remus.His black curls almost touched his skin and Remus suddenly remembered that he was breaking rule number two.
Eventually, however, he narrowed his eyes, whispered a few words unknown to Sirius, and waved a piece of wood. The unaware boy was now walking towards the castle, his graceful pink pig tail waving cheerfully behind him.
Remus breathed a sigh of relief because he had never performed this spell on anyone before and honestly, he wasn't sure it would work. He smiled to himself, and a moment later he heard his companion's high-pitched scream in his ear.
"Oh Merlin, you did it!"
Yes, he probably just broke the school rules, all to impress a boy who shouldn't even be talking to him.
"It's simple," he lied and put his wand in his pocket, looking at Sirius, who couldn't stop smiling.
"You're quite alright, what's your name?"
"Remus," he whispered, and his voice broke at the end.
"What?"
"Remus Lupin," he repeated louder to sound confident. "Remus John Lupin."
Sirius hesitated for a moment, staring at Lupin with those big, gray eyes, and then he smiled again and straightened up, enjoying the one-centimeter height advantage that wasn't going to last long.
"Sirius Orion Black" he offered his hand, expecting him to shake it.
Remus looked at his hand. It looked inviting, very inviting. On the other hand, it was a gateway to completely burying the rule he had promised to follow and breaking away from the routine, because Black was not just an ordinary "naughty kid", but this Black. Everyone knew him, everyone watched him, what would Remus do in this company, with his brown sweaters, torn books and dark secret?
It was a very inappropriate decision, but he decided that he would think about his life from now on. And he shook Sirius's hand.
So they started walking back to the dormitory together, Remus walking quite confidently, not knowing how to behave now, and Sirius laughing right behind him.
"You'll be the next stone, hmm?"
"What?"
Remus bit his tongue when he realized he had said it out loud. So he ruffled his blond hair and cleared his throat.
"Never mind. You won't understand."
Sirius didn't understand, but that didn't stop him from trying to understand.
This was the beginning of a friendship that not only forced Remus to break such an important rule, but also changed his entire life. He learned everything over time, who Sirius was, who his parents were, why Potter was chasing Lily, although he never fully discovered it.
"I'm not chasing at all" he snorted, looking for the short girl. "Besides, she's friends with Slytherins, I just want to save her while I can."
Lupin then shook his head and laughed to himself. Sirius pretended to believe his friend, but he always stole glances at Remus and winked at him.
Remus didn't really understand why Sirius had chosen him in the first place, but Black seemed to be very proud of it, even if Remus was quiet and often stuck in books.
At night he wondered what he had done to deserve that Sirius Black wanted him as a friend so much. They were actually friends already?
They only met during classes and ate meals together, but it was still a lot for him.
Only Lily brought it up while they were having breakfast in the Great Hall. She nudged Remus in the shoulder and he dropped the toast from his hand. He looked at his friend, confused, waiting for her to say something more. However, she was devastated by his thoughtlessness, sighed and hid her face in her hands.
"You're unbelievable, Remus. James Potter?"
"Oh, that's what you mean. It's Sirius... He's the one I became friends with. I guess? It's not my fault that he and James..."
"James is a complete idiot" she muttered and went back to mixing cereal with milk. " What is it about Black that suddenly makes you friends with him?"
"There's nothing" he said much more quietly, now staring at his breakfast. He knew he was lying because from the first day, when Sirius outraged everyone in the room with his choice of tiara, Remus began to look at him regularly.
There was something about him, something mysterious and so... warm that he wanted to be friends with him. With James too, of course.
And just when he thought that he would only be the fifth wheel, Jeffrey Knight became very ill and his parents demanded that their son return home. A sad situation, an unusual one indeed, but then Sirius said something that changed his mood.
"So Remus, will you just live with us now?"
His eyes lit up, it was a brand new time for Remus. A time when he could finally be equal to others.
*
Six years later, Remus understood everything. Why all eyes were on Sirius when the hat was placed on top of his head, why James was chasing Lily and why she was pushing him away. Why Severus hated them, why Sirius wanted to run away from home and why he didn't speak to his own brother.
There was only one thing he didn't understand.
Why did his heart start beating faster when he saw Sirius, why he cared about his opinion, why he didn't sleep at night staring at his slightly twitching eyelids, and why he loved his full smile so much.
Remus called them "little pebbles." They weren't much of a problem, but they were always a bit of a burden thrown onto his pile of change. Whenever he caught himself staring at the elder Black, he pinched his arm and expressed a small, oval stone falling on his head.