Friend Material
- First Years | September -
REMUS
Remus sat on his hands until they became numb. He pulled out knobby fingers from under his lap to stare at them. He had tried to stay as “zen” as possible the month leading up to classes, but all of the excitement of actually getting to go to Hogwarts combined with the choking feeling of anxiety and fall pollen made for a very bad combination.
The wheels of the Hogwarts Express ran over the polished tracks chug-chug-chug-chug like a metal heartbeat. It made for soothing background noise and matched the slightly uneven fluttering in Remus’ chest.
He was the only one in his trolly car. He had considered joining other first years, but he figured friends could wait. He wanted a moment to himself, to breathe it all in.
He inhaled deeply.
Aged leather, lemon-scented cleaner, steaming apple cider from the next car over, a slightly sweaty human approaching the door-
Remus sneezed.
“GESUNDHEIT!” The sliding panel separating the car from the hallway was thrown open, revealing a triumphant boy with crooked rectangle glasses and hair that looked like he had just stepped out of a tornado.
“Hi!”
“What happened to your hair?” Remus asked before realizing how rude that sounded.
The boy looked unphased as he welcomed himself in. “Oh that’s just my hair. Grew it myself. Hey what’s this?” He picked up the astrology book next to Remus and turned it over.
“Astrology.”
“Hmm cool,” he put it back disinterested as he looked around for something else to entertain him. Remus suddenly was very aware of the singular duffle bag that was able to hold almost all of his belongings.
“That’s a badass scar.” The boy tapped his chin, eyeing Remus’ own.
“Thanks?”
“How’d you get it?”
“Um…cleaning?”
“Can I hide in here?”
“Hide from what?”
“JAAMMEESS!” Another boy’s screaming echoed from the hall like a banshee as heavy footsteps bounded close. The boy who Remus assumed was James paled as he frantically slid the trolly door shut.
“What-?” Remus stood.
“SHHHH!” James glanced back in a panic and waved a hand at him “He’s gonna hear us.”
“Who is going to hear us?” Remus whispered.
Just then, a gangly shadow was cast through the semi-transparent door, pacing back and forth and knocking on different doors. Although it was probably intelligible for James, Remus could pick out snippets of the prowler's conversations with the other first-years. He caught the words thief, git, and slimy four-eyed bastard .
There was a pause in the racket outside. James leaned his ear against the door, utter silence except for the reliable chug-chug-chug-chug of the tracks.
The shadow of a gangly boy walked by their car and stopped.
Remus realized he was holding his breath.
The boy whipped his head towards them in a very creepy and sudden motion.
James scrambled as far away from the door as possible, knocking into Remus and sending them both to the carpeted floor. “ He’s found us !” James whispered. Remus was terrified.
Remus quickly untangled his limbs as James drew his wand and pointed it at the door. Remus looked up, but the figure was gone now.
Nothing.
They crouched on the floor, Remus wasn’t quite sure what they were waiting for but he was not about to be the first to move.
“ Get your wand ready.” James mouthed.
Remus of course didn’t have a wand yet. It was difficult for wizards who have been “permanently transformed” into anything classified as a “magical creature” to legally practice magic, so the headmaster would be accompanying Remus to Olivanders himself to ensure that there would be no trouble.
No pressure, right?
He ended up brandishing a rolled-up edition of The Daily Prophet. Then, just slowly enough to be horrifying, the door slid open by itself,
“AHHHH!” A tall kid pounced into the room, claws out. Remus was jostled as the new boy body slammed into James. James made eye contact with Remus in the flurry of tangled robes and fists. “HELP!”
Remus impulsively whacked the kid with his newspaper.
“Ow! What the-?”
The kid swatted at him and Remus got a glimpse of his face - arched eyebrows, narrow nose, thick shaggy hair like a symmetrical mop. He kind of looked like one of The Beatles . He even had a t-shirt of some muggle rock band peeking out from under his school robes.
Intruder #2 was straddling Intruder #1 now, pinning arms down to the side and trying to pry something small out of his white-knuckled grip.
“NO!” James spat the other kid’s long hair out of his mouth. “I saw it FIRST!”
“IT’S NOT EVEN YOUR CARD- I BOUGHT THAT ONE!”
“How do you know?!” James shot back, ducking a swat to the head.
“BECAUSE I FUCKING DID!”
The new kid finally yanked the object away and stood up, one foot on James’ defeated chest as he proudly raised a small illustrated card above his head.
Remus thought he might have seen a similar image on a statue once. The boy flipped the thin trophy in his hand, and Remus could swear that the sunlight glinted off of it like gold.
“What’s that?” Remus asked.
The boy noticed him for the first time and looked at him with dark almond-shaped eyes.
Remus suddenly wanted to impress him. He had never heard a kid say the f-word before.
“A chocolate frog card,” he stepped off James who let out a quiet “oof”, and walked over to him. Remus guessed he was forgiven for smacking him with a newspaper.
He showed Remus the sweet-smelling card, “It’s Babbity Rabbity .” He looked at Remus seriously and he realized that he was supposed to say something.
Remus nodded sagely, “ Babbity Rabbity?”
“Yes. And this bitch tried to steal it from me.” He looked back at James who was cleaning his glasses with his shirt like nothing had happened.
By the time Remus’ gaze shifted back, there was a pale hand inches from his face and a wide grin with a missing tooth. “I’m Sirius.”
Remus looked at the hand, it was wearing rings too big for kid fingers.
Remus shook it heartily. “I’m Remus Lupin.”
“I’m James Potter if anyone cares.” James raised an exhausted hand up.
Remus watched as Sirius took him in with what Remus hoped was equal curiosity. Remus pulled his sleeves down reflexively and hoped he looked friend-material enough.
The boy met his eyes and tapped his chin in the exact fashion James had. “Cool scar.” Despite all of his restless energy, his gaze was really still. Remus looked away, he didn’t like being perceived by people. Especially not by boys who were clearly way cooler than him.
“Thanks.”
“Do you want some candy?”
Remus did in fact want some candy.
He shrugged, “Sure.”
Another boy with close-cropped hair who looked too young to be a first-year had joined them shortly after Sirus began whipping candies out of nowhere.
Remus couldn’t believe his luck. Day one, and three kids already seemed to want to hang out with him. He tried not to smile too much. He didn’t want to seem uncool, but this whole thing was a bit surreal. He wasn’t even allowed to attend Hogwarts a month ago. He had spent several years resigning himself to that fact when Albus Dumbledore himself had appeared at middle-of-nowhere cottage and offered an exception.
Now he was on his way to learn how to wield magic at the most prestigious wizarding school in Europe. He hadn’t felt this hopeful about life in a long time.
“Have you tried these?” Peter , the smallest and newest addition to the car, extended a small purple orb with glossy silver streaks to him.
“May I?” Remus felt like he might be taking advantage of all of these kids’ spending money, but he had never tried half of the sweets before so he didn’t feel too bad. Peter tossed him the marble-sized candy and Remus plopped it in his mouth. Too late, he realized that the other boys had stopped what they were doing to watch. Perhaps he should have asked what was in it before confidently consuming.
His entire body switched to a bright shade of purple. He gave a violet blush as the boys roared with laughter. As the purple wore off, James unwrapped something coated in orange foil and thrust a chocolatey Fizzing Wizzbee toward him.
Remus quickly shook his head. “No, I’m okay.”
James pushed it closer.“No seriously mate, you gotta try some.”
“I don’t really like chocolate.”
Remus had never had chocolate before, but he wasn’t about to admit that to James.
After he was bit, his mother smothered him with affection. Suffocated him with it, even. Taking care of him more like some odd creature-pet than a son.
If dogs were allergic to chocolate, Mrs. Lupin assumed that Remus could be too.
It was a degrading kind of love.
And as much as they were mocked and feared in the wizarding news, very little was known about werewolves. Their bodies weren’t studied for fear that the healer might catch the “infection”, and their history wasn’t studied because people tended to not care about the origins of things they didn’t like.
“Earth to Remus, hello Remus-” James waved a tanned hand in front of his face.
He blinked. “Sorry.”
“Are you allergic to nuts?” James was searching for something in his nice messenger bag.
“What?”
“Are you allergic to nuts?”
“No.”
“Or milk,” Peter chimed in. He sat criss-cross across from them and chewed on an inexplicably stretchy piece of taffy.
“No, milk isn’t an allergy food,” James waved him off.
“Milk is an allergy food,” Peter proclaimed between chews.
“What?” James seemed genuinely confused. “How can someone be allergic to milk?”
“Anyone can be allergic to anything-”
“Yeah,” Sirius added. “For example, I’m allergic to you.”
James took a step forward, one accusatory finger pointed at a smirking Sirius. He hesitated and narrowed his eyebrows as if confused about how he got roped into fighting again.
Remus had only been exposed to the pair for a couple of minutes now, but he got the feeling that all roads lead back to bickering. He wanted to be close to them like that.
“Nevermind, here-” James again thrust the candy inches from Remus's flustered face. “Just try it.”
Three bright faces looked expectantly at him.
Well then…
Remus certainly didn’t have the power to resist peer pressure that strong, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. He took the fly-shaped chocolate and ate the whole thing, chewing it wholeheartedly. Might as well commit . If it’s poison Mother can say “I told you so,”.
The candy melted in his mouth like butter with an artificial cherry aftertaste. The cacao powder coating lit up the pleasure centers in his brain.
“Oh wow…” Remus finally commented. “That’s actually quite good.”
“AYYYYYY quite good!” The boys all cheered and Remus got the feeling that theirs would be the car that kept getting shushed by the trolly cart lady. He grinned.
Remus had always wanted to be loud .