Fifteen Minutes
Friday 2nd September 1971
When Remus had fallen asleep the night before what he hadn’t expected was to be woken up with a bell ringing so loud he swore you could hear it everyplace in the castle. It rang and rang and rang, and just the moment you thought it would be over it started again. Just a constant repeat of ring ring ring.
Remus let his eyes wander around the room, letting the panic take over him for a split moment when he forgot where exactly he was but then it all came flooding back in. Running at a wall. The signs everywhere that read 9 ¾. The train. The carvings on the wall. Lily Evans and Severus Snape. Sirius Black and James Potter and Peter Pettigrew. The sorting.
He let his head fall back onto his pillow. He was exhausted, he couldn’t remember the last time he had been on a train or left the city of London at all, and now suddenly in the span of one day and night, he found himself in a bed not his own, in a room of strangers, and a bell shouting bloody murder into his ear.
People at home were loud, sure, but they had never made it a point to wake Remus. They let him sleep and get up whenever he felt like it. Oh, he was not going to get used to this anytime soon, he decided upon seeing Wesley Creevey from the corner of his eye stuffing his head in through the collar of his uniform's shirt.
A loud clang of something on the floor turned Remus’ eyes from Wes over to Sirius’ bed. He was sitting there, groaning and picking up a black bottle he’d dropped on the floor, his robes already on it seemed.
Peter was sitting in his own bed, right next to Remus’, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and James was also only making his way out of bed, his hair going all place at once and the large smudge that took over almost half his face, a birthmark Remus had assumed, was looking much darker than it had the night before.
The ringing of the bell abruptly stopped the moment Remus sat up and this time it fully ended and didn’t come back when Remus was preparing himself for more.
“Morning!” Wes called, fiddling with his red tie and giving up halfway through, “forgot to mention this will be the way you wake up every morning if you’re not out of bed by seven.” How did one just forget that? “Main reason I wake up at five every morning.”
He then nodded towards a huge wooden closet in the corner of the room, right by the door to the toilet. “That’s where you’ll find your uniforms, I went and fetched them a couple hours ago, breakfast is down in the great hall and you’ll all get your schedules there. Class starts in two hours, ask the Prefects if you need help with something but I’ll be here to answer questions I know the answers to.” His voice was high and excited as he spoke, a wonder for someone to be as early as it was. His hands were flying around, wand in hand as he made his bed, but then knocked down a shelveful of books and when he went to pick them up, he broke a vase.
Yet somehow not even once did he lose his toothy smile. Something Remus wasn’t used to. Everyone at home frowned and cursed whenever something didn’t go their way yet here was Wesley Creevey smiling going about his business as he broke everything in the dorm room.
About ten minutes passed and waving his wand violently, everything was fixed. With dirt on the floor and one of the books burned but it was better than leaving it as it had been. “I need to go,” he suddenly stated as he stuffed his wand into the bag he had laid out on his bed. “I’m already late. I’m very happy to share my room with such wonderful individuals and I’ll see you back here around…” He trailed off for a second, “I’ll just see you.”
And just like that, he was gone. Out the door, a bag on his shoulder, and he was gone so suddenly Remus had to take a minute or two to understand what had just happened.
Remus’ eyes landed on James’ whose bed lay right across from him and from the expression, James didn’t have a good grasp on the situation either. Sirius, on the other hand, seemed completely unbothered while Peter was still half asleep to really be aware of anything.
Remus just let his eyes wander around the room for a few seconds as he tried for all the sleepiness to leave. But then the bell sounded again. Loud and clear but this time it rang for only a moment before it stopped again.
“Merlin, Peter, Mate!” Shouted Sirius, now crouching on his bed doing something with his— oh, he was painting his toenails. “The bell stops if all of us are awake, so now get out of bed if you could, please.” He didn’t glance up even once, just continued with the painting.
Something Remus hadn’t expected to see a boy do so openly, especially at eleven. Even Maddy never allowed people around when he did his makeup, Remus supposed that was because he refused people to see him barefaced but still. It was like a silent rule of no one going in when Maddy does his makeup, something they all had agreed upon without a word.
“I’m up…” Peter groaned from his bed, flopping out from below his sheets and down onto the floor with a loud crash.
“Debatable.” Remus found himself saying, though no one seemed to really hear him as James was now loudly laughing at Peter with small and short breaths in between. How they had so much energy, Remus didn’t know. He was in agreement with Peter, not the way he was literally crawling on the floor but his unwillingness to wake up.
Remus had never been to school, not really, which meant he always had his own schedule, and waking up at seven was in no way a part of it. Not even close. Waking up earlier than twelve at all had been a rare occurrence.
James scrambled up from his bed and wobbled over to the toilet, Sirius started painting the nails on his other foot, and Peter continued crawling all the way over to the closet. Remus wasn’t used to— whatever this was. Or maybe it was just because this was the first time Remus was surrounded by people of his own age so he had no idea what people his age did.
Remus hung out with old men who smoked pot and drank every bar dry but he doubted many other eleven-year-olds did that. That’s what he assumed since he never had made contact with one before yesterday.
__________
It took a while for Remus to actually stand up from the bed he had slept the night (which he refused to address as his own) and join the other three boys in getting ready for the day. He got on his uniform that felt much more different than anything he had ever worn in his life, it felt expensive and soft and something Remus had never gotten to touch.
It had multiple layers, far too many for summer, really. It consisted of a white collared shirt, a grey jumper aligned with the house of Gryffindors house colors which also carried onto the tie, plain black pants (too big on Remus, he had to roll them up multiple times for them to stop at his ankles), and of course the robe. It was Black and buttoned from the top with the Gryffindor house crest on your heart. And your name is embroidered on the inside.
Remus had never actually seen his name written down. It looked as dumb as it sounded, he was pretty sure.
He walked down into the great hall, following a group of fifth years who somehow seemed to know exactly where they were headed. The turns and stairs and rooms only reminded Remus much more about the fact he needed a map.
James was jittering about his summer the whole way while Peter dragged behind yawning and rubbing at his eyes every five seconds, Sirius only commented here and there, and Remus stayed quiet. Unsurprisingly, no one even had the thought to ask him anything in an effort to join the conversation.
James went on about how his parents had taken him to Scotland and shown him all the places they had gone to when they were students. About them teaching him spells and telling him everything about the forbidden forest and the creatures that lived there.
Remus blocked out his voice eventually without even realizing it. Something he had gotten so used to doing that now it just came naturally.
The Great Hall was mostly empty at this time. Most first years had already left so they wouldn’t get lost and be late for their first classes, only around ten to fifteen people sat per table, all so spread out it looked less than it was.
At the Gryffindor table, most were sixth and seventh years with a few sprinkled out third and fourth years. No one who looked like a first or second year seemed to be around. First years were easy to spot with their uniforms looking so formal while seventh years had almost entirely scrapped theirs. Usually only keeping the tie and the coat.
As the boys sat down, timetables immediately appeared on the table. Yeah, it was definitely going to take some getting used to. Remus was going to be only around magic for months.
All of them had the same classes at the same time which wasn’t supposed to be. Today it was Charms, Herbology, Potions, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Yeah, Remus could survive today, at least he hoped so.
“Oh!” Peter shouted in excitement, sounding much more energetic after he had gotten food down his system. “We have Charms with Hufflepuff!”
“That’s where your sister went, right?” Spoke James, he never seemed to shut up.
Peter nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah! I got worried I wouldn’t see her much after the sorting.” Why did he have to be so excited now? It was eight and they all sounded to stupidly and weirdly energetic.
“She was cute,” mumbled Sirius, his mouth full of bread. His eyeliner and lipstick went all over the place but no one had the heart to really tell him that.
The three continued talking and talking endlessly, how did they have so many words? Remus could barely say one sentence before wanting to bury his head back into his pillow and not emerge until hours later.
“What about you, Rem?”
“Huh?” Remus was exhausted. He had to wake up earlier than he ever really had, he was surrounded by unfamiliarity, he was out of London for the first time from what he could remember, strangers were by every corner he looked, the full moon was in a few days, and now this.
Why did they have to talk to him?
“I asked what you’re the most excited for.” James was speaking. His bright smile hadn’t left his face since they had left their dorm room, of the others, he’d been the last to fall asleep — Remus knew this since around full moons he found it harder to sleep meaning he only slept for around an hour — so how could he be here all smiley like he’d had the greatest sleep of his life?
Remus shrugged his shoulders, “don’t know.” He muttered, voice quiet, not even trying to hide his annoyance.
Either the others acknowledged his annoyance when they stopped trying to speak with him or they just got distracted by other topics. Topics James Potter never seemed to be lacking.
Remus sat quietly for the rest of breakfast, finishing his toast
__________
Breakfast ended at nine o’clock and the first class started at nine fifteen. There were still no maps given meaning the students had to either find the class by themselves or ask some of the older students but most students had already left for class. And so the four first-year students found the class with the vague direction they’d been given the night before (they excluding Remus).
They found the classroom around twenty minutes later in the east towers, thankfully right before the Professor— Flitwick, he would later introduce himself— had started the lesson, He gave stern looks to the boys as they entered but let them slip into their seats alongside the other first-year Gryffindors without a word.
To Remus’ surprise, despite the warm atmosphere Peter provided along with his smile and the fact he was very immersed in the conversations with Sirius and James, they weren’t the ones he decided to take a seat with. Instead, he climbed to the back row to sit next to a girl who had hair as blonde as ones could be. She smiled brightly and immediately started whispering into the boy's ear.
James and Sirius took a seat in the front row, the farthest from where the small Professor stood. Remus noticed Lily sitting a few students between her and the other two, and deciding she was a better option than anyone else, he squeezed behind the many students until he made it to the redhead, who was speaking with a girl sitting next to her. Her head snapped up and away from the one Remus didn’t recognize the moment the boy's knee slightly brushed her back as he took the seat next to her.
A smile grew on her face but nowhere near as obnoxious as the one the boys had worn the entire morning. She gave a small wave and mouthed a “hi”. Remus only nodded.
Flitwick introduced himself, again clearly, before starting the lesson. They didn’t learn anything new yet and just went over the kind of spells they would be learning this year. Just small and light spells. Well, that was supposed to have been expected for first-year students.
Remus barely understood a word the Professor was saying but Lily hushed him when he tried asking when she clearly knew exactly what was being talked about. Flitwick displayed a few of the spells, his wand flowing in his hand as he explained a small summary of each of them individually.
He went on and on about the rules of when the spells were appropriate to use, the rules of both the classroom and dueling. Remus, who was left-handed, kept bumping elbows with the student next to him and soon gave up on taking notes, deciding to borrow Lily’s later— her notes looked more organized than Remus could ever get his, anyhow.
The class was around forty-five minutes to an hour but to Remus, it felt much longer. Flitwick spoke so slowly and sternly with long breaks in between every word, Remus wondered just how had no one fallen asleep to that yet.
Remus almost sighed in relief when the class was announced ended. He stood up within seconds of the loud sound of the bell ringing through the castle walls and heard Flitwick huff before addressing the class. He said you could find him in the classroom most times if you had any questions to ask and then reminded them that on Monday after the students had made themselves familiar with the school grounds, that they would be starting to learn wand movements before being able to learn spells so “don’t get too excited just yet”.
And then they were allowed to leave. Remus made a straight beeline for the door, entirely just jumping over the long table instead of walking around it. Lily called after him which he ignored all the way until he made it out the door. He was barely able to breathe in there, being around so many people wasn’t anything new so it had to be something else but Remus decided against staying to find out.
The first person Remus recognized to walk out of the class behind him was Peter, accompanied by his sister and the girl he’d sat together with during the entirety of the class. Upon seeing Remus waiting by the doorway, he smiled a soft smile.
“Rem!” He sounded genuinely surprised to find him still there, and what? Had they all just unanimously agreed on a nickname without the person involved knowing? “We—” He was interrupted before he could continue any further.
“Hi, nice to meet you. I’m Jack.” Introduced the slender girl, reaching her hand out. “Well, not Jack. Jaqueline. But people usually call me Jack so- yeah. Call me whatever you’d like. I mean obviously not whatever you like but- just Jaqueline. Or Jack, you—”
“Alright, ‘whatever you’d like’, I think he gets it.” Laughed the blonde, earning an elbow in the stomach from the other girl.
“Shut it, Mckinnon.” Jaqueline rolled her eyes as they all started heading for where their next classes were to be held.
“Not my fault you’ve forgotten how to talk to boys and no, Pete doesn’t count.” Added the blonde when Jaqueline started to protest.
“Am I not boy enough for you?” Retorted Peter, who fastened his steps to catch up with them.
Mckinnon shook her head, a glint in her eye, “afraid not, love.” Her eyes then fell on Remus and he maneuvered out of Peter's fire and fell into step next to Remus, “Marlene Mckinnon, you?”
Remus looked her up and down, actually taking her in this time. She looked ragged, quite the opposite of how the other first years did as she’d already given up looking presentable despite the fact it was only the first day. Her hair was thin and greasy, just slightly making it past her shoulders along with terribly cut bangs cut just above her eyelids. Her robe was open revealing that she had gotten rid of the jumper, only wearing the white collared shirt.
Remus was so used to every person offering their hands that it took a moment for him to realize that wasn’t what Marlene Mckinnon was going to do and so he gave a slight nod, “Remus Lupin.”
The girl's mouth fell into an oval shape and she smiled, “That’s wicked! I’ve always wanted a cool name like that. Marlene means ‘star of the sea’ or something but I’ve never really fancied it, you know?”
Remus was starting to regret not just going by himself or even waiting for Lily and the other boys because at least none of them were trying to talk to him even when he so obviously wasn’t interested. But much like James Potter, Marlene Mckinnon never seemed to be shy of topics. Even receiving no answer, she continued. “I was named after my Grandmother, she…” She went on and on, not even waiting for a reply. And perhaps that was a good thing, Remus couldn’t promise he wouldn’t say any out-of-hand comments.
Jaqueline departed with them at the stairs to continue to the dungeons where the potions classroom stood while the three Gryffindors found their next stop, the greenhouse, east of where the great hall was placed. And unlike charms, Herbology was only with Gryffindors, making Remus relieved that it was only around half as full as the charms classroom had been.
On the way, Remus made sure to take note of both the Transfiguration and History of Magic classrooms that were aligned next to each other, the library in the middle. Remus reminded himself to put those down later so he could make a small map that at least showed him the general location of the classrooms and the common room so he wouldn’t get lost again.
Peter found a spot closest to where the Professor would later stand followed by Marlene and reluctantly Remus, who would rather sit with them than strangers since the others had yet to arrive.
A few minutes passed and Lily was the first to enter, she smiled brightly at Remus, once again abandoning the poor girl she’d been in conversation with and joining the three. She smiled at Marlene, mentioning to Remus they happened to be dormmates but didn’t know each other outside of that.
Remus only nodded, his eyes falling on Sirius as he arrived, closely followed by James. Their faces were red from laughter as they found seats right across from Lily and Remus. Sirius winked with a slight wave of his hand, his makeup, unfortunately, making it look very unnatural, while James gave Lily a huge smile which she proceeded to completely ignore.
Barely a minute later, the Professor showed herself from behind the random bushes that had found themselves all the way at the back of the greenhouse. She looked around the same age as McGonagall did just less stern.
Professor Sprout, she would introduce herself with wide eyes. And just like in Charms, they only learned what their course for the year would look like. Wands usually would not be needed, so keep them away, she’d say while swinging her own wand in her hand.
She had them open up their textbooks and mark the pages they would be needing for the year. Only a bunch of greenery and different magical plants but what else should Remus have expected from Herbology? Lily, once again, took a very large amount of notes, about what? Remus still wasn’t completely sure but still took note to ask for them later just in case.
After the two classes in a row, there was a short fifteen-minute break in between, which Remus found the perfect opportunity to ask for the notes from Lily from the two previous classes. They walked together to the dungeons and found themselves walking past the Hufflepuff common room as well as the Kitchens which Remus tried remembering to add to the small map he was already creating in his head.
The duo found themselves in the potions classroom, almost freezing. It was somehow ten times colder than it had been in the hallway. And against Remus’ luck, they shared their potions class with Slytherin. The way he knew that instead of assuming they just decided to stay there for the break? Severus Snape found them the second they walked in and the first thing that came out of his mouth was, “We share this class!” Remus quite literally wanted to throw himself against a wall.
Lily apologized, saying she’d lent Remus her notes later as she walked off with Snape, whispering into his ear, earning a strong smirk from the greasy-haired bastard. How did Lily put up with him? Remus had no idea.
Remus found a seat at a somehow completely empty table, right in the corner. His luck decided to balance with his unluckiness just this once.
The Professor, Remus assumed, was working through his shelves and just from one look Remus realized he was wearing a fleece-made suit. If even the Professor couldn’t handle the temperature why was it so cold in the first place?
During the fifteen-minute break, people filed in and out of the room just the same until only Gryffindors and Slytherins were sat at each table. His dormmates had unfortunately found him the moment they entered and all sat around him. Sirius to his left, James to his right, and Peter to James’ right. Marlene joined them too, sitting next to Sirius and across from Remus.
Unsurprisingly, she and James seemed to have hit it off and sparks were flying every time one of them opened their mouths. Quite annoying, really, Remus thought.
The Potions class, unlike the two prior, was two hours long. The Professor started talking and didn’t introduce himself until one of the Gryffindor students asked. Slughorn, he said. And cut off the few snickers here and there with a sweet smile that harbored a quiet threat.
Slughorn then started the class by telling everyone in the class to find themselves a partner they would need for the rest of the year. Sirius and James, unsurprisingly, chose each other, as did Peter and Marlene, and Severus and Lily. They all gave Remus apologetic looks (except for Snape, obviously) when Slughorn called on him, noticing his lack of a partner.
“Lupin, you’re with Mulciber. Avery, shoo.” He somehow managed to sound so friendly when he kicked the other Slytherin from his seat, receiving a hiss from the frail brunet as he went to find a new seat.
Mulciber had a glint in his eye when Remus reluctantly found a seat where Avery had moments ago sat. He offered his hand, “David Mulciber.” There was something Remus couldn’t stand in his voice, something that sound like taunting mixed with amusement.
Remus’ decision was even faster than the one he had done with Snape the day prior on the train. He didn’t like this boy. He had brown skin, a smug smile that could be spotted from miles away, and those glinting brown eyes Remus wanted nothing more than to carve out with his wand and add them as ingredients to whatever potion the first they would learn was.
Remus shrugged off the arm held out to him and turned his attention to Slughorn who had started speaking. He went over the potions and ingredients that lined the walls, showing the effect of some of the ones they would be learning this year. He then offered the wrist and arm movements they would need for mixing, how a different color flower even if being the same kind as in the recipe would work badly.
It went on like that for those two hours, Slughorn happily taking any question thrown his way making each topic much longer than they could’ve been. So when the class was announced over, Remus was happily the first out of the class again, completely ignoring Mulciber who had been trying to speak with him for the entire two hours.
It was lunch next and even when sitting far away from where he had sat during breakfast, Peter, Sirius, and James all found their way to him and sat the same way they had that morning; Peter on Remus’ left, Sirius across, and James across from Peter. Neither girls were once again nowhere to be seen.
Lunch went the same way Breakfast had. Aside from a few questions, no one really talked to Remus and he didn’t try to include himself. Only focusing on finishing his lunch so he could leave as fast as he could.
After lunch was Defence Against the Dark Arts. They once again used words Remus could barely understand, this time only also going over all the ways to hold the wand depending on the spell. They talked about creatures and so on, Remus blocking most of it out with the plan to ask Lily for the notes he knew she was taking.
The rest of the day Remus could barely remember on later dates. Unimportant he had classified it after giving up trying to remember. He knew he’d sat together with Lily in the library for awhile while he copied down her notes that had somehow become pages long from only four classes.
There was a gap in his memory after that, what happened from five to six was a complete mystery to him and eventually, he’d stop thinking back asking himself why he couldn’t remember. There was dinner at six but again, Remus couldn’t remember what had happened there, whether he and Sirius and James and Peter sat in the same formation as they had before speaking about their classes. He’d decided that they had, just to fill in the blankness he had in his brain.
His memory of when they returned back to their dorm was normal.
Peter immediately ran inside and jumped on his bed, burying his head into his pillow. Remus almost melted entirely when he sat on his bed for the first time since that morning. He hadn’t gotten to sit on anything soft and was sure his legs would have stopped working if he was away any longer.
Wes entered the room around an hour later. His hair was flattened on his head and his skin was glistening from sweat. None of them had seen him since that morning so they had no idea what he could have been doing the entire day. He gave a playful salute when he noticed everyone in the room staring at him.
“Hope y’all had a good first day.” He smiled seconds before running to his bedside table and drawing out night clothes before hurrying into the bathroom. The shower was then heard running.
Remus switched looks with Sirius but just shrugged it off in the end. No one's business was his except his own.
Later that night, when everyone had gone to sleep, Remus thought he heard Wes sneaking out. But when he woke up the next morning, Wes was in deep sleep under his covers.