The Marauder's Grand Entrance.
October 16, 1975
Remus jogged up to the door to the Transfiguration classroom, extremely out of breath from having run up a multitude of stairs from his dorm to the class. He opened the door, and slid into his seat in the very back of the classroom.
“Nice of you to join us on this fine afternoon, Mr. Lupin,” McGonagall started sharply, from her place behind her large wooden desk in the front of the classroom.
“Sorry Professor, It won’t happen again,” panted Remus, quickly unpacking his transfiguration materials from his beat up brown leather satchel.
“No matter. 5 points from Slytherin.”
“Fuck, Remus what the hell were you doing that cost us 5 house points?” whispered Regulus, sitting in the seat next to Remus from behind their shared desk.
“Sorry Reg, I dropped my inkwell in the hall right after History of Magic, and I had to run down to the dorms right away to get another one, I hope you don’t mind, I borrowed an extra one of yours, the one I dropped was my last.” rambled Remus, still breathless, “You know, I never quite understood why we had to use a quill and ink, I mean couldn’t we just use pencils?”
Regulus looked up with a confused expression on his face, “What the fuck’s a pencil?”
“Regulus… a pencil? You don’t know what a pencil is?”
“No, what the hell is that?”
“Fucking purebloods,” muttered Remus, rolling his eyes, “Whatever, it doesn’t matter, do you know what we’re supposed to be doing?”
“Yes, we’re supposed to turn this teacup into a mouse by the end of the hour.”
“Oh, alright, that should be easy enough.”
“Yeah that’s what Barty said right before he accidentally gave his teacup legs but none of the rest of the mouse and it ran right off the table,” grumbles Regulus, “McGonagall won’t even give him a new one, I think she’s planning on just failing him and Evan.”
“Oh, well we’re far better wizards than Barty Crouch Jr.,” smirked Remus.
“Hey!” cried Barty indignantly from the table opposite from Remus and Regulus, “It wasn’t my fault, Rosier here didn’t give me the proper incantation.”
“You fucking idiot of course I gave you the right incantation, you’re just too stupid to say it right,” argued Evan heatedly.
The two of them began bickering incessantly while Regulus and Remus started reading the excerpt from their Transfiguration textbook on turning inanimate objects into animals. A few minutes later, after they had started attempting the transfiguration with no luck, the two girls at the table next to theirs shrieked.
“I got it! I got it, professor!” shouted Pandora Lestrange from next to Regulus.
McGonagall strode over to inspect their work and sighed, “Miss Lestrange, Miss Connor, I’m afraid that I cannot accept a chinchilla. The instructions specifically said to transfigure this teacup into a mouse.”
“Well yes, professor I’m aware, but you see we thought- well I thought- that a chinchilla is a far better animal than a mouse, and if we had to transfigure the cup into a rodent that we might as well make it one that we enjoy, don’t you think? I mean, what on earth do you even do with all these mice after the lesson’s all done?” babbled Pandora.
“Well, Miss Lestrange, if you must know, I release them into the forest at the end of the day,” said McGonagall.
“Well then they’re bound to be eaten by snakes or whatever other creatures that live in the forest– don’t you think Avalon?” Pandora looked over to her partner expectantly, a 4th year Slytherin girl called Avalon Connor, with porcelain skin, freckles, bright blue eyes, and strawberry blonde hair. “Oh yes, Professor McGonagall, all sorts of things will eat these poor mice, and let me tell you- it is not a pretty way to go,” she said quickly, smiling sweetly.
“And so if we make a chinchilla instead- well Avalon and I thought it could make a good pet. We could have shared custody and everything.” finished Pandora.
Professor McGonagall sighed once more, “Well… I suppose it’s alright as long as you take care of it properly.”
“Oh yes Professor,” “Of course Professor,” the girls said simultaneously looking triumphant.
McGonagall walked back to the front of the class towards her desk rubbing her temples.
As soon as she turned her back, Regulus, Remus, Barty, Evan, and Pandora looked at each other at once and burst into a fit of laughter.
Once the lesson was dismissed– Remus and Regulus having successfully transfigured the teacup into a mouse with no altercations– the group filed out into the hall and started towards the Great Hall for lunch. They got to the Slytherin table and sat down next to Dorcas Meadowes. Pandora also sat at the Slytherin table- although she was a Ravenclaw, she hardly ever sat at her proper table. As soon as they had all loaded their plates with food and their goblets with drink, the Great Hall erupted in screams.
Remus looked up and saw hundreds- if not thousands of blue cornish pixies. People all across the room were running around yelling, and soon the entire place was in absolute chaos. Remus grabbed the sleeve of Regulus’ robe and yanked them both under the table, the rest of their group following suit shortly. Remus risked a glance out from their safe haven and saw a shrieking boy being lifted into the air by a swarm of the pixies, with one of his friends holding on tightly to his shoe, trying– and failing– to keep him grounded. Remus, Regulus, Barty, Evan, Dorcas, and Pandora plus a few others that had been seated at their table who had seen them duck under to escape the pixies, and had subsequently done the same, stayed crouched low to the ground until they heard a loud CRACK, a THUD, and then all the noise quickly ceased.
They then finally emerged to see the pixies frozen in the air looking extremely confused, and Professor Dumbledore standing in the centre of the room with his wand to the air. He lowered his wand and said calmly, “James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew, would you be so kind as to follow me to my office?”
With another swish of his wand the pixies all got swept into a large black cage that had appeared in the corner of the room. As soon as all the creatures had been stored behind the metal bars, a large padlock appeared on the door and locked with a loud CLICK.
Dumbledore swiftly strode out of the Great Hall, and three smaller figures, with respectively brown, black, and blond hair scurried after him, and Remus heard their laughter echo down the hall long after they were out of sight.
“Fuck, now our lunch is ruined,” complained Barty, looking at the mess of overturned plates and goblets.
“Of course it fucking is, he ruins everything.” Regulus snarled, visible anger rising in his face.
“Oh, Reggie it’s OK,” Pandora remarked airily, “I can go down to the kitchens and ask the elves to make us more food, and we can eat outside on the lawn, it really is quite lovely outside.”
“No.” Regulus said stiffly, “I’ve got work to do anyways, I’ll be in the common room.”
Regulus turned on his heel and stalked out of the Great Hall.
“Tosser,” scowled Dorcas.
“He really is quite the drama queen,” added Evan.
Pandora smiled, “Well if anyone else wants to have a picnic outside I can still go ask the elves.”
“Yeah that sounds lovely, Panda, Regulus can go sulk in peace, let's have lunch outside,” said Dorcas, linking her arm with Pandora’s and walking in the direction of the kitchens.
Barty and Evan quickly followed, linking arms as well and swinging them back and forth sarcastically.
“Come on Remus lets go,” urged Evan, turning to grab Remus’ hand with his free arm.
“Erm, I’ve just realised, I’ve got a big Arithmancy essay due tomorrow– I haven’t even started it so I’m going to go down to the common room as well if that’s alright.”
“Oh, well, see you later then mate,” shrugged Evan, Barty attempting to drag him towards the girls who were now a few feet ahead.
Remus grabbed his bag, waved to his friends goodbye and hurried through the giant maze that was The Hogwarts Castle, down to the Slytherin common room in the dungeons.
He halted in front of the grey stone serpent that was the entrance to the common room and spoke.
“ Pureblood ,” Remus enunciated.
Really, he thought it was a pretty shit password. I mean, Pureblood? For fuck’s sake Remus himself wasn’t even a pureblood and neither were about ¼ of the Slytherins. But nonetheless, that had been the password since his first day at the school. He supposed it hadn’t changed since Hogwarts had been founded.
The door swung open and Remus stepped into the common room.
Regulus was sitting in a large green armchair angled towards the fireplace with a large book sitting open on his lap. The moment Remus stepped into the room, Regulus craned his neck to see who had entered the room.
“Fuck off,” he snapped once he saw Remus
“Aww you’re too sweet princess,” Remus replied sweetly, striding over to the identical armchair opposite Regulus.
“Im serious, Remus fucking leave I don’t need your pity.”
“I’m not here to give you any of my pity,” Remus said, raising an eyebrow as he sat down. After a moment of debating whether or not to say it, he added, “And I thought your brother was Sirius.”
That earned Regulus throwing his very heavy hardcover book directly at Remus’ head, which he dodged, grinning cheekily.
After a few moments of Remus looking pointedly at Regulus while he avoided Remus’ gaze, Regulus finally said sharply, “And he’s not my brother anymore. James fucking Potter is.”
“Reggie, just because Sirius ran away doesn’t mean he loves you any less. I mean, fuck, if I lived with your parents in that house I probably would too.”
“No, you wouldn’t. You wouldn’t abandon me with them . Sirius would. Sirius did. He left me. He left me at the most important time, Remus.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Remus agreed simply, “You don’t have to forgive him. No one expects you to.”
“He’s not my brother anymore. He doesn’t fucking get to be.” Regulus says with an edge to his voice, “He doesn’t get to be the one who left me. I’m the one disowning him. Not the other way around.”
“Alright Reggie,” exclaimed Remus slightly sarcastically, “There's the petty, dramatic Regulus Arcturus Black that I know.”
Regulus glared at Remus, “Shut up or I’ll throw another book at your face.”