Remus Lupin needs friends
Sirius stood outside in the freezing rain, the rain had started halfway on his walk down to the train station and hadn’t stopped. Sirius hadn’t been prepared for it, not bringing an umbrella or raincoat, or even his wand. He sat on the train station bench drenched, his hair sticking to the sides of his face and his clothes stuck to his skin in the most uncomfortable way.
After almost twenty minutes of waiting, the train finally rolled in. He stood up. Through the crowds of students, all so much taller than the first year, and pouring rain he struggled to find him. Sirius climbed up onto the bench, covering his eyes from the rain as he searched the throngs of kids and teens.
Until he heard something. Someone.
“James!” He called out.
And again, he heard someone. Calling his name.
“Sirius!”
He searched the crowd again, until finding a small black-haired boy with glasses covered in raindrops, pushing through the crowds towards him and waving with his arm shot right in the air.
“Sirius!”
“James!” He jumped down from the bench just in time for James to grab hold of Sirius and hug him tight.
“I missed you so much! I’ve got so much to tell you! Minnie came round when it was raining really heavily and I’ve got pictures!”
Sirius grinned, “Fantastic!”
“What’d you get up to?”
He shrugged, “Not much.”
“Oh, come on! You’re Sirius Black! Did you make Frank’s food start dancing around? Oh, did you make it snow in the great hall? Oh, did you set someone’s hair on fire.”
Sirius frowned slightly, his eyes darting to find Remus in the crowd. The boy was talking to Peter a few feet away, a small smile on his face as Peter hugged him.
James grabbed each side of Sirius’ face, bringing him to look directly at him, “Did you actually set something on fire? That’s class.”
“It was an accident”, Sirius mumbled.
At that moment, Peter came running over, Remus in tow. Sirius stepped back slightly, as if hiding behind James.
Peter grinned at Sirius, “Dickhead.”
Sirius grinned back, “I like that one. Dickhead.”
“Heya Remus!” James smiled.
“Hi.”
Remus made to leave, but his jumper sleeve was held back by Peter. He turned to Remus with a challenging smirk.
“Remus here”, Peter turned back to the other two, “didn’t answer a single one of my letters. I must have sent like twenty, and not one reply.”
James faux gasped, “How dare you, Lupin? Poor Pete must have been heartbroken!”
“I was”, he wiped a nonexistent tear away.
“I was busy.”
Peter didn’t let go, “Too busy to write a few sentences?”
James held back a laugh, “I think what Peter here seeks is a just punishment.”
Remus’ eyes widened and he pulled his jumper off over his head and practically sprinted away. Soon, lost in the crowds of students.
Peter looked down at the jumper, before sighing and putting it on.
“Holy Shit”, He clutched the jumper, “This is the most comfortable thing I’ve ever worn. I’m never taking this off.”
James touched the sleeve, “That is the softest thing I’ve ever felt in my entire life. Please, can I wear it for a bit? I just wanna try it on!”
Peter shook his head, “As Remus’ friend, this is one of the perks that come with it. Maybe you two should befriend him and then you can wear his jumper.”
“But it’s not like he gave it to you! And he literally just ran away from us, pretty hard to make friends with someone who leaves as soon as they see you.”
Sirius nudged James’ shoulder, “I think we should try. I mean that prank he did with us before was outstanding. And he’s our roommate for seven years, right? It’d make it a lot easier being roommates with friends.”
James folded his arms, “What happened in the holiday? I swear you couldn't stand him a couple of weeks ago.”
Sirius shrugged, “That was weeks ago, things change.”
The three walked up to their dorms, dinner was still in a couple of hours so they were planning on unpacking. And hunting down Remus to try to befriend him.
James opened the dormitory door, to find the place the neatest it had ever looked, other than Remus’ suitcase half open with its contents spewing onto his bed. The windows were shining, the floors swept and moped, the bathroom spotless, the beds all made, and every inch of the place was dusted.
“Did you clean?” Peter turned to Sirius.
He scoffed, “No. You hire people to clean, you don’t do it yourself. The school just gets all the dorms cleaned in the holidays.”
“Right.”
James already unpacking, pointed to Remus’ bed curtains, or the lack thereof.
“Where’ve his curtains gone?”
Sirius walked over to the window, pulling it open. The other two looked out and saw the burnt curtains stuck in a tree.
“It was an accident.”
Peter twisted his lip with a frown, “How do you accidentally burn someone’s curtains and throw them out the window?”
“I may have been snooping.”
“Sirius!”
“I was bored! Frank kept going off on romantic rendezvous' with Alice, and I was bored. But I mean, Remus is the one with the lighter! What does he even need that for?”
Peter grinned, “To smoke, probably.”
“Remus smokes cigars?”
“No, like normal fags.”
“Have you smoked before?”
“Course. Everyone does it, it’s hip.”
James grimaced, “It’s bad for you, kills you from the inside.”
Peter shrugged, “Quidditch has more deaths, James. Everything cool is dangerous.”
Sirius sprung from the window sill, over to Remus’ cupboard, and pulled out the lighter.
“Have you got any, Pete? I wanna try it!”
Peter paled, “Not on my at the moment, sorry.”
Sirius frowned before slipping the lighter into his pocket and running out of the room.
He ran to the library, getting chased by Pince but he kept on going, running down every aisle as Pince shouted after him. He ran and ran until finally finding him.
Remus.
“Mr. Black, stop this instant!”
Sirius halted right in front of Remus’ desk. The boy looked up, in confusion.
“Do you smoke?”
“Why?”
Sirius pulled out the lighter.
Remus shut his book, slipping it into his bag just as Pince caught up.
“Mr. Black, leave the library right now! And that is fifty points off Gryffindor for this barbaric behaviour!”
Remus stood up, and almost whispered, “I’m really sorry, Madame Pince. Sirius was just in a hurry to find me to tell me the curtains around my bed had somehow caught on fire.”
“Oh, dear.”
“We really need to go speak to Mcgonnagal about it, and please excuse Sirius’ behaviour, he was just in a right panic.”
“Of course, of course. Go ahead, you two.”
Remus smiled at her, before walking out, Sirius trailing behind him.
Once out of the library, Remus abruptly stopped walking and turned toward Sirius, “You set my curtains on fire and chuck them out the window and now you’re stealing my stuff? What the fuck did I do to you? Is it cause I’m a half-blood or whatever, or cause I’m poor? What the fuck is it, Black?”
Sirius extended the lighter, “It was an accident.”
“Stealing my lighter was an accident?”
“No, the curtains. I may have looking through your stuff and I was just bored so I was playing with your lighter and then… that happened.”
Remus frowned, “You went through my stuff?”
“I tend to do that when I’m bored, but I won’t do it again! I’ll stick to James and Peter’s stuff.”
“Right. Okay. Apology accepted or whatever. Was that all?”
Sirius shook his head, “I wanted to ask if you had any… dammit, what did Pete call them? Like the cigars but cheaper.”
Remus lifted an eyebrow.
“I don’t mean that in an insulting way, just a definition of it.”
“So you’re asking to bum a cigarette from me?”
“Um, sure. I think? I don’t really know what you just said.”
Remus took out a tobacco case, “Can we go sit down somewhere? I need to roll them.”
The two walked together to a window seat in a part of the hall that was never used. Remus sat and started rolling, gathering tobacco and putting it in the paper.
Once done he presented it to Sirius.
He grinned, “class.”
Remus questioned, “Class? Thought your brain was incapable of understanding slang?”
“James uses it.”
Remus gave Sirius the cigarette.
“Now what?”
“Put it just in between your lips and then light the other end and inhale.”
Sirius flicked the lighter on, passing it back to Remus when he was done, and inhaled.
Less than a second later, Sirius’ eyes were watering and he coughed loudly over and over. Remus laughed next to him.
“That’s disgusting!”
“It takes a while to get used to it.”
Remus took the cigarette from him, taking a deep inhale then letting the smoke out.
Sirius watched intensely, “When did you first start smoking these?”
“I think I was about eight. It was night but I was a little ill so I couldn’t sleep. I went downstairs and spotted my tad’s and I had seen him do it all the time to relax so I tried. Ended up coughing for ages, woke up both my parents, and got grounded for a week.”
“You only got grounded for a week after stealing your father’s things?”
Remus shrugged, “My dad was kinda the reason I was ill so he found it hard punishing me for something that I wouldn’t have felt the need to do if he hadn’t made me ill.”
Sirius nodded, “I hate my parents.”
“Most kids do, right?”
“James doesn’t.”
“James is not like most kids.”
Sirius turned, “What do you mean?”
Remus bit his lip to stop from laughing, “He reminds me of a grandma.”
Sirius burst out in laughter, giggling uncontrollably.
“Grandma James!”
Remus laughed with him.
The two sat there for hours, talking and laughing. Remus smoked and after a bit, Sirius tried it again. They were happy, in a world by themselves.