The Goblet of Fire
Remus walked into the Great Hall the next day talking with Lily about other books they liked.
“Have you read Jane Austen? I am obsessed with her, she writes so well and her main characters aren’t like petty little girls, they have personality and solve problems most authors get males to solve.” She suggested strongly. Remus thinks he found his platonic soulmate.
“I like Stephen King, now that is a good author. I don’t get scared much but he knows how to make anyone look over their shoulder.” He said, Lily nodded and suggested they switch books.
“Oi Redhind, over here!” The dark haired boy that made the squib comment last night yelled from the red and gold table.
Lily rolled her eyes but took Remus’s wrist and pulled him over. “Don’t mind him, he’s unfortunately my only friend.”
Remus chuckled and saw Lilys friend sitting with the group August whistled at the other night.
Lily made Remus sit next to her and across from her friend. The others looked at him with big smiles and put out their hands.
The girl August whistled at shook his hand first. “I’m Mary McDonald, pleasure to met you.” With a grin and wink.
“Hi, I’m James Potter.” James shook Remus’s hand firmly going over Lily with a large smirk making Remus blush.
Still shaking his hand he pointed to his other friends. “Thats Alice Fortescue and thats her boyfriend and my roomy Frank Longbottom. This is my other dorm mate Peter Pettigrew but you can called him Wormtail. This lovely bird sitting next to Mary is Dorcas Meadowes, she doesn’t go here.” He whispered the last bit and laughed when Dorcas kicked him.
“Sorry, sorry, she’s from Ravenclaw.”
James looked at Lily who was sitting next to him and his cheeks started turning red, he grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles as if for something to do with himself.
“And who must you be?” He asked huskily making Lily snort a laugh.
She gripped his hand from where it was daintily in his palm. “I’m Lily Evans.” The dark haired boy chuckled and Remus finally got a good look at him.
He was easily the most beautiful man Remus had ever laid eyes on. He was collarbone length back hair that looked very soft, his eyes were light gray and he had high cheekbones with pale skin.
He knew he looked foolish so he took out his hand and the dark haired boy took it. Why were his hands so soft!? “I’m Remus Lupin.”
“And I’m Sirius Black.”
Remus giggled. Him. He giggled. At a boy who’s name was an emotion. Merlin, Remus had gotten pathetic and they had only met three seconds ago.
“I see you’ve befriended my dear friend Lily. Nerding over books is a great way to start a lifelong relationship.” Sirius joked. Remus stammered a response because of course he did.
Lily came to his rescue and shoved Sirius’s hand out of Remus’s hold and kicked him. “That is no way to speak to my friend emphasise on friend because not every boy I get along with is going to marry me.” Sirius laughed and took a bite of his marmalade toast.
Remus took a deep breath and realised how hungry he was. The moon was in two days and he still didn’t know what to do but instead of worrying about it now he poured himself tea.
“So what is the name of this house. I know the green is Slytherin and I think blue is Ravenclaw and yellow is Hufflepoof-“ Mary spat out his pumpkin juice and laughed loudly.
Remus would have felt self-conscious and wished he never asked a question but the moon was upon him and he was frustrated instead.
“What!” He snapped.
Mary was giggling and Dorcas wheezing. “Sorry Remus, but Hufflepoof.” And the laughing started up again.
As the group was laughing Remus tried to not be so frustrated. Then a hand touched his shoulder, and that was the last straw. He grabbed it and flipped the person over his shoulder onto the red table with a loud crash. Food went everywhere and the Hall went silence. On the table was Marlene McKinnon and she was laughing, her blond hair was in the milk jug and she probably had jam toast stuck to her back.
“Good morning to you too, Remus.” She giggled, getting off the table and magicing herself clean. August and Igor were behind her, looking at Remus with amazement.
“You’ve got to teach me how to do that.” Igor chuckled.
“Mr Lupin can you please meet me in my office after dinner on the third floor? I’m sure Mr Potter can show you the way.” A Hogwarts teacher asked him kindly.
It was the night of the full moon and Remus wanted to rip something, preferably with his teeth, preferably a steak. He was at the red and gold table which he found out was called Gryffindor with James, the Head Boy and Marlene, the only person who knew of his ‘furry little problem’.
“Of course Minnie it would be my pleasure.” James said happily, putting an arm around Remus.
He had to summon everything he had not to growl.
Marlene saw his glare and pushed James’s arm off, putting more dinner on her friends plate. “Eat up Moony, can’t have you slouching around all cranky.” Remus scoffed and ate the ham, it was good but not what he wanted.
“Hey everything alright Remmy?” James and Sirius started calling him that to Remus’s great annoyance “you don’t look so good.”
“I’m peachy, just dandy thanks mate.”
Marlene apologised and said it was a family thing. “His mum is ill and it gets to him sometimes.”
James nodded sympathetically and ate his dinner faster. “The others will be here soon so we should get going before you get bombarded with questions.” James said surprisingly softly.
James led Remus down a hallway with a swagger that annoyed Remus more than it should.
“Here we go, Minnies office. I hope your mum gets better, my dad got sick during the holidays and I was freaking out. He’s old you see and we were worried we were gonna loose him.” James ruffled his hair uncomfortably, “be back soon, yeah? We still need to put our names in the Goblet.”
Remus nodded and gave his new friend a small smile.
The professor was sitting at her desk and gave Remus a tight smile, her hair was pulled into a tight bun. Beside her was a kind looking nurse with curly blond hair, she introduced herself as Madam Poppy Pomphrey the school nurse. “I’m sorry I’m not as knowledgable as your own matron but I’ve done some reading so you’ll be fine.”
The ladies led Remus outside the school where a large tree was, “This is the whooping willow, it will make sure students never find you during transformations.” Professor McGonagall explained before turning into a cat and calmed the tree down - Remus was still shocked by the first part. They led Remus into the tree and down a corridor, it was about three minutes before they made it to a dark room.
At Durmstrang, they locked him in the schools attic that was full of old furniture and costumes from past productions. There was a ginormous window that let the full moon shine through. Remus had cracked it once in his third year and the teachers had to put strong protection spells on it to stop him from breaking it. And since it was so high up, Remus was sure he would die if his wolf form jumped out.
“This is where you’ll be staying for the full moons here at Hogwarts. Madam Pomphrey will collect you tomorrow morning and mend to your wounds, you will be in good hands.” McGonagall explained, Madam Pomphrey nodded kindly. “Do you want us to stay with you until the transformation?”
Remus shook his head quickly. “I’ll be fine, maybe you should go soon.” He could feel his bones turning as the moon appeared in the sky. He looked around quickly and found the room was smaller than Durmstrangs attic, the windows were nailed over with wood and there was a thin mattress on the floor.
Someone cast a locking charm as he felt his back crack and he screamed.
——
Waking up in the Hogwarts infirmary was different to the Durmstrang one. This place was white everywhere whereas the one at home had light red sheets and a tree pattern on the roof.
He groaned as he moved his head, as always at his bedside was Marlene looking as worried as ever.
“Hey Moony, how you feeling?” She asked softly, her thumb brushing between his brows.
Remus moved around and felt his lower back burst with pain, he winced and cursed at his fucked up hip.
“As fine as I can be.” He answered, Marlene looked unsure but handed him chocolate and played with his hair.
“The nurse told me you got two new scars on your legs and a dislocated hip which she fixed. You reopened the scar on your face, the big one, so unfortunately that’ll be red for a while.” Marlene sighed deeply and looked at Remus with teary eyes.
“You worry the hell out of me every month you know that Remus? Your dorm mates were asking about you like always, don’t know when their simple brains will figure it out but I think you’re safe till graduation.” He chuckled and held Marlenes hand as they both laughed at their friends.
“How long was I out for?” He asked.
“Its 6pm so you can still make it for dinner if you can, James was telling everyone about the family excuse so no one expects you to show up.”
“No, I’m hungry.” He got up gingerly, wincing when he stretched his back. He fell back on the bed with a curse, punching the sheets.
Marlene hugged him. “Oh love, I’ll get Pomphrey.” Kissing his temple as she left.
The matron came in and quickly went into nurse mode.
“Oh you’re awake dear, lie back down. You tired yourself out last night and probably have bruises down your side from trying to open the door. Yes as I expected, those look awfully uncomfortable. Take this potion and you can return to normal tomorrow if I think it fit.” Poppy Pomphrey was rambling but Remus found it comforting, his nurse at Durmstrang was a rambler.
“Visiting hours are over, you can visit tomorrow morning dear.” Shooing Marlene off he took a sip of the potion and quickly went back to sleep.
——
“Oh thank Godrick, Moony come over here. You need to tell Jamie that the Ballycastle Bats are better than the Chudley Cannons.” Sirius said when he saw Remus and Marlene coming over to the Gryffindor table.
“Actually we are here to get a bite to eat then put our names in the cup.” The blond girl, Marlene Sirius thinks, said.
James jumped with excitement and grabbed Sirius’s arm, “I almost forgot about that!”
Sirius had been putting off the Goblet thing. He wanted to compete of course but he got a letter from his parents on the first night at Hogwarts that said if he dared got in the way of Regulus competing that he’ll be punished. Regulus had said he’ll write to them and say he doesn’t even want to compete because he really didn’t. The unknown challenges were freaking him out. But Sirius said it would be better to say that it’s likely those who participate will die so he should do it and not Reg. This made Regulus freak out more and he had to sleep in Sirius’s bed for two nights before letting him put his name in the Goblet - which he would do with James today.
Him and James immediately bonded after James explained he was quidditch captain and chaser. Sirius himself was a beater on his schools team. It took a while for James to wrap around the fact that Beauxbaton didn’t have many interhouse competitions. The quidditch teams have players from every house and the clubs are normally to make friends from different houses.
“Bloody hell,” James had said, “thats nothing like this school.”
Sirius sort of wished his school was like Hogwarts. Quidditch was fun for sure, but he liked competition and the idea of looking at someones uniform and either hating or liking them.
“So do we like or dislike any houses here?” Sirius asked. Remus and Marlene listening to their conversation while they ate.
James nodded, “Gryffindor is known to have slander with Slytherin since the founding days. Godric Gryffindor wanted to be inclusive and give anyone with magical abilities a chance to learn but Salazar Slytherin was into that pureblood shit and wanted Hogwarts to be more selective. Meaning only children with pureblood families could come here, they had a fight and Salazar ran off somewhere. Poor Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff probably just wanted to go to sleep but we never make it easy for them.”
“I’m a beater for Wolverine quidditch team at our school. It’s a massive thing, we don’t exactly hate other houses like Gryffindor and Slytherin but we do compete and there have been fist fights.” Marlene explained.
Remus nodded, “I do gymnastics but thats more of an extra curriculum activity, I do that with other houses. Me and my best mate August did some tricks at the entrance with those ridiculous sticks our Headmaster makes us carry around, it’s meant to be ‘intimidating’ but really it just hurts my toes when it lands on my feet.”
Sirius laughed so loudly he accidentally snorted. “You’re funny, Moony.”
Remus blushed and Sirius grinned in accomplishment. He liked making Remus blush.
“Okay I want to put my name in the cup can we go now?” James whined.
“Do you think Dumbledore will be able to read my handwriting when I get chosen?” Dorcas says as they write their names on parchment outside of the room where the Goblet of Fire was kept.
“Such confidence for someone who has no chance.” Frank teased, finishing his surname.
“Yeah wanna bet, Longbottom?”
“Okay enough you two. We have enough bickering with James and Lily.” Sirius teased. He added a little heart above the ‘i’s in his name for effect.
His little brother Regulus was with them, he was clutching Sirius’s uniform blazer and muttering words of comfort.
“You okay Reggie? You don’t have to watch if you don’t want too.” Sirius said softly, taking his brothers hands and letting him play with his fingers.
“Its fine, I want to support you. You deserve this.”
Sirius smiled and led them to the Goblet. They went inside the ageing spell and Sirius took a deep breath.
“Here goes nothing.” And on his toes, he put his name in the Goblet. The blue flames lit up as if acknowledging he was in the running.
The other students were cheering and Lily was jumping and clapping. Regulus looked nuteral and gripped his hand tighter. The Beauxbaton students there to watch clapped and told him well done.
“Bon travail Sirius.” His headmistress said, as Lily walked in next.
The clapping was loud with her as well and when Lily was done, Sirius grabbed her hands and they jumped in happiness.
“Nous allons être champions!” They repeated. “We’re going to be champions!”
Remus and Marlene were unable to join them since their Headmaster wanted them to do it as a group.
And just as Sirius was thinking about them, a loud noise filled the room as the Durmstrang Champions entered. Remus and Marlene were in the middle is if in order of least likely to most likely to be champion because Igor was at the back with their Headmaster. They were wearing the formal Durmstrang uniforms with the fur hat and thick coat.
The room was silent as the students put their names in one at a time.
Headmaster Arnoldi might as well have been crying with pride as his most eligible students entered their names into the Cup.
“Proud, I’m proud so much.” He said in his accent. It would have been heartfelt if Remus didn’t look so sick.