Prologue
Prologue
On the 1st of September in 1971, Remus Lupin finds himself standing at King’s Cross Station feeling more than a little confused. His father was with him just minutes ago, telling him exactly how to come through to platform 9 ¾ , but in Remus’ head, it simply does not make any sense. Even when trying to accept the fact that a wall might be magic, it poses the question of whether you would hit the wrong wall. He looks around the station, which is the epitome of busy London life. Remus could probably be here all day long, just looking at people and admiring the beautiful glass ceiling. Actually, this might end up being the case if he can’t get himself to actually go through the damn thing.
“Come on now James, grab my hand and we’ll go through together!” A tall man says to a boy in black robes.
“But I want to go with mummy!” The boy insists.
Remus just stands there and blinks at the family. The tall man with black hair and grey streaks kneels down to the boy, touching up his robes, and talks him down. The boy looks quite similar to the father, although much younger and shorter. They both have the same unruly hair and noses, as well as round-shaped glasses. The mother with mousey blonde hair in a slick bun simply smiles and sighs while looking down at the boy. Looking around the station, her amber eyes meet Remus Lupin.
“Well, hello there young man! Are you coming through as well?” She asks kindly.
After a moment of hesitation Remus tries to as confidently as possible reply “Yes, I am”.
“Ah, so is my boy James here. James, would you care to lead the way for Remus?”
James' previous anxiety and need for his mother seems to completely vanish when given his task, “Okay! Remus, just walk behind me,” he says and starts walking with his trolley. James trolley seems to contain a multitude of bags and a large grey owl. Remus, meanwhile, simply carries a briefcase of clothes his father helped him shrink, and the small brown owl Remus got as a birthday gift. He carries this in either hand as he closes his eyes, walking through the brick wall.
Not having felt anything hit him, Remus opens his eyes and finds a view of the most magnificent train he has ever seen. The platform in itself is somehow even busier than the one he was just at, and the people make up a sea of black robes and chaos. Feeling someone pop up behind him, he turns around to find James' mum and dad coming through the brick wall. They both smile at him.
“What’s your name dear?” The mother asks.
“Remus Lupin, ma'am. What’s yours?” Remus asks, trying to be as polite as possible.
“Euphemia Potter,” She says with a beaming smile. “Now, I would love to stay and chat with you some more; but it seems the train is about to leave. James, come here and give your old mother a hug before you go, alright?”
James quickly runs over to his parents and hugs them both. It seems Euphemia gives him some words of affirmation and reminders before telling him bye. Remus did hug his father goodbye, but it seems James’ goodbye is far more loving. To be fair, Lyall did have to run off to the ministry but something in Remus is still aching a bit.
The train whistles and James separates from his parents. He grabs Remus' arm and says “Come on, you can sit with me and Peter.” The boys hurry into the train and walk along a corridor of cabins. These are filled with young boys and girls in black robes, many sitting nervously and many eagerly chatting about. Remus follows James into one of these cabins, where a boy with blonde hair sits and exclaims “James!”.
“Peter!” James exclaims back before giving the sitting boy a slap on the back. “Everything alright with you?” he asks.
“Yeah, a bit nervous, though. Mum gave me a rat to keep me company at Hogwarts. Says it will help me stay calm,” he says and then turns to Remus. “Who is this?” he asks.
James turns to look at him, seeing as they did not actually introduce themselves to one another.
“I’m Remus, Remus Lupin. I just sort of uh… ended up with James”, he says nervously.
“Cool! My name is Peter Pettigrew. Me and James have been friends for a while now, but you’re welcome to join our group” Peter says with a grin.
“Peter we’ve been over this, it can’t be a group if it’s only two people”, James replies and pushes his glasses up his nose.
“I know! But seeing as Remus is joining us now, we can officially call ourselves a group”
And all of a sudden, Remus found himself with two new friends. But he did try to not intrude, as James and Peter sat next to one another, talking about James’ newfound interest in quidditch and what houses they were going to end up in. They did try to include Remus as much as possible, to which Remus would politely reply. He told them a bit about his dad, and James realised it might be possible that their dads knew one another, as they both worked in the ministry. The only house Remus really knew anything about was Ravenclaw as that’s mainly what his dad told him about. James said that all the houses are rubbish compared to Gryffindor, which made Remus a little anxious. Out of all the things his dad told him, he must have somehow skipped the rivalry.
In fact, all of this still felt quite new to Remus. His dad only decided to tell him about this a year ago, a while after his mother’s death. Apparently, she had been very against Remus finding out about the wizarding world, and his father seemed to agree. Remus supposed he must have had a change of heart, or had things put in perspective when his mother passed. It was all quite quick, when Remus was 9 his mother was diagnosed with something called leukemia. By the time they found it, it was fairly advanced. He actually doesn’t remember most of this, just that his dad was sad; a lot. Remus thinks the not remembering might have something to do with his werewolf condition, which has been getting worse recently. Lyall believes this is related to the stress with school, his mum, and finding out about magic. Remus isn’t exactly sure.
Sooner than later, Remus finds himself at the most stunning castle he has ever seen. It is beautifully lit up by the night sky, and the moon is reflected in the lake they cross. But this is nothing compared to the dining hall they enter. The roof seems to have vanished completely, yet it isn’t cold. There are floating candles slightly below, making the hall be covered in a warm light. All around there are people excited to see all of the new faces entering the room, and at the end of the hall, there is a chair and a man with grey hair and beard facing them.
Remus follows James the entire time, to avoid getting lost in the vastness of it all. They reach the front of the hall and stand facing the man. On top of the chair, there is what looks to be an old black hat. The purpose of this seems to be quite unclear, but Remus doesn’t have the time to think more about this before the man in front begins to speak.
“Good evening students, old and new. For those of you who do not already know me, I am Professor Dumbledore and act as headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Behind me, you find your teachers for the coming year, as well as the headmasters for the respective houses on the right,” he speaks with a loud and clear voice. Showing the headmasters with an arm, they give a polite nod towards the group of new students.
“Now, for the moment you have all been waiting for - The Sorting. McGonagall, would you do me the honours?” he asks, and one of the headmasters stands up and walks over.
“Alright young pupils, we will go through the list in alphabetical order. When you hear your name, walk up, sit down on the chair and wait for the hat to sort you. When you have received your house, you walk down to the tables and place yourself with your classmates. Clear?” she asks and the group nods carefully.
Remus quickly finds out that the hat can actually speak. People seem generally unphased by this, except for one other girl who stares wide-eyed at it for a solid 2 minutes.
“Sirius Black” McGonagall calls out, and cheering from the table in green can be heard.
The boy with pale skin and black hair sits down on the chair. He looks slightly frightened as McGonagall places the hat on top of him. It takes a few seconds before the hat eventually calls out “Gryffindor!”, which makes the entire dining hall fall silent. McGonagall quickly moves on to the next person and gives Sirius a shove in the right direction. James is still next to Remus and now stands with a gaping mouth.
“Who was that?” Remus asks.
“That was Sirius Black, his family has ruled Slytherin for ages. Him, becoming a Gryffindor is… revolutionary. We are most definitely going to make him a part of our group,” he says with a grin.