Young Hogwarts Puppy Style I
Who: Remus and Sirius (and assorted others) Where: Hogwarts Platform/Hogwarts Express and beyond What: Returning to school When: August 31 Rating: Probably R for language at best
It was the beginning of the Marauder's fifth year at Hogwarts. Sirius had long ago become accustomed to walking alone to the station to meet the train which would carry him to school and, truth be told, he preferred it that way. His relationship with his younger brother Regulus had been estranged ever since Sirius was sorted into Gryffindor. With his whole family in fact. But he was learning to deal with it, and was becoming enured to their indifference.
He walked to King's Cross Station, his trunk behind him, on its wheels, and when he reached the platform, he glanced about for his three best friends - James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. This was the best thing about returning to school, seeing his friends. And getting away from his family. And Sirius did actually like school, for the most part. Especially quidditch.
This year, though, was different than other years. Sirius had seemed to hit a growth spurt over the summer, and was now almost his full height to be. He stood about five foot eight now. His dark hair was down to his shoulders, and his eyes smouldered with an inner fire which signalled that something was going on within the boy - namely puberty.
Hogwarts, look out, Sirius Black has hormones!
Remus was smiling at his mother, she was fussing over him, he didn't really mind he did however blushed when some of the younger Gryffindor girls walked by and 'awwww-ed' in a stage whisper. "MUH-HUM" he said. "I am not a baby." His mum sighed, "you are my baby, love."
Sirius spotted Remus first, being tended to by his mother. The sight caused him to smile, in rather a wistful way. He envied Remus his mother - he envied James his too. How nice it would be to have a mother that fussed over you and acted so nice and everything. Hell, his mother barely tolerated him, and was seldom in the same room with him if she could help it. Sirius was used to that, but sometimes it still hurt. He was still young, after all, and in some ways rather fragile.
He walked up to where they were, and gave Mrs. Lupin a respectful bow. "Good day, ma'am," he said, "I hope that you are well..."
Mrs. Lupin looked at Sirius and smiled, "I am very well, thank you." She said with a soft smile fighting the urge to fix the boy's dark hair.
Remus blushed a little when he saw his friend, he had been keeping the fact that he though Sirius was hot to himself. He had two secrets and sometimes he didn't know if being a werewolf was the biggest of the two, but he would never tell Sirius how he felt because he didn't want to loose his friendship. "Hi, Siri." He said almost shyly.
"Hi Remy," Sirius said, unconsciously moving closer to the boy. He did that a lot. As well as this - he laid his hand on Remus' arm. He wasn't aware of how much he touched him, or how closely he followed him - it was something subconscious that drove him to seek the other's presence. "Seen Jamie or Pete yet?"
Remus was about to answer when his mum moved from fussing over him to fussing over Sirius. "I could cut your hair." She said when she started to fix what she saw as Sirius' messy hair.
"MUM!" Remus said blushing wondering why his mum couldn't stop embarrassing him.
"Thank you, Mrs. Lupin, but I like it long," Sirius smiled at the woman, happy to have her attention. "You wouldn't happen to have a tie on you, would you? I could put it back, that might help....." His hair reached down to his shoulder now, and he was rather proud of it; it hung in long dark waves of silkiness, and was just one of the changes that had occurred in him over the summer.
Mrs. Lupin would prefer to see the boy's hair nice and short but Sirius was not her son and if the Blacks didn't mind their son having long hair who was she to disagree. She started to go through her purse, a purse Remus was sure contained everything one could need while not at home and even more. Of course she found a tie and handed it to Sirius. "Here you are."
Remus looked at his friend's hair and wondered for a moment how it would feel to run his fingers through those silken locks but he stopped that train of thoughts before it got the chance to gain any momentum. 'Don't go there!' He thought to himself, he then promised himself he would think about it when he was in his bed that night.
"Thank you, ma'am," Sirius smiled ingenuously, taking the tie and pulling his hair into a tail which he slid inside of it. "There," he said, "I think I'm all set. Ready to board the train, Rem? Maybe they're already on, holding a car for us?"
"You are very welcome, Sirius." Mrs. Lupin said with a warm smile, she then turned to her son. "Behave, Remus." She said, knowing real well that he would even if she didn't tell him. She then kissed him on the top of his head, "and don't forget to write."
Remus blushed, "I'll write, I promise."
Just then a rather loud voice could be heard calling their names. Sirius turned his head, and then nudged Remus gently in the side. "Look. I see Jamie poking his head out the window. We need to get a move on before he gives our seats away." He turned back to Mrs. Lupin. "Thanks again, see you later." And he darted in and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, blushing as he did so, before quickly turning his head away.
Sirius' spontaneous action brought a fond smile on Mrs. Lupin's face. "You are very welcome." She said.
Remus for a moment was jealous of his mum, why didn't Sirius never kiss him? The feeling was just there for a split second until his sensible mind kicked in again. "Bye mum, I will see you at Christmas." He said as he started to walk away.
"Be good, Remus." His mum called after him making several of the other students giggle.
Sirius clung to Remus' hand as they made their way through the people on the platform, and onto the Hogwarts Express. James and Peter were visible, sitting together in one of the cars. Sirius pulled Remus in after him, and they both landed in a heap on one of the seats, Sirius having miscalculated the amount of strength needed to do the job.
Remus laughed nervously, trying to move away from Sirius as soon as possible without hurting his friend’s feelings but also without making it known that his body had reacted instantly to the close proximity of his friend.
Sirius was oblivious to it all, he was just happy to be among the marauders once more. It had been a long summer. Long and loveless. He was always glad to leave Grimmauld Place for Hogwarts, where his real family were.
James laughed at the two boys, as they fell into a heap. "I hope you're not so clumsy on the quidditch field, Sirius," he joked, "Remus, how was your summer, mate?" He knew better than to ask Sirius, although he didn't know everything about what happened at home.
Remus needed a few moments to find his voice, but when he did he made sure he sounded as normal as he could. “I had a nice summer; my mum has spoiled me rotten.” He didn’t say much more about his summer, as usual they couldn’t go away on vacation because of the full moon but he was grateful because he knew it could have been worse. He looked at Sirius for a moment; he could have had family like the Blacks. He could only imagine what kind of summer Siri must have had. "We did some travelling, a little bit," James said, "it was really cool. My parents took me to Paris, and I got to go up in the Eiffel Tower. The food's not too bad too. What about you, Pete?"
Peter thought for a moment, shuffling his trainers along the floor. "Helped my da in the shop," he said at last, "went to Brighton and swam in the sea. It was fun.... Did you go anywhere, Sirius?"
"Just to Aunt Druella's," Sirius said, wrinkling up his nose. "Bella and Narcissa were there. And Lestrange and Malfoy. Some fun that was... Regulus and Rabastan hung out together, of course. I miss Andi...." He flushed, angry at her family's treatment of her, which mirrored his own by his own family.
Remus watched his friends talk and smiled, he felt happy when he was around then. Oh, he didn’t have a bad home life at all but it wasn’t like being at Hogwarts with his friends, with Sirius. He would probably never have enough courage to tell Sirius what he felt for him but he could dream and that was what he was doing right now, he wasn’t really listening he was basically just staring at Sirius.
The door to their compartment was rudely pulled open with a snap and the long lean face of Severus Snape came into view. Sirius stiffened instantly, unable to hide his hatred of the Slytherin. James did as well, and Peter simply trembled.
Severus almost seemed to be smirking, as he pretended to apologize for the intrusion. "Sorry, I thought this was the car that Lily was waiting in...." He liked to rub it in James' face that Lily was his friend, not Potter's. He could see the other boy flush, although he said nothing.
"Go away, Snape," Sirius said, rather rudely. "You're not wanted here."
The noise of Severus’ entrance and the reaction of his friends was enough to startle him out off his dream. He blushed but was glad nobody had noticed him staring; it would have been hard to explain. Snape really didn’t bother him as much as he seemed to bother the others, he just looked at the dark haired Slytherin but didn’t speak, he would however keep his eyes peeled because he would make sure that his friends would not get themselves into trouble even before they reached the castle.
Severus flushed deeply at Sirius' rude words. "You can't make me, Black," he snapped, "this train is available for everyone and I'm free to sit where I choose." Although the thought of sitting with this lot was most unappetizing. But he couldn't let Sirius know that.
"I can't, can I?" Sirius snarled in return, his hand going to his pocket, reaching for his wand, even as James made a similar motion, and Peter whimpered uncomfortably.
Remus was sitting in between James and Sirius and as soon as he saw the movement of their hands he put a calming hand on each of the boys’ knee closest to him. “No need for this.” He said calmly in his mature fashion, for a werewolf he was not very bloodthirsty.
He smiled at Severus, “I think I saw Lily two more compartments down.” As he spoke the grip on James’ knee became tighter to warn him to not say another word. He was after all making sure that his friends did not get into trouble yet. He couldn’t always be there to stop them but he could now.
Which, of course, was what Severus had wanted all the time. But he wanted to grind it into Potter's face. And he simply wished to annoy Black. Remus Lupin was the most mature one of the quartet - shame he had shite for taste in friends.
"Thank you, Remus," he said, with a disarmingly friendly smile - for him, anyway. He made a slight bow to the lycanthrope. "Have a good trip," he said, "Mustn't keep a lady waiting..." And he was out the door before either of his enemies could respond.
Remus let out a sigh of relieve, that had been taken care off without any physical damage to anyone involved. He released James’ knee before releasing Sirius’ when he noticed that he hadn’t removed his hand yet he blushed and pulled away quickly trying to not be too obvious.
James paid no attention to anything at first but the retreating figure of Severus Snape until it was lost to view before he slumped into his seat scowling. Pete picked up a textbook, pretending to read, so he would not have to say anything.
Sirius simply leaned closer to Remus, unaware of any of the thoughts that must have been racing through the other's mind. He considered touching him natural, although he didn't understand yet just why.
"I wish you wouldn't talk to that git," he said, but not in a harsh tone. "We need to find a way to help James get Lily away from him, you know?" Remus thought that Lily would like James if they just talked and if James would stop being so nasty to Severus, he didn’t say that out loud of course.
“I was just helping all of you.” He said, sounding too mature for his age. “Do you want to lose housepoints before we get the chance get them awarded?” He wasn’t sure if it was even possible to have less then 0 points, but he wasn’t ready to find out.
Sirus began to assure Remus that of course he had no desire for them to lose housepoints already, when the door to the compartment slid open once more, but this time it was a giggling brunette that hove into view.
"Sirius!" she fairly squealed. "There you are!" Actually, she had been on his trail ever since she had watched him enter the train, and seen how much he had changed over the summer - downright sexy he was. She thought she would get an advantage over the other girls while she could.
Sirius glanced up at the girl, his heart hammering, his pulse racing - although not from her entrance. He was utterly at sea but had no idea why that was. "Oh hullo, Hestia," he said. "Where'd do you think I would be?"
"Come sit with me for a bit, won't you?" she asked sweetly.
Sirius really didn't care for that idea, but suddenly James was grabbing him by the arm and propelling him in Hestia's direction. "Here you go," he was saying, while in a voice only Sirius could hear, he was saying, "Way to go, Sirius, have a good time..." But before Sirius could get a word in edgewise, he found himself out in the corridor, and the door shut behind him.
Remus wanted to stop Sirius but he didn’t, he was sure Sirius didn’t want to be stopped. Hestia was a pretty girl and even though he didn’t fall for girls his friend obviously did. The wolf inside him growled a little as for a moment jealousy coursed through his body, but he did fight the jealousy and the wolf because he had no right to be jealous besides all he really wanted was for his dark haired friend to be happy.
With a small sigh he got a book out of his luggage, Jane Eyre, and started to read.