Like Real Muggles Do

James 2.0's Secret Obsession

Remus walked along the halls with his head low. He would hate to admit it, but his self-esteem had been seriously damaged in the course of the last few hours. 

In Hogwarts, he could adapt to survive, at the end of the day, everyone there had something a little different about them and people accepted that. Goblins guarded the bank, centaurs roamed the forest, people would walk around with heads twice their normal size and limbs in the process of growing back as the result of a spell gone wrong-it was just normal. In the muggle world, the only scars you saw were from acne and were covered up by make-up most of the time. An oddity in a school was someone with a broken limb in plaster, or someone who had drastically changed their hair colour. A boy with scars covering any visible part of his body was a different species, an outcast, he didn't belong. 

Arriving at his class he stood slightly away from the others lined up, he hoped that either Sirius or James also had this class, though, with his luck, he highly doubted it. 

"Hey, it's Remus, isn't it?" Remus turned around to see George from his form class stood next to him. George was slightly shorter than him and had a very welcoming demeanour, Remus couldn't quite forget his girlfriend, though. 

"Hi, yeah, George, right?" Remus smiled back at George, wanting to be polite, but really not wanting to talk to anyone. Looking around, Remus recognised a few people from previous lessons.

Before George could speak again the teacher had beckoned the class in, George invited Remus to sit with him, which was a nice gesture, after all. 

However, it wasn't long before Remus regretted accepting this invitation.

"George! You've attracted Scarface!" James Arron and a peroxide blonde girl, who may well have been Sirius' 'flirt girl' walked towards them. 

"Don't be a dick, James." George replied calmly.

"Don't be a pussy, George." James fired back with an increasing aggression. He turned to Remus. "Just a bit of fun. Unless you're going to pull something smart like your friend?" He was trying to be threatening, but Remus was more scared of Mrs Norris than he was of James.

"Now why would I want to do that?" He asked, he didn't want to tempt an answer but he sure as hell wasn't going to sit back and pretend to be scared.

James was about to get quite angry, it seemed, until the teacher began the lesson, at last. 

Remus made every effort to focus on the lesson, but he wasn't even sure what he was learning about, something with an atom, some positive numbers? He wasn't sure at all. Staring at the textbook Remus was suddenly more aware than ever of the pounding headache and dully aching limbs he was home to. The full moon was Thursday and he was suddenly feeling it coming. This was only hindered by James blatantly introducing him to everyone within ear-shot as 'Scarface' ("He prefers that name, see, takes away the need for questions.") 

Every now and then, George would look at him and smile apologetically, it was clear that he had very little control over James. 

As people were moving about the classroom, they would slow as they walked past Remus, often chuckling and nodding with "Scarface" as if it was the polite thing to do. By the end of the lesson Remus had truly had enough, he remembered the English homework he had and decided to head straight for the library, food being the last thing on his mind. The piercing bell almost brought tears to Remus' eyes as he pushed past people, wishing just to disappear all together. 

James and Sirius quickly found the sports hall where they had Physical Education next, Sirius remembered it from his travels. The two boys were far more comfortable in the school since the music lesson, they were even excited at the thought of doing sports, although they had hardly done very much in the past.