Forever and Always

Oh, For the Love of Ducks

Remus pushed his trunk forward, stopping right before the hidden entrance to Platform 9 ¾. His father, Lyall Lupin, looked at him with a sad yet warm expression, his eyes going slightly glassy at seeing his only son so grown up and ready for another year at the school he also went to as a child, Hogwarts. Remus looked slightly down towards his father, having hit another growth spurt during the summer, with a vibrantly happy expression instantly noting the sadness in his father and putting an arm around his shoulders.

"Aw, Dad. Don't worry about me, this year will be brilliant."

Lyall looked at his son, always being somewhat surprised at how observant and emotionally open he was, "I'm just going to miss you while you're gone, bud."

Remus smiled, "I'll write to you as much as I can."

"Promise?"

"Absolutely," Remus reached over and hugged his father before walking towards the brick pillar. "Love you, Dad."

Remus walked into the bustling magical platform, his ears ringing with the sound of the train whistling, parents weeping over their embarrassed children, and the hooting and hollering of friends seeing one another for the first time since summer started. Remus' thoughts were filled with worry, worrying over his father seeing as his mother had died the year before and that his father was so unemotionally receptive to any of his suggestions of talking to someone.

Remus, not seeing any of his friends, meandered his way over to the steps to get on the train, somewhat surprised... and worried at the fact that he couldn't find any of his friends. No doubt that they were up to no good, as per usual. He walked down the long, bustling train hallway, dragging his beat-down trunk behind him. Arriving at the door to 'The Marauders' compartment; Remus shook his head as his eyes fell upon the scraggly writing of their group name on the wooden door. Sirius had wanted to make it known that it was their compartment and theirs alone after some poor Hufflepuffs had decided to sit there.

Remus pushed open the door to see two heads of black hair bending over a piece of parchment and talking in hushed tones. Sirius, his long hair whipping into his face as he turned around, clearly startled, smiled brightly when he realized who was standing there.

"Hey there, Moons!"

James turned around immediately as well, "Oh, hey Moony, didn't see you there."

James came up and patted Remus on the shoulder while he moved forward and put his trunk up in the storage space.

"Hi guys, how was both of your summers'?" Remus looked at them both, a small smile on his face.

Sirius hadn't taken his eyes off of Remus since he had arrived.

James spoke in rapid excitement, "Well, with Sirius there we got to go out and camp at night! And we came up with so many pranks for this year, you're gonna love some of these new ones Remus. We're gonna set a whole new record, the look on Minnie's face will be priceless."

Remus raised an eyebrow, "I thought I was supposed to look over said pranks, you do remember the fiasco of the ducks?"

James rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, obviously not wanting to be reminded of when Sirius accidentally turned him into a giant duck for a day instead of Snape due to poor planning.

Sirius coughed slightly, finally breaking his stare from Remus to look at James in amusement, "Yeah, that was ducking hilarious."

James groaned, "I thought you agreed to stop the duck puns."

Sirius leaned over and loudly whispered to Remus, "Seems like somebody's got a feather up their arse."

James whacked Sirius on the head as Peter Pettigrew walked into the compartment, the last member of the infamous Marauders. Peter looked somewhat surprised and quite happy to see that there was a free seat next to James, Sirius was sitting next to Remus.

Remus noticed Peter first, "Hey there, Pete."

"Hi, guys!"

Sirius mumbled a quick 'Hi' before turning towards Remus with the sheet of paper that James and he had been conspiring over.

"So look at this, we came up with at least twenty pranks! Twenty!" He shoved the sheet into Remus' hands.

Remus made a face, "Honestly Siri, what is with you and ducks? Why do you want to make all of the candles in the Great Hall into floating ducks?"

Sirius considered the question, "Ducks are cute."

Remus facepalmed, "You might as well just get a bloody duck then..."

"Great idea!"

"Now I didn't mean that, do not take that seriously!"

Remus realized his mistake as Sirius slowly smirked, "Well, you see dear Rem, I take everything Siriusly."

Remus sighed and turned to the book that he had brought along for the train ride. Peter, James, and Sirius started up a game of exploding snap and played for the first two hours of the train ride. Remus, always falling asleep easily in moving vehicles, had fallen asleep against the window within the first hour of the train ride.

Sirius, who had been trying to figure out why he couldn't stop looking at Remus, had grown rather tired as well; having stayed up the entire night before with James. He slowly drifted off as well.

James watched as, within their sleep, Sirius slowly rested his head on Remus' shoulder and Remus moved to put an arm around him as well. Sleeping cuddled up next to one another without the knowledge of such for the remainder of the train ride.