Thankfully for the other three members of James Potter's compartment on the Hogwarts Express, he had indeed ran out of conversation topics at some point in the journey and resorted to playing Exploding Snap with Peter, offering Sirius to join, but the long haired boy had shaken his head, finding himself with rather a lot on his mind, of which an unfortunate amount related to the curly haired boy that slept at the other end of the compartment.
Remus had fallen asleep at about an hour into the journey, and had remained so ever since; Sirius, who had found himself frequenting glances at the boy, and indeed the scar upon his face (suppressing a wince each time), had been the first to notice but found no need to bring it up, and somehow Remus had managed to continue his sleep whilst James continued to babble on about Lily Evans and her many wonderful qualities - a matter which Sirius found himself at an Outstanding level in, courtesy of James, of course.
James had noticed that Remus had fallen asleep at about the three hour mark and spent a good five minutes glancing between Remus and Sirius and then Peter, and then back at Sirius because Remus was asleep and Peter seemed to be very invested in his sandwich.
"He's asleep." James had finally been able to vocalise the obvious: his eyes widening as they met Sirius' across the compartment.
"Mhmm..." Sirius had nodded, glancing across at Remus, just in case he'd miraculously vanished in the space of three minutes, of course.
"How asleep?" James had continued to ask: his tone somewhat hushed, which Sirius found very amusing considering he'd been practically yelling about Lily for the past hour; Sirius wouldn't have even been that surprised if Lily had heard him from whether she'd been situated on the train, probably with Snape. Severus fucking greasy haired Snape definitely was in the top ten shortlist for Sirius Black's least favourite people, and he would have indeed made the top five with ease if Sirius didn't find himself cursed with having such a large and largely awful family.
"Asleep asleep. What other kind of asleep is there?" Peter had looked up from his sandwich to add: having caught somewhat of their conversation after all. "Leave him. If you woke me up when I was asleep I'd bite your hand off."
"I'd like to see that." Sirius had added with a grin; the mental image working to amuse him greatly.
Peter had narrowed his eyes across the compartment at Sirius, "this applies to you, as well."
Sirius held up his hands in defense, having not expected such an outburst from a small boy eating a cheese sandwich, but Peter Pettigrew was indeed full of surprises, such as that time last year when he'd stolen some polyjuice potion from Professor Slughorn's store cupboard and combined it with one of Lily Evan's long auburn hairs... and well... that had been quite the day for James.
"I'm not planning on it, Pete," Sirius had insisted, before finding himself thinking back to Remus, and indeed unable to resist a glance in his direction again: feeling that scar himself each time he laid eyes upon it. "And we should let him sleep," he narrowed his eyes at James across the compartment.
"I'm not suggesting waking him up!" James had exclaimed, as if it was blindingly obvious; his eyes darting between Sirius and Remus, before shuffling in his seat so one leg was pulled up to his chest, "I'm just..." His words had fizzled off into the air.
Sirius had arched an eyebrow at him from across the compartment, "you're just?"
"Just what?" Pete had put his sandwich down completely at this point, so it was officially declared an important matter - this was a method of declaration that Sirius had conceived in third year, noticing how the end of Peter's eating seemed to often foreshadow an important conversation or event; perhaps Peter should have taken Divination, as Sirius wondered if he might actually have a knack for it, as much of a load of bullshit Sirius thought it to be, but of course, Peter had taken exactly what James was taking, and Sirius had taken the only a few subjects, but of which Care of Magical Creatures was one, because he could definitely see that petting a Hippogriff, although a little dangerous, was a much preferable way to spend an hour than Arithmancy - which was something Remus had chosen, because Remus was perhaps one of the only few people taking the class that actually had a vague clue what was going on. This was because Remus was 'a bright and intuitive student', and also because he was sat next to Lily Evans.
"Worried..." James had opted for after a moment: gesturing vaguely with his hands as if to summon the words from the thin air.
"Worried?" Sirius repeated: his tone somewhat questioning.
"Yes!" James had exclaimed, his eyes seeming to burn with copper tones as he spoke, "course, I'm worried, Sirius, he's got-" He cut himself off, his eyes having met Remus' sleeping form. He lowered his voice significantly, "he's got that great gaping scar across his face and you're telling me you're not worried."
"No, I never said that." Sirius had sat up a little: his tone much quieter than James', "of course I'm worried, but would you like us to talk about you and something you're probably really insecure about whilst you're sleeping?" Peter nodded and let out a grunt of agreement. "He'll talk to us about it eventually," Sirius assured James, watching as his eyes softened to a cooler shade of brown, "and anyway, it's not like we don't know the most of it - what caused it, and all of that..."
James bit his lip, "it's... it's horrible, though, isn't it?" He'd found himself focused upon the scar again. "Right across his face, and none of them have been as bad as that have they? Don't you just-"
"He'll talk to us about it eventually." Sirius narrowed his eyes, having found himself moments away from snapping. "Just ask him about when he wakes up, just... talking about him when he's asleep, come on, James, you know he's spent forever worrying about how people are going to react to that, and people are going to react and we're supposed to be defending him not doing it ourselves."
James had nodded, waited a few minutes in silence before pointing out a tree outside the window and making a comment about how it was the same colour as Lily's eyes, to which, Peter had made retching noises, and Sirius had closed his eyes, wishing he could fall asleep too.
-
It seemed that the world was working in the favour of everyone who wanted to retain their sense of smell on a permanent basis, as the smell of James', well Peter's dad's, aftershave had largely worn off by the time they Hogwarts Express pulled into Hogsmeade Station at around six that evening.
Sirius found himself lumped with the task of waking Remus Lupin up, which everyone knew to be a bad idea after four years of sharing a dormitory, well, they'd known it after four days when Peter had accidentally fallen over, onto Remus' bed on his way back from the bathroom at four in the morning; there had been a lot of yelling and a lot of swearing, especially considering that they had been eleven at the time.
Sirius let out a sigh as he watched James get their luggage down from the rack, while teasing Peter for being too short, of course, before reaching for Remus' arm and wrapping his hand around it, "hey Remus," he began somewhat gently: his tone tentatively and his grip on his arm feeble, but Remus had indeed proved to be a heavy sleeper over the years, leaving him with no choice but to raise his voice, "Remus, you've got to wake up," He tightened his grip on his arm, "Moony, good evening, moony-"
He found himself with a slap in his vague direction as Remus started: waking up all at once, "fuck, Sirius, I- I was asleep-" He stumbled over his words, blinking rapidly in the evening light.
"For several hours, mhmm," Sirius told him with a smile upon his lips, "you missed the description of stage five of the the plan to woo Lily Evans, 'unfortunately' - lucky bastard," he added the last part in a particularly hushed voice, "also Peter ate about seven sandwiches and James won a game of Exploding Snap."
"And you?" Remus asked, sitting up and reaching to wipe the sleep from his eyes, but finding his fingers trailing over the top of his scar instead, and letting out a muffled wince in response; Sirius, had, of course, noticed.
"Well, I..." He tucked his hair behind his ears as he tried to focus on anything but that scar of Remus', "I sat in the corner trying to sleep. Exciting, I know!-"
"I bet you had that pouty look on your face," Remus' face lit up instantly, getting to his feet, leaving to Sirius to remember just how fucking tall this guy had gotten out of nowhere.
"What pouty look?" He managed to stumble out after an awkwardly prolonged silence. "I'm not pouty!" He insisted, coming to realise just what a terrible offense Remus was implying.
Remus only rolled his eyes and laughed: running a hand back through his golden brown hair as he turned to James and Peter. Sirius' stomach did a backflip. "Hey, James, did Sirius have that pouty look on his face?"
James looked up: frozen for a moment before he'd sifted through enough shit about Lily in his head to recall just what Remus was referring to. "Oh, yeah," His face lit up with a wicked kind of grin, "yeah," he began nodding furiously: glancing between Remus and Sirius eagerly, "yeah, he did."
"What pouty look?" Sirius asked for the second time: his tone growing more impatient as he felt his cheeks flushing a slight pink.
James gave the bag he was holding to Peter and posed slightly: angling his head upwards dramatically and hollowing his cheeks slightly as he pushed his lips into a pout, tugging at the collar of his shirt so it exposed his collarbone slightly, before adding in a deep, overly dramatised, husky voice, "I'm Sirius Black. I'm siriusly a prat - watch me pout!" He pouted further, leaving Peter and Remus in hysterics as Sirius only glared at him in disgust.
"For a start," Sirius began: his eyes widening slightly and the pitch of his voice shifting slightly upwards.
"Here we go..." Remus rolled his eyes, before smiling slightly as he glanced between Sirius and James.
"What?" Sirius retorted: his cheeks a soft pink. "I'm just saying, that I don't sound like that, and that never once have I exposed my collarbone in conversation, or ever, I-"
"Of course you do!" Peter decided to join in now, which in Sirius' opinion was indeed just fucking fantastic. "That's why all of those girls ask you out, you know, all of those girls you reject when some of us are suffering here!"
Sirius sighed a little, groaning internally, "I just don't want to date them, okay? Go and ask them yourself if you're that bothered, Pete, I- I don't... look, I'll admit that maybe subconsciously sometimes I might pout, but I don't go around exposing my collarbones-" He found himself getting entirely too heated with the subject of conversation and raised his voice dangerously.
"And he admits it!" James practically screeched: his grin looking ready to peel off his face as he turned around and high fived Peter rather dramatically.
Amidst the commotion, Remus leaned into Sirius and whispered a quick, "I just made that up, you know? The pouting thing."
To which, Sirius' eyes widened in horror, because he'd just admitted it, and Remus Lupin had already ruined his life and they hadn't even gotten off the train yet, which was probably something they should think about doing.
"But..." Remus continued: a smirk upon his lips, "don't lie to me, Sirius Black, I know what you do with those collarbones of yours." Sirius gulped: his cheeks turning vermillion. "That impression was spot on, that's so you every time you want to get your way."
"I want you to shut the fuck up but I'm not like that now," Sirius insisted: red faced, yet still stubborn.
"Only because I pointed it out." Remus grinned at him, before grabbing his luggage and following James and Peter as they began to exit the compartment.
-
"Come on, Lily," the Slytherin furrowed his brow, looking at her from behind a curtain of long, dark, greasy hair, "you can't possibly sympathise with him!" His voice was quiet: taking the form of little more than a whisper, but his words were strewn from his lips with violent intent, and landing upon the air in harsh tones and a bitter snap.
"Severus, please." The Gryffindor girl turned to face her friend; the two standing upon the platform at Hogsmeade Station amongst a great crowd of students and rather dazed looking first years, which Hagrid, the groundskeeper, was attempting to herd into a gathering which rather resembled a flock of rather nervous sheep all clad in long black robes and ties that didn't yet bear allegiance to any of the four houses: remaining black in colour with the Hogwarts crest embroidered at the end of the tie, until the first years had been sorted into their houses at the feast, when their tie would transform into one that bore the colours belonging to the house the student had been sorted into.
"What?" Severus retorted, looking down at Lily, who was just a few inches shorter than him, with an odd sort of sneer.
"You know exactly what." She told him: narrowing his eyes in disbelief for his general ignorance and overwhelming capability to be an asshole in a plethora of circumstances. Lily could just about deal with Severus Snape for the most part; they'd grown up together, and she knew for more than the ignorant, rude, almost pretentious brat he'd become after being sorted into Slytherin and finding the expectations of other Slytherins forced upon him, and she was indeed, to a certain degree, astonished that he still spent time with her, despite the fact that she was muggleborn, of course, Severus himself was a halfblood, which didn't seem good enough in the eyes of quite a few of the most repulsive pureblood Slytherins, that for some reason, Severus found himself pressured into idolising.
Today, however, after several hours in a compartment with him, she'd grown very quickly tired of his uncouth remarks aimed at seemingly everyone under the sun, and she was beginning to wonder if there was a person that Severus Snape did not seem to despise... besides herself, somehow, as she did indeed seem to be the Slytherin's soft spot for one reason or another - perhaps it was their childhood friendship, or perhaps it was down to the fact that she kept making the mistake of forgiving him: time and time again.
"You're getting snappy with me now?" Emerald green reflected in his eyes: as dull and dark as charcoal. "Over him? You don't even like him? You've told me that, and everyone knows what a prat he is, and that only gets to you when I call him a prat?"
Lily paused for a moment: not wanting to agree with Severus, as she knew that somehow, deep down, there was a part of him that meant well, and that there was a part of him who was still her best friend aged ten, but this fifteen year old Severus Snape with hair down to his shoulders and over his eyes, who spoke with malice of everyone he met, was not the Severus Snape she really wanted to know, yet she found herself unable to just leave him and end their friendship, because every so often, she found herself catching glimpses of the boy she used to know, and found herself reminded that the younger Severus was still very much inside there, and she found herself wondering if she could ever get him back.
"Severus..." she began: her tone gentle, as she was taking care not to set off something in him and have him exploding in a fit of rage and causing more trouble than was necessary for the first day of term; she didn't want to be responsible for getting Severus Snape into detention, even if not directly. "Well, when other people call him a prat, they don't look at him like they're ready to grab the nearest sharp object and drive it right through the back of his skull, and if they do, they don't mean it. They call him a prat, because at times, yes he is one, but there is more to James Potter than that, much like that there is more to Severus Snape that this ignorant asshole who does little more than insult and curse everyone he sees."
Severus, however, seemed to disregard every word of Lily's carefully worded hope for an explanation, in favour of simply falling back on what he knew best: another string of insults. "Yeah well, Potter's a fucking waste of everyone's time if you ask me: arrogant, bigheaded, only concerned with himself and getting your attention-"
"Well, the thing is, Severus," Lily found herself raising her voice a little as the crowd dispersed slightly around them, "no one did ask you. And I don't want to get into an argument right now, on the first day, for crying out loud, so if you don't mind, I'm going to go now."
Snape didn't bother himself with running after the redhead as she made her way through the crowd in search of her fellow Gryffindors, he did however trouble himself with a yelling, "no point lying, Lily, I know, I know you're only defending him because you like him - that's clear now!" However, Lily didn't care enough for him to turn around and give him the pleasure of any form of response, and indeed the only response he got was from a few second year Ravenclaws who looked at him in the manner you might look at a drunken tramp stood outside a pub: yelling violently in a manner that made you cross the street or even take the long way home to avoid them.
Lily found herself pushing Severus out of her mind: knowing he'd come to her in the library or between classes in a few days time with a rushed and insincere apology that she'd find herself accepting only for a familiar softness in his eyes that sent her back a good five years and pulled on her every weakness.
She didn't have quite long enough to contemplate when and how and if she should stop forgiving Severus Snape, before she spotted Remus Lupin in the crowd, which wasn't particularly hard as he now towered over pretty much all of the students, and she found herself barging past people as she found herself desperately needing to talk to him about that scar of his, because she'd been researching lycanthropy over the summer, well as much as she could anyway, which admittedly wasn't much, but she had found this rather promising look charm that might be able to-
Every thought process in her mind stopped as Remus turned slightly and she caught sight of it.
She found her heart stopping a little in her chest, because although she had been warned, and she had known about the situation in detail for a good two weeks now, Remus had used words such as 'okay' and 'not a big deal' and 'not as bad as I thought' in his letters, of which only the exact opposite could be used to accurately describe the burnt crimson slash that seemed to separate his face in two from beneath his left eye to the bottom of his jaw on the right side of his face.
Remus noticed her before she could quite manage to focus enough to force any kind of movement or sound from her lips, and glanced back at his friends, before muttering something and making his way through a group of people and over to her: meeting her with a warm, typically Remus kind of smile, that made such a horrible scar very out of place upon his face.
"Remus," she met him with bright eyes and a relieved smile, before pulling him into a hug before she could stop herself; the hug was rather extended with their bodies pushed close together and her arms reaching under his arms and up to his shoulders and his arms fitting a little awkwardly around her waist. It was, however, platonic, and comprised largely of relief that Remus was still in one piece, because when Lily worried, she went all out.
Despite this, a good two metres away, James Potter stood: mouth agape, glaring.
"Hey," He offered her an awkward smile as she finally pulled away: although the hug was prolonged, Remus did very much appreciate the sentiment, because there was just something about having a great horrific scar across your face that made you suddenly much less appealing to hug. "Did you have a good summer?"
"Piss off!" She rolled her eyes in disbelief, because there he was: having almost died, asking her about her summer.
"What?" Remus retorted: his face softening around the smile upon his slightly chapped, pink lips.
"I think your summer is really the matter of concern here, isn't it?" She shook her head at him, "I mean, now isn't the best time - I think we should maybe meet up in the library tomorrow, because I want to show you something I've researched and we might be able to discuss it further, well not in the library- hey, we can whisper, but- okay, you're alright, aren't you? Like, is it hurting? How is it? You did get it treated, didn't you?"
"Yes." Remus let out a sigh, "Lily, look I promise you, everything's fine- well as fine as it can be considering that I'm facing a risk of serious injury and/or death once a month every month for the rest of my life, but besides that, I'm fucking fantastic!" He cracked his face into an odd kind of slightly lopsided grin, "honestly, I am so glad to be back at school, and laugh at me all you want, Evans, because it'd make you a dirty hypocrite, but every time my parents look at me, it's like they're calculating the risk of my every movement because now I'm a walking health and safety risk, and oh god forbid I go outside, like damn, I could get a grass rash or hayfever, like god no, not hayfever- and well, I'm glad to be back with people that treat me like a person, you know?"
Lily wasn't quite sure whether to laugh or stress to him the fact that he was in danger, but she figured that Remus had just about come to terms with that for the most part, judging by his attitude towards the matter, and in light of that, settled for a smile and an awkward kind of breathy laugh. "You need to be careful though. We do need to talk before the next full moon, which is in-"
"Eleven days." Remus told her: rolling the number off his tongue with a tone of nonchalance.
"Yeah, it is, isn't it?" She nodded, realising that yeah, Remus had probably spent time memorising the date of every full moon for the next ten years or so. "So, we should meet up soon in the library?"
"Yes, Lily," Remus smiled: touched by how much she cared more than anything, "the library, tomorrow, four o'clock?"
Lily opened her mouth to respond, but stopped herself as Sirius Black walked over, leaning into Remus a little. "Nice summer, Sirius?" She asked him; her and Sirius were on good terms but weren't particularly close, which was likely largely down to the fact that whenever James found her in a two metre radius he either did something incredibly stupid and incredibly dangerous or ran away as fast as possible, and that Sirius Black spent a good ninety five percent of his entire life with James Potter.
Sirius shrugged, "was alright." He bit down hard upon his lip as his mind flash green; he couldn't think about that - not now, not with Lily looking at him like she'd much rather he was as far away as possible.
Remus glanced across at the shorter boy: noticing a certain reluctance and oddly placed grit in his tone - something Lily wasn't well enough acquainted with him to pick up upon, however, he was well aware that now was really not the time to say anything. Instead, he went for a different, much more simple question, "where's James?"
Lily looked puzzled for a moment before glancing back over Remus and Sirius to find that James and Peter had disappeared amongst the crowds, much as they should have been doing.
"And Peter?" Remus added: almost as an afterthought, which he mentally cursed himself for, because although Peter did seem to reside solely in James' shadow, he was so much more than an afterthought.
Sirius laughed a little, "James made some comment about you being a traitor and walked off, you know, pouting," he met Remus' eyes at that: stressing his point, "we should probably get going as well," he added as the two began to follow the last stragglers of the crowds of older students making it up to Hogwarts.
"Just a quick question," Remus chimed in a few moments later: walking with Sirius on his right and Lily to his left, "what heinous crime have I committed that has forced James to cast me off as a traitor?" His words left his mouth: entangled in a thick blanket of perhaps unnecessary and to some degree, bitterly dramatised sarcasm, which was all indeed very Remus Lupin.
"Considering that it's James, it might just have something to do with the fact that I hugged you," Lily offered: a slight sigh of disbelief to her words, because James was just a bit of a prat.
"When did he get appointed chief of the hug police? Because no one told me about that?" Remus rolled his eyes a little, because this was just irritating as opposed to anything else; James would get over it within the next ninety minutes, as he always did.
"Police?" Sirius met him with that 'I'm a very sheltered pureblood wizard' look for the thousandth time.
"They're like the muggle equivalent of aurors." Lily explained: having appointed herself chief of the explaining basic muggle concepts to pureblood wizards on an agonisingly frequent basis police, about four days into first year.
"Except they're quite a lot less cool, and they don't really have powers other than wearing really silly hats and making you pay them money for parking your car in the wrong place." Remus added, leaving Sirius to nod and feel like an absolute muggle professional for knowing what a car was after Remus had told him in second year, after falling off his bed in a fit of laughter when he realised that Sirius genuinely didn't have a clue.
"I don't know when he got made chief of the hug police then, I'm sorry," Sirius continued, "but I do know, that Remus John Lupin, that was quite a hug." He turned to the taller boy: narrowing his eyes a little. "Quite a hug."
"I didn't even initiate the hug!" Remus exclaimed, turning to Lily without thinking, as he quickly sought to pin the hug related blame upon her.
"Lily I have no idea what your middle name is Evans-" Sirius began: turning his perhaps somewhat dramatised hug treachery related inquiry to her.
"I don't have a middle name," She interjected, "I kind of wish I did, though, you know-"
"You're talking to someone whose middle name is literally motherfucking Orion, so, you know, maybe-"
"Sirius," Remus rolled his eyes a little, "look, the fact of the matter is that it was a hug, and that James is being, well, to put it as it is, a bit of prat."
Lily couldn't help but laugh at the blunt tone that seemed almost omnipresent in Remus' voice. Sirius raised his eyebrows before letting out a rather feminine kind of giggle, that he played off with a cough.
"Still, that was more than a 'hey did you have a nice summer? I've missed you' hug." Sirius looked between the two of them with mild concern, "because if you're going to hook up, please be more discreet about it so James doesn't throw a fit, because I-"
"Sirius," Lily raised her voice, cutting the dark haired boy off almost instantly, because Lily did indeed have her intimidating qualities, "it was a hug between friends. It was, however, a 'hell, are you alright? I've been really worried about you and you really underexaggerated when writing about that scar' kind of hug."
"Yeah..." Sirius trailed off: feeling just that little bit idiotic, "that does make sense, and I mean: you two," he shook his head, laughing a little, "nope."
"James would kill me." Remus supplied with a grin, "James'd kill you too, maybe, just for the hell of it."
"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed: not entirely sure whether he was supposed to be offended or not. "I don't have a 'kill me' face, do I? I don't look like a victim, do I?- Fucking hell, Remus stop laughing at me-"
"It's like the pouting thing all over again." Remus found himself fucking beaming as Sirius blushed a deep scarlet.
"Do I even want to know?" Lily found herself wondering around as they reached the carriages that would transport them to Hogwarts after a rather long walk up a hill behind the majority of the older student body.
"Well, have you noticed-" Remus began to explain, before Sirius reached up to throw a hand over his mouth, and cringed internally at how much he had to extend his arm in order to do so.
"Stop. Absolutely not." He turned to Lily: hand still clamped over Remus' mouth, "you don't know want to know."
Lily shrugged it off: rather amused with just how much taller Remus was than Sirius, and in turn, how much that agitated him, because Sirius was only two inches taller than Lily and she'd shown more signs of growing recently than he had, leaving Sirius even more hopeless in the possibility of reality in which he wouldn't be condemned to standing no taller than five feet and nine inches for the rest of his life.
Remus moved Sirius' hand away from his face as they went to get into a carriage, however he found Sirius standing just a few feet back from them with an odd sort of bewildered expression upon his face: glancing between the carriage and the empty space before it, and Remus and Lily.
"Sirius?" Remus followed his gaze for a few moments, "are you alright?" He furrowed his brow in confusion: unable to discern quite what could possibly be wrong.
"Mmm..." Sirius' expression much mirrored Remus', but with a slightly unnerved undertone. "Yeah, it's just... don't the carriages... don't they... don't they move by themselves?" He asked, shaking his expression off slightly as he followed Lily and then Remus into a carriage.
"They do." Remus told him: suddenly growing rather concerned for him, and found himself once again following Sirius' gaze to the empty space between them and the carriage about five metres before them, and confirmed for himself that it was indeed empty.
"What's this?" Lily glanced between the two of them: having not quite caught the first half of the conversation.
"It's nothing." Sirius snapped quickly, before looking away: away from the great black skeletal creature that drew the carriage, that seemed to be only visible to him, which certainly wasn't a good sign.
"The carriages move by themselves, don't they, Lily?" Remus asked after a moment, because Lily, being Lily would probably be able to explain something here and perhaps make Sirius feel a little better - Remus was right about the former, but by no means the latter.
"No, actually," she began: her gaze focused as she concentrated on relaying several facts from 'Hogwarts: A History' - a title, which Sirius Black had absolutely not read. "It appears, yes, that's it - it appears that they're enchanted to work by themselves, but actually they're drawn by Hogwarts' heard of thestrals."
Sirius looked up at this: knowing that he certainly hadn't seen these things before, and indeed had no idea whether the great black beast just a metre or so away from him was a thestral or not.
"And thestrals..." Lily continued, or was about to, until she found herself taking note of the startled look in Sirius' eyes and thought it better that she didn't, because the question hadn't just come from nowhere, and neither had that look in Sirius' eyes.
"And thestrals?" Remus urged for her to continue.
"Well, most people can't see them." Lily finished quickly, ready to leap on the first subject of conversation that came to mind so Remus would drop it and she could approach this later with Sirius in private, because 'whose death did you witness over the summer?' didn't really seem like the best topic for conversation at the moment, because, of course, thestrals were creatures would could only be seen by someone who had witnessed the death of another.
"Remus, are you going to wear your badge?" Lily's tone came out a little rushed: desperate for Remus to just accept that they weren't going to talk about the thestrals anymore.
"My badge?" Remus looked at her in confusion, before it suddenly came back to him like a sack of bricks to the face, "shit! Oh my- shit... wow, absolutely fucking wow!" Remus' rather vivacious exclamation captured Sirius' attention immediately.
"You've not lost it, have you?" Lily glanced over him in disbelief: wondering just how McGonagall would react to that, and she wondered if just as explosively as Remus just had.
"Lost what?" Sirius asked: deciding that it was best not to focus on the fucking enormous absolutely fucking terrifying massive winged black skeletal horses that no one else could see, and try and pretend that maybe he couldn't see them, just like everybody else.
"Haven't lost anything!" Remus produced a small badge from his pocket: holding it in air with a rather smug look upon his face. "Did completely forget about it, though, am going to admit that, but..." He trailed off, placing a finger to his scar, "maybe just maybe had other things to worry about than the fact that, for some fucking unknown reason, McGonagall made me a prefect."
"You're a prefect?" Sirius practically screamed at him - his expression contorting into that of horror, dismay, and disbelief. The hug incident was nothing in comparison to this divine example of pure betrayal.
"Yeah..." Remus trailed off, biting down on his bottom lip, because in earnest, the last thing he wanted to be was a prefect. "So's Lily," he added as somewhat like an afterthought: wondering if Sirius was going to scream at her too, but he didn't.
"Well, I guessed that, I mean, of course Lily's a prefect, but you're Remus Lupin, you- you're responsible for half the shit we pull, and they gave you that-" Sirius had to admit that he was just a little bit lost for words, and in addition, also a little bit delighted by the Slytherin point taking possibilities they had suddenly acquired.
"Yeah, well," Remus' face contorted into an awkward, half smug grin, "I'm not an idiot like you, so I don't get caught, do I?"
"And all the professors think you're this perfect model student, and-" Sirius had returned to shaking his head in disbelief, "fuck, Remus, you're not going to go all snobby and stuck up and start caring about the rules, are you?"
"I do care about the rules." Remus told him, glancing across at Lily for support, but she only shook her head: finding herself very much amused with the little 'lovers' tiff' occurring before her.
"Yeah, sure, because I'm pretty sure that," Sirius began to count off on his fingers dramatically, "stealing, lying, sneaking out of school, using an invisibility cloak, being out of bed after hours, making potions from the restricted section, going into the restricted section of the library without permission, hexing my brother when he's not looking, hexing other Slytherins when they're not looking, and then blaming all that shit on me and James and Peter-"
"I never blamed anything on anybody," Remus insisted: grinning, because in truth, Sirius did have quite the point, "you just have a guilty face."
"A guilty, pouty, kill me face?" Sirius rolled his eyes in disbelief, "this is kind of cool though, because you can totally fuck over the Slytherins-"
"He's not going to abuse his powers," Lily finally decided to add to their conversation.
Remus found himself unable to stop a slight grin taking over his features, "I'm not promising anything."
"You are the worst prefect." Lily shook her head in disbelief.
"I so am, I'd even forgotten about it until now," Remus grinned to himself as he attached the badge to his robes.
"James is going to consider this the second act of treachery tonight, you do know?" Sirius found himself smirking as he pictured James' reaction.
"Second act of treachery my arse!" Remus found himself exclaiming rather loudly as they got off the carriage at the gates to Hogwarts castle, "I might just casually remind him that I can take points off him whenever I like- yes, I..." it was only then that the extent of this dawned upon Remus, "I might just take some points the next time he throws all his dirty clothes onto my bed."
"He will kill you." Sirius assured him.
"And I'll just take some more points for attempted murder, because let's face it - I'm taller and stronger than him." Remus' face relaxed into a lazy contented kind of grin as they walked through the grounds; the kind of grin that totally juxtaposed the hell encompassed upon his face in a dark red scar.
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hey so yh i need to calm down about this fic i know but like i don't have any chill at all. vote and comment if u would like !!! love u