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Moony

Remus sat huddled against the wall in his compartment on board the Hogwarts Express, his knees tucked up close to his chest, a book balancing upon them, intently reading. The other occupants of the compartment shouted quite loudly, jumping about, tossing a balled up Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Bean box and pretending that it was a snitch they had to catch as they took turns being seeker, jumping bench to bench and shouting. He’d already switched compartments once or else he’d switch again, but he didn’t want to end up being known as the boy who’d visited every compartment on the train before the first hour was up. He’d have stayed in the first compartment without any trouble at all, if he’d been allowed to. It was held by a couple of seventh year boys who’d been talking quietly on their bench while Remus sat on his side, keeping to himself. But then one of the boy’s cousins had come in, along with a girl who smiled meekly at Remus, and the boy had kicked him out. So Remus had wandered through the train until he found the half-empty compartment in the back of the car where the two rambunctious boys had been sitting alone. They’d introduced themselves as James and Sirius and asked Remus if he was much into Quidditch, which Remus wasn’t, and they’d pretty much ignored him since, choosing instead to play this noisy mock-Quidditch game, only pausing to rush to the sweets trolley.

Nerves were eating away at Remus and his anxiety was only growing with every bounce of the seat as James and Sirius played around him. He struggled to keep his mind on what he was reading - his eyes kept moving over the same sentences over and over and over. Admittedly, he was more afraid of the effects of his - er, condition - than he was of the actual school year. Remus was a nice guy, he knew that much was definitely true about himself, and he wasn’t nervous about making friends for any reason other than trying to explain his monthly “illness” that would keep him out of sight for several days every month.

His mother had warned him many times over to be very, very careful while attending the school, to remember the risks involved in Lycanthropy and that Dumbledore was keeping an eye on him. “Remember, go straight to the headmaster the instant you’re at Hogwarts,” Hope had told him repeatedly as she’d helped to pack his trunk the night before. “Dumbledore has made arrangements for you that will help you in controlling your condition.”

It was always his “condition” that they referred to it as, never directly calling Remus a werewolf. Speaking the word in the Lupin house would elicit a gasp from Hope and a firm scolding from Lyall. “Werewolf is a cursed term, son,” Lyall would say sternly every time the word came up, “You aren’t a - a true werewolf. You’re too good a boy for that. You’d never bite someone - but - I suppose. Just to be safe…”

It had been seven years since Remus had been bitten by Fenrir Greyback in the yard of their cottage, and since that day Lyall and Hope had dedicated their lives to keeping Remus’s condition a secret. They shrouded him away from the world during the days of the full moon, hiding him in a bomb shelter below the garage, which smelled of wet paint and dust. “It’s the only way, son,” Lyall had said apologetically as he stocked the shelves with food to sustain Remus and locked him away until the moon had waned.

When Remus received his letter to Hogwarts, none of them could believe it. Lyall had been sure there had to be some sort of mistake. Surely Dumbledore didn’t know -- But Dumbledore did know. Dumbledore just didn’t hold stock in the belief that werewolves were any more dangerous at Hogwarts than any other sort of magical person was. “So long as certain precautions are taken,” he’d said when they family had gone to meet with him back in May. When Lyall had worried about the other students at Hogwarts at length, Dumbledore had said, “Don’t you worry, Mr. Lupin, I will hammer out the details and we will all have a very pleasant term.” He’d smiled at Remus and winked one of his old blue eyes. Remus heard, via owl, that Dumbledore had spent the summer diligently preparing for Remus’s arrival. But despite all of the headmaster’s enthusiasm, it still had been with a most worried and protective air that Hope and Lyall had brought Remus to the Hogwarts Express that morning.

It’d been easy to be confident on Platform 9¾, where Hope and Lyall had been there to do all the worrying for him, but now that they were gone, there was no one to whom the worrying defaulted and Remus was feeling every ounce of it, squeezing up his stomach as the Hogwarts Express roared through the countryside to the school.

Finally exhausted, the two boys fell back onto the benches on either side of the compartment, the one called Sirius sitting next to Remus, and panted breathlessly. James’s hair was even messier than it’d been before they started messing around. Suddenly the door burst open and a bright eyed girl looked in, a shiny Head Girl pin on her chest. “Been told to tell everyone to put on their robes,” the girl said, smiling brightly around at them. “We’re nearly there.”

“Hey Andromeda!” Sirius said, recognizing her. “You got Head Girl? Wow!”

She beamed proudly, “I did. Lucius got Head Boy, too, so the family’s pretty proud. Well most of them. Some of them seem to think mine doesn’t count since I’m Hufflepuff, but wotcher on them.” Andromeda replied. “I better go, got to tell every compartment. See you at the school. Good luck on the lake!” She ducked away, slamming the door behind her.

“That was Andromeda Black,” Sirius explained to James, “She’s my cousin.”

“I don’t know my cousins,” James said. “Our family isn’t too chummy with us. I don’t know why. Mum cries about it a lot, but mum cries a lot in general. Dad says it’s political, the reason we aren’t close, says they’re dark wizards, and they don’t want to get involved in all that.”

Sirius said, “My family’s all pretty dark, too. You heard Andromeda. She’s looked down on for not getting into Slytherin house and on account she has muggle friends. I’m a little afraid of not being Slytherin, because Mother would be hopping but at the same time... ” Sirius looked wistful for a moment. “Well… what do you think about… you know… non pure bloods? Like half bloods and muggleborns and all that?”

Remus looked up from his books, the conversation was suddenly a bit interesting.

James snorted, “Blood status is such a stupid debate. It’s just blood! It’s got nothing to do with how good your magic is, look at squibs! There’s loads of squibs all over the place, isn’t there?”

“Well my family comes from a long, long line of pure blood wizards,” Sirius said, “And my parents are gaga for the whole concept. They’ve been long time supporters of this wizard that wants to stamp out all the lesser bloodlines. They think they’re royalty because of their stupid blood status.”

“Stupid,” James said, “I’m pure blood, too, and I’m not royalty.”

“Probably we have the same blood in our veins then,” Sirius pointed out. “We might even be cousins for all I know.”

“Maybe,” James agreed, laughing. “I haven’t a clue because my family doesn’t put a lot of stock in all that.” He shrugged.

“So you think anyone could be a great wizard, despite what the are?” Remus spoke up.

It was the first time he’d spoken since they’d exchanged names hours and hours ago. James and Sirius looked over at him, startled looks on their faces as though they’d forgotten he was there at all. “Yeah,” James said, “If you can perform magic, why not? Anyone who can perform magic and goes to Hogwarts is on a equal playing field with me as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know anymore magic than anyone else on the train for being pure blood.”

“I’m half blood,” Remus said, “My mum’s a muggle and my dad’s a wizard. He works at the ministry.”

Sirius thought a moment. “Lupin, you said your name was, right?”

“Yeah,” Remus nodded.

“Your dad must be Lyall Lupin, the one who wrote the Werewolf Restriction Act of 1963?”

Remus nodded again.

“Well that’s cool,” Sirius said. “My uncle Abraxus Malfoy works at the ministry, too.” He’d have suggested that they were friends but if Lyall Lupin had married a muggle then he knew without even researching it that Abraxus wouldn’t be friends with him.

The door opened again and Andromeda Black stuck her head back in, glowering, “You all need to put on your school robes, will you? We’re pulling up to Hogsmeade Station now!” As though to punctuate her words, the train shuddered to a halt and they could hear the steamy hiss of the engine coming to a stop. She bolted away, shouting down the corridor, trying to get things organized.

James snatched his robes off the cage holding Bubo and Remus dug his up from his knapsack at his feet. Sirius had his on already. Once the boys had gotten ready, they pulled their luggage down from the overhead racks and shuffled together through the crowded train out to the platform at Hogsmeade. Students were going everywhere, bolting around through the dark under the street lamps. “Where do we go?” James asked cluelessly, looking around at Sirius and Remus.

“I don’t know,” Sirius replied.

“Firs’ years, over here!” bellowed a voice. “Firs’ years, over here!”

“There --” Remus pointed over the crowd to a giant of a man -- he had to be over 11 feet tall! -- who was waving and shouting. The majority of the crowd was going the opposite way of the man, so getting over to him was a bit like swimming upstream a powerful river. Remus led the way, followed by James and Sirius all the way to where the giant man was standing with a giant clipboard, which he was making tickmarks upon as students collected around his feet. He had unruly hair that very nearly covered his entire face and beady black eyes that peered out from beneath all of the hair.

James looked around and he spotted Lily and Severus not too far away and a funny feeling came over him, seeing the tear streaks still staining her face, her hand wrapped tightly around Severus’s hand. Neither spotted him looking, and he looked away before they could.

“Firs’ years, come with me,” the giant called, leading the way off the station platform and down a roughly hewn path through a clump of trees. “My name is Rubeus Hagrid,” he called over them as they walked, “I’m the keeper o’ the keys an’ grounds at Hogwarts an’ it’s my job ter git you lot safely ter the school.” He led them out onto a pier and suddenly across the lake they could see the ghostly black shape of the castle against the dark blue of the sky and the wisps of grey clouds that hung around the waning three-quarter moon, all reflecting in a great dark lake that seemed to be made of pure ink in the night. Rubeus Hagrid waved a dust bin lid size hand at a little flock of wood row boats. “Climb aboard,” he instructed.

“He’s mad,” whispered a couple of the first years.

It took a bit for them all to get into the boats but soon James, Sirius, and Remus were huddled together in a little boat along with a couple other first years that they hadn’t met on the train, and the little boats set off across the water at Hagrid’s command, sailing for the castle.