Chapter 1: R.J.L/1st Sep 1971 - Remus Lupin
Chapter Text
1st September - Remus Lupin
He woke up in a very unpleasant way, when his aunt pulled the curtains of his room back with enough force to knock out a grown man.
“Time to get up! I think you still have some clothes to pack.” Aunt Ivy said.
Remus replied by groaning and turning over in his bed, so that he was facing the wall.
“Fine. If you’re not at the breakfast table in ten minutes I will levitate you out of bed.” Remus knew Ivy well enough to know that she wasn’t joking.
A few seconds passed and then he heard the door close. He sighed and lifted his blanket up to step out of the bed. When he had changed into his most comfortable long sleeved shirt and a pair of baggy jeans (that his father would most definitely scream at him for wearing) he started making his way to the bathroom.
He stood in front of the bathroom mirror and stared at his reflection. The person looking back at him through the mirror looked tired and had a few bruises on his face, both from the full moon and when his father hit him. He rubbed his eyes and splashed some water on his face in an effort to wake up a little. He was startled when there was a sudden knock on the bathroom door.
“I made breakfast for when you’re done admiring yourself in the mirror.” Ah. His aunt’s girlfriend, Willow.
Remus liked Willow, she was very kind and made very pretty clothes and she teased him like this all the time.
“I wasn’t- ugh nevermind. I’m coming!” Remus replied.
He stepped out into the hallway and looked around, if someone would have told him a few years ago that he would be going to Hogwarts he would never believe them. But here he was, making final preparations before going away for almost a year. He was ecstatic.
Upon entering the kitchen he could smell the toasted bread and sausages. He sat down at the table where aunt Ivy and Willow were sitting, quietly chatting.
When he was sitting both women looked at him in sync, they always did that and sometimes they would also grin in sync.
“Soo…” Willow began, ”have you finished packing?”
“I've packed everything except my record player, and there are some albums that I also still need to pack,” Remus replied.
“Okay, well you can eat your breakfast and then finish packing. And then we’ll go to the station. How does that sound?” Willow suggested.
“Sounds good!” he replied.
On the table were everything needed for his favourite breakfast. He reached for the jam, marmalade, lemon custard and butter. Then he spread each topping onto the toast that had been cut in four parts. He loves to eat this and it’s his comfort food because it was what his mam used to make for him when she was still alive.
After eating and thanking Willow for the breakfast, he went to his room and started packing his record player and his favourite albums.
Two hours later he was standing in the train station by the last pillar between platform 9 and 10. He hated being in public places like this because it always felt like everyone was staring at him, he also found it hard to breathe among all the people around. He was beginning to breathe a little erratically, though it went unnoticed because of the loud noises. As a werewolf the sounds are also louder and the smells more smelly. His nose is often overstimulated because of different colognes, perfumes and the overwhelming stench of sweat.
Ivy and Willow were standing next to him unbeknownst to his inner turmoil.
“Okay, you have to run straight into the pillar”, they were saying, “We will be right behind you”
Remus took a deep breath and started running, when he crossed the border between the muggle platform and the platform leading to The Hogwarts Express he could sense the magic in the air. He stepped forward and immediately saw a few families.
There was a lady wearing a ghastly hat with a taxidermy bird on top of it. She was standing next to a boy with a brown vest and dark brown hair. Then there was a small freckled boy with hair the colour of straw standing in front of his parents, if Remus had to guess, he would say that the boy was his age. A bit farther away on the platform stood two children that looked his own age that looked very similar to each other. The boy had blonde hair that was in braids, and it looked kind of unnatural when paired with his dark skin, had it not been for the girl standing next to him with the same blonde hair, Remus would have thought it was dyed. The girl, however, had waist-length braids filled with blue pearls.
Just then Ivy and Willow showed up behind him, he would have been startled, had it not been for his werewolf senses that allowed him to smell them before they spoke,
“People watching, I see,” Ivy said with fake judgment in her tone.
“Don’t act like you didn’t do the exact same when you and Lyall came here for your first year of Hogwarts,” replied Willow.
The two women looked at each other and burst out laughing at the same time.
Remus rolled his eyes and started walking towards the train.
The platform was steadily filling with more families and he wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. He was also starting to get a bit uncomfortable because of all the people bumping into him.
“Good luck this school year,” Ivy said. Remus nodded, she continued, ”Don’t forget to have fun”
“And you are under no circumstances to forget to write us letters,” Willow said with a mock-serious tone.
Ivy continued her speech, “And don’t get into trouble-” Willow interrupted by snorting, which earned her one of Ivy’s elbows in her ribs.
“Fine, fine. I’ll write you letters and avoid getting caught for causing trouble,” Remus said.
“What about the ‘have fun’ part?” Ivy and Willow asked at the same time, they both glanced at each other and snorted.
“Well I don’t know if I’ll have fun or not, do I? How about I write a letter to you, is that good enough for fun?”
“Okay, okay. We’ll let you get onto the train now, we’ll see you at christmas!” Willow said.
“Ffarwel!”
“Bye Remus!”
“Farewell”
“Bye!”
“Have a splendid time!”
Remus didn’t stay to listen to all the ways the two women could say ‘bye’, instead he stepped into the train and looked around. He could see a seating area with tables and behind those was a long hallway with compartments, he started walking down the hallway, looking for an empty compartment. Soon he laid eyes upon an empty one and stepped inside, he put his trunk up on the luggage rack and then sat down next to the window where he searched for Ivy and Willow. He soon found them and waved as the train started moving.
When the train had gotten a bit away from London, Remus got tired of staring out of the window so he took out a book from his trunk and started reading.
About half an hour later a girl walked in, she was wearing a light green flowy dress with white flowers embroidered, she also had fiery red hair and a face full of freckles.
“Hello, I’m Lily! What’s your name?” She asked, when she looked at him he realised that she had very pretty green eyes.
“Hi, my name’s Remus,” he answered quietly, he had never been good at making friends because he was a bit shy. “Do you wanna sit?”
“Sure,” the girl, Lily, answered as she went to sit on the seat across from him.
They talked about how it felt to receive the letter, books and what they thought Hogwarts was going to be like for about ten minutes until the door slid open to reveal a boy with medium length black hair, that upon closer inspection looked a bit greasy, but Remus was not going to judge him for that.
“Lily, follow me so we can catch up.” The boy said.
Lily stood up and looked apologetically towards Remus, “I hope you don’t mind, me and Sev are best friends..”
“Oh, no, not at all. Go on and catch up, I’ll see you in the castle sometime,” Remus answered.
“Okay great!”
And then Lily and the boy, (Sev?), left him alone again. He went back to reading his book in silence. After a few minutes Remus stood up to open a window because it had become a bit hot in the compartment. Just as he had sat down the door slid open again, and this time it was the girl with blonde braids that he saw on the platform.
“Hello, can I sit here?”
“Sure.”
“My name is Pandora Rosier, what’s yours?”
“I’m Remus Lupin, nice to meet you.”
The girl looked at him for a few seconds, her gaze a little bit unsettling as someone that doesn’t like eye contact, then finally, “Nice to meet you too Remus Lupin.”
Pandora had a very soft and airy voice that perfectly matched her ethereal vibe, like a ghost that drifts around.
They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes until Pandora broke the silence, “My brother, Evan, is running around the train with his new friend. He said he was going to ‘find people worthy enough to talk to’, though I think that’s his way of saying he was gonna find some friends-”
She was interrupted by the sound of a crash and then not even five seconds later two boys entered the compartment like they owned the place.
“Speaking of..” Pandora said, mostly to Remus.
“Aww that’s so adorable, have you been speaking about me?! I knew you loved me Dora!”, said the boy that Remus recognized from the platform, Pandora’s brother.
“Hello Evan, who is your new friend?” Asked Pandora, politely ignoring what Evan said.
“Actually it’s new friends- Wait, where's Black?” Evan asked, mainly to the other person, “Oh, and by the way, this is Barty.”
“REGGIE-BOY!!” Barty decided to shout to no one and nothing in particular. Though it seemed to work as another boy walked into the compartment with a horrified expression.
“Stop shouting, I am here.” The boy said, and then a somewhat quieter, “Someone had to help the trolley lady, after her cart got crashed to the ground by an unnamed hurricane…”
Barty burst out laughing and Remus snorted from where he was sitting in his seat, reading, while simultaneously listening to the conversation.
This made both Evan and the other boy acknowledge his existence as they both whipped their heads around to stare at him. Pandora seemed to notice this as she cleared her throat and said, “Hello, I am Pandora and this is Remus. What is your name?”
“Oh. Hello, I am Regulus Black.” He said in a quiet but clear way. He had an accent that was almost aristocratic, which was what made Remus think that this boy was rich.
“Hello, nice to meet you,” Remus answered, and then went back to reading while Evan and Barty sat down and started a conversation about extremely random stuff. Regulus and Pandora sat quietly in their corners and observed the conversation and the nature outside of the window. About an hour later Evan and Barty said that they would try to see if there were any other people ‘worthy of being our friends’ as Barty had said, and then they left.
That left a very quiet compartment. A while after that, Regulus and Pandora left to find Barty and Evan to make sure that they didn’t wreak too much havoc, Pandora had asked if Remus wanted to come with them, to which Remus had replied by raising his book and saying that he would stay and read instead. She nodded and then walked away to follow Regulus.
Remus spent the rest of the train journey alone in a quiet compartment, the only sound being the rustling of pages turning, people talking in the corridor and the train driving. He bought some chocolate frogs when the trolley lady came by and ate them until the train arrived at the station.
Chapter 2: R.J.L/1st Sep 1971 - Hogwarts
Summary:
Basically, this chapter is about Remus arriving at Hogwarts, having an important business meeting (okay maybe that's not true) but it was a meeting, and getting introduced to even more people
(wow he met people at a school, so shocking, right?)
Also just Remus roasting the sorting hat, and the hat roasting him back
Notes:
I started writing this chapter yesterday but I just deleted everything today to rewrite it because I hated it.
But anyway, enjoy! (or don't, the choice is yours)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
1st September - Remus Lupin
When the train stopped and they were at their destination in Hogsmeade station, Remus looked around to try to see where he should go, but the only thing he saw was hundreds of students walking around. Just then, a loud voice said,
“Firs’ years come over here! Firs’ years come over here!”
Remus looked around to see what the voice came from and was immediately surprised when he saw a giant man that stood higher than everyone else. He started making his way over to the man, just as the other first years were doing.
“‘Ello everyone, I’m Hagrid. I work as groundkeeper ‘ere at Hogwarts. Now follow me everybody.”
The first years start following Hagrid, Remus chose to walk at the back of the group. They were led to a thin dirt pathway that went downhill through the trees. After about five minutes of walking down the path they arrived at a small beach, where there were rowing boats for everyone to sit in.
Most people immediately ran forward to sit in the same boats as their friends so when Remus got a chance to get on a boat, it was with three people he hadn’t seen nor met before. There was a boy with light brown hair, a girl with blonde hair and another girl who had her hair styled in two buns. He got on the boat and looked back to the sand, where there were still a few people trying to find a boat to sit in.
After a few minutes the boats started moving on their own so the students just had to sit back and watch as the castle grew bigger and bigger the closer they got. The water was like a void with how dark it was, though it reflected the lights coming from the castle up above. Not long after, they got to a small cavern that had space to park the rowing boats.
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After walking for a bit through the castle and meeting a witch called Professor McGonagall that gave them a brief introduction to the different houses and how they worked, they walked into a great hall. The first thing Remus noticed was the high ceiling that was currently displaying the image of the night sky, above all of the students was loads of candles floating candles. There were four different tables filled with students that seemed to all be watching the first years walking to the front of the hall.
In front of them on a small wooden stool, was an old battered hat. The hat was, in Remus’ opinion, extremely ugly, but that didn’t seem to matter to Professor McGonagall who started calling students up one by one to try on the hat who would shout what house the person belonged to.
“Remus Lupin,” McGonagall said, and Remus started walking towards the stool. When he sat down, the ugly hat was placed on his head.
“You have some nerve to call me ugly while looking like that…” The hat stated firmly, which made Remus raise an eyebrow.
Can you just say what house I belong in so I can get away from the attention of the whole school?
“Fine, fine. Hm- let’s see what is in this brain of yours.”
Let me guess. Nothing?
“I will choose to ignore that out of the goodness of my heart”
What heart? You are literally a hat.
“Let us continue,” the hat said.
“Hm.. ah. I think you would do well in… Gryffindor!”
Remus sighed and stood up once the hat had been removed from his head, then he calmly walked over to the Gryffindor table where there were students cheering. He sat down next to Lily who looked ecstatic to be there, “Remus! Can you believe we’re in the same house? I can’t wait until classes start so we can learn stuff.”
“I agree, I am looking forward to learning magic,” Remus answered. Lily beamed at him and looked like she was going to say something, but was interrupted by the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, beginning his speech about rules and the forbidden forest.
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After the speech, the food was served. Remus' aunt had said that there was loads of food but he had thought that she was exaggerating until now, when there were piles of food along the whole table. He started filling up his plates, already feeling the hunger that the moon was causing him, that was another thing he had thought about. Since the full moon in September that year was on the 5th he had wondered where he would transform.
He didn’t dwell on his thoughts though, not when he had a year of fun and time away from his father. He continued to eat as he observed everyone around him, just then a hand appeared on his shoulder and he shied away from the touch. He turned around to see Professor McGonagall standing there, “Hello Professor.”
“Good evening Mr. Lupin, would you be so kind as to follow me? I believe we have some things to discuss.”
He quickly understood that she was talking about his lycanthropy and stood up from the table, then he followed McGonagall through the great hall and out, where she led him through corridors and up stairs. After a few minutes of walking in silence they arrived at two big wooden doors. The Professor knocked and almost immediately the door opened, revealing a plump woman in what looked like some sort of nurse clothing. She smiled and stepped aside to let them in, “Hello Minerva, am I right to assume that this is Mr. Lupin?” She asked.
“That assumption would be correct, yes,” Professor McGonagall answered.
“Good evening Mr. Lupin,” the woman said.
“This is Madam Pomfrey, she is the school healer,” McGonagall said.
“Let’s go to my office to discuss this,” Madam Pomfrey suggested.
They walked away from the door towards the corner of the room where a smaller door was, and upon entering Remus saw that it was filled with paperwork, potions and other medical stuff, but right in the middle was a desk with a chair on one side and a stool across from it. Remus took a seat on the stool and watched as Pomfrey sat in the chair. McGonagall started talking then,
“During the full moons you will be escorted out onto the grounds. We have transformed a tree that has a passageway underneath that will lead you to a shack, where you will be spending the full moon in.”
“Is that safe for everyone? What if I get through the door to the shack? And what happens if a student gets into the passageway under the tree, won’t they find out that there is a werewolf if they see the scratch marks?” Remus asks, because he really doesn’t want anyone to get hurt or to find out about his lycanthropy.
“First of all, the door is charmed so that you need to use spells to open it, spells that a random student won’t know. Second of all, the tree is called The Whomping Willow and will use its branches to hit anyone who gets close to it. Professor Dumbledore has informed every student to stay away from the tree so that shouldn’t be a problem. Madam Pomfrey will accompany you to open the door and get you settled in and then she will return when the moon has set again to help you back into the school and heal any possible injuries,” McGonagall said, and Remus couldn’t find any fault in that plan so he just nodded and muttered a ‘thanks’.
“I’ll try my best to help you, and I wanted to say that I have read some books about lycanthropy and the effects it can have on your body, so I would like to say that I’m as ready as I ever could be. Do you have any other questions? If not, you may be excused,” Pomfrey said.
“Thank you, and no I don’t have any questions right now,” He said and started to stand up. He said bye to both women and left out of the door quickly. He couldn’t wait until he got to his dorm and could unpack and then sleep. He started walking down the corridors trying to find the common room, but then he remembered that he didn’t even know where in the castle it was. He walked around aimlessly for a few minutes and just as he was about to give up, he ran straight into someone else, causing Remus to almost fall and the other boy to fall flat on his ass.
“Sorry about that,” Remus said and offered his hand to pull the other boy up.
“That’s okay,” The other boy said and started nervously looking round and wringing his hands.
That was when Remus noticed that the boy was wearing the same coloured tie as him, red and gold.
“Hey, do you know where the Gryffindor common room is? I had a meeting and missed the tour…” Remus asked the boy.
The boy looked at him for a few seconds and said slowly, “I don’t know where it is either, I wanted to get out of my dorm and then I got lost…”
“That’s okay, maybe we can find it if we search together,” Remus suggested.
The other boy nodded and they started walking. Remus thought he would stay quiet but proved him wrong as he asked, “What’s your name by the way? I’m Peter. Peter Pettigrew.”
“I’m Remus”
“That’s a cool name! I wish I had a cool name instead of just Peter…”
Remus snorted and shook his head slightly, “I guess it can be nice to have a unique name, but still, sometimes it would be nice to have a more common name”
“Fair enough, I guess.”
“Do you remember what the area near the common room looked like?” Remus asked.
“Not really, I do remember that the entrance was a painting of a fat lady with a pink dress.” Peter replied, then a second later he looked like he had a great idea, “Hey, why don’t we just ask the paintings for directions?”
“The- oh, yeah I didn’t think about that. Let’s do it.”
______________
A few minutes later they were on the way to the common room that they had been given directions to by a nice man in one of the paintings.
“Hey, you said earlier that you wanted to get out of the dorm, any particular reason why?” Remus asked, he tried to sound polite instead of blunt but didn’t know if he was successful.
“Not really, just two of my dormmates are ridiculously loud and messy and were playing a mix between pillow fighting and tag. Let’s just say that it got messy fast and I wanted a break.”
“Ah. I do hope that my dormmates are quieter or I don’t know how I will survive the year,” Remus said which caused Peter to laugh.
“I have no clue how I will survive the year with those two as dormmates. They have apparently already planned three pranks that they are planning to perform tomorro- oops, I don’t know if you were supposed to know that. Please don’t tell a teacher, as much as I don’t like their ways of unpacking, I don’t want them to dislike me.”
“Hey, it’s okay, I won’t tell anyone. My lips are sealed,” Remus said, using his wand to imitate sealing his lips, which caused several red sparks to fly out of his wand. He got so startled that he accidentally dropped the wand on the floor. It rolled a few meters and came to a stop in front of a big painting of a lady with an extravagant pink dress.
“Oh! That’s the entrance,” Peter exclaimed joyfully, he walked up to the painting and said, “Lion mane”
Then the door, painting?, swung open. Remus and Peter stepped inside and walked down the little hallway until appearing in the common room. It was obvious that this was the Gryffindor common room because of the red sofas, red carpets, red curtains, and red pillows. The walls were filled with paintings all the way to the ceiling. In the middle of one wall was a big fireplace, there were also two sofas and two armchairs in front of the fireplace.
One sofa was being occupied by a boy with black wavy hair and another boy with jet black hair(that may or may not have looked like a mop with how messy it was). In the other sofa was one of the girls that Remus had sat in the rowing boat with, she was talking to Lily who was also sitting in the sofa. The boy with messy hair was staring at Lily and didn’t even seem to be trying to hide it. Remus decided to go over there since she was one of the only people he had talked to that got into Gryffindor.
She looked up from her conversation when she saw him approaching and smiled widely. He sat down in the armchair that was closest to her and said, “Hello Lily!”
“Hey Remus! I was wondering where you went during dinner, I couldn’t find you anywhere.”
“Sorry ‘bout that, I had a meeting with McGonagall…” He trailed off awkwardly because he didn’t want her to ask what the meeting was about. Luckily luck seemed to be on his side today as she instead turned to the girl sitting next to her and said, “This is Remus, I met him on the train and we talked for a bit.”
“Nice to meet you Remus, I’m pretty sure we were on the same boat but I didn’t get to introduce myself. My name is Mary MacDonald.”
“Pleasure to meet you Mary”
After that the three of them talked for about an hour until it got late. Remus stood up abruptly, causing blood to rush to his head which made him dizzy. He put a hand on the armrest to steady himself and then he yawned.
“I’ll go and meet my dormmates and go to bed. Good night, Lily. Night Mary.”
“Good night Remus,” the girls said in sync, they looked at each other and giggled quietly.
He started walking towards the back of the common room and then started the trek up the stairs. When he got to the correct floor, he looked at the plaque beside the door to read if it was the correct room.
Arthur Greengood
Noah Hill
Remus Lupin
Then he opened the room slowly, trying to sense some sort of chaos. Not even his werewolf enhanced senses told him that anything was wrong, so he opened the door all the way to reveal a small boy with black hair and another boy with brown hair packing quietly.
He stepped into the room carefully and went over to the only empty bed, then he started unpacking his essentials. He would unpack the rest tomorrow since it was a free day. After a while of silence, the smaller boy introduced himself, “Hello, my name is Noah.”
“Cool, I’m Arthur,” the other boy said.
“My name’s Remus,” he replied.
“Well I just wanted to introduce myself before going to bed, good night.”
“Night,” Remus replied.
“Good night,” Arthur said.
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After brushing his teeth and bringing his pajamas with him to change in the safety of his bed behind the curtains, Remus settled into bed. He couldn’t help but think about tomorrow when he would explore the castle, and the rest of the school year when he was to live at Hogwarts. He already had a friend, Lily, and maybe Pandora and Evan, Barty and Regulus if they counted as friends after one meeting.
That night was the first in many that he fell asleep with a smile on his lips.
Notes:
haha thanks for reading, I can't wait until I can start writing the interesting things.
Also, yes, yes I know. Remus doesn't share a dorm with the other marauders.. YET. Trust me, it's later in the plot. He will get there, baby steps.
Anyway now I am going to end this end note.
Isn't it sad how I have no friends so instead I write in the end notes of my chapters what I am doing like a loser :(
Chapter 3: R.J.L/2nd Sep 1971 - The Map
Summary:
Remus wakes up with a fright,
walks around mapping the castle in an effort not to get lost,
and discovers that one of his dorm mates sucks a wizard's chess.
Notes:
This chapter is a teeny tiny bit shorter than the others, but it's also kind of basic and maybe boring. I'm building up to the interesting things but I want to write a solid base first.
Also I spent the entire morning running around in Hogwarts legacy to scope out hiding places and hang out spots that I can write about because if there's one thing I like, it's details.
So what I'm saying is that I describe the places in this fic according to the hogwarts legacy map because I like to be able to visualise stuff when reading so it will help me (and maybe other readers) to visualise what something looks like while you read.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
2nd September - Remus Lupin
The rain is splattering against the windows and the thunder is loud. The glass shards are lying forgotten on the floor as Remus pushes himself against the corner in his bed, he has to get away but the creature is in the way of the door. Suddenly it jumps forward towards him and strikes its claws against his stomach, but Remus can’t feel the pain right now, his only focus is to try to survive this. The creature- that looks a lot like a wolf, but not exactly- ducks its head and bites down on the side of his waist. The last thing he remembers before he blacks out is the amount of blood pooling around him, and the blood curdling scream that he lets out.
Remus woke up with a start, he looked around trying to figure out where he was, until it clicked in his brain. Ah. Hogwarts. Well, at least there was no father that could hate him here. That’s when he remembered that he had dormmates now, he opened the curtains to catch a glimpse of Arthur and Noah to see if he woke them up during his nightmare. It wouldn’t have been the first time he screamed or cried while sleeping. Luckily, this didn’t seem to be the case as he saw the sleeping forms of the boys under their respective blankets.
He cast a tempus charm to see what time it was and the numbers 06:03 showed up in the air. He sighed and quickly changed into a pair of baggy blue/brown-ish jeans and a long sleeved grey shirt. Then he quietly walked across the dorm room to the bathroom where he brushed his teeth and then he left the dorm room. The Gryffindor common room was empty, as he had expected, seeing as it was just after 6am.
Remus went over to a window and cracked it open to see the rising sun, he sat down on the ledge with his legs swinging out of the building. Then he opened the book he had taken with him, it was one about transfiguration. He sat there for an hour, just reading and enjoying the morning sun on his face.
He could hear someone walk into the common room and after a few seconds of standing still, walking quietly closer to him. Without turning around he said, “Morning, Peter.”
“Wha- How did you know it was me?”
The truth was that Remus had been able to smell him and hear him, but he was not about to explain his werewolf senses to Peter, so instead he just shrugged and said, “Lucky guess. Plus, I think you are one out of two, maybe three people that would approach me at this time in the morning.”
“Hm.. I guess that makes sense. Well anyway, I was just gonna ask if you wanted to eat breakfast? Two of my dormmates are sleeping and the other one is running around in circles, I think he said something about ‘working out’, though I don’t know if that’s working”
“Sure I am actually hungry, and I am kinda scared of your dorm mate if he is working out at 07.30 in the morning.”
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Upon entering the Great Hall, they walked over to the nearly empty Gryffindor table and sat down. Remus looked around the hall to see if he could spot anyone he had talked to but it seemed that the people he knew were not morning people.
Once they both had eaten up Remus stood up and said that he was going to go back to his dorm to unpack the rest of his stuff and then explore the castle. Peter nodded and said that he was gonna go to his dorm mates that had now gotten to the hall and were eating breakfast.
When he was back in his dorm he noted that Noah and Arthur were gone, so he started unpacking in peace. He pulled his clothes out first, then his record player and the records. It took a while but after some time the trunk was empty so he gently pushed it under his bed and stood up. Then he grabbed a blank piece of parchment and a quill, he made sure it was one of the quills that re-inked themselves.
Then he started walking around Hogwarts and drawing the corridors and classrooms. He got the idea of making a map the day before when he and Peter got lost and had to ask portraits for directions. He passed a few people in the corridors that looked at him funny but he ignored them.
The day continued to pass like that, Remus walking around and drawing corridors and other significant places like classrooms, big statues or noticeable paintings. Soon enough Remus’ stomach growled and when he found a clock he saw that it was nearly dinner time, he put the map in his bag and started walking towards the Great Hall.
When he was around the corner of the entrance to the hall he spotted Lily and Mary talking to each other while on their way to dinner. He jogged up to them and said, “Hello!”
Lily smiled and said, “Hi Remus!” while Mary asked, “What have you been up to today Remus?”
“Oh, I have been drawing a map so that I don’t get lost,” he said and took out the map to show it to the girls.
“This is brilliant!” Mary exclaimed.
“I agree, imagine how much time could be saved if I didn’t get lost all the time,” Lily said.
Remus nodded and put the map back in his bag while they walked into the Great Hall. The hall was lively with chatter and the food was already served so the scents of delicious food filled the air as they made their way to an empty spot on the benches that ran along the table. They talked about everything and nothing while eating dinner and then walked back to the common room together. Remus bid farewell to the girls and then walked up the stairs to his dorm.
When he opened the door and walked into the dorm he saw Arthur and Noah playing wizards chess, Noah was staring intently at the board and seemed to be calculating something while Arthur sat back and watched Noah thinking. Remus walked over and sat down next to them and asked Arthur quietly, “Who’s winning?”
“I’ll tell you one thing, and that’s that it’s gonna be me. I am a wizard’s chess champion,” Arthur declared proudly, then he perked up when Noah moved one of his pieces. Arthur enthusiastically moved one of his pieces, but his smile was quickly wiped from his face as Noah said, “Checkmate,” and Arthur’s king was smashed into pieces. Remus snorted and stood up while Noah innocently asked, “Rematch?”
The day had been so good that Remus had almost forgotten his nightmare, almost. As he settled into bed after changing to sleeping clothes and brushing his teeth he remembered the nightmare. It was a little fuzzy in his mind, as dreams tend to be but he could still remember the key details.
Rain. Thunder. Glassplitter. Greyback. Werewolf. Pain. Blood.
Werewolf. Werewolf. Werewolf. Blood. Blood. Blood. Pain. Pain. Pain.
This was a nightmare that he used to have all the time after 'The incident', as he had named it in his mind. But still, he hadn’t had a nightmare in such a long time and now he just got one? Was it a coincidence or was there a reason? He really hoped that the nightmare wasn’t triggered because of Hogwarts, seeing as he was going to live here for nearly a year.
He shook his head and retrieved the map from his bag and a quill to draw details in an attempt to clear his head. He also carried his record player into his bed, cast a silencing spell around his bed and put on one of his favourites, ‘Who’s Next’ by The Who.
An hour later he put his stuff away and cast ‘nox’ to cancel out the ‘lumos’ that he’d cast. Then he rolled over so that he was facing the wall and fell asleep.
Notes:
thanks for reading <3
I have spent today playing 99 nights in the forest, running around Hogwarts in hogwarts legacy, writing details in my notes app, and writing on chapter 3
Chapter 4: R.A.B/1st Sep 1971 - Waiting
Summary:
Regulus gets ready to go to hogwarts,
Meets a certain annoying boy,
and meets two even more annoying boys,
and a boy and girl that's not as annoying.
Notes:
NEW POV UNLOCKED RAAHHHHH
Sad boy Regulus has arrived and he is here to stay for a while.
But hey!
Atleast he has some friends to help him through it.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
1st September - Regulus Black
He woke up at 6 on the dot, just as he is supposed to do. He stood up stiffly from his bed and walked over to his wardrobe to change into appropriate dress robes. He nearly jumped out of his skin when there was a quiet knock on the door, it couldn’t have been maman because she would just summon Kreacher to retrieve him, it couldn’t have been father because he couldn’t even be bothered with any of his children. Kreacher would just apparate into his room, that only left one person. He quickly put on the rest of his clothes and walked over to the door. He cracked it open a little to confirm who it was.
Sirius.
Then he opened the door slowly, to not minimize the risk of the door creaking, to let his twin brother in.
“Hey Reggie, are you excited for today?”
“Hi Siri. Is that even a question? Of course I am happy about it.”
“Me too! I can’t wait to see what house I get sorted into,” Sirius said.
“What do you mean? We are going to get sorted into Slytherin like every other Black and make Maman proud,” Regulus replied.
“Well, yeah. But there is still a possibility that we get sorted into a house that’s not Slytherin, personally I wouldn’t want to be a Hufflepuff. Maybe I’ll be a Ravenclaw since I’m so smart,” Sirius rambled on.
“Sirius. We need to get sorted into Slytherin so that maman will be proud of us. And imagine how mad she would be if we got sorted into another house,” Regulus said slowly, he had to make his brother understand this, he didn’t want Sirius to get punished or hurt.
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I’ll go back to my room so that stupid Kreacher doesn’t catch me here. See ya later,” he said as a dismissal and waved to Regulus before walking towards the door.
“Don’t say mean stuff about Krea-” He said, but it was in vain because his brother had already exited the room. He sighed heavily and went to sit on the edge of the well made bed. He had waited for this day to come for years, and now that it was finally here, he didn’t know what to think. When he was younger he wanted to go to Hogwarts to get away from his parents, that was still somewhat the case. However, he was also scared to disappoint maman by getting sorted into the wrong house. He knew, though, that whatever obstacles he was about to face, he would face them together with his brother.
The telltale crack sound of apparition had him straightening his back and standing up to face Kreacher.
“Master Regulus is wanted downstairs,” Kreacher said.
Regulus smiled softly, “Thank you, Kreacher.”
Kreacher just stared at him for a few seconds until he nodded, he had never seemed to get used to Regulus being kind to him. Regulus was the only one that treated Kreacher with respect, everyone else in the house just treated him the same respect as they would to a piece of gum stuck under your shoe, not even Sirius was kind to him.
Kreacher apparated away and Regulus straightened out his dress robes and walked down the stairs to eat breakfast with Sirius, maman and father. The table was very long and laid out with more food than they could eat in a week. Sirius had not arrived yet so Regulus sat down at the opposite end than where father was sitting, they sat in silence until maman sat down next to father. Since the table was so long, the distance between them and Regulus was very awkward.
“Regulus. Where is your brother?” Maman asked sharply, her eyes felt like they were piercing holes into his. It felt like she could stare straight into his soul and read his every thought, then again maybe she was doing exactly that since she was a legilimens.
“I don’t know, maman.”
“There, there. No need to call the aurors, I’m right here, and I’m clearly okay.” Sirius said as he walked into the room and sat down in the chair next to Regulus.
“No talking back!” She shouted, causing Regulus to flinch. He had never been good with loud noises because they reminded him too much of when he and Sirius would get punished. Sirius glanced at him and seemed to decide to behave. She cleared her throat and continued on, “I want you two to make me proud this year. That starts during the sorting ceremony when you will be sorted into Slytherin, to the rest of the school year when you will be perfect students and not cause trouble and finally to the end of the year when you will have produced perfect scores. Am I clear?”
“Yes, maman,” Regulus replied, his voice unwavering, sounding sure of himself, even though he felt far from it. He was actually terrified of disappointing her.
Sirius hummed noncommittally and shrugged his shoulders. Maman's piercing eyes quickly went from Regulus to Sirius, she stared at him unblinkingly for a while until finally she asked, “Will you have trouble reaching this goal, Sirius?”
Sirius looked about three shades paler and like he had seen a ghost. He took a few moments before replying, “No, maman,” his voice shaking slightly, though he was obviously trying to compose himself. She seemed to accept this and went back to discussing something with father that couldn’t be heard from the other side of the table.
______________
After breakfast had ended, maman had sent the brothers up to their rooms to pack ‘their belongings’ though Regulus thought that was a bit hypocritical since she was the one that didn’t allow them to have ‘belongings’. Instead, he double checked that he had packed all of his clothes. Which was pointless really, because of course he had, he had after all been looking forward to this day for years.
A while later, Kreacher appeared in his room, “Master Regulus is to leave for the station now.”
Regulus nodded and stood up from his desk chair. It was when he started walking towards the door that Kreacher added, “Kreacher wishes Master Regulus the best of luck during the school year.”
“Thank you Kreacher. I’ll see you soon,” Regulus added sincerely. And then he walked out of the room and downstairs. When he got there he saw that Sirius was already there, looking excited and bouncing on the balls of his feet. Regulus thought that that was the only time Sirius was on time for something.
______________
When they had arrived at the station they were standing against the wall watching the Hogwarts Express and all of the people. Regulus knew that they had to wait until maman told them to go and Sirius did too, so that’s what they did. As if on cue, maman said in a harsh tone, “You will not disappoint me.” Then she waited until the boys nodded and continued, “You are dismissed.”
Regulus and Sirius glanced at each other before walking towards the train. When they got to the corridor of compartments Sirius let out a relieved sigh. They continued walking in search of an empty compartment, they soon found one and entered it. Sirius put up his trunk on the rack above the seats and then turned and took Regulus’ trunk out of his hands. Regulus let out an irritated huff and sat down on the window seat.
“Finally! I have barely even been out during the summer, and now I get to go out whenever I want,” Sirius said and accompanied it with a wistful sigh.
“Well, you can’t actually be out whenever you want to. You have to be in your dorm after curfew,” Regulus added reasonably.
“Eh. Who cares about rules anyway?” Sirius said and waved his hand around half heartedly.
“But-” Regulus was interrupted by the door swinging open, revealing a boy with messy black hair and crooked glasses.
“Hey! Mind if I sit here?” The boy asked.
Regulus began, “Actually-” but was interrupted by Sirius. “Not at all, sit down! What’s your name by the way?” Regulus threw an annoyed glance at Sirius that went ignored.
“Oh sorry, I’m James. James Potter. What’s yours?”
“I’m Sirius. Sirius Black. And this is my brother Regulus.”
“Nice to meet you!” The boy- James- said. Sirius beamed and began talking enthusiastically with Potter while Regulus rolled his eyes and stared out of the window.
After a while Sirius asked, “Do you wanna explore the train?” To which Potter nodded so quickly that Regulus wondered if he got dizzy from it.
The three boys stood up and exited the compartment, the corridor was pretty empty except a few students littered around. When Sirius and Potter turned right, Regulus turned left. Sirius turned around and frowned, “Reggie aren’t you coming?”
Regulus scowled at Sirius for using his nickname in public, “It’s Regulus. And no thanks, I’d rather go and find the trolley to buy something to eat.”
Sirius looked troubled at this, “Are you sure?”
Regulus rolled his eyes and said, “Yes, I’m sure. Run along now, I’ll see you later.”
Sirius nodded carefully and only after Regulus turned around did he start walking.
Regulus, however, was met with an obstacle. Two obstacles, really, in the form of two boys running up to him.
“Reggie!” A teasing voice, “Are you alright, being all alone?”
Regulus raised an eyebrow at the boy, he had tanned skin and dark brown hair that looked unbrushed and messy.
“Aw. Don’t you want to explore the train?” The boy with white braids said.
“The only thing I’m going to explore is how well my wand does with hexes and jinxes if you don’t get out of my way or shut up,” Regulus said coolly.
“Chill out, mate. Oh, did you say you were going to find the snack cart?” One of them said, to which Regulus replied, “No, I just wanted to get away from my brother.”
“Oh! Follow me,” the boy with braids said excitedly. They started out walking through the corridor until suddenly they were running. The one with brown hair, that was in the front, looked back to see if the other two were following him, so he didn’t see the lady walking with a trolley towards them. The loud sound of dishes and plates smashing against the ground filled the corridor but the other two boys just kept running, until they opened a compartment door and hurried in.
Regulus wandered over to the trolley and picked up a few sweets that had fallen to the floor and muttered a quiet apology.
He was about to go to the other boys when a voice sounded, “REGGIE-BOY!!”
He quickly walked to the compartment. Inside, there was a boy with fluffy brown curls sitting quietly next to the window, reading. Then across from the reading boy, there was a girl with long blonde braids.
“Stop shouting, I’m here.” Regulus said, and then he muttered quietly, “Someone had to help the trolley lady, after her cart got crashed to the ground by an unnamed hurricane…”
He learned that the reading boy was named Remus and the girl sitting by the window was named Pandora and was twins with the blonde one. Then he sat down in the corner and just watched the interaction between the two other boys, who he learned from context clues were named Barty and Evan. Barty and Evan left to torment other people an hour later. So that left a quiet compartment, Pandora however got worried so when Evan and Barty hadn’t returned after a while, he and Pandora went to go find them, Remus politely declined and went back to reading.
______________
As Regulus and Pandora walked down the corridor they listened for any irregular sounds but couldn’t hear anything unusual. Regulus had thought that Evan and Barty were only capable of being loud, so of course he didn’t expect it when the two boys snuck up on him and Pandora and pushed them into an empty compartment and then locked the door somehow.
“Ugh. Evan was always doing pranks at home, I can only imagine they will get worse now that he has Barty as an accomplice,” Pandora said sullenly.
“This is a prank? How is this even remotely funny?”
“Well, it’s not funny for us. But for them it is since they get to watch us in here like caged animals,” she said and pointed towards the glass door. On the other side Barty and Evan were standing, laughing as if they had all the time in the world.
“Oh, well. Once Evan has started a prank, there will be no stopping him until he finishes it. We might as well sit down,” Pandora said. Regulus sat down and they began speaking about potions, more specifically, the book that they had gotten for this term. Apparently Pandora also liked potions, though she preferred charms. Time continued like that, they chatted about school work and the subjects that they were the most excited for and then they were at the station.
______________
Regulus hated sitting on the stool in front of the whole school. It felt as though everyone was just waiting for him to do something wrong. To fail. The sorting hat didn’t make this any better, just adding to the voices in his head.
It didn’t take long for the hat to make its decision though.
“Slytherin!”
It took everything in him not to physically sag in relief, he had a name to uphold after all. He walked with perfect posture over to the cheering Slytherins and took a seat beside his favourite cousin, Narcissa. She smiled kindly at him and then immediately looked towards the other first years since Sirius was about to be sorted.
Sirius walked up towards the stool and sat down confidently, the hat took a few minutes to decide.
And when it did.
Oh.
“Gryffindor!”
Regulus looked at his brother, feeling a sense of dread pool at the pit of his stomach.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
Sirius was supposed to get sorted into Slytherin too so that he could be with Regulus, and together they would face the obstacles and their parents.
But that wasn’t how it went. He got sorted into Gryffindor.
What would the rest of the school think of this? What would the wizarding world think of this?
Oh.
What would their parents think of this?
Regulus knew one thing, and that was that this wasn’t going to end well. Still, he waited until the moment when Sirius would meet his eye. Maybe they could fix this, he did look happy.
But the moment never came. Instead he watched as Sirius searched for something, found it and walked right up to James fucking Potter. Regulus felt tears form in his eyes and quickly blinked them away. Boys didn’t cry after all, especially not boys that are part of The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. He kept staring at Sirius.
Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
But nothing happened. The food was served, but Regulus wasn’t hungry. He was too busy thinking about Sirius to eat. Maybe he got caught up in the moment? Maybe he will talk to Regulus tomorrow. Or perhaps, the best option, maybe this was all a nightmare and he would wake up tomorrow to his brother and him together in Slytherin.
Notes:
Black brother angst <3
I'm debating on whether to make a Sirius POV but I haven't decided yet.
There will definitely be more POVs though, because I love writing different characters and their mindsets.
ANYWAYSS thanks for reading. see you in the next one? maybe