In the Wrong House, chapter 3
Nov. 28th, 2011 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starfishstarIN THE WRONG HOUSE (chapter 3)
Summary:
Sirius Black, Remus thought, was just as arrogant and annoying as James Potter, and he wished the two of them would stop getting into fights. Because Remus kept finding himself stepping in to stop them, and calling that kind of attention to himself was really the last thing he needed during his first year at Hogwarts.
It didn't matter if they were unpredictable Blacks or show-off Potters, or even someone harmless like Peter Pettigrew. None of these boys could be his friends, and it was time Remus started remembering it.
He didn't mind, Remus told himself. He didn't need friends.
Characters: Remus, James, Sirius, Peter and supporting cast
Warnings: None
Chapters: 7 + epilogue
Story:
CHAPTER THREE
"Where were you last night?" Sirius wanted to know.
Remus was hunched over a table in the common room, desperately trying to keep his eyes open and his focus on his Defence Against the Dark Arts assignment. It had been a rough full moon and he hadn't slept at all that morning. He'd only barely convinced Madam Pomfrey to let him come back to Gryffindor Tower before breakfast. She'd wanted to keep him in the hospital wing for the day, but then how would he cover that up?
He jerked his head up when Sirius addressed him. "I just got up early to finish my Defence homework," he lied automatically.
"But where were you last night? You weren't in your bed."
"What?" Remus asked stupidly.
"I saw you weren't in your bed last night, or this morning. So I wondered where you were."
"I went to visit my mum," Remus invented wildly. Why, why, why hadn't he planned what to say if this happened?
"Your mum?"
"Yeah, she's ill. Professor Dumbledore let me go visit her."
"And you're back already?"
"I only went overnight."
"How does that even work? You wouldn't have had time to visit very long."
"Uh, well, we don't live very far away." Remus felt his heart sinking. This wasn't going to work. Sirius was going to figure it out, and then everyone would know, and people would be angry and he'd get expelled and he'd never be able to go to school again and he'd never learn any more magic and –
"But what's the point? You could have just waited till the weekend and gone for longer then."
"I wanted to go now. Because some of us actually care about our mums," Remus snapped.
Sirius reeled back and Remus saw his face shutter closed, the way it did whenever somebody said something that cut too close. Remus felt sickened with himself, but it was too late to take it back. Besides, his jibe had the desired effect – Sirius turned and walked out the portrait hole without another word.
Remus dropped his forehead onto the cool pages of his Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook and wished he could wish away his words.
– – – – –
"How?" James muttered to himself. "Why?"
They were in the library; Remus was revising with Peter, as he did fairly often, and James was lounging about at the same table, keeping them company, as he did occasionally – for no discernable reason, seeing as he never seemed to need to revise. Remus supposed even James ran out of more interesting places to be once in a while.
Right now, James was staring across the library at Lily Evans, who was working at another table with the awkward Slytherin kid, Severus Snape. "Why??" James asked again, more urgently.
Remus looked up from his half-completed star chart. "Because they're friends," he sighed. He'd lost count of how many times he'd had this same conversation in this same place with James.
"Yes, but why?" James insisted.
"I suppose they know each other from when they were kids, so they don't care that they ended up in different houses. I mean, look at Ben and his cousin – they're best mates, so it doesn't matter that they're Gryffindor and Ravenclaw."
"But Slytherin," James said.
"Yes," Remus agreed.
"Why?"
Remus bit his tongue and bent back over his chart of the winter sky.
"Gryffindors are perfectly nice," James continued. "She could hang out with Gryffindors."
Remus said nothing.
"And we're better looking, that's for sure. Eh, Remus?" James nudged him.
Remus didn't reply, but James was waiting for an answer. "Yes," Remus said at his scroll of parchment. "I suppose we are."
James' grin was back. "And we're cleverer than they are, aren't we, Peter? Every single one of us is cleverer than all of them put together."
Peter looked up, slightly alarmed. "Er…are we?"
"Yes," James asserted. "We are. C'mon, mate, if nothing else, you've got the very good sense to hang round with us and not them, and that makes all the difference."
Remus cringed at the way Peter's face lit up when James said "mate." It was almost painful to watch Peter wanting James to like him – and all the worse since Remus knew he himself wasn't really any better.
James' face fell again. "Which only means there's no good reason why someone like Lily Evans would want to hang out with a Slytherin idiot like Snape."
Peter, looking across the table at James, demonstrated a startling burst of insight. "Why does it bother you?" he asked. "Do you fancy her or something?"
"Fancy her? Ugh!" James shuddered. "Ick, no, fancy…no. Just doesn't seem like she should hang round a Slytherin, that's all. I'd feel the same way about any of you, if you had Slytherin mates." He fixed them both with a stare. "Haven't got any secret Slytherin mates, have you?"
"No!" Peter sounded a bit insulted.
"No," Remus echoed, wondering how and when he could possibly have ended up with mates in Slytherin, when he didn't have any mates to begin with.
"Good," James agreed. "Gryffindors forever!"
Then he went back to staring at Lily Evans.
– – – – –
"Why're you staying here for Christmas?" James wanted to know, leaning against the table in the common room where Remus was doing assigned reading. "I saw your name on McGonagall's list."
Because my parents fight all the time, except when I'm there and they pretend not to, because their poor, delicate werewolf son shouldn't have to deal with that on top of everything else, and honestly that's even worse, Remus thought. "My parents are going to be travelling," was what he said.
"Travelling? At Christmas? Without you?" James was sceptical.
To Remus' surprise, it was Sirius, lounging by the common room fire and not even seeming to hear their conversation, who came to his defence. "He doesn't have to want to go with them," Sirius said. "Maybe they're visiting boring relatives. Maybe they have stupid ideas about where to go on holiday. What do you know about it, Potter?"
"Staying here too then, are you?" James asked.
"No." Sirius glared into the fire. "Family duty calls."
Remus thought James looked almost sympathetic. "Yeah, family stuff can be a drag," James murmured to no one in particular.
Sirius tossed him a scathing look. "Oh, what would you know about it."
James moved closer to Sirius' armchair and crossed his arms. "Well, I know what it's like to have to go to some boring grownups' party every single night, and wear scratchy dress robes and a stupid hairstyle and make small talk with Important People and never even see another kid the entire holiday, because there's no time for it, what with all the Important Things going on. At least you have cousins to hang out with when you go home."
"Cousins who on multiple occasions have threatened to have me killed."
"Eh, that just makes things more exciting."
That surprised a grudging laugh out of Sirius. "So you're going home, then?" he asked.
"Nope." James couldn't help but grin. "Talked the parents into letting me stay. I figure it'll be a million times more fun to be at Hogwarts. Imagine: three weeks of no classes, just time to explore. Best Christmas ever."
Remus saw Peter's head shoot up, and had a suspicion there might be one more name on Professor McGonagall's list the next time he looked.
– – – – –
"My aunt is ill!" Sirius crowed, careering into the dormitory and nearly knocking over Ben Davies, who was trying to make everything he wanted to take home for the holidays fit into his overflowing trunk.
Sirius had addressed his announcement to the room at large, but it was James, lounging on his bed and surveying those lesser mortals who had to pack, who answered. "I know you don't like your family and all, but should you be this excited when bad things happen to them?"
Sirius stalled in the middle of the room in mid-stride, seeming to remember that no one here was actually a friend he could share his excitement with. "The family holiday party is off, so I get to stay at Hogwarts," he said, far more subdued.
James seemed to struggle with himself, then said in a neutral tone, "That's nice. I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun. Pete here is staying too, it turns out. And Remus."
Ben, who'd been talking for weeks about how much he couldn't wait to go home, straightened up from his trunk, looking a little wistful. "Hogwarts with no classes must be the best," he said.
James just looked smug, as if he'd thought up the very concept of Christmas break himself.
(continues in CHAPTER 4)
Summary:
Sirius Black, Remus thought, was just as arrogant and annoying as James Potter, and he wished the two of them would stop getting into fights. Because Remus kept finding himself stepping in to stop them, and calling that kind of attention to himself was really the last thing he needed during his first year at Hogwarts.
It didn't matter if they were unpredictable Blacks or show-off Potters, or even someone harmless like Peter Pettigrew. None of these boys could be his friends, and it was time Remus started remembering it.
He didn't mind, Remus told himself. He didn't need friends.
Characters: Remus, James, Sirius, Peter and supporting cast
Warnings: None
Chapters: 7 + epilogue
Story:
CHAPTER THREE
"Where were you last night?" Sirius wanted to know.
Remus was hunched over a table in the common room, desperately trying to keep his eyes open and his focus on his Defence Against the Dark Arts assignment. It had been a rough full moon and he hadn't slept at all that morning. He'd only barely convinced Madam Pomfrey to let him come back to Gryffindor Tower before breakfast. She'd wanted to keep him in the hospital wing for the day, but then how would he cover that up?
He jerked his head up when Sirius addressed him. "I just got up early to finish my Defence homework," he lied automatically.
"But where were you last night? You weren't in your bed."
"What?" Remus asked stupidly.
"I saw you weren't in your bed last night, or this morning. So I wondered where you were."
"I went to visit my mum," Remus invented wildly. Why, why, why hadn't he planned what to say if this happened?
"Your mum?"
"Yeah, she's ill. Professor Dumbledore let me go visit her."
"And you're back already?"
"I only went overnight."
"How does that even work? You wouldn't have had time to visit very long."
"Uh, well, we don't live very far away." Remus felt his heart sinking. This wasn't going to work. Sirius was going to figure it out, and then everyone would know, and people would be angry and he'd get expelled and he'd never be able to go to school again and he'd never learn any more magic and –
"But what's the point? You could have just waited till the weekend and gone for longer then."
"I wanted to go now. Because some of us actually care about our mums," Remus snapped.
Sirius reeled back and Remus saw his face shutter closed, the way it did whenever somebody said something that cut too close. Remus felt sickened with himself, but it was too late to take it back. Besides, his jibe had the desired effect – Sirius turned and walked out the portrait hole without another word.
Remus dropped his forehead onto the cool pages of his Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook and wished he could wish away his words.
– – – – –
"How?" James muttered to himself. "Why?"
They were in the library; Remus was revising with Peter, as he did fairly often, and James was lounging about at the same table, keeping them company, as he did occasionally – for no discernable reason, seeing as he never seemed to need to revise. Remus supposed even James ran out of more interesting places to be once in a while.
Right now, James was staring across the library at Lily Evans, who was working at another table with the awkward Slytherin kid, Severus Snape. "Why??" James asked again, more urgently.
Remus looked up from his half-completed star chart. "Because they're friends," he sighed. He'd lost count of how many times he'd had this same conversation in this same place with James.
"Yes, but why?" James insisted.
"I suppose they know each other from when they were kids, so they don't care that they ended up in different houses. I mean, look at Ben and his cousin – they're best mates, so it doesn't matter that they're Gryffindor and Ravenclaw."
"But Slytherin," James said.
"Yes," Remus agreed.
"Why?"
Remus bit his tongue and bent back over his chart of the winter sky.
"Gryffindors are perfectly nice," James continued. "She could hang out with Gryffindors."
Remus said nothing.
"And we're better looking, that's for sure. Eh, Remus?" James nudged him.
Remus didn't reply, but James was waiting for an answer. "Yes," Remus said at his scroll of parchment. "I suppose we are."
James' grin was back. "And we're cleverer than they are, aren't we, Peter? Every single one of us is cleverer than all of them put together."
Peter looked up, slightly alarmed. "Er…are we?"
"Yes," James asserted. "We are. C'mon, mate, if nothing else, you've got the very good sense to hang round with us and not them, and that makes all the difference."
Remus cringed at the way Peter's face lit up when James said "mate." It was almost painful to watch Peter wanting James to like him – and all the worse since Remus knew he himself wasn't really any better.
James' face fell again. "Which only means there's no good reason why someone like Lily Evans would want to hang out with a Slytherin idiot like Snape."
Peter, looking across the table at James, demonstrated a startling burst of insight. "Why does it bother you?" he asked. "Do you fancy her or something?"
"Fancy her? Ugh!" James shuddered. "Ick, no, fancy…no. Just doesn't seem like she should hang round a Slytherin, that's all. I'd feel the same way about any of you, if you had Slytherin mates." He fixed them both with a stare. "Haven't got any secret Slytherin mates, have you?"
"No!" Peter sounded a bit insulted.
"No," Remus echoed, wondering how and when he could possibly have ended up with mates in Slytherin, when he didn't have any mates to begin with.
"Good," James agreed. "Gryffindors forever!"
Then he went back to staring at Lily Evans.
– – – – –
"Why're you staying here for Christmas?" James wanted to know, leaning against the table in the common room where Remus was doing assigned reading. "I saw your name on McGonagall's list."
Because my parents fight all the time, except when I'm there and they pretend not to, because their poor, delicate werewolf son shouldn't have to deal with that on top of everything else, and honestly that's even worse, Remus thought. "My parents are going to be travelling," was what he said.
"Travelling? At Christmas? Without you?" James was sceptical.
To Remus' surprise, it was Sirius, lounging by the common room fire and not even seeming to hear their conversation, who came to his defence. "He doesn't have to want to go with them," Sirius said. "Maybe they're visiting boring relatives. Maybe they have stupid ideas about where to go on holiday. What do you know about it, Potter?"
"Staying here too then, are you?" James asked.
"No." Sirius glared into the fire. "Family duty calls."
Remus thought James looked almost sympathetic. "Yeah, family stuff can be a drag," James murmured to no one in particular.
Sirius tossed him a scathing look. "Oh, what would you know about it."
James moved closer to Sirius' armchair and crossed his arms. "Well, I know what it's like to have to go to some boring grownups' party every single night, and wear scratchy dress robes and a stupid hairstyle and make small talk with Important People and never even see another kid the entire holiday, because there's no time for it, what with all the Important Things going on. At least you have cousins to hang out with when you go home."
"Cousins who on multiple occasions have threatened to have me killed."
"Eh, that just makes things more exciting."
That surprised a grudging laugh out of Sirius. "So you're going home, then?" he asked.
"Nope." James couldn't help but grin. "Talked the parents into letting me stay. I figure it'll be a million times more fun to be at Hogwarts. Imagine: three weeks of no classes, just time to explore. Best Christmas ever."
Remus saw Peter's head shoot up, and had a suspicion there might be one more name on Professor McGonagall's list the next time he looked.
– – – – –
"My aunt is ill!" Sirius crowed, careering into the dormitory and nearly knocking over Ben Davies, who was trying to make everything he wanted to take home for the holidays fit into his overflowing trunk.
Sirius had addressed his announcement to the room at large, but it was James, lounging on his bed and surveying those lesser mortals who had to pack, who answered. "I know you don't like your family and all, but should you be this excited when bad things happen to them?"
Sirius stalled in the middle of the room in mid-stride, seeming to remember that no one here was actually a friend he could share his excitement with. "The family holiday party is off, so I get to stay at Hogwarts," he said, far more subdued.
James seemed to struggle with himself, then said in a neutral tone, "That's nice. I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun. Pete here is staying too, it turns out. And Remus."
Ben, who'd been talking for weeks about how much he couldn't wait to go home, straightened up from his trunk, looking a little wistful. "Hogwarts with no classes must be the best," he said.
James just looked smug, as if he'd thought up the very concept of Christmas break himself.
(continues in CHAPTER 4)
