Selenophile // Marauders

|49| Christmas - Part I, Fifth Year

15th of December, 1975

Riley sat in the compartment with her friends as the train departed from Hogwarts. Riley was writing something on a piece of parchment with her blue inked pen. Remus was eating a piece of chocolate as Sirius sat next to him, almost fallen asleep.

"Why are you so sleepy?" James asked.

"I dunno," Sirius answered quickly. 

"You guys are very quiet, why?" Peter asked out of the blue. 

"I dunno," Sirius answered again. 

"What do you know?" Remus asked annoyed. 

"Aren't you excited to try the animagi thing next month?" James asked excitedly as he took a golden snitch out of his pocket. 

"Oi, where did you get that from?" Riley asked as she faced her notes down and looked at James suspiciously.

"I'm the quidditch captain, did you forget that?" James said proudly of himself. 

"I very much do remember since you made us practice every three days..." Riley said flatly. 

"I'm tired of you guys literally talking about quidditch every second!" Remus said as he suddenly put the chocolate wrapper down. Sirius suddenly lifted his head from Remus' shoulder and opened his eyes. 

"We wouldn't be if James wasn't planning on marrying quidditch!" Riley said as she shoved the paper in her bag. "James and quidditch, a true love story..."

"Let's talk about... Christmas!" Peter said as he tried to distract them. "Any plans?"

"Not really," Remus said. "He'll be there again, ugh..." he then added quietly.

"He? Who?" Sirius asked suddenly. 

"Uhh— no one."

"Who?" Sirius asked again. 

"My dad..." Remus said.

"Why do you not wanna see him?" Sirius asked once more. Remus took a deep breath. 

"We may have had a little— fight— in summer..." he then said after a minute or two. 

"Fight?" James asked. "About what?"

"It really isn't important..." Remus tried to change the subject but the others wouldn't let go. 

"It is, it clearly is bothering you," Sirius said.

"I don't think he really wants to talk about it now, guys..." Riley said as she looked at Sirius specifically. 

"But we're his friends, we'll help you feel better about it," Sirius said. 

"Exactly, Moony, come on you should—" James started but Remus cut him off.

"I almost injured my mum because I broke the door on the full moon last summer and then he started to say bad things about my condition the morning after without knowing I was eavesdropping on them! Then I kinda blamed him for me being a werewolf because of the things he said in the ministry. I told you about it, happy?!" Remus said in one breath. The others looked at him as he looked at Sirius and James in fury. Riley didn't know any of these but knew something was wrong between Lyall Lupin and his son. Last summer in the Potter Manor, he was uncomfortable for the rest of dinner all because of the mention of Lyall. 

"I— didn't— We didn't know, Moony..." Sirius mumbled. Then James asked a very stupid question which made Riley look at him with anger.

"Are you alright?" he asked. Riley formed a fist with her hand but then lowered it as James looked at her with fear in his eyes. 

"It's fine... I needed to tell it to you anyways..." Remus then mumbled. "I just feel guilty, that's all."

"But you shouldn't! I mean, let's be honest he sort of is the reason that you're a werewolf, right? And he still keeps talking shit about werewolves so I think you're right," Riley said directly. Everyone in the compartment turned their heads towards her as they gave concerned looks. "I'm just being honest!" she said in defense. 

"I'm scared of you..." Peter said as his eyes looked wider than ever.  

"Good!" Riley said with a smile. 

"It wasn't your fault that you almost hurt your mother, you couldn't have controlled yourself when you transformed and they can't blame you for that..." Sirius said. "And believe me, if your parents are mad at you, the best solution is the make them even more annoyed, it's so fun to watch them go insane!" he chuckled. 

"Sirius," James said sharply and Sirius sat in silence. 

"Yeah, all right, you are not the best people to ask for advice!" Remus said as he chuckled. The train stopped as it reached platform 9 3/4. The bustling station was filled with people once again hugging their loved ones and then disappearing as they left the platform from the wall. Sirius looked at his mother, Walburga Black, who was now hugging Regulus coldly as she chose to completely ignore her older son, Sirius who really couldn't care less. 

Peter was now next to a woman with blonde hair like his. She looked rather old but she heard Peter call the woman "mummy" so it must've been his mother. 

'Honestly, who calls their mum, mummy, at this age...' Riley thought as she smiled back at Peter who was now waving goodbye at her. Riley then looked around to see if her own mother was around. She saw Remus hugging his mum, Hope Lupin. His father wasn't there for a reason that Remus didn't want to think about. Riley couldn't see her mum as she accidentally into Fleamont Potter who was standing next to James. 

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't see you were there!" Riley apologized as she took a few steps back. 

"Oh, hello Riley!" Euphemia Potter said kindly. "Are you alright?" she asked with a wry smile and Riley knew exactly why she was asking her that question. She saw James with the corner of her eye who was now trying to get his mum to stop talking about it. 

"Uh— yeah—" she answered as she quickly put on a smile. She then heard a familiar voice call her name repeatedly. She quickly turned around to see her mother waving at her. 

"Riley! There you are!" she said as she hugged Riley who hugged her back tightly. "You alright, honey?" she asked. Riley quickly nodded. 

"Oh, you must be Madelyn Spade! I'm Euphemia Potter, and this is Fleamont, I believe our kids are friends at school," James' mum said. They shook hands. 

"Very pleased to meet you, and you must be James!" Madelyn Spade said as she looked at the smiling boy as he adjusted his glasses. Riley then picked her cat, Ash, from the ground. James took a step back as he set his eyes on the grey cat. 

"That thing is scary!" he said quietly as he pointed at the cat. 

"James!" Euphemia warned her son. 

"He won't kill you!" Riley said in reply as she rolled her eyes. They then left the train station with her mum and sat in the car as Madelyn Spade started to drive to Pine Road. 

"How was your year?" she asked. 

"Could be better..." Riley said quietly. 

"Mine too..." her mum said as she quickly wiped a tear from her cheek.