Chapter 80: Fifth Year: 'Twas the night before Christmas
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Saturday 20th December 1975
"I will literally curse you both with a lip locking charm if you plan to do that all the way to London." Lily said, raising her wand to Sirius and Mary. Her deadpan expression was very hard to read, and the couple quickly disentangled. Mary stuck out her tongue, cheekily.
"You too, Wormy!" James held up his own wand, grinning at Lily like a lunatic.
Peter and Desdemona moved apart too, smiling sheepishly.
The carriage was extremely cramped. Remus was squashed up against the window next to James, with Sirius and Mary by the door. On the opposite row of seats, Lily and Marlene were squeezed in beside Peter and Desdemona.
"We're just saying goodbye," Mary smirked, laying her head on Sirius's shoulder.
"It's only two weeks, and you can write to each other." Lily replied, smartly.
"Er... actually, better if none of you write to me." Sirius said. "I'm not likely to get the letters anyway, and unless you want my dear mother reading them..."
"You've got the mirror, though?" James said, seriously, "You can still get in touch with us if you need to?"
"Yeah, 'course." Sirius smiled at him, reassuringly, patting his breast jacket pocket.
Remus stared out of the window, pressing his forehead on the cold glass. The train moved sluggishly down to London. They passed the phone box he had used to call Grant and he felt a pang of guilt for not phoning again since then. He had been so busy with everything else in the end that he hadn't even sent the Christmas card. Grant was supposed to be studying at the local secondary modern, but at sixteen he could leave whenever he wanted. Remus tried to convince him over the summer to finish his CSE's, even maybe take a GCE if he could, but Grant had just laughed at him, as if education was one of Remus's peculiar eccentricities.
Matron usually got the St Edmund's boys apprenticeships where they showed aptitude for handiwork, but Remus couldn't remember Grant ever mentioning the things he was good at - only the things he struggled with like Maths and English. And Remus couldn't very well tell Grant any of his best subjects, could he? The boys who didn't get apprenticeships had to find their own way, once they turned eighteen. Remus wasn't sure--
"Oi, Moony, wakey wakey!" Sirius barked, wrenching Remus out of his daydream, "Trolley's here, don't want to miss your lunch, do you?"
"Oh, cheers," Remus turned back into the noisy, over warm carriage, where James was buying at least twelve pasties on top of all the sweets they could manage.
"We'll never get through all of this!" Lily scolded, smiling slightly.
"You've clearly never seen Moony eat," James winked.
"Oooh, I wish I had your metabolism, Remus!" Desdemona said. "My mother's always telling me I ought to start dieting."
"Nothing wrong with having curves," Mary said, taking a huge bite out of her own pasty. "Gives 'em something to hold on to!"
The girls all giggled, even Lily, who was blushing hard. Remus wished the journey would be over soon.
Of course, as the train pulled into King's Cross, he felt a horrible twist to his insides as Sirius fell quiet, his face pinched and pale. The girls and Peter all hurried to gather their things, eager to meet their families on the platform. Remus and James were deliberately slow, waiting until Mary had finally left the car, then helping Sirius with his own bags.
