solemnly swear [a marauder's fanfiction]

chapter two: electric warrior

By the end of his first month at school, Remus has learned all sorts of things about his new friends. Never having had friends to know things about before, he has fun collecting these details. Some of them are simple, like how James explains jokes until they're no longer funny, and how Peter's handwriting is so dreadful because he was born left-handed but his granddad made him use his right.

Others are more complex.

James, for instance, is a natural leader. Two Fridays ago he decided that in celebration of their first week they ought to spend breakfast making things at the Slytherin table float away whenever somebody tries to touch them. Peter couldn't get the charm down and Remus politely declined to join, but James and Sirius spent the whole meal discreetly pointing their wands and giggling. After half an hour the air above the far table was crowded with dishes and cups, the odd schoolbook, and somebody's toad, all floating gently toward the celestial ceiling. The two of them got detention for it (their second at that point), but neither seemed to mind.

Peter is somebody who Remus sees a lot of himself in. The two of them bond quickly through the unspoken agreement that the two-headed monster that is James-and-Sirius is a force neither of them want to try to reckon with, and that the path of least resistance involves going along with whatever harebrained scheme they've come up with that day. Sometimes that means doing dumb things like sneaking into the Transfiguration classroom and loosing into the corridor all the beetles that were destined to become buttons, or starting a short-lived, ill-advised 'dueling club' in the boy's bathroom. Other times, though, it's things that Remus feels worse about.

It was only their second day at school when they had their first run-in with Snape.

While Remus quickly recognised him and his friend as the two who'd discussed werewolves on the train, he wondered what reason James and Sirius had for hating Snape. It was prompted by nothing Remus can discern when James made a beeline across the slowly-filling Transfiguration classroom to stand over Snape's shoulder, scoff, snatch the book out his hand, and hold it over his head.

"'Advanced Curse Theory'— bit of light reading, Snivellus?"

Snape didn't say anything, just glared down at his shoes. In the seat beside him Lily Evans, another Gryffindor, shot daggers at James with her eyes.

"Give it back."

James scrubbed a hand through his hair. "Sure, Evans." He made a show of lowering the book, letting Snape reach up for it, only to wheel around and throw it across the classroom. Sirius caught it.

"Give it back!"

But neither of them paid her any attention; they tossed the book back and forth, laughing, until Professor McGonagall walked in. Remus asked Peter about it the next day when they were paired up in Herbology.

"What's James got against that Slytherin bloke?"

Peter was engrossed in pruning their dittany plant and shrugged a shoulder. "Dunno. Must have a good reason or he wouldn't mess with him so much."

"Even so..."

Peter looked up at him then, eyebrows raised. "You wanna tell him off for it?"

No he really didn't, and he never does. Remus feels bad about that, but at least Peter understands.

Sirius, for some reason, is a bit trickier than the other two to get to know. Remus knows some simple things— Sirius can't sit in a chair without leaning it back on two legs (he's only tipped over twice so far), he's got a quick temper, he's rather vain about his hair.

The puzzling thing about Sirius, though, is how sensitive he is to certain topics. He bruises like a banana but nobody's allowed to mention it, and he ignored all the funny looks professors gave him the first week when they read his name aloud. When James asked about the couple of older girls at the Slytherin table who tried to talk to Sirius one morning Sirius told him to shut up and changed the subject. Remus remembers that one of the girls did rather look like him.