Running in the dark

Chapter 32

The whistle blew and the Hogwarts express was off, children pressed their faces to the windows to wave goodbye to their parents.

Regulus after basically being tackled by Pandora and being punched on the shoulder by Barty and Evan started making his way to James.

In the process, he bumped straight into Remus who turned and smiled at him. "Your face," Regulus said as soon as he saw him.

"Gang, not my dad," Remus replied, a bit sick of having to respond to the same question, the two started to make their way to the carriage.

"What kind of gang, you haven't murdered someone over the summer have you," Regulus asked. He knew Remus would never murder someone, he was too kind, but if he wanted to he definitely could, and he'd easily get away with it.

"No, some Muggle kids got me cigarettes and then soon enough they wanted me to help intimidate other kids, being tall and all, they beat me up when I backed out," Remus replied Regulus then noticed that Remus who was already quite tall had grown a few inches.

They got to the carriage and were greeted by familiar faces. Even though it had been only two weeks since Sirius had last seen Remus he still sprung up wrapping him in a hug and kissing his cheek excitedly.

They all talked and Regulus was glad to see Sirius was rather better than when he had last seen him. "Holy crap, Reggie, is that a prefect badge," Sirius asked looking at the gleaming green badge on Regulus' robes.

"They weren't going to let Evan or Barty, welcome to the club Reg," Remus grinned. He and Lily were prefects from last year.

"No one commented on my amazing badge," James then whined.

"You sent me a whole essay about it, you're Gryffindor Captain, congrats," Marlene said rolling her eyes.

The train soon pulled into Hogsmeade station and they put their bags to the side of the station. They could hear the familiar yell of the groundskeeper Hagrid, asking first-year students to come over to him.

The sorting seemed to drag as always but the feast came and they began to fill their plates and eat their dinners. Dumbledore ended with a speech before sending them all off to bed which they all liked the sound off.

Remus soon found Sirius curled beside him, his head resting on Remus' chest. "How was the full moon this summer?" he asked softly.

"A new scar on my leg, theirs is a nice lady at St Mungo's who helps me out, she knows James' mum" Remus replied sleepily.

"That's good," Sirius replied and then they both found themselves falling asleep.

"How did you do on your OWLs?" Regulus asked James as they made their way down to the Great hall the next morning, it was Saturday so they did not have lessons until Monday.

"I passed divination and potions, with an Acceptable, got Exceeds expectations on Care of magical creatures and got outstandings on Charms and Defence against the dark arts," James told him as they sat down at the table, he was smiling the whole time and Regulus was smiling back, he was proud for James.

"Are you talking about OWLs, Lily got so good, all Outstandings and only one acceptable and that was just in divination and no one cares about that," Mary smiled as she sat down beside them with Lily who was now blushing very hard.

"Remus and Sirius are still asleep?" Regulus questioned and Peter nodded from across them.

"Lazy sods, both of them," he said taking a bite of his toast before remembering he hadn't buttered it yet.

"They need to get up, I have so many things to talk about, we need to sleep over and go on a midnight walk in the forest," James began to ramble, he looked like an over-excited child.

"We're not five James," Mary said to him making him stop for a second.

"Alright Macdonald, you're not invited," James replied crossing his arms.

"Wait, I didn't," she began and James chuckled.

"Morning," Remus mumbled sitting down beside Peter, he looked tired even though he had the most sleep of anyone.

"Why are you so tired?" Lily asked, everyone was rather curious about what his answer would be.

"Blame Sirius," Remus mumbled.

"Oh, alright then," Mary chuckled and Regulus stabbed his fork into a piece of bacon on his plate as he tried to get images out of his head.

"Not like that, uhh get you're head out the gutter, he gave me a heart attack by jumping on top of me this morning, I was just trying to sleep," he replied.

"Morning," Sirius' voice called walking over, he looked far too awake compared to Remus.

"Speak of the devil," Lily chuckled as he came over and sat on Remus' lap kissing his cheek.

"In front of my toast, thank you Pads," James said dryly, but glad that the two had finally shown up.

"Shut it, potter," Sirius smiled grabbing an apple and biting into it.

"Now you two are here, I'm going to repeat my amazing plan for the year, that we can debate on not inviting, Macdonald to," James began, Lily kicked him in the leg and he swatted the back of her head before he began to tell them what he wanted to do.

James was a very lively spirit, he would rise and the crack of dawn and not sleep till late at night and nearly never be tired. Regulus was the opposite, he loved sleeping and could feel his energy drain in just a couple of hours, but around James, he was more alive and could keep a conversation going for much longer.

They all talked until breakfast was over and began to make their way to their dorms to unpack their items, James, Remus and Peter put their items in their respective places whilst Sirius put his items wherever was free not caring at all.