Rising Moon

Going Home

September 1st 1975

Remus Lupin tilted his head back and let the gentle rain fall on his face. It was wonderful to be back. It had been far too long since he had been among wizards and the scent of magic everywhere filled him with new strength. Six weeks might have been far too short for any other student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, for Remus it had been infinitely long. Alone in this shitty room, when a huge four-poster bed and his best friends seemed to be waiting not too far from him. Sometimes, when he was in between the phases of waking up and sleeping, he had only momentary shudders thinking that he had only dreamed everything that had happened in the last four years. Then it occurred to him that he had almost no imagination at all and that it would have been completely impossible to imagine such great people.
Suddenly someone jumped onto his back from behind, clinging to his shoulders. He winced in surprise and almost lost his balance. A familiar smell filled his nostrils, which he would have recognized everywhere.
"Moony!" crowed the person on his back, clutching his neck.
"Sirius!" he exclaimed, laughing.
Aforementioned let go of him and Remus turned to face one of his best friends.
He was smaller compared to the last time they had seen each other, had to tilt his head back slightly to grin up at him. They faced each other for a moment and silently eyed the other one, taking in the changes in one another.
Puberty seemed to have done it's job on Sirius Black over the holidays. His cheekbones were more defined, his body finally seemed to have outgrown it's last childish features overboard. Moony couldn't help but remark how unbelievably, outrageously well it suited him.
He looked more grown-up than ever in his black school robe, but his tie, wrapped around his head as a headband, was ruining the picture again.
He knew Sirius had noticed the new scars peeking out from under the collar of his sweater, just as Sirius knew Remus saw the change in his eyes. They had lost a little more of their shine over the summer.
Remus tried not to let it show that he had seen it, but ruffled the older boy's long hair and grinned.
"Havyou shrunk?"
"Hey!" with an offended expression, the small punched the larger one in the ribs. "Not everyone grows like a bloody tree, idiot."
"I think Moons's right, Siri," said a gentle voice next to them.
They turned their heads in unison and there stood Peter, just as small and chubby as he was before summer. However, his skin was of a healthy complexion, the French sun seemed to have made a big difference.
"Hold your tongue, Pettigew," Sirius teased, who still towered over him by an inch and now straightened to his full 5.6 foot height.
Remus laughed, shaking his head, and then briefly hugged Peter. He returned the gesture a bit taken aback and was crushed by Sirius as soon as Remus let go of him.
"It's good t'see you guys again," Pete mumbled, cheeks red. The others nodded.
"Where's our fourth wheel on the wagon?" Sirius asked and looked around searchingly.
Peter shrugged. "My mother brought me straight from Paris to London, we weren't at home in between."
"How was it?" Remus asked curiously.
"Incredible," beamed Peter.
"Can you save that for when we're all together?" demanded an indignant Sirius.
Peter smiled and rolled his eyes, but agreed.
"D'you see him?" Sirius turned to Remus, who had actually grown almost a head over the summer and was now towering over many of the people around him.
The marauders kept looking for their friend, but the dark curly hair was nowhere to be found.
"Shall we get on the train? If necessary, he knows where to find us."
Remus nodded, Peter just shrugged indifferently.
"Then let's go to our compartment!" Sirius said and they grabbed their suitcases.
Of course they didn't have anything like their own compartment in the sense that it was theirs, but since they met there in their first year, compartment number 46 was the only right way to travel to Hogwarts and anything else would have felt wrong.
It was just as old and worn as it was before the holidays, the windows were slightly leaky and the upholstery was a bit shabby in some places, yet perhaps that was what made the compartment so charming. That and the initials of four teenagers carved under the left bench.
Sirius knelt and stroked the indentations in the wood thoughtfully while Peter and Remus stowed their belongings in the luggage rack.
The train puffed out steam and slowly approached. Worried, Peter looked at his wristwatch and opened his mouth, but at that moment the compartment door was ripped open like a hurricane and in front of them stood a boy gasping for breath, who had to push his tangled hair out of his face to be able to look at them.
"Thank Merlin, I thought I couldn't take it anymore!" panted James Potter, leaning on the door frame.
"Greetings, Saint Potter," Sirius laughed. "Are you finally honoring us with your esteemed presence?"
"Hush, Susi," grinned James, hugging him and patting him on the back.
Peter and James exchanged a high-five and then James hugged Remus too.
"Hiyo, Jamie."
He almost couldn't hold back his grin and slowly his cheek muscles had to start hurting. If he hadn't had ears he might have laughed in circles.
"Merlin's pants, you can't imagine how much I've missed you! The holidays have been forever," Sirius grumbled, plopping down on the gray and blue striped seat cushion.
"For my sake they could have been a few days longer," Peter murmured, rummaging his pocket for something.
"Pete, how can you?" James demanded in a tone that was meant to sound outraged and disappointed.
"Exactly? You dare betray us like that?" Sirius asked in the same tone of voice.
"Because of this," said Peter and now carried what he had been looking for out of his bag. It was a large, nondescript brown cardboard bag, from which came a soft ticking. "French sweets and joke articles," he explained.
James and Sirius exchanged a look, eyes glittering suspiciously.
"Your betrayal is hereby forgiven and forgotten," James said solemnly, beating his chest.
Remus shook his head, laughing. In the meantime he had made himself comfortable in the right window seat, where he had been sitting for five years now.
"Wotcha reading?" Sirius asked inquisitively, leaning forward to get a glimpse of the blurb. Remus held it up for the others to see.
"Jane Austen?" Sirius read.
"A Muggle author," Remus explained. "A fairly well-known one too. Evans lent it me before the holidays." James' head snapped up.
"'s it good?" As if James Fleamont Potter would ever willingly pick up a book that wasn't about Quidditch. Peter and Sirius exchanged a slightly annoyed look.
Remus shook his head. "Yeah. Romance novels aren't usually my thing, but there's something about her writing style. I understand why Lily likes it," he finished, answering the question in James's gaze.
"Can I borrow it?"
Remus chuckled. "You'll have to ask Lily that."
"I will," James said, leaning back contentedly.
Pete chortled. "Bet you a Galleon that she says no."
"Deal," Sirius replied quickly.
"I can't believe how you scoundrels revel in my pain," James said, trying hard to look like he felt betrayed.
"Naww, poor Jamie Bear," Sirius laughed wryly.
Peter emptied the cardboard bag onto the bench next to him in one fell swoop and dug in the pile for a moment.
"Hm...chocolate for our Moony," he murmured, handing Moony a whole handful of candy bars in every flavor from vanilla to pistachio. He clutched them to his chest, touched.
"Thanks, Pete," he grinned to hide his guilty conscience. Peter waved him off.
"Aha! This is a stink bomb with timer charms on it," he held up a wad. "And you're going to like this, too," he said, pulling out something that looked like a piece of packing tape.
"A bit of string?" James asked skeptically, but like Sirius he looked intensely interested.
For an hour they went through all the things Peter had brought from France and one by one the Marauders' eyes sparkled brighter.
"Plans for new pranks already, gentlemen colleagues?" James finally threw out his mouth full of sour snail gum.
Remus and Sirius nodded, cause they had spent most of their vacation coming up with new jokes and tricks to kill an eternity of pain and boredom.
"I'll start," Sirius announced. "Well, I don't know if the noble gentlemen in this compartment will agree with me, but I think we need to show the bloody Slytherins this year, who the Marauders are."
Peter and James enthusiastically agreed, Remus shook his head in amusement.
It was interesting how the times had changed. As they sat on the same cushions as the year before, throwing out the craziest pranks and trying to decide where to start, the english heath swept by outside the window of the Hogwarts Express.
The Marauders were reunited and each of them was at least a little bit nostalgic.