Boys Will Be Bugs

Chapter 18: Changes

"Maybe they just miss you," suggested James, when Remus finally met up with him and Sirius and told them about the letter from his parents.

"No, they're definitely going to tell you some bad news," Sirius decided instead. "You're not in trouble, are you?"

"I don't think so," replied Remus, certain he'd kept a clean slate since the last time he'd seen his parents. Unless they had somehow found out about Tobin knowing that Remus was a werewolf, but unless Tobin had explicitly told them— which really wouldn't make any sense whichever way you looked at it— Remus had no idea how else they would have found out, so he tried not to think of that as an option. Maybe they did just miss him.

It wasn't as if he had to wait long to find out.

The Hogwarts express was fairly empty on the journey home; none of his friends were heading back for half-term, except for Jethro, who tended to spend every holiday with his family. They sat in the same compartment, and Remus realised he had never been on his own with Jethro before. The two didn't know much about each other, but Remus soon found out that they had a fair amount in common, and that Jethro also had a muggle mother and wizard father, although it turned out his father died in a raid before he was born. Apparently his father had been an auror.

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Remus when Jethro told him, with genuine empathy in his voice. Jethro brushed it away.

"It's alright, it's not as if I remember him. I am named after him though. Where do you live?" he asked without warning, changing the subject so quickly that Remus took a moment to register the question. He soon became accustomed to the fact that changing the subject seemed to be a regular quirk in Jethro's conversational skills.

"Gwynedd," he replied amiably. "It's in the north of Wales, where the most Welsh is spoken."

"Is it muggle or wizarding?"

"Well I live in a house away from everyone, but the nearest town is muggle." The majority of the journey was then spent with Remus attempting to teach Jethro a little bit of Welsh, which ended up being very funny indeed. Especially when Remus ripped a corner off a piece of parchment paper in his trunk and wrote down the full name of Llanfairpwll, the station with the longest name in the world. Jethro blinked at it.

"It means St Mary's Church in the Hollow of the White Hazel near a Rapid Whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the Red Cave," explained Remus, struggling not to laugh halfway through at the look Jethro was giving him.

"That has to be a joke," was all Jethro could say.

"It is. Someone named it just so it could be the longest station name in the world and hey! They succeeded in that at least." Jethro laughed incredulously, and then launched into an entirely separate conversation about Quidditch World Cup predictions. He certainly had a knack for filling in any conversational holes, whether the filling had anything to do with the previous conversation or not, and the journey passed them by in a blur.

***

The platform was predictably emptier than usual, so Remus didn't have to search long before spotting his parents, his mother waving him over. Remus did a mental check over them, but they seemed fine, if a little tired looking. His father had noticeable bags under his eyes, although since he was rather partial to staying up late night after night, this wasn't really anything out of the ordinary. His mother's hair looked a little greyer.

The three of them greeted each other as usual, his mother finding comments on every aspect of Remus's appearance.

"You've grown so tall... your hair needs a wash... your voice has really changed... I have some cream you can use for those spots on your forehead..." and on and on it went, as if she was afraid of letting the three of them fall into silence. His father didn't say much except to ask him how school was.