Boys Will Be Bugs

Chapter 19: Dysphoria

Both his parents were there to wave him off on the train back to Hogwarts, his mum making a bit of a scene with the hugs and the kisses.

"Mam, you'll be seeing me again in a few weeks." For two months no less, he thought, squirming away from his mother's embrace.

"Just stay safe, cariad." She kissed him on the cheek one last time before letting him go. Lyall handed him Arianrhod's cage.

"Don't get into any trouble," he said, accompanied by his usual gesture of ruffling Remus's hair, which Remus usually liked; it felt like a very father-son gesture to him. Right now, though, it just irritated him, and he quickly made his way towards the door of the nearest carriage before they could keep him any longer. He hopped onto the train just as a disembodied whistle marked its exit from the platform. Remus waved to his parents until the train entered the tunnel, and then went off to find Jethro.

***

Remus chose not to tell anyone about his parents splitting up (and he did see it as them splitting up, regardless of whether they wanted to put a label on it or not). He didn't think it was anyone's business, nor did he want to talk about it. So when he arrived at the Great Hall in time for dinner, he declined giving up any real answers to James and Sirius's questions.

"So you're not in trouble?" asked Sirius, taking a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

"No. James was right, they just missed me."

"We missed you," said James. "You didn't even write."

"I wasn't gone that long."

"So? We were worried," continued Sirius.

"Sorry." Remus took a bite out of his piece of bread, his apology sounding just as empty as it felt. "I'll be sure to write all summer."

"You better," Sirius concluded, although his voice immediately quietened at the mention of summer. Remus knew he wasn't looking forward to it, and he wished he could do something about it, but he didn't think now was a good time to invite Sirius to stay with him in Wales, what with everything being up in the air right now. In fact, he didn't think that there would ever be a good time to invite Sirius— or anyone for that matter— back to his home, unless Sirius was willing to travel backwards and forwards between Wales and London... . Actually, he probably would be considering the alternative, but Remus wasn't.

Remus soon settled back into the familiar group of boys, although half-term had brought around some slight shifts in the dynamics, what with everyone being stuck together in a school for two weeks without lessons. Peter was almost exclusively hanging around with James and Sirius now. According to James, the three of them had pulled a prank on Nearly Headless Nick, by essentially tormenting him with a haunting of their own. Constantly following him around, hidden out of sight, making noises here and there to annoy him, and running away as soon as he got too close to discovering them. They had done it for the entire half-term, and it had brought them closer together to say the least. Remus was sad he'd missed it.

"You haven't," said Peter. "He hasn't caught us yet."

"Yeah, you can annoy him whenever you get the chance," continued James. "It's funny, I think we've actually got him a little spooked, and he's a ghost!"

As for Owain, he was spending more time with Jethro— Tobin following around trying not to feel left out— and curiously, Lily and the other girls. Remus regularly came across Owain hanging out under the tree with Lily, Mary and Marlene.

So the Gryffindor first years had finally split off into proper groups, intertwining when wanted, but altogether separate.

The only change in this was when Remus was in the hospital wing, and Tobin became his main visitor, which was saying something considering that James, Sirius and Peter visited as often as they could. But Tobin was there during the night after the full moon, whether there deliberately or not, he always visited. He'd so far taken the werewolf thing in his stride. He read books about it, and got angry when he came across blatantly ignorant articles, and he brought Remus chocolate after finding out that it made him feel better after transforming.