Romeo and Juliet (A Remus Lupin x reader story)

Chapter three: The Train

Y/n POV
Y/n woke up the next day with a small headache. She looked down at the end of her bed and saw a tray with a glass of water and a note on it.
    'Hey kid, sorry we didn't get to hang out much last night. Here's some water for the headache I'm sure you have. Love, the boys, Barty, Evan, Regulus, and Caius'
    Y/n smiled at the note, knowing it was Barty who wrote it and gulped down the water before getting changed. She pulled on a black skirt and her Slytherin jumper. Today was September first, the day she got to go home. She looked in the mirror and brushed her hair, thinking about the night before.
    Moony.
    His name was Moony.
    She smiled at their conversations she was replaying in her head. He was sweet to her and funny. She was glad she'd found someone so similar to herself. He was so perfect. Then her hand froze and she dropped her brush, using her hands to cover her face.
    She didn't tell him her name.
    She cursed herself out as she paced around the room.
    How could she be so stupid!
    She wanted to get to know him more. To be with him. Maybe even become something more than friends.
    At least she knew that his friends call him Moony.
    She could find him.
    Y/n grabbed her satchel and looked around the room. Her bags had already been sent to Hogwarts and her wand was in her pocket, there wasn't anything left to do.
    She took one last look in the mirror and closed her eyes, feeling a second heartbeat in her chest. When she opened them again, she saw a large doberman pinscher staring back at her. She shook her head and watched as the dobermanr's head moved from side to side.
    Her animagus.
    "Hey, y/n, you ready to go?" A voice asked through the closed door.
    Y/n quickly changed back into herself, grabbed her satchel, and walked to the door. When she opened it, she saw Evan standing there, a tired look in his eyes.
    "Yeah," she smiled.
    "Cool, there's a couple of carriages down there ready to take us to the station," Evan said as they started walking down the hall.
    They walked down the stairs and out the house where they were met with two large carriages. Y/n climbed into one, Evan not far behind her, and slumped into her seat next to Barty and the window.
    "Hey, how'd you sleep?" Regulus asked, sitting across from her.
    "Not bad," y/n shrugged. "You?"
    "Outside," Barty mumbled.
    "Outside?" Y/n laughed.
    "Worst part is, we don't even know how we got outside," Caius said. "Where were you all night?"
    Just then, the carriage door opened and Sirius Black was standing there. He looked at the group, annoyance written on his face, before walking away.
    "Other carriage lads!" He called to his friends. "That one's full of fucking nerds,"
    Peter Petegriew walked by, not acknowledging them and James gave a slight look in only to quickly look away. Y/n could've sworn she saw him glance at Regulus but it was so fast that she couldn't be sure. But Remus Lupin lingered for a second. His eyes landed on y/n and she could see thoughts race through his mind.
    "Remus, c'mon!" Sirius called, an irritated tone in his voice.
    "Coming," Remus responded.
    He walked up to the carriage and closed the door.
    "Sorry about him, bad hangover," he said as he closed it.
    Y/n looked at him as he closed the door, something about him seemed so familiar. Once the door was closed and the carriage started moving, y/n couldn't help but stare at the door where Remus was just seconds ago.
    Why did his presence feel different?
    "You good kid?" Barty asked, lighting a cigarette.
    Y/n nodded, shaking off the odd feeling. She pulled out her notebook and read over her notes from the summer. She missed her werewolf friend. His name was Einar Gattas and he was one of the most interesting people she had ever met. She was scared of him at first but then she realized that he was just a regular twenty three year old man.
    They bonded over the animals at the conservatory and family issues. Apparently Einar's parents were the same as y/n's in the fact that nothing he could do would satisfy them, so he left. He shared with y/n how he traveled the world and became a renown dragon trainer and even after being recognized by the ministry of magic, his parents still wouldn't even give him a second glance. Y/n read through her notebook about all of the things Einar had told her about werewolves.
    "What're you reading?" Regulus asked her.
    "Oh," y/n looked up at him. "Just some things I wrote over the summer,"
    "Cool," he smiled. "Can I read them sometime?"
    Just then, the carriages stopped in front of platform 9 ¾ and y/n saw the Marauders get out of their carriage.
    "Yeah, maybe some other time," y/n said softly.
    They all climb out of the carriage, y/n filing out last after Regulus. She looked around at the platform with a smile on her face, taking in the ecstatic feel in the air. She loved the first day of school. Everyone gets onto the castle grounds, reuniting with friends they hadn't seen all summer, seeing their favorite professors. Y/n loved it.
    "Ready for your fifth year kid?" Evan swung his arm around y/n's shoulders.
    "I'm practically in sixth year," y/n rolled her eyes. "I take all the same classes as you,"
    "Actually, you take some harder classes than me," Evan laughed. "I really don't know how,"
    "It's not really hard to," y/n joked.
    Their group walked through the corridors of the train, trying to find an empty compartment but it seemed like there wasn't one.
    "We could always kick some first years out of one." Caius suggested.
    "Yeah, and live up to the mean upperclassmen stereotype? No thanks," Regulus rolled his eyes.
    "Found one!" Barty called, a few feet further.
    They walked over to the compartment, only to be met with the Marauders walking up to the same compartment.
    "We were here first," Sirius put his hand on the door frame.
    "You must be blind because I was fucking standing here," Barty stared him down.
    "Get out of our way, Crouch," Sirius said.
    Y/n looked at the other boys to see what they were doing. Peter was trying his hardest to back up Sirius, but wasn't really helping very much. James had an odd look on his face and was staring at Regulus, who was trying not to look back.
    And Remus, well Remus was staring at her. Y/n looked him in the eyes and gave him a small smile. She knew he didn't have any control over Sirius and his antics. And besides, she still couldn't figure out why he felt so familiar all of the sudden.
    "Alright boys! Get in a compartment, you're holding up the train!" The conductor peered around the corner.
    Y/n rolled her eyes, offended that she'd been grouped into the same category as them. She pushed past both Sirius and Barty into the compartment. They gave her a look as she sat down by the window.
    "You guys heard him," she said. "You'll just have to pull up your big boy pants and share,"
    Regulus snorted at her comment and slunk down into the seat next to her. The rest of her friends and the Marauders piled into the train compartment, one group on one side, the other on the opposite side. As the train started, there was silence in the compartment, Sirius and Barty continued their staring contest, making things extremely awkward for the rest of the people.
    "So," James said. "How boring were your summers?"
    "Tch, more fun than you could ever imagine," Caius clapped back.
    "Please, your version of fun is sucking up to the teachers," Sirius scoffed.
    "Not our fault they actually like us," Regulus glared at his brother. "Maybe if you actually paid attention in class instead of pranking y/n and I, you would be on the teacher's death list,"
    "And be a teacher's pet like you two? No thanks," James slumped.
    Y/n noticed that look in his face again as he was looking at Regulus. She couldn't quite pin down what it meant.
    She looked over at Remus, who had been unusually quiet throughout this conversation. She found herself wondering about him. Normally he'd have intervened in the conversation to calm them down. But it seemed that he hadn't heard a single word. He was staring at y/n's notebook, a look of fear in his eyes. Peter seemed to have noticed his friend's worry and was staring too.
    Y/n looked down and saw that her book was opened up to a drawing of Einar in his werewolf form with notes scribbled all around it. She had drawn it the first day after being with him during the full moon in her animagus form. She wanted to capture every detail of it while it was still in her memory. Y/n's mind rushed with ideas of what Remus was thinking.
    He probably thought she was a werewolf!
    Y/n quickly shut her notebook and shoved it into her satchel.
    Shit.
    That probably made it seem more suspicious.
    Y/n looked up at him and flushed when she saw that he was already looking her in the eyes. He somehow looked confused, scared, and worried all at the same time. Y/n quickly looked out the window at the sights passing, thinking of how she could explain herself to him without seeming suspicious.
    "Right y/n?" Barty's voice interrupted her thoughts.
    "What? I wasn't listening," she said.
    "Ha! Even your sister thinks you're boring!" Sirius laughed.
    "No she doesn't! Y/n, tell him he's more boring than me," Barty said.
    "I think all of you are getting on my last nerve," y/n rolled her eyes.
    She stood up and grabbed her satchel, holding it close to her body. She motioned to Regulus to follow her.
    "Where're you going?" Regulus asked.
    "Prefect cabin," she said. "We need to get our assignments,"
    "Oh shit," y/n heard Remus mutter. "I gotta go too,"
    Y/n and Regulus walked out of the arguing compartment, Remus right behind them. They made their way to the prefect's cabin and just as she was about to follow Regulus in, Remus put his hand on her shoulder.
    "Can I talk to you for a second?" He asked.
    Regulus gave her a look but she nodded at him, signaling that she was fine and he could go in without her. Once Regulus closed the door behind him and the hallway was clear, y/n took her chance to explain herself first.
    "Listen, I can explain my notebook. I'm not a werewolf, I swear, not that werewolves are bad or anything. I just, I, uhm," y/n tried to find her words. "I just, I worked at my uncle's animal conservatory over the summer and, well. I didn't see a werewolf, that's not what I'm saying, uhm, I guess animals just made me curious and I wanted to learn about werewolves. That's all,"
    Y/n cringed when she finished, realizing that her ramble probably made zero sense to him. But Remus just looked at her and let out a low laugh that made y/n's worry disappear. She felt a burning feeling in her stomach that she had never felt before and felt her face heat up slightly.
    She wasn't sure exactly what it was. Maybe it was the fact that Remus was so casually leaned against the wall with his hands in his pockets, leaning down to be eye level with her or maybe it was the way his dimples were defined when he laughed, but something about him that she'd never noticed before made her feel weird.
    "Y/n, I was just going to apologize for yesterday again and explain myself," he smiled at her. "Your notebook didn't even phase me,"
    Y/n could tell the second half was a lie by the look in his eyes. He was looking at her, trying to be reassuring but in his eyes, there was the same mix of confusion, fear, and worry.
    "Oh," she breathed out. "Sorry,"
    He laughed again, the sweet smile back on his face.
    "I should be the one apologizing," he said. "Sirius had already had a few drinks before the ball and told me that your room was his room so we were just going in to hang out. I really am sorry for walking in on you,"
    "Oh, that's alright, I figured it was something like that," y/n told him.
    "I really am sorry," he said again.
    Y/n tilted her head. The way he said that seemed so familiar to her. Before she could respond to him, the prefect compartment door opened.
    "Lupin, Crouch," The seventh year Ravenclaw prefect, Xenophilius Lovegood said. "Good to see you're already getting to know each other,"
    "What do you mean?" Remus asked.
    "Well, we're doing mixed prefect duty this year. That means different years and houses are paired together," Xenophilius explained. "You two are partners,"
    "Oh," y/n said. "Cool,"
    Y/n could already hear her brother's complaining and could see the rest of the Marauder's pranks on her and Regulus, now that they'd be separated for prefect duty. But a part of her didn't mind the extra time with Remus.
    "Here's your schedule," Xenophilius handed them each a piece of paper.
    They walked into the compartment and y/n slumped down in the nearest seat, Remus sliding in next to her. His presence seemed right near her. She looked for Regulus and saw him drowning in a one sided conversation with a fifth year Hufflepuff. He looked at y/n and cocked his head to the side. Y/n gestured to Remus and Regulus raised his eyebrows, laughing slightly.
    "Looks like we got the three to four route on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays," Remus said. "And we get to skip fourth block on Thursdays,"
    "And the night route on Thursday and Saturday," y/n said.
    "Shit," Remus said.
    "It won't be that bad, my friend had it last year,"
    "Yeah, I guess," he said but y/n could see the worry in his eyes.
    Y/n looked back at Regulus who was already looking at her, sending a silent plea for help. It looked as thought the sixth year had not stopped talking since he sat down. Y/n giggled to herself and pulled out her sketchbook. She mindlessly began to sketch mindlessly but caught herself drawing another werewolf. She didn't want to cause more suspicion to Remus so she quickly flipped the page and began sketching her favorite dragon from the sanctuary, an antipodean opaleye named Kenny.
    Little did she know Remus had seen her drawing and it made him nervous. He had wanted to get to know her so badly but now that they had prefect duty together, at night, he was afraid of her finding out who he really was.
    More like what he really was.
    Y/n didn't pick up on his nervousness, instead focused on her own. She was suddenly hyper aware of everything to do with Remus. How their knees kept knocking together from the movements of the train and how he smelled like chocolate, dark chocolate to be specific.
    Something about him that she'd never noticed before seemed so familiar.
    But she couldn't quite figure out where from.