the cadence of part time poets

Chapter 31: Back to School

Guess who just got back today?
Them wild-eyed boys that'd been away;
Haven't changed, had much to say,
But man, I still think them cats are crazy;
They were askin' if you were around,
How you was, where you could be found;
Told 'em you were livin' downtown,
Drivin' all the old men crazy;
The boys are back in town...

- "The Boys Are Back in Town" Thin Lizzy, 1976

Wednesday 1st September 1976

As far as Remus could tell, getting clapped on the back by James Potter while having three fractured ribs was a lot like throwing yourself in front of an oncoming train. There was no waving or conventional "hellos" to be had, just a single upright dog-pile as James and Peter charged up from behind on the busy station platform. With a great hurrah they grappled him by the shoulders and he nearly threw his mother's white trunk across the station cringing in pain. Thankfully the excitement didn't last long; the moment the other two rounded him and got a decent look at his front their delightful expressions vanished.

"Lupin, what the hell happened to your face?" James exclaimed.

Remus knew he looked rough. Still yellow under the eyes from the bruising and with a scabby cut over the bridge of his nose that extended all the way up into his eyebrow, his appearance shocked anyone who got too close. Fracturing his ribs meant that he hadn't gotten a decent breath-in in weeks, though his nose had healed in a relatively straight line and the stitches were finally gone. The doctors said he'd probably have the scar forever, just another more permanent reminder of his refusal to play by his father's rules. If Lyall Lupin had hated the sight of him before, he detested it now.

"Football accident," Remus said flatly. He'd been practising the lie for most of August while he'd slummed around the estate, whining and wincing without Tomny's downers. "I guess I make a pretty poor goalkeeper."

James winced and Peter called it "hard cheese", nearly making Remus laugh out loud at the thought of Vint's last and only words to him; but at least they hadn't badgered him for more. Like Giles (who'd had more than enough to say after picking Remus up and driving him straight to the hospital) the boys rarely overstepped boundaries, even ones never explicitly said aloud. Remus suspected it was a de facto result of being friends with Sirius for so long.

"So where's Black?" He asked, glancing around the busy train platform just in case Sirius was getting ready to spring up and break the rest of his ribs.

"He's already at school," James said. "Reg made prefect this year so they had to come a day early."

"Oh."

"Yeah, his train would've come through yesterday. But c'mon, let's go claim a carriage before they're all full."

Once on the train, Remus was pleased to find that that year he'd be riding in a private carriage with air con and windows working latches. As Peter and James busied themselves with a round of cards, he planted himself by the window with a book. He'd been thinking a lot about Sirius lately—or at least, more than usual. It had started when the butlers finally brought him the letters, which he'd read while bedridden and half-delirious from the pain in his face and chest. They were well-written of course, with that same Sirius Black wit that Remus had grown so used to, only now accompanied by his perfect penmanship as well.

Tucking them into the pages of his book so his friends wouldn't see, Remus scanned the letters, reminded of the bit of guilt he'd been carrying ever since he first plucked up the courage to open them. There was one for nearly every week of the summer holiday, but Remus had read them so many times he could've almost recited them off by heart.