Trouble (The Marauders Era» Sirius Black Fanfiction) *Editing*

2» What Happened to Remus?

Chapter Two

What Happened to Remus?

<A man is known by the company he keeps>

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     Thea's first week at Hogwarts was for the most part uneventful. Her O.W.L. exam scores placed her in a few N.E.W.T.- level classes; Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, and Potions. Her schedule had a few open spots, but she knew these more challenging classes were likely to have a heavier workload too. Her suspicions proved right when she sat down in the library at the end of her first day of classes to a mountain of homework. She did as much as she could in the few hours she had before dinner, until eventually Lily found her with books and papers sprawled out across an entire table she had claimed all to herself and Thea with a quill in hand, pacing around and around the table while muttering to herself.

"You look crazy," Lily said to her. "It's only the first day!"

"Me?" Thea said. "Have you seen Alice? She's just around the corner, two tables down. She's been cursing like a sailor for hours!"

     Thea went to visit Hagrid at the end of the week, bringing Lily along with her. Hagrid was thrilled to see them. He served them tea in cups as big as bowls and whipped up a batch of his signature rock cakes as he asked Lily how her summer back home had been. Thea was glad to be making new friends, but in this moment felt a little left out as Hagrid and Lily had clearly known each other for years. She watched them laugh and chat about other people they both knew, like the Marauders, and Thea couldn't help but miss her old friends at Ilvermorny.

     Give it time, she thought to herself. You've got to relax.

     "An' how was your firs' week at Hogwarts, Thea?" Hagrid asked. Thea looked up at him, not realizing she had been zoning out.

     "Really good," she said. "I like the classes and teachers. I've been trying to find different places to hide out and do my homework."

     "I found her in the owlery one day," said Lily.

     "Yeah, won't be going there again," Thea said. "Professor McGonagall wasn't too happy with me when I handed in homework that had owl droppings on it."

     At the end of their visit, Hagrid insisted on sending them off with more rock cakes to eat later on, though Thea thought she might just use them as paperweights instead. When Lily and Thea weren't trying to stay on top of their homework and practicing spells and potions together, the pair enjoyed lounging by the Black Lake, occasionally accompanied by Alice, but she was even busier with schoolwork. Alice was incredibly determined to do well on her N.E.W.T. exams later that year. She wanted to become an auror, which Lily suspected was because of her  romantic fling that Alice insisted on keeping private. Lily had started a list of boys that were seventh years the year before, trying to figure out who it could be. She kept trying to casually drop different names in conversations to see if she could get some sort of reaction from Alice.

"Ugh!" Alice growled the Wednesday of their second week at school. She sat at the base of a tree beside the Black Lake with several books and scrolls sprawled out in front of her, her hair a wild mess from running her hands through it in frustration, and she had somehow gotten ink smeared across her forehead.

"You've got, erm-"

"What?" Alice snarled, interrupting Thea.

"Oh, nothing," she said, deciding it would be best for Alice for figure it out on her own when she looks in the mirror later on.