𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐎𝐑𝐀 | 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬

✧ chapter 3 ✧

1974

The twelve Gryffindor fourth years all sat out on the grass by the Black Lake, taking advantage of the unseasonal good weather. All the girls were dressed in flowy sundresses and floppy hats while the boys wore jeans and tee shirts. To any non-magical passer-by, it would have seemed a normal Saturday afternoon.

Popular muggle music sounded softly from the portable radio Lily had brought down from her dorm, and the twelve all sat in comfortable silence, reading, finishing up homework or daydreaming, just enjoying the peaceful afternoon. The silence, however, was soon broken by Severus Snape trudging across the grass towards the group.

"Hey Sev," Lily smiled up at him, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand so that she could look up at him. At the sound of Severus' name James head snapped up from the Quidditch magazine he was flicking through.

"What do you want, Snivellous?" James sneered, repositioning himself on the grass so he was able to defend himself should Snape try to hex him.

"I came to see if my friend Lily wanted to go for a walk with me. Not that it's any of your business." Snape fired back, narrowing his eyes.

These exchanges were becoming more and more frequent as the two boys vied for Lily's attention. Initially Lily found it flattering, having two boys fight over her as if she were the female protagonist from one of the muggle books she read as a child. But after four years she found herself irritated more than anything else most of the time. She was sick of the juvenile bickering.

Without another word, Lily rose to her feet and quickly led Severus away to avoid the boys putting each other in the hospital wing.

"Calm down, mate, she'd never go for him seriously." Remus stated, adjusting the scarf he wore around his neck, despite the warm weather. The Gryffindor girls found his choice of attire odd, but didn't mention it as Lily had noticed a particularly fresh scar running the length of Remus' jaw and advised them not to say anything. Remus was grateful for the girl's apparent understanding and silently thanked them for not addressing the elephant in the room.

Later on that day James, the self-appointed leader of the Marauders approached the four 'Lady Marauders' as they had become known, much to the dismay of Lily, in their common room while Remus was out of earshot.

"Thanks for not mentioning the scarf today," he stated, catching the attention of the girls, "he's embarrassed you see, it's not as bad as it seems really. We were just mucking about in the dorm and got a bit rough, as boys can, and poor Remus fell victim to a loose nail sticking out from the wardrobe. Did a nasty number on his jaw, you should have seen the blood. Madam Pomfrey fixed him up nicely though so there's no need to worry or mention it again." And with that, James turned on his heel and retreated back up the stairs to the boy's dormitory.

The girls all glanced at each other, a little wary of the strange behaviour, but put it down to boy's being weird, as they had concurred the year before, and laid the incident to rest.

Once back in the dorm, James gave the rest of the boys a reassuring nod, and they all went back to what they were doing before.

The previous year Peter had approached James and Sirius, very white faced and clammy, and informed them of his suspicions regarding Remus' lycanthropy. He was so upset and fearful that he was close to tears. Sirius nearly teased him about it but James shot him a warning look and thanked the boy for coming to them. They confronted Remus that evening in the dorm. He said shakily that he supposed this was the end of their friendship. Terrified of losing such a close friend, and unafraid of Remus' condition, Sirius laughed and told his friend that he was a bloody idiot. James agreed, as did Peter, both giving their friend Remus looks of defiance as if to say 'we're not going anywhere, mate'. Taking in the three boys in front of him, Remus burst into tears, so overwhelmed by the others loyalty and acceptance of his condition. They all took turns in hugging him and in the same night, decided they would study to become Animagi in order to help their friend on the full moon.

From then on Sirius, James and Peter all saw themselves as the 'secret keepers' for Remus' 'furry little problem' as James so aptly named it, and took it upon themselves to go into damage control whenever any suspicions arose.

As a sort of thanks to the other boys for all they had done for him, Remus decided to do something in return. Towards the end of third year he decided he would make a map of the school which showed all the secret passageways and hideouts so the boys could all safely sneak out when they needed to help him on a full moon. Whenever the other boys were trying to figure out how to become Animagi in the dorm he would head down to the library and work on it, leaving them in peace while they concentrated. He would often become frustrated while drafting the map as he realised he had made a mistake and placed a secret tunnel in the wrong place, or certain hallways didn't line up once it was fully unfolded. These frustrations never deterred him however as he thought back to what James, Sirius and Peter were doing and how frustrating each failure was to them. Even when it came to the full moon, Remus was never as disheartened as he used to be, often thinking of the day he would be able to run around the forest with his friends during his transformation, to keep him going. For the first time in his life, Remus Lupin didn't feel alone.