The Young Padfoot *Book One*

Christmas

As I got off the Hogwarts Express with Hermione, I spotted Remus straight away. He was standing against one of the pillars and stood out quite a lot in his scruffy robes. Hermione and I were just at the bottom of the stairs when we got shoved out of the way by Malfoy.

"Watch it!" I exclaimed, as I straightened my robes.

Before Malfoy could respond, I saw Lucius Malfoy walk up behind him and rest a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't respond to her, Draco. Blood traitors aren't worth your breath," Lucius said in his oily voice.

"If you still believe that strongly about that rubbish, you're even more pathetic than I thought," I retaliated.

"I suggest that you watch your tongue, Black," Lucius warned me.

"Or what?" I challenged. "What are you going to do about it?"

Considering we were on a packed train platform, there wasn't really much he could do, something it looked like he had realised too.

"Come along, Draco," Lucius said instead, leading Malfoy away.

"Slimy git," I muttered to myself, as Hermione and I started to walk over to where our bags were.

"Emery, what did he mean 'blood traitor'?" Hermione asked.

"It's complicated but a blood traitor is basically something most often used by the oldest pure-blood wizarding families to describe witches or wizards who willingly associate themselves with muggles, or with Muggle-borns," I explained briefly, as we carried our bags over to where our families were waiting.

"Oh. I'm guessing it isn't just you in your family that they think is a blood traitor," Hermione guessed.

"In my family there have been very few people who believe like I do. The only people that immediately come to mind are my Aunt Andromeda, my cousin Tonks and... and my dad," I hesitated at the word dad as it wasn't like he had been there for me for the last ten years so he didn't really deserve the title.

By now we had reached Hermione's parents so we gave each other a quick hug.

"Have a good Christmas," Hermione smiled.

"You too," I replied, as we pulled back and went our separate ways.

I ran over to where Remus was, dropped my bags on the ground and was immediately engulfed in a massive hug.

"Right, that's it. You're not going back," Remus laughed, as we hugged. He then pulled away and looked down at me. "Have you grown?"

"Maybe," I smiled.

"I have a surprise for you," Remus smiled, making me look at him in confusion. He then pulled a bar of chocolate out of his coat pocket. "Surprise!"

I laughed and happily took the chocolate. You can always count on Remus to have chocolate on him. You know, the werewolf thing.

"So, tell me everything," Remus said, as he picked up my bag and swung it over his shoulder.

I started to explain everything to Remus that had happened, only stopping when we had to apparate back to our cottage or to eat a piece of chocolate. As soon as the dizziness from apparating had passed, I continued my story. Although, I didn't tell Remus about Nicholas Flamel, not yet anyway. That would be a topic of conversation for another day.

When we entered the cottage, I stopped my story telling when I saw what Remus had done. He had decorated a cute, little tree with flashing lights and there were candles dotted all around the place. There was a roaring fire in the living room as well as a pile of presents under the tree.