Falling, Fallen || Remus Lupin

Chapter Nine

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Remus was now sleeping soundly, as if the weight of his guilt wasn't resting on his shoulders anymore. He was too upset with himself to stay awake and relish in the hard truth of what he'd done to Rosemary, trying to ignore the very possibility that he could've done even far worse damage if the beast actually wanted to. So, he decided to fall asleep and escape his messed up life, even if it was just for a couple of hours. Before falling asleep, he decided to think of one of his happiest memories he could think of, the day he met all of his closest friends on September 1st, 1971, the sudden memory now engulfing his dream, taking over and replaying in his head as he slept soundly next to the girl he was thankful for meeting all those years ago... 

~

It was September 1st, 1971.

Immediately after James had begun applauding Rosemary like a madman for successfully running through the Platform 9 3/4 for the first time, James clung to Rosemary like a moth to a flame. He asked her a million questions about the muggle world, entirely fascinated with her muggle life.

Remus always wondered how in Merlin's name did she put up with James' hyperactive, enthusiastic questions back then. Whenever James was really excited about something, anything really, he just couldn't stop talking about it. It was an endearing quality of his, but if you weren't very close with the lad, you'd think he'd just taken ten adrenaline pastilles.

As he grew older though, he learned to control his sudden fits of passion, or at least tried to. Rosemary would always jokingly tell the boys she had no clue either why she stayed talking to a very energetic James, but secretly she was impressed with how much he knew about the wizarding world that she was a stranger to back then, wanting to know more.

Soon after they got acquainted and were talking about their very different upbringings, Sirius and James ran into each other unexpectedly, knocking the other off their feet as Rosemary stood behind them surprised. Out of instinct, the two boys began to wrestle on the floor, tumbling and twisting while drawing a very curious crowd around them. You'd think the two boys were getting in a real fight, but they were just being the playful rascals they always were while still being complete strangers.

When Sirius, being stronger of course, pinned James to the floor triumphantly, they both smiled at each other and began to laugh happily just like life-long brothers. Though, James and Sirius were still on the floor in front of the entrance to the train, blocking everyone's paths and not caring about what anyone thought.

There was always a lingering argument between the two boys ever since about who was to blame for knocking the other over first. Sirius would always joke that without his glasses, James was blind as a bat and that was the reason Sirius fell over. However, James always insisted he never did such a thing and it was in fact Sirius who tripped over his own two feet carelessly. The boys would constantly nag at Rosemary, asking her who she saw knock the other to the ground first, Sirius or James? Technically, she was the only other witness there that saw the whole thing play out. However, she swore she'd take her knowledge of the situation to her grave as she enjoyed watching them trying to figure out who did it first way too much.

After James introduced Sirius to Rosemary, the three walked down the corridor of the train to find an empty compartment for them to sit in. Rosemary was walking between the two boys as Sirius put his arm around the girl's shoulder, simultaneously joking with James. She noticed out of the corner of her eye a young boy sitting all alone in a compartment next to her, and stopped in her tracks. James and Sirius kept walking forward and took a while to notice that Rosemary wasn't following them anymore, being too concerned with trading chocolate frog cards to notice that she slipped under Sirius' arm.