Remus plopped down into a squashy armchair in the Gryffindor common room. The Start-of-Term Feast had just ended, and Remus was ready to check out his common room. His first priority was finding out how comfortable it was, and the Gryffindor common room had passed that test right away. Two boys sat down on a couch adjacent to him. They did not notice him at first because they were immersed so deeply in their conversation. Remus was happy not to be noticed, and continued to scope out the common room from his comfortable armchair. Then the taller of the two boys nudged the other one, and they both turned to look at Remus. They were both smiling widely, but they smiled even more widely when they caught Remus's eye. Resigned to the fact that he would now have to carry on a polite conversation with these two boys, Remus put down the book he had been reading.
"I'm Remus." Remus introduced himself before the other two boys had a chance to so that he could give them the impression that he was confident, which he was decidedly not. They looked at each other, then back at him. Then they began to talk so enthusiastically that they were talking over each other, so that it was hard for Remus to discern their individual voices.
"I'm James. James Potter." James finally managed to speak loudly enough that Sirius stopped speaking for a moment.
"I'm Sirius. Sirius Black", the other boy chimed in. "But I've always wanted to have a cool nickname, maybe something like the Hungarian Horntail."
"Shut up, Sirius, and let Remus talk." James was talking loudly again, so that Sirius paused and let him speak. "Nice to meet you, Remus"
"Nice to meet you." Remus did not feel that there was any need for a longer response than that.
The common room was quite warm because of the fire that was burning. James and Sirius had stopped talking for a moment, so Remus reached down to pick up his book again, assuming that the conversation was over. Suddenly, he felt a warmth on his hand that had nothing to do with the fire in the common room. He realized that Sirius's hand was touching his hand. Startled, Remus looked up and made eye contact with Sirius.
He was unused to the feeling of Sirius's hand, as both his parents had died years ago, and he did not have any siblings. Now as he looked into Sirius's eyes, he was overwhelmed by the feeling of being close to someone.
"Erm, I'm sorry. I only meant to help you pick up your book." Sirius quickly broke eye contact and moved his hand away. Remus was surprised at how disappointed he found himself. His hand was cold again, so he picked up the book and smiled warmly at James and Sirius so that they wouldn't see how strongly he had been affected.
He opened the book, deciding that he would calm himself down by doing one of his favorite activities. But James seemed unwilling to let the conversation end. He spoke up again. Remus normally would have been annoyed by someone who talked this much, but he thought James was all right. Then again, he would have to wait and see.
He snuck another glance at Sirius. James was all right, and seemed like he made Sirius quite happy. Sirius, on the other hand, was intriguing to Remus. Remus wanted to know more about him.
He realized that he had been absentmindedly answering the question that James and Sirius had been asking. Before he knew it, James and Sirius were leading the way towards the dormitories. He immediately felt at home in the dormitories. He set down his trunk next to his bed and placed the book he had been reading on the bedside table. He had felt like he was swimming in a lake ever since he had boarded the Hogwarts Express. If something did not go according to plan, he felt like he was falling farther down, towards the bottom of the lake. If he reached the bottom of the lake, well, he did not know what would happen. That was what was so scary.
