JULIET {remus lupin}

TWO

Remus Lupin was apprehensive to board the Hogwarts express, it felt like a lot had changed for him in the summer before his sixth year. What he had expected to be a summer spent at the Potters had turned into endless hours spent with his grieving mother in their small house. Lyall Lupin had died in his last week at school, apparently. His mother hadn't written to tell him, he only found out after flooing from James' back home. His father had killed himself, Remus had seen it coming, and he couldn't say that he was particularly devastated. The two of them had never been particularly close, anyway. He grieved with his mother, though, for her sake, not his. He worried about her, and wasn't sure that she'd cope on her own for a year.

He pushed all negative thoughts out of his head at the sight of James Potter, and mustered up his happiest grin. James looked at him a little apprehensively, Remus prayed that he wouldn't treat him any differently.

"Alright, Prongs?" Remus said.

"Alright, Moony?"

"Course, where are the others?" He asked, looking around for the remaining two marauders.

"Already inside, come on," James said, jumping onto the train.

Remus again smiled widely as he entered their compartment, as if desperate to convince his friends that he was in fact, fine.

"Alright Moony?" Sirius asked tentatively.

"Hey, Padfoot. I'm good, you?"

"Fine, yeah."

"Wormtail?" Remus asked, looking at the small boy sat in the corner.

"I'm good, thanks Remus. How are you? I'm sorry to hear about your dad-"

"Peter," James hissed at the boy, as Sirius kicked him.

Remus laughed at his friends, "you can ask, you know. It's not wrong to ask."

"I..." James started. "Your dad died mate, I'd be a lot less... composed than you are."

Remus shrugged, "you and your dad are close, James. Your dad is a good man. Lyall wasn't particularly good and we certainly weren't close. We scarcely spoke on the best of days."

"He's - he was still your dad-" Peter squeaked.

Remus nodded, "and I'm sad to have lost a father, and I'm sad that my mum has lost a husband, but it doesn't go much further than that."

James shook his head, apparently unable to accept it, "but, Moony, mate, he was your-"

"You can feel nothing for family members," Sirius said stiffly and Remus remembered that he too had lost his family, in a way, over the summer.

"Fucking hell, Padfoot, I completely forgot." Remus said guiltily, "how are you, mate?"

Sirius shrugged, "it's been a long time coming, I suppose."

"What happened?" Remus asked, catching James' eye as he spoke. "I mean what chang-" Remus stopped talking as James begun to shake his head at him. "Sorry, I won't push it."

Sirius looked at his feet, "it's nothing... they just... well," he looked up again. "You know their beliefs, it's getting a bit too similar to what his lot think."

"You think they're connected to him?" Remus asked in shock. Sirius nodded gravely. "You think they've joined him?"

"Only a matter of time, I'd say," he sighed.

"Fucking hell," Remus said flatly.

"Only a matter of time for a lot of Slytherins, I reckon," James said, nodding his head to where Lucius Malfoy stood with Juliet Romilly on the platform. Remus and Sirius hummed words of agreement.