From Beginning to End

Chapter 12: Starting of Spring

Rustling pages and soft chatter permeated the common room as students settled in to study and relax for the night. It was another monday, so the stress of a new week had fallen among them yet again. A fire burned in the corner of the large room, warding off the Scottish countryside's chilly late winter. Frost clung to the windows, letting only hues of yellow light through the dark, night mist. Many hands were filled with cocoa and teas of all sorts, sending an aroma of sweetness and spice throughout the immediate area.

    Lily Evans absentmindedly braided her auburn hair as she listened to conversation among her friends. She had spent the last four hours studying but eventually her roommates dragged her away from the books. There would be a few hours later in the night to make up for it.

    "Pandora turns three tomorrow," Mary announced with a giggle, raising a cup of apple cranberry tea to her lips.

    "Three?" questioned Marlene. "You don't mean the one in our year right? The Ravenclaw, Pandora Ollivander?"

    "Yep." Mary swallowed what appeared to be a far-too-hot sip of tea before speaking again. "She was born on leap year so tomorrow is only the third time she's been able to celebrate."

    "Woah, that's pretty wicked," said Marlene.

    It was quite cool, Lily thought. At the same time though, she would not have wanted that at all. Only being able to have a real birthday once every four years sounded a bit sad. Birthdays were always cause for celebration. Imagine being the only one left out of that four three out of every four years.

Speaking of which, there were so many birthdays coming it was hard to keep track of them all. First was Pandora's, and then there was another Ravenclaw, Sybil Trewlany, whose birthday was the ninth of March, Remus' was the day after that and two weeks later, James.' That was all in the next month alone. Merlin, it was enough to spin your head. At least Pandora would be able to properly join in the festivities this time around.

Her focus wandered as the other two continued chatting. There was a Transfiguration examination on wednesday which she really needed to review for more, as well as a project in Potions due a few weeks out.

Potions was a partner class. Everything was done in pairs. She'd been lucky enough to be partnered with Peter. Her other friends had not been so lucky. Marlene for instance, has been put with Dorian Mulcibur, of which she despised. He was one of Severus' friends but was quite mean-spirited and held a concerning belief system. Any half-blood or muggleborn student, he looked down on. He and Marlene had paused the class many times with their squabbles. Needless to say, their project did not seem to be going well.

Mary too was paired with a Slytherin; Stella Malfoy. Though not much was known about the girl, the name brought a sour taste to Lily's mouth. Based on her run-in with the girl's older brother, it was doubtful that the second Malfoy would have any better behavior or views. With Mary being a Muggleborn... well it was cause for concern. Thankfully most of her other friends had good partners and the project was only a few weeks long anyhow.

    Out of the corner of her eye, Lily caught Remus coming down from the boy's dormitories looking ill. He staggered down the steps and paused multiple times to catch his breath and footing.

A quick glance at the star charts from Astronomy informed Lily that it was the full moon. Given the amount of time the sun had been down for, Remus was running late. Distracted and ill, Lily had no success in catching his eye to give any sort of telepathic encouragement, but hoped he'd fare well enough that night.

    He always dealt with it alone, never telling anyone how horrid the transformations really were. It was as though he thought people would not worry if he lessened the truth, but if anything his excuses and fibs only made those who cared worry even more.

Lily wished there was something she could do to help the boy. But there was no cure for Lycanthropy and nothing she found would soothe him, so she just had to let him be.

    "I thought you were over Lupin."

    "What?"

    Mary grinned mischievously. "You told us that you were over Lupin but I just caught you staring at him again. You still fancy him don't you?"

    Lily chuckled. That was a fair assessment, she had to admit. "No, no, I don't still fancy him. He's only a friend is all. I just got lost in thought and he happened to be in my line of sight at that moment."

    Marlene groaned. "Who cares who Lily fancies. There's more important things to think about. What about the quidditch match this saturday, huh? That's loads more important than stupid blokes."

    Lily and the others couldn't argue with that.

   

    Remus was rudely woken the day after his twelfth birthday – an occasion in which he spent with a small group with friends and copious amounts of chocolate, singing David Bowie songs and coming up with new pranks – a saturday, by the shouting of his roommates.

They were rummaging through their trunks, throwing objects around amongst one another, and bellowing some sort of chant every so often. The curtains had been pulled open and even the dark maroon drapes around his bed did little to block out the blinding sunlight of that beautiful near-spring morning. Birds chirped outside, seemingly just as excited as the occupants inside the castle.

Remus continued listening to the ruckus, refusing to move. His body felt as though it were made of lead, muscles more than content to continue sinking into the soft mattress instead of investigating. There was a faint ache at the base of his head, where it connected to the neck, which would surely worsen in the coming hours. It always did. The noise was not helping.

Sleep wasn't going to come again though. He was too awake, the light too in his face to allow the mind to shut off again. From his mouth came an impressive groan for that of a twelve-year-old as he swung his legs off the bed and slowly pushed himself into an upright position.

    Senses were coming back to Remus and now he could make out the chants being shouted.

    "GO GO GRYFFINDOR! GODRIC IS GOD! GODRIC IS GOD! GO GO GRYFFINDOR!"

    He groaned again. Quidditch. It was bloody quidditch again. It always was.

    James, Peter and Sirius had tied their ties around their heads and were jumping around in a circle, arms clenched in front of them like they were some sort of gorillas, grunting and bellowing like wild animals. It was a miracle that Remus had slept as long as he had. Half the bloody castle must have been woken by them. Nevertheless, Remus pulled a jumper on and slipped out from his comforts to face the chaos.

    "What are you doing?"

    James broke from the ritual first, a wide smile plastering itself to his face instantaneously. "It's the quidditch playoffs, Remus!" he announced loudly. "Gryffindor v Ravenclaw. Whoever wins this game plays against whoever wins the Slytherin v Hufflepuff match for the Quidditch Cup. Gryffindor's gonna win, obviously."

Sirius whooped and James chanted "GO GO GRYFFINDOR" again.

Peter shouted out his agreement to this as well, his cheek already streaked with red face paint.

Remus nodded before heading to the washroom. It was too early for this.

They were lucky that Gryffindor won that match – or perhaps unlucky in Remus' case.