Boys Will Be Bugs

Chapter 41: Third Year

The absence of Remus's mother at the platform was noticeable, but he put it aside as the steam from the train engulfed the crowd of students and he searched avidly for his friends. He found Lily first, who hugged him and helped him onto the train so the two could find an empty compartment. She was waiting for Severus, and he was waiting for the others, so they sat together on their own for a bit, catching up on the holidays. Remus didn't mention his mum; he had already decided not to tell his friends about it, if only to avoid thinking about it himself. Although, he didn't know if James had told Sirius or not. He didn't think he would. Despite James's chattiness, and his tendency to speak before thinking, he never gave up important information about his friends. Remus trusted him to never tell anyone about his lycanthropy, or him being trans, so he was sure James had already worked out that this may have been a secret that Remus didn't want to be talked about. At least not yet. Owain joined them a few minutes later, with Jethro behind him. They said hi, and asked if they could sit.

"Of course you can," said Lily, and the two boys joined them. "We're talking about summer. What did you two do?"

"Nothing much," replied Owain. "Stayed at home, but we did have a bonfire and Anwen and I made a rope swing on this old oak tree above a lake."

"That sounds cool," said Remus.

"It was! Until it snapped and Anwen fell in and got wet." He struggled not to laugh at the memory of it. "It was hilarious, she was so annoyed."

"Did you fix it?"

"Yeah, dad made it strong again with magic, impossible to break, but Anwen still refused to go on it." He shrugged. "More turns for me."

"What about you, Jeth?" Jethro was fairly quiet, and they weren't sure how much to ask him. This was his first year back without Tobin, after all, and the summer had begun with Tobin's funeral. They weren't even sure if talking about their holidays at all was a good idea, but he smiled lightly and didn't mention it.

"We stayed at home too, but we had some nice days out. I rode a steam train!"

"You're already riding a steam train."

"I mean a muggle one, where you can actually go into the driver's carriage and see the fire lit in the engine and the coal being shovelled in. Took you around the countryside, it did, with the whole window area open so you could stick your head out."

"It'd be cool if you could stick your head out of this train," said Owain. Jethro nodded in agreement.

"I expect it'd be too dangerous," said Remus. "It's too fast. How fast did your train go?"

"Oh, not too fast, just normal speed. Did the trolley lady go past yet?" Remus was now used to Jethro's speed at changing the subject in every conversation had with him, so he only took a moment to reply with "not yet."

"What did you two do?" asked Owain.

"We went to Ireland," said Lily. "Belfast. It was nice!"

"Why'd you go there?"

"It's near? Not too expensive either. Petunia wanted to go somewhere like Spain as usual, but who the hell can afford to go to Spain? I only knew one person who went to Spain. A girl who lived in my street called Fiona, and her parents were bankers so they were loaded."

"My dad said Ireland's just cold and wet all the time."

"How's that any different than here? Besides, it's summer. It was lovely. We went to the beach.

"I went to the beach too," piped up Remus. "With James. He lives in John O'Groats."

"Oh yeah, I know that. It's very nice." Remus nodded. As he did, the compartment door slid open and James and Sirius practically bounced in, grinning.