Like Real Muggles Do

New Beginnings

Mrs Potter kissed each of the four boys on the forehead before hastily pushing them out of the door, they'd be late if they stuck around any longer. It was a good hours drive once in muggle London and Mr Potter wasn't the best of drivers. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were sat uncomfortably in the rather small car, wearing unfamiliar uniforms, off to a school they had never even heard of, and to make things even worse, in the minds of the two pure-bloods, their wands were sat on the mantle piece back at the Potter residence, not to be used by any means.

It had been a strange turn of events that had led them to this situation, it had been reported that Death Eaters were attempting to recruit from within Hogwarts, this indeed had caused a stir. Parents were taking their children home from school in attempt to keep them safe, but no one really knew where the safest place for children to be was. Most had the utmost faith in Dumbledore, others were sceptical, the Potters, and Marauders alike, were the former.

Mrs Potter first began to worry about the boys, at the age of just 16, remaining at Hogwarts when she thought of Sirius' heritage, surely he would be targeted as a member of the Black family. She voiced this matter to Professor McGonagall who put her mind to ease in ensuring her that she personally would take every precaution in defending Sirius. This had settled the matter until no more than a week later when McGonagall had invited Remus to her office. When Remus arrived at her office, he was surprised to find Dumbledore was accompanying her. Together they explained that werewoves from across the country were joining forces with the Death Eaters with the promise of a cure to their lycanthropy, the werewolves were of course led by none other than Fenrir Greyback himself, who was already known to be welcoming to the idea of the Dark Lord gaining power. Remus was ensured that, unfortunately, the promise of a cure was none but a tale to gather support so he should stay aware of that. They also advised that he returned home as the full moon was looming and there was an obvious vulnerability following that, Remus knew that returning to his family home would put him and his family in even more danger considering the conditions under which he was bitten in the first place. On hearing this, McGonagall dismissed Remus and contacted the Potters once more.

It was only March when the boys were taken out of school and Mrs Potter were determined that they would not be crowding her house every day until September, so Mr Potter sent a few letters, managed to master a telephone and made a few calls and it was arranged that in two weeks they would be attending the nearest muggle comprehensive school for the rest of the year. Remus and Peter had no problem with this, they had both attended muggle infant and junior schools, granted though Peter spent more time actually in school than Remus, so were rather excited to go back to their roots. James and Sirius on the other hand were completely appalled at the idea, neither of them had even taken Muggle Studies so had absolutely no idea what to expect.

The Potters took all four boys into muggle London to get school uniform and supplies, following the advice of Remus and Peter on what exactly they would need. Once back at the Potter household, Mrs Potter handed Remus and Peter the books they had bought with the words "I'm trusting you two to cram as much into their thick skulls in two week as is humanly possible, I'm not having my boys look like complete dunces on their first day." She retired swiftly to the kitchen, her husband following behind her, turned to the two book-riddled boys with a wink saying, "No pressure though."

Remus and Peter quickly realised that they only knew the basics and that what they were about to face was a lot more complex than they had previously thought, but Remus was learning as he was reading through what he would have to teach the others and Peter was picking up fast as he was gaining confidence in having the academic advantage over two of the smartest people he knew. James immediately took a shine to maths, he was a visual learner so every sum was colour coordinated to stick in his mind, by three days into lessons with Professor Moony he didn't want to even think about any subject other than maths, Remus eventually just left the maths books with James realising this was the best he was getting out of him, but it was better than nothing. Peter was a kinaesthetic learner, so anything that could be related to some sort of activity stuck in his mind, turns out he was going to be the performing arts nerd, this was easy, just leave him with a bunch of scripts and musical scores to analyse and he was happy. Sirius was the most difficult to teach, he had the attention span of a gnat and constantly tried flirting his way out of education, this worked too often for much beneficial learning to take place. It was eventually discovered that Sirius had a certain flare for English Literature, which was to be expected with his often overly articulated voice and rather extensive vocabulary.

By some insane miracle here they were, driving ever closer to the new, yes temporary but still new by any means, school, with basic knowledge of the classes they are about to sit for the first time, being educated by teachers who hold the belief that magic only exists in fairytales and fantasy.