The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

The Start of Term Feast

The Start of Term Feast

James nudged Sirius. "There's two empty seats."

"Huh?" Sirius had been staring down the table, where Remus was sitting with Lily, greeting the new Gryffindor first years as the Sorting Hat sent them along to their houses. He looked at James in confusion, saw his mate was looking up at the staff table, and turned on the bench. Beyond the first years trying on the hat, the long staff table stretched across the front of the Great Hall, and behind it sat the usual members of staff they'd always known - Flitwick, Kettleburn, Slughorn, Zosma, Viridi, Kotes, Dumbledore... McGonagall, of course, but she was overseeing the Sorting. But there was a new face, a woman with long black hair and deeply tanned skin. Beside her, were two empty seats.

"Who do you reckon..?" James asked.

"Well, Dumbledore must've hired a new Defense teacher and a new Divination teacher," Sirius suggested, leaning back to talk to James, "Dunno who the third seat is."

"Wonder why whoever it is is late?" James asked.

Sirius shrugged. "Not a very good start to a new job."

James laughed, "That'd be us. Get a job and we're late on the first day."

"Shh," said Peter, and he pointed to the Sorting and turned back around.

Sirius made a face, "Bloody hell - not you, too. Isn't it enough that Moony's a prefect and gone all uptight on us, but not you too, Pete?"

Peter ignored Sirius's words.

When all the first years had been sorted (Gryffindor picked up an impressive 7 new students - five boys and two girls), Dumbledore stood and announced, "I am sure you're quite hungry, and we're waiting on some of our new staff members, so I say - let's wait on the announcements until we've put something grand in our bellies!" He clapped his hands and food magically appeared.

Sirius heard a first year shout, "WHOA!" at the end of the table and Remus laughed and bent over to talk to the boy, smiling brightly. He stared at Remus, at the way his blonde hair fell over his forehead as he turned to look at the boy, at the way his lips moved as he spoke... Sirius sighed and picked up his fork.

"He's good with them," James said, nodding at Remus and the boy.

Sirius looked over at James and then turned back to his dinner, "Yeah, he is. Brilliant." His voice was drier than it should've been. He didn't know why he was being so sour about it. It was actually kind of adorable the way Remus was glowing with happiness down there, thriving at it, doing amazingly. It was the sort of thing that Remus would be the very best at - being as nurturing as he was and all, it wasn't a surprise to Sirius that Remus was good at it. If he hadn't been, that would've been the shock, really... And, he supposed, deep down he was happy for Remus, really. He couldn't help but think what a brilliant teacher Remus Lupin would be one day, looking at him down there across the table, talking to one of the younger boys. That was Remus's dream, after all, Sirius recalled, remembering Remus's words the year before, the night they were at the Leaky Cauldron talking about their dreams for their futures... This prefect business was Remus's first step toward that dream being realized... But Sirius still couldn't stop acting like he was.

James shrugged and turned to talk to Peter.

"So there are loads and loads of house elves down in the kitchens and they prepare all this amazing food and send it up to the tables with elfish magic," Remus was telling the First Year, a muggle-born boy named Dexter Cardwall whose shout was the one Sirius had overheard. The boy had sandy brown hair and a spray of freckles across his nose.