𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐘𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 ❧ remus lupin

III. Welcome Back to Hogwarts

"It kills me to look at you when you have no idea what I have done."

Juliet's POV

"Juliet, we missed you!" my greatest friend Lily Evans said as she welcomed me with open arms into the booth room.

Lily Evans is one of my longest and truest friends. A couple years after I moved in with the Fletchers, the Evans family moved in down the street. Lily and I met at the age of seven, and have been inseparable ever since. We were astounded to both receive our Hogwarts letters, and even happier to be sorted into the same house, Gryffindor. Over the past seven years at school, I've gotten to know Lily Evans even more than I had before.

Sitting next to Lily, his bright blue eyes covered with circular glasses, was her boyfriend James Potter. James is practically another Sirius. The two boys do bloody everything together. Across the school, they are known for getting into trouble with students and faculty, pulling nonstop pranks and rarely ever getting caught. James has a bit of a harder exterior, but his soft side comes out whenever he's around Lily. It really shows how much care and respect he shows for her.

Across from James, was a quite peculiar boy by the name of Peter Pettigrew. Even though I've known him for nearly seven years, I still don't fully understand him. I don't understand why the rest of the boys came to be friends with Peter, seeing as he barely has anything in common with them. He seems out of place in this group.

Sitting next to Peter, was Remus Lupin. Oh, where do I even begin with Remus. Well, for starters, I know that he's a werewolf just like me. When I was four years old, just one year before I moved in with the Fletchers, my older brother Fenrir attacked Remus after getting in an argument with Remus' father, Lyall Lupin. Fenrir infected Remus with his lycanthropy, and he's been a werewolf ever since. Even though I'm well aware that my distant brother has affected many young children with the same condition that he has, knowing that Remus is one of those kids hit me hard. After Sirius introduced me to Remus on the first day of my first year, I was completely shocked. Out of all people, I ended up being friends with one of my brother's victims?

Luckily I'm hidden under the last name of Fletcher, and not Greyback, otherwise, it wouldn't just be known to Remus about my family's reputation, but the whole school as well. I couldn't bear for that to happen. I still internally hurt every time I see him and feel guilty for something that Fenrir is responsible for. It hurts me every day, to talk with him, laugh with him, even to look at him. I just wish I didn't have to deal with the secret of my past any longer because it hurts me to be good friends with someone, who's life my brother had changed for worse.

As the Hogwarts Express rolled along the train tracks to the castle, the seven of us spent hours catching up, telling each other all of the semi-interesting adventures we had taken part in over the summer. Nothing too excited I heard, except James' story about how he pranked his neighbors for a month.

Being the overly dramatic person that he is, James told his over-the-top pranking story as if he had just won a world record. Apparently, he had smuggled some Amortentia potion from Professor Slughorn's office and fed it to his neighbor's cats. He had the cats absolutely fawn over and attach themselves to their owners, and he said that it really freaked them out. Better yet, James said that he even transformed both of the cats into rats while they were on the Amortentia, and that truly gave the family a scare.

Regardless of having not seen these people in over three months, I still cared very deeply for each and every one of them, and am so proud to call them my best friends. Within hours, the wheels on the train came to a halting stop, and students soon poured out to the train like a flood, racing to get the best carriages for their slow and final ride to Hogwarts castle. James and Sirius elbow-butted multiple third years in order to snag one of the first carriages; me, Lily, Remus, and Peter quickly followed them.

Quickly we were whisked away by the thestrals pulling the carriage. Unfortunately, Remus and I were the only ones able to see these creepy yet extraordinary creatures due to our harsh past memories. I pretended not to see the thestrals in order to secure my so-called safe home and to keep my classmates from finding out that I have seen terrible death in my life. Fenrir was very blunt about his attacks - some killings - in his early stages of darkness, not to mention the death of my father.

Remus also didn't say anything about the thestrals, probably in order to hide his past as well. But during our second year, I saw the was he was frightened by where the thestrals were idling, which only made me wonder if he could see them or not.

Anyways, once we arrived at the castle, we dropped our belongings off outside of the Great Hall and sat down for the opening feast. The bright and colorful food magically appeared before our eyes, and all of us looked amazed, even though this was the seventh time we had experienced a moment such as this.

Before we were dismissed, however, Dumbledore gave his annual pre-term speech. It started with warm welcomes to all new student and returned students, but after another sentence or two about facility updates, Dumbledore went into a bit of a dark topic. He said, "Now, I know that this isn't an easy topic to cover, but I want to make it known to al student and faculty, new and old. As many of you might know, not all wizards in this world are good. In fact, there have been many across the centuries who are dark, including someone who's currently rising in power.

"Now we don't know much about this new Dark Lord, we not know who his supporters are, and we don't know who is working for him and who isn't. Now, the Minister of Magic advised me not to talk with you all about this, but I figured it was safer for my students to be aware of rising darkness in this world, rather than not knowing about it. I want to remind you that Hogwarts is a very safe place and that you have nothing to worry about regarding this new rising Dark Lord. Now I wish you all a great rest of your term, you may be dismissed." he finished, causing the entire room to fill with quiet gasps and out of controlled whispering. Everyone was in shock, clearly overanalyzing Dumbledore's speech.

I, myself, have already seen enough darkness to last a lifetime, within the first five years of my life. With my brother and dead father's constant bloodlust and dangerous lifestyle, how dark could this supposed Dark Lord be?

Word Count: 1219