Four To The End (prev Shifting Lines) - Book One (Marauder Era)

Chapter Twenty-Four - What Black Meant

Sirius Black was, in Remus's opinion, the worst person on the face of the planet. He didn't give up as the days went on and by Friday Remus was ready to just whallop him.

Just leave me alone, he thought miserably as Black dogged his steps out of the classroom for the millionth time. Just listen to Potter already. He wished Potter would physically stop his friend from bothering Remus but Potter just followed along, seeming more amused than anything else from Black irritating Remus. Remus thought Potter finally realized how annoyed Remus was getting and that's why he didn't bother stopping Black.

"See you later!" Black said when they reached the library, and Remus disappeared through the doors with absolute relief that the two idiots were banned and he could have some freedom.

But then Pettigrew came in, nervously looking around as he wandered through the aisles and headed right to Remus. "Um, Sirius said to give you this," he said and set a wrapped present down.

"Ugh!" he groaned when he saw an ink pot sitting inside the little box. "Give this back to him." Remus shoved the ink pot to Pettigrew who looked at it in confusion. "Tell him I don't want it. Or--or keep it for yourself, I don't care."

Pettigrew picked it up, studying it as if he had never seen one before. "He really wants to be friends with you."

"I don't care, I don't want friends, you can tell him that too," Remus said.

"Why not?" Pettigrew lowered his hands and stared at Remus with wide brown eyes. "I didn't really have friends before Hogwarts either, you know. All the kids back home teased me." He began turning the ink pot around in his hand as he studied it, reminding Remus a bit of a rodent. "Mum and Dad had me go to a Muggle school before Hogwarts cause they said they wasn't sure if I'd go to Hogwarts and wanted to be sure I had an education and everyone bullied me there. But now I have friends! James and Sirius are really cool, you know."

Remus kept his mouth shut since he wondered how much of a friendship they really had. Sometimes it seemed like Pettigrew was just chasing after them all the time and they only gave him attention when they needed him to do something for them, or needed a guinea pig.

"Did you go to Muggle school?"

"No," Remus said hesitantly. "I was... kept at home..."

"Oh." Pettigrew finally set the ink pot down. "Did you ever know anyone?"

Remus swallowed a bit heavily. "N... no," he admitted. "We kept to ourselves..."

"Oh. Sirius says you're too scared to have friends."

Remus raised his eyebrows, though he already knew that. "I am not scared, I just--just don't... need friends."

"Everyone needs friends," Pettigrew said as if it were the most simple, obvious thing in the world, and it sorta hurt Remus's chest. "If you don't wanna be friends with them you can be friends with me!" Pettigrew gave him such an earnest smile that Remus couldn't help but smile back. "I know I'm no where near as cool as James or Sirius so I know it's not as good a--err... you know, it's not as, uh, fun, I guess."

"You're better than them, you know," Remus said and Pettigrew just stared. "They're both egotistical, narcissistic, supercilious braggarts."

"I don't think I know what those words mean," Pettigrew mumbled, going a bit pink.

"Stuck-up, braggy snobs."

"They're not!" Pettigrew argued. "I mean they are a little, I guess, but they're both really fun. You should hang out with us again. You had fun playing cards, right? But then you started ignoring us--er, them, I guess, for no reason--"