Attention, class!” said the stern-looking teacher sharply.
Remus and James quickly smothered their loud snorts of laughter, slightly unnerved by the tall, foreboding woman at the front of the class. She was wearing emerald green like she had been the night before, and her hair was pulled back tightly behind her head.
“Welcome to Transfiguration. I am Professor McGonagall.”
It was nearing lunch time, and the two boys had already been to their first three classes at Hogwarts. Remus could tell that Sirius was very bored with Charms and Herbology, but Remus had enjoyed both classes. History of Magic, however, was the one class they all agreed was horribly boring. Professor Binns, the teacher, had been a ghost, which at first had scared several of the students, but after ten minutes of listening to him drone on about troll wars, even Remus felt like dozing off. He was hoping Transfiguration would be better.
“Transfiguration,” McGonagall began sternly, “is one of the most dangerous and difficult forms of magic you will learn here at Hogwarts. If I ever catch one of you messing around in my class you will leave ” and you won’t come back.”
The class was, if possible, even more silent than it had been before this little speech. Remus could tell that this was not a teacher to cross. James seemed to get the same impression, and unlike Remus, he did not like this at all. Remus felt as if he was going to like Professor McGonagall, even if she was extremely strict.
He watched wide-eyed as McGonagall proceeded to transform her chair into a chicken and then back again. Even James seemed interested. Remus thought he caught a whisper that sounded something like “Oh, I could do that anytime,” from Sirius. McGonagall continued to talk about the different aspects of Transfiguration, and Remus hurriedly took as many notes as he could. He wanted to remember everything she said.
A snort sounded loudly from behind Remus. He closed his eyes, not daring to look back. He knew exactly who it was -- Sirius. He had been laughing at the dark-haired boy he had fought with the previous day. Remus could hear his rather loud whispers behind him. McGonagall stopped mid-sentence and turned toward the source of the noise. Nothing in her expression changed except for her lips, which tightened into a long, thin line across her face.
“Mr. Black,” she said calmly. “I can see that you obviously have already learned everything there is to learn about Transfiguration and are very eager to give the class a demonstration of your skills.” She reached into her desk drawer deftly, pulled out a match, and began to head toward Sirius.
“She’s going to set him on fire,” Remus heard one Sytherin giggle to his friend. The dark-haired boy who James and Sirius had shoved into the compartment was staring smugly at Sirius. Even Remus couldn’t resist the urge to shift around in his seat and watch what was about to happen. Sirius looked absolutely petrified. McGonagall reached down and set the match on the desk in front of Sirius.
“Mr. Black,” she said, her lips still in a tight line, “kindly show the show the class how to change this match into a needle.” Sirius looked down at the match, and then back up at her, incredulous.
“But, but…” he stuttered, confused. James’ eyes widened, watching for the first time as Sirius Black was unnerved.
“But what, Mr. Black?” questioned McGonagall. “Surely you know how?” Sirius looked at the match one last time and then lowered his head.
“No, I can’t,” he mumbled. McGonagall tilted her head.
“You’ll have to speak up, Mr. Black.”
“No, I can’t!” exclaimed Sirius. McGonagall nodded, and then picked the match up from his desk.
“Then I trust we won’t have any more interruptions.”
Sirius was surprisingly well-behaved for the remainder of the class. He was even able to turn his match into a wooden needle before the end. Remus was beginning to think class would end peacefully until a loud explosion rang out to his left.
“Mr. Pettigrew!” shouted McGonagall, leaping from her desk. “Do not poke at your match like that ” you must only wave it gently or else something like this will happen!” She quickly put out the fire that was slowly growing larger on the fat boy’s desk by squirting water from the tip of her wand onto the burning match. James sniggered then stopped promptly when McGonagall looked at him.
“Class is dismissed,” she said shortly. James leapt up and grabbed their books, doubled over in silent laughter. Sirius looked no less then perfectly thrilled McGonagall had accidentally soaked the dark-haired boy with her wand while she was trying to douse the flames. The boy looked even more sullen than ever, and Sirius looked as if he was going to fall to the ground laughing.
James jogged over to Remus. “Hey, Remus!” he whispered happily, “did you see that?” Remus gave a hesitant little laugh, although he did not find the situation quite as amusing as his friend. And, from the looks of it, neither did Lily. She was staring at Remus, and he could tell what she was thinking. How could you? Suddenly she got up and walked past the three boys quickly, not stopping to give Remus a smile or even a glance. Remus felt the grin slide from his face.
“What’s wrong?” exclaimed James. He followed Remus’ gaze. “Ignore her,” he said, rolling his eyes. “What’s important now is that Slimeball is really angry-“
“Mr. Potter and Mr. Black,” said McGonagall said sharply. “Kindly stay behind and help Mr. Pettigrew clean up his things.
“What!” yelped James. Remus could tell by the spoiled way James sometimes acted that his parents most likely let him get away with a lot of things at home. Right now he was looking downright horrified that a teacher could possibly think of asking him to help another student. Sirius looked very annoyed as well.
“I wasn’t even doing anything, Professor!” he huffed, tossing a lock of hair out of his eyes in annoyance.
“Now, Mr. Black,” said McGonagall with an air of finality in her voice. Sirius snapped his mouth, which had been hanging open, shut quickly as McGonagall strode from the room briskly. Remus shrugged.
“I’ll stay with you guys and help,” he offered kindly. Sirius’ eyes lit up.
“Oh, that’s wonderful!” he said in a sarcastic tone. “And I would take you up on your generous offer, but I’m afraid you and James would miss out on your time to insult me when you don’t think I’m listening.”
James shook his head. “We wouldn’t talk about you if you weren’t so conceited,” he said reasoned.
Sirius rolled his eyes and brushed past James roughly. “Fine. Hey, you!” he said, addressing Peter, who was attempting to scoop up all his books into his fat little arms. “Need help?”
Peter glanced up. “Um, s-sure,” he stuttered, dropping his books. “Oh, oops.” He reddened and reached back down to pick up his books, but James and Remus ran over and began to grab them for him.
“Don’t worry, we’ve got them,” said James. Sirius walked over and snatched a particularly large potions book from James’ hands.
Peter picked up his quill from his desk and followed the others out of the room. “Thanks,” he said to Sirius. “Say, my name’s Peter. What are your names?”
Sirius looked as if the conversation was boring him already, but responded. “I’m Sirius Black.”
James introduced himself as well. “And I’m James Potter“-- he bowed ” “and this is Remus Lupin.”
Remus smiled at Peter.
“So, so I guess you’re really good at Transfiguration,” Peter continued, looking admiringly at Sirius. Even Sirius couldn’t resist grinning sloppily.
“Well, I guess you could say that.”
It was James’ turn to roll his eyes.
“Yeah," continued Peter, "I wish I was as good. So, do you think you could help me study sometime?”
Sirius shook his head instantly.
“Oh, yeah, definitely,” James said approvingly, “Sirius is really good at Transfiguration, plus he’s a really nice guy, so I’m sure he’ll love to help you with-“
“Exactly what are you talking about?” Sirius questioned loudly.
“You!” said James, smirking. “You know, you being so wonderfully good at potions? As I was saying, Peter, Sirius would love to help you.”
Peter beamed. “Wow, thanks. That’s great. You guys are so nice.”
James smile grew as wide as a toad’s and he looked very pleased with himself. Sirius’ eyes narrowed. James looked pleased that he had just made Sirius’ life even more miserable than it was at the moment.
Remus walked quickly and walked next to James. “James,” he said in a low voice, making sure Sirius couldn’t overhear, “couldn’t you just give him a chance? He might not be so bad if you get to know him,” he reasoned.
James looked hesitant, but shrugged and turned around to where Sirius was walking behind him. “Want to sit with us at lunch?” he questioned bluntly.
Sirius raised his eyebrows. “Why? So you can pester me more?” he questioned skeptically. “Sorry, no.”
James persisted with an encouraging look from Remus. “Come on, where else can you sit?” he said as they entered the Great Hall.
Sirius glanced over at the Sytherin table. “With my…” he stopped.
As he entered the Great Hall, half of the Slytherin table had suddenly turned their backs to him, ignoring him altogether.
“…friends…” Sirius trailed off in a low voice. He looked back at James and spoke as if it pained him. “Fine. I’ll sit with you.”
James grinned.
When they reached the Great Hall for lunch, Peter insisted on sitting with the three other boys, and talked nonstop throughout lunch. Remus felt someone glaring at him and turned around to see a table full of Slytherins shooting hateful glances in the direction of their table. It seemed that Bellatrix had made sure the whole school knew how much she hated her cousin and his friends. Sitting next to her was a pretty light-haired girl with a sour look on her face, and across from them were the dark haired boy, a thick sandy-haired girl, and a light-haired boy with a pinched-looking face. Remus sighed. He had not wanted to make any enemies at Hogwarts, but then again, he had been lucky enough to make friends already. He guessed he would just have to take the angry glares.
Lily, unsurprisingly, was already sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table, surrounded filled with a dozen giggling girls. She seemed happy enough, but she was not giggling like the rest of them. She seemed almost bored, her chin resting on her hand. Remus almost wished that she was not so angry at him, because she had seemed so nice when they had met, but he was very sure she would not be talking to him for a long time after what happened in class.
Before lunch was over, Peter had already scurried from the Great Hall to put the books he had already used back in the common room to dry. The Great Hall had begun to clear out, and now James was talking animatedly about Quidditch. Sirius looked genuinely happy, and had a smile on his face, not a smirk as usual, but a wide grin.
“I’m going to try out,” James said to Sirius, “even though they say first years can’t make the team usually. My dad helped me practice all last year, and I’m telling you, I’m ready. Do you play Quidditch, Sirius?”
Sirius shrugged. “Sometimes I do, with Regulus, my brother. But he’s such a little baby he’ll go in and cry to Mum if he loses, so I have to go easy on him, and that gets boring. Bellatrix and I used to play Quidditch together when I was eight or nine, but she mostly liked to play what she called Catch-Sirius.”
“What’s that?” said Remus curiously.
“Basically,” said Sirius, “it’s when she bewitched the Bludger to come after me and I had to try out fly it or I got my head knocked in by it.” James’ eyes widened.
“Ouch,” he said.
“So, where’s Peter?” questioned Remus, looking nervously at the entrance. Half of the Great Hall was clear by now, but the three friends had stayed behind to talk. Sirius eyed the entrance.
“I dunno, maybe he’s fallen into the lake," James sniggered.
“No, honestly,” sighed Remus. “We should go look for him.” Sirius groaned.
“Okay, fine.”
The three boys grabbed their books and headed out of the Great Hall, looking around for Peter. The hallways were filled with chattering students, and it was hard to spot anyone.
Suddenly, Remus turned a bend and saw Peter huddled in a corner. His books were scattered all over the ground, and three students whom Remus recognized as the Slytherins who were glaring at their table were standing around Peter, taunting him.
“What’s wong?” mocked Bellatrix in a baby-like voice, turning to the silver-haired boy and laughing. “I’m sure Lupin and James will be here in no time to save you, isn’t that right, Lucius?” The sandy-haired girl let out a loud peal of laughter. Peter sniffled and reached out to grab a quill from the ground, but Bellatrix leapt forward and smashed his fingers with her foot. Peter let out a yelp and retreated back into his corner.
“So is this what you do in your spare time, Bellatrix?” exclaimed Sirius, walking out from behind the corner. “Bully people smaller than you?”
Bellatrix whipped around. “Oh, wook! It’s Siwius! With his new Gwyffindor fwriends, too!” How bwave of him!” James pulled out his wand and pointed it at the Slytherins. Lucius smirked.
Remus, who had stayed behind, made up his mind quickly. He knew he had to get a teacher, but he was afraid that Sirius and James would be angry at him. Besides, maybe Sirius and James would be able to hold their own ” after all, they did know a few spells already, as he had seen on the train.
“Go ahead, Sirius,” said Bellatrix laughed. “Let’s duel, then.”
Lucius and the sandy-haired girl stepped forward to help Bellatrix, their wands raised, but she shook her head.
“No!" she declared. "I’ll do this on my own. It’s time Sirius learned his lesson.”
The boy and the girl looked doubtful, but stood back. Bellatrix leveled her wand at Sirius’ chest. Sirius raised his wand as well. They stood there, motionless, for a few moments, staring at each other, their wands pointing directly at each others’ hearts.
Peter clasped his hands together excitedly.
“You first,” hissed Bellatrix.
“Expelli-” began Sirius.
“Locomotor Mortis!” laughed Bellatrix lazily. Remus frowned as he realized Bellatrix was merely playing with Sirius. Being the older and more powerful wizard, it was obviously terribly easy for her to defeat Sirius in a duel, but she was apparently planning to taunt him first. Remus watched as Sirius' legs locked up and he fell to the ground, hard, hitting his head and looking extremely dizzy. Remus' heart fell as he saw Bellatrix raising her wand to follow up with another spell.
“Stupefy!” shouted James quickly.
James was now by Sirius’ side, his wand pointing at Bellatrix. Once again, his spell was not fully effective, but it succeeded in knocking Bellatrix back into Lucius, who was standing behind her. They fell to the floor in a heap, groaning. James reached down and helped his friend up. Sirius still felt slightly dizzy, but other than that, he seemed to be all right. He looked at James curiously.
“Thanks, mate,” he said, rubbing his head. “I guess it was stupid of me to try to attack Bellatrix myself.” James just smiled, and Remus realized that the two were not enemies anymore ” they were friends. James and Sirius seemed to realize this as well. Remus could tell by their James’ slightly stunned look and Sirius’ cheeky grin.
“Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, and Miss Black, you should all know better than this!” exclaimed a voice from behind them. James and Sirius whipped around and saw, to their horror, that it was McGonagall.
"Ten points from Slytherin, twenty points from Gryffindor and detention for all of you Saturday night.” frowned McGonagall. Bellatrix, who was just standing up, looked outraged, but did not speak. “Come along,” McGonagall continued, “you three need to come to the hospital wing and have Madam Pomfrey take a look at you. And the rest of you ” head to class.”
Lupin watched the three students trudge down the hallway, then turned around and helped Peter pick up his books. “Are you all right?” he asked, noticing that Peter was still shaking. Peter nodded nervously.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Sirius and James are so great!” he said, beginning to grin. “You should have seen them duel! It was really scary, but they are really great!” Remus nodded, straining under the weight of Peter’s books and his own. Lucius and the girl made sure to thoroughly glare at the two, and then skulked off down the hall.
James and Sirius had come back to class halfway through potions, scowling. After finishing up the last class, the Gryffindors had headed back up to the common room to get some of their homework finished. James was using a tennis ball as a Snitch to practice Quidditch, and Sirius was sitting by the fireplace, frowning.
“Um, Sirius?” said Remus nervously, walking over to him. Sirius turned and glared. “You aren’t too mad about detention, are you?” Sirius shrugged.
“Not really. But why’d that crazy old woman have to ruin everything? We were fine on our own!”
“But Sirius, it was really dangerous. You could have gotten hurt!”
“Yes, Mum!” said Sirius sarcastically. “But really, Remus,” he grinned, his features lighting up. “You should have seen them fly into the air. Bellatrix looked so shocked. It was so funny.” There was an audible gasp from behind them, and both boys turned to find Peter standing in the middle of a group of first years, telling them how Sirius and James had rescued him. Sirius’ grin grew even wider.
“Yeah, I guess I did save him,” he said loudly, striding confidently to the center of the group of students. Instead of recoiling in a fear like they did the day before when he approached their table, they gathered around him excitedly. “But you know, it really was too easy. The Slytherins were pathetic, if you think about it. Still, I don’t recommend you try it. You have to know a lot about magic before you start dueling.” Lily, who was sitting in a large armchair beside the fire, looked up over the top of her book, both amused and annoyed.
Remus found himself sitting alone, staring out the tall window into the darkness of the Forbidden Forest. Only two weeks until the full moon, he thought to himself sadly. Usually, he was always thinking about it, but he had been enjoying himself so much, it had nearly left his mind. Would James and Sirius want to be his friends, let alone be around him, if they found out he was…a monster? The thought haunted him.