Three Animagi and a Werewolf

Three Animagi and a Werewolf, Chapter 6: Life at Hogwarts

The Fifth Boy

James was awakened the next morning by someone pulling back the heavy curtains around his bed and letting the sunlight stream in. He yawned and fumbled on his bedside table for his glasses. Pushing them on his nose, he sat up in bed.

"Oh it's you, Sirius. What sort of time is it?"

"Time to get up, sleepyhead," Sirius said. "Frank's already up and dressed. I woke him up about twenty minutes ago. I couldn't bear him snoring any longer."

"I don't snore!" Frank protested, pretending to be hurt. "It's Peter who snores."

James smiled and looked across to where Peter Pettigrew was lying, his eyes still shut tight and his mouth hanging wide open. It was true he was making a lot of noise.

"We'd better wake him up," he suggested.

"I'll do it," Sirius offered.

He grabbed hold of James's pillow and lunged it straight at the sleeping boy's head. Peter sat up with a fright.

"Rise and shine!" Sirius laughed. "It's our first day at Hogwarts, people. Come on James, get dressed. I can't wait to find out what lessons we've got today. I hope it's something good, not History of Magic or something. I met a second-year down in the common room earlier and he says it's taught by this ghost, Professor Binns, who's a dead bore."

He laughed at his own pun.

"Oh, very funny," James said with a smile, getting up and looking at himself in the mirror. His hair, as usual, was sticking up in all directions. He and Peter got washed and dressed hurriedly, and soon all four of them were heading down the stairs and into the Great Hall.

The enchanted ceiling was a bright blue this morning and clouds floated along the walls. The tables were laden with huge bowls full of cereals and plates piled high with toast, bacon, sausages, scrambled egg and everything imaginable. They sat down and tucked in. Professor McGonagall came round during their third helping of sausages and handed out their timetables.

"Charms and Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws ... oh no, and History of Magic with the Slytherins!" Sirius groaned through a mouthful of toast.

James just smiled. He didn't care if they had a boring lesson on their first day. It was too much fun just being at Hogwarts.

After breakfast they fetched their books from the dormitory and made their way to the Charms classroom. James, Sirius, Peter and Frank Longbottom squeezed into the seats behind the wooden desks. They unpacked their books and wands and waited expectantly for their teacher to come in. The door at the back of the classroom opened, and for a moment they thought it must have done so of its own accord. But then they heard a scrambling noise behind the teacher's desk, and the next minute the tiny little wizard James had spotted at the teachers' table the night before stood there, atop a pile of books, and peered around at them eagerly from under his tangled brown hair.

"Ah, welcome, welcome, my first-year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. Well, well. I am Professor Flitwick, your Charms teacher. Before we start with basic charms, I'd like to read out the register, just to make sure you're all here," he said in a high-pitched voice.

"Barnes, Beatrice."

A dark-haired Hufflepuff raised her hand.

"Black, Sirius."

Sirius's hand shot up.

"Diggle, Damian."

The small Hufflepuff sitting the other side of Frank Longbottom called 'here'.

"Evans, Lily."

James looked round and saw the girl he had let pass last night raise her arm behind him.

Professor Flitwick went on that way, until after "Jorkins, Bertha", "Keynes, Anna", "Osmond, Olliver", Longbottom, Frank" and "Pettigrew, Peter" he reached "Potter, James" and last of all "Truffle, Tina".

Then he put the register away, and James wondered why he hadn't read out the name of the missing Gryffindor boy. All the people he had called up had been there. He didn't have time to wonder for long, though, for they were soon instructed to open their books, and Professor Flitwick summoned a large cardboard box onto the desk. It turned out that this box contained a collection of long white feathers, and the professor soon sent one soaring onto the desk in front of every student.

"Now," he said in his squeaky voice, "I thought we would start with Levitation charms. The important thing to remember, apart from the magic words, is of course the wrist movement. Watch closely, and then I want you all to copy what I do. So ..."

He lifted his wand and, accompanying his words with the appropriate movement of his own short arm, said,

"Swish and flick. Go on, try it, all of you."

They did, and repeated it several times before Professor Flitwick pronounced himself satisfied. At last he told them to rest their wand arms for a moment, and was just about to continue speaking when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," he chirped.

The door opened, and Professor McGonagall appeared, ushering in a boy of about James's height with light brown hair and tired eyes. James thought he looked ill.

"Sorry to bother you, Professor Flitwick," said McGonagall. "I've brought you your missing student."

Professor Flitwick thanked her, and she withdrew again. The new boy came forward uncertainly.

"Remus Lupin, isn't it?" Professor Flitwick said.

"Yes, sir."

James noticed that the boy's voice was soft and friendly, though it sounded a little weak.

"Good. Well, I'm sure we can find a seat here somewhere for you."

Remus Lupin looked around a trifle shyly under the inquisitive stares of the other students. James caught his eye and, nodding, removed his bag from the seat beside him. Remus came over and sat down.

"Thanks," he whispered gratefully.

Professor Flitwick now went on with the lesson as though nothing had happened, reading them a paragraph from the book.

"Well," he said at last, "let's try the charm, shall we? Lupin, here's a feather for you."

A white plume raised itself from the box and landed on the desk in front of Remus. The students all picked up their wands and pointed them at their feathers.

"Remember," Professor Flitwick squeaked. "Swish and flick.. And don't forget the words. Wingardium Leviosa."

All around the classroom, students nervously began 'swishing and flicking' their wands. James was quite surprised when, as he flicked his wrist upwards and said the words, his feather actually left his desk and floated up to the height of his nose before sinking back onto it.

"I did it!" he exclaimed.

"That was good," Remus said.

James turned his head to look at the new boy, and discovered that his feather was floating mid-air, totally under the control of his wand. He stared.

"How can you do that?" he asked. "You missed all the practice we had before you got here."

"I've been doing a few charms at home," Remus admitted. "My mum showed me this one."

He smiled, and for a second his face looked less weary. Then it went back to that tired paleness. James studied him side-on, and spotted the grey streaks in the other boy's hair.

"We wondered why you weren't in the Great Hall or in the dormitory last night," he said conversationally.

There was such a lot of noise in the classroom with frustrated students trying to get their feathers to float that there was no need to whisper. Remus Lupin's expression seemed to close.

"I wasn't very well yesterday," he answered quietly.

"I'm sorry," James said. "I hope you're feeling better now."

"Yes. Thanks."

James let the matter rest, but he had the distinct impression that Remus Lupin was still far from well.

Adversaries

Herbology with Professor Sprout proved quite as much fun as Charms had, and Sirius and James in particular proved so skilled in Transfiguration that even Professor McGonagall seemed to show a hint of pride beneath her usual stern countenance. But now they were all walking dispiritedly towards Professor Binns's History of Magic classroom.

"Perhaps it won't be as boring as we've been hearing," Remus suggested hopefully. "I've read a bit about magical history, and some of the stuff is actually quite interesting. All about goblin rebellions, you know. And the Pixie Protection Act of 1643."

He had brightened up considerably over the morning, and was looking a little healthier now.

"I don't know," Frank answered mournfully. "I bumped into Damian from Hufflepuff after Transfiguration. Apparently he knows someone in third year, and he says Professor Binns is lousy."

"Oooohh, I wouldn't say that so loud if I were you, ickle firsty," an evil voice trilled.

Startled, they stopped short and looked around them. A colourful creature with a huge and ugly bow tie came bursting out of an empty classroom to their right. He stopped just in front of Frank and eyed him with a wicked grin on his face. Then, so suddenly that it made them jump, he stuck out his tongue and made a rude noise. He zoomed round them and came to a halt, hanging upside down in front of Remus.

"Who are you?" Remus asked bluntly.

The creature snorted.

"Not very polite, are you?" it complained. "I'm Peeves the poltergeist, if that's anything to you. And who are you, if I might ask?"

"Remus Lupin," Remus answered.

"Remus Lupin?"

Peeves chuckled evilly and did several somersaults. When he stopped, this time he was the right way up.

"I've heard about you," he said with a menacing tone in his voice. "Oh yes I have."

He paused, and when he went on it was in a strange, high and chanting voice, barely audible but none the less unpleasant for it.

"Loony, loopy, Lupin. Loony, loopy, Lupin."

"Oh shut up, Peeves," Sirius barked, striding past the poltergeist. "Come on, you lot, or we'll be late."

The others followed him at a run, for Peeves was now grabbing hold of everything he could find and hurling it after them, still repeating the little chant that seemed to amuse him so greatly.

They reached the History of Magic classroom just in time, and slumped into some empty seats at the back. Looking around while getting his breath back, James suddenly felt a pair of cold, hard eyes on him. He looked across the classroom, and his eyes connected with those of Severus Snape. James held the other boy's gaze and wondered vaguely what it was about the lad that instinctively made him dislike him so much.

Mischief and Mystery

Over the weeks that followed, James tried to overcome his dislike of Severus Snape, but found that he could not. Quite the contrary. However much he tried to be polite, if not actually friendly, the more Snape seemed to endeavour to make himself disagreeable. He spoke to Sirius about it, but Sirius just shrugged.

"I don't know why you worry about it," Sirius said. "He's obviously just not willing to be civil."

James had not been satisfied with that, but had let the matter rest, especially when even good-natured Remus had agreed with Sirius.

And so they had decided to avoid Snape and his fellow Slytherins as far as possible. School work came easy to James, Sirius and Remus, who had already studied some of the spells they were learning now at home, and they all did their best to help Peter along quickly, so that they had plenty of time to spare after lessons. They had set about exploring the castle and grounds of Hogwarts, sketching down every new staircase and hidden room they came across on a sheet of old parchment.

The end of their first month at Hogwarts was now nearing to a close, and it felt to the four friends both that the time so far had flown by, and yet also as though it had been a lifetime of friendship and fun and mischief, for never in as long as any save perhaps Dumbledore himself could remember had Hogwarts known a set of mischief makers as devious as "Potter and Black's little gang". Frank Longbottom and his friend Damian Diggle from Hufflepuff were sometimes included in the pranks they played on the teachers, but mainly the four of them kept to themselves.

They were sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table together one afternoon in October, enjoying some scones and tea, when Professor McGonagall suddenly entered the Hall and came straight over to them.

"Sorry to interrupt," she said briskly. "Could I have a word, Lupin?"

Remus looked around at his friends, then got up and followed the professor out of the Hall. His friends waited for twenty minutes, but he did not return. Finally, Sirius got up from the table.

"Well," he said, "I'm not spending the rest of the day in here. I'm going outside for a bit. Coming, James?"

James shook his head, looking puzzled. "No, I'll wait here for a bit longer. When Remus comes back, we'll come out and join you."

"James, I think if he was coming back down, he'd be here by now," Sirius objected.

"Perhaps Professor McGonagall's not finished with him yet," James said. "I'm waiting here."

Sirius shrugged. "Suit yourself," he said. "What about you, Pete? You coming out?"

Peter shot a glance at James, but then he rose and followed Sirius.

James stayed behind, his brow furrowed, waiting. He sat there for about half an hour, but still Remus did not come back. At last, James got up and made his way back to their common room. He climbed the stairs to their dormitory and pushed the door open. The room was quiet, but a boy was sitting alone by the open window, the crisp afternoon breeze playing in his hair.

"Remus! Here you are," James exclaimed. "We were waiting for you to come back."

Slowly, Remus turned to face him. He looked tired and care-worn, though James found it hard to make out his expression properly in the gloom of the tower room.

"What's the matter, Remus?" James asked gently.

Remus swallowed and hesitated, as though he didn't quite know what to say. He turned back to look out of the window.

"It's - my mum," he said at last, still not looking at James. "She's ill."

"Oh," said James. "I'm sorry."

"I have to go home and see her," Remus went on.

"Yes," James agreed. "Yes, of course."

He stood in silence for a while, unsure how to react. He thought that Mrs. Lupin's illness must be pretty serious to make it necessary for Remus to leave school.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" he asked at length.

"No. Just - just tell the others for me, will you?"

"Sure."

James hesitated, then he began to stretch out a hand to touch Remus's shoulder. But just at that moment, Remus rose and with a hoarse "I'd better go," he snapped up his cloak and hurried from the room.

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James found it hard to sleep that night. He tossed and turned for what felt like hours. An owl hooted somewhere outside. James rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed. He pulled the curtains around his four-poster aside a fraction and peered out with blurry eyes. Finding his glasses on the cabinet beside his bed, he put them on and went over to the window. There he sat on the window ledge, staring out into the night at the grounds below. They were unusually bright tonight, for a full moon hung over the Forbidden Forest. James liked to look out of this window. From here he could see all the way down to Hagrid's hut, and to the Whomping Willow, its leaves rustling quietly in the night breeze. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, thinking about Remus, and how worried he would be in Remus's place, if his own mother were ill.