Best Friends

Best Friends

*

Lonely

*
Remus was sitting in a little library. He had his DADA book open in front of him, but it didn't take all of his attention. He was also busy in listening to every voice.

People usually went to libraries to study. So did Remus. But unlike the others, Remus had also another reason to be there.

While studying, Remus was also hiding.

There was nearly a war among the younger students, it had been from the first day of the school year. Only Slytherins weren't participating in the war, they were only a random group of bystanders, and good to tease. Both sides of the strife hated them, and both sides were torturing every Slytherin who came by.

The sides didn't look even. On the other side was a group of boys, mostly Gryffindors, as well as some Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. On the other side was a single Gryffindor. All the other students on two first years and even some third years were divided to quiet followers, who didn't really do anything, only were on their leader's side.

Remus didn't like it at all. He hated quarrels, and the most he hated quarrels among the Gryffindor house. He had no real side, and in some situations that protected him. Usually, it only made him a clear target.

He heard something from the corridor and raised his eyes to the doorway, waiting. It could be a teacher, but it could as well be someone who was going to bully him. Most of the students did. He was always alone, so no one was scared of teasing him. He couldn't protect himself.

James Potter appeared to the doorway. His black hair was just as messy as usually, and he was looking around through his glasses. When he noticed Remus, he walked forward. Peter Pettigrew, his usual lieutenant, and some other students followed him.

Remus was strained. He watched cautiously the approaching group. James Potter was the leader of one side of the strife, and he had pretty much followers. Remus had reasons to be scared, because he hadn't taken his side yet. For James, you were either on his side or against him.

"Hey, Bookworm," James said, closing his book firmly and quickly taking the bookmark off, losing the page. "Have you seen Black anywhere?"

"No, I haven't," he said, hoping he could get clear from the situation without getting seriously injured. James wasn't as bad as his opponent, Sirius Black, but you had to be very careful around both of them. Remus wasn't Sirius's friend, so there were no real reasons for hurting him, but he wasn't James's friend, either. Therefore, no reasons to avoid hurting him.

For his great relief, James seemed to lose his interest on him. "Good for you," he just said and turned around. "Come on, folks. I bet that lonely little git is hiding somewhere. We have to find him."

Remus looked after them as they disappeared from the room, still not really believing his good luck. Then he opened his book and sighed deeply. He wasn't going to complain - he really liked himself like he was, and didn't want anybody to hex his hair away or something - but it was still annoying that James couldn't get past him without at least teasing him. That no one could, for that matter.

He tried to read again. James had just left, so he wasn't very likely to come back for a while. And if Sirius came... Well, there was nothing that could save him from Sirius, no matter if he was on guard or not.

After a moment somebody came in. He straightened himself and looked carefully at the coming person. If it was Sirius, he was most likely to be on a bad mood - and if Sirius was around him on a bad mood, he'd better run and fast.

It wasn't he, though. Professor Marcanor, his DADA teacher, had come to the library. The professor walked right towards him and stopped next to him.

"Er... Hello, professor," Remus said with a very quiet voice. "I'm studying." He tried to look like he'd really been studying the book very hard for the past few hours. He felt like he didn't manage very well, though.

"Or so you say." The professor smiled. "You don't look like a person who's studying, you look like a person who's scared of being found. When I came in, you looked at me like expecting to see some kind of a monster."

"Um... Sorry, professor," he said. "I - I was just reading this part about Dark beasts, and as you maybe know, I'm pretty easy to frighten. I thought..."

"Oh, well," she replied. "I understand. Sorry for frightening you, I didn't mean to. It's nice to see someone so concentrated on studies - especially DADA studies."

'You don't understand anything!' Remus screamed in his mind. 'Don't you see that half of the students are trying to kill each others? Don't you teachers know anything?' "I like DADA, professor," he said aloud. "It's interesting."

"That's good to hear", she smiled. Then she glanced around. "There's no one else here", she noticed. "Where all your friends are?"

"What friends?" he said before he could prevent himself. When he noticed what he had said, he blushed and bit his lip. There were things you can't say to a teacher, and that definitely was one of them.

"What do you mean?" the professor asked, raising an eyebrow. "Are you lonely, Mr. Lupin?" She watched him curiously.

Remus nodded, without saying a word, and trying to look at anything else but the professor. He just didn't feel comfortable around her. He hadn't any real reasons for that, but something in her totally annoyed him, he just couldn't put a finger on what it was.

"And how's that possible?" Miss Marcanor continued asking. "You're such a nice boy, intelligent and kind. I thought you'd have lots of friends. I'd like to be friends with someone like you, if I was your age."

Remus couldn't help himself snorting. It was clear that professor Marcanor knew nothing about children. Nobody wanted to be friends with quiet and clever people. Everybody wanted to be around someone cheerful and popular, like James Potter, or Sirius Black, and the like.

And on the same second he thought about Sirius, the boy stepped in. He was alone, which wasn't very surprising. Although Sirius really was the kind of people everyone wanted to be friends with, and many of the students thought that James's group should lose the strife, he personally wasn't perfect for a friend. Some people had tried to be near to him long enough to make friends with him, but they usually fled after a short period of time.

If you already weren't Sirius Black's friend, you should keep far away from him. Although he usually only pulled pranks on Slytherins and Potter's group, anyone who got near enough was most likely to get themselves hexed. No matter that Sirius was only a first year student like Remus himself, he already knew some hexes nasty enough to make even seventh year Slytherin girls cry.

Professor Marcanor noticed him also. To Remus's great surprise and even greater fear, she turned towards Sirius. "Young Mr. Black!" she said firmly. "Come to me on this very moment! I want to talk with you!"

Sirius came, not very quickly. He walked lazily towards them, his hands put deep inside his pockets. His wand stuck out from one of his pockets. Remus didn't even want to think what charms he had planned to do with it.

"This time you have the wrong person, professor," Sirius said protectively as he got to them. "I haven't done anything today. At least not yet. Come back to me later, if you want to give me a detention. On this moment there's no reason for it."

"I'm not going to punish you, Mr. Black," the professor said cheerfully. "I didn't even think that you had done anything. No, I had something totally different to say to you."

"And that is?" Sirius asked. He wasn't looking at the professor, however. His dark eyes were looking right at Remus, and he looked very attentive. Like a snake who was just about to attack a mouse.

Remus took a step backwards. Sirius was at least a head taller than him, and even without magic, he could easily beat the shit out of him. And when you added the magic... Remus was pretty good in Charms and DADA, yes, but no one could match Sirius's hexes. And, for the second thing, he had very bad suspicions about what their professor was exactly going to say.

"You see, this is Remus Lupin," professor Marcanor told Sirius, seemingly not noticing the expressions and positions of each boy. "He's a bit lonely. I've seen that you're a pretty active person, Mr. Black. Therefore, I'd like you to make friends with Remus."

Remus closed his eyes tightly. Professor really knew nothing about children. Now Sirius was going to beat him, if not before - no matter if there was a teacher present or not. You can't just tell someone to make friends with someone else. And you definitely can't do that to Sirius Black.

To his great surprise, he didn't get bunny ears or anything else like that. He dared to slightly open his eyes, still very careful. He tried to think about all the protection spells he knew, and noticed that no one of them would very likely work in this part of Hogwarts.

Remus didn't have to use protection, thought. When he looked at Sirius, he noticed that the other boy was in fact grinning. And it wasn't his usual, mischievous and sinister grin. It was a happy grin. Remus had never before seen anything like that on Sirius's face.

"Of course I can be your friend," Sirius said. He reached his hands towards Remus. "Only remember one thing: Never, ever call me Sirre."

Remus was too scared to grasp on his hand. He only stared it, like it was a weird and dangerous creature, sticking out from Sirius's body.

Sirius laughed, an amused, carefree laugh. "Looks like I have pretty bad reputation," he said. "Maybe I shouldn't wonder why." He grinned cheerfully. "Don't worry, I don't bully everyone who gets near me. I wouldn't have time. And, to be honest, too many of them are teachers." He glanced sideways to professor Marcanor and smiled.

Remus reached his hand, still cautious. 'Don't worry,' he said to himself. 'There's a teacher is next to me. He can't do anything.' He grasped on Sirius's hand. 'He can't do anything!' he screamed inside his mind, trying to calm himself down.

Sirius squeezed his hand tightly. Surprisingly his hand was warm. Remus had always imagined it would be cold. But it was warm, and it kept his hand like Sirius didn't want to let him go.

At last they disengaged from each other's grasp. Sirius smiled at him. "Come on now," he said. "I think I saw Potter and his little pet rat going somewhere there. I have an idea about what to do to them..." He turned aroud and was already going away.

Remus followed him, hardly believing that was really happening. He, Remus Lupin, the most quiet and never-would-have-detention-like boy in the first year was going to pull pranks on fellow students with Sirius Black, who usually spent most of his spare time either teasing others or having detentions. Or both.

And, to Remus's even greater surprise, he kind of liked that.

'

Remus disappeared after Sirius. Professor Marcanor nodded and smiled. She assumed she had managed pretty well. That was exactly what she had been told to do.

"Excellent, Alicia," said someone next to her. "Excellent." Headmaster Dumbledore became visible. He was smiling, a little, happy smile that was so famous. It was called the "Dump-he-dares-grin", and both the teachers and students called it that way. Headmaster didn't take himself very seriously, so why should anyone else do?

"Thanks, Albus," she said. "You were really right. They both needed a friend." She shook her head and smiled, "Although I'm pretty sure that young Potter and his friends won't like the situation." She remembered the mischievous grin on Sirius's face, and she almost pitied James Potter and Peter Pettigrew. But only almost - they did a great deal of jokes also. Those boys kind of deserved each other.

"I think they can deal with it," Headmaster grinned. "They are going to dispute in every case. Maybe young James considers his doings more, if he has two boys instead of one against him."

"Or maybe Sirius will now beat him, with Remus on his side. The sides have been pretty even before, and now he has a friend on his side. If James doesn't repay in the same kind, those two will maybe become even nastier to him and his group."

"But you don't have to care about that, Alicia," Dumbledore reminded her. "I'll take care about everything what happens from now on. You've done what you were told to do. That's enough." He smiled and walked to the door.

When he stepped out of the room, a load of water fell upon him.

"Oops, sorry for that, professor," she heard someone saying. "We thought it was Bl- er, we were trying to clean that black stain on the floor. Honestly!" She easily recognized the voice. James Potter had already got there.

"Fifteen points from Gryffindor," Headmaster said, when he got up and began to murmur drying spells. "And you'd better not pull pranks on any of the teachers anymore, James. Next time I'll give you a detention." Then he took a little pause. The professor could easily imagine his eyes twinkling as he continued, "and I think I saw young Mr. Black going that way."

"Thanks, professor," James said, his voice full of relief. Then he and his followers ran to the direction Dumbledore had shown - that was, to the opposite than Sirius and Remus had disappeared to.

She shook her head. Not a miracle that students couldn't do well with each other, if even the Headmaster was like that.