The Beast Within - A Remus Lupin Story [2] Miss Evans

Remus was not all that concerned on who was lifting him to his feet. The moment he was standing again, he felt hands prodding at his badge, only to see James Potter obviously suppressing a laugh. However, James' hazel eyes occasionally glanced over at Marie. She had obviously mistaken James' interest in Remus' badge as a look of being impressed. Marie automatically scurried over to the two boys, her eyes shining with pride.
"Isn't it amazing?" Marie asked, looking at James as though seeking approval of her motherly behaviour. "He only just got his badge yesterday. I mean, it seemed a bit delayed, so it came as a bit of a bigger surprise. But Remus' father and I couldn't have been prouder..."
Remus allowed his mother to keep ranting on to James. He looked around, expecting to see the other Marauders, which he did not. Not even Peter Pettigrew was seen following James, so he must be with Sirius. There was no way in hell that Peter would be adventuring the platform on his own. He would probably be too worried that he would be mistaken for a Muggle and sent back through the hidden entrance to Platform 9 and 3/4. However, although he did not see his other mates, he did notice his father placing all his luggage onto the train for him. Remus' eyes looked up at the clock to discover that they had twenty minutes until the train left. The Marauders were generally on the train with about forty minutes to go, just to ensure they had a compartment to themselves.
Remus looked back to his mother and James. James ran a hand through his jet-black hair while smiling. "Well, yes, Mrs Lupin, they do put extra protection on the Prefects to make sure they aren't harmed in the line of duty. I mean, come on, we wouldn't want to lose the rule-enforcing humanitarians that are the school's Prefects, would we?"
Marie patted James' cheek in a caring way. "You know, you really are a good boy. I don't know what your parents mean when they say you're always getting yourself into trouble..."
"Nor do I, Mrs Lupin," James replied in his most genuine voice. "I mean -"
"We really must be going," Remus interrupted, in hopes of not hearing James be any more of a suck up. "We do want to get a seat on the train before they're all taken."
Marie didn't take her fond eyes off of James until her husband rejoined them. She pulled James into a large hug, and Remus could have sworn he heard her say, "Take care of my little boy."
She then released James and pulled her own son into a hug. She, naturally, bade him goodbye. She had the annual tears in her eyes that she had every year when sending her son off. Remus gave his father a hug, as well, before both Remus and James headed off to the train. By this time, the platform was full of witches and wizards, along with their parents and siblings, either not old enough to attend Hogwarts, or had already graduated.
"I honestly wish you wouldn't be so sarcastic with my mother," Remus said, seriously, as they joined the line-up that was boarding the train. By this time, there was only about ten minutes, give or take, before the train was timed to leave.
"I wasn't being sarcastic, I was just telling her what she wanted to hear so that she wouldn't go home thinking her wittle Wemus was going to be attacked in his sleep," James grinned. The two of them managed to get to the front of the queue and boarded the train. The corridors of the train were lined with green carpeting with a strange design on it. However, the students had already tracked enough sand onto the carpeting that would fill at least seventeen sandboxes.
"Well... you didn't have to overdo it..." Remus replied, somewhat weakly. He doubted very much whether or not his friend had even heard him. He just watched and followed as James walked through the corridors, glancing through the translucent windows of each compartment, like he was looking for an empty one. "You do realize that there's probably no empty compartments anymore?"

"I had Sirius and Peter save us one," James answered, simply, continuing on his journey to find it. However, the amount of students in the corridors were beginning to thin. By the time James seemed to find the compartment he was looking for, the two boys were practically at the end of the train. They both entered to find two more boys. One had black hair, almost the exact same colour as James'. His looks were quite appealing, and his face was always full of life. Sirius' brown eyes were warm, and everything about him seemed friendly and welcoming.
In contrast, the other boy in the compartment seemed quite ignorable. He held straw, dried looking blonde hair with watery, dark blue eyes. His teeth were not all that favourable, and his height hardly allowed his feet to touch the ground. However, he smiled up at his mates nonetheless, and beamed happily when they all greeted him and took their seats. Naturally, James went and sat next to Sirius while Remus was left to sit next to Peter.
"You got on the train early, couldn't you have possibly gotten us a compartment closer to the front?" James demanded, looking out the window for a quick moment as if suspecting someone to be there. He turned back to a grinning Sirius. "You did get on early, did you not?"
"I got.. distracted," Sirius said, the look still not disappearing off of his face. "You know that pretty Hufflepuff who has been hanging around me near the end of last year? She stopped me outside to tell me all about her summer. Nice girl, but I don't think she appreciated it when I told her my summer was a complete hellhole and that I had contemplated seeing if my house would blow up if I set off one thousand stink bombs at once. She also didn't seem impressed when I gave points to individual family members depending on what happened to them."
Remus grinned and chuckled somewhat as he pulled out a book. He was just looking to finishing off the chapter he was on. However, Peter seemed to take great amusement in Sirius' comment and began to burst out laughing. James, on the other hand, put his attention back on the window, frowning. "Yeah... Hufflepuff..."
"Sorry I didn't get you a compartment closer to Miss Evans," Sirius added. "You do know she became Prefect this year?" He eyed his best friend for a quick moment. "I see no badge with you. I see you have no excuse to be following her around this year? Pity, if at least you made Prefect, you'd have an excuse to follow her around like a shadow."
James automatically snapped his head around to look at Remus with a mischievous grin on his face. Sirius' eyes followed James' gaze until they fell upon the badge that was still securely pinned to Remus' t-shirt. He had meant to remove it earlier, but had neglected to by accident. Remus noticed the look on James' face and removed the badge without haste. "No."
"Remus made Prefect?" Sirius demanded. "How come I wasn't notified?" he added with a fake sound of insult in his voice.
James, however, paid no attention to Sirius. "Remus, give me your badge."
"No," Remus repeated, keeping the badge clenched in his hand.
"The badge."

"No!"
James retracted his wand quicker than Remus could even think. He pointed his wand at Remus' hand, which had loosened its grip and said, "Accio Prefect badge!"
Remus made to keep hold of the badge, but the sudden jerk of the badge in James' direction was too quick. The badge went flying through the air and landed in James' hand. "Hey!"
"What are you going to do? Give me detention?" James asked, almost with a note of taunting in his voice. "Now, I'm off to find Lily..."
Rest in results
"Lily? Since when are you on a first name basis with her?" Sirius inquired, picking up Remus' book and flipping through it aimlessly.

"Since I became Gryffindor Prefect," James answered, simply.

"Wait, no, James, please," Remus stuttered. He wasn't exactly sure what to make of the situation. He didn't want James (and in connection, Sirius) to be mad at him if he didn't allow James to use his Prefect badge, but at the same time, he didn't want to get in trouble for allowing James to be a fraud.

"Don't worry, Remus. Have you ever been told that stress causes one to appear ill? Besides, I'll be back in no more than ten minutes," James assured Remus.

"What are you talking about?" Sirius demanded. "It takes you ten minutes just for you to stop drooling and actually speak to her."

The comment earned Sirius a swift nudge to the ribs. Sirius shut his mouth and rubbed his side, which was no doubt now aching. James stood up to leave the compartment and go search for Lily when the compartment door slid open, and there she stood... no searching necessary. She looked hardly different than last year. She was still red-haired, but her thick hair was now just slightly longer. Her skin was also somewhat more tanned now, due to the summer, but hardly. She had the type of pale skin that took forever to tan, but then lost it almost the moment she got it. Her bright green eyes met James' almost immediately. They were in such close proximity that he could have kissed her without her even able to react. However, her eyes travelled from his eyes to the Prefect badge now pinned to his chest. She let out a disappointed sigh, and without a word, walked away from him down the nearly deserted train corridor.