Chapter 1

We'll Take the Lot

Sirius Black did not believe in fate. He didn't believe in some higher deity that prevailed over our every movement. He didn't believe in permanency of any sort, and he certainly didn't believe in true love. In fact, he thought that most things were a load of crap, and you were best off avoiding any sort of seriousness altogether, a concept which he was often loathe to contradict with his own name.

As he stepped through the enchanted wall to platform 9¾ on September 1st of 1975, ready to begin his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he was not nearly as amused as the first years, who ran across the platform staring up at the train with buggy eyes. "You've got some drool on your chin," he said flippantly to a tiny looking wizard who was gazing up at the train in wonder. Sirius rolled his eyes. In fact, as any spectator could clearly see, Sirius Black was unequivocally unamused.

Remus Lupin was minding his own business when the compartment door slid open with a bang, startling him and making him jump. He looked up to see Sirius Black, standing in the doorway. "You made me lose my page, you arse," he muttered, picking his book up off the floor. Sirius scowled. "Alright, what's got your wand in a twist?"

"Don't want to talk about it," He muttered sulkily before sliding into the seat next to him.

"Alright then," said Remus, burrowing his nose back into the pages of his book.

"What, you're just going to give it up that easily? You aren't even going to try to get me to open up and all that rubbish?" Sirius said, peeling the book off of his friend's face.

"You said you didn't want to talk about it!" said Remus defensively. "Besides, it's a very good book," he muttered slightly more quietly.

"Well I changed my mind," Sirius said, crossing his arms. "Fucking hell, coming second to a bloody book." Remus stood up, reaching to put the book into his trunk with a sigh. "You've gotten taller," Sirius said quizzically.

"I suppose so," said Remus.

"You have," said Sirius with a sense of finality. There was a pause. Remus sat back down. "Listen Moony, I-," he began, presumably about to tell him just what it was that had been plaguing him for the last twenty minutes, only to be interrupted by a rude bang and a tall boy with what appeared to be a stray badger sitting on top of his head. "For fuck's sake James, did you have to open it so loud?" he groaned.

"Now you know how I feel," said Remus, poking him in the arm. Sirius pretended he didn't hear him.

"Guess who just got a date with Lily Evans?" he said, ignoring their complaints.

"No, It can't be. It isn't possible," Sirius gaped. Remus seemed to realize his mouth was wide open and promptly closed it.

"Not me, you prat. Do you think I would look this miserable and pathetic if I'd just gotten a date with Evans? No, Jasper Prewett is who," he grumbled, "Stupid Hufflepuff."

"You do have a pathetic look about you," Remus acknowledged sagely.

Sirius laughed. "I knew there was no way she agreed to go out with you, especially not after that horrid letter you sent her this summer. Godric, what were you even thinking? Poetry, James? Really?"

Remus snickered as James's ears turned pink.

"Oi, that reminds me, don't you have somewhere to be, traitor?" he said, rounding on Remus. Remus rolled his eyes, pulling out a shiny badge with a 'P' on it and clipping it to his robes.

"I've told you, it had to be one of us four. It isn't so bad, really. You're being overly dramatic," he said, getting up.

"Sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of your betrayal," Sirius said, squinting his eyes and turning away, effectively shunning him. Remus rolled his eyes again as he closed the compartment door and walked in the direction of the prefect meeting.

Remus was about seven compartments away from the prefect carriage when he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder as he was yanked through an open door. He looked up to see a pair of blue eyes. "How come you didn't owl me over the summer?" asked Alex Norton, a square-faced Ravenclaw who Remus had become quite, well...acquainted with in the last few months of fifth year.

"You know perfectly well why. You have stuff that you need to figure out and I don't want to be part of it. I have somewhere to be," he sighed, pushing past him. A hand caught his wrist and pulled him back into the empty compartment.

"But I like spending time with you," Alex said, moving gently from his wrist to hold his hand. "Can't we just mess around without putting a label on it?"

"I'm not interested in being some kind of experiment for you, Alex. Either you're straight or you aren't. When you figure it out, you know where to find me. I really have to go now," he said with a pained expression, turning towards the door.

"Wait, please," Alex said. Remus paused. Alex sighed. "I missed you." He was right behind Remus now, reaching his hands around his waist. Remus turned, looking down into his pretty blue eyes. They were close now. Remus closed his eyes as Alex leaned forwards. Their lips were just beginning to touch as, down the hall, Lily Evans slid open the door to the prefect compartment, which was now full and buzzing with a gentle chatter, and stepped out.

"Where are you going?" asked the head girl, Lauren Walker.

"I'm off to find Remus, he isn't here yet," she said with a smile, shrugging lightly.

"Okay, but hurry back, the meeting's about to start," she said, waving her off. There was only one compartment with the blinds pulled over the window down the hall, so Lily assumed this was where Remus was, if not down in his usual compartment with his idiot friends. She wouldn't be surprised if they were holding him captive.

"Remus, are you in here?" she called, knocking gently on the door. There was a shuffle inside before a very flushed, very messy looking Remus Lupin poked his head through the door. "Remus? Are you okay?" she said, surprised.

"I'm fine," he said, looking a little confused. "Why?"

"You just...you look a little flustered is all," she said, shrugging it off. Then her eyes widened. "Remus, have you been snogging someone in there?" she gasped.

"Of course not, what would give you that idea?" he shifted uncomfortably.

"Well go on, budge over. Who is it?" she said excitedly, ignoring the crimson color rapidly overtaking Remus' face. If anything, it seemed to encourage her. She pulled the door open. "Norton?" she said, confused, regarding the other figure in the compartment who was, like Remus, rather flustered looking and rather red in the face. "You guys were- so, you- oh my god, I knew it" she gasped.

"What? Oh, no we weren't snogging, Lily. We were just... having an argument," Alex offered, forcing a chuckle.

"A...an argument. What about?" Lily asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Well, Al- Norton stole my book," he 'explained'.

"Why on earth would you do that, Norton?" she asked, rounding on Alex; ignoring the flimsiness of the argument to come to the aid of a fellow intellectual.

"Because I like it, and it has a very nice cover," Alex said.

"I'm glad you like its cover, but why couldn't you just read another book?" Remus fired back.

"Because I like this one the best"

"Well maybe you should make your mind up about books before you just go around taking mine"

"I told you, I don't know how I feel about books. Why should that matter if I like this one?"

"You can't just go around ki- er, reading any bloke you want. Book! You can't just go around reading any book you want!"

"I don't want any book, I want yours!" Alex huffed exasperatedly.

Lily was regarding this exchange with a rather quizzical expression. "Sounds like an interesting book," she asserted, growing both confused and bored by the argument. The two boys whirled around as if only now realizing that she was still there. "Come on, Remus, the meeting's about to start." The two of them walked out, leaving Alex behind with a frown on his face, thinking about books and blokes and feeling very confused about the whole ordeal.

Lily tilted her head to the side, thinking carefully. "So, what's the deal with this book? Is it any good?" she asked, stepping through the doorway to the prefects compartment.

"It's a really good book. A fantastic read," Remus admitted.

"So, what's the problem then?" Lily asked.

"I just... I don't know where the book and I stand," he sighed.

"What do you mean?"

"What if the book doesn't go the way I'm hoping it will? What if it doesn't end how I want it to?" he finished lamely, talking absently to himself more than to Lily.

If she found this sequence of logic to be unusual, she didn't acknowledge it. "You like the book though, right?" she asked.

Remus bit his lip. "Yeah, I do."

Well...in my experience, you have to keep reading the book to see how it ends. Even if it isn't the ending you wanted, at least then you know. Otherwise, you'll just be stuck thinking about it," she finished optimistically, offering him a comforting smile.

"Thanks, Lily," Remus said, brightening a little bit. "Hang on a minute, what did you mean earlier when you said 'I knew it'?" he said, furrowing his brow. Lily turned pink and opened her mouth (no doubt about to stammer out an excuse equally as flimsy as 'he stole my book'), but was saved when the head girl stood up, scanning the room briefly and then opening her mouth to speak.

"Looks like we're all here then," she said, clasping her hands together for emphasis. "Now that we're back for another year of learning shenanigans at Hogwarts, I'd like to go over a couple of rules that you may have forgotten since last year…"

Back in the compartment, Sirius and James had just realized there was an absence in their compartment (other than Remus, obviously.) A rather large absence, at that. "Hey, where's Pete?" James suddenly said, sitting up.

"You don't suppose he's missed the train, do you?" Sirius said, searching around the compartment as if he expected Peter to be hiding under his seat. A few minutes later, Peter thrust open the compartment door with a bang. Sirius and James both jumped and looked up to see him standing in the doorway. "For fuck's sake, so goddamn loud," Sirius muttered under his breath.

"Where were you, asshole?" James said, looking glad to see him. "You almost missed the trolley lady."

"I was with Ally," Peter said with a superior grin. James rolled his eyes. Sirius groaned.

"You guys are back together again, I suppose?" he sighed. Peter only grinned. "...and I suppose you plan to tell us all about it now," he said, rubbing his head. "I'm getting a headache."

"Oi, speaking of the trolley lady, where is she?" Peter asked, turning his attention to his rather round and protesting stomach.

"I don't fucking know," said Sirius. "But I hope she's here soon, I'm starving."

"No, you aren't! You had sixteen pieces of french toast this morning before we left!" James protested.

"I'm starving," Sirius said again, ignoring him. James crossed his arms.

"So anyway, about me and Ally," Peter started. James looked interested. Sirius groaned again. "I was just getting on the train, on my way over here, and then I saw her in her compartment. At first, I was just going to ignore her, y'know since she didn't even owl me this summer and since she said we were 'done for good' last time but then she saw me and she knew I had seen her so I couldn't just walk away. So I went in to say hi, and then she closes the door, and next thing I know we're snogging," He gave a sly grin at this and whispered, "plus, she even let me touch one of her-"

"Oh thank Merlin," Sirius yelled as he spotted the trolley lady outside of the window. She gave him a confused look and asked him to kindly let go of her robes. He sat back down, still looking relieved.

"Anything from the trolley, dears?" she asked nicely. James gave a questioning look to Sirius and Peter, who nodded encouragingly.

James grinned. "We'll take the lot."

"Did you know that there's a rule that you can't take out exactly 23 books from the library at a time? Since when has that been a thing?" Lily asked Remus as they walked out of the prefect compartment together.

"Since first year," Remus replied casually.

"How the hell would you know that?" Lily asked with a look of amusement.

"Sirius has a whole list of the school rules in our dorm room."

Lily was confused."That seems...strangely out of character?"

"He calls it his 'to-do' list," Remus explained.

"That makes more sense," Lily said, rolling her eyes. "Is this your compartment?" she asked as they stopped in the hallway.

"Yes, but it's...quiet? That doesn't make sense," he shook his head and knit his brows, and opened the compartment. Upon seeing the inside, Lily let out a disgusted gasp and muttered a quick goodbye, then walked quickly towards where her own compartment was.

"Right, what the bloody hell happened in here," said Remus, staring around the compartment with a mixture of awe and disgust.

"James took the lot," Sirius groaned from where he sat slumped in his seat.

"Not again James! Or don't you remember what happened in third year?" Remus said sternly. He stared around at the sweet wrappers littered all over the compartment. "Did you...no you couldn't have...did you eat all of it?" James nodded with a pained and guilty expression.

"I'm going to be sick!" Peter suddenly groaned from his seat, slapping a hand over his mouth and running towards the loo.

"Look what you've done to poor Peter!" Remus exclaimed, wading through the wrappers to get to his seat.

As soon as he sat down, Sirius gave a loud groan next to him and slumped over into his lap. Remus rolled his eyes, gently patting him on the head. "You've got some chocolate on your face, you know, just...right there," he said, gesturing vaguely.

"Can't move...too full," Sirius moaned. Remus snorted, moving his hand to wipe the chocolate off his friend's face. "Idiot," Remus whispered affectionately as the boy in his lap drifted off to sleep.