Conversations

By SilverWolf7007

Part One

Lily didn't know when it had started. Probably sometime during their seventh year at Hogwarts, or at least, that would be a semi-logical conclusion. But logic and the Marauders really never went together at all, which probably meant it had been in first year.

Lily was wrong. It had not been first year. Or rather, it had not quite yet been first year - it had been on the Hogwarts Express on their way to their first year.

Because James Potter, standing in the middle of Platform Nine and Three Quarters with his parents, had caught sight of the pretty red-haired girl and declared to all and sundry "Someday I'm gonna marry that girl."

Lily, hugging Petunia goodbye while her mother fussed over Severus's robes, and her father put both their trunks into the nearest carriage, had no idea that any such declaration had ever been made.

Sirius Black, however, was standing only a little ways away with his mother, aunt, and cousins (Andromeda was graduated but came along to see her baby sisters off, especially as it was Narcissa's first year). And Sirius, while he wouldn't say it for his family to hear, rather admired that tiny Potter kid's admittedly ambitious decision. That was the moment Sirius decided to find the other boy on the train (one day James would tell Lily she was technically the reason he and Sirius had become friends, at least as early as they did, and she would be very torn between being amused and being horrified).

In a similar vein, little Peter Pettigrew admired the (at the time) shorter boy's confidence. Part of him wanted to be there, ringside seats for if it ever actually happened.

Remus Lupin was further away and his father was worriedly giving him instructions for the year ahead (brush your teeth, make sure you always wear clean underwear, don't bite anyone, keep up your flea powder applications, don't eat all the chocolate in the castle, and no I'm not telling you where the kitchens are Remmy you'll have to figure that one out by yourself, it's a rite of passage). But he caught James's statement with his enhanced hearing, and glanced over curiously.

A scrawny kid with black hair and a ridiculously dreamy expression on his face was gazing at an oblivious girl who was now making her way onto the train, pulling a pale dark haired boy after her with one hand and waving frantically at her family with the other.

Remus wondered if it would ever actually happen. He wondered if the boy would ever even talk to the girl. And he decided, at that moment, that he would have to stalk them to find out.

Minutes later, all the students bound for Hogwarts that year were aboard the train, and so the Hogwarts Express began to pull away from the station.

Remus almost immediately abandoned his trunk to explore the train and to attempt to stalk that short ambitious boy from the station.

Down the train, James had been set up in an empty compartment with his trunk by his parents, because he himself was too busy mooning after his 'future wife' to manage.

A very nervous Peter had been brought into the compartment by his mother, who was levitating his trunk, moments later. James didn't even seem to notice, so Peter stayed silent and sat across from him, twisting his fingers in his lap.

As such, James was sitting on the bench and gazing out the window dazedly when the compartment door was slammed open. Peter jumped and stared, but for a moment, James almost didn't react at all.

Then he turned slowly, vague curiosity crossing his face, and Sirius grinned at him brightly. "Hello!"

James blinked. Slowly, the dazed look began to fade from his eyes. "Uh, hullo. Do I know you?"

"Sirius Black," Sirius said, holding out his hand for James to shake.

Shaking Sirius's hand, James raised his eyebrows. "James Potter. I'm pretty sure we're in a blood feud."

Sirius shrugged. "Yeah, well, that's for ridiculous old people to worry about. We have more important things!"

"We do?"

"We do! Like your future wife!"

James's confused smile turned kind of dopey. "She's so pretty."

Sirius turned to Peter. "Can you believe this guy? He's never even spoken to her!"

"Well, plenty of time for that," Peter said, smiling gamely. "Seven years, after all."

"Very good point, my good man! Er. I didn't catch your name?"

"Peter Pettigrew."

"Nice to meet you."

James tuned back into the conversation at this point. "Sorry, uh, hi, Peter. Didn't mean to sort of not notice you or anything."

"No problem," Peter said, grinning. "But I am starting to wonder about your chances with this girl. At this rate even if you do marry her you'll be too busy staring at her dreamily all the time and she'll leave you for someone else."

Sirius laughed at that.

James frowned. "Hey! Like who?"

"That guy, definitely," Sirius said, gesturing out the door.

Remus, who had been hovering around the doorway with no intentions of entering or being seen (he was, unfortunately, a terrible spy at this point in his life, and only years of pranking practice would give him better skills), jumped and squeaked.

"Me? But I don't want to break up their marriage!"

"Well come inside and help us knock some sense into the guy, then."

Remus edged into the room and sat beside James, looking wary. "Um, hi? I'm Remus Lupin."

"Hello, Remus Lupin the terrible stalker," James said. "So I hear you'll be running away with my wife in the future?"

Ahahaha, so yeah. I think there are four more bits to this. Which sort of relate to a future couple of chapters of Unmitigated Chaos.

Anyway.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Love,

Wolfie