Author's Note:  I tend to think that MWPP were all Gryffindors, but I recently read a very good story in which Sirius was a Slytherin.  ("Feuds" by Morgan D.)  In that story, James and Sirius had been friends before Hogwarts and continued to be friends even in the face of house pressure.  The story only had James and Sirius in it (plus Severus lingering on the sidelines).  I started wondering how, in a situation like that, James and Sirius became friends with Remus and Peter.  Obviously, this story does not go with anything else I've written.

Disclaimer:  Hogwarts, the characters, and everything else belong to J.K. Rowling.

Lions and Snakes Chapter One: Potions and Trains

James scowled as he passed through the common room toward the dormitory stairs.  Students were gathered at tables, doing their homework with their friends.  Others were gathered in the comfortable sofas and armchairs, playing games with or talking with their friends.  "But if I want to study with my friend, I have to go to the library.  And if we just want to hang out together, we have nowhere to go.  Stupid bloody hat!"

            James slammed open the first-year boys' dormitory door without specifically intending to.  The sole occupant of the room was crouched in front of a trunk but jumped up and whirled around at the sound of the door hitting the wall.  His eyes were wide as he took an instinctive step backward and nearly fell into his own open trunk. 

            "Sorry, Remus.  I just—I didn't know you were back already."  James stalked over to his own trunk to gather what he needed to study with Sirius.  As he passed Remus, he saw him visibly relax upon hearing that James's anger wasn't directed toward him.

            "I just got back."

            "How's your mum?"  James asked over his shoulder as he sorted through his books and packed a few into his bookbag.  "That's who you went home to see, isn't it?"

            "She's feeling better, thanks."

            James was about to leave the room again when it occurred to him to ask if Remus needed his class notes from Friday.  Remus wasn't exactly someone who James would call a friend.  Remus had remained distant when James had attempted to be friendly at the beginning of the year, but he seemed to be like that with everyone.  He kept everyone at arm's length, so James knew not to take it personally.  "If I don't offer Remus my notes, who will?"  "If you want to borrow my notes from Friday, you can."

            Remus hesitated for a brief moment before nodding.  "I'd appreciate that."

            James went back to his trunk to find the correct notebooks.  "I need Potions right now, but you can have Transfiguration and History of Magic."  He piled the notebooks on the foot of his bed as he spoke, opening his Transfiguration notebook to tear out the cartoon he had drawn of Filch with both Mrs. Norris and a feline McGonagall in his lap.  "Oh, you might need me to explain some of this.  My notes are pretty complete, but I tend to use quite a few abbreviations and symbols.  You can copy it now and I'll translate when I get back from the library, or you can come with me if you want."

            Remus came closer and looked at the open notebook.  He saw that it did indeed contain some of James's personal shorthand and curving arrows.  "Whichever you prefer.  I don't want to be a bother."

            James stood again and slung his bookbag over his shoulder.  "You'll probably be better off if I explain as you go, so you really should come with me.  But I'm warning you now, I'm meeting my friend Sirius, so if you don't want to be seen in the company of the 'evil Slytherin' and the 'traitorous Gryffindor,' stay here."  James didn't expect Remus to rise to the challenge.  For three months, his friendship with Sirius had been fodder for mild teasing within his house, but over the last two days the mild teasing had increased to outright hostility.  However, Remus had been absent for those two days.

            "You don't mind if I tag along?"  Remus asked as he put both James's notebooks and his own into his bookbag. 

James shook his head, and the two boys made their way down the short flight of stairs to the common room.  Someone hissed like a snake as James and Remus passed by.  The hissing increased and spread throughout the room.  James just kept walking and pretended not to hear it.  They were almost to the library before either one spoke.

"You're probably wondering what that was about," James said.

"A little bit," Remus admitted.  "It isn't always that bad, is it?"

"No, it's because of Potions class the day before yesterday.  Actually, I can probably blame this mess on you."

"Me?  What I'd do?  I wasn't even there."

"Exactly."  James lowered his voice as they entered the library and fell under the watchful glare of the librarian, Madam Pince.  "You know that Sirius and I are always partners when we have a practical lesson in Potions."

Remus nodded.  The fact that Sirius and James liked being partners was usually a good thing.  Both Gryffindor and Slytherin had an odd number of first-years, and Professor Hathorne liked his students working in pairs.  Sirius and James pairing up meant that no involuntary interhouse pairings were necessary.

"But you were absent, and Marcus and Matthew were paired up, and that left Peter without a partner.  The other time you were absent from double Potions, Hathorne let Peter triple up with Marcus and Matthew.  But this time, one of the Slytherins was absent, and Peter ended up paired with Severus Snape."

"Oh." 

James led the way to a small round table with four chairs.  Remus took a seat on James's left so he could put James's notebook between them while he copied from it.

"And everyone was angry with me after class because they said that I should have partnered Peter instead of Sirius."

"Peter should be thanking you," Sirius said as he arrived and took the seat on James's right.  "Severus is much better at Potions than you are."  He stared at Remus as he sat down, as if daring him to leave because he was arriving. 

"I can't see Peter being really angry," Remus said with a puzzled look.  "I've never seen him angry about anything."

"No, but the girls were angry on his behalf," James explained, "and at lunch, they spread the word about what happened, and then the upperclassmen got into it.  I can't even tell you how many of them felt compelled to remind me that my first loyalty should be to my housemates."

"And the fact that I'm in Slytherin didn't even enter into it, I suppose," Sirius said as unpacked his bag.  Somehow he managed to make even the simple act of putting textbooks on the table an act of anger; the table quaked with every book thumping down on it. "Like they would have cared if this had happened in a class you share with Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff."

"Oh, it entered into it all right," James said frowning angrily.  "They don't even know you and—I actually got in a fistfight with Williamson."

Remus looked up in surprise.  "Really?  He's what—a fifth-year?"

"Sixth, but I didn't say I won, or that it lasted long."

"So much for that supposed Gryffindor tolerance," Sirius noted wryly.

"Rule number one: Always expect the worst, and you'll never be disappointed," Remus said as he dipped his quill into his ink bottle and began copying from James's Transfiguration notes.

"That's awfully pessimistic," James said. 

"It's always worked for me," Remus said with a shrug of his shoulders.  He pointed his quill to a circled 'F' in James's notebook. "What does this mean?"

"Focus—you know, what you need to be concentrating on while you do the spell."

"And did your house react any better?" Remus asked without looking up at Sirius.
            Sirius snorted.  "No.  Let's just say that I've been threatened with every hex and torment imaginable if I continue to 'embarrass house pride' or 'show misplaced loyalties.'  Severus was actually the one who cared the least.  He said, 'Pettigrew knows how to keep quiet and follow directions, which is all I ask of a partner in Potions.'"

Remus shook his head and looked up.  "All this righteous indignation on Peter's and Severus's behalves, and those two didn't even mind."

"I wouldn't say that," James and Sirius said simultaneously and then laughed.  James nodded at Sirius to indicate that he should go first.

"Severus did agree with everyone else that I should have worked with him, just on principle—but damn it!  It's the only class we have together.  We should be able to work together if we want." 

"What about Peter?" Remus asked James.

James lowered his voice to a whisper before answering.  "I don't know what Snape said to him, but he was nearly in tears about halfway through class.  He denied it after class and said everything was fine.  Anyway, I promised Peter that I won't make him partner Snape again."

"James!"

"I'm sorry, Sirius, but it's not about us being partners; it's about them not being partners.  Besides, it was a private promise between Peter and me.  I did NOT cave in to my so-called housemates in general."

"Good, I'd hate to think that my supposedly 'brave hearted' Gryffindor friend was caving in at the first sign of trouble," Sirius said as he opened his Potions text and searched for the right page.  "Besides, how often are we going to have someone from your class and someone from my class absent on the same day we have double Potions?"  He stopped turning pages and looked at Remus.  "Stay healthy, Lupin.  What's your first name again?"

"Remus."  Remus looked down as he answered.  He pointed to a curving arrow in James's notebook, and James noticed that Remus's hand was shaking slightly.  "Does this represent the wand movement?"

"Yeah, it's like this," James said as he demonstrated a few times.  "Remus wasn't sick; his mum was.  He went home to visit her."

"Oh, I didn't know you could get out of school for that.  She must be really sick.  OW!" The last was the result of James kicking him under the table.

"It's kind of a chronic thing," Remus mumbled.  "It comes and goes."

"Oh, sorry," Sirius mumbled as he reached down to rub his shin.  "Wait a second.  This doesn't make sense.  Hathorne wants us to write about possible substitutes for Wolfsbane in Canine Poultice Potions and the how each substitution would effect the end result."

"What's the problem?" James asked as he too found the correct chapter of the textbook.

"The textbook doesn't mention Wolfsbane in Canine Poultice Potions."

"Maybe the text refers to it by another name," Remus said as he glanced up quickly.  "It's also called Aconite and Monkshood."

"Aconite," James said as he skimmed the first page of the chapter.  "Thanks, Remus."

Remus nodded.  "That's probably the first and last time I'll be of any help to you in Potions.  Does this circle around all of this mean that it all has to be done simultaneously?"

"Yeah, exactly."

"And what's this mean?"

"Challenge.  McGonagall mentioned a related spell and said it was beyond the abilities of a first-year, so I'm determined to do it by the end of the year."

"Not before me," Sirius said with a grin.

"You're on."

* * * * *

When they had double Potions the following week, James found himself doing a quick head count of both the Gryffindors and the Slytherins.  Much to his relief, no one was missing.  He looked over at Sirius and saw that he was doing the same.

"All present and accounted for," said a quiet voice near his ear.  James looked over his shoulder at Remus and grinned.  "But we could mix things up anyway."

Before James could ask what Remus meant, the classroom door opened and the students began to file in.  James watched in surprise as Remus went, not to his usual table, but to the table where Snape had just sat down.  James and Sirius headed toward their usual table behind Snape, but remained standing.

"May I work with you today, Severus?" Remus asked.  Snape gave Remus an analytical look, as if trying to determine his motives.  "I know how to keep quiet and follow directions."  Snape turned and glared at Sirius for having repeated his words to the Gryffindors.  Sirius just shrugged, picked up his books again, and went to Remus's usual table.

"Mind if I work with you today, Pettigrew?" Sirius asked as he sat down.  Peter turned and looked back at James imploringly.

James shrugged and sat down alone.  "I promised him he wouldn't have to work with Snape; I didn't say anything about Sirius."  James sensed someone hovering just behind him and correctly deduced that it was the Slytherin student left without a partner.  "You might as well sit down," he said as he turned to face Rosier.  I'm the only partner left."  And he was.  Remus, not having been expressly forbidden to do so, had already taken a seat next to Snape.

All in all, the class seemed to go rather well.  Rosier and James managed to work together while having the bare minimum of conversation.  Peter had eventually relaxed and was heard to laugh at some of Sirius's jokes.

"Settle down, Mr. Pettigrew," Professor Hathorne warned.

Judging by the stream of curses Snape uttered under his breath at one point, Remus seemed to have done something wrong to his and Snape's potion.  However, it must not have been anything too critical, for Hathorne gave their potion full marks at the end of class.

When class was over, James and Sirius lingered not far from the classroom door waiting for Remus. 

"Excellent foray into enemy territory, my dear Mr. Lupin," Sirius said with a grin when Remus finally emerged.  "I'd buy you lunch if I didn't fear getting beaten to a pulp at your table, so instead I'll let my esteemed colleague do it.  I will, however, escort you both to the Great Hall."

Remus shook his head with a slight smile.  "You might want to do your friend Severus a favor and detour by your dormitory to get him a change of clothes."

"What did you do, Remus?" James asked.  He wasn't sure he wanted the answer.

"It wasn't my fault, really.  He got angry when I made a mistake and threatened to hex me.  I warned him not to, but when Hathorne left the room at the end of class, he did."

"He hexed you?  Damn it," Sirius started back toward the classroom, but Remus caught him by the elbow.

"I blocked it.  Actually, I reversed it."

"What kind of hex was it?" James asked with a smile.

Remus grinned back.  "An enuresis hex."

James shook his head, not understanding, but Sirius began to snicker.  "You made him piss on himself?"

"He did it; I just reversed it." James and Sirius both began to turn red as they tried not to laugh too loudly within Severus's hearing. "I don't think he and I should partner each other anymore." 

"See you later," James said as he pulled Remus toward the Great Hall, and Sirius headed back into the classroom to see whether or not his assistance would be welcome.  They heard Sirius clear his throat in an attempt to compose himself before he reentered the classroom.

"Would you do me a favor, James?" Remus asked as they climbed the stairs back to the ground floor.

"For the hero of the hour?  Anything."

"Don't tell anyone about this.  Snape will be really embarrassed if word of this gets—"

"So?  It was his fault."

"Yeah, but he'll blame me, and the last thing I need in this school is an enemy."

"But it was his fault!"

"Please?"

"Fine," James said with a dramatic sigh.  "I solemnly swear to tell no one—on two conditions."  Remus looked at him warily.  "First, you have to tell Peter."  Remus began to protest, but James held up a hand for silence.  "You can swear him to secrecy if you want, but Snape threatened Peter with something last week, and Peter deserves to hear that Snape got what was coming to him."

"O.K., but only if Peter promises not to tell anyone else.  And second?"

"You have to teach me how you reversed that hex.  That could prove very useful."

* * * * *

After just one more class of double Potions—and everyone back with their customary partners—the Christmas holidays arrived.  James and Sirius resolved to make another attempt to improve Gryffindor-Slytherin relations.  They planned to sit together on the Hogwarts Express, and they each planned to try to bring one or two friends along with them.  Of course, try was the operative word.  Sirius figured that Severus was actually his best bet, and James thought Remus and Peter were the most likely for him.  Either way, it was a bad combination.  Severus might scare off Peter, or Remus might scare off Severus.

On Thursday night, Remus noticed that James was behaving strangely while they packed for tomorrow morning's train.   He had run his fingers through his hair so many times that it looked like a forest of black pine trees, and he cleared his throat at least three times while looking around the room at his four dorm mates, but always dove back into his trunk as if choosing which socks he brought home was actually a crucial decision. When Marcus and Matthew finished and started to head back toward the common room to join in the last-night-at-school festivities, James dropped the lid of his trunk with a loud thunk.

"Before you go," James said, and Marcus and Matthew stopped to listen.  "I was just wondering, on the Express tomorrow, I'm going to sit with my friend Sirius, but I'd really like to sit with some of you guys too."

"Is he bringing some other Slytherins with him?" Matthew asked.

"Maybe.  I don't know," James admitted.  Marcus and Matthew looked at each other as if in silent discussion.  Matthew shook his head almost imperceptibly.

"Sorry, James," Marcus said.  "Matthew and I were planning on sitting with my cousin David and his friends.  Some other time." 

"Remus?"

Remus hesitated only for a moment.  If enemies were the last things he needed at school, friends were second to last.  The closer he got to someone, the greater the risk that they would figure out his secret.  However, this wasn't about James wanting to be friends with him; this was about James wanting to be friends with Sirius.  And if a werewolf wouldn't strike a blow for tolerance, who would?

"Sure, I'll sit with you."

James grinned from ear to ear.  "Peter?"

"Um—"  Peter looked nervously from James to his other dorm mates.

"C'mon, Peter," James urged.  "You liked Sirius when you partnered for Potions, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I like Sirius.  It's the other Slytherins I'm not so crazy about."

"You can sit with us, Peter," Marcus said as he and Matthew left the room.

Peter looked back at James again.  "I'll think about it," and he too left the room.

* * * * *

Peter still hadn't indicated his decision by the time the Gryffindor boys finished breakfast, grabbed their bags, and made their way out to the Front Hall to await the enchanted carriages.  Remus suspected that Peter was waiting to see whom, and how many, Sirius brought with him.  Sirius hadn't yet come out of the Great Hall when Filch shooed James, Peter, and Remus into the next available enchanted carriage.

"Don't stand around here waiting for your nasty little friend.  You can meet at the train station or on the train just as well as here."

"He's right," Remus said as he climbed into the carriage beside Peter.

"Just one bloody time I wish he'd be on time," James complained as he paused on the carriage step to look back at the open doorway.

"Watch your language, Potter!" Filch barked.

Peter laughed as the carriage lurched forward.  "Wow, only first term and Filch knows your name already.  My older brother said it took him a year and a half."

"It's just because he keeps catching Sirius and I out-of-bounds," James complained as leaned his head against the carriage window.  "I can't go in his common room, and he can't come in ours, and Pince has a fit if we're in the library and not working, so—we've got no place to go."

"It's so sad," Remus said in a mock-distressed tone as he nudged Peter in the ribs.  "Kind of reminds me of Romeo and Juliet.  Don't you agree, Peter?"

"Absolutely, so sad," Peter agreed in the same tone.  "Oh Sirius, Sirius, wherefore art thou, Sirius?"

"Deny thy house and thy name, and I'll no longer be a Gryffindor."

James began to laugh.  "You could at least let me be Romeo."

"Unh-uh," Remus said shaking his head.  "Sirius is taller than you."

"Only by two inches."

"Three if you don't count the spikes," Peter laughed.

"I'm taller than you," James countered.

"Well that's an easy shot.  Everyone's taller than me," Peter sighed with a dramatic roll of his eyes.

"There are worse things in life than being short," Remus said as he turned to look out the carriage window.  "Believe me."

James had no sooner begun fidgeting nervously on the train platform when Sirius bound out of carriage without waiting for it to come to a full stop.  His smile for James became even wider when he looked just behind James and saw Remus and Peter waiting.  Then he looked back at his own carriage.  Severus Snape stood with one foot on the step and scowled as his eyes traveled over the three Gryffindors watching him.  He shook his head slightly as he stepped down and came closer.

"You owe me, Sirius."

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

Severus fixed Remus with a glare.  In his peripheral vision, Remus saw Peter take a step away from them.  Remus held Severus's gaze and smiled.  "I'll leave my wand packed away if you do."  Severus smiled back, just slightly.  "Are you sitting with us, Peter?" Remus asked without breaking eye contact with Snape.  He suspected that Peter might not want to back down in front of the Slytherin, at least not too obviously.

"Yeah, part of the way at least."

"Great!" Sirius said happily.  "Let's find a compartment then."

Snape broke eye contact as he turned toward the train and led the way into an empty compartment.  He took a seat by the window and immediately pulled a book out of his bag.  The meaning was clear: you can talk me into sitting with the Gryffindors, but you can't make me socialize with them.  It actually seemed like a very good plan to Remus; he took the seat opposite Snape and did the same.  Sirius sat beside his house mate with James opposite—they were already rehashing the recent Slytherin-Ravenclaw Quidditch match—and Peter sat on James's other side.  He was as far from Snape as he could get in the small compartment.

Remus, engrossed in Brimstone and Leather Wings: Living with the Dragons of Romania, was only dimly aware that the Quidditch conversation had shifted onto professional teams when a witch came around with the refreshment trolley.

"Sirius and I are buying," James announced as he went to the door.

"Speak for yourself, Potter," Sirius said, but he threw a leather bag full of coins to James as he said it.  A heavy bag, judging by the sound of it.

"What does everyone want?" James asked.  "Or should I just buy a little of everything?" 

"Get enough cauldron cakes for everyone," Sirius answered, "plus a little bit of everything else."

James and Sirius's definition of "a little bit" was not a normal person's.  After handing an enormous stack of cauldron cakes to Peter, James came back into the compartment with an enormous armful of sweets that he dumped into Sirius's empty seat.  Sirius had gone into the corridor, unwilling to leave the sweet selection solely in James's hands.  He too returned with an enormous armload of sweets and dropped them on top of the pile where they they'd be within easy reach of all.  Then he sat opposite Peter and began eating one of the cauldron cakes.  Remus hated to imagine how much James and Sirius had just spent without a second thought.

"And neither of you," Sirius said as he gestured at Severus and Remus with a half-eaten cauldron cake, "is allowed to reopen your books until we eat all of this."  Remus didn't think it was possible, even for five eleven-year old boys, to eat that much in one train trip.

"We'll see,' Remus said, but he closed his book and tucked it between his bag and the wall.

"You'll have to come up with a more interesting topic of discussion than Quidditch," Severus said.

"More interesting than Quidditch?" James exclaimed in mock-outrage.  "Nothing's more interesting than Quidditch."  Sirius nodded in fervent agreement.

"We could play cards," Peter suggested. "That is, if anyone brought any."

"I think I did," Sirius said as he jumped up to open his bag on the overhead rack. 

"I'm not playing with your deck again," Severus said.  "That's the touchiest exploding deck I've ever seen, and I don't want to spend my entire holiday with singed eyebrows."  Sirius sat back down with the deck already in his hand.  A faint wisp of smoke curled up from the pack.

"I think I've got some Muggle playing cards," Remus said as he opened his own bag.  "They don't explode."

"Are you Muggle-born, Lupin?" Snape asked coldly. 

Remus kept looking through his bag and didn't look up at him.  He wasn't, but his mother was, and he realized belatedly that admitting this in front of two Slytherins was almost as foolish as blurting out, "I'm a werewolf."  Simply denying that he was Muggle-born wasn't the way to go either.  To do so seemed cowardly and unfair to his classmates who were Muggle-born.

"What if he is?" James demanded angrily.

"Just curious, that's all," Snape replied.  Remus could hear the smirk in his voice.

Remus found the cards and straightened up to face the boy again.  "Do you want to use the cards or not?"

"Yeah, we do.  Thanks," Sirius said.  He gave Snape a warning look out of the corner of his eye before standing up to reach for the cards with a smile.  "We can play Perigee," he said as he settled onto the floor of the compartment in front of his previous seat.

"I don't know how to play that," Remus admitted. 

"It's easy," Sirius assured him.  "I'll teach you, but you have to teach me how telephones work.  They're so cool.  Can you really talk to someone anywhere?"

"As long as he has one too," Remus said.

James snorted.  "Yeah, that's the part that gave Sirius trouble.  A few years ago, he begged his parents to give him a telephone for his birthday.  Of course, it would have been kind of useless since he didn't know anyone else with one."

"You could have gotten one," Sirius said as he twisted to look back at the sweets and selected a box of Every Flavour Beans and a bag of Flavour-Shifting Candy Floss.  He tossed the bag to James as he turned back.

"How?" James asked.  "You know the person who installs them couldn't get anywhere near my house."

That both surprised Remus and seemed somehow predictable as well.  If the Potters' house had Muggle-repelling charms on it, it was undoubtedly some venerable old mansion stepped in old magic and old money.  It certainly explained how James could afford to buy half the sweets on the refreshment trolley without batting an eyelash.

Sirius then noticed that Remus had finished the two cauldron cakes that Peter had passed him earlier.  "What do you want to eat next, Remus?"

"Could I have a chocolate frog, please?"

"Sure."  He tossed him two.  "Severus?"  Snape reached into the pile beside him and pulled out a green sugar quill.  Peter waited until Snape had chosen something before reaching forward and selecting a buzzing box of fudge flies.  "Ooh," Sirius said with a smile as he looked at two greenish-grey beans, "never saw this colour before.  Open up, Jamesy."  James dutifully opened his mouth, and Sirius tossed one bean in.  James's expression gave nothing away as he tasted it and swallowed.  Sirius then tried the other bean himself.  "Oh, that's vile.  You could have warned me."

James snorted.  "Never."  Sirius then proceeded to eat an entire handful of assorted beans.  Remus grimaced.  Even if Sirius was lucky enough to be spared any of the more unpleasant flavours in that bunch, the combination couldn't possibly be good.  And given how many unpleasant flavours a typical box of Bertie Bott's contained, Sirius's luck couldn't be that good.

"Yuck," Peter said as he watched Sirius.

"I'll stick with chocolate," Remus agreed as he opened a box and caught the struggling frog before it could hop away.  Sirius seemed to have regretted his rash action.  He swallowed the beans without too much obvious dislike, but he put the box aside and reached back into the pile for a pink sugar quill to suck on.  Then he began dealing out the cards.

"O.K., in order to play Perigee, you have to deal all the cards in the deck except the last two."  As Sirius and James explained the game, stray comments made Remus realize that Peter and Severus had only recently learned the game themselves, Peter from James and Severus from Sirius. 

"I don't feel so bad that I don't know how to play now," Remus commented, "if you two only recently learned."

"Actually, Sirius's mum and mine invented this game with some of their friends when they were in Ravenclaw together," James explained. 

"My parents were both Ravenclaws," Remus said as he looked through his cards and put them into an order that would help him play.

"I thought you said you were Muggle-born, Remus," Sirius said in surprise.

"No, you assumed I was Muggle-born," Remus said as he looked up from his cards at Sirius.  Then he glanced over at Severus.  The other Slytherin boy was staring at Remus with undisguised interest, trying to decide why Remus had allowed them to form their incorrect, and potentially dangerous, assumption.  "You were almost right.  My mum is Muggle-born, and I did go to a Muggle primary school, so yes, Sirius," he looked back to the black-haired boy on the floor, "I can tell you all about telephones and such if you'd like."

"Why'd you go to a Muggle primary school," Peter asked as he sat down on the floor next to Sirius—the better to play the game and to reach the sweets.

"Because wizard primary schools won't take werewolves," Remus thought.  "I guess my parents thought it would be a good idea.  You know, so I'd be at home in both worlds."

"Oh, that's such a cool idea," Sirius said.  "I wish I had gone to a Muggle school.  I can't wait until we can pick electives, and I can take Muggle studies."

"Well, I don't see any need to be 'at home' in the Muggle world," Snape said as he took his turn and put down two cards.  We're wizards, and our own world is quite enough for me."

"But there's so much out there to learn about," Sirius said as he twisted around to look at his dorm mate.

"And the more we're 'out there' as you put it, the more chances for the Muggles to learn about us.  We're better off apart."

"But it's impossible for us to remain completely apart," James pointed out.  "And if nothing else, learning a bit more about Muggles could help us fit in better when we are around Muggles."

"We could remain completely apart, if we stopped inviting Muggle-borns to attend Hogwarts.  Just a thought." Snape stared at Remus as he said it, but failed to stare him down. 

"Your turn, Remus," James said, allowing Remus to break the gaze and look at his cards again.

* * * * *

On Christmas Day, two unfamiliar owls knocked at the Lupins' kitchen window while Remus and his parents were enjoying breakfast together.  Each owl carried a gift-wrapped package topped by a card addressed to Remus.  Remus couldn't remember ever getting a gift from anyone other than his parents.  Remus could feel his parents watching as he opened the first card with fumbling fingers.

Dear Remus,

            Thanks for sitting with us on the Express.  I'm sorry Severus was such a prick about your mum.  He actually thinks you're pretty cool, although he'd rather eat bubotuber puss than admit.  He thinks anyone who knows advanced curses & hexes (or can block them) is cool.   Anyway, this is just to say, "Thanks." You already got the other half of your Christmas present (although you didn't know it).  I let James get back at Severus for you, but I really shouldn't say how in a letter. 

–Sirius

P.S. Do you have a car?  Do you know how it works?

            Remus grinned while reading the card, but did not share any of it with his undoubtedly curious parents.  He looked at Sirius's present, but decided to open the other card instead.  He was now reasonably sure it was from James.

Dear Remus,

            Thank you again for sitting with me on the train.  I'm really glad that you and Peter don't mind me being friends with Sirius.  Sirius really likes you.  As soon as his parents showed up at the train station, he started asking them for a telephone for Christmas.  He said, "I have a friend I can call on the telephone now."

            Sorry about Snape giving you a hard time.  I got him back for you.  I put some time-delayed dungbombs in his bag just before he left the train.  Will you sit with us again when we go back?  Sirius isn't inviting Snape to sit with us this time. 

Also, my parents are having a party for New Year's Eve, and they said I could invite a few friends.  Sirius is coming (of course) and I'll invite Peter too.  My owl will wait for a reply.  His name is Ollie (not my fault—Sirius named him).  Please say you'll come.  The Floo address is "South Wing of Marid Hall." 

–James

Remus's face fell as he read the last paragraph.  For a few moments he had allowed himself to enjoy having friends.  Then reality intruded.  Friends were for other people, normal people.  He closed the card and stared at the unopened gifts for a moment.

"Is something wrong, Sweetheart?" his mother asked.  She had seen the change of expression.

"No," he lied.  "Everything is wrong.  I'm wrong.  I'm a freak."  "It's from a boy I know from school.  He invited me to a New Year's Eve Party at his house."  No more was necessary to say.  New Year's Eve was a full moon this year.

* * * * *

Peter grinned as he reread the parchment that was his one of his older brother's Christmas gifts to him.  "In the sixth floor corridor, behind a tapestry of St. George charming a dragon, there is an invisible door.  Put your hand on the wall and say, 'Draco titillandus,' and a door will appear.  You'll find a secret room that neither Filch nor the teachers knows about.  It's yours for the next seven years.  Use it well!"

Now Peter knew how to repay James and Sirius for the boxes of sweets they had sent him for Christmas.

Author's Note:  The Canine Poultice Potion was invented by the Wolfie Twins for their story "Call of the Wild."  (The best "Remus's lost years" fic ever!) 

According to the website I checked, in 1971, full moons fell on Thursday, 2 December and Friday, 31 December.