A Step Into Life.

"Ready babe's?" James flung an arm around Remus's shoulder. He could feel Jame's questioning stare on the side of his face but refused to look at him. Instead he just nodded.

"Look Moony if you really really don't want to go you don't have.." but his voice trailed away.. Sirius was sat on the arm of the sofa biting his bottom lip at some girl that was strutting past in an overly short skirt and hadn't bothered to finish his sentence.

"Although you will miss out on a lot of fun" James finished, sighing at Sirius. The common room was slowly emptying as fellow Griffindor's hauled their heavy trunks excitedly to the great hall to bid their goodbyes. This was it, the last time Remus would ever see Hogwarts again, in a couple of weeks he will be spending his sad an lonely life in Azkaban, but his thoughts we're cut off when James nudged him in the ribs.

"Look I said I'd go didn't I?" Remus tried to sound cheerful as he pulled him self away from James's captivity and smiled brightly "I'm actually really looking forward to it now anyway" His voice was shaky and unconvincing but luckily the other boys, eager to set off, didn't bother saying anything.

"Right, then we're all set to go" Sirius announced "Pete go and get out trunks from the dorm will you" Peter didn't bother trying to argue as shot up the stairs.

"It'll be okay Remus, when the full moon is here we'll look after you" James lowered his voice as he looked Remus in the eye "we've already found where we're going to take you, and we have a step by step list of what to do for certain injuries from the nurse. Everything will be alright we know what we're doing" Remus swallowed, he knew this was true but was still dreadfully worried about it.

--

"Come on, move out my bloody way" Sirius was racing past students of all ages, speeding down the corridor towards the bottom of the train.

"Oi, watch it Sirius you almost knocked that first year over!" Lily turned around quickly and Sirius saw that she didn't look angry in the slightest and actually had a huge grin on her face, but Sirius had no time to linger on the fact he had just seen Lily Evans smile because the others were catching up so he sprinted past her with a confused smile in return.

"Siri.." Pete panted clutching his stomach 'Why so far down?" he struggled to get all the words out as he doubled over onto the bare floorboards still holding his stomach. Remus and James had caught up, James poked his head into the empty compartment Sirius had led them too while Remus offered Pete a hand. "Thanks" mumbled Pete while brushing the dust off his back.

"This my dear friends, is the best compartment on the train!" Sirius had expected a better reaction than three unamused faces staring back at him.

"No it's not, it's the mouldy ones at the back that smell' James replied as he brought his head out the compartment and tried to seize the door open further. "And with dodgy doors that are hard to open." Remus, with the hidden strength of a werewolf managed the door in one heave. The four boys made their way into the dinghy compartment and quickly looked around, the wallpaper was brown and grungy and ripped in more than several places, the floor boards were old and dirty, with an overlay of crumbs and dust, in each corner a deep mucky cobweb hung low over the seats which wear torn and smothered in graffiti. "Well this looks cosy" James spat sarcastically as he dropped into one of the seats. Sirius was stood by the window doing some type of complicated spell on it, James wondered whether he was trying to clean it "It won't come off mate, that grime's been here well over a million years if you ask me" Pete laughed loudly and took the seat beside James after throwing his trunk onto the shelf above him. Sirius smirked at the comment and carried on the complex spell that none of them had heard off. Remus carefully placed his trunk onto the same shelf as Pete's and recovered a half eaten chocolate bar from his jeans. "What spell are you actually trying.." there was suddenly ALOT of noise coming from inside the boys compartment. Pete screamed and clung onto Jame's arm, Sirius tapped the window several times until the screeching noise had almost gone. A huge grin had just erupted on Sirius's face as he looked round at his frightened friends. He began to explain "this compartment was originally for teachers, the window is bewitched to hear what the students are saying in other compartments" James and Peter started smiling but Remus didn't look entertained. Sirius carried on "You just scroll through the channels until you get to a conversation you want to listen to! it's genius" Sirius looked rather proud as he popped himself next to Remus who had started munching on the chocolate bar "Whats wrong Moons?"

"I just don't see the need to perv on peoples private conversations" He replied bitterly, but before Sirius could argue James was demanding he tuned the window so he could hear Lily's conversation. After a few minutes all four boys were calmly listening to the sharp voice of Lily Evans and he giggly friend Lucy.

"He's really cute though, so I don't know what to do" Lucy had just finished going on about a boy from Ravenclaw called Leon. The four boys were rather glad as Lucy's voice was very squeaky and annoying.

"I know Luce, I have the same problem with James.." Suddenly James bolted upwards at the sound of his name and listened more carefully. It wasn't very often Lily called James by his first name.

"He's sooo mean to Sev and just about everyone in the whole school, apart from me. It confuses me so much, I'd rather he treat me like everyone else"

"Why would he do that!? he's madly in love with you, he's hardly going to just push past you like he does to girls like me" Lucy replied sounding a little upset. Remus sighed at a guilty looking James.

"Well I know that! I just wish he was a bit nicer to people and stopped being so ignorant and thinking he's so bloody clever" But there was no anger in Lily's voice.

"But you do think he's cute don't you?" Lucy questioned. The boys listened closely but there was no reply, instead just a break out of Lucy's giggles. "Well you think he's cute, and he's incredibly nice to you so I don't see why you won't give him a chance!"

"I don't know.. anyway I bet I'm not the only girl he likes.."

"You've got to be! He doesn't treat any other girl like you does he, Its like Leon really, he always.." Sirius cut off the conversation just as Lucy resumed talking about Leon. James closed his eyes and tried his hardest from exploding with happiness. Lily Evans though I was cute! He repeated it over in his head until he couldn't hide his excitement and jumped on Sirius. "She thinks I'm cute!" he shouted as Sirius beamed at him. He knew James would be very happy for a while.