Amongst the frenzy of the Quidditch stadium, ready to burst with screaming, and whistling and chorusing, with fans jumping up and down and threatening to knock the whole place down, there was one who sat quietly, his expression profoundly bored for the sake of not looking miserable, staring blankly at the pitch, oblivious to the match developing above it. If he had it his way, Remus Lupin would have brought a book to read, but of course the Marauders would have none of that. Anyway, he would not have been able to read with all that ruckus.
Bah, who was he fucking fooling!? If he’d had it his way, he would not have come in first place!
He had no idea which teams where playing but he knew it was not either Puddlemere or the Cannons or whatever Peter’s favorite team was, or else the other three would have been even more hysterical, and would not have celebrated every single bloody fucking score, no matter at which side of the pitch it occurred. And any time that happened, they would jump into a fervent hug with Remus in the middle looking like he would rather be eaten by his own seat, which he was sure his friends did on purpose to further get a rise out of him. And then they wondered why he didn’t like Quidditch.
As it happened in all games, eventually one team won, and the other lost. The lads went crazy for the sake of…well, going crazy, and Remus was just glad it was finally over. Now came the second worst part though: getting out of that clustered stadium that smelled of butterbeer and armpit. He felt like livestock on the way to the slaughter house. To add to all of that, a fight broke up between the two fan bases just beside the exit. Between all the jumping and pushing and shouting, the Marauders became separated. Not even Remus, who was fairly tall, was able to spot Padfoot and Wormtail, they had been completely swallowed by the crowd. Fortunately, he’d managed to hold on to James, at least.
After a great deal of pushing and pulling and squeezing (Remus was pretty sure someone pinched his arse at some point), the pair of them finally managed to emerge from the crowd. Remus was momentarily dazed by the welcomed flow of fresh air and enough space to wave his limbs around, and because of this he did not register the attack right away. Suddenly the screams of euphoria morphed into screams of panic as the mass scattered in every direction, and dark figured stood amongst them firing curses and hexes with no apparent target other than causing chaos.
There was a flash of light that soared mere inches from him, hitting someone by his side instead. Oh no.
“JAMES!” he cried out in panic. Was he hurt? Oh Merlin was he de….no, he was further from death than he’d been seconds ago. In shock, Remus realized he was staring down to the face of a child. Though his glasses and mess of a hair were unmistakable.
Age reversal!? Of all spells!?
Little James seemed absolutely confused by his surroundings. He stared at his wand like he did not know what to do with it, and eventually confirmed Remus’s worst fears when he called out for his mum. Yes. His friend was completely under the spell.
“Come here” Remus instructed severely, scooping the boy in his arms and throwing himself to the side just as another spell was fired their way. As he rolled on the ground, still gripping the child while quickly casting a Shielding charm, his mind searched frenetically for a solution to his predicament.
He was in the middle of a Death Eater attack, surrounded by a panicking crowd…and his best friend was practically in diapers.
The Death Eater attacking them did not waste time, firing curse after curse to weaken Remus’s shield. Right now, the werewolf’s priority, however, was keeping his child friend safe.
“Hey…Hey James, look at me. I’m Remus. You know me, right? I’m your friend. Listen, you’ve gotta do everything I tell you, and we’ll be all right” he tried comforting the child.
“We’ll be alright” the Death Eater chanted mockingly in a baby voice “How you gonna make sure of that, you fucking babysitter!?”
Remus’s glare could’ve been a hex on its own if it had had magical powers.
“Hey!” he snapped, raising his wand as he pushed James behind him “Don’t use that sort of language in front of a kid” he fired a Jelly legs charm and then turned on his heels, dragging the kid with him “RUN!”
James looked up at the man above him. He somehow knew the tall man with messy hair was a friend and someone who would protect him. He let out a small sigh and let his body go loose as the man scooped him up. Smiling, he nuzzled into the man’s chest and closed his eyes.
There was yelling and screaming all around. Spells were blasting back and forth above the pair. The colors were so bright and pretty but frightened the young James at the same time. He looked over to see a hooded figure with a mask. The man gave off an aura of evil like this soul purpose was to cause harm to him and everybody around him.
“Remus?” James echoed back, the words falling out of his mouth and feeling all too familiar. “You’re my friend? Marlene is my friend.” He let out a huff but then decided to accept the fact that this old man was also his friend. “You’re an adult, but okay.” He looked around for a moment and then blinked.
“Quidditch? Let’s go.” The small James purred with excitement and reached his hand forward to try and let the man know he wanted to go to the game. “Quidditch!” He yelled as the man put a shield around the two of them.
Spells continued to blast back and forth and he started to scream, forgetting all about the Quidditch pitch. He eyed at the evil sounding man that had yelled at the two of them and James shook his head, keeping tears start to stream down his face.
He felt his legs hit the ground and peered through Remus’ legs. “Hey!” He yelled at the Death Eater as James cast a spell. “You are mean!” He pointed a finger and then felt his body start to move forwards and Remus pulled him along.
“Where are we running?” James started running with the man, looking back to see the man with the silver man flopping on the ground, his legs looking like jelly.
