Chapter 3

Jude yawned as he stood in front of the entrance for platform 9 ¾. Neville was beside him, giving Hannah a kiss goodbye. The summer went by quickly and the first day of school had finally arrived.

After saying goodbye to his wife, Neville turned to the younger boy, ruffling his hair, "I'll be getting on the bus now. I'll see you at school, Jude."

Jude nodded tiredly, hugging Neville around the waist. He smiled as the man walked through the entrance. He turned his tired blue eyes to Hannah, "Bye, Hannah. I'll see you when break starts."

Hannah smiled back, kissing his hair, "You better. Make sure to owl me in case anything goes wrong. We don't want a repeat of last year, now do we?"

"Merlin no," Jude breathed, shaking his head. Unfortunately, he knew that would be too good to be true.

Hannah smiled once more, "Alright, Jude. I'll see you when break starts. Have a good time." She patted his cheek and walked away.

Jude yawned, staying in his spot by the entrance for two minutes before he finally saw the Potter family. He grinned happily, still wondering if he could go back to sleep, "Hey, James." He smiled politely at the others, "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Potter. Hi, Albus and Lily."

Lily was clutching Harry's sleeve, her eyes full of tears. Harry sighed, rubbing her hand soothingly, "It won't be long and you'll be going to Hogwarts too."

"Next year," Lily sniffed, "I want to go now."

Albus simply ignored Jude's greeting, frowning and almost stomping his feet, "I won't! I won't be in Slytherin!"

"James, give it a rest," Ginny sighed, getting tired of the same mantra Albus had been belting out.

James rolled his eyes before putting on a grin for his brother, "I only said he might be. There's nothing wrong with that. He might be in Slyth-" He caught his mother's eye and fell silent.

Jude patted his friend's shoulder sympathetically, "Come on, James. Let's get a move on."

James bit his lip, grinding his teeth before grinning and following Jude through the barrier. After they entered, they made their way towards the train before they stopped abruptly. In front of them was a blue haired boy kissing what seemed to be Victoire Weasley.

Jude gaped with James, staring at the couple with wide eyes. James grinned, "Hey, Teddy. What are you doing?"

The couple finally pulled apart, gazing at the two teen boys. Teddy scratched the back of his head, laughing, "I'm just seeing her off, James. Now go away."

James laughed as well, putting his trunk and owl on the train. He ran back towards the entrance, putting his trolley back and leaving Jude to stand by himself fearfully. He smiled uneasily at them, "He-hello."

Victoire smiled back at him, settling his nerves, "Teddy, look it's the boy James' always talking about." She put her hand on his shoulder and he felt his cheeks warm with a blush. "This is Jude Porter. He's the first year who made the Gryffindor quidditch team and won them the cup."

Teddy, the blue haired boy, grinned, holding out his hand, "Nice to meet you, Jude. I'm Edward Lupin, but you can call me Teddy. I'm sort of a cousin of James'. His dad's my godfather."

Jude chuckled weakly, shaking the older boy's hand, "He's got a lot of cousins." It seemed he'd only met half of them too.

Teddy laughed, helping the younger boy put his trunk and owl onto the train, "It's a big family, but it's a loving one as well. You got any cousins, Jude?"

Jude shook his head, helping Teddy, "Nope. I don't know who my parents are. They died when I was two and no family of mine claimed me so I assume I have none."

Teddy smiled sympathetically, "Oh, I'm sorry to ask, Jude. My parents died when I was younger as well. I live with my grandmother but I go over to the Potters' house a lot. They're like my second family."

"It's okay," The younger boy shrugged, making sure all of his stuff was on board. "I'm sorry to hear about your parents as well."

Before Teddy could reply, Jude felt someone tackle him around the waist. He grunted in surprise before turning around to the culprit. He beamed, hugging the person back, "Emma, it's so good to see you."

Emma giggled, pulling away, "It's good to see you too, Jude." She glanced around, "Where's James? Isn't he with you?"

"Don't know," Jude mumbled, gazing around with his friend. "He went back to tell his sister something a little while ago."

Victoire smiled at Emma, "You must be the girl James' always talking about. Emma Thorne, right?"

Emma smiled shyly, nodding, "Y-yes. You must be Victoire Weasley; James' cousin."

"That I am," The blonde nodded. Her smile widened, "I forget to congratulate you guys for helping Gryffindor win the house cup. Though it was terribly dangerous for you three to do that, it was pretty brilliant how you stood up to him. How'd you get to know all those spells?"

As Emma rattled off on how she studied spells daily, Jude questioned Teddy on something that had been nagging him mentally, "Is your hair naturally blue?"

Teddy laughed, shaking his head, "No. My mum was a metamorphmagus. I inherited from her. I can change any feature on my face, but I like the light blue hair."

"Victoire likes it too," James commented wickedly as he finally approached them. "She's always running her hands through it."

Teddy narrowed his eyes at him before he smirked and shrugged, "I wouldn't be saying it like that if I were you, James. Sooner or later, you're gonna have a girl who will love to run her hands through that messy hair of yours. You too, Jude."

Both boys blushed causing the blue haired young man to laugh. "Alright. I'll see you on break." He walked over to Victoire, saying bye to Emma who smiled and walked back to her friends.

The red haired girl raised a confused eyebrow at the boys' red faces, "What's wrong with you two? Are you sick?"

"Let's get on the train," James squeaked embarrassedly, pushing them onto the train. They soon found an empty seats and shut the glass door. He sighed in relief, feeling his blush die down.

Jude whined in protest when James sat next to him. The Potter boy shook his head with a grin, sitting next to Emma to let his friend finally sleep.

Jude slept throughout the whole train ride, not once waking up no matter how loud James or Emma was. He only woke up when the train pulled to its destination, stopping abruptly. The blue eyed boy flew off the seat with a startled yelp, hitting the floor.

Emma giggled while James laughed at his friend's disgruntled face. After pushing James' face away from his, Jude grabbed his things along with the other two. They ran out to the station and waited for the carriages as the first years were docked on their boats.

Jude grinned in anticipation; he had wanted to go back to Hogwarts ever since he left months ago. He turned to the carriages and blinked slowly. He pointed at the animal, "Hey, aren't those supposed to be invisible or something? That's what everyone says."

Emma nodded solemnly as James bit his lip; they could see the thestral too. "They're only visible to people who have seen and accepted the death of the person passing." They frowned; Professor Lamb's death didn't affect them much, but it was hard being reminded of what had happened.

James pulled on their arms insistently, "Come on. We shouldn't let that bring us down. We've got a whole school year ahead of us."

Jude scratched the back of his head, nodding, "Right." They jumped onto the carriage that was closest to them.

It began to move before stopping once more. Jude watched Louis, Victoire and what he assumed was Dominique board the carriage as well. He smiled, "Hello again, Victoire. Hey, Louis." He held his hand out to Dominique as the carriage began to move once again, "Hello, I'm Jude Porter."

Dominique smiled, shaking his hand, "I know who are. I went to quidditch games after Louis told me how good you are."

Victoire raised her hand with a small smirk, "I was still a little irritated that Ravenclaw lost when they were so close to winning. It was also a shame to see Hufflepuff disqualified."

Louis stared at her incredulously, "Their seeker tried to steal the snitch from Porter's hand after he was knocked out and falling to his death."

"Not death," Jude winced, holding his hands up to pacify them. "I'm fine. I was just hit with a bludger."

He froze as Dominique stared at his right hand intently. He cringed inwardly when he realized that was the hand with the scar he had gotten from Lazarus. He closed his hand and sat back quietly.

James sighed, kicking his legs out, "Look at that; you weirded out my best friend. Good job, guys."

Victoire rolled her eyes as Louis finally gave greetings to everyone. The ride was then filled with Emma, Victoire and Dominique talking about the new school year.

Almost half an hour later, they were at the entrance of Hogwarts. Grinning, Jude grabbed his belongings and ran with his friends inside. Another hour later, they were finally sat at the Great Hall, waiting for the first years to enter.

Jude noticed Professor Flitwick had now taken the Headmaster spot. He remembered reading in his letter that Professor McGonagall had retired. He blinked when he saw Professor Alexander start the sorting ceremony.

All the first years ambled in, looking anxious and scared. Jude remembered feeling that way last year; he was at least glad he wasn't as ignorant as he was last year and felt better in his skin now.

The sorting hat sang a song for the new students. He clapped along with everyone when it ended. Professor Alexander spoke after the applause ended, "When I call your name, you will put the hat on and be sorted into your new houses." She read off the first name, "Andrews, Micah."

A blond haired boy walked up to the stool meekly, sitting down. Emilie placed the hat on his head gently, patting the boy's shoulder for good measure. "HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat yelled.

The Hufflepuff house burst into applause louder than the others. Once the excitement died down, Emilie read off the next name, "Allen, Sabrina."

The girl went up to the stool, almost cringing when the hat was placed on her head. "RAVENCLAW!"

"Banner, Bernadotte."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Barrow, John."

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Calderon, Bartholomew."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Cates, Donovan."

"SLYTHERIN!"

The three watched Professor Alexander rattle of the names. Jude wasn't paying much attention until James nudged him when the professor read, "Malfoy, Scorpius."

The blond, pale boy walked up to the stool, sitting down. The hat touched his head for a minute before shouting, "SLYTHERIN!"

Jude turned to James questioningly. The brown eyed boy grinned a bit, "Scorpius is the son of Draco Malfoy. He used to be my dad's enemy in school, but now they're just acquaintances. My Uncle Ron says to watch out for him but I don't think he's that bad."

"Moss, Michelle."

A dark skinned girl ran up to the stool excitedly. The hat touched her head. "HUFFLEPUFF!"

More names rattled off. He paused when he heard, "Potter, Albus."

He watched James' brother walk to the stool, his knees shaking. The hat touched his head and it sat there for a long while.

It finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Albus looked immensely relieved as he walked towards the Gryffindor table. His pale face was finally gaining some color. The table roared cheerfully for getting another Potter. James rolled his eyes, tapping his fingers to his hand. Jude didn't even bother to clap.

Names, names and names. "Stokes, Whitney."

The hat yelling, "RAVENCLAW!"

Then, "Stone, Bella."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Names. Then finally, "Weasley, Molly."

A red haired girl walked up to the stool. She looked a bit more relaxed than most of the first years. The hat touched her head, shouting, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Weasley, Rose."

Another red haired girl went up to the stool. After the hat was placed on her head, it shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Another name or so was called before it ended. Professor Flitwick gave a small speech, welcoming the students, old and new. Soon, Jude was able to feast on the food he had been drooling over for a few days.

An hour later, he was sleeping like a log in his dorm with the same roommates from last year.