James Potter let out a groan as he was kissed repeatedly by his tearful mum, who seemed to believe that if she smothered his face with slobber, he might not leave her.
After what seemed like an hour, he finally wiggled free of his mother’s vice-like grip, cheeks red with mortification. “Mum, we’re in public!” Indeed they were. Hundreds of people along with them were at the gobsmackingly big King’s Cross Station, waiting to get on a train.
“Sorry, dear.” She didn’t seem sorry. “I just can’t believe you’re leaving for Hogwarts already. My little boy all grown up…”. She lowered her voice at the word Hogwarts, looking around nervously.
James’ ears were already red as he turned to his dad, hoping not to be embarrassed further. Luckily, his dad wasn’t one for big sobbing scenes, and just pulled him into a hug.
“I’m going to miss you, sport.” He gave James a clap on the back, letting go of him, and his green eyes shined as he said, “Make sure to give old Minnie a good time,” referring to the old Gryffindor Head of House.
James steered his cart, full to the brim with his trunk, a cage containing his owl Pyra, and a bag, to face the cracking stone wall between gates 9 and 10, promising, “I will, Dad!”
“Don’t cause much trouble,” his mum said sternly, before softening her expression and adding, “I’ll miss you!”
“Yes Mum, you too, Mum,” said James absently, his mind already filled with daydreams of the awesome things he would do at Hogwarts, the teachers he’d prank, the classes he’d skip, the Quidditch games he’d win...
“See you,” she said, wrapping an arm around his dad’s lanky body as a tear fell down her porcelain face.
James pretended not to see it, his face now tomato red, and got his cart ready. “Cheers then!” With that, he pushed his cart forward with all of his strength, running for the wall as he squeezed his eyes shut, body tense, ready for a collision that never came.
Instead, he emerged on the other side to find a huge red train not even ten feet away from him.
He skidded to a stop, readjusted his glasses, and blinked. As he looked around, he realized there was a train, but there was also a skinny but reasonably long brick platform where about a hundred witches and wizards had crowded, each trying to push their way through to the train.
James soon joined them, dragging his cart alongside the train as he looked through the dirt-stained windows at the compartments, checking if he could wind up some people by making himself at home in their compartment, or if it was too full. As he saw that all of them so far were full, he began to wonder if he could sit on somebody’s lap, annoying them even more. He laughed at that thought, before finally finding a spare compartment. There was conveniently an entrance to the train right beside that compartment, and he whirled his cart around to face it.
There was an indignant squeak and a thud, and James whipped his head backward to find his owl on the ground, squirming around in her cage.
“Oh! Bugger!” He picked the cage up quickly, and put her back on her original position, balancing on the top of his trunk. “Sorry, Pyra,” he said ruefully. She didn’t seem to accept his apology - if an owl could glare, that was what she would be doing.
He patted her cage in an attempt to calm her down, and focused his attention on trying to lift his stuff off the cart and up onto the train.
About five attempts later, he realized that his trunk wasn’t budging, and wasn’t going to. He cursed his skinny arms, and glared at the offending object as if that was going to make it grow arms and carry itself up.
While he was glaring at it, a black-haired boy approached him. “Could you use some help?” The boy smirked a little.
James immediately stopped glaring at an inanimate object, and imitated his smirk. “Obviously.” He grinned. “This thing weighs like fifteen stone 5.”
The black-haired boy returned his grin, and took a side. James took another side. “On the count of three,” he said. The boy nodded, and they started counting,
“One… two… three!”
They promptly pulled upwards with all their strength, which, admittedly, wasn’t very much.
The trunk lifted about six inches, then dropped back onto the cart with a resounding thunk. The boy sighed. “Darn, this thing is fat!”
“HEY!” James crossed his arms and mock-glared. “My trunk has been working out lately, thank you very much!”
The boy smirked again. “Sure, and you have definitely been too,” he quipped sarcastically, eyes resting on James’ bony arms. He gripped the dusty trunk again. “Ready?”
“One… two… three!”
This time, with a lot of force, effort, and cursing on the black-haired boy’s part (James quickly learned he had a very dirty mouth), they finally heaved it on. Panting and sweating, James lifted his much lighter bag on, and finally, hoisted his owl’s cage onto his shoulder.
“Need help with yours?” James tried to make a casual lean work as he checked the time. 10:58. Two minutes until leave.
The boy exhibited a perfect casual lean as he said, “Nah, I already got mine on. It’s light as a feather; my -”. He paused, and for the first time in the five minutes James had known him, he looked a little uncomfortable. He straightened up. “Somebody put a spell on it.”
“Who?”
“Somebody,” the boy snapped, and James decided not to push it.
“My name’s James Potter, what’s yours?” He changed the subject, straightening up too.
The boy’s expression fell and his grey eyes turned - sad? This boy was a mystery. “Sirius,” he said quietly, his eyes downcast.
James waited, narrowing his eyes a bit.
The boy - Sirius - made no move of saying anything else, and they were silent, until James broke the silence out of curiosity. “What’s your last name?” he asked bluntly.
Sirius snapped his eyes up, looking directly at James. “Black, okay?” he stated loudly, turning some heads. “I’m your worst freaking enemy, so you can just clear off!” He stomped off to the compartment James had wanted at first. The latter heard a very loud thud as Sirius slammed the door.
“Hey-wait-”
James grabbed his bag, and, dragging his trunk, ran after him as fast as he could while carrying an owl on his shoulder, a bag on his arm, and lugging a 15 stone 5 trunk. He threw open the door. “I don’t give a darn!”
A red-haired, red-eyed girl who had formerly had the compartment all to herself wiped her eyes and glared at them. Sirius ignored her and stared at James, narrowing his eyes.
“Obviously you’re a bit grumpy, but some candy could probably fix that,” the latter quipped, sitting down opposite the sleek-haired boy and crossing his legs.
Sirius all-out grinned at that, his mood changing faster than the train was (it had started moving without them noticing). “Well, if you insist on sitting with me, I would like some candy, and also, we’ll need to do something about -” he waved his hand around James’ face, causing him to blink “- all… that.”
A mock-insult was on the tip of his tongue, but before James could say anything smart, a sandy-haired boy with blatant scars running across his face opened the door. “Do you mind if Peter and I sit here?” he asked hesitantly. “Everywhere else is full.”
James spotted a tuft of blonde hair poking out behind the scarred boy’s face, peered behind him and saw another boy, a little bit on the chubby side, a bag swung around his shoulder.
“Nah, you’re good.”
“Yeah,” Sirius added, grinning at them, “we have tons of space.” The other girl sitting in the compartment glared at them again, but didn’t say anything.
The sandy-haired boy half-smiled, then sat down next to James, and the other boy - Peter - followed his lead, clinging onto his hand as if it were life itself.
James briefly wondered if they were dating.
Sirius appeared to be thinking the same thing as he looked between the two and smirked, but didn’t mention it. “So we have Peter, and…”
“Remus Lupin,” the sandy-haired boy said quickly. He tensed up, as if waiting for something to happen.
Sirius raised his eyebrows, looking like he was about to say something, but right as he started to open his mouth, an excited squeal came from Peter, who was bouncing up and down on his seat, pointing out the door.
“The candy trolley!”
They all snapped their heads around to look, and the girl on the other side of the compartment glanced out, seemingly uninterested. Indeed there was a candy trolley, full to the brim with brightly coloured sweets of every shape and kind.
The gold-rimmed door opened as the chubby woman who pushed the candy trolley peeked inside. “Anything from the -”
She was knocked over as a squealing Peter ran out the door, put his entire bag in the cart, galleons spilling out, and grabbed all the candy he could hold. He sat down contentedly as the trolley lady got up, brushed herself off with as much dignity as she could muster after being knocked down by a screeching eleven-year-old, and glared.
James ducked his head awkwardly, and fished in his pockets for money. He was able to find a Galleon and two Sickles, and placed them in the fuming lady’s hand. “Say, how much Chocolate Frogs will this buy?”
“Seventeen,” she snapped. “And it’s how many will this buy.”
Not in the mood to be grammar-corrected, James silently took eighteen chocolate frogs and returned to his seat, smirking.
The trolley lady tried to regain her composure, and straightened up. “Is that all?” She clenched her teeth at the last word. “Dears?”
Remus nodded respectfully. “Yes, that would be all, Miss…”
“I forgot it,” the lady said sadly. “All these years on the Hogwarts Express and nobody has given a darn about me and asked for my name.” She wiped tears out of her eyes, and smiled at Remus. “Except for you, dear.” She patted him on the head affectionately. “You really are a darling.”
Remus’ cheeks went red. “Thank you,” he muttered as she left.
James sniggered and ripped open a Chocolate Frog, letting the card fall onto the wrapper. He stuffed it in his mouth, as another boy who looked like he needed shampoo came in and sat down next to the redhead.
Sirius took no notice of that and picked up the bronze-rimmed card immediately. His mouth fell open as he read the name. “Devlin Whitehorn?! He’s the bloke that made the Nimbus company!”
James’ eyes bulged, and he spit the remains of the Frog on Remus. “Gimme that!” He snatched it away and looked at it in wonder as Remus brushed himself off daintily. “Devlin Whitehorn (1945-present) is most well known for founding the internationally famous Nimbus racing broom company. He likes to compete in Muggle wrestling - what is that? - in his spare time.”
Sirius grabbed it back. “I want it!”
James wrestled it out of his hands. “I paid for it!”
“I still want it!”
“It’s mine!”
“Give me it! It can be my birthday present!”
“Your birthday’s today?”
“No, it’s in November, but still..”
This went on for a bit until they were interrupted by the shampoo-needing boy, who said to the girl he was sitting next to, “You’d better be in Slytherin.”
James promptly dropped the card. “Slytherin?”
The boy averted his eyes from the girl, and turned to glare at James, who ignored that, and continued, picking Devlin Whitehorn up, as the card had fallen on the ground. “Who’d want to be in Slytherin? I think I’d leave, wouldn’t you?” he asked Sirius.
He looked uncomfortable. “My whole family have been in Slytherin.”
“Blimey, and I thought you seemed all right!”
Sirius grinned widely. “Maybe I’ll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you’ve got the choice?”
James lifted an invisible sword, swinging it around. “Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!” He said this in a deep announcer voice, then returned to his normal voice. “Like my dad.”
The greasy-haired boy coughed, barely hiding a snigger. James immediately whipped around, narrowing his eyes. “Got a problem with that?”
“No,” the boy said defensively. “If you’d rather be brawny than brainy...”
Sirius reached across the compartment to grab one of James’ Chocolate Frogs, and retorted, “Where’re you hoping to go, seeing as you’re neither?”
James and Peter broke out in laughter (Remus seemed to not want to get into the fight and just sat by awkwardly, eyeing the Chocolate Frogs). The girl stood up, glaring at Sirius. “Come on, Severus, let’s find another compartment.” She grabbed him by the hand (Sirius smirked and said, “Oooo…”), and led him out of the compartment.
James had a sudden burst of inspiration. “See ya, Snivellus!”
Peter and Sirius roared with laughter. Remus took his eyes off the Chocolate Frogs, and looked at them disapprovingly.
Sirius glanced at Remus’s objecting face. “Here, have a Chocolate Frog.” He handed him one of James’, and Remus stuffed the Frog in his mouth at once, giving the silver-lined card to Sirius.
“Oi! That’s mine!” James took a Frog out of Peter’s pile, who was chewing happily on a Fizzing Whizbee, so he took no notice. “And gimme that card!”
“But - but it’s Alberic Grunnion!” complained Sirius, slightly whining.
James snatched it back. “Mine.”
Sirius glared, but cheered up when Peter handed him a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans. “Oh! Blimey!” He opened up the box greedily. “Thanks, Peter!” He put a handful in his mouth, and it took him not much more than a moment to look absolutely disgusted. He spit them all out on Remus, swearing.
Remus glared daggers, and brushed himself off. “I’m not your trash can!”
“Really?” said James mockingly. “Because you look like it.”
He knew that he had gone over the line when Remus’s eyes turned from angry to sad. He traced his scars with the tip of his fingertips, looking down at his lap.
“Oh - Remus - I’m sorry,” sputtered James, feeling very guilty. “I didn’t mean your - I was just joking - I - I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right,” said Remus with an odd, twisted smile. “I’m used to it.”
“No - I didn’t mean it! I didn’t!” objected James. “I was joking, I didn’t think -”.
“It’s all right,” Remus repeated. “But -” His eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs on James’s lap.
James pushed them all over to Remus. “Here, now stop making me feel guilty.” He grinned hesitantly.
Remus greedily opened one and tossed the card to James (It was Agrippa). “Fanks,” he said, with a mouthful of chocolate.
The rest of the train ride they spent eating through Peter’s pile of candy, (for Remus, James’ Chocolate Frogs), and getting to know one another. Sirius wouldn’t talk about his family much, but from what the others had gathered, he’d had a pretty miserable time there. He did, however, tell in detail about all of the girls that had supposedly asked him out. “There was Jennifer, Kimberly, Laura…”. He scratched his chin. “Adrianne, yeah, she had nice hair, blonde streaks…. And Mindy. She was ugly… There was two more, I know. Yvonne, and - oh, Shawna! She could’ve been a supermodel. But I turned all of them down,” he bragged proudly, speaking as though it was normal for an eleven-year-old to get asked out, and not turn them down.
Remus said that he had been in the way of a cutting curse, and that was where he had gotten his scars. When asked why there had been a cutting curse, he mumbled some stuff about kitchen knives not being sharp enough, and abruptly changed the subject. He told that his family was nice, but his parents had to work a lot, and he was left alone for most of his day. He didn’t mind, though, he said. He liked to read, and being alone give him time to devour books after books without any noise (“Who would want reading in general?” said James, disbelieving).
Peter didn’t say that much, he would’ve much rather listened to the others’ stories. When he was forced to talk by a very curious Sirius who was beginning to wonder if he was brought up by a murderer or something like that, he stated that his parents were wonderful and loved him a lot. He also mumbled something about really liking cheese, while devouring around ten ChocoBalls at once.
James went on and on about how they had this smashing old mansion, and his parents got him everything in the world. “One day they came home, and they had gotten me this new broomstick that had just came out a day ago then - the Nimbus 501. It’s awesome, it has a real good tail end…”. He also talked for thirty-one minutes and twenty-two seconds straight (Remus ended up timing it with a stopwatch) about Quidditch, and how superb a chaser he was, and how he was sure Peter would be a Beater. “He has the right build for it,” he stated passionately, “and if he worked out a bit he would be super strong, lots of muscle..”
Peter took this as a compliment, and started flexing his arms proudly.
Soon the train was starting to show signs of slowing down. The yellow countryside grass didn’t whiz by as fast, and there wasn’t as much noise from the wheels. They had eaten all of Peter’s candy, and Remus had consumed all of the Chocolate Frogs.
“We really should get into our robes,” said Remus quietly. He had never spoken loudly to them, or even spoke in much more than a whisper for that matter. But somehow, he was heard over the loud groaning of James and Sirius, who had eaten way too much candy (Peter had eaten just as much, if not more than them, but miraculously he was completely fine, and wanted dinner).
“I don’t want to,” whined Sirius, clutching his stomach.
“I don’t need to,” whined James, looking a little green in the face.
“Neither do I,” said Peter, bouncing a little on his seat.
Remus was in the middle of opening his mouth, but before he could say anything, a clear voice echoed through the train. “Good evening, Students of Hogwarts. We will be arriving in five minutes, so make sure you are completely ready. Leave your luggage on the train; we will attend to it.” There was a slight buzzing sound as the voice disconnected.
James and Sirius groaned again, and grudgingly started changing into their Hogwarts robes. Peter followed their lead, and Remus, who, to his credit, didn’t even make an “I-told-you-so” face, started changing too.
Once they were all changed and had cleaned their faces as well as they could, the train was coming to a stop, and hundreds of witches and wizards were jumbled up in the corridor, in what was supposed to be a sort of line. They all filed up outside their compartment, ending up squished against a few second-year girls. James was very excited, stomachache gone by now. It was all he could do to not bounce up and down screaming.
He still did it, earning some questioning looks from nearby people.
In a few minutes’ time, the line started moving. James made to follow the rest of the students once they had stepped off the train into the night, but stopped when a hand tugged him back. “Someone said that first years were over there.” He whirled around to see Sirius, who was pointing over to the right. He had stayed behind while Remus and Peter ran ahead. “Come on!” he said urgently, beckoning James.
James didn’t waste a second and tore off through the incoming crowd of students, following Sirius. “Firs’ years!” rang a voice. “Firs’ years over here!”
They had run for maybe five seconds when they bumped into a wall, and promptly fell backwards.
Looking up, James realized the wall they had run into wasn’t a wall, but a man with a lantern. A very big man, he registered, as he got to his feet. James was probably to his waist at most.
“What yeh doin’ runnin’ in ter people?” said the giant man, looking down at them.
“Er-”. James exchanged a look with Sirius. He hadn’t been warned about a giant either, James saw, from the slightly frightened expression on his face.
The giant (or man, or whatever he was) laughed heartily, his crinkly eyes warm. “I’m jus’ messing aroun’!”
James let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding, and smiled hesitantly at the giant. “I’m James, this is Richard-”
“Don’t believe a word he says, I’m Sirius,” Sirius interjected, his fear quite forgotten as he elbowed James playfully. “And you are?”
“Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Grounds,” the giant said, a wide smile spread across his face as he ruffled their hair, effectively shaking their whole bodies. He seemed amused at their antics. “Jus’ call me Hagrid, everyone does -”
He broke off mid-sentence. “Oh, darn, I forgot!” He scanned the crowd of eleven-year-olds below him. “Is all the firs’ years here?”
A murmur of assent rung through the horde.
“Good tha’,” Hagrid said, continuing, “Now follow me -,” and he held his lantern high and led them down a dark, narrow, rocky path. James and Sirius moved to find Remus and Peter, and together they tripped and stumbled (all except Sirius, who seemed to either have extensive ballroom dancing lessons or he was just born with grace. All of them thought that unfair if that was the case) along the path for what seemed like forever, but Remus, who had brought his stopwatch for some reason, said at the end that it was five minutes and eleven seconds.
“You’ll get your first glimpse of Hogwarts in a sec,” called Hagrid over his shoulder, seemingly not noticing all the stumbling people. “Jus’ over here!”
There was suddenly a big “Ooooh!” as they rounded a bend, and the path opened onto the edge of a grand, massive lake. There were dozens of little wooden boats floating by the shore, and on top of a mountain on the other side of the lake was Hogwarts, a towering castle with many sparkling windows.
“Don’t be shy, get in,” shouted Hagrid, pointing at the vessels. “No more’n four to a boat!”
There was a great rustling as everyone clambered onto one of their choice, hoping that there were enough. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter immediately got into one of the boats, with the help of James and Sirius pushing everyone else away, and Remus trying to make a disapproving face, but failing. Hagrid had a boat to himself, and still hardly fit, his legs sticking out, which gave everyone great amusement.
“Everyone in?” yelled Hagrid, ignoring the snickers. He looked behind him, making sure there was nobody left on the rickety path. “Good - FORWARD!”
And the boats moved all at once, sailing across the lake to the castle. The sparkling lights came nearer and nearer, and the dark, rocky path drifted farther and farther away.
“Keep your heads down!” yelled Hagrid warningly, lowering his lantern as the boats reached a rocky cliff opening, where ivy hung in strands of bright green. They glided along a dark tunnel, and their voices echoed off of the walls. James felt a lurch of excitement as the boats slowed down, finally coming to a stop as they reached some kind of underground harbor.
Everyone clambered out onto rocks and pebbles except for Sirius, who took great care to climb out as gracefully as he could, to the other three’s general annoyance and jealousy (especially Peter, who had fallen flat on his face).
Hagrid wiggled out of his own boat after a lot of struggling, which made everyone laugh again, and then, pretending that he hadn’t heard them, he checked the other boats with his golden lantern held high. Once he had made sure that everyone had their possessions, he led them up a rock passageway, finally coming out onto damp, fresh grass in the shadow of the castle.
Nobody had time to stretch out on the dew, however, as right when they stepped foot on the grass, Hagrid started striding to a stairway. Exhausted from all the walking, everyone groaned as they grudgingly followed Hagrid and his lantern up a flight of cracked stone stairs, leaning on the rails for support. James was wondering if it wouldn’t be better to just let them fly there on broomsticks, when they (finally) stopped walking, and all crowded around a great wooden door.
“Everyone here?” Hagrid scanned the sea of heads. “Nobody crack their skull on a rock?”
Hagrid raised a fist (James thought privately that it was bigger than his trunk), and knocked four times on the door.
Everyone waited, eyes locked on the door, for one frightening moment. James was sure that everyone was thinking the same thing - what if nobody answered, and they stood there waiting for hours, until Hagrid said that there had been a mistake and they would have to try again next year?
Before everyone could worry about that for more than a moment, though, the door swung open.