If you didn't read TRANS-ported to Hogwarts, I welcome you! And recommend that you don't read the original fanfic. It's bad. If you're here because you DID read TtH, I hope you enjoy the new and improved (in my opinion) story of John Smith, who I decided NOT to change the name of.
Enjoy!
If one were to wait near the barriers of Platforms 9 and 10 at King's Cross Station on September 1st, 1971 at around 10:26 am, they would likely notice a multitude of children and their parents walking right through the brick wall. Of course, nobody did that because honestly, why would they? If they did, however, there is the possibility they would notice a child of only 11 years wandering around unaccompanied. They would notice this child looking between platforms 9 and 10, confused, before glancing back down at a ticket. Whatever the problem was, would not be solved by reviewing this ticket, as it only reaffirmed the child's confusion and caused a scratch of the head. Several people asked if the child needed help finding the correct train, but received only a shake of the head as the child vaguely claimed to be waiting for someone.
This child was in fact a boy named John Smith, and he really did need help finding the correct train, but he didn't suppose any of these people would know how to find Platform 9 ¾. He bit his lip, hazel eyes darting between the platforms his destination would logically be in between. His parents had dropped him off at the station by his own request, as he didn't want them seeing him off. Part of him regretted it, but he doubted either of them would have been able to find the platform either. They also had to get to work anyways, and he'd rather not be a burden. Besides, he definitely didn't want any possible new friends to get the wrong idea about him because of his parents, and what they made him wear. He'd been standing around for several minutes when he smacked his own head, pushing his belongings towards the supposedly solid brick wall. Keyword being supposedly, as he found himself passing through it rather easily. He probably could have remembered those instructions from Professor McGonagall much sooner had his brain not overwhelmed itself. It was his first time out of his small town by himself, and he was unaccustomed to the crowds of London.
The Hogwarts Express stood gleaming bright red in the sunlight. John felt his breath catch in his throat, not having been prepared to see such a beautiful train. Wizarding families stood around, old friends seeing each other for the first time in ages, many people appearing from nowhere accompanied by loud cracks. Everything filled him with a sense of wonderment, and he could feel his heartbeat accelerate with how natural the magic aspect of it all was treated. Even the air felt magical, and he almost couldn't contain his giddiness. He was sure his friend Allie would have been able to appreciate everything even more than he could, but then, she had always had a surprising fascination with trains.
Unfortunately for him, he had gotten to the platform early for a reason, and due to his forgetfulness, he was running slightly behind his self imposed schedule. He rushed onto the train, thankful when someone offered to help him with his belongings, and ran off to the restroom to change into his robes. By the time he was finished, people had begun making their way onto the train. He smiled a little uncomfortably when he passed by other students, awkwardly hiding his old clothes in his robes. Stepping back into his compartment, he spotted two heads of black hair. One was messier than a bird's nest, and the other looked as if its owner had spent much too much time on it. He stared at the other two, blinking several times before clearing his throat.
"I had my stuff in here." He gestured above the seats, where he had left his small bag. It was there so he would be able to change his clothes easily, and it had some snacks for the train ride.
"Oh, sorry." The messy haired boy sent him a lopsided grin. "Can we sit here?" John blinked, nodding.
"Yeah, that's fine." He got his bag down, opening it and shoving his old clothes inside, making sure the two couldn't properly see what it was. "What're your names?" He asked with a smile.
"James Potter." He adjusted his glasses, looking rather proud of himself for having a name. John stifled a small amount of laughter.
"I'm John Smith. What about you?" He spoke directly to the grey-eyed boy, who had done nothing but stare at him since he entered the compartment.
"Oh- Sirius. That's my name." He seemed distracted, and hadn't even provided a last name.
"... Is there something on my face?" John rubbed his own cheek, uncomfortable with Sirius's staring.
"No, I just thought I saw you earlier, but wearing a dress." Sirius said, causing John to tense up.
"You didn't." He responded perhaps a little hastily.
Luckily for him, the compartment door opened, and an upset redhead rushed in, curling up in the corner beside the window. She seemed content ignoring the three boys, and an awkward silence fell. Within a few minutes, however, James and Sirius had resumed conversing. John was left out of the conversation, which he supposed he didn't mind too much. He was seated between James and the nameless redhead girl; Sirius seemed content to take up the other seat. The compartment door slid open, however, and Sirius realized with a grumble that he would have to give up some of his seat. The sallow skinned boy sat opposite of the redhead girl. They seemed to know each other, and John listened in on their conversation.
"I don't want to talk to you." The girl seemed to be crying.
"Why not?" The newest arrival pushed greasy hair out of his face.
"Tuney h-hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore." She answered him. John really wished he knew what they were talking about, but it wasn't exactly his business.
"So what?" He asked, and the girl gave him a rather intense glare.
"So she's my sister!"
"She's only a-" He stopped himself from saying whatever it was he was going to say. Fortunately, the girl didn't hear him. "But we're going! This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!" John realized very suddenly that the train had been moving. The girl smiled through watery eyes. "You'd better be in Slytherin."
"Slytherin?" James sounded revolted by the thought. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" He directed his question towards Sirius.
"My whole family's been in Slytherin." He didn't smile.
"Blimey, and I thought you seemed alright!"
"Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?" Sirius grinned. John had absolutely no idea what they were talking about, and was further confused when James brandished an imaginary sword.
"'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad." James sounded incredibly fond of his father. The unnamed boy made a small sound of disapproval. "Got a problem with that?"
"No, if you'd rather be brawny than brainy-"
"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" Sirius interjected, causing James to burst out in laughter. The girl stood from her seat, glaring at the boys.
"Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment." She grabbed the newly named Severus's wrist and dragged him out of the compartment as Sirius and James jeered at them. James tried to trip Severus, but he thankfully failed.
"See ya, Snivellus!"
The compartment door slammed shut, and John thought Sirius and James were being a little mean. He scooted away from James, towards the window so he could have some more personal space. Sirius returned to lounging across the entire seat, and James yawned. The two black haired boys snickered.
"Sirius Black." Sirius said, introducing himself properly this time. "Didn't want you judging me by my family." He spat the word 'family' as if it left a rotten taste in his mouth.
"Well, you seem alright for a Black." He joked. John sat silently in his seat. "You hoping for Gryffindor?"
"Sorry, what're Gryffindor and Slytherin and all that?" John asked. James and Sirius turned to give him an odd sort of look. "Is that supposed to be common knowledge?"
"I bet you're a muggleborn." James stated. Sirius seemed about to open his mouth, before frowning and thinking about something.
"I mean, I think so. That's not a problem though, right?" John hadn't spent much time learning the wizarding vernacular. James shook his head.
"Nah. Sirius and I are both purebloods, so I guess we just sort of expected everyone to know about this sort of thing." James waved any concerns of his off, though John didn't miss Sirius's surprised look when James claimed to be a pureblood.
"... Right…" John had to wonder why their blood was classified as pure. It seemed rather unfair, and was just asking for conflict. He didn't want to ask further questions, however. "Gryffindor is brave or something, but what's all this about?"
"Hogwarts houses! Gryffindor is brave and awesome, Slytherin's full of nasty dark wizards- no offense, Sirius." James stated, the last bit sounding like an afterthought. Sirius shrugged.
"None taken, really." He cleared his throat. "Ravenclaw's for nerds and weirdos."
"And I don't really know what a Hufflepuff is. I think they're loyal or something."
"But what's the point of it all?"
"You get sorted into your house and all the people in houses are like your new family or something. I think it's pretty cool."
"You have all your classes together and sleep in the same dorms." Sirius added. John hummed slightly, not really sure what to make of the system. "I'll be happy with anything besides Slytherin, but it'd be nice to get into Gryffindor and rub it my family's face."
"What about you, John?"
"I dunno. I guess I don't really care, but Gryffindor sounds cool." A smile graced his face.
The three of them continued to chat for quite a while, with absolutely no interruption until a woman opened their compartment door, asking if they wanted anything to eat. James practically jumped at the chance to buy boatloads of candy, though Sirius seemed more reserved. John wondered what was bothering him. From the sounds of it, Sirius was just as wealthy as James, if not moreso. In the end, Sirius only bought a few things, and James had enough to feed three small families - an impressive feat. John himself hadn't bought anything, as he had no wizarding currency and had seen James buying so much anyways. The woman left their compartment with a much lighter cart than she'd had before.
"Wait, so what's the deal with these frogs?" John asked as he took a rather decorative box labelled with 'Honeyduke's Chocolate Frog' and claimed to be made with 70% Croakoa. A smile sneaked across his face.
"They're just frogs made of chocolate." James explained with a mouthful of pumpkin pasty. Sirius laughed as he popped a jellybean into his mouth.
"Make sure it doesn't hit the ground." He advised before choking, spitting the bean out of his mouth. "Who the bloody hell makes a rotten fish flavored bean!" He snatched the other half of James's pumpkin pasty, shoving it in his mouth to try and forget the taste. James laughed, looking only slightly miffed by the loss of pasty.
"Oh, let me try one of those!" John reached into the distinctly shaped box, popping a different bean into his mouth. He sighed.
"What is it?" James questioned, as Sirius was too busy trying to forget the terrible taste.
"Homemade apple pie." John grinned as Sirius glared at him. "Sorry mate, I guess you just got unlucky."
John returned his attention to the chocolate frog, carefully opening the box before being hit in the face by the fake amphibian. He yelped slightly before snatching the creature, biting its head off. He swallowed, staring down at the now limp frog in his hands and feeling as if he'd just committed a murder. Frowning, he decided to just eat the rest of the thing. The other two boys snickered at his sullen expression.
"Y'know, in the muggle world, we don't have candy that pretends to be alive." He stated defensively.
"Sounds terrible." Sirius claimed offhandedly as he grabbed the card John hadn't noticed.
"Oh, what'd he get?" James leaned across to look at the card.
"Paracelsus." Sirius responded, turning the card around and looking somewhat bored. "He lived from 1493 to 1541 and knew some guys named Copernicus and Da Vinci. And of course, he was credited with discovering Parseltongue." He tossed the card back to John. "Merlin knows my mum's told me all about him before."
John looked at the card himself, and noted that Sirius had included only half of the information. The exact words were 'Phillipus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, born Phillipus von Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus (1493—1541): a Contemporary of Copernicus and Leonardo Da Vinci. A medical genius and alchemist whose bold theories challenged medieval thought. Credited with discovering Parseltongue.' John clicked his tongue, impressed.
"Wow, he sounds cool. A medical genius and an alchemist? I'd give a lot to be like him." He smiled.
"Damn, I don't have him yet." James frowned, and Sirius reached in his bag, handing him a card.
"I've got about twenty of him. You got anything to trade?"
James and Sirius proceeded to blab on about chocolate frog cards as John stared at the one he'd received. He was only somewhat surprised by the moving picture, as he had seen moving pictures in various places when he went to Diagon Alley. What interested him more was simply how ornate the pentagonal container was. It was a bit of a shock, as it was a mass produced candy box. He yawned, pulling his legs up onto the seat as he decided to look out the window. The train had left the station at exactly eleven o'clock, and a few hours had passed. James and Sirius continued to joke around, John trying his best to follow their magical conversations. Despite his best efforts, the boy ended up falling asleep. He was violently shaken from his slumber as the train lurched to a stop and he suddenly found himself on the floor of the compartment. Sirius and James snickered at him before John joined in, and their suppressed giggles became full laughter. The three of them made it out of the train before being directed to the boats that were intended to take them to shore, and they were joined by a shy, mousy looking boy. After a rather short speech from a rather large man, the boats began to glide across the water towards Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Word Count: 2,456
EDIT 6/14/18: I mostly just changed the flow of things, and made it so Sirius was hiding his family name because he didn't want to be judged for it. Through my more recent research, I realized the Potter family is not part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, so Sirius likely wouldn't recognize his name. If you look a bit further down at the first author's note, you'll see I wasn't solid on which ships I would be doing. This fic will include Jily (or Lames, as I like to call it), WolfStar, and a onesided!John/Remus thing. This is the first of three parts (it's a trilogy of sorts), and will take place during John's four years at Hogwarts. The second will be the rest of his schooling, and the third will begin shortly before his 29th birthday, and cover all of Harry's years, and some bits before.
I am also accepting OCs! Please send your OCs in, because I desperately need more characters. Please just fill out this form, and I will either write a short sorting ceremony for your character or tell you why I cannot use them (as well as give you the opportunity to fix the things I am not accepting). Please note that the dorm limit is 5 people, so nobody else can be a 5th year Gryffindor boy, but literally every other combination of year/house/gender is fine.
My only absolute requirement that I will not discuss is that you need to have an account for me to accept your OC. I need to be able to respond to you, and if you don't have an account there is no way for me to contact you. Please make an account if you do not have one already and you want to submit an OC.
Name: (Do not be Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way unless you want me to cry)
Gender/Sexuality: (Sexuality likely won't be too important but I like to know anyways)
Birthdate: (For now just assume Marauder's era birthdates. Keep between the years 1953-1963 and note that most of the students in the Marauder's grade were born before September in 1960, or after September in 1959)
Blood Status: (This is much more important here than it was in Harry's time, because blood tensions were much higher at this point as we lead up to the first war against Voldemort)
Wand: (Use Pottermore information to choose the most accurate wood/core/length/flexibility because I will be looking up the meaning and it will help me understand them as a character)
Appearance: (keep in mind that it's the 70s)
Preferred House: (I will take your preference into account if I am struggling to make a decision, but I may decide on a different house so don't expect this to affect my decision too much)
Personality: (please be detailed here so I can understand your character better and sort them properly)
Values: (what traits does your character value in a person? Do they see magic as a gift or a tool? Do they care for blood purity? Note that there is probably a lot of blood tension due to the time period. What do they want to use magic for? I'm not asking you to answer all of these questions, but do try to think along those lines for this section. It's very important to sorting, as I believe this section is what helped put Hermione and possibly Neville in Gryffindor. Do NOT just list the traits of the house you want to be in)
Backstory: (you can be like, tragic, but if you're too tragic I will either reject your character, never explore the complexity of them, or further discuss possibly putting them in the second part of the story instead of the first, as I will be able to explore complex characters more in-depth with the second part)
(original A/N)
So, here's the beginning of this new and improved adventure! If you read TtH, you might remember me mentioning that I was planning on changing John's name to Jean, to be more French and also separate his name from my name, but... Then I changed my name to Sean, so John got to stay the same.
This story will follow John's first three or four years at Hogwarts, and I have a pretty good idea as to where I'm going. Pairings will include Jily, possibly WolfStar, and perhaps a onesided John/Remus kind of thing. I might cut that out, I might not. At this point, John's sexuality seems really unimportant, but in the future, after Sirius's death, him and Remus might get together. Who knows.
