"Hurry up!" Hermione yelled back at her children while pushing a cart toward the train.
"Come on," Harry repeated to the four kids with their pets, "We don't want to miss the train, do we?"
"Maybe," was the mumbled reply from the oldest of Harry and Hermione's kids, James. James, at the age of 12, had messy black hair and glasses like his father with his mother's shining brown eyes.
His brother, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. 11-year old Albus, the oldest of triplets, had brown hair and his green eyes had 20/20 vision.
His sister, Harmony, the second of the triplets, was similar in looks to Albus. Her hair was brown and bushy, eyes of bright emerald with a white dazzling smile.
The last of the children was Lily. Her big eyes- sometimes green, sometimes hazel- ready to suck up every bit of information they could gather, her waist length black hair semi-strait but messy.
"Dad," Albus complained, "James says I'm going to be in Slytherin!"
"No I didn't!" James shot at his brother, "I said you MIGHT be in Slytherin! MIGHT!"
"No you didn't!"
"Yes, I did!" James said, glaring at his brother.
Albus glared back. "Oh, shut up, will you!" Harmony shouted.
"Honestly," Lily popped in, "no one cares."
"Dad," Albus said, ignoring his sisters, "what will happen if I get put in Slytherin?"
"Your mother and I will disown you," Harry replied calmly.
"Harry," Hermione scolded. This was not surprising, she seemed to scold her husband more than her kids. "All right children, through the wall, quickly."
Lily instantly rushed at the barrier, Harmony right behind. Harry had to push the still arguing boys toward their sisters, and, with some prodding, they made it through the barrier.
The train was loading and Lily was getting anxious, shifting the cat in her arms into different positions every 5 seconds. Hermione hugged her girls the boys pleading that they were to manly for hugs. "Your father and I will see you there." And with that, they boarded.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Xander roamed the train looking for an empty compartment, which were getting increasingly hard to find. He was roughly bumped to the side. "If you're going to torment me, Potter," he said to the back of James's head, "at least stay around to gloat." James turned only to glare.
As he made his way towards an empty compartment, it was taken by a brown haired boy followed by two girls, one brown haired, one with hair of a deep black. As the black haired one passed him, she smiled and gave him a short wave of greeting. He noticed an orange cat with a pure white chest and a squashed in face in her arms. He was able to return the greeting before she disappeared into the compartment.
"Oi! Xander!" His friend was waving from four compartments down, "Come on!"
Xander slowly made his way over to his friends.
Before he could shut the door behind him, a cat, the same cat that he had seen in the girls arms, came rushing into the compartment. " Well, hey there," Xander said reaching down to pet it as it rubbed against his leg, "what are you doing here?" He picked it up and walked outside.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Neko!" Lily shrieked after her cat, "Neko, come back here!"
She came out of the compartment and saw a blonde haired boy caring her cat. "Hello," he said giving her a bright white smile, "is this your cat? He decided to come into my apartment," he stroked the cat's head before giving it back to Lily.
"Thank you," she said, retuning his smile and taking her cat, "I'm Lily."
"Xander. I-" he was going to say more, but the door of the compartment next to them opened.
"You two haven't happened to have seen Professor Snape, did you?" the brown haired girl that had popped her head out asked.
"Um," Xander started, "no. We…er….haven't.
"Such a pity," the girl replied, "I was so hoping to see him. Would you like to sit with me?"
Xander shrugged, "Sure, why not. Lily?" She nodded and they entered.
Aside from the girl, the compartment was empty. "I'm Aqua Wonslow. This is my first year at Hogwarts."
"It's my second. I'm Xander Cook and this is-"
"Lily Potter," Lily cut in, "and this is my first year as well."
"Wait," Xander said, "you wouldn't, by chance, be related to a James Potter, would you?"
"Yes," Lily replied warily, "why?"
"Lets just say we aren't the best of friends."
"Whatever he did, I'm sorry. He can be such a pain. I'm nothing like that."
"I can tell."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Once again we're off to the only place you can die of boredom, school." Molly Weasley sat next to her best friend Edic Kornwel in her compartment. Molly (Scarlet and George's daughter) was also with her cousin Sarah, Ron and Luna's daughter.
"Well at least we'll have more people to prank," Edic responded, "that's the only upside from where I stand."
"Not even if you get to see Veronica again?" Sarah said, looking up from her copy of The Quibbler. Normally she didn't hang out with her cousin, but this being her first year…
"Oooooooooooh," Molly laughed and threw a few Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans at him.
"Hey, you're just jealous because you can't get a boyfriend."
"She is not your girlfriend," Molly said laughing again, "and at least if I like somebody I at least say more than a sentence to them." He responded by throwing some of his food at her. She laughed at the fact that she had infuriated her friend.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Why do you want to see Snape so badly?" Xander asked, then grimaced as he put a vomit flavored bean in his mouth.
"He's one of the most brilliant potions masters of all time," Aqua explained, wrinkling up her nose as she sniffed the bean she had pulled out of her bag. After much consideration, she dropped it back in the bag, pulled out another, sniffed it, and popped it into her mouth. She grinned at it's lemony taste.
"Well, I, for one, am not looking forward to meeting him." Lily said, watching as Xander made another face at the bean.
"Ya," Xander said, giving up on the beans altogether, "I'm in his house and I don't even like him."
"You two just don't understand his genius. Oh, I can't wait!"
"You won't have to," Xander said with a smile, "We're here."
XXXXXXX
Once off the train, Xander turned to his new friends, "Well, it was a pleasure meeting you, ladies, but I must depart," he said doing an exaggerated bow. "We'll hang out sometime, okay?" And he ran off.
"What a strange boy," Lily said, watching him go.
"Come on, Lily. We must get sorted." Aqua gave a little squeal and, grabbing Lily's arm, ran off to the boats.
