James Potter looked around the crowded platform, his parents beside him. Finally, after years of waiting, he was going to Hogwarts. He'd heard so much about it from his parents and couldn't wait for it to be his turn at the legendary school. He turned to say goodbye to his parents and as his mother gave him a tearful hug, he noticed a handsome boy with black hair that fell elegantly into his eyes. The boy had fine, chiselled features and was wearing a Quidditch t-shirt that clearly stated that he was a Tornados' supporter and proud of it. James grinned inwardly.
"Tornados," he thought. "Ha! What a joke! It's Catapults all the way."
The boy was watching them with an odd look on his face as though, James thought, almost wistfully. James suddenly saw the boy's eyes snap to his face and he saw James looking at him. The boy flushed and hastily turned his face away before hurrying off to find a compartment. Then, the whistle blew and after taking a deep breath, James boarded the train.
Sirius Black watched a boy his own age with glasses being hugged by his mother. The boy was skinny, had messy black hair that stuck up at odd angles and was wearing a Quidditch t-shirt that clearly stated that he was a Catapults supporter and proud of it. Sirius smirked.
"Catapults," he muttered. "Ha! What a joke! It's Tornados all the way."
But then Sirius wondered what it would be like to have a loving family like that. His mother (if you could call her a mother, he thought bitterly) had dropped him off at the station an hour earlier, after a long lecture on 'upholding the family honour' (whatever that meant, not that he bothered to listen anyway). The only words he caught were 'Slytherin will lead you down the path to greatness' and 'Remember boy, Toujours Pur'. For some reason, both these phrases sickened him. Suddenly, he saw the boy he was contemplating looking at him, and having been caught staring, Sirius turned bright red before hurrying away.
There was only one compartment with room left and James knocked on the door before entering. He saw, with a jolt of recognition, the boy he had noticed on the platform.
"Can I sit here?" James asked confidently. "Everywhere else is full".
The other boy's piercing grey eyes locked onto James' startling hazel ones, which were behind round-framed glasses. He grinned and nodded. Not even five minutes had passed before they were talking as if they had known each other for years.
"So, which House do you think you're going to be in?" James asked.
Sirius' eyes darkened.
"My family is one of those pureblood mania types and I don't give a damn about them. All their prejudiced thoughts and ways. They've been in Slytherin for centuries but I'm going to make sure that I am definitely NOT! I'm not like them." he stated, as though daring anyone to object.
He said the last word with ringing force. James looked momentarily stunned by the outburst and then his face broke into a huge grin.
"Great! Then we can hope you're in Gryffindor with me. Well, I'm quite sure I'll be in Gryffindor anyway. My family has been in that House for years, and I guess I will be too. Bravery happens to be one of my strong points," he added cockily.
Sirius coughed pointedly and grinned.
"Tornados huh?" smirked James suddenly.
"Yeah. What about you? Catapults?" replied Sirius coolly.
"Well they're obviously going to win the League," retaliated James.
"No way mate, the Tornados are way too good. Remember that game in 1961? The Seeker caught the Snitch in five seconds! I'd like to see your seeker do that"
James thought fast. "Well, no one's ever put more than three goals past our goalkeeper. What about that game when your goalkeeper let in – how much was it again? – oh yeah, fifteen goals in a row?"
Sirius opened his mouth to strike back.
Suddenly, the compartment door opened and two boys appeared in the doorway. Judging by their size and the nervous looks on both their faces, they were both first years.
"Excuse me, but Peter and I have nowhere to sit and we were wondering whether we could join you?" said one of the boys who had sandy coloured hair, brown eyes. He was quite handsome apart from the fact that he looked slightly ill. He looked at them hesitantly.
The other boy, who was chubby with blonde hair and watery eyes, looked terrified at the very sight of James and Sirius. They exchanged a glance before smiling and nodding. The boy with the sandy coloured hair smiled and sat down, whilst the other followed him like a lost puppy.
When the two boys had walked into the compartment, Sirius immediately felt there was something different about the smaller one. For one, he looked scared stiff of the sight of him and James. "Am I that bad looking," thought Sirius. "Oh, wait. It's probably James." Sirius sniggered inwardly. The boy seemed to be looking at both of them in turn, almost as if he were…sizing them up or gauging their power. Sirius shook his head. "Can't get prejudiced thoughts Sirius. Can't act like my 'so-called' family. Never judge a book by its' cover. Remember that." he told himself. So he pushed away his earlier thoughts, glanced at James and nodded to the two boys with a smile on his face, never knowing until it was too late that he had just made the worst mistake in his entire life.
"I'm Remus Lupin, by the way," he said.
"Sirius Black."
"James Potter."
They looked expectantly at the chubby boy who squeaked in a VERY high-pitched voice, "I'm Peter Pettigrew."
James, Sirius and Remus looked at each other before bursting into laughter.
"Hey! Do you have a problem with my name?" squeaked Peter in an even higher pitched voice that caused the three boys to start howling with laughter again.
"No," gasped James. "It's just your voi-," but he was cut off by Remus who was really a kind soul and didn't want Peter to be hurt.
"It's nothing Peter," he said. This only caused James and Sirius to burst into peals of laughter and roll about in their seats. Even Remus had to hide his smile while Peter looked on indignantly, before breaking into laughter himself.
None of them noticed a pair of eyes. A pair of cold, haunting, neck-prickling eyes that surveyed them from another compartment as they laughed and joked together.
An hour and a half later, the Hogwarts Express stopped at Hogsmeade Station and the four boys jumped off the train together. They saw a huge shape in front of them and thought at first that it was an odd place to build a small building: in the middle of a platform, when suddenly—
"Firs'-years, over here. Firs'-years follow me."
Remus, Sirius and Peter jumped but James kept his cool.
"That's Hagrid, the gamekeeper," said James to the others. "My dad told me all about him. He's really nice."
"He's really big," stated Peter unnecessarily. The others just gave him a 'look' whilst following Hagrid.
"Yeh'll get yer firs' look o' Hogwarts now", said Hagrid. And sure enough, a huge castle with many towers and windows that sparkled in the moonlight came into view.
"It's brilliant," breathed James.
"It's cool," murmured Sirius.
"It's beautiful," whispered Remus.
"It's big," stated Peter.
James, Sirius and Remus just stared at Peter for a moment until Hagrid bellowed, "No more than four to a boat."
They began walking towards an unoccupied boat, when suddenly things started happening very fast. A boy with greasy, black hair and a pallid face pushed Peter aside roughly. Peter stumbled into Remus, who knocked into Sirius, who collapsed against James and needless to say they all fell into the lake. In one second Hagrid had pulled them all out and in the next James and Sirius had pulled out their wands and pointed it straight at the boy. Peter looked terrified, but after glancing at James and Sirius he too hesitantly pulled out his wand. And even though Remus alone looked calm, he too, was annoyed. The other boy pulled out his wand too, but before anything could happen Hagrid stepped in between them (that worked very effectively) and said, "Yeh don't want to be gettin' in trouble on yer firs' day, do yeh?"
James and Sirius said nothing but lowered their wands and glared at the other boy, who sent a look of pure venom at them, sneered menacingly at Peter (who shrank back) turned around and started to walk away. But Sirius wanted to have the last word.
"You better watch out for yourself!" he snarled.
"Is that a threat?" asked the other boy in a deadly quiet voice.
"Why, maybe it is," said Sirius casually, who was still dripping wet as were James, Remus and Peter.
"And you think I'm scared of you?" sneered the boy.
"You better be!" growled Sirius.
"What's with the sidekick?" he said pointing at Peter. "Can't take me on alone?"
Sirius, embarrassed, turned on Peter. "Who asked you to get involved? Stay out of this," whispered Sirius, pushing Peter towards Remus, who was standing nearby.
He turned around again, facing the boy, not noticing the shadow that passed over Peter's eyes.
"What's it to you? Just because you don't have any friends! Although I suppose that overlarge nose of yours could count as another person altogether." snapped James. Sirius let out a bark-like laugh.
The boy opened his mouth in a snarl but Hagrid intervened yet again. "Alrigh', alrigh', we're already late. Into the boats with yer all now."
James and Sirius said nothing, but glared one last time at the boy before stalking off with Remus and Peter following.
"He's asking for it," snarled James and Sirius at the same time, as soon as the boats started moving. "Sorry I snapped at you earlier Peter. That idiotic git just annoys me to the-", started Sirius, but he suddenly stopped when he saw Remus look skywards and shiver.
"Are you alright Remus?" asked James.
"Er – yeah. I've just recovered from a cold and – er – after falling into the lake I feel cold again. Yeah, that's it." Remus said this all in a very fast and feverish manner, but the others didn't notice.
"It's alright. I'm sure we'll get dry when we get to the castle," said Sirius.
"It's okay, Sirius." said Peter, referring to Sirus' earlier statement. He was clearly trying to get back into Sirius' good books. I mean you and James really took care of him", he gushed.
Sirius frowned, obviously not very pleased with the evident flattery, but James seemed to like it. "Yeah, we did, didn't we Sirius?" said James, proudly.
The boats then stopped and the first years followed Hagrid up to the enormous front doors of the castle. Hagrid knocked three times with his massive fist and the doors swung open at once. A tall, thin shadow came into view.