A/N: This was just something I came up with during the summer holidays. I was bored and needed a break from A Year To Remember, so this little one-shot was born! Oh and I have taken a few parts from DH, Chapter 33 - The Prince's Tale. In a nutshell, this is James' journey from the trip to Diagon Alley with his mum, to the Sorting Ceremony on September 1st.

Disclaimer: James, Lily and co. all belong to the great Queen of the Harry Potterish Kingdom. Well, I suppose she doesn't own this plot though, I, thankfully, have at least SOME right to that. . . I think . . .

Anyways, ENJOY!!

What If?

by lat134

"But Mum," a worried boy with messy black hair called out, "What if I don't make any friends? What if nobody likes me? What if," he made a face of disgust, "What if the Sorting Hat puts me in Slytherin? What if–?"

"JAMES!" the mother interrupted, "Please stop worrying. If you don't hurry up, we'll never get to Diagon Alley." The boy immediately stopped badgering his mother with his 'what ifs' and rushed to catch up. They finally crossed Charing Cross Road and entered the Leaky Cauldron. "Hey Tom, morning," Diana Potter said brightly.

Tom grumbled a "Good morning" in response and set off cleaning the dishes. Diana shrugged and led her eleven year old son to the back. Here, she pulled out her wand and tapped the bricks.

"WOW!" James said in amazement.

"Oh come on Jamie, you've been through here hundreds of times," Diana said rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, but it's still awesome!" James said in awe as the bricks pulled apart, before following his mother into the busy alleyway.

"Darn it, I knew we should have come earlier," Diana mumbled to herself. "Now stay close James and please don't run off," she said a little louder.

"Okay Mum," he replied.

Swiftly they walked through the crowds towards Gringotts Bank and up the marble steps. Pushing open the great bronze doors, James stared open mouthed at the largeness and grandness of the great bank. Diana smiled at her son's reaction before heading towards and empty counter in front of an old goblin.

James barely listened to his mother's conversation with the goblin, so before he knew it, he was being dragged off to the vault on one of the Gringotts carts. When it eventually came to a stop, James' mother, who did look a little green from the ride, got out and opened the vault. Inside, was the largest amount of gold, silver and bronze piles of coins that it never seemed to end, she scooped out a considerable amount of each and placed it into a grey money bag, before shutting the door and jumping back in the cart.

As they flew down the tracks, Diana said to James, "Honey, first we're gonna get you robes okay? So stay close to me because it is very busy,." James nodded is understanding. Minutes later they screeched to a stop and so James and his mother walked out the great bronze doors and onto the cobbled street. Before they walked into Madam Malkin's clean white robe shop, Diana pulled James to the side and said she was going to get his school books. James nodded and was about to push open the door, but Diana stopped him to hand over a small amount of galleons. The shop bell tinkled as he pushed open the heavy door.

"Are you for Hogwarts deary?" a tall, old lady asked James as soon as the door clanged shut behind him. James assumed this must be Madam Malkin.

"Yeah I am," he answered.

"Come and wait over here then, I'll just finish up with this young lady and I'll fit you up." She led him over to where another boy his age was standing with his mother. "I won't be long."

"Hi I'm James," James introduced himself to the boy with black hair.

"I'm Black, Sirius Black." The boy said in James Bond style. James laughed.

"Are you going to Hogwarts?" he asked.

"Yeah, I can't wait. Do you like Quidditch at all?" Sirius asked curiously.

"I LOVE it! My favourite team's Puddlemere United. Yours?"

"The Holyhead Harpies."

"Sweetie, we've got to go." Mrs Black said to her son, casting both boys and apologetic glance.

"Okay Mum, see you at Hogwarts James." Sirius called out, following his Mum out the door.

"Yeah, bye Sirius." James watched the two leave the shop.

"Thank you ma'am," the girl was now paying Madam Malkin and was walking out the shop. But before she left the shop completely, she turned around and flashed James a smile, her red hair blowing in the breeze from the open door. She turned back and was out the door before anyone could say anything. Before long, Madam Malkin had him up on the stool getting measured and fitted into school robes.

Ten minutes later saw James walking out with an armful of bags containing his new robes. Once outside he looked around for his Mum. He spotted her looking at owls in the shop next door so he ran to meet her.

"Hey Mum! I met a boy called Sirius, and he's really nice and he's going to Hogwarts too!" Diana smiled at his excitement.

"That's great Jamie. Now, I've got every thing on your list except your wand. Come on, let's go to Ollivander's. "She walked off in the opposite direction, James not far behind her.

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"You'll have fun this year, won't you James?" Diana said, giving her son a final hug.

"Cause I will! I hope I'm in Gryffindor!" James said excitedly, returning the hug before turning to his father.

"Don't forget to write to us son," Mr Potter said. Suddenly the whistle blew. "You better go. Go find Serious and get on that train!" James laughed.

"DAD! It's not 'Serious' it's Sirius. Like the star!"
"Whatever, just go find him and have fun kiddo!"

"See ya!" he gave his parents one last hug before dragging his trunk towards the Hogwarts Express.

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As the train zoomed out of view, Diana and Charles Potter gave a final wave and walked out of the station.

"Our little boy's growing up! Remember when –" Diana said excitedly to her husband once they were out of the station.

"Darling, you've said this every time he does something new. So far we've had his first tooth, walking, crawling, sitting up…You don't need to say the 'Remember' stories every time, otherwise we'll be still hearing about it after we die." Charles said amusedly. Diana giggled at his reaction.

"Alright, are you hungry?" she said, without waiting for an answer, she dragged him off to the nearest café for lunch.

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James watched his parents disappear from view, then sat back and relaxed. Sure, he hadn't been able to find Sirius, but the chances were that he'd turn up. If not, they'd always see each other at school. As if on cue, the compartment door slid open revealing a handsome first year who waltzed into the room.

"Mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full. Thanks," he said without waiting for an answer.

James nodded numbly. Suddenly it clicked.

"Sirius?" he asked the boy who was now putting his trunk on the luggage rack above them.

"Yeah?" Sirius answered, without bothering to ask how the other boy knew his name.

"It's me, James."

"James!?" he turned around so suddenly that he nearly lost his grip on the trunk.

"Hey, you need a hand with that?" James asked his friend.

"Sure, thanks," Sirius said gratefully. Together, they pushed the heavy trunk onto the rack. "Not too sure how we'll get that one down."

Soon, two more people opened the door asking if they could sit with them. Sirius and James were way too excited about Hogwarts and magic to be bothered declining, so they said ok to both. The pair sat down and the girl, who happened to be the same one from Madam Malkin's, introduced herself as Lily Evans. She gave a small wink to James as she said it. The other one introduced himself as Remus Lupin; he seemed very shy so Sirius took the initiative of asking heaps of questions. Surprisingly, this worked and Remus relaxed quite a bit. The three boys soon began a whole conversation on Quidditch related stuff. Lily, being muggleborn hadn't the faintest idea what they were on about, so she stayed out of the conversation, preferring to instead watch the passing scenery.

The compartment door slid open again and a boy sat down opposite Lily. James was too busy talking with his new friends to notice.

"…and then my Dad's like, 'your not gonna kill me Mr Death Eater' and he sent this wicked spell at him and knocked him out cold…" James was saying, only when the new boy said:

"…you better be in Slytherin," to Lily did they look up.

"Slytherin?" James asked in disbelief, "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" he asked Sirius.

"My whole family have been in Slytherin," Sirius answered.

"Blimey," James said, "And I thought you seemed alright!"

Sirius merely grinned, "Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading if you've got the choice?"

"Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!" James lifted an invisible sword, "Like my Dad." The boy sitting opposite Lily snorted. "Got a problem with that?"

"No," the boy sneered, "If you'd rather be brawny rather than brainy–"

"Where are you hoping to go seeing as you're neither?" interrupted Sirius. James burst into laughter. Lily sat up in her seat and looked at both James and Sirius in disgust.

"Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment."

James and Severus attempted to trip the boy on his way out.

"Seeya Snivellus!" Sirius called as the door slammed shut.

"Good one Sirius!" James said, giving his friend a high-five. Remus had watched the whole exchange, feeling a tiny bit sorry for the Severus kid, but he didn't have the courage to say so to his new friends.

By the time they had reached Hogwarts, a boy called Peter had become their friend, they'd all found out that they all loved pulling pranks on people, so they would become Hogwarts' new team of pranksters, the students wouldn't stand a chance with this bunch!

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"Black, Sirius," Professor McGonagall called out. Sirius' cousin, Andromeda and Narcissa, both looked up from the Slytherin table. Andromeda was Head Girl and Narcissa a fifth year prefect. It was expected that Sirius would be soon joining them, but then again, the Sorting Hat had many other plans for this particular boy.

"Hmm, another Black…Yes, very difficult…But where to put you...very, very difficult. Quite a lot of bravery…Friends with a Potter...So be it. GRYFFINDOR!!" the hat shouted the final word to the rest of the hall who looked up in astonishment. Sirius grinned at James as he made his way to the Gryffindor table. Bellatrix looked at her cousin in pure shock, before glaring at him in dislike. She always knew he was a 'bad egg'. Andromeda, however, was happy for Sirius. She alone knew how much he hated being like the rest of the family, though she was worried about the rest of the family's reaction.

Not long afterwards, Professor McGonagall called out "Evans, Lily," Lily walked up to the school, legs trembling, and sat down on the old stool. Barely a second later and the hat cried, "GRYFFINDOR!" Lily gave a small smile to her friend, Severus, and walked over to the table. Sirius moved over to give her room to sit down, but when she recognised him as the boy from the train, she turned her back on him and crossed her arms.

As the line of students thinned and were sorted, 'Lupin, Remus' and then 'Pettigrew, Peter' became Gryffindors. Finally it was James' turn. Once his name was called out, he walked, nervously, up to the stool and hat. It just touched his head before screeching out, "GRYFFINDOR!" Happily, he got up from the stool and grinned at Sirius, before walking over to him.

Knowing that this year was going to be great, he turned around and watched the remaining students be sorted.

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The next morning, Diana Potter woke up to an empty house. Her son was currently attending his first year at Hogwarts and her husband had left early for work. Charles was an Auror at the Ministry of Magic, and with people dying all over the place, muggles and wizards alike, he was quite busy. After getting dressed, she walked downstairs to the kitchen. A large eagle owl was tapping anxiously at the window, she quickly let the bird in and untied the letter.

'Dear Mum and Dad,' it read.

'I'm doing great at Hogwarts so far, the place is truly something. I made it into Gryffindor an hour or so ago. You know my friend Sirius? Well his whole family have been in Slytherin, but he defied the odds and is currently sharing a dorm with me, Remus and Peter. – They're my other new friends from the train. There's also another boy called Frank in my dorm, but we don't speak to each other much.

'I met this boy on the train. He has really greasy hair and he's quite a git. He got into Slytherin; I think his name was something like Severus. His friend, Lily Evans, got into Gryffindor though. She's really nice, got red hair and green eyes. But I get the feeling that she doesn't like me or Sirius cos' we teased her friend on the train. But don't get me wrong, he did start it.

'Anyway, I better go, Professor McGonagall, our Head of House, just called lights out. She seems like the kind of person I don't' want to get on to the wrong side of, kind, but really strict. But what if I get into trouble with her, will she really chop me up like the older kids say, or not?

Good night,

From your son,

James Potter'

Diana dabbed a tear from her eyes. She pulled a quill out and a piece of parchment towards her and began writing a reply. Her little baby had nothing to worry about after all.

FIN

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