Chapter 1-James
This was it; they were finally leaving for Hogwarts. He had waited all of his life for this moment and now that it had arrived, James wasn't disappointed in the slightest. In all honesty, he had been so eagerly awaiting this, that he had completely forgotten to wave at his tearful parents who were standing on the platform, their arms raised in farewell, already missing their beloved son.
Now that they were out of King's Cross, there was a lot of commotion in the corridors as people fought their way through the crowds in order to reach the best compartments. A knock sounded at the door as a small, weedy boy slid it open. He was ugly, James thought immediately as he noticed the resemblance to a rat on his pointed features.
"Please may I sit with you?" he addressed the compartment at large, obviously too afraid to direct his request at an individual. James nodded, as did Remus and Sirius. Remus moved over in order to allow the newcomer some room. His eyes gazed around the compartment as he took in the three boys and the ginger haired girl whose face none of them had seen since they had entered the carriage. From the sobbing noises she was making, James guessed she had been crying. He didn't know why though, but at the moment he couldn't care, he was thrilled that he was finally on the Hogwarts Express.
He zoned back into the conversation around him in which the volume seemed to have risen. They were talking about Hogwarts.
"I can't wait!" Sirius exclaimed in answer to something that Remus had said.
"For what?" James asked, eager to be included in the conversation.
"The food of course!" Sirius answered as his handsome face lit up, defining his features.
"My parents said that it's brilliant," James verified. "Apparently there are hundreds of house-elves working in a kitchen somewhere. I'd love to find them."
"That would be cool," James could see Sirius imagining all of the food they would be able to steal if they found the house-elves.
"I wish we had a house-elf," Remus mused, more to himself than anyone else. He seemed quite shy, James noted, surprised even that he was sat around other people, having a conversation. If he hadn't have mentioned that about house-elves, James wouldn't have been surprised if he was a muggle born. On the other hand, he had no idea what to think of the newcomer, Peter or whatever he was called.
Just then, a boy pressed his nose to the tiny glass windows in the compartment door before opening it and stepping inside. As soon as he saw him, James could tell that he was going to dislike this boy. His hair was greasy and his nose long and hooked. He looked rough, like he needed a good wash and his poor manners had already irritated James. He could see by the expression on Sirius' face that he was thinking the same. Inwardly, James smiled. He could see how similar he and Sirius were.
The greasy boy took in everyone in the carriage, from James' smirk, Remus' quite composure, Peter's hunched up form and Sirius' lounged out frame. Then he looked at the girl in the corner and sat opposite her. They obviously knew each other as she lifted her head to talk to him.
James turned back to their conversation which was still centring around house-elves. He wasn't really interested anymore; a lot more interested with what the greasy kid would want to say to this harmless and timid looking girl.
Their conversation was quite dull, about how this girl was obviously a muggle born. However, James found his opening as he heard the boy utter the words "You'd better be in Slytherin."
"Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" James asked Sirius, hoping that his new friend would make a dig at this greasy kid.
"My whole family have been in Slytherin," Sirius admitted not seeming fazed by this in the slightest.
"Blimey," James was shocked, "and I thought you seemed alright!" Sirius grinned at his words.
"Maybe I'll break the tradition," he looked hopeful and James was just glad hat this boy had a sense of humour. They were more alike than he had dared to hope for. "Where are you heading if you have the choice?"
"Gryffindor where dwell the brave at heart! Like my Dad," James drew an imaginary sword as he spoke, revelling in his make believe glory. The greasy child made a snort at that and James felt a rush of pride. He had annoyed this child. Obviously his family were that type.
Knowing that now would be the perfect opportunity to infuriate this boy even further, James asked "Do you have a problem with that?" hoping beyond hope that he did.
"No," he sneered. Just a cover up, James assured himself. "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy— "
"Where are you hoping to go seeing as you're neither?" Sirius cut in and James' face lit up. He was so grateful for Sirius' cover up. He had saved some humour at James' expense and managed to carry on his joking. James couldn't help it, he roared with laughter and amidst his gasps for air, he noticed the ginger girl sit up straight, her face flushed with anger. However, the look didn't go well with her blood shot eyes, red from crying and that just made James laugh harder. She looked between him and Sirius with a look of pure hatred before turning back to the greasy child.
Come on Severus, let's find another compartment."
"Ooooooooo," both boys taunted as they stood up and crossed to the door. James stuck his leg out as the boy who was named Severus—no wonder he looked so angry at life—passed. Unluckily, at the last second he spotted it and jumped over with surprising agility for a boy who looked so un-sporty. He slammed the door closed with a great force as a shout of "See ya, Snivellus," followed them out. James looked around for the speaker and found that it was Remus, the quiet boy. He was shocked, but then grinned an identical grin to the one that was lighting up Sirius' face.
"We're going to have fun with him," Sirius voiced James' thoughts and the three of them nodded. Only the new boy, Peter looked unconvinced as he agreed half heartedly. James threw a sidelong glance at Sirius, conveying his thoughts that they should ditch Peter at first chance. Sirius gave the tiniest nod in reply. He'd understood.
The rest of the journey to Hogwarts passed in a happy blur. After an hour of happy chatter Remus produced a pack of exploding snap and once they had exhausted the game, they decided to attempt to build a tower out of the cards. All of them proved quite adept at this except Peter who knocked the half completed tower down when he finally plucked up the courage to place a card on top and shying away from the disappointed stares directed at him from the other three, he hunched up in a corner, stating that he preferred to watch than play.
It took a surprising amount of effort and skill to balance the cards without an explosion, but eventually only one card remained.
"You do it," Remus passed the last card to James, suddenly sharing Peter's fear of being the one to knock the whole thing over.
"Wimp," James grabbed the card and hit Remus with it teasingly as he strategically scrutinised the whole tower, working out where the best position was. He seemed to settle on just going for the top of the whole thing and so stretched out his arm in order to place it on top. When he succeeded and the tower still refused to explode, the other three cheered and James performed a mock bow. Even Peter was clapping, an expression of genuine excitement lighting up his face.
Just then someone slid the compartment door back and the gush of air that rushed into the compartment made a couple of the cards flutter and that was it. BANG! The whole thing had exploded. The elderly woman who was standing in the doorway looked slightly shocked at her less than welcome greeting, but the boys weren't bothered about the tower which was now in ashes on the floor. They had caught sight of the trolley that she was pushing. It was piled high with sweets and chocolate of all kinds and the four of them delved into their pockets in order to try and find some money to spend on the sweets.
Naturally, James was the first to succeed as his family was of a lot of wealth. He purchased an abundance of chocolate frogs and sat back down, satisfied with his purchase.
Sirius came next and he bought a couple of packs of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, some cauldron cakes and liquorice wands. That left Peter and Remus who were both short of a good sum of money to buy some fizzing whizbees.
All content with their purchases, they spread them out on the seat that Severus had recently occupied and all took what they wanted. The chocolate frog cards were shared around as well the pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans which contained a few normal flavours but also had a goblin sick flavour that Remus had to spit out and Sirius was surprised by his frog spawn flavour. However, James and Peter managed with normal flavours like cauliflower and spinach which may have been slightly on the disgusting side but could have been a lot worse.
On the whole, when the train pulled into Hogsmeade Station and the driver came over the speakers telling everybody to leave their luggage on the train, James was quite sad to be leaving this brilliant journey behind. The feeling didn't last long though because when he caught sight of the close up mountains he remembered exactly where they were headed and followed the crowd of students onto the platform. Today was the day that his whole childhood had been leading up to and he wasn't disappointed in the slightest.