Hi all! So this is my first fanfic, been reading loads of HP ones recently so decided to try one of my own. This is about the lovely Calandra Elizabeth Rose, otherwise known as Cally, my favourite original character right now, also a character in a book I'm writing, so she is completely mine, as is her family, no stealing, unless you ask first :) Basically it follows her through her life at Hogwarts, where she becomes friends with James Potter, Fred Weasley and Louis Weasley. I've put those two in the same year as James as I'm gonna try making them like the maurauders minus Peter. James is like James, Fred is like Sirius and Louis is like Remus, I hope you notice the parallels between them at some point. Eventually will be Cally/James but there'll be other pairings along the way as to my fancy. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all rights go to Rowling.
1 The Hogwarts Express
As I walked with my parents towards the barrier that led to platform nine and three quarters, I spotted a family also with trunks, and an owl, heading in the same direction as us. They must be a wizard family I thought. Then I noticed the scar on the father's head; Harry Potter.
"Calandra, will you pay attention to where you're going, we need to go through the barrier now," scolded my mother.
I turned my attention away from the family and focused on the barrier in front of me. I knew what to expect and walked lazily through to the other side. I was greeted by a great commotion of movement and noise, as parents said goodbye to their children and friends were reunited.
"Now Calandra, I want you to behave yourself, and try no mixing with the wrong people. Of course you're bound to be in Slytherin so you shouldn't have to worry about that," my father told me almost as soon as he was through the barrier.
"Yes father," I replied, not looking him in the face.
I gave them all stiff hugs in turn, first my mother, then my brother Amadeus, and lastly my father. That was the extent of our goodbye and I quickly made my way over to the train. Just before getting in I took one last look to the barrier, but they must have gone because in their place stood Harry Potter and his family. I looked towards his children, of which there were three. The first I saw was a young red-headed girl who couldn't have been more than about 8, she looked tearful and was clutching onto her mother's hand firmly. The next was a shy looking boy who looked like a younger version his father and I guessed he was roughly the same age as Amadeus. He stood close to his father and seemed to be overwhelmed by it all. The last looked about the same age as me, maybe a bit older. He had a mischievous grin on his face and looked to be impatient, wanting to get going.
His eyes wandered lazily around and noticed me staring at him. His eyes fixed with mine for a few seconds before I span around and hurried onto the train, carrying my trunk and owl cage along to a free compartment. After safely stowing away my trunk and my owl Harmony's cage, I settled myself in a seat by the window and took out my secret copy of Pride and Prejudice. The reason it was secret was because my parents despised anything muggle, including their books. I'd found the book in the streets of London on the day we got my school things form Diagon Alley and had quickly stowed it away in a pocket. It wasn't a favourite of mine, but I read anything I could get my hands on. I opened it to the page I had been on before and started reading.
As soon as I started reading however, I was interrupted by the compartment door opening. I looked up from the book to find myself staring into the big brown eyes of the eldest Potter child again. The grin he's been wearing earlier returned to his face.
"Staring at me again eh? I really am irresistible," smirked the boy.
"Don't flatter yourself Potter," I scoffed, resuming reading my book.
"Pride and Prejudice? Isn't that totally boring?" he asked, settling himself down in the seat opposite me.
"Mm, a bit, yeah," I replied vaguely, staying focused on the book.
"Then why are you reading it," it was his turn to scoff.
"I've got nothing else to read, that's why," I replied, glancing briefly up from the page.
"How do you know I'm a Potter?" he asked, choosing to give up on the book and returning to my previous comment.
"Well it's pretty obvious, isn't it?" I responded.
"Hmm, well I bet you don't know my first name," retorted the boy.
"No, enlighten me," I joked playfully.
"James. My name is James Sirius Potter," he said proudly.
"Great!" I replied sarcastically.
"Well aren't you going to tell me your name? It's only polite," he joked back.
"Sure. My name's Calandra Elizabeth Rose," I drawled back lazily.
"Calandra? What sort of a name is that?" scoffed James again.
"I don't know, ask my mother. I prefer to be called Cally though," I stated back.
"Cally. That's a nice name," he decided.
Just then the compartment door burst open, with two boys pushing to get in. The one in front was a gangly boy with chestnut-brown hair and a slight tan. Behind him was a shorter boy with strawberry blond hair and what could only be described as angelic features. I was sure he must have some Veela blood in him.
"Jamie, we've been looking all over for you!" exclaimed the first boy, with a grin not too dissimilar to the one James was wearing.
"I've told you before Fred, don't call me Jamie!" cried James indignantly.
"You love it. Anyway I brought some of those new...oh, hi, sorry didn't see you there," said Fred, noticing me sitting there, "I'm Fred Weasley, and this is Louis Weasley, we're all cousins."
When he said this he indicated the blond behind him, and James, still grinning in what I assumed was a Weasley trait.
"Oh great, I've got to deal with three of you now?" I sigh dramatically.
"Oh dear, what have you been doing to the poor girl?" chuckled Louis, talking to James as he took the seat next to mine.
"What, me? I haven't done anything!" defended James.
"Hey, um..."
"Cally," I supplied.
"Hey Cally, has my git of a cousin here been picking on you?" asked Louis kindly. He seems to be the sensible one.
"Nah, he just fancies himself...and me," I added with a sly grin at James across the table.
"What? No I don't!" James defended himself a bit too forcefully.
"Well why couldn't you take your eyes off me? Why couldn't you stop talking to me when I was obviously trying to read?" I retorted, with a similar grin to the one James had been wearing earlier.
"Aww, Jamie has his first crush," teased Fred from the seat next to him.
James hit his cousin on the arm and Fred pretended to be outraged. Soon they were having a play fight and didn't look to be stopping any time soon.
"So Cally, what house do you want to be in?" asked Louis, obviously not wanting to get involved.
"I don't know to be honest, I come from a long line of pureblood Slytherins, so my parents expect me to go there, but I don't really want to be in Slytherin, I'm nothing like them. Gryffindor would be nice, but my father would probably disown me. Ravenclaw sounds quite good too, I'm pretty smart..." I replied, feeling myself relax a bit in his company.
"You seem pretty smart, well smarter than those two idiots at least. There's no doubt to where they're going," chuckled Louis, looking fondly over at his two cousins.
"So what house do you want to be in?" I asked, genuinely interested.
"I'm not sure really, I'd be happy wherever I went, well except Slytherin. Not that I've got anything against Slytherins, I just don't think I'd fit in there," Louis said, obviously not wanting to offend me about my family.
"Oh, I wouldn't care if you did, I certainly have. Most of them are terribly self-centred and secretive. They think the only thing that matters is blood, it's terrible. Sometimes I think I'll marry a muggle-born just to annoy my father. He has a thing against them, I don't though, I don't care about what's in your blood. I hope whatever house I'm in you're in it too. It's nice to meet someone who doesn't judge you on your parents," I replied, smiling warmly at him.
"I always give people a chance. You definitely don't sounds like your parents, I'm sure you won't be in Slytherin either, family doesn't negate what house you're in. Although it would be nice if I was in Gryffindor with my sister. Hopefully you will too," he replied, returning my smile.
"You've got a big family haven't you? From what I've heard there are Weasley's everywhere," I joked.
"Yes, it is a big family. I've got 4 Weasley uncles, and 1 Weasley aunt, she's James' mum. There's also my mum's sister, aunt Gaby, but she doesn't have any children and that side of the family isn't very big. I've got 9 cousins in total, plus my sisters Victoire and Dominique.
How about you? What size is your family?" he asked.
"Blimey, that's a lot! My family's pretty small, there's my younger brother Amadeus. I've got two cousins on my dad's side but that's about it I think," I replied glumly, not wanting to talk about my family.
"It must be so nice having such a small family! I see my cousins so often, they're a lot to put up with," sighed Louis.
"Not really, it gets pretty lonely. I don't have any friends either," I replied sadly.
"You don't have any friends? How come?" asked Louis, concerned.
"Well there are the children of my parents friends, who I'm supposed to be friends with, but we don't exactly get along," I replied feeling even more dejected.
"Well you've got us now, so you don't have to worry about that," grinned James butting in, obviously bored of play-fighting with Fred.
"Aren't I lucky?" I answered sarcastically.
Cheered up by the three cousins, I felt more and more relaxed and at home as the train ride went on. We continued to chat about Hogwarts and I learnt more and more about the boys, in turn telling them a bit about myself, but staying clear of the subject of my family, which I was thankful for.
It wasn't long before we got to Hogwarts and left the train together. As I left the train I couldn't help thinking what luck I'd had that day. For the first time in my life I had friends, I was no longer alone.
Ok so that's chapter 1. I hope you liked it, I enjoyed writing it, I'm gonna have fun writing James and Fred, I can tell, and Cally probably :) So it ended up being quite long, hence not doing the whole train ride. That would have been SO long! I used artistic licence with the boys as we don't know much about them, I'm making them how I want them. If you feel so inclined, Reviews would be very much appreciated ;) although I'll keep posting anyway, as much for my enjoyment as anyone else's. Next chapter is being worked on, not sure when it will be up, I'll try doing it soon! Xx
Edit: I realised I left out Louis' sister Dominique when he was saying his family, I've now changed it.