Chapter 1 ~ The Sand of Darkness

James Potter is laying on his bed in his room, almost bored enough to go beg his brother Albus for a book to read. Almost. He has the need to plan a prank, but can't come up with any ideas. None. Completely blank. James feels frustrated and disappointed; he had never before failed to come up with a prank or some plan to cause mischief. His cousins are either grounded *cough, Fred and Louis, cough* or unable to visit. In lack of plans, in desperation, and the need to do something, anything; James decides to explore the attic. He'd only been up there a couple times to fetch something for his mother or to hide. James lifted himself off of his bed and shook his head like a dog after being wet, his dark brown hair flying wildly. He makes his way into the hall in a leisurely fashion and begins his ascent to the 3rd floor of his house where four rooms lay: his parent's room, 2 guest rooms (the Potter's tend to have several people staying at their house, mainly relatives, and they have 2 more guest rooms, one on 2nd floor and one on the ground floor), and the forbidden room, his dad's office. Not even James dare go in there, well not until his dad, the famous Harry Potter obviously, got more furious than he had ever seen him after he went in there to nick his confiscated invisibility cloak back. It was scarier than his mum, you do NOT want to be on the receiving end of her anger.

Preoccupied in his thoughts, James didn't notice his younger sister Lily exit her room and make her way down the hall towards him. The inevitable happens, James crashes into Lily.

"Ouch James! Watch where you're going!" Lily snapped at him from her spot on the ground next to him.

"Sorry, Sorry! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," James apologized, getting to his feet.

"Obviously," Lily replied as James pulled her to her feet as well. "Where were you going anyways?"

"Hmm? Oh, I was heading up the attic on an exploration mission."

"Can I come?" Lily asked.

James just nods his head and continues his journey to the attic.

"You're awfully quiet today brother o mine," Lily stated, following him.

Grunt.

"Wow James, your energy level is like, zero. You're clearly lost without your partners in crime."

"I guess..." James told her slowly. "But I think it's my lack of fresh and shiny new mischievous ideas."

"I can see that," Lily told him smiling. "So we'll just have to give you some ideas!"

The pair reached the attic stairs, and raced up the steps, as James seemed to regain some energy/hyperness at the prospect of finding new inspiration for pranks. They looked around the attic, taking in the dust and cobwebs that covered the place. Boxes were scattered throughout the stuffy room, no one seemed to care about organization in a place not many people ever visited, and a place guests would never see.

"So where do we start James?" Lily wondered aloud, peering at the many boxes.

"Anywhere," James told her happily, with his usual mischievous twinkle back in his brown eyes.

James and Lily practically attacked the boxes, and only spoke to show the other what interesting item they found. Most of the things they found were old pictures or items that once belonged to their parents or one of their many relatives. They didn't linger on many of the items, unless it interested the other.

"Hey Lily, what do you think this is?" James asked holding up a shimmering gold necklace.

"I don't know. It's probably just someone's necklace. Can I have it?" Lily asked.

"JAMES! LILY! WHERE ARE YOU? DINNER'S READY!" Albus Potter's voice could be heard shouting up to them from below.

"IN THE ATTIC!" James shouted back. "No Lily, I want it, I found it."

"But Ja-ames, what could you want with a necklace?" Lily pleaded.

"No. It seems magical, it might be able to help Fred and I in our pranks."

"Please Jamesie! Please?!" Lily pouted, reaching for the necklace. Her hand clasped it.

At that moment Albus came bursting through the door. Lily took the distraction as an opportunity to rip the necklace out of James's hands.

"No Lily! I told you that you couldn't have it!" James yelled, lurching to grab it back. He managed to get his hands on it, but Lily was prepared and had a tight hold on the chain and yanked it back.

"Hey, guys, let it go, you'll break it and we have to go down for dinner or mum'll think we gotten eaten by a dragon or something," Albus said, chuckling at his arguing siblings.

James ignored him as usual and Lily was just too stubborn to relent.

"Give it back James!"

"No Lily, I had it first, it's mine!"

The two of them kept arguing like this and each tugging the necklace. James and Lily gave a big tug at the same time. A big crack reverberated throughout the room, causing the three Potter kids to jump. The necklace was in half, one dangling from the chain in Lily's hand, the other on the floor having been dropped by James when he jumped.

A cloud of sand came flowing out of the broken necklace halves, getting bigger and filling the room, enveloping the Potters.

"What is this?!" Albus shouted to James from his spot.

"I don't know!"

Lily screamed as darkness fell upon them.

The darkness dispersed and the room they were in became visible.

"Where are we?" Albus asked.

A/N: Tada! Chapter 1 is complete! I hope you all like it! If you review I'll give you banana cupcakes my sister made;) Not that I'm bribing you or anything...

I'll try to update as often as possible, but life is busy so we'll see how things go...

Thanks for reading everyone!

Toodles!