Disclaimer: I own none of the following except the plot.
Author's note: Enjoy! I would like to thank my new beta, Myrtle Riddle. She's responsible for correcting by British.
Note on genre: This story is a mixture of a lot of genres (mostly MWPP, humor, romance, and drama); for each chapter I will use the genre that I think will best illustrate my point. Here I will have a small table of contents showing you what to expect from each chapter. I will update as I update my story:
chapters 1-2: general MWPP era
chapter 3: general MWPP era; humor
Fear. It suffocated him. He could barely breath under the immense pressure it allocated. His lip hurt from biting it.
Peter knew that he was supposed to be excited to be stepping onto the Hogwarts Express for his first time, but the thought of leaving all that he knew just made his eyes water.
It is the only way, his mother had told him. You are a wizard, and you must become a great wizard. Know what you are and what you can do. If you don't leave home to learn this, you will revert to the ways of muggles. They try to do what we can do, but their attempts are crude. Do not revert to their ways.
But even as Peter repeated his mother's words in his mind, he could not bring his face to form the smile apparent on all the other student's faces, or his eyes to show the emotion that the other students' revealed. However, he took a deep breath and walked onto the train. He quickly found an empty compartment and sat in the corner.
"Mind if I join you?" a voice asked from the doorway.
Peter turned to see a boy no older than himself with messy dark hair and brown eyes. Peter gave a slight nod and the boy sat down.
"Hi, I'm James," the boy began. "What's your name?"
"Peter."
"First year?"
"Yeah."
"Me too. I'm really excited. I hope I'm in Gryffindor."
"Why?"
"I dunno. I've just heard good things about Gryffindor."
"Yeah, Dumbledore was in Gryffindor."
"Yeah."
An awkward silence followed but it was soon broken by James.
"Oh, no."
"What?"
"Oh, nothing."
"Hey, James?"
"Yes?"
"Who is that woman jumping and waving at the train? I sort of feel bad for her kid."
"That's my mum."
"Oh, sorry."
"No, it's fine. She tends to do that a lot. I get used to it."
"O, well, my mum is pretty bad too. When I was eight she took me into the lady's lou with her, because she said that she couldn't leave me outside alone."
"Ooh, Peter! I feel for you, mate."
"But my mum's gotten better. Really hasn't done anything of the sort since. I think my dad talked to her."
At that moment a small boy with brown hair walked through the doorway. "Mind if I take a seat?"
"Yeah, sure," James replied. "I'm James and this here's Peter."
"I'm Remus."
Peter, although a few moments ago quite talkative, suddenly became quite again.
"Are you both first years?"
"Yeah. You?" James replied.
"Yeah."
"So, Peter, you excited to get to Hogwarts?" Remus asked, aware of Peter's shyness.
"Umm… I guess."
"I'm nervous too," Remus replied.
Peter smiled, liking this boy who seemed to understand him.
The boys jerked as the train began to chug forward. At that moment, all three tuned to see another boy leaning against the frame of the door to the compartment, breathing heavily.
"You okay, mate?" James asked.
"Yeah… had to run… to get to train… before it left," the boy panted.
"Here sit down." Remus gestured towards a seat next to Peter. Peter scooted over. The three waited a few moments expectantly for the fourth to speak.
"Sorry, about that. I'm Sirius, by the way."
"James."
"Remus."
"Peter."
"I saw you running to the train," said James. "Quite funny."
"Well, why didn't you do anything? No one else saw me."
"Ah, well I knew you would make it. You're pretty fast."
Remus laughed. "James, you're quite terrible, you know."
Peter laughed. "That's really funny."
Sirius pretended to be offended, but a smile showed through his eyes. Peter, really very amused, laughed so hard that he fell off his seat. This caused the other three to burst out laughing as well.
Suddenly a redheaded girl appeared in the doorway. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but then, seeing the sight of the four laughing boys in front of her, closed her mouth and walked away muttering, "Boys."
At this Sirius and Remus began to laugh harder. However James simply stared at the space where she used to be, a smile tugging on the corners of his mouth. None of the boys noticed a blushing Peter in the corner of the compartment, completely entranced by the three outgoing boys and the angel who just walked in.
Author's note: So, how'd you like it? It was my first fanfic, excluding my oneshot. I'm going to try to update as often as possible, but if you don't review I won't update because I won't know if you like it. So… you know what that means… review! Because, honestly, I won't continue if you don't. And something to think about as you review: what situations should I write about? They should preferably happen during the marauder's seven years at Hogwarts, but after they graduate is ok too. Just so you know, I reply to all of my reviewers and try to review one of their stories. And if you want to drop me a comment about my long-winded author's note, that's fine. Remember to review!
