On The Train to Hogwarts

James Sirius Potter walked quickly past the train compartments, searching for his family.

"Oh, where are they?" he muttered to himself.

Suddenly he stopped in his tracks. Something – someone – in the compartment he just passed caught his eye. He retreated a few steps and peeked into the compartment. There sat a little girl. She was sitting alone, intently reading a book. Her face looked exquisite, the sun's rays touched her face through the train window. She had soft brown hair, which curled right down to her shoulders. Her skin was very fair.

James hesitated for a moment outside the compartment, then entered and stood by the open door.

The girl looked up at the sound of his entrance and James was momentarily mesmerized by her piercing blue eyes.

"Well, hello there," he greeted nervously while smiling tentatively.

The girl returned a quick smile and replied, "Hello."

"You're a year one student, aren't you? Haven't seen you around," James wondered.

The girl smiled sheepishly and replied, "Yeah, I guess I am. How about you?"

"I'm second year," James declared proudly, "So, I suppose you already know who I am?"

The girl's friendly curious look instantly changed into an annoyed look. "Is there any reason for me to recognize you?" she asked.

"Um, well, I'm Harry Potter's son..?" he smiled hopefully.

"So? Ugh. I hate people who assume that everyone knows them, whether they're actually famous or not. And in your case, you think your father's popularity would make you just as well known?" she snorted, "Well, that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. For your information, I don't even know your name!"

And with that she slammed her book shut and hastily left the compartment, taking her trunk with her, looking completely incredulous.

"Sheesh. What's her problem?" James asked himself rhetorically while shaking his head and continuing his search for his family.

"Finally!" James exclaimed as he found the compartment where Albus, Rose, Roxanne, Lucy, and Louis were sitting down and chatting.

"Hey James!" Louis greeted him, "What took you so long? We were just wondering where you were."

"I was with my friends for a moment, then I went searching for you guys, and guess what? The most peculiar thing just happened. I met this gorgeous girl, but she was so haughty!"

And James told them what had happened.

"Well, that was weird," Albus commented.

"Yeah, I agree with you there," James said.

"Maybe she's got something against Uncle Harry..," Rose mused, and almost instantly corrected herself, "No, impossible, she didn't say anything that proved she was particularly against your father… She just showed her dislike towards arrogant people…"

"Then perhaps you should change your character James, you know, if you do want to stay in her good books – if you know what I mean," Lucy added and winked, "And you must admit, you can be a little stuck up and snobbish at times…"

The whole compartment laughed loudly while James pouted.

"Whoa, what is going on over here," Molly Weasley said as she and Fred appeared at the doorway of the compartment.

"We were just chatting in the next compartment and heard you guys laughing hysterically," Fred exaggerated, "so we wondered if we could join in on the joke."

"We were just teasing James over here," Roxanne replied, "some girl called him arrogant," she giggled at the look on James' face.

"Well, mate, you shouldn't worry about what one girl thinks of you," Fred said.

"Well, yeah, but the thing is that James has got a thing for this girl," Lucy said, "he called her gorgeous."

"Oho! Well, well." Fred teased.

And they laughed again.

"It's been very boring in our compartment, there's only two of us with Victoire and Dominique patrolling. Dominique's just super-thrilled since it's his first year as prefect," Molly rolled her eyes.

"I don't see what the big deal is, being prefect runs in our family, doesn't it?" James asked rhetorically.

"Except for Uncle Fred and Uncle George, or so I've heard," Albus said.

"Which means that Fred, you shouldn't expect receiving a prefect badge too much next year," teased Louis with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, "and neither should you, Roxanne."

"Hey, that's not for sure you know," Rose playfully chided him, "and just because both of your sister and brother are prefects, doesn't mean you'll surely be a prefect too!"

"Yeah, maybe you'll be the only non-prefect between us!" Fred teased him back while Louis simply looked cross because they were all teaming up against him.

"And isn't this a Weasley tradition? Which means James and Albus shouldn't get too excited either..," it was Roxanne's turn to tease.

"Hey! So you guys don't consider me and Al in the Weasley family? Alright then, let's get out of here, Al!" James feigned anger.

"You speak for yourself, James. I'm with the Weasley clan," Albus laughed.

They all joined his laughter and James pushed Al but couldn't help crack a smile. And they continued this joyous banter between cousins till reaching Hogwarts, unaware that two pair of eyes were watching them.