Chapter 1 - All Aboard!
We've Only Just Begun – The Carpenters (1970)
It was fairly early in the morning when Sirius Black arrived at platform 9¾. His father had accompanied him to the station at half past nine and little time was lost as he briskly led his son through the barrier and onto the platform. Sirius spared a moment of gratitude to his cousin Andromeda for telling him just what to expect and a moment of pride as he failed to flinch when face came into contact with what appeared to be a brick wall. All he had managed to gather from his parents about Hogwarts school consisted of snippets of overheard conversation, mainly about the slipping standards of management.
"It is essential to be punctual, Sirius." Orion Black had informed him before they set off that morning, speaking softly despite the large expanse of marble that separated them across the dining table. "I guarantee you it will be the muggle impostors who arrive last. Never allow yourself to be caught at the disadvantage."
"Yes, father." Sirius had replied, wondering privately just what disadvantage could come from not having to stand around in the cold autumn breeze for hours on end but knowing better than to argue.
"When you are sorted you may discuss any questions you have with Malfoy, I hear from Narcissa that he has been made prefect. I trust that you will exercise discretion in your other associations."
"Yes, father." He had been escorted from the house without further ceremony and had been grateful to have said his goodbyes to his younger brother Regulus before breakfast.
In front of the largest red steam engine Sirius had ever encountered his father turned to look down his straight nose at him at seemed to brace himself for a farewell.
"Until Christmas."
Sirius had opened his mouth to reply but his father had already turned away, the tails of his robes seeming to float along in the fog and steam that covered the ground. Until Christmas. He'd feel insulted that his father seemed so eager to get rid of him had he not been so eager to go.
And so it was that Sirius was found, almost an hour later, by a slight boy with wild, dark hair, mussed robes pulled hastily over jeans and a blue shirt, and the widest grin that Sirius had ever seen. He entered the compartment and sat, opposite where Sirius lounged over two seats, looking expectantly up at another young boy who was still leaning against the doorway.
"Well?" James asked him, "Are you staying or not?"
"Sure, if it's okay with him." He nodded at Sirius who shrugged vaguely. "I'm Bertram, Bertram Aubrey."
"Sirius." But he chose not to offer any more than that, having never heard the name Aubrey. "And who are you?" He cast an appraising look at the taller boy opposite him. "Or more like, who do you think you are?"
To his surprise and, Sirius himself was nonplussed to find, his relief, the boy threw his head back and laughed, sticking out his hand.
"James Charlus Potter." He proclaimed, "And I'm sure the honour is all yours."
"Potter, eh?" Aubrey mused, "That's an old name. Think you're something special then?"
"Yeah, but it's not about the blood, it's about the looks, the talent, and of course the hair."
"I'm pretty sure that comes under looks." Said Sirius.
"Nope, it needs a category all on its own. It's just that good."
"And I don't know what good talent's going to do you when first years can't even participate in the most important part of Hogwarts." Aubrey sighed.
"What do you mean?" It was Sirius who asked, having deduced that Aubrey must have at least some wizard blood, to speak so knowledgeably about Hogwarts. Not that it particularly mattered to him, his father had been clear on the kind of people he was meant to be befriending, but after all wasn't this what he'd been waiting for, and this was his chance to act without his family's shadow hanging over him. He was glad that the other two didn't seem to have known each other for long at all either. It seemed like this was a fresh start for everyone, conversation coming naturally as they shared their enthusiasm. Moreover, James wasn't acting like any pure-blood Sirius had ever met.
"Quidditch." James and Aubrey had spoken simultaneously and spared each other a quick grin before launching into an explanation that was making Sirius' head spin, even though he already knew most of what he was being told.
"We're meant to start learning this year-"
"To fly, at least."
"But really that's just for the muggleborns-"
"But we can't join the teams until second year-"
"Because of some stupid rule-"
"After some first year chaser took a bludger to head back in-"
"'57, not that it matters cause we're not allowed our own brooms anyway-"
"Not that I haven't got one, I got the Nimbus 1000 for Christmas last year!"
"No way!"
It was during this tirade that the door slid open and a small girl with fiery red hair attempted to slide surreptitiously into the corner seat. This might have been more conspicuous had her face not been streaked with tears. She wiped the sleeve of her blouse against her eyes and stared with rapturous intensity at the passing countryside. The boys exchanged an uneasy look.
"I… I'm gonna miss my parents too." James hedged and after the moment it took the girl to realise she had been speaking to him she threw him a feeble smile but then turned her face away. James seemed to take this as a cue to return to the conversation at hand and he and Aubrey picked up their tirade against the school rules after only a moment of awkward silence. James had just begun a somewhat bloodthirsty and largely fictitious re-enactment of the bludger incident in question when the door slid open again.
Like Sirius, this boy was already dressed in school robes, oversized though they were, and his thin lips were pursed into an expression of concern. He crossed immediately over to the girl hunched in the corner seat beside the window, and though the boys tried not to listen in on their conversation but given the tight quarters found it impossible. James increased the volume of his monologue.
"I don't want to talk to you." She said in a constricted voice.
"Why not?"
"Tuney h – hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore."
"So what?"
She gave him a look which Sirius recognised from his mother's face after the last time he had suggested enchanting the elf heads on their wall to sing Christmas carols.
"So she's my sister!"
"She's only a -" He caught himself quickly; Lily too busy trying to wipe her eyes without being noticed, did not hear him.
"But we're going!" He said, unable to suppress the exhilaration in his voice, "This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!"
She nodded, mopping her eyes, half smiling.
"You'd better be in Slytherin."
"Slytherin?" James, turned to look at them, eager for an excuse to intrude on the conversation. Sirius got the impression that his parents had never explained to him the importance of tact.
"Who wants to be in Slytherin?" he said "I think I'd leave wouldn't you?"
"My whole family have been in Slytherin." Sirius couldn't quite bring himself to smile.
"Blimey, and I thought you seemed all right!"
"Maybe I'll break the tradition." Sirius grinned. "Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"
"'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad."
The girl's friend made a small disparaging noise. James could hardly help rising to a challenge like that.
"Got a problem with that?"
"No," He sneered, "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy-"
"Where're you hoping to go seeing as you're neither?" Sirius asked snidely.
James roared with laughter. Lily glared at them and stood up.
"Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment."
"Oooooo …" James and Sirius mocked.
"See ya, Snivellus!" James tried to trip him as they left.
Remus had arrived to the station and endured a couple of minutes of the same platitudes and promises that his father had been drilling into him since Dumbledore's visit to the Lupin's humble residence early that August. As well as the not so subtle reminders of what he had to be careful of. None of it mattered to him now. Here he was, stepping into a world he had never dreamed he could be a part of, his father's world of magic. His mother, a muggle, although she was privately aware of the wizarding world, had not joined them at the station.
Finally he said his goodbyes and turned to board the train, slipping into the first empty carriage he found and settling into the window seat. He was joined a moment later by two more boys, the first smiling nervously, the second wearing a look of serene benevolence.
"Hi! I'm Peter." The first boy introduced himself in a high pitched voice. He was shorter than Remus and the other newcomer and more well-rounded, hair a mousey brown which looked as though it was fading back from the sun bleaching of summer. His watery blue eyes were wide and sincere.
"Xenophilius Lovegood." Said the latter. His appearance was another thing altogether; white blonde hair in loose waves which seemed to float upon the air around him, his eyes, though also blue, seemed to be misted over like clouds passing through clear sky. The overall effect was somewhat ethereal and a little ludicrous.
"I'm Remus." Well that had been easy, how was it people went about making friends? There must be more to it than this, "Are you first years too?"
"Yeah," Peter said, "Guess we'd better stick together for now!" He'd been worried that things would be like they had been at his junior school, other children seeming to sense that he was fair game. Playing pranks on him and laughing, even when he stood up to them. That was not going to happen at Hogwarts. Peter would make sure of it.
"What is that?" Remus asked Xenophilius, who had produced a newspaper from the inside pocket of his loose jacket and was turning it over in his hands.
"The Daily Prophet." He replied, and then to the others surprise began to tear a page from the back, "Not that you ought to believe a word of it, idiotic editors wouldn't know what to do with a real story if they had one. I just want the arithmancy cryptic." And with that he pushed the maimed paper into Remus' hands and began to stare intently at the scrap of paper he now held, which seemed to resemble a crossword.
Remus looked down curiously at the newspaper's headline; 'Royston Idlewind now chasing international career!' The article was accompanied by a moving picture of Idlewind who appeared to be trying to conduct a board meeting whilst seated on his broomstick captioned, 'New director of international quidditch committee'. Peter laughed at the photo but quickly lost interest opening his mouth to ask Xenophilius something when the door slid open again and the three boys were joined by a pair of young women.
"We can sit in here with you right? I'm Greta Catchlove and this is Rosalind Gray." Greta was a short, plump blonde girl with bright blue eyes and a million watt smile as she ushered Rosalind, who was almost her exact antithesis from her darker complexion and eyes to her easy grace as she sunk into the indicated seat.
"Oh of- of course," Peter stammered, shifting down towards the window to leave a rather unnecessarily large gap between himself and the girls, "Are… are you two friends?"
"Our parents introduced us on the platform," Rosalind told him, "Kept telling me how important it was to make friends early."
Peter nodded wisely, remembering what his father had said about surrounding yourself with the right people, he didn't think he was doing so badly so far, even if one of his new 'friends' had been staring blankly at an empty puzzle grid for the last few minutes.
"You're already wearing your robes." Greta was looking at Remus now, "what are your names by the way? Are you three friends? Do you think we should put our robes on yet? Are we meant to be wearing them when we get there?"
"Umm…" Remus hesitated as he tried to figure out which question to answer first, finally settling on just saying, "I'm Remus." Rosalind laughed but took pity on him.
"I think we're meant to be wearing them when we arrive, I think there's supposed to be some sort of formal meal when we get there."
"My mum said not to put them on yet, in case I get them mucky," Peter said, "I'm Peter, by the way, and this is…"
"Xenophilius." Remus supplied, sensing that Peter had forgotten and Xenophilius himself didn't seem inclined to look away from his arithmancy puzzle yet.
"Weird name." Greta told him, "Cool hair though."
"Thank you." Xenophilius finally set the paper aside, "It was my aunt's."
"The hair or the name?" Remus couldn't help but ask.
"Both."
"Hmm." Remus said, because there didn't seem to be anything else to say, "Got bored with the puzzle?"
"Finished it actually." Xenophilius said with no small amount of pride, seeming not to notice both Peter and Remus glancing at the unfilled page with looks of confusion. "Rosalind Gray? Your mother is in the ministry."
"What? Oh, yes she is. She works in the department of magical creatures… you know her?" The tone of her voice suggested that she thought it to be unlikely.
"My father writes to her sometimes but she hasn't sent him a reply yet. He needs funding for his latest journey to northern Europe, he's going to find evidence of the crumple-horned snorkack there. The ministry's records on the more obscure creatures are truly frighteningly incomplete."
"What on earth is a snorkack?" Rosalind asked.
"A crumple-horned snorkack." Xenophilius impressed, "We've only theorised about what lesser species may have moved into more mountainous areas."
"My dad works in the ministry too," Greta seemed unperturbed, "I don't know what he does but it seems awfully dull. My mum's a chef though, I wonder if Hogwarts teaches cooking."
"The closest thing's probably potions, but I wouldn't recommend drinking too many of those, did you see what was on our equipment lists? Newt eyes and all kinds of horrible animal parts!" Peter was clearly feigning his disgust but the girls still laughed.
"Well I don't know about that. My favourite class is definitely going to be divination." Greta replied, "I can't wait to see what's in my future. What about you Remus?"
"I just want to get through the sorting for now." He told her truthfully, "No one really told me how they do it." He trailed off, hopping that one of the other's might have had parents with a little more sympathy for their children's nerves. His own father had only chuckled knowingly and told him that part of the 'sorting experience' was the anticipation itself. Whatever that meant.
Lily pulled Severus along the train by his sleeve, glancing as she did into each compartment, poking her head into some of the less occupied ones to look for seats, electing not to venture into the one from which large clouds of green and viscous gas were creeping under the doorway. She finally stopped at a group of students, easily recognisable as first years by their general air of nervous excitement.
"Mind if we join you?" Lily asked, pulling open the door, and Severus found himself a little envious as the other boys in the compartment answered Lily's smile immediately and shifted together to make room for them. It was a little cramped with seven of them squashed onto the padded seats, but the warm atmosphere seemed to wash away any sense of awkwardness that might usually have plagued a group of almost perfect strangers.
"Of course not!" The girl who spoke was plump and rosy with wide blue eyes and she spoke in a high pitched chirrup. Severus visibly recoiled. "I'm Greta. This is Rosie, Petey, Remus and Xeno!"
She attributed the names randomly so as they might have belonged to anyone in the carriage and Lily and Severus were left glancing from face to face searching for better introductions.
"Rosalind." The girl next to her clarified, giving Lily and Severus a look that signified her amused distaste. From the way a couple of the other boys shifted Lily deduced that 'Rosie' was not the only one to have been introduced by a nickname not of their choosing, but was the only one brave enough to dispute it.
As they slipped into the corner seats by the door, Lily's gaze couldn't help being drawn to a boy with a slightly gaunt face and long hair, blonder than she could ever remember seeing, and glazed blue eyes which seemed out of place above the dreamy smile he wore as he slowly braided and unbraided the hem of his fraying jumper. Lily met Severus' eyes and they shared a private smile. She wasn't quite sure why but she had an inexplicable feeling that this was 'Xeno'.
"I'm Lily."
"Severus."
"We were just talking about the sorting!" Greta chirped, "I heard it's different every year."
"My dad told me it was going to hurt!" Peter exclaimed animatedly, "He said it's like a test so they can tell everything about you. He said its right in front of everyone and if you fail you have to go and work in the kitchens with the house elves."
"How can a test hurt?" Rosalind asked skeptically.
"You obviously didn't go to the same muggle hospitals I did." One of the other boys dead-panned and Lily smiled, a part of her hadn't believed Sev's assertions that there would be other students from non-magical backgrounds.
"Well I suppose he might've been joking…" The chubbier boy said defensively, "But it's got to be some kind of test doesn't it?"
"These things often are." Xeno nodded slowly to himself and gave Lily the impression that he hadn't been speaking about anything overly specific.
"I'm Remus, by the way." The first boy told them. He looked a little pale, Lily thought to herself, almost as if he was coming down with something, but more likely it was nerves. She had barely slept a wink last night herself, after all.
"Oh! Yeah, I'm Peter." And he waved a little at each of them. Lily noticed that he held his wand clutched tightly in his left hand.
"Can you do any magic?" She couldn't help but ask. "Only Sev knows some really neat tricks," He looked at her sharply, "-spells, I mean. Do you think we're allowed to do magic on the train?"
Both Severus and Peter looked a little abashed, Severus at not knowing the answer to her query and Peter at her first question.
"I wouldn't risk it." Rosalind told them warily.
"I don't know any real spells." Peter said, "But when I first got my wand I made sparks!"
"Everyone does something when they first match their wand." Severus' tone was condescending, "It's not like you're the only one."
Peter flushed at this and there seemed to be a brief flicker at the end of his wand, almost like an involuntary reaction or the twitch of a muscle. Peter yelped and dropped it.
"So Slytherin, eh?" James leaned back in his seat and fished into the pocket of the jeans he wore beneath his robes to pull out a packet of every flavour beans. "You do look like a pureblood."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Sirius asked indignantly. Aubrey stiffened in his seat next to James and leveled a glare at him.
"You're not one of those are you?" He asked coolly, and James had to look up from his beans to study the set of Aubrey and Sirius' faces for a moment before he realised that the atmosphere had grown serious.
"One of what?"
"Someone who thinks that people with magical blood are better than muggleborns." Aubrey explained quietly. "Only there've been rumours… not like there haven't always been people who thought like that but lately…"
"It's not just rumours." Sirius brow had knitted together. "People are starting to get scared. Folks like my parents, have started talking about doing something."
"Something like what?" Aubrey asked and Sirius hesitated, something telling him to hold back.
"I'm not, I mean I wouldn't!" James stuttered indignantly. "Why bother being a Gryffindor if you're not going to stand up for people anyway?"
"Other houses are just as good at that you know," Aubery said sulkily, "Gryffindor doesn't hold the monopoly on moral fibre."
"What's monopoly?"
"It's when one group is in charge of a whole thing… or a muggle board game depending on who you ask."
"What's fibre?"
"It's in your cereal." James pulled a face.
"Bet you're a Ravenclaw." Sirius jeered.
"I don't know why you think it's so funny to find learning more interesting than starting fights." He sniffed, "But yeah, my parenys were both in Ravenclaw. And I bet you anything you're looking at their new quidditch team captain!"
"Hah! You'll be trying to get me on your team whatever house I end up in." James crowed, "I'm the best chaser you ever saw, if I'm not on the team by second year the whole thing's rigged."
"Bold talk, Potter, but I don't think I'm ready to make any bets over it yet. Next year though?"
"Definitely." James told him and they both, although rather arbitrarily in Sirius' opinion, shook hands.
"Hold on though." James' mind had eventually wandered back to the original line of questioning. "I thought blood supremacy was meant to be dying out not coming back."
"Some people say it's because of all the pureblood families going to Slytherin, recycling all that hate around in the same places until some of them get crazy enough to start hexing muggleborns." Aubrey mused.
"But Slytherin's always been full of purebloods, why now?" James kept his eyes on Sirius as he posed the question and saw the almost imperceptible wince that made him wonder if he knew more than he was letting on. He popped another every flavour bean into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully.
"Dunno. But that's why I'm not going to end up in Slytherin." Sirius grinned wryly, "I'm going to be the black sheep of the Black family even if it kills me.
James choked.
"Heard of my name, Potter?"
"No… I-" He finally pulled himself together enough to stop coughing and threw the pack of Bertie Botts every flavour beans at Sirius. "I think I got troll flavour."
By unspoken agreement the boys wandered down the train to change into their school robes in the toilets, Remus and Severus stepping out of the compartment to wait in the hallway while Lily, Greta and Rosalind changed, the two of them having boarded in robes. By the time they were all once again seated the train was beginning to slow and the atmosphere of anticipation was becoming overwhelming. The whistle finally blew as the train rolled to a stop and Remus and Peter pressed up against the windows to try and see anything through the darkness. Greta pulled open the door and their motley crew joined the throng of black robes pushing their way off the train. Lily didn't think she'd ever seen Severus smile as much as he was now, sticking close beside her so as not to become separated in the rush of students hurrying to get back out of the chilly September air as soon as possible. The seven of them stumbled across the platform which a large overhead sign decreed as 'Hogsmeade' and towards the sound of a deep voice summoning first years. Once a group of around forty students had amassed the owner of the voice which had been calling them begun to lead them down a steep path and as the moonlight illuminated the front of this procession Lily was astonished to see that the man leading them must have been almost twice the height of a normal man. She marvelled at how she had failed to notice him before, glancing at Severus but seeing the mask of indifference that he so often wore, she turned instead to Remus and Peter.
"He must be like twenty feet tall!" Peter gasped and Remus chuckled, leaning in to whisper to Lily.
"I bet he's part giant."
"Giant?" She couldn't tell from his face if he was joking but didn't have time to ask before they were jostled to within earshot of the colossal man.
"No more than four to a boat!" They had reached the end of the trail and the trees parted to reveal a shimmering lake, topped by a fleet of wooden rowing boats, although they didn't appear to have oars, and they were now being ushered towards them. "Name's Hagrid, I'll be taking you up to the castle so we'll be sailing across the lake. Do try not to fall in."
Greta, Peter, Rosalind and Remus ended up in one boat while Xeno drifted into an empty one and was joined by a trio of giggling girls before Lily and Severus had the chance to join him. They wandered over to another, Severus deliberately steering them away from the boys from the first compartment, and were quickly joined by a pair of boys who introduced themselves briefly as Nott and Avery. Lily got the impression that Snape recognised them, or at least their names as he nodded and exchanged his own name and Lily's.
They clambered into the boats and Lily looked around curiously, there didn't appear to be any oars or motor and she was more than grateful that she wouldn't be expected to row. Hagrid had finished directing the last couple of students into the last remaining rowboats and clambered into his own, pushing it forward into the lake and appearing to steer himself to the front of their fleet with nothing but a wave of his hand. Lily heard him shout 'Forward!" and with a jolt they began to move. She gasped and held tightly to the wooden seat, taken aback in astonishment as they started to float across the mirrored surface of the lake.
The ride was silent, but it hardly mattered. Almost every student was struck dumb by the sight that greeted them across the dark water. The castle was magnificent, illuminated in a way that the moon alone couldn't have been responsible for. The bright lights from the windows pricked the night as bright as stars and three towers disappeared into darkness above their heads. It was so fantastic, Lily thought to herself, it was just magic. She turned her head hoping to share her awe with Severus and his smile was every bit as wide and wondrous as her own, only he wasn't looking at the castle, just at the reflection of her laughing face in the dark water. And as she leaned against him in defence against the biting wind she was struck by a thought so bittersweet it almost moved her to tears. Petunia would have loved this.
James and Sirius dismounted their boat without incident, although Sirius had threatened to push James in if asked one more time who would win in a fight between Hagrid and a giant squid that his dad had apparently told him lived in the lake. They were rounded up and led to a set of rather grand looking doors, gilded in gold. James was practically vibrating with excitement, spinning around and craning his neck to see as much as possible, taking in what he could see of the castle walls, other students, and the murky outlines of trees lining the lake's banking, all the while running a hand through his messy dark hair.
"Students." A crisp clear voice cut through all chatter, "Welcome, to your first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." The witch who spoke was dressed head to toe in robes of glittering emerald. She was beautiful, in an austere sort of a way, and her Scottish bur seemed to hold a hypnotic power over what might normally have been an uncontrollably rowdy group of eleven and twelve year olds.
"My name is professor McGonagall, I will be instructing all of you in the art of transfiguration, and I am also the head of Gryffindor house." James and Sirius exchanged a small grin at this. "You are about to enter the great hall to be sorted. You will come forward when your name is called and be placed into one of the four houses. The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has their own merits and it is to be expected that you will find likeminded young witches and wizards with which to socialise during your stay here. You will share your dormitories, meals, and the majority of your classes with your own houses, after the feast you will follow your house prefects to your common room, where you will spend most of your free time. After the sorting there will be a few words from the headmaster, I trust that you will all endeavour to make the best possible first impressions upon the school this evening."
And with that she turned, sweeping her arms wide, and the doors to the great hall burst open.
AN - So there we have chapter one. I hope you enjoyed it, feel free to leave any reviews of any sort as all feedback is appreciated, particularly if anyone spots any grammatical or continuity errors. Check out my profile for more detail on the story.
The dialogue between lines 76 and 103 belongs to JK Rowling. This work is non-profit and non-commercial and all rights and characters are the sole property of JK Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended.