James Potter: Leader or Rebel?
Chapter One : A new chapter of life
James Harry Potter was in a good mood. Today was going to be the first day of his life as a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Most students would be feeling a certain amount of nerves to go with their excitement, but not James, his confidence was brimful and at times he bordered on arrogance. Besides which, James was not plunging into this big scary adventure all by himself, he would have Teddy Lupin who was a lot older than him and in his final year of school to guide him through his first year, as well as his favourite uncle Neville who would be teaching the subject that James had been being taught since the cradle.
James wasn't exactly sure why he disliked Defence against the Dark Arts so much, perhaps it was a form of rebellion. After all fighting the dark arts had been all anyone had ever thought he would do, all of the Potters were aurors or aurors to be. His brother Albus had the disposition to become an auror, James did not, his slightly too playful spirits made him think that the career was too serious for him. He would only become an auror if he absolutely had to and that would only happen in the event of an uprising of evil again. Voldemort was gone though, so there was really nothing to worry about.
All these thoughts ran through James' head as he brushed his teeth and slipped out of his pyjamas into some casual Muggle clothes that he could wear down to the platform. It was only four o'clock in the morning, but James needed an early start because true to his inherent laziness he had not packed a single thing.
Instead he had read through the set books the night before, reading until around 2am until he finished them all. Despite the fact that they had all been very interesting reads, James now regretted reading them for he had only gotten two hours sleep and was now dreadfully sleepy. The only thing that kept him from falling asleep where he stood was the excitement that was flowing through every fibre of his being at the thought of going to Hogwarts.
James sighed and dragged a comb through his perpetually messy hair; it was a trait that he had received from his father Harry, only James' hair was a deep auburn, a sort of mix between the red hair of his mother and the black hair of his father. His eyes were a dancing sparkling hazel with hints of green strewn through them. It was these eyes that made it easy enough for James to charm anyone into liking him, that and the dazzling smile which he flashed only every so often. He preferred to laugh than to smile.
Once he was done in the bathroom James lagged himself back to his room and began the boring task of packing. First he tipped the entire stack of school books into his trunk, they fell into a rough heap as James had not taken any care just thrown them in. After all he was in a rush to pack and was not worried about neatness.
Once James had thrown a good deal of his wardrobe into it, he packed some of the more sentimental stuff slightly more carefully. His picture of him and Al as kids, even then James looked like the leader, the younger boy was looking up at his older brother with a look of admiration.
James did not know how to respond to Al's attitude to him, after all he had only just turned eleven and it was a lot of responsibility to have someone idolise you. Last but not least he put in the book that his Aunt Hermione had given him for his birthday, it was a thick tome bound in leather, full of the ancient secrets of the magical world he lived in. Hermione had told James that it was as comprehensive an overview of magic that you could ever come upon. This was the only object that James placed into his trunk with a large amount of care, for his thirst for knowledge was the real reason that he had wanted to go to Hogwarts so badly.
James must have read every theory book that he could get his hands on as a boy of eleven and it was precisely this which made everyone think that James would become an auror, he was already showing signs of the talents possessed by both of his parents. James felt certain though that he had another calling in life, what it was he did not yet know.
James shut the lid on the ornate trunk that his mother and father had purchased him for his start at Hogwarts, and he worried about damaging this precious gift when he would struggle to drag it up onto the platform and then onto the train. His hands traced over the inlay of the trunk which was an ebony wood that offset the birch wood background. This inlay formed words, they read, "James Harry Potter" at least he was guaranteed that he wouldn't be losing one of his possessions this year, or if he did it would find it's way back to him.
James checked his watch when he was done packing and headed downstairs to the kitchen. He could tell it had taken him a while to pack because his mother was up clanking pots in the kitchen and humming tunes to herself under her breath. She smiled when she saw James and put a huge plate of food in front of him. On top of the usual too big breakfast Ginny served her family, there was a plate of pancakes piled high with chocolate sauce dripped all over them.
James cast his mother an exasperated look, he was not sure he could get through the lot without being sick from overeating. "What?" Ginny said defensively, "You need your strength on your first day of school.
James looked at his mother in amusement, "Yes I do, what I don't understand is why you've prepared enough food to give strength to a particularly hungry sumo wrestler. It all looks delicious though, as always," James grabbed the pancakes and dug in before his mother could insist on him eating the nutritious part of his breakfast in case he got too sick to eat the rest.
Ginny smiled at James and walked back to the bench to begin preparing more food for the rest of the family when they awoke. Ginny was an amazing cook, though not quite as good as grandma Weasley, Ginny had learnt everything she knew from her.
Just as James was about to finish his pancakes, his father and Albus arrived. Harry was carrying James' younger brother, pretending that he was an aeroplane. James missed the days when he'd been little enough for Harry to do the same with him.
His father set down Al who was still laughing from the trip in the air and walked over to ruffle James' just combed hair. James sighed, what was the point in brushing it again? It would just look exactly the same as now. "You're almost a man now James. Going to Hogwarts is important; it can make you and mould you into the person you eventually become." James nodded gravely feeling a lot of pressure to succeed; he noticed Albus looking up at him with that same look of awe that meant Al would follow James until the ends of the Earth.
About an hour later when they were all done breakfasting and cleaning up, Harry, Ginny and Albus all got ready to take James down to the station and see him off. Of course James had been to platform nine and three quarters before to see Teddy off and then meet him when he got back off the train at the end of the year, but he'd only done this once, and he was quite sure he would have been very afraid of the bustling platform had his father's guiding hand not been resting on his shoulder.
Slipping through the barrier was always going to be an odd sensation to James he felt as though he was walking through a brick wall, which of course was exactly what he was doing. Once on the platform the Potters had to navigate their way through the crowds to join up with the Weasleys on the other end of the platform.
James was glad to see his cousins, Rose and Radford were always a laugh. Aunt Hermione swept James up into a hug as soon as he reached them, "Good luck," she whispered in his ear as she hugged him. James nodded his thanks and smiled warmly at his aunt, while Ron said something about doing the family proud.
James promised that he would do his best to do just that and then went to go talk to his cousins. Rose was an odd creature and James was sad that she was younger than him and unable to start Hogwarts until next year when Al would be coming too. James was the first person in the family to be going, and he wouldn't know anyone his own age, just Teddy.
Rose smiled at James and the two fell into an easy conversation about what James could do with the products he'd purchased from Uncle George's joke shop. James shrugged promising to put his talents to use and come up with something good. Somehow he couldn't help but notice that even Rose, who normally treated him with indifference, or insulted the way that he did things, was looking at him in awe. James assumed it had something to do with going to Hogwarts; it really was like a stepping stone in a person's life.
Rose and James had just finished reliving the summers of the past, when they had slipped ice down everyone's backs while sleeping, tricked George into thinking that a fake wand was his own, and the time they had drawn all over everyone's faces as they slept the night after the ice. James and Rose were quite the pranksters, a lot of it was George's bad influence, but a decent amount was just them being themselves.
As James got on the train with Harry levitating his trunk on after him, he couldn't help but feel very lonely. After all he was losing his partner in crime till the summer holidays. That was when the train began to move.