Seven Meetings
James Potter was a man with purpose!
Alright, well maybe he was still a kid (eleven years old was really older than anyone ever gave him credit for), but James was a boy with purpose! He was going to marry Abby Turnpike even if it killed him to do it!
He had a plan thoroughly worked out. After Abby and himself were sorted into Gryffindor he would immediately take the seat next to her. Then, once they had become formally acquainted, he would ask her to study with him. Yes! Of course she would say yes since no one had any friends yet, anyway, and James would of course charm her with his Chocolate Frog cards collection. It was flawless brilliance!
Abby was sorted into Slytherin. James never liked her anyway. Stupid name; Turnpike.
James met a boy named Remus. He was nice, so they walked to classes together. He thought Remus was in Ravenclaw for the first few weeks of school ("Never mind that he sat at the Gryffindor table and lived in our common room," Sirius later mumbled with a smirk). They talked a lot. Mostly about school, but Remus had a sense of humor James liked. The friendship stuck.
There was one day in Potions when James was trying to provoke Remus into having a wand fight under their desks when another boy started laughing at him. He was short and kind of tubby, but it didn't matter. He said his name was Peter, and would they like to be friends? James pushed his glasses up and smiled, "Yeah."
Now James had two friends. One was kind of nerdy, and the other was kind of a follower, but that was okay. He even managed to get Peter to play a few pranks on the Slytherins that Remus had decided to pass on. So life really wasn't too bad.
Except there was this one person. He had dark hair like James, but it wasn't messy. He was taller than James by a lot, and that wasn't good. He was even taller than most of the girls, and they all seemed to looove that. Even Abby Turnstupid sometimes watched him pass by the Slytherin table. And he was funny. As far as James was concerned, this kid was unwanted competition.
"You know him?" James had asked Remus one morning at the breakfast table.
"Well yeah. He's in all our classes." Remus replied, reaching across the table for a piece of toast.
"What's his name?"
"Sirius Black."
"What?" James asked and stared as Remus concentrated on buttering his toast. "I know you're being serious but what… People call him black? What kind of stupid name is--"
"No, his first name is Sirius. It's spelled differently." Peter piped up, and violently stuck a fork in his eggs.
"Weird." James muttered, and stole a piece of bacon off Remus's plate.
James's first conversation with Sirius happened one night in the common room. It was late, and he hadn't finished his potions assignment. Sirius was finishing off an essay for History of Magic. God, he wanted to go to bed.
"Slughorn is a GIT." James shouted, throwing his quill across the room. He sunk back into the armchair and frowned sourly. Sirius looked up from a table nearby.
"Still on that potions piece, right?" He asked brightly. James wanted to strangle him.
"Yeah." James finally muttered, and curled into a ball. Stupid Slughorn. Stupid potions. Stupid Seriously Black.
"You can copy mine if you want." Sirius said with a grin, and before James could answer, dug into his book bag and pulled out his completed chart. "I'm 100 sure they're not all right, but at least it's enough to pass." James sat up, and felt his jaw drop.
Seriously Black was Seriously Awesome!
"Wow, really? Thanks." James hopped off the couch to take the paper, but instead of going back towards the fire he moved his pile of work to the table.
"I'm James Potter." He said, and thrust out a hand. Sirius took it with his own.
"Sirius Black." He said, his hair messy by the firelight.
James turned in his chart the next day. They both got Poors, but James couldn't have been happier.