Welcome boys and girls to my very fist fanfic! From this moment on I warn you that I won't update every day, English isn't my first language so you'll find many mistakes. I don't know much of the British accent and jargons so most of the story will be American…ish………you know! I don't have any beta readers so if you are one and have a lot of spare time, would you pretty please help me? I'll give you credit and all…yeah, that's not much but I don't have money. Also I'm not JKRowling. I'm not even a woman. Anyway... on to the story. I hope you like it!

Chapter 1: of friends and enemies

September 1st! A day every boy or girl hates! A day when all children put down their toys and pick up their backpack. All the streets were quiet and sober. People went on the train quietly dreading the months to come. Silence surrounded London. Well…almost…

"Fuck!" an eleven year old boy with messy hair swore running through the train station. He checked his watch. 5 more minutes! There wasn't enough time! Taking out a stick he pointed it at his luggage and a minute later it disappeared. Grinning at himself he ran towards a wall and vanished. Strangely enough the only people who saw all of this stared perplexed at the sight but a minute later woke up as from a bad dream and continued their schedule.

On the other side of the wall however the boy was running towards a moving train. He gotten on it the very moment it left the train station.

Recovering from the long run…the boy punched the air with his fist and fainted on the floor.

"Hello! Four-eyed freak wake up!" a black haired said poking him on the head.

James snorted and got up. He examined the boy and his companion. The boy had black hair, a tall stature and a handsome smile whereas his "chum" was the opposite. He was a chubby boy with sandy hair and James noted looked like a goblin when he smiled.

Shrugging at the strange duo, James got up and extended his hand.

"Well, I guess I should thank you for waking me up. My name is James!" he said.

The black-haired boy just sneered at James and talked in a tone that seemed as if the last thing on his mind was to chat with James

"You're a mudblood?"

"Huh?"

The kid raised his eyebrow and asked again.

"Do you have pure wizard blood or are you born from muggles?

"Oh!" James replied getting the hint. "My full name is James Potter. I'm part of one of the oldest line of wizards. Not that I care!" James said finally lowering his hand.

"Potter eh?" the boy smirked "your family is a disgrace for wizards. You may have all the blood you like; mingling with muggles is just as bad as being one yourself. Maybe you'll be wiser tan your family and come join us…" the boy pointed at himself and his companion "…slytherins!" the boy grinned.

James yawned at this and simply replied "you think you're so cool taking after your family but you are only a loser! It's not their fault they don't have magic blood. What's so wrong about them anyway? By the way is your name Malfoy or Black?"

The boy flinched at the sound of Black.

"Thought so!" James said smugly! "Only idiots like your family think their royal. I suppose you're Sirius right?"

Sirius nodded.

James wanted to smile but changed his mind and looked at the chubby boy. "And you are?"

The boy looked at Sirius for confirmation and when he received it he made a dramatic bow. "I'm Peter. Peter Pettigrew!"

James wanted to ask the boy if he had taken his meds but decided against it and simply nodded. Taking another glance at the two he walked to a compartment. He wasn't picky. Anything would be good enough if he managed to get away from dumb and dumber.

After 5 minutes James found one that seamed empty and didn't have seventh year old students saying hello to each other in different methods (James specially knew he wouldn't forget one special greeting between a boy and two girls). In the compartment were a little girl and a pale faced boy wearing old and dirty robes. James spooked when he saw the boy's condition and felt sorry for him. Deciding it was best to let him alone he approached the girl which James noted had an unusual red hair.

"Hy!" James said unsure. "I'm James. James Potter! You are?" he took out his hand to shake it with her.

The girl looked at him sceptically and said "I'm not a witch you know. Not a full blood at least! I was born from muggles. You don't have any business with me!" the girl looked away from him.

"Pardon?" James asked perplexed. He didn't know what to believe anymore. Everybody was sending him to the opposite camp. He shrugged and continued "I don't care if you have muggle or wizard blood in you. I just want to be friends. I'm not like the others!"

"You're a muggle-born like me then?"

"No. I have one of the purest bloods."

"Show off aren't you?"

"What? I don't care if I have wizard blood or not. I'm just not like those stuck up gits!"

"So you're ashamed of your family?"

James mentally slapped himself "Where do you come up with these ideas?"

"You're saying I'm stupid?" James debated if he wanted to answer that "That if I'm not a pure witch I'm stupid?"

James raised an eyebrow and decided it was time to turn to a pale boy.

"Hello!" he simply said

The boy nodded.

"I don't think we've met."

The boy nodded.

"I'm James!"

The boy nodded.

"And you don't talk a lot!"

He expected the boy to nod but a voice was heard this time. "Remus Lupin. You're James Potter." The boy extended his hand.

"THANK GOD!" James yelled, scaring the girl. He happily shook it. "You don't know how much I waited for you!"

The boy gave a small laugh which James accompanied. The girl joined in too just so she had something to do. When the boys stopped to stare at her she shut up and turned to the window. Then she turned to Remus and said "I'm Lily Evans! Want to be friends? I like people with a sense of humour."

The boy shrugged then realised that was rude and agreed. She started jumping up and down with joy and went to him and hugged him "You don't know how much I'm happy! I'm finally going to have friends that are like me!" she kissed his cheek and excused herself to the bathroom.

In her absence the boys started howling with laughter. The James stopped and sat on the couch sighing. Remus noticed and putting aside his condition and worried "I hope I didn't upset you or anything. Really, I didn't know she would react this way! I really don't care if she's my friend!"

James smiled "I know it's not your fault! I guess it's actually mine. No girl in this world will like me enough to become friends. Think of how much I'll sweat to have a girlfriend. Bloody hell! 11 years and still no girlfriend, no first kiss, not even a hug. Should I suicide myself? I don't even know why I am telling you this!"

"Well, people say I'm a good listener. Besides, I understand you more than you think! At least people don't talk to you like dirt!" he sighed.

James wondered what he meant and wanted to ask him but seeing his expression and the seriousness of his voice, he postponed it to another time. Besides, there were seven years in which he could ask him. This upset James even more because he already knew his life would be a mess.

They sat in silence until Lily came. She smiled at Remus, totally avoided looking at James and turned once again to the window. The rest of the journey seamed like days since none of them said a word to each other. Not even when the food lady came, nor when Sirius came and when he saw the occupants, quickly left. James appreciated the silence but when he thought about it, he preferred some noise. His motto consisted of many sayings, one of them being "if there's a problem, solve it". Nevertheless, no noise came and when they arrived at their destination, they all exhaled loudly, like they were holding their breath. They climbed of the train and decided to follow James – as much as Lily hated it – since he appeared to know where he's going. They soon found out he actually did know when they saw a giant man screaming at the top of his lungs for first years. He giant saw James and happily asked "Ye all right 'ames?"

The boy nodded sadly and turning a red shade bowed his head. The giant didn't see this and started his journey to the magical castle by the name of Hogwarts.

The rest of the walk was filled with laughter and theories from the first years. James even heard one saying to the other of the horrible dragons they'll have to face to pass the exams and how werewolves guard the exits so students don't sneak out. He mentally slapped his head at the stupidity that was surrounding him. Then again, if it weren't for special circumstances, he would be like them, happy, stupid and carefree. James sighed again. He seemed to do that a lot recently. They approached a set of boats floating in the great lake. James instantly climbed into one not waiting for the man to finish his explications.

"'ames!" the giant laughed "wait till me 'inish me story!" he turned to the rest "Me name is 'agrid! Keeper o' keys and grounds at Hogwarts! Don't mind me accent cause it's a little bit Irish. Me dad was from 'ere" Hagrid hesitated for a moment thinking he said too much "Well anyway, ye'll see me plenty when classes start so y'll quit my yappering."he turned to the boats "off ya go then, no more than four on a boat. Unless ye want to 'ave an early meeting with the giant squid."

Some people gasped at this while others yelled a "yeeeee ha!"(James saw Sirius was part of them). Then they climbed on the boats that magically started going towards the castle. James ended up with Remus and Lily and a pretty blonde girl who introduced herself as Corinne.

The ride was uneventful. Some girl fell on accident of the boat but she quickly climbed back before the squid woke up. James saw that Sirius was on that boat and was laughing hysterically. He frowned at him and turned his view towards the castle.

Even in the night's darkness he saw the mighty castle or the mighty fortress to some people. There lay the beginning of many witches and wizards both good and bad, both strong and week. James smiled at the memory of when he first saw it. But that was a long time ago and things have changed since then. He was eleven now not five and back then…

"JAMES!" James flinched and turned to Remus who was smiling. "I asked you if you had any idea of how we are sorted!"

James grinned. He first explained to Corinne and Lily (who was listening although she acted as if she wasn't) about the four subgroups at Hogwarts. Each of them had a name and a different place to stay. Their names were Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Gryffindor was known for courage and bravery, Hufflepuff for kindness and caring, Ravenclaw for smarts and studying and Slytherin for sneakiness and basically, for being the place where all dark wizards are placed. In time the traits became the way to place the children in houses (because of the large time they spent in the group and rooms they became known as houses) but many of them were influenced by their parents or friends to answer the questions in a way they were sure to be placed in a house even if they didn't belong there. So the four founders of the school, each Head of House to a group (from which the names of the group derive) began searching for a way to find to true thought and feelings of a student. Godric Gryffindor then suggested magicking an object which can distinguish what are the prime treats of every student. Rowena Ravenclaw came up with a hat and a spell to do that. However the spell was very complex and needed to be made in a dark cave protected by blood magic. The one who had to do the job needed to drink some of the poisoned water and spit it in the hat. The hat will then take the person's thoughts and a part of his life for the spell to work. However the person who would do it would be affected for life. Godric offered to go and since no one else volunteered, he went alone. After that many years went and he didn't come back. At the castle there were more and more fights between Slytherin and the other two. Since Godric was the leader of them all and disappeared, Slytherin took over and banned muggle-borns from coming. Ravenclaw didn't approve of that so Slytherin resigned. Rumour has it that he tried to revenge himself by putting a monster in a secret room and waiting for a heir to come and release it on students but no one knows anything about it. James paused a bit here glancing at Hagrid and sighed. Ten years after, Godric came looking pale and gave the hat to the remaining founders. After that he fainted and died. In honour of Godric's memory, the hat became known as Godric's hat although it didn't actually belong to him. Rowena and Helga Hufflepuff left the school to a proper Headmaster since they were getting old. They assigned 12 council members to watch over the school and make decisions if the headmaster became corrupted or worse. The hat still is the primary way to get sorted although its age is catching up with it and it tends to make mistakes.

With that, James finished his story and returned to stare at Hogwarts. The castle was getting bigger but there was still much to go. He knew his story captivated his friends and that they wanted to know more and much more about how James, a first year, knew about all this but they had to wait for another time.

Finally, they arrived at the big entrance and a big fat guy was waiting there for them. He had a big moustache and a bigger stomach. He was wearing a very expensive-looking dark green costume and a lighter green robe. James wanted to laugh at this man's tastes but he stopped himself because he didn't want to attract attention. Of course, wanting and having are two different things…

"OHO! James m'boy! How are you?" the large man said laughing and waving.

James for the thousandth time that day sighed and muttered a "fine" before going in the back trying to blend more in the crowd.

The man looked around and saw another thing that he liked.

"Sirius! How are you? It's been a while since I last saw you" Sirius sniggered "you've grown big! How are your parents? Still busy at the ministry?"

Sirius nodded "yes sir. Very hard. You know how hard it is when muggles witness magic and start telling everyone about it to wipe everyone's memories. Why, I couldn't imagine the stress they develop from the job. But you know how it is! Someone has to do it!"

James groaned at the suck-up. He knew the only reason Black was doing this was because of his future marks. Slughorn (that was the name of the chubby man) was teaching potions and was head of house of Slytherin. After Black, Slughorn talked with a boy who had grease hair named Severus. Then with Remus which James thought was weird since Remus didn't seem to know much about Hogwarts except from rumours. James grinned when he saw the disturbed face Remus was making when talking to Slughorn. James wished Remus would go in Gryffindor. He would then have a friend to talk to. He wandered if Remus liked Quidditch. He also wondered who his other room mates were. Looking around he didn't see someone he would like to share a room with. He then wondered if he would meet the girl of his dreams there. Corinne seemed nice but James was also interested in Lily's mental condition.

James began to wonder a lot about other thing and woke up only when Slughorn talked to the last student and opened the doors. James went inside for the first time he knew he was a student and, breathing the fresh air, he instantly felt at home.