Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or anything related to Harry Potter

1.The Letter

As the early morning light streamed through the window in his room, James Potter groaned as he rolled over away from the light and wired his eyes shut in a vain attempt to get more sleep. After about 5 minutes of lying in bed, he rolled lazily over the edge of his bed, miraculously landing on his feet. James made his way across the room to the walnut-wood dresser to get dressed. He pulled out a red shirt and grabbed a pair of clean-looking jeans. He quickly got changed and made his way down a long corridor and down a long, winding staircase.

He rubbed his eyes sleepily and pushed open the door that led into the kitchen. As he opened the doors, a flood of light came forward, catching his eyes We really need to get curtains down here. James thought sleepily before resolving to ask his parents about it. James walked towards the deep red kitchen cabinets and grabbed a bowl and a box of cereal. He opened one of the drawers under the counter and pulled out a spoon, then walked over to the fridge, and took out the milk from the door. He went and sat at the ornate table, pouring his cereal and milk, and beginning to eat his cereal quietly.

By the time he was half-done his bowl of cereal, he was wide awake, as there was a slight tapping on the window across the kitchen. James' head swiveled towards the noise, dropping his spoon into his cereal in the process. He gasped as he saw a small tawny owl hovering outside his window, with a tanned envelope tied to its leg. He ran to the window and opened it letting the owl in. It flew around the kitchen about 3 times before finding the small perch near the window for post owls. The owl stuck out its leg, letting James untie the letter from it. He reached into his pockets and pulled out a couple on knuts and put it into the owls small payment pouch. The owl hooted appreciatively before spreading its wings and flying back out the window. James examined the envelope, his hand coming across a maroon wax seal, with a large capital, calligraphy 'H' in the center. On the front of the letter, in impeccably neat hand writing was...

Mr J. Potter
Kitchen
Potter Manor
Godric's Hollow

His eyes opened wide, staring at the letter in front of him. He had finally gotten his letter! The letter he had been waiting the whole summer for. James slipped the letter into his pocket, half the envelope sticking out of the small boy's jeans pocket. He ran out the kitchen doors, which still hung wide open from earlier in the morning. He ran through the living room, being careful to not hit any of the antiques that were strewn about the room on pedestals.

Through the doorway of the living room was a large entrance way, with an intricate chandelier hanging from the high ceiling, reflecting light all about the entrance way. On the sides of the entrance way were 2 large staircases, leading to the landing above. James quickly started up the stairs excitedly. Once at the top of the stairs, he rushed down the hall, stopping at a large set of double doors. He slowly turned one of the door handles, and peeked his head into the room. The room was a beautiful deep maroon colour, while the carpet was a quite ordinary beige colour.

He looked to the far side of the room to see his parents still quite asleep. His dad, who looked very much like his son, slept on his stomach, his arms and legs spread out across the bed, his head tilted to the side, snoring peacefully. James' mom, however slept curled to the side, arms tucked to her chest, her legs slightly huddled towards her, and was breathing peacefully.

James stepped out onto the carpet of his parents room, his feet sinking into the deep carpet like sand at a beach. He crept stealthily towards his moms side of the bed. James looked to his parents, and had a crooked smile on his face 'Can't have them sleeping through this wonderful occasion,' He thought slyly as a plan already brewed in his mind. James looked about the room one last time, breathed before yelling at the top of his lungs,"MOM! DAD! GRANDMA AND GRANDPA ARE HERE!"

His dad fell completely out of the bed on to the plush carpet, while his mom gasped and looked about the room. When all she saw was a grinning James standing 3 feet from the bed she started to get angry, not seeing his letter in his pocket. As James' dad got up to the bed level he started grinning also, seeing the letter instantly. As his mom turned to his dad for support, she saw his grin, and he pointed towards his pocket with the envelope sticking out. She gasped when she saw the letter dangling out of his pocket.

"Oh, James! It finally arrived?" She said ecstatically, "Honey, I'm so proud of you!" she said as she ran over to James and enveloped him in a bone-breaking hug. His mom gasped again at a sudden realization, "We still have to go to Diagon Ally and get your school supplies!" she said with shock riddled in her voice,"Go get ready you two, we're going today!" she said finality as James rushed out of the room.

"Hello, Tom!" said James' parents in unison to the young barkeeper of The Leaky Cauldron happily. The barkeeper grinned towards them,"Good afternoon Dave, Maria, what do I owe the honors?" asked Tom happily.

"Little James has finally gotten his letter," said Maria proudly, beaming down at her son, "And we're off to get his school supplies in the Ally."

Tom glanced over to James, seeing him look to the floor nervously, he chuckled, "Well, its about time, when did he get it?" Tom asked nodding towards James.

Dave laughed heartily, "He got it this morning, and gave us a right scare too."

Tom sent a questioning glance towards James. This time Maria joined in on the laughter. "You don't want to know," she said with a grin pointed towards James, who looked up for the first time since arriving and smiled back to his mother.

Tom merely laughed and nodded, "Have a good day!" he shouted after the Potters as they walked towards the wall that hid Diagon Ally behind it.

Maria tapped the bricks about the door with her wand, and after tapping the last one, the bricks began to fold back to form a marvelous archway. As James stepped beyond the archway, his jaw dropped in awe as he looked about the busy ally. No matter where he looked, he saw people dressed in robes of assorted colours, some fancier then others, and some just plain black robes.

Along the sides of the streets there were what seemed to James as two dozen shops, all seeming to sell important things for wizarding life, though the sock shop he saw to the right to him, seemed very out of place with cobwebs all over the windows. Just on the outside of the shops, there were what seemed like hundreds of stalls, all selling odd assortment of things from invisible socks that have self-cleaning charms to dungbombs and magical sweets to change your colour to the most interesting shade of pink.

"I remember the first time I came here," Dave said thoughtfully, "And I had the exact same impression, this place is amazing." His father looked to where James had looked before and he chuckled, "I'll be honest, I didn't expect the sock shop to still be there after 9 years."

Maria giggled and ushered them on towards Flourish & Blotts impatiently, "Lets see...you need this, this, this, and this..." She said quietly as she grabbed about 8 books from a shelf near the back of the store. She made her way up to the counter of the store and paid a couple of golden coins to the clerk.

As they walked out, the clerk waved to Maria and said, "Have a good day, Mrs. Potter!"

She looked back, smiled and waved to the clerk as she left through the door. Maria looked back to the two boys that were trudging behind slowly mumbling a string of incoherent words. She smiled back to the two behind her and yelled back to them, "Hurry up you guys, we still have to get a lot of stuff!"

The two males mumbled and caught up with Maria. She smiled and led them on what seemed to be an endless drone of shopping. Until she walked by the Quality Quidditch Supplies that is. As she pulled the two passed, they dug their heels in, got wide-eyed and looked pleadingly towards Maria. She sighed, looking at them for a second and waving her hand dismissively. James and Dave looked at each other and ran into the store, running from display to display for about 15 minutes before coming back out and resigning themselves to endless shopping. She looked at the two and laughed, "We only have one more store to go and that's it."

James looked up with a look of relief on his face as they walked towards Mr. Ollivander's wand shop. He walked in to the store and saw an old man standing behind the counter. When he looked up into James' eyes, a shiver went down his spine as the pale, moon-like eyes bored into his. He looked away, up to his mother and father who had a small chuckle.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, 13-inch ash wood with a dragon heart core, particularly good at hexes if I remember correctly."

Dave's eyes opened wide in shock, "Yes sir, very much so. We're here for James' first wand."

Mr. Ollivander looked over to James keenly, observing him for a moment before going to the back of the store.

"He gives me the creeps mum." said James quietly.

Maria chuckled softly, "But he is also best at what he does." Maria looked towards the back room of the store, "Now be quiet, he's coming back."

As Mr. Ollivander walked back towards them, he was holding a small, brown box. He opened the box and pulled out a dark wooden wand,"Try this one, young Mr. Potter, 11-inch mahogany wood, unicorn hair core, pliable, excellent for transfiguration. What are you waiting for, give it a whirl." he said excitedly gesturing at the wand.

"Oh, alright then." James said nervously. He looked down at the wand for a second, and flicked his wrist and out of the end of the wand shot red sparks that landed harmlessly about the store.

"Splendid," said Mr. Ollivander happily, "That will be 7 galleons."

Dave nodded, walked over to the counter, pulled out seven gold coins from his robes and placed them on the counter.

"Thank you, have a good day" Mr. Ollivander nodded and smiled at the family, which sent another shiver down James' spine.

As they walked out the door, Maria looked back at her son and her husband, "We're done shopping for the day, you guys can go wherever you guys want to." Both the men let out a loud whoop and ran in different directions.

James looked about the Ally as he ran, barely avoiding many shocked wizards and witches. He stopped while in front of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, as he heard his stomach growling fiercely. James shrugged and walked into the parlour and looked about. Most of the tables in the shop were full, except for one, in a far corner of the store. Sitting in a nearby waiting chair was a boy his age, with straight black hair, hanging over his eyes casually. James shrugged and sat next to the dark haired boy.

"You waiting for a table too?" James asked. The boy's head perked up as he looked over to James and nodded. A moment later, another boy walked in, with wavy light brown hair.

Just then, a waitress came in and looked to three boys and nodded,"Your table will be ready in just a moment." she said with a forced smile. The three boys looked to each other and shrugged, following the waitress, who was now walking towards an empty table. "Here are your menus." She said as she handed a menu to each of the boys. "I will be back in a couple of minutes to take your order." she finished. The three boys nodded at the waitress as she turned to walk back to the counter.

James looked to the other boys," Hi, I'm James," he said, sticking out his hand towards the dark haired boy, who accepted.

"Sirius." he said roughly with a nod.

James retracted his hand and held it out to the other boy who took his hand and shook it.

"Remus." he said firmly.

James nodded,"Are you guys going to Hogwarts too?" Both boys nodded as he continued, "I can't wait to get there, it sounds like fun, learning how to do magic." James said with a grin.

Just then the waitress walked over to them. "Have you boys made up your minds?" She asked politely. All three boys nodded and gave their orders to the waitress, she nodded and went to the counter, pulled out three ice creams and brought them back to the table.

"Thank you," said the three boys in unison.

"You've got to try this Sirius" said Remus passing his bowl of green and pink ice cream to Sirius.

"What flavour is it?" he asked, digging into the ice cream and using his spoon much like a shovel. An odd taste rushed down the back of Sirius' throat and he coughed as Remus began to laugh. "What the bloody hell is in this stuff?" Sirius asked, still choking on the ice cream slightly.

"Its strawberries and something else I can't pronounce, but it's good." Remus replied with a cocky grin. "And don't worry, happened to me the first time too."

During the whole encounter, James was laughing uncontrollably. Sirius glared at James for a second before joining his new friend.

"You guys should cover your nose and your ice cream, because its gonna be VERY stinky in a minute." said Sirius with a crooked grin.

James gasped, "You didn't," He said in shock.

"I did." said Sirius still smiling as he covered his nose with his sleeve.

Remus and James, seeing he wasn't kidding, hastened to do likewise. A couple seconds later, there was a loud bang from the kitchens and a dark green smoke wafted outwards. By the time everyone was out, the three boys were sitting on a bench across the street from the ice cream parlour, holding their sides as they laughed uncontrollably.

James looked around and saw his mom and dad down the street, waving at him to come. He sighed, and looked to his two new friends, "I've got to go, my mum wants me." He said sadly, "I'll see you guys at Hogwarts!"

At this, Sirius and Remus nodded vigorously, and waved their new friend goodbye. He walked back to his parents, who smiled at their son.

"They go to Hogwarts?" Dave asked, gesturing towards Sirius and Remus.

"Yeah, they do." James replied smiling.

Maria smiled, "Hopefully they will be in your house." She said quietly.

James looked to his mom, never hearing of houses in a school before.

Dave laughed loudly, "That's right, we never told poor James here about how they sort students at Hogwarts! Well, at the start of the school year they..."

By the time his father had gotten there, James wasn't paying attention to him and his explanation of the houses of Hogwarts, but of a girl his age, sitting at a table in The Leaky Cauldron. He could see auburn coloured hair, but as she turned around, he saw startling, vibrant green eyes, staring back at him. He looked away quickly, a red tinge coming to his cheeks, and hear his parents call out Potter Manor in front of the fireplace. James quickly took a pinch of floo powder and threw it into the fireplace absentmindedly, calling out Potter Manor. But his mind was no longer on school, his new friends that he just met or the prank Sirius had pulled in Florean Fortescue's, but on the girl who he just saw just moments ago sitting at the table in The leaky Cauldron. The moment played over and over in his head, his heart quickening its slow pace, and a strange thing he had never felt before in his life, began to spread from the pit of his stomach to all over his body. The rest of the night he could not take his mind off this girl, but he didn't know why. As he lay in bed thinking the day over, his thoughts drifted steadily back to the girl, and as he fell asleep, he thought of her piercing green eyes looking into his.