Potter Wee Potter

Chapter One

Jimmy Potter snuck out of the bathroom. He was the only one to be too much of a coward to change in the actual bedroom, but there was just something about everybody that he didn't know watching him change that unsettled him.

He'd known for years that he was going to come to Hogwarts, it was his dream to come and be a Gryffindor like Dad, but that was about the only thing that had gone as planned. Something happened to him back at the train station; as soon as he boarded the train, everything that he'd dreamed of turned into a nightmare. He didn't know anyone. Everyone from back home had abandoned him: Marcus was a second year in Hufflepuff, so he'd had nothing to do with Harry since that morning, and Sam was still a year younger than him so he was gone, and then there was Nikias who acutally was in his year, but he was always a jerk and now he was a Slytherin too.

"Hey James."

James was Jimmy's given name, and he was trying to go by it exclusively now (having older students call him 'Jimmy' was frightening and degrading), but it was sort of hard already. Every time he heard it, it sounded like when his parents were made at him. "James Ignotus Potter!"

This effect was made many times worse by the fact that he was caught off-guard and in the process of sneaking. James whirled to face the kid who'd called him.

"That's your name, right?"

He was a little taller than James himself, with shoulder-length hair that marked him as one of those somewhat avoidable, haphazard, too-cool-for-school guys that were either totally silent or ripping some poor kid's underwear over his head. James looked at him warily. His father taught him a harmless spell that would spin a bully around until he was safely away, but he seemed to have forgotten his wand on his bed. "Yeah."

The boy seemed out of his element. He nodded, and waited, and the silence became awkward. He took a breath and pointed to the bathroom, trying to walk around James as the boy realized that he wasn't the only one holding his clothes. He almost didn't say anything... but he turned around. "How 'bout you? What's your name?"

The boy turned around. "Sirius Black."

James was a first year, but he wasn't stupid. "Black?" Blacks were Slytherins as much as Potters were Gryffindors and Denners were Ravenclaws; everyone knew that. They were the only argument that the Sorting Hat could be biased (though the motion for the option to switch houses was denied years ago).

Sirius looked up, stopping halfway in the stall. "Yep. And no, I'm not lost." He grinned. "Disowned, maybe. But I am a Gryffindor."

"Oh." James didn't know what to say next, but he was also starting to not want to go back to the room by himself.

Sirius helped. "So what about you? You wanted to be in Gryffindor?"

"Yeah, my Dad and his Dad and whatever." He tried to downplay it, seeming cool. "How 'bout you?" He realized this was a stupid question the moment he asked it; he practically repeated Sirius, and of course a Black didn't want to be in Gryffindor. But he waited for an answer. It wasn't like he could just leave after asking a question.

Sirius went in to change, but he continued talking. James didn't know it, but he didn't want to go back to the room alone either. He hoped he could keep James talking until they could go back together. "Well... I'm not smart enough for Ravenclaw... not nice enough for Hufflepuff... I guess Gryffindor was my only option." He shrugged.

James didn't know what to say. "But what about Slytherin?"

Sirius laughed. "Figured you'd ask. Everyone has." Everyone who had talked to him, anyway. Which so far totaled to... him. "I don't know. Black sheep of the family, you know? The last thing I wanted was to go on with their stupid little traditions."

James was blown away. He hadn't thought of any alternative to following tradition. Gryffindor was his house, it was always going to be his house. He didn't realize that anyone could not want to be sorted just because they hated their parents.

The silence stretched and Sirius hoped James hadn't gone away. More than that, he hoped no one would hear him talking to himself if he was gone. "I wish I could see the look on my Mom's face when she reads my letter. Betcha she sends a howler back... if anything."

James laughed a bit at the idea of a howler, and Sirius was relieved. Maybe Gryffindor wouldn't be so hard. He might not be welcomed, but he wasn't being rejected. James was growing more comfortable by the second. "I asked my Dad what a howler was when I was little, so he wrote one full of stupid little rhymes and slid it under my door. I had nightmares for a week, 'cause it still sounded mad."

He shut his mouth with an almost audible click. That was embarrassing, why the hell did he say that?

Sirius laughed, but strangely, there was a difference between being laughed at and the way he laughed. "So I'll be careful not to scream nursery rhymes. Good to know." James laughed with him.

He exited the bathroom stall and they went back up to the dorms together.

Next chapter will be longer, and will introduce some more characters. Please review, or I shall be sad.
(FYI, I typically review people who review me... *hint*hint*)