"There's blood in my mouth
'Cause I've been biting my tongue all week"

JAMES

I stumbled into a compartment laughing like a maniac. 'You idiot,' I said to my cousin and best friend Fred Weasley.

'How was I supposed to know that she was into all that bondage stuff,' he muttered.

'Ah y'know the handcuffs and the whips at her place might've been a red flag,' I said continuing to giggle like a twelve year-old girl.

'Do you know how scary it is to wake up in the middle of the night and find that you're tied to a bed and there's a scary looking bird standing over you holding a riding crop?' he asked.

'What did you do?' I asked.

'Thankfully one of my hands wasn't tied that tight. I managed to get my wand and then I scarpered. Didn't even have time to get my clothes,' he said.

'What did Your Mum and Dad say when you turned up in the middle of the night completely naked?' I asked.

'Mum wasn't there thankfully. Dad just laughed. They thought I was spending the night at Wood's house. Mum would've killed me,' he said.

'Why would your Mum've killed you?' someone asked walking in through the door.

'Vi!' I said excitedly, hugging her tight.

Fred jumped up to hug her too. 'Missed you ViVi,' he said.

Dom walked in behind her. 'She gets a far better welcome than I do,' Dom said dryly.

'Well we see you all the time Dommie,' I explained.

'Yes and you don't like hugs anyway,' Fred said.

'Correction,' she said. 'I don't like your hugs.'

'We're hurt Dommie,' Fred said pouting.

'Yeah,' I added. 'We give excellent hugs.'

Fred caught my eye and we both walked forward and squished Dom.

'Come on Vi,' Fred shouted joyfully. 'Join in.'

'I think I'll give this little group hug a miss,' Vi said laughing at Dom's red face.

Just then Xavier Campbell thrust open the door of the compartment.

'Group hug,' he yelled and jumped right into the hug.

That was too much for Dom who punched Fred in the stomach. Deciding we had bothered her enough and knowing exactly what she would do if we didn't get off we all hastily made our way to our seats.

'How was your summer Xav?' Violet asked.

'Dad took us skiing. We went to Aspen,' he said a little embarrassedly.

Xavier Campbell's muggleborn or half-blood we're not quite sure. He's also richer than all of us put together. His Dad used to be a show jumper but he messed up his shoulder and had to quit. He then became a trainer. Xav has his own horse. It's called something stupid like Kerfuffle. He also has a gorgeous younger sister called Dora. She's in Lily's year and they're pretty good friends. His dad really loves him though. We stayed at his house (more like mansion to tell you the truth) towards the end of last summer and I couldn't sleep one night so I went down to the kitchens to get something to eat and I saw his dad at the table looking at old pictures of Xav and Dora on horses and sobbing his eyes out. Xav's mum died when he was really young so he barely remembers her. Xav and Dora come from an old upper class British family. A bit like the purebloods in our world.

Anyway Xav's dad would die for his kids unlike Violet's mum. They're both single parents but that's pretty much where the similarities end. Xav's dad dotes on him and his sister while Violet's mum is a scheming bitch who's one of the worst parents I have ever met. Daphne Greengrass comes from an old pureblood family. When she was about twenty-four she got knocked up and her family disowned her because she had no idea who the father was. Nine months later Violet was born and her mum's punished for being the reason she was cut off from her perfect pureblood world her whole life. Vi gives as good as she gets though. She's as tough as nails.

Dominique had started describing in great detail how we had ruined her summer by throwing water balloons at her muggle boyfriend and scaring him off.

'He was a right prat Dommie,' Fred said indignantly. 'You said so yourself.'

'He was alright,' she said. 'I had to spend most of my summer boyfriendless and let me tell you that is not something I'm used to doing.'

'What do you mean most of your summer?' I asked suspiciously.

'I'm not telling you,' she said in a singsong voice. 'You should've thought about what information you wanted to pump out of me before nearly squishing me to death.'

'Come on Dommie,' Xav groaned. 'We want to know.'

'Sorry,' she said. She put her feet up and started reading the Quibbler.

'Who wants to play some exploding snap?' Fred asked pulling a pack out of his pocket.

'Not me,' Dom said. 'I just got my eyebrows done.'

'Fine. Vi?' he asked.

'Yeah sure,' she said and Fred dealt.

The compartment door slid open again and my idiot brother sauntered in.

'All the other compartments are either full or are occupied by people who want to make me shoot myself,' Al said. 'So we have to share with you.'

I groaned. Al's friends walked in after him. I can't stand them. The press have named them the Wolf Pack and you can tell why. They all look feral. There's that little shit Scorpius Malfoy, haughty Daemon Zabini, self-obsessed Lorcan Scamander and finally last and probably the worst of the lot is my cousin Rose.

Malfoy's actually Violet's cousin. They had never met before Hogwarts though. Malfoy came from the purebloods born on the right side of the blanket. They ignored Violet and her mother.

'Oh Merlin there's another one,' Scorpius said, annoyed.

Albus grabbed the newspaper from Scorpius. 'It's alright,' he said, 'I look pretty good.'

I snorted.

'I look half-dead,' Rose said. 'When was this even taken?'

'A couple of weeks ago,' Scorpius said.

Oh yes there was another picture of my brother and his degenerate friends in the newspaper. Mum was going to flip. I still don't get how he's Dad's favourite, he puts him through so much more crap than me and Lily do.

'Eww who's that skank hanging off your arm?' Rose asked Scorpius looking at the picture again.'

'Lavinia Nott,' he said smirking.

'She looks like she's had at least seven facelifts,' Rose said bitchily.

'I can't stand them,' I whispered to Vi. 'And you're lucky you're just related to one of them. I had Rose and Albus in my house most of the summer.'

'Please I'm barely related to him. Scorpius is not my family,' she said.

'I know. How was your summer?' I asked.

'Not so good,' she admitted. 'Mum has a new boyfriend and he's an absolute bastard.'

'You should've come and stayed with us,' I said.

'I wish,' she sighed. 'But her new bloke really isn't the sort of person I'd want to leave her alone with.'

'You came to Hogwarts,' I pointed out.

'I know but I don't really have a choice about this. I feel like I need to at least try to help her out,' she said.

We realized that the entire compartment was listening to what we were saying.

'So your Mum's shacking up with a loser?' Scorpius asked, smirking. 'Then they should do well together. You know how like always attracts like.'

Violet's face reddened. Her mother might be a fairly terrible parent but she hates it when people are rude about her.

'Out,' Dom said loudly, sensing conflict. 'All of you. Out.'

When Dom tells you to do something you do it. They filed out grumbling.

'Malfoy's a prat,' Xav said comfortingly.

'Yeah second only to my own brother,' I said.

'Don't worry about it love,' Fred said. 'We've all got those relatives that we want to have nothing to do with.'

'I hate Malfoy,' she said angrily.

We spent the rest of the journey playing exploding snap.

So let me tell you a little bit about us. I'm James Sirius Potter. Yes my Dad is Harry Potter and yes he did save the Wizarding World a bunch of times but no I am nothing like him. I look a lot like him though. Except for the eyes. Those are my mum's. I have a younger brother I can't stand and a younger sister who's actually kind of brilliant. But don't ever tell her I said that.

My cousin Fred Weasley is my best friend. We're sort of our generation's answer to the Marauders and the Weasley twins I mean they called me James Sirius and him Fred George; it's like they were asking for trouble. We met Xavier Campbell on the train six years ago and that was basically it. We became inseparable. Until the end of our third year when he started dating my idiot cousin Dominique. They broke up in the middle of fourth year but we had grown sort of attached to her best friend Violet Greengrass so we continued hanging out with each other. And here we were, coming to Hogwarts for the last time ever. This year had better be a good one.

a/n: So this is my new story. Hope you like it. It's sort of a prequel to Between The Drinks And Subtle Things but you don't really need to read that. SO thanks for reading it and please revieww :) Oh and I'm sorry 'cause something weird seems to have happened and everything's italicized and in bold :P