James Potter woke with a start on September 1st, to find his best friend Sirius Black sitting on the end of his bed, flicking Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans at his head.
"Okay, okay, I'm awake." James grumbled, rubbing his eyes and running a hand through his permanently messy hair. Sirius pelted a few more at his face, just for good measure. James glared at him, and grabbed his glasses from the floor of his bedroom. He then roughly took the box of Every Flavour Beans from Sirius, and dumped the whole box over his head.
Sirius shook his head in a rather dog-like fashion and grinned good-naturedly.
"You're late." Sirius informed him.
James looked at the clock beside his bed, and yelped. 10:45.
"You're lucky we can Apparate this year, mate."
James wasn't paying attention, he was too busy throwing everything in sight into his suitcase. When he was satisfied he hadn't forgotten anything, he threw on some random clothes from the floor of his bedroom. He ran down the stairs, into the kitchen, and helped himself to some toast.
Sirius came down the stairs a few seconds later, levitating his suitcase in front of him.
"Ready to go?" he asked.
"Nearly." James replied, before summoning his own suitcase. It zoomed down the stairs and James gracefully caught it in his right hand, still eating toast with his left. "Let's go!"
Emily Potter walked into the room.
"Leaving without saying goodbye?" she asked, with mock disappointment.
"'Course not, Mum." James replied, finishing his toast and giving his mother a big hug. "Owl me anything I forgot, 'kay?"
Emily nodded in response.
"Hurry now, don't want to be late."
And with that, James and Sirius Disapparated to King's Cross Station. Checking their watches, they saw that they only had two minutes left before the Hogwarts Express would leave. They hurried through the barrier and rushed across Platform 9¾.
Once they got on the train, they set about looking for an empty compartment. Luckily, they noticed their friends Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew in the third compartment they passed.
"Well, they're earlier than last year." Remus commented to Peter as James and Sirius put away their suitcases.
James sat down next to Peter; Sirius next to Remus.
"How were your summers?" James enquired.
"Fine." Peter replied.
"Not great." Remus told them, in a sad tone. "We went to visit my grandparents in Wales. The second week we were there was full moon. They didn't know about my … condition, so when we told them, they freaked out and kicked us out. Well, kicked me out, but my parents stood by me."
"Oh, Moony …" James didn't know what to say to that. It made him so mad that people discriminated against his friend for what he was. He, Sirius and Peter had discovered Remus' secret when they were in second year, after learning about werewolves in class. They had spent the following three years becoming Animagi, and by fifth year, they were able to accompany him at full moon.
"S'alright." Remus said gruffly. "Used to it by now."
"Sweet trolley!" Sirius exclaimed.
James rolled his eyes. "Go on, then. What d'you all want?"
The Marauders all gave James their orders, along with some gold to pay the witch who pushed the trolley.
James stepped out into the corridor and ordered. As he was taking his sweets and being handed his change, he saw her. Lily Evans, the girl of his dreams. Corny, but it was true. He watched her walking towards him, laughing with her friends. She scowled when she noticed him. He smiled in return.
"Well, Potter? I'm kind of in a rush here, so if you could just hurry up and say whatever moronic pick up line you've thought of and get the hell out of my way?"
"Um, hey, Lily."
He heard giggles behind him as he turned and walked away. As he opened the door to his compartment, he sneaked a sideways glance at Lily, who was blushing and looking puzzled. She smacked the arm of the girl on her left, which silenced the giggling.
James smirked to himself, before continuing into the compartment and giving out the sweets.
