James Sirius Potter sat in his bed quite awake. Although he knew he should be sleeping, for his trainride for Hogwarts was sure to be long, and he did not want to fall asleep on the journey, he remained wide awake, looking through his spellbooks once more.
He was nervous, though he had yet to confide this to his loving mother, (who had a horrid tendency to embaress him in front of his friends, but, he knew, was extremely brave. What, with her hand in battle of Hogwarts, she was practically famous!), Ginevra Potter, or his kind father, who was most famous among wizarding folk for defeating the dreaded Lord Voldemort after facing him several times.
As the sun began to rise, the knot in his stomach got even tighter. What would become of him at Hogwarts? Both his mother and father had been gryffindors, what if the worst happened, and he was forced into Slytherin? What if there were still those prejudiced people who called him a blood traitor, like his mother was years ago? And then, there was the enemy he knew he would have, though he had never even seen. The daughter of Draco and Astoria Malfoy.
He sat thinking of what Hogwarts would be like until he heard a knocking on his door.
His mother entered the room, her long red hair looking rather tidy considering she must have just woken up.
"James Sirius, I know you must have gotten some sleep last night?"
"Yes, of course, Mother," he said, mentally rolling his eyes. "I've just woken up."
This was, of course a lie, but Ginny Potter seemed to except it.
"Off to hogwarts, you go, today!" She sniffeled and wiped her eyes on the hem of her shirt. "My little boy, growing up so fast! Mommy will miss you so much!"
This type of talk embaressed him enough when it was just the two of them, not to mention when she said this type of thing in front of the whole family. There had been one time two weeks ago when he had said it in front of the Longbottoms, who, among the group of them, had a very pretty daughter, Rossalyne. He had been so humiliated he did not leave the house for two days, and he still hasn't talked to Ross.
"Mother, this is exactly why I asked if Dad couldn't go with me, without you. Don't take offense to that," he slipped in weakly to avoid trouble. "but Dad understands that I'm not a child. Please, please, please don't get down there and say something that would embaress me."
"Would I do that?" she asked, as if the answer was clear.
"Yes."
"Well I won't today. And I know you're not a child. Harry told me about your little crush on Rossalyne, and I think it's just so sweet that-"
"Ginny, you're not blaming me for you finding out, are you?" Harry Potter had just came into James' bedroom, who, James often said, was extremely understanding after everything he had been through from the day her turned 1.
"Well, you are the one who told me."
"No," Harry said, "you acted as if you already knew, and I imagine that you did, with all your 'Mother's intuition' talk."
"I did have my suspicions, but you confirmed them."
"What!" James exclaimed. "How did you get suspicions?"
"Well, dear," Mrs. Potter said. "I believe Ross has her suspicions, too. You were quite obvious."
That's wonderful, he thought. I'm not even at hogwarts yet and I've already made a fool out of myself in front of one of the most important students.
"We'll be leaving now, James. Get your stuff, and let's go." James' father said.
"Yes, I want to get there early to say hello to everyone. I suspect you want to get there early to say hello to the Longbottoms, James?" Ginny winked.
"Ginny..." Mr. Potter said.
"Oh all right, I'm going to get properly dressed."
Soon they were all in the backseat of a station wagon, Harry driving, Albus, James, and Lily in the backseat, Ginny in the passenger seat.
"Soon I'll be off to Hogwarts, too, and then I'll get to play quidditch and be on my own and I'll learn spells and potions class will be fun, I think, and-"
"Albus, give it a rest." Harry said.
"Thank, you Dad," James said. "Thought we wouldn't hear the end of it."
Albus went for an elbow-jab in the rib which James dodged by leaning forward.
"Enough, you two." Ginny said with a stern backwards glance at James and Albus.
"Mama, I want to go to hogwart, too!" Lily wailed.
"Oh, I'm sorry, honey, but you're a bit too young for that now. Just wait a few more years." Ginny said sympothetically. "I had to wait years before I could go, too, and I know it's no fun. But if you wait, you'll be even more excited to go once you're eleven."
"Here we are." Harry said, pulling into Kings Cross Station. "Now we get to platform 9 3/4."
James was extremely excited to be going onto platform nine and three-quarters, something he had done only once when Teddy Lupin and Victoire Weasley went to Hogwarts.
"Hey, James!" he abruptly spun around to face Teddy.
"Hello Teddy! Nice to see you again!" Albus said.
"Oh yes, like we never see him! He comes to dinner 6 out of seven days of the week and stay 4 of those days." Harry laughed.
Teddy grinned. "So, James, you're going to Hogwarts this year! Mental, really. It seems like you should still be in diapers." He shook his head in denial.
"You're only two years older that me, you know." James pointed out.
Teddy just threw his head back and laughed.
"Well, we'd better get going, come on now." Harry said. He looked around to make sure no muggles were watching and pointed his wand at the barrier. "Go ahead, James, we'll give you the honors of going first."
James was startled, but tried to appear to be brave. He instantly went ran and hit into the wall, cringing as he did so, but he was suddenly on a platform that had clearly not been there before.
Owls were hooting and swooping around. Cats prowled around the grounds, and even some sparks flew out from the end of a few seventh years wands, obviously showing off the fact that they were of-age.
James' own owl, Adery, was hooting. James hesitantly let her out the cage, but it still stayed close.
"Harry, Ginny!" Mrs. Hermione Weasley was running towards them with Ron Weasley walking smoothly towards them. Hugo and Rose followed close behind.
Hermione immediatly hugged James, Lily and Albus, then went to Harry and Ginny.
"What are you doing here?" Harry asked enthusiastically, while hugging Hermione.
"We thought we'd come and support James, first year at Hogwarts, very important milestone, you know." said Ron
"How thoughtful! What's gotten into you Ron?" Ginny joked.
"Well, considering I'm the one who said htose exact words to pursuade Ron to come..." Hermione said.
"Oh, really?" Ginny gave Ron the evil eye and opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted.
"Hey, I will not stand her and be critisized by my own little sister." Ron said.
"Okay, go walk over there." Ginny jibed back.
Harry and Hermione laughed.
"Now, James-" Ginny started but then James' look seemed to remind her about their earlier conversation about how she treated James like a child, often embaressing him.
"I'll take it from here." Harry said to Ginny.
"Now, James, remember what I've told you. Do your work, don't show off," he winked at his joke, "don't duel till you've learned, and please, don't do anything mental, your mother will only worry more."
"I'll see at Christmas, Dad."
Ginny hugged James tightly. "I love you, James. Be good!"
"I will, I promise."
Then Hermione, Hugo, and Lily all hugged him and Teddy tightly, while Ron shook both of their hands, pretending to be business-like.
"Hurry, now, don't want to miss the train!" Hermione said.
They caught sight of the four Malfoys, Draco, Astoria, the daughter who was his age, Immorali, and the son, who was Rose and Hugo's age, Scorpius. All had white-blonde hair, Scorpius looking rather like Draco, Immorali had blonde hair right past her shoulders and bright blue eyes. She was slim, and dressed in a saphire traveling cloak.
Draco Malfoy seemed to have seen Harry, and, though some of the tension had downed in an uncomfortable meeting, in which Draco insisted that he would have joined the Order, had it not been for Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, (which Ron snorted and said some very rude things), he barely aknowleged Harry but for a grim nod.
"James!" He turned to see Rossalynn Longbottom, who made his heart skip a beat. She had long auborn hair to her waist and green eyes. "Let's find a compartment."
James nodded and turned to his family. "See you at Christmas!" he repeated, and walked onto the train.
"Here this looks good to me, is it all right with you?" She asked.
James, who had not been paying the most attention to her words sayed "Huh? Oh yes, this is fine." He sat down by the window.
The Hogwarts express started to pull out of the station, leaving James on his own to find a new adventure at Haowarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.