Crossroads

By: ItsOnlyDallis

Author's Introduction: So I do think that this is the third time I have published the first chapter of this story. For some reason, I can never get it to work exactly the way I think it should. I'm hoping that third time is the charm though. A lot more planning has gone into this draft of the story, and I really hope I finish it, because I really think that this story could be great if I actually write it this time. Either way, I hope you enjoy the first chapter, and please, please leave me reviews telling me what you think of it. It's very much appreciated. 3

Chapter 1: An Introduction Of Sorts

"Ready…Set…Go!"

Two trunks flew down the corridors of the Potter Family home. They crashed into walls, knocking down paintings of the Potter ancestors who complained loudly of their mistreatment as two boys fallowed quickly behind. James Potter and Sirius Black. They shoved and tripped each other with wild grins on their faces as they raced down the hallways with their wands outstretched and their hair billowing out behind them.

Quinn Potter, her shiny black hair almost identical to that of her twin brother's stepped out of her room to see what the noise was, only to be forced to dive back in as a trunk sped passed, taking a chunk out of the wall that she had only seconds ago been standing beside.

"Sorry, Q!" James cried a second later, as he and Sirius thundered passed her room also.

Quinn crawled back to the doorframe staring with a mixture of anger and awe as the boys skidded around the corner at the end of the hallway. She let out a breath that came as a quiet laugh, and fixed the hole in the wall with a quick flick of her wand.

"Wasss goin' on?" Peter Pettigrew, another one of James' friend's asked sleepily from the room next door. He yawned and rubbed at his eyes, grasping the doorframe as if he didn't have the energy to stand up on his own.

"No idea, Wormy." Quinn grinned teasing him with the name her brother had given him in their fifth year, which she always thought had been rather funny. She got up and ran after the two boys, fallowing the path of destruction that they had left in their wake to find them in the front room, James crumpled in a chair, and Sirius sprawled on the floor as if he had tried to make his way to a chair but collapsed on the way.

"For star Quidditch players you're both really out of shape." Remus Lupin, the fourth member of the boy's group grinned from the doorway to the kitchen, which he had emerged from to watch the two struggle. Quinn grinned a hello to him and turned her attention back to the two boys in front of her.

"So what were you doing anyways?"

"Trunk….races…." James gasped. "I… won…"

"Did not…." Sirius mumbled from his spot on the floor. Remus shook his head and Quinn laughed, the two of them turning to go back into the kitchen.

"Wow, mom!" Quinn exclaimed as she saw the spread of food her mother had cooked up. The long kitchen table had been decked out in plates of pancakes and sausages. "This looks amazing."

"Oh it's nothing really." Ms. Potter waved away, as she put the last of the food out on the table. "Just do me a favor and don't tell me what your brother and Sirius were doing just let me know if I should send Bree up."

At the mention of her name, a small house elf appeared with a crack in the middle of the kitchen. "You called, miss?"

"Yes, I have a feeling the boys have destroyed the upstairs hallway. If you wouldn't mind taking take of it, that would be lovely."

Bree smiled at Ms. Potter and with a quick bow to Remus and Quinn, she disappeared with another crack. Ms. Potter looked at the two of them and smiled, "I think breakfast is ready!"

At the mere mention of breakfast, Sirius and James were in the room, plates in hand and piling food onto them, their lack of breath forgotten. Even Peter managed to waddle his way into the kitchen rather quickly. Ms. Potter's cooking was some of the most fantastic food any of them had ever tasted. She never seemed to mind having to make 10 times what she normally would whenever Remus, Peter and Sirius stayed over, which generally ended up being most of the summer, and all the boys considered her somewhat of a second mother.

"Hurry up, you don't have a lot of time. Are you all packed? Good, just bring your trunks down to the living room." Ms. Potter swept up after the five children, cleaning up their plates with a few flicks of her wand. Sirius whined as she magiced away the last of his food, but she just sent him a look and ushered him and the other four into the living room.

The Potter's living room was large and cozy like the rest of their house. Big squishy armchairs sat around a wooden table, but the centerpiece of the room was by far the large stone fireplace that took up the majority of the far wall.

"Come along, come along, you don't have much time." Ms. Potter grabbed a wooden box full of floo power off of a nearby table and shoved a handful of it into her son's hand. "Have a good term, James. Please be good. "

"When am I not good, mum?" James asked, grinning at her.

"Oh, don't tempt me. You're not too old to be hexed."

James laughed and gave his mother a quick hug and kiss before stepping into the fireplace. "Platform 9 ¾!" He shouted and a great ball of green flames shot up and enveloped him, whisking him away.

Sirius stepped up next, he also gave Ms. Potter a big hug before taking his handful. He gave a silly salute to the rest of the party before he too was sucked up into the fireplace.

Remus and Peter nicely thanked Ms. Potter for letting them stay before making their way to the platform as well, until only Quinn and her mother remained in the large room.

"Have a good term, sweetheart." Her mother smiled sweetly at her, and gave her a tight hug.

"I love you, mum. " Quinn smiled back, "I'll keep an eye on James and Sirius for you."

"Please do. God knows what those boys could get up to."

"Bye mum. I love you." Quinn smiled and let go of her floo powder. She could just make out her mother repeating those words back before she was sucked through the top of the fireplace. She felt her body being twisted and distorted as the green flames wrapped themselves around her. She wasn't sure if she was right side up or upside down and she spun passed fireplace after fireplace in search for the one that would let her out at the train station. Then, just as she started to fell like she couldn't handle much more of it, she was spit out onto a crowed platform. Before she even opened her eyes, she knew where she was. The sounds of the train along with the hundreds of students and their parents. Friends looking for each other, the distressed hooting of owls who didn't enjoy being around so many people. Quinn opened her eyes. The large scarlet train stood majestically in front of her, steam poured out the top and every so often it would give a little whistle, reminding people to get on soon. Quinn began to walk around, looking for the rest of her friends, when suddenly she was attacked from behind.

"Quinn!" That voice could only belong to one person.

"Absie!" Quinn spun around and gave her friend a proper hug. "Where's Lily?"

"She's got us a spot on the train, come on." Quinn smiled at Absie, one of her best friends since their first year at Hogwarts. Both of them were in Gryffindor and they and Lily has bonded the very first night. Absie's long blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail, as it was a lot, and her face was littered in faint freckles that gave her a very cute girl-next-door kind of look to her. Quinn and Absie pushed their way through the crowds of students and up into the train, where they found the compartment Lily had been keeping for them.

"Hey, Lily!" Quinn smiled as her red-haired best friend looked up from the book that laid open on her lap.

"Quinn!" Lily squealed and jumped up to hug her friend. "How was your summer?"

"Not bad except James had Sirius, Peter and Remus over for the last three weeks of it."

"Are you serious? Why are we never invited?"

"We only have so many rooms." Quinn laughed, "Sirius is guaranteed a spot every year and the two of them always gang up on me to get the other two over as well. " Quinn smiled. She didn't really mind having the boys over. They generally included her in most of what they got up to, and at least they were entertaining to be around. She laughed, remembering the morning events, "You'll never guess what happened this morning though. I woke up and I thought our house was falling down there was so much noise. I open my door and nearly get run over by a trunk James has bewitched to fly down the hallway, and him and that idiot Sirius-"

"You really want to finish that sentence?" Sirius grinned as he pushed open the door to the compartment, James Peter and Remus fallowing behind him.

"What are you doing here?" Lily asked, glancing quickly at James.

"Ouch." James grimaced, "All the other compartments are full or consist of people we don't like."

"So why is that our problem?"

"Oh shush, Lily." Absie hit her lightly on the arm. "We have lots of room. Come in guys."

Lots of room was a bit of an overstatement… ok it was a gross overstatement. The compartments were not made to hold seven people, much less so if three of them were over six feet tall, but they managed. It was a little cozy, but they managed.

The train ride ended up going quite well. As the captain of the Quidditch team James immediately turned to his fellow players, Sirius and Quinn to discuss the changes that would have to be made this year. "Well, Laura's gone, so we need a new Seeker, and I know Quinn and I both agree that if we have to spend another year passing the Quaffle to that gargoyle McDonald, we might strangle ourselves, so I want to try out new chasers as well. Sirius, you're good with Chris as your other beater?"

Sirius nodded, "Yeah he knows what he's doing. "

"Great. And everyone is still alright with Mitch as our keeper?"

"Absolutely." Quinn smiled.

James glanced down at his watch, which had just started tapping him on the wrist. "Oh yeah, Head Boy meeting. I should go."

Before he had even finished speaking, a thick silence filled the room. James stood up, and looked around at everyone in the compartment, who sat staring at him.

"What?"

"You're head boy?" Quinn gasped. Gaping up at her brother.

"Yeah… I told you guys, didn't I?"

Remus, Sirius, Peter and Quinn all shook their heads.

"Oh… well I meant to. It's not really that big of a deal. I just have to like… wander around the corridors at night sometimes and keep an eye of the prefects. "

"James, it's more then that! The Head Boy and Girl are the figureheads of the school! They are who everybody looks up to, and strives to someday be!" Lily gasped at him, "And," she continued as she stood up, "I should be going too. Seeing as I'm head girl."

"You're Head Girl?" James asked, a smile erupting on his face. "That's fantastic! Think of how much time we'll get to spend together!"

Lily groaned and turned to walk out of the compartment. James fallowed close behind, grinning stupidly. As the compartment door shut behind them, Quinn laughed. "He would forget that he's Head Boy, wouldn't he?"

"The school should be scared." Peter nodded.

"No way, Prongs is going to make everything a lot more fun. I'm never going to get in trouble for doing anything ever again!" Sirius grinned, looking around the compartment.

At that moment, the compartment door slid open once again, and a tall sandy-haired Hufflepuff walked in.

"Oh hey, Absie…Remus… how were your summers?"

"Great, Oliver." Absie smiled up at him, "What are you doing here?"

"Just doing rounds. We just had the prefect meeting, but we have to head back soon to meet with the Head Boy and Girl as well. I suppose you know Potter got the bagde this year."

"Yeah." Absie laughed. "He just told us. That git."

Oliver smiled at her, then looked around the compartment. "Well I should get going. Have a good rest-of-the-trip." With a final nod around, he slid the door back closed behind him.

"How do you know his so well?" Quinn asked. Of course she knew who he was, they were in the same year after all, but she couldn't remember a time she had ever had a conversation with him.

"Remus and I have study dates with him in the library. Which is probably why you don't know him." Absie grinned at the other three in the compartment.

"Ouch. I'm mortally wounded." Sirius pouted, and faked a long and dramatic death which somehow ended with him sprawled on top of every other person in the compartment.

The rest of the train ride went smoothly. Absie, Quinn and Peter joined up to face Remus in a game of wizard chess, and Remus still managed to slaughter them all. With about half an hour left, James and Lily made their way back into the compartment, both scowling and refusing to look at each other for the duration of the trip.

The entire sorting and feast past by in a blur. By the time the Gryffindors had made it all the way up to their dormitories all anyone wanted to do was sleep. Sirius fallowed Remus up the boys staircase, poking him in the back with his wand to make him go faster.

"What if that thing goes off and blasts a hole through me?" Remus mumbled.

"Just keep moving…" Sirius yawned, poking Remus again.

Finally the four boys made it to the same dormitories they had been using for the last seven years. They each made their way to their respective beds and sank down, not one of them having the energy to even take off their clothes.