He noticed her straight away with her fiery red hair, which he would have usually laughed at before calling her ginger and running away, but this time he just stared at it in awe noticing how it just made her face look even paler which suited the girl perfectly. Her friend began giggling and he realised that he had been staring, turning bright pink and mumbling something which sounded like an apology he shuffled away trying to find a seat in the gleaming red train. He had been dreaming about this day for months, years even as both his parents had gone to Hogwarts as children he had many visions of what it would look like, but could not wait to see if he was right or not. Seeing that there was a space in the carriage which he had just entered he let his trunk rest beside the others and went to take a place opposite a boy with tidy brown hair. The boy, whom he later found out was called Remus Lupin looked strangely familiar as if he had seen him before but knowing that he hadn't he pushed this out of his head and sat down anyway. The boy looked up from his book and smiled before returning to read. James was slightly taken aback by the lack of communication, and being a very confident boy took it upon himself to start off the formalities.
Extending a hand towards the boy who's eyes looked up above the book he said,
"James Potter, how do you do?"
At once he felt a bit stupid. 'how do you do?' what was he thinking?! That's the sort of thing that his father said to a business associate, not a potential friend. Even so the boy looked up smiled again and shook James' hand.
"Remus Lupin"
"So Remus, is this your first year at Hogwarts?" he asked, now becoming desperate to try and get a conversation going as he knew the journey ahead could be extremely boring if he was sitting on his own. Finally giving up after 10 minutes of asking questions, each being replied with either a "yes" or "no" answer, he sat back and watched the countryside pass quickly by.
To his joy the door swung open and a short, tubby, blonde boy ran through the couch begging for forgiveness being chased by two older students wearing the green and silver of a slytherin. James stood up straight away blocking the two people who he realised were prefects from hexing the boy.
"Get out of the way boy" said the first one, a tall girl with long black hair, hooded eyelids and what looked like a permanent sneer.
"Ha if you think I am going to move aside so you can hex this boy then you are mistaken" James said quivering slightly not quite knowing what to do now, but slowly feeling for his wand.
"Fine we will hex you too, the more the merrier, you don't look much like slytherin material and we will make up for it if you are." sniggered the second one.
Suddenly a boy around the same height as him came bounding through, stopping to look at the scene unfurling.
"Aw come on Bellatrix, give the boy a chance" the young boy said. "I'm sure he didn't mean to step on your cats tail, the things pretty scrawny, like you, anyone could have missed it."
"Piss off Sirius we do not need your help go find some other first year to pester. Make sure it's a pureblood mind."
"Go on Bella, for me? Or you are going to have to hex me as well and you know what mother would say if you were to do that!"
"Whatever but you had better warn your little 'friend' here that if he ever crosses my path again I am not going to be so lenient, now go find someone else to pester, I am serious."
"You're not Sirius I am!" he chuckled.
And with that the two Slytherin prefects stalked off leaving all four of them alone in a coach together. The blonde boy announced that his name was Peter Pettigrew before telling Remus to shuffle along so that he could sit down. He also thanked both James and Sirius before getting stuck into the chocolate frog which he had just bought leaving Sirius and James to introduce themselves to each other.
"Sirius" said the boy with black hair, which looked pretty similar to James' but seemed to pay more attention to what Sirius did to it rather than just sticking up in any direction.
"James"
"So what's your last name James? Maybe I have heard of you. That's if you are pureblood of course, my whole bloody family is obsessed with pure bloods. Gets on my nerves a lot not to mention the restriction to friends." he laughed, though James could not see what was very funny about his family being obsessed with purebloods.
"James Potter"
"Ah… a Potter, hmm mother would be glad that I have made friends with you then. Perfect!" He smiled gleefully which made James feel a bit uncomfortable. "I am Sirius Black by the way, heir to the Black family fortune and one of the very few not going to become a Slytherin."
This took James by surprise as he had heard that nearly all of them had been a Slytherin, and that being anything other was considered a disgrace by all other family members.
"How come you don't want to be in Slytherin?"
"Well firstly because my mother would hate it, and seeing as I hate my mother it would be one of the few ways to get her back, but secondly, well come on! There reputation for being evil bastards and bitches is hardly attractive. No the house I am going to be in is Gryffindor, for the brave. Isn't that the one all your family goes into? God that would be cool if we were in a house together!" He once again grinned, but this time James smiled back. Maybe this would be the perfect friend for him to complete all the pranks which he had planned with.
"Sounds like a plan." James replied "yeah it would be really cool if we were in a house together."