"Sirius. You know when I saw Snape's memory inside the pensive? How did my mum and dad get together?"
Sirius and Lupin exchanged looks.
"That's very long story and it's very painful." Sirius said.
"I have plenty of time. I want to hear more about my mum and dad. You know, 'cause I ne-never re-really knew them."
Lupin sighed and began the story. "All those years ago..."
And so the story begins at the familiar train station, Hogwarts platform 9 3/4.
Lily
Lily was excited. Very, very excited. After she had gotten her letter of acceptance to Hogwarts, it had seemed too good to be true. But she was here, and solid evidence was in front of her. The evidence being, a huge train belching out scarlet steam, and a sign proclaiming, "Hogwarts Express, Platform 9 3/4." Exactly what was written on her ticket. Now, she was vibrating with suspense. All she needed to do to get on her train was to convince her rather tearful mother to let go of her.
"Mum! I'll be fine, honest! Professor Dumbledore said that I'll be fine; if you can't believe me, at least believe him!"
"All right, all right."
Just when Lily was about to reach freedom, her mother burst into a fresh set of tears.
"My little girl, all grown up and off to a boarding school to learn magic! Oh Lily! I'm so proud! A witch in the family! Who ever knew?"
A group of haughty looking people were passing by and Lily thought she heard them say, "Mudblood." This galvanized her into action. Whatever a "mudblood" was, Lily knew it wasn't good.
"MUM! You're embarrassing me and the trains about to leave!"
"Oh, dear. Whatever are you doing standing there?! Go on, hurry up!"
Lily bounded off toward the train and turned back one last time to wave at her parents. Her dad was patting her wailing mother on the back, and was looking slightly embarrassed. "Ugh." She didn't fancy having her father's job of comforting her mother.
Lily quickly clambered onto the train lugging her trunk. Whenever she made a particularly nasty bump, she heard a loud hoot of protest. "Sorry." Lily mumbled to her owl, Asikry. Lily began to look for an empty compartment. She accidentally bumped into the same group of people that had said "mudblood" earlier.
"Excuse me." Lily said.
"Excuse me." mimicked a guy in a high pitched falsetto. The group laughed.
"Move out of our way, Mudblood." A girl said.
"Why don't you say please?" Lily shot back.
"We don't bother being polite to Mudbloods." A different guy with white-blond hair said.
"Oi! Leave her alone. She hasn't done anything to you." This was a guy in the back, who looked like he didn't want to be with the group. He was okay looking, but he wasn't Lily's type.
"Fraternizing with the Mudbloods, Sirius? I thought you were better than that." This was the same girl who had said move out of our way.
"Shut it, Bellatrix. I'm better than all of you combined."
"We're not blood traitors!" shrilled a girl with long blond hair that made her appear she was drowning.
"I have a different idea what makes a blood traitor, Narcissa."
Lily was very close to losing her temper. "While I'd love to hear you high and mighty ones talk, I need to get to a compartment!"
"Then go and find one, mudblood." spat a grease haired guy.
"You know, you all are really pathetic. You can't even think of a decent insult! All you can say is mudblood, mudblood, mudblood. Booriing! It seems I'll have to give you a lesson in insults. You, Snape, are a greasy haired pillock. You, Narcissa, would be pretty, except for the fact that you look like you smell something nasty. If you're not careful, your face'll be stuck that way and you won't be able to make a nice, decent, pureblood marriage." An Asian girl with long black hair stalked up. "Bella, darling, though I'm itching to chat and catch up on the pureblood curriculum and hex you till you're nothing but a greasy mark on the ground, I'll be mature and restrain myself The same goes for you Malfoy, Lestrange, Goyle, Crabbe, the rest of you pureblood freaks. Be on your way. Go on. Shoo."
With many a mutter and shooting the girl nasty looks, "Bella" and the rest of the "pureblood freaks" went on their way.
"Sirius." The guy that had stood up for me turned around.
"What do you want, Kristin?"
"Nice of you to stand up for the 'mudblood'." Kristin made quotation marks in the air with her fingers.
"Hmmph." Sirius turned and left. Kristin turned to me.
"Hello! I'm Kristin! I see you are unlucky enough to run into the 'pureblood society'. Blood doesn't matter, but there are always a couple of freaks in each generation." Abruptly she switched subjects. "Sorry. Got a little carried away on a rant there. What's your name?"
Lily was totally flattened. In ten minutes she had been insulted, glared/sneered at, and ignored. Then this girl had bounded into Lily's already complicated enough life and further disordered the already choaticness by ordering Lily's harassers to leave and then chatted to Lily like they were friends. Maybe they were. Realizing that Kristin was probably still waiting for and answer, and hoping that she didn't think Lily was weird or slow, Lily said, "I'm Lily."
"Hello Lily! Let's go to my compartment; the refreshments are about to come by."
James
James was angry. Very, very angry. After he had gotten his letter of acceptance from Hogwarts, it all had seemed too terrible to be true. But here he was, and solid evidence was right in front of him. The evidence being, a huge train belching out scarlet steam, a sign proclaiming, "Hogwarts Express, Platform 9 3/4", his father saying, "Now, you'll definitely be in Gryffindor, and mind you mind Professor McGonagall. She's one you shouldn't cross.", and his mother wailing, "My little boy, all grown up and off to Hogwarts to learn magic! Oh, I'm so proud!" James decided that he had had enough. It was bad enough to be sent away from his home where he was spoiled rotten. It had gotten worse when, instead of cooing praises of him, he had gotten a blistering lecture from his mother to "behave yourself and mind you don't get in trouble." Now to have to suffer such embarrassment like this in front of his would-be classmates was the exploding point.
"MUM! I'M NOT A LITTLE BOY AND YOU ARE BOTH EMBARRASSING AND STRANGULATING ME!"
"So-sorry, dear." His mother sniffled. "You'll write often?" She pleaded.
"Sure, sure. Bye." And he walked off without a backward glance.
Once on the train, James began to look for a compartment.
"Potter." A male voice sneered.
James head shot up. "Malfoy, Black(A.N. He's talking to Bellatrix and Narcissa here. I think that was their last name before they married. I'm too lazy to go and check, so live with it.) Lestrange, Goyle, Crabbe." James said curtly. "Get out of my way before I hex you."
"My, my." Bellatrix purred. "A little short on patience today aren't we?"
"Not like Kristin at all." A grease haired boy chipped in, obviously hoping to get praise from the people he blatantly admired.
"Shut it, Snape." Malfoy rapped out. Inside, James laughed. Insulting their own allies! If the wizarding world left the pureblood freaks alone they'd probably destroy themselves.
"I'm going to hex you in 3...2...1-" Immediately, the entire group moved to the side except for one boy who hadn't been listening to the conversation. The hex James had been planning to send at Malfoy hit him instead.
"Oi!" He roared as his legs began to dance crazily.
"That's what you get for associating with mudbloods." James heard them say as he walked away.
He helped a Muggle-born? That's not like a pureblood freak at all! I guess I should apologize. Later.
He sat in a compartment alone thinking about his life. Life was very tough for an eleven year-old. Suddenly the door opened.
"Do you mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full." James looked up. Standing in the doorway of his compartment was a boy that looked his own age with mousy brown hair and brown eyes. He looked so tired that James didn't have the heart to say no.
"Sure." James gestured vaguely around the compartment. "Sit anywhere you like."
"Thanks." The boy replied. They both sank into a meditative silence.
"What's your name?" He asked suddenly.
"James Potter." James replied.
"And yours?" "Remus Lupin."
"Do you want anything off the trolley, dearies?" A voice trilled.
James and Remus turned to see a plump witch pushing a trolley loaded with sweets. James leapt to his feet eagerly.
"No thanks." Remus said. James took in his rag-tag appearance. Remus apparently had no money to pay for sweets.
"I'll take half of everything you got." James told the witch.
When she had left, Remus said, "How are you going to eat all that? Or does the school starve us?"
"You're going to share with me." James informed him.
"I can't do that. You were the one who bought all that."
"Nonsense. From the looks of you, you need a few good meals and a mountain of sweets.
Remus turned red and muttered, "You sound like my mother."
"Thanks for the reassurance." James sarcastically replied.
"Anytime."
As they were halfway through the sweets, Remus asked, "What classes are you going to take?"
"In first year you don't get a choice. You have to take Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Herbology, Charms, that's all, I think."
"I read about something called History of Magic. Did they stop teaching that?"
"My dad told me about that class. Said it was the most boring class ever. It's taught by a ghost. He's called Professor Binns."
"A ghost? Cool!"
"Are you muggle-born?" James asked.
"I'm half and half. My mum doesn't really talk that much about Hogwarts, so I don't know much about it."
"Are you kidding me? All my mum and dad would do all summer was tell me about Hogwarts. There are staircases that move and the portraits talk a lot..." James rattled on, glad to share his knowledge.
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A.N. That's the first chapter. I hoped you liked it. I would like some CC please. Next chapter- The Sorting.