Haha so I finally finished writing the first chapter of the James story! (It helps that I didn't have school today...)
Yeah, I'm not sure exactly how I'm gonna write this, so any suggestions would be helpful :).
Disclaimer: Um yeah, in case it wasn't obvious, I'm not JK Rowling so none of this (other than the plot and some characters) belongs to me. Yeah.
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Chapter One: The Start of A Beautiful Friendship
The morning of September first dawned brightly upon London. The sun was shining, birds were tweeting: life was good. But it was an entirely different story inside the Potter household. As usual, its occupants were ruled by chaos.
Ginny Potter was ready to tear her hair out in frustration. She had a noon deadline on the article about the latest bloodbath between Puddlemere and the Appleby Arrows. And as usual, she had procrastinated till the last minute, and was dearly regretting it now, three hours before it was due.
She really didn't have a choice this time though. Really. She'd only gotten the assignment three days ago. She'd seen the game the first day, started to write the article the second until Harry whisked her away for a day alone. And then yesterday, they had held a joint party for Teddy, Victoire, and James at the Burrow to celebrate different achievements (Teddy was the Head Boy, Victoire was the new Ravenclaw prefect, and James was finally starting Hogwarts).
And today, well, today was a complete disaster. It was September first, and this was the first, but definitely not the last, time there was two students leaving the house for Hogwarts- Andromeda had left Teddy with the Potters after the party, trusting them to take him to the station in the morning- so it was a full house.
All the kids were awake: the noise levels of the house skyrocketed. Teddy was running around, alternating between searching for his wand and yelling at James for hiding it. James, her little troublemaker, was wrecking havoc in the kitchen with Al as they played tug-of-war with the last box of cereal - Ginny had no doubt that the kitchen was now a disaster zone. She could hear Lily wailing about something in her room as Harry soothingly tried to get her to come out and get dressed.
Eventually Harry, being the lifesaver he was, got Lily to come out. He accioed Teddy's wand, cleaned up the kitchen, and made the kids breakfast while Ginny thankfully managed to put together something that looked like an article. The family piled into the car, trunks and owls safely loaded, and raced through traffic towards King's Cross.
It was a good thing they lived just outside London, Harry thought idly as he skirted through the heavy traffic. As it was, they were pushing it with barely fifteen minutes until the train left.
Once the family got onto Platform nine and three-quarters, they were met by the rest of the Hogwarts-bound Weasley children (i.e. Victoire, Dom, Lucy, and Freddie). Teddy eagerly greeted Victoire, while Ginny made it her goal to squeeze James to death.
"Mum gerroff!" the boy choked out.
The family amusingly watched James' pale face turn pink, and then bright red. Freddie and Al grinned rather gleefully at James: Harry had no doubt they were most likely going to use it for was when Harry noticed his eldest turning purple that he decided to step in.
"Gin?" Harry said, placing a hand on his wife's shoulder; Ginny shrugged him off. "Gin you have to let James go: he's turning purple." Ginny immediately let go.
"Sorry," she apologized sheepishly to James, who was wincing as he rubbed his ribs. "It's just… I'm going to miss you so much!" Ginny resisted the motherly urge to burst into tears.
"Mum I'll be back for Christmas, don't worry," James assured, rolling his eyes. Mothers...
Smiling weakly, Ginny smoothed James' untamed locks. Her tone suddenly business-like, she continued. "Now don't forget to write once in a while okay? And tell Uncle Neville we say hello."
"Mum," James whined, "Uncle Neville is going to be my professor! I can't just go up to him and say 'Hi Professor Longbottom, I didn't quite understand the Herbology homework last night, and oh by the way my parents say hello'!"
Ginny rolled her eyes at her son's melodramatics. Hearing the train whistle, she gave him one last hug. "Stay out of trouble okay?" At those words, her entire family, James included, turned around with raised eyebrows.
Oh right, this was after all James she was talking to. "Just… don't get expelled," she ended wearily.
James just grinned as he ruffled an annoyed Al's hair and leaned down to hug a sniffling Lily. "Can't make any promises about that Mum." Ducking her swat, he quickly hugged his father. "See you lot for Christmas!" he shouted over his shoulder as he and Freddie clambered onto the train after Teddy. The six Weasleys (both genuine and honorary) waved at their extended family until they were out of sight.
Dom and Lucy wandered off almost immediately to find their friends. Teddy and Vic headed to the prefects' carriage, but Teddy turned around to give Freddie and James the evil eye.
"What are you two going to do?" he asked warily, seeing their identical smirks. Freddie smiled innocently at his oldest 'cousins'. "I was gonna find my mates and introduce my brilliant cousin Jamesie here," he clapped James on the shoulder.
Teddy just narrowed his eyes. "Look," he said assertively, "I promised your parents I'd keep you two out of trouble. So don't do anything stupid okay?" Seeing the mischievous duo just grin, he sighed and continued walking.
Vic, staying behind, turned conspiratorially to the boys. "Ignore him. He's just nervous 'cause he's gotta lead the entire school," she ended singsong-y.
Teddy, still within earshot, just shot her a dirty look. Vic smiled sweetly at her best friend.
"Oy, just because I know you doesn't mean you're off the hook!" Teddy shouted across the corridor. "You still have to come to the bloody meeting!"
Victoire stuck her tongue out at the turquoise-haired Head Boy's back. "I hate being a prefect," she muttered to her cousins. Straightening out her uniform, she called out, "I'm coming, I'm coming." With a parting grin, Victoire left the duo.
Now that they were out of authoritarian company, James turned to look at Freddie with an eagerly mischievous grin. "Now what?" James asked literally bouncing up and down on his toes. "Are we gonna blow something up? Or hex a few Slytherins? Or, oh I know! We could-"
"James!" Freddie smacked his cousin on the back of his head. "Breathe. It's expected of us to blow something up. Which is exactly why we're NOT pranking anyone. Yet," Freddie added.
James, indignant from the smack, glared at Freddie. "Well what are we doing then?" James huffed.
"I want you to meet a few blokes in my year. So you'll at least know people at Hogwarts that aren't related to you," Freddie teased, making fun of James' upbringing in Muggle London.
Now it was James' turn to smack Freddie. Freddie grinned and good-naturedly pulled a yelping James by the scruff of his collar down the corridor.
"Ah here we are," Freddie finally announced at the last compartment.
James, who had struggled free from the older boy's grasp, simply glared. Ignoring James, Freddie made a big show of pulling the compartment doors open.
"Hello boys!" Freddie cried out to the inhabitants of the compartment, who immediately erupted with cries.
James, who was blocked from a clear view of the cabin, peered around Freddie to see two boys, a tall blond-haired one and a darker-haired and stockier one, enthusiastically greeting Freddie. The taller one pulled Freddie into the compartment, leaving James standing in the doorway, alone and uncomfortable.
James had always imagined his years at Hogwarts would be him and Freddie against the world: pranking everyone in sight, getting joint detentions, and playing Quidditch together. They were best mates pre-Hogwarts so it would make sense that they would be best mates during Hogwarts: judging by they way Freddie completely ignored him in the presence of his friends, James had a feeling that probably wasn't going to work out like he'd hoped.
When Freddie had been fully greeted, the dark-haired one curiously looked at James. "Oy who's the squirt?" he called to Freddie.
Freddie threw his arm around James' neck and dragged James into the compartment. "This here is my cousin James." Turning to James, he pointed to his friends, "Blondie's Eric, and the other one's Will."
James nodded a greeting to the boys. The blond one shrugged him off and decided to instead engage Freddie in conversation. Will, on the other hand, sat down next to James.
"You're a first year right?" he asked. At James' nod, Will's face brightened. "Brilliant!" Ignoring James' bewildered look, he turned to his other side. James followed his gaze and was taken aback to see a girl sitting by the window next to Will. Will poked the girl none-too-gently on the arm: she looked up, annoyed, from her book.
"What?" she asked sharply.
Taking no note of her tone, Will cheerfully continued. "Guess what?" Without waiting for her to actually guess, he plowed on. "I found you another first year to talk to!" Getting up Will pushed James literally into the girl. "You two should chat and get to know each other and whatnot while we,"Will gestured to the other two boys, "-go somewhere else. Bye!" Will said, as he dragged his two friends out of the compartment, leaving James and the girl staring, dumbfounded at the boys' hasty exit.
Bemusedly squinting around the now empty compartment, James' gaze landed on the girl next to him. She was tan with short brown hair: her overall features similar to Will's (James assumed that they were related in some way). Like him, she was wearing muggle summer attire and had a pair of sunglasses perched on her head. His gaze landed on her lap: she had one of those thick books, the ones James normally associated with Aunt Hermione or Rose, open.
Internally, James groaned: it was just his luck. The only people who read books like that could easily be classified into the same category as his Aunt Hermione or Rose- i.e. study freaks. The girl too was scrutinizing him with her light gray eyes. Frantically searching for something to break the awkward silence between them. James randomly burst out, "So… what are you reading?"
The girl gave him a strange look. "A book," she said slowly. "I'm sure even you've heard of them..."
James gave her an annoyed look. "I know that, it's just your book looks really thick."
"Oh it's not mine," she said. "I'm just 'borrowing' it off Will i.e. he'll be lucky if he ever gets it back," she ended grimly. At James' questioning look, she added, "Will's my brother so it's fine. Kind of." She stuck out her hand. "I'm Lena by the way."
James slowly reached out to shake her hand. "I'm James." They stood awkwardly, still clasping each other's hand until she snatched hers away.
"So do you watch Quidditch?" (He was desperately hoping she knew what quidditch was: he reallydidn't want to have to explain the whole sport out.)
To his relief, her eyes light up in delight as she grinned. "It's only the best sport in the world! What's your team?"
James let out a sigh of relief: it felt good to be back in familiar territory. "It's a cross between Puddlemere and the Cannons." (He blamed Uncle Ron for obsessively taking James, Al, and Rosie to all of the Cannons' games growing up.)
"The Cannons?" Lena repeated skeptically. "But they're really bad…"
James' chest puffed up indignantly. "Hey! The Cannons aren't that bad. They'll win. Y'know, someday..." Narrowing his eyes at her smug expression, he fired back. "Well, what's your favorite team then?"
"All the teams I like actually tend to actually win once in a while thank you very much." Positively smirking at James' glowering face, she continued, "I'm a Harpies kind of gal."
James rolled his eyes. "I should've guessed. I mean allgirls like the Harpies: my seven-year-old sister likes the Harpies..."
She just gave him a Look. "Stereotypical much? I like the Harpies just fine, but I'm into my home team a bit more." At James' questioning look, she clarified, "I live in Cornwall so my dad takes me to see the Falcons in the summer."
James nodded. "Yeah the Falcons are pretty good. Did you see their match with the Kestrals last week?"
"No," huffed the girl. "The match was sold out for some reason: none of the locals got tickets. But I heard it was really good," she said wistfully.
James didn't mention that his mother had gotten extra tickets from work and taken the family, hence the reason why it was probably sold out. Instead he diverted the conversation to who was most likely to win the European Cup next year.
The duo chatted and a light badinage flowed between them. James was attempting to coax Lena into a game of wizarding chess (a task at which he was miserably failing) when a short blond-haired boy rushed through the compartment doors. He quickly locked the door behind him and closed the blinds to the glass doorway. He pressed his ear to the door: he heaved a sigh of relief when he didn't hear anything. But his sigh quickly turned into a yelp when she caught sight of the two already in the compartment.
The two groups simply stared at each other. Finally the blond boy broke the silence. "Er, d'you lot mind if I crash here?" the boy asked sheepishly in a distinctively American accent. "Just for a bit y'know. You won't even know I'm here."
James and Lena exchanged a look. Lena shrugged. "Sure go ahead," she said, nodding to the seat across from her.
With a grateful smile, the boy settled into the seat but he seemed jittery and couldn't sit still.
"Any reason you randomly ran in here?" Lena questioned, leaning forward curiously.
"I dunno actually," the boy said, shrugging. "One minute I was getting candy off the cart, the next I'm running away from this big kid who starts running after me. I never thought that cutting in line would cause that much threats of bodily harm," he said thoughtfully, taking a bite out of his pumpkin pasty.
James nodded sagely. "Was he wearing a green tie?"
The boy frowned as he scrunched his eyes together to think. "No… I think the tie was more yellow-ish. Why?"
James shrugged. "Just wondering."
Lena rolled her eyes. "You know, not everyone that's mean is in Slytherin."
James opened his mouth to respond but the other boy cut him off. "Slytherin? What's that?" he asked curiously.
James and Lena exchanged looks. "I'm assuming he's muggleborn then," James speculated out loud.
"What's that?" the boy asked, confused.
Lena grinned. "Well that confirms it." To the boy she explained, "A muggleborn is someone who is the first in his or her family to have magic."
"Ohh," the boy said, nodding his head in understanding. "Yeah that sounds like me. Mum was so surprised when I got my letter. What about you two? What's your story?"
"Er, well first off I'm James," James introduced himself. "And that's Lena," he said pointing over his shoulder. Lena waved.
The boy smacked himself lightly on the forehead. "Oh ha I knew I was forgetting something. I'm Jonathan by the way. No nicknames, just Jonathan: I probably won't answer to anything else."
"Nice accent by the way," Lena commented lightly.
Jonathan blushed. "Yeah I'm American: I never realized how weird my voice sounds next to all these English accents."
James waved his hand dismissively. "Eh they'll get over it. Now that we've got these introductions out of they way can we pleasedo something fun?" he pleaded.
Jonathan started at James' sudden mood change. "Is he always like this?" he stage-whispered to Lena.
Lena shrugged dismissively. "Eh probably: seems like the type."
"You don't know?" Jonathan asked curiously.
"Well how should I know?" Lena asked indignantly. "We only met a couple hours ago!"
James tapped his foot impatiently. "Now if you two are done analyzing my behavior, I say we should go back to my earlier suggestion: you two up for some Exploding Snap?"
"Exploding Snap," Jonathan echoed. "That's a cool name for a game..."
James and Lena exchanged looks again. "Er..." ("Wait you mean there's real explosions?!?") Lena slung her arm around Jonathan's shoulders as she pulled him down onto the seat next to hers. "Oh we're going to have so much fun explaining everything to him."
"Eh," James shrugged as he pulled out a deck of cards from his pocket. "At least we'll have fun bringing him over to the dark side because-"
"-We have cookies!" James and Jonathan chorused together. They looked at each other and immediately cracked up. Lena warily watched the two boys giggle, their laughter becoming more and more manic, as she feared for their non-existent sanities, but slowly a smile appeared on her face.
"Gentlemen I hereby declare this to be the start of a beautiful friendship," she proclaimed loudly to the compartment before she too succumbed to the overwhelming laughter in the compartment.
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So What did you think?
Yes I realize James and his friends get a bit sillier towards the end, but they're bonding and getting more comfortable with each other...
Make me smile :)
Oh and Happy Friday the Thirteenth! Keep an eye out for things that go bump in the night....