This story takes place after the seventh book and has spoilers concerning the seventh book so I advise you read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows before reading this fanfiction.

Disclaimer: Plot line and Harry Potter is copyright of JK Rowling. She owns all last names and senior members of this fanfiction. Some junior characters of this story are my creations but modeled after characters of JK Rowling. The beginning of this chapter, up until the departure, is written straight from the seventh book epilogue. Only sections of the beginning are mine. If you have read it, you will know whose work is who's. ALSO, my father's fiancé, Kristi, helped me with many of the ideas in this fanfic. I could not have done so well without her.

Thank you.

Enjoy.

Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first of September was crisp and golden as an apple, and as the little family bobbed across the rumbling road toward the great sooty station, the fumes of car exhausts and the breath of pedestrians sparkled like cobwebs in the cold air. Two large cages rattled on top of the laden trolleys the parents were pushing; the owls inside them hooted indignantly, and the redheaded girl trailed tearfully behind her brothers, clutching her father's arm.

"It won't be long, and you'll be going too," Harry told her.

"Two years," sniffed Lily. "I want to go now!"

The commuters stared curiously at the owls as the family wove its way toward the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Albus's voice drifted back to Harry over the surrounding clamor; his sons had resume the argument they had started in the car.

"I won't! I won't be in Slytherin!"

"James, give it a rest!" said Ginny.

"I only said he might be," said James, grinning at his younger brother. "There's nothing wrong with that. He might be in Slyth-"

But James caught his mother's eye and fell silence. The five Potters approached the barrier. With a slightly cocky look over his shoulder at his younger brother, James took the trolley from his mother and broke into a run. A moment later, he had vanished.

Once on the other side, James' vision was clouded with white steam. He grinned, pushing his trolley forward enough to see the great scarlet train in front of him. Pushing his trolley along, James located an open door to the Hogwarts Express.

"James!"

Upon hearing his name, James peered over his shoulder and smiled. Running towards him was a short boy in the muggle attire of a navy sweatshirt in jeans. The boy had pale skin with brown freckles littering his nose. He had rangy, brown hair that sloppily covered his large, fathomless, brown eyes. He was no other than James' best friend, Benjamine Finnigan.

"Hey!" James greeted.

Ben slowed to a stop next to James, panting and leaning over the handle bar of his trolley. A green trunk was set inside, bearing the letters B.F and a small cage sat on top of that. Inside, James knew, rested Ben's dilatory toad, Toady.

Ben never was very creative.

"Shall we find a seat?" James suggested.

Ben nodded and the two boys hefted their luggage aboard the train. They dragged the luggage down the tan-carpeted hallway, peering into compartments. Most were empty; most students were still on the platform, giving their goodbyes to family.

The two found an empty compartment towards the back on the left side. They slid open the door and walked inside. Ben and James both lifted their trunks, sloppily sliding them onto the racks above the seats. Ben then sat down, placing his toad's cage on his lap.

"You're staying here?" James questioned, setting Pelithin on the seat across from Ben's.

Pel was a scruffy looking owl with brown feathers that had tan streaks on the wings. He wasn't large but had fierce some talons of an onyx color. James had gotten him as an eleventh birthday present.

"Yeah. No use in going back to get smuggled with kisses and happy tears from Mum," Ben replied.

James smirked. "Okay, well, I'll be back then."

Ben shrugged and James left the compartment, sliding it closed behind him. He exited the train, squinting through the thick steam for a sign of his family. He set off to the left, seemingly disappearing into the billowing clouds of steam.

"I wonder where they are," James mused before halting in his tracks.

James' eyes slowly grew large, his gaze set upon a stone pillar only feet away from him. Against the pillar was his cousin on her sixth year, Victoire, silver hair reaching to her lower back. Her crystal blue eyes were closed as her pale lips seemed fused together with Teddy Lupin.

Teddy Lupin, age nineteen, was almost family to the Potters. Harry, James' father, was godfather to Teddy. Teddy today, being a metamorphmagus, was sporting spiky black hair and violet eyes with sharp features. His own body covered half of Victoire's as the two seemed to be biting each other's faces off.

"Oi!" James hollered, sprinting towards the two.

The kissing slowly stopped as Teddy pulled away, turning to see James as he halted before them.

"Just what are you doing?" James asked viciously, glaring daggers at Teddy.

Teddy shrugged. "I came to see Victoire off. Now, if you please, go away."

James' mouth dropped as Teddy turned back to Victoire and they continued their activity. Gaining composure, James wrinkled his nose in disgust and turned on his heel, in search of his family once more. This time, he had itemization.

Once again, squinting through the broad steam, James finally managed to find his family. The four of them were standing next to James' aunt and uncle, Ron and Hermione Weasly. Rose, their girl who would be entering Hogwarts with James' brother Albus, was standing next to Albus at the moment. The other Weasly child, Hugo, was standing next to James' younger sister by four years, Lily.

"Hey!" James called out, running up to them.

"Teddy's back there," he said breathlessly, pointing back over his shoulder into the billowing clouds of steam. "Just seen him! And guess what he's doing? Snogging Victoire!"

He gazed up at the adults, evidently disappointed by the lack of reaction.

"Our Teddy! Teddy Lupin! Snogging our Victoire! Our cousin! And I asked Teddy what he was doing-"

"You interrupted them?" said Ginny. "You are so like Ron-"

"-and he said he'd come to see her off! And then he told me to go away! He's snogging her!" James added as though worried he had not made himself clear.

"Oh, it would be lovely if they got married!" whispered Lily ecstatically. "Teddy would really be part of the family then!"

"He already comes round for dinner about four times a week," said Harry. "Why don't we just invite him to live with us and have done with it?"

"Yeah!" said James enthusiastically. "I don't mind sharing with Al-Teddy could have my room!"

"No," said Harry firmly," you and Al will share a room only when I want the house demolished."

He checked the battered old watch that had once been Fabian Prewett's.

"It's nearly eleven; you'd better get on board."

"Don't forget to give Neville our love!" Ginny told James as she hugged him.

"Mum! I can't give a professor love!"

"But you know Neville-"

James rolled his eyes.

"Outside, yeah, but at school he's Professor Longbottom, isn't he? I can't walk into Herbology and give him love..."

Shaking his head at his mother's foolishness, he vented his feelings by aiming a kick at Albus.

"See you later, Al. Watch out for the thestrals."

"I thought they were invisible! You said they were invisible!"

But James merely laughed, permitted his mother to kiss him, gave his father a fleeting hug, then leapt onto the rapidly filling train. They saw him wave, the sprint away up the corridor to find his friends.

James slid open the door of his compartment to find two more people occupying it than just Ben. As he walked into the compartment, the three already inside looked up and smiled. James smiled back, taking his seat, that was saved by Pel, beside a girl with darker skin and sleek, black hair that was tied back in a pony tail. Her name was Connie Thomas, one of James' partners in crime.

Across from Connie was another of James' friends. Alexis Longbottom, not a Gryffindor like the other three, but a Hufflepuff, with long, wavy blonde hair and brown eyes, smiled at him. She was daughter of two of James' professors; Professor Neville Longbottom and Professor Luna Longbottom. On Alexis' lap was a rather large cat with puffy white fur and silver eyes.

"Hi James," Alexis spoke in a very soft and dreamy voice. "Did you have a nice summer."

"I did," James smiled. "It was fun teasing Little Al."

"Oh, that's right, Albus is entering his first year, isn't he?" Ben inquired, seeming interested.

James let out an evil smirk. "Yup."

"That's not very nice, torturing the poor kid," Alexis commented, stroking the back of her cat, Mercury.

James rolled his eyes.

"Do you think he'll be a Gryffindor?" Connie asked.

"Probably," James replied absentmindedly.

The discussion ended there and the rest of the journey was filled with discussion of Quidditch, classes and magic.

"Finally! We're back!" Ben exclaimed, running of the train in his Gryffindor robes.

James, Connie and Alexis followed, stepping onto the dirt road of Hogsmead, the wizarding village about thirty minutes away from Hogwarts.

"It is good to be back," Alexis smiled, giving her cat to a train attendant who would put Mercury with the rest of the pets that would be delivered to Hogwarts after the students.

James smiled, agreeing and along with his friends, boarded the carriages that would take them to the castle known as Hogwarts.