James Potter was never the type to let a thing like this go unnoticed by his parents. James was also had never been the quietest kid to ever live, running around his house, pranking his parents and cousins whenever they came over. On this such occasion, he had just tried pranking his cousin, Wendy. She, unlike James, was quieter, and tended to stand back and watch people being pranked by the great James Potter. He, however, had noticed this every time they visited, and decided he would prank her this time. He had gotten a tonne of feathers, and a lot of honey. James had used this trick a thousand times, and it was easy. Just as Wendy emerged from the living room, to go help with the empty plates, as she did every year, she opened the door, and down fell three buckets of honey. And, as she had been blinded, James leaped out of his hiding space, and tipped the tonne of feathers onto her. She shrieked, but because she was a quiet person, only she and James heard it. He laugh, "Sorry, Dee, but . . . wait no, I take it back." He laughed, and then realised she was fuming. He bolted away from her, and ran up the stairs, she chased after him. But, James tripped on the top stair, and she laughed, his head had fallen into a bucket, and as much as he tugged, the bucket was stuck on his big head. "Help me, Wendy!" He demanded, and she just laughed, and trotted back down the stairs. And that brings us up to date. James had been lying on the floor in silent defeat, not believing that he, the master of pranks, had been, in a way, pranked himself. He sighed, and sat up, he peaked out the bottom of the bucket to look at his watch. Fifteen minutes had passed, and he still hadn't been able to remove the bucket from his head. He heard every one saying their goodbye's to each other, and he sighed again. "Where is James?" James knew very well that he couldn't make it down the stairs with a bucket on his head in one piece, so he just yelled a goodbye to everyone. He heard confused mutters, but nevertheless, no one came looking for him. He banged his head against the floor, but quickly stopped, because the bucket made the sound echo, giving him a headache. It was nearly a half hour before Mr and Mrs Potter finally decided to come looking for their son. Mr Potter sighed, and James knew that he had discovered his son up the stairs, with a bucket on his head. "Can you help me, Dad?" Mr Potter started to laugh, "Why do we even have a bucket lying on the floor?" He bellowed, as he laughed his loud, cheerful laugh. Mr Potter sat down beside his son, "It is going to be so quiet around here without you, you know." James nodded, "Obviously," Mr Potter let out another chuckle, "I found him, Euphemia." James heard his mother laugh, and then she ascended the stairs. "Trust our James to get his head stuck in the only bucket that I had lying around the house." She smiled.

It took a lot longer than expected to get James' head out of the bucket. But they finally managed, with James getting soap in his eyes and mouth. He gagged, "Thanks," He muttered sarcastically, and the Potters' laughed. "James?" "Mm?" "Do you realise that tomorrow is the first of September?" Fleamont Potter asked his son. James' eyes widened, and he looked up, grinning excitedly. "Is it really?" He was almost jumping up and down, Fleamont nodded, Euphemia smiled, James saw the hint of sadness in their eyes. "Don't worry, I'll be home for Christmas-" Fleamont stopped him with a laugh, "No you won't, Jamie. You'll love Hogwarts too much, don't worry about us. We've had Christmas's without you." James looked to the ground, "Yeah, I know. But I haven't had a Christmas without you two." He whispered, "Well, trust me, my first Christmas at Hogwarts without my parents was a blast. You would have loved all of the things that my friends and I got up to." Mr Potter had a twinkle in his eye, the same one James saw every time he talked about his time at Hogwarts. "Okay, well if I decide not to come back for Christmas, I'll send Owlbert back to you." James had been to Diagon Alley with his parents almost immediately after he got his letter. Fleamont raised an eyebrow, "You named your owl, Owlbert?" James laughed, "I thought it was a brilliant name for an owl." Euphemia laughed with him, "I suppose it is." "I'm going to check if everything is packed for tomorrow." He said, and with that, James Potter ran upstairs. "Fleamont?" Mrs Potter said quietly, a sad smile on her face. "Do you realise how clean the house will be?" She asked, and Mr Potter chuckled, "Extremely."

The next day, James bounded down the stairs to the smell of pancakes. He entered the kitchen, and found that there was a pile of pancakes on the table. He smiled at his mother, "Thanks," "It's the least I could do for my only son, who will be on the train to Hogwarts in three hours' time." At those words, James' heart flipped with joy. He grinned, and loaded three pancakes onto his plate, and smothering them with syrup. They loaded James' stuff into their car, and drove it to the train station. James was clutching his train ticket for dear life.

They stood between platform's nine and ten. James, of course, had heard of stories about the platform. His friends and cousins had told him rumours, but he had never been here before. He wheeled his trolley, and parked it in between his parents, they were staring at a beam which held up the roof. He raised an eyebrow, "So, how do we get to the platform." Mr Potter grinned down at James, and he felt giddy. "Can I go first?" He asked his wife, she chuckled, and then nodded. He clapped his hands together, and ran at the wall, "Dad-" James cried out, but he didn't have time to warn him about the wall, before he disappeared. James' eyes were wide. "Mum, where'd he go?" He asked in awe, "He's on Platform Nine and Three Quarters." She said, and James cocked his head, he had had an inkling that was where he was. "Okay, now, I want you to run at the wall. Don't worry about running into it, you'll just run straight through." She said, he nodded, then backed up, and ran at it. It was only at the last second, did he realise that his dad may have just Apparated. But by the time the thought had disappeared, James was standing on Platform Nine and Three Quarters, he pumped his hand in the air, shouting in victory. Mr Potter laughed, and then Mrs Potter appeared. "Come on, James, we have to get you on the train." So Mr and Mrs Potter took him up to the door, and helped him load all of his stuff onto the train. "The train'll leave in a minute, James." His mother said, giving him a hug. "Write, and tell us which house you get into." Mr Potter said, squeezing him. "Will do." James said, waving, then walking through the train. He found and empty compartment at the very back, he grinned, stepping into it. He sat down just as the train whistled, and started to move. He reached out the window, and waved to his parents, who were smiling at him. James could not wipe the smile off of his face, so when another boy, who looked his age, stepped opened the door to his compartment, he bounced up, and shook his hand. "Hello, I'm James Potter, would you like to sit here?" He asked excitedly, the boy had long black hair, that fell just beneath his ears. The boy smiled at him, nodding. "I'm Sirius Black." He said, sitting down. But James didn't sit down, as he saw two boys who were standing outside two different compartments, he could see a long, lanky kid, who was standing outside a compartment which held three kids, one, who had platinum blond hair. The other kid was standing outside a compartment with a kid who's hair was even blacker than Sirius', and was greasy. He heard both kids being rejected, and, feeling a lot nicer than usual. He bounded up the hallway, almost skipping to those two boys. "Do you wanna come sit with us?" He asked, and the two boys turned around to face him. They glanced at each other, and then pointed to themselves. "Both of you, come on." James whirled around on his toes, and marched back to his compartment. He only glanced back once, to make sure the two boys were following him. He smiled, and stepped into the compartment, "I hope you don't mind Sirius, I invited two more." Sirius shook his head, the other two boys stepped in. James sat down, "I'm James Potter," He said, "Remus Lupin," The lanky one said, "Peter Pettigrew." The other introduced, Sirius didn't say anything. James sighed, "This is Sirius Black," The both gave him a funny look. And James, still hyped from the adrenaline of going to Hogwarts, then vowed to himself that the four of them would be friends.