James walked up platform 9 and ¾ where he found his best friend, Sirius Black waiting for him. Sirius had shoulder length black hair and a very handsome face. On the other hand, James although being very handsome himself, had messy black hair which refused to lie straight however much he tried. A smile appeared on James' face as he hurried towards him.

"Sirius! Hey!" Padfoot wheeled around and waved in James' direction. By the time James had caught up with Padfoot, he was out of breath and was wheezing slightly.

"Sirius! I'm sorry I couldn't see all summer mate, how have you been?"

Sirius threw his head back so his hair fell backwards. "Alright I guess. Mum's been a pain in the neck, Kreacher kept trashing my room on mum's orders. That way she could make my clean up my room and stop me going to see Moony or you. I'm glad term's started now though! I couldn't deal with any more of it."

"Yeah…" James looked around dreamily while putting a hand absentmindedly through his hair. "Our fifth year…" He seemed to snap back to realisation. "Hey, where is Moony?"

Sirius then looked slightly disgusted. "Got his letter didn't he? He's been made prefect. He has to sit front with the other prefects so we probably won't see him for the rest of the journey."

James and Sirius began to walk to the Hogwarts Express and they found themselves an empty cabin. "Wonder who the other prefect for Gryffindor is."

Sirius wondered this too. "Probably Megan Shaw. She's been sucking up to Dumbledore since we first started Hogwarts." Sirius made an obvious gesture of Megan sucking up. He put his hands together and began fluttering his eyelashes furiously while saying in a high pitched girly voice "Professor Dumbledore, how are you today, do you need any help professor? I'll make sure no children run in the halls Professor."

James howled with laughter. "Where's wormtail?"

Sirius shot James a disgusted look as though he had just spoiled his fun. "Who cares?"

"Sirius, he's our friend. You should be a little nicer to him you know."

Sirius rolled his eyes "Ok, fine I'll be nicer just for you but he's just a tag along!"

James opened his mouth to speak but at that minute, the door of the compartment flung open and Moony was framed in the doorway. "Hi guys!" Remus took a seat with them. "How are you? Padfoot? Prongs?"

James smiled "More like how are you Moony! Heard you were made a prefect!"

"Yeah!" Moony laughed.

"So?" asked Sirius expectantly. Remus looked at him confused.

"So?" Sirius repeated again. "Who's the other prefect for Gryffindor? Is it Megan Shaw?"

Remus tried to hide a grin as he turned to meet James' eye. "Not Megan Shaw, no. It's Lily Evans."

"Lily?" James stared at him "NO!"

"No?" Sirius repeated. "Isn't that a good thing…unless that makes her a geek in which case-" Remus shot him a menacing look.

"It isn't that. It's just I kept sending owls to Evans all summer and I got great plans to get her to get her to notice me. She'll put me in detention."

Remus and Sirius both said together "You'd do anything to be in detention with her!"

Sirius laughed "She's out of reach for you. She hates you mate."

James looked out of the window thinking. "Nah, she doesn't hate me…she just can't handle me."

The door of the cabin opened again and now there was a short fat balding boy standing in the door way, red faced and panting. He staggered into the cabin and collapsed into the seat next to James.

"Hi!" He said Peter while out of breath "I almost missed the train, g-got late."

James, Sirius and Remus shared a look of unpleasantness. The Hogwarts express began to move and the friends began to talk amongst themselves. After a while, all prefects were called to the front of the train while the woman with the food trolley passed by.

"Anything off the trolley dears?" She had a broad smile on her face. James and Sirius bought a couple of chocolate frogs and Sherbet Lemons. Peter didn't have any money on him so he bought nothing. The boys shared their food with Peter and were talking amongst themselves when through the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of red through the cabin window. James got up and slid the door open. He peered out and saw Lily Evans knocking onto the door of the third cabin, behind James'. James crept upto this door and looked into the window to see whose cabin it was.

"Snivelly!" James whispered shocked. Severus Snape had been James and his friend's worst enemy at Hogwarts. He was a tall thin boy with a pale white face, long jet black, greasy hair and a hooked nose. He wasn't very popular in school like James but he was obsessed with the dark arts and would do almost anything to punish James and Sirius especially for their taunts.

James hurried back to his own cabin and told Sirius and Peter what he saw. When he finished, their mouths were wide open.

"Well what were they doing? Lily and Snivelly? I don't think so. He only likes pure bloods and she's muggle born." Sirius surveyed James with a confused expression.

"Well Lily went to his cabin, not the other way round and I didn't actually see them do anything. I came straight here. Peter, I want you to turn into a rat and go check it out."

With a lot of persuasion, Peter agreed and soon turned into his animagus form of a rat. He inched through the gap in Snape's cabin door while James and Sirius waited in their own cabin. After a couple of minutes, a high pitched squeal could be heard from one of the other cabins. James ran out to survey the situation and found Snape jinxing the rat with his wand as Lily screamed, holding on the Severus. He caught James' eye and a smirk appeared on his face. Severus knew perfectly well that this rat was Peter, spying for James but failed to mention that to Lily. He enjoyed watching the look on James' face as he saw Lily so close to Severus and watching him 'protect' her.

James threw open the door and screamed at Severus picking up a twitching Peter.

"NO!" He screamed at Severus, unable to contain his fury.

"Excuse me?" Severus said dangerously "Is this your rat James?"

James shot him a look of pure hatred. "Y-Yes it is!" He stammered. "It's my pet rat Scabbers."

Another grin appeared on Snape's face. "Oh I'm so sorry. I had no idea."

James moved towards the door and opened it. He turned around to see Snape sneering.

"You had just better watch your back Snivelly, I know what you're up to and don't think for a minute that you can get away with it!"

James slammed the door behind him and was about to go back into his cabin when someone behind him pulled at his arm.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" roared Lily. "Severus was only saving me from that rat."

For the first time, James felt angry at Lily for taking Severus' side on this. He burst out "You don't know him Lily. He doesn't like muggle borns, everyone knows that. He probably thinks you're scum. Why did you go in there anyway? Stay away from him Evans."

Lily looked seethingly at him and screamed "Why I went in there is none of your business. You say Severus is scum, well James what I see is poor Severus without anyone that understands him and he has to but up with arrogant snots like you and your cronies bullying him."

Lily stormed off towards the front of the cabin.

James flung open the door of his cabin and slammed it shut behind him.

"We heard everything mate!" Sirius looked sympathetic.

"Girls are stupid!" James said.

Peter was laid down on the seats, looking feverish and bloody.

"We need to get him to the hospital wing. He's in a terrible state." Sirius was looking at James with panic and concern on his face. There was a knock on the door and Remus appeared. He looked at where Peter was and rushed over. He examined him and decided to give him some chocolate.

"He'll make it until we get to school then we'll take him to Madam Pomfrey."

James still stood near the door stubbornly. When Remus asked what had happened to Peter, James told him what had just happened between Snape and Lily. Remus howled with laughter with the stupidity of James' situation.

"Prongs, they're not having an affair. Snape's behaviour is just to make you jealous and the only reason Lily went to his cabin was because he's been made prefect for Slytherin but he wasn't informed somehow so Lily was given the task to tell him."

"SNAPE IS PREFECT?!" Sirius and James screamed together. They couldn't believe this. Soon they would have to be answering to Snape.

The train had arrived at Hogwarts as the Maurorders scrambled out. When they reached the castle, Peter's state had become worse as James, Sirius and Remus took him to the hospital wing. Fortunately, Madam Pomfrey never asked what had happened so the friends didn't have to come up with a story.

"He seems to have been hexed pretty badly. He slips in and out of consciousness. He'll have to stay in here at least a month. Now you boys get yourselves down to the Great Hall."