Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Harry Potter. Jo Rowling is the creator and only owner.
CHAPTER 2
*September 1st …*
"Are you sure you have everythingyou need?"
"Yeah, yeah."
"All your books? Your clothes, your owl, your wand, your -"
"No mum, I forgot my wand." James rolled his eyes at his mother's continual badgering. She had been doing so since they left Godric's Hollow ten minutes ago.
Mrs. Potter clicked her tongue at her son but otherwise remained silent for the rest of the trip, for which James was grateful. Truthfully, all her checking, double checking, and even triple checking made him more nervous than he already was.
Nervous about what? He couldn't say exactly. Maybe because this was the last ride to Hogwarts he would ever go on as a student. Maybe because he wasn't sure what the future would hold for him and his friends after school. The Marauders … they knew who they were at Hogwarts; they were the trouble makers, the jokers, the inseparable quartet. But outside the safety of the castle walls, who knows?
The war with You-Know-Who was getting worse, and any number of things could happen after they left school. He just knew that he wanted to get on the train as soon as possible, and yet at the same time, wanted to never have to make that last ride. Did that even make sense?
He looked to his left and made an exaggerated silent sigh. Sirius cracked a grin. The pair were lounging in the backseat of the Potters' car with the adults up front. James could tell his friend understood what he meant. For the past month, the household had been a flurry of activity getting everything in order for the boys' last year. Mrs. Potter in particular was a whirlwind of unexpected mood swings. One day she would be quietly humming to herself while doing laundry, the next she'd be found sobbing hysterically over some of James' pictures from when he was eleven.
James was used to it by now, but was embarrassed for Sirius, who had to experience it firsthand. And though he was often nonchalantly shrugging off the woman's odd moods and teasing her son about the pampering he received, James could sense that Sirius was envious of how much James had been cared for and surprised at how welcoming the Potters had been after he had run away, even now, a year later.
The rest of the trip was spent in a comfortable silence. James stared at the window and fiddled with the Head Boy badge in his pocket.
Yes, Head Boy badge.
When the glistening, wallet sized pin had fallen out of his letter, James could hardly speak. He was sure there had been some mistake, expected to see some note on there that said "For Frank" or even "For Remus." Of course, there was nothing of the sort, just that scarlet and gold badge, shining disturbingly up at him.
What had first been disbelief then turned to panic. The Marauders had made a sort of unspoken agreement to look down upon anyone in authority, to do what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it. He racked his brain to figure out what he did right but came up with nothing. It might as well have been a death sentence. He had wanted to get the thing out of sight before Sirius came in, but his legs wouldn't move. All he could do was stare at it.
"Hey, mate. Oh, Hogwarts letters!" Sirius flopped down on the bed that had been squeezed into James' room a year prior. He opened the note addressed to him in curly handwriting, and read, "'We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to your final year at Hogwarts', blah, blah, blah … 'List of books, September 1st …' So I guess we can – What'cha got there?"
James snapped out of his stupor and tried to grab the badge to hide it, but Sirius quickly snatched it out of his reach. He looked at it for what seemed like years, and James cringed. Sirius' eyes widened and a wolfish like grin spread across his face.
"Wooo!" he yelped. "Dumbledore's probably off his rocker, but Head Boy! Well done, mate!" He ruffled James' already untidy hair and punched him on the arm, and then collapsed back on the bed. "Head Boy … James … Gryffindor Head … wow …" Sirius muttered, interrupting himself with peals of laughter every now and then.
"And you know what this means? You have a free pass! You can go walking down the corridors and if a teacher stops you, you can just say 'Head's business.' It's brilliant!"
"I know." James took the badge back, tossing it from hand to hand. "I would have thought that somebody else would have gotten it, like Moony. He's the good one."
"Yeah, but that's McGonagall for you. Don't know what she's thinking though, pulling something like that. Ha, and she calls us pranksters."
James smiled as he thought about his mum's screech when he walked downstairs that morning. After she had crushed the living daylights out of him, she quickly made a huge breakfast for them, all the while beaming like James was suddenly Nicolas Flamel himself. His father was no better, clapping him on the back so hard that he started coughing.
He leaned back in his seat and prepared to unbuckle his seatbelt as they pulled into the parking lot of King's Cross station. Truth be told, James was excited to be Head Boy - more than he let on. Not only for the freedom (though of course that was a bonus) but to prove to Evans that he wasn't an immature git.
Oh, Lily Evans.
Every time he thought of her, his stomach fluttered. James didn't know what it was about her; maybe it was her flaming red hair, maybe it was her sparkling green eyes, maybe it was her electric personality. He could have his choice of any girl in school, but he just had to fall for the one that couldn't care less if he was eaten by a troll. Well, this was his chance - his last chance - to win her over. He wasn't the same guy he was seven years ago, James knew that much. But would Evans see it that way? He hoped so. He hoped with every fiber of his being. He'd never cared about anything, or anyone, so much in his life except for his friends.
"Oy, we gotta go." Sirius snapped his finger in front of James, who had gone away with his thoughts for a moment. James nodded and smiled. They gathered their stuff from the trunk of the car and walked into the station.
Muggles bustled around, getting on and off trains, waving goodbye to friends and greeting loved ones. They seemed to all be in a great hurry, but James could see nothing actually getting done. That's how it was with non-magic people; they were very anxious to get somewhere, but once there, realized that there was nothing to do. James was continually amused by watching them getting along without magic.
The small group weaved in and out of the crowds, struggling to find the entryway to the Platform. Muggles curiously looked at the owls with the boy's luggage, as they always did. When finally Sirius spotted the right wall, it was almost ten 'til.
After glancing around to make sure no one was watching (though of course no Muggles ever watched closely enough) they casually leaned into the brick wall.
The sensation of going through a seemingly solid wall bothered James every time. The illusion was so perfectly made that sometimes he thought he had the wrong wall. But nevertheless, he slid through it smoothly.
Platform 9 ¾ was all a bustle with kids hurriedly calling out to their friends, parents calling to their kids, and owls hooting to one another. Meanwhile, the scarlet train that James knew all so well was there too. The Hogwarts Express sat gaily on the tracks while students stuck their heads out the compartments, telling their family "I love you" one more time.
A solid entity collided with his back and James stumbled forward a few steps. He turned to see his best friend smirking only slightly.
"Daydreaming, Prongs?"
"A little."
"Well get your butt out of the way of the barrier. Your parents will be coming through any se—"
Sirius didn't get the chance to finish his sentence. The elder Potters suddenly came through the other side, she knocking over Sirius, he knocking over James. After a moment of entanglement, the two teenage boys stood up with as much dignity as they could muster under the circumstances. The adults chuckled to themselves and followed the boys across the Platform.
With tears in her eyes (thoroughly embarrassing James) Mrs. Potter hugged her son and gave him a wet, cherry lipstick kiss. Sirius stifled laughter at the ridiculously estranged look on James' face, but grimaced himself as Mrs. Potter pulled him into a hug too. Mr. Potter gave James a one-armed hug and shook Sirius' shoulder warmly. They stood together as the boys got onto the train, Mrs. Potter dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief.
As James turned into the corridor of the train, he was overcome with a wave of nostalgia. He could remember eleven year old James, so small, as small as that first year over – oh, not that small, surely! James swore that they were getting smaller every year.
The interior of the train was, if possible, busier than the outside. The narrow corridor that went up and down the train was made all the more narrow with students trying to locate their friend's compartments, all burdened with luggage. It seemed that the whole student body was in the body of the train.
It had fully hit him that this was the last time he would board the Hogwarts Express to school. How had six years gone by so fast? Was it really possible that he would have to go get a job this time next year? James had grown up in Hogwarts, become someone. How was he supposed to start from scratch?
He looked over at Sirius, and with his wide eyes and the way he started licking his top lip, James could tell that he was thinking about this as their second to last ride as well, not just another train ride.
He clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder and Sirius smiled smally. After all, they had gotten this far, and he didn't just mean how far they had traveled down the corridor (which actually wasn't all that far). Everything that could have happened in their years at Hogwarts did happen. The hard part was over. Now, it was just the rest of their lives to worry about. Piece of cake.
Up ahead, James spotted a sandy haired boy with shabby robes. He clutched a book tightly in one hand and with the other, he dragged along a rounded boy with mousy brown hair. They ducked around all the shouting kids and arrived at a compartment. Apparently finding it empty, the first boy opened the door. The smaller boy walked in and then the other, taking one last look around, walked in after his friend and slid the door shut. In that brief glance around, James recognized the boy immediately.
He turned to say so to Sirius, but he was already looking in that direction. A smile was creeping up in the left corner of his mouth and it was a smile James knew well. It wasn't one of his genuine smiles, not one of his charming smiles, not one of his smirks when he's playing a joke, but a smile he only showed when he saw the members of the Marauders. James himself felt a pleasant warmth spread through him, soothing that nervous feeling in his stomach.
Side by side, they shoved their way through the crowd and headed over to the compartment where they had seen Remus and Peter enter.
