"Hello?" A knock sounded on the frame of the door to the four boy's compartment. James, along with the others, turned his head to see a young girl, probably their age, with flaming red hair and neatly pressed school robes. "Do any of you know the way to the lavatory? I can't seem to find it." She was beautiful in the way James thought many wizarding celebrities were beautiful. She had an elegance to her that was like icing on the cake.

"End of the car." James jerked is thumb in the direction she needed to go. "There's a sign right outside of it. Hard to miss. But, before you go, might I ask your name?" He but on his best smirk, hoping to at least get that much from the girls, who was rather attractive.

"Lilly Evans." She extended her hand for a shake, which he accepted. "Pleased to meet you, and I'm sure we would all have wonderfully interesting conversations but I really do need to go." She disappeared out of view before reappearing a moment later, staring directly at Remus, whom was reading a book entitled 'Hogwarts: A History'. "By the way, I've already read that and I found chapter six to be particularly interesting. Okay, goodbye boys." She said, disappearing for real this time.

"So what is in chapter six?" James asked, turning to Remus whom hadn't even bothered to look up from his book. "I mean, she said that it was interesting, so what's it about?" He took out a bean from his package, pleasantly surprised to find it to be cherry flavored.

"James Potter." Sirius grinned and took a bite off of his chocolate frog. "Is it possible that you've developed a bit of a crush on that there girl?" He gripped his frog tighter, ripping off one of the legs before taking it into his mouth, making sure to keep a tight grip on the creature, which was still squirming.

Suddenly James' face became very red, even if he truly didn't want to admit it. "Of course not!" He denied quickly. "I just wanted to know what it was about!" He turned to face the window, watching the rolling hills pass. Every once in a while there would be a house, but rarely. Of course it wasn't possible he was developing a crush on a girl he didn't know. "Never mind that. We should be there any minute, let's get changed into our robes."


"First year students!" A loud voice called from outside the train. "Please follow me!" James stepped off the train, trunk and owl cage in tow, with the rest of his small group and followed the sound until his eyes landed on a tall woman with waist length purple hair. "Do not worry about the bags you've left under the train, we will take care of them."

There was something strange about her voice, something that definitely wasn't British. It took him a moment to realize that her accent was, in fact, American. "Did you know that they had American teachers here?" He whispered to Peter, whom simply held up his free hand –the other occupied with dragging his own trunk- in an 'I don't know' manor.

"First year students!" The woman called again. "Please follow me to the lake! Second to Seventh year students, please make your way to the carriages! Please remember last year's incident with not going to the carriages! I do not want to have another pixie infestation, so if you would not mind, let's be quick about this!"

The first years all gathered around her, which made her look even taller, somehow. She wore a trailing blue dress that matched her eyes, and her hair moved with the slight wind. "Hello, first year student!" She greeted once there was only a small trickle of older students left exiting the train. "My name is Ms. Smith and I will be your defense against the dark arts teacher. If you would please follow me, I'll take you to the boats. Before you get in, let's keep it to four per boat? I've had seven students try to cram together into a boat once and, well, let's just say our giant squid had a lot of fun that night."

"Boat together?" Sirius asked the group, and each of the boys nodded in agreement. "Good. Because I really didn't want to share a boat with my cousin." He gestured to a girl with wild straight, black hair, much like Sirius' own, who had linked her arms with another blonde girl and they were skipping toward the boats together, knocking other students out of their way.

"I can see why." Peter commented as they began their decent down the hill to the lake, which reflected the lights of the castle majestically. "No offense or anything, Sirius, but that girl is scary."

"Scary doesn't begin to describe Narcissa Lestrange. And it's an entirely different idea to think about Bellatrix." Sirius mumbled darkly before shaking off the idea and continuing on, as if the conversation hadn't happened. "So what are we waiting for? Let's get into these boats!"

They all climbed into the boats, trunks and owl in the center, and looked around the floor for the paddles, only to find that there were none. "Excuse me, professor?" A boy with golden hair asked from the left of their boat. "Because there aren't any paddles."

"Ah!" Ms. Smith looked up suddenly from her private boat. "Yes. About that, these are, of course enchanted to move by themselves. So all you need to do is simply sit back and relax. Thank you for bringing that to my attention Mr . . ."

"Lockhart." He grinned a dazzling smile. "Gilderoy Lockhart. And it was no trouble."

"What a douchebag." James sneered and looked at the rest of his new friends. Spontaneously, they all burst into a fit of laughter. Suddenly the boat jerked forwards, the light hanging from the front swinging, causing a dazzling spectacle on the to play on the ripples of water.


"Alright students!" Ms. Smith smiled, standing in front of all of the students, whom were gathered at the base of large, marble staircase. All of the first years had abandoned their trunks and cages at the bottom of the staircase and now gathered around the defense against the dark arts teacher. "Settle down please, I have a bit of an announcement." Once she was satisfied with the dulled noise level. "Now, in just a moment you'll be lead into the Great Hall, where you'll be sorted. It'll be going in alphabetical order according to last name, so those of you who's last names start with things like X and Y and Z please be prepared to stand for a while.

"You all have the possibility of being sorted into one of four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff. Once you are sorted you will go to your respective house table. Trust me when I say that you'll know which table belongs to which house based on how loud they're screaming when you're sorted. After announcements from the headmaster and dinner the heads of houses will escort you to your dormitories. Classes begin tomorrow."

A collective groan rang through the otherwise empty hall as James thought sourly to himself. Sirius sure is one lucky bloke. At least Peter's name also began with a P, so he wouldn't be alone for terribly long. And one of the other boys was bound to be placed in the same house as him, so he wouldn't be all by himself.

Of course, there was always the possibility that they wouldn't. Sirius had informed him that he'd come from a long line of Slytherins. And Remus seemed rather intelligent, so maybe he would be a Ravenclaw. And Peter had said himself that he was practically destined to be a Hufflepuff. This was, of course, assuming that James would be sorted into Gryffindor, and he saw no reason why he shouldn't be. He wasn't smart enough to be a Ravenclaw, and he wasn't kind enough to be a Hufflepuff. It was always a possibility that he would be in Slytherin, but he would rather die than let that happen. He had a family legacy to uphold.

Suddenly the doors were thrown open, and loud chatter rang from it. Thousands of voices were all talking at once and James was instantly overwhelmed. But once Professor Smith began leading them down the hall, the voices quieted. Once they reached the end, she stepped onto a raised platform, where another witch was already waiting. The new teacher was far older, just from looking at her James could tell. She already had wrinkles across her face and graying hairs, however this did not take away from her beauty.

"Hello students." She looked over the new batch of wizards and witches, her green eyes glancing quickly from student to student. Her emerald robes shined brilliantly in the light of the thousands of candles suspended by nothingness in the air. "My name is Minerva McGonagall and I will be your transfigurations professor here at Hogwarts. I trust that Ms. Smith has already informed you on how we will be sorting you." She turned and glided back to the large table where the rest of the faculty sat, and opened a large, brown hatbox sitting on top of it. Out of is she pulled out an old hat that had a wide brim and a point at the top.

She set it on top of a tall stool, which was positioned in the center of the platform, when the strangest thing happened. The hat began singing. Of course, James couldn't really make out the lyrics, not between through the mumble of his fellow students and the folds of fabric blocking the strange clothing item's 'mouth'.

Once it stopped singing, Professor McGonagall unfurled a scroll of parchment, which James couldn't read through the back of. "Ludovic Bagman." The teacher called before letting her hands fall. "Would Ludovic Bagman please step up?"

A young, blond boy stepped out of the crowd and took his place on the stool, after the teacher'd lifted the hat out of the way. After he'd settled himself again she placed it on his head, where it sat for a moment before crying loudly. "Hufflepuff!" There was a collective holler from a table that held multiple students with black and yellow robes, very much like the ones he'd seen in the back of his mother's closet once.

"Narcissa Black!" The McGonagall called. James looked to Sirius, who was standing to his immediate left, give an eye roll as he watched the young girl walked merrily to the stool. Before the hat could be fully lowered onto her head it let out a grand 'Slytherin!' That was the only signal she needed to speedily run over and join the girl at the Slytherin table that Sirius had identified as Bellatrix. "And next: Sirius Black."

"Wish me luck, mates. All fingers crossed that I get put anywhere but with them." He snickered and jut his chin to the other Blacks before sauntering to the stool. The sorting hat had been lowered on his oily, black hair for a longer time than either of the students prior to him until it finally belted out 'Gryffindor!'

The table filled with students decorated with red and gold clothing cheered excitedly as he strutted over to join them, being welcomed immediately and chattering only a bit before turning back to James, Peter, and Remus and flashing them a grand smile.

"Dirk Cresswell!" Was the next name to be called –a Ravenclaw- and the cycle continued like that. A child's name would be called, they would mount the stool, the hat would be lowered, and they would be sorted. Some were up there for a long time, and others were sorted like Narcissa, short and quickly. James didn't really pay it much attention until one name was called in particular. "Remus Lupin."

Remus seemingly let out a loud breath before making his way to the stool and the hat was lowered once again. The sorting hat took his time placing Remus. Not as much time as he'd spent with Sirius, but time none the less. It all was rather tense until the hat shouted 'Gryffindor!' and was removed. Remus hopped off the stool and ran to meet Sirius, who clapped him on the back.

Two in Gryffindor. James thought glumly. Here's to hoping that I end up with them. He knew it was slightly self-centered and, okay, very clingy of him to wish that. But it wasn't all about them. A good portion of him had wanted to be a Gryffindor before meeting these boys. Now his initiative had simply greatened.

And then the sorting continued, with James tuning it out and looking around while he probably should've been paying attention. Nothing new to him at all. He looked around the hall, watching the moving images on the roof and then turning his attention to the teachers, trying to guess what each of them teached. He'd just gotten to the woman he believed to teach herbology –due to the large flower extending from her robes- when "Peter Pettigrew!" Was called and the last remaining of his friends moved to the platform.

In much more time then Sirius, which was filled with whispers that James could barely hear, the sorting hat bellowed the word 'Gryffindor!' and was removed. Peter grinned even wider than Sirius had as he joined the other two boys, sitting on the opposite side of the table of the other two. "James Potter!"

Letting out a sigh he didn't know he'd been holding in, James but on a brave ace and began his way to the stool. Once he was settled he felt the old cloth lowered onto his head, flopping a bit over his eyes and knocking his glasses askew slightly.

"Gryffindor!"