Organized Chaos

Part 1

Chapter 1: The Hogwarts Express


The scarlet steam engine hummed softly to itself as it clattered over the miles of track between Platform 9 ¾ and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry Potter sat with his face pressed against the glass of the window, listening.

Listening to Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger arguing.

"I'm sorry, okay?"

"You wouldn't have to be sorry, if you hadn't done it in the first place!"

"All right! I swear I'll never ever eat Chocolate Frogs around your school tie again! Happy?"

"No! Look at the state of my tie!"

"Why can't you just Scourgify it?" Harry mumbled wearily, without turning from watching a field of peacefully grazing cattle go by.

"Why—yes—of course I can!" Hermione was insulted. "But that's hardly the point! The point is, Ronald was being careless with his sweets around someone else's things, and now he's ended up ruining them!"

"IT ISN'T RUINED, HERMIONE!" Ron roared. His usual plethora of freckles was nearly invisible underneath the red flush that spread from his neck to his ears. "YOU CAN FIX IT WITH AN EENSY BIT OF MAGIC!"

"That's not the point!" Hermione shrieked; her brown hair was bushed out twice its normal size. "The point is—"

"All right!" Harry spun around from the window. "Both of you, just stop! I don't care who did what, just stop, okay?"

At this moment, the compartment door was slid open by a girl with long, wavy red hair and bright, emerald-green eyes. "Wow, am I interrupting something?" She said sarcastically. "You know we can hear you in the next car, right?"

"Um…" Harry pushed his glasses further up his nose uncomfortably.

"I didn't come here about that though," The girl waved a hand impatiently. "This boy, Neville, has lost his toad, and I'm trying to help him look for it."

Suddenly, they recognized who was standing behind the girl, timidly fidgeting with his Gryffindor tie: Neville Longbottom. Short, with a timid round face and permanent anxious expression, Neville was always losing his pet toad, Trevor.

Neville's eyes darted around the compartment desperately. "If I don't find him, my Gran's going to kill me."

"Don't worry, Neville!" Hermione immediately jumped up from her bench. "I'll help you look for him."

"Will you? Oh thank you, Hermione! You're a lifesaver." Neville gave a sigh of relief.

Hermione nodded graciously as she followed the red-haired girl and Neville out the compartment door, as though it were simply her duty as a very nice person to assist Neville. But Harry also had a strong suspicion that she wanted to be as far away from Ron as possible at the moment. It was just as well; best friends though they were, Harry didn't think he could take another minute of the two's bickering.

Ron seemed relieved to see the back of Hermione as well. He sank back onto the plush seat with a sigh. He didn't stay there long, however, popping back up and peering out the glass door curiously. "Who's that red-haired girl? I've never seen her before."

"Dunno," Harry said. "She must not be in our year."

"She looks just about our age, though," Ron continued to stare out the compartment door after the disappearing figures. "Whatever year she is, she's a looker, that's for sure." He said, a bit dreamily.

Harry did have to agree that the girl had a very nice face, and those long, wavy locks of rich auburn weren't too bad to look at, either. "I wonder how come we've never seen her before," he murmured.

Ron slid open the compartment door, but before he was able to step out into the main corridor, a bright flash of light erupted in his face, blinding him and giving Harry a nauseating headache. The source, a large flashbulb camera, was lowered to reveal the culprit's face—a small, mousy-haired boy was struggling to hold the bulky instrument at eyelevel, as it was apparently a bit too heavy for his tiny frame.

"Oh boy!" The boy squeaked, "So the rumors are true, then! The famous Harry Potter is in this compartment! How are you, Harry, I've read all about you—I've always wanted to meet you—I'm Colin Creevey!"

The boy leapt across the compartment floor, and before Harry could quite comprehend what was happening, began pumping his arm up and down energetically. "An honor, really—I've always—you're like my hero!"

It was hard for Harry to think while his head was being snapped back and forth. "Um… hi?"

"Agh! Harry Potter said hi to me!" Colin shrieked. "Can I get a picture with you?"

"Uhhh… I don't see why you would want one."

"Oh come on, you're too modest for your own good sometimes, Harry!" Suddenly Ron had taken the camera from the small boy with a wink. "Go on, I'll take it for you."

"Really? Wow, thanks!" Colin bounced down onto the seat cushion beside Harry in excitement.


James Potter slouched in his seat, lazily sucking on the remnants of a Sugar Quill. His best mate, Sirius Black, lay across the entirety of the bench across from him, blowing at his curly black hair; it kept sliding into his eyes, but he was too lazy to brush it out of the way with his hand.

"The Hogwarts Express is always the worst part about Hogwarts," James grouched. "We're so close to school I can almost taste it, but the fun can't start until we get to the castle."

"The trip will be over soon enough," His other friend, Remus Lupin, reassured him, without looking up from his book. "We should be nearly there."

"Are you sure it isn't just the Sugar Quill you're tasting?" Sirius quipped carelessly, raising one finger to explore a small hole in the compartment wall beside his head.

"Seriously though, how many of those have you had on the way here?" Remus's sky-blue eyes appeared briefly above his book as he peered at James. "If you eat too many more, you're going to make yourself sick."

James snorted. "Sirius's middle name isn't Lee."

"What?" This time, Remus's book dropped to reveal the entirety of his scarred face.

"I said—"

"Yeah, but what does that even mean?"

"I was trying to make a joke," James said irritably, biting into the rest of the Sugar Quill with a sharp crack. "You said 'seriously', and I said, 'Sirius's middle name isn't Lee'. Sirius…Lee. Seriously. Get it? Oh, never mind."

"Hardy-har-har." Sirius huffed absently.

Remus stared at the open book in his lap, thinking hard. "Sirius…Lee. Seriously." He glanced up at James in disgust. "That's a terrible pun."

"I know." James crunched the Sugar Quill in his mouth loudly, annoyed.

Suddenly, the compartment door was thrust open, and Lily Evans poked her head in.

James scrambled to sit up, nearly choking on the remains of the Sugar Quill. Could it be? Could it be that this was the year the fiery girl had finally decided to quit scorning his very existence, and to return his feelings for her?

His daydreams were dashed almost immediately, however, by the usual look of loathing on her face as she turned to him. "Shut up." She snapped, as he opened his mouth to speak. "I'm only in here because Neville's lost his toad, and I'm helping him look for it."

"Who's Neville?" The question popped out before he could stop it.

"That's Neville," Lily jabbed a forefinger at the fidgeting boy standing behind her; the boy seemed to shrink when James turned to look at him, as though he'd like nothing better than to disappear like his toad.

"We only want to know if you've seen a toad," Another student James didn't recognize put in primly, stepping forward to stand beside Lily. She had bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.

"Nope." Sirius said to the ceiling, without bothering to get up to look at the others.

"Fine. That's all we needed to know," Lily said curtly, stepping back.

"If we do find a toad, we'll let you know," Remus called hastily, before she shut the door.

"Thank you." With the click of the door latch falling into place once again, she was gone.

James flopped back down onto the plush bench with a sigh.

"You're never going to get her," Sirius remarked.

"Oh, shut up."

"Might as well give it up." Sirius yawned. "But don't get so down, there are lots of prettier girls in the school."

James huffed and reached for another Sugar Quill. A flash of light down the corridor caught his eye.

"What was that?"

"What was what." Sirius let his arm fall limply to his chest.

"That flash of light. Look, there it goes again!" James jumped up and thrust his head out of the compartment eagerly. "Maybe somebody's hexing someone."

"On the train?" Remus was buried in his book again. "But that's against school rules."

James grinned. He knew. "Come on, let's go watch!"

Sirius raised his head. "And get involved?"

James rolled his eyes. "Of course!"

"I'm in." Swinging his legs over to hop to his feet, Sirius was at his side in a second. "Maybe we can set a record for most detentions on the first day of school."

"That's not a good thing, you know." Remus turned a page.

"Oh, quit being such a goody-two-shoes, Remus." James rapped his friend on the head with his wand.

"Ow. I'm not…" Remus protested, rubbing the top of his head, but the two pushed past him.

"Come on, Moony!"


Harry blinked hard, trying but failing miserably to ward away the yellow spots dancing at the edge of his vision. He was aware that Colin was shaking his hand again.

"Thanks so much! Really appreciate it, wait 'til I show my dad! I'm going to develop this and hang in up in my room! Right over my bed!"

Another flash of light, and again Harry recoiled in pain. Eyes watering, he reached out blindly. "Hey, enough of the pictures, all right? You've taken like two hundred already."

"Okay!" Colin chirped brightly. "See you at the Sorting Ceremony, Harry! Hope I get in Gryffindor like you!"

Harry heard the compartment door open and shut. He sat down. "I hope he doesn't," he moaned.

"You good?" Ron's face came into focus in front of him, grinning.

"I think I'm going to throw up," Harry said through his teeth.

"Ha, ha!"

The compartment door was flung open with a loud bang, making Harry jump. "The Marauders have arrived!" A new voice announced with a flourish. "All right, what seems to be the problem here? Where's the hexing?"

"Hexing?" Harry glanced up irritably; he wasn't in the mood for any more visitors at the moment. "There isn't any—" He stopped.

And blinked.

And blinked again, just to make sure.

Hurriedly, he yanked off his glasses, polished them, and shoved them back onto his face. He had thought for sure… but it couldn't be… it must have been a trick of light…

Then he heard Ron whistle. "Blimey. They're twins!"

Standing there in the doorway, looking just as shocked as he felt, was his mirror image.


Comments are greatly appreciated! -Alaskan Appaloosa