Well, slow start (ew, gross) and I'm probably going to seriously rewrite that first chapter once I find motivation. Maybe. Probably not, but it's the thought that counts here, right?

I'm thinking of doing two chapters per year to accurately get everything that needs to be in the fic. Also much love to all of you who have faved/followed/reviewed the first chapter! It makes me feel the happy feelings and motivates me like you wouldn't believe.

Summary: They hate each other. Despise one another, really. So how is it that they've somehow ended up together?

-;-

First Year

The first several days of class, as they always were, were something of an adventure for the first year students. Most of the teachers knew that despite their best efforts not all students were going to be on time to class for the first week.

James, Sirius, Remus, and now Peter Pettigrew- who was the fourth boy in their room- were surprisingly not of this number absent, despite the trio's late night explorations after getting settled into their room.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on one's perspective) Professor McGonagall had the first year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs bright and early on the first day of class. James had surprisingly managed to be up at an acceptable hour, washed and gotten dressed in his Gryffindor adorned robes, slung a red and bronze scarf around his neck and poked Sirius awake on his way back to his trunk. Remus was just finishing getting dressed, his vest adorned with the Gryffindor badge and his tie neatly arranged over said vest. He quirked a brow at James' behavior but said nothing, instead collecting his books and slipping them into an off the shoulder bag.

"Morning." He greeted with a small smile.

"Mornin', Remus." James grinned back, running a hand through his hair in an admittedly futile attempt to tame it. His glasses were for now left alone-not that he would need them once his thirteenth birthday came along and his parents would get the sight-correction potion. "Is Peter up yet?"

The other boy glanced over his shoulder at the bed next to his before shaking his head.

"Not that I can tell." He said.

"Peter, come on!" James called, wandering over and poking the lump beneath the blankets.

A groan came from the lump a moment before a pair of narrow eyes stared balefully back at James. Behind them, the sounds of Sirius' emergence from his nest could be heard, and James raised a brow.

"If you want to miss class, it's your funeral, mate." He shrugged, going to grab his own bag.

"I'm heading down to breakfast if you want to come." Remus offered, his hand on the doorknob.

"Sure. See you guys down there." James nodded, saluting to Sirius through the open door and following his quiet friend down to the Great Hall.

-;-

Kagome was not having such a great morning. This year's Hufflepuff crew was not as large as the years past, with there being three girls and five boys Sorted into the badgers lair. Her room-mates; Lorna , a shy Scottish girl with brunette hair, and Charlotte, a bright blond from London, were both late in getting up that morning, leading all three to do a mass scramble to get up and ready. Not exactly the start she'd been hoping for, Kagome mused as she threw her hair up in a messy bun and scrambled for her glasses and books.

All three girls, luckily, had a vague idea of where they were going thanks to the small maps of Hogwarts that the upper years of Hufflepuff had left out for them sometime during the night, and made it into Professor McGonagall's classroom three minutes late rather than thirty.

"Sorry we're late, Professor." Charlotte gasped, breathing deeply as she attempted to catch her breath.

"Miss Lancastor. Miss Dougal. Miss Higurashi. Have a seat. I believe that since it is your first day of class, I can excuse your late attendance. Should it happen again in the future, five points will be deducted from Hufflepuff." McGonagall inclined her head, lips pursed as she eyed the trio of girls with an expression that was halfway irritated. "I believe that Misters Potter and Lupin have a seat open, if you would."

Charlotte and Lorna had both sat in the seat closest to the door, Kagome noted with an air of resignation. She nodded respectfully at the Professor and took a seat next to the blond boy, grabbing a quill, inkwell and sheet of parchment from her bag.

This was not the way she'd hoped her first day of class would go.

-;-

James was amused to see that the dark haired Asian girl seated next to Remus was looking more like she'd walked into a hurricane and back out again with her hair thrown up into a bun of some sort on the top of her head and glasses slightly askew. She glanced at him for a moment and furrowed her brows- silently questioning why he was looking at her before shaking her head and beginning to take down the notes that McGonagall was writing neatly on the chalkboard at the front of the room. Remus too, glanced at James curiously before following suit, the sounds of quills scratching against parchment the only sound other than Professor McGonagall's voice crisply beginning her lecture.

Higurashi- he thought he had that right- wasn't a British name. So had she come to Hogwarts from wherever she was from, or was her family simply descended from the name?

Those thoughts trailed around his head for the rest of class, and again in Defence Against the Dark Arts, despite the rather interesting lecture that the Professor was animatedly speaking about. However, he didn't get the chance to actually inquire the girl about it until she almost literally ran into him while he and Sirius were headed to lunch.

She blinked before tilting her head at him. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." James grinned back, noting that she was slightly shorter than he and Sirius. "I'm James Potter."

"And I'm Sirius Black." Sirius chimed in with a smirk. "Pay no mind here to my new friend, he's a little strange."

James elbowed Sirius in the ribs, rolling his eyes.

"I know who you are." The small girl replied, head tilting a tiny bit further. "I think you were quite brave, Black-san. Your family could use someone to lift the name out of the hole it's been in."

Neither James nor Sirius had really expected the girl to speak in anything other than a soft tone, given her stature, but her voice was firm as she studied the both of them. Her eyes then locked onto James, and something in their blue hue hardened.

"I've heard about you too, Potter-san. You teased Lily Evans' friend on the train." She stated. "I don't like bullies much. Especially not ones who come from Pureblood lines."

With that she straightened, stepped around the pair, and walked off, her book bag bouncing with each step she took.

"Well, that was weird." James blinked before grinning, pushing aside the momentary pang of irritation that had flared up at the confrontational tone the girl had taken with him.

"No kidding." Sirius said, looking thoughtful for a moment before shaking himself out like a dog might and poking James in the shoulder. "But that bird doesn't know what she's talking about. Come on, I'm starved."

"Yeah." James agreed, deciding to push aside the image of the girl's eyes from his mind for the moment and enjoy a thorough meal with his friends before the next class.

-;-

Kagome found Lily and took a seat next to her, offering the Gryffindor a smile.

"Hi." she greeted.

"Hi Kagome." Lily replied, looking a little glum.

"What's wrong?" she asked, brows furrowing.

"It's nothing. Sev and I just had a disagreement this morning." She shrugged, poking her food around her plate.

"I'm sorry, Lily. Anything I can do to help?" Kagome replied, helping herself to the food on the table. Despite only having met the girl yesterday, Kagome couldn't help but feel that she and Lily already had something of a friendship. Something that she so desperately sought, internally.

"No, no, it's fine. Thank you though." The redhead shook her head, smiling.

The pair fell into an easy conversation several moments later, only pausing when Lily or Kagome waved at one of their classmates. Before long, lunch was over and the pair were off to their respective classes- Potions with the Slytherins for Lily, Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Ravenclaws for Kagome.

The rest of that day passed fairly uneventfully. Kagome kept to herself for the most part, not really speaking unless the Professors or one of her classmates asked her a question. Her attention was focused more on the work itself- if she didn't learn anything during the first week of class, she was basically setting herself up for failure in the long run.

Charlotte and Lorna both seemed like they were thinking along the same lines, thank goodness. After the evening meal, all three set up camp in their room and got down to work on their homework. Given that there were three of them tackling the work and the problems, most of it was done by the time the Prefect came by to make sure all of the girls were accounted for at eleven.

-;-

First Year was fairly uneventful, save for the mischief that the Gryffindor First Years decided to get into halfway through the term. Of course, the culprits weren't exactly trying to be subtle- Sirius Black and James Potter practically yelled at the top of their lungs who was responsible for the pranks that suddenly began cropping up all over Hogwarts. Kagome quickly found herself unamused when one prank in particular left Lorna sporting a pair of antlers for a week. The poor girl had done nothing to the pair, and yet this was the result?

She brought her concerns to her Head of House, and while Professor Sprout understood where Kagome was coming from, there wasn't much that she could do considering that the boys weren't a part of the Hufflepuff clan. She did promise, however, to make sure that the Prefects were on high alert to keep the 'Puffs a little safer in the halls.

Christmas hols were spent at Hogwarts that year as well- Kagome in particular stayed simply because her mother "wanted her to get the whole experience while she could" and that she would see her soon.

Another new experience that all First Years were introduced to during their first term was the truly magical sensation of flying. The moment that Kagome touched the broom, she knew that she never wanted to let go again. This quickly led to her attendance of every Quidditch match that the school teams had to offer, regardless if it were Hufflepuff playing or not. Charlotte could understand, given that her cousin played for Africa, but Lorna hadn't actually been to a match before coming to Hogwarts. But Kagome was the only one who seemed to have been bitten by the Quidditch bug.

"You're going to try out next year." Lorna drawled knowingly one day over lunch following their flying lesson. "I can jus' tell it."

"It's incredible." She shot back, sticking her tongue out. "I don't know how you two can't find it as amazing as it is."

"It is amazing. We just don't seem to have the same obsession that you do with it." Charlotte teased, nudging her friend's shoulder as she nibbled on a piece of toast. "I think you'd be a fantastic Chaser."

"I dunno… I see her more as a Beater. Maybe a Seeker." Lorna disagreed. "Did you see the way she ripped Potter a new one last week for teasing that Ravenclaw?"

"True… she does have a temper…" Charlotte nodded thoughtfully. "Want to bet on it?"

"You're on. Ten galleons?"

"Done."

"I am right here, you know." Kagome giggled into her mug of tea. Some of the drinks around Hogwarts were so weird- they had everything from milk to coffee to pumpkin juice, of all things. However, she stuck solidly with her various teas. The house elves were all too happy to set it out on the Hufflepuff table at all meals now, leading Kagome to introduce them to her housemates over time. "And I never even thought about it, honestly."

"Why not? You're a natural." Charlotte said. "I think I even saw a couple of the third years watching last time we had a lesson."

Kagome blushed, sipping her tea as her friends began to bicker good-naturedly over which position the dark haired girl would be taking on the team in second year.

The idea did have merit, she admitted…