Fleamont left only a few days later, leaving James to wander the house once more, in search of something to do in the expanse of empty rooms.
Neither of James' parents made it back in time to take him to Kings Cross, so he went with Hetty. It wasn't as if he didn't like the elf, but he felt a pang as he looked around the station at all the families, mothers and fathers alike crying as they proudly farewelled their children, telling them not to forget to write and promising to send the things they'd forgotten. He had to remind himself that his parents weren't there because they couldn't be, not because they didn't want to.
Tightening his grip on his trunk he clambered onto the train. Most of the compartments were empty because of doting parents wanting to fuss over their children for just a minute longer. He found a seat down at the end of the train, where he didn't have to watch the families congregated on the platform.
It seemed like forever before people started crowding into the train.
A slightly pudgy boy with blonde hair and a pink face slid the door open slowly.
"Hi, I was … wondering if I could … sit … here?" he stumbled over his words.
James nodded, indicating the seat opposite his.
"Thanks. I'm Peter by the way, Peter Pettigrew."
He held his hand out for James to shake. James' mind was running at a hundred miles an hour. On one hand, he was almost certain Peter wouldn't know sign language, on the other it would seem a bit silly if he immediately resorted to using quill and parchment, besides, his handwriting was abysmal.
Hi, it's nice to meet you, I'm James Potter. Signed James, not sure of what else to do.
Peter went even pinker, if that was possible, "I don't know sign language – that was sign language, wasn't it?"
James nodded in response and dug out a scuffed roll of parchment and a self-inking quill from his bag. He unrolled a bit of the parchment and braced it on his leg, scribbling No harm done, I'm James Potter by the way.
"It's nice to meet you James." said Peter, grinning embarrassedly. James smiled back crookedly.
What house do you want to be in? Wrote James, attempting to keep the conversation going.
"I don't know, I reckon Gryffindor would be good, but I reckon I'm going to end up in Hufflepuff." said Peter dismissively, "What about you?"
Gryffindor, like my mum and dad.
"Okay. Weren't you alone on the platform though?"
James shook his head.
"Alright. Er … I don't mean to sound rude but are you deaf or -?" he trailed off.
Not deaf. I'm mute.
"Were you born like that?"
No. It happened when I was little. James hoped that Peter would change the topic.
"Oh."
James took the silence that followed as an opportunity to pull his Transfiguration textbook out of his bag. He'd already read it a few times and – apart from flying – Transfiguration was the lesson he was most looking forward to. He flipped it to the page he'd been reading from and tuned out the rest of the world.
Half an hour before the train arrived a prefect came around telling everyone who had not yet gotten ready that they ought to hurry up. Peter went to the bathroom to get changed. James pulled the curtains shut and quickly changed in the compartment while Peter was gone. It turned out that he needn't have worried, as Peter still hadn't returned fifteen minutes later.
When they arrived they were instructed to leave all their baggage on the train.
"Firs' years! Firs' years over 'ere!" called the biggest man James had ever seen, holding a giant lantern over the heads of the students. James pushed his way over to the man along with some other first years.
They all followed the man over to the dock and all piled into a small fleet of boats. James ended up with a stuck up boy by the name of Benjy Fenwick, a greasy haired boy called Severus Snape and a girl with mesmerising wavy red hair that almost met her waist named Lily Evans. They all thought James was quite rude because it was too dark to see his signs so they got the impression he was ignoring them, which was frustrating to say the least.
They were greeted at the castle by a severe looking woman who went by the name of Professor McGonagall. She briefly explained the four houses and left with a warning to try and smarten themselves up (James could have sworn her eyes lingered for a moment on his untamable messy hair as she said this).
She arrived back a quarter of an hour later and led them into the hall for the sorting.
The whole hall started a fuss when a kid named Sirius Black got sorted into Gryffindor. James groaned internally, everyone knew about the rivalry between the Blacks and the Potters and now it seemed he was to be sharing a dorm with a Black. This was going to be an interesting seven years.
It was a while before James was called. He grinned when the hat called 'Gryffindor' almost before it had hit his head. He held his head high as he crossed the hall and sat next to a sandy-haired boy who had been sorted a few minutes back.
There were only a few more kids to be sorted before the feast began. James began to pile food onto his plate.
"Hi, I'm Molly, I'm Head Girl, what're your names?" asked a girl with a kind, pleasantly round face framed by curly red hair.
"I'm Remus." said the boy next to James quietly.
"Nice to meet you, Remus," she said kindly, "and you?"
James flushed slightly, I'm James. He signed slowly.
She looked surprised for a moment, "It's nice to meet you too, James."
You know sign language? He asked hopefully.
"Yes. It was mentioned in the letter about my duties as Head, but it didn't say who it was. I figured it would be worth it to learn."
Thanks. He smiled.
"You're very welcome." she smiled warmly at him before moving further down the table.
James felt a light tap on his shoulder and turned to look at the boy from earlier, Remus.
"Hi." he said, slightly awkwardly, "It's James, isn't it?"
James nodded slowly.
"Please tell me you use BWSL and I didn't waste my entire summer learning the wrong thing." (A/N - BWSL stands for British Wizarding Sign Language, which is like BSL except with a few magical terms thrown in and some purely Muggle terms taken out)
James laughed (a purely silent laugh) and nodded.
"Thank goodness." he sighed, "Which class are you looking forward to most? I think Charms will be interesting and Defence Against The Dark Arts and -" he went on to list almost all of the subjects they would be taking.
I'm really interested in Transfigurations, but I'm also looking forward to flying.
"Say, how do you think you'll be doing the incantations?" asked Remus, "Merlin that sounded rude. I'm so sorry."
It's fine. I don't know about the magic. I suppose they've come up with something or they wouldn't have let me come. He shrugged.
"Yeah."
They continued to converse until they they reached the dormitory. Sirius Black had already claimed one of the middle beds. Peter had chosen the bed furthest from Sirius'.
"Potter." he said.
James inclined his head slightly, glaring at Sirius.
"Look. I know our families are rivals but honestly, give a guy a chance before deciding to hate him, eh Potter?"
James raised one of his eyebrows at Sirius.
"Oh come on! I'm in Gryffindor for goodness sake!"
How do I know you didn't manipulate the hat so that you can spy on us?
It was Sirius' turn to look incredulous, "I literally went out of my way to learn sign language because my mother said I wasn't allowed to. Does that sound like some bloody kiss up to you, Potter? If you don't believe me now you'll believe me after the stupid howler I'll be receiving tomorrow after my mother finds out."
James looked at Sirius suspiciously but he looked completely serious (no pun intended). James stuck his hand out to Sirius, who looked at him as if he'd grown another head before shaking it vigorously.
"I didn't expect that to work." he said, looking relieved, "I thought for a moment I was going to have to live in a dormitory with a bunch of guys who hated me for seven years."
Nah. You're going to have to prove yourself, though. He looked around the room, his eyes twinkling.
"If you're not suggesting that we prank the entire school then I'll be disappointed."
And just like that, James Potter and Sirius Black became best friends.
A/N- Finally got the gang together! Anyway, in case you were wondering, the wizarding world is not kind to people with disabilities, due to the fact that they like to "override" the disability, and the sign language was created back before they had spells to "fix" the disability and to the wizarding world (Pureblood supremacists) disabilities are considered a Muggle trait and makes a witch or wizard, no matter what their blood status, both a disgrace to the wizarding world and quite often below the level of a Muggle-born. Thanks again for all your encouraging comments and sorry for rambling. Until next time!