Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters was more crowded than any of the Potters had ever seen it before. Then again, the three kids -James, Albus, and Lily- had never been there before, and Harry and Ginny, their parents, had gone to school during the time when there weren't an incredibly large amount of kids alive to go to Hogwarts. The first war against Voldemort had caused a lot of chaos and death, making it so that there were less kids born in that time and the second war against Voldemort terrified parents into not letting their children go to Hogwarts, and many of those who did go died in battle or lost family members. The oldest students now were the ones born at the end of the war, the youngest quite a while afterwards, when the chaos had mostly been gotten rid of.
Wizarding families bustled around in a frenzy in an attempt to get everyone and everything where it needed to be; parents, siblings, and friends all helped kids get their trunks onto the bright red steam engine that was the Hogwarts Express. People were running into other people, too busy trying to get where they needed to go to bother trying to see through the thick, white steam that filled the entire place like fog on an early spring morning. Ginny Potter, formerly Weasley, gripped her daughter's hand tightly in her own as she kept a close watch on her second oldest son, Albus, while waiting for her husband and oldest, James, to get back off the train after putting their luggage away.
She didn't have to wait all too long for that however, because a couple minutes later both of them, along with Teddy Lupin, jumped out of the train doors right in front of her. Nobody paid them any attention, despite the fact that usually everyone stopped to stare at Harry in awe and Teddy always towered over everyone else, being over six feet tall and with usually brightly colored hair. That was one thing that wasn't different that day, Teddy's bright neon blue hair stood out among the rest of the crowd, making it easy to spot him as he walked towards them, grinning. James rambled on beside him about something that made Harry look both amused and annoyed at the same time, which was a confusing expression to understand.
"James, you will not put a curse on every bathroom in the school so that nobody can get in or out of them." Harry was saying when the three of them reached Ginny, Lily, and Albus. Ginny raised a questioning eyebrow in her son's direction at his father's words, the corners of her lips turned up in amusement as she snorted with laughter. "What?" She demanded, voice a bit louder than usual with barely contained laughs. She knew James loved causing trouble, but that seemed to be at a new level of ridiculousness.
Harry directed his amused gaze to his wife, emerald eyes sparkling brightly behind his round glasses that looked like they had been broken multiple times without being replaced. "James is planning on causing quite a bit of mischief this year." He said and Albus snickered slightly, covering his mouth guiltily for a moment when his mother glanced at him in amusement. "What, more trouble than he already causes at home?" He said then, trying to hide his grin when his older brother yelled out in protest, his mouth gape, an affronted look on his face. "I don't cause trouble, Al, I just joke around a bit." Albus scoffed at that, rolling his eyes that were the exact same shade of green as his father's as he shook his head. "You call almost blowing up our bedroom joking around?" He raised an eyebrow, looking both slightly amused, and very annoyed. "It does if it was funny." James retorted, smirking, brown eyes alight with contempt. "Which it wasn't." Harry said, looking at his wife for support as he said it. She however seemed to be hiding a grin behind her hand and was giving him a look that seemed to say It kind of was though.
Teddy snickered slightly from behind Harry, his eyes flashing a bright orange color for a moment before turning back into the usual periwinkle color he often left it at. Harry glanced over at him for a second and then turned back to James, about to say something else when the train whistle went off, loud and sharp, causing Lily to quickly cover her ears with her hands, looking around in confusion and a little fear. "What was that?" She asked, her voice wobbling slightly as she slowly lowered her hands and looked up at her father with scared chocolate brown eyes. A small, soft smile appeared on his face and he knelt down in front of Lily so that they were eye level with each other.
"It means we have to go now." He said softly and his daughter's eyes filled with tears, lower lip beginning to tremble slightly. "Why? Why do you have to go, dad?" She whispered and he reached over, gently stroking her cheek with his thumb, wiping the few tears that had escaped away. "Because someone has to keep an eye on your brother. But don't worry, you'll see us again in a couple months. And we'll write to you every week, how about that?" Harry said and Lily looked at him for a few moments, as if contemplating how much of it he meant as she bit her lower lip to stop its trembling. "Every. Week. You promise?" She said, tears seeming to have dried up within seconds as she looked right at him, determination brightening her eyes.
"I promise." Harry agreed and his daughter nodded curtly like that sorted everything out perfectly. "Good." Her voice didn't shake that time, but the deep breath she took seemed to quiver as she let it back out. Then she launched herself forward and threw her arms around her father, her red hair cascading over his shoulder like liquid fire and hiding her face from everyone. "I'm gonna miss you…" Lily's voice was muffled by Harry's sweater and he smiled softly again. "I'll miss you too, sweetheart." He said, hugging her back for a few moments until she pulled back, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hands and sniffing loudly.
"Don't forget about the letters." She said sternly and then stepped away from her father, as if she were allowing him to do something else. Harry chuckled softly for a second as he stood up, hastily brushed off his knees and went over to his younger son. "I'm gonna miss you too, buddy." He said, ruffling Albus's hair and smiling slightly before starting to turn towards his wife, like he expected his son not to respond to his statement. Before he even managed to turn partially to the right however his son's arms wrapped around him tightly, hugging him as he buried his face in his father's stomach.
"You better write to me too, dad. Not every week, though, that's bloody ridiculous. Maybe once a month or so." He said quietly and Harry laughed, fondly ruffling Albus's hair again. "Course, Al." He smiled and Albus quickly pulled away from his father, looking faintly embarrassed at his own show of affection. "I'm gonna go say bye to Jamie…" Albus muttered and then practically ran from his father to his older brother to escape further interaction with him.
Harry blinked his emerald eyes, looking slightly confused and surprised for a moment before actually turning to face Ginny as he had formerly intended. A small smile curved its way across her lips and she reached for his hand, gripping it so tightly in her own that his fingertips went slightly numb. "Stay safe, Harry. Don't go running off on any adventures like you always used to when you went to Hogwarts, okay?" He squeezed her hand back equally as tight and returned her smile reassuringly. "Wouldn't dream of it." His wife raised an eyebrow skeptically, an amused glint in her chocolate brown eyes that were identical to those of her daughter. For a few seconds Harry looked as if he wanted to disagree with her, but after she blew a strand of ginger hair out of her face without stopping her skeptical look, he sighed. "Not anymore I wouldn't. A couple years ago, maybe, but not anymore. I promise." She bit her lower lip and stared at him for a few moments, searching his eyes for any trace of him lying.
"You better keep that promise. I don't want Hermione to have to come and save your ass, Potter, and I doubt she wants to either." Harry scoffed slightly, attempting to suppress his grin but failing miserably. "I doubt she'd come even if I did need help. She'd probably scoff and say I'm an idiot and Ron would come instead." Ginny snorted, shaking her head in slight disbelief as she rolled her eyes at her husband's statement. "That would just cause more trouble." She said and Harry shrugged a bit carelessly. "Probably." He admitted and smiled at his wife who just looked at him for a few seconds before kissing him quickly.
She broke away from him a few brief seconds afterwards and leaned her forehead against his, looking directly into his eyes. "Don't forget your promise." Harry nodded slightly, squeezing the hand he was still clutching tightly in his own. "You have to go now, can't have you missing the train. I'll see you at Christmas, right?" He nodded again and she pulled back, gently prying her hand out of his grip. "I love you." She said smiling even though a few tears were gathered in the corners of her eyes. "Love you too, see you in a few months." He said and she nodded. "Yeah, try and keep James out of trouble till then." Harry chuckled at that and opened his mouth to respond only to be interrupted by James himself.
"I doubt dad'll manage that." He said and Ginny grinned slightly at her son before pulling him into a tight hug. "Well, then don't make it too difficult for him, otherwise you'll get caught by McGonagall instead and I think that's the last thing you want. She once took fifty points each from your dad, aunt and uncle just for sneaking out to visit Hagrid one night and then gave them all detention." She said and James pulled back from the hug to look at his father with an almost awed expression on his face. "Really?!" He demanded, grinning slightly as if it was rather amusing that his father had gotten in trouble as a kid. "How'd you even know that, Ginny?" Harry asked, avoiding answering his son's question.
"Hermione loves to tell me about all the idiotic things you and my brother got up to in school." Ginny grinned, shrugging. James looked like he was about to explode from excitement, he was bouncing on his heels so much. "What else did dad do? Did he duel someone and get a bunch of detention? Did he-" His bombardment of questions was interrupted by the Hogwarts Express, which whistled loudly again. "We need to go." Harry said and his oldest son sighed in disappointment, obviously wanting to hear more about what his dad did as a teenager. "Yeah, I'll see you lot later. Bye!" Teddy said and gave Ginny and Lily a quick hug before running off towards the front of the train where the Prefect and Head Boy and Girl compartments were located. "Bet he's going to find Victoire." James said, grinning slightly after the blue haired seventh year.
"Maybe, but that's none of your business, James. Get on the train, you don't want to miss it in your first year." Ginny said, lightly shoving her son and husband towards the train somehow causing them both to stumble for a brief moment. Just as they were walking away, after having regained their balance, she lowered her voice and whispered to James. "I'll tell you some other stories about your dad in my next letter." He grinned at her, his brown eyes alight with excitement and mischief again as he waved and jumped up into the train. James was quickly followed by Harry, who smiled one last time at his family before closing the door as the train lurched forward, beginning its journey to Hogwarts.
The two of them went in opposite directions once they reached the aisle going along the entire right side of the train, Harry going up towards the compartment at the front of the train where the other professors that took the train sat and James heading towards the back. James passed multiple compartments filled with groups of friends, some overcrowded and some with only two or three people in them. Some groups were laughing, others were playing card games, and many were just enjoying each other's company leaning against each other as they read or talked. He felt a pang of loneliness suddenly, as he walked past a compartment with five sixth years who were playing exploding snaps and laughing with huge grins on their faces. James had never had any friends that he wasn't somehow related to, had never had anyone his age to hang out with before.
What if I don't make any friends here? What if I become a loner and nobody likes me? He thought but quickly shook his head, he couldn't let himself think about anything like that. He'd find friends, he was sure of it. Still, he felt like he would be lonely for a long time. After all, he had taken an empty compartment and would probably sit alone the who-
James's thoughts cut off abruptly when he reached the compartment at the end of the train where he had put his trunk and owl cage. A girl with shoulder length, curly, dark brown hair and glasses perched on the bridge of her nose was sitting on one of the cushioned benches and leaning her back against the compartment window as she read a thick book with a worn dark purple binding. For a few seconds he just stood there in surprise, he had definitely not been expecting someone to be sitting in his compartment. Slowly he opened the sliding glass door of the compartment after he had shook himself out of his shock and stepped inside, looking at the girl in confusion.
The second he came in she looked up from her book, hazel eyes lighting up slightly. "I'll leave you alone if you want, I have other stuff I could do if you don't feel like having any company. Pretty much everywhere else was full and I noticed there was only one trunk in here so I thought it couldn't do much harm if I sat here. That's okay, right? Cause if it's not I could probably find somewhere else to-" James cut off her frantic rambling abruptly, a small grin tugging at the corners of his lips. Maybe he could make a friend already, at least he hoped he could.
"No, it's okay. You can stay." She smiled at him briefly before looking back down in her book, becoming completely engrossed in it again as if she had never looked up in the first place.