A/N: It's been a while, I know. Life got so busy the past few years. I can only hope that some of you will come back to read this. I'm hoping that more chapters might come soon, as I am currently bored in quarantine. I made some revisions to the chapters before this one, so you might want to go back and skim through those for the details that I changed. This chapter might feel a little awkward, as I'm still getting into the flow of writing it again, but I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it as well.
"James!"
James rolled his eyes as he turned around to see Albus running towards him, Fred, Louis, Kelly, and Shelby, followed by Rose and Scorpius. It was the first day of classes, and James was just headed towards the Great Hall.
"What do you want?" He asked, rolling his eyes.
Rose stepped forwards. "We just ate and were trying to find the charms classroom, but we got a bit lost…"
"Okay." James said. "And what do you want me to do about that?"
Albus blinked. "Well, we had been hoping you could tell us where it was at." He explained slowly.
James bit his lip and looked towards the Great Hall, then back at Al. "Let me just eat first, then find me and I'll help you."
Rose, Albus, and Scorpius exchanged a look, before Rose nodded. "Alright." she said. "We'll just wait here for you."
James turned and began walking away with the others. "Yeah, sure, whatever." He called over his shoulder.
The five of them walked into the Great Hall together and found seats. "I hope they won't be expecting us to help them with finding stuff all year long." James sighed, grabbing and biting into a piece of toast.
Kelly laughed. "I know, right? I mean, don't they know you have better things to do than hold their hand the whole way through first year? We survived the whole year by ourselves, they can do it, too."
Shelby frowned. "Come on guys. It is just the first day. And they're your family, you should help them out. Just until they get everything all figured out."
"I suppose." James shrugged. "I mean, if I were in their place I'd want to be helped out too."
They sat there and ate their breakfast, talking about various things, when Louis said, "Hey, guys, we should probably get going if we don't want to be late. Potions first, we don't want to make Stylig mad on the first day.
James groaned as he stood up with the others. "Ugh, I hate that class so much." He rolled his eyes, and they had just walked out the door when-
"James!"
He turned to see Albus, Rose, and Scorpius standing there still. Albus was the one who had yelled.
"You guys are still here?" James asked incredulously. "Why?"
"You told us you could help us find the charms class, remember?" Rose said, crossing her arms.
James cursed silently. He had been hoping they had forgotten. He walked back towards them. "Okay. You go down that hall there," he pointed, "then turn left, left again, and then right. It's not too much further from there, I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out. Now I have to go. Good luck."
He turned to walk away, ignoring Albus's "Wait, we go two lefts, right, and then what?"
"Are you sure you shouldn't help them out more?" Fred asked.
James shook his head. "They'll be fine. We don't have time to be any more specific than that." But he was slightly unsure. Should he go back to help them?
Kelly nodded. "James is right. They shouldn't come here and expect him to work his whole schedule around them. It's not his job to put down everything in order to help them. They'll figure it out."
James nodded, reassured. "I don't love leaving them to figure it out, but we really just don't have time. We can't be late to Stylig's class on the first day, she'll murder us."
Fred and Louis still looked doubtful. "If you say so…" Fred said, looking over his shoulder at where the three first years stood.
Kelly nodded once. "I am sure. Now let's go."
As she turned to leave, James took a look back at his brother and cousin and sighed. He was about to tell Kelly to just go on without him, when she grabbed him by the arm and began pulling him along with her.
He felt guilty as he left, leaving Albus, Rose, and Scorpius to fend for themselves, but he was sure that they would be alright on their own. They couldn't rely on him for everything…
Gloria was leaving the Great Hall and about to head to Potions when she spotted three first years frantically looking around. Once she was a little closer, she recognized them as Albus Potter, Rose Weasley, and Scorpius Malfoy.
She hesitated slowly as she walked past them. Rose looked over and saw her, and quickly rushed towards her. "Hi. We met briefly on the train, and most everyone we know is already gone, and we were wondering if you could tell us how to get to the Charms classroom?" She said, sounding slightly panicked.
Gloria bit her lip slightly. She was already running further behind than she would have liked, and if she helped them find their class she'd risk being late to Potions.
"My brother James gave us directions, but they weren't very specific and he didn't have time to help us any more." Albus put in.
Gloria clenched her fist. Of course. Leave it to James Potter to leave his brother and cousin alone when they were lost on the first day. "Of course I can help you," she told them, beginning to walk, "it's right this way, follow me."
She led them quickly down a few halls, and when she turned to the last one, she pointed to a door a few meters down and told them that was it. They thanked her and rushed inside, and Gloria turned on her heel and broke into a run towards the dungeons.
She slid into the classroom as Stylig was writing on the board, and when she turned around she looked at her disapprovingly. "You're late, Miss May."
Gloria nodded as she took her seat, slightly out of breath. "I was helping some first years find their class."
Stylig pursed her lips, then simply said, "Don't let it happen again."
"I don't know, Kelly, maybe I should've helped them."
James and Kelly were sitting outside after their classes were finished for the day while Fred, Louis, and Shelby were who knows where, and James was debating if they had made the wrong choice leaving Albus and Rose that morning.
"There was no need," Kelly said, "they could figure it out."
"But Gloria helped them!" James whined. "I'm Albus's brother, and Rose's cousin, I should've been the one to help!"
"Well Gloria ended up being late because of it." Kelly countered. "If she wants to inconvenience herself for others, that's her problem. You shouldn't have to."
"But she was only a few minutes late, and they asked me before they asked her." James argued. "If I had just helped them when they first asked, I probably could've made it on time."
Kelly rolled her eyes. "Yeah, probably. That wasn't a guarantee. You just wanted to make sure you had enough time. That's all."
"Yeah…" James said, "maybe you're right…"
"Maybe?" Kelly laughed. "I know I am." She stood up. "Come on, we should go find the others."
A couple hours later, the five of them were sitting in the Common Room, when James saw Albus, Rose, and Scorpius walk in. He told his friends he would be right back, and he walked over to them.
"Hey hey hey, guys, how'd your first day of classes go?" He asked, hitting Albus jokingly on the shoulder.
Rose turned slightly and gave him a look. "They went fine. We found all our classes, no thanks to you."
James winced slightly. "Yeah, sorry about that…" he trailed off. "That was my bad."
"Gloria May was able to take time out of her schedule to show us where it was." Rose crossed her arms.
James put up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I get it. I am sorry."
"It's not that big a deal." Albus said. "It all turned out fine. It's whatever."
"Good." James said. "I'm glad that's all-"
"And we won't tell our parents about it," Albus interrupted, "as long as you let us explain to them that we're friends with Scorpius instead of blowing the whole thing out of proportion."
James shrugged. That seemed reasonable enough to him. "Alright, fine, whatever." He said. "Anyways, did you get a lot of homework today?"
"A bit." Albus told him. "We're going to work on it later tonight."
James put a hand over his heart in mock surprise. "You mean- Rosie didn't force you to do it within half a second of receiving it?" He gasped. "Rosie, you slacker!"
Ignoring Rose's protests, he reached out a hand and ruffled her hair. Dodging her hand as she smacked him away, he pushed Albus lightly and laughed as he walked back to where the others were sitting.
"Hey, Lydia, can you hand me that book?" Gloria said, pointing.
"Sure thing." Lydia replied, pushing it towards her.
The two of them were sitting in the library, working on the homework they had received that day. For a few minutes, the only sound was the scratching on their quills as they wrote. Finally, Lydia sighed loudly.
"I'm starving." She announced. "Let's head down to dinner."
"Alright." Gloria agreed, packing her stuff up. "I'm pretty hungry too."
As they walked down to the Great Hall, they ran into Amy and Madalyne.
"Gloria!" Amy said, coming up beside her. "Oh my god, our first day was so amazing!"
"I almost fell off some stairs." Maddy declared, grinning proudly. "They started moving. Some Slytherin boy had to grab my arm to save my life. It was awesome."
"I thought she was done for." Amy agreed. "I was so scared, and I just thought, 'oh my god, what are Gloria and mom and dad going to say?' And then this Slytherin just swooped in, and-"
"It was awesome!" Maddy reiterated.
Gloria closed her eyes for a moment. "Well, I'm glad you two are having fun." She told them. "But please, try not to get yourself killed."
"Oh, we will!" Amy said.
"We will try to not get killed." Maddy clarified. "Not we will get killed."
"Okay, thank you, Maddy, I appreciate it." Gloria rolled her eyes, laughing. "How did your classes go?"
"Really well." Amy said. "We were almost late to Transfiguration, because we got lost, but we ended up making it on time."
"I answered a question correctly and got 5 points." Maddy told her excitedly.
As her sisters continued telling her about their first day, the group entered the Great Hall and took a seat at the table where Joey and Kimberly were already sitting.
"I already finished my Charms essay." Joey told her smugly. "I sat down and didn't even think about anything else until it was finished. And now I don't have to worry about it anymore."
"Happy for you, Joey." Gloria said as she took a bite of chicken.
"That's pretty uncharacteristic of you, Joey." Lydia commented. "Usually you take forever to get your homework done."
"Not anymore." Joey shook his head. "This year, I've resolved to get all my homework done as soon as possible. That way I can enjoy the rest of my time without having to think about any of it."
"Really, that's the smart thing to do." Gloria remarked. "But we all know you won't make it more than a couple days before you give up on that."
Joey looked offended. "You have so little faith in me." He said.
Lydia laughed. "Be realistic, Joey. You said at least once a month last year that you were going to start doing that, and you never lasted more than like, a day."
"I don't know," Kimberly said, "I've never seen him focus as hard as he did when he was working on that Charms essay. Maybe he can actually do it this time."
"Maybe." Gloria agreed. "I believe in you, Joey."
She did not believe in him. She knew it would be three days at most before he started putting his homework off, and then he'd be right back where he had been all last year.
Personally, Gloria was going to try to do as she had done last year again; she was happy with how she'd done, and it had worked well for her before, so she was sure it would continue to do so now.
As the four continued debating how well Joey would stay on top of his work in the coming days, Gloria could hear her sisters retelling the story of how Maddy almost died to someone sitting next to them. She smiled. She really did love them a lot.
A/N: Alright, so there it was. Not the best chapter I've ever pumped out, but far from the worst either. I'm sorry again for how long this update took, and I hope the next one will be fairly soon. I have a lot of time on my hands now, and I've remembered how much I really enjoy writing these. Leave a review to let me know what you think, and I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading!
