Finally the warmth of the castle embraced James. August had been a warm month but it didn't carry on September. Peter was shivering and tried to warm himself by rubbing his arms. "Come, let's go to the Great Hall. It should be warmer there." Sirius said while leading the four of them through a group of second years, who loudly protested when Sirius pushed them to the side.
The Great Hall looked the same as the previous years. The candles were lit and floating high above the tables in the air, the ceiling was showing the weather and in the middle of the Great Hall were the four tables. The four boys quickly sat down, blowing warm air into their hands. "We should be warm soon enough." Peter said while the redness from the cold on his cheeks slowly started fading away.
The Great Hall slowly filled with students and soon enough Professor McGonagall entered through the doors with the new first years just behind her. James saw their faces change from nerves into awe once they laid eyes on the ceiling, impressed with what they saw. But soon their faces became distorted again, filled with nerves. Professor McGonagall came to an halt and signaled the first years to stop. She ascended the few steps up where the teachers table was and turned to face the students again; now standing next to a stool with the Sorting Hat on it.
"Welcome students. Before we will start the feast there is something that needs to be done before." Professor McGonagall started. "You will be sorted into one of the four houses that Hogwarts knows. There is Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor." As soon as McGonagall said their house, James and Sirius started shouting. Peter quickly started slamming his hands on the table. Remus buried his head in his arms and McGonagall shot them a quick, angry look.
"The sorting …" McGonagall continued a little bit louder now. "goes as follows. Once I call your name, you will get up here and take a seat on this stool. I will put the Sorting Hat on you and he will decide what your house will be. Once it's announced you will take place at your House table, which will be your table for the rest of your time here at Hogwarts. Your house will have a common room and dorms, where you will sleep and live in for your time here at Hogwarts. You will follow classes with your fellow students from the same year and sometimes you'll have classes with the same year from another house."
McGonagall speech continued, but James wasn't paying any attention anymore. He looked around at the first years. Some of them looked relieved now that McGonagall explained the Sorting Ceremony to them. They might have been afraid of what the Ceremony could have been, he thought. If you are not from a wizard family, you probably have no idea what to expect. "Can they hurry up. I am starving!" Peter whispered quite loud. Several students around them turned their heads to them, including a pretty red-head. James caught the glare of Lily and smiled. She gave him a small nod, before turning her attention back to McGonagall. But she wasn't talking anymore. Instead the Sorting Hat started with his speech. James used this as an excuse to listen, while he could secretly stare at Lily Evans from the corner of his eyes.
She had become taller over the summer. Her hair was longer and her freckles were more visible now. Lily was whispering to Marlene and the two of them giggled. It was probably something funny, James thought. Lily had a great sense of humor. He would know, he was usually at the receiving end of it. James his thoughts were painfully abrupted when he felt a swift kick against his ankles. James let out a small curse looking at Sirius who grinned at him. "Enjoying the speech from the Sorting Hat this year, mate?" James rolled his eyes. "As a matter of fact I did." Sirius huffed. "Sure you did. Then you should have no problem reciting the last sentence. No, even better. The last word." But before James could answer the first name was called by McGonagall. A young girl walked with trembling legs to the stool. As soon as she sat down, the hat was placed on her head. "HUFFLEPUFF!" and the table next to James started clapping. James now focused on the Sorting Ceremony. He saw how Bartemius Crouch Jr. was sorted into Slytherin. This was after Gryffindor received its first new student, Theo Cresswell, the brother of Dirk Cresswell.
Soon the Sorting Ceremony came to an end. McGonagall disappeared with the hat and stool, while professor Dumbledore rose from his chair. The Great Hall became immediately quiet. "Welcome back, students. I hope you did enjoy your summer. And for our first years, I welcome you to your home for the next seven years. This year you will start or continue your education and hopefully you will learn things beyond your believe. I won't keep you from your food any longer. Enjoy!" As soon as Dumbledore sat down again the plates filled themselves with dinner. Peter sighed with relief and started digging into the first thing he could find, loading up his plate. James helped himself to some pork chops and mashed potatoes.
After dinner the four they followed the first years to the tower of Gryffindor. Since they had no idea what the password could be this was their safest bet to get it. "Dragon Egg" The prefect said and the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open. They made their way up to the dormitory and James fell on his bed. 'I am so tired!" He said while suppressing a yawn. "Get up, James. You at least want to change in your pajama's." Remus said, while looking for his toiletries in his trunk. James decided his friend was right. He got up and made himself ready for bed. But as soon as he slid under the covers and his glasses were on the night stand he got a discomforting feeling. At this very moment he felt so far away from his parents and his mind began racing again. Was his father really getting better? What if something happened to him again? Who would be there to help his mother? All the tiredness from earlier was gone and it took him nearly 2 hours of twisting to fall in a very troubled sleep.
The next morning James woke up with a headache. He growled in pain when he got out of bed. James hoped that a shower would help relieve his pain and he let the warm jets massage his skull and neck while he closed his eyes. After a few minutes he got out and looked at himself in the mirror. A frown was noticeable between his eyebrows and he sighed. He got barely any sleep last night. This was not a good start of the new school year.
During breakfast the third-years received their schedules. "Well, will you look at that." Sirius said while he looked at his timetable. "We have a double Potions with the Slytherins and after that we have Care of Magical Creatures. And after lunch we have Divination." Sirius put his head on his arms, faking exhaustion already. "When will they learn that Sirius Black only strives with at least one period off after every lesson." Peter snorted and started coughing. He nearly choked on his porridge. James slapped him on his back while Remus gave him a glass of water. "Thank you." Peter panted while taking a sip of water.
Their first week of school flew by. James was not surprised that Divination was a laugh. Unfortunately this meant that he and Sirius already earned their first detention. How were they supposed to take any omens in the bottom of their tea cup seriously? Not even ten minutes on their assignment and Sirius had already declared that James would be abducted by cows soon and James saw in Sirius his future that he would be the first male to ever carry a child without having a womb. And these series of predictions secured them of two nights of detention.
"That must have been a record for you." Remus didn't sound very impressed. "In your first weekend already two nights of detention." The four of them sat down near the fireplace in their common room. It was Friday and they just finished their last class, Transfiguration. "You don't need to worry about us. Sirius and I will manage!" Remus rolled his eyes and got his homework out of his bag. The teachers of Hogwarts did not care that this was only the first week. Every single class had given them quite some homework already. They had two hours to kill before dinner. James fetched his broom and started polishing it. This year he was still part of the Quidditch Team and he was looking forward to their first training. Sirius found a copy of the Daily Prophet of that day and was reading it. James looked at Peter. He was trying to copy Remus his homework but was failing miserably.
That night Sirius and James had their first detention. They needed to help Rubeus Hagrid, the Groundkeeper, with some of his tasks at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. It was almost midnight when they were done for that day. They walked into the castle when three boys blocked their way. "Potter and Black, how nice to see you again." The voice belonged to Evan Rosier, a fellow third-year from Slytherin. On his right James saw Bertram Aubrey and on his left, to his shock, he saw Regulus Black. From the corner of his eye he saw Sirius stiffen. "Rosier." James started mocking them. "Need help to get back to your common room? It is completely okay to have forgotten the way after being gone for two months. Nobody expects someone with your IQ to remember a route that you walk daily. No shame in admitting that."
Rosier cursed and grabbed his wand. "I would think about that twice." Sirius said while he drew his from his pocket, James doing the same. "And why would I do that? It's three against two, you see." James saw that Aubrey had his wand pointed at him and he shot a look at Regulus. He hadn't moved. "Are you sure? Seems like you cannot do math either." Sirius smirked. Rosier looked to his right. "Come on, Reg. Are you afraid? Or do you care that he is your brother? He is a blood traitor. Hanging with Mudbloods and Merlin knows what." Rosier shoved Regulus. This was the tipping point for Sirius. "Petrificus Totalus!" He yelled while pointing his wand at Rosier, whose arms snapped to his sides. His legs sprang together. His whole body was rigid, he swayed where stood and he fell flat on his face, stiff as a board. His jaws were jammed together so he couldn't speak. Only his eyes were moving, looking at them with hatred.
"You are going to regret that, Black!" Aubrey his wand shot ropes in the direction of Sirius, but Sirius was able to avoid those. "Tarantallegra!" James shouted at Aubrey. Aubrey was less lucky and his legs began to jerk around out of his control in kind of quickstep. In all this commotion he dropped his wand, but mid-air one of his foot connected with it and he kicked his wand several meters away. He tried to move in the direction of his wand, but his uncontrollable legs were making this impossible. It would take some time for him to retrieve his wand. James and Sirius started laughing before turning to Regulus. "Are you okay?" Sirius asked his little brother.
Regulus looked angry with Sirius. "Why do you care?" Sirius took a step back. "What do you mean? Of course I care. I am your brother." Regulus puffed through is nose. "Yeah, some brother you are. I don't think you care, even though you are my brother. You leave me alone for most of the summer, whilst you go on travelling with your friends. And not even a week back at school and you are already attacking my friends!" James saw how riled up Sirius was getting and quickly stepped between them. "They are your friends? Why would you want to be friends with them?" Sirius tried to get around James, but was pushed back. "Why, Reg? He shoved you for not aiming your wand at your own brother. I helped you just now." Regulus turned around. "I never asked for your help, Sirius. I can take care of myself. Just…" Regulus looked back one more time before walking towards Aubrey. "Just stay away from me."
James and Sirius made their way up to the Gryffindor Tower discussing everything that just happened. They didn't touch the subject of Regulus his request of Sirius staying away from him. James got the feeling that his friend didn't want to talk about it.
The next morning there was some commotion around the message board. James pushed his way forward with Sirius just behind him. "Yes! First Hogsmeade visit is they day after Halloween. You know what this means right?" Sirius nodded. "Halloween Party in the Common Room and after that a day in Hogsmeade. The perfect weekend!"
Author's note: I am slowly getting back to this story. Sorry I was MIA for such a long time. This story always stayed with me and I would like to finish it one day. This is more of a filler chapter, but the next one is extra long and almost done! And behold, Lily and James will share their fist kiss in that one! I have so many good chapters ahead of me and I am very ecxited to write those. The chapters leading up to those events are sometimes harder to write because I want to deliver quality, but I am not that motivated or inspired to write them.
But I promise you, my dear reader, I do my best! This pandemic gives me at least a lot more time to write, so that is one good thing. Please be safe out there and stay healthy!
Please feel free to review and/or follow. I get a lot of motivation from my readers, especially if you let me know when you like it.
