Author's Note

Thank you for taking time to check out my story. It's a little idea I've had in my head for a while, especially since I've read all the James SP/OC stories out there (I think!). This is will not be Cursed Child compliant.

And obviously, the only thing I own in this story are any original characters and story lines, etc.

Eloise Murphy-Jones found herself alone in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express, the curtain drawn slightly, hiding her from view from students peaking through the glass as they walked by, her nose stuck in a new Potions book. Her head was ducked down, hiding her focused face behind her wavy (and slightly frizzy) sandy blonde hair, her hazel eyes devouring the words before her. She wore a purple long-sleeved shirt, tucked into high-waisted mum jeans secured with a belt. She'd kicked off her white sneakers so she could more comfortably cross her legs under her. She had settled herself right in, as she usually did every year.

Eloise was about to start her seventh, and final, year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her foster parents, a wizarding couple that went by the names of Mary and Issac Morales, had spent the summer trying to hype up the year, going on about NEWTS and her final year of school. Well, Mary did, since Beauxbaton (where Issac had attended) didn't follow the British magical curriculum. She appreciated the couple trying to get involved in her life, especially since she hadn't been the easiest foster kid to take in at 14. While she appreciated their support and enthusiasm, she just wanted to finish school and let the real adventure begin.

While Eloise wanted to remain undisturbed, it wasn't long before her compartment door was roughly opened and a loud bunch of students meandered their way through the door. Eloise peaked up to see several Third Years enter the compartment, struggling to get their trunks above their heads. She smiled when she saw a pair of familiar red braids, and tugged her wand out of her pocket and gave a swish-and-flick movement and uttered those familiar words. The trunks made their way up to the storage racks and the braids swung around to see a smiling Seventh Year.

"First Year spell Lily, I should be disappointed." Eloise jokingly scolded the youngest daughter of the legendary Harry Potter. The thirteen-year old girl beamed and rushed forward to hug Eloise.

"Elle! It's so good to see you! How was your summer! Oh look, you got a tan, you have wonderful freckles." Eloise, or Elle as Lily had nicknamed her, smiled fondly at her. Of all the famous offspring of the Potter/Weasley hoard, Eloise was closest with Lily. Eloise had come across a poor first year Lily, crying helplessly over a Charms essay. Eloise had kindly offered her help, and so a relationship had blossomed. Although Eloise was four years older than the young witch, Lily was one of her closest and dearest friends.

"Jeez Lily, let the poor girl talk. Hey Elle!" Hugo Granger-Weasley, one of Lily's many cousins, laughed, smiling at Eloise. She waved at the third year, slightly impressed that he had somehow managed to tame his wild head of ginger curls over the summer. With Lily and Hugo were two other third years that Eloise was familiar with, Lysander Scamander, wearing a bright yellow and purple coloured jumper that washed out his pale complexion and darkened his ashy hair, and Julianne Harrow, dressed casually in a hoody and jeans not dissimilar to Eloise's, her long black hair tied up haphazardly with a hair claw.

"Well, you know that Mary and Issac took me to see Issac's parents down at their beachhouse for the summer. But mostly, I just worked at a Muggle café and earned a bit of money." Elle replied with a shrug. Lily sat down eagerly beside the older girl, her eyes ablaze with excitement. The other three younger students eyed Eloise, uncertain.

"Sit down, I promise I don't bite. Plus, your luggage is sort of already in here." Elle gave the hesitant third years a kind smile, and they all sat. Hugo turned to her with a teasing look, shaking his head at his cousin.

"You shouldn't have told Lily about the Muggle cafe. She's worse than our grandad with all that Muggle stuff, I swear."

"Shut up Hugo! Grandpa isn't that bad! And besides, it wasn't the cafe I wanted to hear about!" Lily cast her eager eyes on Eloise and the older girl couldn't help but smile at her. Hugo, Lysander and Julianne all began their own conversation as Eloise told Lily about the hikes she'd done along the coast and the days spent down on the beach. At one point, Lily began to pout at Eloise dramatically.

"The boys, Elle! Where are the boys!" Eloise laughed at the young girl's disappointed face. Truth was, Eloise was a little… closed off from most people her age. She knew a lot of people, sure, but often her friendships with them didn't go beyond the corridors of the castle. They'd all made their solid friend groups in the first few years of schooling, and Eloise had been too wound up in her own problems to notice. She always felt edged to the side and after a while, she'd decided it was better to stop trying to edge her way into other's friendships.

"I promise Lily, if there's ever a boy, I'll let you know." Eloise replied with a grin, making Lily beam widely back at her. Eloise didn't notice Lily open her mouth to say something when she spoke next. "So tell me about your summer Lily. Another epic Weasley-Potter Qudditch match?"

"Yeah, we WON!" Hugo boasting, wearing a smug look directed at Lily. Lily and Hugo were quick to argue the fact, while Lysander and Julianne looked on with exasperation. Eloise smiled and let the younger cousins battle it out.

Eventually, the conversation drifted to everybody's summers. Lysander had a particularly interesting tale, in which his mother had taken him and his twin brother Lorcan on an expedition to find Dundersprouts (little magical beings that created magically enhanced fertiliser from the detritus of a magical forest), which of course lead to a heated debate on the matter. As the four third years bickered and bantered, Eloise slowly pulled out her Potions book and began to read again. She missed the look that Lily sent her way.

"Elle! Eloise! Oi!"

"Don't be a prat, Hugo."

"Yeah Hugo, don't be a prat." Eloise looked up to see another Weasley grinning from the compartment door. Well technically, Rose was a Granger-Weasley, but that was beside the point. Like Hugo, she had wild ginger curls, which she had grown out long and let hang naturally around her head, like an elegant ginger mane. She was wearing her Gryffindor robes already, a Prefect badge on her chest. Behind her was Scorpius Malfoy, in Slytherin robes, also with a Prefect badge on his chest. His pale blonde hair was long and limp, hanging around his face messily. Eloise smiled at this- judging by the way the Potter boys wore their hair, especially Albus, she knew what had influenced that.

"Go away Rose!" Hugo groaned.

"Hullo Rose!" Lysander gave a little wave, followed closely by Julianne. Lily had already moved forward and given her older cousin a tight hug. Rose smiled fondly at her cousin and waved to the people in the compartment, her eyes settling on Eloise.

"You guys better not be bothering her." She chided with a smile, giving the younger students a teasing eye.

"Rooossseee!" Hugo groaned again, trying to push Lily out of the way so he could push his older sister out of the compartment. "Scorpius, tell her to go away!" He grumbled, making Eloise covered her mouth with her hand to suppress a giggle. The two siblings began to bicker, making Lily dance away and plonk herself down next to Eloise, giggling.

"Why do you always do this?"

"I dunno, why are you always such an annoying little turd?"

"Coming from you!" Eloise loved when she witnessed little moments like these between such a boisterous family as the Weasley/Potter clan. Eloise was an only child, apart from the time she was placed in a group home (if you can count that). While fights there had been rough and malicious, it was quite the opposite with the Granger-Weasleys. Eloise could see the loving relationship Rose and Hugo had, from the way Rose went to ruffle Hugo's hair (although the thirteen year old did NOT like that), to the way Hugo's shoves were only rough enough to push his sister back a step, rather than forcefully out into the corridor. The two had begun to playfight, giggling at each other. It was that type of bickering that could only come from family.

"Rose, c'mon. I want to have time to sit with Albus before we arrive." Scorpius eventually intervened with an eye roll, pulling his friend away from her brother. She grinned and let her fellow Prefect drag her away, waving goodbye. Hugo straightened himself up and sat opposite Eloise, his eager eyes on her.

"Anyway, Elle, can you plleeaassee tell us about Hogsmeade?"

"What, haven't your family told you about it?"

"Lorcan's in my year, he doesn't know anything anyway."

"I'm Muggleborn!"

"Fred and Louis told me that I've got to outrun a back of goblins to get in, but they're always full of crap so I know that isn't true."

"James and Albus are doing the same. I blame Uncle George, honestly."

"Okay, okay!" Eloise laughed, listening to the overlapping replies. She began to explain the beautiful village, filled with, of course, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes (who had made Zonko's go bankrupt about a decade ago), The Three Broomsticks, the romantic Madam Puddifoot's (earning eager grins from the girls and grimaces from the boys, much to Eloise's amusement), the delicious Honeydukes, and many other wonderful shops, as well as the (very much debunked) haunted Shrieking Shack. She spoke of the picturesque village street and square, the blatant magic in the air, the beautiful atmosphere. Mind you, she was hyping it up a lot, but how could she not? Those little excited faces, beaming in excitement, their eyes shining in anticipation.

"You all better put your robes on, we're about 15 minutes out. Then we'll actually be IN Hogsmeade!" The four scrambled to grab their robes out of their trunks and the boys rushed off to the bathroom while the girls changed in the compartment. Eloise flicked her wand, drawing the curtains closed, while she turned her back to the other girls. Eloise's birth family hadn't been the kindest to her, and she had marks over her arms, torso and thighs to prove it. She didn't like when people asked about it and had taken to hiding the marks whenever possible. She pulled her Gryffindor robes over her head, and swapped her white sneakers for some simple black flats. She turned around to see the girls doing the same, Lily donned in similar red embroidered black robes, while Julianne donned yellow for Hufflepuff. The boys joined them shortly after, Lysander in Ravenclaw's blue, Hugo in identical robes to Julianne.

As soon as the train stopped, the group hurried out onto the platform. The third years split off, Lily and Lysander hurrying off after Lucy Weasley and Lorcan Scamander, both with their Ravenclaw friends, while Hugo and Julianne reunited with a few of their Hufflepuff friends. This left Eloise alone once more, strolling along to the carriages, not in such a rush. Along the way, she saw groups hustling to the self-drawn carriages, trying to get up to the castle before the dark clouds above them rained down on them. A few students called a friendly hello to Eloise, who waved in reply.

Eloise rode up to school with a bubbly group of Fourth Year Hufflepuffs. Their piercing squeals became too much for Eloise, she practically jumped off the carriage. It was starting to spit outside, and the leisure she'd had earlier at the platform left her, and she hurried up the steps to the castle before she got too wet. The last thing she needed was for her hair to completely frizz out in the middle of the Welcoming Feast.

Eloise sat towards the middle of the Gryffindor table, surrounded by several of her fellow Seventh Years. She sat next to Chelsea Abbott, a charming brunette with beautifully straight teeth, that were highlighted by her wide smile. With her sat Lavender Patil, an Indian girl with a long dark braid, their heads ducked together and giggling wildly. Across from them were some of the other girls in their dormitory, Delphine Agruga, a stunningly beautiful witch who transferred from Beauxbatons in Third Year, Gabby Parsons, a chatty blonde girl with a contagious smile, and Darcia Huang, a chubby dark-haired girl who could transfigure practically anything. A few seats down were the last two girls of their dormitory, Emma Hilda and Dominique Weasley. Eloise had always envied Dominique's long, straight strawberry blonde hair, her tall, petite figure, her laid back and outgoing nature. Emma was much the same, although she had a bit of a more… risqué reputation with the boys. While it was true Emma dated one or two guys a year, Eloise had the feeling her reputation was more rumours than anything else. Emma was laughing with Dominique, both of them looking at Dominique's boyfriend, Liam Finnegan. The tall, dark boy was animatedly telling a story, with his best mates shaking their heads at him while trying not to laugh. Liam turned and said something to Nathan Sigmour, who pushed his mate away from him in mock horror. Across from them, James Sirius Potter was smiling widely at the pair, holding his hands up in mock innocence. He had cut his jet black hair over the summer, but the same messy style was ever present in his inch-long hair.

Despite being quite close to his little sister, Eloise hadn't spoken much to James Potter at her time at Hogwarts. Not past "Can you pass me some toad eggs" or "4 feet for a History of Magic essay is a bit rich, don't you think?" anyway. Eloise knew that Lily adored both her older brothers, despite how they teased her constantly. But Hogwarts was a large school, with near eighty students per year now, and Eloise didn't try to go out of her way to mingle with people, especially when she knew she'd be unwanted. She'd seen the way people flocked to be friends with the oldest son of Harry Potter and didn't want to hound him too. If it happened it happened, she'd decided, it just never did.

The great doors to the Great Hall opened, interrupting Eloise's thoughts. She turned to the door with a wide, excited smile. Professor Flitwick looked comically small standing in the doorway, even more so with the large group of nervous First Years scuttering behind him. Eloise snorted as he led the way down to the Sorting Hat, walking between the Hufflepuffs, several students smiling and waving encouragingly at the younger students, and the Ravenclaws, who had curious glints in their eyes while they watched the students. The younger students whispered to each other, their eyes taking in the Great Hall in awe.

"Oh, there's Mikey!" Gabby whispered, spotting a young boy with dark brown hair and Gabby's blue eyes looking around the Great Hall, searching the crowds nervously. Eloise turned to her dormmate and noted her anxious but excited expression as she strained to catch the eyes of the boy. Eloise shot up her hand and waved, causing the boy's eyes to dart their direction. Gabby shot two thumbs up at her brother and he sent her a small smile.

"Thanks Eloise." Gabby whispered, shooting her a grateful look. Eloise shrugged her shoulders, letting the other girl know it wasn't a big deal, before turning her attention to the front. Professor Flitwick had got on top of a stool in order to see the school over the heads of the First Years. He turned expectantly towards the Sorting Hat he'd placed on the stool next to him. After a moment, the hat shuddered to life, and started to sing. Eloise liked listening to the song, although in all the time she'd been at Hogwarts, he mostly sung about the qualities of the four houses. Eloise knew from Hogwarts: A History that the Sorting Hat was known to warn students of dangerous times, as it had in the Second Wizarding War. Thankfully, that hadn't happened since.

After hearing about the bravery and determination of the Gryffindors, the loyalty and patience of the Hufflepuffs, the wit and wisdom of the Ravenclaws and the resourcefulness and cleverness of the Slytherin, Professor Flitwick cleared his voice.

"When I call your name, come up and sit on this stool. I will place this Sorting Hat on your head, and it shall announce your Hogwarts House!" He announced, his high-pitched voice carrying clearly throughout the Great Hall.

"Adams, Roger!" A particularly small boy stumbled his way up the steps and practically fell onto the stool. Professor Flitwick reached up and delicately placed the old hat on the kid's head. Eloise snorted as the hat practically sat on the kid's shoulders, he was that small. After a brief moment, the Sorting Hat opened its mouth and roared.

"RAVENCLAW!" The Ravenclaw table roared with applause, and Professor Flitwick turned and took the Sorting Hat off of the very flushed looking First Year. He trotted off towards the cheering table, grinning.

The Sorting continued in a similar fashion. Nervous First Years nervously climbing up the stairs, plonking down on the stool, and emerging a member of a new House. Hamish Carmel was the first First Year sorted into Gryffindor. The boy was so excited, he let out a celebratory whoop, complete with a fist pump into the air, causing more cheering and laughter from the Gryffindor table. Lyra Malfoy was sorted into Hufflepuff, the girl looking incredibly crestfallen as her eyes moved over to the Slytherin table. Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy were cheering enthusiastically, giving the younger girl reassuring looks. Eloise watched as the younger student sat at the Hufflepuff table, where she was already being welcomed by her new House mates. Michael Parsons was also sorted into Hufflepuff, although the boy took it in better stride than Lyra. He bounded over to the table and shook hands with anybody he could reach, making his older sister (who had been watching as avidly as Eloise) snort and shake her head in amusement.

"Should've bloody known he'd end up in Hufflepuff." She giggled.

The last student ("Yankowski, Rebecca!") was sorted into Gryffindor, and Professor Flitwick quickly moved up to the teacher's table. Once he was settled, Professor McGonagall stood and addressed the Hall.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I hope you all had a pleasant summer and back and ready to learn. There are several announcements I must make, then we shall all enjoy the start-of-year banquet."

"Yeah we know, no Forbidden Forest, anything from the Weasley's shop is banned, if you want to know anything about Quidditch contact your Captain, blah blah blah." Chelsea muttered under her breath, huffing out an annoyed breath. Eloise nodded in agreement, suddenly wishing that Professor McGonagall would hurry up so they could eat. It had been a long day and there was nothing like a good old Hogwarts feast.

Professor McGonagall must have had the same idea, because not a minute later she was seated again, and the table in front of her was covered in food. Roast chicken and lamb, chops, a variety of steamed and roast vegetables, any possible form of potato you could think of, salads, Yorkshire pudding, sausages, dinner rolls, you name it. Eloise smiled fondly down at the variety of foods, thinking that it was so… British. Issac would have been horrified at the lack of fresh game and seafood, chorizo and antipasto, and most horrifically, the lack of paella. To Issac, paella was ambrosia. Eloise had truly had a cultural shock when she first began to eat with the Morales, especially considering how she had mostly eaten sandwiches or prepackaged food with her parents and her foster families.

"Are you gonna eat or what, Jones?" Lavender asked, grinning at her sluggish peer. Eloise jumped into action, piling her plate with roasted vegetables, lamb, Yorkshire pudding and lots of gravy. She listened to the conversation around her with a happy smile on her face, humming contently as she ate.

"Hey Eloise? Where'd you go that you got so damn tanned over the summer? I tried tanning in my backyard, but it was raining so much." Chelsea asked, eyeing her roommate with interest. Eloise quickly swallowed her food, took a sip of her juice, and turned to the girls who were looking at her with interest.

"I went down to the beach with my parents this summer, pretty much whenever I wasn't working." Eloise shrugged, trying to be as nonchalant as she could. She always got funny when people asked her about her family. Not many people knew that she'd been handed over to the Muggle foster system and she intended to keep it that way.

"Why would you bother working when you could have just spent the whole time tanning?" Delphine asked curiously.

"You look like you did anyway. Why not spend the whole time on the beach drinking cocktails and chatting up cute boys? I would." Lavender giggled.

"I didn't mind working. It's not like I had to worry about travelling by plane or whatever between the beach and work, and my parents were supportive of it. Why not do both, you know?" Eloise shrugged.

"You look like you had a glow up." Darcia commented, looking at the other girl. Eloise raised an eyebrow at the girls who were nodding in agreement.

"What do you mean? I look exactly the same as I did in June last year!" Eloise protested.

"You're not pale anymore, you look all sunkissed and blessed. Like your hair longer and has all these sunstreaks through it and those freckles are adorable. And you've gained a bit of weight- not that you're fat!- but you don't look so skinny skinny anymore. Not to mention, your tits and bum definitely look great." Gabby listed. Eloise rolled her eyes.

"Oh, getting a suntan and gaining weight is such a glow up. I still look like me to me." Eloise protested. All she could think of were the circulars burns on her body, the ragged scar from a surgery to fix a broken collarbone when she was ten, the marks and scars that were scattered over her body.

"Sure sure. You wait until the first Hogsmeade trip. Then we'll see how true that is."

"Oh shut it." Eloise laughed in disbelief, dismissing the other girls.

"You know who I wouldn't mind asking me to Hogsmeade? Bloody Fred Weasley." Darcia said after a moment with a grin. The girls giggled and Lavender rolled her eyes.

"He's a year younger than us!"

"So? It's not like there's any good looking boys in our year. Plus, I'm sure Emma has dated most of them by now."

"Don't be like that, Darce. Emma isn't a bloody serial dater. She's only dated a couple of boys, it's not like she goes around snogging boys in the broom cupboards like bloody Aster Parkinson." Gabby pointed out.

"Tell that to me next time I see her in the corridor with a boy's hand up her skirt." Darcia shuddered. Eloise did crack a smile at that. Darcia was a Prefect and last year she had found Emma and her then-boyfriend, Aaron Sumners, in a particularly scandalous snogging position. Darcia never failed to bring it up.

"Why is it lame that we date boys younger than us, but not older? Sumners was a year older than us. Fred's only a Sixth Year." Eloise interjected, trying to change the subject before they could gossip more about their roommate.

"Because boys are idiots." Lavender supplied. The six girls peered down the table, where Louis Weasley was trying to throw peas into Fred Weasley's mouth, although he was missing a lot and the peas ended up in the hair of the Fourth Year behind Fred, Annabelle Rogers. The girls all turned to Darcia, who was shaking her head sadly as they all giggled.

Once everybody's plates were cleared, the dinner foods turned into desserts, and Eloise grinned. She reached for the sticky date pudding, drizzling it in butterscotch sauce and taking a hefty scoop of icecream. As she enjoyed her dessert, she listened to the girls chat around her.

"Delph, didn't Camille get married over the summer? How was the wedding?"

"I completely forgot! She's pregnant!" Delphine exclaimed. Streams of congratulations followed that and Eloise smiled gently at Delphine's excited grin.

"It's so sweet that they stayed together and got married. She got pregnant pretty quick, though."

"Well, she's only eight weeks along, so she must've gotten pregnant on the honeymoon. She's over the moon though, all she ever wanted was a family. Her and Jonas had been talking about kids since they graduated." Delphine gushed.

"God, I don't know if I could ever have kids. Especially that young." Chelsea shuddered.

"That's because you hate kids, Chels." Lavender laughed at the look on her friend's face. Chelsea pushed her friend away and launched into a tale of her younger cousin projectile vomiting all over her when she was eight.

"Imagine wanting kids after that!" Chelsea said vehemently, pouting as the girls roared with laughter around her. As they laughed, their plates were cleared and Professor McGonagall rose to speak with the school once again.

"This concludes the start-of-year banquet. First Years, please turn to your Prefects, they will show you your new Houses. The rest of you, please return to your Common Room. I remind you that curfew is 10pm sharp. Good evening." With that, Professor McGonagall and the other teachers rose, the rest of the school following suit.

"I'm going to quickly talk to Michael before he's whisked way by Perkins. See you all upstairs." Gabby announced, before fighting her way over to the Hufflepuff table. Eloise looked towards the Great Hall, sighed, and slowly made her way to fight through the doors of the Great Hall.

Dominique and Emma were already in the dormitory when Eloise walked through the doors. The girls looked up with friendly smiles.

"Hey Eloise! You look well!" Emma greeted from her spot on her bed. She was already in her pajamas, sitting cross legged on her bed. Dominique was standing between her bed and Emma's, braiding her hair. Or, well trying to.

"Hey Eloise." She mumbled, before groaning and yanking her fingers through her hair, undoing her braid. She then sat in front of Emma, who in a routine pattern, moved out of the way and began to braid her best friend's hair.

"Hey! Good summer?"

"Not that bad, I spent most of my time flitting between Em's, Liam's, and my cousin's houses. Emma ended up coming to stay with me for a few weeks, Mam and Pap got sick of me always running off to hers." Dominique answered with an assumed grin.

"Mrs Weasley makes the best bouillabaisse I've ever had." Emma grinned. Eloise nodded, moving over and drawing her curtains to change. Luckily, the girls in the dorm never bothered her about her shy changing habits. Delphine was the least shy of them all, with the girls often waking up to Delphine walking around in her underwear as she got ready for the day. Eloise was thankful nobody bothered her too much about it, nor about her constantly wearing long sleeves to bed, even in summer.

The girls all settled for bed, changing into their pajamas and climbing into their respective beds. But the girls didn't go to sleep, instead, they giggled and gossiped. Eloise listened pleasantly, happy they'd included her. But the yawns overtook them and eventually they all uttered their goodnights.

As she fell asleep, Eloise couldn't help but think that Mary was right. Maybe this was gonna be a good year.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story! Please feel free to review!