Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognize from any Harry Potter book. If you don't recognize it: Hey it's mine!
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Mr. Potter put down the wrinkled parchment and lightly shook James. He had been standing beside his son, just watching him. He noticed how similar they looked and how James slept so much like his mother did, minus the drool. That was one of his more charming attributes.
He lightly shook James again. "James, wake up. It's September first," Mr. Potter said quietly.
"Lily?" James mumbled. "What's going on?" He looked up at his father's bemused look and felt a cool breeze on his right cheek; just his right cheek. It was oddly colder than any other part of him. It was still damp from his, er… attribute he got from his father. The window was wide open, letting in the chill of the morning air. "Why is my face wet?"
Mr. Potter had to chuckle at his son's obvious confusion. "Because you were sleeping with your face in a puddle. And no, I'm not Lily. Now get up, you're leaving for Hogwarts today."
At the mention of Lily, James perked up. He remembered her letter. She was hoping to hear from him. What a thought. He smiled as he got ready for school – not even bothering with his hair; it wasn't worth his time.
Getting downstairs he remembered his letter to Lily. 'Oh shit,' he mentally cursed, briefly clamping his eyes shut. 'What did I write? Did I flirt with her and how stupid did I sound?' James sat at the kitchen table as a house-elf, Stelphie, poured him some juice. Taking a sip, he thought, 'Here's hoping she doesn't slap me.'
"I see you're up!" Mr. Potter said, walking into the kitchen. "How's my Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Seeker, Prefect son doing this fine morning?" He unfolded the Daily Prophet and nodded to Stelphie. "Why the glum face? Shouldn't you be happy? Today you'll see Lily," he whispered the last part, nudging James as he walked by.
James looked up at his father incredulously. "That's part of the reason I look glum. I awoke last night to her owl tapping on my window." At this his father arched an eyebrow. "And at three in the morning!" This caused the other one to arch along with the former. "So, I read hers and she said she was looking forward to this year, et cetera. Then she asked me to reply, so I did." James took a sip of juice and added, "And quickly, too."
Mr. Potter let out a laugh. "Right, twenty parchments later you quickly replied. Don't worry I didn't read them," Mr. Potter quickly finished, seeing his son's look of horror. "I saw them lying everywhere when I woke you up."
"So what if I wrote practice letters?" James defended. "Anyways, back to Lily."
"A topic so rarely discussed," Mr. Potter said quietly.
James ignored him. "I was just remembering what I wrote; now I'm scared of what she'll think of me. I know one already: loser." With the last word, James allowed his head to hit the table with an ominous thud.
"Well, if it helps, from what you've told me, and permanently engraved into my head," Mr. Potter said humorously. James let out a groan at his father's amusement of the whole thing, "she doesn't seem the type to think of you as a loser and that's that. Did you use the Potter charm?"
James looked up smiling a bit. "Yeah, I think I did… think it might have worked?" he asked hopefully.
"Here's hoping it did." And with that they both took a swig of orange juice.
James got his trunk re-packed, with all the things he threw out in his ravenous attempt at finding parchment, and brought it down the stairs. As they loaded the Rolls Royce, James looked at the manor once more and sighed. He hoped to see his father by next summer. The conversation he had overheard still bothered him during quiet moments. Shaking those thoughts from his head, he got in the passenger side and drove to London. Being the pureblood family they were, they got there a lot faster with their upgraded automobile. They arrived at King's Cross Station soon after, got a cart and quickly disappeared through the barrier together.
"Well James, here I leave you. I didn't take today off and this was the best I could do," Mr. Potter explained, clapping a hand on his son's back.
"This is perfectly fine, father. It's better than previous years." Mr. Potter flinched. He could sense the coldness in his son's voice, no matter how hard James tried to hide it. He felt the same when his own father couldn't even be there in the morning to wish him good luck. "Thanks a lot, I really mean it." James gave his father a quick father-son hug. Smiling lightly, they parted:
David Potter, Auror, back to Muggle King's Cross; James Potter, Prefect, to the Hogwarts Express.
James was calmly packing his trunk away in the caboose, when the next thing he knew he was laughing. He didn't know when, and he didn't know how… Everything around him suddenly seemed hilarious. A stray pebble rolling by as students ran to and fro, the rust starting beneath the train… He fell to the ground laughing uncontrollably, when suddenly he heard a voice.
"Really James David Potter, causing a scene like this. People will think you're barking mad!"
The counter curse lightly hit him in the stomach and James was soon standing up, with help again, looking at the culprits.
"And wouldn't that be a shame if they thought that, Sirius?" James said, eyes still wet and twinkling from all his laughing. "And thank you Remus for helping me. My sides were beginning to hurt." He held a hand to his stomach and wiped his eyes with the other.
Sirius Black had hair the colour of his name, like James, but kept it neater (although James would tell you he couldn't help it). Though the three boys were of similar height, Sirius liked knowing that he was at least one-eighth of a centimetre taller than Remus and two-fifths of a centimetre taller than James.
Remus shook his head slowly at his friend's shenanigans. He pushed a few strands of his sandy brown hair from his face and gave James a friendly welcome. All were good looking in their own ways.
"Very shameful indeed," Sirius said. "Now, let us go find our compartment. I have a feeling this is going to be an enjoyable ride." He rubbed his hands together, grinning mischievously, his grey eyes twinkling. James and Remus cast a glimpse at each other, mirroring the same feelings: Horror, humour, curiosity, and downright confusion.
Then that was when he saw her; just past Remus. Lily. She was looking absolutely gorgeous, with Jen by her side. Both were scanning the crowd, most likely looking for their other friends. Sirius pulled him on the train, murmuring to him and Remus before he could run over and say hello. Well, they'd have the whole train ride to find each other. Hopefully.
- - - - - - -
"Good morning Pumpkin!" Mr. Evans said loudly, causing Lily to jump and Psyche to fall off her knee, twittering in annoyance. They both collected themselves and stared at Mr. Evans in shock: Lily standing, and Psyche flying to her cage to sleep. Iphigenia watched all of this with interest in a makeshift nest upon Lily's bed.
"What was that for?" Lily asked in attempt to sound annoyed, but it only came out as a whine.
"Well, I was so shocked that you weren't downstairs before me and even more shocked to see you sleeping. Imagine that! First time in six years you've had one hour of sleep before school. Now get ready. You don't want to be late, do you?"
At his final statement, Lily stopped rolling her eyes and started rushing to get ready. She usually had the entire night to make sure she had everything, now she just had a few measly hours. Lily carefully folded the letter from James and put it in her pocket. She was going to keep it.
After a quick shower, she made her way downstairs to eat some good old homemade breakfast. It would be the last meal she'd eat at home for a long time; until Christmas at least. She ate quickly, put her trunk in their car and set off.
Petunia was thankfully going to University that day as well, so Lily didn't have to ride in the car along side her for a long while. Dropping Petunia off, the Evans made their way to London, more specifically, King's Cross Station.
Since Mr. and Mrs. Evans were Muggles and couldn't go through the barrier, they wished Lily luck and then gave her hugs and kisses. They then proceeded to smile at her as she disappeared from their sight. They were so proud of their Lily. She was the first witch in her family, to their knowledge, and made them even more proud for being a Prefect.
Once the gleaming Hogwarts Express came into view, Lily could see hundreds of witches and wizards bustling about. Some were nervous, excited, sad, happy, tired, and falling asleep… but generally they were all full of anticipation. The idea of Hogwarts could make any student happy.
Before she knew was what happening, a red-streaked black haired girl jumped her, interrupting her thoughts. Lily, after the initial shock, hugged her laughing best friend. "Jen!" she exclaimed. "I missed you so much." Lily stepped back and looked at her. "What happened to your hair?"
Jen took a step back from Lily, one eyebrow raised. "Does it look bad? I thought it looked rather good. I mean, I'd expect Sirius to say it looks good when it doesn't," she said obviously, "but my mum?"
"No, I was just surprised! You never told me you dyed it, it looks real good," Lily said, trying to calm her grey eyed-friend.
Jen let out a sigh of relief. "Well, I got it streaked dark red. Now I don't resemble Sirius so much." Jen was obviously relieved. They started walking towards the old steam engine.
"You never really looked a lot like Sirius though. Good thing too, seeing as he's a guy. How is he anyways?" Lily asked, looking around the two of them.
"Good. He's going to surprise James, as if he hadn't seen him all summer. Kind of frightening, if you ask me. Who knows what plot he's forming in that twisted head of his." Jen and Sirius were twins, fraternal, but still twins. She had her hair cut just below her chin. Jen, like her brother, had an elegant beauty to her looks. If she lived hundreds of years ago, she could have been royalty.
"You of all people know, Jen! You know very well what goes on in that twisted head of his," Lily told her with a laugh. "You have the same thoughts half the time… but the decency not to act them out."
"And that would be why I'm frightened," Jen said truthfully. "Where are Arabella and Mel? I haven't seen Ara since the end of fifth year and Mel since mid-July." They were both scanning the crowd when Lily spotted her new partner in crime. James. He was wiping tears from his eyes, talking to Sirius and Remus. It seemed as though the summer had been very good to him. Lily smiled secretly to herself and tried not to blush. Since when did she blush about James?
Jen pulled Lily through the crowd and after a few minutes they found Arabella Figg, their third dorm mate. She had a certain affixation with cats, no doubt passed on from her Grandmother, her namesake, and Aunt. Ara, had shoulder length, curly, chestnut brown hair, with brown eyes to boot. Arabella had always thought she was plain in a world filled with magic. Though a certain Gryffindor would come to realize she was beautiful once he realised what he felt for her.
The three of them quickly boarded the train, deciding to find Mel once they got a compartment. Not much later, Melissa Gorman, with mid-back straight, blonde hair and amber eyes, found them. After quick greetings, hugs and laughing, the four of the five dorm mates were all joking about what each of their summers entailed. Mel's brother had graduated from Hogwarts two years prior and so she was left the only Gorman in the school.
In the middle of their discussion about siblings, which Arabella had none of, with no precaution or warning; four boys tore open their door. They scrambled in and slammed it shut without noticing the girls who already inhabited it.
Arabella was about to comment on their rudeness, when the four boys all simultaneously burst out laughing, exclaiming congratulations to each other. Ara slouched back in her seat with a puff of a breath and roll of her eyes.
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