Chapter 2
The Journey to Hogwarts
James could fell himself being shaken awake. He didn't want to get up- every bone in his body ached and he felt groggy, as if he was trying to get up after too little sleep. Finally, when he'd forced his eyes open, he saw a lot of people standing around him, and Hermione kneeling beside him trying to give him a chocolate bar. "Eat it," she said. "It will help, really." James struggled to sit up and lean against the cookbook rack. He ate the chocolate quickly - now that he was awake he was rather embarrassed to see this many people staring at him while he ate. But Hermione was right, the chocolate helped. He felt warm again in no time, as if someone had turned a heater on inside of him. He tried to stand up, but he still felt quite dizzy so he just sank back to the floor next to Hermione. "What was that thing?" he managed to ask after a while. "I thought I heard someone say 'demon tour'." Hermione laughed harshly. "It was a dementor. They are the guards of the Prison of Azkaban. There were two of them, actually. They were here looking for someone called Sirius Black-which is quite silly because he died over five years ago." She said that last part loudly, possibly to quite the people chattering stupidly about how they'd seen Black running into Knockturn Alley after the dementors came. She quieted her voice now so only James would hear, and continued to tell him about Black while she cleaned up the gash on the back of his head from where he hit it on the cookbook shelves. "Ron and I knew him when we were at Hogwarts. He was imprisoned for something he didn't do, and we helped him escape the dementors. He was Har-I mean he was hardly able to harm a fly he was so kind. It was silly to accuse him of killing- of what he was accused of." She seemed to be withholding some information about that topic, so James decided to ask her about the screaming instead. "What was all the shouting about," he asked. "You know, when those dementor-things were loose. And who screamed? And who said the incantation?" Hermione stopped what she was doing and looked at him quite suddenly. After staring at him worriedly for some time she asked him to tell her everything that happened to him, and then she told him he must have hit his head too hard and imagined things. "The incantation was probably the Patronus charm that I used to scare the dementors off, and most likely you heard yourself scream when you fell. At least, that's all that happened. Now don't go imagining anything else until Ron gets back. He went to get the rest of your things."
James didn't ask her anything else as they all made their way back to the Leaky Cauldron, Ron lugging a not so leaky cauldron (full of James's things) himself. He had bought James a lovely male Eagle owl to make him feel better after the event with the dementors. They decided to stay and have dinner at the pub, since Hermione had a headache. James secretly wondered if it wasn't from all the thinking she'd been doing that week.
While they were eating dinner Ron started complaining about dementors in Diagon Alley. "My stupid brother Percy-no Hermione I don't care that he's the Minister of Magic-won't believe any of us that Sirius is dead. Sending dementors strolling down Diagon Alley-is he mad? He is mad actually, been mad at me ever since we helped Sirius escape. And I'm sick and tired of working at the Ministry - I'm about ready to quit and go try to hook with a Quidditch team. That'd be more my style. Stupid Department of Magical Games and Sports-and no again Hermione, I don't care if I am the department's head-they never can organize an event straight. That last Quidditch convention was a nightmare!" James prepared himself for another argument between them-Hermione disapproved of Ron's rants every time something at the Ministry went wrong. She would always tell him he was being stupid and that his brother meant well, but was just too young to have that much responsibility. This time, however, she just stayed out of Ron's ranting. She didn't even scold him for saying things like that so loudly. "I think it's time we go," she said after a while. "James has had a rough day, and this owl needs to go home." She started gathering up their parcels, careful to ignore Tom the bartender's gaze. Soon they were ready to clamber into the fire with a dash of Floo powder and go home. Hermione went first, then James with the most disgruntled owl, and finally Ron came with the bulky cauldron and school things.
Two months later, on September the Twenty-first, Ron and James loaded the old Ford Anglia with a large and very heavy trunk, a tattered suitcase and a screeching owl in a large cage that had been named Godric after one of the 4 Hogwarts founders. The old car would be rather full, as Hermione was also bringing her things-she would be taking the Hogwarts Express with James rather than Apparating. James was quite surprised how unusually large the trunk was until Ron explained how his dad had magically stretched the car back when Ron and his siblings were just kids themselves.
After everything was tightly packed, James climbed into the back. He was quite surprised, however, when what was supposed to be the seat turned out to be the shaggy form of Padfoot. "Oh - sorry, Padfoot-didn't see you there," James told the dog. He was always amazed at how Padfoot seemed to know what was said to him. It was as if he was human. "He's not coming, is he?" James asked Ron. "Someone's bound to see him at the station." Hermione, who had just come out of the house with a large wicker basket, looked at the massive black dog. "James is right, you know. Somebody will notice us between that dog and Godric and Crookshanks." Ron sighed. He never had been that fond of Hermione's cat. "I just wanted him to keep me company, with you two gone" he told them. He went to take the dog in the house, but the dog just would not move. Being far too big to take from the car by force they had to leave him there, much to Crookshanks's dismay. He could be heard hissing loudly on the seat next to James.
The journey to the King's Cross railway station was quite uneventful- unless of course you count the owl getting loose and almost flying out the window before it was caught by Padfoot's gentle jaw. When they arrived in the parking lot Ron fetched two carts for the luggage and they tried to unobtrusively make their way to Platform 9¾. James, who had never taken the train, walked along the platforms staring in awe at the glistening steam engines on one side and the sleek electric ones on the other. They came at last to the barrier between platforms nine and ten, where Ron and Padfoot proceeded right through the barrier without a sideways look. After Hermione explained to James how to get onto the platform they casually leaned onto the barrier talking for a few moments. James quickly side-stepped through the seemingly brick wall, dragging his cart awkwardly; and was followed by Hermione seconds later. She had pretended to bend down for something she'd dropped and then stepped through unnoticed. There before them was a startlingly red steam engine, the words 'Hogwarts Express' printed on each red car. The platform was swarming with witches and wizards packing their children onto the train and saying hurried goodbyes. The black dog Padfoot was careful to stay with Ron, and behaved quite well; but Crookshanks and Godric were both quite noisy and attempted to get loose. Hermione rushed to get them into an empty compartment, and then went to see about the luggage. After he told Ron goodbye Hermione had sent James to get in the car; but on the way there he walked right into a sandy-haired boy hugging his mother goodbye. "Oh, sorry," he said in apology. The boy turned to look at him with an angry expression, and James was afraid the boy would put some kind of a curse on him. But instead the boy just laughed. "Nice to meet you," he said. "Names Kevin Creevy. You?" James looked at him for a second, hoping it wasn't a trick. Finally he said "I'm James Weasley. My mum is Hermione Granger" hoping he didn't sound too snobbish. Ron came from a fairly popular wizarding family and Hermione was one of the best witches Hogwarts had ever seen. But Kevin did not look at all offended, in fact he smiled. "I think my dad knew your parents at Hogwarts. By any chance were they friends with the great Harry Potter?" he asked. James was excited about this bit of information, as mostly all he knew about Harry was that his parents were indeed friends with him. He quickly offered Kevin a seat in his compartment and told they had known Harry. Trying not to run into anyone else James hurried onto the train.
It was about ten minutes later, when the train was getting ready to leave, that Kevin joined James in the compartment. At that time James decided he ought to see what had become of Hermione, so he and Kevin stood on their seats looking out the window for her and Ron. They saw her at last, talking in hurried whispers to Ron. James decided this might be a good thing to overhear, so he directed Kevin to keep their compartment and he went quietly back off the car and stood behind a pole near to them.
"He hears them, Ron. When the dementors draw near." Hermione was saying. "But how could it be?"
"Hears what?" asked a very puzzled Ron. "What are you talking about, Hermione? It better be important if it's worth missing the train over."
Hermione looked rather offended, so she said "Oh, Ron! Are you deaf or just thick! James can hear Harry's parents being killed! Don't you remember? That's just like what Harry himself heard. Something is really odd about him. He is like a perfect replica of Harry, and not a bit m-I mean his mother. Look at his wand, everything!"
James decided he'd heard enough when two 3rd year girls started staring at him. As he slipped through the crowd of people the train blew its whistle and got ready to depart. He jumped aboard his car, and when he looked behind him he saw Hermione running from the other side of the platform. She wasn't going to make it, the train was moving now. All the other students on the platform had managed to get aboard, but Hermione looked stranded. Suddenly an enormous body hit James in the chest so hard it knocked the wind out of him. When he looked to see who it was he was shocked to find Padfoot standing above him. James managed to upright himself, but when he looked out the window he saw Hermione still standing on the platform, looking very out of breath. Padfoot had made it aboard, unwanted - and Hermione hadn't.
James stood there in disbelief. He knew Hermione could apparate; she'd get to Hogwarts before the Express could arrive. But why was Padfoot on the train? He guessed it probably was not a good thing-dogs weren't allowed at Hogwarts for all he knew. James started back towards his compartment, the black dog by his heel. Kevin was quite surprised to find him returning with a dog. The basket in the luggage rack containing Crookshanks began to shake and hiss; and the owl sitting on the seat beside of Kevin shrieked madly in fear of the cat and dog.
"Shut it, you idiots!" James yelled at the animals. "It's just Paddy, you know him." Padfoot sat down on an empty space of floor, Kevin staring blankly at all the racket. James, who was feeling rather annoyed by this point, flopped himself down on his seat once more and began leafing through his Transfiguration book. Unfortunately, at the moment when all was at last peaceful someone banged the door open. It was an enormous boy carrying a club. "Huh, you!" he grunted. "Name's McNair. Slytherin beater, I'm 3rd year. I come to welcome you to the school." He thumped the club menacingly against his hand and stepped forward to reveal a second boy, much smaller than the first. The new boy's wand was drawn, and he had an air of snobbery about him that James picked up straight away.
"Hello, lads," he began as if he was a wise old man speaking to a few ignorant schoolboys trying to play pranks in his backyard. "My name is Rodson. Tolgraf Rodson. Happy to meet you at last, naturally I know all about you. I'll be in Slytherin, of course. Mother promised I would be. Our family has for hundreds of years. We are purebloods of course. I suppose you are too, being who you are? What of you're friend here. Looks like a mudblood to me. If I were you, Potter, I'd consider not mixing up with them. The lower class they are, though no one seems to care now days. Might've come from those-what are they? Oh yes, Weasels. Imagine that, weasels running the Ministry. Tut, tut - what has this world come to?" This infuriated James so much he overlooked the fact he had once more been called Potter. He reached into his robes searching for his new wand, and when he found it he brandished it at Rodson saying "You'll pay for that, Talgraf. Oh yes you will!" He leapt forward and was stopped by Kevin snatching the back of his robes; otherwise he would've had a nasty whack to the head. At that moment McNair had swung his club at James.
The Journey to Hogwarts
James could fell himself being shaken awake. He didn't want to get up- every bone in his body ached and he felt groggy, as if he was trying to get up after too little sleep. Finally, when he'd forced his eyes open, he saw a lot of people standing around him, and Hermione kneeling beside him trying to give him a chocolate bar. "Eat it," she said. "It will help, really." James struggled to sit up and lean against the cookbook rack. He ate the chocolate quickly - now that he was awake he was rather embarrassed to see this many people staring at him while he ate. But Hermione was right, the chocolate helped. He felt warm again in no time, as if someone had turned a heater on inside of him. He tried to stand up, but he still felt quite dizzy so he just sank back to the floor next to Hermione. "What was that thing?" he managed to ask after a while. "I thought I heard someone say 'demon tour'." Hermione laughed harshly. "It was a dementor. They are the guards of the Prison of Azkaban. There were two of them, actually. They were here looking for someone called Sirius Black-which is quite silly because he died over five years ago." She said that last part loudly, possibly to quite the people chattering stupidly about how they'd seen Black running into Knockturn Alley after the dementors came. She quieted her voice now so only James would hear, and continued to tell him about Black while she cleaned up the gash on the back of his head from where he hit it on the cookbook shelves. "Ron and I knew him when we were at Hogwarts. He was imprisoned for something he didn't do, and we helped him escape the dementors. He was Har-I mean he was hardly able to harm a fly he was so kind. It was silly to accuse him of killing- of what he was accused of." She seemed to be withholding some information about that topic, so James decided to ask her about the screaming instead. "What was all the shouting about," he asked. "You know, when those dementor-things were loose. And who screamed? And who said the incantation?" Hermione stopped what she was doing and looked at him quite suddenly. After staring at him worriedly for some time she asked him to tell her everything that happened to him, and then she told him he must have hit his head too hard and imagined things. "The incantation was probably the Patronus charm that I used to scare the dementors off, and most likely you heard yourself scream when you fell. At least, that's all that happened. Now don't go imagining anything else until Ron gets back. He went to get the rest of your things."
James didn't ask her anything else as they all made their way back to the Leaky Cauldron, Ron lugging a not so leaky cauldron (full of James's things) himself. He had bought James a lovely male Eagle owl to make him feel better after the event with the dementors. They decided to stay and have dinner at the pub, since Hermione had a headache. James secretly wondered if it wasn't from all the thinking she'd been doing that week.
While they were eating dinner Ron started complaining about dementors in Diagon Alley. "My stupid brother Percy-no Hermione I don't care that he's the Minister of Magic-won't believe any of us that Sirius is dead. Sending dementors strolling down Diagon Alley-is he mad? He is mad actually, been mad at me ever since we helped Sirius escape. And I'm sick and tired of working at the Ministry - I'm about ready to quit and go try to hook with a Quidditch team. That'd be more my style. Stupid Department of Magical Games and Sports-and no again Hermione, I don't care if I am the department's head-they never can organize an event straight. That last Quidditch convention was a nightmare!" James prepared himself for another argument between them-Hermione disapproved of Ron's rants every time something at the Ministry went wrong. She would always tell him he was being stupid and that his brother meant well, but was just too young to have that much responsibility. This time, however, she just stayed out of Ron's ranting. She didn't even scold him for saying things like that so loudly. "I think it's time we go," she said after a while. "James has had a rough day, and this owl needs to go home." She started gathering up their parcels, careful to ignore Tom the bartender's gaze. Soon they were ready to clamber into the fire with a dash of Floo powder and go home. Hermione went first, then James with the most disgruntled owl, and finally Ron came with the bulky cauldron and school things.
Two months later, on September the Twenty-first, Ron and James loaded the old Ford Anglia with a large and very heavy trunk, a tattered suitcase and a screeching owl in a large cage that had been named Godric after one of the 4 Hogwarts founders. The old car would be rather full, as Hermione was also bringing her things-she would be taking the Hogwarts Express with James rather than Apparating. James was quite surprised how unusually large the trunk was until Ron explained how his dad had magically stretched the car back when Ron and his siblings were just kids themselves.
After everything was tightly packed, James climbed into the back. He was quite surprised, however, when what was supposed to be the seat turned out to be the shaggy form of Padfoot. "Oh - sorry, Padfoot-didn't see you there," James told the dog. He was always amazed at how Padfoot seemed to know what was said to him. It was as if he was human. "He's not coming, is he?" James asked Ron. "Someone's bound to see him at the station." Hermione, who had just come out of the house with a large wicker basket, looked at the massive black dog. "James is right, you know. Somebody will notice us between that dog and Godric and Crookshanks." Ron sighed. He never had been that fond of Hermione's cat. "I just wanted him to keep me company, with you two gone" he told them. He went to take the dog in the house, but the dog just would not move. Being far too big to take from the car by force they had to leave him there, much to Crookshanks's dismay. He could be heard hissing loudly on the seat next to James.
The journey to the King's Cross railway station was quite uneventful- unless of course you count the owl getting loose and almost flying out the window before it was caught by Padfoot's gentle jaw. When they arrived in the parking lot Ron fetched two carts for the luggage and they tried to unobtrusively make their way to Platform 9¾. James, who had never taken the train, walked along the platforms staring in awe at the glistening steam engines on one side and the sleek electric ones on the other. They came at last to the barrier between platforms nine and ten, where Ron and Padfoot proceeded right through the barrier without a sideways look. After Hermione explained to James how to get onto the platform they casually leaned onto the barrier talking for a few moments. James quickly side-stepped through the seemingly brick wall, dragging his cart awkwardly; and was followed by Hermione seconds later. She had pretended to bend down for something she'd dropped and then stepped through unnoticed. There before them was a startlingly red steam engine, the words 'Hogwarts Express' printed on each red car. The platform was swarming with witches and wizards packing their children onto the train and saying hurried goodbyes. The black dog Padfoot was careful to stay with Ron, and behaved quite well; but Crookshanks and Godric were both quite noisy and attempted to get loose. Hermione rushed to get them into an empty compartment, and then went to see about the luggage. After he told Ron goodbye Hermione had sent James to get in the car; but on the way there he walked right into a sandy-haired boy hugging his mother goodbye. "Oh, sorry," he said in apology. The boy turned to look at him with an angry expression, and James was afraid the boy would put some kind of a curse on him. But instead the boy just laughed. "Nice to meet you," he said. "Names Kevin Creevy. You?" James looked at him for a second, hoping it wasn't a trick. Finally he said "I'm James Weasley. My mum is Hermione Granger" hoping he didn't sound too snobbish. Ron came from a fairly popular wizarding family and Hermione was one of the best witches Hogwarts had ever seen. But Kevin did not look at all offended, in fact he smiled. "I think my dad knew your parents at Hogwarts. By any chance were they friends with the great Harry Potter?" he asked. James was excited about this bit of information, as mostly all he knew about Harry was that his parents were indeed friends with him. He quickly offered Kevin a seat in his compartment and told they had known Harry. Trying not to run into anyone else James hurried onto the train.
It was about ten minutes later, when the train was getting ready to leave, that Kevin joined James in the compartment. At that time James decided he ought to see what had become of Hermione, so he and Kevin stood on their seats looking out the window for her and Ron. They saw her at last, talking in hurried whispers to Ron. James decided this might be a good thing to overhear, so he directed Kevin to keep their compartment and he went quietly back off the car and stood behind a pole near to them.
"He hears them, Ron. When the dementors draw near." Hermione was saying. "But how could it be?"
"Hears what?" asked a very puzzled Ron. "What are you talking about, Hermione? It better be important if it's worth missing the train over."
Hermione looked rather offended, so she said "Oh, Ron! Are you deaf or just thick! James can hear Harry's parents being killed! Don't you remember? That's just like what Harry himself heard. Something is really odd about him. He is like a perfect replica of Harry, and not a bit m-I mean his mother. Look at his wand, everything!"
James decided he'd heard enough when two 3rd year girls started staring at him. As he slipped through the crowd of people the train blew its whistle and got ready to depart. He jumped aboard his car, and when he looked behind him he saw Hermione running from the other side of the platform. She wasn't going to make it, the train was moving now. All the other students on the platform had managed to get aboard, but Hermione looked stranded. Suddenly an enormous body hit James in the chest so hard it knocked the wind out of him. When he looked to see who it was he was shocked to find Padfoot standing above him. James managed to upright himself, but when he looked out the window he saw Hermione still standing on the platform, looking very out of breath. Padfoot had made it aboard, unwanted - and Hermione hadn't.
James stood there in disbelief. He knew Hermione could apparate; she'd get to Hogwarts before the Express could arrive. But why was Padfoot on the train? He guessed it probably was not a good thing-dogs weren't allowed at Hogwarts for all he knew. James started back towards his compartment, the black dog by his heel. Kevin was quite surprised to find him returning with a dog. The basket in the luggage rack containing Crookshanks began to shake and hiss; and the owl sitting on the seat beside of Kevin shrieked madly in fear of the cat and dog.
"Shut it, you idiots!" James yelled at the animals. "It's just Paddy, you know him." Padfoot sat down on an empty space of floor, Kevin staring blankly at all the racket. James, who was feeling rather annoyed by this point, flopped himself down on his seat once more and began leafing through his Transfiguration book. Unfortunately, at the moment when all was at last peaceful someone banged the door open. It was an enormous boy carrying a club. "Huh, you!" he grunted. "Name's McNair. Slytherin beater, I'm 3rd year. I come to welcome you to the school." He thumped the club menacingly against his hand and stepped forward to reveal a second boy, much smaller than the first. The new boy's wand was drawn, and he had an air of snobbery about him that James picked up straight away.
"Hello, lads," he began as if he was a wise old man speaking to a few ignorant schoolboys trying to play pranks in his backyard. "My name is Rodson. Tolgraf Rodson. Happy to meet you at last, naturally I know all about you. I'll be in Slytherin, of course. Mother promised I would be. Our family has for hundreds of years. We are purebloods of course. I suppose you are too, being who you are? What of you're friend here. Looks like a mudblood to me. If I were you, Potter, I'd consider not mixing up with them. The lower class they are, though no one seems to care now days. Might've come from those-what are they? Oh yes, Weasels. Imagine that, weasels running the Ministry. Tut, tut - what has this world come to?" This infuriated James so much he overlooked the fact he had once more been called Potter. He reached into his robes searching for his new wand, and when he found it he brandished it at Rodson saying "You'll pay for that, Talgraf. Oh yes you will!" He leapt forward and was stopped by Kevin snatching the back of his robes; otherwise he would've had a nasty whack to the head. At that moment McNair had swung his club at James.