Note: Let it be known I'm unhappy with this chapter. Not only did I cringe writing it, but I almost didn't write it. Then I remembered I wanted to write it, and the way I see it is choices in life suck. Though I hope y'all enjoy it – 'cause then at least somebody has. Again apologies for suckyness.

Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Chapter Two:

The next morning James awoke while the sky outside was the colour of grey, as it slowly shifted into day. Slowly he dragged himself from his bed. Dressed and washed then went down for some breakfast. No-body else was awake, it seemed so he poured himself some cereal and ate quietly, but quickly. In an hours time he would be catching the train to take him to London. He wanted plenty of time to prepare his things.

After depositing his cereal bowl in the sink he went back to his room and grabbed a backpack from his wardrobe. He turned it up side down and tipped out its contents onto his bed. Sweets in a number of different wrappers and sizes fell out and scattered everywhere, but he just ignored those. He put the back pack down and went back to the wardrobe where he took out some magazines (about Quidditch) to read on the train, and some Practical Joke books that Sirius had asked him to lend a few weeks ago. He closed the wardrobe door with his foot and placed the items into the bag. He then took his wand from off his bed and put that in it also. Finally zipping it up he held it by a strap and walked out of his room and down the hallway to his mum and dad's room. He lay the bag quietly next to the door and knocked gently.

"Mum?" he whispered as he slowly opened the door "Mum, you awake?"

A soft moan came from the bed and then "You're going already?"

"Yeah. I'm taking the early train, remember?"

There was a shuffling and then a lamp was switched on at his mother's bedside. She was sat up right and fidgeting in a drawer on the night table. "I don't want you to spend it all at once, okay?" she said.

"I know, I know."

"Just get your school supplies and whatever else you need. But only what you need. I don't expect to see you walking back into the house with bags of Quidditch things. God knows your father brings enough of it home himself."

James walked over to his mum who handed him a small bag of coins. "Thanks" he said and he leaned over and gave her a hug. "Now go on, don't want you missing your train." She said and she quickly shuffled back down under the sheets.

"See you later" James said as he walked out of the door, only just hearing his dad say "Did you say something dear?" groggily.

He picked up his bag and went back down stairs, putting the bag of coins inside it as he did.

He glanced at his watch as he pulled his jacket on; he still had plenty of time to get to the station. He wasn't allowed to take a portkey, or even the Knight Bus. He put his bag over his shoulders and switched off the hall light as he opened the front door and walked out into the street. By now it was somewhat lighter, birds were flying about and tweeting. Crows could be heard in the fields and only a few cars were on the roads.

At the gate he turned to his left and hopped over the style so he could cut across this field and into town. Which would lead him to the station in no time. He had it all planned out.

Finally he made it to the streets once again. His boots a bit dirty from some mud in the field. It was twenty minutes until the train would arrive. He turned down one street then another, not stopping at one of the muggle shops to buy 'normal' candy as he sometimes would. Sometimes he just didn't trust what candy he was given from the wizarding world. Especially if his odd Uncle Herbert gave it to him, once he had given James a mixed JellyBean – partly flavoured of vomit, the other half flavoured like fish. Suffice to say James hadn't been at all well afterwards. And had, to this day, carried a phobia towards those beans. Anytime someone had them near him he'd suddenly feel nauseous.

Arriving at the train station at last he went to the booth and got his ticket. He handed the man the money and went to the waiting room. He had ten minutes to spare. Good job he had brought along some reading material. He took one of the magazines out from his backpack and opened it at the first page and began to read.

Time passed slowly as he sat and read. And though 8 o'clock came – his train did not. Impatiently he stuffed his magazine into his bag and went to wait on the platform. He looked up and down the track and still there was no sign of his train. He looked up at the television monitor and right beside the train number he was to take was the word 'delayed'.

He sighed deeply "I only hope they make train times better in the future if I'm going to have to continue taking them" he moaned to himself under his breath.

He waited just under an hour until his train finally arrived at the station, he took his seat and the ticket collector stamped his ticket and at long last he was moving. The movement of the train beneath him and his getting up early and having to wait around for longer than he had expected soon made him fall into a sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A gentle prod on the shoulder slowly and groggily made James wake, "Last stop King's Cross", a heavy London accent said. Rubbing his eyes and adjusting his glasses James blinked up at the chubby ticket collector. "Th-thanks" he stammered and the ticket collector nodded a smile and turned and walked out of the compartment. He looked out of the window to his right and stared as a few tourists passed by. He released his left hand from gripping his bag – his palm all sweaty he figured he must have been holding it since he fell asleep.

"You check that one, I'll do the next one" James suddenly heard, as the voices came nearer to his compartment. Pulling himself together he realised the cleaners must be checking the train. Yawning he stood up and flung his back pack over his shoulders, but as he was about to step out of the compartment door, he found himself falling backwards after having bumped into somebody.

Quickly he balanced himself as best he could by leaning on the window.

"Ah, you found him, good work Remus." A young, black haired boy, the same age as James, said. The boy, who went by the name of Sirius Black, stepped over another more fair-haired boy who was sprawled on the ground, due to his bumping into James.

"You alright?" Sirius asked James as he pulled him properly onto his feet and dusted at his shoulders with his hands.

"Oh, don't help me up. The scenery is really quite splendid down here. Wouldn't want to spoil your view up there." Remus said grumpily as he pushed himself to his feet.

"I'm fine," James said grinning at the familiarity of his friends when placed together. "I take it we're not meeting outside Olivander's then? Or you lied to me in your letter, Sirius?" He asked with a raised brow.

"We had a slight change of plan." Sirius said as he took a seat.

"We lost Peter." Remus continued sitting opposite.

"Nothing too drastic" Sirius chimed.

"Sirius and I stepped out for a breath of fresh air."

"In other words watching Peter go through rows and rows of bits of wood to see which he likes best can get tiresome."

"So we said we would go and keep an eye out for you"

"And we did"

"After waiting for some time and you still hadn't shown your face we went back inside to see what was keeping Peter. Only to find that he wasn't there."

"A few raised eyebrows and questions later we concluded that Peter was definitely no longer in the shop"

"Superb detective skills if you ask me"

"So we just decided to just come and see what was taking you so long, and found you here… As you can see."

"Those detective skills paid off" James said. His neck aching slightly from having to look at the both of them as they spoke continually like watching a tennis match. "And you have no idea where Peter went?" James went on.

"Not a blasted clue. Olivander said he went out back to fetch another wand and when he came back Pete was just not there anymore," Sirius said.

"I'm sure he'll show up as the day goes on" James assured them.

"Anyway, enough about that. You ready to go shopping?" Sirius said, adding a bit of a posh accent to the last part.

James walked forward "You're turning into a right girl, you know that Sirius?"

"That's exactly what Lily Evans told him earlier" Remus spoke as he got up

"Remus! I thought I said that was never to be uttered outside of Evans' gaggle of giggling girls?"

"You bumped into Evans? Don't tell me she's in Diagon today… Please, tell me you do not speak the truth"

"Calm yourself young one. What Remus speaks is the truth. However, we have found such a thing that can enable us to walk casually by her without her even knowing. Which also brings into play a certain prank that has been cooked up for sometime and is almost at a boil."

"Here we go" Remus sighed.

"What is it?" James asked curiously.

"You'll find out soon enough. Just tell me you came financially prepared?"

"Yeah, a bag full of coins in my bag. But my mum'll kill me if I don't buy my school stuff with it"

"Fear is a trivial thing, James. A terror of one's mother should never prevail, lest it take over us completely and we end up like… well, like Peter. I should know, just look at my own dear mum and how I am today? Not a coward, no. But a young man on the brink of…"

"Sirius could you just tell him the plan and have done with it?"

"Right. Yes. And for future reference never interrupt me during a speech."

"Heaven forbid" Remus said

"Before I tell you what we're going to do there's a shop we must visit."

"Lead the way" James said confused and eager just to have this all over with. He liked Sirius's pranks, yes. But he'd rather just have it all explained than a boot camp operative talk.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

End Chapter

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