A/N: I'm such a nerd… I've had this chapter done FOREVER but I just barely remembered to post it… sorry everyone! Hope you enjoy it though
DISCLAIMER: I meant to have one at chapter one and then not have one for the rest of the story, but I kind of forgot that, so here it is: JK Rowling owns the characters, the setting, and all that good stuff. I only own the plot. That is all.
3 hours later, as James got off the train, he wondered how he survived. Sirius had blown up something at least 10 times... leaving James with no eyebrows. Following the crowd and trying to ditch Sirius, he suddenly heard his name.
"James Potter!" A girl of about 17 called. "Is there a James Potter here?"
James raised his hand and tried to push through the distance of people blocking his path. "I'm right here!" He said as loud as he could. Approaching her, he said, "I'm James Potter."
The girl looked at him strangely for a moment before saying "No you're not."
"Yes I am!" He persisted.
"James Potter is French." She said, looking at him like he was dung. "And you," she paused for emphasis, "Are not French."
Sighing, James began to speak fluently in French for about 30 seconds, before stopping and asking in his regular barely understandable French accent; "do you believe me now?"
The girl nodded her head reluctantly and motioned for him to follow her. "I'm Mary," she said. "I'm Head Girl. The Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore told me to get you acquainted with the school.
James was about to open his mouth in protest, until he saw Sirius running towards him, arms wide open, screaming his name. "Okay, let's go," he said. Grabbing Mary's arm, rushed towards what looked like horseless carriages, since that was the general direction everyone seemed to be going.
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15 minutes later, after a major horseless carriage traffic jams, (one of the more impatient carriages had gotten angry at the sluggish pace and decided to rear-end the carriage in front of it... causing both of them to tip over and block the road) James and Mary exited the carriage, after 15 minutes of rambling on and on about how great and wonderful Hogwarts was. It did sound great, from the books he had read and everything, but the way Mary explained it, she was lucky he hadn't fallen asleep. Stepping away from the carriage, James looked at the big wooden Hogwarts doors, then up at the castle itself. He immediately felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. This was now or never. Suddenly, he passed out... wait... if he had passed out he wouldn't have known. Someone scurrying all over him like a hyper squirrel made him realize that someone had knocked him over, and he knew exactly whom it was.
"Sirius... " He groaned miserably. "Get off me."
"Why did you leave us?" Sirius asked, getting off of him. "You got me worried that you had been kidnapped, because why would anyone want to leave me?" He then glanced up, and saw Mary glaring at him.
"Hello, Sirius," she said coldly. "Have a good summer?"
"You did get kidnapped!" Sirius said, eyed widening. "By Evil Mary!"
"Oh, shut up, Sirius," she said superiorly. "I'll be with James for a few days. Dumbledore said so."
"Noooooo!" He groaned. "Jamie- let's ditch her... start running on my count!" He said, not bothering to keep his voice down. "1... 2... "
"Stop!" James said, exasperated. "This may be a crazy idea, but don't you think that maybe I would have a say in where I go and what I do?"
"Oh, you don't have to tell Mary you don't want to be with her nicely," Sirius said. "That is very nice, though."
"Ugh!" James tried to keep himself from screaming. "I want to be alone! ALONE!"
"Bu-But Jamsie... " Sirius frowned, giving him his best puppy-dog eyes. "D-Don't you want hang out with me?"
"NO!" He said. "Haven't I made myself clear? I don't want to be with anyone!" And with that he walked off, fists clenched, hoping he knew where he was going. Just then, he saw a very familiar-looking redhead, completely surrounded by about five girls. Following closely behind them, as they seemed to know where they were going, he wondered why she even put up with them. But then again, for all he knew, she could really be that ditzy, and just not have liked that girl with the squeaky voice. (Not that he blamed her... at all) Figuring that it was best not to think about it, he walked through the main doors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and for some strange reason, immediately felt a sense of belonging... Something that he hadn't felt since he had last seen his parents. James followed the ditzy group of girls up a flight of stairs, down a corridor, up another flight, and into a portrait before he realized... no one else was following him... the girls had wandered from the crowd. Unfortunately, as he tried to exit out of the portrait quickly, unnoticed, it shut in front of him, and he felt 6 pairs of eyes on him. Turning around, he grinned sheepishly, blushing.
"Err... d-do any of you know where the Great Hall is?" He asked, trying to keep his cool.
"Listen," one of the girls surrounding the redhead said. "Just because you like-think Lily is cute," she paused and motioned to the girl with the red hair. "Does not mean you can follow us into our like-secret lair!"
"Err... okay," James said, wondering why they were assuming he liked the girl who was apparently Lily. "Well... could one of you maybe lead me OUT of your so-called secret lair and take me to the Great Hall?"
"Like-I'll do it," Lily said, and quickly got up before they could protest. "Let's go," she whispered into James' ear, and practically pushed him out of the door.
Once they got out, James smirked at Lily. He knew she wasn't ditzy! "I knew it!" He said out loud, proud of himself.
"Like-knew what?" Lily asked, playing stupid once more.
"That you're not ditzy," James said, giving her a knowing look. "Why do you even bother with them?"
"L-Like, are you calling me stupid?" She asked, trying to hold up her mask, but James was pulling it off very quickly.
"I do think you're kind of stupid for acting like you are," James said. "But I know you're not in real life. Just tell the truth."
"Fine, fine fine." Lily said. "But if you tell another person, then I'll kill you."
"Yay!" James said, jumping up and down. "I knew it I knew it I knew it!"
"Shut up!" Lily said, quickly becoming exasperated. This was why she hadn't told anyone.
"Ahh, I'm SO good!" James said. "Go me!"
"Ugh, stop acting so cocky!" She said, trying not to strangle this stupid boy. "You're acting like an idiot!"
"Ooh, and attitude, too!" He said, smirking at her. "Well I'm looking forward to seeing you this year!"
"Okay, find the way to the great hall yourself!" She said, but realizing it was just down the hall, sighed. "Never mind... "
"Have fun with your friends!" He said, waving to her as she stalked off angrily. Yes, she would be the perfect candidate for pranks this year. Walking into the brightly-lit Great Hall, he saw four tables. On one, he saw the hook-nosed gits that had come into his compartment before the train ride had even started, and a huge green banner hanging over the table with a serpent. Looking over his other three choices, he saw a badger, a lion, an eagle, and decided on he lion. Just as he started walking in, an old but youthful man, with an almost completely gray hair stood up, and even from the back of the room, he could tell he was staring at him.
"Ahh," he said. "I see our foreign friend has decided to join us. James, would you mind coming to the front of the room?"
James cringed inwardly as the whole entire student body wheeled around to look at James. Trying not to get embarrassed, he made his way to the front of the room casually as he could, praying he wouldn't trip. As he reached the front, where he was almost sure that the people in front of him were the Professors, a very strict-looking one took an old, three-legged chair out from behind the table, along with a ragged hat. She motioned for James to come up and sit on the stool, and he did. Putting the old hat on his head, he wondered what would happen. Almost immediately, he heard a voice in his head.
"Well, well, well... " It said. "James Potter... now where should we put you? I can see from the many pranks you've pulled you have plenty of courage... quite ambitious too, I see... "
'Err... what are you talking about?' James thought, hoping this hat would hear him.
"Oh yes, you haven't heard about the four houses yet! Well, you were late, so you weren't able to hear my speech... Ahh, oh well. I suppose it will be explained to you later." The hat said quickly. "Now, back to my decision... " It chuckled, before continuing. "Yes, so you're the boy! Well... that should be interesting. Well, I do believe I've made my decision. GRYFFINDOR!" It shouted, and the same tight-lipped teacher took the hat off his head, motioning for him to sit at the table with the lion.
"Err... thanks... " James said slowly to the teacher, and quickly went to find the first free seat, hoping the school would move their attention to something, or someone else.
"Oh yes, and James, I must speak to you after the feast. Now, enjoy the feast," He said, and with a motion of his hands, the table was filled with food. James, suddenly realizing how hungry he was, quickly gave himself a serving of everything, and enjoyed himself thoroughly.
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Following a 5th year Gryffindor Prefect up to the dorm rooms, after dinner and the little meeting with Professor Dumbledore, it finally hit James that he was here. He was at Hogwarts, and Nuria was somewhere inside this building right this very second. She could possibly even be in Gryffindor. He smiled to himself, barely listening to the Prefect drone on about some fat lady. What if he met her tomorrow? One thing he knew for sure, he would know it was her when he saw her. From her personality to the way she looked, he had almost the perfect mental picture of her, and he would definitely know if he saw her. James suddenly snapped out of his daydream as they reached a portrait hole.
"Here, is the fat lady." The prefect said. "The password is bubblepomps, and I suggest you remember that if you plan on coming back in here anytime soon, then I suggest you memorize it."
"The password is bubblepomps... " James said. "Bubblepomps... "
"Yup," She said. "And if you don't remember it, you're screwed. Get used to passwords like this."
"Okay.... " He said slowly, and listened to the Prefect ramble on a little longer about where the dorms were located. Heading to the staircase she motioned towards, to the fourth staircase, he found three things he was most hoping he wouldn't find. Remus, Sirius, and Peter.
"Joy," He muttered to himself as he walked in. "So you're my roommates."
"I'm not taking to you!" Sirius said, and turned his back to James, but not before sticking out his tongue.
James merely blinked, before plopping down on the bed that had his trunk sitting at the foot of it. "Believe me, I'm no more thrilled than you are." He said.
"Okay, you don't talk to us, we don't talk to you." Remus said. "We were just trying to be nice on the train, you know. You could have told us to leave."
"Well, you could have been the good Samaritan elsewhere." He said, wondering if it was too late to transfer to another house.
"You're mean!" Peter squeaked, but as James shot him a glare, he shut up and continued getting ready for bed.
"Here's the deal. I leave you three along, you leave me alone." James said, exasperated. He had wanted nothing more than to get ready for bed and sleep since after the feast... it had been a very long day. "Okay?"
"Deal." Sirius and Remus said together. "You don't exist."
James nodded his head curtly before changing out of his robes and climbing into the surprisingly warm, soft bed. In five minutes flat, he was asleep, despite the noise the other three were making.
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The next morning at breakfast, in the almost completely empty Great Hall, James ate alone. He was always an early bird, and though he was at Hogwarts, this was no exception. Although having no friends did get kind of lonely, he rather liked the peacefulness of no one being around him, talking about things he didn't care about. Just then, an owl came through the highest window in the hall, and dropped a letter above him, narrowly missing his porridge. Opening it up, he saw that it was from Nuria.
O'Rion,
Hello! How was your first day back to school? Hopefully it was a lot better than mine... every time I come here it's like I'm reminded how alone I really am. I'm just glad that I have you to confide in, or else I'd probably go crazy. Just the train ride here almost completely alone made me partly wish I could go back to my house and just stay there... of course, there's no one there for me either... Sorry, you're probably sick of hearing about me now, but you know how you just have to get things out? That's how I'm feeling right now. It's a really good thing you're there, because I honestly don't know how I would survive without you. Well, I need to be going now... the lights are going off. Thank you again, just for being there and listening.
Nuria
James looked over the letter, smiling. Not only did he feel exactly how she did, but all the things she said about him want to go find her and hug her or something. That letter was the perfect medicine for him this morning, especially since he was feeling so horrible. Wishing he had time to write her back, he folded it up carefully, and gently placed it in his breast pocket, intending to read it over and over today.
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Lily went through all her classes that day trying not to go crazy. Every time she would act stupid or ditzy, the annoying boy from last night (who's name she found out was James) would turn around and smile knowingly or wink, and she found it quite hard to restrain herself from strangling him. He was behaving very oddly, besides being stupid. Every five minutes he would pull a letter out of his pocket, read it, and put it away, smiling. Figuring he had a girlfriend or something, she didn't really care, but after the millionth time, things got slightly annoying. Lily was also quite bugged because she couldn't even say anything about it without ditching her friends and finding some time alone with him, and it wasn't even worth it. The only thing that could keep her sane was the thought of O'Rion... what if he had her letter already? She didn't know exactly where Beauxbatons was, so Lily wasn't quite sure how long it took her owl to get there, but for the most part in that letter, she had told him how she honestly felt about him. Almost all day she wished he could at least be at Hogwarts with her, just for one day. She was sure he would find some way to make this day better for her. Unfortunately, she wasn't, and Lily was stuck with her annoying friends, and a very cocky boy named James for company. Sighing, Lily wondered how she would survive this year if she could barely survive the first day.
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Okay, I'm done! It's kind of short... and the last part is kind of pointless, but its developing Lily and James' relationship a little more, and that's what I wanted to get through. OH yeah, and guess what! If any of you have read my profile, you'll see that the weirdest thing about me is that I want a flame, and I kind of got one on here! It's the closest thing I want. If you would like to see it, just read my reviews. It's wonderful!! *Smiles* Thank you, whoever wrote that! Anyways, onto the (selected) thank yous! It was really hard only to thank a few people too, 'cause I wanted to thank everyone, so THANK YOU everyone! You all rock! Hee hee…
Hpdreamer15: ::hides face in shame:: Actually, I don't speak French! I'll be taking French next year, so If this is still going I'll be able to have James say some stuff in French. I could make out most of what you were saying though, since I'm taking Spanish right now, and there are a lot of similarities with the languages. Anyways, thanks for reviewing! I really enjoyed it!
Musicisdbest: Hee hee, I like your idea! I need to e-mail you sometime and find out how to swear in French ::winks:: I hope you enjoyed this chapter too! Thank you for reviewing!
Annoyin Girl: Yay! You gave me the closest thing to a flame! ::hugs:: I've always wanted a flame! THANK YOU!!!
Okay, well, that's it! Hopefully ya'll enjoyed this chapter too! Oh yeah, and don't forget to REVIEW!!!!!