Disclaimer: I own nothing except the things that you don't recognize from J.K. Rowling's amazing series.

From the Beginning

Chapter 2

James, having to approach the barrier alone, due to the fact that his mother got called in to an urgent auror meeting, began to feel all the emotions he had been trying so hard to hold back. With anxiousness, curiosity, and happiness, he also felt nervous, frightened, and alone. Putting those thoughts away he found the barrier. James started sprinting, not wanting to take any chances, to the unfriendly looking brick wall. At the last second James closed his eyes, took a breathe, and wished that the letter he received wasn't a mistake and that he made it through the wall in one piece.

James opened one eye as if to check if it were real and saw the most magnificent train possible. The scarlet exterior was flawless with the smoothness of the color flowing over the train. James saw people loading the train left and right and realized that he would need to board it before it was too late. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the Black boy again, this time trailing three other young wizards. His attention was caught by what seemed to be the leader of the four. He had almost white hair that was slicked back to his head and his robes and his robes were the finest that money could buy. The two boys on the flanks were quite possibly the largest. most oafish children James had seen in his entire life. They both had stupid grins on their faces, which gave their entire appearance a dull characteristic. With one last look to the Black boy before he turned away, he couldn't help notice a hidden emotion concealed in his brooding grey eyes.

James headed to the train on the lookout in case there was someone that he might have known at least a little. He didn't want to sit the whole train ride by himself. He was in such a hurry that he didn't realize where he was going and walked straight into a young girl with brilliant red hair and mesmerizing emerald eyes.

"Sorry about that. I wasn't watching where I was going," James said.

"That's okay. Lily Evans," the girl said, extending her hand in greeting.

"James Potter," he responded flabbergastedly, still staring in awe at what he considered to be the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.

He was jostled out of his transfixed state as the boy with the slicked back hair rudely bumped right into Lily. He turned, glaring daggers from his eyes, and spat, "Watch where you're going mudblood." How the boy knew that Lily was muggle-born, James would never know. All he knew was that before he could stop himself, his fist had connected with the boy's jawbone. The boy with slicked back hair fell hard to the ground. With the help of the boy's two oafish friends, the slicked back hair boy was back on his feet in a matter of seconds and in the face of James. He was so close that James could see blood start to form on the boy's lip. James would've taken the boy on right then and there, but refused as to not make a scene. While James stared deep into the boy with slicked backed hair's angry dark blue eyes as the boy spoke, "You better watch your back." With that the boy bumped shoulders with James as he walked by, his huge cronies shortly behind, with the Black boy trailing even further with the same emotion concealed in his grey eyes as before.

James waited a few minutes, looking around to see if there was anyone he knew, but mostly so he wouldn't run into the boy with slicked back hair again. James didn't know what came over him. One second he was watching the boy insult Lily, and the next his fist had connected with the boy's jaw. James knew that he couldn't lose himself again. It would be too risky. He had to keep himself in check.

James looked around in search of the slicked back haired boy, but didn't find a single trace of him. Seeing the path was clear, James quickly walked, dragging his trunk behind, onto the scarlet train named Hogwarts Express. James found his way to the back of the train to take a seat in the last compartment. As he stepped inside he saw it was occupied by another member. The boy in the compartment was very skinny with dirty blonde hair. He had dark black circles under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in days. All James could do was stare at the boy in the compartment with searching eyes. Realizing what he was doing, James quickly covered himself by saying, "Hello. Do you mind if I sit with you?" The boy only shook his head. He seemed scared by something, like he held a dark secret that he didn't want being let out. "Thanks," James said taking a seat across from the boy. "I'm James Potter," James introduced as he offered a hand.

"I'm Remus Lupin," the boy said shaking James's hand. In doing this, Remus's old shabby robes lifted to reveal scars up and down the boy's arm. James once again found himself staring at the boy. Remus, in seeing this, quickly withdrew his arm and covered it again with his torn robes.

"Where did you get all those scars from? What happened to you?" James asked.

"I um have er a cat who uh gets er excited and um scratches me sometimes," Remus said awkwardly. James eyed him up, not believing Remus's story, but decided to let it go. The boy obviously didn't want James to know or he wouldn't have hidden it from him.

Much to the relief of Remus, the compartment door was slid open by a young boy going into first year as well. With his long brown hair that fell gracefully over his unmistakable grey eyes, the boy stepped into the compartment. The boy started to say something, but was interrupted by James coldly saying, "What do you want Black? Your little friends aren't here."

The hidden emotion in the boy's eyes increased as James spoke. "Look, I'm sorry for what they did to that girl, but that wasn't me. I'm not like them," the boy said.

"Get out of here. Go hang out with your Slytherin friends," James spat.

"I don't want to be a Slytherin. I'm not like my family or the people you think are my friends. Î'm different from them. I don't believe in all that pure bloods are better than muggle-borns. I hate my family," the boy responded.

"Then why are you here? What do you want us to do about it?" James asked.

"Well, I was wondering if I could sit here with you?" the boy asked.

Remus quickly spoke to try and stop the fighting, "Yea. There's room here. You can sit with us." The boy smiled slightly, but concealed it as he looked at James for approval. Setting aside differences, James nodded. The boy grinned as he walked into the compartment, sitting down next to Remus, obviously still unsure about James.

"I'm Remus Lupin, and this," he said, pointing to the raven haired boy, "is James Potter," he continued, offering his hand.

"I'm Sirius. Sirius Black," the boy said, taking Remus's hand. James then, offered his hand, bringing a smile to the boy as he anxiously took it.

"So why don't you like your family?" James asked.

"They are completely caught up in the whole purebloods are better than muggle-borns. They want me to be in Slytherin, like the rest of the family was; well, except Uncle Alphard. He was a Ravenclaw, but they burned him off the family tree tapestry for not being a Slytherin, so he's not considered part of the "Noble Black Family" as my evil mother puts it," Sirius explained. "They're full of dark magic. I don't want to be associated with them anymore. To do that, I can't be Slytherin. Which is why I want to be Gryffindor."

"Wow. And I thought I had it bad when my dad yelled at me after he got a call from the camp I went to this summer because I gave my consoler a candy which turned his hair green," James said with a laugh.

"I've always wanted to do something like that. I'm afraid that I'll get in trouble though and it will affect my record," Remus said.

"You're a prankster then, aren't you?" Sirius asked.

"I guess you could say that. Why?" James replied.

"Well, I've done my share of pranking, too," Sirius said.

James thought about this for a minute before speaking. "I don't know about you, but I want to start off the year big. I was thinking that we could start with a prank at the Sorting Ceremony. Here is what I had planned," said James with that mysterious look in his eye. The train ride they completed their prank plans, played Wizards' Chess, which Remus won them all, and Exploding Snap.

Before they knew it the Hogwarts Express was slowing down and they were finally arriving. A loud, but friendly voice was booming, "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" The voice was coming from what seemed to be a half giant. The man was huge with a long brown beard and a friendly smile. He had a twinkle in his eye that made his presence comforting, but at the same time intimidating. The other first years were nervously walking over, but the three new friends were strutting as though they were the head of the school.

"Four to a boat now," the same friendly voice shouted.

"Oh great," Sirius said, "We have three which means we'll get stuck with some nerd."

Just their luck. A short, chubby boy waddled over to their boat. "C-c-can I r-ride with you g-g-guys?" the boy stuttered. Sirius let out a sigh. This was worse than he expected.

"Fine. Hop in," Remus said quickly, sensing an argument coming on.

"I'm P-p-peter P-pettigrew," the chubby boy said.

"I'm Sirius Black," Sirius said, pointing to himself. "And this is James Potter and Remus Lupin," Sirius continued, pointing to the other boys.

"I guess it could be worse," James muttered.

The first years were all anxiously awaiting the boats to turn around the peninsula to show the castle. All of a sudden there were 'ohs' and 'ahs' coming from every first year. The castle was magnificent. They old architecture was brilliant. The stones were all rounded perfectly without a single error anywhere over Hogwarts. From where they were, a green quidditch field could be seen off in the distance, which brought a smile to James's face. Quidditch was James's favorite thing to do in the whole world. To him, there wasn't a greater feeling than the one present when riding on a broom with the wind blowing in his hair.

The rest of the boat ride was completely silent as the new arrivals stared in awe at their new house. All to soon the boat entered a dark tunnel and everything went black. The tunnel was slowly lit by dull torches. The boats must took them underneath the castle through a secret passage. Soon they unloaded onto the rocks and pebbles at what seemed to be an underground harbor.

Just then, a high, strict voice, from back in the shadows said, "I've been expecting you."