Disclaimer: Again, I own nothing but the story.
Chapter Three: The Journey.
After they had departed from platform nine and three-quarters, Peter looked at Sirius with a worried expression on his face and he ceased singing for a moment. Sirius, sensing that something was up, said, 'What?' rather abruptly. Peter looked at him and then asked, 'Why didn't you wave goodbye to your parents? Didn't they come or something? Do you have any parents?'
''Course I do, that's why I'm here you dimwit.' he told Peter. 'We had an argument.' he said simply.
'Oh.' was all Peter could manage. He then resumed to his chant. It was getting on Sirius' nerves, and he needed to take out his anger on someone, so he shouted, 'SHUT UP!' rather loudly to Peter.
This attracted the attention of Severus Snape - another first year - who was in the compartment next door to theirs. He had greasy hair and grey eyes. He walked out of his compartment and into theirs, looking from Sirius, to James, to Peter, to Remus, and then back to Sirius again. James, who had seen Snape and immediately hated him snarled, 'What do you want?'
Snape jerked out of trance and said, 'I heard a noise, and I wanted to know what was going on.'
'Nosy git.' James snarled at Snape. Severus ignored this and turned back to Sirius, and said with extreme dislike: 'Is it true that you shouted at your mother and said you didn't want to be in Slytherin?'
'Yes.' Sirius said bluntly. 'Why? Have you got a problem with that?' he said, matching Snape's tone of voice.
'Actually, I have.' Snape replied.
'Yeah, well, I don't care whether you do or not.' Sirius retaliated.
'Well I do!' Snape replied angrily. 'Slytherin's the best house!'
'No it isn't.' James snarled. 'Gryffindor is. Now go away, you're polluting this compartment.' he said with as much dislike as both Sirius and Snape had used.
Snape sniffed, and said to Sirius, 'You don't know what you're missing.' Then he left the compartment, and slammed the door closed.
'Who was that?' James asked.
'Severus Snape.' Remus replied. The others looked at him. 'What? I read it on his trunk when he passed by me earlier.'
James looked around. 'Okay. Now all we have to do is wait until we get to Hogwarts.'
'But that's like ages away.' Sirius pointed out.
'Yeah. Hey, anyone want to have a go at practising some spells?' James suggested.
'No.' the others told him.
'Well, we've got to keep ourselves busy somehow. We've got ages to kill!' James exclaimed.
'How 'bout a game of gob stones?' Sirius asked. The others agreed. They played the game until the lady with the food trolley came.
'Do you want any food, dearies?' she asked as she slid back their compartment door.
'FOOD!' they all shouted, and got out their money to buy some. After the woman had left, they started to open their Chocolate frogs. 'Hey, I've got Dumbledore again.' Sirius commented. 'Anybody need him?'
'No.'
'No.'
'No.' each of them told him.
'Who did you all get?' Sirius asked them. They turned their cards round. They all had Dumbledore. Sirius laughed. 'Now I see why you don't need him.'
'Now will you people practice some spells with me?' James asked impatiently after they had eaten. 'My mum hasn't told me how we get sorted, she says it's a surprise, and I don't want to be unprepared!'
'Oh, okay.' Sirius sighed, giving in to James. 'Suppose it won't hurt.'
The others gave in also. 'Maybe it would be better if we put our robes on first. To get the feel of them.' Remus explained. 'Plus, that way we won't have to bother putting them on at the last minute.'
'Good idea, Remus.' Sirius said, and began taking his robe out of his trunk. The others did the same.
Once they had gotten into their robes, they began to do some spells out of the books they had bought for Hogwarts. Sirius and James found that they were extremely good at them, Remus found he was okay, and Peter found that he couldn't do them at all.
'You'll get there Peter.' Sirius encouraged him, slapping him on the back. 'You'll get there.'
'Speaking of getting there,' James said. 'We're almost at Hogwarts!' he yelled the last part. The others cheered and Peter began chanting again, only to receive a warning look from Sirius, who waved his wand about. Peter gulped, and stopped immediately.
There was a knock on the compartment door. A girl with red hair and green eyes opened it, and came inside. 'Can we help you?' James said, trying to act the gentleman.
'Not really.' the girl snarled at him.
'What's your business here?' Sirius asked her.
'I was just going to tell you that we're going to be arriving at Hogwarts soon. I've located all the first years' compartments and I'm telling them all now.' she replied.
'What's yer name?' James asked.
'Lily Evans.' she informed him. 'And you?'
'James Potter. The one and only.' he replied, smiling.
'Well, I have other first years to inform.' she said snobbily and went to the next compartment, which, of course, was Snape's.
Sirius turned to James. 'You're eleven years old. You don't need girlfriends yet!' he exclaimed.
'Ah, I'm preparing for later years. Something tells me she won't give in yet.' James told him proudly. Sirius snorted. 'Preparing for later years! That's a good one!' he said, and fell about laughing.
The train began to slow down, and Peter began chanting again. He was so content about it that he did not stop when Sirius gave him warning looks, or when he threatened to use his wand. An announcement told them that they didn't need to remove their trunks, as they would be looked after and taken to their rooms.
When the train stopped, Sirius and James raced out of the compartment, with Remus and Peter following them slowly.
'Firs' years over here! Firs' years over here!' yelled a large man with a lantern. The boys fought their way through the crowd towards him and came to a halt at his feet. 'You lot are eager little fella's aren't yeh?' he said in a gruff voice. 'I'm Hagrid by the way.' he began yelling for the first years again. When they were all there he said. 'Come on, let's be off towards the castle. It's a beautiful site.'
'Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec,' Hagrid called over his shoulder, 'jus' round this bend here.'
Everyone looked at Hogwarts in awe.
'Woah,' Sirius said, amazed. 'It's even better than I thought!' The others murmured in agreement and Hagrid snapped them out of their trance by saying, 'In the boats, now. No more'n four to a boat!'
James, Sirius, Remus and Peter clambered into a boat, along with other first years, who had also grouped themselves into fours and sat themselves in the boats.
'Everyone ready?' Hagrid asked the students when they were all on the boats. There was a chorus of yeses and other variations of the world.
Remus sat looking around for his oars when Hagrid yelled, 'FORWARDS!' and the boats suddenly started moving of their own accord towards Hogwarts, on the other side of the lake.
'How do these things work?' Remus asked, perplexed.
'Use your common sense' Sirius told him, 'By magic. How else?'
'Oh yeah. 'Spose it saves our energy.' Remus admitted.
'For what?' James asked, interested in what Remus was trying to say.
'The Sorting, of course.' Remus said in an obvious tone of voice.
When the first years neared the cliff, Hagrid yelled, 'Heads down!' as they reached an entrance in the cliff, which was covered in ivy. The boats travelled down a dark tunnel until the small fleet arrived at a kind of underground harbour, where they scrambled on to rocks and pebbles.
'Follow me.' Hagrid told the frightened first years, and they clambered up a passageway in the rock, following the glow of Hagrid's lamp. They arrived on some smooth, damp grass over which the castle loomed.
They walked up a flight of steps and crowded around the large, oak door.
'Everyone here?' the first years nodded. 'Good. I'm Hagrid, yer groundskeeper by the way.' he told them, and knocked on the castle door three times.
A/N I got one review that was asking if Hagrid was a first year as well because he's leading them to Hogwarts. My answer is: no, he isn't because in the first Harry Potter book he leads the way for the first years, so I thought he'd still be doing that.
Edit: For anyone who has been reading When the Marauders Met before January 29th, I've put Chapters 3 & 4 together, as I think they are better that way. So no, a chapter hasn't been lost!