"Don't make any trouble!"
"And do good in your work-,"
"-And don't make trouble for the Professor."
"Study before every test-,"
"-And don't go out and make trouble!"
"Make lots of new friends-,"
"-But don't go out after curfew with them and make trouble!"
Eleven-year-old James Potter was going to start Hogwarts this year. He was a little over the average height for an eleven year-old boy,but not by much. James had warm, honey hazel eyes behind his wire-rimmed glasses. Black, extremely messy hair fell around his face. It stood up in the back, and simply refused to go down. And currently – James Potter was bored.
Since it was his first year at Hogwarts, his parents were trying to go over any "rules" with him. But they didn't know his favorite phrase – "rules were meant to be broken." They had been droning on like this for what seemed like forever. Leaning against the wall, James closed his eyes in exasperation and nodded his head forward, as if falling asleep. Getting the point, his mum and dad rolled their eyes.
"Alright, alright… Just remember what we've said!" finished his dad, eyeing his expression.
" Mhhmm … a whole bunch of stuff 'bout 'not making trouble' …"
"James," his mother scowled sharply, "Promise to be good."
He crossed his fingers and slipped his hands into his pockets, smiling innocently. "Of course!" he pretended to look insulted, and added, "Do you honestly think I'd do that?"
His mother instantly fell for it, and began to smile down at him, tears in her eyes. But his father sighed in exasperation, and said firmly again, "James…"
James rolled his eyes. "Yea,yea … I promise." Having said that, he uncrossed his fingers and took his hands out of his pockets, grinning widely as he gripped his trunk. "Now come on! I gatta go, or the Hogwarts Express will leave without me."
His mother smiled sadly down at him, and squeezed him into a tight hug, tears dripping out of her eyes. "We're going to miss you being around so much!" James turned beat red in embarrassment.
"Mum… it's not like I'm leaving forever..," he muttered, staring down at his feet and hugging her feebly back. She stepped back and wiped her face, smiling down proudly at him. His father stepped forward and crouched down slightly. " Have fun. And remember… no trouble!" he repeated for the last time, a smile coming onto his face as he too looked rather proud. James rolled his eyes and began to walk off, giving them a wave goodbye. "See you after schools over! I'll write!" he called over his shoulder. Before his mother could break down in a fresh wave of sobs, he hopped onto the train.
As he walked around the train and checked the full compartments, he realized with a scowl of impatience that his parents had defiantly taken too long in their little "lecture".
"I'm going to miss you so much, Mum, Dad," sniffed a girl of 11 years, squeezing her parents around the waist. It was her first year at Hogwarts, and seeing as she was a muggleborn, was quite frightened.
"And we'll miss you, too, Lily," said her mother, whom was looking at her as if having an inner struggle as to not allow her to leave – Lily's father, though, put an arm around her, smiling down at his daughter. "I love you, honey. You're going to do excellent – Be sure to write to us, and if you want to come home at anytime, I'm sure the principle will let you, and –," but once again the girl's mother spoke, interrupting her father, " – We love you honey…be good."
"I love you too … Good bye, Mum… Dad. Petty," Lily glanced over at her older sister whom was sulking, looking around in a rather disgruntled way. She ignored her, and by the looks on her Mum and Dad's faces, Lily could tell she was probably going to get in trouble later.
Before walking to the train, she paused and looked down at herself. She wanted to look good for her first day. Lily Evans was a rather skinny girl, and was around the height of an average eleven-year-old girl. She had soft, creamy pale skin. An arrangement of freckles looked like they had been splattered on her face around her nose. Her wavy, fiery red hair was loose most of the time, and fell neatly to about her mid-waist. She had bright, emerald green eyes, which shown with excitement.
Hoping she wouldn't be out of place in her muggle clothes, she swallowed her nerves and pulled her trunk up onto the train with her. Shyly, she passed by some of the older students and glanced inside compartments, apologizing profusely if they were full and carrying on.
Sighing wearily and banishing in the thought from his mind, he turned back to the matter at head. Slowly, he opened a compartment door hopefully and looked in. He nearly let out a triumphant cheer when he saw that there was only one passenger in the compartment. "Mind if I sit in here?" He asked, grinning widely and already bringing his things in. The boy who looked as if he was too, eleven, frowned as if he would rather sit alone, but shrugged and said in a quiet, almost shy tone, "Sure."
Pushing his stuff onto the luggage rack, he sat down opposite the boy and finally got a good look at him. He had a book sitting in his lap (the title of it he couldn't see) ,and had now returned to staring at it with his stormy gray eyes. He was already changed into his robes, and they looked a just bit on the shabby side, like they were second-hand. He had sandy light brown hair, which managed to lay flat (unlike James') and fell around his eyes. James couldn't help but notice that some of his hair seemed to have flecks of gray in it, and that altogether the boy had a rather sickly appearance. Wanting to make conversation, he stuck his hand out with a smile.
"James Potter."
Slowly, as if cautious, the boy reached out and shook his hand replying, "Remus, Remus Lupin."
Before he could get a chance to go back to his book, James leaned forward and asked in a curious tone, "Watcha readin'?" Remus opened his mouth to answer in his reply, but was interrupted by the door banging loudly open. To James it all seemed like a blur of motion he was moving so fast, and the door slammed shut behind him as he crouched down in hiding. The boy sat with his back turned to them for a few moments, listening to a loud rush of angry voices as they ran past the compartment. James stole a glance at Remus, and saw that he looked a bit disgruntled and alarmed at the sudden appearance.
Turning around and seemingly pleased with himself, the boy turned around and grinned a wider grin than James thought was even possible. He was about an inch or two taller than James, and he too had black hair. His hair, though, managed to stay flat, and he had a rather long set of bangs that fell into his eyes casually – A look James would never be able to achieve. His ice blue eyes were shining with energy, and full of laughter. All in all, he was very handsome.
"Sorry 'bout that…had to get away. Mind if I camp out in here for a while? Dun think I'll be safe out there-," he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, towards the door, "- By the way, I'm Sirius. Sirius Black." He stuck out a hand at Remus, who shook it looking slightly confused by the rush of words, and muttering his name quickly in reply. Sirius sat next to James, and grinned, offering a hand to him. James took it, and tried not to laugh at Sirius' amount of enthusiasm in the shake as he said, "James Potter."
James paused, then asked curiously, "What just-?"
"Was flickin' dungbombs into random compartments," He paused and looked thoughtful, " I don't think they found it funny. Hmm… People have no humor nowadays."
James' eyes lit up, and grinned. He was already beginning to like this kid. "So you like pranks, too?"
Sirius' eyebrows shot up, and he suddenly looked excited, "Ah, a fellow marauder, I see. Causing mischief everywhere, no?"
"Oh, no no no no no." James replied with a wink, "I'm not supposed to 'make'-,"
"- 'trouble' !" Sirius let out a bark of laughter, "That's what my mum said too-," He froze for a moment, and his face darkened.
"What's wrong?" asked a voice. James jumped slightly. He had almost forgotten Remus was there, and now turned to him, whom had a curious look on his face as he caught Sirius' expression.
Sirius seemed to consider telling them, before he very slowly asked, "What house do you want to be in?"
"Gryffindor," James answered in a heartbeat.
"Gryffindor does sound good, but I'm probably going to be put in Ravenclaw," said Remus. For a flicker of a moment, an expression passed over his face, and he looked a resentful of going into Ravenclaw. "I'd much rather go into Gryffindor, though… Ravenclaw doesn't sound very… exciting."
James couldn't help but be a bit surprised – Remus to him didn't seem much like he'd be up for much excitement.
"Right,well,me too." Said Sirius on his right, interrupting his thoughts. "I don't like my family much.." He paused to sigh, and glanced at the two before slowly saying, " – They're a bit… devoted to remaining pure-blood, and too into the dark arts for my liking. They call muggle-borns… you know…" He looked between the two with a dangerous look in his eyes, as if daring them to agree with his family.
Before James even got a chance to react, Remus had a rather upset frown on his face. "That's defiantly not a good family -," he paused, and then looked apologetically as if he was afraid he had offended him,and added, "- No 'fense,sor-,"
"None taken." Sirius finished, smiling grimly at him.
"Yea, they're not exactly the best sounding family in the world-," ( Sirius snorted here) "- and we don't think that at all, so no worries."
The mood lightened from then on, and Remus had come out of his shy shell a bit more and was talking with them. Sirius had taken out a pack of Exploding Snap cards, and after a very long game ending in James having an ash covered face, and Remus having lost an eyebrow (which he quickly fixed with a spell, to James' amazement) ,they had all become rather good friends. And all of them agreed, that they hoped they would be in Gryffindor together.
Lily sighed. Finding an empty compartment had ended up being hard. Biting her lip, she reached toward the umpteenth compartment door and peered inside, only to find she was staring into a mass of long, curly, waist-length dark brown hair. Blinking in surprise, she pulled back, and the girl turned around at her and smiled. She too was dressed in muggle clothes (much to Lily's relief) and was and a bit shorter than her,but only by two or three inches. Her eyes were a dark, chocolate brown, and were shining cheerfully, though she looked a bit nervous. "Oh – hello! You looking for a compartment too, I suppose?" Stepping forward and pushing her own luggage into the luggage rack, she sat down.
Sitting next to her was a girl with black, straight, shoulder-length hair which fell neatly around her face. She had bright blue eyes,which seemed to be shining with excitement and joy. She was tucking away a book into her trunk, and gestured for her to come in. Lily smiled warmly at them in thanks and tucked her luggage away next to theirs. Sitting across from them, they all shook hands in greeting.
"I'm Emily Rishe," said the girl with the long hair.
"Alison Kinmund," said the girl with the black hair.
"Lily Evans," said Lily with a smile.
"So,what house do you want to be in?" asked Alison, grinning at the two. "I most defiantly wanna be in Gryffindor – It sounds like the best house."
Emily shrugged. "Anything but Hufflepuff or Slytherin," She wrinkled her nose,and pushed some of her brown hair out of her face.
Lily looked between the two, feeling left out and confused. When they both turned expectantly to her, she blushed pink in embaressment.
"Er…houses?"
Emily smiled kindly at her. "Muggleborn?"
"Erm…yes.."
"That's okay," Alison said perkily,and began to explain, " At Hogwarts,there are four houses (groups) in which you get sorted into. Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor. For your seven years at Hogwarts you'll stay in that house's common room, dormitorys, etc…."
" Hufflepuff are supposably for the 'loyal''n patient… Slytherin," Emily, whom had carried on for Alison, paused in disgust, " Are for the 'cunning' 'powerful'….Keh..Right evil little buggers,they are,though. 'Nyways…Ravenclaw is for the real smart kids,though most of the time they're a wee bit uptight if you ask me. And last but defiantly not least is Gryffindor. People go in there if they're loyal, brave,daring.. Me mum and dad went in Gryffindor,so that's where I wanna go."
"Yea, my mum went to Ravenclaw, but I think I wanna go to Gryffindor. Although,anything's better than Slytherin. My dad was a muggle though." Alison said enthusiastically,though Lily was only half listening as she thought about which she'd probably go in.
"I'd like to go wherever you two go." She finally concluded with a smile,earning a grin Alison and Emily.
Before they could say anything else, the door to their compartment opened a crack and someone threw something in before slamming it shut with a snicker. Emily and Alison's eyes widened,but before Lily could ask what it was,they let out an exclamation of, " OH CRAP!" The next thing Lily knew, there was a fog in the room and a horrible,sickening smell of-?
Coughing,they all sprang out of the compartment as the boy who pelted it at them sprang up and dashed away.With equally furious screeches, the three girls pelted after them,only to find they were soon being joined by other angry people. Before long,they seemed to have lost track of him. Scowling,they trudged back to their compartment. Sitting back down,though the stench was unbearable, they sat in silence for a few moments.
"….When I find out who did that,they're ganna PAY."
Emily and Lily both nodded in agreement.
Alternate Universe - Thanks very much for the advice. I didn't even notice the mistakes, and I'll fix them right away. As for being 11, I'm 12 now (though that's not much of a difference). I haven't updated my profile in awhile. I don't know if I am, but I think I'm a bit more literate than I was then. I do have a beta (two, in fact) but I didn't get them to check the Author's Note. Did that myself. And don't worry, I hate Mary-Sues too. :P I'm simply using their first names, and pretty much nothing else. So no Mary-Sues here! I'm not much of a slash person though, so there'll be none of that, sorry. I don't think there's really anyway I can improve in the James/Lily as a couple compartment, as I stated that in the end they're going to be together. For a good couple years they are going to hate each other, though, so you can enjoy that I suppose. :P Anyway, thanks for the advice. It was helpful, and if I hadn't been informed of the mistakes, I would never be able to fix them. Thus, probably getting less people wishing to read it. Thanks for reviewing and the advice.
Tee-da! First chapter..this all right? It's longer than my other chapters, I'm pretty sure.Anyway, I hope you liked it… I'm planning on making this very long. Please don't expect weekly updates, or anything, okay? But reviewing will always make me happier (unless it's a flame,which are welcome all the same:P ) . If any characters were.. well.. out of character, please tell me how I could improve. And any suggestions for further chapters greatly accepted,and I will consider all. Well,hope you liked it. 'Till next time-
Prongsy Girl