In this chapter, and probably ones following it, there are characters and pieces of information from Half-Blood Prince. However I don't think there are any massive spoilers so you slow readers can rest easy.

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TWO: FIRST YEAR AT HOGWARTS

The Gryffindor common room gave off a warm and welcoming aura as soon as you stepped, or tripped as the case may be for Peter Pettigrew, inside. It was a lot different than the grand and stony architecture of the Hogwarts halls and corridors. To the right of the entrance - a hidden hole behind a portrait of a particularly beefy lady - was a large, glowing fireplace with squashy sofas and armchairs situated in a semicircle around it. To the left was what appeared to be a study area with a row of elegant, mahogany desks. Randomly strewn around the common room were more desks and sofas, all arranged in a disorderly, pleasant mishmash. It was the happiest room Peter had ever seen.

Edelmar Bell, the fifth year Prefect who had clapped all the first years on the back at the welcoming feast, reminded them of the password ("Remember, it's Conscendo") and directed the girl's through one door and the boys through another. Peter followed a sandy-haired boy with the tired eyes up a spiral staircase and finally to his dormitory. The room, although just as stony as the rest of Hogwarts, was surprisingly cosy and it made Peter feel as if he had found the second happiest room in his lifetime. He was glad to see his trunk was already there at the end of one of the red and gold, four-poster beds, along with three other trunks at the end of three other beds.

"I don't know you yet," said a cheerful voice coming from Peter's right. It belonged to a grinning boy with a mop of black hair and spectacles. "I'm James." He took Peter's hand and shook it with joyful enthusiasm.

"I'm Sirius," said a handsome boy who was leaning against one of the bedposts, smirking, "and Sleepy over there is Remus," he concluded, waving hand nonchalantly in the general direction of the boy with sandy hair. Remus looked up at the mention of his name and said a speedy and sheepish "Hey".

"Peter," Peter said lastly and was soon bombarded with more shaking hands and words along the lines of "Bloody nice room, isn't it?" and "I can see the Forbidden Forest from here. That is one big, scary-looking willow." The Remus boy hadn't spoken since the small greeting, unless you count a coughing fit as delightful conversation.

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"What's the first lesson?" Sirius asked as he prodded his porridge with his spoon.

"Potions," said Remus instantly without even looking at his timetable.

James laughed and poked Remus in the side, "memorized the timetable already Remy? That's pretty organized. Better than Peter anyway, we've been here nearly a week and he still doesn't remember the Gryffindor password."

Peter blushed and made a small noise of protest that sounded like "it's difficult for some people" but James ignored him.

"It doesn't hurt to be prepared," Remus answered, "unless, of course, I get poked for it." He smiled up at his new companions, James continued to laugh, Sirius smirked and Peter let out a titter of amusement.

At that moment a plethora of owls had arrived through the large windows of the Great Hall carrying the morning post. Three of them landed in front of James, Sirius and Remus and dropped three envelopes with the Hogwarts crest stamped in the upper right-hand corner. James and Sirius looked at each other, then looked down at the owls, who had helped themselves to some of Sirius' abandoned porridge before taking flight again, and then the envelopes. In unison they both picked up the envelope addressed to them and opened it gingerly. Peter glanced over James' shoulder and, with James' consent, read the short note inside it.

Master James Potter,

I would be delighted if you would join me for a quick chat in the Potions classroom before your lessons.

Sincerely, Professor H.E.F. Slughorn

"What does yours say Sirius?" Peter asked after he finished reading James' note.

Sirius peeked over James' shoulder and nodded in a knowing way. "The same thing," he replied, "what about you Remus? Same thing?"

Remus looked up, he had looked confused and spaced out, but he shook his head as if to rid himself of the clutter within it. "Um, yeah… same thing," he said quietly as he stood up in a sort of daze and picked up his book bag, "I have to go."

James grabbed hold of Remus' sleeve before he had a chance to leave the table, "no need to be too eager," he said, "Sirius and I are going too remember?"

Remus shook his head again, muttered something about having to see Dumbledore as well, pulled his sleeve out of James' grasp, and walked off.

"Odd," James said as he watched Remus leave, "think his letter did say the same thing?"

"Doubt it," Sirius said, he was getting ready to go.

"Where are you off to?" James questioned suspiciously.

"To go see Professor Slughorn," was the reply.

"Wait, aren't we going to see what Remus is up to?" James asked, standing up along with Sirius.

"Why?"

"Aren't you curious?"

"A bit."

"And…?"

"We need to see Slughorn."

James sighed and pulled a face of utter loss. It was only a few seconds, however, until his features change and his eyes lit up with mirth, he whisked around to face Peter, nearly knocking the boy off his seat whilst doing so.

"Peter…" he began sweetly.

"Huh?" said Peter who looked completely oblivious.

"Fancy doing a bit of sleuthing?" James said; next to him Sirius was rolling his eyes and groaning with impatience.

"Well… I don't know."

"It'll be fun."

"I'm not sure."

"Come on, I think-" but James couldn't finish his sentence because Sirius had yanked him away from Peter and was already leading him to the doors. There was a faint call of "See you in Potions" before they exited the Great Hall completely, leaving Peter alone with his eggs and bacon and a mildly confused look on his face.

Sirius and James took a while to find the Potions classroom and once they arrived they were in a state of disarray, having just had Peeves pelt dungbombs at them not too long ago. The Potions classroom was located in the lower parts of the school, right down in the dank and unnerving dungeons. James had started to wonder why a school would need dungeons but decided that the less he thought about it then the less disturbed he would feel. Luckily they had found the classroom with time to spare before the lessons began and hoped that the smell of dung wasn't too strong.

As soon as they walked through the door a short, podgy man with a long moustache welcomed them. He was shaking their hands and introducing them to the other people in the room, all of them appeared to be first year students too, before Sirius and James knew what had hit them. They had guessed the podgy man was Professor Slughorn and their first impression of him was of a walking walrus in a waistcoat.

"Ahh James Potter and Sirius Black," Professor Slughorn said, motioning for them to sit down, "I was hoping you'd arrive sooner but no matter, since you're here now would you like a biscuit?" He started passing around a tin full of walrus-shaped biscuits. "These were made by Mrs Donna Torta especially for myself. She owns one of the best wizarding bakeries in Italy. She makes tasty muggle biscuits too, as you can probably tell."

James took a biscuit and bit off the walrus' head. Slughorn was right, they were rather tasty, "Shame about the shape though," he muttered to himself.

"What did you say James?" Slughorn was looking at him now with interest.

"Nothing Professor," replied James, and he quickly deposited the rest of the biscuit into his mouth.

"I use to teach your parents, you know," Slughorn said smiling.

"I never knew sir."

"Quite the gifted witch and wizard," he carried on, "both prefects, your mother became Head Girl and your father was a very talented Quidditch player. I hope to see that gift passed onto you in second year, James." He moved then onto Sirius without giving James a chance to respond.

"Sirius Black," he stated, "I'm rather upset, and somewhat surprised, that you're not in my house, but never mind that. Did you know that your Great-Great-Grandfather, Phineas Nigellus, was once Headmaster of Hogwarts?"

"Yes sir," Sirius said, "though I've also heard that he was the least popular Headmaster of Hogwarts."

Slughorn gave a great guffaw, "Yes, he said so himself. He had little patience for people, most of all youngsters. He was still a great wizard, nevertheless, and a good friend of mine." He turned to the magically powered clock at the back of the room and started with surprise.

"My my, how times flies. Off to your classes now," he said, "Unless you're a Slytherin or Gryffindoor and your next class in Potions." He smiled down at Sirius, James and another boy with black, greasy hair and a hooked nose; throughout James' and Sirius' brief conversation with Professor Slughorn the boy had been looking at them with a barely hidden snarl on his face.

"Oho," said Slughorn and jumped about an inch off his seat, "I've forgotten my papers. I'm just going to go and collect them." And he walked out of the classroom with a tiny skip in his step.

The Slytherin boy continued to snarl and Sirius was beginning to get annoyed.

"What'syour problem?" he finally snapped.

"You're Sirius Black," was the boy's simple reply.

"Your point being…?"

But before the boy could say anything there was a small cough from behind them and Sirius turned to see Narcissa Black standing in the doorway with ever-arrogant figure of Lucius Malfoy behind her. Ever since Sirius met the platinum-blonde teenager at one of his mother's many dinner parties he had instantly despised him. He looked even haughtier now with his Head Boy badge pinned to his robes.

"I thought you would be here cousin," Narcissa said in that all too familiar Black drawl, "I was wondering if you've told you mother about the Sorting yet?"

Sirius stared at her, "I wasn't…"

"Planning to," Narcissa finished, "I thought not." She smiled a nasty smile, "that's why I did it for you. Have a nice day." She then walked away, but Lucius Malfoy stayed behind a while longer. He moved closer to Sirius and scowled down at him with disgust.

"You've brought shame to your family," he whispered so only Sirius could hear then he looked over at the boy with greasy hair, "Keep an eye on him Severus. You owe me," he said and left the room in a flourish of black robes.

-8-

"Mr Lupin would you please pay attention!" demanded the stern voice of Professor McGonagall. Remus jolted up and realised that he had nearly fallen asleep in her class, which would have been suicide – he thought to himself. He murmured an apology and sat up straighter. Once McGonagall was happy with his posture and his alertness she continued with her lecture.

"As you all know by now, from our countless piratical sessions, Transfiguration is a difficult subject that requires a lot of concentration and determination. There has only been a fair few of you that have successful transfigured a match into a needle," she glanced pointedly down at a Gryffindor girl with auburn hair, Remus remembered that her name was Lily Evans, "However the most difficult of all the different varieties of transfiguration is Animagus Transfiguration. This is the Transfiguration by which an Animagi transforms into his or her animal form. All Animagus must be registered with the Ministry of Magic with their animal form and specific markings."

McGonagall issued them all with homework ("Read pages 212 to 215 of your textbook and write a ten-inch essay on 'Animagus Transfiguration' to be handed in next lesson") only a few seconds before the bell rang and the students began collecting their together.

"Mr Lupin," she said above the din of the scraping of chairs and the rustling of papers, "I would like a word with you."

Remus nodded and sat back down on his chair. James, Sirius and Peter all gave him a sympathetic look before they left the room. As soon as the classroom was completely empty McGonagall went to shut the door before opening her mouth to speak.

"My Lupin," she said, "Yesterday was Full Moon, was it not?"

"Yes Professor."

"How many Full Moons have there been since you first came to Hogwarts?"

"Yesterday was the third Professor."

McGonagall's expression had now changed to one of compassion and Remus was amazed to see how much kinder it made her look.

"That's is all Mr Lupin," she said. Remus stood up to leave and he was at the door when McGonagall said, "Take care now." Remus turned back and smiled at her, she smiled back.

Outside James, Sirius and Peter were all waiting for him with concern on their faces. James and Sirius had tried to listen through the door but all they could hear was a muffled buzz, they suspected McGonagall has placed a Silencing Charm around the room.

"So how what did she do?" James asked.

"Nothing."

"Really?" Remus' three friends were looking perplexed.

"Really."

"But you nearly fell asleep in her lesson," Peter pointed out.

"I guess she didn't mind."

"McGonagall's getting soft," Sirius said.

"Or maybe she's just got a soft spot for Remus," James said and moved quickly to the side when Remus threatened to shove him. He was laughing and so were Sirius and Peter. Although Remus looked affronted at first he soon melted into laughter as well. He didn't know how many times he had thanked Dumbledore for allowing him into Hogwarts but he knew that it hadn't been enough.

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AN: Yes a quick update, but don't expect them all to be this fast. I just felt that the first chapter lacked somewhat and it didn't feel long enough. Anyway please excuse my writing skills, I'm a beginner after all and writing fanfiction is supposed to increase my skills. I think I need a lot more practice.

I would love some more feedback please, the good and the bad. These are still just the introductory chapters so bear with me.