Chapter 3: Lily Evans
"Errm, Remus, you there?" said an uncertain voice that belonged to James as they exited the train. "You seem a bit off, and...pale, you alright?"
But Remus just stared at the sky with what looked like a resentful face. But as quickly as it had appeared, his sullen, hateful looking face had vanished. It was replaced by a pale, slightly sunken face, that James assumed he normally wore. He would have thought that Remus would be a little happier to see the place he would be spending the next seven years learning magic in.
Sirius, on the contrary, looked absolutly exstatic. His dark eyes could be seen shinning in the moonlight, apparently too happy for words. James thought he heard him say something that sounded like, "Anything away from my parents," but he couldn't have been sure. Everytime the topic of conversation came around to parents while James, Remus and Sirius conversed on the train, Sirius either declined comment or else told them horrible stories about what his mother and father thought should happen to Muggle Born wizards and witches. These stories almost always ended in Sirius arguing with his parents, and getting into trouble. But it didn't seem to bother him so much, the punishments, from what he told them, were not so bad. It was the fact he had to live with what he called "these people" that punished him the worst.
As for James, he had been waiting for this day for his entire life. As he watched the stars twinkle above him, and the cluster of clouds approaching, James thought that he would have been happy just to stay outside and watch the sky for hours. He had never dreamed that he would make friends so quickly, nor did he think they would be particuarly as good either. But Remus and Sirius were exactly what James had hoped for. Both of them smart, cool and quick on their feet. They also seemed to be ready to back James up for anything he said or did. But as James continued to walk forwards on the platform whilst Sirius and Remus began to again, talk of Quidditch, a sinking feeling fell into the pit of James's stomach. What if they weren't in the same house as him, what if they were seperated? James knew he had only met Sirius and Remus, but the mere thought of losing contact with them the first day that they met made James feel slightly queasy. But then, he had an idea.
"Remus, what house was your father in?" he asked hopefully, praying for the answer he was thinking. "And you Sirius, as well as your mother?" Remus opened his mouth to answer first, but the words that came out of his mouth were not the ones he, James, was hoping for.
"My father was in Ravenclaw," he said, turning to face James. "Some of the best days in his life, from what he told me, and he told me quite a lot."
"Me mum and dad were both in filthy Slytherin!" said Sirius heatedly. "My whole family has been, it ruddy sucks! 'Spect I'll be in Slytherin too, might have to barf after I find out though."
James could not have imagined worse answers. His mother had been in Hufflepuff and his father in Gryffindor. That meant that all of their past heritage had come from different houses, making the chances of them being in the same houses much slimmer, but not impossible. In all honesty, James could not see Sirius in Slytherin, from what he heard about the place. But Ravenclaw was supposed to be for really witty people, perfect for Remus. But James wouldn't even want to have one of them and not the other. The idea of two of them being together and one of them left out was just as bad as all of them seperated.
For the secod time that day, James's thoughts were brought crashing back down to Earth as a booming voice shouting, "This way firs' years, this way!" made him jump and realize where he was. Remus and Sirius had moved ahead towards the resounding voice, to find a enormous beared man with small beady eyes beckoning them towards what looked like a lake. He had an enormous overcoat and what seemed to be a purple umbrella with something odd and broken sticking out of the end of it. When the general mass of what seemed to be first years had resided next and around the large bearded man, he began stumping towards an enormous blue lake.
James, deep in thought once again about the House placings, bumped right into the great man and toppled over with a resounding thud. The laughter coming from Malfoy and his gang could be heard even from the far back of the group. The bearded man he had run into turned around and smiled at James while extending a hand to help him up.
"Sorry...umm Profesor...umm," started James, but he was cut off.
" 'Me names Hagrid, Rubeus Hagrid, I ain't much 'fer profesor, 'cause I'm not one," he said still smiling. "But Hagrid will do." James reached for the mans enormous extended hand and was instantly pulled up like a pillow. He began to brush himself off and say thank you, but the man had proceeded forwards and out of sight at the front of the group.
After what seemed to be a short walk, the group of first years came to a stop. James, being situated in the center of the group with what looked like Sirius and Remus (the crowd was so thick, it was hard to tell one person from another), could not see what was going on. But with a couple of splash and clunk sounds, James had a pretty good idea what was going on. His supsicions were confirmed as he approached the front of the group, with Remus and Sirius ahead, and saw small boats lined up at the shore of the lake. They currently had no view of the castle, since (as Hagrid had explained on the walk), they were at a bit of a niche that stole into the side of the woods. But they were told that when they turned the corner, a perfect moonlit view of the castle would be in order.
James approached Sirius and Remus's backs which were turned on him as they hopped into a boat. But he found he was wrong on one of these accounts. It was indeed Sirius who was in the boat, his long black hair pratically invisible in the darkness, but he was accompanied not by Remus. The boy looked very similar to Remus in the dark, and with the school robes on, he could not diversify people by what they were wearing. It was easy to find Sirius though, for his hair made him stick out even in the dark, not to the displeasure of many giggling girls. Face to face though, this boy was clearly different than Remus. Although they both were about the same height, and had the same shade of paleness in their faces, they still looked quite different. Remus's face was simple and relaxed, sometimes looking as if there were some wrinkles in his eleven year old face. But this boy had a bulbous, rat like nose, and buck front teeth. His body seemed constantly agitated, as if waiting for something to strike at any second. As for his hair, it was a brownish grey that was disheveled and missing in random places. But when the boy smiled shyly, James felt a slight mixture of pity and understanding, and stuck out his hand for the boy to shake. Apparently, the boys name was Peter Pettigrew. His parents, both muggles, were overjoyed when they found out he was going to learn magic. He, being less enthusitastic, had almost refused to go, scared he would blow himself up. But after much cooing from his parents, he resigned himself to going, and was now happy of his desicion.
The school had come into view a couple of minutes after James had introduced himself to Peter. Its gleaming glass windows, sparkling stone towers and beutiful coned turrets had been exactly as James had dreamed they would be. Unfortunatly, the trip through the lake was very short. Before he knew it, James was being swept off out of the boats by a magical invisible hand that lifted them out of the boats and onto the front lawn of the castle so their feet woudn't get wet.
James begain to take interest in some of the other students who were first years. There were many boats, so he was not able to get a view of all of them. He was however, able to see a girl with fiery red hair being pulled out of her boat magically. James didn't know if the boat was faulty or if the magic had just waired off, but seconds after he set his eyes on her floating in mid-air, she began to scream. The magical invisible hand had released her at the peak of her flight, about ten feet above ground. Even more sudden was James's reaction. He leapt forwards away from his boat and Sirius and Peter and just got under her in enough time to catch her before she fell.
The girl, slightly dazed from her little adventure, said nothing to James at first. But after he had put her on her feet and released her, she smiled and straightened her hair, as vibrantly red from far away as it was close. But the thing that caught his attention the most was not indeed her hair, but her emerald green eyes, glowing in the darkness.
"Well, that's a good way to start my year," she laughed as she continued to smile at James. "Thanks for catching me, I really could've gotten hurt." Then with one last smile, she walked off into the darkness.
"It is now you who seems pale and a little off," said a voice that belonged to Remus, as James walked forward towards the doors. "That's Lily Evans by the way, I met her on the train."
"Where were you?" questioned James, keen on changing the subject since he was evidently blushing profusely. "You weren't on the boats, were you? But Remus just told him that he had acidentally taken the carriages up the school by mistake, which was what the older students used to get to the Castle.
Their conversation was cut short however, as Hagrid gave three earsplitting knocks on massive wooden oak doors at the front of the school. James heard clicking noises of feet striding towards the door on the other side, as the door swung open to reveal the entrance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
A.N. -Worked until 12:36 pm on this one, I want reviews for this or my hair will look like Pettigrews, that is to say, missing in several places. lol, plze plze review!
