Hogwarts: 1971 - The Meeting

WOOOOOOOOO WOOOOOOOOOOO...

An immaculate scarlet train howled shrilly above the loud hum of excited voices. The station was packed with people of all ages and sizes. But above all, several children stood out in the crowd. It was not only because of their age, or height, but because of the looks on their faces, which set them apart from the rest of the bustling throng of bodies. Their face's appearance seemed to be one composed of fear, excitement, joy, insecurities, and nausea, which was why most of them looked a ghostly pale.

However, one particular boy in the horde of people seemed quite far from scared and insecure.

Quite the contrary, he looked delighted and confident.

This boy was alone on the station, which was a rare sight, but seemed not to be phased by this fact. The boy's face was a bit childish, as children his age's faces generally are, but long and oval shaped with dark, black hair that fell with a casual elegance into his large, warm, gray eyes. His raven locks reached about to the ends of his ears and looked quite like he had just gotten up out of bed with it looking that way, which was most likely the case. The young boy was tall and gangly looking, but didn't look quite as tall due to him leaning onto a large trolley, piled high with trunks of all sorts. At the top of this pile was a beat up trunk with several pieces of fabric sticking out of it. The trunk was a deep emerald and inscribed on it, in scrolling sliver calligraphy was two letters: S.B.

Finally he stood up straight and adjusted his shirt, which was wrinkled and torn in a few places, before pushing the heavy trolley to the grand train.

"Hogwarts, here I come!"

He called out in a strong, but still quite young, sounding tone. His face was practically glowing with joy, at the thought.

-

Another boy was getting on the train at this time. He, also, had dark hair, but it somehow didn't look near as relaxed or alluring, as the other boy's had. It stuck up at odd angles around his head and seemed to be ruffled up a tad too much.

A further difference was quite striking about this other young man; he had big, round rimmed glasses, sliding down his thin nose. They magnified his hazel eyes a little, but not so much for him to look rediculous.

Shoving his trunk into an empty compartment, he realized that he had no one to sit with on the long journey to his new school.

This presented a problem.

Once his trunk was wedged snugly into it's appropriate spot, he opened the window and stuck his head out, waving madly at his parents.

Yes, he would miss them... for a few seconds.

Slowly his fears about people not sitting with him dissolved into nothing, who cared anyway? He'd meet people eventually.

He was James Potter for heavens sake...

Pulling his head back inside the compartment, he closed the window (with much more difficulty then opening it) and then threw himself back into the cushioned seats. Excitement was pumping through his veins and enveloping his entire body with anticipation. What would this school bring?

He was the only child of his parents, who were a bit older then most other kid's folks, but he didn't think he was missing out on anything. They spoiled him rotten and didn't have any other children to compare him to.

That's why he enjoyed this so much.

On the other side of it, he did get lonely... but hopefully, soon, all that would change.

To this young boy, Hogwarts was a new adventure, shrouded in mystery.

If anyone would have told him all the things he would be doing there, he would have thought them crazy.

For now, he was ecstatic at the thought of going to 'The Best Wizarding School' and that was enough for him.

-

"MUM STOP IT!"

A sandy blonde haired boy flailed his arms around helplessly, attempting to ward of his Mother, who was attempting in vein, to get something off his cheek.

Using saliva.

"THAT'S NOT SANITARY!"

The woman merely laughed and brushed his hair away from his face, looking down at him with pride and sadness, etched into the lines of her face. But the most prominent look on her face was worry. Worry for her poor child, who would be going off to school, without her or her husband to help him with... his troubles.

The man behind her just watched them with a weary look in his eyes.

"'Course It's sanitary Remus. Quit being so funny about it..."

Finally she gave up and let her hand fall back to her side. The boy let a look of triumph take over his scarred face until his mother, out of nowhere, took her thumb, licked it, and rubbed it across his cheek. This time, the smile of triumph belonged to the woman, who laughed at her son's disgusted and horrified face. She leaned in to kiss him on the cheek but he ducked her and picked up his trunk, making her look like she was attempting to kiss the air.

"Alright Remus, You win... Have a good time..."

"Send us an owl..."

The parents said tiredly as the woman patted the boy on the back, nudging him towards the train.

Quickly, the boy began striding towards the large crimson train until a feeling of sadness wrapped around him. A frown took the place of his grin and he turned around slowly, to look at his mother, who had stayed in the same place he had left her, with an upset look on her face. His father was behind her, murmuring something of comfort in her ear.

Biting his lip he turned back, handing his bags to the constructor, who was shouting how long they had before they departed for the school.

But the poor boy was too much of a sap to get away that easily. As he put his foot on the first stair, leading into the train, he sighed loudly and ran back though the crowd to his parents.

Which only made matters worse.

His mother was crying now, and his father looked on the brink of tears as well. Seeing this made the boy, too, start to cry, throwing his arms around them in a tight, but wet, embrace.

All dignity he could have left with was dashed away.

Bugger.

But for the moment, Remus didn't mind that much. He wasn't going to see his parents for awhile, so why not say a sappy, dramatic, goodbye.

He was reminding himself of a girl more and more each day.

Finally gathering himself together, he wiped away his tears and turned back to the train. Determined to get on the darned train without having another ridiculously juvenile episode. The constructor smiled at the boy and handed him his trunk, once he was all the way up the stairs. The carpet proved a good tool in dragging the heavy bag down the hall of compartments. But the boy soon found that none were empty, so he decided to attempt to find a compartment with someone his own age.

At least there would be that.

-

A pudgy and short boy stumbled onto the train, pushing a trunk, bigger then he was, though the hall until he found an open compartment. It was empty, and he was surprised at his luck, which usually seemed to be running rather low...

But slowly he noticed that there was another trunk on the trunk rack, which was defiantly not his own.

This could be a problem.

Wiggling uneasily in his seat, the little blond boy glanced around the compartment, wondering who had put it in there. It was rather tattered looking, and for some reason, it scared the heck out of him. But, what didn't?

His mind began to wander, thinking of impractical and horrible reasons why the trunk was there. Maybe there was a dead body in there, and it was chopped up pieces of a student. Maybe they'd find him there with it and assume he was the culprit. Azkaban didn't sound very appealing to him one bit.

Maybe it was a stolen bag of Galleons, and someone would think he stole it. Or else they would kill him because they wanted it for themselves. What if someone was bugging it like all those muggle movies he had watched, and was watching him that very second?

He now regretted picking his nose.

Fiddling with his jacket nervously, his eyes darted around the room, but he didn't see anything...

What was that!

He swore he had just heard something.

A groan. Yes, that was what it was...

A groaning chopped up man in the trunk with millions of Galleons that was stolen and a killer was looking for.

He knew that going to this school was bad news.

His life was over.

And I haven't even hit puberty yet!

Ah well, I heard it was a horrid experience anyway...

"EAHHHHGGG...!"

The boy had now jumped from his seat and pushed his hands into his pockets, his fingers curling around a long piece of wood. Pulling it out as if it was a sword he then began madly waving the wand about frantically. Though he knew not how to use it, had had a feeling it still might scare off the living dead.

"Hmmmmmhhh...?"

At this new sound, he jumped backwards in a cold panic which caused him to fall backwards onto a coat he hadn't really noticed being there before. But not only was it a magical appearing coat but it was actually rather lumpy... and made an odd groan/yelping noise when the boy fell onto it.

"ERRGGGGHHHhhhh!"

The horrified boy fell off the lumpy coat and onto the ground below, as something began moving within it. Poking his wand in the general direction of the coat-thing hysterically, he soon noticed that he kept missing the lumpy object in the coat. This was due to just how dreadfully terrified he actually was, which had caused his entire body shudder and tremble violently.

"Y-y-you...! I-i-i-i... g-got... a... A WAND! And...and...a-and..."

But the lump was now thrashing around wildly, as if wrestling with the coat. Finally a hand appeared from under it and pulled the jacket off what appeared to be another boy. On his face was a look of both surprise and alarm, while the other boy just looked sickly and afraid.

"Eh... Mate? What are you doing there with that? You're gonna poke my eye out if you're not careful... put it away won't you?"

Obeying the orders, he lowered his wand back into his pocket and stared up at the boy, his skin still an eerie shade of white, though he was no longer that scared, it was mostly just shock that kept him silent. The boy across from him then brushed a bit raven hair from his eyes and casually, leaned back onto his elbows, like he saw trembling plump boys brandishing pieces of wood at him all the time. Instantly, the blond boy decided that he envied this other boy very much, and wanted to be just like him.

"Well that's better, you gave me quite a start there... and, by the look on your face I must have given you one as well. WAIT! Where are my manors! You don't even know who I am! Sirius, Sirius Black, and you are...?"

The blond boy fidgeted a little before getting gingerly to his feet then plopping down across from Sirius.

"I'm P-Peter... Peter Pettigrew..."

Peter said this quietly, and then upon looking down, noticed that Sirius had stuck his hand in the air and was staring intently on him with his steely gray eyes. With a start he took the strong hand with his own, pudgy, one and shook it weakly, staring at the other boy in awe. How he so wished he could be as cool as he was!

This boy just radiated 'cool'.

He was one of those guys, that no matter what they do, it's automatically cool, just because they did it. But if someone like... say Peter... attempted the exact same thing, he would just look like a complete idiot.

That's what Peter never understood about boys like that, and that's why Peter enjoyed placing himself around those boys. It was almost like he was hoping some of it would suddenly rub off on him.

But obviously, that hadn't exactly happened yet.

WOOOOOOOOO WOOOOOOOOOOO...

The train sung this last warning as its wheels began churning nosily, as if raring to go.

Sirius observed Peter with a slight interest before pulling his gaze back to the window, which now showed that they were beginning to pull out from the train station.

He couldn't have been happier to be leaving home, so this did not upset him in any way. Feeling his stomach growl angrily at him, he turned back to Peter, throwing him a cocky grin.

"So, what does a guy have to do to get some food around here?"

-

"Hello,"

"Hello,"

"My name's James Potter, what's yours?"

"I'm Remus Lupin; it's nice to meet you,"

Stiffly, the two boys shook hands across the seat, but neither seemed too thrilled. Tearing their hands away from each other they just stared each other down for a while, as if they were in some kind of old western movie, and waiting for the other one to draw.

"So, Remus, what do you like to do?"

"Read, I like to read and to learn, and yourself,"

"Erm... I like Quidditch, and... um... sports?"

James didn't mean to make this sound like a question. But it kind of turned out that way. Could this kid actually like reading and learning? Is that even possible? The thought baffled the poor boy, someone so keen on learning? This had never been a possibility in his mind.

"Oh, that sounds fun,"

"Yea, it is,"

An awkward silence swept over the two as they stared at each other, obviously trying to understand what they had done to deserve such a weird person's presence.

He's a looney, no one can like... ...This boy, so uncultured and rude, why had I decided to sit here at all? Oh god and his hair, could it possibly be more... ...Weird, he's weird, look at those scars? How could he possibly get those from learning and reading? Did the book attack him or... ...Can I slip away? Maybe he won't notice. He looks stupid enough to... ...not notice... ...me... ...leaving... ...now.

At the same time, both boys stood up rapidly and collided into each other with a large crash of their heads. Remus yelped and fell backwards, and James' glasses fell off his nose when he stumbled backwards, dropping to the ground and shattering under Remus' foot.

"MY GLASSES!"

He howled, stumbling to the ground and feeling around for them. But his hand only met several shattered pieces of glass and metal, cutting his finger tips.

"THEY'RE BROKEN!"

Recoiling his hand from the pieces of glass he looked up at the blur in front of him.

"YOU BROKE MY GLASSES!"

"NO I DIDN'T! YOU JUMPED UP AND LET THEM FALL OFF, PUSHING ME BACK SO I STEPPED ON THEM! IT'S YOUR FAULT!"

"YOU BLOODY LIAR! YOU BROKE MY GLASSES! FIX THEM!"

"I DID NOTHING OF THE SORT! AND IF YOU WANT THEM FIXED I SUGGEST YOU BE A LITTLE KINDER TO THE PERSON YOU'RE ASKING TO FIX THEM!"

"FOR MERLIN'S SAKE, YOU BROKE THE BLOODY GLASSES, SO YOU HAVE TO FIX THEM!"

"I WILL NOT DO ANYTHING OF THE SORT FOR YOU, AND I NEVER WILL!"

Then Remus stood up, making sure to smash the glasses into smaller pieces, before storming from the compartment and leaving James alone to fume. Just in time, a blur appeared at the door.

"What's the problem? I heard shouting..."

It was a boy's voice, about his age. Then he took out a blur from what looked to be his pocket and said:

"Reparo,"

The glasses flew back together and slid back onto his nose, letting him see more clearly who had cast the spell. It was tall boy with black messy hair that fell gracefully around his eyes.

"Sirius, Sirius Black,"

He said, sticking out his hand to help James up. James smiled and pulled on it, slowly getting back to his feet before adjusting his glasses. He then noticed another boy behind Sirius' shoulder.

"And this is Peter Pettigrew,"

Sirius added, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder at the blonde boy in the hallway.

"I'm James Potter, nice to meet you both..."

He said grinning and letting go of the boy's hand. James could tell by the look on Sirius' face that this was going to be the start of an excellent alliance...