To Begin

Alex

A red, gleaming train was visible through the fog and crowd of people. Hundreds of people were around us, all tearfully saying farewell to relatives or comparing summer news with missed friends.

There was a dark undertone to everything here though. The children who said goodbye to their parents had glints in their eyes, as if wondering if they would see them again. Adults, even here, were looking nervously over their shoulders or shooting suspicious glances at others. I saw families that looked as if they had spent the last month in total tears, their eyes red and bulging. It really was a war zone.

Lara, next to me, was radiating shock and uncertainty and kept throwing me apprehensive looks. In Germany we had never seen the full effect of how normal people were being constantly affected by the war. It certainly didn't bode well for the next two years we would have to stay here.

Mother was with us, even though my sister and I couldn't really see the point. I mean what did she think she was going to do? She certainly wasn't going to give us any useful advice or even a quick peck on the cheek and I would be shocked into stillness if she said she'd miss us. No, she would stand there, her nose scrunched up, beadily eyeing the other parents and students. She would stiffly tell us to uphold the family dignity and inform us that we would be coming back for Christmas. Lucky us.

So there we stood, in front of this large, noisy train and as expected mother said:

"Remember, you are to uphold the family name at all times, me and your father have little doubt that you will not disappoint us. You will come home for Christmas – lord knows what type of dirt stays at school during that time" she grimaced "we will see you then."

"She is so predictable" Lara muttered next to me, I snorted in agreement.

We disposed of our trunks and went off in search of a compartment. We were both nervous; there were so many people. At St. Amalia's academy, our old school, there had been about seventy people in the whole school – ten per year – and we had known basically everyone. It had been a private stuck up school that our parents had paid for to avoid us mixing with what they called 'common blood'. You weren't even excepted if you were anything but pure blooded and they had dutifully taught us dark magic and how Muggles were nothing but animals. But now we were here, on our way to Hogwarts and we had no idea which groups supported who.

I clasped Lara's hand in my nerves and sent her a general idea of my feelings.

"I know, we will just have to use our instincts"

In one compartment was a group of boys and girls our age who were lounging on the seats looking smug, dark green cloaks lay forgotten on empty seats. I recognised the emblem of Slytherin on one trunk.

No, I can guess where they stand. I said with my eyes, she nodded fervently in agreement.

Here was a group of rowdy second years – clearly not going in there. A group of girls all lathering makeup on, Lara snorted. Honestly, you'd never believe there was a war going on by looking in there. This one didn't look to bad, but it was all full.

One of the last compartments had four boys sitting in there, all about our age. One sat in the corner, seeming completely immersed in a heavy book; he had blond hair and wore messy clothes. Next to him, sat a plump boy, who, to be honest, looked a little dim. On the chairs opposite were two boys who seemed to give off an air of confidence: One with carefully cut, shiny black hair and an effortlessly handsome face and a boy with messy black hair and a certain amount of charm.

Lara seemed hesitant to enter a compartment dominated by boys but by this point we had run out of choices. She sighed and I knocked onto the glass of the door and gently pushed open the compartment.

James

It was good to be back with my friends. Moony – as per usual had his head stuck in a book, which Peter was looking over his shoulder at, looking baffled. Bless. Sirius was lounging on the seat next to me, his feet up and the good old cocky grin in place. I ran my mind through all times we had sat like this and planned pranks. This was going to be a good year I could just tell.

"Oh come on Moony, take that nose out of your book, we've only just got onto the train" Pads said, laughing at our friend fondly, he really hadn't changed.

Remus looked up briefly and rolled his eyes before continuing to read the tome like book in his hands.

Just then there was a knock on the compartment door and I looked up to see two people I didn't recognise. They both looked about our age and seemed unsure what they were doing (must be exchange students I mused). The boy, who was standing in front, was slim and tall with shoulder length silver hair, grey eyes and very pale skin he was wearing a plain shirt and jeans. The girl behind him had to be his sister. She was smaller than the boy though she was still rather tall and had long hair the same strange silver as her brother. Her eyes were wide and grey and I noticed that she looked a little nervous and kept sweeping hair from her eyes. She wore a simple black top and tight skinny jeans.

They were like duplicates of the same person in different genders.

"Excuse us; I don't suppose we could sit in here? All the other compartments are full" he said, his voice was cultured and had a faint German accent I recognised from one of my father's friends.

"Course, go ahead" Padfoot said moving his feet off the chair; his eyes were zeroed on the girl. I sniggered, Paddy was obviously eyeing up this new girl; there can't have been a girl in a year radius (excluding most of the Slytherins) that he hadn't dated at some point – the minx.

"I'm Lara Grey and this is my brother Alex" she said as they sat down – didn't I tell you they were siblings – she gave Sirius and odd calculation look before turning away.

Lara

So we ended up sitting in a compartment of boys throughout the journey and guess what? We seemed to have found the cockiest pair possible. Just our luck.

James Potter and Sirius Black seemed to believe everybody worshiped them. They were obviously intelligent from the careless talks of magic and the brief mentions of very advanced spells, much like the ones my brother and I would attempt in our dormitories when everyone had gone to sleep. They were jokers as well, constantly making and planning jokes and pranks on various teachers and students. And they were simply fun. There was no other word for it, they were fun. They made me forget about the war and the pain that I knew too much about and I could tell they did the same to my brother.

The other two, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were quieter. Remus had been reading a large book when we'd came in and though he'd put it away shortly after that. He remained distant from the rest of the conversations and stared out the window for a lot of the time. To me is almost felt as if he was nervous though, so maybe this wasn't his normal behaviour. Peter seemed like the classic tag along, desperate to be a part of the cool guys club.

Alex became instant friends with them, the marauders, as they told us later. Alex, in serious situations, is always the more cautious of the two of us. However, once he's at school with a bunch of mates he becomes the carefree and rule breaker while I stand by and role my eyes at his silly antics. It had been so long since I had seen this relaxed Alex, he had been avoiding most of the students at school all year.

"So, how come we haven't seen you around?" James asked me from across the compartment.

I exchanged glances with Alex. We were unsure how much we should tell the people we met at this new school. In our old school our parentage was fashionable to most and very few were publically against the Dark Lord.

"Well, we lived in Germany most of our lives and went to a private school there. Our parents wanted to move here... for a business opportunity" I hoped nobody noticed me hesitation, though the statement was basically true.

The boys nodded and I felt Alex relax.

Sirius, however, seemed to find this news strange and he was looking between us with a small frown.

"Why would you parents want to move here? I've heard it's fairly safe in Germany – apart from that mad man who's taken over" Alex instantly condensed into his caution and he subtly grasped my hand; that mad man was our father and it was obvious these boys were not supporters of the Dark Lord.

"We're not sure... we told them this was not a good time to be moving but, well... they aren't very rational" Alex said and I snorted. Everyone looked at me. Rational! More like moral! Oh, they thought they were being logical, picking the strongest side was their views but they'd forgotten their humanity in the process.

Alex squeezed my hand, I know.

Why do we have to have such stupid parents? Why do we still have to 'protect' them? We should just tell these people what a cruel person father is, what a cowardly mother we have! I don't want to defend and hide them!

I know.

Should we?

Let's wait; we don't know these people yet and we don't know how fast our words can travel to back to father.

Hrmph.

I could see his point, it just annoyed me. I continued to fume in silence and I took me a while to realise that our companions had been trying to speak to us during our conversation and were now exchanging confused looks.

On the side which wasn't Alex, Remus leant into me and said in a whisper:

"You don't seem to like your parents much"

I looked at the quiet studious boy next to me and shrugged, trying to forget the shiver that went up my back when his breath had tickled my cheek. He'd caught on very fast, that was for sure.

"How was your summer Padfoot?" Remus said straightening and I had the feeling he was trying to change the subject for the benefit of me and Alex.

"Well aside from running away last week... as fun as it ever is" he said, his voice darkening "although it did pick up when I changed Reg's hair gold and red, really made my dear mother really happy"

We all laughed though I had a felling there was something more to the joke.

"What house are you two gonna be in?" Sirius asked us.

"We don't know yet"

"I suspect we'll find out when we get there" I added.

"Although our parents want us to be Slytherin"

"Like them"

Everyone in the room cringed; they plainly weren't fond of Slytherin.

"Ugh, you don't wonna be in Slytherin"

"Yeah, you'd have to share a room with Snivellus, Alex"

Me and Alex looked at each other and smiled. We had always known we weren't like our parents and now the truth would come out and father would kill us, but at least we'd have friends.

"What houses are you lot in then" I asked curious. I didn't know much about the other houses, apart from Gryffindor which my parents hated.

"Gryffindor" said James proudly "we all are"

Figures...

Sirius was still looking at me; it was getting a little freaky. I mean, it's not that he wasn't good looking, on the contrary he was very handsome – with his black shoulder length hair and that dark look about him – but I didn't go for the boys who wanted to be the centre of attention all the time. Not to mention the fact I didn't even know him.

I met his eyes across the compartment and raised an eyebrow at him, throwing subtlety out of the window. His face broke out into a wolfish grin and he stretched himself out on the seat. Huh?

"My parents wanted me to be in Slytherin too, the whole family has been in that house. Bit of a shock when I got put in Gryffindor instead" Sirius smirked. Alex and I, caught in the same thought, laughed.

"Perhaps your parents can give ours some advice"

"When their only children get put into a different house"

"Although they might be a bad influence on each other"

The train journey continued. I found myself speaking to Remus, who they called Moony, and found him to be intelligent and insightful although he seemed to hide sadness in that brain of his that I couldn't figure out…