"Mum, mum, please," James said, struggling to get out of his mother's grasp as she tried to kiss him. "I'm going to be all right."

"Oh!" she exclaimed, dropping James's arm and wiping away at her eyes. James thought of taking the opportunity to run and board the scarlet train, which sat chugging on the platform, but he knew his mother would never forgive him if he did. "I can't believe my little boy is going off to Hogwarts already!"

Mr. Potter sighed reminiscently. "I remember my first day at Hogwarts. Hagrid was there then, too." He smiled, tearfully as well, at his wife and put his arm around her. "I met your mum there, did you know that James?"

James nodded his head. He knew very well. He was tempted into pulling out his newest issue of Which Broomstick? while his father told the story again, but he didn't. However, James heard that raspy little voice again, and was somewhat relieved and angry at the same time.

"James, James!" Peter Pettigrew called, running to where James stood with his parents. "How's it going?"

"Good," James said reluctantly, giving a look to his father, but Mrs. Potter was utterly delighted.

She smiled widely and exclaimed, "Now who is your little friend, James?"

"Peter Pettigrew," James said, with a bored note in his voice. "He's in my year."

Mrs. Potter looked a little shock, obviously fooled by Peter's height, but exclaimed, "Oh, how nice! I suppose I don't have to worry about you being away all that much, now do I? Since your friend Peter will be with you. How nice." She smiled again, but still tearful, and hugged Mr. Potter around the waist. "Well," she said, her voice choking, "you'd best be off then!" She kissed James's cheek one last time and hugged him tightly. Mr. Potter picked up James's owl's cage and handed it to him. Godric, James's tawny owl that he had named after the founder of Gryffindor, opened a sleepy eye to look at James.

"Wow!" Peter exclaimed, as if he had never seen an owl before.

A young wizard dressed in scarlet robes that matched the train came up to James and took Godric from him, and another came to wheel James's trunk away. James turned to his mother and father and said with a smile, "Bye."

His father walked him and Peter to the stairs of the train. Peter hopped on first, and James followed. "Now you have a good term," his father said, "and don't get in to much trouble and make sure to write. Or else your mother won't stop crying."

James laughed, "She'll be so busy with BERP that she probably won't remember me when school ends."

Mr. Potter laughed too, and gave James a little push. "We'll see you at Christmas," he said.

"See you, Dad." James turned and went to follow Peter onto the train. James pushed past Peter and elbowed his way through the crowd of children on the train, trying to lose him in the crowd, but when James found a half-empty compartment and tried to close the door, Peter's foot got caught in the door and held it open. James sighed, and threw himself down on a seat across from a tall, shaggy-haired boy and a skinny, very pale boy.

"Good thing I caught up with you," Peter panted as he plopped down next to James, who was waving to his parents through the window. Peter saw them and began to wave as well. James could see Mr. Potter laugh. "There's a lot of kids on this train."

James didn't answer, but pulled out his copy of Which Broomstick? and began to read. Peter continued to ramble, and the tall, shaggy boy across from James asked, "You play?" and gestured to the magazine.

"When I get the chance," James said, grinning. The shaggy-haired boy grinned back, and spread out as far as he could on the seat. Just then, the train gave three whistled and began to move. Peter let out an excited squeal, and the dark-haired boy laughed at him. James waved to his parents again, and then settled back into his magazine.

"Me, too," the boy said again. "What position?"

"Seeker," said James. "I wanted to bring my broomstick, but it wasn't allowed."

"Ha!" said the boy. "I wouldn't have let that stop me." James grinned. A rule-breaker, just like himself. The boy looked as if he would make a good friend.

The rule-breaker twisted to look at the pale boy next to him, who, James noticed, had incredibly good posture and looked as if he had never broken a rule in his life. "You play?"

"No," said the pale boy. "My mum doesn't allow it."

James frowned. "Hey!" he exclaimed, suddenly remembering where he had seen the pale boy before. "You were in Magical Menagerie, that one time I was there buying ants! You and your mum," James added.

The pale boy's cheeks turned pink. "I'm there a lot," he said. "I'm Remus. Remus Lupin."

James grinned. "James Potter."

The rule-breaker sat up with a smile. "Sirius Black."

"Cool," said James. The four sat in silence, until Peter piped up.

"I'm Peter. Peter Pettigrew!"

James shot a look at Peter. "I know," he said, a bit arrogantly. Sirius laughed, and even Remus managed a smile. The boys were silent for a while, and James suddenly heard a sniffing noise coming from beside the window. He looked up, and saw a small little girl staring out the window, and James could see her reflection wiping away tears.

"Hey," he said quietly, recognizing her as the little redhead girl in Ollivander's. "What's wrong?"

She didn't answer him, but kept on sniffing. Just then, the door opened and James also recognized the boy with the greasy hair who had accompanied the little redhead in the wand shop. He had abandoned his flowery smock and was already wearing his Hogwarts robes. Severus, as the girl had called him, walked into the compartment and sat across from Lily.

She glanced up, and then looked away from the boy. James watched eagerly, while the other boys were watching, uninterested, as Peter showed Sirius and Remus his chocolate frog card collection.

"I don't want to talk to you."

Severus looked confused. "Why not?"

Lily looked up, tears still streaming out of her eyes. James wanted to comfort her. "Tuney hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore."

Severus snorted sarcastically. He had thought it was worse than that. "So what?"

Lily stood up, indignantly, towering over Severus. "She's my sister!"

Severus fell silent, and Lily sat back down, wiping at her eyes. "She's only a—" But he caught himself, throwing a look towards Lily. "But we're going! This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!" James saw the Lily girl raise her head and give a little smile towards Severus. Severus said, in a hushed tone, "You'd better be in Slytherin."

James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all looked up. A few cards fell out of Peter's hands. "Slytherin?" James repeated distastefully, remembering all the terrible things Mr. Potter had told his son about. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" he asked Sirius.

But Sirius suddenly had a look of worry on his face, and he said quietly, "All my family have been in Slytherin." Peter smiled at Sirius, apparently to cheer him up, but Sirius just scowled in his direction and Peter scrambled to pick up the dropped cards.

"Blimey," James said with a laugh, so Sirius would know he was joking, "and I thought you were all right."

"Maybe I'll break the tradition," said Sirius, who had stooped to pick up a chocolate frog card and found it to be one of Salazar Slytherin himself. Severus and Lily had fallen silent, watching the boys. "Which house do you want to be in?"

Peter made to answer, reaching for the Slytherin card, but James cut him off. "Gryffindor, like my dad!" Severus snorted sarcastically. James looked up and shot him a look of disgust. "You got a problem with that?"

"Sure," said Severus, sneering at James. "Gryffindor's fine, if you'd rather be brawny than brainy—"

Sirius, who was trying to keep the card out of Peter's reach, interrupted Severus, "Where're you hoping to go then, seeing as you're neither?" James laughed loudly, and Remus gave a small "Ha!" of laughter, too.

But Lily was horrified. She stood on her feet, giving all four boys a look of such deep hatred that even Peter, who had hardly laughed at all, cringed. "Come on, Severus," she said.

"Oooo," James and Sirius mocked, James suddenly hating her for standing up for Severus. She got up and Sirius let her past, but James stuck out his foot when Severus tried to get out and sent him sprawling to the floor. Sirius howled with laughter while Remus looked a little uncomfortable. Peter laughed because James did.

Lily gave all of them the look again and ran out of the compartment, Severus at her heels. "See ya, Snivellus!" Sirius called, throwing Peter's Slytherin card at Severus's back. He got up and slammed the door, almost tripping over Peter, who had dived to the floor to pick up the fallen card.

Peter scrambled back into his seat, Sirius and Remus and James all grinning, knowing that the start of a very tight friendship had just formed. Peter tutted quietly as he tried to bend the corners of the Slytherin card back into place, and Sirius asked him, "Why do you even have that card, anyway?"

Peter looked up innocently, and said, glancing back and forth between the three boys, "It's for my collection."

James laughed and settled back into his seat.