The first day of term dawned clear, and bright, the weather surprisingly pleasant for the time of the year, and James was awake with the dawn chorus to welcome it in.

Despite a later than expected bedtime the night before, the eldest Potter child had found himself unable to get back to sleep, so he had risen from bed and holed himself up in one of the dorms window seats to watch the dawning of the day.

As the sky finally faded from a dusty pink to a clear azure, he examined the mixed emotions which had kept him awake. He was excited of course, but the excitement was countered with strong nerves, and the uneasy feeling that hadn't quite left him since Matt's comment about his dad yesterday.

Well, he decided, I'm not going to feel any better sitting here doing nothing.

Hauling himself from the window, he dressed quietly so as not to wake the others, grabbed his bag and, after some deliberation, the map.

It was only as he had descended to the common room that he realised he had no idea what he was going to do for the two hours until everyone else awoke. However, once he reached the common room, he was surprised to discover that he wasn't the only one awake.

A tall, thin girl was sat curled in one of the sofas which sat beside the now empty fireplace. As she sat reading, James thought that she would be remarkably non-descript if it weren't for her hair. It had been cut into a kind of choppy bob, and was, he noted, red. Not ginger, actually red, the kind of red that colour change charms could never hope to replicate. She's either some kind of Metamorphmagus, he thought, or very familiar with muggle hair dyes.

As he stepped into the room proper, his foot caught against the edge of a table, and the normally quiet noise echoed round the room like a thunder-clap. The girl looked up from her book, and noticing his arrival, closed it.

"Hi," she said with a friendly smile at James. He noted absently that the book appeared to be a brand new copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. "Couldn't sleep either?"

James, having been caught off-guard, made a non-committed sort of grunt that could have been taken as affirmation.

Apparently the girl did, because it her previous question was immediately followed by another. "Did you want to sit together?"

"No!" James responded more forcefully than required, catching both of them by surprise. Something about the girl's steady gaze was making him nervous, something about the way she seemed to be examining everything her eyes fell on, including, in this case, James himself. "I mean, no, thank you. I was just going to the – er -" he cast his eyes round desperately, finally alighting on an abandoned piece of parchment, which reminded him of the letter he had written, and was currently somewhere in his bag waiting to be posted. "To the owlery."

Looking back at the girl, he offered an apologetic smile, but she just shrugged, unperturbed by James' peculiar behaviour, and returned to her book.

So James, having left himself no option, was forced to exit the common room, and head to the owlery, all before six in the morning.

As James started in on his second round of toast, he reflected on his fortunate decision to take the map with him. The owlery hadn't been as easy to find as he had expected, and trying to find his way to the Great Hall form there had proved especially difficult since the stair-cases appeared to move most enthusiastically - and confusingly - first thing in the morning.

However, it had meant that he had been able to send his letter off much sooner than he had expected. He may, he realised, even get a reply as soon as tomorrow morning if his new owl, Horatio, was as fast as the man at Eeylops Owl Emporium had promised he was.

James was pulled from his reverie when Matt flung himself down next to him, and grabbed a piece of toast.

"Where were you this morning? It took us ages to find the hall without you…" he whined as Michael and Daniel took seats opposite them, deeply involved in whatever they were discussing whilst, albeit subtly, shooting James furtive glances.

Brushing aside the other boys' behaviour, he turned to Matt. "I woke up early, and couldn't get back to sleep. I'm sure it wasn't that hard to find the hall."

Judging by Matt's look, it was. But he was prevented from saying anything as Professor Longbottom had reached the boys, and was in the process of handing out timetables.

Extracting James', he offered him a grin, which James was quick to return, until the Professor rounded it off with a pointed comment. "Gotten into any trouble yet, James?"

"Of course not Ne – er – Professor Longbottom!" James responded, affronted.

"Won't be long though, knowing what you're like."

James turned back to his toast, and tried to scowl angrily at it, but knowing the validity of the professor's comment, failed. Shoving the remaining piece into his mouth, he leant towards Matt, and spread his timetable out on the table.

"So," he said, tracing his finger along the column for Monday, "It looks like we've got Transfiguration with the slytherins, then Charms with the hufflepuffs this morning, and then double Herbology with the slytherins again in the afternoon."

"Hmm," responded Matt, without looking up. Clearly, he was not a morning sort of person.

James and Matt arrived in time, if not slightly early, for Transfiguration. James would have happily put it down as being due to his superior navigation skills, but in reality, they had left breakfast early in order to collect their books, and find their way there.

And so the boys had managed to get a good table – in the middle near, but not at, the front of the class. They chatted happily as the rest of the class gradually trickled in until it was only Professor Moneypenny that they were waiting for.

When she arrived, all of the gryffindor first years immediately fell silent, but the slytherins, perhaps expecting some sort of special treatment, continued to talk.

Thus, Professor Moneypenny announced the beginning of her teaching career at Hogwarts with "Ten points from Slytherin, and it will be more if you continue to talk."

James and Matt exchanged a glance, eyebrows raised. James was impressed; his dad had warned him that some teachers could be a little biased, and he had certainly heard enough about the old head of Slytherin House from when his parents had been at school.

They soon discovered, however, that Professor Moneypenny was not like Snape, nor was she like Slughorn. It appeared that she didn't have favourites, or, at least, you had to work hard to become a favourite.

She was also a practical teacher. Unlike McGonagall, Moneypenny believed that the best method of education was the hands-on approach. And so she immediately started off the class by placing the students into pairs, so that they could work on turning a match into a needle.

Matt was happy to discover that he'd be paired with Michael, and immediately turned in his chair to flash the quiet boy a grin.

"James Potter, you'll be paired with Ali Tennison." James looked up at the mention of his name, and turned in his chair to see who he had been paired with, only to be met with a familiar gaze.

It turned out that Ali was a muggle-born witch, with a wicked sense of humour, and more quirks than James had ever imagined was possible. He also found that you soon got over her unusual way of watching the world, and that, like Matt, he really enjoyed her company.

However, as they traipsed out of the Transfiguration classroom, laughing hysterically at an anecdote of one of Ali's more unusual instances of underage magic, he had to acknowledge the fact that neither of them had shown any early signs of talent in Transfiguration. Their match had stubbornly refused to become anything other than a match.

Matt, on the contrary, was brimming with excitement when they met him in the corridor just outside of the classroom.

"Did you see?" He asked without so much of a greeting.

James smiled good-naturedly, and clapped him on the back. He had, afterall, seen, just as everyone else in the class had. Matt had been the first in the class to make a passable needle from his match, a point which Professor Moneypenny had not let slide. Matt looked well on his way to becoming the professor's star pupil, and had earned Gryffindor twenty points in the process.

The three walked along in a comfortable silence, heading in what they hoped was the general direction of the charms classroom.

Eventually, Ali was the one to break the silence. "Do either of you actually know where we're going?" she asked, humour evident in her voice. Both the boys turned hopefully to her, but she was quick to dash their hope. "Because I certainly don't."

There was an awkward moment where they all just looked at each other, before Matt turned to James. "What was it you were saying earlier about being a master of navigation or something?"

James scowled at his friend, and spun to face the corridor in the vague hope that some sort of sign would appear to guide them on their way, only to come face-to-face with Teddy.

Teddy just quirked an eyebrow, and asked, somewhat directly, "Lost?"

With Teddy's help, they made their way to charms just in time. When they reached the classroom, they were greeted by a smiling Professor Flitwick, who ushered them into the classroom after thanking Teddy for showing them the way.

Looking around the room, they found that the only remaining spaces were on a table, empty but for one girl. Taking their seats, James sat next to the girl, recognising her a beat too late.

She turned to him, a broad smile splitting her face, and opened her mouth to say something which James was sure would be highly embarrassing, but, once again, he was saved by Flitwick. Turning to the professor, subconsciously shifting as far away from Emily as possible, he leant on his hand, and tried to ignore her unrelenting study of him.

Unfortunately, Flitwick's lecture finished only too soon, and he set the class to work in their tables on defining and explaining what they understood by the study of charms.

Seizing her opportunity, Emily opened her mouth. "So, James – that is your name isn't it?" James simply nodded weakly, overwhelmed by her enthusiasm. "It's good that we've gotten another chance to talk, don't you think? I must admit, I was quite disappointed when we weren't put in the same house, but what can you do, hey?"

James continued to stare vacantly at her, only tearing his gaze away when she nudged him on the elbow, and even then, he only looked at said elbow.

This though, was evidently too much for Ali and Matt to bear, and they burst into the giggles which they had, until then, been successfully repressing.

Noticing this, Emily rounded on them. "I don't know what you think is so funny," she began, "But we are trying to have a serious conversation here." And she turned back to James, with what looked suspiciously like a flutter of her eyelashes.

The inflexion on 'we', however, was apparently too much for Matt to withstand, and he dissolved into nothing short of hysterics. Despite her companion's laughter, Ali regained her composure, and in a move that James was forever grateful for, shoehorned her way into the conversation.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry to interrupt you," she stated, he voice laced so thickly with sarcasm that Emily looked like she'd been slapped, "But I would quite like to get on with the work set."

Clearly torn between glaring daggers at Ali, and actually saying something, Emily ended up with her mouth hanging open, and her eyes semi-narrowed. She also, somehow, missed the stage-worthy wink that Ali flashed at James. Eventually, Emily closed her mouth, and leaned over to whisper in James' ear.

"Don't worry, we'll finish this conversation later. In private."

The girl already intimidated James, but the intention behind her words had the eleven-year old swallowing in abject terror, and widening his eyes in panic at Ali.

Ali however, succumbed to her building giggles again, and left James to fend for himself.