Chapter 3

James' POV

James could only stand in wonder as he stared at the massive scarlet train that stood, steam billowing out from the engine, before him. He was only startled out of his awestruck daydreaming by his mother shoving him forward towards the train to board.

"Hurry up! The train is leaving soon and you need to find a compartment!" she said over the noise of the train and the other families saying goodbye to each other. James was walking to the train and saying goodbye to his mother when he knocked into something soft and fell over with his trunk.

"Ouch!" the figure on the ground said. Looking down James saw a girl with brilliant red hair and startling green eyes.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to knock you over." James held his hand out to the girl. She tentatively took it and stood up only to be almost knocked over by a boy with rather greasy hair and a hooked nose.

"Lily! Are you alright? Are you hurt?" the boy asked looking all over the girl that James assumed to be Lily.

"I'm alright, Sev. Just a mistake. Er…" she looked at James expectantly.

"James." He stated

"Right, James just ran into me on accident." Lily said with a friendly smile at James

"Well don't let it happen again." The greasy boy said with a sneer at James. James decided that he didn't really like this kid. "Come on Lily, let's go get a compartment and I'll tell you all about the houses." And with that, the two were gone.

Sighing, James boarded the train and tried to find an empty compartment. The only decent looking one was one with a boy about his age with a sunken face, pale skin, and light brown hair who looked completely engrossed in a book.

"Er, hello? Can I sit in here?" he asked the boy. He looked up from his book seemingly startled that James was talking to him.

He hesitantly replied "Sure… I'm Remus by the way. Remus Lupin." James smiled in a warm way and held out his hand to Remus.

"I'm James Potter." The two boys shook hands and settled into an easy conversation before the door to the compartment opened where a boy with wavy black hair that reached his shoulders and brilliant grey eyes stood looking confidently at them both.

"Hi. I'm Sirius. Can I sit in here with you two?"

"Sure, I'm James and this is Remus." The boy settled into the compartment and with the simple small talk over and pleasantries, the three boys began to really know each other.

"So you're a Black that doesn't want to be in Slytherin?" asked James. He had little respect for the Black family seeing as the lot of them were bigoted toe rags, but Sirius seemed different. Like someone he could get along with.

A sour look overcame Sirius' face. "No. I want nothing to do with what my family considers appropriate." There was an awkward silence before Sirius spoke up. "So what house do you want to be in, Remus?"

Remus looked abashed for a second before he mumbled just loud enough for the other two to hear "I don't really care as long as I'm sorted."

"Well why wouldn't you be sorted mate?" James asked. "You know, I bet we all make it into a good house. As long as none of us are in Slytherin, we should be good."

"Slytherin is better than you will ever get." Said a voice from the open compartment door. There stood the boy with greasy hair. James couldn't even remember his name, but he remembered his initial dislike of the boy. "Slytherins are for the clever people, which you certainly are not.

James was about to protest when Sirius jumped into the argument.

"But seeing as you are not smart, kind, brave, or clever… what house do you expect to be in? With the house elves?" The red headed girl from behind the rude, greasy boy said something for the first time since James met her on the platform.

"That was rather unnecessary. Come on Severus. We're going to find another compartment. One without such rude passengers." And off the two unlikely friends, in James' mind anyhow, went away and disappeared down the corridor.

"That was rude." Remus piped up from his seat opposite James and Sirius.

"He started it!" Sirius protested.

"Yeah! What was his name? Snivellus?" James asked? At this all three boys busted out in laughter.

A sudden knock on the compartment window stopped their uproar of laughter. A plump boy with small, watery blue eyes and mousey brown hair stood in the doorway.

"Can I sit in here with you three? I got the feeling that the lads from the other compartment were saying rude things about me so I left but all of the other compartments were full."

James spoke up first.

"Sure thing! I'm James, this here is Sirius, and that's Remus." They each took turns shaking Peter's hand as he sat next to Remus. James could tell he was a shy boy and wasn't very comfortable in a compartment full of strangers so he started talking about the one thing he was an expert in: Quidditch. Though his hopes fell short when he found out the Peter didn't know much on the subject. It became his and Sirius' personal goal suddenly to teach Peter and surprisingly Remus as well all there was to know about the sport.

After the lengthy teaching session and a few games of exploding snap James decided he could trust his new mates with his plan. "So I was wondering… would you lads be up to pulling a prank when we get to the castle?" Sirius looked like he was waiting for James to ask this question all his life.

"What did you have in mind?" Remus asked. James could tell that he would be the logical one of the group.

"So here's what I came up with so far: when the feast is going on, we need to prank the entire school. My dad told me there is a beginning of the year feast every year. What we need is a spell that will make the food fly around and follow people and hit them!"

The other three boys looked absolutely delighted but then Peter ruined their excitement with the one question they were all asking in their heads. "But what spell are we going to use? We don't know any magic yet." At this all four boys looked at each other in distress. All of a sudden Remus shot up and started rifling through his trunk above their heads and pulled out one of their course books.

"I know! There's a charm in here that we can use! I already tried it and I haven't gotten it yet, but if we all practice and work together we should master it by the time we get to the castle!" The four boys looked at Remus with surprised looks. "What? I read the course books over the summer. I want to get good grades."

"You can get that by studying mate, but who cares. Now we have a spell!" James said. And with that the four of them practiced by sending chocolate frogs to chase other students as they walked down the corridor. By the time they reached the platform in Hogsmeade Station, they had mastered the spell and were looking innocent as ever in their Hogwarts Uniforms with all of the other students.