James POV
Padfoot and me were running late, as usual. Mum had tried to get me out of bed but hadn't been able to. I'm the only one who can get Padfoot out of bed. But that's only because I'm the only one he wants to beat up anyway. He never wanted to start a fight with my mum or dad or little sister. He ran away from his own family two years ago. They were all Slytherins until Padfoot came along. He's Griffindor. For the brave and the loyal. Most of the dark wizards are from Slytherin and most of the darkest wizards supporters are from there too. The current Dark wizard is Voldemort. He fights to get rd of all muggleborn wizards. He loves purebloods. So my family would be safe, as the potter line is pureblood, if my parents weren't aurors who wanted Voldemort's downfall. Padfoot's bloodline is pure too. The Blacks. Nearly all of them fight for Voldemort though. Sirius hates them all so he lives with us. That puts my family on his hit list as everyone in my house is hated. But also makes us safer as my parents can fight.
Anyway. We got to Kingscross station at five to eleven, we got on platform 93/4 two minute before the train was going to leave. On the platform a worried looking Remus met us. He is about my height but very skinny whilst Padfoot and me are Bigger built or 'toned' as Padfoot likes to call it. Stood next to Remus was a short looking boy with dirty blonde hair in a bowl cut. Peter was never really like the rest of us. Girls liked me Remus and Sirius but peter gave them the creeps. We together made the marauders. We pulled pranks and girls, well except Peter, and caused trouble whilst managing to still be in the top half of all our classed.
"So Moony, when's the next full moon?" Padfoot asked Remus. He's a werewolf and we take him out, as we're animagus. Werewolves don't attack other animals but do attack humans. Remus had looked startled by this question and replied
"It's in two weeks so no adventure in the first week for you." Padfoot's face fell and I must have looked a little disappointed. Mum came up behind me then and said
"Boys get on the train or it will leave without you. Your not that important to the train driver." She smiled sadly and hugged Padfoot and me. Forcing a kiss on both of our cheeks. We can fight off nearly anyone at school yet we can't stop my mother from kissing us. Weird.
We all ran for the train and started searching for a compartment. Luckily Remus' girlfriend is always on the train about ten minutes early so we just have to look for Lily Evans and her friends who had gained the title 'the marauders girls' no one went out with them without being questioned by us. They didn't like us being so protective though and sometimes Nora would go out with people just to annoy Padfoot.
"There!" Padfoot shouts. Anyone stood in the corridor turned to face us and we just ran towards the door, shoved our trunks in the racks and collapsed in various places.
Sirius collapses on a girl called Nora. He liked her but wouldn't admit it. The way he acted around was very amusing to watch. Remus sat down heavily next to Lily and Peter fell on the floor. He looked like a convenient seat, so I sat on him. He grunted so I was probably hurting him but he didn't fight to get me off him so I didn't move. When we had all been sat there for a few seconds I heard a voice that I didn't recognise say
"So these are the marauders. I was expecting people with better balance at least."
I stared at her dumbfounded. She was definitely new here. I would have noticed seeing her. Or hearing her depending on which came first. She had Blonde hair down past her shoulders and bright blue eyes. She was very pretty, that fit well as the other three girls in the compartment were the best looking at Hogwarts in my opinion and Padfoot's and Moony's. After staring at her for about five seconds I shook my head slightly and pulled myself together. No girl had ever made me speechless before. It was strange. I had paid attention at the right time as Sirius was smiling his smile that made every girl swoon at the new girl and said
"Girls you have picked up a stray. Why don't we know her?" Remus rolled his eyes at him and said
"The rest of us know her. It's just the fact that James and Peter couldn't wait to get a room and you were lying on Nora to ask about her." He smiled at the girl and she smiled back. When she smiled her eyes sparkled. They remind me of someone but I can't think who. Sirius was laughing and I think I was scowling. I normally do when I'm studying someone hard. Wait a minute why am I paying so much attention to this girl? I don't even know her name. She's looking at Remus with a smile but it doesn't seem real. She whispered something in Lily's ear and she smiled slightly. Then Lily pointed at Peter, who has just started grunting again so I got off him, and she said
"That's Peter." The only available seat was next to the girl. I think I might have blushed no one seemed to realise though.
While she looked at me for a few seconds, everyone had gone silent and she said
"Hey, I'm Violet. Violet Austin." She smiled but again it didn't quite seem real. The smile didn't meet her eyes. And for some reason unknown to me, I wanted to make that smile reach her eyes. That was my aim for this year. I wanted to make it better. There was an awkward silence and Sirius, being Sirius hated silences so decided to talk. But again, he is Sirius so the best he could come up with was
"So Prongsy, been practising Quidditch over the summer have you?" I rolled my eyes at him. He lived with me. My reply was a little sharper than planned
"Padfoot, you stayed at my house the whole of summer. Why the hell do you want to know something I've been forcing you to listen to for six weeks? And Moony, how come you know the new girl and we don't?" Damn, I can't believe I just called her new girl and didn't ask her about her. Either she'd kill me or just be silent. With that I could work out what she's like. She looked at Lily with a fake smile on her face and said
"Lily why didn't you tell me my name had been changed to new girl?" Lily just looked apologetic. Sirius looked like he was about to die from lack of oxygen, which normally would have been very funny, but I was too busy being shocked by the sharpness of her words. Clearly I offended her. That won't help me win her over. I realised that I would have to work for this girl. She was different. In a good way I think. Remus rolled his eyes at me for being so rude I think
"James, the reason I know Violet is because she stayed at Lily's for the last three weeks of the summer except for a few days. I visited on a few occasions." He shuddered at a memory and Lily and Violet grinned both muttering at the same time
"Tuney can be a little…abrupt." The started giggling and Remus looked horrified. I couldn't help but smile while looking at their faces. Again I saw her eyes sparkle and they reminded me of someone. I still couldn't remember who.
When they all came back to reality she looked at me with one eyebrow lightly raised. Something happened that hasn't happened in years. I blushed. This girl is a freak of nature. I make them blush not the other way around. I muttered
"Sorry Violet." I was trying to redeem myself but I don't think she fully heard me. She smiled at me. I think she has forgiven but…wait! Why do I care so much? I'm James Potter. Padfoot and me are the heartthrobs of Hogwarts. We have people drooling after us not vice versa. Again she did something completely unexpected, she carried on with her conversation from before we had arrived. Sirius and Me looked at her for a few seconds before joining in the conversation. It was about Quidditch. We had to. I didn't notice anything except our conversation till the food arrived.
I bought the entire tray with Padfoot. The witch likes us so didn't get angry but did say
"I should come to you boys last. Then I wouldn't have to restock so much would I" Padfoot and me gave her our signature smiles and she blushed. That's how it should be. When I turned back around I say a small smile on Violet's face and her eyebrow raised slightly. She was watching us. I wondered what she thought of me. Strange that I would care this much.
We had about an hour of the journey left when Nora asked Violet a really random question.
"You know when I asked you about Quidditch when you first got on the train, you mentioned tree surfing. What is it?" Everyone was staring at her and she coloured slightly. No one knew what it was so we were all curious.
"Well, tree surfing is…ummm…" she had a pause than started again.
"Have you ever been camping muggle style?" Everyone but Peter and me nodded. I would have to try it.
"Well you know you have to collect wood to burn?" again everyone else nodded.
"If you're stood at the top of a hill they basically you take a running jump at a thin tree and normally it will break leaving you falling down the hill on the tree. If you get good then you surf down the hill." She looked embarrassed as we all stared at her but after a few seconds Me, Sirius and Nora all started smiling and muttered
"Awesome… you have to teach me!" She laughed and again I was confused as to whose eyes she seemed to have. After laughing she said
"Okay. I promise that one day I'll take you to my favourite spot." I think I'll hold her to that.
We have just arrived at Hogwarts. My second home. I love it here. I love finding out about its secret passageways and exits. We all put on robes over our clothes except Violet. I shrugged and grabbed my trunk. While we were all getting off the train I saw the new head boy and girl trying to get the first years on the boats. They were failing badly. They had loads of first years trying to get into the same boat. Us, as we are the marauders, stood laughing at them. I turned around when I heard worried murmurings coming from the girls. We all spun around to see Violet being crowded by all the girls with a tear falling from her eye. My eyebrows creased in alarm and Padfoot and Moony both stared at me shocked. I was gonna get questioned later.
But as I thought that her eyes refocused and she smiled at Lily. Reassuring her that she was okay. But she wasn't. Why didn't Lily notice? She muttered
"Thestrals" Lily seemed to understand and nodded. Everyone looked awkward except peter and he was just generally oblivious. Just as someone was about to do something stupid to break the silence, we heard a huge crack. The sound of someone apparating. We all spun around to see the sound and stood next to a house elf was our headmaster. I have never seen him greet us off the train before. But before too much time had gone by, Violet jogged up to him and said
"Hey uncle Al. How's it going being headmaster and all." He smiled at her and ruffled her hair. Everyone on the platform was silent and if they weren't already, someone would give them a hard stare. Dumbledore seemed to notice this and said
"Everyone continue." But everyone just stared at the two people. Violet rolled her eyes and shouted
"Alright, back to your own lives." Everyone seemed to notice that it wasn't actually that strange for the headmaster to have a family. They all shrugged so we all walked towards the carriages leaving Violet and Dumbledore and the house elf on the platform. Within minutes we heard another crack and they were gone. We were off to Hogwarts.