Note: Everything from the Harry Potter books comes from J.K. Rowling. I own nothing.
September 1st 1971
James bounced ahead of his parents nearly running towards the scarlet train. His father, who was pulling James' luggage, chuckled at his son's expanding excitement. Fleamont remembered his days at Hogwarts with astounding clarity considering they had taken place quite some time ago. They finally reached the steam engine and James turned to his parents with hesitation in his eyes for the first time. "Be good, make new friends, and for pity's sake, try to learn something" Euphemia said as she hugged her son tightly. James turned to his dad, and was unprepared for the emotion that he saw brimming behind his deep blue eyes. "These will be some of best years of your life. I am sure of it, but we will miss you while you are gone." Fleamont gave his son a tight squeeze around the shoulders and handed over the cart of luggage. "Be sure to write. We love you!" Euphemia added as her son gathered his luggage.
James turned towards the train with a final wave and swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat. Christmas suddenly seemed a long way off. At that moment, he caught the eye of a black-haired boy that was gleefully racing towards the train. The boy put a finger to his lips and quietly pulled what looked like a dozen toy soldiers out of his pocket. As soon as the toys were free among the crowd, they climbed jackets and trunks shouting nonsensical orders at the crowd. James watched as a blonde boy with a shiny P badge on his chest was accosted by three toy soldiers that were demanding he promptly do some jumping jacks. James grinned broadly at the mayhem, and his homesickness was completely forgotten.
He pulled his luggage over to the black haired boy and stood saluting him. "James Potter at your service sir!" James said in his best drill sergeant voice. The boy grinned and barked back "At ease, soldier". Both boys burst into laughter.
"I'm Sirius. Reckon we should find a compartment?" the boy asked, and they helped each other load their luggage onto the train still rather giggly. The boys had a tough time finding a compartment. Nearly all of them were full or occupied by older students that looked like the sort who shouldn't be disturbed. They finally found a compartment near the back that had three other first years in it. There was dark red-haired girl who was crying softly in the corner and two boys who seemed to be debating offering up some sort of comfort.
Sirius and James would generally avoid this kind of situation, but every other compartment seemed full. They unceremoniously dumped their luggage and introduced themselves. The girl told them her name was Lily, but didn't seem in the mood to talk more. The short blonde boy who looked unsure of himself was named Peter, and the boy with light brown hair and thin scars crossing his face was Remus. They all seemed a little awkward and unsure of what to do about the presence of a sniffling girl. James decided to break the silence.
"Where did you get those toy soldiers?" He asked. "I found them on our street this summer after a muggle boy dropped them. My uncle Alphard helped me enchant them when I stayed with him."
"Wow, you did that. That's really advanced" Remus looked impressed. "One of them climbed my mum's jacket" Peter added unexpectedly. Sirius looked a little abashed "I'm sorry mate". Peter was smiling though, the memory of the tiny green man marching up his mother's coat was clearly amusing him. They all began to boisterously swap anecdotes about the army men, and the conversation turned naturally to pranks. It seemed that James and Sirius had quite a few shenanigans under their belt, but Remus and Peter hadn't found the joys of troublemaking yet. James joked about corrupting them, and Remus surprised himself by nodding.
Remus was shocked with how easy he found the conversation. It had been so long since he had talked to other children that he was a little surprised he remembered how. Remus knew that he would have to be careful to not get too close to anyone. It would be too dangerous if his secret got out. He didn't see much harm in being friendly with these boys though, after all, it was pretty unlikely that they would end up in the same house.
He had been so focused on his loud conversation with the other boys that he hadn't even noticed the sallow faced boy with lank hair walk in. Remus heard the new boy loudly telling Lily that she should be in Slytherin. He thought that was an odd choice of house, but supposed that every house had its benefits.
"Slytherin?" James exclaimed with obvious disgust. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" James asked Sirius. Sirius looked extremely uncomfortable. He had avoided telling James his last name hoping this subject wouldn't come up. "My whole family have been in Slythern" he said. "Blimey, and I thought you seemed all right!" James replied. Sirius let himself smile. James hadn't turned on him yet. "Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?" James beamed and answered with a theatric voice "Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart! Like my dad."
The boy with the limp hair had been forgotten until this point. He made a disparaging noise, and James turned angrily on him. "Got a problem with that?" he snapped. Snape sneered at him "No, If you'd rather be brawny than brainy"
"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" Sirius shot back. He already felt incredibly protective of his new friends. Lily sat up looking angry at the two boys. Now it was her friends being attacked. "Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment." Lily said before leading the boy away. "See ya, Snivellus!" James yelled as a parting shot at the boy's retreating back. Remus was surprised at how quickly that had escalated. He began to worry about saying the wrong thing to these boys once more.
The tension filled the compartments for a few more minutes. James murmured a small "thanks" in Sirius' direction and conversation slowly returned. By the time the trolley came a few minutes later, the boys were laughing loudly again. They all bought treats from the trolley and James and Sirius bought several kinds of candy to stockpile for the year ahead. They ate candy and talked about everything from quidditch to muggle rock bands until the train puffed to a halt at a small dark platform. The boys had finally arrived at Hogwarts.
A/N:dungbombacidpops- The differences in the years were just a typo. That's what I get for late night writing. Thanks for reviewing and pointing it out!