Sorry for the long wait! I was gone last weekend and couldn't upload this chapter.
The Notice
On the morning of the start of term, James awoke feeling both excited and apprehensive for the day ahead; finally, after months of waiting, he would be able to see his roommates face-to-face and catch up with them on the Hogwarts Express. As soon as his eyes opened, he jumped out of bed and secured Hardwin in his cage, afterwards quickly pulling on his robes and dragging his suitcase downstairs. Joining his parents in the dining room for a quick breakfast, James kept catching furtive glances from his father behind the morning edition of The Daily Prophet, the looks always suddenly cutting off whenever James' mother looked up or said something to one of her companions. When the family house-elf, Winthrop, appeared from the kitchen and took away their empty plates, James' father finally set down his paper as his wife stood and followed Winthrop to the other room.
"Have you packed everything?" James' father asked rather loudly, and Winthrop turned to give him a suspicious look before walking reluctantly into the kitchen. When James nodded, his father glanced around to make sure that his wife had disappeared before leaning in. "The Invisibility Cloak, too?"
"Yeah," James answered. Nodding satisfactorily, his father leaned back and picked up The Daily Prophet again, its pages ruffling as they opened. After a moment, he began whistling a song by one of his favorite bands, The Kelpie Whisperers; this was something he never did unless holding back information.
"Why do you ask?" James finally questioned suspiciously.
"Oh, no reason," his father replied nonchalantly, scanning the paper. "It just must be hard for you when your friends don't write throughout the whole summer. In fact, it's almost like you're invisible to them, you might say."
A grin slowly crawled across James' face as Winthrop's head popped out of the kitchen with a judgmental scowl. "This is why Master Fleamont has no friends."
"True," James' father answered with a smile, making James laugh just as his mother entered the room.
"What's so entertaining?" she asked cheerfully, busying herself with the leftover dishes.
"Nothing, just in a good mood," James replied, throwing himself off of his chair while Winthrop gave a huff and disappeared inside of the kitchen again.
"I'm glad to hear it," his mother told him, smiling knowingly and ruffling his black hair before he could run off. "Don't forget to grab your school supplies!"
"Already done!" he answered, breaking away and jogging for the door to the hallway.
In a little over half an hour, he and his parents had exited their house and had headed for the underground railway station near the center of Godric's Hollow, which was surrounded by a myriad of private businesses and a small playground. Entering a Muggle train car, they made several transfers before arriving in a heavily-populated section of London, where they took a short walk to King's Cross Station. As they stood between Platforms Nine and Ten, they waited for a break in the flow of Muggle passengers before rushing towards the metal wall together and melting through it without a scratch to arrive at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Puffing before them, the scarlet Hogwarts Express sat gleaming in the station, surrounded by hundreds of other students and their families.
As they walked closer to the train, James eagerly searched the faces of the crowd for his roommates, but he did not spot any of them in the mass of people. Disappointed, he turned back to his mother as she bent down to hug him.
"Stay safe, okay?" she requested.
"Mum, it's Hogwarts! What's there to be safe from?" James asked, pulling away from her embrace with embarrassment and smoothing down his robes. He watched as she gave him an apologetic smile, but she afterwards glanced nervously in the direction where he had just been searching for his friends; scowling as he remembered their conversation about Sirius, he crossed his arms.
"You'd be surprised!" his father answered, apparently oblivious to his son's frustration, and he ruffled James' wild hair affectionately. "I swear I once saw a werewolf at the edge of the Forbidden Forest."
"I'll be fine," James insisted, uselessly trying to make his uncooperative hair lie flat against his head. When he glared up at his father, he caught a subtle wink at his suitcase and nodded back with a grin, suddenly excited.
"Have a good year, James!" his mother told him, and he waved goodbye before hurriedly turning away to climb into the Hogwarts Express.
Once inside, he stepped away from the doorway to extract the Invisibility Cloak from his suitcase, slipping it on while the rest of the returning students remained on the platform and made their final goodbyes. When James disappeared underneath the Cloak, the train gave a piercing whistle, which sounded across the entire station, and the loitering students outside began to file in. Standing against the far wall of the train so that no one would accidentally run into him, James waited for a glimpse of one of his roommates. Soon enough, he jumped upright with a rush of excitement as Sirius passed in front of him and sought an empty compartment, all the while glancing around as if looking for someone. Quietly tiptoeing forward, James creeped after him as Sirius entered a free compartment and began placing his belongings on the overhead racks. Hardly daring to breathe, James crouched and readied for the pounce.
"Hi, Sirius!"
Suddenly, someone ran belly-first into James' invisible back, and James fell forward with a cry of surprise, ramming into Sirius and sending him to the floor as well. After struggling against the chaos of flailing limbs, James managed to turn around and identify his unwitting assailant as Peter, who now lay sprawled on top of him. Shoving James' torso back in a sort of panic, Sirius accidentally ripped off the Invisibility Cloak's hood from over his friend's head and immediately stopped squirming.
"James!" he exclaimed with a broad grin.
"Oh, hi, James!" Peter greeted as well, beaming despite his uncomfortable position on top of the other two. Once they had all struggled free, Sirius greeted James with a strong, brief hug before stepping back.
"What were you doing?" he asked.
"I was going to surprise you," James admitted, grinning widely before crossing his arms interrogatively. "Why haven't you written to me all summer?"
"I'm really sorry about that," Sirius apologized. "I meant to reply to your first letter as soon as I got it, but my family started asking questions after Hardwin flew in. I knew I had to play it safe to get permission to come for Christmas, so I locked my window and put a basket outside for your letters. I've been reading them over and over again all summer, but sending replies would have made my parents even more difficult. They don't trust people they've never met."
"So?" James prodded.
"I finally did it!" Sirius exclaimed happily. "I waited until my Uncle Alphard was visiting, and asked if I could visit you for Christmas when he was talking with my parents at the dinner table. My father immediately said yes just to get rid of me."
"Great!" James responded, and he turned to see Peter standing between them, having listened to the conversation dutifully.
"Maybe I can ask my mum if I can visit, too!" he suggested excitedly.
Sirius threw James a glance, but James shrugged relentingly. "Sure, why don't all of you come over? Speaking of which, have you two seen Remus?" he asked.
"Not yet," Sirius answered, hoisting his suitcase up to the overhead racks yet again as the Hogwarts Express gave another whistle and began chugging forward. "I didn't see any of you on the platform."
"I almost missed the train," Peter said as he put his belongings away. "There was a baggage mix-up at my house, and I didn't get here until a minute before the whistle blew." His brow furrowed worriedly, and he conjectured, "Remus might have gotten here late, too. Do you think we should find him?"
"Nah," Sirius dismissed, sinking down onto one of the padded benches. "He'll find us eventually. I don't want to move."
"Oh, I left my luggage out there," James remembered in annoyance, glancing towards the door.
"I'll get it for you!" Peter volunteered, rushing out of the compartment. Gratefully seating himself across from Sirius, James put his feet up on the opposite bench.
"Tell me about your summer," he commanded airily, waving a hand.
"Not much to tell," Sirius replied. "Just a lot of sitting around and wishing I could leave the house. The most exciting part is when I convinced my dad to let me go to Diagon Alley with my mum when she got school supplies. I couldn't find anything to do; I even had to read a few times."
Lugging James' suitcase and Hardwin's cage into the compartment, Peter had to stand on the benches to put the items away. Lazily watching his efforts, James asked Sirius, "So, have you heard much about Professor Rainhill?"
"I tracked his progress as much as I could, but The Daily Prophet didn't have much to say about him," Sirius answered. "It's starting to look like he'll never wake up. I wonder who will teach Defense Against the Dark Arts this year."
"Whoever it is, I hope he does a better job than Rainhill," James joked. "It was like he was bored of his own class."
"He was worse than you in History of Magic," Sirius agreed, laughing.
"Look who's talking!" James protested.
Sitting down next to James, Peter said, "I actually fell asleep once, and I nearly fell off of my chair. Professor Binns didn't notice."
"Neither did I," Sirius said, "so I must have been close to falling off of my own."
Laughing with the others, James heard the compartment door slide open, and he glanced in its direction hopefully. Expecting to see Remus, his face fell when he instead laid eyes on an unfamiliar boy already dressed in his school robes. After a moment, however, James did a double take; the boy's dark eyes and shoulder-length hair resembled Sirius so much that James had to look back towards the window to make sure his friend still sat across from him. Wearing a sour expression, Sirius glared uninvitingly at the boy, who had frozen as if regretting his decision to open the door.
"Scoot off, Regulus," Sirius growled at the boy, and Regulus straightened rigidly, glancing briefly at James and Peter. After a second's hesitation, he backed out of the compartment without a word and closed the door with a click.
Quickly piecing the clues together, James glanced from Sirius to the outside hallway and back again. "Is that your brother?"
Sighing, Sirius leaned back. "Yeah, that's him. Sorry about that: I told him not to butt in when you're around."
"Is this his first year?" Peter questioned. When Sirius nodded, he added, "What House do you think he'll be Sorted into?"
"Don't know, don't care," Sirius answered, but James caught a hint of forced nonchalance in his voice as he stared out of the window. "As long as he stays out of my space, I'll be fine." Shrugging, James and Peter accepted his explanation and continued discussing the rest of their summer breaks. Minutes flew by and turned into hours, and the boys, busy eating their treats from the Honeydukes Express, did not notice the passing time until the sun's light dimmed and the train's electricity turned on. Already rolling through the mountains, the Hogwarts Express was pelted by a sudden onslaught of rain, and the boys used the deafening noise as an excuse to change into their school robes, seeing as they could no longer hear each other speak. Soon after they returned to their compartment, the train let out a low whistle as it began to slow, and they gathered their suitcases only to leave the warmth of the train and step out into the pounding precipitation.
Moving with the quickly shuffling crowd, they followed the majority of the students towards the dark line of horseless carriages stretched out at the train's engine. Although eager to get out of the cold rain, James slowed as he pushed through a group of first-years heading towards the lake and paused to get a good look at his surroundings.
"Where's Remus?" he asked the others, quickly giving up on his search when the rain blinded his glasses. "He should have found us hours ago!"
"Yeah, I was wondering that myself," Sirius commented, glancing around.
"If he couldn't even bother to come and find us, I'm going to have to give him a talking-to," James complained as they crossed to one of the nearest carriages and climbed in. Using the stepladder to boost his height, he again searched the faces of the other students, but he still did not see any sign of his roommate. Disappointed, he ducked his head under the roof of the carriage and sat through the bumpy ride to the castle.
Once the carriage had stopped moving, James jumped out and ran to the castle's towering double doors with the other disgruntled students, all of whom were soaked to the skin despite the protection of the carriages. Quickly slipping past the dozens of wet robes towards the front of the crowd, he, Sirius, and Peter turned to the right and entered the familiar Great Hall, where everyone had already begun to take their places at the four wooden tables running the length of the room. Overhead, the enchanted ceiling mimicked the pelting rain just outside the castle, but unlike the actual outdoors, the rain did not reach the floor below, and James could just make out the glow of the full moon through the foggy clouds.
The boys hurried to the end of the Gryffindor table and seated themselves next to Frank Longbottom and Dill Stewart, who turned and waved. After exchanging rapid greetings, they quieted as Headmaster Dumbledore entered and took his place at the center of the High Table near the back of the hall.
Behind James and the others, a parade of dripping first-years entered the Great Hall behind Professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress and Head of Gryffindor House. Just like in the year before, she walked briskly towards the High Table to begin the Sorting Ceremony, her pointed hat flapping. Twisting in his seat to get a better look, James spotted Regulus near the front of the crowd. Knowing the ceremony was about to start, he turned back around and started scanning the table for Remus before Frank leaned in and addressed him.
"Did you see the signs yet?"
"The what?" James asked, raising his voice as Professor McGonagall revealed the Sorting Hat and it began to sing.
"The signs," Dill said. "They're everywhere."
"I didn't see any signs," James answered.
"They're plastered all along the castle walls," Frank informed him. "I even saw a few outside on the way here."
"Well, what did they—"
James' voice was drowned out by a sudden onslaught of cheering from the House tables, and, upon looking over his shoulder, he realized that the Sorting Hat had finished introducing itself with its yearly song and now sat upon a young boy's head.
"RAVENCLAW!" the Hat shouted, and another round of applause greeted the first-year as he stepped off of the stool he was sitting on and crossed to his new Housemates. James barely had time to recover from the loud shouts when Professor McGonagall glanced down her spectacles at the parchment that she was holding in front of her.
"Black, Regulus!"
Straightening, James craned his neck and watched as Regulus stepped in front of the first-years. As Regulus sat down on the stool and waited for Professor McGonagall to place the Sorting Hat on his head, Sirius leaned forward in anticipation and stared unblinkingly at his brother. Several long beats passed, and James could feel Sirius growing more tense by the second. After several agonizing moments, the Hat finally spoke.
"SLYTHERIN!"
As the table next to them erupted into applause, Sirius sat back with a sigh; looking back at him, James patted his back supportively.
"Sorry, mate," he said.
"Yeah, well, there wasn't much hope anyway," Sirius muttered, lowering his head to the table.
Turning back around to watch the rest of the Sorting Ceremony, James waited while each consecutive student marched to his or her new House's table. "Cresswell, Dirk," went to Ravenclaw following Regulus, and several others went to Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Nearly halfway down the list, Professor McGonagall stopped herself and took a closer look at the parchment before properly Sorting "MacDonald, Mary," and "McKinnon, Mason," to Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, respectively. After the last student had joined his table, McGonagall walked to her seat while Dumbledore stood up and raised his arms over the golden pedestal in front of the High Table.
"Welcome back to another year," he announced, his silver beard tied neatly at its end, "or, for you new students, welcome to your first. I have many meaningful words to say, but as the weather outside has left you all wanting for comfort, a warm meal will suffice for now."
Right on cue, a dozen plates appeared in front of James while hundreds of others accompanied them on the other tables. Everyone contentedly dug into the magically-transported food, and soon the entire Great Hall buzzed with conversation between the students and professors.
"So where is Remus at?" Frank asked James, Sirius, and Peter almost immediately.
"We don't know," Sirius answered. "We thought we'd find him here."
"Maybe he missed the train," Frank guessed.
Looking at Sirius and Peter doubtfully, James shrugged. "It doesn't sound like him to be late."
"Can you think of any other reason?" Dill asked unconcernedly, beckoning to a wide-eyed first-year for a platter of chicken. "It's not like he'd quit Hogwarts."
Glancing at his roommates again, James received an I-hope-not look from Sirius as they continued to eat. Nearly an hour had passed before the eating frenzy had finally died down, and Headmaster Dumbledore took the podium again.
"Before you go to your dormitories, I have a few announcements to make. Our staff is pleased to welcome our newest member for the Defense Against the Dark Arts position, who has kindly traveled all the way from his home country to fill the post: Alvaro Alamanzar."
A rather short, dark-haired man with a small mustache and a pair of spectacles stood and bowed as the students and other professors applauded him politely. Although his lips moved quietly in rapid thanks, his head humbly nodding up and down all the while, his thick, colorful robes betrayed his well-to-do origins.
"Professor Alamanzar will only stay with us for a year, but his willingness to share his expertise is most appreciated," Dumbledore continued while Alamanzar sat down again and adjusted the clasp on his high, gold-threaded collar. "Also, I would like to remind all first-years that the Forbidden Forest is strictly thus, and no one shall attempt to enter it for any reason. Refrain from using magic in the corridors, and keep to your dormitories during after dark. With that said, good luck finding your way to your House common rooms; I will see you all in the morning."
"What does he mean, good luck?" Mary MacDonald whispered urgently as everyone rose.
"Beats me," Sirius told her, standing up himself. "The statues don't attack that often." When Mary's eyes widened, he joined James and Peter on the way out of the Great Hall.
"Good luck!" James added over his shoulder at her stricken face.
Following the stream of students out of the double doors, James and his roommates trekked towards Gryffindor Tower and greeted the portrait of the Fat Lady at the very top of the winding stairs.
"Well, hello again," she told them smoothly when they approached. "Password?"
Glancing at the others, James met similarly alarmed faces. "Er . . ."
"Password?" the Fat Lady repeated again, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. Just when James was beginning to worry, two fourth-years appeared from behind and nodded at the pink-clad woman.
"Stinging nettle," one of them told her, and the portrait opened obediently to reveal a hole in the wall, which the two students then climbed through.
"Yeah, that," James said, jumping in after them.
"Wait, come back here!" the Fat Lady yelled, but all three second-years had slipped through without a backwards glance.
Once inside, James began to head towards the dormitories, but his eyes were drawn to a large crowd forming in front of the notice board over the fireplace. After glancing at the throng, one of the fourth-years who had entered in front of James shook his head and muttered to his friend, "One of those again." Curious, James led Sirius and Peter towards the growing hubbub and strained to see around the students in front of him.
"Hey, what's going on?" Sirius asked those nearby, and a girl turned around from the back of the crowd. Narrowing her startlingly green eyes, Lily Evans tossed her red hair out of her face as she caught sight of James and the others.
"Long time, no see," James greeted his fellow second-year before nodding at the other students. "What's going on?"
"There's a notice on the board," Lily told him dismissively as if not wanting to waste too much time explaining. "It doesn't concern us."
"It seems to concern a great deal of people," Sirius pointed out.
"Fine, go look at it," she told them, shaking her head and walking towards the girls' dormitories.
Inching closer to the notice board through the crowd, James shoved his way to the front of the throng and read the large letters emblazoned boldly on a poster bearing Professor Alamanzar's strong gaze.
Attention all Sixth and Seventh-Years:
Defense Against the Dark Arts is now mandatory for all
students regardless of whether or not they will receive
a N.E.W.T. on the subject, courtesy of Professor Alamanzar.
See alternative schedules below.
Frowning, James allowed the other students to push him away. Although he would be taking Defense Against the Dark Arts anyway, it was highly unusual for the school to demand N.E.W.T. level students to take a course that they would not need to make it into their professions of interest.
"What do you think that's about?" Sirius asked him as they walked towards the stairs.
"I don't know," James answered, shrugging.
"Well, at least it doesn't involve us," Peter commented disinterestedly, skipping along.
"I guess not," James agreed as he glanced back at the crowd of students, "but I have a feeling that the school will be talking about this for days."