(A/N) School's out for the summer! I'm so excited! I can't promise more regular updates, but I promise that I'll try my darndest. I'd like you all to know that I love you! Even if there's only five or six of you! (as the reviews seem to indicate) Really, I don't need much. You don't even have to like it. But if you read it, review, PLEASE! =( *puppy dog eyes*
Anyway, I'd like to put out there right now (I don't know why I'm not going to wait) that I'd really appreciate help on Sorting Songs. Like, the whole thing. I've got six more years to go through! =( Also, if anyone has prank/troublemaking ideas, I'd love to hear them. Feel free to send stories, life experiences, or suggestions. I'm open for anything. So anyway, I hope you're enjoying James and his life! Thanks for reading!
Ps: I'm only going to say this once: I do not own anything that JK made up herself. Obviously. If I had made it up, why would I post it here and not just get it published? Also, I do not own any of the songs James or his mates sing, unless I state otherwise in my notes (not the story) even if I pretend for the sake of this story that James wrote the song himself or something similar.
"I can't believe our luck!" Kagan said happily as we changed the next morning. "Our first day of school and it's a Saturday!"
"Which means we've got nothing to do," Fie said as he pulled on his robes.
"We could always find our way to our classes," Marco pointed out. "that way we won't get lost."
I knew we wouldn't get lost -not with my map- but I figured it would be nice to figure out which shortcuts would be best to use.
"I agree," said John, who was putting up a West Ham poster.
"why don't we go after breakfast?" Lew asked as we stampeded down the stairs.
"Sounds good to me," I said absentmindedly, looking around for Sam in the common room. I spotted her sitting in one of the chairs next to the fireplace.
"You coming to breakfast with us?" I asked, standing behind her.
She jumped and turned to see who was talking. "Yeah," she answered, standing. We all followed Lew out of the portrait hole.
"Now, how do we get to the Great Hall?" Lew asked.
"Follow me!" I said, taking the lead.
"How do you know how to get there?" Lew asked.
"It's easier to remember if you had to find the way yourself," I told him, winking at Sam. I wanted to keep my map a secret for a little while longer.
We soon arrived in the Great Hall. Lew looked at me, impressed. He obviously hadn't believed I could lead them. We sat down at the Gryffindor table across from Victoire.
"Good morning!" I said pleasantly, locating the waffles and grabbing a few of them.
"Morning," she answered crankily. Victoire was not a morning person. "what are you planning today?"
"we haven't quite decided yet," I told her.
At that very moment, the sound of hundreds of wings sounded above us. The girl from the night before screamed again, and I noted that it seemed to be coming from the Hufflepuff table. I watched a school owl fly towards me, along with the family owl, a handsome brown barn owl. The school owl allowed me to take his letter, and then he flew off. Our family owl lingered.
"'Ello, Mercury," I said, stroking his head. "Have Mum and Dad sent me a letter already?"
Mercury hooted. I untied the letter and ripped it open. It basically said that they missed me already, and to have a good school year. I borrowed parchment and a quill from Marco, and wrote back a quick reply, including a request for Al to help come up with names for my owl. I tied it to Mercury and sent him on his way. I picked up the other letter and ripped it open.
"Who's that from?" Lew said curiously, leaning over so he could read the name.
"Hagrid," I told him. "Gamekeeper," I explained to Sam, who was looking at me questioningly. "He and Dad are really close. Hagrid got Dad out of his house when he was a baby - the night Grandmum and Granddad died - and he was the one to tell Dad he was a wizard, too. He's taken good care of Dad. And now he's invited me to visit today!" I showed them his letter. "Do you all want to go with me?"
"Can we?" Fie asked excitedly. "He could tell us about Harry Potter!"
Victoire stared at him like he was mental. Then she looked at me that way too.
"Ironic, isn't it?" I asked her, grinning at Fie, who turned scarlet as he remembered who he was talking to. "Of all the people I could have befriended, he has to be a Harry Potter fan"
"Sorry!" Fie muttered in embarrassment
I shrugged, showing him that it didn't phase me. "Trust me, I've met weirder. Some teenager, like a fifteen year old, came up to him and asked him out. In front of mom. With us around. His kids."
"weird," Lew said.
"Definitely. So do you guys want to come? We can go after breakfast."
"Sounds good to me," Lew said with a shrug. Kagan and Fie nodded as well.
"I thought we were going to map out routes to our classes," Marco reminded us almost sadly.
"We have all weekend," I reminded him. "We could always do it later, or even tomorrow."
"I guess we could wait…" Marco agreed.
"Sam?" I asked.
"Why not?" she agreed.
We finished eating rather quickly. Fie was done first, and I could tell he was excited to get all the dirt on my dad.
I said goodbye to Victoire, and we walked down to Hagrid's hut. I led the group up to the door and knocked. They looked suddenly nervous. Perhaps because Hagrid's hut was significantly taller than a normal house.
The door opened, and the five of them jumped back in fright. It was a normal reaction, I figured. Hagrid was almost twice our size, grey hair wild and shaggy. He did look rather frightening. That is, until he smiled.
"'Ello James," he said, pulling me into one of his bone-crushing hugs. "an' who do we got 'ere?"
"Lew Cadwalader, Marco Quinn, Fie Morrison, Kagan Brady, and Sam Barnes," I told him, pointing to each one in turn. "This is Hagrid."
"Good ter meet ya," Hagrid said, his beetle black eyes smiling. "C'mon in."
My mates walked nervously into Hagrid's hut. Hagrid shook Sam's hand on her way to the chairs. "Yer look just like I thought yer would, Sam," he said.
"How do you know?" I asked him.
"Yer Dad writes ter me, you know," Hagrid explained simply, sitting down on his giant bed, as there was a lack of available chairs.
"Oh," I muttered. "Right. So, how's Grawp?"
"He's learnin' arithmertic now," Hagrid told me proudly. "An' he's lernin' to write, too."
"Awesome," I said, grinning.
"Who's Grawp?" Lew asked.
"Hagrid's half brother," Fie answered, seemingly without thinking. "Harry Potter helped take care of him after Hagrid was run out by Umbridge. Taught him English and such."
"How do you even know that?" Lew asked him.
"I read it in a Harry Potter interview." He pulled the interview in question out of his pocket. I stared at him.
"What?"
"Do you walk around quoting random Harry Potter trivia at home or something?" I asked him. "Oh, and I also find it quite strange that you carry an interview in your pocket."
Fie went red again. "And you find it weird that I'm a huge fan of your dad."
"and there's that," I agreed.
"So how was yer summer, James?" Hagrid asked.
"Mostly good," I told him. "We went to the zoo with "Uncle" Dudley. We got into the snake house and I started making hissing noises. Uncle Dudley ran out screaming!"
"Because of that time your dad vanished the glass?" Fie asked.
I raised an eyebrow.
"Interview," he said guiltily."
"You shun't a done tha'" Hagrid scolded me. "Yer Uncle Dudley's tryin' awful 'ard t'be nicer t'yer Dad than 'e was when 'e was yunger."
"I know…" I muttered. "But they're all so obnoxious! Like at the zoo, the littlest one stole a prize that Lily had won in a game, and the oldest one tried to push Al into a hungry crocodile's cage!"
"I'm sure 'e was jus' jokin' 'round," Hagrid said, his eyebrows pulling together.
"Dad had to use magic to keep him from falling in!" I cried.
Hagrid's eyebrows pulled further together. Then he shrugged.
"The apple don' fal to far frum the tree," Hagrid said wisely.
"I guess," I conceded. "I learned a new song over the summer!"
"Di'jer now?" Hagrid asked, smiing. "An' jus' wha' song migh' tha' be?"
"It's called 'Start a Band'" I told him proudly. "It's got all sorts of complicated guitar solos and everything. My only problem is that it's a duet. But I learned both parts!"
"Di'jer bring yer guitar?" Hagrid asked.
"of course I brought it!" I otld him. "I'd never leave home without it!"
"Well, bring it with yer nex' time yer come ta see me. I'd like ter hear it," he told me.
You've got a guitar?" Lew asked, a grin spreading across his face.
"I've got an electric and an acoustic," I told him. "I only brought the electric, though."
Lew grinned more. "I can play guitar, but I usually play bass."
I grinned. "Excellent! Oi, I've been working on that song. I know it's American, but I'd love some one to play it with."
"Sounds good to me," he grinned. "Anyone else play an instrument?"
"I play piano and keyboard," Marco offered. "Along with a few others.:
"Drums," Fie said with and evil grin.
"Wind instruments," Kagan said. "Any kind."
"Impressive," I said. "So, we've got drums, bass, keyboard, guitar, and a bunch of other instruments. Are you all thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Wait!" Lew said, throwing his hands up to stop us. "Can we all sing?"
"That may be something to consider," I agreed, nodding my head thoughtfully. So is there anyone here who can't?"
For a moment no one moved. Then Hagrid slowly raised his hand, a guilty but teasing look on his face. "I s'pose I'm the on'y one, then."
We all laughed.
"How's Witherwings?" I aekds.
"he's getting on in age now," Hagrid tokd me sadly. "'M afraid 'e won' be 'round fer much longer."
"Poor Witherwings, I muttered.
"I really want to meet a Thestral," Fie said suddenly. "Even if I can't see it."
"Thestral?" Sam asked, and Lew, Marco, and Kagan looked at us questioningly.
"They're creatures than are invisible to most people," I explained.
"I could take you out ter meet 'em," Hagrid offered.
"Dad would kill you for taking us into the forest!" I objected.
"Not if he don' find out," Hagrid argued. "'Sides, they ain't 'armful, Thestrals. Right gentle, them."
"I don't see what's wrong with it," Fie said persuasively. "C'mon!"
"To the forest!" Kagan shouted, standing and pretending to weild a sword. He swung it a few times at me, beckoning me to swordfight. I shrugged good-naturedly and fought, Lew making clanging sound effects for us until I managed to "kill" Kagan.
"Can we go now?" Fie asked impatiently as Kagan rolled around on the floor, groaning in his "death agony." He had one last spasam, stuck his tongue out dramatically, and lay still and dead on the floor for a moment before springing up.
"Let's go!" Kagan cried, jumping out the door. Lew and I exchanged a glance, rolled our eyes, and followed him out, Hagrid chuckling merrily behind us.
We followed Hagrid into the "Forbidden" Forest, Sam jumping at small noises. We arrived in the clearing, and Hagrid pulled out the bloody corpse of some animal and threw it to the ground. We stared at the meat for a moment, then I saw it being torn off from the whole in multiple places and disappearing.
"Woah," Marco muttered.
"If yeh cin find 'en, yeh can pet 'em, if yeh'd like," Hagrid told us. Marco started forward as if he were hypnotised, his hand raised. He reached the meat and slowly touched what must have been one of the Thestrals.
"Can you see it, Marco?" I asked curiously.
"Can't you?" he asked.
"hmm-mm" I shook my head. I was concerned, and even a bit sad. Who had my new friend watched die? We were only eleven.
"Woah!" Lew gasped. He stumbled. "It shoved me!"
I felt a gentle nudging on my shoulder. I reached over and patted the bony animal.
"These things are awesome!" Fie said excitedly.
"I don't really like them," I said. "I mean, they're nice animals and all, but-"
Hagrid smiled knowingly. "Yer' dad didn't like 'em either. 'Course, I don' blame 'im. Poor kid."
"James!" a voice called loudly.
"Louis, he's not going to be at Hagrid's already!"
Louis, my 14-year-old Ravenclaw cousin, laughed. "Who'd have thought I know James better than you do, Dom. James is extremely impulsive; do you really think he'd wait even a second? Victoire said he got his invitation first thing this morning."
"I'm not impulsive!" I shouted to them.
"Yes you are!" Louis shouted back, laughing. I watched as they made their way over to me.
"These are my cousins, Dominique and Louis," I told my mates. "They're Victoire's little siblings."
Louis, who was platinum blonde and just as handsome as Victoire was beautiful, wrapped his long arm around my neck, pulled me into a headlock, and rubbed his knuckles on top of my head.
"Louis!" I objected, squirming. "Let go of me!" I wiggled out of his grasp, only to be attacked by Dominique. The 13-year-old Gryffindor was strawberry-blonde with Weasley freckles, the only of those three to inherit them. She was beautiful as well, but as she wasn't "movie-star gorgeous" like her siblings, she didn't think so. But there was something unique about her beauty, which many people found even more gorgeous than Victoire's perfection.
"So, what are you all planning today?" Louis asked.
"We were thinking about mapping out routes to our classes," I told him.
"I could help with that," Dom said.
"Oh, please," Louis said scathingly. "I've been here longer than you. I think I'd know the castle better than you."
"You've only been here a year longer," Don argued. "And besides, I'd bet I know more than you."
"And why is that?" Louis aksed back.
"I explore the castle by night," she bragged. "bet you don't do that, you goody-two-shoes."
Louis gave up, sticking his tongue out at her childishly. Dom usually won arguments, especially with her siblings.
I grinned evilly. "I don't think we'll be needing help."
They looked almost hurt. "Why?" Dom asked.
"I've got this," I said, pulling out my map.
They gasped, Louis in horror and Dom in happy surprise.
"Is that the map Uncle George always talks about?" she asked excitedly.
"one in the same," I said.
"I should turn you in," Louis said accusingly.
"But you won't," I told him smugly.
"And why not?" he asked haughtily.
"Because you love me," I sang.
He pouted.
(A/N) Sorry for the long wait. I was on vacation. Questions? Comments? Life stories? Sorting songs lying around the house? Tell me about them! Review!
Acknowledgements:
Just-As-Loony-As-Luna: Thank you so much! I love to hear that my writing is appreciated. I'll update as soon as I can. I don't have too much planned, just random snippets and plots throughout James's life. I'll see what I can do this summer.
Bri. P.: Thank you! I suppose I did miss Fred's Sorting. Sorry about that. I realised that I had a lot more Gryffindors than any other house and felt I was being sort of … biased. So I sort of forgot him. Sorry Fred! You know I love you!
Becca: Tanks! I really appreciate your taking the time to review. =D Thank you for being a devoted reader!