James Potter and his trunk fell onto Minerva McGonagall's hearth rug, covered in soot.
"Hi Professor, Happy New Year!"
Minerva had to physically restrain herself from rolling her eyes. Of course, he would be first through.
"Thank you, Potter," she said, tightly, vanishing the sooty marks from the floor and his robes before he could shake them all around the office. The fire flared again behind him and Euphemia Potter appeared, much more dignified, carrying a stack of papers and some bottles.
"James, you left your Defence homework!" she tittered, handing him the paper and then moving on to straightening his clothes.
"I've let you out of my sight for five seconds and you look like you've been dragged through a hedge again!" James tried to duck to avoid her but it was no use, she'd already locked his arm in a vice grip. McGonagall raised her eyebrows. Evidently Euphemia was well practised.
"Stand still, your hair's a mess."
"It's fine!" James whinged, submitting to the fussing with a scowl. "You're gonna make me look uncool."
Euphemia stepped back to admire her handiwork and there was a cheeky kind of satisfaction that said she knew well and good that James looked… unlike himself.
Thankfully, there was no mirror in the office.
"What are you talking about, you look so much better." Euphemia kissed James on the head so swiftly that he didn't have time to try and avoid it. His face reddened and he side-eyed McGonagall, who was pointedly looking out the window.
"Mum!" he hissed, "not in front of Professor McGonagall."
"Oh please, James, Minerva knows I love you so much." Euphemia's face was almost wicked. James let out a choked little scream and pushed his mother back towards the fireplace.
"Oh my gosh, Mum, go home!"
"Right, right, see you at Easter." She said cheerily, taking a handful of floo powder from the little tub on the mantle. "Happy New Year, Minerva! Good luck to you."
Minerva snorted in spite of herself as Euphemia vanished out of the fireplace.
"Potter, move your trunk, please, lest one of your classmates come crashing into it."
"Right, Professor."
James obediently dragged his trunk across the room near the door and waited, absently stroking at his hair, trying to determine the damage.
McGonagall returned to her desk, half concentrating on reading the newspaper, half wondering how long the dithering first year could maintain the silence.
"Professor, has Sirius gotten back yet?"
That would be about thirty seconds, then.
"No, Potter, you're first."
"Ah."
She went back to the paper, scanning the internal headlines for any hint of competent journalism that might've slipped through the cracks to inform the wizarding populace on the quiet rise of dark forces in Britain. James evidently hadn't moved. She could feel him staring at the back of her head.
"Potter, don't you have places to be?" she questioned, without looking up.
"Well, I just thought I'd wait for Sirius," he explained.
"Would you please stand outside, then. You're making my office look like a waiting room."
"Okay, let him know I'm expecting him, please!" She heard the office door opening.
"Potter, I doubt he could miss you."
The door clicked shut.
Outside of McGonagall's office was a pleasant stone corridor which looped on itself in a square, inside of which was the Transfiguration courtyard. Doors along the corridor led to various classrooms and storage cupboards, as well as back to the main castle staircase and out towards the grounds.
Huge stone arches gave James a view into the grassy square. There was no glass in the arches. It was freezing. He was secretly glad his mother had insisted on him wearing the woolly Christmas jumper. Even if it was bright green with a huge reindeer knitted into it.
A woosh and a thump could be heard from inside and James excitedly straightened and turned to face the doorway, however much to his disappointment, it was Suleiman and Mohammad Shafiq, Chaser and Prefect respectively. They waved at him cheerily before making their way towards the main staircase.
Next to disappoint him was Lily's friend and fellow first year, Mary McDonald. She greeted him, smiling, blonde hair bobbing cheerily as she walked off.
Then a third year he didn't know, along with the twins Gideon and Fabian, followed by two very tall seventh years who missed James entirely as he was completely out of their eye-line.
He had stopped standing to attention every time the door opened and so was surprised when someone excitedly called on him.
"James?"
It was Remus. He was wearing his thick Hogwarts cloak over his home clothes and holding his school bag which looked to be weighed down with books.
"Hi Remus. Had a good Christmas?"
"Yeah." James had forgotten how soft spoken he was. "I guess I'd really missed my parents. It was nice to be home."
"But you've been home a few times this term, right?" James asked innocently. "How's your mum, by the way?"
Remus blushed and ducked his head. "She's doing alright, thanks."
"James, Remus?"
It was Peter, followed by Marlene McKinnon.
"Hey Pete, McKinnon."
Marlene nodded at them in acknowledgement before heading off to the staircase. Peter lingered.
"Why are we standing here?"
"I was waiting for Sirius," James explained - Remus thought he sounded oddly proud.
"Mind if I join you, then?" Peter smiled hopefully at them. Remus immediately put an arm around him for a one armed hug.
"Of course."
The three of them stood waiting, chatting about their holidays and greeting the steady stream of Gryffindors as they passed through McGonagall's office. Markus and George of the Gryffindor Quidditch team were next. Peter was just taking out his camera to show them when the man of the hour appeared.
"Sirius!"
The other first year was barely out of the office before James was upon him, squeezing him like a boa constrictor. Close behind him was a tall dark haired student with a green Head Girl badge gleaming on her Hogwarts cloak.
"Are you Andromeda Black?" James asked when he'd finally released Sirius who stood there, dumbfounded. Andromeda quirked an eyebrow at him, her face unreadable.
"You must be Potter. Nearly didn't recognise you - you look so… tidy."
James gave her a hard stare and she cracked a small smile at them.
"Okay, Little Imp, I'll leave you with these idiots," she declared, patting Sirius on the head before stalking off. Sirius waved silently at her back before turning to get a proper look at his gathered dorm-mates.
"Yeah, what is up with your hair?"
James groaned, his hands returning to his hair. "My mum's done something to it - must be a new product line."
"You look like Adolf Hitler," Peter supplied. Remus snorted and James and Sirius looked blankly at them. Remus rolled his eyes and changed the subject - seemed his parents had been right about wizard children and their patchy schooling.
"Check out Pete's new camera," he said, pointing it out to Sirius.
"Nice. Muggle or wizard?" he asked, taking it and turning it over in his hands.
"Muggle, I think. But Dad said I can develop it into moving pictures so I'm not sure. I've never owned one before, so I wouldn't know the difference."
The office door opened and Lily Evans appeared, her hair in two unusually neat plaits.
"Hi Remus, hi Peter. Is that a camera? Nice!"
James scowled at the snub and Sirius laughed at him.
"It's cool, ey? We were just wondering if it's magical or not." Peter handed it to her to get an assessment. She peered down the viewfinder absently.
"No idea, my sister's more up on that kind of thing." She turned so that James was in focus and he straightened up immediately. Lily just snorted and clicked the shutter before handing it back to Peter.
"Sorry to use some of your film, Pete, but someone had to record Potter looking like such a dolt. Might need it for blackmail in the future." She patted Peter on the shoulder and turned off towards the main staircase.
Remus snorted at James' aghast expression - his whole face down to his ears was red. Peter capped the lens and returned the camera to his bag before it caused any more trouble.
"Come on, Dolt," said Sirius good-naturedly. "Let's get going."
The four of them left the transfiguration department and walked out into the Entrance Hall. Just as they were about to turn off up the main staircase, Sirius elbowed James.
"Look who it is."
James craned his neck to see what Sirius was pointing at. Just off from the wide stairs that led into the Great Hall was a smaller set of stairs, leading to the dungeons. In the archway stool a girl with a familiar set of orange plaits and-
"Snape." James grinned deviously.
The pair seemed to be chattering excitedly to each other. Snape was even smiling - something James wasn't sure he'd ever seen before.
"Want me to try out something I've been practising?" Sirius asked slyly, pulling his wand out of his pocket. Remus groaned.
"We just got back, term has barely started, just leave him." He implored. Sirius ignored him.
"Me and Reg were practising the tickling charm over Christmas - I could definitely get him good with that."
Abruptly, Lily spun around, glaring over at them fiercely. Severus followed her line of sight and whipped his own wand out once he'd realised who was staring.
"I thought I could feel someone looking at me," Lily hissed, eyeing Sirius' raised wand. "You'd better not be thinking of doing anything with that, Black."
Severus went to advance past her, but Lily reached an arm out and snatched her friend's wand clean out of his hand.
"Not you, either, Sev!" Snape looked furious, but Lily seemed to grow bolder under his hard stare. "Get over yourselves and go. I'll snitch on you - I don't care if we're in the same house."
Sirius rolled his eyes, maintaining his unbothered air and pocketing his wand. "Calm it, Evans. I was hardly going to kill him. And no one likes a snitch."
"No one likes a blood traitor, either," Severus spat. "Lucky Evans was here or I'd have turned you into something your mother would be more proud of, like a slug."
Remus and Peter shared a glance before advancing up the stairs, leaving the arguing to their dorm-mates. They could still be heard a couple of floors up.
"Wow, I'm so frightened, Snivellus. Thank you for saving me, Evans."
"Wish I hadn't, actually."
"Give it back to him, then. We'd love to test some of our holiday reading."
Loud clicking betrayed the advance of McGonagall and they immediately silenced themselves. The few straggling students who were in the Entrance stopped in their tracks, never missing the opportunity to watch a good telling off.
"Potter, Black, Snape, Evans, five points from each of you. You've not been back five minutes, get a hold of yourselves." She looked pointedly at James and Sirius. "Do not embarrass me and my house on the first day of term. Get yourselves to the common room and out of my sight."
Sirius and James turned, somewhat meekly, to continue up to the tower. They could have sworn they had heard McGonagall mutter to herself "good luck, indeed," before disappearing back to the Transfiguration department.
Three Gryffindor boys unpacked their Christmas treasures and chatted amongst themselves, openly ignoring the drama coming from the boys' attached bathroom. James had been hiding in there for the past twenty minutes, fleeing there as soon as they'd entered the portrait hole to try and fix his hair - only to discover that it was worse than he could have possibly imagined.
How his mother had managed to force his hair into such a severe side part, he'd never know, but it seemed that no amount of running his fingers desperately through it could stop it from dropping right back to how it was before.
He was beside himself with frustration when Sirius, tired of the over-dramatic complaining, cast aguamenti directly at his friend, completely drenching him and effectively silencing him.
A few moments of blessed quiet between them before-
"What would you do that for!?" James whined indignantly, peeling his wet and now itchy jumper over his head and stepping out of his flooded shoes, socks squelching on the stone floor.
"Thought it might wash it out," said Sirius innocently. "Hope you know the drying charm."
James grumbled miserably and yanked a nearby towel, scrubbing at his head with it. "I've no idea, of course. Right, get out then, let me have a shower. You could have made the water warm, at least."
Sirius gave him a cheeky shrug and a "whoops" before leaving and shutting the door behind him.
For some reason, his trip home had only emboldened him.
It was going to be an interesting term.
I know that the S28 Shafiq line is supposed to have died out and that this contradicts some Fantastic Beasts nonsense storyline - but I just find it really convenient that one of the only ethnically diverse lines is gone. Plus, I need OCs to fill up the school and I'd rather use existing names.
(Severus was waiting for her in the Entrance Hall :)))