JAMES POTTER

and the Road To No Promises

Chapter 1. A Familiar Face

A sixteen year old boy sat in his own compartment on the Hogwarts Express, looking through the window. His green eyes scanned the crowd gathered on platform 9 ¾ . He was too preoccupied searching the faces to notice the compartment door slide open and light footsteps approach him until he felt a hand ruffle his messy black hair. He turned quickly. A girl of his same age stood with her hands on her hips, raising her eyebrows. Fiona Finnegan and James Potter had been best friends since their first year at Hogwarts. Now, both sixteen years old and sixth years, James stood 5"8 with Fiona following by a head. James had his father's looks, right down to the shape of his nose, possibly the only difference was James's 20/20 vision. As far as his personality went, James was mischievous. He would play subtle pranks on professors and Slytherins but never got caught; he was almost unbearably sweet and unconsciously kind and protective. James often put others first without even thinking about it, and would fight to the death for his friends and family. He excelled at Potions, Defense Against The Dark Arts and Alchemy but struggled with Herbology and Charms. Predictably, he was a Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team.

Fiona Finnegan was the daughter of Seamus and Marina Finnegan. She was not, however, an only child, not even close. Fiona Finnegan was the second oldest in a family of 5 kids. Her older sister, Nora, had left Hogwarts the year before. The other three siblings were very young. The twins, Kayleigh and Thomas, were only 6 years old and the baby, Alannah, was barely a year old. Fiona's hair was sandy brown and stick straight, pulled back into a French braid that snaked down her back. Her light brown eyes were full of laughter and framed by long black lashes. She was kind and laughed at every one of James's jokes but was still painfully honest about everything else. She was a Charms and Divination master, but could never get the hang of Alchemy or Potions, not that it ever concerned her. Fiona had a way of brushing things off. Her pointed chin jutted forward whenever she became stubborn (as she often did).

"Who are you looking for?" She asked James. He shrugged with a grin.

"Honestly, you." He replied, she smiled and sat down on the seat across from him.

"You look distracted." Fiona observed, watching her friend study his hands, "Where's Lily?" She asked, guessing the reason for his stress correctly. He smiled a little ruefully.

"She's with Albus."

"How's she doing?" Fiona put her chin in her hand thoughtfully.

"Fine." James laughed out loud, "I'm more nervous than she is. She just hopped on the train, as comfortable as could be."

"Maybe she's just confident."

"She can't be confident. First years are never confident." James sighed in disgust, making Fiona giggle.

"Right." She agreed.

"JAMES!" Someone called urgently from the platform. James and Fiona rolled their eyes at each other before James pushed the window down and leaned out to the platform.

"Yeah, Mum?" He called. His mother and father were walking down the train, looking for their children.

"James," Ginny said in surprise, "Where are your brother and sister?"

"I wouldn't worry about them. Albus has Lily, and if I've ever seen someone born for Hogwarts, it's Lily." James informed them. Ginny narrowed her eyes but Harry smiled appreciatively.

"You take care of them." Ginny said sternly.

"Yes mum." James said sardonically, rolling his eyes again. Fiona coughed to hide a giggle, Harry rocked back on his heels with a grin. Ginny did not look especially happy.

"I mean it James!" She threatened. With a muttered goodbye James closed the window on her and sat back down. Ginny stared at him with wide eyes. Harry leaned around her to give Fiona a parting wave as the train started to move. Fiona waved back enthusiastically. And then the platform was lost from sight.

James started awake a couple of hours later, he'd fallen asleep with his face pressed against the window. Confused, he pried his skin off the glass and blinked a few times to take in his surroundings. Fiona was sitting across from him, wearing her Hogwarts robes, reading a book. James looked up at his own trunk, thinking that he should probably change, not sure how long he'd been asleep. He figured that Fiona would have woken him up eventually, leaving him with enough time to change. Although it was hard for him to say, it would have been really funny for him to show up to the feast in his muggle clothes. But, of course, Fiona would know that he would have to retaliate tenfold. He stood up and Fiona peered at him over the top of her book, eyebrows raised above her thin wire reading glasses.

"Where are we?" James asked, sitting next to her, half on her seat and half on the seat next to her. Fiona shrugged.

"It's been a couple hours but we still have a couple hours." She said.

"What are you reading?" James asked, taking the glasses from her face and setting them on his own.

"I don't know, I can't see it anymore." Fiona said, reaching for the glasses, but James leaned out of her reach and slipped the book out of her hands.

"Frighteningly pink." James commented, moving his hands to look at the cover, Fiona looked horrified as he moved back to the page where she was reading and his raised his eyebrows, "How romantic." He teased.

"James, give it back!" Fiona demanded sharply. James ignored her.

"And as he pulled her close to him he brushed his hand against her blushing cheek, feeling it warm to his touch…" He began reading aloud before Fiona leaned into him, trying to snatch the book back. They wrestled on the seat for a minute before Fiona finally grabbed the book and leaned back toward the window, holding it away from him at arm's reach. He was on his knees, leaning over her, reaching for the book. Fiona put her legs up quickly, her robe slipping off the part of her legs that weren't covered by her short skirt, and pressed her knees into James's chest to keep him from getting to the book. Neither of them heard the compartment door slide open at the very moment until they heard a familiar voice.

"What are you doing?" A young girl's voice asked. James and Fiona both froze, eyes sliding to look at the little redheaded girl that stood just inside the doorway. Their eyes slid back to each other and James slowly moved away, sitting on the next seat. Fiona swung her legs back around to set her feet on the floor and let the arm holding the book fall limply on the seat beside her. After a moment of watching the little girl with wide eyes James took off Fiona's glasses and handed them back to her, she accepted them silently, neither of them looking away from the door. Lily Potter stood there, watching her eldest brother and his friend curiously. Finally, Fiona cleared her throat.

"Lily! Where have you been? We haven't seen you since getting on the train, your mum was worried." She said with a smile. Lily came and sat down in the seat across from them.

"My mum is always worried." The younger girl said with a roll of her eyes.

"Yeah, I know." Fiona giggled.

"I've been with Albus and Rose, but they're with their friends and won't talk to me." Lily pouted, making Fiona laugh out loud.

"Why don't you go find some other first years to sit with?" James suggested.

"Because I don't know them!" Lily sounded horrified.

"And you never will if you don't go talk to them." Fiona said gently, that's how everyone makes friends at Hogwarts." Lily looked at her hopefully.

"And they won't mind?"

"Not a bit."

"You're sure?" Lily asked tentatively.

"I'm sure." Fiona said, moving to Lily's side and giving her a hug, "And if it's too hard or something you are always welcome to come hang out with us, okay?"

"Okay." Lily agreed easily, hugging back.

After that it was a quiet ride to Hogwarts. Fiona buried herself behind her book while James dressed into his robes and stared out the window. Every now and then James's eyes would slide away from the window to look at his friend, whose entire face was hidden by the book. He assumed that she was a little embarrassed at being caught doing…well, he wasn't really sure what they were doing…by his little sister. James continued to stare at the book blocking Fiona's face while thinking about it. Fiona lowered her book a little.

"What are you staring at?" She asked self-consciously. James laughed and shook his head, his friend Fiona's tone bringing him back to reality.

"Thanks for talking to Lily." James told her. Fiona shrugged, completely lowering her book.

"She'd figure it out eventually. Hogwarts is hard without friends and it's best to meet them early. It never even occurred to me not to talk to others on the train. And look how that turned out," She smiled at James warmly, "I found you in a nearly empty compartment."

"Yeah, we may not have even met if it wasn't that." James said. This wasn't entirely true, even though they didn't know for sure. To James, Fiona was a familiar childhood face. To Fiona, James had been a treat on a special occasion. Since their fathers were friends Fiona and James had often been thrown together whenever Fiona's family was in the country, the two had always been comfortable together even though those times where they were together were relatively scarce. But they were always something to look forward to. When Fiona found James on the train, she had truthfully nearly fainted with relief, even though she would never admit it.

Fiona led James off the train on onto the platform, stretching happily before turning to look in the castle's general direction.

"It feels so good to be back, doesn't it James?" She asked, latching onto his right arm and hanging there.

"It is." James replied, following her gaze before walking towards the carriages. On the way they passed small group of girls that surrounded a tall boy that was leaning against one of the station's pillars. When he looked up his mouth kind of turned up on one side, not exactly a smile but as close as he ever got. He disengaged himself from his group of admirers to walk next to Fiona.

"Fiona," He greeted with the same half-smile, "James."

"Hey, Landon!" Fiona said cheerfully, James nodding friendlily. Landon Longbottom was another familiar childhood face, to James if not to Fiona. Unfortunately, James and Landon had not grown very close over the long afternoons of sitting in the Potter's backyard and both were relatively relieved when the Longbottoms decided Landon was old enough to stay home and stopped dragging him to tea with the Potters. Landon was 16 years old and nearly 6 feet tall, he was slim with pale skin, neat dirty blond hair and large dark eyes. He could often be found leaning against walls and staircases in the castle, staring into the distance thoughtlessly (or so it seemed) with a group of girls standing around him, trying to demand his attention. The thing about Landon was that he was a typical bad boy. Even though he never did anything especially wrong or dangerous he seemed to have a need to rebel. Part of this was probably due to the fact that it was a way of defying his father, the herbology teacher, and sometimes it seemed he simply got bored and wanted to do something different. He'd stop working in the middle of class and stare around like everything he saw was boring him to death, as a result he didn't get very good grades. He sometimes became more lively when with Fiona and James but they didn't really consider him to be a 'friend' even though they liked being with him when he would hang out with them. Now his hands were dug into his pockets and he followed James and Fiona into a carriage.

"Hey Fiona, I heard you went to Spain this summer." Landon said offhandedly, though he watched Fiona's reaction carefully. However, she was busy looking at the window with a concerned expression on her face.

"Uh-huh." She answered distractedly. The Finnegans were world travelers and often went away during summer break. Landon sensed that she wouldn't be very accommodating so he changed what he was going to say.

"Maybe you can tell me about it sometime." James decided that if Landon was the sort of person to show his emotions he would probably look hopeful. James looked back and forth between Landon and Fiona curiously. Landon didn't usually ask people to spend time with him, people usually begged to be acknowledged by him. Fiona didn't seem to notice.

"Sure." She said, with an impersonal wave of her hand, as though pushing his request aside. She then turned to look at James with wide eyes. "What if Lily doesn't get in Gryffindor?" She said suddenly.

"The world won't end." He replied, laughing at her devastated expression.

"It'd break her sweet little heart." Fiona whispered, looking out the window again.

"She'll be fine." James assured her. She turned back to him.

"You're right." She said, laying her head down on his should with a sigh. James took one of her hands and looked up in time to see Landon look away. For a moment it looked like one of his facial muscles twitched before settling back into his Landon poker face. James looked away, as though pained. And in a few minutes he had forgotten the incident completely.

I know this isn't awesome but I'm getting really into this so I'll try to update but PLEASE PLEASE review! I want a lot of them, please! I just love them so much! :D

l

l

l

l

V