1

James Potter walked with a spring in his step as the steam swirled in front of and around him on Platform 9 and ¾ . His eyes acted as sponges, taking in every detail of his surroundings from the scarlet coloured steam engine on the tracks, to the masses of people both wizard and muggle alike. It was the day James had been waiting for—the day he left for Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the first time.

'This way, James,' came his father's voice. James fell into step alongside his father and looked up at him. Mr. Potter was a tall, neatly put together wizard. The comfortable clothes he wore quite disguised the fact that he was in tremendous physical shape, as any wizard who was a member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement ought to be. 'Are you nervous?' Mr. Potter asked.

'No,' James answered truthfully. James was not entirely sure how his own knowledge and skill of the wizarding world would match up against that of his peers, but one thing he was most certainly not short of was confidence. He either felt he knew, or that he would quickly learn. 'I'm excited!' He felt somewhat lame that these were the only words he could come up with to describe how he was feeling.

'So excited to be rid of your mother and I?' Mr. Potter said with a chuckle as he nodded at an acquaintance who walked past.

James stopped and looked up at his father. 'Pretty much. I was thinking I might just go home with the first friend I make, settle down with a new set of parents.'

Mr. Potter didn't seem to know whether to laugh or sigh. 'At least you have your mother's sense of humor. She was sorry she couldn't see you off. Which, ah, brings me to my next point...' Mr. Potter drew from his robes a rather large, antiquated looking camera.

'You've got to be joking,' James exclaimed, looking around and suddenly wishing he were invisible.

'Family tradition,' said Mr. Potter sternly. 'And your mother would end my life if I didn't get at least one photo. So please smile—for her.'

James rolled his eyes and managed a smile, ruffling his hair as he did whenever he felt awkward. He was sure there were eyes on him, sniggering at the new boy whose parents wanted a nice photo opportunity on the platform. His father snapped a picture and stowed the camera back in his robes just as a loud whistle sounded.

'Well, you'd best get onboard,' said Mr. Potter. 'You can write us any time. We'll send Seger out with the post,' he continued, referring to the family owl. 'I packed a present for you in your bag.'

James was surprised. 'But I packed my bag!' he said.

Mr. Potter winked at his son. 'It's a kind of magic,' he said and he gave him a quick, one-armed embrace. 'Good luck. Watch out for Peeves, and don't get into too much trouble!'

James had backed onto the steps of the train already. 'Too much trouble?' he echoed with a lopsided grin. 'Have you forgotten who's son I am, Dad?'

Mr. Potter smiled and waved as James stepped out of sight into the corridors of the Hogwarts Express. He cast his gaze around excitedly at the people already onboard; the first years stood out from the crowd due to their diminutive stature. James set about finding a compartment to sit down in, but most of them had filled up already. He was beginning to wonder if he was going to have to ask to sit on somebody's lap when he spotted an open seat in a compartment.

'May I?' he asked the compartment's occupants. There were two of them. One was a rather handsome young boy with long, smooth black hair. The other was almost the opposite—not un-handsome, but a bit shabby and frail looking. Both nodded their consent and James made his way in and sat down. 'My name's James,' he said. 'James Potter.'

'I know the name,' said the dark haired boy. 'Pure blood family.'

James swallowed. Was this going to be his first encounter with a future Slytherin? 'Does that matter?' he asked. His tone could have been conversational, but he didn't mask the unspoken challenge in it either.

The dark haired boy chuckled. 'That depends who you ask. But not according to me. My name is Sirius Black.' Sirius extended his hand which James shook.

'Remus Lupin,' said the shabby looking boy in the corner. He didn't offer anything else to say.

'So are you two excited?' James asked. 'Have you tried any magic?'

Sirius and Remus both answered at the same time with differing response—yes for Sirius, no for Remus. 'I got here pretty early today,' Sirius said. 'Of course I couldn't do anything at home. But I practiced the theory. I've already practiced a few good jinxes.'

'Jinxes?' echoed Remus with a slight tone of disapproval.

'Nothing bad,' Sirius replied, raising his arms in self defense. 'And certainly not on anybody that didn't deserve it.'

'How early did you get here?' James asked.

'Early,' Sirius replied with a tone that suggested he did not particularly want to discuss the details. 'How about you? Have you tried any magic?'

James shook his head. 'You're ahead of me,' he said. 'I've only practiced in theory. But I guess I could give it a go now, if I may?' he intoned, motioning to Sirius' coat which lay in a heap on the bench next to him. Sirius gave a nod of approval. 'Winguardium Leviosa,' James murmured and the coat floated into the air, across the cabin and landed squarely on Remus' head.

Sirius let out a laugh as Remus removed the coat, grinning as well. 'Not bad,' Sirius said.

There came a sudden, loud 'BANG' from the hallway followed by some raised voices. Sirius leapt to his feet. 'I was hoping there'd be a scrap on the first day,' he said with a tone of unabashed excitement as he leapt into the corridor.

James looked at Remus as he stood up. 'Coming?' he asked.

'If it's a fight, we should probably stay out of it,' Remus said carefully.

James shrugged. 'Suit yourself!' he said and he followed Sirius into the corridor. Students were poking their heads out of the door and the action centered around two youths in the middle of the hall. The one on the ground was a short, pudgy little boy with a rather unfortunate complexion. The boy standing over him was a different kind of unfortunate—his hair fell in great, greasy locks over his face. He had clearly jinxed the boy on the ground.

'Do I need to say it again?' said the greasy haired boy. 'Your eyes are in the front of your head. That is why you walk forwards. Do not back into me again.'

James felt his temper flare. He had expected, going to school for the first time, to encounter bullies. He had not expected to encounter one quite so fast. In spite of his unkempt demeanour, the greasy haired boy was clearly much bigger than the boy he was currently picking on.

'Why don't you put your inferiority complex aside and pick on someone your own size?' James asked.

The heads sticking out of the compartments swivelled around to look at James as he said it. The greasy haired boy looked at him in surprise. Sirius looked back at James with an excited grin.

'I have no quarrel with you,' said the greasy haired boy.

'I don't know about that,' James said, stepping forward as he spoke towards the boy on the ground. 'I find your haircut rather offensive.'

The greasy haired boy's face flushed as chuckles sounded throughout the corridor. 'Go back into your compartment, you messy haired simpleton.'

James smiled. 'Messy haired? That's funny, coming from someone who looks like they used toilet water for shampoo. What's your name?'

The greasy haired boy puffed his chest out with an air of importance. 'Severus Snape,' he said proudly.

'James Potter. Nice to meet you, Snivellus,' James replied quickly to more laughter.

Snape's eyes flashed. 'Petrificus—' he began, raising his wand.

'Confringio!' James was faster, snapping his wand to attention and Snape flew back onto the ground, spitting bubbles from his mouth as he did. Applause went up in the corridor as James advanced, pointing his wand down at Snape. It was his first successful jinx ever. He pushed the elation aside momentarily. 'Don't let me catch you picking on this boy again,' James said in a low voice.

Before Snape could reply, James was suddenly pushed bodily backwards. He tripped over a foot that was hanging out of one of the compartments and landed flat on his back to find himself staring up at the angry face of a young girl.

'What's going on here?' said the hot tempered girl. James was momentarily stunned as he lay spread eagled on his back.

Sirius had arrived, James' second. 'A slight failure to communicate, Madam,' he said in a sublimely foppish tone. 'Snivellus here was a bit poorly versed in how to welcome other students to the train.'

The girl's eyes flashed. 'So making him spit bubbles was a proper welcome, was it?' she said.

James had gotten back to his feet by this time. He was still somewhat speechless as he watched the girl talk. Something fluttered in his chest as he watched her and for a moment, he smiled.

It ended up being somewhat of a bad thing to do. 'You think this is funny?' the girl snarled, pushing him rather hard again. 'If I catch you tormenting any friends of mine again, I'll hit you in your teeth so hard that you'll have to sit on your food to eat it.'

Laughter and a few claps erupted in the corridor. Sirius had to laugh himself as he turned to look at James. 'I don't really know how to respond to that, mate,' he said. The girl turned on him and he faux-bowed. 'Of course, madam,' he said elegantly. 'We do not wish to trod on your good will.'

She rolled her eyes. 'Sod off,' she said as she backed up, helping Snape to his feet. 'Come on, Sev,' she said and they stalked off down the corridor.

'That was pretty brilliant,' Sirius said to James as the students returned to their compartments. 'The first part, I mean, where you hexed him. Getting beat up by a girl might not be the best conversation starter once we got to school.'

James laughed in spite of himself, and then remembered his initial reason for getting into the dispute. He turned to see the podgy boy quietly gathering his things. 'Are you OK?' James asked as he and Sirius stepped forward. The boy looked up at them with a frightened glance; he almost seemed to small to be going to school. He had to be at least half a foot shorter than James and Sirius.

'Yes, I—thank you,' he said quietly. 'I didn't mean to cause any trouble. I'd better go find a seat...' he said and he turned to walk away.

'There's an extra seat in our compartment, isn't there?' Sirius asked.

'Yeah,' James said looking at the boy. 'Room for one more. Want to join us?'

The boy looked back with a positively elated expression on his face. 'Seriously?'

'Oh, I'm always Sirius,' Sirius replied with a wink. 'Come on, let's go back and tell Remus about the little scuffle. What's your name?'

'Peter Pettigrew,' said the little boy happily as James, Sirius and Peter stepped back into their compartment.