1st September 1971
1st September 1971
The ceiling. That’s the first thing James saw when he woke up. The first thing he thought about was the fact that it was blank, and that even though he had no more space on his walls to put up anything (as it was all covered in Quidditch posters), that now at least he still had some space to put up that one picture of Fergal Sayre, a keeper who played for Ireland whom he had recently been obsessing over.
The second thing he thought of was the date. September 1st 1971. A day James had been counting up to for as long as he could remember. His first day at Hogwarts. His first day of freedom, though he loved his parents more than anything and he would miss them so much, he was excited to go off and be able to have fun with Peter and Marlene without their parents’ prying eyes.
Peter and Marlene were James’s two best friends. Even though, as a pure blood wizard, he had grown up around loads of magical children his age, something about those two had always been enough for him. Maybe it was the fact that they all lived close to each other, but James had been inseparable from them since before he could say Broomstick. The three of them were like peas in a pod, and James loved them all to bits. He couldn’t wait to see them on the Hogwarts Express at 11 o'clock.
James looked at the clock. 7:30am. James had always been a morning person, so even though he had just woken up he didn't feel the need to lie in. His mum and his dad would be up by now, pottering about in the kitchen. Actually, if James listened hard enough he thought he could hear the sound of the Wizarding Wireless Network and his mum humming along coming from the kitchen. James relished in this, it was one of his favourite sounds. Soon, he would be waking up in a room full of unknown boys as well as, if all went as planned, Peter.
The problem was, even though James desperately wanted to be roommates with his best friend, he didn’t know whether this was very likely to happen. As much as he loved Peter (he was his best friend for Godricks sake!), he wasn’t sure how likely he was to get into Gryffindor. Gryffindor, James had decided, was the house for him. It was his fathers house and had been his father’s and his father’s, and James knew it would be his house too. James knew bravery was not Peter's thing, he thought that Peter was much more a gentle soul, and he reckoned that Peter would end up in Hufflepuff. As long as Peter didn’t end up in Slytherin, James was completely fine with it. He wouldn't be caught dead discriminating against anyone, his parents had raised him better than that, but Slytherin was… a different case. Out of all the Hogwarts houses, that was the one that nurtured the most dark wizards.
Though it wasn’t like he had gotten this idea from his parents. Fleamont often reminded him some of the Quidditch players on James’s wall were Slytherins, Quidditch players that James looked up to. So James supposed that not all of them were 100% evil. But still. He thought Peter could do with not having all of that bad influence around him because James had a sneaking suspicion Peter would be very susceptible to peer pressure.
Suddenly, he became very aware of a certain smell wafting through his window. James was directly 3 floors above the kitchen and so could always smell what was being cooked below. Today he could smell distinctly one of his mothers signature recipes and one of his favourite foods. Orange muffins. Jumping out of his bed and leaving his sheets unmade, James pulled on his glasses and accidentally kicked over his trunk, spilling multiple tops and trousers that he had carefully folded the previous day, because he was in such a rush to go downstairs. Ignoring his parents previous warnings, when James got to the stairs he slid down the bannister, ending up in the foyer face first on the floor, undeterred, but with a pair of unwearable glasses in his hands.
“James, How many times! I’m getting tired of having to fix your glasses every time you do that. Reparo.” James put his glasses back on and looked up to see his father frowning down at him, but with raised eyebrows and a glint in his eye which James knew meant he wasn’t really mad at him. Still, James thought it would be better to apologise
“Sorry, dad.”
“Well no matter,” he responded, still with that gleam in his eye “Go help your mother in the kitchen why don’t you.”
“But dad,” James protested, “gully..”
“Jamie.” His father looked more stern. “Mother. Kitchen. Now”
James knew better than to argue, and, as he was heading to the kitchen in the first place, went to check on the smell. Sure enough, as he walked into the kitchen and sat down he saw a pile of golden muffins being carried by a friendly looking woman with her long brown curly hair tamed into a ponytail. Euphemia Potter turned around and saw her son eyeing the muffins.
“Jamie, not yet”, she said knowingly. James did his best puppy dog expression. She threw one at him and he caught it in his mouth, biting down. Again, his mum's orange muffins never disappointed.
“Thanks, mum!” he said, still with his mouth full. She rubbed his hair affectionately,
“I hope you are not feeling too worried Jamie. Remember, we are going to pop round to Marlene’s so she can come with us to the station.”
James had been with Marlene and Peter a few weeks ago when Marlene casually announced that she had to make her own way to the station as her parents were working. James' mum, who was near them at the time, overheard and (much to Marlene's protests that she could navigate the underground just fine), insisted that she make a stop at her house across the street so she could come with them. James and Marlene had first met each other because of their proximity, but stayed friends because Marlene was one of the few people that James felt truly comfortable around, never having to put on a show for her attention. However, Peter’ mum was happy to drop him off - much to Peter’s annoyance that he couldn't go with his other 2 best friends. He lived more like a 5 minute walk away and so James was not round at Peter’s as often. When he was around 8 years old, this disappointed him, because it wasn’t cool to be friends with a girl, but at 11, James didn’t care anymore, plus Marlene was cool anyway.
“Have you made sure everything is packed sweetie?” his mother asked. James remembered the stuff he kicked out not 10 minutes before.
“One second!” he cried, before dashing back upstairs to repack his clothes, leaving his mum to smile to herself whilst listening to the radio.
~
2 hours later, James and his mum made their way across the road, the former holding a big trunk and the latter a cage which inside sat a small brown owl which James had gotten for his 11th birthday. Arriving, they rang the bell and waited for someone to answer the door, Effie had insisted it was rude to floo directly into their house. A few seconds later, a girl with platinum blonde hair cut into a shaggy wolf cut answered. James and Peter had helped her cut and dye it last night for school, and James thought it rather suited her, though her parents did not. The girl ran out jumped into James's arms, forcing him to drop the trunk and hug her back.
“James!”
“Marls!!”
“Aren't you just so excited!” Marlene stepped back, “Oh hi Effie, thank you again for taking me.” James's mum looked quite pleased at this, as for the last 10 years she had been battling with Marlene over calling her Effie, not Mrs Potter.
“Marlene, of course it's all right” She stepped up to give the girl a hug, “also your hair looks wonderful darling.”
“Credit to your fine son here,” She grinned.
James looked at his mother sheepishly, sure he was going to be told off about this , but she just gave him a look that said ‘even though you should have asked her mother, good job.’
“Well, we best get going” Effie stepped past Marlene, into the house, and towards the fireplace.
~
Going away from home hadn't really hit James until, hand in hand with Marlene, he stepped into Kings Cross station. James had spent his whole life with his parents - never spending more than the odd night at sleepovers away from them - and he felt nervous. Nervous because what if Peter and Marlene weren't in his house? What if nobody liked him? What if he made a fool of himself in front of everyone? He grabbed his mother's hand and she gave him a reassuring squeeze. His parents had always said that he was the best kind of boy, caring and charismatic, and he had never doubted it until now. It suddenly hit him that, although his parents had never told him a lie before now, they could be lying about that to make him feel better.
Him, Marlene and Effie stepped through the barrier into platform 9 and ¾, and this anxiety quickly turned into awe. James knew, of course, what platform 9 and ¾ looked like (his parents had taken him before to look around), but he had never seen it full like this. Everywhere he looked, groups of friends were reuniting and families were weeping. It was busy and magical and everything James had imagined. He looked at Marlene.
“Let's go find Peter, yeah, he should be here by now”
“Ok, can you see him anywhere James?”
James looked around, the first thing that caught his eye was an icy woman standing next to a boy around his own age, but with the coolest hair James had ever seen, bar Marlene. He seemed to be having a sad talk with a younger boy next to him, who had a single teardrop rolling down his face, which his mother roughly wiped off with her sleeved and leaned in to whisper something in his ear. The younger boy stiffened. James looked back at the boy with the cool hair, who was now sticking his tongue out at someone on the platform.
Before James could see who the boy was looking at, he got a face full of light brown hair and an arm around his back, as well as Marlene being pressed closer to him. Standing back, James saw a chubby boy dressed in a thick hand knitted jumper.
“Hi, Pete” he looked past Peter, “Hi Mr Pettigrew, Mrs Pettigrew.” The two parents gave him smiles that didn't fully reach their eyes and James looked back at his friend.
“James, Marls!” he shouted, “isn't this just amazing? I've never seen so many magic people in one place together. Apart from my family, but most of them can't do magic anyway!”
Peter came from a magical family known for producing many squibs, that was part of the reason his parents weren't close with the other pureblood families. The reason James wasn't was because his family were proud defenders of muggleborns and advocated for their rights.
“Your hair does look good Marlene! Better than yesterday even” Peter stepped back to admire his and James's handywork.
“Stop it Pete-y you”ll make me blush”
In actual fact, Peter was the one who blushed. “Marls please don't call me that at school, I'll be bullied!”
“Don't worry Pete, you won't need my help for that.” James laughed at this, and even Peter let out a small smile. “Anyway, I reckon I can't spend all my time with you guys, I need to make new friends.”
This was news to James, who turned around and saw Marlene looking at a pretty redhead girl speaking in hushed tones to a greasy, black haired boy who had a remarkably long nose.
“Marlene!! Betraying us already are you?” Peter asked cheekily.
“Shut it Pete-y” she said “plus, I need some girl friends don't I, I'm not gonna room with you two”
“You could!” James protested, “I’m sure if we made the case to our head of year, she would make an exception!” Marlene just shook her head.
“No thank you” she rolled her eyes and nodded towards the train, “anyway, we should be heading onto the train so we can find seats.” She turned back to Effie, “thanks Effie, for bringing me when, y’know, my parents couldn't.” James suddenly felt a wave of pity for his best friend, who had never been shown the unconditional love that James had. He supposed he had taken it for granted how he knew he could never mess up enough for his parents to stop loving him, Marlene didn't have that. He didn't think Peter had that either, and although his parents did love him, they expected him to work his way through school, work at the ministry and marry a nice pureblood girl.
James hugged his mother, grabbed his owl and trunk, and walked hand and hand with his best friends onto the train, ready but still cautious of making the first step to the second phase of his life.