Hogwarts
James looked out of the window of the carriage he was in and waved to his mother on the platform before the train rolled out of the station. Peter sat beside him, reading the Daily Prophet. Opposite him was Marlene, who had dragged along a curly haired girl named Mary, and another girl who James thought was called Emily. The former of which was currently explaining her blood status (Muggleborn: from what James had picked up - he tried to listen honestly, but was too busy thinking about his home.)
Suddenly, James decided he needed the toilet, so stood up to find them.
“Going to the loo, Pete, Marls, I'll be back in a minute”
He stood up and walked down the long train, past the carriages full of students laughing and stuffing their faces with food. Once he had gone to the bathroom and was walking back down the train to his friends, he noticed two boys inside one of the carriages. One of them was the long haired boy that he saw on the platform, the other had fluffy strawberry blonde hair and tattered jeans.
James thought that they looked nice enough and so bound into the carriage with the biggest smile and tried to look as friendly as possible. Both boys looked up as they entered.
“Oi, what are you doing in our carriage?” the long haired boy said.
“Whatever, I’m just trying to be friendly, are you a first year too?” James automatically liked him, he just had a cool energy around him that James couldn't help but be drawn to.
The boy seemed to reciprocate the feeling, and held out his hand to shake. “Yeah we are both first years. I’m Sirius Black, and this is Remus, sorry mate what was your last name again?”
“Lupin” The boy, Remus, said.
“James Potter.” James took Sirius's hand and shook it.
“Excellent, a Potter, my dad told me to avoid your family.” James smiled to himself. Yes, this will definitely be a boy he will like.
“And you are not a Black as in The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black are you?” James countered.
“The very same.”
Godric, The Blacks were like wizarding royalty, James knew that his family had a lot of money, but if the rumours were true, it was nothing compared to the Blacks. But they were also known to be very dark wizards, and so James’s family had never associated with them, which is why James had never seen Sirius before now. However, if Sirius was actively going against what his parents said then surely Sirius couldn't be a dark wizard.
“Stay in our carriage, why don't you,” Sirius was now saying, “Me and Remus are talking about what Hogwarts house we want to be in!”
“No,” Remus was saying, “you were just ranting about how much you hate Slytherin.”
James suddenly remembered his best friends down the corridor. “One second, let me grab my friends from our carriage and then I’ll stay.” James then ran out of the door, down the corridor and back into the carriage, where the three girls were still amicably talking and Peter was reading the paper. “Pete, Marl, I’ve met some really nice people in the other carriage who asked me to join them, want to come?” he looked at the other two girls in the carriage, and not wanting to be rude, he added “and you two if you want?”
Marlene seemed to consider it for a moment before saying, “it’s ok, I’ll just stay with Mary and Emmeline,” oh Emmeline, that was the name, James thought, “don’t think you will be getting rid of me that easily though, I’ll see you at the sorting” She nudged James playfully. Peter was already gathering his stuff though, hasty to get out of a room filled with girls.
“Bye, Marls”, Peter said hastily, before both boys grabbed their trunks and headed out. They walked down the corridor, and James noticed Peter looked slightly nervous.
“Don’t worry, Pete, they were really nice, I think you will like them.” They were at the carriage now, and James could see Remus and Sirius still chatting inside.
James opened the door, “Peter, this is Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, guys, this is my best friend, Peter Pettigrew, we grew up together.” All three boys let out little “Hey’s”, while James hoisted both his and Peter's trunks onto the rack and sat down next to Sirius, with Peter taking the empty spot across from him, next to Remus.
“So,” James said to cut the silence, “you said you were talking about what Hogwarts house you wanted to be in.” This made all the awkwardness go away, with Sirius launching into a long rant about how much he didn’t want to be in Slytherin and wanted to really get into Gryffindor. After a few hours of being together, the boys had become solid friends. James found out that all of Sirius’s family had been in Slytherin, that Remus was expecting Ravenclaw and many other things. Him and Peter also shared their desires to get into Gryffindor, to which Sirius had looked very pleased.
~
A few hours later, an interruption occurred. “And you will love Slytherin, it’s where all the people who actually make a mark on the world go.” James looked up to see the greasy haired boy from the station walk into their carriage talking to the pretty redhead whom he was with before. The boy looked up to see James and his friends staring at him, and blushed. “Must have gotten the wrong carriage… sorry.” The boy made to leave.
James stood up, not standing for the slytherin propaganda that this boy was obviously spreading to the girl standing next to him. “No please do stay, what were you saying about Slytherin?”
Sirius also stood up, “Yeah it sounded like you are really fond of the place” and aside to the redhead, “Every wizard who ever went bad has been in Slytherin, including my whole family.”
The boy sneered, seeming to recognise Sirius.
“Ah you must be the Black heir, apologise if the inbreeding has got to your head, but Slytherin is obviously the best. Come on Lily, let’s go.”
James was not up for the slander of his new friend and so stood up and grabbed the redhead's arm
“No Lily, do not go.”
Lily shook him off. “Get off me.”
James automatically let go. “Sorry… wasn’t thinking… I'm James by the way.”
“Goodbye James,” James saw the girl roll her eyes and looked at Sirius, who was giving the boy an evil glare. “C’mon Severus, Let’s go.”
“Yeah bye Snivilius.” Sirius hollered after them, and then to James, “arsehole.”
~
On the way up to the castle, once they were off the train, James shared a boat with Remus, Peter and Sirius, while also throwing a glance over to Marlene, who insisted it was fine. James supposed that he would have to let his best friend have some space and make other friends, like he was doing, but he was still afraid that these 7 years at Hogwarts would cause him and Marlene to grow apart.
To his surprise, Lily and Serverus got in a boat with Marlene, Mary and Emmeline, much to Serverus’s horror. James was glad. Lily seemed alright, and James knew that her talking to Marlene would give her a more balanced look on the Hogwarts houses compared to what Severus would give her.
When he and his friend got to the castle, they were herded into a room near the Great Hall and were spoken to by one Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor and in charge of first years. James was in awe, the last hour had gone so quickly, and now he was so close to getting sorted, which would control the people he was surrounded with, and would then in turn affect his whole life.
Finally, after what seemed like an age, McGonagall led them into the great hall, where at the front a black hat lay. James heard a few names being called out, anxious for when someone he knew would be called.
“Black, Sirius” James gulped as his new friend walked up to the stool and put the hat on his head. James knew that Sirius was probably praying that it wasn’t Slytherin.
“Gryffindor!” The whole hall went silent. James looked around and saw an older girl with straight platinum blonde hair to match the boy sitting next to her at the Slytherin table with a gobsmacked look on her face. James looked back at Sirius, who suddenly grinned and lept towards the Gryffindor table. Someone wolf whistled and suddenly the whole Gryffindor table burst into applause. James looked around to see who had whistled and was surprised to see that it was an older girl (probably 7th year), wearing a Slytherin tie, but sitting at the Hufflepuff table with a kindly looking boy holding her hand.
After this there were more people sorted, including Lily (surname Evans), sorted into Gryffindor (maybe James had helped stop Severus' spewing of nonsense!), Remus who surprisingly got Gryffindor after insisting it would be Ravenclaw, Mary who was put into Gryffindor too and, unsurprisingly, Marlene was put with her, exactly where she had talked of being for 10 years - James felt happy for her. Next up was Peter. James watched as his best friend shuffled up to the stool, looking nervous. James knew how badly Peter wanted to be with him and not have to make new friends.
Peter was there for a while before the hat exclaimed “Gryffindor!” The shock on Peter's face was so obvious that some people even laughed, but not James; James was cheering as loud as he possibly could. All of his friends! In Gryffindor! That was a dream come true. James was next, and as soon as he lifted the hat onto his head… “Gryffindor!” Happy, yet not altogether surprised, James strolled over to the Gryffindor table and took a spot in between a tall athletic looking 6th year and Sirius, the latter promptly high fiving him.
The next first year to be sorted that James knew was Severus (surname Snape, which James did not recognise.) James saw Lily lean forward, eyes wide and fingers crossed under the table. “Slytherin.” Snape threw a wistful look at Lily before smiling at the Slytherins and taking a seat next to the blonde haired boy that James had seen earlier.
“See that girl with the blonde hair next to the boy Snivilius sat down near” Sirius said, following the direction in which James was looking, “that's my dear old cousin Narcissa, delight that one.” James wasn’t entirely shocked, between the look of outrage on her face when Sirius was sorted and her being a Slytherin, James thought she must have some relation to Sirius.
“And see that girl at the Hufflepuff table with the Slytherin robes,” Sirius continued, and James looked over at the girl who had wolf whistled earlier, “that is my favourite cousin, Andy, Narcissa’s sister. They have another sister but she’s left the school already.” James looked more closely at Andy. The boy she was holding hands with was in Hufflepuff robes, had an easy going look about him, and was chatting with the people closest to him.
“Who is that boy she’s with?” James asked Sirius.
“Ah,” Sirius replied, “you have come across one of the many things we, as a family, do not talk about. That's Ted Tonks, Muggleborn Hufflepuff wizard, and Andy’s boyfriend of 5 years. Being with a Muggleborn is almost as bad as, y’know, queerness in my family.”
The last first year to be sorted was Emmeline Vance, who was put into Ravenclaw. She looked sadly across at Mary and Marlene.
“Oh that's such a shame,” Mary said, “I was looking forward to us being friends!” James did feel sorry for Emmeline; he couldn't imagine if he had been put in Hufflepuff and Sirius, Peter and Remus in Gryffindor!
Marlene butted in, “Mary, don't be daft, just because we are in different houses doesn’t stop us from hanging out with her!”
~
After the sorting and the feast, James walked upstairs with the new Gryffindor first years and a Gryffindor prefect. The prefect handed out maps to all of them as well as telling them the password for the common room, and explaining how the passwords worked. He looked around at the people he would be sharing classes with for the next 7 years. James himself, Marlene, Peter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Mary Macdonald and Lily Evans. James thought that he would have one hell of a time at school, he was friendly with all of the people apart from Lily, and he was sure she would come around soon.
When they reached the stairs going up to the dorm rooms, James split off from Marlene, promising to meet for breakfast tomorrow. He followed the other boys into their dorm and looked around. He chose the four poster with the most wall space next to it, Remus took the one closest to the window, Peter took the one closest to James and Sirius took the remaining one.
James found his trunk, and pulled out some posters he had brought from home; Quidditch players, but also bands he liked and photos of his family. He managed to tangle the spello-tape in his hands and called Sirius to help him get it out - as Peter was already fast asleep.
After Sirius had helped him put up the posters, James was having too good of a time to stop the convo, and so he changed the topic. James loved listening to Sirius talk, as he had never found anyone that could rant about things he loved for as long as James could, and it was exhausting sometimes having to be the one that put all the effort into conversations.
Sirius climbed into James’s four poster, and they spent all night talking and getting to know each other properly. When James fell asleep, he dreamed of old and new friends, magic and laughter.