James hates this part. Saying goodbye. His mother is tearing up and he feels like he might too at any moment. He hugs her. He inhales and reminds himself to remember the way she smells.
“I’ll be home for Christmas,” he whispers. He tries to pull away from his mother but she won’t let him yet.
“It seems so far,” she whispers back.
Euphemia Potter was a mother through and through. James always thinks it was what she was born to do. She took such great care of him his whole life. That’s why it’s always so hard to leave her.
She finally let’s James pull away from her hug and cups his face.
“We always make it Mum.” They do. Even though it hurts James to be away from his mother they always make it until Christmas. James always tries to convince himself it gets easier as the years go on, but every year when his parents drop him off he’s reminded that it doesn’t.
“I know James, but I always miss you. I always miss you so much.”
It hurts. He loves his mum so much but he loves this school too. “Mum please don’t make me cry in front of my classmates.”
They all laugh, and James is thankful for the change in mood. As sad as he is to leave his family, he’s excited to be back at school with his friends.
“Well,” James takes a step back from his mother, “I guess I’d better get in there,” he nods towards the large building of dorm rooms to the right of him.
“Are the other boys already here?” Euphemia asks him.
“Sirius definitely is, not sure about the others.” Sirius was always here as early as the school would allow him to be.
“Say hi to them for me, yeah?”
“‘Course, Mum.” James gives his mother a small smile.
“Goodbye James,” his father gives him one last hug and begins to walk back to the car.
His mother gives him a kiss on the cheek and reminds him to write to her lots. James tells her he will then heads off to the boy's dorms.
He knows the way to his dorm, it’s the same one every year. Even though most students move dorms each year, James and his friends have had the same one since their first year there. Room 333. Sirius is convinced it’s lucky, so he made sure they got that room every year since . James thought it was silly but he wasn’t going to argue with sirius.
He can tell Remus is there already when he gets to their hallway because he can hear one of his records playing. Bowie, he’s pretty sure, although that’s always a safe guess with Remus.
James walks a little heavier on the last few steps to the room to give Sirius and Remus a heads up. He knows it’s probably unnecessary but ever since he walked in on them last year he hasn’t taken any chances.
Thankfully when he walks in the two are on opposite sides of the room unpacking their suitcases.
James clears his throat as if to get their attention even though they’re already looking at him. “Gentlemen, the King of Weston Academy has arrived,” he declares.
“Yeah we know,” Sirius starts with a confused look, “I got here like, two hours ago.”
“Oh clear off,” James says jokingly, dropping his bags on his bed and hugging Sirius. “Missed you mate.”
James hugs Remus and starts to unpack. They get settled and fill each other in on each of their summers until Peter gets there.
Once they’re all unpacked, and James has made sure to tell them that Euphemia says hello to everyone, they head to the dining hall to get lunch.
“I can’t believe we only have two years left of this,” Peter says once they’ve settled into their usual table.
“I can’t believe we’ve already been doing this for 4 years,” Sirius retorts.
Sirius might like the atmosphere of this place, and being away from home, but he hates the actual school part. He probably wouldn’t have even made it this far without James’ and Remus’s help. He’s got the intelligence, just not the motivation. Peter is just about the opposite, he tries his best but his marks just aren’t always there. James doesn’t like thinking this, but he believes it’s a good thing Peter’s family is rich, because he’s not sure his average is even high enough to keep him in on its own.
“I bet they’re going to start making us plan for what we’re doing after we graduate.” Remus laughs a little as he says it, but it’s a scary thought for James. He’s not quite ready to think about life after Weston.
Apparently his friends can tell what’s on his mind. “Relax James,” Sirius tells him, “Everyone knows you’re gonna stick with swimming.” He says it like it’s so obvious, like that’s all James is ever meant to do with his life.
James laughs. “Everyone but me apparently.” He loves swimming but there has to be more to life than that, right?
The other boys look confused. “You don’t like swimming anymore?” Remus asks him.
“No, no I love it,of course I love it, it’s just all I ever seem to do anymore.” Which was true. At school he trained almost every morning and he spent most of his summer at the lake. He’s still not sure how he managed to balance actual school with practice last year after he moved up to the varsity team.
“Speaking of which,” Sirius rolls his eyes like he’s just as affected by the swim team schedule as James is, “when’s your first practice?”
“We have a meeting tonight, but we don’t actually start practicing until next week.”
“Tonight? Couldn’t they have waited a couple days to start?” Peter asks with his mouth full of his chicken sandwich.
“It’s just a quick thing, there’s new members or something, and some forms to fill out I think.”
Sirius smirks, “Good. Can’t have you missing the annual welcome back party, can we?”
Every year there’s a party in the woods behind the school on the first day back, and James and Sirius always seem to make it their mission to be the drunkest ones there.
James grins back “Oh you know I’d never miss that.”
They take a detour on the way back to their dorm so they can find some of their other friend’s rooms and scope out this year's newcomers. They’ve dropped into a few rooms, and Sirius wants to keep touring, but James has to get back to get ready for his swim meeting. James and Peter head back to their room and Remus stays with Sirius for when he inevitably gets lost. It’s not really Sirius’s fault he gets lost so much though, when every hallway at this school is identical.
Peter and James have just rounded the corner into their hallway when they collide with another pair of students.
It takes James a couple of seconds to regain his bearings, and when he does he is immediately angry. He’s just bumped into Regulus Black. Sirius’ brother. Sirius hates him, so James does too. Sirius has always done everything he could to protect Regulus in that house, but he has never gotten anything in return. Regulus Black is a terrible human being.
“Black.” James spits out at him with a glare as cold as James can make it.
“Potter.” Regulus smirks like he knows how much this run-in is annoying James. James highly doubts Regulus understands just how much he hates him.
“Let’s go Pete.” James pushes past Regulus and the other boy, Barty Crouch, and continues to their room.
“Wow,” Peter says when they get into their room, “you really hate him, huh?”
“‘Course I do. You know how he treats Sirius.”
“True enough,” Peter agrees.
James switches the grey tee shirt he has on with a crimson sweater. He cleans his glasses on the sweater and quickly checks his hair in the mirror.
James heads to the door but turns back to Peter before opening it. “If Remus and Sirius aren’t back soon you might wanna go look for them, you know Sirius could talk forever, and Moony’s too polite to interrupt him.”
Peter smiles. “Yeah you’re right. Operation Rescue Remus if they’re not back in ten.” They both laugh, but they also both know there’s a good chance Peter might actually have to go save Remus.
“Have fun at your meeting,” Peter calls as James goes out the door.
“As you all know, most of our varsity team graduated last year.” The swim team is circled around their coach, Ms. Hooch, and James has started filling out the registration forms they were given. “We have a great set of students joining the team, and I’ve already seen a lot of first years showing interest.”
James looks around at the other varsity boys, they all look just as curious as he is to see who’s going to be joining them this year.
“So, let’s introduce the new members shall we?” There’s excitement and a little bit of nervousness in the air. “Our new varsity members are Gilderoy Lockhart, Thomas Hale, Edward Boone, and Regulus Black.”
James freezes. Surely he couldn’t have heard that right, Regulus doesn’t even swim does he? If he did, why would he only just be joining this year? He must have misheard Ms. Hooch.
Lockhart, Hale, and Boone have all stepped forward into the most inner layer of the circle. Some boys are patting them on their backs and congratulating them.
Regulus isn’t there, so that must mean James misheard the last name Ms. Hooch said.
Relief rushes through James, until Ms. Hooch begins to speak again. “Unfortunately, Mr. Black was unable to make it today, but he will be joining the rest of you next Tuesday morning at our first practice. I expect you all to be there on time. Congratulations to our new varsity members, I’ll see you all on Tuesday.” With that Ms. Hooch is out the door followed by the rest of the team.
James does not move. There is no way Regulus is joining this team. The team James is with almost everyday. There is no way he can spend that much time with Regulus Black.