Chapter Text
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When eleven year old James Fleamont Potter wakes up for his first day of classes at Hogwarts, there's already someone awake.
And crying his eyes out, by the looks of it. Its sort of strange, because from what he remembers of yesterday, Sirius Black had certainly not been the homesick-crying sort.
James's first impression of Black makes little difference however, because right in front of the mirror, clutching his own face with a shocked, bewildered expression - he stands - tugging at his hair, with an air of hysteric mania about him.
James must have made a tiny noise of surprise, because Black spins around, wild-eyed - pointing at him with a shaky finger and says, "You're - you're alive! And, and my hair - they're, they're so soft!!"
There's a long, awkward pause as James absorbs that.
"Well, that's absolutely wonderful for you, Padfoot," a snide voice says from the corner and James looks back to see Peter Pettigrew sitting up on his bed, sneering. Which again, strikes him as wierd - because Pettigrew had seemed like a quiet, timid boy.
He had barely stuttered out his name yesterday.
And now here he was, smirking worse than a Malfoy.
Also, what does he mean by Padfoot - ?
Sirius is staring at Pettigrew too, mouth open. James and Remus Lupin, another kid in their house, exchange confused looks.
When the tension in the dormitory becomes too much, and James is just about to speak or atleast laugh nervously, Sirius's expression darkens and he lunges towards Pettigrew, wand in his hand like its natural - like he knows how to use it.
James stumbles out of bed at the same time as Pettigrew, who's even holding himself differently than yesterday - straight-backed and angry, none of the clumsy sheepishness of yesterday - wand in his hand, even though he looks slightly anxious.
Sirius advances alarmingly fast - his wand slashing downwards, as Pettigrew puts up a translucent shield, and the blue light bounces off. Sirius doesn't seem fazed, his expression savage - as he shoots beams and beams of curses - he's a first year! - and he smiles grimly when Pettigrew starts shooting spells too.
James is starting to get slightly worried about the condition of their dormitory, and about Pettigrew's health - but Remus is also standing next to him, looking as confused as James feels, and he's not doing anything either.
James doesn't need to be the responsible one and call the teachers, right? He's certainly not getting between the two.
As he watches, Pettigrew's gaze wanders from Sirius to James and Remus once, and Sirius fires up again, snarling a, "If you even look at James, you rat bastard - !"
Well. James can definitely say that he doesn't know what that's supposed to mean.
It sounds like Sirius feels protective of James, but five minutes ago, he was bawling about the softness of his hair and then he attacked Pettigrew like a nutter, so James can't very well be sure.
"What the fuck," Lupin mutters, decidedly, empathetically, as the large window behind Pettigrew's bed shatters and Sirius laughs a little manically.
Right when James thinks things can't get any stranger, the door of the dormitory swings and bangs open on its hinges and its -
The red-haired girl from yesterday, the one with the greasy, Slytherin friend and the really cool green eyes.
The wierd thing isn't that she's a first year girl at the door of the boys dormitory.
The wierd part isn't even that the stairs have turned into a slide, as if to prevent her from entering and she's - quite literally - levitating. She's flying. Outside the boys dormitory.
No. No, the wierd part is the way she's staring at James, green eyes wide and hopeful and watery, James hopes she hasn't been crying - he's utterly hopeless at consoling crying people, especially girls - her hands on her mouth, gasping as she looks at him.
"James," she whispers, incredulously and its all very dramatic except for the fact that James can't even remember her full name. "Have you come, too? Are you - are you - ?"
Come? From where? To where? Hogwarts? Gryffindor?
Sirius has stopped trying to kill his yearmate, for now and both Pettigrew and Sirius are staring at the flying girl, frozen in shock, eyes wide.
James just stares at her, probably looking horrified.
"Oh," she says, looking horribly disappointed and that makes James feel like shit, even though he's sure it isn't his fault, and enters the dormitory. "You haven’t."
Which is when, she sees the whole Sirius-Pettgrew destruction. Her expression contorts into pure white rage - and Pettigrew twitches, his hand flexing around his wand, expression shifty and scared.
"Merlin - Lily - " Sirius says, brokenly and that's strange, too, considering the fact that the girl - Lily, apparently - had seemed like she would rather avoid them all, after the whole train fiasco. "I - I didn't - "
"Sirius," she says, looking relieved, and rushes forward and they're both hugging and crying, and Pettigrew's looking awkward, glancing at the door like he's going to make a run for it.
James wonders if he can get Remus to hug him, too, if only for support in the we-don't-know-what's-going-on sort of way.
He's sure the shocking, odd happenings are over for the morning, and that they're going to get some answers now, but of course, not.
There's a deafening sound outside, from the common room, and a familiar kind of voice yells, and James can hear the anger in every syllable -
""I DON'T KNOW HOW BUT THIS HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH POTTER!!!!""
Lily dislodges herself from Sirius, and they both stare at each other, blinking.
"Snivellus," Sirius mutters, venomously, not even sounding surprised - just resigned. "Of course. This is just my luck."
"Your luck?" Lily asks, rolling her eyes, and waving her hands wildly towards James. "My husband is a short, scrawny kid, who doesn't even remember his marriage!"
There were a million things that James could have said at that point, number one being - You're both crazy and delusional and we should go to Professor McGonagall, or even - I'm not married! - but instead James says, sputtering indignantly, "I'm - I'm not - I'm not scrawny!"
Sirius scoffs.
"That's just what you think, love," Lily says, passing him an indulgent smile - like he's the one who's claiming to be married at age eleven.
Sirius hugs Lily again, and -
Pettigrew suddenly straightens up from where he had been cowering - and runs to the door. Sirius's eyes widen and Lily fumbles for her wand, like they've let a criminal escape.
There's a loud smack from just outside, and James hears Pettigrew cry out and another voice spitting out a couple of harsh, choice insults and colorful words -
Oh. Peter must have -
"Can you not watch where you're going, Wormtail!?!"
Sirius snorts, and then, proceeds to laugh so hard that he almost cries again.
Lupin sits down on his bed, sighing.
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