“All aboard, all aboard, last call for the Hogwarts Express” the conductor yelled, red in the face as more kids said the goodbyes, remembered something they forgot, or burst through the gate and rushed towards the train, eager not to be late. 

“Bye mum, Bye Dad,” a first year with untidy black hair said. as his mother checked, for the thousandth time, that he had everything, and his dad beamed with undisguised fatherly pride. 

“You’ll write us won’t you?” his mother asked, a tad nervous. Not sure if her son would want to write to her, she made up for her nerves by enthusiastically hugging her son. 

“Ouch, Mum you're strangling me” James replied, a bit embarrassed by his mom's show of physical affection, but touched nonetheless, “of course I’ll write you, I love you after all.”

“Hurry up Euphemia” the father said gruffly, “James have a good time, get good grades, and don’t do anything that disgraces the name potter.”

“Dad I’ve got to go, the trains leaving” and with that the boy took off, made a running leap, and jumped on to the moving scarlet train.

…

“Hullo, can I sit in here, everywhere else is full” Sirius  said nervously, and a bit uncharacteristically, shyly. 

“Course” james replied, with a confident air and a big grin that belied his inner nerves, “Come on in, I’m James, this is Peter, lily, and you I don't know, he said pointing to the shabby looking, greasy haired boy in the compartment who had come in with lily but didn't seem to like the other boys,

“I’m severus, severus snape.” the boy said, sounding a bit annoyed.

“And you are?” James asked, looking at the new boy.

“ im sirius,” the boy said “and you snivellus snape” he said directed at the sullen boy, “look like you need a shower”

“Oooooooohhhhhhhh” the other boys, Peter and James gasped, and then broke out into laughter at the sight of Snape's indignant expression.

Snape turned away, angry and more than a little hurt. “This is it, where of to Hogwarts” he said excitedly to the red haired girl sitting next to him, lily, james thought her name was. “You'd better be in Slytherin,” he said, but then cringed when James repeated the word.

“Slytherin, who wants to be in Slytherin, I think I’d Leave, wouldn't you.” he said to sirius, who by this time had sat down opposite him, who didn't smile,

“My whole family has been in Slytherin,” he said, a little defensively.

“Oh, and I thought you were alright,'' James replied, a little cooly.

“Maybe I’ll break the streak, where are you off to if you get the choice,” sirius replied, an easy grin on his face

“Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart” James replied, swishing an imaginary sword. 

Snape snickered, “sure, if you'd rather be brawny rather than brainy.

“And where are you off to, seeing as you're neither” James replied. Sirius roared with laughter at this. 

Lily sat up, rather flushed and said “come on severus, let's find another compartment”

“Ooooooooo” the other boys said in lofty voices. 

“See ya Snivellus” James said laughing ,though he let them leave with no further comment, but not before almost tripping the girl. 

“God I hope I'm not in her house”

“Yeah,” Sirius replied, “whose more of a stuck up prat, her or that idiot snape.”

“Not sure, but you should have heard her introduce herself, all”, and he put on a high pitched voice for this. “I’m Lily Evans, and you are” Peter and Sirius found this hilarious,

“Be nice” Peter joked “she’s a redhead, she cant help it”

By the time the snack trolley rolled around they were all laughing so hard that they didn't notice when the trolley lady knocked to ask them if there was anything they wanted. When they didn’t answer, she knocked again, this time a little more ferociously, and asked them in a bit more aggressive of a tone, “anything off the trolley dears” her usual smile replaced with a bit of a leer. 

The rather shabbily dressed Peter mumbled something about food from home, while both Sirius and James got up eagerly to get everything they  could stuff into their pockets, hands, and in James’s case, his red sweater with a Gryffindor lion on it.

⋯ 

“Potter, James,” professor McGonagall announced. The moment he heard this James ran over and jammed the hat on his head where it barely had time to touch the uppermost strands of his hair before announcing Gryffindor. He jogged over to the Gryffindor house to watch the rest of the sorting. The next Gryffindor to be sorted was a tall, shy looking boy named Remus Lupin. Seeing his obvious nervousness, James gestured for him to sit down next to him before turning back to watch Peter be sorted into Gryffindor, who sat across from him. Then Siruis who sat next to him. And then “Snape, Severus'' the greasy haired boy from earlier sat down on the stool and the hat took no time at all to decide “Slytherin”, and snape ran across the hall and sat down next an obnoxious looking blond prefect at the slytherin table. Then it was the autumn haired girl from earlier, Lily Evans who sat nervously down at the stool where the hat took a while to decide before making her the second gryffindor girl after a plump smiling girl named Molly Prewett. 

…

30 minutes later and with his belly very full, James walked up the stairs contentedly, chatting with Sirius about hexes they could use on people who had ticked them off. 

“Maybe we could use that hex that makes your skin go all pink and fuzzy on that Snape kid” 

“Nah, lets use it on that prefect for slytherin and use a transfiguration on snape”

“Yeah turn him into a bat, that’d be perfect.”

“ I like the way you think.’

As they walked up the ever extending and moving(!) staircases, their legs getting ever more tired, they talked excitedly about what they were going to do in their classes. Already planning the mischief the would cause. Already forming a friendship that would last decades.

Once in their bedroom, as James lay down in his four poster bead, even more sumptuous and comfortable than the one at home, he fell asleep quickly, and for the first time in months, didnt have nightmares about home.