Journey To Hogwarts, old - thread closed Options

[evlpez]

Okay folks. I know many of you have no care to explore 'ships and alt universe stuff, but I wanted to get something else moving in our brains.
Here is a short installment of an AU story about James Potter, son to Harry and Ginny. This is all that is written so far.

Rather than chapter-long installments, let's try just a few paragraphs at a time and see how it develops.

The story begins with James' first ride on the Hogwarts Express. I see James as a bit of a loner, coping silently with being related to a celebrity and unsure about his own place in the world. He is more mature than his age and is intelligent, brave and has a darkness about him. (He isn't evil or bad, though.) I see a bit of a 'young Remus' in this James. I have written in one baby brother, but there may be up to 5 children in the Potter family, considering Ginny's experience with a large family and Harry's feelings about having a different, lonlier childhood.

JOURNEY TO HOGWARTS

James Potter sat in an otherwise empty compartment of the Hogwarts Express, looking out the window and eagerly waiting for it to pull away from the platform. He could barely sit still. He felt only a twinge of guilt at his hasty good-bye to his parents, having felt awkward as always standing there with one of the most famous wizards in history. He needed to get away and be by himself on this train before he was bombarded by cousins and other curious people. He loved his cousins, but he always felt a little different from all of them. Not better, but something about being who he was had made him… alone. He preferred being alone at important times like this; important to him, anyway. His first trip on the Hogwarts Express, this was the beginning of his journey to become someone. To make a name for himself that wasn't automatically followed by 'the son of Harry Potter'. He glanced at the cage he had set on the bench opposite only moments before. His new owl, a young brown Tawny, stared back at him. He still hadn't given him a name, despite his mother's prodding.

"Just pick something, James. He's just an owl, not your firstborn child," she had said that morning while juggling a breakfast pan with her wand hand and his baby brother with the other. His father intervened as he took baby Albert off her hands.

"Now, now… this isn't just any owl. It's his owl. James will name him when he needs to. It's important to some people, Gin. This little guy is going to be more than just his owl, he'll be a friend." James smiled at his dad then. He understood. He understood a lot of things about James that his mother just couldn't, not that she didn't try.

James' new owl hooted, reminding him of a penny whistle. It was such a different voice than Hedwig's. James smiled. His father had known that this owl should be as different as he could be from Hedwig.

Continue, introducing at least one new character, maybe a Weasley Cousin (one of the twins' kids?).

[evlpez]

James entered the Gryffindor common room and found Philip reading in front of the fire. The common room was full of students studying and doing their first homework assignments of the year. Philip looked up at James and closed his Charms textbook.

"I found something out," Philip said. James sat down on the couch beside him and Philip continued in a whisper, "You were right. That woman is the new Astronomy teacher. Get this though - she's related to Albus Dumbledore somehow."

James felt a little panic. "What, like his granddaughter or something? I didn't think he had a family."

"No, she's a niece of some kind." Philip said. "At least, that's what Charlie told me. He saw her come in at the end of last year to see McGonagall about a job."

"Okay," James' thoughts skipped a bit. "We should find out who that wizard she was talking to is. He seemed to be the one making the decisions. Remember, she said she didn't want to be linked to… something."

James didn't want to believe that a relation of his father's mentor had any dark intentions. He wondered if he should ask his dad about Dumbledore's family, but decided he wanted to solve this mystery on his own. Besides, he thought, there's no sense involving dad and getting him worried or upset about Dumbledore. He's already a bit tender on the subject - dad hasn't heard from him since his retirement party.

"Right," Philip agreed, "We'll meet her Wednesday night anyway, we have Astronomy class at sundown. Do you think that man was a teacher?"

"What else would he be? I mean - what other adults would be wandering around Hogwarts than the staff?" James asked. Could this man be from outside - someone wanting to hurt a student or a teacher?

"Well," Philip whispered, "Could he have been a student?"

James looked at Philip and nodded slowly, pondering this question. They should be prepared for any possibility.

The other first year boys sat down at a table behind the couch and started playing chess and Exploding Snap, distracting James and Philip from their mystery. Grateful for a chance to learn wizard games, Philip jumped up and joined them. James spent little time thinking about what they'd heard, and instead the five boys played games all evening. Philip learned about Bertie Botts beans the hard way and James finally found someone other than Uncle Ron who could beat him at wizards' chess.

AN: Let's explore their dorm-mates and see who Carson's related to. Could he or the others know some seemingly irrelevant information that helps James & Philip?
When I first wrote about the new professor, I described her with some attributes linking her to Dumbledore. Even with the mystery conversation, I think we can still use that idea and see what happens.

This post has been edited by evlpez: Feb 13 2004, 03:28 PM