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?).

[McGonagall's Cat]

The first year Gryffindors ate breakfast not at all sure what to expect from their first class of the day. Defense Agaist The Dark Arts had a reputation at Hogwarts.

Taking a deep breath, Phillip pushed open the door to the classroom.

Though James and two other students had been in the room before, it’s imposing array of tanks and cages of strange creatures captured everyone’s attention when they entered. They walked along the shelves of cages, studying the odd assortment of inhabitants. Several near accidents were narrowly averted, as when James jerked Allen’s arm away from a cage front just before a Doxy slashed at his hand with its sharp teeth.

“It’s not a good idea to get too close; you never can tell which of these things might do some real damage.” James said as he looked into the next cage.

Duke shouldered some students out of the way of his entourage to get nearer to James, Phillip, Carson and Sean. “Well, well. My illustrious cousin seems to be afraid of a little black furry thing.”

“Actually, Duke, I’ll let you touch it first,” James challenged, glancing at the four bullies. “What’s the matter? Are you afraid of a little tiny Doxy?”

Duke was looking back at him hard, obviously doing some fast thinking as to how to save face, when a teacher’s voice interrupted the situation.

“We’ll just move the tables out of the way” she said pointing her wand starting the process. Several students we knocked off balance as the tables bumped past them, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“How many of you have had experience with magical creatures?” she continued. “A show of hands…” The somewhat taken aback students mumbled and milled around, a few tentatively raising hands.

“And were any of those Yetis?” she earnestly asked the closest student with raised hand, her direct eye contact making the hapless boy very uncomfortable. Her face was only about a half meter from the student’s as she leaned forward expectantly awaiting an answer. After a prolonged silence, during which she continued to stare intently at the boy, she shook her head disappointedly, “Ahhh, more’s the pity.”

A funny-shaped chunk of gold dangling from one earlobe banged back and forth against her cheek and neck when she shook her head. James knew this was a tiny piece of the statue that had gotten blown apart during the Battle at the Department of Mysteries before he was born. The family talked about it several times when she’d come over for dinner. He also knew she’d gotten badly hurt there, and wondered if she was this goofy from the injury or if this is how she had always been.

Stashing her wand behind her other ear she turned her back on the class and bent over, providing their first less-than-dignified view of their Professor. “We are going to start today with an easy creature. Many wizard children keep these as pets,” she said pulling a crate from behind her desk. Inside was a pile of creamy-yellowish furballs. Flipping the top open she lifted one of them out and shoved it into the arms of the first available person, who happened to also be holding an armload of books which went every which way and almost dropped. The little critter purred and before long each of the class had come forward for one.

“Not many creatures are as nice as these puffskeins,” she said walking over to a large enclosed tank with an orange-ish snake curled in the corner. As she tapped the side of the tank the snake uncoiled, lifting its three heads as if to strike at the glass. Had they not been holding the calming puffskeins most of the class would have jumped due to the snake’s intimidating appearance.

“Which is exactly why these were favourite choices for pets by some Dark Wizards.” She carried on without missing a beat, walking around the room as she spoke. “A potion made of its eggs will enhance mental abilities. … But, you won’t learn that potion until 5th year, so you still must take notes in class to pass exams at the end of the year. Maybe this is a good place to start taking notes.”

Duke had already put his puffskein back into the crate and was approaching the snake tank. “What are these called?” he tossed over his shoulder without bothering to look at the teacher, expecting an answer. Duke’s buddies were all near the tank now, too. The rest of the class had found desks and were pulling out parchments and quills.

“These are called Runespoors. They’re from Burkina Faso.” As an afterthought she added, “I’m Professor Lovegood, by the way. We will be exploring Defense Against The Dark Arts this year, and I will do my best to enlighten you. Please feel free to come to me with any questions, my door is always open.”

“Now this, “ she drew her wand again (several of the students exchanged nervous glances) and transported a different tank to the middle of the area where they were all sitting, “...is a nest of Occamy eggs. Come up and look at them closely.”

The class was soon comfortably discussing the various serpents Luna brought before them, taking notes as to their Wizarding uses, things to be cautious of around each, where they originated, and so on.

Time flew so quickly that all of them were startled to hear the bell ring.