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]

Finding Charlie wasn't difficult. Talking with Charlie was an entirely different matter.

In the Common Room he was deep into an assignment, with several other of his classmates sitting at the same table. When Lily asked him to come talk for a moment he merely waved her away, obviously too busy with his studies to pause. As bedtime neared, he managed to slip out of the room unnoticed. The next morning he dashed into the Great Hall, grabbed some toast and dashed out. James passed him in the halls a few times, but Charlie seemed increasingly elusive for the better part of the week.

It was just as well.
As it turned out, Charlie's heavy assignment load was being paralleled in all the classes at all levels.


The next morning the five dormmates had arrived in Hebology to discover Professor Longbottom had placed an array of odd-looking red-leafed plants before each of their places at the tables. As the boys walked to where each usually stood, the plants enthusiastically leaned toward them and stretched thin tendrils even closer. Looking at eachother warily, they took a step backward, and the tendrils strained to reach them.

"You might not want to let those touch you. Get out your Dragon hide gloves, first," Professor Longbottom said as he walked into the room noticing a few students teasing the tendrils.

Duke shrunk back, then realizing his cronies were watching him, bent to retrieve his hastily (and intentionally) dropped glove.

"These are," Neville began, but was interrupted by a screech from the Slytherin table. In Dursley's circle, Pollux had continued to tease his plant. The plant grabbed his hand and began gnawing on his index finger. Before a second scream could escape the hapless student's lips, Professor Longbottom flashed his wand at it and shouted an imobilization curse. He strode over shaking his head. "You really must be a bit more cautious. There are things in the world that it is best to understand prior to touching, or eating, or in some cases, even looking at." He carefully unwound the tendrils from the Slytherin's wrist and pried the plant's teeth from the student's finger. "I would have imagined you had been around plants like these before you came to Hogwarts, Mr. Travers," he paused looking sternly into Pollux's eyes. "Can you find the hospital wing? Then go."

Sean and Allen surreptitiously poked eachother in the ribs as the scowling Slytherin left the greenhouse. Duke, Athol, and Claude, however, glared diggers at the Gryffindor table as though somehow this had been their doing. James doubted this bode well for future herbology classes, as almost the same situation had occured in the previous class. He also hoped their after-class departure would have different results today. Suddenly his attention was pulled from his concerns by the teacher's voice.

"As I was saying, these are Venomous Tentacula. While they are teething, as these are, they can be crabby and tend to bite a bit," he smiled fondly at the plant on his table. "The leaves from the adult plant, when dried and crushed to a fine powder, are used in a draught important for healing burns, amongst other things. You will find quite a bit on it in your Herbology text. Today we will transplant these, using a good quality soil, mooncalf dung and a pinch of magnesium phosphate. While we get busy on this phase, please note that I want two feet of parchment on the care and uses of this plant for our next class. Here's a hint, the root is very useful also."