James Potter and the Sword in the Stone

James lugged his trunk and Hermes to an empty compartment at the back of the train. He closed the door and put his Hogwarts robes on quickly. He put his trunk on the rack above the seats, and set Hermes' cage on the seat beside him. Just as he sat down, Lysander and Lorcan opened the compartment door.

"Can we join you? Everywhere else is pretty much full," Lysander said.

"Er . . . sure," James said.

There was an uncomfortable silence for James as Lorcan and Lysander stowed their things and sat down. Lorcan pulled out a copy of a magazine called The Quibbler. James frowned as he turned it upside down.

"Your family still owns the Quibbler, then?" James asked.

"Our grandfather passed away not too long ago, but our mother took it over, along with our father," Lorcan said.

They sat in silence for a while, until the train began moving. The three of them piled around the window and waved at their families as they rolled along.

"Aw, how touching. Going to miss your mum, are you?" a voice said from behind them.

The three of them turned around to see a boy their age with jet black hair, another boy who was short and squat, and a very skinny girl with blonde hair.

"And who are you?" James asked, instantly not liking the looks of the trio.

"The name's Dolohov. Alec Dolohov. This here is Philip Crichlow," Dolohov said, pointing to the squat boy first, then the girl, "and this is Helena Hardwicke. We're going to be Slytherins, for sure. But judging by the looks of you, I'd say Hufflepuff. Maybe Ravenclaw, but I don't think you're smart enough for that."

"I'm James Potter, and I'm going to be in Gryffindor. So why don't you three Slytherins just piss off!" James said angrily.

Alec stepped forward, with a look of disdain on his face. "I'd watch who you're talking to like that if I were you. My family is a great wizarding family," he said quietly in James' face.

"So is mine," James said darkly.

"What's going on here? James, you alright?" his cousin, Fred said, appearing at the doorway. His oldest cousin at Hogwarts, Victoire, appeared at his shoulder. Victoire was a Prefect, so Dolohov immediately backed off.

"We were just having a friendly chat, that's all," Dolohov said, pushing his way past the two.

"Let me know if he bothers you, James. I'll sort him out," Victoire said, staring after him.

"He just came in like he owned the place. He's first year, right?" James asked.

"Yeah, must be. First year I've seen him. Victoire here is a prefect, so you give a shout if the git is bothering you," Fred said.

"What's his name?" Victoire asked curiously.

"Alec Dolohov. He acted like I should know him," James said.

"The Dolohovs are a pretty powerful wizard family," Victoire said.

"All purebloods too," Lysander said.

"Dark wizards," Lorcan said matter of factly.

"That's right. Back when Voldemort was in power, a Dolohov was in his army. He was a Death Eater," Fred said.
"We should probably stay clear of him," Lorcan said.

"I'm not afraid of some dark wizard," James said.

"If his father is the dark wizard, then maybe you should steer clear. I don't want to see you in trouble this year," Victoire said.

"I won't. As long as we get put in different houses it'll be fine," James said.

"Here, give him one of these and he'll think twice next time," Fred said conspiratorially, handing him an orange sweet. "Here, you chaps take some too. Oh, and better not forget the one that stops it. Just don't give that to Dolohov."

They left, Victoire with a disapproving frown and Fred with a grin. Fred was in his fifth year, and Victoire in her sixth. Fred was not a prefect, as he enjoyed joking around too much. He always said he would end up working with his dad and Uncle Ron at the joke shop. His sister Roxanne was in her third year and was a great Quidditch player. They had darker skin, but it was still fairly light. They also had red hair like their father.

"You have a lot of cousins at Hogwarts, huh?" Lysander asked as they relaxed again.

"Yeah, I do. It's sort of a good thing though. I'll always have someone I know here," James said.

"Yeah, all I have is this dolt," he said motioning to Lorcan, who was again deep in his magazine. James laughed. He was beginning to like Lysander more and more. He was not as dumb as he thought. He was never quite sure what to say though. Suddenly he caught what the front cover of the Quibbler said. It was upside down, so James tilted his head to see. The headline read: The Location of Excalibur Revealed!

"Can I see that?" James asked Lorcan.

"Sure. It's on page five," he said, handing it to him.

James tilted it upside down in order to read the article:

The famed sword of King Arthur was finally revealed to a reporter by the ministry yesterday. Excalibur, or the sword in the stone, is currently residing somewhere in the Forest of Dean. Ministry officials rushed to the location of the sword in order to draw it from the stone and have professionals study it. However, they were unsuccessful as the stone is protected by an ancient magic.
James didn't finish the rest and gave the magazine back irritably. "You believe that rubbish?" James asked them.

"Sure. You can't believe everything the Daily Prophet says sometimes, so yeah, I do," Lorcan said, slightly defensive.

"It's just that all that stuff isn't real. I mean, the sword in the stone? Was King Arthur even real?" James asked.

"Of course he was! Just because he lived a long time ago doesn't mean he wasn't real! And if you can't see that then you're just sad!" Lorcan said, leaving the compartment angrily.

James stared after him, shocked. "I wasn't trying to offend anyone," James told Lysander who had a smirk on his face.

"It's alright. He'll cool down. He gets pretty defensive over that mythical stuff. Him and mum can talk about this stuff for hours," Lysander said.

"Er . . . you don't believe it though?" James asked him.

"Some of it I do. I mean, the world would be pretty dull without imagination."

Just then they heard strange sounds from outside their compartment. It almost sounded like belching. After looking at each other, they both rushed out into the hallway.

"You two will answer to the headmistress when we arrive at Hogwarts!" Victoire was saying from behind a crowd.

James pushed his way to the front to see Molly on the floor, clutching her stomach and throwing up severely. Three girls stood beside her, one with a purple sweet still in her hand. The other two were standing back slightly, the one staring fiercely around as if to dare them to challenge her friend. The last girl was hanging shyly back from her friends, not wanting to get involved.

"You're just mad because she's your cousin!" the fierce one said.

"You deliberately gave that to her and . . . wait, where did you get that?" Victoire asked, recognizing the sweet.

"He gave them to us! He said to only use it when we really needed to get out of something. She just took one and ate it though!" the one with the sweet said, pointing to Fred who was standing beside James.

"Bad luck, mate. Knew I shouldn't have given a first year one. She's going to have my head! I was only trying to get the shop more business, though," Fred said, depressed.

"Give that to me! It will make it stop," Victoire said, snatching the purple sweet quickly and jamming it down Molly's throat. "Don't think you're getting off easy, Fred!"

Victoire helped Molly to her feet as the vomiting subsided, and took her into what James guessed was her own compartment. The first two girls went back into their compartment angrily, while the other girl hung back. She looked at James and motioned to him to come over to her as everyone else left. James looked around at first until he realized she really was motioning to him. She was a pretty girl with brown hair, and big brown eyes. She was shorter than most girls, but that did not diminish her in the least.

"That was your cousin, wasn't it?" she asked when he was closer.

"Yeah," James said, uncertain what to say. She was the first one to be nice to him on this train who wasn't in his family.

"My name's Bella Whitaker. Well, actually it's Isabella, but everyone calls me Bella," she said.

"I'm James. James Potter. Everyone calls me James," he said.

She laughed and said, "I just wanted to say I'm sorry. We really weren't trying to hurt her. I mean, she seems to be a bit . . ."

"Overbearing? Yeah, she is. But as long as you're not doing anything you're not supposed to, she's okay," James said.

"Actually, she seemed to be alright up until she took the sweet. I don't know if she knew that it was Puking Pastille, but I think she was only trying to fit in," Bella said wisely.

"Well, thanks . . . you know . . . for not being mean to her," James said.

"It was nice meeting you, James," she said, as her friends called her name from their compartment.

"You too," James said, watching her go.