Hogwarts' Original Pranksters' Fantastic First Year

Chapter 2: Heading for Hogwarts

The following days and weeks seemed hopelessly long. Lily packed up then unpacked, folded her robes, trained herself to hold her wand in order to keep herself busy. Above all she spent most of her time reading the books she’d bought in Diagon Alley.

Her Study of Today’s Magical Society and Hogwarts, a History were complicated and quite long books, but Lily was determined to finish them before the beginning of term; as for the Encyclopaedia of Magical Creatures, it was purely and simply fascinating. Far more rich and complete than her fifty-pages long Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them she had on her schoolbook list. In her Encyclopaedia, she could read pages and pages about the magical creatures, from animals such as hippogriffs, unicorns or dragons, to "closer-to-humans" creatures – centaurs, for instance – or even Dark Creatures such as vampires or werewolves. Fascinating.

So she spent her whole day in her room. When she eventually came down for dinner, she spoke endlessly about all she had just read, and her parents listened to her with genuine fascination. Her sister Petunia kept silent during their meals, and that was a radical change – usually she wouldn’t let Lily get a word in.

Lily did not notice only this change in her older sister’s behaviour. Though always so quick to criticise everything in everyone, Petunia now withdrew herself each time Lily came into sight. She never asked about Hogwarts, magic, wand, books, and everything related to the wizarding world. She spent most of her time outside with her school friends, who lived near by. Lily had never been quite close to her sister, but it didn’t keep her from feeling sad at that state of things. She remembered the laughter they shared sometimes when Petunia was in a good mood – Lily was always in a good mood – when she would tell her little sister stories gratuitously, for pleasure of making her laugh. But since Lily was back from Diagon Alley, not one word from Petunia, not one smile, nothing.

August seemed to drag by. The night of August 31^st, Lily had difficulty falling asleep. She stared at the ceiling above her with her eyes wide open in the dark, mentally reciting some spells she learnt in her Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration. Her heart was pounding at the thought of being away from her family for ten months – she wouldn’t come back for Christmas nor Easter break – and this was only her first year out of seven.

But a thought comforted her just before she fell asleep. She would not be alone – she would have friends, whatever she was about to get into, and she was even more glad of that first meeting …

* * *

"Si! Si, now you get up!"

Vega Black shook firmly the moaning form squirming under the sheet.

"SIRIUS IAN BLACK!! Get up or I pull the blankets out!"

"Vega, you nutter," grumbled a muffled voice. "Don’t you see what time it is? It isn’t even daylight yet, I bet it’s not even six –"

"Stop moaning! It’s quarter past six, and I don’t want to take the risk of being late. Now UP! I’m fixing breakfast."

Sirius Black popped a very dishevelled head from under the sheets. His black, curly hair stood up in all directions and his clear blue eyes were still sleepy and puffy. Ordinarily, he would have thrown a pillow up to his sister and popped his head under the blanket again – but today, it was his very first day at Hogwarts that was at stake, so he made an effort and sat up, glaring daggers at the door Vega had just gone through. "Quarter past six … Honestly, Vega …"

Their father came into the kitchen as Sirius started his cup of tea. Frank Black obviously also found it very difficult to keep his eyes open, "Thank Goodness you were there, Vega," he muttered, smiling all the same, "otherwise I feel I could have slept on till – at least seven o’clock."

Then, as Vega frowned slightly, "Don’t worry, dear. I can promise you that you won’t be late. London is hardly one and a half hours away by road. We’ll just have to leave at half past eight and we’ll be there early enough."

Sirius mumbled something which was muffled by the toast he was eating. Fortunately. Vega preferred not to know what he said.

How they all managed to pack into the small car with all the luggage and Lucy’s – Vega’s owl – cage, Sirius didn’t have the faintest idea. The trip was quite animated, with Sirius bombarding Vega with questions about Hogwarts he hadn’t asked yet, Vega grousing because her brother was really a deadly bore, and Lucy hooting. Frank Black had difficulty concentrating on the road.

When they finally reached King’s Cross station, Sirius was getting sick. Car-travelling definitely didn’t agree with him. After a one-minute recovery break, the three Blacks headed toward platforms nine and ten. Few Muggles eyed them oddly; well, with all the luggage and especially the cage in which Lucy, scared as usual by all those people, hooted as loud as she could, they didn’t really go unnoticed.

* * *

It was Lucy’s screeches that first reached Lily Evans’s ears. They startled her out of the panic she had begun to feel since she really looked at her ticket: eleven o’clock, Hogwarts Express, Platform nine and three quarters. She had kissed her parents and sister goodbye, took the bus to the station, and she was now standing there, between platforms nine and ten.

Hearing an owl’s hoot, she swung around, feeling hugely relieved; she was even more when she heard a slightly hoarse voice she recognised at once exclaiming, "Vega, can’t you keep your owl quiet? Some of us here got eardrums they care about, and honestly, it sounds even worse than you having a shower with the warm water cut off!"

"Sirius!" Lily cried …

It was him indeed, along with his sister and a tall, clear-eyed, very dark-haired man who must be his father. Sirius turned to Lily and his face lit up, "Hey, look who’s over there! Hi, Lil’. What’s up?"

"Well, I’m stuck here and I don’t have a clue how to get to that blasted platform nine and three quarters …"

"No problema, chica, ’s a wizarding trick to hide it from the Muggles. It’s dead easy, you’ll see, plus it’s quite funny."

"What’s your name?" asked Vega kindly as she took a step closer. She didn’t look as fierce as the other day back at Diagon Alley, and her blue eyes were sparkling.

"Lily Evans."

"There, Lily, give me your trunk, I’ll put it on a trolley, it’ll be more practical. See, the trick is to grab your trolley, run to the wall between platforms nine and ten and to not slow."

"But … what if I crash into the wall?" Lily said, not feeling sure at all.

"First, you won’t crash," Sirius said, "and second, if you absolutely want to crash don’t worry, I know mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. We learnt first-aid at school."

"Yuck! Don’t take it personally, but I prefer to stay out cold than to let you kiss me."

"Go now," said Vega, "go before Sirius. Go on!"

Lily stepped forward hesitatingly, tightened her grip around the handle of her trolley and pushed it as hard as she could. The wall was getting closer – closer – even closer – she closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes, she was no longer in the station concourse but standing in front of a big red steam engine.

Her first thought was I thought these ones didn’t exist anymore; then, feeling a bit lost, she glanced around.

Above her head, an iron sign said "Hogwarts Express, 11 o’clock" and as she turned about briefly she saw an old iron archway indicating "Platform Nine and Three Quarters". Ahead of her, the platform was crowded with students climbing in and out of the train, dragging their luggage, their owl’s cage, cat basket or rat box. The din was quite impressive, with many goodbyes, recommendations, some sobs, and several hoots, mews and other animal noises. She could barely hear a voice whispering in her ear, "I know, that’s what I felt first time I came here."

Sirius had gone through the barrier too, and his dad and sister followed closely. Lily took her trunk from her trolley with a smile.

"Thanks for helping me," she said.

"Not at all, that’s normal, we’re used to come here now with ol’girl here starting her fifth year –"

"Si!"

"Just kidding, sis. Well, here we are."

"Aren’t you a bit scared?"

"Scared? Nope, why should I? It’s gonna be so much fun, we’ll learn spells and curses to hex everybody – especially the Slytherins!"

"Especially what? Oh yes, those from the Slytherin house. Why them in particular?"

Sirius winked, "I think you’ll guess that well soon enough." Then his face lit up again as he cried out cheerfully, "Hey, Jamsie!"

Lily turned around and saw James Potter hurrying to them dragging his trunk, closely followed by his mother.

"Hi, James!"

"’Lo, Lily, Sirius! ‘Was looking for you!"

He looked a bit red and breathless, his glasses were crooked and he still looked as though he hadn’t run a comb through his hair for a week. His jet-black hair looked even more untidy than last time Lily had saw him. But maybe that was because of the rush.

"You’ve been running, haven’t you?"

"Yeah, the alarm rang a bit too late. My Mum’s fanatical about punctuality."

"Reminds me of someone," Sirius muttered with a lopsided look to his sister who was chatting with her dad and Mrs Potter. James tried to regain his breath; when he managed to breathe in a normal way, he turned to Lily.

"How did you find the platform?" he asked.

"He showed me," she answered, pointing to Sirius. "Are we going now?"

"Wait a second, will you? You’re the first girl I’ve met who wants to go to school so much!"

Lily gave a shrug and sat on her trunk to wait. James kissed his mum goodbye; she hugged him as if she was afraid of never seeing him again. She almost had tears in her eyes as she whispered, "I’m so proud, James … really, I’m very proud of you."

James felt an odd lump develop in his throat; it was the first time ever he left home for such a long time. He let his mum kiss him on his cheek although he didn’t like it; then he took his trunk and got back to Lily. As for Sirius, he looked uneasy too, but when his dad hugged him he held him back.

"The house will sound awfully quiet now," Frank Black whispered with a smile. "Deadly quiet, even."

"I’ll send you loads of letters that explode when you open them," Sirius said, his voice shaking slightly. "And spells to help you blending your colours when you paint. And if you read someday in one of my letters ‘green roses’re flying in the air’ then you are to come and get me out of there, ’cause Vega will have managed to drive me nutter. Ok?"

"All right, son. Not too many pranks?"

"Not too many, cross my heart, Da."

Frank got up as Sirius grasped his trunk and yelled, "C’mon, Vega, stop chatting guys up, we haven’t got all day!"

He must have hit the right place, because Vega looked furious when she came into sight again. Sirius shared a last glance with his dad, then followed James and Lily to the cars.

All the first ones seemed crowded. Once they more or less made their way through the students and got on the train with all their luggage, they had to drag them to an empty compartment. It wasn’t an easy thing. After passing a couple of cars, they were bathed in sweat. Lily eventually let down her trunk and put up her hair from her wet neck; at that moment, they heard a soft, low voice already familiar to them, "Come in this one, there’s nobody."

James recognised the light-brown hair and the blue grey eyes.

"Is it a habit of yours, Remus, always showing up at the right time?" He said, relieved. Remus Lupin smiled and grasped the owls’ – Lucy, Nina and Merlin, James’s owl – cages. At last the five of them went through the compartment door, put their luggage up in the rack and collapsed on a seat, exhausted. There was a second of silence, then Vega got up.

"Do you mind keeping an eye on Lucy, Si? I’m going to see Angie and Dan."

Without even waiting for her brother’s reply, she was gone. James raised an eyebrow, "Si?"

Sirius gave an exasperated shrug, "I just hate it when she calls me that."

"I know the feeling," James said. "My Mum insists on calling me ‘Jimmy’."

Lily giggled.

"What?"

"Well, that’s – Jimmy’s cute, isn’t it?"

"That’s for little boys!"

"And what are you, sixty-four or something?"

"I’m eleven and I prefer James to Jimmy. I even prefer Jamsie. Right?"

"Cool down, don’t get angry … Remus, please stop him from biting me."

"Oy Remus," Sirius cut in, peering at him more closely, "you look terrible."

Indeed, Remus had dark shadows under his eyes, and his face was paler than last time. He gave a placidly quizzical smile, "You would look terrible too if a cracked ghost had kept singing ‘I am Henry the Eighth’ through the night till five just for a lark."

The three others burst out laughing, then a whistle was heard.

"Hey, look, there’re the parents!"

Four heads turned to the window as the train began to move, "Bye, Mum!"

"Sirius, is that your father, there?"

"Yeah, the one talking to your mum."

"Whoa, who’s that bunch of ginger-heads?"

"They’re the Weasleys, they’re a lot of them in their family, according to what Mum said. I’ll send you loads of owls, Mum!"

"Bye!"

Gradually, the platform slipped away with the rest of the landscape, as the train sped away. James felt the lump was back in his throat; it almost choked him to see his mother getting smaller and smaller, then vanishing into the horizon at the same time as King’s Cross station. Sirius had an odd sort of expression on his usually cheerful face, and Remus wasn’t smiling anymore.

There was a pause, then Lily clapped her hands, "Here we are! Heading for the adventure?"

She blushed and bowed her head a little, as three sets of eyebrows were raised. "Well, I had to say something. This silence was getting on my nerves."

"I agree with you, Lily," said Remus, settling down on his seat. "Since this trip will last something like ten hours, if we start with silence, then what it is going to be later – so then, somebody got a subject?"

"Oh, yes," said Lily, turning to James. "I’ve just thought about it now: why did you fly off the handle when that moron called us I don’t know what?"

"He called you Mudbloods," James answered in a hardened voice. Remus started and frowned, "So that was it? Well, I don’t regret my cut lip. The slimy little git."

"But what does that mean?" Sirius asked.

"It’s the most insulting thing someone can call a Muggle-born witch or wizard. As if it was better to descent from an old wizarding family."

"Severus Snape is a ‘pure-blood’," Remus added contemptuously. "And just like some other wizards – unfortunately – he’s convinced he’s worth much more than others because of that. For people like him, there are ‘Pure-blood’, ‘Half-caste’, ‘Mudbloods’ and the Muggles at the bottom of it. The majority of wizards and witches knows better, fortunately."

"Voldemort doesn’t know better," Sirius said, his voice as sharp as ice. To his surprise, Remus didn’t flinch. His eyes hardened at the very most.

"I’ve read in the Daily Prophet that Death Eaters struck again," James said. "They tortured and killed at least seven persons around Cornwall. Monstrous."

"Death Eaters?" As Lily looked surprised, Remus explained, "That’s what Voldemort’s most active supporters call themselves. I prefer not to know why."

"Yeah, me neither."

Their conversation rolled on as the train raced along; at one moment, a witch pushing a trolley filled with sweets slid the compartment door open. The four faces lit up suddenly – they were beginning to feel starved.

"Hungry, dears?" asked the witch with a kind smile. James, Remus, Sirius and Lily filled their pockets with Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, Bertie Bott’s Every-Flavour Beans, Cheesy Chestnuts, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties … Lily didn’t know anything of these sweets – of course, she didn’t find any books about wizarding sweets! – so she took a few of each ones, with a marked preference for Chocolate Frogs, because she loved chocolate. As she sat back down, she glanced at what the others had bought: James had a lot of Chocolate Frogs too, Sirius has preferred Cauldron Cakes, and Remus was already chewing at one of his Blowing Gums. He eyed Lily’s Every-Flavour Beans suspiciously.

"Be careful with these ones, Lily," he said. "You can find absolutely everything inside – sprouts, orange, spinach, chocolate, goblin blood, mint – even mint-flavoured goblin blood … Last time I tried, I got goat-cheese."

Lily cast a lopsided glance to her Beans, then took three of them she handed to her friends, "Help yourselves."

Remus, James and Sirius took one Bean each, but didn’t eat it.

"You take one too."

"Ok."

Lily picked up a vaguely orange-coloured Bean as she gave the others a challenging look.

"We eat them all together. We’ll see who gets what."

"At the count of three."

"Deal."

The four friends held his or her Bean in his or her hand, each one don’t leaving the others’ eyes; James began to count in a low voice, "One – two –"

"Stop!"

Everybody turned to Sirius. He raised his eyebrows, "You said ‘at the count of three’, right? But does that mean ‘one, two, three and go’ or ‘one, two and we go at three’?"

"That means ‘one, two – three!’"

"But do we eat at ‘three’ or after ‘three’?"

"We eat at – oy, enough of it. One, two – three!"

The four of them took a mouthful of their Beans. A silence followed, then Remus and James changed colour. Literally. They opened the window at once and spat out what they had bit; then they sat down again and looked almost enviously at Sirius and Lily who were chewing calmly.

"So then?" Lily said when she had swallowed the rest of her Bean. "What did you get to end up in this state?"

"Tripe," grumbled James.

"Dragon liver," mumbled Remus. "What ’bout you?"

"Chocolate and pear," said Sirius grinning.

"Orange."

"Orange? You lucky girl …" James pouted.

"The beginner’s luck!"

They looked at each others, then burst out laughing.

"We can do that little nonsense again some time," said Lily, still shaking with laughter. "Let’s not end this all with a defeat. For you, I mean, of course!"

* * *

All the afternoon, they talked, laughed – and talked again; Vega popped her head from time to time to keep an eye on her brother, stayed a while then went back to her friends.

Around the end of the afternoon, as they were telling each other the weirdest things that had happened to them, the compartment door slid open and three boys stepped in.

"Hello," said the first coldly. "First-years?"

"Yeah," said James. "Are you too?"

"Of course not, I’m a second-year!" the other said with a disdainful shrug. "Isn’t it obvious?"

"Well –"

James and Sirius were actually both as tall as him, even if they were one year younger. The boy was almost as pale as Remus, with white-blond hair and cold grey eyes. He looked scornful and as cold as ice, while the two boys standing on each side of him like bodyguards looked positively fierce.

"What’s your name?" asked Remus politely.

"Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, and they’re Crabbe and Goyle."

"And no first names?" Sirius whispered to James. James had frowned at the same time as Remus – they had heard of the Malfoys.

"What’re you doing here?" said James, and Lily noticed his voice had hardened again. "Just visiting?"

"You’re a Potter, aren’t you? Easiest thing to guess. My father says they’re all dark-haired, short-sighted and much too insolent to live for long."

"My dad’s almost red-haired and he doesn’t wear glasses since he’s twenty, Malfoy, do find something else."

"Why being just a name’s so important for you?" Lily cut in with a shrug. "He’s not ‘a Potter’, he’s James. I am Lily Evans, and here’re Remus Lupin and Sirius Black."

And she insisted on the first names. Malfoy gave a sneer, "You are obviously Muggle-born, girl. If you were really a witch, you’d know the pride of having a long line of wizards behind a name. My family is powerful, and that’s because they’re all wizards and witches. No Muggle ever tainted our blood," he added arrogantly. "That’s not everyone’s case, unfortunately."

Sirius had turned very red, and James and Remus were seething.

"Out,’ James said in barely a whisper. ‘Out, or we throw you out of here through the window."

Malfoy snorted, "And what’re you going to do? Hit me? Shoot sparks out of your wands? I’d really like to see that …"

He nodded towards Crabbe and Goyle who stepped into the compartment.

"What’re you doing now?" Lily barked.

"As we ate up all our Chocolate Frogs and we’re still hungry, why don’t you share yours with us? Looks like you’ve still got plenty of these."

In one swift movement, Remus, James and Sirius had seized their wands, and Lily had done so in no time; she was surprised to feel a little rush of warmth as she saw little sparks of different colours shooting from the tips of the four wands.

"Try, and you’ll regret it," James hissed. "We may not be specialists, but I know how to cast some hexes."

"Me too,’ said Remus in a low voice. ‘And I know some quite good ones."

"Last time someone asked for it, he ended up with his pants on fire," Sirius added with a fierce grin. "And that time, there was some water near by to put out the fire."

As for Lily, she held her wand tight, and stared right at Malfoy, her eyes blazing. He didn’t say anything – then he stepped back into the corridor and made a sign to his two bodyguards to come with him.

"Pity for you two," he said to James and Remus, "hanging around with a Mudblood and a Half-caste. I thought two true wizards like you would know better."

"Go to hell, Malfoy," said Remus in a cold voice. "We don’t have the same idea of what is a ‘true wizard’."

"Now out! And take your two guard dogs with you."

Just after the three boys left, Sirius turned to Lily.

"I told you back at the station I’d hex especially the Slytherins, remember? Well, those three are in Slytherin. And I’m ready to bet a Galleon that our little friends from Diagon Alley will end up in Slytherin, too. The whole bunch of them."

"I wouldn’t be surprised."

"Everyone okay in here?" Vega had just opened the door of the compartment. "I think Malfoy and his sidekicks went around there, they’re going up the train looking for some first-years to terrorise and steal sweets from. Did he come?"

"Yeah, he’s been here. Not for a long time though. We put him off, I guess."

"Good. He’s a git. He loves scaring smaller ones than him. Would deserve a good kick in his –"

"Calm down, Vega! There’re some sensitive souls over here."

"Very funny, Sirius," Vega said ironically.

"It’s nice worrying about us, thanks," Sirius replied, "but we’re big enough to defend ourselves."

"Ok, I’m going back to my pals. See you later!"

"Bye, Vega!"

A few hours later, the compartment door opened again, but this time it was neither Vega nor Malfoy, but a small, chubby-faced boy who was already wearing his Hogwarts uniform. He stumbled into the compartment and almost fell over as he squeaked breathlessly, "He’s behind me! Help me, he’s behind me!"

James helped him up and had him sit on a seat, "Oy, calm down! Who’s behind you?"

"A greasy-haired guy, I stepped on his feet without meaning to when I came back from toilets, he said he didn’t like little fatties and he wants to cut my ears and then my tongue and then something else and it’s not even true that I’m fat and –"

"Whoa, cool down," Sirius said. "Nobody will cut anybody’s ears or tongue. Now what did you say he wanted to cut you next?"

"Please, Sirius … what’s your name?"

"P–P–Peter … Peter P–Pettigrew …"

"Breathe, Peter. Nobody’s going to hurt you. Let us do now, don’t say anything more."

Snape had just opened the door furiously, "You again? What are you, R.S.P.C.A or something? Give me the little rat!"

"Ooh, ickle Seviekins lost his pet?" Sirius said, grinning broadly. "Sorry, pal, I think you need a shampoo instead. Go wash your hair."

"Peter’s no rat, Severus," said Remus, whose dreamy blue grey eyes had suddenly turned into a menacing icy blue. "Aren’t you ashamed, scaring him like this? I could understand such a stupid attitude coming from a seven-year-old kid, but not from a eleven-year-old young wizard about to get into Hogwarts!"

"Who rang your bell, Lupin?"

"Be quiet, will you? Peter didn’t mean stepping on your feet, did he?" James cut in. "Now that’s enough, get out of here before we throw you out!"

Lily cracked her fingers; the noise of crackling bones made Snape shudder. He beat a retreat with a murderous glance at the five of them.

"Settle down, Peter," Lily said kindly. "Don’t worry ’bout that moron. We protect you."

"Thanks," muttered Peter, still a bit breathless. He looked more calm; however he gave a start when the door opened once again. This time, a girl with dark hair and braces popped in. She was followed by two boys, one with sandy-coloured hair and freckles, the other with red-brown hair and blue eyes.

"Why is it so noisy in there? Do you spend all your time fighting?"

"That’s nothing," Lily answered. "Snape wanted to cut Peter’s ears and nose –"

"And tongue!"

"– and tongue – thanks, Sirius – so he ran and took refuge in this compartment."

"Ah, good, I thought it was just for fun."

Peter let out a grunt.

"My name’s Lisa Dodger," said the dark-haired girl. "Who’re you?"

The five of them introduced themselves.

"I’m Fergus Finnigan," said the sandy-haired boy then.

"Martin Riley," said the brown-haired, blue-eyed boy. "He’s my best friend, and him, Lisa, Tim and me we come from the same school."

"Tim?"

"Tim Thomas," said a voice behind them. "What was all this noise about? I was sleeping."

The owner of the voice had sleepy green eyes and brown hair.

"You were snoring, even, Tim," said Lisa Dodger turning to him. "You were snoring so loudly I couldn’t even understand what I was reading."

Before Tim Thomas could protest, Lisa turned to Sirius, Lily, James, and Remus who weren’t wearing their uniforms yet, "You’d better change, you know. We’ll be at Hogwarts soon."

Lily paled a little, "Already?"

"Well, yes, already," Lisa Dodger said, shrugging matter-of-factly – but Lily could see she was a bit pale herself, too. "We can’t stay all the year in this train, can we?"

Lily shrugged too, then took her robes out of her bag and went to change in Lisa’s compartment. When she was back, Fergus, Tim and Martin had left, and James, Remus and Sirius had put on their uniforms. Peter’s was way too large for him – it hung loosely about him – and Remus’s robes did look old. The initial black was starting to lighten at some points like wash-out clothes, and his cloak was patched up in several places.

"I take my robes after my cousin," Remus said when he caught Lily’s glance. "They aren’t quite new."

He gave a fatalist shrug and a kind smile to Lily, who was afraid she’d been rude. Sirius had caught up one of his bags in the rack and was now tapping it nervously. James turned to him, "What’s that?"

"My guitar," Sirius answered. James’s eyes opened wide, "Your what?"

"Don’t you know what it is?"

"It’s a Muggle thing, isn’t it?"

"Yes," Lily said, "it’s a musical instrument. Do you really know how to play, Sirius?"

"Yep, otherwise I wouldn’t have brought it. But if you want a sample, wait a little, because seems we’re almost arrived."

"Do you think we’re allowed to bring a guitar?"

"I hope so …"

A few minutes passed, then they heard a voice, "We’ll be reaching Hogsmeade station in a few minutes’ time. First-years, please leave your luggage on the train, it’ll be taken to the school separately."

"Why do we leave the luggage here?" Lily asked. "Why don’t we take it? Sirius, did your sister tell you something about that?"

"Relax, Lil’, Vega’s not infallible. Plus she loves scaring me – so I don’t know anything of what’s going to happen now."

The train slowed down, then stopped. They heard a great din – it was all the students squashing up in the corridors. They got out, trying not to get parted by the crowd. Sirius had a last concerned glance at his guitar as he got out too.

Outside, the night had fallen, and Lily didn’t regret having put on her cloak. There was a cold breeze, and some of the students around her were shivering slightly. Then a booming voice said out of the darkness, "Firs’-years, over here, follow me! Over here!"

The person who had said these words wouldn’t have been easy to miss. With his black, wild, tangled beard and hair and especially his gigantic frame – James, amazed, thought he was about ten feet tall – he did not go unnoticed. Lily wondered whether she’d have to be afraid, but when she saw the little black eyes shining out of his face almost hidden by the mane of hair and the beard, she felt reassured somehow. The five friends followed the giant along with the crowd of first-years, among which they could recognise Lisa Dodger, Tim Thomas, Fergus Finnigan, Martin Riley and unfortunately Severus Snape and his sidekicks – Avery, Nott, Rosier, Wilkes. They glared at them. Sirius and Lily pulled their most horrible faces at them and James took his wand out of his belt threateningly.

They more or less managed to make their way behind the giant – the path they were walking down was steep and shadowed and rather slippery.

"I think that’s the Forbidden Forest," whispered Remus in Lily’s ear when she walked past him with her nose in the air, watching warily the huge, dark trees trunks. "They say it’s full of weird things. There were even vampires there, at one time."

"Vampires?"

Lily couldn’t tell, by the sound of Sirius’s voice, whether he was delighted or afraid. Maybe both, who knows. He looked as though he wanted to add a comment of his own invention, but an "Oooooh!" stopped him.

It was still as dark, but they could see a big black lake. The reflection of the waning moon glittered on the surface, often hidden by the clouds. And above all, up behind the lake, almost in the sky, little lights glimmered at the top of a mountain; at one point, the clouds vanished completely, and James’s eyes opened wide as he saw the great, massive shape spiked with pointed towers.

"Here’s the castle," the giant said. "Quite impressive, eh?"

So that’s it, James thought. That’s Hogwarts. Impressive, yes, you can say that.

"Four to a boat, no more!"

James hadn’t even seen yet the little boats moored along the shore. All the students had gathered by the edge and were getting on the boats; before he could ask anything, James was aboard along with Sirius, Remus, and to their great disgust, Severus Snape. The three friends glanced regretfully at Lily and little Peter Pettigrew, the boy from the train, who got along with Fergus and Martin.

"Everyone settled down?" the giant asked. Sirius muttered something nobody could hear. "Forward! And don’ make too much noise, don’t wanna wake up the giant squid."

"A giant squid?" This time, Sirius was quite delighted. "I love this place!" he exclaimed as he bent down to the water surface to see. James slightly pushed him aside, "Wait, let me see … I’ve never seen a giant squid before …"

"Me neither, don’t push me!"

All happened very quickly. Remus saw a strange light flash in Snape’s eyes; before he could warn his two friends, Snape suddenly leaped forward and pushed James. James’s glasses fell first, and James toppled over the edge of the boat trying to catch them. Sirius drew himself up to his full height – the boat pitched dangerously – and hurried on to his friend’s rescue, bumping past Snape without a look. He managed to grab firmly James’s robes, but James’s weight dragged him down and he fell over too.

Remus yelled something to the only adult – the bearded giant – to warn him, then leaned over to look at the dark surface of the lake, mad with worry, while Snape winked to his friends in a boat near by. Lily searched the water too, without any result – the ripple caused by the two boys’ fall were calming gradually, and the water seemed pitch-black. She thought she saw something suddenly – she watched closely: a thin yellow light had been lit somewhere deep in the water, and was coming back up. A few seconds later, James popped a very furious-looking head out of the water, "If I catch this guy …"

Remus stretched out his hand with a sigh of relief and helped him back up in the boat. Snape kept himself as far as possible from James, whose dark eyes were flashing. He shook his drenched mop as the giant quickly came near by, "Yeh all right? Where’s the other boy?"

James and Remus looked at each other in a panic: Sirius had not got back up. James turned livid and searched the lake yelling "Sirius!" Remus turned to Snape, his eyes blazing. Snape crept back moaning, "Don’t look at me like that! It was only a joke – I didn’t know he couldn’t swim!"

Remus looked even more furious. Severus shrank back even more, his face white with fear. Suddenly a noise could be heard under the water as swirls appeared; something big was thrown off the water and landed into the back of James, Remus and Severus’ boat. A minute later, Sirius brushed his soaked locks from his rather pale but smiling face.

"Oy, you know what? There’s really a giant squid down there!"

James let out a heavy sigh of relief, and a little colour was back on Remus’s cheeks. Sirius turned to Snape, slumped down next to him in the back of the boat, "Sorry to disappoint you, slimeball, but it takes more than that to kill me."

Then as he saw his friends’ shaken expressions, "You weren’t scared for me, were you? Don’t worry, I’m indestructible."

James gave a chuckle, as the giant asked worriedly, "Yeh’re all right, boy? Wha’ happened?"

"I leant forward to see and my glasses fell down, I toppled over when I bent to catch them, and Sirius fell over when he bent to catch me," James said quickly, without paying attention to Sirius’s cry of protestation and Remus’s scandalised look. Then he turned to Snape and whispered fiercely, "This means war, boy."

The giant didn’t hear that; he frowned suspiciously.

"Right, fine, but I don’t want ter see one of yeh move ‘til we’ve arrived, understood?" Then he said, on a less gruff voice, "Not too cold?"

James shook his head, shaking very slightly, and Sirius grinned broadly despite his bluish lips.

"So forward!"

The boats moved on again. Snape shrank in the back of the boat.

"What was that odd little light down there?" Remus asked James.

"Well, I lost my glasses, so I lit my wand to find them. You know, that’s easy, you just have to say Lumos."

"But how did you articulate the words? You were under water –" asked Remus, puzzled.

"I just thought hard about the formula, my wand, and the result I wanted to get, and it worked – doesn’t it work like this usually?"

Remus didn’t have time to answer. The boats came alongside. Ahead of them, a path opened right into the mountain. They followed the dancing little light of the lantern the giant handed and arrived on a vast lawn; the castle could be seen ahead of them. The intimidated students didn’t dare to talk much, and you could hear only the "splash, splash" made by James’s and Sirius’s drenched clothes.

Once they all reached a gigantic oak door at the top of the front step, the giant raised his hand and knocked three times at the door. It opened at once.

"They’re here, Professor Walsh," the giant said to someone they couldn’t see. Lily, Remus, James and Sirius twisted their necks to have a better look at the person hidden by the giant’s huge frame.

"Thank you, Hagrid," said a rather grating voice, "that’ll be all."

Lily sensed Peter Pettigrew shiver next to her. The witch Hagrid had hidden from them till then was small – she was barely a head taller than Sirius and James – and wiry, with short reddish hair, a pointed face and lean hands. She stared at the students with little piercing eyes.

"In, follow me."