Harry Potter and all its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I create.
Chapter 06: A Bumpy Ride
"Some things never change…" James muttered to himself as he watched the Hogwarts train arrive at the station with a feeling of nostalgia.
It was just as he remembered from all those years ago.
'I suppose, technically… that is the future, not the past.' He had to keep reminding himself that he was back in 1974, and most events that knew about haven't happened yet, or they may never happen at all.
He said goodbye to his parents and proceeded to board the train, weaving through the crowd of students.
The corridors were far more crowded than he ever remembered seeing. 'Did Hogwarts have more students during this era?.' He wondered if that could be true. He knew that many wizards and witches had died during the first war that Voldemort started. It had been bad enough that some old magical families were driven to the edge of extinction.
He carefully maneuvered through the train, occasionally nudging students out of the way to continue forward. Sirius had told him they would be waiting in their usual cabin, all the way at the back of the train, so that was his objective.
'That's also the cabin I used with Ron and Hermione…' He found it a peculiar coincidence.
During a moment of distraction, he accidentally bumped into someone. Judging by the voice, it was a girl.
When he turned around, the first thing he noticed was her long, charcoal-black hair, messy to the point of completely covering her face.
"I'm very sorry. Allow me to help," James said quickly, placing his briefcase down to assist her.
As she moved her long, wavy hair off her face, she revealed a stunning pair of violet eyes...and an angry expression that seemed oddly familiar to James, though he couldn't place it at the moment.
"Potter? Are you kidding me?!" she snapped, slapping his hand away.
"I don't need your help!."
"What happened?" A very pretty blonde girl emerged from the cabin next to them.
"Sister, are you okay?"
The blonde girl helped her sister to her feet before glaring at James.
"Potter! The year hasn't even started yet, and you're already attacking us?" The blonde girl glared at him with disdain.
"Let me go, Cissy. I'm going to teach him a lesson he won't forget!" The black-haired girl yanked out her wand and pointed it at James, but the blonde girl quickly grabbed her arm.
"Stop, Bella! You'll get expelled if you do that here!"
'Bloody hell! Those are Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy… or Black, I suppose, at this time... I thought they were older and wouldn't still be at Hogwarts any longer.' But perhaps his memories were failing him.
Before he even realized it, James had drawn his own wand by pure instinct. The mere mention of Bellatrix's name had put him on high alert. It seemed he hadn't lost his battle instincts after all these years.
But he quickly regained his senses and stored his wand. This wasn't the Bellatrix he knew...not yet. He could not blast her away for no good reason. "Miss Black…"
Both girls glanced at him with furrowed brows.
"Sorry for bumping into you. Now, if you'll excuse me…" From what little he had seen of her, he could already guess that trying to talk to her would be a waste of time.
He ignored their glares and continued down the corridor toward the back of the train. It took a while, but he eventually arrived.
"Hello?" he called, knocking on the cabin door.
"Come in, James!" Sirius's voice answered, and James opened the door.
Inside, he found Sirius, Remus, and Peter, along with an unknown boy.
The boy looked somewhat familiar. He had curly black hair and a skinny frame.
"James! I'm so glad to hear about your recovery," the boy said, standing to offer his hand.
"Come on, Frank. Let him put his suitcase away first, it looks heavy," Sirius interjected.
'Frank? That's it! That must be Frank Longbottom. He's Neville's father… or will be one day,' James realized.
"Thank you, Frank. I'm feeling totally recovered now," James was grateful to Sirius for calling his name, allowing him to figure out who this person was.
"You're one of the lucky ones, James. Dragonpox is a nasty thing," Remus commented.
"Hi, James. It's nice to have the group back together," Peter added with a smile.
"It is…" James agreed, taking a seat next to Sirius. "By the way, I had a brief encounter with your cousins."
Sirius grimaced. "Yikes…"
"What happened?" Remus asked.
"I accidentally bumped into Bellatrix, and she fell down."
"I'm surprised you got away without injuries. Bella can be truly brutal," Sirius said.
"Her sister, Narcissa, stopped her."
"Did you bump her on purpose? That's one Slytherin we shouldn't provoke…" Peter said nervously.
"Of course not, it wasn't on purpose. I wouldn't do that." At least, James hoped he wouldn't…
"Well… it's just that we were pretty hard on the Slytherins last year. That's all," Peter said.
"He's not wrong…" Remus added.
"That was because Snivellus was being extra insufferable last year!" Sirius exclaimed. "Isn't that right, James? He was always bothering Lily and sneering at us."
"I'd rather not think much about that bast-...person," James said, almost slipping. He never got along with the adult Snape, and it was difficult to imagine his younger version being much different.
"Exactly. Let's just ignore the twat!" Sirius agreed.
A knock on the door interrupted them.
"Of course, you guys are always in this cabin…"
"Hi, guys! Can we sit here? Everything else is full."
Two girls stood in the doorway.
One had long brown hair and brown eyes and seemed to be staring at Frank with a friendly smile.
The other was Lily Evans, looking just as she did in the pictures James remembered...only a few years younger.
"So… can we come in or not?" Lily asked with a frown.
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