4 Chapter 4:

James woke up again to a bustling room, he drew the drapes to a rushing room. He could see his roommates rushing around getting ready.

"Jamie boy, Good morning. How are we doing this fine day?" shouted a boy.

James turned around to look at a boy who looked neither tall nor short, he was of medium build with black shaggy hair hanging down his shoulder. The boy had an arrogant smile on his face, with his eyes twinkling with delight upon seeing his friend awake.

This was his best friend and brother from another mother, Sirius Black. Next in line to inherit the Black Family.

Sirius was a black sheep of the Black family, unlike the rest of the family who generally sorted into Ravenclaw or Slytherin, he made it into Gryffindor.

"Sirius my friend, I had a great sleep. I feel today is going to be a very good day" James laughed out loud with happiness.

James called out 'Tempus', the time indicating 8:30 in the morning.

With only 3 more days to go to get back home, today was expected to be spent in fun. Classes were not complete for the next few days, classes mainly talked about summer assignments.

Magical schools unlike their muggle counterparts complete the exams one week before school releases and the next one week will be spent by schools to give assignments and correct the exams. Only O.W.L.S. and Newts take time, but the rest of the internal results are displayed within a week of completion.

So next few days are expected to be spent lazing around with assignments abound. The last day would be a grand feast with an award ceremony with all top performers in both academics and sport being honoured, followed by the house cup given to the overall victor of the year. 

James freshened up and started dressing up as he had already completed his morning rituals very early in the morning

James started heading down to the dorm, which unlike in the morning was bustling with students across grades. He walked across and came towards the cushion joining Sirius and Frank who were chatting with each other.

"Where is Damien?" James called out not seeing his classmate of 4 years who always made sure to stick with them.

"No idea, I heard his excited shout early in the morning and he left soon afterwards" replied Frank, Frank was a Longbottom who was one of the closest of Potter's allies and one of his close friends. Each class was big enough that there were 2 different Dorm rooms for a class. He was part of 4A with Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and 2 others. While Frank Longbottom and Damien Macmillan along with a few others were part of 4B.

"Wonder what's up with him? " Sirius questioned.

"No idea, he would tell us soon anyway" Frank shrugged off.

Indeed, Damien was a special character. People generally had Inferiority complexity or Superior complexity. Damien was someone with both. He felt inferior against a few and felt superior against a few. Thankfully he had crossed a line and all his complexities were in words, as such he was not a target of the two.

If something went well with him he would boast till the end of times.

And if something went bad, he would feel so uncomfortable to hear anything bad.

They chatted as they made towards the Great Hall to break the fast,

"Oh did you hear, we are going to have a new DADA professor again in the coming year" started Frank,

Sirius raised his eyebrows and asked

"So what is the count now?"

Indeed, the professors kept changing in DADA, maybe due to a curse or placebo effect, regardless no professor stayed back for more than 1 year.

"It's four now" 

"And it's sad to see an auror leaving school" Frank whispered.

"Yes, though Professor Blake was a stickler for rules asking us to recite it, he still was a knowledgable one. After all an auror with field experience will always triumph over an ordinary DADA professor" said Sirius,

"True not sure where we will get his replacement from, hope his replacement will be good. Hope we won't have a repeat of our first year" James ended as they moved across hallways and came near the Great Hall.

The Great Hall as the name implied was truly a Great hall. The hall was wide and tall, it could accommodate more than a thousand students and still be left with space, after all, Hogwarts was built more than two millennia ago and its purpose was never just as a school.

As they had learnt, the main purpose of Hogwarts was as a refugee centre and a millennium later it was converted into a school. As to why it was built as a refugee centre, not much is known, even though Magicals are very long-living people and see themselves as above muggles in never forgetting history for some reason there was not much information.

In some very old history books of Potters and in some Black family library which he had gone to visit with his mother when he turned 13, he had found few references. He did find some titles in a heavily restricted section in Hogwarts library but they were enchanted.

Knowing, that knowledge was forbidden for some reason, he held back his curiosity and left the matter alone.

Well, a thought for another time.

The trio stepped into the Great Hall and moved towards a long table with many Gryffindors sitting on it, there were a lot of students bustling in and spread across the hall at their respective tables, the long table boasted many delicacies from all over the world since we were in the final part of the year the elves worked with much fervour and made sure nothing was missing.

House Elves were truly such a marvel, if Muggle CEOs knew about their existence they would fire everyone and just hire house elves, as they worked on various things and were very honest workers, they rarely tired out and they worked never for money. They truly considered work as worship.

"Well, what a Surprise!" pointed Sirius bringing James out of his reverie,

James and Frank followed his line of sight and saw Damien a stout boy of medium height talking to a few students and laughing out loud, the surprising thing was there were students from other houses of Hogwarts. 

The surprise was Damien never interacted much with Slytherins and to see him openly discussing and laughing with them in the Great Hall in full view of all students was indeed very surprising.

Hogwarts was never a regular school, the students in Hogwarts were from all walks of life, but mixed among them were many children of Politicians, Aurors, Heads of houses and many more. On the surface it was school for kids but any move done here would be scrutinized and sent back home and vetted by the parents and derive information.

Well, that was the unspoken rule, thankfully his father never stressed it. Some children from Ravenclaw or Slytherin were taught at a young age how to behave and who to behave with and stressed the various causes and consequences of such.

Damien felt the stare and looked up at the trio staring at him and a quick arrogant mocking look appeared in his eyes for a second at seeing James and vanished immediately.

'Is it just me or is he looking condescendingly at me? '

There was something strange going on with Damien.

James forgot about this incident and as he moved towards a vacant seat with others he was greeted warmly by many of his housemates, James was someone who was friendly and very open with all and was very well-liked across Hogwarts.

Even in the original universe, even with the pranks, he was a very popular individual.

As he sat with Frank and Sirius, he noticed everyone was discussing the trending topic of the professor, just as he was about to pitch in there was a cacophony of hoots signifying the arrival of posts. The news owls carrying various publications from Daily Prophet to International news papers made it across all tables.

Just when it was about to end, there was a screeching noise of a tawny owl bearing Gringott insignia carrying a black letter, a hush appeared in the hall.

This was a symbol of death.

Gringotts made use of tawny owls with black letters to convey death messages, Goblins were always the first to know about these things and way ahead of even family or Wizegonment and made sure to convey them.

The owl looked to be scanning the tables and seemingly affirmed its destination dropped towards Gryffindor and made it towards him.

James had a bad premonition, he suddenly remembered inheriting Ten million Galleons and Damien's mocking smile and started sweating as the owl came close to him, The few seconds the Owl took to make it towards him seemed like an eternity.

James rationality took over for a second and he immediately gestured for Sirius to have eyes of everyone and hesitantly took the letter which was addressed to him.

To,

James Potter

4th Year Gryffindor, Hogwarts

He immediately clutched the letter and bolted out of the Great Hall, there was a burst in noise as the Hall closed behind him. He immediately muttered a disillusionment charm and ran across towards the Room of Requirements on the 7th floor.