1 Start Of A Journey

A nervous, ashen haired boy with far too big of a suitcase stumbled between families onto the platform. Behind him followed his father, carrying the rest of the luggage, including a cage with a small ginger kitten. It meowed confused and scared as its cage swung around violently, the person carrying it trying to avoid a collision with another man. He pushed his scrawny boy forward, right to the open door of a beautiful, long, smoke-puffing scarlet train.

"Alright, then." He wiped his forehead, exhausted from his heavy load. "Off you go." The boy looked at him with big eyes. He was excited, but scared out of his mind as well.

"I'll write to you, okay?", he said with a slight tremble in his voice, hugging his father. "And you'll write me?" He felt a nod at his shoulder.

"If anything happens, anything at all, we can bring you home, Remus." His father released the hug and looked sternly into his eyes. The boy, Remus, shook his head violently.

"No. No, no, I'll be fine. All the professors will take good care of me. And I have Barney", he said with a nod to the kitten, "I won't be lonely." He quickly turned around and boarded the train before his father could change his mind and take him back home. An older girl helped him with his suitcase, before he grabbed the bigger one and finally Barney's cage. The ginger let out a feeble meow of protest at the rough handling.

"See you, Dad", he said and waved, before waddling off with his two suitcases down the alley of the train.

Remus passed a few compartments with chattering students. They all seemed so comfortable with each other, so confident and exited. He didn't dare to enter and ask them to join. He never really had had any friends, and he was scared they would reject him. So he went on, trough three whole carts, until he finally reached a compartment with only a single other student in it. The boy had long, black hair and was, to be honest, quite pretty, with a fair yet strong face and a cheeky spark in his eyes. He sat cross-legged on the cushions, his suitcase thrown under the seat, and seemed to read. Remus breathed in two or three times before he knocked and opened the door just enough to stick his head inside.

"I'm sorry.... Is this free?", and he gestured at one of the seats opposite of the boy. He looked up from his book and nodded.

"Sure, come in." Remus sighed with relief and dragged his heavy luggage behind him.

"Hold on, let me get that." The boy had jumped up and lifted the big suitcase without much effort, carrying it inside before helping Remus with the other one. With a big sigh Remus let himself fall onto the seat and wiped his forehead. He put Barney's cage down and calmed the poor kitten with some pets.

"Whats your name?", the black-haired boy asked. Remus looked up into blue eyes of curiosity.

"Remus", he said, expecting to be laughed at. He never really liked his first name, it sounded so... old. But the other boy didn't laugh.

"I'm Sirius", he answered instead. He had a name just as strange as Remus. "Nice to meet ya", and they shook hands. A warm tingle ran through Remus' hands, and he couldn't hold back the biggest smile of his life.

"So, first year at Hogwarts?", Sirius asked. Remus nodded. "Nervous?" Remus nodded and his smile faded a bit. "Don't worry. I hear it's pretty cool there since Professor Dumbledore became headmaster." Remus sighed.

"I hope so. My dad said to just not think about stuff too much." He pulled a grimace. "Especially the sorting."

"Oh, yea." Sirius leaned back and looked out the window with a disgusted expression. "The sorting." Remus got curious, but he didn't want to ponder too much.

"What house are you hoping for?", he asked carefully. Sirius perked up at this.

"Gryffindor. My whole family was in Slytherin, but I hate them. Like, seriously hate them. If I get to be a Gryffindor, I can actually do something with my life." This thought seemed to cheer him up a lot. "And lions are way better than snakes anyways." Sirius glanced at the cage. "Who's this, by the way?" Remus hurried to take the cage and hand it to Sirius.

"That's Barney. My mom got him for me so I wouldn't be so alone and have a friend." He felt a bit embarrassed about it. Sirius didn't seem to mind, sticking his fingers through the cage and petting the kitten.

"He's cute. Is he gonna be in this small cage the whole ride or are you gonna let him out?" He seemed to pity him.

"No, you can let him out. I just wasn't sure...", Remus replied, and as soon as Sirius had permission, he opened the cage and released the tiny cat. Barney immediately stretched and hopped onto the seat, out of his little prison. Sirius snickered and stroked his fur.

From somewhere, a bell rang eleven. A jolt ran through the train, and the boys heard the puffing from outside. Slowly, they departed the station, lots of parents, siblings, aunts and uncles waved the train goodbye. Neither of their families were amongst them. Remus swallowed hard, excitement sitting like a stone in his stomach. His travel to Hogwarts had begun.

  The train ride seemed to pass along quickly, even though they were traveling for the entire day. Remus and Sirius laughed and told each other stories from their lives.

  "One time, I burned a hole in our carpet with my dad's glasses", Sirius told, "just because. And it was his favorite carpet, too. Really ugly, with a washed out red print or something." He snickered at the thought. "So I decorated it with burn marks. I had to hide for three hours from him. Boy was he angry. Didn't spare me the beating either." Remus laughed a bit, but then said: "I'm sorry that your dad beat you." Sirius waved his hand and wiped the apology out of the air.

  "It's fine, it's fine. I'm used to it."

  "Shouldn't be. I know what it's like... to have a weird family." He winced at the bad memories. "My dad isn't a big fan of me either." Understatement of the century. His father despised him. Looked at him with disgust and sadness. Remus avoided him as much as possible. His mother was different. She loved him, but sometimes she seemed scared of him. Remus still loved her. She had always been there for him, no matter what. He would've preferred her bringing him to the train, but she was a Muggle, a non-magical person. So his dad had to fill in and bring his mismatched son to the station.

  "Well, welcome to the club of having awful dads", Sirius said, breaking Remus' thought. The boys laughed together and the past memories faded away. Sirius started talking about Quidditch and his favorite players. Remus had never played or seen a match, only read about it, so he was quite interested in the different positions and tactics Sirius began to describe in great detail.

Around noon, a witch knocked on their door. She was pushing a little trolley filled to the brim with sweets, chocolates and drinks.

„Anything to eat, dears?", she asked. Sirius got up, fishing in his deep pocket for some money.

„Yea, I´d love to." He turned around to Remus. „And you? Want anything?", he asked gesturing. Remus shook his head.

„No, thanks, I´m good…" Truth was, his family did not possess much money - his father used it for his research - and they thought it unfit for Remus to spend anything on unnecessary things like sweets.

„Come on, you are basically drooling", Sirius said. „We´ll take two pumpkin juices, a few slices of cake and some jelly", he added to the witch at the trolley, handing her the money. He returned to his seat with the sweets and handed Remus his share. He muttered a little thanks, as he was actually really quite hungry, and bit into his piece of cake.

  As the sky outside turned dark and some stars began to glimmer, the two boys had become friends. Barney had curled up on Sirius' lap and fallen asleep. Occasionally it let out a little purr or its paw twitched, trying to catch the mice in its dreams ahead. Sirius was a nice companion to have around, always a joke on his lips or a grin beaming across his face. It was contagious, Remus couldn't help but feel at ease, feel more and more exited about their arrival.

  The train rolled into Hogsmeade station, illuminated by the bright moon. An announcement was heard, ordering them to leave all of their luggage behind. Barney was back in his cage, but Remus felt reluctant to leave him behind. The little kitten had grown on him very much, even though he only had gotten it a week prior.

  As he stepped onto the platform, all his anxiety came rushing back. What if anything bad happened? What if he'd fuck up? Sirius seemed to feel his fear and patted his shoulder.

  "It's marvelous, isn't it? Being so far away from home, from our stupid ass parents." Remus forced a short laugh, but was quickly silenced by a loud, booming voice.

  "First-years! First-years, over 'ere!" It was a young man, the tallest man Remus had ever seen, and even for his young age he already sported a mighty beard. He carried a bright lamp and was clad in a long furren cloak. Sirius pulled Remus along and they shuffled through the masses of students right towards the giant. After everything had cleared and all first-years had gathered, he led them down to a large lake, beautiful and black, where a fleet of tiny boats swam. The children boarded them under the vigilant view of the man, four in every boat. Sirius and Remus sat next to a girl with silky brown hair and big glasses and a boy, black-haired and so unruly that it stood in every direction. He turned around and greeted the two.

  "Hi. You nervous?", he asked and grinned. Remus nodded shakily.

  "Nah, he's just exited", Sirius answered for him. "I'm Sirius, and that's Remus." They shook hands.

  "I'm James." Without any words spoken or something pulling them, the boats started to silently move forward, the tall man at the tip of the group.

  "Whoa, here we go", Remus couldn't help saying. His heart was pounding relentlessly in his chest, the cold September air cutting into his lungs. He grabbed the boat tightly, scared to fall into the lake, and looked anxiously at Sirius. He gave him a reencouraging smile and squeezed his shoulder.

  They swam around a cliff, and suddenly, loud murmur was heard all around. Majestic, old and proud laid an old castle before them, nestled into the mountainside. Hundreds of thousands of windows were illuminated by warm light, towers so high they seemed to pierce the clouds.

  "That's it man", James whispered in awe. "That's Hogwarts."