Chapter 3: Where another kind is discovered: not-so-pure-blood greasy monkeys
Platform nine and three-quarters was packed with Hogwarts students, struggling with heavy trunks and overexcited cats and owls, hugging their parents, calling each other and trying to join their friends. James was having some trouble forcing his way through the crowd, as he was so light he was constantly in danger of being carried away by bigger students. He had given his parents the slip just after coming through the magical barrier in order to go looking for Sirius, but it was not very easy in such conditions. He was about to give up when a voice called his name. Before he had time to turn around, a hand came out of nowhere and grabbed his upper arm; next second he found himself dragged towards the wall lining the platform by no other than Lucius Malfoy.
“There you are, James,” said Malfoy, his voice uncharacteristically amiable, while James was hurrying to keep up and kept banging into trunks and people. “I thought I would never find you. God, try to find someone that small in such a crowd…”
“What do you want?” panted James, already annoyed. He was very conscious of his small height and he really didn’t need reminding right now. What’s more, Malfoy was gripping his arm so tightly he was actually hurting him.
“I want to introduce you to another first-year. A truly brilliant boy, amazingly gifted, really. You are yourself quite talented, you should get along well. And of course, I asked Bellatrix to try and find her cousin… He disappeared into the crowd as soon as his parents got him through the barrier. Quite reckless, but gifted, too, I’ve been told. But of course, you already know him.” He gave James an amused look. “When I think the pair of you defied Lenora Black’s authority… Really, you’ve earned yourself a lifetime enemy, James! And for nothing, as you and Sirius are bound to be at each other’s throats for your whole time at school. Old rivalry between Gryffindor and “”
“I know, thanks,” said James. He had given this subject a lot of thought since he had met Sirius, and he was not sure he really wanted to become a Gryffindor anymore, if that meant he would become Sirius’ enemy.
“Here we are,” said Malfoy at last, pushing James forward. They had finally got out of the crowd gathered around the Hogwarts Express, and they were facing a single boy leaning against the wall. James freed his bruised arm from Malfoy’s grip and considered the boy. He was as small as himself, but he looked unhealthy with his pale face surrounded by a mane of greasy dark hair. James spotted the tattered trunk, closed by a long rope tied around it, and the second-hand wizard robes “ which he was already wearing, contrary to James, who was still in his Muggle clothes.
James had never dealt with boys poorer than him, and he felt out of place in his brand new clothes. He wished the boy would stop staring at him in that calculating way, too. He wanted very much to ask “What the hell are you staring at?”, but resisted the urge. He was not giving Malfoy the satisfaction of telling him off for his rudeness.
“James Potter,” said Malfoy ceremoniously, “meets Severus Snape.”
They said “Hello” in a most unconvinced way.
“Severus, James is the Potters’ only son,” explained Malfoy. “His family is one of the most ancient in Great Britain. I was just telling James that I had met you during the summer, and I had noticed your great ability. It’s very important to make friends early with the right people, you know. You can both be very useful to each other.”
Snape looked mildly impressed.
“I didn’t know he was from an old pure-blood family,” he said. “I’m very glad to meet him, then. Slytherin?”
“The most eager defender of Gryffindor house, I’m afraid,” said Malfoy before James could open his mouth. “But it all comes from an old prejudice of his family’s against Slytherin. I hope very much we see James in Slytherin, the Potter family is missed among our ranks.”
James was growing irritated at hearing Malfoy speak about him as if he wasn’t there.
“What does it matter?” he asked brutally. “If I’m pure-blood?”
Snape looked astonished. Clearly, purity of blood did matter a great deal, as far as he was concerned. Another pure-blood monkey, thought James. And a greasy one, too.
Malfoy rolled his eyes. “Come on, James, don’t be so childish.”
“Get a life,” spat James. Malfoy’s calmness was irritating him more than everything else.
Malfoy merely raised an eyebrow at him, his gaze suddenly much colder. However, his carefully controlled voice didn’t reveal the slightest annoyance when he spoke again.
“Oh. Fine. I’ll be going then, Severus. Besides, I have Prefect duties.” He smoothed the Prefect’s badge pinned to his chest, in an almost absent-minded gesture. “See you both at Hogwarts.” He wheeled round and made his way to the Hogwarts express.
There was an uncomfortable pause. James wasn’t very keen on staying with Snape; the boy was once more eyeing him, his lip curling as if what he was seeing wasn’t at all at his taste. James was also aware he had looked a lot like a naughty kid, and he did feel like a fool. He shifted uneasily under Snape’s cold staring, and decided to break the silence.
“Erm… listen… I should be going, too, I “ I was trying to find somebody… Do I have a boil on the nose or something??”
Snape started at James’ angry outburst. “No,” he answered bluntly. “Why?”
“Because I don’t really like being stared at like that!”
Snape narrowed his eyes. “Why are you so aggressive, Potter?” he asked, his voice soft and infuriatingly calm. “I was merely watching.”
James crossed his arms and gaped at Snape, his eyes widened to their fullest extent, imitating Snape’s intense staring. He let his gaze trail upon the patched robes, greasy hair and pallid face, until Snape started fidgeting uncomfortably.
“What’s the matter?” asked James in mock concern. “Don’t you like me staring?”
Snape turned a quite nasty shade of pale violet but seemed at a loss of word. Having proved his point, James turned around. He had spent far too much time with Malfoy and Snape for his liking, and he still had to find Sirius.
Speaking of Sirius…
“Hey, James! James Potter!”
There he was, hold tightly by his cousin Bellatrix who was looking all around her, as if trying to find something “ or somebody. She spotted James and Snape and headed for them, dragging Sirius along.
“Where is Lucius?” she asked imperiously.
“Gone,” answered James, completely indifferent.
“Not to worry, Bella, he didn’t get lost,” said Sirius, twisting his head to smirk at his cousin. “He’s probably licking your dad’s boots or something.”
Bellatrix flushed. “You “” She seemed to get a grip on herself and let go of Sirius’ shoulder. “You stay here.”
She turned and left. Sirius watched her going with a disgusted expression, massaging his shoulder. Then he grinned at James.
“Hi mate! I was looking for you, but Bella turned up and I had to follow her. Said she wanted me to meet somebody. If I’d known you were the somebody, I would have been less reluctant to come.”
“’S’not me, as a matter of fact. It’s him,” said James, showing Snape with his thumb.
“My name’s Severus Snape,” said Snape quickly, ignoring James. “You must be Sirius Black.”
“That’s right,” said Sirius. He took in Snape’s shabby appearance, then asked in obvious bewilderment: “Why on earth would my cousin Bellatrix want me to meet you?”
Snape flushed. “I don’t know your cousin, I met Lucius Malfoy. He said he wanted me to make friend with you and Potter, said we could… erm…”
““Be very useful to each other”,” completed James, mimicking Malfoy’s arrogant scowl. “Because all three of us are so talented pure-bloods or something.”
“That’s right,” agreed Snape, still not looking at James, but for some reason he didn’t look at ease. “I… hum… I didn’t meet much pure-bloods before and… well…”
Sirius and James were both staring at him, now. What was wrong with that boy?
“I “ Lucius said that you didn’t have a very good chance to get sorted in Slytherin if you weren’t a pure-blood. Do you think that’s true?” Snape asked in what he clearly hoped was a casual tone. “I’m asking that out of mere curiosity, of course,” he hastily added, as Sirius lifted an eyebrow in surprise, “It’s not as if “ ”
“As if you really wanted to know the answer,” Sirius finished for him. “Or as if you weren’t actually twisting your hands out of anxiety.” He looked amused as Snape flushed and put his hands in his pockets.
“What’s the matter?” asked James, smirking at Snape’s embarrassment. “Why should you care if half-bloods can’t be sorted in Slytherin? You can’t be a… Wait a minute, are you a half-blood?”
Snape went livid. “What makes you say that?” he blurted out. His tone was so aggressive that James thought he didn’t need another answer. It was clear he had touched a nerve.
Sirius seemed to think along the same lines. “We wonder,” he sneered. “C’mon, James, let’s get on the train, we’re wasting time here.”
“Right. Goodbye then, Severus Snape,” said James in the ceremonious tone Malfoy had used to introduce them. He thought he saw Snape’s hand give a funny move towards his pocket, but next second he and Sirius had spotted James’ parents and hurried to join them.
The Potters looked anxious (which made James feel slightly ashamed) and they informed Sirius his mother had grown tired of waiting for him and had gone; his cousins Bellatrix and Narcissa had taken his trunk to the train. James said goodbye to his parents and they both got on the train, where they started looking for Bellatrix’ and Narcissa’s compartment. Every compartment was packed with people chatting and eating sweets, some of them practising spells with their wands and sending sparks everywhere.
“Well, we have discovered another kind,” declared Sirius as they peered through the panes of glass on the compartments doors. “Pure-blood monkeys who aren’t even pure-bloods. Honestly, how thicker can you get?”
“You know, if he talked to Malfoy, that’s not really surprising he’s feeling ashamed of not being a pure-blood,” James pointed out.
“Hey, are you actually defending him?” said Sirius, raising his eyebrows at him.
“No, I’m not,” said James. “I hated the way he examined me like some kind of freak. I was just saying that Malfoy is a smug prat who’s spending his spare time trying to convince everyone that half-bloods and Muggle-borns are better dead than alive. D’you think Snape can end up in Slytherin if he’s half-blood?”
“I don’t know,” answered Sirius glumly, “And I’d rather we don’t talk about the Sorting right now, if you don’t mind. It’ll happen soon enough. Here they are,” he added suddenly, pointing at his cousins sitting among a small crowd in a compartment.
He opened the door.
“Hi, Bella, Narcissa,” he said brightly as everyone looked up. “I’d like to have my things back. It was very kind of you to take care of them, by the way.”
“No problem,” said Bellatrix, her eyes narrowing as she noticed James. “Is that Potter?”
James nodded and mumbled a vague “Hello”.
“Come and sit here, there’s still room for two. Especially “” she considered James from head to toe with a sarcastic smirk, ““ as I can see you’re not too big.”
The others laughed and James felt himself reddening. Nevertheless, Sirius and he sat down among Bellatrix’ and Narcissa’s friends. James pushed his trunk under a seat.
“So, how was your meeting with Lucius’ protégé?” asked Bellatrix with an exasperating expression of patience, as if she was forcing herself to converse with kids such as James and Sirius, out of mere politeness. “You’re a relative of Lucius’, aren’t you?”
“Yes… not close, though,” answered James. He felt wary. Bellatrix had the same calculating look he had spotted on Snape’s face earlier.
“As for your boyfriend’s protégé, he looks like a right berk. Big surprise,” said Sirius, crossing his hands behind his head and looking idly at the ceiling.
A threatening look flashed across Bellatrix’ face, very fleetingly “ not fleetingly enough for James not to notice, though. He was beginning to feel extremely nervous, and he quietly moved closer to the door. Sirius, on the contrary, looked perfectly at ease. Clearly, he was enjoying himself at provoking his cousin in front of her friends.
“When I see what sort of people you make friends with, I say it’s a compliment to be considered as a berk,” said Narcissa, who was nonchalantly leaning against the back of her seat and surveying James from behind her long eyelashes.
“When I see what sort of cousins he’s got, I understand why he’s trying to make friends with normal people,” replied James coldly, all thoughts of prudence instantly forgotten.
““Normal people”?” repeated Narcissa, her eyes popping open as she glared at James. “What are “normal people”, exactly?”
“People who speak normally, for a start. And not like that: “Noooormal peeeeople”,” he whined in a high-pitched voice, imitating Narcissa’s drawling accent. “Or who don’t eat sweets as if they were at the Queen’s table,” he added, noticing the way she was delicately putting sweets into her mouth, as if it was crystal. Sirius laughed.
“Well, I don’t think we should linger here,” he announced, as James and Narcissa glared furiously at each other. “We’d better go and find another compartment.” James gratefully got up. He had just seen one of the older boys open his mouth, undoubtedly to shoot at him an unpleasant retort, and he had heard enough about how small he was for one day.
“Bellatrix, could I have my trunk?” asked Sirius courteously, bowing slightly to his cousin (though the effect was somehow ruined by his smirk).
Bellatrix smiled sweetly back and pulled out her wand. “Certainly.”
Sirius’s heavy trunk abruptly soared towards them. James reflexively knocked Sirius out of the way, and they both fell heavily on several people’s knees (including Narcissa’s). The trunk hit the door so hard it opened it, then flew straight into two boys in the corridor, just outside the compartment, bursting open and spreading his contents everywhere.
Sirius and James were brutally pushed down the floor by those on top of which they had fallen. Even Sirius was able to sense danger coming now, as several students pulled out their wands. They quickly got out, helped by a couple of curses that pushed them right into the corridor, sending them crashing into the heap formed by the two victims of Sirius’ trunk. James’ trunk shot out of the compartment at last and landed on top of everything else.
There were a few minutes of total chaos, as the four of them struggled to disentangle themselves from the amount of robes, underwear, arms and legs. Finally James scrambled to his feet (it helped sometimes to be small and light) and, spotting Sirius’ arm from under the mess, he tugged on it until he got his friend out. As he did so he caused the two other boys to collapse heavily on the ground, separated at last.
“Wow, what a mess,” panted Sirius. “Can you believe such a simple curse could cause such mayhem? Bellatrix’s more dangerous than I thought.”
“Dangerous? Really?” James muttered bitterly, massaging his aching arm.
“You prat!” shouted one of the boys, getting to his feet. “If you hadn’t got in my way with your trunk, it wouldn’t have happened!”
“I’m sorry!” squeaked the other one, a chubby little boy with watery eyes, as the first boy seized his arm in fury and started to shake him very hard. “I didn’t mean to “ I just “”
“It’s all right, no need to shout,” said Sirius loudly. “It’s my fault, I “ er “ flew my trunk out of the compartment and… well… Hey, will you let go of him, I just said it’s my fault!”
He grabbed the first boy’s arm and forced him to turn around. There was a shocked pause as James and Sirius recognised the greasy-haired boy they had talked to on the platform. His lip curled at the sight of them, and James remembered his anger when they had suggested he was not a pure-blood.
“Mind your own business,” Snape snarled, his eyes flashing in fury.
“That’s our business, if you’re yelling in our ears,” James shot at him. “Nobody deserves that.” His dislike for this boy was growing every second.
“Yeah, be nice and shut up, Snape,” said Sirius, wrinkling his nose in distaste. “And while you’re at it, do as I say and let go of him.”
“Or what?” said Snape coldly. “What if I don’t?”
“Suit you,” replied James. “If you want to fight the two of us, fine with me.” He glanced sideways at Sirius, who was already rolling up his sleeves, watching Snape with a broad grin, his eyes gleaming with expectation as if nothing could have pleased him more than a ferocious fight in the corridor.
Snape smirked and drew out his wand.
“You fools,” he said contemptuously, “I may not be a pure-blood but at least I can hold my wand steady. Where’s your wand, Potter?”
James bit his lip hard in frustration. He had never used his wand, which was safe in his trunk. Snape seemed to have understood that; his smirk widened.
“I can hit you with a curse that would make the pair of you cry for your mummy,” he sniggered. “Let’s see if all your money and your purity of blood can save you from that…” Then he raised his wand.
“Furunc-”
James didn’t even realise what he was doing. Two seconds later he and Sirius had hit Snape, who was now lying on the floor, whining and clutching his overlarge nose.
“Now that’s done,” said Sirius, eyeing Snape with disgust and wiping his hand on his shirt.
James picked up the fallen wand and pocketed it.
“We should go,” said the boy Snape had been bullying. He was looking at James and Sirius with an expression close to awe. “Or we’ll be in trouble.”
“Yeah, and we still have to find a compartment…”
Leaving Snape on the floor, James and Sirius started to gather Sirius’ things back in his trunk, helped by the plump boy. Once all Sirius’ things were safely back in his trunk, the three of them walked away without a backward glance. James heard Snape cursing furiously behind him and turned around.
“You’re perhaps looking for that?” he called, showing the wand he had picked up. Snape went paper-white.
“Give it back to me!”
“Yeah right!” snorted James. “As if you weren’t going to curse me in the back as soon as I’ve given it to you!”
“I won’t. I swear.”
James shrugged and caught up with the other two, who were looking for an empty compartment.
“POTTER! GIVE THAT BACK!”
“Oh yeah, the wand, I forgot “” He carefully aimed and threw the wand right in Snape’s face. He heard a yelp of pain as he followed Sirius and the chubby boy.
***
Remus Lupin was alone in the very last compartment of the train. He liked it better that way. All those people were so excited about going to Hogwarts, they obviously couldn’t wait for starting the classes and getting to know every single student in the school. Here they were, laughing and joking and eating…
He didn’t want to hear their questions, their speculations about the Sorting, the classes and the teachers. He wasn’t looking forward to it at all; if he had had any choice, he would have happily stayed with his parents for the rest of his life. They were the only people in the world with whom he had ever felt safe and cared for. But they wanted him to go to Hogwarts. Well, obviously, people like him had the greatest difficulties to find a job, so if he didn’t even have a good education…
But how on earth was he going to handle living in a castle with hundreds of human beings he would endanger without even meaning it? Headmaster Dumbledore had talked about special “arrangements” for him…
Remus jumped as a group of boys paused at the door of his compartment, chatting and laughing merrily. He instinctively recoiled in his seat, wishing they would just go and leave him alone.
The door opened.
“Look, that one’s empty!” called a boy with dark hair and glasses. “Well, almost empty,” he corrected, grinning at Remus. “Do you mind if we sit here? We’ve just been ejected out of our compartment and everywhere else’s full…”
Remus’ heart sank. They’ve been ejected out of their compartment… They were probably trouble-makers that wouldn’t leave him in peace for a minute. Yet he couldn’t say no. He nodded.
“Excellent,” the boy said cheerfully. “C’mon, Sirius, before the greasy monkey finds us and curses us into oblivion.”
The two other boys behind him laughed and followed him inside. Remus sighed. He couldn’t understand why they had to talk as if they were at the opposite ends of a Quidditch pitch, rather than at a few feet’s distance. When they had finally settled (which took a long time, and far too much noise at Remus’ taste), the bespectacled boy turned to face Remus, who promptly hid behind his book.
“Oh… hello Mister A thousand herbs and magical fungi!” he heard the boy say, not unkindly. “Do you have a shorter name?”
The others laughed again and Remus felt the colour rising to his cheeks. He mumbled “Remus Lupin” from behind his book.
“I didn’t know I was so ugly one would rather read a Potions book than look at me,” said another voice in mock puzzlement.
“Because nobody ever dared tell you,” answered the bespectacled boy’s voice promptly. “Your mirror must’ve known you would shatter it, and it wisely shut up.”
The third boy was laughing so hard he suddenly choked and began to cough.
“Hey, breathe!” said the bespectacled boy, sounding worried.
Remus lowered his book and saw one of the boys (the plump one), turning steadily purple as he coughed harder than ever. The boy with glasses started to thump him in the back, rather harder than necessary in Remus’ opinion, but it proved helpful: the fat boy began to breathe again.
“You all right?” said the third boy, a tall dark-haired one. He was grinning, but he sounded concerned. “Very dangerous, laughing, you know. Almost as much as greasy-haired aggressive monkeys.”
“I’m fine,” panted the boy, still very red. “Glad to see your face, by the way,” he added, grinning at Remus. Remus wished at once he hadn’t lowered his book, but after all the three of them were looking at him without any disdain or wariness. He felt ashamed of being so rude to them.
“Oh… yes, sorry,” he said at last. “It’s just, you know, I’m not used to… well…”
“That’s okay,” said the boy with glasses. “We were just wondering whether you’d rather be left alone, or “”
“No,” said Remus quickly; more quickly than he intended, actually. “I mean, I’m “ I’m very glad to meet you, and, hum…”
“Maybe you’d like to hear our names,” said the tallest boy helpfully. Remus nodded, feeling foolish. God, he hadn’t even been able to utter two sentences.
“I’m Sirius Black,” said the tall boy.
“James Potter,” said the bespectacled one.
“Peter Pettigrew,” said the chubby boy.
“Erm… Nice to meet you,” said Remus awkwardly.
“Do you already know someone at Hogwarts?” asked Peter. “I didn’t, until I met James and Sirius in the corridor. I was really anxious about going there without knowing anyone.”
“Well, with the three of you, that makes four,” answered Remus.
“Really? Who’s the fourth?”
“Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper. He brought me my letter this summer.”
“Did he?” said James, looking astounded. “How come? I got mine by owl post.”
“Me too,” said Sirius and Peter together. They were all goggling at him.
“Well “ a problem with my registration “ difficult to explain “” he was reddening again. He had to be careful with what he was saying.
“Okay, no questions “ got it,” said Sirius, good-naturedly. “How is he, that Hagrid?”
“Huge. Never seen someone that big,” said Remus, relieved by Sirius’ reaction. “Really kind, though.”
“Quite the opposite of our own fourth acquaintance, then,” said James. “We just met a disgusting guy in the corridor. First-year as well. That’s him we were talking about, you know, the “aggressive greasy monkey”. A filthy guy with greasy hair, he tried to curse us.”
“Tried to?”
“Yeah, he couldn’t finish his curse,” said Sirius with a wicked grin. “He got a good punch on his oily big nose and he started snivelling on the floor. His name’s something like… Thingy Snape. What’s his first name again?”
“Something in “us”,” answered James with a yawn. “Can’t remember it right now. Greasus Snape?”
“No,” said Sirius very seriously, as Peter started to howl with laughter again. “Begins with an “S”.”
“Snivellus Snape?” suggested James with a broad grin.
“Here it is!” exclaimed Sirius, nodding appreciatively. The three of them burst out laughing, and even Remus had to smile.
“I think I saw him, too,” said Remus suddenly, remembering something he had seen on the Platform. “There’s a black-haired first-year that cursed a bigger student. He had been pushed out of the way, I think, and he hexed the guy in the back. The big student got covered in boils, I’m not sure he got rid of them yet. That’s kind of scary, the Furunculus Spell is not to be learnt before third year at least.”
“Probably the same, Snivellus himself,” said Sirius. “I think we’d better learn how to block unfriendly spells quickly, because the punching thing might not work next time.”
“Right. Besides, it can be fun to cover him in boils. Here, have a Chocolate Frog, Remus,” said James, tossing one at him.
Remus found it was really easy to talk to James, Sirius and Peter. He had the feeling he had known them for ages. He even found himself laughing his head off in a middle of a Chocolate Frogs fight, he, who valued peace and silence beyond almost anything. He thought it was the very first time in years he was truly having fun.
“Hey, I think I can see the castle!” exclaimed Peter suddenly.
“Where? Where?” shouted Sirius, James, and even Remus.
“I can’t see it anymore, it’s behind that big mountain. We’d better get changed.”
The train slowed down and stopped. The platform was swarming with students in plain black robes. A gigantic silhouette was calling from the end of the platform: “Firs’-years, over ’ere…”.
James, Sirius, Peter and Remus exchanged a look, then all four of them headed for the silhouette.