Of Tails to Come.

Chapter 7: To Hogwarts

It was a a soft shake that woke James up the next day, Nymphadora Potter woke her son up at 7 am on September the first with a wide smile on her face.
James gave off and illegible sound to signify he was awakened "James honey time to get up, breakfast will be ready soon." After saying that she left the room. Sitting up James noticed that his bed was much warmer than it usually was, pulling back the covers in confusion he saw Ignus curled up next to him. The Salamander awoke obviously noticing the change in temperature, "How in merlin's name did you get out" James asked holding out a hand.
Ignus jumped onto James's hand, wrapped it's long tail round his wrist and ran up his pajama sleeve. Throwing off his cover James stood up and stretched, stopping when he heard a rustling of feathers and loud hooting. Dropping his shoulder Dantès swooped down off the wardrobe and landed on his shoulder.
James reached the basement kitchen sat at the table and dug into his breakfast. Harry walked over to the table sat down and sipped his tea, with his usual calm voice Harry asked "So you excited?"
"Yeah definitely!" James said through a mouth full of toast.
"Don't talk with your mouth full please son and good I'm glad you are, although you're nervous why?" Harry asked with his usual piercing stare.
"Well what if my choosing goes wrong, what if I'm not put in Gryffindor?" James asked scared.
"Why would I care?" Harry responded evenly.
"Well wouldn't you be disappointed? I mean you and mum were in Gryffindor." James looked down.
"No actually your mother wasn't," Harry calm voice revealed "isn't that right dear?" Nymphadora sighed she was clearly trying to sneak up on her son, to surprised him but unfortunately that was ruined.
"No dear I wasn't." Nymphadora smiled.
"You weren't? But you're so brave and fearless!" James asked surprised.
"Just because I'm brave and fearless doesn't automatically make me a Gryffindor, I my dear son was a Hufflepuff and I'm very proud to have been!"
With a sudden flash that made Dantès jump and fall off James's shoulder, Fawkes appeared next to Harry and gave off a soft trill, "Thankyou Fawkes" Harry said untying the note from his leg. After reading the note he looked up at his wife and said "Hermione and George will be meeting us at the station at 10, so that gives us three hours."
After an hour and a half James was fully packed and was sitting in the lounge, Dantès resting on his knee and Ignus was sitting on the fire eating coal. James looked up to see Teddy walk through the door book in hand, "Hey Teddy you ok?"
Teddy jumped "Oh hay James, yeah I'm fine are you?"
"Yeah I'm good, looking forward to getting rid of me?" James joked.
"To be honest no, I'll miss you quite a bit actually." Teddy answered matter of factly.
"Good to know." James replied
With a sudden click of the door Lily came running into the room, and latched onto James's side. James smiled and patted her hair "Hey Lily flower, it's ok I'll be home for Christmas, you won't have enough time to miss me!" Lily looked up at her brother, smiled with tears in her eyes and hugged him tighter.
At 10:40 Harry, Tonks, James, Teddy and Lily all walked into Kings-Cross station, they met with George, Hermione, Fred and Arthur at the gateway to platform 9 and 3/4. Fred was the first to go through and took it at a run. James's jaw dropped at the grand scale of The Hogwarts Express, Harry laughed slightly to his son "I had the same reaction."
Alice saw them and ran up to them and gave James a hug, "I've found and empty carriage so we can put our stuff in there." After placing there stuff in Compartment 3 of carriage 11 they came outside to say goodbye.
Nymphadora hugged her son with tears in her eyes, "I'm going to miss you" she sniffed. James hugged her back.
"I'll miss you too mum" he said tears in his eyes. After letting go of his mum he raised his hand for his dad to shake, Harry smiled and shook his hand tears in the edge of his eyes before pulling him into a hug. With a cracked voice he said "Bye son and good luck"
"Bye dad" James replied in an equally cracked voice. James then ruffed his brothers hair "Stay out of trouble Teddy" Teddy smiled tears running down his cheeks,"That will be easy you're taking all the trouble with you!" he laughed.
James then sank to his knees and took Lily into his arms, she hugged him tightly and cried into his waistcoat. Her piercing green eyes looked up to him "I don't want you to go Jamesy."
"I'm sorry Lily flower I'll be back before you know it." he tried to comfort her, she instantly clung to Harry's trousers leg and wept.
He stood up and looked at his family and with one final group hug, he said "Right I'll see you all at Christmas." and bored The Hogwarts Express. James sat down on the left hand window seat of compartment 3 of carriage 11, took out his handkerchief and dried his eyes.
A few minutes later Fred, Arthur and Alice joined him, James gave Alice his handkerchief to dry her still crying eyes. He looked at them grinning and said "So, first day of the great adventure that is Hogwarts." At this they chuckled and as Arthur pulled out his Wizard Chess bord they setteld in for the long journey. James routed in his coat pocket and pulled out the book Olivaner had given him. It was an old slightly tattered book that seemed to be filled with anecdotes written by the owner. On the title page in the bottom corner it read "Property of G. Olivaner".

And that's another chapter down and plots finally happening, anyway things should get more consistent.

Anyway until next time have fun.