Chapter Text
James Fleamont Potter was incredibly lucky. He knew that. He had two parents who loved him with everything they had. He had more money than he knew what to do with and he had been told on more than one occasion that he was rather charming. It did not matter that most of his childhood he had spent roaming the halls of their house, alone. He had the portraits to keep him company and that was enough for him.
It was not a surprise that he received his Hogwarts letter one warm sunny summer day. Still his father had laughed and patted him on the back as though it was the greatest achievement of all.
“That's my boy” Fleamont Potter proclaimed.
“Oi he's mine too” Euphemia Potter managed to say while peppering James’ forehead with kiss after kiss.
“Obviously, that's why he’s so smart.” Euphemia beamed at her husband. “Good answer.” Meanwhile James attempted to riggle his way out of her grip.
“Mum lemme go.” He tried to say although it came out muffled and sounded like an unintelligible mumble thanks to his mothers arms around him.
Euphemia simply laughed and finally released him.
“This calls for celebratory pancakes” she exclaimed heartily and then set about waving her wand and summoning all her ingredients. James and his father knew better than to stand up and try to help. The last time one of them did that they ended up with three eggs to the face. They would do the dishes after. When the pancakes were done, with extra chocolate chips of course, they all sat around the kitchen table joking and talking like every other morning. Afterwards, his father went to work and his mother went to her book club meeting.
He didn't move from the kitchen table. He simply sat and stared at the letter before him. James Potter had always been rather good at identifying and dealing with his emotions.
When he tried to see how fast he could go down the banister and ended up falling on his face, he felt pain. When his cat, Mrs. Paws died suddenly, he felt sad. When his father brought him Chocolate frogs from the candy store on the way home from work, he felt happy. However, now he felt a new kind of emotion: fear. It wasn't the kind of fear he was used to. The kind he got when he accidentally hit his mothers favorite flower pot trying to show off a new Quidditch skill he learned.
No this was a more complicated kind of fear. The kind that slithered its way up through his belly and filled his thoughts with scene after scene of ways that he could fail. He was the single heir of two powerful and old families. He was supposed to be one of the best. He had to be one of the best. Still images of disaster after disaster plagued his mind. He tried to think of anything else like Quidditch. Quidditch was lovely. At his young age he had already decided he was going to be a great Quidditch player one day. It did not matter though. His mind went right back to failure.
“Oi James, you in there mate?” James instantly snapped back into reality and turned to find an excited Peter Pettigrew tapping on his window. Peter was from one of the few wizard families that lived nearby and because of this, the two boys had become quite good friends over the years.
James smiled warmly and went and unlocked the door letting Peter run into his kitchen.
“Did you get it? Did you get it?” Peter was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement.
“Yeah Pete I did. Are you excited?” James asked although it was a somewhat of a rhetorical question.
“Of course! You know I was really quite worried for a second. I mean I know that I have magic but all that business with Cousin Bill being a Squib some part of me doubted…” James let Peter keep going, meanwhile his eyes were inexplicably drawn to his Hogwarts letter laying on the table. With its neat penmanship and fancy seal, it just looked so harmless.
The sound of his name is what brought his attention back to the boy standing in front of him. A boy who was currently staring at him expectantly.
“Er…Yeah?” James said, hoping for the best.
“Really!” Peter exclaimed happily “we can even get our wands together and everything”. Oh, Peter had probably asked James to go school shopping with him at Diagon Alley which James would have probably ended up doing anyway. For the first time since receiving his letter, James felt a spark of excitement simmer through him for if there was one thing that James loved, it was buying new things.
“Come on Petey, let's go put more tadpoles in Mrs. C’s koi pond again.” James proclaimed, swinging an arm over the other boy's shoulders. Before leaving the kitchen, He glanced once behind him, his resolve hardening. This year was his first year at Hogwarts and it was going to be marvelous.