Sneakers In The Snow / James Potter

Chapter 1

"Come on, open the door! It's freezing," her friend yelled as she pounded at the door. Martha rolled her eyes as she ran to it. She was wearing only one side of her sweater and had only one shoe on.

As soon as she opened the door she was met by a warm hug, more of a tackle really. "Be careful, Hannnah. I'll still be here even if you let go."

Her friend scoffed. "I haven't seen you in over a year, let me have my fun."

"Fine, you can hug me all you want," Martha laughed, secretly enjoying it. It was a few minutes until Hannah let go, giving her a kiss on the cheek. She took a good look around the small cottage. Everything was in boxes and there was barely any furniture. But there were a couple of pictures on the mantle place. One showcased her friends, one of them being Hannah, all wearing a school uniform surrounded by a bunch of snow. The other was a family with three little kids, Martha being the youngest. Putting them up was the first thing she had done when she had arrived the previous night.

"I'm guessing you missed us too," Hannah teased. She sat on the yellow sofa and shot her a look. "So tell me all about this last year. I mean, a year-long vacation from Hogwarts must have been awesome. You missed the NEWT exams."

Martha shrugged as she kept on getting ready. "It wasn't exactly a vacation, but being away from you was quite nice."

"Ha ha. Are you ready for work?" Martha had just moved to Godric's Hollow to work in a Christmas school Hannah's mother ran. She loved working with kids and jumped at the possibility of a change. Leaving her family like two thousand kilometers away had been complicated but it seemed fun to move closer to her school friends.

"Yes, but there's this nuisance that might make me tardy."

"Let's just go by floo, it will be much faster," Hannah complained, but Martha just shook her head.

"No, thank you. We're a five minutes walk away from the school. I moved into this place for a reason, no need to dirty up my fireplace," Martha replied, putting on her biggest coat and putting on her backpack.

"Fine. You don't have to take so many things, you know?"

"I like it though, being prepared. I want your mum to be impressed with me. Oh, and thank you so much for the job." They walked out to the street, shocked at the cold wind. "You know, I'm starting to miss Spain."

They talked about their friends and their lives in the past year and how work was now that they were out of school. "Juliet had a huge crush on the new teacher. And honestly so did I. He's one of my cousin's friends and really cute."

"Sad I missed that," Martha said. The streets were covered by at least ten centimeters of snow and she was not wearing appropriate footwear, so she was relieved when they finally arrived. It was a big house that had been repurposed, a big playground in the backyard.

"You ready?" Hannah asked her as they entered.

"As I'll ever be." As they entered the foyer, a woman as blonde as her daughter met them.

"Martha, it's so nice to see you," Hannah's mother, Cindy, said. They'd met briefly at King's Cross station throughout the years. "I'm so glad you'll be joining us. You'll be with the pre-school kids, a group of seven. I'll take you to your class, it's just up the stairs. Hannah, you now have to leave, say goodbye."

The girl rolled her eyes as she walked out the door.

"Great! Thank you. Is there anything I should know? Like allergies," Martha questioned.

Cindy laughed as they walked up the stairs. "I forget you've worked with muggles. We don't really have those problems when we have magic. As far as we know all of your kids are very healthy. You'll have three girls and four boys, some of them already know each other. I had them last year and they are quite wonderful."

Martha set up her stuff on the teacher's table and walked around the room. She got out the materials she'd need and marveled at the perfectly dry slide and swings right outside. It was wonderful what magic could do.

"Hey, Martha." Cindy entered with a woman and a little girl. "Here is your first student. Want to say hi, Susan?" Susan hid behind her mother's leg.

"That's okay. My name is Martha. Would you like to draw?" This seemed to perk her up, she nodded shyly. "Perfect. Say goodbye and let's go."

Soon enough the classroom was almost full, only one boy left to come. Martha was distracted as she spoke to the kids, not noticing a father and his kid come into the room. "Hello?"

She turned around, ashamed she hadn't noticed. "Sorry. Good morning, I'm Martha."

The father smiled widely at her, giving a kiss on the head to his son. "Hi, this is Harry. Say hello, Harry."

"Hello, Harry," the child said with a laugh.

The father rubbed the back of his head. "His godfather taught him that. Harry is a very well behaved kid but he has some bad influences. Or funny, however you choose to see it."

"Well I do prefer to be optimistic," Martha replied, earning a laugh. "Harry, would you like to join the rest?"

The kid gave his father a kiss on the cheek and ran to the table.

"I should get back to them, it's time for icebreakers," Martha told him awkwardly.

"Of course. Have a good day, I hope they aren't too much trouble."

She laughed. "I'm sure they won't be." Martha walked away.

"I'm James, by the way," he called out. She simply smiled at him.

*****

"How is the first day going?" a man asked her as he sat down on a bench. Martha was currently looking at the kids as they played. "I'm Peter, by the way. I have the younger primary school kids."

"Martha," she told him. "I have the preschool ones."

Peter nodded. "I know, you're my cousin's friend. Hannah talks extensively about you."

"All bad I suppose," Martha laughed.

"Not all of it. For example she says you're amazing with a wand, and at school. And that you've worked with kids a lot. Camp counselor?"

Martha nodded. "Amongst other things." He gave her a puzzling look. "I've also taught English, technology and rollerblading. I barely know anything about most of those things but I seem to handle teaching them well."

There was a moment of silence between them. "You have Harry, right?"

"Yeah, I do. He's a great kid," Martha replied. Peter chuckled. "Hey, Lucas! Put down that stone!"

"I'm actually friends with Harry's father," Peter announced. "Have you met him?"

She nodded. "He dropped him off today. James seems nice."

At this the man laughed even more. "He told you his name? Man, he moves fast."

"Am I not supposed to know the parent's names?" Martha questioned worriedly.

"It's not that, don't fret. It's just that Prongs is a wanker," Peter told her. She just looked confused. "I'm sure you'll learn that about him soon enough."