Hello and welcome to the first installment of 'The New Marauders'! If you've just stumbled upon this, please check out the profile page for any information that is not provided by the story. I would like to pint out that updates may be slow, but hopefully not.
Disclaimer: 'Don't drink the water. Don't even touch it, not one drop!'
Summary: This is it! They're finally going to Hogwarts. Fred and George are bouncing off the walls, Lee wonders how he'll survive when his best friends are idiots, Helena is bored by the whole thing, Amelia wishes she was anyone other than her father's daughter and Lemony just wishes she new what International Quidditch team she went for.
In the first volume of 'The New Marauders', the New Marauders are formed, enemies are made, detentions are in their hundreds and, really, who cares about House Rivalry?
The New Marauders
Book One
First Steps to Hell, Chapter One
- Of Idiocy and Introductions -
On no particular Saturday, in no particular August, in 1989 the rosy fingers of dawn crept silently over the village of Ottery St Catchpole. High on a hill sat a lonely goatherd, and next to said goatherd was a crooked house that looked like it might once have been a pigstye. By this point, dawn had moved past this house and was shedding light on its neighbour (a large house that looked like a giant boot from a distance) when a loud scream echoed from an upstairs room in the crooked house.
"FRED! GEORGE! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY ROOM?" Percy Weasley had woken to find his room and everything in it covered in pink paint.
As this was a normal occurrence in the Weasley Household, everyone's instinctual reaction was to roll over and go back to sleep. This morning, however, was different. Within minutes, the whole Weasley Clan was awake and crowded around the kitchen table.
Molly Weasley, mother of seven, cook extraordinaire and all that rot, was glaring at her twin sons, Fred Gideon and George Fabian. The glare she was now sending at the two boys would have been enough to melt the flesh off your bones. It had, however, no effect whatsoever on the two hyped up boys. They were excited today more than ever because they were finally going to Hogwarts! Well, they weren't going to Hogwarts that very morning, but they were going to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies. It merited the same amount of excitement for them.
As Mrs Weasley opened her mouth to scold them, Fred interrupted her. "But Mu-um! You told us to wake everyone up this morning!"
Molly glared at him, sparks flying out of her eyes. "That didn't mean you could use your brother as an alarm clock!"
"Screamed like a girl he did!" muttered George, poking Percy, who was still covered in paint. Percy scowled at his brother and shifted away.
"That had better meld itself into an apology!" shrieked Molly. "And you two had better learn some self restraint before you go to Hogwarts!"
"And what if we don't?" the twins asked together.
"I'll write to Professor Dumbledore and tell him you can't go,"
"You wouldn't!"
"I would!" she paused. "And that was not a challenge!" The twins frowned. "Now, if you can be good until we get to, and while we're at Diagon Alley, I will let you go to Hogwarts."
But alas, of course, you all know Fred and George (you do know Fred and George, don't you?) In the three hours it took the Weasley family to wash, dress, breakfast and assemble in front of the fire place, they'd turned Ron's Chudley Cannons posters pink (they weren't sure how) made Ginny's hair fall out (again, they didn't know how) thrown all of Charlie's socks out the window and killed Ron's puffskein while playing Quidditch on their toy brooms.
As George's head disappeared into the swirling emerald flames, Mrs Weasley sighed. Maybe Hogwarts would straiten them out…? She snorted and shook her head. 'And Bill will marry the descendent of a Veela,'
As you've probably guessed, Fred and George caused pain/destruction/mass panic (delete as applicable) as soon as they stepped out of the emerald fire.
Upon exiting said fire, George inhaled a rather large portion of hot ash and crashed out of the fire and strait into Fred who was nursing his bruised elbows. This caused a mini domino effect as Fred crashed into a small blonde girl who was standing directly behind him. She then knocked into her taller, black-haired friend.
Both girls glared at the twins with eerily similar green eyes. "Watch it!" the blonde snapped.
"Or are your noses so big they block your vision?" said the black-haired girl, sneering nastily.
"Now, Helena," said a man, also with black hair, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Don't be mean to these boys. I'm sure they didn't mean it,"
Helena tossed her hair and stalked off, calling: "C'mon Amelia!" and the blonde scampered after her.
The man turned to Fred and George. "I apologise for my daughter's behaviour – she and her friend are quite opinionated,"
They tried and failed to smile politely before running after the rest of their family.
"Oooh," said Fred once they were out of earshot of the girls and the father.
"Creepy," added George, glancing over his shoulder at them.
"I hope they're not in our year," they said together, striking Shakespearian poses.
"Fred! George! Hurry up!" Arthur called as the family headed to the back of the pub.
After the abysmal sight of the inside of the Weasley bank vault, the twins convinced their parents to let them explore Quality Quidditch Supplies. Grudgingly, Molly nodded, but sent Charlie with them to (hopefully) keep them out of trouble.
Yelling their thanks over their shoulders, Fred and George shot off towards the shop, Charlie sprinting to catch up to them. He lost them when they disappeared into the International Quidditch merchandise section, but found them when there was a loud: "OUCH!"
He rounded a shelf just in time to hear Fred say: "Gee, Georgie, you've been running into girls like that a lot today!"
Charlie gathered from the scene in front of him that George had run around the corner he'd just come around and barrelled into their next door neighbour's girl, Lemony Wilson, who was scurrying about retrieving all the items she'd dropped. He stooped down to help the frantic black haired girl and stood up with two shirts in each hand; two for the Appleby Arrows, one for the Wigtown Wanderers and one for the Falmouth Falcons.
"Which team do you actually go for?" George asked while Lemony tried to wrestle a Pride of Portee's shirt from Fred. Her attempt was failing miserably as Fred was a good foot taller than her. She looked at George with a strained expression on her face.
"Mm, I don't know!" she said, frustrated, making a grab for the purple and gold top Fred was holding just out of her reach. "Aw, c'mon Fred!" she whined, standing on her toes to reach the shirt. "Give it back!"
"Shant!" the elder of the twins laughed waving the shirt in Lemony's face. She made a feeble grab at it and fell sadly short (no pun intended). She crossed her arms and stomped her foot childishly.
"Give it back!"
"No!"
"Give it back!"
"Get another one!"
"I want that one!"
"Well you can't have this one!"
"But I want it!" she sniffled, crocodile tears forming in her large, blue eyes. Fred wavered.
"Oh no…th-that cutesy face won't work on me!" A single, fat tear rolled down her cheek.
In the background, Charlie and George were wetting themselves with laughter as Fred's resolve cracked and shattered.
"Fine!" Fred announced. "Here's your stupid shirt!" Lemony cheered and did a happy-dance when the shirt was once again safely in her grasp.
Lemony was just paying for her merchandise when her parents walked into the shop. Catching sight of her daughter, Sicily Wilson nudged her husband.
"See Dominick, I told you we'd find her here!" she told her husband.
It was clear where Lemony got her looks from. Her father, Dominick, sported a head of very long, black hair and his slanted eyes were slate grey. Sicily had shoulder length, blonde curls and the same startling blue eyes possessed by all the women on her side of the family.
"And you thought she'd be at Florean's!" Scicly exclaimed incredulously.
"I was gonna go there next!" muttered Lemony. Suddenly, a metaphorical lightbulb popped above her head. "DING!" she shouted, an evil smirk crossing her face as she glanced at Fred and George, who also had smirks on their identical faces.
The three of them put on their best (coughcoughunconvincingcough) innocent, puppy-dog expressions and faced the Wilson's. "Mum, Dad, you really love me, don't you?" asked Lemony, Fred and George nodding furiously behind her.
"What do you want?" her father answered, not looking up from the banners he was looking at. "Dear?" he said to Sicily. "Which of these should I buy?"
"Guess it's hereditary," Fred said to his twin. George nodded and Lemony tried her mother.
"Mooooooother dearest!"
"Daaaaaaaaughter darling!"
"Can I go with Twit One and Twit Two to get my school supplies? Pleeeeeease?" she threw in a few tears to make it convinsing.
"Twit One and Twit Two? Excuse us!" the twins cried. They were ignored.
"Well..." murmured Sicily. "I'll have to ask Molly, but I suppose you can go." She waved her wand and a silver fox flew out of the shop. A few minutes later, Molly's returning patronus arrived baring the words: "She can stay for tea if she likes!"
"Thank you Mum!" Lemony cried, hugged her mother and the three friends rushed out the door.
"Sicily, you didn't answer my question," Dominick said, holding up six or seven Quidditch banners. "Which should I buy?"
"Buy them all dear, I'm sure they'll fit somewhere..."
"I'm telling you guys, it's a girl!" Lemony poked Lee's temple. "Look at the hair!"
After abandoning the Quidditch store, the three had made their way to Florean Fortescue's Ice-cream Parlour, where they'd spotted Lee Jordan, a boy they'd met on a night exploration when they'd stolen their parent's brooms. They were now indulging themselves in one of their favourite activities: trying to make the calm black boy in front of them snap.
They'd decided to take an old approach – pretending not to know Lee's gender.
"No Lemony, we're pretty sure Lee's a guy!" Fred said, a hand on George's forehead to keep him away from Lee's ice-cream. George suddenly stopped clawing at the air trying to reach the cone.
"Strawberry? Really Lee, that's a girl's flavour!" he exclaimed loudly, shaking his hand to get the pink drips off it.
"SEE!" cried Lemony, flinging her arm out and just missing Lee's head.
"I like strawberry…" mumbled Fred, looking longingly at the cone.
Lee put his head in his hands as his three friends continued their argument. "All I wanted was an Ice-Cream!" he whimpered as said cone was dropped in his hair.
Just across the road, in a dimly lit apothecary, Helena Potter glanced over to her very short, blonde friend and waved a hand in front of her vacant face.
"Amelia, what are you staring at?" she asked after getting no response.
"Those twins from earlier…" came the airy response.
"Why?"
"They remind me of someone," Amelia shook her hair and crossed her eyes, poking her tongue out. This was her 'Look-At-Me-I'm-A-Moron' face. Helena laughed at her friends antics, but glanced over to the ice cream parlour herself.
The two red-heads and a black haired girl she'd seen at parties she'd been dragged to were terrorizing a boy with dreadlocks who had an ice cream on his head. She blinked.
"Our year gets all the weirdos," she muttered as Amelia began to poke at the Dragon Eyes.
"One of 'em blinked at me!" she cried happily, prodding away at them. Helena sighed.
"I'm surrounded by idiots."
