Chapter 1: The Beginning

"Hey… Sirius, James, over here." A voice hailed the twins as they ran through the train, looking for an empty compartment. They turned. Sticking their heads out of nearby compartments were four flaming redheads, a boy and three girls. "Thank god. I though I was going to be stuck with these three all by myself forever." The boy said.

The twins grinned slyly. "I dunno Zach. I dunno if we can handle four Weasley Cousins." Sirius said, mockingly serious.

Zach snorted. "I'd be more worried about us. Come on. You haven't met Venitia yet." He motioned to one of the redheads, who seemed to have something about her that gave her a little extra beauty.

James and Sirius shrugged, and entered the compartment. Zachary, or Zach as he liked to be called, grinned back. He was short and stocky, with lots of freckles.

"Where's Danny?" James asked. Daniel Longbottom, Danny, was another Weasly cousin, the son of Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom. The four of them, James, Sirius, Danny, and Zach, had plans to be the most feared troublemakers in all Hogwarts history (Though they were often told that this was going to take quite some doing).

"Right behind you." Came a voice. The twins jumped, and turned around, pointed dungbombs at the voice. A round-faced redhead grinned back.

"Danny… Don't do that!" Sirius said.

"But the looks on your faces were so funny." Danny complained.

"Why don't you three come inside and meet Venitia." Zach said.

"I have 'met' Venitia." Danny drawled. "She is my cousin as well you know. Besides, the compartment's too full."

Zach sighed. "I know. How about this, James and Sirius meet Ventitia while you scout out a new compartment for us boys so the girls don't have to be overly bored by us."

"Why me?" Danny asked. "Why don't you scout out a compartment…"

Zach threw up his hands. "Because I'm already in here and you aren't! Now get going."

Of course, while this argument was going on, Venitia smiled up at the twins and very quietly said, "Hello. I'm Ventitia. I'm Bill's daughter."

"So we gathered." Sirius said dryly.

"Hi. I'm James Potter, and this git is, sadly, my twin brother Sirius." James stuck out his hand, while dodging Sirius's attempts at hitting him. "You're mother is Fleur, isn't she?" He asked as she tentatively shook it. Ventitia nodded. "So you're part Veela, right?"

"Potter. As in Harry Potter?" A sneering voice outside the compartment said.

Everyone turned. Standing outside was a blond boy, flanked by two other boys that looked as though they had giant blood in them. Behind the boy, a blond girl was trying to sneak away.

"Yeah." Sirius said carefully. "We're his sons. Why?" He'd heard about Malfoys, and this boy fit the description.

The boy sneered. "I'm Serpen Malfoy, and this is my sister, Sarah." The boy grabbed the blond girl, who sighed, and faced him.

"Serpen, let me go." She said calmly.

"No. Mum told me to keep an eye on you, and so you're not going anywhere." Malfoy said forcefully. "Crabbe, Goyle, keep her here." He ordered his overlarge cronies, handing her to one of them.

Sarah Malfoy sighed. "Evil git." She muttered. "Petrificus Totalus." She pointed her wand at the boy who held her. The boy went ridged, and fell. Not wasting another moment, she tore off.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat." Malfoy drawled. "But I seem to have an errant sister to control. Rest assured Potters, we'll continue this." He walked off with his remaining sidekick, leaving the other on the floor.

"We'll look forward to it." James muttered under his breath. "Well guys…" He said louder. "I think we just found our first two victims; the Malfoy twins."

"Why the girl as well?" Asked Kathy, one of the other Weasley cousins. She was the daughter of Ron Weasley. "You don't even know her. She could be very nice."

"Come on." Danny looked at her like she was crazy. "She's a Malfoy. 'Nice' is not in their vocabulary."

"How do you know?" The last Weasley cousin, Heather, asked. Heather looked a lot like Zach, which stood to reason because they were the children of the famous pranksters, the Weasley twins.

"You've heard the stories." Zach said. "You really expect her to be nice."

The girls rolled their eyes, and dropped the subject.

Lily looked out the window nervously. She was alone in a new world. She had just found out she was a wizard a month ago, and now she was sitting on a train, going to a school where she knew nothing, and nobody.

Suddenly, a blond girl ran into her compartment. Lily was too startled to speak as the girl put a finger to her lips and listened to the sound of people outside the compartment. After a while, she relaxed, seeming satisfied that whoever was after her wasn't going to find her here.

"Sorry about that." She said to Lily. "I just needed to get away from my horrid brother and his friends. I'm Sarah Malfoy." She stuck out her hand, smiling. "I hope you don't mind if I share this compartment."

"Not at all." Lily said as she took Sarah's hand. "I'm Lillian Wright, but you can call me Lily."

"Call me Sarah."

"Is your brother really that bad?" Lily asked.

Sarah shuddered. "He's worse. He's an evil git, and I'm not just saying that. Everybody in my family is." She looked at Lily thoughtfully. "You're parents aren't wizards are they?"

"Umm… no." Lily said ashamedly.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to hold it against you." Sarah laughed. "I want to know all about muggles."

"Muggles?"

"Non magic folks."

"Oh… You really want to know?" Lily asked.

"Everything." Sarah said enthusiastically.

"Well, I'll tell you everything I can if you tell me everything about the wizarding world." Lily said, smiling.

"Deal." Sarah said, eyes lighting up. "I just know we're gonna be great friends."

"How did you know I was…" Lily wasn't quite sure of the term.

"Muggle-born." Sarah supplied.

"Yeah."

"Well, you didn't know about the Malfoy family." Sarah said. "Everybody seems to know about the Malfoy family these days." Her face tightened.

"I take it that this isn't a good thing." Lily asked.

"Like I said, my family is made up entirely of evil gits." Sarah said vindictively.

"How rude." Came a drawling voice from the door.

Sarah closed her eyes in dismay. "Go away Serpen."

"I don't think I will." The boy said. "Whose your friend?"

"I'm Lillian Wright." Lily said.

"A mudblood?" The boy said. "Really Sarah, I always knew you had bad taste but…"

He got no further. Lily and Sarah both leapt up at the same time, and pointed their wands at Serpen Malfoy. His eyes widened.

"Get out." Lily growled. She had decided that she didn't like this boy one bit.

Malfoy seemed to decide that it would probably be a good idea to do what she said, considering that he was facing two wand tips. He sneered as he shut the door.

"Sorry about that." Sarah said as she put away her wand.

"No problem. I can see what you mean about him being an evil git." Lily said.

"Yeah. And he's my twin." Sarah sighed.

"Umm… Sarah… What does mudblood mean?" Lily asked.

Sarah's eyes narrowed. "It's a foul insult for someone who's muggle born. It mean's dirty blood. Stupid…" She began to mutter words that could get her in very big trouble at school.

"Oh." Lily thought about it. "I don't like your brother."

Sarah grinned. "Join the club. So… About Muggles…"

Soon the two girls were fast friends. They couldn't help but like each other. They were both extremely smart, had a sense of humor, and crazy pranksters. The fact that they were interested in everything the other had to tell them helped as well.

Lily was just going over the finer points of the internet, ("It's not a web, like a spider web. It's like a library, sort of, only it's on a screen, and there's all sorts of silly stuff out there") when somebody opened the compartment door.

Four boys, a round faced redhead with hazel eyes, a stocky freckled redhead with brown eyes, a stunningly hansom boy with long black hair and blue eyes, and a green eyed boy with untidy black hair, peeked in.

"Sorry." The round faced boy began. "We were just looking for an empty…" He got no further. All four of the boys had spotted Sarah.

Without a word, they left, not even closing the compartment door.

"Do you know them?" Lily asked Sarah.

"Not really." Sarah said as she got up to close the door. "But there're Potters and Weasleys. Traditionally, Potters and Weasleys don't get along with Malfoys."

"But they don't know you. How can they judge you by your family?" Lily said indignantly.

"Trust me, they can. And I don't blame them." Sarah sighed.

"That bad?" Lily asked, sympathetic.

"Worse." Sarah whispered as she looked out the window.

Lily dropped the subject. After a few moment of silence, Lily spoke up. "So, we're both pranksters." Sarah looked at her, seeing a gleam in her eye. "Why don't we work together to be the most horrible troublemakers Hogwarts has ever seen?"

Sarah grinned. "You're on. Where shall we start?"

"Well…" Lily grinned evilly. "We both don't like your brother…" She let the sentence hang.

Sarah saw where this was going. "Oh, this sounds promising. But while we're at it, lets get both my brothers at once."

"There's another one." Lily asked.

"Tyrannus. He's a fifth year. He's in Slytherin, and a prefect." At the look of confusion on Lily's face, she added, "There are four houses at Hogwarts; Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. My family has always been in Slytherin. I'm going to change that."

"What's wrong with Slytherin?" Lily asked.

"Well, first of all, the most evil wizards of all time were all in Slytherin." Sarah began. "Second, Slytherins have a thing against muggle-borns."

"Really?" Lily's eyes narrowed.

"Thirdly, Slytherins are supposed to be power-hungry and ambitious. They'll use any means possible to get what they want." Sarah continued.

"I don't think I like Slytherins." Lily said. "I'm certainly not going to be one."

"They're not very popular." Sarah added.

"What are you going to be?" Lily asked.

"Well…" Sarah looked a bit uncomfortable. "I don't exactly know what house I'm going to be in. There's a sort of test, you see. I might actually be put in Slytherin." She frowned. "I hope not. I want to be a Gryffindor." She finished proudly.

"Why Gryffindor?"

"They're the enemies of Slytherins. They're supposed to be brave and daring. Harry Potter was a Gryffindor." She said admiringly.

"Harry Potter?" Lily asked, confused.

"I forgot, you're muggle-born." Sarah said apologetically. "Harry Potter is one of the most famous wizards of our time." And she was off, telling the whole story of how Harry Potter had defeated the dark lord, Voldemort. Lily found the whole story fascinating.

They were still discussing it as the train stopped. Talking animatedly, they walked off, not noticing the boys who were watching them warily from behind.

"That other girl, the red haired one…" Zach began. "She's probably a friend of the family, another Slytherin-to-be."

"Add her to our list of victims?" Danny asked.

"Definitely." Sirius and James chorused.

"What's her name?" Zach asked.

"How should we know?" Sirius said, looking at him like he was crazy. "We were with you the whole time."

"We'll find out during sorting." James said, shrugging.

"Firs years… over here." Called a voice. A giant man was holding up a lantern, calling. Next to him, a smaller giant shuffled nervously.

Timidly, the first years gathered around the pair. Only seven of them walked right up to the giant and said cheerily, "Hello Hagrid."

"'Lo, Sirius, James, Zach, Danny. 'Lo Heather. Hi Kathy. Nice ter see ya Zena. How're ye all doin?" The larger man said.

"Great, thanks Hagrid. Hi Bernie." They said to the smaller figure. He waved his hand shakily. "You're a first year to?"

"Yeah." The large boy said. "Hope I'm in Gryffindor."

"Hope so to." They all said.

"Any more firs years?" Hagrid called. "Right then… this way." They set off.