Disclaimer- I know you know that I don't own Harry Potter. But I'm still legally obliged to say it.

Chapter 1-To the platform that has seen so much action

Between platforms nine and ten in King's Cross station stood a pillar. The pillar was very ordinary to look at. But looks can be deceiving and this case was no exception. For, this very ordinary looking pillar was actually the entrance to platform 93/4 from which students all over the country went to school at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

There were two people standing in front of this pillar presently. One was a girl of about 16 years. She was nodding at what the heavy-set woman opposite her was saying, scowl firmly in place.
"The minute you reach you are to send me a letter, alright?" Mary Baker told her daughter.
Ann merely scowled.
Mary narrowed her eyes," Did I make that clear young lady?" she finally got a surly nod in response.
"Now take care of yourself and I don't want any more trouble from you." Saying this she hugged her daughter.
Ann turned to her father standing a little distance away and lifted a hand in farewell before turning around and walking headlong into the abovementioned pillar. Mary stared after her daughter, gnawing her lips in worry; she felt an arm around her shoulder. She looked up.
"She'll be fine, you know?" Peter looked at his wife with a calm smile, "After all she's a Baker. We're as tough as it gets"
"I'm just afraid we're losing her with time" Mary closed her eyes and sighed in defeat.
Peter was silent for a while, "She'll return. They always do, don't they? We've gone through this before with Julian. You of all people should know better."
Eyes still closed, Mary smiled, "Yeah. I think she'll be alright." Then her smile wavering, "we have two more terrors to send to school by tomorrow."
With their hands around each other, they made their way out of the station and towards their car.

Ann Baker walked towards the stationary train. She scowled when she thought of her mother's 'talk'. Having had such wonderful hols after her OWLS results, she was naturally very thrilled. And that had translated into over enthusiasm which resulted in a broken leg for her twin. Not that Pam really cared. It was just her mother's way of getting in her hair. She sighed as her thoughts about her parents turned dark. No doubt she would miss them terribly when in school, but at the moment she couldn't have been happier getting out of home for a while.
"Aargh! Get out of the way!" she was startled out of her thoughts by a deep voice, or at least as deep as a panicking boy could sound, from behind her. She turned around just when something collided with her. Judging by the long limbs she was entangled in and the steady stream of expletives, she could all but guess it was a boy her age, and a rowdy one at that!
"Padfoot, are you alright, mate?" She heard another boy address them, and he received a grunt in response. Ann, managing to pull herself out of the awkward position and collecting her trunk, looked up. There were three boys in front of her. Of course she didn't know them too well. But she could swear she'd seen one of them in Quidditch matches. Looking down, she was met with another boy. He was glowering at the other three. "Really Prongs! You had to do that?"
Quidditch player threw his hands up, "Hey! You were the one going on about how unloved and uncared for you felt. I was just trying to help."
"Excuse me?" Ann cut into their argument. Four pairs of eyes were directed towards her. Feeling self- conscious she turned towards the boy who'd collided with her. She suddenly remembered who he was, Sirius Black. She had had a few potions classes with him back in second year. She didn't like him much then, because of his habit of boasting too much and making her do all the work and yet managing to take credit too.
"Aren't you going to apologise? "She folded her arm and directed her gaze at Black.
He merely looked puzzled, "For what?"
Ann rolled her eyes. Apparently, he hadn't changed much over the years. "You" she pointed a finger at him, "Collided" she went on to show a collision with her hands, "with me" she finished with her finger pointed toward her.
His eyebrows rose, "are you sure your alright-"
"Belated but I'm glad you asked-"
"-because you seem to be acting a little cuckoo from down here."
Ann could feel her blood boil over. Forget reaching school, she was already homesick.
"Padfoot, you'll have to apologise" a brown haired boy with an abnormally large number of scars on his face addressed Black.
He directed his puzzled gaze at him. "But for what?"
Sighing, Scars replied, "Because you could have caused some injury here. So basically, she's the injured party and you're the one responsible. So the ethical-"
"Yeah okay, Moony!" Quidditch suddenly butted in, "We get it." Turning towards Ann he said, "Actually it's my fault, I pushed him. So I'm sorry. Everyone satisfied?" He looked around expectantly.
But Ann shook her head, "No. Not satisfied. Scars was right. He should be apologising." She said pointing towards Black.
There was beat of silence.
"What did you call Moony?" Black looked puzzled.
"Um look I'm really sorry" Ann looked around apologetically, "But I don't really know any of you that well..." she was met with shock in varying degrees from all four boys.
"You don't know who we are?" the fourth boy, who had remained silent till now chipped in, amazed.
"Brilliant deduction, Wormtail. Simply brilliant!" Black sarcastically clapped his hands. "But on a more serious note" he suddenly jumped up, "We are the Marauders" he said with a flourish.
Ann was puzzled, "The what?"
Sirius rolled his eyes, "the Marauders, we really can't be explaining all that you know. It takes away the charm" he lowered his voice.
Ann turned towards his friends, "Is he alright? I really hope it wasn't the fall"
"Relax" Scars said, "He is always like this. I'm Remus by the way, Remus Lupin. That's James Potter" he pointed towards Quidditch player who waved at her, "Peter Pettigrew" the small quiet boy, who Ann took an instant liking to, waved merrily, "and Sirius Black" he finished pointing at Black.
"Yeah, I know Black."
"How do you know me? You haven't been stalking me have you?" Black's eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up.
"No. We were potions partners in second year, remember?"
"No."
Ann felt herself getting angry again, "You mean you sat there like you owned the world, made me do all the work and finally took most of the credit and you don't remember me?"
Sirius looked like he was deep in thought, then he shook his head, "Sorry, nope! Doesn't ring a bell. But what I remember about second year is Lauren Millicent. That Ravenclaw beauty. "He turned to his friends nodding enthusiastically. " My god, she was something else wasn't she?" all of his friends either groaned or hit their palm over their forehead.
"Excuse me?" Ann cut in again, she'd never met a group of boys more distracted in her life, turning towards Black "Aren't you forgetting something?"
Black looked puzzled, "What?"
It took all of her will-power to not hit him then and there, "My apology?" she asked through gritted teeth.
"You want to apologise? Go for it straight away then" Sirius folded his arm, looking at her expectantly, "But do make it quick. We've got a lot of work to do" he added as an afterthought. Ann felt her blood boiling again. Sirius had the good sense to look wary.

"Paddy, did you have to take the mickey out of her so quickly? I mean you did just push her down, didn't you?" James took the pus filled handkerchief from Sirius, "Terago" he muttered pointing his wand at it. He returned the clean handkerchief to Sirius who promptly placed it on his nose. Said nose was at the moment housing many well placed and beautifully sized boils. They looked yellow with the pus bursting to come out. Every two minutes a boil would blow off and another one would start to grow from the mess.
"On hindsight you deserved it." Remus said.
"Yes we've established that already" Sirius muttered irritably. "Can we move on? And stop calling me Paddy!" He rounded on James who snickered in response.
"No you don't get it." Remus shook his head. "You were to do the chivalrous thing and just apologise. You are a lot of things, Sirius. But unfortunately, chivalry isn't one of those things. It's a wonder you're in Gryffindor"
"the last I checked, Moony, Chivalry isn't the only attribute to a Gryffindor. There's bravery too. And he" pointing at Peter," isn't."
"Oi! I'm plenty brave thank you very much!" Peter shouted indignantly.
"Oh yes! And I'm the Queen of England!" Sirius quipped.
"You are?" Peter asked a look of genuine puzzlement crossing his face. But his eyes were twinkling, "You're Majesty! Forgive me" he suddenly went down on his knees and reached for Sirius' hand, "I thought you were a sixteen year old schoolboy."
"Shut up and get away from me you freak!" Sirius swatted his hand at Peter, who fell on the floor laughing. This triggered a wave of laughter from the other two. "And you call yourselves my friends! You all should be ashamed!"

"Funny," a feminine voice snorted from the door. They all looked up to see the girl from the platform surveying them coldly. "I should be the one saying that to you, Black." Her eyes rested on Sirius, who turned purple with rage.
"Look at this!" he removed the handkerchief from his nose, angrily; "You did this to me."
She observed him coolly and smiled, "Yes. I am and it looks beautiful. Never in my life have I cast a spell more satisfying. And yes as you pointed out before 'oh so cleverly' I did that to you. " she finished with a hint of pride.
His hands turned to fists by his side.
"Sirius..." Remus warned.
The girl's eyes widened as she followed Remus' eye line. "Erm okay. I think I'll leave. "She said slight fear seeping into her voice, "see you around." She smiled and waved at him and walked out of their compartment.
"She came in to mock you more?" James looked impressed.
"Ha! See I drove her away. She's probably running for the hills now." Sirius smiled evilly.
Remus got up to close the compartment door and suddenly stepped back with a cry. The three of them raised their wands and stood up. But it was only the girl. She was slightly tinged red with embarrassment.
"I was supposed to return this. It got lodged in my coat pocket when we collided." She was rooting around in her coat pocket. With a triumphant expression she pulled out his barn trick quill and threw it at him. "Nice trick by the way." She genuinely smiled at him and made to leave. Sirius caught the quill, puzzled. She stopped by the doorway and seemed to contemplating something. She nodded to herself seeming to have made up her mind, "Erm... "She turned back around pointing her wand at him. He recoiled and James jumped up, "Oi! Haven't you hexed him enough."
"Relax pea- brain. I'm not hurting him" she rolled her eyes.
She muttered a spell and his nose returned to normal, the boils disappearing.
" Merely helping. "She turned around.
" Excuse me?" she stopped when Remus spoke up, "Sorry, but what's your name?"
"Ann Baker. Well I should get going. My friends will be looking for me. "And with another wave she disappeared from view. Remus looked after her puzzled. He then shut the door and returned to his seat. "Weird girl, huh?" James asked, confused.
"Yeah..." Remus scratched his chin thoughtfully. Sirius wasn't listening to them but was rubbing his nose in confusion.
"Weird girl!" he finally declared. The others rolled their eyes and Peter hit him over the head. Things returned to normal in the Marauders' compartment.

"Well? So did you return it?" Lauren raised an eyebrow at Ann as she slid the compartment door shut.
"Why are you so interested?" Sarah piped up from next to the window, "What were you expecting? Them to be snuggling their way to Hogwarts or something?"
"So?" Lauren persisted, eyes not leaving Ann.
"Oh come on! Are we still talking about that?" a loud voice broke in, Margaret glared at each of them.
"I think I have every right to be talking about that considering it's my hair that has had to bear the brunt of their stupid quill!" Lauren whined.

After the incident on the platform, Ann found herself in a compartment with her friends, Sarah, Margret and Lauren. Seeing her flushed and angry the others had immediately asked her if anything was wrong. But Lauren merely jumped up and caught hold of her coat pocket with an exclamation of "What is that?" both girls fell back with the force and Ann's coat went flying away from her. There was a small bang and the other three turned around to see Lauren looking like she'd just suffered an electric shock, mouth hanging open, a burned coat in one hand and a quill in the other.
"Th- the quill just- it just- I- what the hell happened?" She looked around confused.

And this was the reason why, after explaining to them numerous times of why she didn't want to see 'that hideous monkey's' face and retelling the incident, she was still forced to return the quill to the very 'idiot monkey' she didn't want to see.

"So?" Lauren persisted, a look of annoyance passing over her features.
Ann sat down calmly and picked a random magazine from the table, "So what?" she nonchalantly turned a page.
"Did you return it to him?"
"Maybe, maybe not. What's it to you?"
There was a snigger. "Ann your magazine is upside down. Cut the act and tell Lauren what happened quickly or she might just burst!" Sarah laughed.
"Yes. And you know what Lauren bursting would be like, don't you?" Margret chipped in.
Ann put the magazine down with a sigh, "Yes. Yes I returned it to him."
"And?" Lauren prompted.
"And what?"
"did you hex him like I told you to?" Lauren spoke slowly.
"Yeah."
Which hex?"
"Huh?"
"Which hex did you use?"
"You know the usual riff raff."
"Riff raff?"
"Yeah."
"You didn't hex him at all did you?"
"I did. Believe me, I did."
"So why aren't you telling me what you used?"
"I used a normalizing hex on him"
Sarah burst out laughing and even Margret conceded with a smile, albeit grudgingly. But Lauren turned beet red. "Normalizing? You used a counter curse on him."
"You actually didn't specify the hex" Ann replied weakly.
"Yes I did. I said 'give him something that will make those boils look more ridiculous. It will break his heart'"
"No you didn't. He actually looks better with the boils. Why will it break his heart?"
"Yes I did. Because he loves himself to the moon and back"
"No you didn't and how do you know that?"
"Cause I went on a date with him and his looks was all he had time for."
There was a very pregnant pause. "You what?" Margret asked quietly.
"Er it was nothing too great. Just one date you know."
"When was this" Sarah looked suspicious.
"A long time back. " Lauren was starting to look flustered.
"Second year? "Ann grinned.
Lauren paled at that, "How did you know that?"
"Second year?" Sarah spoke up before Ann could reply," Where did you go? To the library". She sniggered.
Lauren went back to looking self conscious. "Er yeah something like that."
Margret still looked suspicious, "Lauren? Where did you go? What are you not telling us?"
"Fine! Fine, we went to Hogsmeade."
"What the bloody hell?" Ann exclaimed.
"Hogsmeade? Are you out of your mind? You are a prefect!" Margret looked livid.
Lauren rolled her eyes, "Yes Margret. I'm a prefect now I wasn't one then." She picked up the magazine that Ann had abandoned and ignored them till prefect duty-called and she had to pin up her batch and go for their meeting.

AN: To those who, for some twisted sentimental reason, have returned to chapter 1, yes I have edited it. But only very minor edits. It's still readable as far as I can see. :)
Cheers! And on to the next chapter.