This is the long adaptation of a one-shot I have, called 'Candles', which bloomed the idea of a long, epic tale of Remus and Sirius in my mind and heart over a year ago. This story will:

- Span for the whole of the Marauders reign at Hogwarts
- Will continue up until 1981
- It will have M rated scenes
- Will be a long, epic story of at least 250k words.
- Most importantly, this story will be a Wolfstar - the wolfiest star I can produce. If you want to know what this story might/will (in some cases) include, then feel free to visit my page and have a look at 'Candles'. If not, then I hope you enjoy this story.

P.S. This prologue is not representative of how long chapters actually will be. Chapters are likely to be 5k+.

Prologue

There were eight Gryffindor boys in the common room with one stern Professor Minerva McGonagall standing before them, ever-fixed scolding look on her face. She had a delightfully long scroll of aged, beige parchment in her hand and an ostentatiously, bright blue quill perched patiently in the air beside the scroll. The quill was quivering with excitement, it seemed, and would sporadically burst into an array of twists and flips. Bloody show off.

McGonagall cleared her throat and the silvery grey eyes of Sirius Black flicked up to meet hers. He wondered how the skin on her face looked when she let her hair down from the ridiculously tight, severe bun sitting atop her head. Perhaps her already-present wrinkles were defined further without the benefit of her skin stretching tight due to severe buns. Yes, Sirius thought, that sounded believable. And maybe her face shrivelled up when severe buns were undone, grateful for the freedom from the confines of tightly wrapped hair. He would have to make sure to test his hypotheses in the future.

James Potter stood next to Sirius Black. They became friends on the train (actual friends!) and although Sirius knew he should be a lot more scared and anxious than he was - after all he was in Gryffindor now - he couldn't bring himself to care. Perhaps it was the adrenaline from the Sorting, addling his already very naturally disorientated brain. Must be the inbreeding, he thought resolutely as he pondered for a moment why he was so naturally disorientated.

'Attention,' McGonagall croaked, her eyes flicking to Sirius's every few seconds, like she still could not believe her eyes and ears. Yes, yes, he thought impatiently. He was the first Black to ever be in Gryffindor. But that did not mean he would sprout fangs and long-nails and start slashing at the woman. It merely meant that he was an anomaly and should therefore be regarded with a little caution.

The young eleven year old boy shook his head and focused more overtly on the tall, towering figure of McGonagall. 'There are more Gryffindors this year then expected.' She began in a slow, commandeering voice. A boy not far from Sirius sneezed loudly and subsequently turned bright pink when all eyes turned to him. She appraised him briefly before continuing on with her monologue. 'We won't force you to stay in a dormitory of eight; that would be akin to child abuse. Rather, there will be two dormitories, each with four beds. This half-' she points at a blond boy and the three boys to his left, 'will be in Dormitory One of the Gryffindor House. And this half-' she points at Sirius, James and two other boys, 'will stay in Dormitory Two.' She waved her wand (about nine to nine and a half inches and fir wood from the colour of it, Sirius concluded with a mere affirmative nod of his head) and then she smiled at them, lips almost as tight as the bun on her head. 'Your trunks are in the dorms. Breakfast is at seven thirty and lessons start at nine o'clock. Do not be late.' With that and a final swish of her long, dark cloak, McGonagall hurried out of the portrait hole without another look back.

Sirius turned to appraise the two unknown boys who would be in his dormitory for the next seven years. The first was a short, timid looking thing, molten eyes much too large and blond hair flopping forward to cover some of his face. He was very thin, almost dangerously so, but met Sirius's gaze with a half smile. The second was frumpy, the shortest of the four, and had blond hair too, not as long and thick as the previous boy's but a brilliant colour nonetheless. He turned a little red when his eyes met Sirius's and looked away quickly.

'Hello,' James said in a confident, proud voice as he turned to face the boys. He extended a hand to shake the hands of both shy-blondie and fat-blondie. 'I'm James Potter.'

'P-Peter Pettigrew,' the frumpy one stuttered, taking James's hand and shaking it vigorously.

'Remus Lupin,' the thin one also supplied with a soft lilt to his voice as he shook hands with James and smiled. Then he turned to face Sirius and tilted his head a little to the side, watching him carefully with calculative eyes for a moment. Then pink lips moved softly and he said with an encouraging raise of his eyebrows; 'Who might you be?'

They all knew that he knew who Sirius was. Who didn't know who Sirius Black was, unless of course, Lupin was a Mudblood. But irrespective of that, it was courtesy to introduce oneself properly. Sirius wouldn't want to make his mum angry by being disrespectful (even if Lupin and Pettigrew weren't pureblood surnames) so he shook their hands and said with a wide, pearly-white-teeth grin- 'My name is Sirius Black.'

'Yes, it's lovely to meet you all. I'm sure we'll get on really well. But now it's time to discuss the big problem at hand.' As he said this, the boys of Dormitory One ascended the stairs without so much as a greeting to their complimentary dorm mates.

'W-what's the b-big problem?' the trembling voice of Pettigrew uttered.

James's face burst into a luminous beam and he shouted: 'I get dibs on the window bed!' A race between the boys emerged and Sirius grumpily accepted that he only got the second bed that was closest to the window, between Potter and Lupin. When the boys chose their beds and examined the well-furnished dorm, they were presented with the pleasant surprise of their trunks flanking each individual bed. It was with the chilling realisation that each bed they had chosen had their own trunks next to it. Sirius smiled when Peter, the last to confirm the already self-explanatory fact, said that the trunk beside his bed was indeed his. Magic really was a wonderful thing.

With unrestrained laughter, the four boys spoke to each other for most of the night. And whilst Sirius Black knew his mother would have a lengthy aneurysm if she found out what blood status Lupin and Pettigrew were (both half-bloods), he didn't care for once. Instead, he enjoyed the company of boys his age in a school with infinite possibilities for mischief, marauding and madness.

When Sirius lay in his bed, dressed in Slytherin pyjamas of a dark green and grey, and with the bright light of the half-moon streaming through the open window, he willed the fear away, knowing that Bellatrix, Narcissa and her nasty fiancé Malfoy would have already sent a letter to his pretentious, strict parents.

Parents who expected to hear news of his Sorting into Slytherin, not Gryffindor.

Regardless, he thought proudly as he drifted further into the realm of dreams, I won't worry because worrying doesn't do anything to relieve the situation. Instead, I'll embrace the fact that I'm at Hogwarts, in Gryffindor. And that I'm free.

A loud snore rippled in the air and he didn't even need to look over to guess it was Peter. It seemed to have the same Birmingham lilt that his voice did. Sounds of snores soon filled the room and Sirius could barely restrain the jaw-cracking grin that was plastered on his face, even in the morning when he was woken up by James Potter, he was still grinning. He felt like grinning for the rest of his life and nothing was going to take that small, innocent feeling away from him.

Until a red envelope landed on his plate of eggs and started smoking, mother's screeching voice filling the hall and shivers ripping through his body as well as the bodies of anyone with sense.

'... WHEN I NEXT SEE YOU...'

Hope you enjoyed.