Chapter 1

Only Me When I'm With You

Props to Taylor Swift for the chapter title.

Lyrics for this chapter:

You drive me crazy half the time,

the other half I'm only trying to let

you know what I feel is true.

Lily Evans was walking into Kings Cross Station, her parents trailing behind her.

"Mum, Dad, I can take it from here," she called out to them, inwardly rolling her eyes.

"Lils, we just want to make sure you get onto the train fine," her mother replied, using her old nickname.

"I've done this five times before, I think I've got it," Lily replied, speeding up to get to the platform on time to see her friends. "Besides, you're muggles."

Lily ran through the wall in between platform 9 and 10, making it platform 9 and ¾, to see her friend Cici snogging a boy against the wall. She coughed, putting her trunk and trolley against the wall a few metres away. Cici looked away from the mysterious boy, spotting Lily and started to run over to her.

"LILS!" she screamed into Lily's ear. "I missed you so much!" she screeched again.

"Calm down Cici, we saw each other like two weeks ago," Lily giggled, pulling Cici into a tight embrace.

Cici looked over Lily's shoulder and smiled, seeing a certain boy with wonky glasses and messy hair walking towards them with a stupid smile on his face. "Potter, 2 o'clock," she whispered into Lily's ear, who then stepped away quickly, a look of horror on her face.

"Oh, God no." Lily looked around for James Potter, finally seeing him and quickly tucking a strand of her fiery red hair that she had inherited from her grandmother behind her ear.

As James Potter walked towards them, Lily took a step back towards her trunk, leaving Cici having to walk back to her previous companion. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and chuckled as she tried to throw him off. "Fuck off, Potter," Lily muttered, trying to bat his arms away as he tightened them.

"Ooh, Evans is using big girl language," he winked as she rolled her eyes at him.

"Oh look, it's your 'Padfoot' coming towards you!" Lily told him, swiftly walking towards her trunk and taking it towards the scarlet engine with "Hogwarts Express" in gold letters on the side.

"Lily! Hey Lily!" a familiar voice called from behind. "EVANS!" it screamed again.

Lily turned around to see another long-time friend, Marlene McKinnon running towards her, trying to pull her trunk without knocking anyone at the same time. "Her, Mar," she giggled, pulling her into a hug. "Have a good holiday?" she asked, stepping back again.

"Yeah, we went to Madrid! There was loads of muggles wearing funny clothes and they-" she was cut off by the shrill whistle of the train, signalling two minutes until it would leave.

"Come on, we'll miss the train!" Lily said hurriedly, pulling her trunk with her. "I have to go to the prefects carriage, so I'll see you later."

"Padfoot! Long time no see!" James Potter yelled to Sirius Black, who, until now, had been snogging a fourth-year girl in an empty carriage. Here we go again, he thought.

"Hey, Prongs," he said tiredly, taking his eyes away from the girl, who ran away quickly, probably to tell her friends, Sirius thought smugly.

"Where's Moony and Wormtail?" James asked him, taking the fourth year's now vacated seat.

"Moony's in the prefects carriage, there are shit loads of possibilities of where Wormtail is," Sirius told him, meaning their friends Remus 'Moony' Lupin and Peter 'Wormtail' Pettigrew.

"Bores. Wanna game of exploding snap?" James asked, but as he said it, there was a knock at the door, and in walked Dorcas 'Rory' Meadows, Cici Rivero, Marlene McKinnon and Tristan Tumult. (A/N comment if you get what I did there;) ) James almost fell off his seat when they all walked in together.

"Potter, put your tongue back in your mouth before it falls out," Cici smirked.

"Piss off," he replied. They had never gotten on.

Remus "Moony" Lupin and Lily were sitting in the prefects carriage on their way to Hogwarts, still 1 hour of sitting through listening to the lump of a Professor (Slughorn) talk about their plans for the year coming.

"Now, we are making a few changes to the rules this year-" but Remus didn't listen, her could always ask Lily about it later. Right now, all he could think about was seeing Marlene, after all, she was now free after breaking up with Tristan - wait, no. What was he thinking? He couldn't go for the girl who he had been best friends with since before they were born. That wouldn't be right.

Although he found himself thinking about what it would be like to run his fingers through her silky, choclatey brown hair when: "Re! It's finished" Lily hissed in his ear, and it was then he realised he had spent the whole meeting thinking about Marlene.

Remus forced a smile on to his face. "Sorry, just thinking about exams this year," he lied.

Lily looked at him suspiciously, as though she detected something, but waved it off. "So, how was your summer?"

"Oh, you know, the usual, family trip to America, nothing big," Remus replied, laughing. "How was yours?"

But he wasn't listening hard enough as they walked along the corridor, looking for their friends, so he bumped into a wall. He turned to see Lily giggling. "Hey, what was that for?" she asked, as he had given her a light punch on the arm.

"I bumped into a wall, and all you did is laugh!" He fake frowned and pretended to cry, but then they both reached the carriage that Cici, Marlene, Rory and all the other marauders were in, Peter being found in another carriage.

"Moony!" Sirius and James ran up to Remus and tackle-hugged him. He staggered back into a seat, squishing in between Rory and Peter, who turned red.

There was a muffled hoot from underneath an old pair of Gryffindor robes, and Cici smacked her hand forehead. "I completely forgot Cierra was there, I was supposed to let her out so she could fly to Hogwarts when the train left. I must've thrown my robes on her by accident," she muttered. Cici walked over to the corner where the robes were and shook them off, then dropped them on the floor. Out flew a chocolately brown owl, nipping at everyone before flying out the window. "I don't think she's in a very god mood with me now."

"Hey, guys, we're almost there!" Peter called, jumping up and down by the window as a dark castle finally came into view from around the corner.

"Bloody hell, Wormy, calm down," Sirius grumbled, seemingly still annoyed at being interrupted during a snogging session.

Peter was about to reply, when the driver came down the halls, banging on the doors to tell everyone to get out, the stewards would bring their trunks, all the usual shit, Remus thought.

The Sorting had just ended, and Albus Dumbledore was starting his start-of-term notices and speech. "As usual, Mr Pringle (A/N this was the only person I could find, don't hate on me!) has asked me to remind you to look at the list of banned objects, which has expanded, after having a meeting with certain sixth years last year." Dumbledore mentioned no years, yet everyone turned to the Marauders, who were sitting at the Gryffindor Table with Tristan on their left, Marlene on their right, who was sitting next to Remus, and on the opposite side of the table, Lily, Rory and Cici who were giggling.

Dumbledore cleared his throat, and immediately got the attention back on to himself. "As I was saying, the exams will be held in the Great Hall, as usual, on the -" he was cut off by the large oak doors slamming open, and the students, expecting a new professor, or Mr Pringle, to come running in, were surprised when a boy and girl walked in, smirks on their faces, the girl gripping on to the boy's arm, who was trying to shake her off. They had baby blue travelling cloaks on, both white blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes.

There was a load of whispers throughout the Hall, which were broken by a loud "Who the hell are you?" from Rory.

Everyone turned form the pair who had now stopped to talk to Dumbledore at the front of the hall, to face Rory, who quickly flushed but overcame it with a strong smile. "We all wanted to ask it," she said matter-of-factly.

"This is Adrienne Arnette and Etienne Beaument, they are exchange students from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic in France. They will be here for their remaining 2 years of schooling. If you will, go sit down at the second table from the left," Dumbledore advised the two, gesturing towards the Gryffindor table. Confused looks were exchanged as they went to sit down, just so happening to sit right by the Marauders.

Adrienne leaned over her shoulder while Dumbledore was picking up from his speech and whispered to Sirius, "Hey handsome, what's your name?" with a quick wink, before turning back around.

After the dinner was finished, Dumbledore called Adrienne and Etienne to stay back whilst everyone else went to their dorms.

Rory looked up form her plate, realising their was no longer any food on it, and hurried to catch up with Lily and Cici, but stopped to listen to what Dumbledore was saying from behind a pillar.

"Come up to my office at 7:30 tonight to be sorted into your houses. You will be told more about that then, for now, just sit and eat," he told the French students. He pointed his wand at the table, and a plate of sandwiches and a flask of pumpkin juice appeared. Rory decided that she would sneak up to the headmaster's office, to see which houses. I should probably get James' Invisibility Cloak to do this, she thought.

At 7:15 that evening, Rory snuck out of her dorm where Cici, Lily and Marlene were sitting on the 3 occupied beds, two unoccupied, one being Rory's and the other a spare, all talking about what they did over the weekend. She rolled her eyes as she heard Cici mention a muggle boy whilst in Greece.

She went up to the boy's dorms, knocking on the Marauder's door, then quickly hiding behind a pillar to make sure there was no-one in. There wasn't, so she took out her wand and whispered 'Alohomora' and the lock clicked open. As Rory walked in, she immediately saw a warzone. She crept over to James' trunk, and tried to open it, but realised there was some sort of enchantment on it.

Rory kicked the trunk, which immediately said, "Password?" in James' voice. Trust him, Rory thought, with another eyeroll.

"James is awesome?"she guessed. It made a raspberry-like sound, so she guessed again. "James is the best?" It made another raspberry sound and it said, "Hint: muggles are stupid." Something clicked in Rory's head. "Abracadabra!" It clicked open. Of course, it was the term most muggles use in which they think is a spell. She grabbed the Cloak, closed the trunk, and relocked the boy's dorm, breathing in the fresh air. 3 hours and they had already stunk it out, she sighed. She ran up to the headmasters office with the cloak over her head with 5 minutes to spare, and in 2 minutes or so, Dumbledore walked up with the two exchanges. He muttered something and the gargoyle infront of the stone leapt forwards, and she slipped through the stone wall as they did the same.

"Now, Miss Arnette, Mr Beaument, I understand you did not have houses at Beauxbatons, yes?" They nodded and Dumbledore continued. "Here at Hogwarts, there are four houses, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Gryffindor. The Sorting Hat" he gestured to a ragged hat on a shelf, next to a bright red bird on a perch "will be placed on your head, and figure out which house you are most suited to."

Rory almost started to whistle impatiently from her hiding spot, but clamped her hand over her mouth before she could. She could have sworn that Adrienne's ice-blue eyes narrowed in her direction, but she wasn't too sure.

"Do I really have to put that manky hat on my head?" Adrienne asked, her nose crinkling in disgust, earning an eye-roll from Etienne.

"Yes, you do Miss Arnette," Dumbledore replied tiredly. He had done this too many times. "Now, Mr Beaument, you first," he said, taking out his wand and muttering 'accio hat' under his breath.

"Of course," Etienne smiled.

The hat was placed on his head, and the voice Etienne heard immediately sent shivers down his spine."You have plenty of wisdom, yes. But also courage, I see. You have a sly side, too. You're very tricky, that's for sure," the hat whispered into Etienne's ear, making him shiver again.

"I guess it will just have to be Slytherin," the hat called, making Etienne sigh with relief tat it was finally over.

Rory could have sworn she saw a frown flicker across Dumbledore's face as it said this, but she couldn't be too sure from her angle.

The house was whipped off Etienne's head, and he walked over to sit on Dumbledore's desk, giving Adrienne a reassuring squeeze on the hand.

Ech, I'll have to shower twice tonight, Adrienne thought as the hat gently touched her head.

"Hey, I'm not that dirty," the hat hissed. Adrienne realised that the hat could read her thoughts, and decided to keep quiet.

"Now, you're a cheeky one, very smart. You would do great in Ravenclaw. You also have a devious and sly nature. But you're very courageous, and loyal. It better be Gryffindor," the hat said.

Dumbledore took the hat off Adrienne's head, and she walked over to Etienne. Dumbledore banished the hat to the shelf again, turning to the students. "I will have the caretaker, Mr Pringle take you to the Slytherin and Gryffindor Common Rooms and show you to your dormitories. I will explain the rest to you tomorrow, for now, have a good sleep," he told them tiredly, as Mr Pringle came up the stairs. He led Adrienne and Etienne back down the staircase, with Rory following behind, scowling. She ran back to the Gryffindor Common Room, arriving at 8:37pm.

She raced up to he dormitory, using her wand to clean up all clothes and belongings left lying around, as the other girls were not here, with thoughts running through her mind a mile a minute.

The main thought was that Adrienne would be her new room-mate, as it was the only free spot.

The next morning as Rory woke up, she noticed the beds were all occupied, even the one next to her. She saw a mass of blonde hair sticking out from under the covers, and knew that Adrienne was here. The others were still asleep, so she crept out of bed and grabbed James' invisibility cloak, scrawling down on a piece of parchment describing that she had used it, and would explain later. She pinned it to the cloak and left the cloak on the boy's door handle, as not to disturb them.