James Potter and Sirius Black peered through the window of their compartment, chuckling, their eyes on the compartment across from them. Their friend Remus Lupin sat behind them, shaking his head and sighing every so often. Peter Pettigrew sat in the corner, looking about nervously.
"Any minute now," Sirius said.
James glanced over at his friend quickly and back at the compartment. His brown eyes gleamed merrily. Merlin, did he love being bad. "Someone's coming."
They ducked down a bit as two girls came around the corner. One girl, a blond with brown eyes, was talking animatedly to the other. James recognized her as Lisa Tiles, a Gryffindor in the same year as them, seventh. He didn't pay much attention to her though. It was the other girl who got his eye.
She was new, he could tell. Her hair hung short and wavy to the base of her long, graceful neck, black at the roots and red towards the tip. Her sleepy, green eyes were bright as she nodded her head to every word that Lisa said, making her hair bounce and glitter in the light.
"Whoa," James muttered.
Lisa reached forwards to open the sliding compartment door. Twin screams reached James and Sirius's ears as a stream of water fell down on the two girls.
Sirius laughed. "Muggle trick's never fail!"
James watched as the water trickled down the girl's back, her hands held up in surprise and her mouth slightly agape.
Her eyes flashed towards James's compartment, where Sirius was leaning against the door, taking great deep breaths as laughter shook his body. A small smile came to her face as Lisa whipped open the door to his compartment.
"These are the fools I was telling you about earlier," she said to the other girl.
That same small smile was on the girls face as she said, "So these are the Marauders eh?"
Her voice was soft and somewhat raspy, but not so soft that James had to struggle to hear her and not so raspy that it was unattractive. She chuckled. "Seriously, from what Lisa's been telling me about you, I expected better."
James frowned then. "Better?"
"Yeah, you know, since you're the 'Prank Kings' of Hogwarts and all."
"Oh, don't worry, hen," Sirius said, dragging Remus and Peter to their feet. "It's going to be a pretty long year. You'll see plenty better. Just don't get mad if that better happens to you. We are the Marauder's after all."
The girl smirked at them, her eyes on James. "Wouldn't expect anything less."
Giving them all a quick wink, she followed Lisa back into the compartment, where Lisa pulled out her wand and tried to dry them both off.
"Who does that girl think she is?" Sirius said, as they all sat back down.
"I don't see why you had to drag me and Wormtail into this," Remus said, picking up a book. "I'll have nothing to do with your pranks."
"That's right, can't get you involved, can we, Moony. You're in the running for Head Boy! Guess it's just me and you, Prongs, since Wormtail will probably mess up everything we've got. We'll show that girl 'better', right Prongs?"
Shaken out of his stupor, James nodded and said, "Right."
He looked out the compartment window to see the girl do the same. She smirked at him again, a devilish glint in her eyes. She winked again, turning back to Lisa.
James made a final resolve then. She thought she was so big and bad. If that girl wanted better, he and Sirius would give her better, all right.
