Prologue
To a
Marauders: The Life Story

"Ohhhh...MOOOOONNNNNYYY!!!!!!!!! We need YOOOUUU...!"

"Sirius! Don't call me that way; just ask me to come over politely. Someone might think you're calling your...your...! Hell I can't even say it!"

"He means to say your midnight lover, Paddy!"

"Ewww.... Don't ever think such a thing, again prongsie buddy! A moment of silence... And don't call me by that name ever again!!!"

"Aww... come now Padfoot, you know that Jamesie-boy says it with the utmost affection."

"Y-ya-yeah...Y-y-you guys s-s-shouldn't pick p-pick on J-James, h- he's always r-r-rightt..."

"Enough, order at this table!!! Here we are, at the most holy place of all, Zonkos Magical Joke Shop, and we're all arguing!!!!!!!" Prongs, also known as James practically yelled at the other two. "Ahem, good now that I have all of your attention, back to the problem at hand."

"YES SIR" the two other men around the table said in mock salute.

From a distance, the sight of four grown men all talking around a book, wouldn't have seen so out of place, except for the fact that they all happen to be in Zonko's Magical Joke Shop. Which happens to be the gathering place for boys around the age of 5 and 15, and that is what really makes people wonder.

Each man seemed to be around their early 20's, fresh out of Hogwarts the best School of Witches and Wizardry. The first man that draws your attention, a little more drawn back than the other three, had sandy blond hair that looked to be going silver, an odd thing for a man so young. Lines graced his face, giving him a more mature look and his eyes were a pale blue that seemed to hold an inner sadness that never seemed to go away, even as he smiled. This man, Remus Lupin, might have been the sicklier of the 4, and paler than the others, but he seemed to fit the part of a close friend in this tight circle.

Peter Pettigrew, wasn't exactly what you called drawn back (not next to Remus) and he wasn't rambunctious as the two other men left, Peter seemed more like a little shadow that followed the others. His face that resembled a rat did carry watery blue eyes that darted around every so often, a small pointed nose and a small mop of blonde hair. The only of the men who was really short and plump, he didn't really seem to belong in the group. Still he sat on with the other men, and did seem to look as if he'd known them for a long time (which he had).

The other two, looking more like brothers than anything were both taller and fuller built than the small Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Sirius Black was a man who looked far more handsome than men should've been aloud to be. Dark mischievous eyes set on a face that was filled with humorous mirth. He looked to naught have any care in the world, his black hair falling gracefully on his face in a devious and carefree way.

The last man, the other half of the twin, and obvious ringleader of the group, James Potter was somewhat of a mirror image of Sirius Black to those who didn't know them. He too carried that mischievous glint in his hazel eyes, framed by thick black circular glasses. His physique was more lean and athletic, but still had the same muscular build of Sirius. He might not have been as debonair as Sirius, but he had a boyish handsome look to him that carried as much or even more charm as Sirius.

These four brotherly and somewhat odd companions were all found this Friday, with a closer look, all surrounding a blank book.

"Now my fellow Marauders, the point of this whole excursion, to come together and fill this book with all our incredible knowledge, so that we may help the future of all pranksters in knowing what we have strived to be and what they should strive for." James seemed to say with such seriousness, that Sirius and Remus gave him a standing ovation that made others stare even more.

"Man it feels good to have you back, mate! We haven't hung out, since you asked Lily to marry you, and frankly that is a lot of time away from you best buddy of mine." Sirius said to James, while mocking Mrs. Universes everywhere with his awful attempt at an acceptance cry.

At this moment, both boys got up and hugged each other, with fake tears in their eyes. Remus on the other hand, sat there and looked around. Upon seeing that majority of the little shop was outright staring at the two hormonal men, Remus decided it was time to scoot to the side as inconspicuously as possible, so as not to seems as if he was a part of the 2 other men.

Peter just sat and watched the two men hug, not really thinking about anything but looking around every so often still. He twitched once and awhile, but that seemed to be normal to the 3 other men, after being with him for so long.

Remus' snort caused both men to look up from their little emotional moment and see that he was still in his serious philosophical mode. "You say that, as if you weren't the man who sits at their table breakfast, lunch, and dinnertime everyday, since the day they moved in together. Heck you were already situated in the house, sleeping on the wooden floor before they even got through the front door. I'm surprised you weren't there when James proposed to Lily, and even more surprising is the fact that you're still alive, after all the trouble you caused in that house. But on a more important note, can you two not act like your long lost lovers that haven't seen each other in an eternity when I know for a fact that Sirius slept on your couch James just last night; and if you need a reason just look around."

Both boys in question had immediately stopped bawling and when they looked around, they could see mothers pulling their children away so as not to see the two huge male men hugging. You could almost see the gears in James and Sirius' heads tick as they figured out why, and upon realization immediately pushed the other off as if they burned.

But as they dusted themselves off, Sirius was the first to say retort. "Moony, why are you always picking on me. I never did anything wrong, I just came to their house a little earlier than they said, when they wanted us to come over and help move their things and so I naturally fell asleep on the only thing there, the floor. And I wasn't at the proposal because Prongs here threatened to hex me out of the house if I was around and said that I would screw up their magical moment, which I am very hurt at. Not wanting your own best mate around to take pictures of you two together." By now Sirius was trying to look like a hurt puppy that had gotten hit by mistake. James had had enough at this time, and gave Sirius a good whack in the back of his head. Sirius' head shot up, and he glared at James for hitting his precious hair, making Remus and James to crack up. Seeing both his mates laughing so, it didn't take long for Sirius to join in on the good humor.

But Sirius wouldn't let Remus win the battle so soon, oh no, he had to keep the fun going. "Aw...was someone jealous! Come now Moony, if you wanted a hug from me all you had to do was ask! I mean, I know I've been leaving you out, but there's enough of me to go around."

James and Remus just exchanged looks and rolled their eyes, as they packed their things and went out the door with Peter following closely behind. They were leaving poor Sirius behind, but they didn't seem to care.

The three men had walked over to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream parlor and were situating themselves at a table at the front, just as Sirius came walking in. He looked mildly angry, but not so much that James, Remus, and Peter would give in. They just smiled happily at their mate and gestured for him to take his seat.

James started this time, "Well the back to the main reason, I called both of you out today, which is so that we can start this little project. I mean we already finished the map and all in school, but somehow we bludgeoned that up..."

"Hey, I didn't lose it, it was all Peter, and stop looking at me like that Remus" Sirius said looking around at the other men who seemed to be boring a hole through his head.

"Yeah, but who forced Peter to go out and get you some food for you own needs?" Remus said with a look of distaste

"..." Remus and James did stand up for me already was all that Peter thought about, even though that was a mean thing of Sirius to do.

"Ahem...Anyways, as I was saying, I was reminded of our idea of a book we could leave for the rest of Hogwarts' future pranksters and for our future children to have. We said we'd get to that after the map, and I figure now is the best time."

"Not to mention the fact that he gets an excuse to get out and away from Lily and her horde of wedding crazed girlfriends." Sirius muttered to Remus and Peter, who both snickered into their respectable hands in response.

"You do realize that I'm sitting right here, Sirius? So obviously I can hear you, and it's obviously a bad idea to talk behind my back when I'm right in front of you." James said rather annoyed that they figured him out so easily and was going to sulk a bit about it.

He didn't mind spending time with Lily and her friends, but a man could only take so much. And he felt outnumbered with so many women asking 'what should the color of the men's robes', or 'what kind of flowers go best with that color'. Frankly, James saw no point, because when he said one thing Lily said it wouldn't go well with what she planned so she proposed her own color and that was that. He was glad that Lily wanted him to be a part of the wedding, but he figured he'd be doing enough just showing up on the big day, what with all this wedding talk driving him crazy.

By now, after his small little interlude, both Sirius and Remus had started bickering again. It seems that Sirius had 'accidentally' spilled Remus ice cream float on Remus. Sirius also slyly voiced his thoughts on Remus buying him an ice cream since Remus would go up and buy himself another one anyway. James getting rather tired and knowing that Armageddon would get on, before either side would give in, stood up. So he being the bigger man (not literally) went on and bought all the men ice cream as well as one for himself.

Sirius now happily licking his ice cream cone, and Remus, having gone through these kinds of arguments before with Sirius, was content enough to let go of it for now to enjoy his ice cream float. Peter, just like everyone else enjoyed his ice cream in peace. Seeing peace being restored, decided to begin the idea of the little project over again. Hoping that they might actually get something done, and this day not being a complete waste.

"So you guys, what do you think? A little book on the kinds..." That's all that James got out before Sirius rudely interrupted him.

"Oh... do you mean a sort of autobiography on the 4 famous marauders! Or even better, a mini series on 'the Amazing adventures of the 4 stud-like creatures of Hogwarts' well, that won't work. Peter wasn't exactly a stud; hell he still isn't one the poor bloke. And no offense of course (we can work on that)! But don't you think this will be awesome! We'll be legends, I mean I know its sucked during school, coz we never really went public, but now we will be!" Remus could already see Sirius' thoughts as he said this. He could already see, the book turning into a book to help Sirius further his egotistical mind.

"Yeah Sirius, a mini series...Why don't we just have a book filled with mini stories on all the pranks we ever did, and how kids can go about starting their own pranks? Or how about going back to how we began to form into what we are now known as the Marauders. Like a biography about our time in Hogwarts? Is that what you had in mind, James? Coz I'm all for it, it sounds like fun and its not as if I have anything else better to do with no job." The guys looked rather guiltily at each other as Remus said this.

All three men, not so much Peter, knew of Remus' problem at getting jobs because of his secret full moon ailment and both men felt bad at not being able to help. No matter how hard they tried, Remus always refused what he called 'charity' from the two other men. They in turn understood and relented to his wishes, but still they felt awful at seeing one of their close friends going through this kind of discrimination when he wasn't at all a bad guy. This was also one of the first times, Remus had returned to England since school ended, because he was always on the search for a cure. At least, they hoped this new project would make him a little happy, reminiscing over past memories and forgetting their worries for awhile was always a great way to do that.

"I know what you guys are thinking, and I'm just fine, alright! So how do we start, O fearless leader?" This question, brought on by Remus, cause Peter, Remus and Sirius to stare at James now.

"Why is it that I always get put on the spotlight? I thought this was supposed to be a joint project, meaning we ALL do it TOGETHER" James said in an exasperated tone of voice. "Keywords being 'All' and 'Together'."

"Yeah, but Prongssss... you know you're the unofficial leader of the Marauders and you always led us in every prank, just organize it for us!!" Sirius practically whined to James. And all he got in response was an eye roll.

"Yeah Prongs, would you rather spend your time organizing your wedding with the crazed girlfriends of your fiancé, or with us your best mates? I could always ask Lily, because we're all sure she's great at organizing little things like these, and that you've already told her all about this little plan on corrupting other peoples little kids. (Sirius- "Yeah... right...Like, I bet you she's all for it, mate")" Remus all but said in sugary tones.

"Damn, you blackmailing...little.... fine, I'll do it! So first order of business, I guess would be assigning jobs." James didn't look too sure seeing as; he'd basically only led pranks not the writing of books on pranks.

Time for a little pay back on Moony for twisting my arm like that, with a quick glance at Sirius and Peter to let them know something was up. James said in a speedy voice, "Frankly we need a writer for this, which I vote for Remus. And all who vote for him raise their hands and yell "aye!" In which Sirius, Peter and James raised their hands and yelled 'aye' before Remus even got a chance to say anything. "Alright, settles in a 3 to 1 vote. No changes aloud without another change in votes, unless Sirius wants to be sleeping on the streets and I know you won't go against what you want Peter, am I understood. Good, done"

"That was a totally underhanded and despicable way of doing things, Prongs and I for one..." Remus had begun one of his long tirades and that's all he got out.

"Which is exactly why he became leader of us, and I'm proud of you Prongsie!" Sirius smiled cheekily at him, knowing full well how James would react.

A very glum looking James smacked Sirius in the back of the head as he started to put him in the full nelson "Didn't I tell you not to call me that? I swear I'm going to keep you locked like this till you say 'uncle', Sirius!! Now say it!!"

Peter watched on, once again. And seemed to be enjoying this little act of sportsmanship, so he really didn't pay much attention to Remus.

"Ahh...good times, with good friends. It almost reminds me of our time in Hogwarts. O well, I'll just start with this book..." Remus murmured as he picked up the blank book they'd been looking at all day. Why do I always get stuck with the dirty work? And he began to write:

And this is how our story begins...