Chapter one: A bad start

James stepped onto the train at platform 9 ¾ and waved goodbye to his dad.

"Bye Dad!" James grinned his infamous mischievous smile.

"Behave yourself!" His father replied "And don't forget to write at some point this term!" said Robert Potter futility, knowing full well that his trouble-maker of a son would be far too busy creating chaos to think of home. With another wave, James was gone, in search of his three best friends; Sirius, Remus and Peter. He hadn't been searching very long when he heard a very familiar voice, felt someone jump on his back and before he knew it, James was sprawled across the floor with his best buddy, Sirius, giving him an overtly affectionate hug.

"How are you, Prongsy? How were your holidays" Sirius asked.

"Well, Padfoot, I was doing fine until a complete lunatic came along and decided to assault me and cause me grievous bodily harm!" James said rubbing his toned arms, on which there were now red handprints, courtesy of Sirius. Several fifth year Ravenclaws walked past staring at the sight of the two best looking and most popular guys in the school rolling round on the floor in what looked to be an embrace. Sirius realised that he was still on top of James and stood up before turning and winking at one of the Ravenclaws, who promptly turned red and scurried off, followed by her friends.

"Anyway, you only left my house yesterday!" James continued their conversation. Sirius spent most of his time away from Hogwarts at the Potter household, and spoke very little about his own home life. "And where on Earth are the other two?" He finished shouting over the sound of the train whistle, signalling that their journey was about to begin. The two boys suddenly fell over as the train abruptly shuddered forwards, and once again found themselves in another, rather award position.

"You know, mate, you really are going to have to stop falling at my feet!" Sirius quipped, while James responded by hitting him in the arm. A small mock-fight ensued, in which Sirius resorted to tickling James.

"Sirius, get off me...that's not fair...stop feeling me up, man!" James said in between laughs. "It's a cheap shot, just because you're not ticklish!" The two boys stopped their antics, as someone walked towards them.

"Excuse me, can I please get by here?" a female voice asked. James didn't need to look up to recognise that voice. It was Lily Evans: the girl every guy wanted to date and every girl wanted to be. James quickly jumped to his feet and muttered an apology as he went bright red. Sirius stood up slowly, before bending over into a low bow.

"Of course, my lady! And may I ask, when are you going to put our darling James out of his misery and just agree to go out with him?" James turned bright red. "Or if James is not to your liking, my lady, may I say that I also find you highly attractive and I think that..."

"Save it, Black." Lily said with a grin, taking it all in good humour before walking past them. Her smile was nearly as famous as James'. When you take a photo of a group of girls, it is a well known fact that at least 60 of the girls will be pouting, 30 would be striking a pose that has been perfected, while 9 would refuse to smile at all. Not Lily, however, she belonged to that exclusive club of girls who, when faced with a camera, would smile the biggest and most genuine smile you could imagine. It was part of Lily, and was one of the reasons that she was so popular. That smile made her so approachable to the younger years, meant that none of the third and fourth years were too upset when she had to discipline them, and was why all the males in the senior years flocked around her as she just looked so fun to be around.

Lily was probably the female counterpart of James and Sirius. James was around six foot and very good looking (and rather aware of it!). He had hazel eyes and messy black hair which, despite his protests to the contrary, everyone thought that he did on purpose. He was in his sixth year at Hogwarts School for witchcraft and wizardry, very popular, incredibly clever and seeker on the Quiddich team (rumoured to be made Capitan). The only reason that he would almost definitely not be made a prefect this year was because of a not-so-small love of practical jokes.

Sirius was roughly the same height as James and was equally good looking, but his eyes were silver, his hair blacker than James' and was neat no matter what he did. Sirius had an aura of charisma about him, helped by his slightly cocky attitude. All girls love a bad boy, and he knew it! The two boys dived into a spare compartment and made themselves comfortable.

"You have it bad for her, don't you?" Sirius said, as usual pointing out the obvious.

"And you don't?" was James clever comeback. "At least you have a chance with her. She won't even acknowledge me."

"Well, that's your own fault after last year." Sirius laughed. "To be honest, I'm not surprised."

"Hang on, I seem to remember that you played a part in that as well!"

Last year, James and Sirius had been arguing in the common room, late one Saturday evening after consuming a significant amount of Firewiskey, debating who was the most popular with the girls. The whole thing was getting slightly out of hand and the boys were hatching a plan to find out once and for all who was the greatest sex god of all time. It was Peter who suggested that the two boys ask out Lily, and the winner would be the one who could persuade her to go on a date. Unfortunately, just as James was announcing in rather loud tones that no girl would be able to resist the temptation of James Robert Potter, not even Lily Evans, the girl in question walked into the common room to ask them to be quiet. She overheard James' statement, and the normally level headed individual took on a whole new persona. Magic seemed to surround her angry aura as she strode over to the group of guys, wand in hand.

"How dare you, James Potter" she had hissed in a low voice her emerald green eyes, wide and glinting. And that was all she said, before sending so many curses and hexes at James that he was still sore a month later.

Lily was the first girl to have ever stood up to James Potter and resisted his charms, and James had developed new-found feelings of respect for her. He had tried to apologise, but she was having none of it, and he found himself to be head over heels for her. Unfortunately, after the incident with James, all the other males, not only in Gryffindor but the other three houses as well, also developed even more respect for the beautiful red-head, and she just found herself even more popular than before.

James was shaken from his thoughts as Remus and Peter barged in the train compartment.

"Wow, how do you get that?" James asked doing a double-take. He was referring to the shiny silver badge shining on Remus' robes. "I mean, what spell did you cast on Dumbledore, or is he just plain mad?" Remus shrugged it off modestly.

"I suppose he thought that by giving me power, I might be able to keep you lot in hand!"

"Us? Trouble?" Sirius said with mock astonishment.

"Never!" Peter joined in, and the two boys burst out laughing.

"While we're on the subject of trouble," Sirius said enigmatically, with the glint in his eye brighter than ever "There's the Halloween ball coming up soon, what are we planning? Because, you see, the thing is, I was thinking..."

"Really, don't strain yourself." Lily said walking into the carriage and interrupting his sentence. The four boys looked up at her and admired her beauty. She had long, wavy, dark red hair with a fringe that half hid her eyes, her pale complexion was scattered with cute freckles across her nose and the most amazing emerald green eyes anyone had seen. She was just under five foot four with a really slender build, but with curves in all the right places. There was no denying that she was truly beautiful.

"May I talk to you for moment please, Remus?" She asked in her most charming voice.

"Uh, yeah" Sirius replied.

"Sirius, she was talking to Moony." James told him.

"Sure, Mum." Sirius said in a daze eyes transfixed on the girl before him. Lily looked at him in a strange way and walked outside the carriage, Remus following.

The boys threw confused glances at each other, wondering what was going on.

It was well known that Lily liked Remus. How it was known was unknown but still known all the same. The idea of the two of them together was a very sensible one; they were quiet, level-headed, hard-working prefects and had been good friends since their first year. They were both attractive and well-liked individuals. Oh yes, it was a very rational idea and the two were both perfectly suited to one another. But who ever fell in love because it was a sensible idea, James thought. Love isn't rational. You can't explain it. It wasn't rational that he was head-over heels with Lily, the one girl who would never go out with him, but he couldn't help it. He couldn't help the fact that he was so infatuated with her that he couldn't help thinking about her, dreaming about the first time they would kiss, the first time they would confess their love for each other, how he would walk her to class and send her flowers. James didn't know what he would do and how he would react if his friend started to date Lily.

Sirius and Peter stared at James who was absent-mindedly changing his hair colour from black to pink. They all knew James was besotted with Lily, in fact the whole school knew.

"Do you think…?" James started to say. Obviously he was regretting not becoming a prefect. There was a long silence in the compartment, only interrupted when Remus returned to his friends.

"Just dumb prefect stuff," Remus said without being prompted as he sat down, and James heaved a sigh of relief.

"Dude, if I had known that we would get to spend extra time with Evans, you would not believe how hard I would have worked!" Sirius joked.

"Um, Lily just sort of asked me to Hogsmeade with her," Remus admitted, carefully watching James' expression.

"WHAT!" Peter and Sirius exclaimed together.

"Well, Lily said "Remus, will you go to Hogsmeade next weekend with me?"" Remus tried to joke, but obviously it was lost on James' face.

"Good on you, Lupin." James said before storming out the carriage. The remaining boys were stunned. In their little group you were only called by your last name if the other person was extremely miffed with you.

Remus felt very guilty, and they three remaining boys sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments.

"What do you guys think I should do? Sirius you wouldn't turn Lily down if you got the chance would you? Petey you wouldn't either." Remus' pale grey eyes looked wider than ever. "I think she only asked me out anyway because we're both prefects."

Sirius glanced up at his friend, knowing full well that he wouldn't turn down Lily either. Peter looked between his two friends nervously.

"You're right, Moony, none of us would. But I just think that you need to explain it to James and give him time to sort it out in his head." Peter said reasonably.

Sirius said nothing, not wanting to defend James or offend Remus, so he just nodded along with Peter. Remus stood up and gracefully left the room in search of his friend.

Lily was patrolling the corridors, taking her prefect duties very serious, yelling at the younger years to stop running in the corridors, breaking up fights (both physical and magical) between the Gryffindors and Slytherins and stopping various couples from performing some quite unsuitable public displays of affections. Lily had just been calming some homesick first years down, when she left the cabin and walked right into a distressed looking James Potter. As much as Lily disliked the boy, her innate caring nature compelled her to enquire as to what was the matter.

"Are you alright, Potter." The sound of her voice seemed to bring him out of his daze and back to reality with a thud.

"Fine. I'm having a billboard time, thanks to you Evans." His voice was laced with sarcasm. Lily was rather taken aback at his attitude, and felt her anger bubbling through her.

"There's no need to be that rude to me, I was only trying to be polite. But, then, I suppose that you with your big head and arrogant attitude wouldn't understand basic manners and common courtesies." She snapped, turning and heading down the corridor. However, before she could flounce off, she felt a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Potter let me go" she fought before turning round and looking into his eyes.

"Sorry" he muttered, his intense gaze making her feel uncomfortable. "I hope that you're very happy with Lupin." He said in a tone which disagreed completely with the statement he was making. He then walked off, leaving a confused Lily to go and find her friends. She didn't have to look for long as she simply walked in the direction from where most of the noise was coming and sure enough that was the compartment containing her friends. Walking through the door, she was greeted by shrieks from her two best friends and could barely breathe from the bone-crushing hugs she was receiving.

"Opal get off me you loser" she exclaimed affectionately, to her friend. Opal Derwent was very tall and thin with big pale blue eyes, white-blonde hair which today was styled in two plaits fastened with navy blue ribbon. Opal was from a well-to-do pure-blooded family and an only child, but you would never have guessed this as she was a fairly shy individual, only really opening up around her two best friends.

"What about me?" Rachel Darling demanded, her arms open waiting for a hug. Rachel was nearly the complete opposite of Opal, and outsiders often thought it strange that the two were in the same group of friends. Rachel had long dark brown hair, huge puppy dog eyes, a Mediterranean complexion as a result of her mother being half Italian and was about five foot six with an athletic build. She was a highly attractive girl, but with a slight rocker edge to her appearance, probably because of the black eyeliner she wore to define her already huge eyes. Rachel was a half-blooded witch and was the youngest of four siblings, with her sister Rebecca in the year above and then had three brothers, two of whom were aurors and one who worked in Magical Law Enforcement. With such high achieving brothers and a sister who Head Girl, there was always pressure on her to live up to her parents expectations, which Rachel didn't feel able to do, and her way of dealing with this was to rebel completely. She took very little interest in her academic studies instead focusing her energies on Quiddich and rebelling. Lily was certain that is Rachel spent half as much on school work, as she did flying round on her broomstick then she would have absolutely no problem in matching the intellect levels as her sister. However, she also knew that Rachel did not have enough confidence to compete with Rebecca and that Rachel's over-confident exterior was often just a show; it was the person Rachel wanted to be, rather than the one she was. Still, it was up to her to make her own way in life, and doubtless Rachel would find herself sooner or later.

"Of course, Rachel Darling" Lily responded with a hug, slightly teasing her friend about her surname. "How was your summer then?" She asked her friends, grabbing a chocolate frog and settling down on a seat.

"Not bad, spent most of it playing Quiddich" Rachel responded before Opal "Then Mum and Dad were going crazy over the fact that Rebecca is head girl, Rebecca was gloating for most of the summer. Though she did take me down to Cornwall with her and her boyfriend for a week, which was sweet. If not sickening. He's a muggle and she hasn't told him she is a witch yet, so we'll see how that turns out... Other than that, didn't do much else."

"What about you Opal?" Lily asked.

"Dad was working in France all summer, so I got to go over there with him for a couple of weeks. Other than that I just visited relatives and family friends. Saw quite a bit of Potter and Black..." her soft, well-spoken voice trailed off. Her and Potter's mothers were good friends from school and so as a result their children had always spent a lot of time together, and wherever Potter went, Black was sure to follow. "What about you, Lils?"

"Worked most of it," she admitted. As she wasn't from such a privileged background as her friends, her parents had instilled a hard work ethic into her, and she had been made to get a holiday job as soon as she turned 16, and spent her day's waitressing in a café. "Got repeatedly chatted up by dirty old men and had drinks spilt over me by clumsy small children. Made a fair bit though."

"And I see you've been made a prefect." Rachel said accusingly, displaying her mistrust for any form of authority.

"Yes, but think of how much more we can get away with now!" Opal said "Now that Lily is trusted". Lily pretended to be shocked.

"So you're just using me for my power, is that it?" she mock sobbed.

"Yep!" Rachel confirmed. "Have you seen the Marauders this year?"

"Not yet," Opal conversed "Why?"

"They get better looking each year!"

"I had the misfortune to bump into that Potter earlier; he's upset that I've asked Remus to Hogsmeade with me." Her friends glanced at each other, and then at Lily.

"Gossip!" Rachel's eyes lit up "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"You and Remus?" Opal asked.

"Yes, why not?" Lily said defiantly. "He's a perfectly decent bloke, unlike some boys around here."

"No reason, I mean Remus is a lovely guy I just never thought you liked him like that."

"Lily," the outspoken Rachel began.

"Rachel" Lily responded.

"You and Remus would make a boringly, nice couple. You're right that Remus is a pleasant chap, but no-body falls in love with nice. Lily, my flower, you need a bad boy to bring some excitement into your life. You would get bored with someone the same as you, you need someone to argue with, someone whose reckless attitude will balance out your own calm personality." Rachel was getting more and more animated as she spoke.

"You quite finished?" Lily asked. Rachel nodded. "Well, now that you've finished analysing me, it's just a trip to the local town, not a wedding proposal."

"Rachel's perfectly right though, Lils" Opal interjected. For some reason this riled Lily.

"Fine, well you two fix me up with my perfect date and we'll see whose right then." she said irritably. She hated being corrected by anyone. "I'm going to patrol the corridors, we're nearly there anyway, and you need to put your robes on." And with that she swept out of the room to go yell at the excitable first years, leaving her two friends with mischievous smiles on their faces as they started to plot.

Remus found James sat staring out the window of a cabin that was otherwise occupied by two nervous looking second year boys from Hufflepuff.

"I'll give you each a chocolate frog if you clear off" he said to the boys, who nodded in agreement. Remus handed over the sweets and they scurried off.

"James," he said tentatively "I'm sorry. I'm just going with Lily as a friend, I know how you feel about her." He was about to continue, when James stopped his friend.

"No, you don't need to be sorry. I'm an idiot."

"As always!" Remus teased.

"I need to get over her, Moony." James wailed at his friend. "But no matter how many other girls I go out with, I can't stop myself thinking about her. And no matter how many times I ask, she's never going to go out with me."

"Maybe you need to rethink your strategies." Remus said wearily, after all, they had all heard this speech from James at least a thousand and one times. This time, however, a light was suddenly switched on inside James' head.

"You're right!" He said, jumping up and banging his head on the overhead baggage compartment. "Ouch! I think I'm concussed" He rubbed his head.

"Are you going to elaborate on whatever it is you have just thought of or are you going to leave me in suspense?" Remus questioned. James was suddenly back to himself.

"You'll find out soon enough." James promised. "Anyway, let's get back to the others; we need to figure out what we are going to do to the Slytherins. Only two years left to cause mayhem!"

He left the room in a whirlwind, dragging his friend with him.

The students soon found themselves sat in the dining hall watching this year's batch of students being sorted. Lily always found it endearing the way that the muggleborns were so astonished by the sight of the ceiling, and laughed when one small girl asked "Where has the ceiling gone?" She herself had been exactly the same when she first came and so felt a motherly need to help anyone that looked overtly frightened. She loved the sorting process, and she and her friends sat and guessed which house each of the students would be sorted into.

"Bertie Caraway" Professor McGonagall called, as a short, slightly chubby, but very arrogant looking boy went and plonked himself down on the chair before pulling the hat on his head.

"Slytherin, definitely." Opal decided.

"No, he doesn't look as though he has two brain cells to rub together. Hufflepuff." Rachel opposed.

"Slytherin!" The hat shouted.

"Stella Carson" McGonagall announced, and a tiny shaking girl nervously made her way to the front of the hall.

"Hufflepuff." Rachel and Opal said in unison.

Lily's attention, however, had been distracted at the sight of the Marauders looking suspiciously guilty. What were they up to? Lily hated the idea that Potter and Black would terrorise the new students on their first night back, but they were definitely up to something. Potter had that smirk on his face, Black that glint in his eye, Pettigrew looked gleeful while Lupin looked very amused at something. Lily nudged Rachel catching Opal's attention and nodded towards the boys. Her friends read the boys faces immediately and understood Lily's concern; no one came out well from a Marauder's prank. Lily herself, even though admired by all the Marauders, had found herself a victim of their mindless (though considering the amount of time they put into planning them they weren't so mindless), childish practical jokes.

There was the time that they had charmed grass on the floor of the dining room and the let a herd of angry, magical goats in there. Anyone who has ever been head-butted by an ordinary goat would feel empathy for the students who had to eat in that room, surrounded by the irritable, hungry goats for a week until all the elusive goats could be humanely caught. There is nothing like loosing your Monday morning fry-up to an irate mountain goat to set you up in a positive mood for the day. Once the Marauders, in winter, had moved all the dining room furniture outside and set it up on the Quiddich pitch having cast spells on it to make it unmovable. That had lasted two days before the freezing snow convinced the boys to move everything back indoors. There was the knickers raid from the girls dormitories with bunting made from said underwear and hung outside to decorate the stands for a Quiddich match.

As well as large-scale pranks such as that, they also used medium scale jokes like when they blocked all the portrait holes for all the houses and the students were subsequently unable to attend morning lessons. And then there were the small-scale, petty, irritating jokes that were received on a day to day basis. Fake quills that would pretend not to write and then sudden shoot ink into the face of the writer. Ink pots containing cockroaches. Books that screamed a deafening noise when opened and then flew and hit you on the head. They even resorted to muggle tricks such as buckets of frogs balanced on top of doors and no-one was safe. However, the ingenious part of all their endeavours was that they were rarely caught for the prank they were pulling. They always got punished one way or another for other minor offences (the day after the goat incident, Sirius found himself in a month long detention for looking at McGonagall in a funny way, Potter for breathing too loudly during a flying lesson, Pettigrew for turning up to class too early and Lupin because he looked a bit shifty in the dining room) but they were never actually officially proved to be the culprits. So, understandably, Lily was panicked.

However, Lily also knew that it was near impossible to stop a Marauder joke but that wouldn't stop her trying.

"How can we stop them?" she hissed at her friends.

"Stop the Marauders from performing a practical joke? That's like trying to stop a flock of giant thestrals midair with just a butterfly net!" Exclaimed Rachel.

"Helpful" Lily muttered.

Unfortunately, James noticed the girls staring at them anxiously.

"Padfoot, I think they've twigged"

"Silence them then!"

"From all the way over here? That I can't do, there are too many people in the way."

"Well get closer to them then. They can't ruin it for us. How will the new first years know to stay out of our way if we do not assert our position as Chief Pranksters on their first day at Hogwarts?" Sirius demanded.

"Fine, I'll have to go over to them in a minute."

"Kiss one of them!" Opal suggested.

"One of them? You have got to be kidding me. I don't know where they've been, they've kissed countless other girls and, to be frank, their hygiene levels are suspect." was Lily's response. "Make Rachel!"

"Only if you do."

"This is ridiculous. Can we not think of a better way to distract them?" Lily pleaded.

"Kiss Snape!" Opal exclaimed.

"Oh that's right, you're coming out with some Einstein-worthy ideas today." Rachel snapped, terrified that her meal would soon turn into a plate of flobber-worms or something. Rachel hated flobber-worms.

"No seriously, Lils. That would really distract them."

"What if I kiss Severus and then they pull the prank anyway?" Lily wined desperately.

"Then we are thoroughly screwed. So which is it Potter or Snape?"

"Fine, it will have to be..." Lily started. But unfortunately the girls had been procrastinating for so long that the guys had decided that the best thing would be to perform the prank right away, before they could be stopped. All the doors swung shut and locked with a resounding thud, before all the candles went out and the room was in pitch black. There was mass hysteria among the younger students who were already very frightened, before a loud booming voice echoed around the room.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the first Marauder performance of the year. We give you an act to end all acts, please turn your attention to...The Slytherins!"

There was a moment's silence, where the four boys could be heard to be arguing over the correct spell to bring the lights back on and to open the doors, before everything returned to normal, only...

"Look at the Slytherins!" a third year Hufflepuff shouted and the whole school erupted into laughter. There stood the Slytherins in fluffy, pink, rabbit outfits, with ears and bunny-tails. Peter pulled out a camera and took a photo, infuriating the Slytherins further, who then tried to hop out of the hall. Professor Slughorn looked very upset at the thought of his Slytherins no longer being frightening and stood up arguing with the headmaster, who just sat there with a twinkle in his eye. Lily, however, did not see the funny side, and marched straight over to the offending group.

"Potter, you arrogant berk!" she said forcefully. "There were brand new students in that house, and the other houses that you have now terrified. On their first day. Can you not remember how it feels to be new and frightened anyway, without adding this stress onto them?"

"Evans, my love, it's just a joke. Don't worry your pretty little head about it." James replied. Wrong answer.

"A joke." Lily repeated. "A joke? How dare you, you insufferable git. No wonder house relations are so bad when from their first ever day you and your little posse are instilling hatred and prejudices into the minds of impressionable eleven year olds. You are just so irresponsible, I..." Lily was lost for words. James opened his mouth to talk, but Lily interrupted him. "Never mind, Potter, I can't bear to be around you." James tried to speak again, but Lily quickly drew out her wand and pointed it at his face. James gulped remembering the last time Lily Evans had drawn her wand on him. "Silencio!" she said aggressively and James relaxed. That could be easily removed. However, Lily had not finished. "Permentus". James panicked. That meant that Lily was the only one who could remove that spell from him. He tried gesturing at the re-headed prefect, but she turned and calmly strode from the Great Hall.

"Mr Potter, I do hope that you can explain yourself." Minerva McGonagall's stern voice loomed over him. James tried to speak, but when he realised there was no chance of him being able to reclaim the use of his vocal chords, he started to mime what Lily had done to him. McGonagall looked on in astonishment.

"Mr Potter this is not a game of charades. Go and see the headmaster at once. Fifty points from Gryffindor and a week's detention. Now leave my sight." She ordered. James left the dining room feeling as though somehow Lily had got the better of him.