A/N Hey guys! So I've started a new story. Please don't kill me (directed at readers of The Inadvertent Folly of Underestimation) but I've just been in a very Sirius Black phase. And by that, I mean that I really wanted to write a Marauders Era fic. This is the first chapter. I'm not sure how it turned out. So obviously I need major feedback.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

The train left King's Cross at exactly 11 am. Four girls sat themselves comfortably in their compartment, before launching into the details of their different term breaks.

"France was terrible this time! I met the most annoying person ever!"

"At least, you went to France! I was stuck at home while my family did some 'much needed' spring cleaning at the end of summer."

"Speaking of Summer, did you know that she and Black had quite the public break up?"

"Why are we talking about them again?"

"Because Sia here nearly hexed him for creating a spectacle in front of the first years!"

Three pairs of eyes trained on the black haired girl sitting by the window. She had chosen to remain silent all this time, preferring to listen to her friends with amusement. But now she found herself being dragged into things unwantedly.

"Spill, Sia!" cried her dorm mate Anna.

"There's not much to say really. There were having a huge row and some of the first years were getting intimidated. So I told him to keep his private affairs 'private'," she said, shrugging.

"While pointing her wand at his chin." Added Rowena, her eyes glinting with mischief, having witnessed the scene herself.

"Really, Sia? You've just been made a Prefect. You should know better than to threaten people like that," said Bedelia, disapprovingly.

"That's precisely why I did that. As a 'Prefect', I felt it was my duty to make sure that ass-hat didn't cause any more commotion than he already does," she said seriously, although her sparkling eyes betrayed her.

"Merlin! You're so immature sometimes! I- "

"Oh shove off, Beeds! Sia just told off Sirius Black! That is big news! Do you know how hot he is?"

The three of them groaned as Anna sighed, recalling how fit she found her fellow fifth year. Sia adjusted herself into the corner seat, hoping to steal a few minutes of rest before the Prefects' meeting started.

As much as she liked the peace and quiet of home, she really missed her best friends. Rowena with her quirky sense of humor, thrill for trying new things and exceedingly uncanny 'get real' attitude; Bedelia with her faint French accent, hilarious monotone and awfully blunt observations; Anna with her love for Muggle TV shows, expertise at navigating the depths of the Hogwarts student body and awkward fluster at being complimented.

Ever since being assigned the same dorm at the beginning of their first year, Sia had continued to feel more and more comfortable around them. They understood her and she them. They were all exceedingly bright, having been sorted into Ravenclaw, but also had very refreshing outlooks towards life at Hogwarts.

"Sia? The meeting is about to start. You coming?"

Sia nodded at the dark haired boy standing at the doorway. Andrew was the other Prefect in her year. He was also a Ravenclaw and one of the few people she was friends with.

"So, how was your summer, Andrew?" she asked, closing the compartment door.

"It was alright. Parents had it out about some strange issues. My uncle, Charles, hasn't been answering to any of our letters. Mum thinks something bad must've happened to him, but Dad says it's more likely that he's being a pain."

"But, with the state of affairs now, it's more likely that Mum's right," finished Andrew, a slight frown creasing his forehead.

"I'm sorry to hear that. But you can't know anything for sure until you actually find him. You can take that as positive, if you like," said Sia, slowly.

"Or a negative," replied Andrew, making them both laugh. Andrew was known to always look at his glass half empty and other people's glasses half full.

Sia wasn't surprised to see the other Prefects in her year. Lily Evans and Remus Lupin from Gryffindor, Julia Bones and Kevin White from Hufflepuff, and of course, Adele Greengrass and Henry Nott from Slytherin. The Head Boy was Frank Longbottom along with Head Girl Alice Prewett.

While the duties were given out, Sia noted that James Potter, newly appointed Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, was eyeing Lily Evans none too subtly. It was remarkable how Potter never learnt to leave the girl alone after 4 years of constant rejection and numerous fights.

Sia was more or less indifferent to Potter herself. She was aware of the fact that his little 'group' thought they were something special owing to a ridiculous amount of pranks, detentions and general chaos they were able to cause. However, it would be interesting to see how things worked out, now that Lupin had been made Prefect and Potter was Quidditch Captain.

"How was your summer, Evans?" came the unmistakably self-assured voice of James Potter.

"Leave me alone, Potter." Her voice was firm and she stepped into a compartment containing a couple of Gryffindors and Severus Snape.

Odd.

"That's odd. What's Snivellus doing with three Gryffindor girls?"

Sia could sense someone walk up behind her, effectively trapping her between them and Potter.

"Black!"

The person behind her recoiled slightly at her sharp tone and turned towards her curiously.

"Would you mind moving? I don't fancy being sandwiched between you and Potter, contrary to most of the Hogwarts female population," she said, not breaking eye contact.

Black surveyed for a second before budging ever so slightly. She took this as the most she was going to get and squeezed past them both, trying to avoid any unnecessary contact.

"Who's that?" she heard him ask Potter, as she moved towards her compartment.

"Artemisia Adams. She's in our year. Ravenclaw. Just got made a Prefect. Why?"

"No reason."

"There's always a reason when you say there's 'no reason'. Come on, spit it out, Padfoot."

That's the last she heard before closing the door to her compartment. Padfoot. What an odd nickname.

…

Once they were all settled into their dorm, the four girls pillaged Bedelia's trunk for French goodies. Every summer, she went to visit her maternal grandparents in Paris and would come back laden with the most beautiful gifts (of which the edible ones were wiped out soon after reaching Hogwarts).

"So, what were you saying about an annoying person in France?" asked Rowena, never one to miss interesting pieces of information.

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot!" said Bedelia, sitting up straight on her bed, " I met this horrible boy," Sia exchanged a knowing look with Rowena, "And he had the nerve to correct my French pronunciation!"

"That's it?" Rowena slumped back into her bed, clearly disappointed at her friend's supposedly dramatic holiday encounter.

"Was he at least cute?" asked Anna, half-heartedly. Bedelia hardly ever paid attention to boys other than if they somehow happened to get in her way of maintaining a perfect class schedule.

"Uh well…"

"So he was?"

Anna pounced on her bed, eyes gleaming in delight.

"I didn't say that!"

"But you stopped to consider! You never do that! Back me up here guys!"

"It's true, Beedz. Hesitation is the first step, you know," said Sia, thoroughly enjoying Bedelia's dilemma.

"Yup. Followed by denial," piped up Rowena, giving her a meaningful look.

"Beedz got a crush in Paris! That is so romantic!" sighed Anna, falling into her bed dramatically.

"I did not!"

"Denial!" shouted the other three, as Bedelia huffed and threw on her covers.

…

Fifth year was annoying. Sia found herself rolling her eyes and huffing in frustration more often than not. Sure, they had OWLs this year, but she was getting tired of all the teachers reminding them of the fact. Plus, being a Ravenclaw, they were somehow expected to do better than the others. Which caused the teachers to be even stricter towards them.

Luckily, September had just ended and that meant that Quidditch practice would be starting. Sia couldn't be happier to leave the castle and start warm ups on the pitch.

"Man, I really missed this!" she said, turning her broom and facing her team mate, Evelyn Diggle.

"I know! So tired of McGonagall's tight-lipped disapproval," she replied with a groan.

"And Flitwick's squeals of enthusiasm."

"Not to mention, Slughorn's patronizing attitude."

"Now, I understand most of you will be dropping this subject next year, but please give it your best," said Evelyn, doing her best imitation of the Potions Master.

"Tut tut tut, do stop staring at Miss Evans long enough for your cauldron to not burst, Mr. Potter. I'm sure Mr. Black doesn't enjoy being covered in slime every alternate class," added Sia, causing them both to explode into giggles.

"Enough chattering, you lot! Let's get some drills done!" boomed the voice of their Captain and Chaser, Nigel Trent.

Sia and Evelyn were the only girls who played on any of the House teams. Even though professional Quidditch was more than bursting with star female players, three of the four Hogwarts houses hadn't managed to get the message yet.

"Adams! Looks like Potter's been made Captain this year. You know what that means right?"

"All out attack?" replied Sia, uncertainly.

"Exactly. We were damn lucky last year with Jones as the Gryffindor Captain. He didn't let Black swing his Beater's Bat to full effect. But I'm sure Potter will have no problems with that. Which is why I need to devote more practice time with Knightley and Davies. We can't have our Seeker getting knocked out halfway. "

"As for you, Diggle, we can't let Potter take advantage of your stature," he said, referring to Evelyn's petite frame, "You're a damn fine Keeper and we're going to show them exactly what we're made of!"

"Wow. Nigel's finally lost it," whispered Evelyn, while flying towards the hoops.

"Yeah. He really wants to win the Cup one last time before graduating," said Andrew, flexing his right arm with his Beater's Bat.

"More like wants to cream Gryffindor for the first time in his entire career," snorted Sia.

"It's true. Even though we've won the Cup a couple of times with Nigel as Captain, we've never been able to beat Gryffindor," piped up Samuel Davies, the second Beater.

"Oi! What did I say about chattering?"

Everyone flew to their designated spot, not wanting to anger their burly Captain.

…

"I can't believe we just had two consecutive practices just because Slytherin cancelled their booking," groaned Evelyn, walking into the castle.

"At least you weren't dodging Bludgers for four hours," gritted out Sia, shooting a grinning Andrew a weary glare.

Just as they reached the third floor, there was a scrambling of feet and Sia felt herself get knocked into the wall behind her. It took her a few moments to regain her senses as she looked around her in confusion.

Andrew and Evelyn were looking at her with horrified expressions on their faces. She gingerly stood up and massaged her back where it had hit the cold stonewall.

"What? What's wrong?" she asked them, still smarting from the fall. "What just happened?"

"Sia, your hair…"

"My what?" she said, touching her hair and finding it coated with something incredibly slippery.

"What the fuck?! What is this?! Who did this to me?" she asked, confusion and fear rushing through her.

"Instant Lather Shampoo," came a lazy drawl from one of the staircases.

She looked up to see the heads of Potter, Black and Pettigrew.

"What the fuck is WRONG with you?!" Sia screamed at Black.

"Wasn't meant for you. We were hoping to catch Snivelus on one of his nightly prowls," he replied with a bored voice.

"Tell me the Counter Curse then!"

"Can't."

"Excuse me?"

"Doesn't have one yet."

Sia was trying very hard to maintain her composure as Black continued to answer her questions with a decidedly bored expression.

"So am I supposed to walk around with lather in my hair forever?"

Potter must have noted the edge in her voice and decided to answer before his friend.

"It only works when hair grows beyond a certain length. We had prepared it for Snivelus's long hair, so…"

"You mean I have to cut it off?"

"Pretty much," said Black, turning to Potter with slight annoyance, "Why are we still standing here, Prongs? Let's find Snivelus."

With that, they walked off, leaving Sia fuming while Andrew and Evelyn lunged at her to stop her from running after the three Gryffindors.

An hour later, Madam Pompfrey assured her that although nothing would happen to her hair, she'd have to keep it short for a few months in order for the spell to wear off. Evelyn took it up as her personal responsibility to escort Sia back to her dorm. After quickly briefing the three bewildered girls about their friend's sudden change in hairstyle, she left.

"Sia? Are you okay?" asked Anna, cautiously.

"I'm going to murder that freaking bastard," she replied quietly.

…

Ooh. How was it? x_x Please review and tell me how I can improve it.