The Forming of the Marauders
AN: I'm going to have a shot at doing a full Lily & James fan fiction, which I can hopefully link to When They Were Warned. I will put that story on hold until I reach it on this story. I will post a notice on that story telling people to read this one first. I think I'm going to start from before first year, and end this story when Lily and James go into hiding with Harry.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything apart from the plot and a few characters. Thank you very much to aks100 – who's Lily and James Series 'To the End', is absolutely brilliant by the way. But Thank you to aks100 for letting me use a few of their characters.
This Chapter is going to be in both James and Lily's POV's
Chapter 1: Hogwarts Letter
James' POV
James woke up, yawning as the morning sun came through the window that portrayed the vast view of the gardens of Potter Manor. He groaned as his mother – Dorea Potter, called
"James, Breakfast time!" He quickly pulled on some clothes and went downstairs. His younger sister Matilda was already downstairs eating a portion of Pancakes.
"Hi James!" Said Tilly enthusiastically
"Hey Tilly" said James in a tired voice.
James plonked down onto his chair and picked up a plate of pancakes.
As James was scoffing up his 3rd portion of pancakes, the house owl came in, followed by another, smaller owl. The smaller owl waited at the window sill, and the house owl Venus gave Dorea a letter from her friend. James approached the small owl, petted it, and took the letter. It read:
James Potter
The Kitchen
Potter Manor
The Countryside
Wiltshire
England
in green ink.
James said to his mum
"MUM!! I think I've got a Hogwarts Letter!!"
He turned over the envelope to find the Hogwarts seal on it. He jumped for joy and shouted
"Yes, I'm going to Hogwarts, I'm going to Hogwarts!"
James' little sister Tilly ran out of the room crying.
"I don't think Matilda likes the idea of you going to Hogwarts James, go and see if you can try and calm her down."
James went outside and flew on his broom with Tilly's broom in one hand, and his Hogwarts letter in his pocket, He would read it later. He landed over at the lake where he straight away saw Tilly looking out towards the other side of the lake, where a family of unicorns had come out to drink. As James walked over to her, she turned round. He could tell that she had been crying as her face was red and she still had tears running down her face.
"Tilly, don't worry, you'll be coming to Hogwarts in two more years, you can get your own letter and everything!" Said James.
"But you won't be home Jamie, and I'll miss you." Replied Tilly, in between sobs.
"Tills, if you want, I can owl you every day!"
"Every day?" said Tilly, her face lighting up.
"Of course, what are brothers for, hey?" replied James.
Tilly squealed and jumped up and hugged James "Thank you so much Jamie, I love you so much!"
James laughed and the two siblings walked back up to the house, chatting about random stuff on the way.
"So James, when are you gonna tell Leo, he'll be well annoyed!" Tilly said, giggling afterwards.
"Oh god, yeah." Remembered James.
James and Tilly's older brother was in going into fifth year at Hogwarts, and was always pranked on by James and Tilly. This was why, mostly, that he would generally avoid them, or when he couldn't, argued with them. But occasionally, after a 'Secret Snog with his girlfriend' as James liked to say, he would be in a good mood and have fun with his siblings.
James and Tilly continued to laugh at each other's guesses about how Leo would react. He wouldn't be home until dinner, as he always spent the day with his current girlfriends and his other mates.
James and Tilly got back to the kitchen and sat down, whilst their mum was still eating. James gave his Mum thumbs up as he came in to show that he had been successful in cheering up his sister.
"Come on James, I want to see what it says!!" said Tilly, as soon as they sat down.
"Oh all right then" Replied James, taking the envelope out of his pocket and breaking the seal on the back. He unfolded the letter and read out loud
"Dear Mr Potter, blah blah blah, you have been accepted into Hogwarts blah blah blah, reply no later than the 31st July blah blah, Yours sincerely, Minerva McGonagall."
James and Tilly sniggered at the head mistress' name.
James then pulled out the equipment list and read it all out, finishing with:
"-Students may also bring and owl, cat or toad
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS.
Awww!!"
"Holy Merlin, No Broomstick! That's a bit harsh." Said Tilly.
"No its not, and don't give ME that look James, I am not letting you take your broom." Said Mrs Potter sternly.
"But we still get to go to Diagon alley, YAY SHOPPING!!" Shouted Tilly at the top of her voice.
"Yeah, I want an owl, it's my birthday soon anyway." Said James, looking at his Hogwarts letter again.
"Oh shit!!" Shouted James.
Mrs Potter gave him a stern look and was about to scold him when he carried on saying
"Term starts on my birthday... You (points at Mrs Potter) better get me something exxtraa special."
Mrs Potter Sighed.
"Oh all right, I'll get you an Owl, and I think your dads got you a surprise as well" Said Mrs Potter, winking. She then left the room before James could ask any more questions.
"So Tilly," said James, picking up his broom from a cupboard in the kitchen, "How about we play some Quidditch?" James chucked Tilly's broom at her and ran out of the door without waiting for a reply.
"Oh, ok then." Said Tilly running to the front door, just seeing James push off the ground. She then followed suit and was soon zooming freely through the air.
James was laughing. He really enjoyed flying, he felt completely free and free of troubles on his broomstick. He did twenty laps of the Potters full sized Quidditch pitch and then landed next to Tilly, who was waiting in the middle of the pitch with James' quaffle he got from his last birthday. James briefly explained to his sister that they would be doing shoot outs. Tilly would be keeper and James chaser. Those were their best positions so they never argued about who would keep and who would shoot. James quickly went on to say that the keeper would get 20 points for every goal they saved and the chaser get ten points for every goal they successfully got through the hoop. The middle hoop was worth twenty points.
James sped up to the middle of the Quidditch pitch, quaffle in hand. The score was 210 – 200 to Tilly – she was a flippin' good keeper. Leo had joined them earlier, and was now refereeing as well as commentating. James zoomed up towards the hoops, Tilly tensing and watching his every movement. James took a fake left and a fake right and shot the quaffle towards the middle. The quaffle just missed Tilly's finger tips and went in. James whooped. But that was not it. James sped round to the back of the hoops, caught the quaffle and lobbed it with his full strength at the middle post again. He scored a second time just before the whistle blew – which meant that Mrs Potter had told Leo to end the game as dinner was nearly ready. Leo bellowed out
"Final score – James 240 to Tilly 220! That's it folks!" then started laughing as Tilly chased James around the pitch, James making rude hand gestures and shouting "Ha Ha! Take that Tills, I fucking walloped your ass!"
James landed and started running to the house as Tilly caught up with him and tackled him to the floor. Leo laughed again and ran up to them, jumping onto the top of their now bundle fight and shouted
"Bundle!!!"
The bundle went on for what felt like forever before Mrs Potter came outside and shouted
"ENOUGH! COME IN NOW AND SIT DOWN FOR DINNER!"
The three siblings dragged themselves inside, soaking wet. On their way in, Mr Potter used a drying spell on each of them and gave them their butterbeer and food.
Lily's POV (Same time as the beginning of James' POV)
Lily woke up early in the morning and pulled on some random clothes from the chair in her room. She plodded down the stairs to the kitchen where she sat down to eat some breakfast. As she was pouring out some cereal and adding milk, her sister Petunia came into the room.
"Heya Lils, had a nice sleep?" said Petunia.
"Yes thanks Tuney, how about you?" replied Lily
"Oh, it was alright. Kept having the same dreams over again. Anyway, I'm going to dump that fatty Vernon, he's driving me round the twist!"
Vernon was Petunia's boyfriend from the age of seven, she was now sixteen and they were thinking of marrying and everything but Petunia decided she didn't want him anymore.
"Great Tuney, no one liked him anyway in the family, too fat and stuck up." Said Lily, clearly speaking her mind.
"He's not that bad," Petunia said defensively. Lily smirked at Petunia as she ate a spoonful of cereal. Petunia was pouring out two glassed of orange juice for them when she suddenly screamed and spilt the orange juice all over the floor. Lily spun in her seat and nearly spat out her cereal when she saw the owl that had crashed into the window.
"What the flipping hell is that?" Petunia cried.
"It's the Hogwarts owl!" Lily said happily. She jumped off her chair and ran to the garden door to help the own.
"The what now?" Petunia asked.
"Sev told me that around this time is when we get our Hogwarts letters. He said that I would probably get one and he will to! Oh I hope we both go to Hogwarts and we can be in the same houses," Lily picked up the owl and took the letter from it when she was certain it was alright.
"Wait, are you talking about the boy from the Spinner's End?" Petunia asked, "You know it's not good to go to there, it's not safe."
"I don't go there Tuney, we meet in the park!" Lily said with a laugh. She jumped on her chair and opened up her letter and read it quickly.
"So?" Petunia asked as she poured out two fresh glasses of orange juice then put them on the table.
"Where are mum and dad? We have to reply straight away!" Lily said excitedly.
"They've gone to the butchers," Petunia said, "Hey, where are you going?" Lily had jumped out of her seat and was running out to the hallway. She grabbed her jacket and ran out of the door, hurriedly shoving her coat on with her letter still in her hand. Petunia chased after her calling out
"Lily! Lily wait up! Where are we going?"
Lily carried on running towards the direction of the local park.
"No Lily, not the park!" said Petunia, slowing down as she realised where Lily was going.
They carried on until they reached the park, Petunia panting heavily from running so far. Lily ran up to the silhouette of a tall figure that looked her age and shouted
"SEV!! SEV!! I got the letter!"
She ran up the boy and showed him the letter. A sudden grin appeared on his face as he examined the letter.
"Look Lily, at the bottom of yours it says that the deputy headmistress is coming to explain about the wizarding world tomorrow. That only happens for people like you, whose families aren't magical!"
Said Severus, pointing out a note written at the bottom of the letter.
"Look, I received mine this morning too!"
Severus held out an almost identical letter to Lily's, apart from the fact that he didn't have a note at the bottom explaining that someone would come to explain the wizarding world.
"Tell me the story of the four founders again Sev!"Shouted Lily excitedly.
Severus launched into the tale that he told Lily nearly every week, starting with:
"There were once four very powerful Wizards and Witches, the most powerful of their age. They were named; Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw..."
He went on to explain in great detail about how the four magical people created a school called Hogwarts, and took in young witches and wizards and taught them the ways with a wand. He moved on to explain about the fall out between Godric and Salazar, causing Salazar to leave the castle forever. He finally finished the tale with the words:
"...And that's how Hogwarts began."
Lily thanked Severus for the wonderful story and then said
"Oh, I almost forgot, I must tell mummy and daddy about my letter, see you tomorrow Sev!"
Before running off after Petunia, who had gotten bored and had already started off towards home.
"Tuney, what's wrong!" asked Lily, just catching up with Petunia.
"GRR! I just don't want you to leave for that horrid school Lily; I'll hardly ever see you!"
"Awww, Petunia, we can ask the kind Witch who comes to see me tomorrow to see if you can come too!"
"But what if they don't let me" said Petunia, sniffing afterwards.
"Well then I'll write to you every day!" said Lily firmly.
Petunia said nothing, so they just carried on back to the house. By the time they got back, their parents were back with the pork for their roast tonight.
"Mummy! Daddy! Look at this letter!!!" squealed Lily.
She shoved the letter into her mother's hand and tapped on the work surface impatiently as she waited for her mum to finish.
She finally finished reading the letter and passed it to her husband. Silence. Then...
"OH MY GOD LILY, THIS IS SO GOOD! I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!!" shouted Mrs Evans, before pulling Lily into a tight hug.
"I CANT BELIEVE WE HAVE A WITCH IN THE FAMILY, OOOOO, AND ITS OUR LILY!" said Mrs Evans, directed to Mr Evans.
Mr Evans added his praise and made a big fuss, then added
"It's good we've got extra pork, looks like we'll need it if that woman is coming round."
Lily was thrilled to bits. She launched into a conversation with her parents about the stories 'Sev' told her about the wizarding world:
"...They've even got a Ministry of Magic!" finished Lily.
The rest of the day was spent cleaning ready for the guest that night. By 5 o'clock that evening, the Evans household was fit for a queen.
The pork went in the oven ready for dinner and Mrs Evans was rapidly chopping the vegetables as she shouted out orders to the household.
"Petunia! Lay the table darling, Lily change into something more suitable, we have to impress this woman!!"
At half past five the Evans family were all dressed nicely and were constantly rearranging things to make them look better, save for Petunia, who, despite Mrs Evans' pleads, had retreated to her bedroom.
The door bell rang at exactly five forty five. Lily was the first one to the door and Mrs Evans had just about dragged Petunia out of her room. Lily answered the door, trying to contain her excitement. When she opened the door, she became face to face with a stern looking woman in green robes and a pointed hat.
"Good afternoon, I am Minerva McGonagall, deputy headmistress at Hogwarts. As my letter explained, I am here to tell you about the wizarding world, as you are not a wizarding family." Introduced the woman.
Lily excitedly introduced herself, and then her family in turn.
"...and this is Petunia. (Petunia bows stiffly)Now, please come on through to the Kitchen, we will have dinner ready in a few minutes, I hope you like roast pork." Finished Lily.
"Thank you very much, it is extremely kind of you, to the kitchen it is then." Said McGonagall, a smile breaking onto her face.
They all went through to the kitchen, where Mrs Evans was just serving up dinner.
Minerva discussed the magical world to Lily's family over dinner, finishing with the date and time of the train leaving.
Just as Minerva started to leave, Petunia broke down in tears.
"PLEASE MISS, CAN I COME TO HOGWARTS, I REALLY DONT WANT TO BE LEFT OUT. I'LL BE GOOD, PROMISE." Said Petunia in between sobs.
Minerva put her arm round the crying girl and softly said
"I'm very sorry; we only accept Witches and Wizards. Don't worry, Lily can write to you still."
With that she said goodbye and disappeared from the room with a crack.
A/N: That's the first chapter folks, please review and say what you think. I'm working on the next chapter and I hope it will be up quite soon.
Thanks
Benny :D
