Prologue: Full Moon
"Sierra, come inside!" Mum yelled, but I ignored her. I stayed outside, even when I heard a howl from the forest nearby.
Suddenly, a large, grey wolf came out of the forest and ran toward where I stood, knocking me over and sinking its teeth into my arm. I screamed in pain as I transformed into a wolf myself.
"I- I thought I wouldn't be able to go to Hogwarts, with my condition!" I snapped, believing Mum was playing a trick on me.
"Dumbledore agreed to let you go to Hogwarts, as long as precautions are taken. There is another student with the same… condition as you have, and the precautions taken for him have worked, so why wouldn't they work for you?" Mum asked, trying to make me see sense. I sighed and took the letter, which I read.
Chapter One: Hogwarts Express
I walked down the corridor of the train, trying to find a compartment to sit in.
"So Dumbledore sent you a letter that said someone like you was coming this year?" I heard someone say from a compartment I hadn't yet passed.
"Yes, Sirius, he did. He told me to be in this compartment so that the other person would know where to find me." Someone else in the same compartment said, prompting me to remove the letter I had gotten the day before from my pocket and re-read it.
"It says he'll be in Compartment 7, and that's Compartment 7." I said to myself, going and opening the door to the compartment the voices had come from. When I looked inside, I saw three boys staring at me. Almost immediately I found the one I was looking for, as, like most werewolves, he had yellow eyes. He seemed to be thinking along the same lines as I was, as he gestured for me to sit down across from him. I sat, and the boys began introducing themselves.
"I'm Sirius Black." Said the boy sitting next to me, and I realized that he had been the first one I had heard in the corridor.
"I'm James Potter." That came from the boy sitting on my other side.
"I'm Remus Lupin," said the one across from me, the werewolf, "And you must be Sierra Nevada."
"Yeah, that's me." I replied, nervous.
"So, you're a werewolf?" James asked, and I looked at him in disbelief. He knew, and he wasn't running in fear?
"Yes, I am a werewolf. How can you be so calm about being right next to me?" I asked, causing both James and Sirius to start laughing.
"We've been hanging around Remus for three years, and we've known about him being a werewolf for about two years now. We're not afraid of you, Sierra. Werewolves are only dangerous during the full moon." Sirius explained, and I smiled at the possibility of having friends.
"I've never heard of a female werewolf, though." Remus spoke up, and James, Sirius, and I gave him odd looks.
"Who cares? She's cool with us! Hey, Sierra, wanna be friends with us?" James asked, and I hugged him gratefully.
"Yes, I'd love to." I replied, and both James and Sirius adopted thoughtful looks.
"We'll call you Luna. That can be your Marauder name!" Sirius exclaimed, and I gave him a confused look.
"We call ourselves the Marauders, and, as our friend, you are now a Marauder yourself." James explained, and I was still a bit confused.
"Well, what about the whole 'Marauder name' thing?" I asked, wanting to get to the bottom of the mystery.
"They're nicknames that we call each other. Remus is Moony, James is Prongs, I'm Padfoot, and you're Luna." Sirius explained, pointing to each of us in turn.
"Cool." I said, smiling at my new friends. We sat in silence for a few minutes before I moved to sit next to Remus.
"Why'd you move, Sierra?" Remus asked, watching me thoughtfully as I got comfortable.
"You looked lonely," I replied, returning his gaze, "and I thought you might like some company."