AN: Not even in my wildest dreams do I own Harry Potter, so these wonderful characters all belong to Jo Rowling. The cover art is by viria13 on deviantart (Do check her out! She's incredibly talented and she's got a rather large collection of marauders fan art). And now since we've got the disclaimers out of the way, I'll let you (hopefully) enjoy The Year of The Pheonix...
This I know
Right from the start, like it's the first time
It finally feels like coming home
Jetta
"I am going to miss this," said Lily Evans, as she and her two best friends, Dorcas Meadows and Marlene McKinnon admired the station they had become so familiar with in the past 7 years. "I remember how immense it all seemed when we were first came here."
The three girls were so deep in thought, reliving memories that they were all a little startled when a deep voice spoke behind them.
"Someone's getting nostalgic." They turned around to face James Potter grinning broadly at them. His warm brown eyes sparkled with mischief behind his dark-rimmed glasses and his black messy hair stood up in every possible direction as usual. Accompanying him were two other boys of the same age. The first one was Remus Lupin. His head of honey colored hair that curled slightly around his temples wasn't bent down as usual, his nose buried in a book. His face looked mature beyond his years, his cheeks were slightly hallowed and deep bruises showed under his eyes, like he didn't get a good night's sleep in quite a while. He had hazel eyes that crinkled around the corners when he smiled, the only feature that showed his true age and brightened up his whole face.
The other boy had slightly longer hair that was jet black and his eyes, the most peculiar shade of silver, winked at the three girls as a way of greeting them, his lips were curled in a grin. His features too were angular, regal almost, though he bore no noble lineage; his cheekbones high, the lines of his jaw and nose straight, his face pale and elegant. The latter, was the infamous Sirius Black.
"I'm so happy to see you!" Marlene all but screamed, going to hug the boys. Marlene had always been a pretty girl with long, golden locks like a halo around her head, and piercing icy blue eyes but she never bragged about her looks or looked down on anyone and had always claimed that she would've rather had Lily's green eyes or Dorcas' chocolate brown curls.
While Marlene knew very well she caught boys' stares everywhere and Lily did consider herself pretty, Dorcas Meadows, the third musketeer to their group, didn't see that she was pretty and didn't believe this when anyone told her. And the fact that she didn't consider herself beautiful and let her two fiery best friends have the spotlight was something that intrigued Remus very much. He was looking at her, thinking about how mysterious she was, without intending too. When he caught her eye, she smiled, her cheeks turning rosy.
"Had a good summer girls?" asked the first boy, James.
"Up until now, it was," Lily said half-jokingly. She regarded the boys with her head cocked to the side, her dark red hair spilling over her shoulders.
"You missed us, Evans. Admit it," Sirius Black teased.
"Sure I did, Black," she retorted but both teenagers had smiles on their faces.
"Well, I missed you, guys and I missed Hogwarts so I'm glad we're going back," said Marlene smiling broadly. "I even missed McGonagall, and good ol' Dumbledore, and Slughorn and …"
"I really don't want to interrupt our little reunion," Dorcas told everyone. "But we won't be going back to Hogwarts if we don't hurry to catch the train. It's going to leave any minute now." Realizing that Dorcas was right, everyone pushed their luggage in the direction of the platform 9 ¾, still chatting animatedly among themselves.
"Are you ready, everyone? This is the last time we're doing this, let's do it right."
"Oh, James, school didn't even start yet and you're making me feel nostalgic about leaving it," Sirius complained, laughing but he was as excited for the beginning of their last school year as James was.
"Ready?" James asked again, angling his luggage trolley towards the barrier, ready to run. Lily, Dorcas, Marlene, Remus and Sirius followed his lead and they all lined up, ready to run.
"Ready!" Sirius answered grinning at his best mate and everyone started dashing towards the barrier one after another, all laughing madly, crossing the barrier to platform 9 ¾ for the last time.
"Is that book about Hippogriffs?" Dorcas asked Remus, once they had settled into a compartment on the train. She leaned in a bit to see what he was reading. The book showed different drawings of a Hippogriff's bone and muscular structure
"Yes, they're really peculiar creatures," Remus replied smiling at the girl.
"I find them quite interesting," Dorcas told him and they launched into a conversation where Remus told her about all the different habits that Hippogriffs had. Lily smiled at this, knowing full well that her best friend wasn't interested at all in the flying creatures, but more in the bookworm of a guy that stood next to her. Sirius and Marlene were quite into a game of exploding snap, so Lily resorted to making small talk with James, asking him about his summer and telling him about what class or lesson she was most excited for. In the past year, James and Lily stopped arguing like they always would when they were younger but they weren't quite friends. They more like had common friends. But Lily couldn't lie, James wasn't a bad bloke. Once he stopped asking her out constantly, she realized that he was actually a decent guy, not an annoying wanker like she had initially thought.
"I need to go to the Heads meeting," Lily announced at one point. "Remus, are you coming too?"
"Yes, just a second," he responded, adjusting his Prefect badge.
"I need to find out who made head boy. Merlin, I hope it's not that annoying Hufflepuf, Amos Diggory, he is most infuriating, I don't reckon I could do patrols once a week with him," she shuddered. Marlene and Dorcas giggled at the thought of their friend being stuck with said Hufflepuf as a head boy.
"I'm pretty sure it's not him," James said smirking.
"How do you know that?"
"I have my sources," he told Lily while taking out his Head Boy badge and pinning it on his robe. "You ready to go, Lils?"
Lily's jaw almost dropped. James was Head Boy? She couldn't believe it! Had Dumbledore gone to the deep end? He made James Potter, infamous marauder, prankster and mischief maker Head Boy?!
Marlene put her hand over her mouth to hide her giggle and looked at Sirius with wide amused eyes.
"You can't believe how excited he's been ever since he found out," Sirius whispered in Marlene's ear. Unfortunately, Marlene didn't quite concentrate on his words because the second she felt Sirius's hot breath near her ear her mind blanked out and she got shivers down her spine. She hated to admit but Sirius did that to her sometimes. Of course, probably every girl at Hogwarts had that reaction to Sirius Black. Even Dorcas and Lily admitted he was handsome.
"Lily, are you ready to go?" James asked again and Lily nodded weakly still stunned.
"Has anyone seen Darcy?" Frank Longbottom asked opening the door to the compartment where Sirius, Marlene and Dorcas were. Sirius tried not to laugh at the poor boy, who was always losing his pet.
"Did you lose him again? Marlene asked.
The boy nodded weakly, his brown curls falling into his eyes. "I don't know how but I always manage to lose that bloody cat."
"Don't worry, Frank, he's going to turn up eventually. He always does," Dorcas assured him. "Take a seat. What did you do this summer?" she politely asked the boy who was eager to tell her all about his trips with his parents around Europe.
"So, how was your summer, Sirius?" Marlene asked while studying her perfectly manicured red nails.
"Oh, you know same old, same old. Mum and Dad have disinherited me, Reggie dearest has got his dark mark and mum blasted me off the tree. So… nothing much, you?"
"I'm sorry," Marlene said softly but Sirius just brushed her comment off.
"It doesn't matter. I moved to James' for the rest of the summer and I don't plan on going back 'home' anyway. That place is worse than a hell hole. I'm sick and tired of it all, the arguments and the fights. Last time I dared confront Regulus about his dark mark and I was told that he wears his dark mark with pride and I should've done the same but I am 'a disgrace to the noble and most ancient house of Black'," he said mimicking his mother's shrill voice. "And then I was crucio'd," he deadpanned.
"Sirius," Marlene gasped, her blue eyes wide. "That's … that's illegal. Why didn't you say anything?"
"Say what? Who would've done something, Mar? The ministry? Half of the people in the ministry are Voldemort's supporters or dead right Death eaters! That's why I keep saying, nothing will change if we don't fight back!"
"You know I agree with you but we're still in school… What could we do about it?"
"It's our last year. We'll soon leave and then what? We have to do something! We need to be able to protect ourselves and the ones we love! He's gaining so many followers. I heard my cousins! We have to do something. People don't realize how serious this is!"
All conversation around them has ceased. Things were always getting pretty heated whenever Sirius talked about You-Know-Who. He was convinced that people had to fight him and Marlene completely agreed with him but she didn't understand what they could do seeing as they were still young and quite inexperienced.
"Anything from the trolley, dears?" the sweets trolley woman asked breaking the tension.
"Some of your perfect timing, please," Marlene murmured.
"Uh… so we need to find out how we are going to split patrolling duties," Lily said absentmindedly, scribbling on a schedule, her brows furrowed in concentration.
"I think it's simple, Lily. We'll have Gryffindor Perfects on Monday, Ravenclaw Perfects next, then Hufflepuf, Slytherin and then on Friday the Head boy and girl and after we finish we can start over. What is it to figure out?" James explained matter-of-factly.
"Nothing…"
"Ok, so I guess me and Lily will patrol this Friday," James said writing this information down.
"Great," Lily said half-heartedly.
"Well, that matter's settled, we'll have our next meeting tomorrow after classes to figure out patrolling routes and hours. Until then… everything's clear. Lily and I will patrol tonight, just to get to know the routes better and then we'll tell you everything there is to know. That is, if you are ok with tonight, Lily."
"Oh, yes. Sure, James," she told him.
"Ok. Then we'll see everyone tomorrow," James concluded and everyone stood up to leave the meeting and head back to their compartments. A few stopped on their way to congratulate James and Lily for getting their Head Boy and Girl badges and they politely smiled and thanked them but Lily's mind was elsewhere.
James wasn't that bad actually, the girl thought. He was quite responsible and he definitely has leader qualities. Well, of course, he has leader qualities, Lily, he's captain of the Quidditch team! But… maybe James has matured. Maybe Dumbledore didn't make a bad decision making him Head Boy.
The redhead's internal rambling was interrupted when a petite girl with short black hair that was cut like a boy's and round doe like brown eyes that seemed too big for her face, making her look like a porcelain doll stumbled out from a compartment. The girl held a brown cat in her arms that struggled to set itself free.
"Oh, hi, Remus, James and Lily," she greeted them with a big smile. "I'm looking for Frank, if you see him, please tell him I've found Darcy." She pointed with her chin towards the cat in her arms. "Thank you," she finished quickly, opening the next compartment and asking inside if anyone had seen Frank.
James just shrugged at the girl's weird behavior and continued to walk towards their compartment. He passed the trolley lady and bought some Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and made a face when the first one he tried was Fungus flavored. He entered the compartment, oblivious to the tension around and took a seat next to Sirius, offering him candy. Lily and Remus followed, the latter closing the door and they took a seat too, greeting Frank.
"Oh, by the way, Frank. Alice's got Darcy, she was looking for you," Lily told him.
"Merlin bless that girl," he said smiling dreamily. "I don't know what I'd do without her. Thank you, Lily," he said and went to search for Alice.
"How was the meeting?" Dorcas asked Lily, her eyes quickly darting towards James who was inspecting two Bertie Bott's beans, trying to figure out the flavor. Marlene was listening now too, wanting to hear Lily's response.
"It was good," Lily answered in a matter which said 'I'll fill you in later' and Marlene sighed disappointedly. Remus was pretending to be reading a book but the small smile that played on his lips betrayed that he had been listening in on the conversation too. James and Sirius though, were completely oblivious, comparing bean colours and debating on whether a pink bean was supposed to be sweet or sour.
"We need to go and uh… get something from our luggage," James said after some time as he, Remus and Sirius got up and were about to leave the compartment. They seemed to be buzzing from excitement.
"Okay," Lily said, taking out a book called '101 Ways to Anger Gillypuffs' to read.
"Not so fast," Marlene told them and Dorcas started giggling. "I want in too."
"You want in?" Remus and Lily asked her, both with confused looks on their faces.
"Don't play dumb, Remus. And Lily, honestly, I expected more from you. We've known them for so many years, you should already know that's 'code' for we're going to go and pull a prank. I want in," the girl finished smugly.
"A prank? James, you're Head boy, you can't do this," Lily told him, starting to doubt her previous theory that James had matured.
"Sorry, Lils. It's our last year at Hogwarts; we need to make the best of it."
"Exactly my point. I want in," Marlene insisted.
"But this is Marauder stuff," James said quite uncertain as to what to do.
"Oh, come on, Prongs, she wants some fun, so let's show her how the Marauders have fun," Sirius said, grinning at Marlene. "It's quite an easy prank too, nothing too laborious."
"Okay. I guess you can come, but only this time," James reasoned and opened the compartment door to leave.
"Dory?" Marlene asked, raising an eyebrow expectantly at her best friend. "Are you coming too?"
"Ehh…" she said unsure, but a little 'please' from Remus was all it took for Dorcas to give in.
"You are so going to get detention from that," Lily told them nonchalantly as they left the compartment.
"Been there, done that," Marlene said at the same time that Dorcas said "I know! It's so exciting!"
I kind of had the whole plot for this story in my head for quite a long time but I never got round to writing it. Until now, that is. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you'll enjoy future chapters too (where there will be more of Lily/James, Sirius/Marlene and Dorcas/Remus)
Rate and review if you don't mind. I really appreciate it. :)