All characters and everything else in the amazingly fantastical world of Harry Potter was not written by me, but by the spectacular mind of J.K. Rowling. Copyright and all that jazz goes to her and her people. Enjoy!

The Marauder Years

Year One: Lily

Chapter 1

"I'm not sure about this Sev," Lily muttered under her breath. The platform was packed with people all bustling about, not many noticed them standing there with their over sized trunks in front of the wall between two platform signs, one that read 9 and the other 10.

"Come on Lily, look how many people there are, nobody'll notice. Besides, I bet you nobody here cares about anything besides what's in their own bloody lives." Severus didn't show any signs of nervousness, quite contrary to Lily, he looked excited, much more excited than Lily had ever seen him really.

"It's just so odd, what if it doesn't work and I just go splat against the wall. I bet you people will notice that."

"I promise you won't go splat. Do you want me to go first? Show you how it's done." Sev's voice was always deep and strong but always seemed encouraging to Lily. He was much different from anyone she had ever known before, not just because of how oddly he dressed, or acted, or anything. But because he watched everything, took in every aspect of a situation, and then spoke his opinion with a strength that was decisive, yet never loud or too intrusive. He was strong and smart, but never showed off or raised his voice.

"No, no I don't want to be left here by myself, I'll go first." She stared across at the wall. God, this was so weird. She began to trot across the floor, feeling very self-conscious of how she must look. She began to gain speed, just wanting it to be over. As the platform wall drew closer and closer she instinctively began to slow down and close her eyes, but it was approaching too quickly, she couldn't stop, she would smash right into it…

Suddenly she tripped over something and was just able to catch herself from flying across the floor. She opened her eyes to see a beautiful platform full of people with carriages just like hers, all bustling about a giant steam engine under a sign that read Platform 9¾. She stood in amazement at her surroundings until someone beside her shouted "Hey you!" Lily turned to her left to see a boy her age with dark hair and grey eyes.

"You just ran over my foot with your cart and you're not even going to say hello?" he didn't seem mad, but more surprised and amused.

"Sorry," she replied shortly. She didn't mean to be rude or un-talkative, but she was nervous. Did wizards have a different sort of etiquette than normal people? Muggles, she remembered, that's what Sev called them.

"Leave the girl alone Sirius," a boy next to him joked as he attempted to put the first boy, Sirius, into a headlock. The second boy also had dark hair, but his was much messier and he wore round glasses that sat lightly on his thin nose.

"Gerroff James!" Lily felt a tap on the shoulder and turned around to see Sev, who had appeared behind her.

"We should be getting on the train, it should be leaving soon." Lily nodded, but noticed that Sev was looking at the two boys wrestling beside her, his eyes filled with a disdain she had never quite seen in him before. She began to see a new side of Sev, she had never thought of him having a past before, with friends and enemies, she'd always known him as a sort of loner, who'd always kept to himself except when he was with her.

They walked over to the train and went us the stairs on one of the back-most train cars. Sev lead her past a few compartments, searching each one for who was inside. At last they came to a compartment with people Sev seemed to recognize, slid open the glass door, and went inside.

Two boys were in the compartment before they entered. The first was small but looked rather shifty with dark eyes and high, deeply arched eyebrows. He sat in the back corner of the compartment, scrunched up on one of the two benches that faced each other. The other boy was bigger, but still rather lean, and sat with his back against one end of the car and his legs stretched out along the seat. He had light, almost white hair and small hazel eyes. As Lily and Severus entered, both boys looked up and smirked at the sight of them.

"Look who it is," said the light haired boy, "Sev'rus, it's been quite a while hasn't it."

"Too long Avery," Sev replied, " this here is Lily." That was when the boy in the corner spoke.

"Ah yes the mud-," Lily couldn't see Sev's face, as they were still standing in the doorway, but she knew he was glaring at the boy, his fists clenched in fists at his sides. The boy grinned a maliciously awful sort of smile. Lily knew she wouldn't like him. "-Muggle-born," The boy finished, smiling horrifically. Sev's fists unclenched.

"Come on Sev'rus, take off that hideous overcoat and sit awhile," the boy Avery jumped in. Then, he turned to Lily "and don't worry about ol' Mulciber, he's rather rude at first, but he just gets off on making people feel out-of-place." As if that made it okay. Sev scooted next to Mulciber as Avery slid his feet down, allowing Lily to take the seat next to him. Lily was just fine with this seating arrangement; she wanted to sit as far away from Mulciber as she could. She didn't really understand what had gone on just now, but she didn't like it.

The boys began to drift in to a conversation about people and things she had never heard of. At first she had tried to join in, but gave up after the only words she seemed able to utter were "what's that" or "who's that" or "why's that". Eventually she just contented herself with peering out the glass compartment door, watching the morphed silhouettes of people glide by. Lily felt a tugging in her stomach. She missed home, she missed the Sev that talked to her about things they both liked, or at least that she understood. She didn't know these people, and she didn't like them much. She felt like crying, but knew she couldn't, it would be too embarrassing. Lily, the weak little muggleborn girl who cried on her first day. That wasn't her. She just felt so alone. Still, she had to be strong, she was strong, it would all be okay. But even as she thought that, she wasn't sure it was true. Could she really trust anyone here? They were all so bizarre.

"What about you Lily?, said Avery.

"Huh?" replied Lily dumbly as she peeled her skin off the cold glass of the compartment's door.

"What house do you think you'll be in?"

"There are four," Sev cut in, "Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffendor."

"Slytherin's the best one," Mulciber added. They sat silently for a moment, waiting for Lily to answer.

"Uhh…well if Slytherin really is the best, than I guess that one."

"Good choice," Avery said. Sev looked a bit relieved, it seemed like this was some sort of test, she thought she had passed. Still, anything Mulciber recommended didn't seem like the best option to Lily. She went back to her window until she heard a scrambling coming from further up the hall of the train.

"What's that?" She asked.

"Probably just the trolley," replied Avery. He didn't seem all that bad, but there was still something about him she didn't trust.

"The cart that comes around and sells sweets and such," added Sev. Lily reached around until she found some of the silver and bronze wizard coins in her pocket. She desperately wanted to escape this car, and stretch her legs.

"I think I'll go get something," she said to the boys "anybody want anything while I'm up." They all shook their heads. Sev gave her an encouraging smile, but Lily felt odd about it. Like she was performing for his mates, and had pleased the crowd. She didn't like that.

Lily stood up and opened the glass car door. Down the hall of the train she could see a line she assumed was for the trolley. She probably shouldn't be spending all her money on sweets, but she felt she needed this. She couldn't stay in that car, she couldn't come back without anything, and she desperately needed some form of chocolate, maybe they even had Mars bars. Those were Lily's favorite. Lily stood at the back of the line behind a girl with crazy-curly blond hair who had already changed into her school robes. Maybe she should change into her robes when she got back. She hoped the Hogwarts express had a bathroom; she wasn't changing in front of all those boys.

"Hey, I know you," said a voice behind Lily. She turned around to see the boy who had wrestled the other boy, Sirius, on the platform. James, she remembered. Out of the hustle and bustle of the train's platform, she really noticed him for the first time. He was an average height, perhaps a little taller than Lily, and was rather lanky, with an angular face. Still, despite his smaller physic, his obvious personality and bright smile made up plenty for all that wasn't present from his figure. He stood with confidence, not slouching, but not looking uptight. He looked down on Lily (though he was only maybe an inch or two taller) with a bright smile that stretched from ear to ear. "You're the girl who ran Sirius over with your trolley; don't worry he had it coming to him, the prat." He said this while smirking, but without any disdain or unkindness. Quite unlike Mulciber, Lily noted.

"I suppose I did, though he should know not to stand in front of a magically disappearing brick wall," Lily said. At this the boy grinned, somehow, even wider.

"You're quite right, the name's James."

"Lily."

"You're up Lily." She turned around to notice the line before her had disappeared, and she alone stood before a trolley of a thousand different odd-looking sweets she had never heard of. She stood silently looking over the treats, not knowing what to do. She hoped none of them would turn her into a rabbit.

"Muggle-born are you," James asked politely. Lily nodded. "Here." He handed her a purple box that looked like it contained some kind of jellybeans. "The best ones are orange with brown flecks, pumpkin spice." He was grinning again.

"Thanks." Lily paid for the candy and headed back to her car.

Just as she reached for her car's door, Lily heard Avery's voice coming from inside.

"Come off it Sev'rus what were you thinking bringing her along." Lily froze. They had to be talking about her, who else could the "her" Avery mentioned be. Lily felt a blaze of anger. What? Had she done something wrong? She knew she hadn't been all that talkative, but she had tried to be polite, it wasn't like they had been all that welcoming. Lily slid out of view of the glass car doors but stayed within earshot of Avery. "I mean she's nice and all, but she's a mudblood, and true Slytherins aren't all peachy and sunflowers and daisies." Lily definatly wasn't feeling all "peachy and sunflowers and daisies" right now. She desperately wanted to smack Avery in the face.

"Would you stop that Avery, I'm only a half-blood, what about me?" Sev retaliated.

"You are already pushing it, if you want him to let you join in you can't hang around with those kind of people."

"I mean, what do you expect he wants us to do?" Mulciber added "Make friends? don't be daft."

"But come on…" Severus began. Lily heard footsteps behind her. She had stayed outside to long. She opened the door to the car, and the arguing stopped immediately. A look of guilt passed over Sev's face before he disconnected eye contact and began staring at the floor. Mulciber had all of a sudden become quite preoccupied by twirling the wand that had appeared in his hand. Avery, however, stared straight at Lily, without even a hint of regret or guilt. She hated them, all of them, even Sev a little bit, but at least she had sort of stood up for her. Either way, what was she to do? She was new, weak, small, and she hated it. She knew she had no chance getting into a fight she didn't even quite understand, but that didn't mean she would just forget it. After she learned some magic, she would turn them all into the true rodents they were.

"What'd you get?" asked Avery sternly.

"What?" asked Lily. The simple question had taken her completely off guard, she didn't know what she expected, but it certainly wasn't small talk or whatever Avery was playing at.

"From the trolley."

"Oh," Lily had completely forgotten why she had left or even what the boy at the trolley had handed her. She held up the purple box and read the gold inscription. "Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans," she read.

"Be careful with those," Avery replied shortly.

Lily sit back in her seat and peeled back the plastic wrapper around the candy box. They sat in an awkward silence for a bit until Avery and Mulciber began a conversation about something called Quidditch. Sev just stared at her, trying to make eye contact, but Lily avoided his gaze, staring intently at the different candy beans, choosing the safest looking to eat. Eventually, Sev weaned back into the conversation and Lily leaned her head against the corner of her seat. It was all too much, everything was too new, too weird. People already hated her and she had no idea why. Even Sev was acting weird. She felt numb, all her feelings tucked up inside her. She went back to scrounging around in the box of beans until she found an orange one flecked with brown just like the boy had described. She plopped it in her mouth and bit down hard.

"Ugh!" Lily screamed. A horrid flavor erupted in her mouth like vomit. The other boys in the car turned and stared at her. She gagged, and it took all of her strength to swallow the bloody thing, and not spit it out onto the floor. The boy at the car, James, whatever, had obviously tricked her into eating whatever disgusting flavored bean that was.

"I told you to be careful," said Avery "they really do have every flavor." Lily knew she was blushing bright red. She attempted to scoot further in to the corner, hiding from the world. She closed the bloody box of beans and shoved into her coat pocket, not daring to eat another. Why was everyone here out to get her? Still, she couldn't just wallow in self-pity; she was stronger than that. Besides, James was just playing a harmless joke; he didn't seem to hate her like Mulciber or Avery obviously did. Lily had even thought he might like her, more than the others anyway, but she was probably wrong.

Lily spent the rest of the train ride sitting in silence after she went to change her robes. She had even seen James on her way to the bathroom, he had grinned at her, but without any malice, just a playful joy she could never imagine on Avery, Mulciber or even Sev's face. After she got back she sat, thinking about what a mudblood was (defiantly not a good thing), or which house she would be in (preferably not Avery or Mulciber's but she hoped she would be in Sev's, she couldn't stand the idea of being all alone). She knew nothing about this world; she was already so tired just from hearing about it. Finally the train began to slow, and people began to get out of their seats. They had arrived at Hogwarts.

Continue to chapter 2