The Marauders
Prologue: The Beginning of Something New
Lily Evans had brushed her red hair about one hundred times before nine o'clock in the morning. She had double-checked all her supplies were in her trunk and shined her shoes so they reflected her nervous face. She now sat in front of the mirror practicing saying hello and introducing herself.
"My name is Lily Evans, how do you do?"
"Hi I'm Lily!"
"Hello my name is Lily Evans, nice to meet you too."
She heard a snicker from her doorway and turned to see her older sister Petunia smirking at her.
"You'll never fit in at that school, you're too much of a freak!" Petunia sniffed and made her way downstairs.
Lily looked at herself in the mirror and watched as her cheeks blotched and tears welled in her eyes.
"James Potter, where is your wand!?"
The voice carried into the backyard where the young boy pushed his glasses up his nose and pointed his broomstick towards the ground. As he dismounted his mother came running into the backyard and waited with her hands on hips until he bought forth the missing wand from his pocket. She snatched it from his hands.
"You should not play with this, you might break it!" she chastised him, licking her thumb and rubbing off a patch of dirt on her son's cheek.
"Mum get off!" he tried to pushed her away.
"Alright, alright," she said calmly.
As she walked back to the house James rolled his eyes and mounted his broom again, pocketing the wand he had pinched from her back pocket.
It was chaos in Elena Prewett's house. Her mother, having already seen three children graduate from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, should have been more organised but, like every year, she left everything to the last minute. Elena was following her mother in a daze, picking up things her mother had put down and turning them over in her hand. Her older sister Molly and her husband had come over to the house to say goodbye. There was an eleven year gap between the two sisters but that didn't seem to matter. Molly was cradling little Bill in her arms while Arthur was helping Mr Prewett pile everything together.
"Elena dear, where is your uniform?" Mrs Prewett asked flinging a pile of jumpers off her bed.
Elena looked at her mother, "In my case, where it's been for a week. Mum I've got everything ready."
Fabian and Gideon were waiting downstairs with their hands in their waistcoat pockets. They were only a year apart and acted more like twins than just brothers. Fabian ruffled his youngest sister's hair and she shied away from him scowling. Gideon patted her hair down and gave her a mischievous wink.
"Alright!" Mrs Prewett yelled running into the living room, "Are we all ready? Let's go before we miss the train altogether!"
Sirius Black stared out his bedroom window at Grimwauld Place. In his hands he held his Hogwarts letter, which he had read a thousand times. He had mixed feelings about attending the magical school. Everyone in his family had been to Hogwarts, they were all pure-blooded wizards and every single one of them had been in Slytherin. Now he sat in his room filled with Muggle things and his Gryffindor bedspread. He had done his best to make light of the grave situation he faced. He could be like the rest of his horrible family and join Slytherin, follow the family dream and be the extremist pure-blood. Or he could go against the norm and be sorted into Gryffindor, find redemption for his family.