A.N. For the AU fic challenge :) Crossovering (new word?) Brave and Harry Potter. Lily is obviously Merida :) This is focusing more on the stuff from the beginning, rather than the marriage stuff that happened. Anyway, enjoy.

As she stopped to catch her breath, she looked back. Pulling her mare, Minerva, to a stop, Lily, princess of the Hogwarts kingdom, grinned. She felt so much more freedom just riding her horse.

Lily often took herself on these nightly excursions, to escape her sister's watchful eye. She hated being a princess. Everyday, it was her sister Petunia telling her how to properly behave. Lily had no say in the matter, ever since her mother died. Their father, well, he was more like her best friend. Next to her horse, of course.

Her father would actually laugh, and joke around with her. Petunia would just remind Lily that she musn't be so loud when she laughed.

Lily only wished that the two of them could go back to the olden days. Being best friends, and running around. She supposed that their mother's death from that werewolf had changed Petunia.

She continued to gallop, hoping that she would be able to get as far away from the castle as she could before the moon reached it's peak.

Minerva let out a loud snort as she galloped, before she slowed down.

"What is it, Minnie?" Lily asked.

The horse only snorted in response, head twisting around. She sniffed the air, before pinning her ears back.

"Minnie?" Lily muttered.

Minerva then burst forwards, starting to gallop once again. Lily dropped the reins, but managed to stay on top of the saddle, keeping her heels down in the stirrups. Lily fumbled for the reins, the trees passing by in a blur. She didn't know what had caused Minerva to spook, but it was obviously nothing good.

Minerva was still galloping, when a creature leapt out of nowhere, knocking Lily off of the mare. Minerva reared, trying to hit whatever had attacked. Lily could make out a large brown wolf. It was one of the largest she had ever seen, with fangs as long as her hand.

Werewolf

The word popped into her brain. Lily automatically knew this was true, especially with the moonlight coming from the full moon above. She had been such a fool!

Why ever did she come out on a night like this? Lily scooted backwards as quickly as she could. Granted, she wanted to help Minerva, but found nothing of use to stop the werewolf.

Then Lily's hand landed on a rock. She felt it out, not taking her eyes from her horse and the wolf. It was sharp, and enough to hurt, definitely. It was the only way of protecting Minerva.

So Lily decided to throw it. She mustered up all her strength, and aimed right at the wolf's head. She threw, and it hit the werewolf in the right place.

Unfortunately, it did work, but it didn't knock the werewolf out. Instead, all it did was bring the werewolf's attention to Lily. She let out a quiet whimper, continuing to back up.

Then out of nowhere, a large black dog, and a stag leapt through the bushes behind her. They stood in front of Lily as the werewolf stalked forwards. To make it even odder, there was what could be made out as a rat, now standing in between the two animals.

She watched as the three animals protected her. Though the rat didn't bring much effect, but he did bite the werewolf's paws.

It was only in a few moments, which felt like hours to Lily, that the werewolf ran off. The dog and rat bounded after the werewolf. However, the stag stood still, causing the black dog to look back. They seemed to have some sort of telepathic conversation, before both the dog and rat disappeared.

This only left Lily with a stressed horse, and a really weird stag. The stag walked up to her cautiously, as if trying not to scare her. Lily's eyes widened slightly as, before her eyes, the stag shifted into a human. The human had messy black hair, hazel eyes, and glasses resting on his nose.

She stared at him. Minerva snorted, trotting over to stand behind Lily, not trusting the boy one bit.

"You're a-a warlock?"

"Nah, I'm a shapeshifter." he smiled softly. "You alright?"

"I am, but...who are you?" Lily asked, staring up at him.

"James Potter, woodsman." he grinned. "And you are?"

"Pr-uh, Lily, from the Dunbroch clan." Lily muttered. "How do shape-shifter's exist?"

"My mum is a wi-" James paused, grin slowly fading. "A wood carver. Born a shapeshifter though!"

After all, there were a lot of people after witches ever since that one woman turned one of the sons of the ancient kingdoms into the first ever werewolf. Not a pretty story. There was

"Who were your friends?" Lily asked.

This time, James' grin came back full force.

"We call ourselves the Marauders."

A.N. This was rushed as I am busy, but I do hope you enjoyed it :)

Cheers!

Lupe