A/N: Hey all. :) This is going to be a collab fic between me, Serena, and my friend, Baine, who'll be writing the second chapter. XD
This story is based on the JDrama; Hana Yori Dango.(Also known as Meteor Garden or Boys Before Flowers)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, J.K. Rowling does, and I don't own the plotline, the makers of Hana Yori Dango do. Everything clear? Okay then. On with the fic!
Lily Evans looked up at the huge castle that was Hogwarts and sighed as two students passed by, talking about their latest trip from Paris, both lugging behind them expensive-looking trunks. It was going to be the fifth year of her stay in Hogwarts, and in all honesty, she couldn't wait until the end of her 7th year.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was a prestigious school, where mostly the extremely rich, pureblood families send their children. Sadly, Lily wasn't part of one of those families. Instead, she had been granted a scholarship after a lot of things her mother had to do. She never thought it necessary for her to go to Hogwarts, but her mother had insisted, and here she was, 5 years later, still not enjoying her stay in this elite private school.
"I didn't know you were still studying here, you little mudblood beggar."
Lily ignored the comment from the person, and continued walking along with the other students to the Great Hall. After all, after 5 years of relentless mocking, she'd at least have learned how to let them slide. Sure, it hurt the first few times, but why should care about what a bunch of arrogant jerks think about her?
More people had begun to gather in front of the doors of Great Hall, waiting for them to open. Lily walked towards the crowd, blocking out the sound of the people beginning to talk about her(as usual), and looked up at the doors, hoping that this fifth year would go by quietly.
The doors slowly began to creak open, and more people entered once the gap was relatively wider. People pushed past Lily and went in, before she finally struggled through the pushing crowd, and once she was in the hall, realized that everybody had stopped dead in their tracks, all eyes fixed on one spot in the room.
Right there, by the 4 hourglasses which showed the house points of each house, in the middle of all four, was a smaller hourglass, with black sand, each grain of sand falling, a seemingly never-ending stream of sand, with a small golden signature that read; The Marauders. And above the hourglass were letters forming a name…the name was familiar to Lily…A fourth year Hufflepuff…Alex Pesto.
Silence had taken over the room. Slowly, everyone turned to the boy with brown hair who was staring in wide-eyed horror at the hour glass.
"B-but…I…I…"
"Get him!"
Before the poor Hufflepuff could react and run away, the crowd lifted him up and began carrying him away from the Great Hall, to where the Marauders were during times like this. Lily stayed behind in the hall, watching sadly as the crowd carried the defenseless boy to utter humiliation.
"Um…excuse me?"
Lily turned around to face a girl who was looking at her with a look of confusion. Her hair was curled slightly, and her green eyes were wide as she asked; "What's…going on?"
"Are you new here?"
"Yeah…I just transferred schools. I'm Mia Ansen."
"Oh…I'm Lily. Lily Evans. Well…about what's going on. It's a bit…complicated."
"Complicated?"
"Yeah…You see, there are four students in this school who call themselves the Marauders. Their families are so ridiculously rich, that they've put so much money into helping this school. And their families are so powerful in the wizarding world, no one, not even the teachers have any say when the four of them do anything wrong."
"So…what was with the hourglass?"
"Every time someone angers the Marauders…that hourglass appears right there. And the name above it is the person who's doomed. The people have to subject that person to bullying, mocking, all sorts of things to force him to drop out because of humiliation. And the Marauders made it a stupid thing to make the hourglass like some sort of challenge. That by the time the time stops, that person would be gone from Hogwarts. It's idiotic, I know they control when the sand stops anyway."
"Wow…what're their names?"
"Well…first off, there's Peter Pettigrew, who seems to enjoy the company of upper years or even older women. Then there's Sirius Black, a total playboy who's been known to change girlfriends so often it's hard to keep track of who he's dating at the moment. There's Remus Lupin…he's not actually as bad as the rest of the Marauders. He's quiet…and mysterious. And then there's the worst of all of them…James Potter. He has a horrible temper, and is considered the 'Leader' of the Marauders. I bet the hourglass was his idea. He's always the one that gets angry at people for the most stupid reasons. I suggest you avoid all of them, especially Potter."
"Oh…but where did everyone go?"
"Outside, by the lake, most probably. That's where the Marauders stay sometimes. I think we should go follow, I'll show you just who you have to avoid."
"O-Okay."
Mia reluctantly followed her as Lily led the way to the lake. They could already see the huge crowd gathered there, cheering and mocking. Lily and Mia made their way through the crowd, to see that in the middle was Alex, who was now staring in fear at the four who were in front of him.
"See, Mia. That's them. Those four over there. That's Pettigrew, the shortest one, Black's the one over there, with the sleek black hair, Lupin's the one light brown hair, who's staring off into space. And Potter's the one who has glasses, who doesn't look like he brushed his hair at all."
Everyone stopped talking and whispering or cheering once James took a step forward, facing the Hufflepuff with an indifferent look in his hazel eyes.
"I told you, you would regret talking about me like that."
"L-look, I'm sorry, okay!"
James took a step forward and grabbed the trembling Hufflepuff by his collar and lifted him up.
"Tell me, Pesto. If I hadn't been there to hear what you said, would you really be sorry?"
He dropped Alex on the ground and looked around the crowd. "What're you waiting for? Beat him to a pulp." And he walked away with the other three Marauders without another word.
The two girls watched with a mixture of horror and disgust as a bunch of guys picked up Alex and started punching and kicking him, one of them grabbed a bucket that was near a tree and filled it with water from the Black Lake, dropping all the water on the poor Hufflepuff.
"Let's go, Mia. I don't want to watch this anymore."
As they slowly walked closer to the castle, Mia ran to catch up with Lily. "What exactly did that boy do to James?"
"Two people in the crowd were talking about it…they were saying how during the summer, Alex was in Diagon Alley, buying his things and he was ranting to one of the people in the store about how Potter was a spoiled brat, and apparently, Potter was there to hear it."
They passed by the Great Hall, and saw a teacher gesture for Mia to go inside.
"Oh, that's right. I still have to get sorted. See you tomorrow, I guess, Lily." She waved and smiled before she entered the Great Hall. Lily sighed and walked towards the fields, staying as far away from the huge crowd gathered by the lake. She clenched her fists tightly, her anger burning up inside her.
"Idiots! They're all a bunch of idiots! What's so great about those Marauders anyway?! Beating up a person until they drop out of school, it's all a game to them! It makes me so mad! And the way all those students seemed excited to beat up that poor kid, it's all stupid! You hear me?! STUPID!"
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Somewhere nearby, Remus Lupin was lying on the grass, a book covering his face. He took the book back in his hands and looked up when he heard a girl screaming. He sat up and frowned, looking around until he saw the source of the voice. A girl with red hair. She seemed pretty familiar, too. He watched her as she sighed and began to walk away. Odd girl.
---
Lily arrived in the Gryffindor common room. It was getting pretty late, but before she went to sleep, she decided to write a letter to her friend, Mimi.
Dear Mimi,
Hey. Back at Hogwarts. A fourth year got his name on the Black Hourglass a while ago. It really makes me mad, that everyone's so stupid and just follows the orders if the Marauders. Honestly. I want to beat them up if I could, but I don't think that's the best thing to do right now…I don't want to get kicked out…it's so unfair. Anyway, see you during the Hogsmeade weekend, I guess. How is it over there?
Lily.
She finished writing the letter and hurried to the Owlery to give it to her owl, Hoot.
Lily and Mimi had been friends even before Lily entered Hogwarts. Mimi was the daughter of the current owner of the candy shop in Hogsmeade, and she studied in one the smaller, local schools near Hogsmeade.
When Hoot flew off with the letter, Lily watched it a bit before going back to the Common Room, seeing that more people had arrived, and went back up to the dorm, clenching her fists when she passed by the Marauders, who were sitting in the couch and armchairs by the fireplace.
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The Next Day
"Lily! I got sorted into Gryffindor! I found out and went up here, but you were already sleeping, so I decided to wait until morning to tell you."
Lily opened her eyes sleepily to see Mia shaking her arm, telling her to wake up.
"Come on, let's have breakfast."
"Why are you so excited anyway?"
"I don't know, I woke up and I'm in a good mood, that's all! Come on."
Mia hurried off, leaving Lily to stare blankly for a while before deciding to get up and get dressed.
The Great Hall was already filled with people, and Lily took a seat in the Gryffindor table beside Mia, already hearing people talking about what happened last night.
"That Pesto kid…what happened to him?"
"He's dropping out today. Ran away crying after getting beaten up by the lake. I hear he's in the Headmaster's office right now."
Lily sighed and decided not to listen anymore. It's not as if knowing about what happened would help at all. Besides, it's not any different from what's been happening for five years now. Someone does something, Potter gets pissed off, kid gets beaten up or humiliated in some way, cries and drops out. A vicious cycle. Never in five years has anyone survived that bullying. Most dropped out after a day or two.
An owl dropped a package in front of Lily, causing her to jump slightly, staring at it in shock before opening it, revealing a package of pastries. After checking the tag, Lily found out her mom sent them after making them.
"Wow, it looks so good!" Mia looked at the food.
"Do you want some?"
"Sure!" she eagerly took a cupcake and grinned, before biting into it. "It's really good!"
"You think so?"
Mia nodded and smiled. "Thanks. Anyway. Hold on, I'll just-"
It all happened so fast. One second Mia was drinking from her cup of pumpkin juice, starting to stand up, and the next she tripped a bit. She had tried to stop the cup from falling…and she did. However, that obviously wasn't the reason the Hall had suddenly become dead silent. Everyone was looking at the source of the sound, and found out that she had spilled pumpkin juice…all over James Potter's robe and sweater.
"I…I'm sorry! I'll…I'll clean it for you!"
"Clean it?" James stared at her, an angry spark in his eyes. He took off his robe and his sweater, and threw it on the ground, and grabbed her arm. "Why would I need you to clean it in the first place?"
"I didn't mean to-"
"Now look. I'm cold." He turned to the other three Marauders before turning back to Mia.
"If I catch Pneumonia, what're you gonna do then? Clean my robes?"
"I…"
He tightened his grip and raised his voice. "I'm the future of the Wizarding World! You don't have any idea what could happen if-"
"S-Stop!"
All eyes had turned away from James and Mia, and had fixed on the person who dared to interrupt James Potter. Clearly, everyone was interested on who would be doomed next. Because no one, not in the five years he's been in Hogwarts, had ever dared to interrupt James while he was talking. No one.
Lily gulped and tried to keep her voice from shaking. The fact that everyone was watching her every move right now didn't exactly help either.
"P-please…stop."
James let go of Mia and took slow, silent steps towards the redhead, looking at her with the usual indifferent look in his eyes. He stopped when he came in front of her, looked at her from head to toe, and after what seemed like an eternity to Lily, he walked away without a word, followed a few seconds later by the other three.
Lily hadn't even realized she had held her breath. She looked around at everyone, who was staring at her with a 'you're-doomed' face. Not good.
Oh no…what have I done?
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A/N: That's it for now. :) Please review! :D