AN: Here it is. This is the second year of the Marauders' infamous journey through Hogwarts. And I will put it here: you needn't have read the first to get what's going on. The only thing that you ought to know is there was a girl named Carlee that was in their year and they are friends with her. She has a twin named Ella, and some older brothers that are mentioned in this chapter. Voldemort is starting to gather recruits, but nobody knows him by name yet, they just know that there are 'raids' going on. And in these raids, muggleborns and blood traitors are attacked and killed. It's all very vague on purpose. That's it… probably. If you have questions, new or not, I will be more then happy to answer them. :)

Hope you enjoy, I really liked writing this chapter. :D

Chapter One: Late and Missing Passengers

The whistle blew loud and clear, signaling that the great steam engine train was going to leave in a few moments, and James Potter and Sirius Black were running down the platform, pushing their trolleys at top speed, trying desperately to make it to the back of the train before eleven. Because the train left at exactly eleven, and they were in danger of being late.

"This is your fault you know." Sirius shouted in James' direction, though his voice didn't sound angry, he actually sounded rather amused.

"My fault? If you had packed yesterday like my mum said to, we would have been here an hour ago." James said, not taking his eyes off the space ahead of him as he quickly dodged around a family that had come to see some student off. Unlike Sirius, he was actually a bit annoyed.

"Well I was ready to go on time." Sirius said smiling lopsidedly at James. "Then you had to go and get your broom. Your dad told you to pack that last week!"

"We weren't done playing with the brooms!" James shouted exasperated. "You did pack the extra one, right?"

"Yes, of course I did." Sirius said rolling his eyes. "I wasn't going to spend the whole school year broomless. I really don't know how we did it last year."

Charles and Liza Potter were running along behind the two boys. Charles Potter was carrying an owl that James had begged for while they had been out at Diagon Alley for school supplies, and Liza was carrying Sirius's new owl that he had said was given to him by his uncle. They had named the owls, Kevin and Karl after a pair of famous beaters from the Quidditch team, Falmouth Falcons. Sirius' owl had dark brown feathers and was almost twice the size as James' young tawny owl.

"Come on boys, hurry up. We have about 30 seconds to get all of this on the train and see you off." Charles said urging the boys forward. "Are you sure that your parents aren't going to want to see you off Sirius? You haven't seen them for a while." After spending half of the summer with Sirius, he still didn't quite grasp just how much Sirius and his parents didn't get along. Though, to his benefit, he hadn't seen much of Sirius's parents, or seen Sirius interact with them.

"Nah, they are probably gone by now anyway. They were just coming to drop off my brother."

"I completely forgot that your brother was coming this year!" James said. "We going to let him sit with us?" Sirius didn't answer.

The whistle blew again just as the boys reached the end of the train. Charles grabbed Sirius' trunk first and tossed it into the corridor of the train, and then grabbed James' while Liza was saying goodbye to the boys.

"Thank you for letting me stay over this summer Mrs. Potter." Sirius said politely.

"It was no problem at all Sirius. You are a pleasure to have." She said pulling him into a hug when he offered her his hand. James laughed at the oddity of Sirius being considered a pleasure to have as a house guest. Though he had been fairly polite when his parents were around. Then Liza turned to her son and pulled him into a hug. "I know there is no point, but do try and behave yourself."

"I love you mum." He said grinning up at her and ignoring her warning much as he had last year.

"I love you too." She said shaking her head. Charles turned around and pulled James into a hug as well.

"Just don't get yourself hurt, how about that?"

"I can definitely try to keep myself from getting hurt." James said nodding. "That's actually something that I strive for all the time." He added cheekily.

"Good. I'll see you at Christmas." Charles said pushing him into the train.

"Hey! It's like you're trying to get rid of me or something."

"Well, I miss the house being quiet." Charles said ruffling Sirius hair.

"We weren't that loud." Sirius laughed. "Bye Mr. Potter. Thanks for letting me stay over."

"No problem Sirius." Charles said extending his hand. "Now take your birds and get on the train before it leaves without you."

"Yes sir." Sirius grinned taking Karl and Kevin from Liza and jumping up onto the train. He set the birds down on top of the trunks and then joined James at the window to wave goodbye to the Potters.

"There you two are!" Remus sighed with relief as he stuck his head out of the compartment that he had been saving.

"Yeah, we are just going to wave to Mr. and Mrs. Potter, then we'll be in."

"Oh, Hey!" Remus said peeking out the window. The Potters waved back at him and smiled. Remus had come over about two weeks after the end of school and spent a week with the Potters. Sirius had been there as well. But he had also seen Mrs. Potter when she came and dropped James off at the Lupin's house.

The boys all waved until the train had left the station and then Remus helped Sirius and James move their trunks into the compartment.

"You both got owls?" He asked taking the cages off and setting them on the seats so that they could get the trunks up on the luggage rack.

"Yep, Kevin and Karl. You know, after the beaters on the Falmouth Falcons." Sirius said grinning happily at his bird.

"Actually I didn't know that, but cool." Remus said putting the birds up on the rack carefully.

"They don't play anymore, but they were a really amazing pair of beaters, and they were brothers." James added, plopping down on one of the seats by the window.

"Whose is whose?"

"Mine is the dark one, his name is Kevin."

"Mine is the other one." James said throwing an owl treat up to Karl, which he had pulled out of his pocket. They were quiet for a minute; James and Sirius letting their breathing slow down, when Sirius looked up suddenly and looked around the compartment.

"Where's Carlee?" He asked.

"I don't know, probably with Ella right?" James shrugged.

"Well, we haven't seen her or heard from her since Remus's house, and that was last month." Sirius said getting up and leaning out the door to see if she was in the hallway. "You think that she would come and see us."

"Maybe she likes her sister." James smirked at Sirius. "You know, more then she likes you."

"Shut up Potter. Of course she likes Ella more. It's her sister. I am just saying, she should at least come and say 'hi, sorry I ignored you all summer.'"

"She will when she gets here." Remus said pulling a book out of his bag and taking a seat next to James.

"And look, you can sit next to her when she does gets here." James smirked motioning to the two empty seats across from him.

"Just shut up."

"You two have spent too much time together." Remus said shaking his head.

"You were invited too." James said.

"I know, but my dad wanted to take us on a little holiday."

"And how did that go?" Sirius asked.

"Wonderfully." Remus said rolling his eyes. "I'll just give you the shortened version, yeah? We went camping in the woods, my mother got eaten alive by mosquitoes, and almost murdered my dad."

"Sounds like fun." James laughed. Remus had sent them rather long letters complaining about having to stay in a tent and eat things that his dad had tried to cook over the camp fire.

"Oh shut up." Remus said hitting James over the head with his book. It was then that they heard a knock at the door. Sirius jumped up and opened it, though Remus knew that if it was Carlee, she wouldn't have knocked.

"What do you want?" Sirius said darkly. James and Remus both looked at each other. Remus' mind jumped to Peter and James' to Regulus. Though James happened to be right.

"Nice to see you too." Said a similar sounding voice, though it was much lighter and pleasant. "I just wanted to come and see my brother. Can I come in for a minute?" Sirius stepped aside grudgingly. Regulus came in and smiled at James and Remus. He looked a lot like Sirius, just a few inches shorter, and his hair was shorter and straighter. He had the same grey eyes and long, thin face. His posture was different though. Sirius slouched and gave off the feeling of somebody who couldn't care less. Regulus held himself with great pose and looked like somebody who was indefinitely proud of himself. He looked quite like he thought he owned the place. James instantly thought he was a git.

"Well, you're in. Now what?" Sirius grouched, plopping down in the window seat a crossed from James.

"Hi, I am Regulus Black. Sirius' brother."

"It's nice to meet you." Remus said accepting Regulus' outstretched hand. "Remus Lupin."

"Nice to meet you too."

"James Potter." James said also shaking Regulus' hand. Regulus looked around the room again and then sat down next to Sirius, who made a sort of a growling sound and sent a glare at him.

"Well, I haven't seen you in two weeks!" Regulus said elbowing Sirius in the ribs.

"We are saving that seat for somebody." Sirius said pushing his arm away.

"Carlee, right?" Regulus asked, causing Sirius to roll his eyes.

"He's told you about Carlee?" James asked leaning forward in his seat, his first impression of the boys changing as he spoke. "Weird. Did he mention us too?"

"Well, yeah." Regulus said, but then he caught on to what James was doing and smirked, making him look even more like his older brother. "But not as much as he mentioned her." Remus and James both started laughing as Sirius jumped Regulus.

"I don't know why you don't like him." James said still laughing after Sirius had sat back down. "I think that he is pretty cool."

"Yeah, he is." Remus agreed.

"Well, thanks guys." Regulus said smiling at his older brothers friends.

"Oh fine." Sirius sighed. "You can stay until Carlee gets here."

"Thank you." Regulus said.

"It should be any moment now." Sirius warned, but Regulus wasn't deterred.

"That's fine. I'm a first year Sirius; you are the only person I know right now."

"I know." Sirius sighed. "Well, you know Cissy." Regulus only rolled his eyes at this. After a moment Sirius relaxed and started smiling again. "How was your last week at home?" Sirius asked Regulus.

"Fine." Regulus said slowly. "Mum did threaten me a few times. Said something about my being disowned if I was put in Gryffindor. I don't know, she wasn't talking loud enough." He said sarcastically. Sirius looked at him with wide eyes.

"Really? Mum threatened to disown you?"

"Yep." Regulus laughed. "Though, I really have no say in where I am put, right? So she can't really disown me. She didn't disown you."

"It would look bad, me being the firstborn, the heir, and what not. But it would look just as bad if she disowned you." Sirius assured him. "Besides, she likes you."

"Yeah, you're right." Regulus said frowning slightly.

"Oh come on. You don't really think that she would disown you, do you?"

"No, but did you hear what happened to Drommie?" Regulus asked completely oblivious to the fact that James and Remus were hanging on every word. They didn't really know anything about Sirius' family life. Seeing him here, talking to his brother was sort of surreal.

"What?" Sirius asked looking concerned.

"She married a muggleborn." Regulus said the word as though he was talking about finding chewed gum on the bottom of his shoe.

"And?" Sirius asked.

"A muggleborn Sirius!" Regulus repeated himself, thinking that Sirius hadn't heard him the first time. "Uncle Cygnus did disown her."

"Well, she didn't really fit in anyway, you know, with her being decent and what not. And if she is happy with this muggleborn, why shouldn't she have married him?" Regulus just stared at him with his mouth hanging open slightly.

"Because, she is a pure blood." He said, currently thinking that his older brother must have lost his mind while he was at the Potter's.

"Blood doesn't matter." Sirius sighed with an exasperated tone that told Remus and James that Regulus and Sirius had had this argument before, many times.

"I know it doesn't. Only to our 'sodding family' and other 'stupid stuck up pure bloods.'" Regulus said rolling his eyes as he recited something that sounded as though it had come from Sirius' mouth.

"And I already knew this anyway. Drommie sent me a letter. His name is Ted Tonks and they are expecting a baby." Sirius said, looking as though he enjoyed the look of shock that came over Regulus' face.

"She told you all of that?"

"Yes, she married him at the end of May. Though, she didn't tell me until about a month ago."

"So… you really don't find anything wrong with it?" Regulus said, looking at his brother skeptically.

"Nope. Not at all." Sirius smirked.

"Okay." Regulus said looking down at his feet. "I guess it's alright. I mean, she loves him right?"

"Yep."

There was a pause in the conversation, and Sirius turned to look out the window. Regulus looked up at Remus and James and smiled. James smiled back.

"So, you are hoping to be in Slytherins then?" He asked.

"I think so." Regulus said. "I mean, I think it would be fun to be in the same house as Sirius, but… that's not what my parents want."

"I feel like I had this conversation with you last year." James said kicking Sirius leg. Sirius looked at him and nodded.

"Something pretty similar." Sirius agreed. "Then you told me that we were going to have to swim a crossed the lake to get to the school."

"I did not!" James cried indignantly.

"You did." Remus smirked.

"That was you!" James said pointing at Remus.

"Oh." Remus said, and then he shrugged. "Well, then it was me."

"You guys are quite entertaining." Regulus said grinning.

"Yeah, you won't find blokes as cool as us in Slytherin." James said puffing out his chest.

"Speaking of blokes in Slytherin, Alec Baker won't be here any more!" Sirius said cheerfully. "And neither will our lovely cousin Bella." He said looking over at Regulus. "She is one creepy chick. Even you can't deny that."

"I won't deny that." Regulus said shivering. "She used to give me nightmares. I would wake up thinking that she was about to jump out of my closet and start strangling me to death." Sirius laughed.

"I used to have nightmares of her pushing me down the stairs." He said.

"You guys have a real nice family." James laughed.

"We know." They said together.

"Okay, it's been like two hours." Sirius said standing up and looking out into the hallway again. Regulus was still with them, and Carlee was no where to be seen.

"Go and look for her." Regulus suggested. "There aren't many places where she could be, right?"

"Yeah, you want me to come with you?" James asked, he was honestly quite surprised that Sirius had lasted as long as he had.

"No, I'll go." Sirius said. "I'll be back in a minute."

"Okay."

He closed the door behind him and walked down the hall, looking in the compartments as he went. The Smith brothers, Richard and Josiah, were in the compartment next to theirs, with Seth Stein, the seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team and a couple of girls that Sirius didn't know by name.

In the next compartment, he spotted Cleo Downing, a Gryffindor chaser, with Marlene McKinnon, who was showing off her Head Girl badge, and a few other members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Including the captain, Emery Brown.

He passed several other compartments full of students who were in different houses and the houseless first years. He was almost at the front of the train when he spotted his fellow second year Gryffindor boys in an overly crowded compartment. Carl, Ian, Stephan, Frank, and Orian were crammed onto a three person couch and they were joined by some second year Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs. Sirius spotted Harvey Cliford, a boy whom he had played baseball with last year and Eustace Green, the boy who had lost his mother during one of the attacks last Christmas. Both of them were in Hufflepuff and in the compartment with his fellow dorm mates.

When he reached the last compartment, which was really the first compartment, he wasn't surprised to find it full of the second year Gryffindor girls. Lily Evans was laughing and leaning on an also laughing, Coral Green. Savanna House was standing in the middle of the compartment gesticulating widely and seemed to be the cause of all the laughter.

Sirius scanned the remaining girls and saw, Mary MacDonald, Jamie Parks, Yvette St. Richardson, Airiana Kaye, Beonca Deutch, and Delilla O'Brian. But there was no Carlee.

Sirius knocked on the compartment door and Mary, who was the closest, opened it and raised her eyebrows when she saw who it was. "What do you want?" She asked.

"I was just wondering if you know where Carlee is." Sirius said, not really minding Mary's rude remark.

"What are you talking about?" Lily asked, standing up and taking Mary's place at the door. "She's with you isn't she?"

"Yes Lily." Sirius said rolling his eyes. "That is why I just walked the length of the train looking for you. So I could tell you that Carlee is with me."

"Well, then where is she?" Lily asked.

"I don't know!" Sirius shouted. "That is why I came down here. To see if you knew where she was."

"I don't." Lily said worriedly.

"I can see that, thank you." Sirius sighed and then he turned to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Lily asked.

"To find her."

"Have you seen Ella?" Savanna asked, sticking her head out the door and calling after him.

"No." Sirius said turning back around. "None of you have seen either of them?"

"Nope."

Sirius walked away from them before anyone could stop him and he started looking in the widows of the compartments again.

He made it back to the end of the train without spotting Carlee when he almost ran into Daniel Baker, Carlee and Ella's older brother. He shoved Sirius out of the way without looking at him and Sirius had to run to catch up with him.

"Hey! Daniel!"

"What!" He shouted turning back around. "What do you want?" He added, noting who it was that was talking to him.

"Where's Carlee?" Sirius asked. Daniel looked at Sirius for a second with squinted eyes and then took a step closer to him. Sirius hastily took two steps back. Alec had always been the scarier of Carlee's older brothers, but something about Daniel had changed. His eyes were harder and unforgiving. He looked thinner, and really, really angry.

"What do you care?" He asked slowly, though as he spoke, some emotion danced a crossed his eyes, leaving before Sirius could tell what it was.

"She's my friend." Sirius said trying to sound brave. Daniel turned around and started walking away again. "Wait, just tell me where she is." Sirius said reaching out and putting a hand on his shoulder. Before he knew what had happened, Daniel spun around and punched him right in the face. Sirius fell backward on to the floor and banged his head on a compartment door.

"JUST SHUT UP!" He shouted before storming away. This time Sirius let him go.

The door that Sirius was leaning on opened suddenly, and Sirius' head fell and hit the floor again. "Oww!" He moaned rolling over on his stomach so he could push himself up.

"What happened to you?" Richard said smiling over him. Josiah's face popped up next to Richards.

"You look a right state."

"Thanks a load you two." Sirius said standing up. He swayed a bit, but Richard reached out and steadied him. "Thanks, for real this time."

"No problem." Richard smiled. "Now really, what happened?"

"Daniel Baker punched me." Sirius felt his jaw throbbing as he spoke.

"Really? And just when I was starting to think that he was nothing but talk." Josiah mused. "Are you coming in then?" He asked Sirius.

"Thanks, but my mates are right next door. I was just looking for Carlee. You haven't seen her have you?"

"Can't say that I have, but she's got to be somewhere." Richard said.

"I guess." Sirius said. "Maybe she missed the train."

"Her brother just punched you." Josiah pointed out. It did make sense, why would her brother have been on the train if she had missed it? "Maybe you just missed her. Did you check the whole train?"

"Twice." Sirius nodded. "See you around."

"Yep." They said together.

"Well?" James asked when Sirius came back into the compartment.

"What do you think?" Sirius said motioning to thin air around him. "Though I did have a bit of a run in with Daniel on my way back from the front of the train."

"I can see that." Remus said noticing the large bruise that was starting to make itself visible on Sirius' face. "Did he hit you?"

"Yeah. I just asked him where Carlee was."

"Who is Daniel?" Regulus asked.

"A Slytherin." Sirius spit out. "And Carlee's older brother." Regulus nodded. "And Lily and Savanna said that Ella is missing too." Sirius added looking back at James and Remus.

"Weird." James said running his hand through his hair.

"Really, that's what you have to say?" Sirius asked sitting back down next to Regulus with an exasperated sigh.

"She'll turn up." James shrugged, not looking nearly as worried as Sirius was.

"I know that. I just want to know where she is." Sirius muttered.

"Let's play exploding snaps." Remus suggested suddenly. He wasn't worried about Carlee. He knew that where ever she was, she was fine. After all, she was Carlee.

AN: And we start things off with a bang. Carlee and Ella are missing, Daniel is acting strangely and Regulus is hanging out with Gryffindors. What? I really want to make him a good guy, but I won't. He is a death eater and a Slytherin and I won't change that. Even though he does redeem himself before he dies, he still travels down the wrong path in the beginning. And I will not change this. I promise. Maybe if I say it to you guys, I'll actually listen. Though, he does idolize Sirius just a wee bit. That will all have to change eventually.

Just a fun fact, Kevin and Karl, Sirius and James' owls, really are named after two real(in the HP universe anyway) Quidditch players. Their names were Kevin and Karl (imagine that!) Broadmoor, and were beaters for the Falmouth Falcons. I wanted a cool due for their birds, but I couldn't find one in the muggle world, so I went to Harry Potter Lexicon and found them. It works. :)

Tell me what you think, ask questions, or tell me what you think is going to happen. I don't really care what you say, I would just like you to review. It's like walking outside and finding a dollar on the sidewalk, only... you can't buy anything with a review… :D

~Craz