Disclaimer: I don't think my name is J.K Rowling, therefore I don't believe that I own Harry Potter however much I might want to.
Chapter One: Enter the Marauders
King's Cross Station, Platform 9 ¾ …
Four boys, friends, were standing on the platform. They were each saying goodbye to parents and guardians, or, in Sirius Black's case, having a heated argument over the correct term for a muggle-born witch or wizard.
"Sirius, in front of me, you will call those muggle-borns by their proper name!"
"And what would that be, because the proper name for a witch or wizard from muggle-"
"Muggle scum Sirius, not just plain Muggles!"
"-Heritage is muggle-born, as you said yourself!" his temper was starting to rise, every year, him and his mother had the same argument, which always ended with Sirius stomping to the train and his mother cursing under her breath, leaving in the other direction. No farewells or good luck's ever passed between them.
As the argument continued in the usual way, a few steps away, a boy stood with his parents. He was wearing shabby clothes and had three scars across his face, caused by Fenrir Greyback. This boy's name was Remus Lupin. He was holding his trunk with one hand and gingerly touching his scars on his face with his other, free, hand.
"Remus, are you feeling alright, September the first has landed at the wrong time, really, hasn't it? Are you sure that-"
"Mum, it's fine, really. You don't need to worry, I have friends, you know, they'll stop anything bad from happening, they've always been there for me, it'll be fine, I'll be fine. Really."
"Well, if you're sure… but write as often as possible, ok? I don't want you to be hurt, or persecuted because of what you are… Remember Remus, it doesn't matter that you're different, it's what makes you unique, everyone is different in their own way, physical disabilities don't affect what's inside, and it's what's inside that counts."…
Meanwhile, a small, how should I say it, pudgy boy with watery eyes and a pointed nose, stood by his muggle parents who were gazing around the station with delight, as usual.
"Peter, I hope that the wizard folk will treat you well, make sure that you prove to your mates that you're as good a wizard as them, 'k? Don't let them think that just because you come from a non-wizarding family, you are lower class than them!"
"Dad, I'll be fine, they understand me, plus I'm something that most witches and wizards aren't, I'm already one above most wizards."
"That's my boy!" Peter's father said, ruffling his son's hair.
And then there was the last Marauder, James Potter. Described by those who didn't like him as an "arrogant toe-rag", and in a way, it was true. James Potter was handsome and a good Quidditch player and he knew it. Most of the girls in his year flocked around him, but the one person that he wanted was the only one he couldn't get. Lily Evans.
Lily Evans, a muggle-born witch and the younger sister of two children. Her older sister, Petunia, was complaining to their parents that she didn't want to be on the station platform, and that she was old enough to stay at home and look after herself.
"Mum, you know I don't like coming here with all of these strangely dressed people and their owls and magic!"
"Petunia, dear, we came here to say goodbye to Lily, you won't see her again until Christmas, Easter or even summer!"
"Good!" Inwardly, Lily winced, "I don't want to see her again until, until- ever!" she said the last word loud enough that several other witches and wizards turned around to look at the muggle girl. Lily felt tears stinging her eyes and quickly reached up to wipe them away.
"Evans!" Oh great, that's the last thing I need. Arrogant, blockhead Potter. "The train's about to go, so unless you want to miss it, then I suggest you hurry up!"
"Goodbye Lily, have a good year, I don't know whether you'll be able to come over for Christmas, we might be going away, and I don't want you to be at home all on your own, who knows what might happen, and also I don't want to take you away from your studying, but if you want to come, just send me or your father a letter and we'll make arrangements, is that good, I'd hate to make you feel as though we were leaving you because we didn't want you around-"
"I don't want her around…"
"Be quiet, Petunia. Have fun, hurry, before the train goes without you!"
Lily kissed her mother and father goodbye and made her way towards the train, where she left her trunk in the luggage area. She flounced down the corridor and found her friends. Little did she know that if she had gone any further, she would have found a very unpleasant surprise.
The compartment a door down from where Lily had gone was the compartment within which the four boys from the train station were.
"Padfoot, you look really annoyed, what happened?" James was the first to notice their friend's strange behaviour. It happened every year, so they were used to it, but James, being James, wanted to know the details of the argument between Sirius and his mother.
Sirius put on a fake, girly voice, imitating his mother's style of talking and her accent "Sirius, whenever you are around me you must call these muggle-borns by their proper term!"
"And what would that be?" James joked.
"The correct term is mudblood, and if you refuse to call them by the proper name, I will disown you from the family!" Sirius changed back to his normal voice and crossed his arms as if having a child's tantrum "I wish she would, I don't want anything more to do with them".
"Same argument every year, based upon treatment of Muggles and inferior witches and wizards. Or the other one that's a popular argument is which house you belong in. I'm surprised that you haven't run away." Remus said, calmly, looking up from his book.
"Moony, do you always read?" James's mind drifted when he saw who was coming down the hall. "Hey, Padfoot, look, it's Snivellus."
"Heheheh, have you got the prank ready, Prongs?"
"Really, Padfoot, you'd have thought that you knew me well enough that you know I'll never forget a prank. Let's do this!"
Remus frowned and stopped reading, though he kept his eyes on the book, meanwhile, Peter was looking between Sirius and James excitedly. As Severus Snape walked down the corridor the two boys prepared to jump out of the door and pour the vile concoction that they had created through sending each other ideas via owl post onto him.
"Three, two, one, GO!" they said together. They jumped simultaneously into the corridor and chucked the bucket, and its contents, all over the boy standing outside their door. What they didn't expect, however, was that right behind Snape was Lily Evans and that the liquid would also go all over her as well…
"Prongs, I thing we better go back to our compartment before she kills us…" As the two pranksters backed down the corridor, Lily Evans lost her temper.
"You…-" she paused to take a breath and began again, her temper affecting her. "Y-y-y-you… GET OVER HERE THIS INSTANT, POTTER! YOU ARE SOOOOO GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!" she screamed. Her wand out, she charged at James and Sirius and shot two spells that, luckily, missed. The boys moved out of the way as fast as they could, but it wasn't fast enough. She tackled them full on, pushed them into their compartment and slammed them against the floor. The boys, all of them apart from Remus, cowered under her glare. She raised her wand at them and was about to cast a spell that they wouldn't forget about, as the effects would last for at least a month, when Remus stepped in front of them and put his arms out to stop her. "You think that'll stop me?"
"Lily, I can understand why you're so angry, but please, don't, they're not worth it." Reluctantly, the girl lowered her wand and instead of attacking them as was her initial intention; she gave all four of them the deadliest glare she'd ever given them. She turned on her heel and walked out of the compartment and slammed the sliding door shut with a loud bang! That made Remus flinch for the first time.
"What was that you said, Remus? Not worth it?" James demanded. "How am I meant to get her to go out with me, if you tell her I'm not worth her attention?"
"James, if you want her to go out with you, you'll have to make peace with her first, and chucking a bucket full of whatever that was at her is not a good way to do that. And for the time being, if her attention includes her hexing you and turning you into a God-knows-what, then do that again, but if you don't want to be hexed with a spell that has effects lasting for months then don't blame me for trying to stop her trying to kill you."
James went quiet for a while until he saw the face of the person who the prank was aimed at walking past the compartment door, cleaned. What annoyed him most, however, was that Lily Evans, who he hadn't meant to hit, was walking with him. He turned away from the window and did what Sirius had done earlier after the argument with his mother. He was fuming on the inside and it was only what Remus had told him that was holding him back from going out of the compartments and hexing Snape. Sirius, noticing his friend's change in mood, the same way James had seen the change of mood in Sirius, and saw what had caused it, tried to change the subject and cheer James up.
"Hey, Moony, when's the next full moon?"
James perked up, "Full moon? Great! Remus- I mean, Moony, when? Come on, you're killing me here!
Remus looked at Sirius and smiled slightly, grateful that James was no longer upset or angry at what had happened over the last few moments. "Well, the full moon itself is tomorrow, but I don't know if I'll transform tonight as well, it depends on how big the moon is tonight."
"That is really bad timing for you, isn't it Remus." James always managed to get Remus to smile no matter what it was. "Ah, well, that means that if you do, we'll have to jump out of the train window and run amok in the Forbidden Forest. Oh, yeah, Peter, that means we'll miss the feast."
Peter looked up, "W-w-what d-d-did you just say?" he stuttered. "NOOOOO! We can't miss the feast, we just can't!"
"Sorry Peter, we have two options then, leaving Remus on his own and going to the feast with you, being as you'd be too scared to go alone, or go with Remus and leave you to, how do I put this politely, crap yourself." James smiled, or rather, smirked as if telling a joke and looked at Sirius, who returned the smile. Peter's face filled with terror at the idea of going to the feast alone and whimpered before agreeing to go with the other three in the event that Remus transformed.
Meanwhile, further down the corridor, Lily and Severus were having an in depth discussion of how annoying said 'toe-rag, arrogant, big-headed Potter' was, and how much they hated him.
"He is constantly messing up his hair, to make him lookwindswept, thinks that it makes him look cool," Lily ranted, fuming at the prank that had taken place half an hour before. "I mean, looking windswept definitely isn't a cool look, and even if he actually did something that would make an ordinary person look cool, he would just end up looking like an idiot. Who does he think he is anyway, pulling pranks like that on people, it's just mean and arrogant!"
Severus nodded, smiling in glee after having heard Lily seriously insult James Potter. "Yeah, but even if he doesn't do anything to look cool, he looks like an idiot anyway" Lily looked at him, a strange expression on her face and then cracked up, laughing.
"That's right! Even when he doesn't try he looks like an idiot, twenty-four-seven!" and then they both started laughing, enjoying the ceaseless taunting and insulting of 'block-head Potter'.
All was normal on the Hogwarts Express as the Marauders and Lily and all the others in their year headed rapidly towards their fourth year at Hogwarts. Meanwhile, at Hogwarts, strange events were taking place as they did every year since the soon-to-be fourth years first arrived at Hogwarts…
"Dumbledore, I need you to give this letter to these students, their names are listed on this piece of paper, please, before they all go up to their dormitories, I need them to know." A girl of about sixteen stood in Professor Dumbledore's office, holding a folded letter in her black-gloved hands. Her age was a guess according to her height, manner of speaking and the way in which she held herself, but otherwise, one would be unable to tell her age, for her face was hidden by a large hood that covered most of her face in a shadow. Only one thing could be seen of her face. The lower part of her face, being from the nose down, could be seen; she had pale skin, almost white against the dark shadow covering her face. Her lips trembled as she spoke, hurriedly, to the headmaster of Hogwarts.
"You needn't worry, they will be informed. I assure you, my dear girl, that they will receive this message before midnight tonight." The headmaster's voice was calm and reassuring, the twinkle in his bright blue eyes inviting confidence. He looked down at the names on the letter and nodded in understanding. "I shall see to it the moment the feast is finished, I'll send Minerva McGonagall to fetch them after it, they are in her house after all…"
"Thank you, headmaster, they must know, otherwise…" the girl's voice became strained as her voice became constricted when she thought of what would happen to them if the future wasn't changed by them, and she didn't want to have to interfere with their lives. After all, those from the future should not influence the past themselves, bad things happened to witches and wizards who played around with time…
Please review and comment, this is my first fan fiction so be as judgmental as you want, I might as well learn the hard way… Hope you liked it! :3
