Disclaimer: I own everything that you don't recognize.

Alyssa Doward stood amidst the crowd at King's Cross Station. Next to her, a man in an emerald green uniform was strapping a very large trunk onto a trolley. He then proceeded to roll the trolley towards platform nine.

"Thank you, but I can do it by myself," Alyssa said, attempting to take the trolley back from the Ministry attendant. The man stopped and glanced sideways at her as if having some internal debate with himself. Finally, he let go of the trolley, bowed, and said, "Have a nice year, miss Doward." Touching his cap in respect, he turned and left.

"Thank you," Alyssa said, but it was no use, the man had already disappeared without a trace.

Alyssa turned towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten and, pushing her trolley towards it, stopped just short of it. She glanced at the clock above. Ten minutes to go. No one, if they had bothered to look, would suspect a five foot, skinny girl of sixteen to be anything but normal. How very wrong they were. Little did they know that a witch stood among them. Not only was she a witch, she was the daughter of the Minister of Magic.

Alyssa ran her hand through her short, spiky brown hair; too bad no one had told her how to get onto the platform. You see, Alyssa, the daughter of young Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, had been home schooled by a tutor all her life. Her mother had died when Alyssa was only three, and Alyssa, in memory of her, kept Doward as her last name, as her mother had. Her father was much too busy, and never really paid attention to her. And now with this Voldemort character on the loose, her father was suspicious of anyone that may possibly be spying. This included Alyssa's tutor. So now Alyssa was here, ready to go to Hogwarts. She was very excited, because her house had always been so strict. But alas, how could she get to Hogwarts if she didn't even know how to get to the train?

Supposing that she would just wait and ask the next person with a trunk, Alyssa leaned back against the barrier. Or tried too.

The next thing she knew, she was lying on her back on the ground, and several people her age had stopped talking to stare at her. A few laughed, stared, and kept talking. Alyssa got up and picked up her luggage, which had landed beside her. The platform was covered with students and their various creatures. She spotted owls, cats, and, Alyssa thought, even a toad. I wonder how long he's been around, Alyssa thought to herself. Toads were very out of fashion.

Seven minutes to go now, and she Alyssa hadn't even found a compartment. Alyssa unstrapped her trunk, dragged it to the train, and proceeded to push, pull, and shove it inside. Half a minute later, she was dragging it down the hall, peering inside. Full up everywhere. The train's warning whistle sounded. Two minutes. Alyssa checked the last compartment. No one.

She had just settled down on the seat (she had given up hope of heaving her trunk onto the overhead compartment, and left it on the floor) when the door slid open. Alyssa could see four boys, three tall ones, and one shorter, pudgier one. They were all laughing and staring at something down the hall a ways. Alyssa didn't know what to do, and sat there, staring. Alyssa could hear shouts from a compartment a few doors down, and then saw a large object flying through the air. The boys stopped laughing at once and scrambled inside the compartment; the three taller boys managed to avoid the projectile, but the fourth boy received a nasty whack in the head from a flying shoe before he slid the door shut. The three boys were still chuckling to themselves when one of them turned. He had longish, layered black hair that went a bit past his chin; gray eyes, and was well built, not to mention handsome.

"Oh. Hello."

Alyssa, quite embarrassed, muttered softly, "Hi." The black haired boy punched another boy in the shoulder, who was peering out the window into the corridor, possibly checking to make sure the atmosphere was clear of flying shoes.

"Oy, Prongs, we've got a visitor."

The other boy turned; he had dark brown hair, quite messy, and hazel eyes. He was also well built and good looking, and was a tad shorter than the black haired one.

"Oh, hi."

"Hi," Alyssa managed, a bit louder this time.

Awkward silence.

The black haired boy spoke first. "Are you a fir-" He was promptly elbowed by the brown haired boy, who said, "Of course not, Padfoot, she's too old."

Alyssa felt uncomfortable, being stared at by four boys, and talked about as though she couldn't hear. Ok, introduce yourself, get up, get out, and forget this happened.

"I'm sorry," she said, standing. She felt dwarfed by the tall figures before her. "I didn't realize that this compartment was taken. There was no one here when I got here... I'm Alyssa Doward... I'm new here... I'll just be going now..." She trailed off and proceeded to heave her trunk up. She failed miserably.

"Erm, no, that's not necessary." Padfoot said, stopping her. "You can stay. It's alright that you didn't know."

"Didn't know what?"

"Well," Prongs jumped in, "everyone here knows that this is the Marauder's compartment." He pointed above Alyssa's head. She turned and saw a black M, which appeared to be burnt into the wooden paneling.

"Ahh," Padfoot interuppted, "that really was a good one, Prongs. Reckon that'll be up for a long time. But we have Moony to thank for the idea," he said, slapping the third boy on the back. Alyssa took a better look at the him; he was shorter than James. He had sandy, longish hair, though not as long as Padfoot's, and seemed the quiet type, as he had not said anything yet.

"Hello."

"Prongs! How rude we've been!" Padfoot jumped forward, and, with a bow, said, "forgive us dear lady, for not introducing ourselves. This," -he pointed at Prongs- "is James Potter. Remeus Lupin," pointing accordingly, "and Peter Pettigrew." He didn't bother to point. " I am Sirius Black, master of Hogwarts and the leader of the infamous Marauders, chief pranksters of Hogwarts."

James whispered loudly, "we just let him think that. It keeps him happy." His comment earned him a shove into the wall.

"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted," Sirius continued, meanwhile giving Alyssa's trunk a good shove under the seat to get it out of the way, "we are the Marauders, and we are the chief pranksters of Hogwarts."

A sudden thought came to Alyssa. "Let me guess, the flying shoe was someone's attempt at revenge because you pranked them."

Sirius looked thoughtful for a second. "Well, you could say that. But Lily Evans would take any chance to chuck a shoe at our James. I think she likes you, mate," Sirius added to James, who had since recovered from his collision with the wall and attempted to tackle Sirius. He dove at Sirius; Sirius moved, and James flew past, catching himself just in time as the compartment door slid open. A very angry redheaded girl around Alyssa's age was standing there. Poking through her hair was a pair of ginger cat ears, and by the look on her face, she was not at all pleased.

James, who's face was now tinged pink, stood up quickly. "Hello Evans," he said, his voice much deeper now. Alyssa noticed that his had had flown up to his hair, messing it up even more than it already was.

There was a pause, then it seemed that all (ahem) broke loose. Evans, whom Alyssa assumed to be the aforementioned Lily Evans, was yelling at the top of her lungs, holding her wand in one hand and a shoe in the other, waving both threateningly at James . It seemed that James was having a hard time deciding which one he should be more worried about. Alyssa was able to pick up something about "your stupid pranks, it wasn't funny at all" and "well, the ears suit you." The rest was lost in shouting.

Remeus and Peter had all very wisely sat down and shut up, content to watch the commotion. Sirius threw himself down next to Alyssa, put his arm around the back of her seat, and said lazily, "just wait till they really get going. They'll be at it for a while. It can get quite entertaining."

"You mean they get worse than this?" Alyssa half-shouted, trying to make herself heard above the din.

"Oh, you should have seen this time in fifth year...". And he proceeded to tell her about the time that James had taunted Snivellus Snape by the lake, and how Lily had yelled at him for it. Sirius was a great storyteller, and Alyssa laughed at all the right moments, and they were deep in conversation like old friends while Lily and James quarreled. Sirius and Alyssa were brought back to reality when they heard a loud thud and the door slam. Looking up, Alyssa saw James staring at the door, rubbing his head. Lily had hit him sharply over the head with her shoe before leaving. The look on James' face was so pathetic, Alyssa had to laugh. She tried to hold it back.

"Yep, Prongs, she definitely likes you," Sirius said cheerfully, as if that ended the matter.

"Yeah James," Alyssa added, "chucking shoes at people is one way girls show their affection. And that's twice in one day!"

Everyone laughed, even James.

Please R&R! I hope you like, tell me what you think. I have a bunch more of the story written up in my head, just need to get it down on... computer screen. Thanx, R&R!