1

James Potter could barely sleep. The summer had crawled by at an agonizingly slow pace after his first year at Hogwarts' school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He rolled over in his bed, staring out the window at the slightly brightening sky beyond the misted glass. It had to be somewhere around four in the morning of the 1st of September. He beat his pillow and tried to lay down again but still found himself unable to sleep.

When had had been able to sleep over the summer, he had been torn between three kinds of dreams. The first kind found him back at Hogwarts with his best friends—loud and obnoxious Sirius Black, thoughtful and studious Remus Lupin, and timid but insightful Peter Pettigrew. The four had dubbed themselves "The Marauders" in their first year, a term that they were fond of as both something of a secret club, as well as a name for themselves to defend Hogwarts and all innocent beings against oppressive forces.

The second kind of dream found James in conversation with the fiery haired Lily Evans, perhaps the most temperamental girl in Hogwarts. Their relationship had gotten off to an auspicious start on the first day of school aboard the Hogwarts Express, where Lily and James had rushed to defend opposing sides of a fight. Their relationship had maintained its turbulent standing throughout the year, but there had been moments where her anger and James' cockiness had subsided enough for them to actually speak to one another. But those moments were short lived, as more often than not James pined for her affection and she pined for him to drop dead.

The third kind of dream was the one that James dreaded. He kept reliving his last few nights at Hogwarts, when a group of Dark Wizards called the Death Eaters had attacked the school, and one of his favourite teachers had been killed in the ensuing battle. James and his friends had been right in the thick of the battle that night, and while countless people had told James that he had quite possibly saved the lives of people in the school by being out that night, he could not help but feel a sense of guilt that his teacher, Professor Artemis Bowen, had been murdered by a wizard named Gilles Rochefort.

It was Rochefort's face that James saw most frequently in his dreams—oddly handsome but for the one terrifying feature, a robotic eye that whizzed and whirred erratically over its surroundings, and seemed to stare right through James. The way the eye glinted in the firelight as Rochefort laughed, taunting James and his friends as he fired hexes and curses at will from his wand. The last sight that James had caught of Professor Bowen over Hagrid's shoulder as he was carried away from the battle, also stuck with James. The image of Bowen singlehandedly holding off several Death Eaters to allow their escape was difficult to shake.

But now, James was returning to the school. It had been a quick departure at the end of the previous year; exams had been cancelled and the school had mourned the loss of a teacher, but life had moved one.

'How does everything just carry on?' James had asked his father the previous day.

Mr. Potter had looked up at him from reading the Daily Prophet and he smiled as best he could. 'It's a kind of magic.'

The old family saying seemed applicable in almost any circumstance, and Mr. Potter never lost a chance to repeat it.

James rolled over in his bed and sighed. It was difficult to believe that in just a few short hours, he would be boarding the Hogwarts Express with his friends. Hopefully he would then be able to put the events of the end of his first year and the long summer that followed behind him.

A low hoot from the corner of his room alerted James to the fact that Seger was watching him reproachfully. The family owl, Seger was a misty grey colour with a brilliant shock of white running down his back. His piercing yellow eyes glared at James reproachfully.

'I'm trying to sleep!' James defended, but Seger did not look convinced. James sighed as he stared at his trunk; it had been packed for three days. All of his robes, cauldrons, class books, his father's invisibility cloak, everything he would need.

He wasn't sure when he fell asleep. He remembered looking at the clock and seeing it read 6:54, but suddenly he was being shaken awake by his father at 7:30. 'Rise and shine,' Mr. Potter said brightly. 'I'm impressed you got any sleep.'

James blinked rapidly, trying to form together a coherent sentence. 'Me too,' he managed.

'Well, we'd best get a move on. I'm sure you'll want to get there a little early to see your friends. Pip pip,' Mr. Potter said and he breezed out of the room, waving his wand idly as he did so which caused James' trunk to float into the air and down the stairs. With a low hoot, Seger drifted off down the stairs after Mr. Potter.

'Your mother had to leave early this morning,' Mr. Potter was saying as he threw his travelling cloak on. He smiled at James. 'I promise, one of these days she will actually be able to see you off on the train.'

James grabbed his own travelling cloak. 'Why did she have to go to work early?' he asked.

Mr. Potter hesitated. James' mother worked for the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes at the Ministry of Magic. Her job ranged from the comical-like someone accidentally transfiguring themselves into a newt-to the tragic, such as cleaning up the scenes of murders. It had been more of the latter rather than the former of late.

'There was an attack last night,' Mr. Potter said quietly. 'No one's been killed, mind you. But it looks like it was the Death Eaters.'

'Anyone we know?' James asked.

Mr. Potter nodded. 'No children of theirs in Hogwarts right now, but it was the Hansons.'

James had only heard his father speak of the family; a very old wizarding family, they hadn't had a child in Hogwarts for several years. 'How did they surive?'

'They're a very talented magical family. Then again, so were the Longbottoms,' Mr. Potter sighed as the memory of the murder of James' classmate Frank Longbottom's entire family came back to his mind. 'But they were able to batten the hatches so to speak and hold them off while the Aurors made their way there.'

'So were you out last night?' James asked.

Mr. Potter nodded. 'I was.'

'I didn't even hear you!' James said, impressed.

'What can I say, it's-'

'-a kind of magic, right Dad,' James said with a snort as they headed out the front door.

*

In what seemed like only a short while later, James and Mr. Potter stepped onto the steaming Platform 9 and 3/4. The scarlet steam engine sat, waiting to take students to Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. James barely had a second to register the train when he was suddenly struck by something obscenely large, heavy and hairy.

'JAMES!' came the cry from his best friend Sirius Black, who appeared to have taken a running leap to give him a hug. 'The mirrors just don't do justice, it's great to see you!'

James wheezed, looking at his friend. He seemed to have grown about a foot in height over the summer, and his wavy black hair was longer than ever. 'Great to see you too, Sirius,' he panted. 'But maybe shouting something like 'heads up' would be good next time.'

'Sorry mate,' Sirius said with a grin. 'I've been here all morning waiting for you lot to arrive. Hello, Mr. Potter!'

Mr. Potter nodded with a smile at Sirius. While Sirius had not been able to leave his house to visit the Potters over the summer, the sight of James and Sirius talking to each other on their enchanted mirrors had become all too frequent. 'Is anyone else here yet?' James asked, looking around.

'Peter got here just a little before you did, went to get us a compartment on the train. I haven't seen Remus yet,' Sirius replied.

'Remus...that would be the Lupins' boy, yes?' Mr. Potter asked.

'Yeah, Dad. You saw the letters he sent over the summer,' James said.

Mr. Potter nodded, but an odd look crossed his face for a moment. James was about to ask when the train's whistle sounded. 'Well, you'd best be off,' Mr. Potter said, the look now gone. 'But before you do...' and from his cloak, he drew an antiquated looking camera.

'Oh, come on Dad-'

'Family tradition,' Mr. Potter cut in sternly. 'And I've grown quite fond of having my head firmly attached to my shoulders. I don't want your mother to try giving Nearly-Headless Nick any company at Hogwarts. So smile.'

Sirius wrapped an arm around James' shoulder and they both grinned broadly for Mr. Potter who snapped the picture. 'Off you go, then. Be safe, be careful, and don't get into too much trouble this year.'

'Not after last year,' James replied brightly, but at his father's concerned look, James spoke more seriously. 'Dumbledore is increasing the protection at the school, remember? Even if I go looking for trouble-' his father looked perturbed, '-I don't think I'll find it,' James said as he hopped onto the Hogwarts Express. He saw Remus running onto the platform with his trunk as the train began to move ever so slowly. 'Remus! Oi! Over here!' he called.

Mr. Potter waved his wand and Remus' trunk shot out of his hands and into the baggage crate on the train. 'Thank you!' Remus panted as he took James and Sirius' outstretched hands and they hauled him onto the train.

'Why so late?' James asked.

'Long night,' Remus panted. 'Nearly didn't make it.'

'It was a full moon last night,' Sirius said matter of factly. 'It was certainly noisy around my house. I think there's something to the theory that the moon causes people to go a bit wonky.'

Remus tried to look enthused by Sirius' theory, but James noticed him pale ever so slightly. 'Where's Peter?' Remus asked in an abrupt change of subject.

'He should have got us a compartment by now. Let's go find him,' Sirius suggested.

They made their way along the train exchanging stories from the summer. James was filling them in on what his father had told him that morning when they arrived at the compartment occupied by both Peter Pettigrew and Lily Evans.

'Hi guys!' Peter said brightly. Lily looked up and smiled at Remus, grimaced at Sirius, and scowled at James.

'All right, Evans?' James said brightly.

'Just leaving, actually,' Lily said and she got up and out of the compartment, bumping James none too lightly as she went by.

Sirius looked confused. 'I thought she said you were alright at the end of last year?'

'She said he wasn't a total git,' Remus added helpfully.

James looked after her longingly. 'I think my feelings for Lily are coming back to the surface.'

Sirius snorted. 'I don't think we ever got that cadavre fully into the grave, James.'

'I'm serious,' James said. 'I think this is the year I'll win her heart.'

Sirius flopped down on the seat next to Peter and raised an inquisitive eyebrow at James. 'Alright, fill us in, Romeo. How do you plan to do that?'

'We're second years now,' James said excitedly. 'You know what that means!'

Remus, Sirius and Peter looked at James blankly.

'Quidditch!' James said excitedly. 'We get to attend the Quidditch Tryouts. Once she sees me on the pitch, she'll come around.'

'Because all of your antics and tomfoolery last year certainly impressed her,' Remus said dryly.

'You haven't seen me on a broomstick,' James said, puffing out of his chest.

'I'd imagine you would still posess your wit, sense of humor, face and hair,' Remus replied.

'...Well, yeah,' James said with a frown.

'In short, all the things that Lily Evans despises,' Remus concluded to roars of laughter from Sirius and Peter.

James sat down on his seat. 'Oh shut up,' he muttered.

'Come on, James, we criticise because we care,' Sirius chimed in. 'I'm not trying to be cruel, but Peter would finish tops in Potions before Lily Evans would agree to go steady with you.'

'Oi!' Peter said in a hurt tone.

'What? It's your worst subject,' Sirius said.

'Well there's no need to rub that in my face,' Peter said, flushing.

'No one's rubbing anything! I'm worst at...something,' Sirius said, looking around for assistance.

'Getting detentions?' Remus offered helpfully.

Sirius waved his hand. 'No, I think I'm the best at that. No one got more detentions than me and James last year.'

'I think detentions are supposed to be lower in number, rather than higher,' Remus said with a shake of his head.

'Well where's the fun in that? Speaking of which,' Sirius said with a mischievous smile. 'Anyone else see Snivelly?'

James sat up a little straighter in his seat. He had forgotten about Severus Snape, a Slytherin boy in their year whom he thoroughly despised. It seemed that no matter how much they detested one another, however, that they always ended up caught in the same predicaments together. 'I hadn't seen him. Did you?'

Sirius nodded eagerly. 'Looks like he's wearing an apron,' he said with poorly concealed amusement. 'And he still hasn't managed to find a decent bottle of shampoo.'

'We should pay him a visit,' James said with a grin.

'Read my mind,' said Sirius as he stood up.

Remus sighed. 'Could we wait until we're at the castle, at least, before you start getting into trouble? I don't think we've even cleared London, yet-'

'Come on, Loony,' Sirius said, accentuating the playful nickname he had developed for Remus in the first year. 'Loony Lupin, always buried in his books. Hoping to be a Prefect? Where's the fun in that? Come and live a little dangerously with us!'

'Yeah, come on, Remus,' James chimed in. 'Take a walk on the wild side.'

Remus looked between the two of them and sighed. 'I did hear this one pretty good spell,' he said with a half hearted smile.

'Marauders, reporting for duty,' James said brightly. 'We're all ears, Remus. Let's talk and walk.'