Disclaimer: No, as much as I wish I did, I do not own Harry Potter. Anything you recognize from the books belongs to JKR, and anything stupid probably belongs to me.
Now that that's over... Please R&R.
In this chapter I'm setting the scene for the story. It's not the most interesting thing in the world, but it's gotta happen. The chapter's fairly short, but I'm in the process of editing longer ones so keep your eyes out!
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... The train rattled along towards King's Cross, and most of the compartments were filled up, except one. James Potter and his three best friends walked toward it and stuck their heads in.
"Hello, girls, mind if we join you? This is they only compartment left."
One of the girls inside nodded her head, and the boys walked in and sat down. James surveyed the now full compartment, and wondered what the coming summer would have in store for him. He was going home after his sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. During those past six years, he and his friends had given many teachers stress headaches, and pranked more Slytherins than they could count. This was the trademark of their little group. They called themselves the Marauders, and were known throughout the school as most likely to break the record number of detentions. They were just three detentions shy of doing so, even though one of the Marauders, Remus Lupin, was a prefect.
Remus was, in fact, sitting to James' left now. He was sandy haired, and had stormy blue eyes. On Remus' left sat Peter Pettigrew. Peter was the quietest and least outspoken of the group. He was more a follower than a leader, but that was the way it had always been and he was a Marauder nonetheless.
To James's other side was his best friend, Sirius Black. He and Sirius had known each other for what felt like forever. Being the chief planners of all the pranking the Marauders did, they were responsible for over three quarters of the detentions accumulated by the group. Sirius was commentator for the school Quidditch matches. He had a good, if sometimes perverted, sense of humor, and was widely liked within the student population.
Looking across from him, James saw the real reason he had wanted to sit in this compartment. Her name was Lily Evans, and she was a fellow Gryffindor. She had long red hair, and emerald green eyes. She wasn't strikingly beautiful, just a bit above average. Besides, it was something else besides her physical features that made her different to James. Ever since first year, they had sort of been enemies. The original enmity between them had arisen after a certain experience which ended in Lily's hair being turned Slytherin colors. It hadn't exactly been an accident, and Lily had gotten her revenge. This resulted in mutual dislike, until James had fallen for her in fourth year. He had been dropping hints about it since then. Lily just thought he was showing off. Although she tried, it was hard for her to avoid him. They were both in Gryffindor prefects, and had several classes together. She tolerated him at times when hating him got tiring, but that was as far as it went. She was not without further reason for this dislike either. In addition to the hair incident, she thought James was way too big headed. He loved to show off for her and play the hero in every situation. Everyone just liked him for his jet black, unruly hair, chocolate brown eyes, and the fact that he played Seeker in Quidditch. Lily being a fellow Quidditch player herself (a Chaser), this did not impress her.
Presently, she was trying to ignore the way James kept glancing at her, by talking to her friends, Ellie Grayer and Rae Simmons, who was a childhood friend of Remus'.
Their conversation was interrupted by a platinum blonde Ravenclaw prefect, who poked her head into the compartment, letting everyone know that they would be arriving at Kings Cross in a half-hour or so. She turned her back and tossed her hair over her shoulder.
"Nice legs on that one," Sirius said, staring after her. Ellie coughed something that sounded like a cross between "ditz" and a slightly more insulting comment. Sirius gave her a scandalized look. Remus, the self-proclaimed peacekeeper, saw a fight coming on, and quickly changed the subject.
"Did you get those invitations I sent you?" he asked to the general public.
"Yes," everyone said together. This caused quite an uproar. The invites were to Remus' brother Thien's wedding. Apparently, the boys had not told the girls that they had been invited, and vice versa. Of course, Rae was overjoyed to know that she'd be seeing Thien again, because he was like an older brother to her. Peter asked why she was so excited, and she began to explain the whole "family relationship" to him, quite loudly. Sirius began asking whether or not there would be any cute girls there. Ellie was busy telling him off, leaving Lily to talk to either Remus or James. She chose Remus.
"Can you teach me that charm that turns any food into chocolate? I could really use it."
"Sure. It's really not that hard, you just have to get the wand movement right..."
"Would all prefects please report to the prefects compartment immediately," came a magically magnified voice. Lily, James, and Remus all stood up. They were the prefects for their year, much to Lily's dismay. They were one of only two houses that had three prefects. The other was the seventh year Ravenclaws. She had wondered how in the world James had become a prefect. Yes, his grades were all right, but the more likely reason was that the teachers hoped it would help turn him responsible.
"See you when we get there then?" Rae said.
"Meet you at the barrier?" Lily asked.
"Sure," Rae answered, as Lily, Remus and James left the compartment. She walked slightly ahead of them on the way there. Suddenly, another compartment door opened, and out stepped Severus Snape. Now, Lily found herself in between the two people she least wanted to be around. Snape looked at her with his signature sneer.
"Going somewhere?" he asked.
"We were going to the prefects compartment, Snivellus, and you're in the way. We'd especially appreciate it if you'd vacate the area so we can get through."
Snape didn't say anything for a moment. Remus opened his mouth to say something, but James beat him to it.
"Here let me put it in terms you can understand. Move your arse!"
He took Lily by the arm and pushed past Snape, dragging her with him. As soon as Snape was behind them, she shook him off.
"Hey, I saved you from a sticky situation. You should be thanking me," he protested, tilting his head slightly and running a hand through his hair.
"Well, we can add that to the list of things you're good at then: showing off, being a prick who needs a serious head deflation, and coming up with stupid comebacks," she said sarcastically, as she pushed open the door to the prefect compartment.
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"AAAAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!" A shrill scream pierced the air as the doors to the compartment flew open. Everyone sitting inside looked up, and what they saw was an awe-inspiring sight. Lily was standing in the doorway, looking particularly murderous and breathing like a winded rhinoceros. The only thing that looked physically different about her was that her hair was now green and silver.
"What happened to you?" Ellie asked bluntly.
"Potter. He pulled that stupid Slytherin hair trick on me AGAIN, and he put a charm on my voice so that I spoke only Pig Latin whenever anyone in the prefect meeting spoke to me."
"How'd you make him undo it?"
"He couldn't."
"Why?"
"You could ask him, but he won't be able to answer, seeing as he's now an albatross."
"A WHAT?"
"Albatross."
Ellie winced. She had a hard time imagining James as an albatross.
"Why an albatross?" Sirius asked.
"Maybe because he won't be proud of being an albatross later, and maybe because albatrosses live in Antarctica, far away from here!"
"True, true," said Sirius.
"What's an albatross?" Peter asked. No one paid any attention to this question.
"Where did you put him, Lily?" Ellie asked.
"Nowhere, I just left him there."
"He's hiding out in a compartment up front. I think it's really scaring the third years," Remus, who had now arrived at the compartment, informed them.
"We'd better go find him before he does any serious damage," Ellie suggested. She led the way out of the compartment; Remus, Sirius, and Rae following her. A few moments later, Lily stormed out after them, leaving Peter alone in the compartment.
"Hey!" he said. "Nobody ever told me what an albatross was!"
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That's it for this chapter!
Next chapter will be at Remus' house. Who knows what kind of chaos could ensue!
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