I'm not sure if this is a serious fic or a crackfic. Probably both.

Hey guys! Look who started another AU/ fic. Let's hope it doesn't take me ages to update this one either. It's got about five chapters total, or at least that's how much I came up with when I hurriedly wrote down my plot while dozing off, so it's subject to change (but let's just go with five for now okay.) Special thanks to Rhiannon for reading this through while receiving my ridiculous snaps about it. She's a dear. Also, I'm trying my hand at a new style of writing- sort of like an article/ journalism vibe- so I hope it's not too bad.

Chapter 1

Breaking News: Lily Evans and James Potter are not so secretly snogging. The internet is losing its shit.

Welcome ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary folk to what is the first of a five part exposé on the two biggest names in all of music right now: The Marauders and Lily Evans. One is boy band group that's achieved One Direction like fame in the past few years, and the other is an immensely talented singer/songwriter who's poised to take over the world one day. But now, on the eve of their respective world tours (the Marauders kick it off in Paris in one week, while Evans starts off in New York a few days later), we here at TIME feel it's time to remind you all just how it all started and where they came from. From the nitty gritty beginnings- the broken friendships, nasty rumours and tears of all kinds- to the happy endings, I'm here to dig in deep. So buckle up kids, this is going to be one wild ride.

But first I guess I have to rewind a little to say, oh, about almost eight years ago.

When I first meet Lily Evans, it's at her own flat smack dab in the middle of London. She greets me at the front of the building wearing a pair of ripped jeans and an oversized flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up over a threadbare tank that reads 'PUNK IS DEAD.' Her trademark red hair is pulled up in a messy bun and, while her face is devoid of make-up, she still manages to look like a model. As soon as she spots me, a brilliant megawatt smile threatens to split open her face and it throws me for a loop for a second. Despite the sunny smile, she gives off a vibe that says she wouldn't hesitate to start fight or cut my throat (though, let's be real here, I'd probably thank her if she ever deigned me worthy enough to punch.) She has the most perfect eyebrows that I've ever seen in my entire life and is barely five feet, coming up to my nose. To say that I am slightly intimidated by her would be the understatement of the year.

We exchange pleasantries and she leads me up to her home, though not before apologising for having me meet her at her flat. 'It's my last day off for a long time,' she admits, 'I wasn't really up for doing anything today other than curling up in bed with Perseus and binge watching Netflix.'

Perseus I learn is Evans' incredibly angry, orange cat who glares at me from his perch as soon as I walk in behind his owner. I make sure to stay far away from him just in case the claws come out. Like his owner, he looks more than capable of cutting a bitch if needed. Her flat is astonishingly normal, looking like it could belong to any other twenty five year old and not a world famous superstar. Suddenly I begin to feel out of place in my sharp pantsuit and sensible shoes while sitting here in a sinfully comfortable armchair and having the Avengers stare at me from a poster stuck to the door. She puts the kettle on and brings out a box of chocolate biscuits and some ice cream. I think I've fallen a little bit more in love with her. Quick to hide my heart eyes, I pull out my notepad from my bag and begin the interview.

At seventeen years old, nobody really knew who Lily Evans was. She was merely an everyday teenager still in secondary school who made YouTube videos with her friends and wasn't exactly sure what she wanted to do with her life after she graduated in the next few months. She drove her daddy's rusty old Ford pickup truck ('Never once got a scratch on the thing,' she tells me proudly, 'I'm a fucking good driver.'), sometimes snuck out to go chainsmoke at the abandoned park 'round the corner and had a slight obsession with shoes.

Lily Evans was a relatively normal girl living a relatively normal life and loved to sing.

She had an affinity for it from a very young age, singing whatever came to mind to her heart's content. When she was fourteen, she finally developed the courage to make her own YouTube channel and posted her very first video of her singing 'Everytime,' by Britney Spears, one of the hottest hits of summer 2004. The video is still there on her channel for 'sentimental reasons,' filmed with a crappy webcam and showing a small redhead with an abundance of curls and braces.

Despite the eyebrow raising appearance, one could tell that 14 year old Evans had a voice on her, and a damn good one at that.

Over the course of the next three years she kept on singing and making videos, though instead of crappy webcams, she and good friend Severus Snape managed to scrounge up the money to buy a semi good camera that produced videos where you could actually see her nose. 'It took us almost four months of savings to buy that damn camera,' she reminisced with a pained smile, but more on that later. The redhead would sit on her bed or be out in the gardens, sometimes with her guitar, though more often than not, and croon her heart out while Snape directed her from behind the lens, their relationship in a nutshell. An attempt at editing would take place and then it would be posted for the world to see. By the beginning of 2008 right before she turned eighteen, she had just over three thousand subscribers on her channel and all her videos had generated a cumulative total of 9.1 million views, a veritable feat.

By then, Evans was in her last year of secondary school and preparing to write exams and face the horrors of adulthood. And then she got a message from the one and only Horace Slughorn of House of Obvious Great Works of Art and Recording Talents Studios (or HOGWARTS for those of us who like to breathe when talking). The last two videos which Evans posted were her renditions of 'Piece of Me,' by Britney Spears (our Evans seems to be a fan of BritBrit) and 'Chasing Pavements,' by then breakout star Adele in December and end of January respectively.

'It was surreal,' Evans tells me, 'I was just posting songs that were stuck in my head on YouTube and next thing I know, the Horace Slughorn has messaged me with a request of a meeting.' She confesses that she didn't tell her parents anything about it at first though.

'My parents wanted me to go off to uni and, I dunno, become a doctor or lawyer or something, so meeting one of the heads of a recording label was the farthest thing from that to do. I went to it of course. It was two weeks after I turned eighteen, so legally I was allowed to do what I wished,' she grinned. Something tells me she would have done well had she been a lawyer.

The meeting, as you all should know by now had you not be living under a rock for the past seven years, was an attempt to sign Evans to SlugClub Industries, one of the many subunits that HOGWARTS attained over the years. (Despite the many attempts of PROs over the years to explain that, no the name does not have any relations to the common terrestrial gastropod mollusc you have eating your Hydrangeas but is in fact, 'leaps and bounds made in the world of music using artistic license to the fullest.' However many a person- myself included- still snicker at the wording.) Normally these types of things take hours upon hours or even days in some cases, but Evans was in and out of there before the milkshake she made him buy her was even melted.

A woman after my own heart.

During that fifteen minute meeting, Evans countered his offer with her own preposition: Ask me again in four months.

'I wanted to at least attempt my A levels, no matter how terrible they were,' she explains, 'Plus since my mum would throw a fit if I left school for something I wasn't even sure I would make it in, I wanted to play it a bit safe, so I told Slughorn that if he was still willing to meet me after my exams, then I would properly consider.'

Of course, this is Lily Evans, we're talking about, and those months leading up to her final exams, she spent studying and slowly bringing her parents around to the idea of her making a living singing.

'I think by the time July rolled around my mum and dad thought that I would just be earning some extra money by singing in coffee shops or something,' confesses Evans with just the barest beginnings of a smirk. 'You can imagine the pandemonium that took place when I had them meet Slughorn and they realised that what they thought was correct- just on a much wider scale.' She pauses here for a moment to laugh. It's a lovely sounding expression of mirth from the redhead, and I could probably wax poetic about it for days, but I'll leave that for her groupies scattered through the internet. 'I'm just glad mum waited until Slughorn left and we were home alone before the yelling started.' There's a wince accompanying the statement and her eyes cloud over like a veteran reminiscing of the war. She may have survived it, but at what cost.

After a summer of persuasion, extra chores, and some begging, Evans' parents finally agreed (although grudgingly to that. She recalls her mother giving her a list of things she was and was not allowed to do. It was bound. She still has it in a drawer at her flat.) It was decided then; she would get into the music industry. And so, in the following eight years, not only did she get into the industry; Evans became a household name across the globe.

The Marauders meet me at The Three Broomsticks down in Soho for lunch after doing a photo shoot for this exclusive (photos can be seen on pages 12 & 13). They still seem to be in photo shoot mode as I enter the private room. Black is lounging in one of the hand carved wooden chairs with a sort of casual elegance that makes me want to cry. His dark hair is artfully mussed, looking like he just stepped off his bike which, to be honest, he might've done, and he makes the hilariously simple white t shirt and black skinny jeans look like it was pulled from the next issue of Vogue. He's playing Candy Crush on his phone while looking vaguely disinterested in the rest of the world. Looking back on it, I think Sirius Black's entire existence makes me want to cry because how do you fit so much perfect in one individual?

Next to him is his brother in all but blood. Unlike Black, Potter seems physically impossible to stay still. If he's not jiggling his leg, he's messing up his hair or spinning a bottle cap between his fingers. He wears nearly the same thing as Black, except he has a red flannel shirt over his t shirt with the sleeves pushed up to expose part of his sleeve of tattoos. He doesn't wear it with the same kind of sophistication as Black, but then again who can? Potter's hair is also mussed, but whereas Black's is made to look so, Potter's simply is.

Across the table sits Lupin, book in hand clad in a dark purple jumper. He seems to be reading though ever so often I spot him throwing a little piece of paper at Potter's hair, smirking each time it stays. The other boy is none the wiser. He spots me looking and flashes me a quick wink while bring his finger to his mouth in a quick shushing motion.

Finally there is Pettigrew, sitting next to Lupin, trying to lounge in his chair like Black is but not getting it quite right. He's the most casually dressed of the four, wearing a 'The Walking Dead,' t shirt. His eyes are focused on the phone in front of him where he's playing temple run and his tongue is poking out from his mouth just a little. It's all slightly adorable.

Introductions are quickly made, drinks are ordered, and I sit down to begin my questions while trying to reel in four twenty five year old men who act like a litter of kittens exploring the world for the first time. It's quite a task and I'm very proud of myself for getting through it with only minimal exasperation. (It was fond exasperation though.)

At seventeen years old, The Marauders, had just signed with HOGWARTS under the tutelage of the great Minerva McGonagall, hall of fame rock legend (for us lackadaisical Millennials, she sung several hits in the 70s and became a national feminist icon. Your mothers may have had posters of her in their room like mine did. Not that they would ever admit it of course. But you know the truth; you found them in the attic at the end of sixth form) and were on the brink of stardom.

Front man and lead singer of the group, James Potter, and Sirius Black, drummer and resident 'bad boy' (his own words, graced upon me with a sardonic smirk from Mr Black himself) grew up together, leaving a trial of mischief and mayhem wherever they went. They're thick as thieves, almost conjoined at the hip with a co-dependency that's almost borderline disturbing. And wherever Potter and Black were, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, bassist and guitarist of the band respectively, were quick to follow. The four of them first came together at age eleven when they were all given detention- separately, save for Potter and Black, might I add- during the first week of school.

'I can't even remember what we did to get there,' Potter says, smirking before casting a glance at Black, who, as always stands at his side. The other man merely shrugs and flicks a loose strand of hair out of his eyes. 'It all starts to blend together after a while.'

'We got in a lot of trouble in school,' Black points out unhelpfully, with a smirk. He swings his arm around the other man and, side by side like this, the matching quirk of their lips is enough to make me feel just a bit sorry for the teachers that had to deal with them back in school. 'All four of us, though it was mainly me and this git getting the brunt of the punishment. Peter, the silver tongued bastard, could lie his way out of almost anything, and Remus- well, I mean it's Remus. Who's going to look at him and think he's the one responsible for blowing up a girls' toilet?' Black throws his head back and barks out a laugh. 'Little shit.' He says his entire spiel with the same devil may care smirk, voice taking on a lazy cadence which just a touch of fondness when he speaks about his mates.

He's not wrong of course. Remus Lupin, with his over sized jumpers, neatly combed sandy brown hair, and introverted nature wouldn't be anyone's first choice in carrying out elaborate pranks, but after having lunch with the band for the sake of these articles and seeing him casually add ketchup to Potter's Coke while the latter went to the bathroom, I'm just about ready to rethink that. Unlike Potter and Black, whose demeanours practically scream troublemaker or Pettigrew with his quick hands and even quicker tongue, he's a quiet sort of mastermind. The type that should be feared just a little because it's quite possible that he knows all your weaknesses.

It was during that fated detention that the boys all became friends, joined together by their love of music and mischief, and by the time they turned fifteen, they had it set in their minds that they wanted to start a band. So they did during the summer before their fourth and fifth years, toiling away at lyrics and instruments until they got better and better. Each of them has always been musically inclined so it didn't take quite that long for the music to start flowing. The first few songs were a little rough around the edges, but they kept on pushing and persevering until finally, almost a year later they performed a cover of The Beatles 'Twist and Shout' at a school fair under the name The Marauders.

Fast forward another year, and they were being signed to HOGWARTS, having written near eighty five original songs of their own within the past two years.

Of course, some were quick to hiss out nepotism (or at the very least, favouritism) from the dark confines of their basements. Potter and Black, practically grew up in the lap of Albus Dumbledore, CEO of HOGWARTS. Additionally Potter's parents also happened to be part of the funding missionaries that helped get the label of the ground in its early years and HOGWARTS happens to be one of the largest beneficiaries to donate to the couple's many charities.

(Including the most notable, Home, a full length album produced by the record label to combat homelessness that featured several of its top talents putting their own spin on some of the biggest hits to ever be released in musical history. These talents included Evans as well as the Marauders, doing a single each before coming together to do the infamous (famous?) duet that sent fangirls across the world into a tizzy while '#jily' trended for a solid week.) (More in depth information on the Home fiasco will be released in a later instalment of the Evans/ Marauders series.)

Most of those people were quick to hush their mouths when The Marauders' first single dropped just two months after signing. To this day, everyone knows all the lyrics to bubblegum pop 'Mischief Managed' (don't deny it; you know it's true). You know the lyrics, your mother knows the lyrics, babies know the lyrics and they don't even have object permanence. The song spent thirty nine weeks on the charts, three of which was at the coveted number one spot. Take that haters.

The band's debut album, 'No Good' was released seven months later, around the same time Evans signed into SlugClub. 'No Good' consisted of a total of 12 similarly bubblegum pop-esque songs that wound its way into the hearts of many 'tween' and pre-teen girls and managed to go gold almost a year later after its release. And so marks The Marauders' tip into stardom.

Having the album go gold right after Potter, the youngest of the group, turned nineteen seemed to open a Pandora's box. They were now adults in the world of rock n' roll. Cue the madness.

While being an all-round good set of boys, one must remember that The Marauders are first and foremost troublemakers, especially Black and Potter, though Lupin and Pettigrew aren't exactly backwards. Within that first year alone there were sex scandals, reports of drug use, and multiple speeding tickets which made it seem like the Marauders were going to crash and burn before they even made it for more than seven seconds of lime light. It took a stern talking to from McGonagall- tea was had, biscuits were offered, and tears were shed- for them to pull their heads out of their arses and realise that the world was laughing at them for getting kicked of clubs for being too smashed.

It was time for them to clean up their acts, and what better way to do it than with charity? The group officially partnered with The Potter Project, the collective name for the number of different charities spearheaded by Mama and Papa Potter themselves. Saturday nights were no longer spent at nightclubs and parties, but instead at children's hospitals, beach clean ups and homeless shelters where the boys donated their time and money.

'Home was actually our idea,' Pettigrew says, and the other three of them pause whatever it is they were doing (Black has gone back to playing Candy Crush, Potter is making a castle out of chips, Lupin is sneakily stealing chips from his castle) and look up. They all flash a smirk at Potter who has gone red and mumbles 'Fuck off' when Black pokes his side.

With my interest piqued, I jump in, fully intent on grilling them all for any new information but they refuse to budge, choosing instead to remain mum on the matter. Disgruntled, I go back to my normal list of questions.

It took a while for them to clean back up, but there are still some who remember the dark days, such as Severus Snape, who like to bring it up at any possible opportunity.

Snape, as you may have remembered from before, was one of Evans' closest friends and perhaps one of the greatest supporters of the 'Down with The Marauders' movement. (It is an actual movement and I couldn't help but laugh when I found out about it. The petition only managed to scrounge up a total of eighty three signatures before time run out. The link was retweeted a number of times by former screamer/ now music critic, Tom Marvolo Riddle- stage name Voldemort/ the Dark Lord of the band, The Death Eaters- who has seemed to have taken Snape under his wing.)

The two grew up together in the same neighbourhood, but didn't become actual good friends until secondary school where they shared classes, did homework together and partnered for labs. And make music of course.

'Both of us were sort of awkward,' Evans says, hands folded neatly in her lap. Her knuckles are turning white. 'We didn't have any friends and we weren't exactly too good at making them. He was too busy reading to hold any real sorts of conversation, and I just couldn't talk to strangers without feeling my throat close up. So we did the next best thing and became friends. Close friends. I loved him like a brother but...' She trails off with a wince, one which I can completely empathise with, and stares off into space, expecting me to understand what she meant. I did of course. Everyone did.

Even as Evans signed with SlugClub Industries, she insisted on keeping Snape at her side. He was her best friend, her closest confidante, the one who was there for her ever since she started her journey into the world of music.

'I learnt to branch out eventually, but he was there from the beginning you know? I mean, I had my parents, but they always just thought of music as a hobby that I'd grow out of eventually and my sister, well. My music is a sore spot for both of us.' She sits ramrod straight in the plush armchair, face stoic and, for the first time since we began this interview, she's not looking me in the eye. Frankly that's more unnerving than having her stare at me unflinchingly from before. The atmosphere is suddenly tense. Perseus has jumped off his perch and is now sat by his mistress' feet glaring at me. Evans offers to get me more tea and I quietly accept, hoping that her cat doesn't try to kill me in the interim. When she comes back to the room with the kettle I decide to drop the subject.

It's no secret however that Evans doesn't have the best relationship with her hardly seen older sister, Petunia Evans. In an interview given early on in her career, Evans said, 'I'm almost twenty, didn't go to any sort of university, and managed to make nearly a million pounds on my own last year. Tuney has a bachelor's in business and she works as a waitress at some hole in the wall cafe. She thinks the situation is a bit unfair.' Other than that, Evans has remained relatively mum on the situation with her sister, choosing instead to glare frostily at anyone who dares broach the subject.

The Marauders are a lot more open when it comes to their family life than Evans. Potter is a family man through and through and so is Lupin, though he's much more subdued about it than his band mate, while Pettigrew worships his mother with all his heart. The only one unwilling to speak about family is Black who suddenly goes stiff when the question is posed to him.

The boys immediately jump into action at that and Potter frowns at me. 'Why don't you skip this one out? It's not like the world doesn't already know,' he says, not exactly unkindly, but also not with the warmth he had been using before. From their respective positions, Lupin and Pettigrew nod, also frowning at me. I feel like a small child who's disappointed her older brothers and hang my head in shame. For the first time since we've all sat down together for lunch it's painfully quiet.

Slowly I get the conversation back up and rolling (though not before slyly asking the waiter to bring over the dessert platter that I buy with my own money for their forgiveness) with a few more innocuous and light hearted questions.

Potter was right when he said the world already knows what went down with Black and his family, but, like with Evans, details are vague and hard to come by. One thing is for certain though: Black was disowned by his parents just after they made it big, a few days before Potter and Black's big arrest after breaking several traffic laws and displaying cheek to the police. (This was before the new and improved reformed Marauders, right before McGonagall sat down and had a little chat with them.)

The circumstances surrounding the disownment are hazy at best but numerous reports point to the fact that the esteemed Black family- the one filled with doctors and lawyers and engineers- deemed it unfit for one of their own to be performing in a boy band for a living. A dangerous game of chicken was played between the two parties: drop out or we kick you out while Black ignored them and continued doing his thing. The entire thing culminated into his subsequent disownment, leaving him without home or money until the Potters took him in.

Good people those Potters.

Due to their little 'rehab' time, The Marauders don't release anymore music until almost a year later. 'Solemnly Swear,' was released nearly 2 years after their first album with hits like 'Invisibility' and 'Chasers' making them the centre of attention once more.

With their growing number of hits also came with a growing fan base. Before dropping their second album, fans were mainly concentrated in England and its surrounding localities. The Marauders performed at several venues around the UK and even once or twice in other European countries. After the release of their second album, their fan base grew exponentially and less than six months later it was decided that they would tour Europe and, due to increase in demand from our friends 'across the pond', the US as well.

While the Marauders were preparing to go on tour, Evans was preparing to drop her much anticipated album. For the past two years she had been slowly releasing singles such as 'Pretty Petals,' 'Charming' and 'Green Light, Stop,' all of which did extremely well on the charts.

Despite working with the same studio, neither party ever crossed paths. When asked about what she thought of The Marauders right after they blew up for the second time, Evans merely shrugged and said diplomatically, 'They're good at what they do and people love them. It's not really my kind of music but I respect them.'

Since Evans had yet to achieve the same type of fame as The Marauders, the band was never asked what they thought of her when she finally began to gather traction. 'She's definitely a very capable singer and I'm sure we would have said the same thing had we heard about her back then,' says Lupin when asked, 'We didn't really know she existed until we met.'

Potter's cheeks are still stained red and he seems to be very interested in the tablecloth.

And oh what a first meeting that was. That's something I don't think anyone could ever forget, even though most of us aren't privy to even half of the details.

Until now that is.

That's right kiddos; yours truly has managed to squeeze out all the details of their first time just for you and it's definitely unexpected. The question that remains though, is this historic meeting going to live up to your expectations? Catch the next issue to find out!

-written by Marlene McKinnon of TIME magazine

Let me know what you think in a review! And if you want to know what's going on with this fic, I have an entire tag dedicated to it on tumblr where I can be found under hiddenpolkadots.

xoxo Nai