-1Avedra Lustra glanced around the crowded tables in the Great Hall. She smiled at the noise and chaos that marked the start of term feast.

"Grinning so early in the school year, Ave?" Her best friend, Lily Evans teased from her right.

She turned to Lily and her smile broadened. "I love coming back to Hogwarts. And besides, Miss Prefect, I don't see you frowning. Has Potter FINALLY decided to leave you alone?"

Lily rolled her lovely emerald eyes, but her own smile didn't fade. "We can hope. At least Remus got Prefect too. Maybe he can keep Potter and Black in line now."

A hush filled the hall as Professor McGonagall came forward with the Sorting Hat and an old stool. The sorting of First Years began and Avedra turned back to Lily.

"Sure, because Lupin has done so well at keeping them from being a nuisance for the past four years. Next you'll be telling me this is the year that Pettigrew gets top marks in Potions." Ave smirked, quite proud of her own wittiness.

She and Lily cheered as two First Years were sorted into Gryfindor. One, a small girl, settled beside Avedra. Ave smiled down at the scared girl and patted her on the back.

"Welcome to Gryffindor, I'm Avedra and this is Lily." She offered over the cheers from Slytherin as the snakes called another one home.

"I'm Sandra," the girl barely whispered.

Lily shot Avedra a look and they both nodded. Sandra was most definitely Muggleborn. "Don't worry, Gryffindor is a great house and you'll find loads of friends." Avedra assured the timid girl.

"And if you need any help, just come to me," Lily offered, smiling.

Sandra smiled and nodded. The table erupted again as another young girl was sorted into their house. She made a beeline for the space between Sandra and a fourth year. Sandra turned to her new housemate, and showed signs of the courage their house was known for by introducing herself and Lily and Avedra.

"Another lioness, Lils." Avedra murmured to Lily as they watched a fast friendship form amid the cheers of surrounding tables.

The feast started soon after, only three new Gryffindor girls and four boys. Avedra snuck glances at the younger girls as the gold plates filled with food. She smiled at their wonder at all the magic Hogwarts held. Hard to believe, she thought, that that was her four years ago. At least she knew more about Hogwarts than the Muggleborns, but it was intimidating nonetheless.

A pea flew through the air and smacked Ave in the cheek. Looking up with murderous eyes, she knew instinctively where it came from.

"Sirius Black! Do you MIND?!" She glared at the far too good looking boy who grinned sheepishly at her from beside his best mates.

"Sorry Ave, it was meant for Lily." Sirius snickered and raised his spoon to aim again.

Avedra pulled her wand from her pocket and flicked it casually at Sirius' plate. All of his peas began launching themselves at him one at a time. James Potter started laughing as his best friend was being targeted by tiny green ammo. Raising an eyebrow, Avedra flicked again and another attack was launched, this time against James. The table erupted in hoots and Lily shook her head at Avedra.

"Honestly, Ave, do you think that makes it better?" She admonished.

"No, but it makes it funnier," Ave grinned as Potter and Black attempted to counter charm the peas back onto the plate only to have them speed up in flinging themselves at the two boys. "Maybe I should have warned them about that side effect. Any counter charms only add to the attack."

Remus sat watching Avedra with a soft smile. She never let James or Sirius get away with their attempts to weaken Lily's resolve. He chuckled as a vicious pea hit James in the eye then launched itself at Sirius' ear.

Avedra decided that the peas had made their point, as it were, and flicked her wand again. The peas stopped mid attack and fell to the plate, table, laps of their victims and floor.

"Sorry Sirius, looked like you needed help getting the peas to your mouth." Avedra smirked.

Sirius and James glared for a moment before giving up and collapsing in laughter. Avedra made things interesting, that was certain. Attacking peas. Last year she'd charmed their robes to the bench and every attempt to unbind had only strengthen the charm. They'd ended up having to strip them off to get to their dorm. The next morning their robes were found folded and cleaned at the foots of their beds.

"Well, if you're all through making a mess for the House-elves. It's time to get to Gryffindor tower." Lily said, smiling and motioning to the First Years. "Follow me, ladies and pay attention. The pathways and stairways in Hogwarts are not your average fair."

Avedra waited for Lily to get her charges gathered and wandered behind, hoping to keep anyone from straggling behind. Last year the Prefect lost a First Year during the walk when the young boy had stopped to gawk at one of the moving pictures. Then he'd wandered into a broken cupboard and was found three weeks later in the dungeon. Poor kid, he'd been terrified.

She let her mind drift even as she kept an eye out for touristy First Years and didn't notice when two people came up on either side of her. An arm snaked around her shoulders and she came back to her surroundings.

"Sirius, haven't I told you it's impolite to impose yourself on my personal space?" She asked, shrugging off the weight of his arm.

"Avedra, haven't I told you that using such big words only adds to my confusion?" Sirius asked, teasing.

They walked on in comfortable silence. Unlike her best friend, Avedra wasn't ready to curse Black and Potter on whim. Sure, she gave as good as she got, but usually they had to DO something to get her to charm their peas.

"So Lustra, are you going to teach us that charm you used on the peas?" James asked, grinning.

"No, Potter, why would I do that? You'd only use it on Severus and then you'd get points taken off of Gryfindor and I'd want to charm something else to attack you." She replied with unbridled condescension.

"It's really unfair, Avedra. You get to learn all these new, untested charms and we have to wait until they come out in one of the textbooks." Sirius whined. "I mean, why couldn't my mother be a charm research and developer?"

"Because she's too busy cutting the heads off of House-elves and plotting the downfall of Muggleborns?" Avedra offered, conversationally.

"Well technically it's Dad who cuts the heads off, but I get your point."

The stopped outside the portrait hole and waited for everyone else to catch up before Lily would give them the password. As the Fat Lady's portrait swung aside, Avedra's eyes glowed at the sight of home. The common room was ablaze in warm firelight and even after four years she was still awed at how homey it was.

"Heading upstairs, Sirius?" James asked.

"If Avedra isn't going to tell us the new charm, I guess we'd better." Sirius said, trying to sound put out.

"Off it, Sirius. You know I'm not going to give in that easily. What's in it for me?" Ave asked, sliding into a comfortable chair near the fire. She twisted, throwing her legs over one arm and resting her head on the other arm.

Sirius gave her a wolfish grin and pulled a chair closer to hers. She knew he had something for her, something good by the way he was acting. James grabbed another chair and Pettigrew slunk up from out of the shadows nearby.

"We do have something, but we're not sure you're right for the job." Sirius whispered. "It's research, difficult research."

Avedra's eyes sparkled. She loved research. Especially the kind that the Marauders

came up with. They knew that anything they tossed at her she could figure out.

"What's this research for, exactly?" Avedra asked.

"Animagi, we want to become Animagi." James whispered.

It made complete sense to her. What better way to go slinking about the castle than as a pack of animals? She bit her lip and mentally prepared her list of research materials. She'd have to finagle a way to get into the restricted section.

The boys watched as her mind worked. Sirius knew that she'd be able to do it. Avedra Lustra lived for research. Half of the unauthorized charms he knew came from Avedra. Between her mother's work and her own research and experiments, the Marauders had an arsenal of spells that the rest of the school envied. If anyone they trusted could help them become Animagi, it was Avedra. It helped that she wasn't hard on the eyes.

"I'll do it," Avedra said. "One condition, though."

Damn, Sirius thought. "What?"

"I have to become one too, an Animagus." Avedra had been working things through in her mind and she knew that she'd have to learn to do it as well, in order to teach them how.

Sighing, the boys nodded. It was easier than explaining why they were doing it, and why it was a bad idea for her to do it too.

Avedra stretched, tossing her full head of ebony curls back. Her short legs dangled over the edge of the chair and she arched unabashedly. "Well, I'm tired. I'll see you boys in the morning. Sweet dreams."

Sirius shifted uncomfortably in his seat. She ALWAYS did things like that, stretching and arching. Merlin's beard, sometimes being around her was pure torture. "Night, Ave."

She jumped up and walked to the stairs leading to the girls dormitory. Stopping briefly to wave back, she headed up for a relaxing night.

"Bloody Hell," Remus breathed from behind Sirius. Peter jumped, not noticing that Remus had joined them.

"You can say that again, mate," Sirius half moaned. "If I didn't already know she was a witch, I'd suspect her after that little show."