A/N -

Hello Everyone! I am so excited to finally be starting this and have been thinking about it for a very long time. I will try to update this regularly, but some chapters will be longer, while others will be shorter, and life has a way of getting in the way of things. I hope you guys like this and continue to read it!

I do not own the Marauders, Harry Potter, or anything in those worlds, and it all belongs to J.K. Rowling.

"Cassie!" I turned around to hear the familiar screech of my name over the chatter and train noises on the platform. I broke into a grin as I was tackled but a flying mass of red, and would have ended up sprawled on the floor if I weren't up against a wall already.

"I missed you too, Lily." She was grinning almost bigger than I was and lead me, my owl Leanie, and my trunk to the other side of the full platform. We climbed into the first student car and went into the very first compartment. Every year, we went to this compartment so we would know where to find each other, and this is where we met. Being a moral pureblood, my mother and father tried to keep me shielded from the other pureblood families, leaving me with few friends. I knew about Hogwarts and everything, so I had no trouble fitting in, yet I still didn't know anyone. Arriving early, I went and sat in the very first compartment, hoping, yearning, for someone to come sit with me. Anyone - I wasn't picky. It was two minutes before the train departed when an eleven year old Lily Evans opened up my compartment door to find me. Her eyes went wide at the sight. "All of the other compartments are full, and I'm pretty new to this, so would it be okay if I..." I nodded in the middle of her sentence, smiling at the frazzled redhead in front of me. Soon, we were friends, and even though we weren't sorted into the same houses, we stayed friends over the years, adding a few more people to our very tight group.

Now, Keegan and Zak, two Ravenclaw boys we adopted in our first year at Hogwarts were having a chocolate frog race on our seats. Lily and I, always thinking the same thing, looked at each other for half a second before each grabbing a frog and promptly biting the head off. We chewed victoriously as cries of protest arose.

"I don't even get a hello? Nothing? You know I haven't seen any of you all summer," I exclaimed in response to their complaint.

"Not after you ruined the race," Zak grumbled, but gave in and hugged Lily and I after Keegan did. They helped us with our trunks before Lily mentioned the one thing missing.

"Where's Marlene?" She was the one member of our group missing, but by the way Keegan rolled his eyes I had a pretty good idea where our friend was.

Keegan explained in a huff of breath. "I saw her plastered on Andrew Surners a few cars back. I don't think she even saw me, even though I had to touch her to get past them." Lily and I gave each other knowing looks as we saw the situation at hand. Keegan liked Marlene, even if he wouldn't admit to the fact it was blatantly obvious. Marlene and Andrew got together at the end of sixth year, and had been all over each other even then. When Keegan had been open, charming and coaxing with Marlene before, now he was only bitter towards her new relationship.

"Oi! The prefect meeting starts soon. We should head down Lily," Zak exclaimed at the time. Sure enough, the prefect meeting started in ten minutes, but Lily was interested in who the head boy was and wanted to get there early. Keegan and I ended up accompanying them even though we weren't prefects. Both of us had good marks, but were a bit too wild to be proper prefects. The walk wasn't long, seeing as we were already in the first passenger car and only had to walk up to the next one to get to the prefect car. If they wanted to, Lily and Zak could sit up here instead, but decided against it seeing as Keegan, Marlene and I couldn't.

"Sirius!" I exclaimed, nudging around Zak and flinging myself into his awaiting arms. If I had it my way, Sirius would always be with us and a definite member of our group, but wherever he went, the rest of the marauders followed. Lily adored Remus, for he was a prefect as well as she and was very polite. Peter was also a friend of Lily's although Remus was her favourite, and she could stand Sirius, but the real reason the marauders didn't fully mix with us was James. Lily despised James Potter for no other apparent reason than him asking her out. It had slowed down as we got older, but he used to ask her out once a week thinking if he did it enough, she might just say yes. She never did, but James never gave up. I would never admit it to Lily, but a few of his larger attempts had been at the prompting of Sirius and I for our own amusement. I was on good terms with James, but we were nowhere near the level of Sirius and I. Sirius and I dated in fourth year, but it was awkward for one of my best friends to be my boyfriend. I know people always say you should be with your best friend, but it just didn't feel right between us. The breakup was agreed upon on both sides, but we have stayed friends even since then. It never seemed like we were really dating anyways, just doing more romantic things as friends.

Lily greeted Remus warmly and nodded at Peter and Sirius, completely ignoring the other figure in the passage. "Hello Remus! Sirius, Peter. How have all of you been over the summer?"

"Oh just fine Lily, my dear," said Sirius, his arms still around me as I leaned into his chest, "Worms and I are just escorting Remus and James down to the prefects compartment for the meeting." He mentioned it so effortlessly that I may not have noticed if I wasn't trying not to laugh at why.

"Has Potter already done something wrong that he needs to talk to prefects?" Lily had a sour look on her face.

I bit my thumb to try and keep the ferocious smile off as Remus stepped up to explain. "Lily," he hesitated before mumbling on, "James is supposed to be up here because he…" Remus finished the sentence so quietly that no one could hear what he said, but I knew why Remus was suddenly so bashful.

"Sorry Remus, I didn't get that last part." She said it so innocently, I almost felt sorry for her when Remus took a deep breath, cleared his throat and said out loud what he mumbled only a second before.

"James is supposed to be up here because he is the head boy this year. Appointed by Dumbledore himself...apparently."

She sucked in a breath and we all braced ourselves for the wrath of Lily Evans. Instead of yelling, as we all thought she would, Lily let out a simple sound. "Oh." There was a very, very pregnant pause in the air. To anyone else, the look on her face might have looked sad, but I could see her calculating things in her head under the mask she displayed. The look she had made my face split in half, and everyone gave me incredulous looks as I started laughing. Lily's face snapped to mine and her eyes flared with worry. I gave her a nod only she would be able to see and she relaxed. Sirius, ever the comical one, started laughing as well. Not for the same reason I was, but the situation was amusing without my added reasons. As Sirius' infectious laughter started up, everyone else slowly broke into grins and joined in, even Lily.

At that moment, a fifth year prefect stuck his head out of the compartment. "Uh, the meeting is supposed to start soon." He closed the door so quickly it looked like his nose got clipped in the process.

We all stared at the spot for a second before a clap brought us back to the group. "Alright you Perfect Prefects and Heinous Heads, get into the compartment before we all join you." Sirius seemed proud at his successful alliterations and I patted his arm in congratulations.

Lily was not so pleased. "Heinous?" One perfectly sculpted eyebrow rose on her forehead as she said this.

Raising his hands, Sirius huffed at her. "Have you seen yourself? Or him?" Sirius flung an arm out in the direction of James, a look of hurt crossing his best friend's face. "Don't pretend you don't know it." With that Sirius flipped a lock of hair over his shoulder - yes, actually flipped his hair, it was quite beautiful too - and walked away from the astounded group. I flashed a smile at the rest of them and, waving goodbye to Zak and Lily, followed Sirius out.

Sirius stopped outside of the car door, waiting for Peter, Keegan and I to exit. "Was that dramatic enough, Dear?"

I replied easily with a grin. "Oh, Darling, it was fantastic!" Other students, often younger ones were confused by Sirius and I, and maybe that was part of why we acted like we did. Endearments were used often, and we hugged and were closer than normal friends usually are, but we weren't exactly normal, people, and liked it that way. Both of us knew it was a joke, and often liked to play it up. If another student was watching we might become more dramatic, or try to outdo each other for how creative the name used for the other person could be. Last year, we even had a fake argument outside the Great Hall after dinner. Dinner was the obvious choice of when to do it, because everyone went to dinner, so the most people would be able to see. The two of us played off of each other perfectly, not giving the crowd many details so they wouldn't be able to guess what was going on, and raising our voices louder and louder to catch the attention of more people. I am still a little surprised that people didn't think it was a joke, for the dramatics were outrageous. The whole thing ended with me screaming at him, a face full of tears, and tearing off through the very large crowd of people that had gathered around us. I made sure my sobs were loud enough so they could be easily heard as I ran back to the common room. People were talking about it for weeks, to both of our delights. I was also part of the reason Sirius was so notorious with girls. Because most people thought we were dating all the time, whenever Sirius would have an actual girlfriend, they would assume he was cheating or had just had multiple girlfriends. Of course, our friends knew the truth, but they were still exasperated any time the Hogwarts rumor mill came up with a new story about Sirius and I.

I stuck my hand into his hair and ruffled it before running off. Sirius positively hated anyone touching his hair, so as I ran, I was running for my life. I made it back to my original compartment, surviving the pokes and jabs I collected from Sirius as I sprinted down the train. Swinging into the compartment, I landed in a heap on something that didn't feel quite like a seat or trunk, and heard a shriek as we fell off the seat and onto the floor. Keegan entered the doorway and smirked at our situation. I promptly stuck my tongue out at him before untangling myself from the person I landed on. As soon as the mystery person got up, my eyes widened.

"Marlene!" I screeched, and flung myself at her, knocking her down yet again. As I hugged her as long as possible, she started coughing and trying to knock my arms away from her. Reluctantly, I got off her to hear an enormous breath be taken in by my friend.

"Always nice to know I can count on someone not allowing me to breathe," she smirked. I grinned at her in response.

After allowing her to brush herself off for the second time in the last five minutes, she was interrogated by yours truly about her summer. "I know you couldn't owl me because the trip would have been too long for them to take and weather conditions and whatnot, but still! You should have owled me!" Marlene raised a blonde eyebrow that suggested I really didn't know what I was talking about, but I went on. "So much happened to me, and I only had one person to share it with, and while I love Lily to death, you are better in certain circumstances."

Keegan was outraged at this. "You could have owled me if something as bloody important as you are making it sound happened to you!" I raised my hand in a 'so-so' motion which he stared at in disbelief. "A person would think I was your friend after six years, but no one ever tells me anything."

Rolling my eyes, I sat on the bench next to Keegan and tried to console him. "Oh, very best friend ever, I am so, so sorry for leaving you out of the very personal things in my life. Next time, I will make sure to take care in writing you very detailed letters about cramps ruining vacations, meeting snog-worthy blokes, and snogging the very same blokes." I put on my sweetest smile and batted my eyelashes as Keegan made a face.

"I didn't say you had to be specific about it," he mumbled. I laughed and gave him a peck on the cheek before turning back to Marlene.

The Gryffindor girl and I talked for almost an hour, Keegan interrupting a few times to be part of the conversation, or with groans and eye rolls, which we shrugged off easily. At one point, I was choking on a chocolate frog when making the mistake of laughing after taking too big a bite when my favorite redhead walked in.

"What did you do now, Cassie?" Lily asked in a condescending tone. Really, you would think we hadn't been best friends since the beginning of first year! I promptly responded to her question by coughing more, and finally, finally freeing the frog from my throat. Air, sweet air! "Marlene!" Lily squealed. I survive death, yet someone is always more important than me. Keegan snorted when he saw my pouting face, and I glared at him. After chatting Marlene up, Lily really looked at all of us. "Why are none of you in your robes yet? We have about five minutes until we get to the castle." Looking out the window of the compartment, I noticed the familiar scenery that suggested we were getting close to the station.

"Merlin!" I exclaimed, "Why did we not realize earlier?" I saw Keegan open his mouth, but ignored him to grab my robes and sprint to the nearest bathroom.

Walking back to the compartment, I open the door only to be knocked down. Ow. "Sirius?" I say, spying one of my favorite people. "What are you doing here?"

He helps me up before answering my question. "Looking for you actually. We'll be leaving the train in a minute or so, and, with this being our last year and all, have to make an impression on all the students." He flashed me a dazzling smile. "Anything special, or just the normal walking together in front of the crowd?"

I bite my lip, thinking. "How about the second one. Make the younger ones think were maturing or something like that."

Sirius gasped. "Maturing? Are you all right? Feeling ill? Light-headed?"

Swatting away the hand that had rested on my forehead to feel the temperature, I gave a playful response. "I never said we had to do it all year, Darling." With that, we clasped hands and headed to the very front door of the train. The train slowed to a stop and we heard compartment doors start to open and the shuffling of feet. Sirius grinned at me and kissed the top of my head before the doors opened and we stepped off the train. Looking back, I noticed the rest of our friends, the Marauders included, had gathered behind us and many of them were groaning and rolling their eyes. Winking at the ones who were looking, Sirius and I decided to put on a bit of a show.

Sirius and I stopped just outside the castle and admired the building. It was a beautiful sight, all lit up to welcome the students back, and this was the last time we were going to see it with such nostalgia. We had managed to get the very first carriage as we were at the head of all the students, and it was a different sort of sight, to see the castle from this view without any other carriages or people blocking our view. When the castle burst from out of the trees, it was, well, magical. And while we are going to a school for magic, so everything would seem magical, this was something wholly different.

Before getting to the carriages, Sirius and I had made quite the show of our 'relationship' to the other students. We walked holding hands, leaning in close to one another, making sure to giggle, not laugh, at certain times and sigh as if enamored with one another. This way, any student would not think this year would be different from the last. We had real relationships, but it was fun to play with outside people and make them think that something was there when it is not. Of course, any date we might have would always understand that what Sirius and I did was just for show, but nothing real was really coming out of it. Sirius and I were very good friends, but nothing more than that.

Now, we stepped in through the doors of Hogwarts and entered for our last year of schooling. Deciding to do the nice thing and wait for our other friends, Sirius and I stopped a bit off to the side of the doors to make sure to catch our friends the moment they stepped through. The two of us were easily chatting when Sirius heard someone stop behind him.

"Whore." The spiteful word was spoken by none other than Evan Rosier, a seventh year Slytherin.

Sirius playfully turned around. "Now why would you call me such a thing?" He batted his eyelashes in an attempt that almost made me laugh.

Evan smirked. "I suppose you could be called one too, but I was talking to the other one." His chin jerked at me.

In an instant, Sirius' wand was out and pointed at the throat of Rosier, the boy's laughing only making Sirius angrier. If he was anything, my friend was loyal to those he loved and would fight for them until his death, something that made me wary in times like these.

I put a hand on his arm. "Sirius," I warned, "Stop it. I don't care what he said, alright? See, I'm fine. Are you even listening to me?" As it turned out, he was, in fact, not listening to me, or really anything else but the boy in front of him.

"It would be greatly appreciated if you apologize to the lady." Sirius' voice was rough and dark, and I had only heard it used like this a few other times before.

"Padfoot!" A voice called from the doors of the entry hall. Thank goodness, I thought. If anyone can control Sirius, it would be James. I waved the messy haired boy over, only to get James, the two other Marauders, and my four friends I sat with on the train. If no one saw before, they definitely would now with this lot here.

"What's going on? Sirius? Cassie?" James looked between me and Sirius, hoping one of us would answer. I opened my mouth to do just that when Sirius spoke instead.

"This Slytherin decided to insult Cassie here for no good reason."

I was mentally kicking myself, almost to the point where I was physically doing it when Rosier spoke again. Damn him for opening his bloody mouth.

"I was only speaking the truth in calling her a whore. Always hanging onto multiple boys at once, making a point of putting on a show and show who the latest person to be caught in the snare was. Everyone at Hogwarts knows it, I was just voicing the general population's thoughts." He smirked, only to have James' wand also pointed at him. Stupid, stupid, bloody men.

Trying to put some sense into them, I spoke again. "Guys? Look, I'm perfectly fine. Why don't we just leave and not start a fight before the welcoming feast. That sounds like a wonderful idea, going to a feast. Anyone care to stop being stupid and join me?" Spitting out the last part, I had hoped my message would get across, but yet again, no one was listening to me. "Merlin I should hang out with my house more than bloody Gryffindors."

Out of the large crowd forming pushed two seventh year Slytherins, who I recognized instantly.

"Malfoy, Mulciber, how kind of you to join us on the fine evening." James flung out his free arm for dramatics. "Come to join the crowd for the show?" Damn him. There was no show.

Malfoy sneered. "Yes, I quite like seeing you constantly making a fool of yourself. But before bothering to get dirty, may I ask why you have turned your wands on my friend here?" He came to stand beside Rosier, now directly in front of James.

"Your friend," James sneered right back at the word, "decided to use foul language directed at Cassie here."

"You think I care? She's a blood traitor, the lot of you are. Parading around the school thinking you are so cool because you're bloody Gryffindors and Gryffindors are so amazing, aren't you? Because the great Dumbledore was in your house, so how could it not be the best?" Lucius seemed spitting with anger, his face turning slightly red. Even though Slytherins were known to often get riled up, usually just because of the people in the house, they usually kept their cool. Neither I, nor anyone else had ever seen Lucius this riled up ever. This must be a touchy topic, but I couldn't figure out why. I was friends with Gryffindors, but never would I ever want to actually be one. Could it be possible that Lucius Malfoy was actually jealous of the Gryffindors and the attention and praise they always got? I suppose that could be true, as Slytherins are usually looked down upon, even though their parents are the ones with the horrid thoughts about others. Maybe the Slytherins in school only turn out like their parents because that's what everyone else thinks they will be. It would have to be something to think about later, maybe bring up with Remus, as he was the most level-headed. I definitely couldn't think about it now with wands still pointed at throats.

Sirius spoke up in response to Lucius' rant. "You know, I agree with you," he paused and I dreaded what was coming next, "Gryffindors are rather amazing." He flashed a smile and I knew he had tipped them over the edge even before I saw the hex coming towards Sirius.

At some point during the speeches being made, Lily, Remus and Peter had joined me and watched in horror at what was unfolding. As soon as the hexes started flying, Remus and Peter jumped in, not letting their brothers go through this without them. Lily and I realized what a disaster this could be, and started ushering students away so they wouldn't get hit with stray hexes. A fifth year Hufflepuff in the ring of spectators fell to the polished floor in what seemed to be a body binding jinx and I glared at the seven figures in the middle that paid no attention to anyone else.

Remus swore and took a few steps back, cupping his nose. Hating every person in that room, I ran to Remus and away from failing to get students to leave the fight. Carefully, I took his hands away and cringed at the puffy, bloody mess that was Remus' nose. I needed to get him and that fifth year Hufflepuff to the hospital wing, but when I looked over at where the Hufflepuff was, there were only more students jeering at the fight. Hopefully someone else had helped. I didn't know what to do with his nose, but Lily would know something to at least spot the bleeding. I spotted her a few yards away and yelled over the din for her to come over. Just as Lily performed the correct spell, a commanding voice rang out and everyone froze. I closed my eyes and swore under my breath before slowly turning around to face a furious Professor McGonagall.

"All students who are not involved, you ought to be ashamed for just watching, but you may go joint the feast. The nine of you, in my office, now." She spat out the words, almost shaking in fury. What the professor said sunk in and I groaned. Nine of us, meaning me as well.

I was going to kill the lot of them when McGonagall finished with us.

A/N -

Hello again- You should also check out perfectlypadfoot's From Death Comes Life, as that is a collaboration between the two of us.

P.S. Please review if you have comments!

Love,

MarvellouslyMoony