A/N: This is my first story so I gladly accept helpful criticism. This has both some Jily and later chapters, and Wolfstar, I'll do my best to keep the characters from being OOC. Enjoy reading!
Disclaimer: I sadly own nothing, everything you recognize belongs to the Queen J.K. Rowling. There also might be some headcannons you recognize those are not mine either if you recognize them.
I was sitting on the stairs of the front porch waiting for some lady to come. Now this may seem strange to most people but you see I'm an orphan. I was on the steps of St. Martha's home for children; it's an orphanage for magical children so I've known I was a witch ever since I was a little girl. I should properly introduce myself, my name is Elizabeth Smith. I have straight brown hair, dull blue eyes, and dimples on both my cheeks, I'm wearing a pair of jeans and a plain black shirt with blue and white sneakers I obviously don't care about fashion. I'm average height for a girl my age, but a little thinner than most, and I'm fifteen years old and I've been in this place since I was five years old. I was dropped off from the hospital after my parents got into a car crash and died. I don't have any other family, at least any that want me. My mum's parents are still alive but I've never met them they cut out my mum when she married my dad because he was muggle-born and she was pure-blood. I've been with four different families since I've been here this is my fifth, but I don't expect anything they all send me back after two weeks or so, for one reason or another. I've heard all the excuses "we aren't ready for a child yet" "we decided to have our own" "we can't handle another one" but they can't fool me I know I'm not as nice or lovable as other kids so they send me back. Up until the end of this school year I went to Drumstrang Institution, despite popular belief it's not an all boys school there are plenty of girls that go there, not that I'm friends with any of them. I was kicked out of Drumstrang for blowing up a girls bathroom flooding the whole floor and getting a bunch of the girls that were fixing there makeup sent to the infirmary. That's why this year I'm going to Hogwarts and the supposed family I'm going with has a kid there that the same age as me. So now I sit and wait on the old porch that needs a new touch up of paint. The floor needs a good sanding and a new coat of blue, while the railings could do with a new layer of white. Next to me was my truck smaller than most with stamped with E.S. peeling off; above me glaring as usual was the director of the house Mrs. Michel.
I looked back up to the street I saw a white car pulling up along side of the house. I don't really know my cars but I could tell this one was expensive. 'If they're so rich to afford that kind of car what do they want with me' I thought to myself. A lady that looked in her mid thirty's stepped out of the driver's seat of the car and started walking up the path to the porch with a smile on her face. She was in a yellow summer dress that was patterned with flowers of all colors red, orange, pink, purple, and blue. She was wearing white heels but not too crazy high with her hair pulled back into a bun. She had auburn hair and sparkling blue eyes much unlike my own. The women reached the porch and extended her hand to Mrs. Michel to shake, while she spoke, "Hi, I'm Dorea Potter you must be Mrs. Michel we spoke on the phone, and this must be Elizabeth." I just nodded my head, her smile if it was possible got even wider. "Well we have to get going; we must get home so you can meet Charlus, my husband and James my son, who is going to be in the same year as you at Hogwarts. Mrs. Michel you have all of the paperwork, correct?" Mrs. Michel gave Dorea Potter one of her fake smiles and said, "Yes, of course. You can be on your way immediately." Dorea Potter picked up my trunk with one hand and put her free had on my back as to guide me to the car. She went and put my trunk in the back and told me to get in, Mrs. Michel gave me a look from the porch that said 'don't mess this up.' I went to the passengers door opened it and stepped into the expensive car. The seats were made out of some white kind of leather or some of the same type of material. There were buttons for the radio and the heating and cooling system. Dorea Potter can and got into the car as I was buckling up she put her own seat belt on and we set off. I didn't bother looking back at the orphanage as I knew I would be back in a week or two as always.
We were driving through a little town when Dorea Potter started talking again, "You're going to love Hogwarts, its where I meet Charlus, and James loves it he has some friends that you will meet tonight also at dinner. The four boys are almost never separated though you will only meet two of James's friends tonight the third hasn't arrived for the summer yet. Though I'm sure you had some great friends at Drumstrang that you will miss. Do you like Quidditch?" I sat there listening to her talk when she said about friends I had to stop myself from snapping back at her, and then she asked about Quidditch something I knew very well.
"Yes I love Quidditch. Both playing and watching, I played in my free time at Drumstrang but not on the team I'm not as they said a 'team player.'" I put air quotes around team player; I don't even know why I was telling her all this she was practically a stranger to me. She just had that nice open mother like feel around her.
It was almost 4'o'clock by the time Dorea Potter smiled at me then she pointed with one hand as we went up a long driveway and she told me, "Here's home." We stopped at the top of the driveway and we got out she went and of my trunk out of the back of the car for me as I was staring openly at the house. No house wasn't the right word it was a Manor, with tall hedges to cover the top of the manor, there was a beautiful pathway leading up to front doors and a wonderful garden with flowers all over the place, but in an organized way. There were five floors counting what looked like the attic. All the floors had windows in rows all along the house so you could always see the sun no matter what room you were in.
I took my trunk away from Dorea Potter as we walked up the pathway she opened the front door and right away there was a house-elf there to take my trunk. "Let Minky take that for you Miss. Minky will take it and put it up in Misses room for her." I glanced at Dorea and she gave me a small smile so I let the elf take my trunk. I looked around I was standing in a huge entrance hall with two sets of stairs going up to the second floor on opposite sides of the walls, they joined together at the top hallway. In between the two staircases was an open hallway that looked like it lead to the dining room.
"James and the boys are around here somewhere I will let them give you the tour so you can get acquainted with each other." Dorea said to me, did she ever not smile? "James comes down here!" Dorea yelled and running could be heard above us and two boys appeared at the top of the stairs. The one had black hair that was sticking up all over the place; he had brown eyes and was wearing glasses. He was in jeans and a blue T-shirt with a black strip across his chest. The other boy also had black hair but his was a little longer and was neater then the other ones, he was in black jeans, and was in a white T-shit that had the band The Beetles on it, he also had grayish eyes. They both had huge grins on their faces and they were looking right at me.
"Is this her?" the one with the longer hair asked. Dorea Potter sighed and gave a small smile before she answered.
"Yes this is Elizabeth, Elizabeth this is James and Sirius", she pointed to first the one with glasses, then the one with longer hair. "Boys I want you to show Elizabeth around get to know each other you are going to be together at Hogwarts and she could be your sister." At that last bit I cringed internal no one's ever wanted me to stay in their family, she would eventually realize she doesn't want me and send me back I wasn't getting my hopes up.
The two boys looked at her and answered together "Yes mum." Wait I thought she said she only had one son James, but they both said mum, I gave her a look she laughed a bit when she saw me look at her before answering my questioning gaze.
"James is my only son but Sirius likes to call me mum anyway he's like a surrogate son to me as are Remus and Peter." I guessed those were the other two boys I would eventually meet but at least that cleared that up.
I looked back up at the boys and saw Sirius pout for a moment before he said, "But I'm the favorite son aren't I?" He gave Dorea Potter the puppy dog eyes that he did creepily well and she just laughed before she walked away.
We stood there in silence for a moment before James broke the ice, "Well come up here and we can start the tour we'll find Remus on the way." I started up the stairs, Sirius was looking me up and down as if he was judging me on my body if he said a word I would slap him.
Of course he had to comment as I reached the top of the stairs, "Damn Prongs, you got a hot sister." When I reached the two boys I slapped Sirius just like I said I would in my mind. I thought James would have been mad at me for hitting him but instead he busted out laughing at Sirius's wide eyes.
James finally calmed down enough to get out "You…deserved…that one…Padfoot."
I looked at James peculiarly he called Sirius Padfoot and earlier Sirius called James Prongs. I had to ask, "Why Padfoot and Prongs?"
It was Sirius who answered, "Well you see love," I glared at him for that "the four of us in our group each have a name I'm Padfoot, James here is Prongs, Remus who you will soon meet is Moony, and Peter who will be here soon is Wormtail. And we are the Marauders of Hogwarts!" He said the ending with his fist in the air and James who had now calmed down raised his. Sirius lowered his fist and continued talking I think he just likes hearing his own voice. "Now love, since you are Prongsie's sister you will be sticking with us, so we can show you the ways of Hogwarts. So you will need a name how about Sweetlips?"
"How about I'll-punch-you-in-the-nose?" I retorted back.
"Nice-ass."
"Broke-chin."
"What's going on here?" There was a new voice I hadn't heard before, I looked around James and Sirius and saw another boy there with sandy brown hair that can to hang in just above his eyes, which were amber he also had scars on his face the most noticeable one was one that went from his left eye to his chin. He was about the same height as James and Sirius which was tall; he was also wearing jeans and a long sleeved plain red shirt. I was going to guess this was Remus or as Sirius said Moony.
James grinned at him and said, "Oh nothing Moony, Padfoot here is just hitting and failing on my new sister." I really hated that word sister we were not family and never would be if things went how they usually did.
Remus smiled the same grin as James and I could see mischief sparkling in his eyes when he came up beside Sirius and said, "Oh is he now. I'm Remus," he stuck his hand out to me and I shook it as he continued. "well you have nothing to worry about with Sirius here."
I looked at him questionably and asked, "Why?"
Remus's grin got bigger as he answered, "Well you see because of this." He did the last thing I expected him to do; he turned to Sirius and kissed him! Not just any kind of kiss either oh no this was a full out snog! My eyes went wide and my mouth made an O. James was laughing at my face then after about a minute or so he cleared his throat and Sirius and Remus broke apart. I was able to close my mouth but I was still staring at them.
James spoke while I was still in a bit of shock, "You have to stop them before too long or they will go on forever. Plus I thought I said at the end of last year when you guys got together no snogging in front of me."
Remus smiled as he answered back," Yes you did say but that wasn't a full out snog and it was also to prove something. Plus if you could get Lily to snog you, you would never stop." James's face turned a light shade of red.
I was able to finally stammer out a coherent sentence and stop there bickering, "You two are together, you were pretending to flirt on me?"
Sirius grinned at me a little guiltily before he spoke, "I was only half pretending you are extremely good looking, but my heart belongs to Remus." He pretended to faint into Remus's arms.
Remus looked at me and asked, "This doesn't bother you does it?"
I answered immediately, "No, of course not. I was just shocked for a moment." In Drumstrang I had one friend and he was the reason I was ok with it but I don't like to talk about him.
James was standing there wiping pretend tears away and sniffling, "Padfoot aren't you so proud? Our shy little Moony he's broken out of his shell."
Sirius joined in the fake crying Remus just rolled his eyes,"Yeah, yeah, yeah, shy Remus, remind me who comes up with most of the pranks we do and who fixes your twos pranks from completely back firing on you?"
Sirius and James looked down and answered together, "You do." I swear it like they shared a brain. Remus nodded in approval and smiled.
"Is this how it's always like with you guys and by pranks what kind do you mean?" I asked curiously because if it's what I thought then maybe hanging out with the three of them wouldn't be so bad.
The three boys smirked at me James threw his arm around and I suddenly tensed not used to or liking someone touching me, he started talking to me as we walking down the hallway Remus and Sirius with their arms around each other, were able to walk besides us in the wide hallways, "Well you see sis," I still hate that word "we are the rulers of Hogwarts we have the records for the most detentions, Moony is tied for top student and is most definitely going to be prefect this year, me and Sirius are the Quidditch stars, and we are loved by all. Well except the Slytherin's but they hate everyone so it's OK."
I know some about Hogwarts from reading. I know that there are four houses Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. I know that the grounds are guarded like Drumstang so no one knows exactly where the school is, and that you can't apparte in because of the wards guarding the school. I know Hogsmede is the little village close to the school and that it's the only all wizarding village, unlike Godric's Hallow. What I didn't know was what a prefect was in sounded like someone with a position of power but, I didn't know and I don't like not knowing something. So I asked, "What's a prefect?"
It was Remus that answered, "A prefect is sort of like a hall monitor. They go around the hall at night to see if anyone is out of bed that's not supposed to be. They can also take points away and give detentions. Did you go to Drumstrang?"
I was surprised he could guess my school he was obviously the smartest out of the three of them. "Yes, I went to Drumstrang, and before you ask I got kicked out so that's why I'm going to Hogwarts this year. How did you know it was Drumstrang?"
Sirius answered before Remus could get the words out of his mouth, "Because my Remus is the most smartest smarticle ever!"
Remus blushed lightly on his cheeks and smiled at Sirius before answering, "Or because while you obviously live in England and close by with how long it took Dorea to get you, so you have the English accent, but it's also very light and mixed with a Russian accent like you send a lot of time somewhere in Russia. Plus I know Drumstrang is the only school without prefects, I can also tell that you have read up on Hogwarts or you just like to read since prefects were the only thing you asked about when Prongs told you a bit about Hogwarts."
I was impressed I don't know many people who are that observant. I may have finally met someone who I can have a decent conversation with that won't somehow lead to dark arts or me punching them. James interrupted our conversation obviously not knowing all that we were talking about, or didn't want to get completely lost by what we were talking about, "Down this hall we have my dad's study which you will want to stay out of, he's not strict or anything he just likes his privacy with work stuff. There is a library by the study that has almost any book you can imagine, you'll probably love it, Moony does. There is also the drawing room at the other end of the hall those are the only there rooms on this floor. It may seem like a waste but their pretty big." We walked up another flight of stairs at the end of the hallway; this has a landing you can get off at instead of going up to the next floor. Now instead of two different directions to choose from there was only one, James continued talking, "This floor, there is more of a relaxing family room, a small kitchen with just some basic snacks and stuff, and then we have probably my favorite room in the whole house." We reached a door at the end of the hall James had his hands on the handles he made a big sweeping motion as he opened the door as he said proudly, "The game room!" The room was an arcade literally; it looked like they took an arcade and put it into this room! There were the electronic muggle games like PAC-Man, and a Pinball machine, then there were games like skee-ball and Foosball, and a pool table in the middle, and those were only the basic ones that I saw and recognized.
I walked further into the room with my eyes wide. It was finally a house-elf apparating into the room that broke me out of my trance, "James sir, Misses says Master will be home soon and for yous all to come down, for dinner is almost ready."
James smiled at the elf and answered, "Of course Minky we will be down in a minute I just want to show Elizabeth her room quick." Minky nodded her head and her ears flapped then she dissaperated. We walked out of the room and to the other end of the hall that we came from and up another set of stairs.
Sirius started quietly repeating my name over and over to himself until I finally had to ask, "Why do you keep saying my name it's getting annoying."
He looked up at me almost like he didn't realize he was doing it, "Elizabeth is to long you need something shorter like…I know! Lizzie!" We thought about for a second as we kept walking James had finally taken his arm off my shoulder when we went into the game room.
James got a smile on his face and started nodding, "Yes I like it! Lizzie that is your new name that is what we are now calling you!"
I looked at the three boys they were all nodding their heads in agreement I said, "Don't I get a say in this?"
Then they did their very annoying answering at the same time even Remus, "No." We kept walking past several doors most without names accept three, two of which that had the word Grandparents written on, one with a P after it, the other with a K after. I was guessing those were James's grandparent's rooms when they came to stay. Another door had the word Parents on it which I was guessing was Dorea and Charlus's. At the end of the hall we got to five doors, they were in a sort of square and they all had names on them. On the first two farthest away from us but closest to the other stairwell was Remus on the left and Peter on the right, next to Remus's room was a door with Sirius on it, across from Sirius's room was a door with James on it, then next to James's room was a door with Elizabeth on it. My own room, at the orphanage I shared a room with two other girls close to my age, and at Drumstang I shared a room with three girls that were in the same grade as me. It would be nice to have my own room, even at the others homes I stayed at I had to share when they had another kid or it wasn't much of a house let alone a room. I then heard James's voice, "When you touch the handle the room will change to your tastes, so like your favorite color what kind of furniture you like that sort of thing."
I touched the handle and opened the door I gasped, it was beautiful, the walls were a medium green and a little darker blue stripes, there was a good sized couch that matched the green wall, with a glass table in front of it, and, that was sitting on a soft blue rug to match the walls. The rest of the floor was a beautiful wood, there were two large windows overlooking the garden on the other wall across from me, they had two curtains per window a green one that let some light threw then a blue one that stopped all the light from getting in. To my right was a closet not a huge one but big enough that my small amount of clothes definitely wouldn't fill it up. To my left was a king size bed with wood frame and blue sheets with a green comforter with purple dots on it and the bed was covered in pillows. My ratty trunk sitting at the end of the bed didn't seem like it belonged in such a beautiful room. Across from the bed just right in front of the couch and table was a fireplace like in almost every room. On the left side of the bed was a night stand with a alarm clock on it, it was made of wood and had three draws going all the way down. On the same wall as the door leading into the room and to the left of the door, was a book case filled with all different kinds of books. On the right side of the bed was a door that leads to my own bathroom with a big tub, a separate shower that was a big square and had clear walls, and toilet, and a sink all in white. The walls were purple like the dots on my comforter and the rugs were stripped with light a dark purple. I walked back out of the bathroom completely shocked, this was mine? I knew it wouldn't last so I couldn't get my hopes up; I would be back in a small room with two other girls in a week or so.
The three boys were looking around my room same as me and Sirius whistled, "Wow this is nice, you must have a pretty imaginative mind to come up with something like this. But we are going to have to do something about the green walls they're to Slytherin."
"Hey! My favorite color is green and they are staying that way, plus a color doesn't decide a person's house."
James finally stopped looking and said, "Come on we better get downstairs before mum has a fit about us not being there when dad gets home so you can meet him.
We walked back out of the room and I closed the door, the boys looked at each other like a silent message was passing between them before they shouted, "Race you." And took off down the steps, I quickly followed them though knowing I was going to lose. We got down to the entrance hall all out of breath, Remus had won he was surprisingly fast. We followed James through the open area between the two staircases and into the dining room. There was a rectangular table with six chairs around it, one at each end, then two at each side. There were windows across us on the other side of the table, and then on the left wall to us was a door leading to what I guess was the kitchens. On the wall to the right of us was a fireplace it was the biggest on in the whole house that I saw so far.
Dorea Potter came out of the door leading to the kitchen she smiled when she saw us standing there. "Good you four are down here Charlus will be home any minute then we can eat. Did the boys do a good job of showing you the house Elizabeth?"
I smiled before answering still a little out of breath from our race. "Yes they did a good job, I'll still probably get lost a few times though." We all had a little laugh before the fireplace lit up with big green flames.
A tall man that looked like James except for his hair being a bit more tame and having no glasses stepped out of the fireplace and brushed a little dirt off of his clothes. He was dressed more as a muggle in black pants and black shoes with a lighter blue dress shirt on, and a wand holster around his waist. This must be Charlus Potter. He walked over to us and Dorea Potter and gave her a kiss on the cheek and smiled at me before he spoke, "You must be Elizabeth, I'm glad you're finally here. I see you've also spent some time with the boys hope they behaved themselves."
I smiled back I was worried he would be strict and so wrapped up in work that you barley saw him. "Yes, I'm Elizabeth it's nice to meet you sir and they were fine, they showed me around the house." He waved it off when I called him 'sir' and told me to call them Charlus and Dorea at least for now as if implying I would eventually call them something like 'mum' and 'dad.'
James also told his parents how I was now Lizzie and not Elizabeth I just shrugged when Dorea and Charlus looked at me, Charlus gave a little laugh as we sat down at the table to eat. I sat with my back to the window and James on my left, Remus across from me and Sirius next to him across from James. Dorea was next to James on the one end and Charlus was next to me at the other. Charlus started the conversation asking me questions as the house-elves brought out food. There were chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, all different kinds of vegetables carrots, green beans, corn, and peas; there were also soft buttery roles. "Are you a fan of Quidditch?" Charlus asked me once we got all of our food.
I swallowed my bite of potatoes before I answered, "Yes, I love both playing and watching. I sometimes played at Drumstrang in free time but never on a team really, I wasn't allowed. My favorite team though has to be The Holyhead Harpies." James and Sirius stared at me with open mouths I asked, "Why are you guys looking at me like that."
It was Remus that answered, "They're staring because James is a Chaser from the Gryffindor team and will probably be captain this year, and Sirius is a Beater of the team. Plus you said about liking pranks and stuff so I think you're going to fit in just fine with us."
Before I could say anything else Sirius and James asked at the same time, "Are you any good?" and "What position do you play?"
I smiled and answered Sirius first then James, "Depends what you mean by good, I can play well enough that my team usually wins but probably not for actual game. I don't even have my own broom. And I play either Keeper or Seeker depending on whose playing, why?"
James was staring at me hard looking like he was trying to decide something, I was starting to feel awkward because of it when Remus spoke up, "I do have one little more personal question you don't have to answer if you don't want." I shrugged my shoulders as to tell him to ask. "Why did you get kicked out of Drumstrang? I mean they teach you more Dark Arts type of stuff, what did you do?"
So maybe I was going to be sent back to the orphanage sooner than I thought after they hear this story they won't want me anymore, might as well get it over with now, "Well I never got along with the girls there, they were always stuck up and they had rich daddies that bought them whatever they wanted. So I always got into fights with them but one day closer to the end of the school year I couldn't take it. They were bragging about how they were going to amazing places for the summer and saying how they felt 'sorry' for others who couldn't go on vacation. I rigid the toilets in the girl's bathroom that they always use at the same time everyday and I had the trigger. So I made all the toilets explode and all the sinks burst and they got sent to the infirmary with minor injuries, it was bigger than expected and I managed to flood the whole third floor. All classes on the third floor were cancelled for the last week of school." I waited for the yelling and for them to send me away but instead they all started laughing!
I looked from one face to another, I couldn't understand didn't they want me to leave? Charlus finally calmed down enough and saw my confused look and spoke, "Were laughing because the boys do those types of things all the times. Also it is a bit funny, but I am sorry you got kicked out of school for it."
He smiled softly at me and I smiled back, "I'm not all that sorry I was never a big fan of that school." We finished our dinner and had desert it was a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, and it tasted like it just came out of the oven still all warm and gooey. We kept talking and I found out that Charlus was an Auror for the Ministry of Magic and Dorea works in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Charlus also loves Quidditch. Even though it was still early I was getting extremely tired, it was getting hard for me to keep my eyes open. The elves cleaned the table and Dorea saw me having trouble staying awake so she suggested we go to bed but could still talk if we wanted to.
James, Sirius, Remus, and I climbed back up all the steps to our rooms, when we got to the top James turned around and asked me, "Do you want to come in my room and we can hang out or do something?"
I smiled sleepily at him and told him 'no' that I was going to sleep. He said that was OK but said we were going to play Quidditch tomorrow to see how good I was and I could use one of the spare brooms leaving no room for argument. I walked into my new room and got a shower than changed into my shorty shorts and short sleeved shirt for bed. I walked over to the self of books and picked out a mystery novel that looked interesting. I laid down in bed and started reading wishing I could stay here forever but knowing not to get my hopes up, my first day in the Potter house had been one to remember.
