Chapter 1:

Lily returned from the Prefect carriage fuming. I could barely make sense of her ramblings. What I did gather was that James Potter had been made Head Boy. Which meant that she was going to be spending a lot of time with him seeing as she's Head Girl.

"Then he told me that he was throwing a welcome back party in the Commons Room tonight. Can you believe him?" she fumes.

"A party sounds like fun," I tell her. "Besides it's our last year so let's start it off with a bang."

"And that is why you, Mckinnon, would be the perfect woman." Sirius Black said as the four Marauders joined our compartment. "That and that body of your's."

I roll my eyes. "How was your summer, Remus?"

Remus looked up from his book, startled that I would talk to him. He quickly recovered. "It was okay. I spent a lot of it inside. My parents like to be strict, wouldn't even let James and Sirius get a glance of me when they came to visit."

"It's all right, Moony. You'll be seventeen soon, then they won't be able to stop you." James said, patting him on the back.

"Yeah just four weeks until your birthday, not that we're counting down to throw you a huge party or anything," Sirius added.

"My birthday is in two weeks, are you gonna throw me one?" I raise an eyebrow.

Lily swatted my arm. "Don't encourage them, Marley."

James eyes lit up. "That's perfect. At this rate we'll be throwing a party every week."

Lily groans. "Who in their right mind would make you Head Boy?"

"Uh oh, Mom and Dad are starting to fight again." Peter snickered.

Sirius pulled me over to the side that he, Remus, and Peter were sitting on. "Just incase they give into their urges."

"That's disgusting."

We watched as Lily and James continued to argue. Well, Lily argued with him. He just sat back, took it, then every once in a while declared his love for her. It has been like this since we started Hogwarts. One of these days she is going to give into him.

"Are you two done?" Remus asks with a sigh.

"Come on, Marley, we're leaving." Lily stands up.

I shook my head. "I'm staying right here."

Sitting back down, she groans. "Fine."

For the rest of the train ride she didn't say a word to any of us. The boys kept talking about the party that they're throwing tonight. Every once in a while I would throw in a few ideas that I had. The smirk that the boys had screamed trouble.

"This year will be something that we'll never forget," James grinned.

Suddenly the train stops. I looked around. "Why have we stopped?"

There is a noise towards the front of the train.

"I think someone's getting on the train," Peter whispers.

"We need to hide Lily," I tell them.

"You don't really think it's Death Eaters, do you?" she asks me.

I shook my head. "We can't take that chance. If they are indeed death eaters than they are going to get their hands on the muggleborns and kill them."

"What about the halfbreeds?" Remus asks.

"Shit, you've got to hide." Sirius tells him.

"What do you-?" I start.

"It'll have to wait until later, right now we need to hide the muggleborns." Sirius grabs my hand, telling James to take care of Lily and Remus.

We manage to hide all of the muggleborns on our car. As we made our way back towards our compartment someone walks into the car. She was beautiful with her long black hair and ivory skin. Her eyes, those dark sinister eyes darted everywhere. The Dark Mark showing proudly on her skin.

Sirius pulls me into an empty compartment. "Now it's time for us to hide."

"What do you mean?" I ask him.

"Out there is Bellatrix Black. She graduated two years ago, joined the Death Eaters as soon as she could. In her eyes, we're the same ad muggleborns. We're blood traitors." he tells me. "Bellatrix will want her revenge on me for leaving the family. If she catches you with me then she'll torture you."

"So where do we go?" I ask.

He mutters a charm that will hide me from sight. "You are going to be quiet."

"What about you? Who's going to protect you?"

"No one," he mutters, taking a seat on the bench.

We sit there in silence. The click of Bellatrix's heels warn us that she's rapidly approaching, checking each compartment as she goes. My heart is pounding in my chest. I'm afraid, terrified really. I'm a Gryffindor, I should be brave. It's hard to be brave though. You read in the Daily Prophet all the time about Death Eaters attacking. I should have realized it was only a matter of time before I would be involved in an attack.

"Ah, if it isn't itty bitty baby Sirius," Bellatrix grinned as she entered the compartment.

"Hello, Bella." Sirius says in a bored tone. "If your looking for Cissy she's in a different car."

"Oh, no I'm looking for filthy mudbloods and blood traitors. The Dark Lord wants them dead, so I make it happen."

"A real honor," Sirius scoffs.

What is he doing? Is he trying to get himself killed?

"Now why is it that you are all alone in here? Huh? Your precious Potter is at the front. Last I heard you two were hardly out of each other's sight."

He shrugs. "I wanted some alone time, cousin."

She sniffs the air. "No, no, that's not it is it? There's someone here. A girl maybe? Oh does the baby have a girlfriend?"

His entire body goes rigged. "No one is here, Bellatrix."

"Really?" she asks. Suddenly she turns towards me. "Crucio!"

I scream out in pain. Horrible memories run through my mind. The pain of years past kept repeating itself. I wanted it all to stop. Tears were pouring down my cheeks. The charm that had hidden me had now worn off.

"Marley!" Sirius shouted. He turns to Bellatrix. "Expeliarmus."

Her wand flies up but she catches it before it could get too far. "You are weak. Too weak to call yourself a Black. Crucio."

He shouts out in pain. His body is writhing on the floor. The look in his eyes. It was as if he's dealt with this before.

"Expeliarmus!" I shout at her while all of her attention is on Sirius. This time I kicked her in the gut before she could reach up to grab her wand.

"You, bitch." She snarls at me.

"Petrificus totalus." Sirius waved his wand.

Bellatrix went completely still. Another Death Eater rushed to her. Before we had time to react they had already disapparated.

"Are you all right?" I asked Sirius, gently touching his arm.

He flinched for a moment before relaxing under my touch. "I should be asking you that."

"Let's go find the others?" I suggest.

Sirius nods. He wraps an arm around me as we make our way back to the compartment. I lean onto him for support. Goosebumps cover my body as my mind wanders. Has Sirius been used to practice that spell? He seemed so familiar with the pain. I watch him as he enters the compartment. When he finds James he grins as if nothing had happened.