AN: Aaand here's the first chapter. Enjoy!

TrueWinchester168

Chapter One

Back To Britain

The palace was filled the sound of children screaming and laughing on the morning of July 31st. It was a typical morning in the Marauder household which, of course, meant that there were pranks being pulled and breakfast being served to those awake early enough. Of those awake there were only two missing. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. The two boys, who were most likely asleep in Draco's bed, had never been early birds and would not be expected to awaken until at least noon. Possibly later if the girls let them. They wouldn't, of course, let them sleep that long. Not this morning at least because this morning their Hogwarts letters arrived. There were delighted squeals and worried sighs when the owls came to the window and, soon enough, someone was dispatched to wake Harry and Draco up.

"DRARRY! WAKE UP!"

The very shrill voice of Midnight Black cut through the boys sleep with ease. She was the one normally dispatched to wake them up because no one else could do it. Anyone else would just annoy them into locking the door. Blinking blearily, Draco opened his eyes and glared at the dark haired menace that was their surrogate sister. Harry, of course, was still sleeping quite soundly. His head was buried in Draco's chest and he was snoring. The sight made Draco smile - just a bit of course - before glowering at Midnight.

"It's not even nine in the morning yet you little menace. What in blue blazes has you in my room at this hour?" he growled, successfully waking Harry up.

"Dray...? Why you 'wake?" the smaller boy said, yawning and forcing his eyes open.

"Ask Midnight. She burst in the room screaming that ridiculous nickname she's given us. Woke me right up it did!"

Harry turned his brilliant green eyes upon the girl. "What are you thinking getting Dray up this early? You'd better have a bloody good reason or I'll throw you out on your head."

Midnight smirked, looking so much like her father that Draco wanted to scream. "Hogwarts letters are here."

Draco flopped back down on the bed, pulling Harry right along with him.

"We're not getting up just yet for a bunch of stupid letters. We're sleeping now. Try again at a more decent hour please."

And, having said this, he closed his silver-blue eyes and fell into easy sleep again. Harry took the time to walk Midnight to the door and lock it before crawling back into bed next to his best friend and closing his eyes. Yes, it was a little strange that they slept together but they'd done it since they were only a year old. The boys were closer to each other than they were to anyone else. Sleeping beside Draco made the nightmares Harry had been plagued with since he was only a year old, cease. Their parents didn't say anything and neither did any of the others. It was normal by now for them to sleep beside each other. Nobody questioned it, not even the boys themselves. They'd always been close, closer even then they were with their surrogate siblings, and it felt natural to them.

Down in the kitchen, Midnight was complaining to Aunt Lily and Uncle James that Harry had locked the door on her. Her complaints were met with laughter and an eye roll from her own parents.

"You ought to have known they wouldn't wake this early. Never do in the summer time." Jinxx, Peter's son, said from across the table.

Midnight glowered. "You were the one that sent me up there."

"Of course I did. I wanted to see if they'd get up."

"Prat." she said, turning back to her breakfast with a glare.

Soon enough, Lucius and Narcissa entered the kitchen. They grabbed coffee and observed the small argument with a smile as they talked with the other Marauders.

"Draco and Harry still sleeping?" Lucius asked, smirking a little.

"Yep. Draco's bed this time. Someone put spiders in Harry's bed and he absolutely refuses to sleep there." Sirius grinned, looking quite proud.

Lucius laughed. "Wonder who that could have been. Surely not Midnight."

"Oh no it was definitely me Uncle Luc. Daddy gave me the idea, though." the girl in question stated, smirking at her father.

"They'll get you back for that soon, I'm sure. Soon as they're out of bed."

Midnight rolled her eyes. "I tried to get them out of bed earlier. Draco got snarky and Harry tossed me from the room. Door's locked now."

Narcissa burst into peals of laughter. "It's only eight in the morning darling. That's much too early for Draco's liking. You'd be better off trying to tame a lion than getting him out of bed this early."

Beside her, Lily was also grinning. "And Harry was up rather late last night. He and Draco are planning something I'm certain."

James smirked. "They are. I helped them out a bit."

Midnight paled. "It's not revenge is it?"

Her fear was quite warranted. Draco and Harry were very good at pranking. Most were terrified of them. They'd pulled many a prank on their siblings just for fun. A revenge would be hell on earth.

Jessalynn Snape laughed from her position next to Neville. "Of course not. That's been planned already. Heard 'em at it myself. It's their first Hogwarts prank."

Neville raised an eyebrow. "I thought we were all supposed to be in on that one."

Axel Lupin rolled his eyes. "We are. Drarry, however, are convinced that they'll make it into Slytherin together. They're going to pull a massive prank on the Slytherins."

Severus groaned. "They probably will make it it into my house. They'll make teaching this year a nightmare."

His wife patted his arm. "Probably. But you'll be able to keep an eye on them this way."

His eyes widened. "That doesn't matter. It never matters. Those two get into so much trouble it's almost lethal. I won't be able to stop them and they'll tear the school apart!" he said, his voice rising an octave and his wife laughed.

Lily and Narcissa laughed aloud at that one. "Oh Sev. They're not that bad. You make them out to be evil geniuses.'"

"We are evil geniuses Mother." Draco's voice said from the doorway.

Lucius raised an eyebrow. "You're out of bed before noon. It's going to snow."

Harry snorted. "Hardly. He's only out of bed because I insisted on being out of it."

"You're warm. When you left the bed was cold. I had to get up then. Nuisance you are."

Jinxx rolled his eyes. "Whatever are you two going to do if you manage to land up in separate houses?"

Draco looked as though he'd much like to slap the younger boy. "We won't." he said slowly, as though speaking with a mental patient. "The very idea is preposterous. Harry and I will both be Slytherins. Just you watch."

Jessalynn grinned. "I have absolutely no doubt about that one. Probably we'll all land ourselves in Slytherin. Besides Neville...he may just land in Gryffindor."

Neville gave her a dirty look. "I will not. No offense to you Gryffindors, of course. But I'm much more suited to Slytherin. Being around this lot rubbed off I guess."

Lily rolled her eyes. "How did you all manage to be so...Slytherin like? Most of us were Gryffindors."

Lucius, Severus, Narcissa, Isabella, and Adeline grinned proudly.

"We're Slytherins Lil. Time around this many Slytherins rubs off." they said in unison.

"Hey you never know. I could turn out to be a Ravenclaw like mum was." Jinxx said, grinning as his mother Emily came into view.

"Not possible. You like trouble far too much for that." Emily said, yawning as she sat down.

Jinxx shrugged. "Was worth a try I suppose."

"Are we ever going to go shopping for our Hogwarts stuff?" Draco asked as he and Harry set their letters aside.

The adults exchanged a look. "We can go this afternoon I suppose. We'll have to return to England before you go to Hogwarts anyways." Lily said, sharing a worried look with the other women.

"Don't be so worried people." Midnight said, flashing a smile. "It won't be that bad."

"It very well could be." Sirius said as Lucius pushed his plate back and looked at the children.

"Before anyone does anything we're going to talk. We're going back to England and there are people there that may want to hurt us. Maybe kill us. You're all going to have to be very careful there, do you understand? I've obtained Permits for you all while we're there so you can use magic at home and you'll be tutored in Defense Magic. Possibly Dueling as well. I want you all to be very careful in England."

James patted his surrogate brother on the shoulder before addressing the children as well. "There are people you are not to trust. I don't care how bloody powerful they are, you are not to trust them. Albus Dumbledore is one of those people. You can trust Minerva McGonagall but not Dumbledore. Anyone with the last name Parkinson is out as are anyone named Crabbe and Goyle. The Weasley family...they're sketchy. Be cautious about them. Other than that, you'll have great fun at Hogwarts."

"Why can't we trust Dumbledore?" Midnight asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He tried to take Harry away from us after...after that night. He wanted to send him to live with my muggle sister and her husband." Lily said, glowering at the memory.

Sirius' eyes narrowed. "And he may very well try it again. Be on guard. You've always protected each other amazingly well and we're proud of that. Keep to that. Dumbledore will try absolutely anything he can to take Harry away from us."

The youngest Malfoy raised an eyebrow before tossing an arm around Harry's shoulders.

"He touches Harry and I'll kill the old coot myself." Draco said cooly, sharing a brief look with the smaller boy.

"Draco..." his mother began, only to be cut off by Harry.

"Leave it Aunt Cissa. I've dealt with him when he's like this long enough to know that telling him it's useless won't do a bit of good."

The blonde boy in question narrowed his eyes. "Whatever do you mean by that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Dray, when you get all...protective...there is very little that can be said to tame you."

He rolled his eyes. "That's a good thing. No one will touch you if I'm protecting you."

Lucius smiled. "Just be careful. The lot of you get into enough trouble as it is and I'm not telling you to completely stay out of it. I'd have to be nuts to do that. You are Marauders after all. Just...try and stay out of Dumbledore's radar as much as possible."

The children nodded as if that was obvious before Severus interrupted, looking grave and serious and far grimmer than they'd ever seen him look.

"And whatever you do DO NOT look into the old man's eyes. He's an accomplished Legilimens and he's not above using it against unknowing students. I'll be teaching Potions this year, as usual, and he's well aware that you'll all be coming with me, so if you need something you can always come and get me. I don't care what time it is, if he approaches you and you feel at all threatened you come and find me. Understand?"

"Yes sir."

"All right. Enough serious talk. Go on and get dressed. We'll be flooing to the Manor in two hours." Narcissa said, grinning a little.

"What about our stuff?"

"House Elves will be gathering that while we're shopping, of course." Draco said, smirking as though that ought to be obvious.

"Hurry along guys. I'd like to get to the Manor soon so that everyone can pick a room."

Draco yawned, "Come on Harry. We've got to get ready."

"Coming Dray."

The two boys disappeared from the room, followed soon by the rest of the Marauder children. Their parents, tired and feeling rather lazy that morning, chose to simply use magic to change their clothes. Little more than an hour later, the children came running down the stairs laughing and chattering happily. Thirty minutes after that, they were flooing over to Malfoy Manor to begin a new life in the Wizarding World of Great Britain...