A/N: Enjoy The Marauders! This story updates on Mondays.

Muggles were non-magic people.

Petunia didn't want to be a muggle.

She glared ruefully across the table at her younger sister, adsorbed in reading she didn't notice, and bit her lip in frustration. It was so unfair! The whole thing was idiotic. How in the world did they make such a monumental mistake?

Lily didn't care one whit about The Marauders and her lack of knowledge would surely ruin everything. They'd deserve it when she fouled up the show. They should have known better than to put someone like her in a role like that.

That role.

It was the absolute worst. The worst. It was everything she'd wanted snatched from her by someone who didn't deserve it. Her own sister!

That made it so much worse. If it was just some other fan it would be one thing, another girl standing in line, in that heat, because she was serious. But that wasn't it. It was Lily. Lily who was always best. Always better even at things she didn't care to be good at.

She was that kind of younger sister. The one who came up after you and surpassed anything you'd ever done. It didn't matter how high you set the bar, she'd clear it. It was always irritating, but this was on another level.

Lily stood out. In that queue full of chatter she was silent and sullen. Blonds and brunettes abounded, blue and brown eyes for miles. But Lily? She was so blessed with such pretty dark red hair and such pretty emerald green eyes. So different. So much better.

But she wasn't. She was childish and often rude. She said things without thinking about others, just spoke her mind without a care, and Petunia couldn't count the number of times she had to apologise for some errant comment made by her little sister.

Lily who wore her heart on her sleeve could never get along with someone she didn't like, no matter how important that person was. She couldn't just put it aside for the sake of everything else. She was so... so... Bratty. Impolite. Brash.

There was no possible way she'd be a good fit. She couldn't be. If even one person rubbed her the wrong way it was all shot to hell.

She would ruin The Marauders, no mistake, and Petunia would watch it happen because she couldn't help herself. That made her angry too. Her own failing. It would be better to shun it entirely, but that wasn't possible. She'd been watching the show from the start and she wasn't going to stop now.

At the least, she'd see Lily try to destroy the thing and she'd be vindicated. Her character would disappear and all would be well again. Someone else would take that place and maybe it wouldn't be Petunia, but it Wouldn't. Be. Lily.

It wasn't that she didn't understand, she did, and that made it even worse. Lily was striking, but that didn't mean she was right for where they wanted to cast her. Maybe that would come out during her training period? One could only hope.

Handing that role over to Lily was ridiculous. It couldn't be based on looks alone! Petunia could admit it was an important factor, grudgingly acknowledged in the privacy of her mind that possibly Lily could fit the bill with a lot of professional makeup and wardrobe consultants, but that wasn't enough. How could someone who wasn't invested do anything justice? It was hopeless.

Lily would fail.

There was a strange smile on Petunia's face, almost feral, and Lily wanted no part of whatever the elder was thinking so she cleared her bowl from the table and left the room altogether.

Breakfast done she had nothing else to do but continue reading the mass of information given to her at the open call. It was everything that had to do with everything. All of it.

Characters, from main to simple reoccurring. Settings. Words and terms. Story that wasn't even known by fans yet. She had to learn it all and not only on the surface.

She'd made a decision.

This wasn't a situation she wanted to be in, not even a tiny bit, but that didn't mean she could slack off. She didn't particularly enjoy school either, yet she still did her best and that was how she meant to think of it. This was school.

How many times in her life was she going to have to suck it up and plod ahead? There was no telling. At least there was pay involved with this forced venture.

"It could be worse," she muttered defensively. "It could definitely be worse."

She needed to convince herself of that, but it wasn't so easily done. In her book, this was quite awful. What came with being part of The Marauders? Attention she didn't want, judgement passed by rabid devotees like Petunia.

That was another thing. She was almost positive her sister was wishing death and destruction on her. Pet wanted her to mess up big time, to never appear on the show at all, and Lily actually thought about following that route. This rift was a long time coming, they were forever at odds, but it didn't have to happen over this, did it?

Yet she knew that even if she failed things wouldn't be put right. It was all wrong already. Based on jealousy and spite. She wasn't sure if there was any chance of fixing it, certainly not on her own and messing up on purpose wouldn't make it better. Petunia would still be infuriated, just with a heaping spoonful of malicious glee added in.

She'd never be allowed to live the failure down. It would be thrown at her whenever they fought, whenever she did mess up. No matter what else she did right, Petunia wouldn't forget what she'd done wrong.

With that in mind, she realised losing on purpose wasn't the answer; it seemed the easy solution, but it wouldn't help with Petunia. There was no winning on that front and, if that was the case, she might as well win in the other arena. She couldn't control how Petunia felt or what she did, but her own life was in her hands.

Mostly.

Of course, none of this would have happened if she'd been allowed to do as she'd wanted in the first place and stay home.

Petunia had no one to blame but herself.

Those were Lily's thoughts as she looked down at the book's worth informational packet and began pursuing the content again. The further she got the more incredulous she grew; were all television shows similarly planned? It was so in-depth!

Even so, all the reading didn't make her like the premiss any more than she ever did. At its core, it was a simple teenage drama, angst to the nth degree. Dating drama, family drama, drama between friends, drama between enemies.

No one could let things slide, there was always retaliation. One errant comment could bring down a rain of trouble. Emotions were shallow, skin-deep at best, and relationships didn't last.

Toward the end of the bundle though, where the future of the series was roughly plotted, she felt small stirrings of hope. There was to be an attempt to bring the story into darker waters, to make characters deal with more difficulties than day-to-day clichés. It was vague, but reading it made her think that, maybe, her character was supposed to be a harbinger and, if her thinking was right, then that was a big deal.

If this new character took the name Lily Evans, what would she be like?

Seven days wasn't long enough to get used to knowing she'd be leaving home for two months. Granted Petunia would be around for that first week, but they wouldn't see much of each other. Their reasons for being there were different. Petunia would have her spot filmed and the rest was reparations; a chance to see all the behind the scenes action and she'd get to meet the main cast. Lily was to start training immediately and she wasn't sure what all that entailed.

Acting. Playing pretend professionally. It didn't sound difficult, but nothing was ever as easy as it seemed, was it?

Not everyone was cut out for the screen and she might not be either.

That was a massive chance to take on Hollis' part. Picking a random girl out of a crowd and thrusting her toward fame. What if it was the wrong choice? A tight filming schedule couldn't easily absorb a mistake like that.

Yet Hollis had a knack for picking out talent. Lily'd looked the woman up, her credit list was impressive, to say the least; she'd done casting for multiple award-winning television shows, films too. It was hard to believe she'd pulled her from the crowd.

Why? What did she have that Petunia didn't? What was different?

Then again Lily wasn't sure she wanted to know, maybe it was better not to. It might not even be an answer she could understand; that kind of ability was hard-wired and Lily wasn't born with it. She liked to think herself a good judge of character, but she had nothing on this woman.

She couldn't doubt Heather Hollis knew her business, but that didn't make it any easier to accept the idea that the woman had a reason for pulling her into a world she knew nothing about.

Lily sort of resented it, yet at the same time it was aggravatingly exciting. An adventure she'd never thought to try. An unexpected journey.

Anyone would be intrigued, it wasn't just her. There was no shame in wanting to experience something new.

Even so, she was apprehensive. She wasn't stupid, she knew Petunia's reaction was going to be common. Hostile anger. Scepticism.

How could they, the devoted followers of The Marauders, possibly accept an unknown girl taking the role of main female lead?

"Hwooo," she released a long exhale. It was the first time she'd fully acknowledged the gravity of the role she was to play.

In all, she read she saw nothing about a lasting female, excepting a few cohorts who were perpetually coming up with schemes centred on desires for popularity and romance. One or two were favoured by audiences to take the role Lily was pushed into.

That wasn't good news for her; she didn't know if they'd forgive her for bouncing onto the scene and basically taking over.

"Well," she murmured. "It'll definitely make them emotional."

The question was whether or not that would be a good thing.

"My little Lily," her mother was watery eyed. "Growing up so fast."

"Wouldn't be so fast if you weren't sending me away," she shot back. The red head's patience was thin, nerves were taking over, and she wasn't appreciating the parental love when this was only happening because of papers they signed. "I didn't ask for this!"

Truthfully she could see both her parents experiencing a bit of regret over being so quick to agree to the whole endeavour. Their initial reasons weren't wrong, but they hadn't stopped to think either. It was an all or nothing moment, high pressure.

But now it was too late. She was pulled from school and the contract was binding unless they wanted to pay fines for breaking it.

"I know, Lily, I know," her mum sighed. "And I'm a little sorry for it now, but this is still a good thing. Parting is such sweet sorrow..."

Lily rolled her eyes. They were assembled on the front step, herself, Mum and Petunia. Dad still had to work and he'd said his goodbyes before he left.

A car was on its way to take the girls off to the secret filming location. Made it sound so special and Lily supposed it was in a way, but really it was a safety thing for all involved. Nothing could get done if fans were constantly hanging around shouting for their favourites, trying to break into sets and steal memorabilia.

They would. Given half a chance a few wouldn't be opposed to kidnapping the ones they obsessed over. Lily shuddered at the thought; it was scary how taken up teen girls could get over the rich and famous.

She glanced at Petunia who stood sullenly silent. They'd not spoken once over days passed and it was probably for the best. Lily didn't know what there was to say any more. No words on either part would change the circumstances. Petunia would still blame Lily and Lily would still refuse to take the unwarranted reproach.

The vehicle that pulled to the curb was sleek, black, largely unassuming but Lily suspected it was high class. She didn't know much about that sort of thing so it was speculation.

Their bags were placed in the trunk by the driver, the door held open, and there was no choice but to move forward.

Saying goodbye once more, knowing her Mum was going to hold the tears in until they were safely out of sight, hurt a lot. Leaving home wasn't easy and she didn't feel ready, but there was no one to lean on now. Petunia wouldn't understand, she'd refuse to, and this was it.

This was it.