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It's JKR's world. Sadly, I don't own any of it.
Chapter three: Mistakes and New Friendships
It was a Friday, the day I messed up. Until that day, everyone, including the Marauders mostly left me alone. I didn't even know most of the girls in my dorm room, though I did know Lily. They stayed to themselves, and I stayed to myself. It was simple, uncomplicated. But on this day, the Marauders decided to prank the new girl. It would have been innocent enough, if it wasn't me. They thought it would be funny to charm some paint to rain down on my head, and some glitter to surround me. It really wasn't that mean or anything. And better yet, they decided to do it in a crowded hall. I was walking down the hallway, when the charmed paint rained down. It was mostly the shock that made me throw my hands up and yelp a shielding charm. And the paint didn't touch me. The same thing happened with the glitter a second later. Everyone looked shocked.
"How did you do that?" Sirius demanded.
"Do what?" I asked innocently. They weren't fooled.
"Stop the paint!" exclaimed James, "You didn't even have your wand out!" Uh-oh.
"Of course I did, don't be silly." I tried. That didn't work either.
"No, you didn't, because I snatched your wand in charms class." Remus informed me, and the bystanders started muttering. Great! Now what?
"Uh…no you didn't?" it was a weak try, but I had to say something. I didn't expect them to believe it though.
"Yeah, I did. Tell us how you did that." Remus insisted, holding out the wand as proof. I snatched it from him before anyone else could see it.
"It's none of your business, and you can't prove anything, so leave me alone." I hissed.
"What?" Sirius asked, shocked. Apparently he hadn't considered the idea of me hiding something.
"Sorry, let me translate, 'bugger off!'" I said. I really hadn't meant to be that mean about it, but being defensive makes me a little bit easy to upset. Just a little bit. I mean, Dumbledore had said people would be scared of me. What if they got scared, and told their parents? I'd be kicked out! No one else had seen that Remus had the wand. I had to keep it that way. I turned to leave, but Remus grabbed my arm.
"It's alright, we won't say anything," he promised in a low voice, "just tell us what's wrong."
"Nothing's wrong!" I insisted. Then I realized I was shouting. I took a deep breath and tried again. "Nothing's wrong. Everything's fine. Really." They looked doubtful.
"Then how did you stop the paint?" Sirius asked again. I groaned.
"She's a freak, that's how!" one girl yelled. She was one of the other girls from my dorm. One of the ones Lily didn't like very much, "She's always weird like this, dressing funny, leaving strange things everywhere, dancing to music no one else can hear. She's a freak!"
"Shut up Umbridge, let her explain." James snapped. Well, how do I explain after that? I thought Remus didn't know her, but apparently they went to school together. I stared for a few seconds, and then forced myself to turn back to Remus.
"I have nothing to say. I don't need to explain anything. My wand's right here." I made a show of holding it out for the crowd to see, and then muttered to Remus, "Meet me by the charms classroom." I turned, and walked away. The crowd dispersed, disappointed, and I went to the classroom. Sure enough, Remus, Sirius, and James showed up a minute later. I don't really know where Peter was that day. He was not with his friends though. I had decided to explain the Mage part to them. It took awhile, but we somehow got through it. They seemed pretty shocked, to say the least.
"You're a real Mage?" James asked with wide eyes. Apparently he knew what that meant. I nodded.
"Wow! That's brilliant! Think of what we could pull off with a Mage helping out!" Sirius said, excitedly, ever the blunt one. The rest of us rolled our eyes.
"Thanks," I said sarcastically, "Way to make me feel better."
"Aw, I didn't mean it like that!" Sirius said, smiling.
"No, of course you didn't," I was really stuck on the sarcasm today.
"Really!" he insisted, "I just meant that it would be brilliant if you decided to help us out with a few things."
"A few thing?" I asked. Oh boy, here we go.
"Yeah!" now James was all worked up to, "Think of what we could do! I mean, we know the school better than anyone, and you could probably perform tons of spells without even getting near whatever we're trying to charm! Why, with your help we could pull off the greatest pranks Hogwarts has ever seen!" Remus groaned, and I raised an eyebrow.
"I hate to burst your bubble, but I barely know any spells. I'm still struggling with first year materials. And anyway, why would I help even if I could? I don't have any particular problems with your pranks, but that does not mean I want to be known as 'that girl who helps the infamous Marauders'." They looked surprised.
"Well," Sirius told me, "we'd help you with the spells. It's really not a problem. And anyway, you wouldn't be just 'that girl' you'd be one of us. We didn't expect a lackey or anything. We were asking if you wanted to be our…what's the word Remus? The really good one you used on us this morning?"
"Cohort," Remus supplied with a smirk.
"Yeah, that's the one! You'd be our cohort." Sirius smiled at me. I was shocked, to say the least. Their only reaction to me being a dangerously powerful, untrained Mage was to ask if I wanted to help them with their pranks. Then again, they also hung out with werewolves and half-giants. Maybe their perceptions of danger were a little skewed.
"All right, boys. You teach me the spells, and I'll do it." WHAT!? I must have been COMPLETELY out of my mind! I was messing with these boy's lives, and now I wanted to become friends with them? What would that accomplish? Nothing besides emotional attachments I really couldn't afford! But it felt kind of nice, not having to keep this from them. And anyway, how was I supposed to change their lives if I didn't know them? And this would be the adventure I had been waiting my whole life for. But that's not the point. The point is I agreed to help them, and they agree to help me. Severus wasn't too happy with this arrangement, but he didn't complain more than the once, unless you count harmless jabs here and there. I really hadn't expected him and Regulus to be so nice. And now I spent some time with the Marauders too, which was loads of fun. They really put me through my paces though! I learned more spells from them than I did from some of my classes, and they didn't accept failure as an option. If I didn't get it the first time, there would be a next time. I also studied them all as much as I could. Remus was pretty relaxed. I suppose the war must have made him a little more rule abiding, because he pulled just as many stunts as the others. He was just smart enough not to get caught most of the time. For instance, there was this one time when they turned the whole schools hair Gryffindor colors and Remus was the only one to make his spells untraceable. Sometimes I swear the other two enjoy getting caught. James was funny. He always had a joke on hand when things got quiet. He also knew when to stop joking, like when he found a first year crying in the hallway. She had gotten lost, and he helped her back to her dorm. Sirius was…well, Sirius was Sirius. I didn't really know what to make of him at first. He wasn't as arrogant as the books made him out to be, but he must have been twice as mental. He was always doing crazy things. Streaking the field at a Gryffindor versus Slytherin Quidditch match, for example. As for Peter, he wasn't around much. Apparently this was unusual for him, but the other three felt it important not to pry. They worried about him being so shy sometimes, though they would never admit it. I was just happy I didn't have to deal with him too often.
And so life went on. I did look into Umbridge though. It was the one and only Dolores Umbridge. It was completely unbelievable. First, I end up in Hogwarts, then I become friends with the supposed bad guys before the good guys, then I find out the evil toad was here, and out of the people that I had really wanted to meet, the only one I wasn't friends with was the only girl. Lily and I didn't argue or anything, but we didn't interact much. We greeted each other and said goodnight, but there wasn't really much interaction otherwise. That was about to change.