November, 1971

At the party that followed the match (in which they steamrolled Slytherin), James and Olivia were talking Quidditch with some of the people on the team while Sirius, Remus and Peter watched them.

"What's wrong with her, Remus?" asked Sirius.

"I've been wondering the same thing," said Remus.

They watched Olivia as she talked enthusiastically with James and the older Gryffindors, discussing the match in tiny details. Her green eyes were twinkling like never before and her smile was infectious, but every so often, she would pause, her eyes would darken, and a frown would grace her features for a few seconds. She would then shake her head and her old expression would return in full force, but Remus and Sirius noted this each time it happened.

"We need more food!" called a fourth year girl.

"We'll get some," said Sirius, grabbing Olivia by the arm and dragging her out of the common room to go and nick some more food from the kitchens. She looked like she might protest, but he gave her his sternest stare and she followed without a fight.

"All right, Livia, what's wrong with you? Remus and I are freaking out and you need to tell us before we nick some Veritaserum from Slughorn and make you tell us. Out with it!" He was poking her relentlessly as they headed to the kitchens.

Olivia shrugged. "It's nothing, Sirius. I promise. Please don't make me talk."

Sirius grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop, getting right up in her face and whispering low. "Don't you dare think we don't have a right to know, Livia," he said. "We're worried about you, so tell me right now what it is. I don't care if it's just nightmares about James and the Giant Squid, but you need to tell me right now so I can know what I'm dealing with, here."

From the way she winced when he had said the word 'nightmare', Sirius knew he had struck a nerve. Tears filled her eyes and he hugged her tightly, petting her like a cat. "It's okay, Livia, I'm right here. You can tell me."

For a while, they just stood there like that, him whispering calming things and her crying into his shoulder. Finally, she calmed down enough to speak. "I keep having nightmares," she said, "about some of the Slytherins. I keep seeing them doing awful things to me. And they keep looking at me all the time, like I'm some sort of animal that needs to be caged. I don't understand."

Sirius had been wondering about their odd behavior as well. Lucius Malfoy would leer at her all the time, as well as a third year named Yaxley. Like an animal that needed to be controlled, yes, but they looked at her like she was a beautiful animal that needed to be controlled, and that made him very uncomfortable. It would be even tougher to be looked at like that."

"They're not going to hurt you, Livia, I promise. We're going to make sure that they don't touch you. Remus and I have been so worried about you. You could have just told us about these nightmares. That's what you were screaming about last night, wasn't it?"

Olivia nodded and wiped her face before burying it back in Sirius's shoulder, this time heaving great dry sobs. He eventually calmed her down enough to get to the kitchens, grab some food, and take it back to the common room, where Olivia went back to the Quidditch crowd and put on a dazzling smile, and Sirius went back to Remus.

"Nightmares and Slytherins," whispered Sirius in Remus's ear. "I'll tell you more later on." Remus nodded and they drank their butterbeer, watching the group of over-excited Gryffindors around them dancing and cheering.

Sirius put on a smile and pretended to be enjoying the party, much in the way he expected that Olivia was doing, but eventually he couldn't handle it any longer and grabbed Remus's arm, telling James and Olivia that they were tired and turning in early, and dragged his friend up the stairs to their dormitory.

After explaining everything he had convinced Olivia to tell him, Sirius watched Remus carefully. Remus's face was completely blank and he seemed almost reluctant to allow emotion to show. Finally, Sirius said, "Well? What do we do?"

"I'm not sure," said Remus. "Why do you think they're watching her?"

"I don't know," said Sirius picking at a string on his coverlet. "It could be anything. Some of those boys are a lot older than her. A lot of them are our age, though. Maybe it has something to do with the rivalry? Maybe it's got something to do with her dad?"

Remus frowned. "Like, they're going to kidnap her for ransom or something?"

Sirius shrugged. "It would be a huge political crisis."

"Exactly, and I don't think a bunch of first years care about causing a major political crisis, even if they get the ransom money. No, there's something else going on, I think."

"Well, I don't know about you," said Sirius, "but I really am exhausted. I think I'll go to bed now. Are you going back down to the party?"

Remus shook his head. "I'm tired too. We can talk it out with James and Peter in the morning. Maybe they'll have a good idea."

Sirius snorted as he climbed into bed. "Yeah, when Snivellus washes his hair."

And with dry laughter, they fell asleep. Sirius awoke at one point in the night to screaming, which he knew was Olivia, again, but it eventually died down, which meant someone had dealt with her nightmare. He sat up, rubbing his eyes and checking his watch. It was one in the morning. He had been having a pleasant dream that he couldn't remember anymore and it had been interrupted by the sounds of Olivia's screams. What was wrong with her? What was really going on?

Sirius looked around the dormitory at all the sleeping boys. The Gryffindor first year boys' dormitory was the most packed in the school, because for some reason a large chunk of boys got sorted into Gryffindor. It was one of the largest groups in years. Most dormitories had five or six people in them. Theirs had ten. On the other hand, the Slytherin boys in their year had just about the same. It was just a weird year.

Sirius may have been looking at the boys' dormitory, but his mind was upstairs with the girls. There were five girls upstairs, and he had no idea what their room looked like, as boys couldn't get up the stairs to the girls' dormitories. From casual chatting, though, Sirius had deduced that Olivia likely slept near Lily Evans and Mary MacDonald, which made sense, because they were together much of the time, especially when she was coming downstairs in the mornings.

Now that someone had woken her from her nightmare, was Olivia lying awake, thinking about something in her bed? Was she trying to forget the nightmare? Peter turned on his side and his snores filled the room, no longer muffled by the pillow in his face. Sirius grimaced. Ten guys in one room was nobody's idea of a good time. He closed his eyes and somehow managed to fall asleep, despite Peter's snores.

The next morning at breakfast, Sirius stared at Olivia, well aware the Remus was as well. She was clearly attempting to ignore them as she buttered her toast, but she didn't last long. "All right, out with it, what do you two want? Did I lose a bet and forget to pay or something?"

"Now that you mention it," said Sirius slyly, lips curling into a grin, but Remus elbowed him in the ribcage and cast him an annoyed glance.

"We heard you screaming again last night."

"What makes you think it was me?" she said coolly, pouring more juice and avoiding their eyes in a way that confirmed that yes, it was her.

"Olivia, please," said Remus. "You need to tell us what's wrong."

"Yeah," said James through a mouth full of sausage. "So we can curse the hell out of the losers who are causing it so we can get some real sleep."

"No chance of that, mate, no matter who we curse. Peter's snoring is just as bad," said Sirius with a wink.

"I do not snore!" said Peter.

"Oh, come on, Peter, everyone knows you snore. Loner was complaining about it to Margery and Mary last week." Olivia's hand flew to her mouth the second she realized she had just resorted to calling Lonnie by his cruel nickname. The boys laughed.

"Glad to see you're really joining the club now," said Sirius with a satisfied smirk.

"I was always in the club," she retorted. "In fact, I invented the club. Are you forgetting who came up with the glorious name that is Snivellus?"

"Point to Livia. Anyway, seriously, now, what's wrong?" said James.

"I just don't appreciate people staring at me," she said, looking over at Remus and Sirius as she said it, "and that includes you guys. Unless I've got food on my face, and then don't just stare, tell me, or you'll regret it. Deal?"

"No deal," said James and Sirius at the same time, grinning at each other. Whatever the consequences she would make them suffer, there would sure be an instance where not pointing out the food on her face would make them worth it.

She sighed frustrated and said, "Okay, fine, I'm really scared because those crazy Slytherins are stalking me and it's creeping me out. Anything else you'd like to know? I'm sure I could come up with all sorts of things to start confessing, unless you'd rather I spared you the awful details of life as a girl?"

They all shook their heads frantically and she laughed coldly. "I thought not. Anyway, speaking of our club, we need a name for ourselves. I need something to refer to you boys as other than my boys, because I'd rather not have people thinking of me as the youngest slut in Hogwarts history."

"That's fair," said Sirius. "But it can't be something lame or girly, so you're not allowed to pick it."

She pouted, but didn't argue, exactly. "Can I at least have input on what you all suggest?"

"Deal. Moony, what have you got in that incredible vocabulary of yours?"

"Um, 'bandits'?"

"Have we ever actually stolen anything?"

"Unless you count that time we took Snivelly's underpants and strung them across the Slytherin common room, then no. And that wasn't really stealing, he got them back and they weren't in our possession very long."

"True, it was theft and more of reorganizing."

"That was a beautiful prank."

"What's beautiful about Snivelly's underpants?"

"Nothing at all, that part was rather disgusting, but the look on his face at breakfast the next day was pure poetry."

"Fair. Alright, what else?"

"Hmm," Moony scratched his chin. "How about 'marauders'?"

"Oh, Moony, that's perfect!" screeched Olivia excitedly, drawing the attention of many a nearby breakfast eater. "It's got the connotations of a bandit, but it's more like a rogue, a wanderer, and stuff like that. Plus, it's an archaic term, so it makes us sound smarter than we are."

"All agreed?" asked James, and they responded with eager nods. "Very well, I dub us all, Marauders. May the name bring fear in the hearts of our enemies, and joy to the hearts of our friends."

"What friends?" scoffed Remus. "Name one person in the whole school, not sitting here being dubbed at this moment, who hasn't been hit mercilessly by one of our pranks."

James tilted his head. "That's not fair. I probably don't know their name."

"Can't really call them a friend if you don't know their name," said Olivia reasonably, "but to be honest, Moony, I think he was meaning more friends of the cause than actual friends. And picking on Slytherins is a cause most reasonable people can support."

And it was decided. The five friends were now the Marauders, and though they couldn't agree on some sort of cheer or oath or anything noble like that, not even a motto, at least they agreed on a name, and that was something strong enough to bond them for a very long time. At least, that's what Sirius hoped.