Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I have no ownership over Harry Potter and its wonderful universe. I do own my OC's and story line.

Harry Potter - The Marauders Era

"The Princess Marauder

May, 1973 - Second Year

Sirius dropped his head on his Potions textbook, groaning, "I'm so sick of cramming! Can't we at least take a break?"

"No," I said firmly. "You have to study or you'll fail this year's Potions final."

"But I hate Potions!"

"All the more reason," Remus put in, reinforcing my statement. "You will never become an Auror if you don't pass Potions, will you?"

"Can't I copy out of you?"

"No," we chorused.

Sirius huffed, crossing his arms, sulking. "You're awful, the both of you."

"I can lend you my notes if you want to," Peter kindly offered.

"Will they magically memorize themselves into my brain?" Sirius asked ironically. Peter rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "Then I have absolutely no use for them."

"I can't believe I'm saying this but take a look at James, will you? He's actually trying," Remus said, watching him scribbling away on his notebook. I snorted and snatched the book away from under his quill, ignoring his cry of outrage. I showed it to Remus who clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Playing magic hangman; how terribly disappointing James!"

James humph'd, flicking his hair back before retrieving his notebook and finally picking up a Potions book. I had my doubts about him actually studying, but one could never know for certain with James Potter.

After a few more minutes of studying, and of Sirius' whining, Emmaline and a couple of her friends strolled into the library. They sat at a table with a direct view over ours and I watched them tittle-tattling in hushed tones while stealing glances in our direction. I rolled my eyes; could they be any more obvious? When Emmaline caught Remus' eye by chance, she melted into a sickening sweet smile and gave him a nervous wave. He returned it, looking positively confused, and she blushed ten thousand shades, immediately focusing back on the book she had pulled out of her satchel.

I glared at my quill.

"What was that about?" Sirius quipped curiously.

"Vance has a crush on Remus," I muttered through gritted teeth.

Remus snorted, "That's preposterous."

"No it's not. She told me so herself during Herbology."

"Aww mate, you're heartbreaker," James joked, smirking. "I bet she'd fancy giving you a good smooch."

Oh lord, I thought, suddenly feeling sick to my stomach. There was an image I could've lived without.

Sirius leaned forward over the table. "Oi, you can't be having a smooch first than me!"

"No one is smooching me," Remus objected, rolling his eyes.

I groaned, "Ugh, can you lads please stop saying 'smooch'? It's very disturbing."

"Why? Are you embarrassed, 'Ro?" Sirius teased, wiggling his eyebrows playfully. "Or just jealous because your boys are starting to attract attention from other girls?"

"I am neither, alright?"

"Then why are you blushing?" James threw in, his brown eyes dancing.

I touched my heated cheeks self-consciously. Next to me, Remus laughed good-naturedly and searched for my hand under the table, intertwining our fingers and stroking my knuckles.

"Aww you're so adorable when you're jealous, little 'Ro!" Sirius cooed, pinching my cheeks.

"I'm not jealous, you big oaf!" I hissed, careful not to raise my voice and catch Madame Pince's attention again. "In case you haven't realized, I attract a lot of attention to myself as well."

Peter nodded vehemently. "That's true."

"Yes well... you can't smooch any of those lads. I won't allow it."

"What are you, my guardian? I'll smooch whoever I please, thank you very much." I scrunched my nose annoyed. "Oh Merlin, I can't believe you made me say 'smooch' one more time."

"Twice now," Remus pointed out. I punched him in the shoulder, laughing

"You'll smooch whoever earns my blessing," Sirius counter-proposed.

"No one then," I cut in with a chuckle.

He ignored me as he continued, "But you can't smooch or date any of us."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I whispered hastily, squinting my eyes at him. Where the bloody hell had that come from?

Sirius gave me a pointed look. "Well it's only logic, isn't it? I mean, we're a group and we're all the best of friends, so we can't ruin our friendship by one of us falling in love with you and then changing everything, especially if someone gets hurt. You have to promise, 'Ro, you have to make a solemn vow to never date or fall in love with any of us."

I stared at him slightly speechless. It obviously made sense but why would he feel the need to express it so adamantly? A solemn vow among witches and wizards had a sort of binding contract, even without using magic. There were no consequences whether I broke it or not, of course, but it was a matter of honour.

James openly agreed. Peter nodded too, but Remus remained strangely silent as he continued to take notes from his Potions book, squeezing my hand under the table.

I pursed my lips.

"Promise, 'Ro," he insisted.

"Fine, Sirius. I solemnly promise never to date any of you."

When Sirius nodded, pleased with my answer, I lowered my gaze to table. Suddenly, I felt sick to my stomach...

The morning of the final Quidditch match of the year rolled in with an unexpected (yet vastly appreciated) breath of spring. The sky was clear and the sun was warm. The wind was still a bit chilly, but, all in all, we couldn't have asked for better. Hicks was very pleased, which was always a plus, since none of us particularly enjoyed having to deal with his bad humour.

As I exited the girl's locker rooms, I pulled my hair into a ponytail on top of my head, tying it firmly so it wouldn't come off during the game. This was a big one. The winner would take the cup and we were up against Hufflepuff, who hadn't won the tournament in over five years but had somehow made it to the final. Well, they did have a couple of new Chasers who were rather good with the Quaffle, so I'd give them that.

I met Sirius and James on the way to the field. The first one had also tied his hair, but a few rebel strands seemed keen on escaping. And James was putting on his new protection gloves.

"Ready, 'Ro?" he asked, pushing back some of his hair.

"Of course," I told him with a grin. "They'll never know what hit them."

"That's the spirit!"

When Hicks and the rest of the team joined us, we went over our game strategy one more time. Keeping the Beaters from Hufflepuff busy was Fabian and Gideon's main concern; since they weren't very bright or skilled, our twins's job was to keep directing bludgers to them so that they would be too busy trying to defend themselves than to actually attack our players.

"Diggory is their best Chaser," Hicks continued. "He's clever and wickedly fast, so never underestimate him. This warning is for you, Black – just because you think you're better than everyone else doesn't mean you actually are."

James and I broke into a fit of sniggers at the blatant insult. Our friend didn't find it quite so funny. He made a disgruntled face.

"I'm not saying it to be mean," Hicks said, even though he was smiling a little, "but our fastest player is Rosier. What we need to do is keep Diggory away from her and keep the Quaffle in her hands; she'll take care of the rest."

"And you–" He turned to James with a finger raised. "Try and catch the snitch as fast as possible."

James cheekily saluted him. "Yes, sir!"

"Alright, let's do this then."

Forty minutes into the game and there was still no sign of the golden snitch. I could tell James was getting a bit exasperated; he kept flying around the pitch in circles. I matched his anxiousness though. We might've been winning, but Hufflepuff was playing tougher than we'd hoped. Diggory was tricky and he kept dodging away from Hicks and Sirius so he could chase me.

"Aurora get out of the way!"

The loud warning startled me, but I managed to dive down just in time to avoid a bludger. The bloody thing shot past me like a cannon ball, whizzing and groaning. Flying little devils.

I shot Gideon a look over the shoulder. "You're supposed to shoot those buggers towards the Hufflepuffs, not towards me!"

He flashed me an apologetic smile. "Mild miscalculation on the trajectory, so sorry princess!"

"Bloody gingers," I muttered under my breath, rushing to re-join the game.

"PHEW! That was a close one! Lovely move from our brilliant Aurora," said Alice from the commentator booth. "Unfortunately, it seems Hufflepuff has caught the Quaffle. Abbott passes to Diggory. And Diggory goes for it– OH GREAT SAVE FROM LONGBOTTOM! ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL DEFENCE!"

"The commentator is not supposed to be biased, Miss Howlet," Professor MacGonagall pointed out.

"Right right, of course, professor." Alice cleared her throat dramatically. "After that fantastic defence from Longbottom, the Quaffle returns to Diggory. He is tireless, isn't he? An animal on a broom and quite the sexy beast too–"

"MISS HOWLET!"

I laughed to myself. Didn't even need to look towards the teacher's stand to picture MacGonagall's scarlet face.

Quickly, I zeroed in on Diggory and bent forward on my Silver Arrow to fly faster. When I caught him, he flashed me a teasing smirk, gesturing with the Quaffle.

"Want it, Rosier? Then come and get it!"

He took off at an alarming speed, but it was really no match for me. He was two years older – bigger and heavier. I was small and thin; it made me much more aerodynamic. We were side by side. He was flying towards my team's goals, but I wasn't worried; even if he did out-fly me, there was no way he could go past Frank.

"Rosier and Diggory are side by side and none of them seems to be slowing down! Can you feel the tension in the field? This is going to be intense! It's up to these two now– No, wait! Is that…? Potter saw it! He really did, and he's going after it at full speed! He's closing in, he's closing in! And... Yes! Yes, he's done it! POTTER CATCHES THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS!"

It was my turn to send the Hufflepuff a smirk. The look of confusion on his face was as satisfying as it was to fly past him and then stop in the middle of his path. He shouted a curse, but it was too late to go around and he crashed against me, sending us both off our brooms.

"YOU'RE INSANE!" he cried out as we fell.

I laughed, bringing two fingers to my lips and letting out a high-pitched whistle. My Silver Arrow turned around, diving at full speed to catch me. I gripped the silver handle tightly, hoisting myself up onto it and then continuing downwards to get Diggory, who despite everything still hadn't let go of the Quaffle. He threw one arm around my waist, holding on for dear life.

"That was completely mad, Rosier! We could've seriously gotten hurt!"

"Oh come on, don't be a baby," I shot back good-naturedly. "It was at least a bit fun, wasn't it? Admit it."

Diggory's chuckle was throatily nervous, but genuine. "A bit, yes. How did you make your broom do that? I've never seen anything like it."

"My dad enchanted it to recognize the sound of my whistle and find me when I need it. It's rather handy, isn't it?"

"Very." I could hear the smile in his voice.

As soon as we landed on the ground, Hicks came charging at me. "What in the world were you thinking? You could've cost us our victory!"

"Oh no, don't worry, I'm perfectly alright. There's no need for you to concern yourself with my well-being," I replied sarcastically.

An arm dropped over my shoulders, followed by a familiar bark of laughter. Sirius tugged me close to him with a toothy grin. "That was wicked, 'Ro! I should definitely ask uncle Bren to enchant my broom too," he said.

Hicks pinched the bridge of his nose. "You two…. Honestly…"

"Lighten up, Hicks," Diggory piped in, patting him on the back. "It was a great game. You deserved the victory."

"Obviously," I told him with a smirk, shrugging off Sirius' arm. "Gryffindor is clearly the better team."

Diggory shook his head, but I could tell he found me amusing. He grabbed my chin and tugged my face closer to his. I had to fight off a blush with all my strength; he was really handsome. His eyes were bluer than myosotis and his smile was perfectly white.

"Two or three more years and you'll have us all wrapped around your finger, won't you Aurora?"

I never backed down from his stare. "I already do."

The celebration of our victory carried on through the night in the Gryffindor Tower. The Prewett twins and a few seventh years had successfully smuggled firewhiskey from the kitchens and decided to spike the punch for the older students. Even Hicks, who's always so serious, drunk until he was so tipsy that he passed out on the couch.

The lads and I were in the middle of a discussion about Quidditch with another group of fellow housemates when I noticed a certain someone was missing. I excused myself and sneaked into the boys' dormitory, climbing the stairs leading to the room I knew by heart. I found him sitting by the window with a book. The flickering light of the candle was the only source of light in the room, it cast dancing shadows on his face and made the colours in his eyes swirl.

"The party's downstairs you know," I told him softly.

Remus glanced up from his book, smiling. "I know, but it was a bit noisy."

I hummed in agreement as I sat down in front of him. He recoiled his legs so I could fit in the window seat with him. While I let my eyes wonder through the night, his attention returned to book. After a few minutes, he broke the silence.

"I didn't want you to do it," he said. I must've looked confused because he hurried to elaborate, "That vow… on the other day in the library."

My heart stopped. I turned away from the blazing heat of his gaze, swallowing hard. "I suppose he is sort of right, though… isn't he?"

"I don't think he should have a say in who you fall in love with or not." Remus' voice was uncharacteristically harsh as he muttered those words.

"Well, he doesn't," I told him gently. "I mean, it's not really a choice, is it? You can't actually control what you feel. Sometimes we fall in love with the most unexpected person and there is nothing anyone can do about it."

I felt his hand fall over mine and turned it so our fingers could intertwine. His skin was warm. It was nice.

"Sometimes it's the one person we shouldn't fall in love with," he added in a whisper.

I smiled, still avoiding his stare even though I could feel his on me. "Sometimes it doesn't matter if we should or not. Fate has a way of forcing through – with or without promises."