Disclaimer: I don't own Harry potter.

~chapter 2~

"Pass the bacon, Prongs." Sirius said with a mouthful of toast. James stared at him with a vacant look. "Please." Sirius said as he rolled his eyes. James picked up a few slices of bacon and threw them at his friend. Sirius caught them and was about to throw some eggs back at James but decided not to since Mercy was sitting a few seats away and would probably think food fighting was immature. James watched Sirius put the eggs back on his plate and followed his eyes to see what he was looking at. He snorted into his orange juice and grabbed Peter's napkin as it started coming out of his nose. Peter scooted away from him with a half disgusted, half amused look.

Remus was sitting next to Sirius talking to his girl friend, Katrina, who was on his left side. Katrina, or Kat, was a chaser on the Gryffindor team. She was the only girl on the team this year, and was an extremely good chaser. She had long, wavy, dark brown hair that flowed down to her waist, and dark hazel eyes, so dark they were almost black.

James, who was sitting across from Sirius, was showing Lily his latest plan for a prank. He was whispering so softly that even Sirius couldn't hear him, and he kept glancing at the Slytherin table as if they could somehow understand him. Lily's brilliant green eyes were shining like they always did when she was planning a prank. Lily had bright red hair which she always kept up in a messy sort of bun. She was head girl (and James was head boy) and the best student in charms. Sirius and Remus were always calling them "The Perfect Couple.", which really wasn't far from the truth, even though they were constantly getting into fights. They were too much alike not to be together.

James, Sirius, and Remus were all on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Peter had tried out simply for the sake of not wanting to be left out of anything that his friends were doing, but had failed miserably. James was a Seeker, Sirius a beater, and Remus the Keeper. This was one of the many other reasons why their group was hated so much by the Slytherins. Another reason was that The Mauraders were constantly playing pranks on them, pranks that not even the best Slytherin prankster could compete with.

Lily, Kat, and Mercy, who were all best friends, were considered part of the Marauder group. It was not an unusual sight in the Gryffindor common room to see the 7 friends huddled around a table, whispering to eachother over charts and papers. This was always a good sight to the Gryffindors, who knew that the next morning they would have the pleasure of seeing the entire table of Slytherins explode into song, or start kissing eachother randomly, or something else of that kind.

This is exactly what the Marauders were doing one night, sitting in a circle in front of the fire. Peter had already fallen asleep where he sat, but this didn't bother any of the others. The prank would probably go better without Peter than it would with his help. The meeting continued on in the usual way, with a lot of whispering on the guys part and giggling on the girls, until James got to "And then I'll rush in and curse all their underwear-" Lily shook her head violently. "No, YOU hold the door and I'll go in. You got to switch their hair gel with mugworts magical hair remover last time, remember?" James frowned. "Yeah but you had two turns in a row a few months ago." He said indignantly. "So? That was your own fault, you forgot the spell so I had to go do it." She said while trying to yell and whisper at the same time. All the others sighed. They knew what was coming. "I did not! Besides, you still got to do it, it doesn't matter why." Lily forgot about whispering. "Oh, please!" She said loudly. All the other Gryffindors gathered around. A Lily and James fight was always entertaining. "Look," said Sirius. "How about you both go in, it'll go faster that way." James shook his head violently. "We can't do that! We'd run into eachother or something. It's too risky." Lily snorted. "Well if you're so worried about being quiet, then you should let me go, we both know that you always cough or trip or something." James stood up. "That's not true!" He yelled, his face turning red from anger. Lily stood up too and for a few minutes they both stood there glaring at eachother.

Mercy stood up quietly, and taking Lily by the elbow led her gently up to the girls dormitory, Lily stomping the whole way. "Why does she always think everything has to be her way??" James said angrily as he plopped into an arm chair. Remus and Sirius rolled their eyes at eachother. After a few minutes of angry comments from James, Lily and Mercy came down again, Lily looking much calmer than when she had gone up. "I'm sorry, James. You can do the prank, it really is your turn, anyway. Besides, I don't really want to have to look at their underwear." She said with a smile. "It's ok," James started. "I probably should have let you go, since you can be so much quieter than me." Then they both sat back down in the circle, and the crowd returned to their homework dissapointedly.

This was always how their fights ended, with Mercy calming Lily down. No one knew what she said to her, and no one else could do it. She just had a way of making everyone around her calm, perhaps it was how calm she was herself. None of the Marauders had ever heard her raise her voice or scold. She was constantly smiling and never made negative comments. She was known and loved by the entire school, even the Slytherins, because everywhere she went she had a smile for every home-sick first year, encouragement for every discouraged person, and advice for everyone who needed it. Lily had the worst temper in the school, and if Mercy could calm her down, obviously everyone had a reason to like her. The pranks were bad enough when Lily was calm. Everyone knew that if it weren't for Mercy, Lily and James would never be able to stay together, as much as they cared about eachother.

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A few days later, Sirius, Peter, Remus, and James all snuck quietly out of their dormitory under James's invisibility cloak. It was a tight fit for them all under there, but they always managed to make it out onto the grounds without anymore than a foot sticking out every once in a while. After they hid the cloak in the passage in the weeping willow, they all sat underneath the huge tree, waiting till the full moon came out. "Do you think we should tell the girls?" James asked. "I mean we won't be able to hide this forever. They're allready suspicious of something." Remus sighed. Sirius knew he didn't want to tell Kat. Even though Kat was a sweet girl who was never prejudiced of anyone, Remus still had a fear of people deserting him because of what he was. James had wanted to tell Lily for a long time, he said he didn't feel right keeping secrets from her. Remus felt the same way, but his fear of what Kat would think and do if she knew always outweighed it. "Moony, you'll have to tell her sometime. Better sooner than later." James said softly. Remus bit his lip and for a few moments there was complete silence. Then Remus started quivering and moaning, and in a matter of seconds the boys disapeared and four dark animals ran into the woods.

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A/N: ok i'm just assuming that everyone who reads this has read the harry potter books so i won't explain all about remus, ect. if you don't know, go read the harry potter books cuz i'm not gonna explain it all. i know this chapter was boring cuz i'm just explaining about everybody and stuff but stuff will start happening soon. oh and i'm sorry it took me so long to get this chap. up. i'll try and go faster. please review!

~Katydid