--1--

James stopped after he had stepped through the wall separating platforms 9 and 10 and onto 9 3/4. Sirius Black, a tall boy the same age with jet black hair, just like his friend next to him, stood besides him. They looked around, it seemed that they were trying to spot a friend (or friends, apparantly) in the huge crowd of dull black robes.

"See any of 'em?" asked Sirius, still searching.

"Nope," James Potter, a small frown on his face as he scanned the crowd as well.

After a moment Sirius interrupted their silence, "'Ay, Prongs, there's your girlfriend!" He made a kissy face at James and chuckled.

James gave him a sinister look and punched his arm, and Sirius managed to stop laughing and put on a rather childish show of puppy-dog eyes. He walked away, pushing his trolley behind him over to Lily Evans, the girl that Sirius had pointed out before. Her eyes were a brilliant shade of green and her hair a bright fiery red. She stood waving to her muggle family, though as soon as her parents turned their back she couldn't help but scowl at her horrible sister. Of course, Lily was not James' girlfriend, but nearly everyone knew of their stubborn adorations for eachother.

"Potter," Lily greeted when James got to her.

"Evans," James replied.

There was a moment when no one said anything, they just stared at eachother, looking as if they hated eachother, but at the same time you could tell the deep passion that they had for one another.

"Uh, so... how was your summer?" she continued, the silence beginning to make both of them a little uncomfortable.

He told her about how Sirius had stayed over at his house over the summer, he tended to stay with him over the holidays as well, ever since he was disowned from his family. The conversation seemed to wander after a couple minutes.

Sirius stayed behind as this took place, feeling that it may be best for them to have their time alone after the summer. He wondered how two people so obviously in love could possibly go on pretending to hate eachother?

His thoughts were interrupted though when someone ran their trolley into his, which was next to him, scattering Sirius' trunk and suitcases everywhere.

"Oi!" Sirius yelled. Several people looked over, as well as James and Lily, who were currently arguing over something that they couldn't even remember anymore. He turned around to see who it was.

Severus 'Snivellus' Snape stood snickering from behind his trolley, his two suitcases undesturbed. Snape was a pale, greasy-haired Slytherin. Sirius and the rest of the marauders decided on him being one of their main targets.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Snape said in a voice as oily as his hair, which seemed to have not been washed for at least a week.

Sirius bared his teeth and growled, a habit he'd picked up from when he was in his animagus form, which was a large black dog. James ran over to him, his wand out and ready to cast any hex, spell, or charm at his will. Lily stood by both James' and her own trolley, a frown had formed on her face. She had never liked that James would do anything to show off, especially when he was showing off how much better he was than Severus.

Snape stopped snickering at once when James was at Sirius' side. Sirius smiled menacingly, and pulled his own wand out as well. Snape scowled and continued pushing his things to the train. Alas, as soon as his back was turned and his guard was down, James muttered something and pointed his wand at the bottom of his robes, which imediately began to change from black to a pale pink.

They heard a familiar laugh come from behind them once James had done his damage. Both James and Sirius spun around happily to be greeted by Remus Lupin, another of the marauders.

"Finally, Moony, you're here!" Sirius said happily, grinning at Lupin.

"We've been waiting forever for you to show up!" James said too, crossing his arm and pretending to be upset.

"Oh you lazy gits, I've been here for over half an hour, you guys just hadn't looked hard enough." Lupin responded. "Now come on, you guys should've gotten all of your stuff on the train by now, we'll be leaving soon!" Lupin also said.

Sirius pointed his wand at his things and they flew back onto the trolley. James looked back to where he had left his with Lily, it was still there but Lily must have gone off already.

James walked over to his things, Sirius and Lupin followed, and they all took their things to the train.

As they were getting on the train, Remus said, "Wait, where's Wormtail???"

James and Sirius looked at eachother, "I haven't seen 'im" said Sirius.

James replied, "Nope, I haven't either."

"Hm," was all that Lupin said after that.

"Well, he'll show up eventually. He's probably just runnin' a bit late." James reassured his friends.

Sirius and Remus muttered their agreement.

They had wished that they hadn't waited so long to get their seats on the train after they'd past half a dozen full cars.

But eventually they found one.

James stared at one of the two passengers. And Lily stared back.

Remus tried to hold back a snicker and James gave a menacing smile and elbowed is friend.

Lily's friend, who the Marauders could recognize as Julia, looked from Lily to the Marauders, obviously very confused.

"Fine. Sit down," Lily said as she rolled her eyes.

The marauders all smiled big toothy smiles and sat down. Sirius shoved James into the seat next to Lily before he could get to any other seat, and he sat down on James' other side. James and Lily both glared at him and Sirius gave an innocent smile. Lupin sat down across from them next to Lily's friend.

After a moment, Lily and Julia went back to the conversation they were having, seeming to pay no attention that the fourth marauder had come in and set on Lupin's other side.

"Wormtail, you're here!" Sirius said happily.

"You almost missed the train," Remus added as the train gave a mighty jerk and began to move.

"Yah, sorry about that, coudn't get to the station on time." Peter Pettigrew said. Peter was smaller than his friends, had a pointy nose, and mousey hair.

"So how was everyone's summer?" James said when no one had said anything, including Julia and Lily who were staring out the window at the passing landscapes.

"I had a great time with my parents in France!" Lupin said, who seemed to perk up a bit.

"You went to France?" Lily's friend asked, turning her attention from the mountains and greenery to Remus, "I love it there! My cousins have a castle there and we visit all the time..."

She and Remus were having their own little conversation with eachother, not seeming to notice much else that was going on. Once in a while they would say something in french that would result in Julia having a little giggle fit every so often.

"Okay...?" Sirius said.

"Well, Wormtail, since we've obviously lost Moony, how was your summer?" James said.

"It was okay. A bit dull, though. Bummer that my mum didn't let me come over to your house, James, then maybe my summer would've been a bit more eventful." Peter shrugged.

"Yah, too bad, we had a blast!" Sirius said.

"Uh-huh, it was one of my better summers," James said, grinning thoughtfuly.

"What, have fun pulling pranks on the muggles or something?" Lily interrupted, not moving from her watch out the window.

"Oh be quiet, you," James said. Sirius laughed.

"Oi! Watch it, Evans!" Sirius yelled.

She snickered as she turned around to look out the window again. James got off poor Sirius and went back to his original spot.

For about half an hour there hadn't been much conversation at all. Julia and Lupin had ended their conversation. Remus had taken out one of his books, getting a *very very early* head start on NEWTs, which were to be held at the end of this very year. Sirius had taken out a piece of extra parchment and a quill and had began scribbling doodles on it. Peter had fallen asleep next to Lupin, as did Julia, who had laid her head on Remus's shoulder. Lily still looked out the window, they were currently chugging along beside a river that glistened in the late-morning sun. James pretended to look out the window, but he was actually pleasantly watching lily, the way her firey red hair grazed the side of her cheeks and forehead.

James gave a sigh.

Sirius looked up from his scribbles, and looked at James. He could always tell what James was thinking, he wasn't tricked by his act of looking out the window. He quickly wrote something down and nudged James with his elbow to get his attention, and held the piece of paper up to his face.

James took the parchment. 'Prongs, you know you've got to do something! This is our last year here, it might be your only chance!" was what Sirius had written down.

James held out his hand and Sirius placed the quill on it. James quickly wrote something back in his messy handwriting and handed both the quill and the parchment back to Sirius.

'You think I don't know that Padfoot? And even if I did ask her, as if she'd say yes,' was what James had written. Sirius looked up at James, who shrugged and turned around again.

And then a mischeivous grin appeared on Sirius's face. He had gotten a brilliant idea...