Chapter 1:  Diagon Alley

Disclaimer: Anything or anyone you recognize belongs to the wonderful author J.K. Rowling.  Anything or anyone you don't recognize is mine.

Lily Evans' last stop at Diagon Alley was Ollivander's.  By her standards, your wand was your most important piece of equipment as a witch or wizard.  That thought was still amazing to her.  She was about to become a witch.  Dragging her parents behind her, she entered the shop to see four boys trying out wands. 

One of the boys who had untidy black hair, round glasses and chocolate brown eyes seemed to just have found himself a wand.  He hurriedly paid for it and was waiting for his friends by the window, when he noticed Lily and her parents standing in the doorway.  "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" he said, catching his friends' attention.  Lily turned to her parents and asked, "Could I stay behind if you two go back to the Leaky Cauldron?"  Her parents knew that Lily could take care of herself in the presence of danger, so they agreed to go back to the rundown "hotel" called the Leaky Cauldron.

When Lily turned back to the four boys, she found that, instead of the looks she got from bullies and Petunia, her sister, they had friendly looks plastered to their faces.  "Hello!" said another with black hair, though this one was quite a bit more tidy and longer than the other. 

"James, would you mind introducing us to this lovely lady?"  Lily blushed at these words, and the one called James sent him something that Lily could only call a death glare.  "Sirius, I don't even know her.  I just turned around and she was standing in the doorway," James told his friend. 

"Let me see," Lily interrupted, catching everyone's attention.  "Acting and fighting like brothers, I'd say that you two have been best friends since you were born." 

Sirius and James looked utterly surprised, as did the one with blonde hair, but the fourth one seemed peculiarly calm. 

"Now if you don't mind, I need to get my wand," Lily said in a tone that highly suggested that being sidetracked was not a part of her plans and she didn't appreciate having to add another thing to them. 

The four boys walked out of the shop and it didn't take Lily long to find a wand of her own.  When she came back outside, the same four boys were waiting for her. 

"Well, that's a record.  Lily Evans found her wand in less than five minutes," said the calm one. 

"How did you know my name?" she asked, astounded. 

"I have my ways," he told her. 

"And what might your names be?" she asked, slightly annoyed that they hadn't introduced themselves properly. 

"Sorry," the blonde one apologized.  "I'm Peter Pettirgrew." 

"James Potter," said the one with the glasses. 

"Remus Lupin."  

"And Sirius Black, all four Marauders at your service," Sirius said with a low bow that made Lily giggle. 

"I always wanted at least one friend, but this is much better," Lily said excitedly.  James looked extremely surprised. 

"You mean to say that you haven't had a single friend in all the eleven years you've been alive?" he asked. 

"No," she replied, looking slightly embarrassed and extremely sad as she realized that she had not, in fact, ever had a single friend in her entire life. 

"Don't you have any siblings?" asked Remus. 

"I have one older sister but she calls me a….,"  As she trailed off, the others seemed to get the point and didn't ask what exactly it had been that Petunia had called Lily. 

"You want to go to that joke shop over there?" asked Sirius suddenly, pointing at an interesting looking building. 

"Sure, why not," said Lily, slightly puzzled. 

"We have a group we call the Marauders.  We go around wherever we're staying and pull pranks on people.  I'll expect that the teachers will call us trouble makers, but we call ourselves pranksters," James explained, taking in Lily's puzzled expression. 

"Wait!" she called to Sirius suddenly.  He turned around, and she ran to catch up with him.  "Would you mind if we made it the five Marauders?" she asked hopefully.  'I love to pull pranks on people.  It's my number one priority at school ,and my parents don't really care if I get into trouble, since Petunia always……."  Lily caught herself before she finished what she was saying.  She didn't think that having these four know about her private life was a good idea.  The other three Marauders stopped in their tracks. 

"Are you meaning to say that you want to join us as a ……………. Marauder?" asked James, slightly cautious about letting anyone who wasn't supposed to be listening from hearing. 

"Yes," Lily replied firmly.

"Sure.  Why not," answered Sirius, the Marauders having come to a silent agreement to let Lily join their group.  

"Ah, look what we have here, Lucius," said a drawling voice from behind Peter, who was tagging along behind the other four Marauders. 

"Yes, Severus, I see that it looks like Potter's found himself a girlfriend," replied another drawling voice.  Sirius gave James a look that obviously said 'Ignore it', but James paid no attention to him.  He whirled around to face a greasy haired boy, with his blonde haired companion. 

"And I expect that you haven't found one yourself, Malfoy," he replied calmly. 

The other boy moved himself so he could get a better view of Lily.  "Ah, Lucius, it's the Mudblood student."  At that, four wands were pointing at the two boys in front of Lily, and she could tell that the Marauders were boiling with rage. 

"If I hear you say that again, I'll tear you to pieces with my bare hands if I have to," Sirius said in calm voice, though his face was anything but calm. 

Suddenly, two people came hurrying over with worried expressions on their faces.  As soon as they took a look at Lily's stunned face and the looks of rage on the Marauders' faces, two more wands were on Malfoy and the other boy.

"What did you do this time, Snape?" asked the girl in a calm voice. 

"Just talking to Potter and his Mudblood girlfriend," replied Snape.  Suddenly, five more wands were pointing at the two boys. 

At last, Lily drew her wand and trained it on Snape.  The troublemakers were in more trouble than they could handle, with twelve wands pointed at them and the scene drawing attention from passersby.  They had no choice but to give in, which was just what they did. 

Once everyone but James, Sirius and Remus had calmed down, Lily asked something that had been nagging at her ever since Snape had said it.  "What's a Mudblood?" she asked. 

"A nasty term for someone who has Muggle parents.  It means 'dirty-blood'.  Malfoy always liked using that name for Muggle-borns," James explained, though he was still in a rage. 

Lily suddenly let out a small groan. 

"What?" asked Remus, who had just recently calmed himself down. 

"I have to go back home tomorrow.  I have to deal with Petunia again," she reminded him. 

"Why don't you come stay with us at my house?"  James suddenly exclaimed. 

"Us?" asked Lily. 

"Peter, Remus and I are all staying with James' family for the summer," Sirius explained. 

"So, how about it?" asked James hopefully. 

"I'd love to go, but I'll have to ask mum and dad about it before I can, and, shouldn't you ask your parents, too?"  Lily asked uncertainly. 

"Oh, Mum won't mind at all.  She'd love to have another girl around." 

"Another?  James, why don't you fill me in on everything that's going on at your house," Lily suggested. 

"Oh, alright.  We have some other girls staying at the house, but they barely talk to anyone.  They seem to be avoiding everyone for some reason."  He looked up suddenly and let out a small gasp. 

"Cassie, Cathie, what are you two doing out of the house?  Mum said she would get your stuff for you."  One of the girls with blonde hair looked up suddenly and looked just as shocked as James. 

"Oh yeah, you don't know.  Mrs. Potter told us to trail you, just to make sure you didn't get into any trouble." 

James muttered something that sounded an awful lot like 'Mother's', then turned to the others.  "Would you guys mind introducing yourselves, I need to talk with the rest of the Marauders." 

Lily noticed that he suddenly seemed like he didn't care if they heard him say Marauders. 

He nodded to Sirius, Remus, and Peter who got up and followed him. 

"I'm Cassie Phillips and this is my twin sister Cathie," explained one of the girls who had knee-length brown hair. 

"I'm Molly Dwards and this is my boyfriend, Arthur Weasley.  We both lost our parents and were kindly accepted into the Potter home," explained the redheaded girl, pointing to the redheaded boy sitting next to her. 

"I'm Mioni Patil and this is my twin brother Mark and his girlfriend Mary Pavile," said a girl whose hair was obviously floor-length but pulled into a braided bun at the back of her neck. 

"Molly, Arthur, Mark, Mary and I are all in Gryfinndor House at Hogwarts, and I'm the Quidditch team captain.  We have every player but one for a new team at the beginning of the year.  You do know what Quidditch is, don't you?" asked Mioni. 

James, seeing that the introductions were over, pulled the Marauders back over to the street and said, "We might as well explain ourselves on the way back to the Leaky Cauldron."  Everybody looked at him, puzzled, and Mioni gave him a death glare, obviously displeased that she had been interrupted in a conversation with a possible future quidditch player, but he let his eyes wander to Cassie and Cathie, then to a cat and an owl.  The other's seemed to understand now, and Mioni's expression softened, but Lily was completely stumped as to what they were up to. 

"Best be that we explain in the Leaky Cauldron, in Mioni and Mark's bedroom, in privacy, because we're still illegal you-know-what's," Cathie exclaimed.