Disclaimer- I don't own anything that's J.K.'s
7 am came way too soon for the eight students. Luckily only Cad and Lily had stuff to gather. The others just helped in the madness. It was a miracle that they reached the train station in time. Cad said a rushed goodbye to her parents and followed her friends though the barrier that led to Platform 9 3/4. Once seated, the group just started laughing. They couldn't help it. They were on their way to Hogwarts, the place where they were all happiest. For about an hour, they sat around just talking. Lily forgot to be mad at James, James forgot to hunt Lily, and they all forgot about the pressures of the outside world. Eventually the thrill wore off, and Remus and Lily had to go to the prefect's compartment. Sirius and Taylor had gone over to a corner of their own, and Peter and Blair were engaged in conversation.
James and Cad had gotten into a heated debate over the first prank the boys should pull. Cad was winning when all of a sudden the compartment door opened. James did a double take, out of the corner of his eye the girl looked like Lily. She had hair like Lily's, eyes like Lily's, but upon closer inspection she obviously was not Lily. She was several inches taller, and had a frown on her face, where as Lily's smile was unmatched.
"Excuse me. Am I interrupting something?" Sirius and Taylor walked over to where James and Cad were sitting. "Um...no." James blurted out. "Hi. I'm James." Once he had introduced all of his friends the mystery girl introduced herself. "I'm Reese. I'm-" "You mean like the muggle candy?" Sirius cut her off. She glared at Sirius before finally answering sarcastically, "Ah. That never gets old." Everyone in the room was a bit impressed at how she stood up to Sirius. "And like I was saying," She sent Sirius a look to kill, "I'm new here. Going into my sixth year." "Oh. Wow us too." Cad ushered her to sit down across from her. Reese ignored her and sat rather closely to James. Cad gave the girl a look of her own before going to find Remus. As she left she could hear Reese, "So James, tell me about Hogwarts..." It was the fastest she had ever seen anyone latch on to him.
Cad wandered the train before finally getting to Remus. He and Lily were sitting in the prefect's compartment looking extremely bored. "Why are you guys still over here?" Cad asked as she sat down next to Remus. "Can't leave." Lily made a face. "Probably for the best anyway." Cad started. "There's this new girl hitting on James. I don't think I'll like her much." "What year is she?" Remus finally took interest. "Same as us. Aren't we lucky?" Cad answered sarcastically. Remus laughed, "Why don't you like her?" Cad went on to explain, "I don't know. It's just a gut feeling." The three sat and talked for the duration of the trip.
As they entered the great hall, Remus couldn't help but feel safe. He knew it was naive, but he felt that nothing bad could happen at Hogwarts. Where Dumbledore was was the safest place to be. "C'mon Rem," Cad pulled him out of his thoughts and over to the Gryffindor table. They watched the sorting of the first years without much thought, but were called to attention when a tall red head approached the chair. "Reilly, Reese!" Cad gasped and covered her mouth, only Lily noticed though. Cad mouthed "Reilly." to Lily and Lily's mouth dropped. "Gryffindor!" The sorting hat yelled. Cad groaned, but clapped along with the rest of the table.
After the tables had calmed down, Dumbledore stood. The whole room froze. Dumbledore always gave a speech, but this year was different. Everyone was waiting for him to address the issues going on, waiting for him to tell them what to think. "I would like to welcome you all to a new year at Hogwarts." His voice sounded strained, as if he had aged tremendously over the summer. "There are a few issues I would like to mention." The entire room seemed to hold its breath. "The Forbidden Forest is, as always, out of bounds...." Dumbledore gave the same list of rules he did every year. The same list of rules the Marauders broke every year. Everyone was stunned when at the end he returned to his seat. This was the man who was supposed to tell them what to do, how to think, and he said nothing.
When the meal began everyone was a bit quiet. "Why did you transfer to Hogwarts?" Cad said to Reese, who was seated next to James, out of nowhere. "My family moved to England, and they wanted me closer." She answered haughtily. "Why?" Cad asked. "Why what?" Reese answered a bit rudely. "Why did your family move to England?" Reese's face brightened up, she obviously liked talking about herself. "My father is the head of a very important interest group that has moved its noble efforts to England." "Which group?" Sirius asked, catching on, before Cad had a chance. "R.A.W." she answered nonchalantly. Cad felt Remus tense up, but didn't know why. The four Marauders all quickly caught each other's eyes.
"You know, I am stuffed." Sirius said as he started to get up. "Wow, usually you're the last to leave." Cad said. "Me too." Remus, Peter, and James all followed suit. They quickly exited the great hall, much to the confusion to the rest of the group. Remus said the password {valerio} and the four boys went straight to their dormitory. "How can they let her go here?" Sirius growled. "Look we don't know that she's like her father." James spoke up. "How can you stick up for her? She called his work "noble"!" Sirius yelled back. "What am I going to do? She'll figure it out," Remus said shakily. "Dumbledore won't let anything happen." James said trying to comfort his friend. The words had the opposite effect of him and he jumped up, "Dumbledore! He didn't even say anything! There are bigger things going on in the world," he dropped his voice, "he can't focus on me."
"We just have to stay away from her." Sirius suggested. "No we can't do that." James answered. "And why not?" Peter got in on the debate. "She'll suspect something." The rest of the group nodded. "Then we just have to be careful." Sirius concluded. All four jumped when they heard at knock at the door. Cad entered, "Hey are you guys all right?" "Oh, yeah, just tired that's all." James covered. "Oh. 'night then." Cad said. They could tell she didn't believe them. "Cad wait." Remus followed her. The two stopped on the stairs outside the door. "We're okay, really." The last thing he wanted was for her to worry. "I sure hope so." Cad sank into his arms. She started down the stairs, but he grabbed her wrist. She looked up as he pulled her towards him. He kissed her, and then whispered "good night." She smiled, "good night, Remus."
Cad headed to her own dormitory in her own little world. She really liked Remus, but she couldn't help but think that he was keeping something from her. She entered the room that she shared with her three best friends, and now Reese. The girls were all talking, mostly about classes. Cad sat on her bed and joined in. After a while Reese picked a new topic, "What about James Potter?" Cad was used to hearing conversations about the much sought after Marauder, but was still a little surprised that Reese was talking about him. "What about him?" Cad blurted out. "I don't know, just tell me about him." Reese answered. "I don't really know that much." Cad lied. Unfortunately Blair can't take a hint and said, "What! You probably know the most; you only dated him for like a year!" Cad was forced to talk about every little detail involving James until late in the night. "And now I'm with his friend, and am going to bed!" She concluded a bit annoyed. Her answers seemed to satisfy Reese though, because she too, went to sleep.
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The girls were awoken cruelly by the magical alarm clock. And so the fight for the shower began. By the time each girl was ready to go they only had five minutes to get to the Great Hall. The boys didn't have a problem, they had all gone to bed fairly early, and were ready quite early. Everyone had a few pieces of toast and began to compare schedules. Cad was surprised to see that she and Remus had taken the exact same classes. She looked up, "Auror?" He nodded. "Me too." She smiled. James and Sirius had the same classes as them, except that they had divination when they had Care of magical Creatures and vice versa. "So what do we have first?" Sirius asked James, he didn't have to look at his schedule, he knew they always had the same classes. "Um, Transfiguration." James answered. "Better go then." And with that, Cad, Remus, James, Sirius, and Blair headed toward class.
"This class should not be taken lightly." McGonagall started with a beginning of the year speech. "This is not a regular class, and if you fall behind you will be removed. Understood?" The entire class nodded. "All right then, partner up and we'll begin." They spent the class reviewing several things they had had the previous year. James and Sirius were quite skilled at Transfiguration, and had no trouble with anything they were assigned. Cad and Remus also did well. They found, unsurprisingly, that they made a good team. The class in general was rather uneventful, until the end.
"Let me do it!" Sirius whispered to James. James nodded. Cad and Remus turned around. Snape was working hard on transfiguring his rat into a plate. "Transpario" Sirius whispered. Everyone in the room burst out laughing. Snape's robes had become transparent. Professor McGonagall looked up anxiously. "Opagium" she said almost lazily. The class grew silent, with the exceptions of several snickers from Cad and Remus. "Mr. Potter! Mr. Black! Detention both of you!" James gave Sirius a look and the two didn't even try to deny that the spell had been their working. "Miss Woods! Mr. Lupin! Is something funny?" "No, professor." Cad answered. "You two can join your friends in detention." The professor said angrily. "Sorry, professor." Remus said still trying to hold back laughter. After getting their directions for their detentions, the four headed toward their next class. "James, James, James, I have one class with you and I already have a detention." Cad said jokingly. "Hey it was your spell!" James said as he started laughing again. Snape rushed past angrily, and they all burst into laughter again. Even with the detentions it had been a good start to the year.
A/N- hey I hope you liked the chapter. I should update soon. Please review!!! Oh! I know that there's a lot of Max hating, but I promise Max-the-muggle play a good part later on!