Sorry for the long wait. Had most of this written yet again but Robotics took up a lot more time than I expected. So I won't have you wait any more…

Disclaimer: Don't own them…

The Beginning

"James!" Mrs. Potter's voice rang through the house. It was eight in the morning on September the 1st. The Potter house and Black house next door was in complete chaos. Sitting by the fireplace was James and Tom's trunks.

"Look out!" Mrs. Black called to her husband as he and Mr. Potter carried Talia's trunk into the room. Another one of the young mischief-maker pranks had gone horribly wrong in the Black fireplace the other day.

"Dad?" Tom looked over the banister at the two men.

"What?" He grunted.

"Why aren't you using a levitation charm?"

"Because they wouldn't listen to me." Tal called up as she walked in. "Mum, have you seen Siri?"

"No dear. Isn't he upstairs with James?"

"Uhhhh…" Tom looked down the hall at the pile of stuff in the hall. Turning his head o look at the other room in their various states of emptiness. "Nope, they aren't up here."

"James!" Mrs. Potter called again from the back of the house. "Where is that boy?"

"Did you check downstairs?" Mr. Potter called as he rested on the couch while Mr. Black went to retrieve Sirius's trunk.

"That's where I was going to check next."

Mrs. Potter stepped down to the basement and their private Laboratory. "I can't believe how much we still need to pack. James! Sirius!"

A small scuffle drew her attention to the potion stock. "James!"

"Uhh… yeah, mum?"

"Is Sirius over there with you?"

"Nope." Sirius called out. "Ouch!"

"Idiot."

"What are you two doing down here?" She looked at the two suspiciously

"Pentangle came down here. We were trying to get her back upstairs."

"For a whole hour?"

"It's hard to find a black cat in the dark." James said innocently as they followed his mum up to the main level. James carrying a small backpack and Sirius keeping a tight hold to his cat.

"Hurry up James. You have to bring Lea down with all her stuff. And Tal is looking for you Sirius."

It was two hours later that all of them were assembled at King's Cross Station on Platform 9 3/4 . Tom as his father had just put away his trunk and the others were saying good-bye.

Well that's what most of them were trying to do. James and Sirius were more interested in making an escape away from their mums.

"Now Emily, you'll smother them." Mr. Black warned as he attempted to pry apart mother and son. Next to them Mrs. Potter was having a few last words with her youngest child.

"Be a good boy, pay attention in class, do all your work, eat properly, and NO Pranks!"

"Mum." James gave her a pointed look.

"Dear, do you remember which son you're talking to?" Mr. Potter asked as he walked back throwing an arm around his wife.

"What she means is you can cause as much trouble as you want as long as no one is hurt as we don't get more that one owl from the school a week." He winked at his son as his wife turned to glare at him.

"William!"

"What?"

"Minister of Magic or not I don't want you putting any more ideas into his head." Turning to talk to Tom she muttered to herself. "Goodness knows he has enough there as it is."

Backing away slowly James turned to his best friend who had just gotten free of his mum. Grabbing their animals they snuck aboard the train waving a silent good-bye to their dads as they left. Once aboard the Hogwarts Express they started to walk down the corridor, looking for an empty compartment.

Rolling their eyes at some snide remarks they got from some Slytherins they kept on searching until they found a familiar face.

"Lily!" Sirius bounded up to the red-head.

"Sirius!" She spun around, her long hair accidentally hitting the boy she was talking to.

"Surprised to see us?" James asked.

"I was just looking for you."

"Really?" Sirius started to jump up and down for no reason.

"Yah. Oh this is Remus." Lily motioned to the sandy haired boy behind her.

"Pleasure." He said politely inclining his head. "So I guess I'll see you around, Lily?"

"If you don't have to be any where why don't you stay with us?" Sirius asked cocking his head.

"Oh. No. I don't want to intrude. I hardly know you and…"

"Intrude? Nonsense. The more the merrier." Lily grabbed his arm and started pulling him along following James and Sirius .

"Let's find a place to sit and we can have formal introductions." James said looking back.

The group found an empty compartment about halfway down the train. Sitting down the final whistle blew. Opening their window they waved bye to their families. Once the platform was out of sight they all sat back down and looked at each other.

"So Remus, how did you meet our fair Lily?" Sirius asked

"He showed me how to get on the platform." Lily answered for the quiet boy.

"Yes my father's trying to see if there's a way to put instructions for all the muggle borns to see how to get on to the platform." James said opening his backpack for something. His eyes widened for a second before he shot a grin at Sirius across form him. Reaching further into the pack he started rummaging around in it

"What department of the ministry does you dad work in?" Remus asked timidly.

"Department… Ummm…Well… he…hmmm…." James tilted his head up thinking.

"Don't you know?"

"Well I know what his title is but I'm not really sure what department he belongs in. It's rather complicated."

"Well what dose he do?"

"Oh he's the Minister of Magic." James answered simply finally pulling out a carton of Everyflavor Beans he had been looking for. "I'm James Potter by the way and this idiot is Sirius Black." He inclined his head toward the young Black who had turned toward the window and was making faced at the cows speeding by.

"Remus Lupin. Is he alright?" The boy asked watching Sirius stick out his tongue and squint his eyes a few times.

"Yah he's fine. Don't mind him." James replied as he inspected several beans and put them all in his mouth. He pulled a face before swallowing.

"Sirius, note that grass is not a good replacement for apple."

"Got it James." Sirius saluted him before pulling a notebook from on of his pockets and writing it down.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked curiously as James picked out several more beans. "What are those?"

James looked up and swallowed the new combination. Scowling he grabbed the notebook out of Sirius's hand and jotted something down.

"These are Everyflavor Beans Lils."

"Yah and they mean every flavor." Sirius imputed

"You mean like they have carrots and chicken?"

"Yep. And stuff that's even worse. We're now trying to figure out if you eat more than one flavor what you get." Sirius said grabbing some from James's hand. Choosing three he popped them into his mouth chewed a bit and smiled swallowing.

"What did you get?" Remus asked curiously

"Chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla." He replied smugly. James stuck his tongue out at him.

"You always get the good ones."

"What can you say? I'm naturally gifted."

"Let me try."

"Here, Lily take your pick." Taking two that looked semi-normal the girl put them in her mouth.

"Well…?" James asked.

"Peanut and Jelly." James groaned.

"Beginners luck. You wanna try." He offered some beans to Remus.

"OK." He hesitantly reached out and took four.

"Ohh, daring." Sirius grinned at him.

"Cheese, pasta, tomato, and…" He chewed a bit and smiled. "Ground beef."

"That's like a perfect lasagna." Lily said gleefully. James grumbled while writing the combos down. Sirius just laughed at him.

They continued this for a bit. James left tasting to the other three while he wrote down all the combination, occasionally eating a chocolate frog. They stocked up on more beans and other sweets when the snack cart came around.

It was in a testing pause when Remus looked at the other two boys.

"Did you really turn the Wizengamot pink?'

"Well I'd call it lavender but yah." James said taking a bean from Sirius and nibbling on the end of it and pulling a face. "Grease"

"What's a Wizengamot?" Lily asked scrunching up her nose at James's bean.

"It's like a court for wizards. They take care of all the major trials and stuff. James's dad's the head and has them over for important stuff a lot. Mostly a bunch of old sticks in the mud. Though there is one or two that'll enjoy a good prank."

"Speaking of pranks should we start off this year with a bang or let them wait a bit?" James looked at Sirius. "We need something that'll have them remember us if we do."

"Hmmmmm…." Sirius looked around in thought.

"Well I have this prank book…." Remus started. The two black haired boys looked over at him eyes wide. "Of course I don't want to intrude… It's your prank."

"You can't keep a prank book all to yourself." Sirius wined

"We asked you here didn't we? Now tell us what you had in mind." James insisted.

"Well," Remus looked through his bag that he had next to him. "I found this book in my attic. It has some really interesting things mentioned. It's kinda old but the results look amusing."

"Let's see it." Sirius said leaning closer as the boy opened the book.

"Come on Lily. You can help to." James pulled the girl closer to the book.

"Let this be your crash course on magical pranking." Sirius smiled.

And with that the three boys and girl started to plan their first prank on Hogwarts. If only those professors knew what they were getting themselves into this year.

THE END… or shall we say it's just THE BEGINING

Done. My 2nd fic I've ever finished. Not exactly what I was planning but it'll do. I've decided I am making the sequel. Though I might not be able to start it for a while I have so many fics going and not enough time to write. Any way while you're waiting I also have a canon version of the Marauders years if you would like to check that out. The two will be different don't worry though.

And if any of you care about when I update any of my fics you can come and bug me in my livejournal. The link's in my bio… who knows I might even be posting spoilers for what's to come there and I'm always looking for new ideas.

Don't forget to leave a review.