Hey, I hope you enjoy this story! It's been in my head for over two years , and I finally decided to write it !Please please please review, but no flames!

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter and Marauder world belongs to J.K. Rowling and her affiliates (sadly T.T). The other characters belong to me.

Ch. 1 - Departure

A rude awakening met her in the morning.

"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU TO GET UP!?!?!"

Someone shook her slightly. She opened her eyes and saw an outline of a person standing next to her bed.

"Anna?" she mumbled, her vision blurred from sleep. "What's wrong?"

She sat upright in her bed. She rubbed her eyes and saw Anna with her hands on her hips.

"What's wrong?! I've been trying to wake you up for the last five minutes!!! Geez, you're a heavy sleeper!"

She saw Anna's dainty face, now twisted with annoyance and anger. She didn't understand why she needed to get up.

"Er… Anna? What's going on? Why'd you wake me?"

Anna rolled her eyes.

"Hooooggwwaarts," she said slowly, as though talking to someone from another country. She quickened her pace, "Even I remember, and I'm not the one going." There was bitterness in her voice.

"Oh!"

She leapt out of bed, already dressed in her Hogwarts robes. How could she have forgotten?

"I think you're too anxious. We need to be dressed as Muggles, remember?"

"Oh yeah…"

She grinned sheepishly and rushed to her wardrobe. She tapped the right door, a giant mirror bordered with pure gold. It slid open and revealed a small, empty closet.

She said to it, "Muggle clothes, please."

Instantly the wardrobe obeyed and turned into a huge room with rows and rows of clothes.

She tapped the door again, and the room turned into the small closet again with a slight whoosh. But instead of being empty, a solitary hanger hung on the rod, carrying a pair of jeans, a blue t-shirt, and a red fisherman's hat.

"I was hoping that you'd learn," Anna sighed exasperatedly, "that hat clashes with your hair, but… I should have known that you're hopeless."

The girl took down the hanger, gave a sharp glance to her cousin (at which she rolled her eyes again and turned away), and quickly changed.

She had no sooner hung her robes on the hanger when an annoyed voice called up the stairs.

"Can't you come down yet? We'll be late!"

"Coming!" the two girls answered together.

They ran out the bedroom door.

---

Anna and her cousin rushed down the long hallway outside, not even glancing at the numerous portraits telling them not to run. They reached the end of the hallway and burst into the entrance hall. Anna ran down the long red rug lining the middle of the gigantic marble staircase that met them, while her cousin immediately jumped onto the golden banister and slid down. She waved at her parents and her aunt and uncle, who all wore faces of relief that they had come at last.

A small house elf wearing a clean, embroidered robe rushed to her and squeezed her tightly. She smiled and hugged her back.

"What took so long?" asked her mother.

"Aw, Mom, I just overslept. You know my sleeping habits."

Anna let out a scornful snort in the background.

"Now that everyone's here," her father said, apparently ignoring Anna's remark, "let's go!"

Everyone nodded as he held out a cracked baby rattle. He and her uncle held her trunk tighter in their hands.

"The Ministry gave this to me," he said. "On the count of three, one…" -everyone put their hand on the toy- "two… three!"

Her body jerked forward, and her knees buckled. Aurora Sky had arrived at King's Cross.