Author gives a mighty "Harrumph." That's all she has to say for today.....excepting, of course....

JK Rowling...she owns Harry Potter...she owns his friends, his enemies, his acquaintances, his teachers, people who he passes on the street, and yes, even his parents and their friends. And I, as sorry as it makes me, am not JK Rowling. So I don't own any of it. So don't sue me.

Chapter 4, A Test of Endurance:

Lily made it to Kings Cross on time, of course. She always did. Waving aside, the cab driver's offers to assist her, Lily grabbed her trunk, heavy with books, and lugged it into the bustling station.

Suddenly, "Lily! You're here! Finally!" With that, Lily felt a thump and nearly fell over as her oldest and closest friend grabbed her in a hug.

"Hey, Sara," Lily replied, out of breath. "Glad you're still alive and well."

Sara grimaced. "Hey, Lils, you know I miss you every summer. You didn't have to listen to your sister swooning over a certain Mr. Sirius Black the whole time. I on the other hand," Sara adopted a long-suffering tone, "I had to endure Jemma's prattling for TWO WEEKS on vacation in the states. What a bore."

"You suffered My family doesn't know the first thing about magic. And Petunia's more of a bore than Jemma'll ever be."

The two girls glowered at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter. It was a skit they acted out every year, Sara complaining about her pure-blood family, Lily about her muggle one.

"Awww, speak of the devil," Sara sighed she spotted her sister weaving through the crowd of muggles.

"Hi Lily," Jemma said, smiling at her sister's friend. "You two ought to get onto the platform, train leaves in ten minutes." She swished her straight blonde hair, exactly identical to Sara's own, and started to walk away, baby blue eyes darting through the crowd searching for her own friends.

"I. Hate. Twins," Sara complained, picking up her own trunk from where she'd left it, and following Lily towards platform 10. "Especially pretty, annoying, popular ones."

Lily laughed, glad to be back with someone who understood her. "You two are identical, Sara, honey, you're BOTH drop-dead-gorgeous. And anyway, I like your sister."

"Only because you don't have to put up with her." But Sara didn't complain any more, truth be told, she didn't mind her sister that much either.

Getting on to Platform 9 and ¾ was habit, and for once it was surprisingly easy to find a compartment. Of course, the girls didn't see the other two trunks already in there. Oops, Lily thought suddenly, I almost forgot about the prefects' meeting. Some first impression that would be, not turning up to my first ever meeting. So Lily made her excuses, and started towards the front compartment.

By the time she arrived, it was eleven o'clock, and the train had begun its meandering journey towards Hogwarts. Truth to tell, Lily was very nearly late; the new head girl was beginning to speak as Lily hurried into the compartment.

With a sigh, the head girl, a seventh year by the name of Celia Bones turned to face Lily. "You're from Gryffindor, right?" Celia queried.

Lily nodded, completely tongue-tied.

"Alright then try not to be late next time. I don't want to have to yell at someone from my own house."

"Of course not," Lily murmured, embarrassed.

"Well," Celia prompted, go ahead and take a seat next to the other fifth year Gryffindor prefect." She gestured at the empty spot in the compartment, and Lily hurried to take her seat.

"Alright then," Celia began again "Now that we're all here, I'd like to keep it fairly short. Those of you who've done this before, this is going to be just like past years. Geoffrey Macmillan," Celia gestured to the head boy, a Hufflepuff standing next to her, "and I have both been prefects since fifth year, and we know the ropes around here. During this train ride, we're asking that you patrol through the compartments every now and again just to make sure no one's making trouble. Once we get to Hogwarts, you'll be free until after the feast. Then you're required to show the first years to the dormitories, and let everyone in the house know the password. If you'll all see Geoffrey or me at the end of this meeting, we'll let you know what the current passwords are. Let's see...well, at Hogwarts you'll be expected to help teachers to keep the peace. You have the power to dock points from the houses, but please do not abuse this privilege or it may be taken away from you. We'll give you a week to settle into your new schedules, but next Monday will be the next prefect meeting, it'll be in classroom 11, at 7:00 PM. Please don't be late; we've got all sorts of great things to plan. If that's it," Celia glanced around the compartment, and seeing that no one had any questions, dismissed them.

Lily looked around her for the first time. To her great surprise, the boy sitting next to her was none other than Remus Lupin. He was a marauder, to be sure, but though Lily had never actually spoken to him, he had always seemed the least hateful of the group. Oh well, Lily thought, I hope he really is nicer because I'm going to have to talk to him now.

"Hi, I'm Lily Evans," Lily introduced herself, forcing herself to act confident.

"Remus Lupin." Remus's pale features seemed nervous, and his eyes seemed very large and grey in his wan face. "And it's nice to finally talk to you. You're the one who beat James and Sirius on the finals last year."

Lily grinned, liking Remus more and more. He didn't seem angry, or anything, that she'd been the only one to do better on the finals than two of his best friends. If nothing else, he actually seemed happy about it.

Remus confirmed Lily's thoughts with an answering grin of his own. "It's all right; sometimes they really do need to be taken down a peg or three."

The two students migrated slowly up the line towards the head boy and girl, speaking all the way. By the time they'd received the Gryffindor password ("Fwooper") (A/N: d'you guys know what a fwooper is? Read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.), they had already spoken about the weather ("too nice of a day to be stuck on a train heading back to school"), Quidditch teams (Lily was all for the Holyhead Harpies, who only accepted witches, but Remus was more of Pride of Portree kind of guy), and favorite subjects (DADA all the way). Lily was shocked to find out how much she had in common with Remus, and she was even rather upset that she'd not become friends with him earlier.

Heading back to the compartment where she'd left Sara, Lily gave a yawn. She was simply not used to getting up so early in the morning. Not that she had gotten up all that early, but the alarm clock had certainly gone off early and it had disturbed her slumber. Lily yawned again, prying open the compartment door, but an unpleasant surprise awaited within.

Thinking back a bit...

James yawned, as he stepped out of the fireplace and onto Platform 9 and ¾. Whoever had thought to add Kings Cross to the Flu Network had been pretty intelligent as far as he was concerned. But still, though the journey had taken almost no effort on his part, James was tired. Stupid friends and house elves disturbing my precious sleep, he thought, but couldn't summon up any real anger.

James sighed and followed Sirius towards a compartment, where they dumped their things, and immediately left to find friends they hadn't seen in age, an eternity, a whole two months to be exact.

They soon located Peter Pettigrew. He was short, and built a bit like a tea kettle, and not a particularly well-made one. He was round, his body thinning up to his neck, which was thin, and his chubby head was set on top like a lid. His brown eyes were small, and his mousy brown hair was uncombed. Some people questioned how someone so...unattractive could be friends with "the gods" (Sirius and James), but being a part of the marauders was deeper than looks. It was a common purpose, and it made being friends with Peter Pettigrew more than worthwhile.

Before you could blink six times, Peter and James were engrossed in a conversation about Quidditch. James was certain that the Gryffindor team would win the cup under his own skilled leadership, and Peter was leaning on his every word, and questioning James as to who would replace the beater and chaser who had graduated last year. Peter wasn't much good at Quidditch, but he was no different than any wizarding boy in his worship of the sport.

Sirius said a quick hello to his friend, and then made his excuses ("I think you're right, James, that girl we spoke about earlier is a blonde"). He then hurried back to the train compartment.

Opening the door to the compartment, Sirius was distressed to find it occupied by two girls. Normally, he wouldn't have minded a tidbit about that, he was crazy about the female gender in general, but he was trying to pull off a prank, for goodness sake. Plus, these particular girls weren't ones he would date. Sara Corner was pretty, but she was so organized all the time. And plus, she had a twin who Sirius had had his eyes on for a while now. (Hmm, maybe I'll tell James it was Jemma Corner who I was talking about this morning, Sirius thought.) The other girl was Alanna Simmons, a tall, black-haired girl with hazel eyes. She was skinny (too skinny for Sirius, if you get my meaning), and her hair was curly. Nope, not Sirius's type at all. Plus, they were two of the three girls who the marauders still saw fit to prank, due to long-standing tradition. (The other being Lily Evans, of course.)

Sirius took a deep breath, and mentally prepared himself to lie.

"What are you doing here?" Sara demanded before Sirius could even open his mouth.

"My stuff is here," Sirius insisted, deciding that the truth was preferable, for once. "And honestly, I have as much of a right to be here as you do."

"Honesty? From you, Black?" Alanna's voice was dripping with sarcasm, and Sara looked at her friend in surprise. Sara had a right to be rude, she'd had to listen to Jemma drone on about Sirius for ages over the summer, but Alanna had endured none of that.

"Yes, and honestly I need to be in here to set up a prank. For James, not you girls." And not that he wouldn't simply love to prank their polka-dotted socks off as well, but that could wait.

"Oh really?" Alanna seemed even more incensed, if that was possible. "And there I was naively thinking that you'd given up on pranks after you—argh!"

Oh, Sara thought, that's why she's so mad. At the end of last year, the marauders had stolen all of Alanna's robes and bewitched them to make them talk. For two days, Alanna had to put up with robes that sang lewd songs, spoke extensively about the weather in Transylvania, and corrected her grammar. By the end of that, she had quite understandably tried to drown Sirius's head in the toilet (the prank had been Sirius's idea). She hadn't succeeded in drowning him, but by the end of that encounter, she'd gotten in a few choice curses, and Sirius did need a shower. Toilette water generally doesn't smell quite as sweet as begonias in the morning.

Sirius sighed; Alanna was still on about that little prank? It had been funny for goodness sake, so why couldn't she just get over it already? "Oh come on girls, you don't like James any more than you like me. Just let me set a little something up for him."

The girls looked at each other, and Sirius had to fight not to sigh again. They were doing that annoying girl thing where they had conversations without speaking. He hummed for a moment, inspecting the rather dirty wall of the compartment.

"Alright, if you must," Sara finally agreed, "But if Alanna, Lily, or I get included in this prank of yours, you'll be sitting tender for the rest of the year."

Sirius gulped; smart girls could be so scary sometimes. But he had to start setting up if he wanted his evil plan to go as he had evilly planned it to go.

It was nearly 11:00, so James left Peter saying goodbye to his parents, and headed back to the compartment. He couldn't help being optimistic about the coming year. Quidditch wasn't the only thing he was looking forward to, either. He felt sure that this was the year that the marauders would really come into their prime. There was one reason for this. Animagus. The word had a nice ring to it. And James was sure this was the year, this was the time he would finally become one. Finally, Remus wouldn't have to be alone; his friends could safely keep him company as animals in ways no human could.

James remembered when he'd first found out the shape he would take as an animagus. He'd performed the spell perfectly, and he could see, in his mind's eye, something coming towards him. It was large and stately, and James could remember squinting, trying to get a better look, even knowing that it was just a vision, just a picture in his brain. When he'd finally been able to make out the magnificent stag he'd someday be able to change into at will, James had felt a shiver diffuse through his whole body. That was the day he'd first asked his friends to call him Prongs.

Still lost in the past, James pulled open the door to the compartment. Suddenly, out of thin air shot several multicolored sprays. From one direction, a purple goo came spirally towards James's face, coating it. Another spray, this one green slime, covered the left arm of James's robes. Red juice, blue liquid, yellow fluid, and orange glop came from other directions, painting James into a rather messy rainbow. He took a breath, fully planning on yelling his bloody brains out at Sirius, who had to be the foulest, most underhanded neanderthal who had ever set foot on the earth, but alas, that was his final mistake. The moment James opened his mouth, he was rewarded with the repulsive taste of pink goop, which is actually quite disgusting.

Sirius was laughing harder than he could remember doing since that prank on Alanna. "You look," he dissolved into maniacal laughter. "I can't believe how—" More laughter. "This is so bloody perfect!"

Alanna and Sara, of course, were helpless, shaking with suppressed laughter. Finally, Alanna made a sound like an erupting volcano, and exploded into laughter. Sara, of course, saw no choice but to follow suit. For 6.31 minutes, these were the only sounds to be heard; there was laughter, giggling, hilarity, mirth, amusement, and a great deal of snorting.

It was just as everyone finally got themselves under some sort of control that the compartment door opened, and Peter Pettigrew lugged in his trunk. "I couldn't find you guys anywhere," he squeaked, "I thought—"Peter caught sight of James, covered in glop, and standing in a puddle of it. "I thought..." But it was no use, the thought was gone. Peter started laughing, softly at first, but then gaining in intensity until the rest of the compartment couldn't stand it any more. They all sat down and laughed until they cried.

Eventually, James found that his cognitive functions were once again under his own control. He spit a mouthful of pink goop out of his mouth, and took another breath, this one through his nose. Unfortunately, this brought up another problem. As disgusting as the many paints felt, and as repulsive as they tasted, it seemed that they smelled even worse. "Well," James began. The laughing came to a stuttering stop as everyone waited to hear his reaction. "If I can't go into the school feeling clean, smelling decent, or tasting good, at least I'll be there in style."

Which only made everyone laugh harder.

Lily yawned, prying open the compartment door, but an unpleasant surprise awaited within. "Eww," she stated majestically. "Something smells really bad in here."

"That would be me," James replied, embarrassed to be seen (and smelt) by his rival when he was in such a delicate situation.

"I mean, worse than usual."

James rolled his eyes. "Notice anything, Evans? I'm multihued. It's not my fault I smell bad." As it happened, the pigments hadn't washed off, not even with magic.

Remus poked his head through the door behind Lily, and seemed surprised. Not surprised that James was "multihued" but surprised that the remaining marauders were in the same compartment as Lily's gang. "James, you stink."

"Thank you oh so kindly, dear friend of mine, I had no idea." James rolled his eyes again. One eye roll was worth a thousand words.

"Well," Remus said, after a pause, speaking for everyone in the compartment, "Won't this be a test of our endurance."

"Yeah."

"Ew."

"I'm gonna be sick."

"Bloody hell."

"—sucks."

Sirius grinned. "Yeah, but you guys gotta admit this is cool."

He was silenced by a hail of projectiles...

The author suddenly realizes that it's 10:30 at night and she has to be up at 5:30 tomorrow morning to take a shower and get on the bus by 6:20 so she can be in school by 7. And she's got chemistry first period. That's it, there is no god.

Anyway, this is the longest chapter, by far. Clearly. And it's my favorite. So now you've finally met the friends...tell me what you think, please, I'd love to know. And I don't think Sirius is mean, I'm sure James would be doing the same thing to Sirius, but he's just not a morning person...

Let's see, so far I've been updating every day, but I promise that won't last, especially if I'm gonna have longer chapters like this. But I'll get 'em up as fast as I can.

Reviewers:

Pinky the Snowman: Hmm, nice work on the translating...your second definition was correct. FYI TO EVERYONE: destin can mean fate, destiny, or doom. Anyway, thanks a bundle for the review, I'm glad you enjoyed James's dancing debut.

A Cute But Psycho Bunny: Harrumph....well then don't romp if it makes you happy...author stops pretending to be angry and starts grinning again...thank you for reading and reviewing though!

Next chapter, expect the start-of-term feast...possibly the first day of school, depending on the length...I'm not even sure who's POV is coming up. (By the way, do you prefer chapters with only one point of view, or many?) Anyway, you can expect chapter 5 up October 16, sometime in the AM (in my time zone, anywho). Have fun!

Questions? Comments? Compliments? Insults? Random Gibberish?

If you've got any of the above, please, I'm begging you, review for me!

Le Manchot du Destin

(What does it really mean?)