Just Kids

A Marauders Fic

Summary

Their lives will shape the fate of the world, magic and muggle. They will help drive back the darkness, their names will be known to everyone, they will be loved and hated in turn. Not quite yet though, right now…they're just kids.

Disclaimer

You are gullible if you believe the following:

That the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary.

&

That I am our beloved JKR. I'm not, I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in them. I am not making any money out of this so please don't sue. Since I don't have much money you wouldn't get much out of me anyway.

Authors Note

I have finally got this chapter out I can't believe that it took me two months, it's awful. In my defence I have to say that a) I had the dreaded disease writers block, you would not believe how much trouble this chapter and the next one was to write and b) I didn't have enough reviews to get me out of my summer holiday haze.

Anyway this is the chapter when MWPP finally get to Hogwarts, I am sure you are all saying things along the lines of "Good grief it took her four chapters, JKR only took one.", what can I say she only had one character, I had to herd all four of them and believe me it takes some doing.

There are quite a lot of OC's in this chapter and the next but hopefully no Mary Sue's have slipped past my net. Enjoy.

It Takes All Sorts

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here." A man stood in the middle of the dark, wet platform holding a lantern bigger than Remus' head with a hand the size of his mum's turkey platter. The man was, big, huge would have been a better word, he dwarfed every one else on the platform, especially the rather nervous looking group of first years that had already answered his call and were now clustered round him waiting for instructions.

Remus, fighting against the tide of older students going the other way, was glad of a point to steer for, Peter, the small boy he had rescued from the slimy haired kid wasn't so sure.

"He looks fierce."

"We are on a crowded platform he is not going to eat us."

" Hurry up there!" the big man bearded face turned to them "C'mon, follow me - anymore firs'-years? Firs'-years follow me!"

He led them down a very steep and narrow path that twisted and turned through a dense evergreen forest, it was unusually quiet, the only sound was the crunch of feet on pebbles and the mutterings of those unfortunate enough to miss their step.

They turned a particularly sharp bend in the road and suddenly there it was, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the most magnificent sight Remus had ever seen. It seemed to float on the cloud of mist that covered the lake like a blanket, the castle was covered in a million tiny lights, as though it's towers and spires had scraped the stars from the sky, the radiance illuminated the lake making the mist glow.

Their procession came to a halt at the sight, Remus was awe-struck and he wasn't the only one, the whole group seemed stunned. Peter let out a squeak of excitement, a boy with a fringe that his mother obviously thought was cute sat down and he heard the girl behind whisper, "We get to live in that!".

Their leader however hadn't stopped, he called them down to the shore where a small fleet of boats awaited them.

"No more'n four to a boat! An no funny business, yeh don' want a detention before yeh even get t' Hogwarts."

For some reason the two black-haired boys at the front found this funny, they snickered and elbowed each other in the ribs, much to the disgust of a girl with auburn curls who sniffed and chose a boat as far away from them as possible.

Remus didn't particularly want to share with them either, the memory of waking up to their curious faces and his mad dash for the door when they started questioning him was burned on to his brain with a brand of intense horror and embarrassment. The fact that during his top speed exit of the carriage he had knocked over the boy who had been going to curse Peter made him feel only slightly better about the whole affair.

Peter was edging towards the boys boat, obviously hoping to be asked in, but he followed Remus with only a few backward glances when he headed towards the end boat containing the redhead and her friend, a girl with bobbed chestnut hair who looked vaguely familiar.

The boats were loaded up without to much fussing about, the only delay was when four boys tried to crowd into a boat that already contained a white faced girl with thick black hair and a regal demeanour. This resulted in a small scuffle and the smallest boy being sent to a nearby boat, the girl didn't seem at all concerned or surprised she seemed to except this as her due and the only sign that she even noticed this attention was a very small smile of absolute smugness.

"Everyone in?" their giant of a leader had squeezed himself into the front boat "Right then - FORWARD!"

As the boats gilded forward the gleaming mist engulfed them making it almost impossible for Remus to see his companions, let alone the other boats. The fog muffled all sound making him feel as though they were lost, cut off from the world around them, stuck forever in this eerie world of white. Of course the sensible part of his mind told him that the boats were kept together by magic and their inner compasses were unlikely to be confused by a bit of mist. Unfortunately the more credulous brain cells did not want to listen and instead were insisting that they were lost forever.

"Are you OK?"

Something of this internal struggle must have shown on his face the girl with auburn curls had lent forward to check on him .

"Fine, I'm fine." Remus stuttered, she looked sceptical but no more questions were asked.

Suddenly a wall of ivy loomed up out of the mist, it was right in front of them and for a second Remus was sure that they were going to crash but when a cry of "Heads down!" came from up ahead, he saw that the ivy hid a break in the cliffs face that the little boats could pass through. The cleft became a long tunnel that eventually opened up into a sort of underground harbour. The boats beached themselves easily and everyone clambered out, the giant like man gave each boat a swift search revealing someone's old quill and a chocolate frog card. The quill wasn't claimed but the card was eagerly seized by a gangling boy with bulging eyes who muttered something about it being "one of a kind".

"He's deluding himself," said the other girl from his boat "I've got at least five of Agrippa."

"That's a chocolate frog card?" the small red head asked, she was probably a Muggle born, he couldn't imagine someone from a magical family not knowing that sort of thing.

"Yep, apparently quite rare in the land of the Pom's. I'm intending to make some very profitable deals with mine, add some British cards to my collection."

She probably continued but at that point they came to the end of the tunnel and in the squash to get onto the lawn Remus lost sight of them.

The blanket of mist over the lake had grow and spilled out to cover the grounds the first years were led through a cloud that only reached up to their ankles. It was very disconcerting for Remus, not being able to see his feet or the ground as he walked increased the likelihood of tripping over unseen objects lying in his way. Fortunately the grass was well kept and obstacle free they reached the huge front doors with no mishaps.

"Everyone here?"

The huge man turned and knocked on the doors three times with his enormous fist.