Chapter 1: The Beginning

September 1, 1972

Another school year was beginning at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Old friends met and greeted one another, hugging or shaking hands, talking very loudly and very fast, catching up on all the really important news that couldn't be sent by owl post.

"Moony!" shouted a voice over the crowd. "Moony, over here!"

Third year Remus Lupin carefully maneuvered his way through the crowd to the side of the shouter, one Sirius Black, who grinned at him and slapped him on the back, making Remus stagger slightly. "You look like hell," he said conversationally.

Remus turned his eyes upwards to the heavens.

"I know, I know, it was just a couple days ago – come on, let's get seats at the table before they all go. James! He's over here, I've got him!"

"You've got me?" repeated Remus, amused. "What am I, some kind of fish?"

"A wolf-fish... maybe, maybe."

Remus punched his friend lightly on the shoulder. Sirius shrugged it off and bowed elegantly to a passing group of second years. "Ladies," he said gallantly.

The leader of the group looked at him disdainfully. "Buzz off, Black," she said coldly. "Just because we're going to have to play together, doesn't mean I have to like you." She turned and walked away, her mutter of "Purebloods," clearly audible.

Sirius stood where he was for a moment, watching her go. "D'you ever get the feeling Freeman doesn't like me?" he asked Remus.

"Only every day, Sirius. About as often as I get the feeling Evans doesn't care much for James."

"They'll come around," said Sirius with overly hearty confidence. "And when are you going to fall for a girl, anyway? It doesn't need to be anything too major... but you ought to loosen up a little, lose your heart to somebody. At least give it a try."

Remus sighed, with an air of going over something one more time. "Sirius, you know why I can't. I could never offer a girl anything except friendship, and I shouldn't even get involved in that, because I'd be almost certain to want it to be more. And it can't ever be."

"What, just because you're – you know? Come on, Moony, it's not like it's happening every night, or you can't predict it or something! You know exactly when it's going to happen, and when you take the right precautions, nothing bad happens – to anyone else, that is," Sirius added hastily, looking at the fresh scars on his friend's arms. "Brace yourself."

Remus did so without asking why, and thus was ready for James Potter's highly impetuous greeting, and Peter Pettigrew's slightly more timid one. All happily talking to each other at once, the four boys who had already begun terrorizing the school under the name of the Marauders made their way into the entrance hall of Hogwarts.

The Marauders' fellow third year, Lily Evans, sat down at the Gryffindor table, as far from the four boys as she could without making it blindingly obvious that she was avoiding them, right next to the second year who had repulsed Sirius. "How was your summer?" she asked Aletha Freeman.

"Oh, not bad. I tried getting in touch with an old friend, but it seems she's moved, and the post office didn't have her forwarding address anymore."

"Oh, that's too bad – why didn't you send her an owl?"

Aletha laughed. "She's a Muggle, Lily! The sight of an owl on her windowsill would probably scare her silly!" Then she reconsidered. "No, it wouldn't scare her. Almost nothing scared her. Except the evil roller skates."

"The evil roller skates?" Lily repeated, laughing herself. "This I have to hear!"

The Marauders watched curiously as the line of first years came up the aisle. "I'm not quite as sorry for the Slytherins as I once was," said James.

"Why?" asked Peter.

"Lucius Malfoy's gone. Last year was his seventh."

"Nuts," Sirius groaned. "And I never turned his beautiful hair all the colors of the rainbow."

"He probably went off to join You-Know-Who," said Remus quietly, so as not to attract undue attention.

Peter shuddered. "He's crazy if he did," he said with as firm a conviction as he ever managed for anything. "Why would anyone join a lunatic who wants to kill people?"

"Good question," said James. "One my parents have been asking for years."

"Like father, like son," quipped Sirius.

"Only works in some instances. Case in point, yourself."

Sirius nodded. "My father was a spoiled rotten pureblood bastard who never worked a day in his life and wanted everything to come easy to him. He probably got into Slytherin just by virtue of not being smart enough for Ravenclaw or enough of a worker for Hufflepuff and despising Gryffindor on principle. His only real ambition was to further the line and then have everyone leave him alone."

"And he did," said Remus. "Two sons, in case one disappointed him."

Sirius grinned. "And I did. I am the official family disappointment."

"What about Andy?" asked James.

"Well, her too."

"Who's Andy?" asked Peter.

"Andromeda Black – Andromeda Tonks now. Cousin of mine, Ravenclaw, you may remember her, she just left last year – married a Hufflepuff bloke over the summer, name of Ted Tonks, very nice chap – but Muggleborn. Just try to imagine, Petie, my perfect family reacting to that."

"Narcissa Black's her little sister," said James, nodding to the Slytherin table, where a blond young woman sat, listening to the Sorting Hat's song. "This is her last year, isn't it, Sirius?"

"I'm not sure. Might be next. And then there's their big sister... the ever-lovely Bella..."

Remus groaned. "Bellatrix Black. Honestly, there ought to be laws against people like that. Did you see how Severus Snape looked up to her?"

"Her and the Lestrange brothers," said Sirius with a grimace. "I think that'll be a match one of these days."

"Which one? Rabastan or Rodolphus?" asked James.

"Rodolphus, I think... but she might go for either, there's no real way of telling, and to her it would be the alliance that counts – not to mention which one of them she could bully more easily..."

"Shush," said Remus. "The Sorting's starting."

Professor McGonagall was reading names from her list and placing the Hat on heads. The Marauders cheered every time it called out "GRYFFINDOR!" and surreptitiously booed every time a new Slytherin was inducted.

Sirius and James kept sneaking glances down the table to where Lily Evans and Aletha Freeman were sitting together, but by chance, neither of them was looking at the girls when Professor McGonagall read out "Granger, Gertrude!"

Aletha gasped in shock. "Danger!"

"What is it?" asked Lily worriedly.

"No, no, not the thing, not any real danger – my friend! The one I was trying to get in touch with!"

A girl with a great deal of bushy brown hair had come forward to sit on the stool. Aletha beamed. "This is wonderful! She's a witch, she's at Hogwarts! Oh, Lily, you're going to love her!"

"Is this the girl you were just telling me about – your best friend when you were little?"

"Yes, that's her. Oh, come on," Aletha muttered to the Sorting Hat. "Come on, come on, please..."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The girl leapt off the stool and hurried over to the table, grinning widely.

"Gertie!" called out a voice, and the girl's head whipped around.

"Letha!" she cried happily.

The Marauders watched Aletha Freeman hugging the new arrival. "Must be old friends," said Sirius.

"Must be," Remus agreed, still watching the girl. Her hair bounced rather appealingly when she ran, and her smile was electricity tamed and leashed, ready to be let out at her whim...

Remus shook his head. Why am I thinking in bad poetic images? She's a first year Gryffindor witch, just like all the others. We'll nod in the hallways or meet in the common room. I'll never be in really close contact with her. She's not important.

But his eyes lingered on her a moment longer anyway.

As she had promised, or perhaps threatened, Aletha Freeman tried out for the empty Beater slot on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and made it, becoming Sirius Black's partner.

"They seem to be able to put their differences aside for the duration of practice, or of the match," said Remus to Peter as they watched James score a goal in the first Quidditch game of the year, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. "Now if they could just figure out how to do it in the rest of their lives."

Lily Evans, as usual, studied all day and most of the night, and consequently plagued everyone's lives out by knowing the answers to about ninety-five percent of the questions the teachers asked in class. Remus studied quite a lot himself, having stretches of time every month when he wasn't able to do much else, and finding that studying often helped distract him from the pain he experienced before and after full moons.

Gertrude Granger, Danger as everyone soon learned to call her, was nearly as much a bookish wonder as Lily in her own year. Remus walked into the library one day shortly before Christmas and was astounded to see Danger conducting a study session for not only her own Housemates, but a number from the other houses as well – including one or two Slytherins. Impulsively, he sat down nearby and listened.

"So, Williamson, can you tell me one of the three major causes of that goblin rebellion we learned about in class today?" she asked.

"Er, the goblins were worried about competition from the Sorcerer's Stone, because it was created during that period?"

"Very good. Rodgers, how about you?"

"Erm... wizards weren't respecting them as equals?"

"Excellent, and Johnston, how about the third?"

"Upheaval in the Muggle world – they took advantage of the wizards being preoccupied."

"Very good, you've got them all. All right, we'll meet again after the holidays, I hope you all have a nice time at home, good luck everyone..."

The group began packing up and leaving. When they were all gone, Remus approached the table where Danger sat, reviewing her notes.

"Remus Lupin," he said, holding out his hand.

It was taken in a small, warm, dry one. "Gertrude Granger. But everyone calls me Danger. Except if they're shouting for me, that could have some bad effects."

Remus chuckled. "Yes, especially in a crowded theater. You seem to know a lot about History of Magic."

"I like to read. And tell stories. History is all just one long story, you know, and all the parts interact." She shook her head. "I know they can't exactly sack Professor Binns, he is a ghost after all, but they ought to get an adjunct or something. No one's ever going to learn anything in that class, just memorize it long enough to spit it out on the test, then forget about it. So I'm trying to fix that, at least a little."

"Why include Slytherins, though?"

She looked perplexed. "Why not? They need good grades as much as anyone – more, if they're so ambitious as everyone seems to think they are. What harm will they do in a study session, anyway?"

Remus shrugged. "As long as they're not rude, or don't make trouble."

"They never have. And if they did, I'd just invite them to leave and not come back." She grinned. "And they won't. Their grades depend on me, and they know it."

"Just watch out for them. Slytherins are only friendly when there's something in it for them. One of them might decide they want more from you than you're willing to give."

"You mean like answers instead of just study help?"

"Yes."

"I don't do that. It's wrong. And if one of them tried to ask me about it, I'd tell them exactly where to get off."

"Where's that?"

"Off the top of the Astronomy Tower, if they try anything funny."

Remus laughed.

They kept talking for quite a while, discussing mutual acquaintances. "Why does Aletha dislike Sirius and James so much?" asked Remus.

"She's under the impression they're like all the rest – stuck-up purebloods. I think Sirius made some crack last year that she took the wrong way, and they just keep setting up each other's backs."

Remus nodded. "Sirius does tend to do that. Set up people's backs, I mean."

"And James Potter doesn't? Lily Evans thinks he's the most arrogant little prig that ever walked the earth – and pardon me for saying so, but she's not far wrong. Has he always thought he's the best thing that ever happened to the world?"

Remus would have bristled at this insult to his friend, had he not been thinking the same thing himself recently. "I think it's getting worse as he's going through... you know. Changes."

"So maybe it'll die down when he's done... changing?" Danger's smile turned ever so vaguely salacious, then was back to normal. "I hope so. For all our sakes."

I like her. She's sassy, smart, friendly...

We could be good friends. I hope we will.

The spring of that year was unusually rainy, even for Hogwarts, necessitating that many breaks be taken inside. One of these breaks nearly led to violence, when Narcissa Black deliberately referred to her sister Andromeda as a weakling in Sirius' hearing.

"She married for love," she said with a snort. "A fiction and a folly. No true wizard or witch would allow himself to be tainted by such."

Sirius had hexed Narcissa before anyone could stop him. James and Remus tackled him and Peter pried the wand from his hand, and two of Narcissa's friends held back the furious sixth year after a third had reversed Sirius' Freezing Charm.

"Cold, unfeeling bitch," snarled Sirius.

"Bastard of a blood traitor," spat Narcissa.

Their respective friends removed them both from the room before further violence could break out.

"It was pretty impressive," said Danger a week or two later. "He's fast with that thing. Is he thinking of becoming – oh, what's it called, a magical policeman?"

"An Auror. Yes, he is. James, too. His father is one – James' father – and they're going to be needed more than ever, I'm afraid."

"That's right, I've been hearing about some Dark wizard or other. What's his name again? I heard it once – I think – and then everyone says 'You-Know-Who' like he was the prime minister or something."

Remus chuckled, then checked behind him to make sure no one was nearby. "He calls himself Lord Voldemort. An assumed name, of course, but no one seems to know anything more about him, except that he's strong and getting stronger. Gathering followers, too – Sirius' cousin Bellatrix and her husband Rodolphus, they were just married this past winter, and his brother Rabastan – I'd bet anything they're listening to him."

"He's one of these 'magic for the purebloods' types, isn't he?"

"Yes." Remus wasn't sure quite how much to tell a Muggleborn first year. "He's... not friendly towards Muggleborns."

Danger shrugged. "Doesn't affect me. Not yet, at any rate. Where are you spending the summer holidays?"

Remus could recognize a polite change of subject when he heard it. "With my parents. We live in Cold Crossing, in Surrey."

"Cold Crossing?" Danger looked amazed. "We're practically neighbors! I live in Little Whinging – that's only fifteen minutes away!"

"It's a small world," said Remus, forcing a smile. "Er, listen, I've got to... go study for Charms..."

"Oh, of course, don't let me keep you."

Remus made his escape and hurried to his dorm, where he sat down on his bed and stared out the window.

I was just lucky she didn't ask if she could come and see me during the summer.

So why don't I feel lucky?

Maybe I'll have this straightened out by next year.

But the next year brought little relief. Lord Voldemort continued to grow quietly stronger, with his name, or rather the sobriquet bestowed on him, whispered more and more often. Narcissa Black became engaged to Lucius Malfoy, and walked about the school proudly, head held high. James Potter and Lily Evans, and Sirius Black and Aletha Freeman, continued to quarrel. Remus continued with his usual routine, trying to act the part of just another student and make his frequent absences seem as normal as possible.

In this, he found Danger a strangely willing ally. Through her study group, which was coming to include students older than herself as well as her peers and the new class of first years, she exerted something of a wide influence on the school grapevine, and once she had let it be known that Mrs. Lupin was ill, poor woman, and needed her son to come home every so often just to see her, Remus found his story rather more widely accepted.

What did people think I was doing? Running off to see a girlfriend or something?

Remus' life was also complicated by his having to aid and shelter three amateur wanna-be Animagi. There were days when he despaired of James, days when he despaired of Sirius, and days when all of them despaired of Peter.

And then there was the day James found out that Peter had taken part of the Animagus work that he simply could not figure out to Danger Granger.

James paced around their dorm, hands clutching his hair. "Are you out of your mind? She's a second year – how did you think she was going to help you?"

"And how were you planning to pass it off as classwork? She knows perfectly well, or she should, that we don't start human transfiguration until sixth year!" Sirius had gotten in on the act as well.

"Did she help you, Wormtail?" asked Remus, unable to stand the woeful look on Peter's face any longer.

Peter brightened up immediately. "Yes. She did. She did the wand motion for me, and I saw I was using too much wrist and not enough shoulder – and now I can do it!"

James groaned melodramatically and flopped down on his bed. "Wonderful. Brilliant. Fantastic. You went and took a piece of an Animagus transformation spell to the biggest gossip in the school!"

"Don't call her that!" Remus was on his feet, surprised at himself. "She doesn't gossip! She didn't spread that damn story about me and Sirius, did she?"

"Well, I don't know," drawled Sirius, getting to his feet himself. "It certainly got all over the school pretty fast."

"That was Narcissa's doing and you bloody well know it," snapped Remus. "Danger tried to stop it. She's been defending you to everyone for weeks and you don't even deserve it!"

Peter snickered. "Remus and Danger, sitting in a tree..."

"Oh, shut up."

James joined in.

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"I said stop it!"

Sirius added his voice, grinning.

"First comes love,

"Then comes marriage,

"Then comes a baby in a baby carriage..."

Remus pulled his wand. Within a few seconds, the other three Marauders found themselves hiding and ducking for dear life as he sent a hailstorm of hexes at them. James and Sirius began retaliating, causing Remus to step up his attacks. Peter hid under his bed, peering out at the action.

The Marauders called a truce after a stray spell of James' set Sirius' bedcurtains on fire. Peter emerged for the post-fight analysis and talk, which mostly consisted of Remus' indignant declarations that he did not like the Granger girl, or at least, he didn't like like her.

"And besides, even if I did, there wouldn't be any baby in a baby carriage for us. I won't ever have kids. I can't even adopt."

"Who wants kids?" asked Sirius. "Noisy, smelly little things. They scream a lot, too."

"Hear the expert," said James. "When have you ever been around little kids?"

"There's been babies in my family. Not a lot, but a few. Andy had a baby last year – did you know? A little girl."

"No, I didn't – what's her name?"

Sirius grinned. "Get ready for this one – she'll hate her mum forever – Nymphadora."

"Nymphadora?"

"You have got to be kidding."

"What does it even mean?"

"Got me." Sirius shrugged. "Andy may be the rebel, but she's still stuck in the 'give-our-children-weird-names' rut. If I do ever have children, I'm giving them plain simple names."

"Like what?" asked James.

"I don't know. Meghan, maybe. Or Harry."

"Harry?" asked Peter. "Isn't that usually short for something?"

"It can be. But it can just be a name on its own."

"You'd better make sure Letha likes it," said James, wiggling his eyebrows. Then his expression turned from silly to thoughtful. "Harry. I think I like it."

"Then you'd better check with Lily," said Remus ultra-blandly.

Peter retreated under his bed once again.

Home for the summer, Remus found himself bored. There really wasn't much to do around his house – he loved his parents dearly, but there was only so much time he could stand to spend practicing his violin and playing duets with his mother, or listening to his father's anecdotes about work.

He found himself waiting impatiently for James' or Sirius' owls to arrive, snatching the letters from them when they did, then writing long and detailed replies. However, the replies the owls actually carried back were inevitably as short and jaunty as the letters Remus had received. The last thing he wanted was to let his friends know that he was lonely. Or that he missed them even more as full moon approached.

His father had placed reinforcing and strengthening charms on a closet in the front hall, and that was where Remus spent his transformation nights. There were also Silencers in the walls, to muffle the sound of his howls. At the moment, he didn't have to worry about locking himself in and letting himself out, since his parents took care of that, but he diverted his mind while waiting for moonrise by thinking about how he would manage it. Perhaps a safe where he could leave his wand – werewolves couldn't open combination locks. Or something that would respond to a spoken password...

He was still thinking about it when the moon rose.

In the morning, he awoke, bruised and bleeding as usual, and waited for his father to come and unlock the door, for his mother to make a fuss over him as she inevitably did, and for the tedium of a whole day – possibly two, from the way he was feeling – spent on the couch.

The first two things came to pass. The third did not.

"Remus, dear, look who's here to see you," said Katherine Lupin that afternoon, ushering the guest into the living room.

Remus sat up straight as he saw a familiar head topped with brown bushy hair. "Danger?"

"No one else." She smiled at him. "I'm afraid I'm a horrible sneaky person – I wrote Sirius to get your address. I hope you don't mind."

"I'm surprised Sirius knows my address," said Remus, knowing that he was babbling, but trying frantically to think of a way to account for his obvious injuries. "You don't need to know it for owl post, and he's never been here."

She shrugged. "The oddest things stick in one's head. Besides, if he didn't know it, I would have gone to James or Peter. One of them would have been bound to know where you lived. Or I could have made inquiries through the school. But I didn't have to, and here I am."

Remus couldn't think of anything to say.

"If you don't want me here, I'll go," Danger added.

"Nonsense, of course he wants you here," said his mother warmly. "I'll just go get you two something to eat, then." She left the room, and Danger sat down in a chair a short distance from the couch.

"So," she said after a short silence. "Read any good books lately?"

Remus was about to respond seriously to this when he noticed the playful look in her eyes. "Not at all," he answered instead. "Nothing but a rubbish fantasy series by some bloke named Token or something like that. Elves and dwarves and all that nonsense. Though there was one character who made me think a bit of Dumbledore."

"Gandalf." Danger nodded somberly. "Yes, he's obviously a take-off of Dumbledore. Token must have been a wizard. Or a Squib."

Katherine Lupin, in her kitchen, smiled to hear her son laughing.

She lifted one of the glasses she was preparing for them in a silent toast. To my boy, and his future.

May he someday realize that what he is need not dictate all of what he does.

(A/N: Yes, I'm moving along pretty well here. This is going to be so very fluffy that I'm not going to spend much time on it – though there will be a little bit of sadness in the middle, possibly even some slight angst – but it will all come out happily, of course. And I might interpost this with LwoD, or I might just get it done before I return to the story...

I'm thinking this is how it will go. One AU of an AU for every year of LwoD. That sound OK to everyone? And I'll try not to leave LwoD on a terrible cliffie when I post my other fics. Huggles to all!

Oh, and for the record... my name is Anne Walsh.)