Expect the Unexpected

A/N: The A/N at the bottom of the page is important! Please read it!

Disclaimer: any recognizable material does not belong to me. This is a fan fiction based on JK Rowling's Harry Potter Series. Sue me and I'll sue you back for… stuff. Oh I don't know.

Expect the Unexpected...

This, Lily Evans thought numbly to herself, was not what she had been expecting. It wasn't what she had been expecting at all. It was very different from Cloverfield. It was so different in fact, that she didn't quite know what to make of it. For one, her old school had been an actual building with a metal roof, blue tiled floors, and white, painted cement walls. But this? This was a… a castle.

Yes, the building before her was a gorgeous stone castle. She admired it from the little boat she was on, which was smoothly gliding across the lake's surface. The castle sat up on a hill that slopped down to the docks were they would land. Except for the sound of softly moving water the night was very still. A few feet away the moon's reflection was glittering like a bright white marble on the glassy black water, which rippled and popped as it swallowed up a stray acorn. If it hadn't been for that single disruption of its stillness, Lily would have believed someone if they told her it actually was solid glass.

She was awed. She was so awed that she forgot, momentarily, that she was supposed to be hating the very sight of the castle's moonlit stones. But it was very hard to hate such a beautiful castle. It was very, very hard.

"'S a right beaut'ful nigh ain't 'ere, ain't it?"

Lily jumped at the unexpected gruffness of the voice behind her, making the small rowboat that they were in tip a little to the side. She had completely forgotten about her companion. "Oh, yes, it is." She answered, turning around to face the colossal, and rather hairy man who was ferrying her across the lake. She still had to keep herself from staring at him in bewilderment.

For the first time in her entire life, Lily had no idea how old the man in front of her was. She had barely kept herself from asking, when she remembered how rude that would be. But the man happened to be so strange, that at this point, she wasn't even sure he was human anymore. But it wasn't as if she could manage to ask that question politely either. He was so tall, that Lily had to crane her neck just to see his face, and so wide, that if she tried to hug him, she probably wouldn't even have made it around his front side. Not that she was planning on hugging him any time soon. In truth she was still a bit startled from the sight of him. But he seemed nice.

"Yeh're goin' tah like it here." The man continued, the various leathers and fur pelts moving as he ferried the boat forwards, the water swished around the hull. "Erebody likes it 'ere. 'Specially wit Dubmledore n' all tha."

Lily did her best to try and smile at the man before her. "Yeah, I've heard great things about him. I'm sure I'll like him too… or I hope so anyway." She was not being sincere. What Lily was really hoping for was to be able to go back home to Ireland. What she was really hoping for was for her mom to send her a letter telling her that she could go back to CloverField, that the old school that had recently been forced to close down in favor of the more popular Hogwarts had suddenly reopened. Not only was Lily still slightly embittered that the new school she had been forced to transfer to was the very school which had caused her old one to close down, but she also had never once been to a castle or a boarding school in her entire life, and all she was very sure that she wouldn't like it at all, Dumbledore or no Dumbledore.

" Eup. Yeh'll love it 'ere. I'm sure yeh will. Yeh know the 'eadmaster, Dumbledore's a great fellah, ee is. Great fellah. Eeh'll look after yeh alright."

Lily turned, brushing aside a stray lock of dark red hair and looked at the man who was rowing the boat She studied him for a while, her almond shaped eyes very serious. It only took her a few seconds to tell that he was being absolutely sincere. She could practically feel the loyalty and kindness radiating off of him. And for the first time in a long time, Lily smiled a real smile. A beautiful smile in which her nose crinkled a little and her green eyes sparkled. This man was the first person she had shown a real smile to in a very long time.

"I'm Lily… Lily Evans." She said as she held her hand out to him. She nearly fell out of the boat in surprise when it was swallowed inside his monstrous one. The stranger's palm was callus cracked and gritty, his powerful grip slightly crushing for her smaller hand. But it was warm… and friendly.

"Hagrid." The man introduced himself politely. "I'm the grounds keeper 'ere at Hogwarts. Yeh ever need sumthan, yeh just come down teh see me, aright? Tha' lil stone cottage o'er there's mine. An' yer welcome to it anytime."

Lily smiled a real smile again, shivering a bit as a cool breeze chilled her through her robes. She wondered if Hagrid could even feel it, his beard and mustache were so thick. "Thanks. I'm sure I'll take you up on that sometime."

She couldn't see his mouth, as it was hidden under the thick coverage of his jet-black beard, but she could see the smile inside his eyes and that was good enough for her. It was surprisingly gentle. Lily felt a bit relieved when he finally released her hand, resisting the urge to try and shake briefly it in attempts to let the lost blood flow back into it. And she was also a little comforted by the fact that she had made her first friend away from home. Even if he was a monster of a man with more hair than skin and a voice more gravely than her old driveway.

"Ah, well, looks like we're goin' tah be a bit late. Sorry ter hear tha' yeh missed tha' train." Hagrid said conversationally as they glided forwards through the dark.

"Yeah, well…" Lily thought back on how confused her family had been as there had been no platform 9 ¾ at the unfamiliar train station. And by the time someone had informed her that she in fact had to run full tilt into a brick wall in order to get there, which had alarmed her a but, the train had already been pulling out. "We had a few difficulties finding… the train." She said slowly, realizing how stupid that sounded.

"Aye, tha's what I figured."

Tiredly, the girl sat herself down on the seat of the boat and dipped her fingertips into the lake. It gave her a nice cool feeling as the dark, cold water slid through her hand. It was soothing, and kind of a comforting in an odd way, which Lily was grateful for.

"O, I wudn't do tha if I were yeh." Hagrid said suddenly, eyeing her hand that was now dangling over the edge completely. "Tha ole giant squid in there's got a nasty 'abbit o pullin people in teh the water when yeh're not lookin' for 'im."

Lily's stomach abruptly did a summersault in her gut. She felt her form go rigid in a fraction of a second, the color draining from her face as her cat-green eyes locked in shock with Hagrid's. "The what?"

Meanwhile, inside the Hogwarts castle, the Great Hall had been lit with countless rows of floating candlesticks. Burning on the wicks of thousands of little candles, were steady teardrops of honey colored flame. Together the candlesticks illuminated the Great Hall with a homey sort of light, making the varnish on the tables shine and setting a pleasant atmosphere.

At the front of the room, a long mahogany table seated every member of the Hogwarts faculty, from the prim, bone thin, Professor McGonagall to large, jolly, and at the moment rather drunk, Professor Slughorn. And in the very middle of the table was a much smaller man with a light chocolate colored beard, which was liberally streaked with splashes of gray. This man had a very a delicate frame and soft, wrinkling hands, which were resting nicely in his lap, the sky blue silk of his robe wrinkling in soft folds. As he watched the room with sparkling blue eyes, a rather pleased and amused look came over his face. The other teachers seemed to constantly be shooting this sideways glances and at times even attempted to mimic his posture. He seemed oblivious to this, however, and continued surveying the room through his half moon spectacles and laughing blue eyes.

The four house tables were set perpendicular to this long mahogany one, a banner hanging over each with names scrawled in long, loopy cursive in the house colors. The banners read from left to right: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and a finally Slytherin. Between the collective shouts and yells of all the students crammed into these four tables, the entire hall sounded as if it were housing a riot.

To the far left of the room, there was a large crowd of eleven year olds standing in a heard and waiting with anxious, darting eyes. All of them were waiting to be "sorted", and up at the mahogany table, Professor McGonagall now stood ready with an old, withered witch's hat cradled in her hands. The entire room was buzzing with noises of excitement, and in the midst of it all two boys looked very, very bored.

James Potter and his best friend Sirius Black were sitting together at the large oak table furthest to the left, beneath the Gryffindor banner, somewhere towards the lower end of the middle, their faces propped up on their hands and their elbows resting on the glossy table top. They could not have seemed more un-amused.

"I hate this." James said miserably, his head sliding a little lower down his palm as he studied the table with bored hazel eyes. "How much longer are we expected to just sit here?" He dragged his hand through his spiky black hair, which was already messy enough, as it had a strange tendency to stick out in seemingly 'windblown' clumps, making it appear if he had been ridding a broomstick all day long. Of course, this was the way James wanted it to be. It drove the girls crazy. And he liked that.

"Forever." Supplied Sirius, his tone just as dragging and forced. He was currently using his wand to carve his name magically into the side of the heavy oak table. "I just want to eat." He said distractedly. This boy, unlike his friend, had a certain air of dark, brooding elegance about him. His coal black hair was also quite messy, it was true, but it was stylishly messy, something that his best friend, James, no matter how hard he tried, would ever be able to attain. But the aforementioned boy didn't really care that much about his best friend's hair: It wasn't the look he wanted.

"You would think that they'd at least have the decency to stop forcing us to watch all this rubbish after third or second year." James continued to complain, his bored expression breaking for a moment to give a brief smile to a very pretty blonde girl who had been trying to catch his attention the whole time. But the expression returned once he looked back to Sirius. The blonde, who had been ready to give up on James only a few seconds ago was now giving him her full attention again, batting her eyes and pouting her light pink lips from across the way. As long as she was still looking at him, he was satisfied. James didn't actually like the girl on the other side of the table. In fact, he wasn't even sure he properly knew her name. But he took a great amount of pride and pleasure at the amount of attention a single smile could get him with a girl and he did things like that often, much to other boys' annoyances. "We should be able to just eat already."

"Agreed." Sirius said with a smirk, either not noticing, or ignoring all the girls who were trying to (achem) 'discretely' get his attention. He was not as interested in girls as James seemed to be. And he was perfectly happy to be admired from afar. Lord knew that anyone who wasn't after James was after him, and vice versa as well. James smirked back.

Now, usually the sight of the two boys smirking at each other was an immediate sign for everybody to hit the deck. For when these boys were smiling at each other like that, most of the time it was because something wet, sticky or gooey was about to start flying, falling or otherwise bouncing or something of the sort. Potter and Black were only the most gorgeous and troublesome boys in the entire school. And they clever too, as they got away with almost everything. But for once, the smirks meant nothing; it was a bit early in the year for pranks, even for Sirius and James. Although at the moment they were bored enough to pull one.

"And what, may I ask, are you two moping about for?"

James and Sirius lifted their heads off their hands and looked at another boy who had joined them and was now sitting down next to James. Remus Lupin had a full head of dusty golden hair that was naturally streaked with a few deeper tones of dark brown. His hair was, at the moment, long enough for him to pull it back into a nub of a ponytail at the nape of his neck, which he only did when he was studying. A few stray strands fell into a set of serious light brown eyes that matched his hair in color and seemed to sometimes be beyond them.

"'Ey, Mooney." James greeted him casually. "Just being bored is all. How was your vacation?"

"It was…. Ok." The newcomer said, his gold-flecked eyes thoughtful and bright. "Where's Pete?"

"Dunno." Was Sirius's casual response. "Should be here any minute."

As if on cue, a pudgy, brown haired boy appeared, bustling down the lane between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Table, his eyes darting quickly along the rows of faces as he rang his hands together. Clearly he was looking for someone. Particularly them.

"There he is." Sirius said casually, watching with bored dark eyes as the pudgy boy moved briskly past them, his nervous habits seeming to get worse and worse as he scanned crowd repeatedly. Somehow he had managed to miss them. An idea crossed Sirius's mind and a slow sideways smile that practically caused a girl a few seats over to faint pulled across his lips. "Hey, watch this." He muttered to his friends before he turned around in his seat. "'Hey, Peter! Pete! You missed us!"

The round boy whipped around to face them, acting almost as if he had been struck by something in the face and immediately was met by a large stream of hot pink fluid. The liquid streamed out in a fountain from the tip of Sirius's wand, and splattered all over his robes, new robes from the looks of it, as they were a little too big around the sleeves. "Argh!"

Beside a grinning Sirius, James gave a boyish, half laugh at the sight of his sputtering friend. Neither of the two noticed the way that Remus had began to frown, saying nothing despite the troubled in his light brown eyes.

"Gotcha, Wormy." Sirius said with a little bit of laughter as he and James jumped up to magic away the pink liquid.

"What took you?" James asked, grinning at his slightly pink friend. James tapped his wand against his shoulder and immediately Peter was dry, his robes and skin stain-less.

"I – erm – uh, I couldn't find you." The boy muttered, half a rather nervous smile plastered on his face.

James raised his eyebrows. "Peter, we sit in the same spot every year."

"R-right." The younger boy stuttered nervously as he started back to the table with James and Sirius. "W-Well I… I forgot."

"You forgot?"

"Yes… I… I forgot."

"Four years of sitting in the same spot for breakfast, lunch and dinner and you forgot?"

"Um… yeah?"

"Ought to give you a memory charm or something." Sirius said casually, shrugging as he sat back down on his seat. "Keep you from forgetting."

Peter nodded nervously as Remus smiled in welcome. "Hey, Peter."

"Hi, Remus."

They four boys waited out the sorting process while talking and laughing with one another, not paying attention in the least bit to who their new housemates were. You see, it had been a while since the Marauders were all together in one spot and able to talk freely, and now that they were, they were trying to figure out how to make the most of their year at Hogwarts.

When the last new first year was making his way down the isle and had seated himself down at the Hufflepuff table, and just when James and Sirius were about ready to eat an entire horse, the man with a chocolate and gray colored beard stood and cleared his feeble throat. James groaned and propped his face back in his hand; it was time for Dumbledore's annual speech.

"Students," The headmaster's voice rang out loud and clear, silencing the entire hall with only one word. "I trust that each and everyone of you are going to do their best to make this year at Hogwarts a most fantastic and delightful year."

The four boys at the Gryffindor table shot each other amused glances.

"As usual the forbidden forest remains forbidden, and those who do not wish to chance the possibility of an excruciating death should stay very far away from its borders."

There were several comments on that last part which died down quietly. Meanwhile James was counting down the seconds with an I'm-almost-asleep-bored expression.

"And further more, the whomping willow has quite recently been pruned, which makes it rather moodier than usual. You should also stay away from that specific land mark as-"

Slam!

Dumbledore's speech was abruptly cut short. The headmaster calmly directed his crystal blue gaze upwards to the double doors at the end of the hall, which had been thrown open rather unceremoniously. And so because Dumbledore had done it, everyone else did it too. Except for James and Sirius.

"Oh for Pete's sake!" James said angrily as he slammed his fist onto the table. " No not you, Peter," he added quickly as his friend gave him a startled look. " This is ridiculous!" He stated angrily as he whirled around. "At this rate we'll never get this over… with…" His sentence trailed off as his eyes fell on the Great Hall's entrance and the unfamiliar girl who was standing in there. James Potter choked on his breath, and blinked while his lips parted in shock. The very sight of the girl in front of him rendered him speechless.

The girl looked like she'd been through hell.

And apparently had also had a rather tough time getting back.

She was wet. Wet in the manner of her entire body happening to be dripping with water, from her sopping dark wet hair, that was tangled with dark green lake weeds, to her long black robes which were clutching greedily to her soaking figure and were ripped badly in several places. Her lightly freckled cheeks were practically as red as her hair, and her breathing was labored and choked.

She appeared to be exhausted. In fact, James wouldn't have been all that surprised if she had collapsed that very moment into the puddle that was forming around her ankles on the marble. She had, he noticed with a bit of amusement, only one shoe on her foot, while the other was fashioning a baggy white sock, which was also thoroughly soaked. He wondered, vaguely, how she had managed to lose it.

It was silent for a very long time. And then finally beside him, Sirius spoke up. "Hullo."

At the same time James craned his body backwards to get a better look at her. "What the bloody hell happened to you, then?" He asked, his causal tone almost identical to Sirius's. For the first time in the entire night, he was genuinely interested. It wasn't often someone managed to pull an entrance like that, and in the middle of Dumbledore's speech no less.

The girl's cat-green eyes flashed dangerously at the two boys who were each regarding her with raised eyebrows and amused smirks. She scowled and opened her mouth to say something, and from the looks of it, it didn't seem as if it was going to be something all that pleasant, but was interrupted suddenly by the arrival of Hagrid. He also, was very, very wet.

"Sorry 'bout tha Dumbledore." The large man said hastily. "Y-Yeh see we wus rowing along down en the lake out back, tryin' to git to the castle 'n all… wen Lily ere stuck 'er 'and inteh the water." He tried to run his fingers through his beard in attempts to comb it down or work the water out, but his large clumsy fingers were soon caught inside the mat of tangles and, being unable to remove them, he was forced to stand there with his hand jammed into his beard. "'Course I tried teh warn 'er bout tha nasty squid down there's, but I ent got the time 'fur ee up and grabbed her."

The silence was very thick.

"But – erm – she, she's alright now, ain't yeh Lily?"

The girl's jaw seemed to tighten and James did not fail to notice the way her hands turned into fists at her side. She obviously didn't seem to think she was all that fine. James felt the corners of his lips turn upwards in a small smile. She looked like she was ready to deck someone. "Yeah." The girl named Lily managed finally through gritted teeth. "I'm still alive, I guess."

Hagrid's laugh was nervous, not at all like the thunderclap laugh he usually had. "Yeh - Yeh see, Dumbledore, there's no 'arm done 'ere, Sir." He said, shifting his weight. "Ain't no 'arm done…"

"Yes, I see that, Hagrid." Dumbledore said, eyeing Lily's soaked robes with some amusement of his own. "I take it the giant squid put up a good fight, then? Judging by the state of… things."

Lily's jaw tightened even more. James could practically hear her teeth grinding together from where he sat, and he swore he saw the girl's bright green eyes flash dangerously at the head master. The students were now trying their best to hide snickers by covering their mouths, though some members at the Slytherin tables were laughing outright. Next to him Sirius was smiling devilishly at the girl's soaked and dishelved self, and in all truths, James was having a hard time keeping himself under control as well. On the other side of Sirius, Peter was grinning like an idiot and giggling like a girl. Remus seemed to the only one of them who kept a straight face.

"'O yeah, ee put up a right good fight," Hagrid responded awkwardly. "Tha' ee did. A right good fight. 'Ad to wrestle 'im for 'er, I did. But we got 'er back all right. Didn't we Lily?"

The girl was very silent. She looked practically irate. Finally James couldn't help himself any longer, and he ducked his head down for a moment and began to laugh. That is, until her glaring green eyes somehow met with his. James felt like she had dumped a bucket of ice water over him and then kicked him in the stomach. She was livid. Her dark green eyes were leveling.

"And considering you cannot swim I assume that you put a great deal of effort into the rescue, Hagrid?" Dumbledore's voice rang through the halls somehow, making the muffled laughter subside a bit.

"Oh… well… It weren't that much ov a deal really." The giant man responded, slightly uncomfortable and embarrassed.

"Nonsense." Everybody's eyes snapped to the girl, who spoke her first words since the beginning of the exchange. Her voice was loud and clear, kind of like a bell. "He saved my life." She said bluntly, her green eyes meeting Dumbledore's with deadly seriousness. "I'd say that was a bit of a deal. Don't you?"

Many people blinked at challenge in her voice. James couldn't remember the last time he'd ever heard anyone use a tone with Dumbledore… not to his face anyway. He also thought he noticed, though he couldn't be sure for most of Hagrid's face was hidden by that bloody beard, that he could see the grounds keeper blushing heavily from embarrassment. He nudged Sirius in the ribs to point it out to him. "Look at that, Padfoot," he said under his breath, "the old goon's blushing like a girl."

Sirius smirked, "Yeah he is, reckon he likes her?"

James laughed boyishly. "Hope not."

"And by 'Lily', I presume that you are the Lily Evans?" Dumbledore asked curiously, as if planning to brush the entire situation with the squid aside, probably for the sake of Hagrid's comfort.

"Yes, I am."

"Good. Very good." The headmaster said with a smile and a wink directed at the girl. James noticed that the wink seemed to throw her off a bit. "Minerva, if you please?"

Professor McGonagall, who had sat back down at the mahogany table, conjured the sorted hat out of the air, though she looked more than a little annoyed at being forced to do so. And soon was she stepping forward with dusty hat in hand. James groaned loudly. "What do we need that for?" He asked Sirius moodily. "We're not starting this thing all over again are we?"

Sirius shrugged as he watched McGonagall pass them by. "Dunno. Looks like today's just going against you, mate." He said with a small smile. "We'll just have to use some of those dung bombs as a form of revenge."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "Revenge? For what?"

"For keeping us so bored, that's what." Sirius said matter-of-factly to his friend, leaning forwards a bit to look past James.

Remus rolled his eyes, "Oh yes." He said with a bit of sarcasm, though the faint smile was apparent on his face. "Of course, how silly of me. I forgot that the entirety of the world is expected to revolve around you."

Sirius grinned.

Next to him, James frowned, trying to remember. "What dung bombs?" He asked finally, unable to recall.

"You know, the ones we have in the closet." Sirius said as he stretched out his arms over his head. "We left them behind end of last year."

"Oh, right." James said, while running a hand through his hair and winking at the blonde whose attention seemed to be wavering again. "Forgot about those."

Sirius sighed heavily as his arms came back down. "You're hopeless, Prongs."

Whether Sirius's remark had regarded the dung bomb or the girl he was winking at, James would never know. Just as he was about to open his mouth to ask, Dumbledore interrupted again. Tonight just seemed to be the night for those.

"Students, I would like you to welcome our newest addition to the school." Dumbledore said, his voice ringing loudly through the hall. "Ms. Lily Evans will be enrolling in Hogwarts this year, and we shall all be very pleased to have her, I'm sure. I trust that her fellow students will do their very best to make her as comfortable as possible." He smiled at them all, but for some reason it seemed to be more of a mischievous, knowing smile rather than a kind one. "Now, seeing as how she has yet to be sorted into the proper house, I believe I am delaying something with this incessant rambling." Finally something James agreed with.

Lily Evans seemed to regard Professor McGonagall with suspicion as the woman approached her with the tattered witches hat. McGonagall though, who apparently was just as impatient to get it over with as James had been the entire night, made her way over to Lily Evans and jammed the hat on her head before the girl could say a word. James was only slightly interested anymore. But he watched with the rest of the great hall as the sorting hat came to life. It sat for a moment or two, but had hardly touched her soaking head before it shouted out "Gryffindor!"

"Oh good," James said, turning around and looking expectantly at the tabletop. "Now that that's finally over with."

"We can eat." Sirius finished for his friend, also turning to look at the table for food while McGonagall wrenched the hat off Lily's head and Hagrid pointed out to the flustered girl which table to go to.

"Well, not quite yet." Remus said watching his two friends with a small smile.

James and Sirius looked at him with steadily boring eyes. "And why not?" Sirius finally asked.

"Well… because Dumbledore hadn't finished his speech, yet." Remus answered simply.

James groaned. Sirius rolled his eyes. "Fantastic." They both muttered at the same time.

Across from the table the blonde girl seemed to sigh in defeat. But just as she started to look away James cleared his throat and looked at her, ruffling his hair and giving her another smile. She practically fell over herself. And two seconds later she was fawning over him again.

Beside him Sirius rolled his eyes. "James." He said, his tone slightly bored again as he studied the star patterned ceiling above them. "I can't find Sirius again."

"What?" Peter asked, his expression obviously confused.

"The constellation, Pete." Sirius answered absently, frowning a bit as he studied the sky. "Can't find it anymore."

James shrugged. "I don't see what harm it does." He said casually, knowing that the 'James' had been something meant to tell him to stop flirting with the girl, but still making a mental note to not look at her again. "I just hate being bored… And I think it's that box-shaped one over there." He said, pointing lazily while Sirius squinted slightly at the direction.

"That one?"

"No… that one to the right. I think that's it."

This time it was Remus's turn to roll his eyes.

A/N: Ok so I was so torn, I didn't know what year to put these kids in. So I skirted the issue. But I'll have to put their ages in the next chapter so need your help. Do I choose fourth year or fifth year? It all depends on how long the story is supposed to be and stuff like that. If it is fourth year then this chapter will be more focused on the whole Lily's first year and the Marauders dealing with Remus's werewolf thing. If its fifth year it'll be one hell of a long year and it will be more focused on James/Lily. Well? I need help! Please!