Lily wriggled under her covers trying to get warm, wondering why it was so cold. As she opened her eyes she saw thin rays of sunlight dancing across her bed and a room so different from what she was used to. Instead of her own pale pink and yellow walls or Hogwarts' vivid reds and gold, Beauxbatons was a cool blue and its chill seemed to radiate in every room Lily went. Realising that it was, as much as she disliked the fact, morning Lily tentatively got out of bed, jumping a little at the cold floor.

"Hogwarts mornings are so much warmer," she muttered as she quickly dressed and left her dormitory.

Each student here had individual dorms, this was a plus for Lily as she didn't have to worry about others messing her room up but it almost felt a little secluded having no one to talk to. She had arranged to meet Alex outside the dorms so she hung around waiting for her friend.

After ten minutes Lily was getting a little bored of staring at the same point on a wall and a little worried by the number of students who were hastily running past as though they were late.

"You should 'urry up, lessons start in a minute," a small girl told Lily as she ran past.

Lily watched her scuttle off and frowned, where was Alex? "Which number's hers again?" she asked herself as she tried to remember what she'd been told the night before. Twenty three….Thirty four….Ninety two…Eleven! Just down the hall, Lily headed for it and knocked loudly, thinking perhaps Alex had overslept. Not a good start for her first day. The bell rang loudly down the hall and the last few people came running out of their dorms still only half-dressed but no response came from inside the room. Lily knocked again, and again, five minutes she waited but Alex never appeared. Lily tried opening the door but it was locked. "She's gone!" She mumbled turning to face the empty corridor.

Fantastic, she though sarcastically. She's gone, I'm late, there's no one around and I have no clue where I'm going…

Lily consulted the map she'd been given. It seemed more confusing than one of Hogwarts would be but Lily could just make out where she was meant to go right at the other side of the school. Grabbing her bag she set off. Ten minutes later she arrived and everyone watched as, face as red as her hair, she carefully entered the room twenty minutes late.

"I don't know how things work at 'Ogwarts," a thin-lipped Professor glared at her interruption. "But 'ere we expect punctuality from our students."

"Sorry," Lily muttered, her face reddening. "I got lost and…"

"You have a map?"

"Yes, but –"

"That ees all you need now take a seat."

Lily nodded dumbly and sat in the only spare seat right at the front of the classroom. She tried turning around a few times, trying to catch Alex's eye, but she would either get caught or Alex would be focussed on the work before her. Slumping in her seat, Lily grudgingly did her own work but only half-heartedly. The lesson was Charms, her favourite at Hogwarts. Something told her she wasn't going to like it here.

The rest of the day wasn't much better. She had double Transfiguration, which, though she could do it, she wasn't as good as the rest of the class and by the end of the two hours she felt like crying, and Potions, which was the worst, in Lily's opinion. Beauxbatons were further than ahead Hogwarts had been and Lily found that most of the lesson was spent trying to catch up, she made a mental note to do extra reading that night.

I wasn't until after lessons that day that Lily got to talk to Alex.

"Where were you?" She asked loudly.

Alex looked up and saw Lily looming over her, hands on her hips and face screwed up in annoyance.

"When?"

"This morning!" Lily cried, ignoring looks from others around.

"What are you…Oh! Lily, I'm so sorry, I forgot, is that why you were late."

Lily nodded, eyes still blazing.

"Lily, stop looking at me like that! It was an accident. I was excited and I forgot, I promise I'll be there tomorrow."

"Well…" Lily said slowly and thoughtfully.

Alex shifted up on the couch she was sat in and motioned for Lily to sit next to her.

"I suppose if you're there tomorrow…" Lily said, taking the seat.

The two old, or rather reacquainted friends, stayed up chatting that night, going to their dorms in the early hours of the next morning. When Lily awoke the next day she found Alex was there waiting and smiled. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Tae sat in the Great Hall eating her breakfast. She was alone at the table but surrounded by lots of other Gryffindor students, the two seats either side of her were empty but not for long.

"It's Tegwen, right?" Remus asked her as he sat at her left side.

"Tae," she answered not realising that Sirius had sat at her right side. "Who are you?"

"Remus, I'm in third year too so we'll be having some lessons together. If you need help in any of them I don't mind," he offered pleasantly. "I assume the lessons are different at Beauxbatons?"

Tae shook her head. "Not really, in fact, from what I've read in the textbooks, we're ahead of you. We were due to start protective potions this year; you're still doing sleeping draughts."

"Really?" Remus asked his interest increasing as he heard this.

As he engaged the girl in talk of subject matter, Sirius was pouring a clear liquid into her drink of orange. Undetected he crept off the seat and began to make his way past them, Remus stopped him.

"Have you met Sirius?" He asked making Sirius stop to turn and smile at the girl.

"No but the name sounds familiar." Tae frowned and then realised. "Sirius Black?"

At hearing his name Sirius' smile turned to a charming grin. "You've heard of me?"

Tae nodded. "Mm-hmm," she sounded as she took a sip of her orange. "Apparently you're a 'bigheaded, prank-pulling, over-the-top little toad'." She looked him up and down noting in particular that he didn't seem at all bothered to be called such. "You don't look like a toad but I can see the rest was right."

Sirius' smile faltered. "Well you don't sound very French considering you're from a French school."

"A French school, yes," she answered, taking a pause to finish her drink. "But not France, I lived in England until about five years ago. I'd love to stay chat but I have to try and find my way around for lessons. I'm sure I'll see you later."

"Can't wait," Sirius muttered darkly waiting until she was out of sight before he grinned. "How long does that potion take to start working?"

Remus stared at him. "You spiked her drink?"

"Obviously and I'm glad I did the stuck up little…."

Tae left them with twenty minutes until her lesson was due to start. She didn't know how long she'd take to get there and she'd rather be early than late, as it was she still managed to get there 10 minutes after everyone else. She'd walked through corridor after corridor and not once had she seen another person and yet, when she arrived at her classroom, she could see the lesson had started. She entered the Muggle Studies classroom trying to be quiet but the door squeaked and everyone turned to stare at her, only for them to erupt into laughter a second later.

"You think that's funny?" The Professor demanded. "You turn up late and looking like…like…that!"

Tae was confused to say the least, as far as she knew she looked the same as always.

"Do you have a tongue girl? Use it!"

Tae tried to speak but no words would come out.

"Professor," she heard a girl say. "I don't think she did it deliberately, please, can I show her to the hospital wing?"

"Very well, but back here in five minutes."

The girl nodded and Tae found herself being steered away by her. Outside the classroom Tae was handed a mirror, her skin colour had been changed to green and blue stripes and her face was swollen greatly. Tears formed but the girl soothed her and introduced herself as Alice. As they walked to the hospital wing Tae found out a number of things; Alice was in Tae's dormitory, this wasn't the first time someone had been pranked in Hogwarts and it probably wasn't the last time Tae would be and it was more than likely that, since she had been in contact with them earlier, Sirius and Remus had done this to her. That was the moment Tae decided to get her revenge, and so she did, the very next night in fact.

"Remus, is that offer for help still available?" She asked him.

"Yeah, what do you need it with?"

"Potions," she admitted. "I know I said we were ahead of you but I could never work out how to do this one potion and…"

Remus helped her; he wasn't much good at potions though, as Alice had already informed Tae, and so he enlisted the other Marauders' help too. Together they sorted through the necessary details and Tae rewarded them with a bottle of butterbeer each.

"Where'd you get these?" Peter asked her.

"I brought them with me, I love the stuff, got a whole collection upstairs but I won't be able to enjoy it much longer."

"Why not?" James asked her.

"Because I'm not going to be around. I got pranked yesterday and, well, there were complications with removing it, apparently there isn't a safe way to do it and so the counter potion eats away at you from the insides. The doctor reckons I don't have more than a week."

"What?" Sirius asked, scared.

"I'm dying," Tae clarified.

There was an unnatural silence and they all drank there butterbeer. Fifteen minutes later the Marauders were sat in their dormitory when Sirius and Remus began to change colour. Their pale skin changed to blue and green stripes and their faces swelled up. The horror that came over their faces was unmistakable.

"Oh no," Remus said, fear lacing his voice.

"Are we…? Are we going to die too?" Sirius asked.

"No, you can't," James said. "There has to be a counter spell or something.

"You heard Tae, there isn't one, she's being killed inside out and now we will too."

"That can't be right." James said, looking around the room trying to find the book from which the potion had come. Peter had already found it and was scanning the page.

"There's no mention of it," he said panicked.

"There never is!" Sirius was frantic now. "We have to go to the hospital wing; there must be something they can do!"

"Only remove the colour and puffiness," Remus said sombrely.

They went to the hospital wing anyway. Doctor Nedalski tutted when he saw them but returned their colour and decreased their puffiness instantly, allowing them to leave.

"Are we going to die?" Sirius asked him terrified just before they left.

Doctor Nedalski began laughing. "Why would you die? It's a simple little potion but I think I'll have to be having words with Professor Dumbledore, this isn't the first case this week."

The boys looked confused. "But we were told…She said…I'll kill her!" Sirius declared loudly.

"Who?" Remus frowned.

"That annoying little thing that's taken over Evans' place. Who do you think?"

"Tae? Why would you…" Remus' face changed from one of confusion to comprehension to a smirk in less than a second. "What a clever girl," he laughed.

"It's not funny," Sirius announced as they wandered through the corridors. "She really got me worried."

"Good," a female voice spoke, Tae's voice. "And next time you try to pull a prank on me I'll give you a real reason to."