A/N: Thanks to any one who so kindly reviewed. SHAME ON YOU if you didn't (you can make it up to me by reviewing this chapter)

Disclaimer: I own nothing (except for Jen and a few other people you don't recognize)

Chapter Three

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Jen's POV

I came to the platform alone. Unfortunately, Mum had to go work earlier than we'd expected. Voldemort was on the loose killing muggles, wizards and witches left and right (why couldn't he wait until tomorrow?) and of course, my mum had to work extra early today, of all days. Dad repeatedly flooed to tell me how sorry he was but he still didn't make it, so I was left to fend for myself on the way to Hogwarts.

I'd had to take a muggle cab just to get to the platform and, as if that hadn't been awkward enough for me, the driver had been continuously been looking at my trunk I'd lugged around as if it was a Hippogriff or something. I guess the only good thing was that they (my parents) couldn't embarrass me by giving me their usual goodbyes. Their specialties are numerous when it comes to the, 'How-To-Embarrass-Your-Teenage-Daughter' category. My mum is famous for her bear hugs; while my dad is infamous for his, 'no boys,' lecture.

I was on my way to the train, pulling my heavy, oak truck through the huge crowd of people, when suddenly; I hit something and felt myself falling backwards. The trunk, unfortunately (or conveniently, depending on how you judge the situation) fell directly on my foot. I couldn't see anything thanks to my curly brown (light brown) hair tangled all over my face, although I could hear the sound of another person falling flat on their bum next to me. I stayed on the ground a few moments and waited until I figured whoever it was had gotten up and left, but was surprised when I found a hand offering to help me up as soon as I pushed my hair out of my face.

I took the boy's hand gratefully and gave him a smile speaking for itself. As I got up, I noticed his appearance and couldn't help but stare. He had chocolate, brown hair and matching chocolate, brown eyes that made me want to melt. It was as if a spell had been broken, though, and I suddenly realized that we had been staring at each other for quite an amount of time. Wanting to break the awkward silence I'd created, I decided to strike up a conversation, but couldn't think of anything intelligent to say. An idea hit me quickly enough, and before I could even think it through, it slipped from my mouth.

"Thanks. By the way, I am Jennifer Park. Pleasure to make you fall flat on your bum."

Smooth, very smooth.

"The pleasure is all mine," he replied with a kind smile and I immediately felt myself smiling back at him. Deciding to walk to the train together, we then talked non-stop about anything and everything until we got inside. As we parted, another awkward silence arrived, and we both simultaneously muttered our own excuses, mine being,

"Well, I have to go find my friends. Hope to see you again at school bye now."

I should really learn just to keep my mouth shut.

I kept on walking, idly searching for James, but received no luck. I had searched most of the compartments and still hadn't found anyone with a clue of his whereabouts. I was checking the last five compartments when suddenly I heard a distinctly familiar voice shout.

"Padfoot, get off of me!"

Recognizing the voice as James', I followed the sound of his heartwarming shouts. In seconds, I was standing in front of one of the few compartments I hadn't searched yet. When I looked in through the window (discreetly, of course), I saw, much to my astonishment, a bloke sitting on top of James! My eyes connected with James' as he looked over, and I took this as a good opportunity to enter the compartment. Though they all smiled eerily at me, I could only look confused and slightly embarrassed.

"Er, James, am I interrupting something?" I said with an uncomfortable smile.

"Yes, and I'm glad you did!" The boy I had bumped into before said hurriedly. As luck would have it, he happened to be one of James' best mates. We both shared a secret smile that didn't go unnoticed by James or Sirius.

"Hello git-that-won't-tell-me-his-name." I greeted to the boy whom I hadn't yet met. He stood up straight and tall next to James as I took a hesitant step further into the compartment.

"It's Jen, isn't it?" He said with a roll of his eyes and a chuckle. I glared at him and said,

"Actually, it's Miss Jones to you." I answered with a glare, placing my hands on my hips. He smirked back, causing me to raise my eyebrows in surprise at his boldness.

"Well, Miss Jones, I'm Sirius. Sirius Black. And this here is Moony, but I see you and him have previously met."

He then started making immature kissing noises, much to James' amusement and my horror. My face turned red as a tomato and, as I always did in uncomfortable situations, I spoke before thinking.

"Says the guy who was on top of James for reasons that still haven't been explained to me," I muttered dryly under my breath. My face turned even redder (if that was even possible) as I realized that they had all actually heard me insult Sirius. James simply smiled triumphantly, however.

"A-ha! I told you she would see through your, so-called, 'charm.'" I shot my friend a confused look.

"James, what is going…. er, never mind, my instincts tell me that I honestly do not want to know." I said with a sigh, beginning to turn around to leave. I stopped short when I heard the boy I had bumped into (I think Sirius said his name was Moony?) speak up.

"Wow, James was right. She's a smart one." He said with a smile. Meanwhile, Sirius had a face of utter shock.

"My God! She-she...she practically called me gay!" He cried in horror, taking a seat and putting his head in his hands, completely bewildered at my reaction.

"And you've just found out? Now, now, don't worry. Acceptance is the first step," I said, struggling to smuggle a laugh at his indignant expression.

"Are you trying out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team?" James asked a few moments later after we had all taken our individual seats. I smiled, though there was no joy in it.

"You mean if I'm sorted into Gryffindor first? No, I wouldn't make it." I replied quietly. James wouldn't have given up that easily but Sirius was quick to interrupt, eager to seek revenge.

"That is a wise choice. You are right, you would never make it."

"It's not talent that would force me off the team, you sodding oaf, it's just that I've just got better things to do." I shouted angrily. He looked at me expectantly, ignoring my insult, and seemingly incredulous that something more important than Quidditch existed. I glared heatedly.

"Opening a book once in a while, for example. Maybe you should try it sometime!"

"Are you calling me stupid?" He shouted right back.

I smirked triumphantly. "I think you just said it for me." Suddenly, the compartment door slid open and a pretty blonde girl entered with a smile.

"Hello, Sirius." She greeted, unaware of all others in the compartment.

"Hello, Brittany." Sirius muttered quietly, shocking me as I realized that his tone was a nervous one. "How was your summer?"

"It was alright," she said with a light smile and a shrug of her shoulders. "The only thing that ruined it was this bloody bloke who never wrote to say he wanted to break up with me, never wrote at all in fact."

I had the slightest of feelings that the 'bloody bloke' she was speaking of was Sirius, but couldn't be certain.

"I can take a hint you know!" She continued, this time angrily. "I'm not just one of those daft airheads you date because you need a good shag."

Now I knew for certain that the 'bloody bloke' was, in fact, Sirius. My thoughts were interrupted as the blonde girl (Brittany was it?) continued.

"I guess I'm not as smart as I thought because I actually liked you! Now, though, things have changed. I've had a nice long summer to think things through and I've decided that I never want to see you again!" She cried before hurriedly exiting the compartment, hastily wiping away a tear that had slipped out.

Looking over at Sirius to catch his reaction, I was astonished to see that he looked both hurt and regretful. As soon as I could blink, the regret in his eyes had disappeared, and I almost think I imagined it. Out of pure habit when an uncomfortable situation arose, I looked down at my watch. It was a muggle gadget my aunt had given me. She'd always been strangely fascinated by everything muggle. I blanched as I noticed the time.

"Er, Moony was it?" I asked the boy whom I'd run into earlier.

"You can call me Remus." He quickly corrected. I nodded.

"Right, well, Remus, I think you have to go to the Prefects' meeting?"

"My God, I've forgotten again! You're right, I've got to hurry and change." Knowing that he was short on time, I helpfully muttered a quick, 'Changelous,' under my breath and imagined Remus in his school robes, watching with unhidden satisfaction as the spell immediately took effect.

"Thanks," he said, raising his eyebrows in surprise as he briefly admired my handiwork, before promptly running out of the compartment to what I assume was the room where the Prefects meeting would be held.

"Oi, break a leg in your first meeting," Sirius called after him gleefully. "And by that I don't mean good luck, I mean seriously, break one." I rolled my eyes at his immature comment. A snore suddenly erupted from a boy whom James had earlier referred to as Peter and I sighed as I took in his rumpled appearance.

"Does he do anything more than sleep and stalk you lot?" I asked, taking a seat next to James and across from Sirius and Peter.

"He doesn't 'stalk' us. He's one of our best mates, but yes, he does sleep quite a bit."

"Have you also noticed that he always agrees with anything you lot say?" I added, watching with distaste as Peter let out another loud snore.

"That's simply because we are always right." James answered while Sirius nodded wisely in agreement.

"Right, sure," I replied disbelievingly, much to the two boy's disappointment. "I think I'll go and explore. Perhaps with a bit of luck, I'll find someone who doesn't have such huge egos." I said with a smirk as I stood.

Really, I was just going to walk around for a bit (you understand why sitting with James and Sirius for too long annoys me). I slammed the sliding door shut, cutting off their indignant responses.

Not too long after I'd started walking, I bumped into two girls while thinking about what Hogwarts would be like. One of the girls had long and straight, deep brown hair almost black with blue eyes that had a spark around the irises. I thought her to be quite pretty.

The girl beside her had a badge similar to Remus' pinned on her school robes, so I assumed she was also a Prefect. She was also pretty, but had a bright shade of red hair paired with startling, green, doe-like eyes.

"So sorry. I should really be more careful," I said apologetically as I picked up some of the books the brunette had dropped.

"No need to apologize," the red-head responded. "Honestly, it was our fault. We were looking for an empty compartment and weren't paying attention. I'm Lily Evans." She said with a laugh.

"Right, sorry, I'm not so well with first impressions. I'm Jennifer Park, but just call me Jen." I answered, offering both girls my hand to shake.

"Don't worry, I'm not so great at introductions myself, so feel better knowing you're not the only one. Amanda Brown's the name and it has no utter relation with the fact of my hair being brown." The brunette said with a large smile. The wheels in my head suddenly began turning. Brown and Evans...where had I heard those names before. The two girls began eyeing me strangely so I shook off the feeling that I'd heard of them.

"Right, well if you two would like, you're welcome to sit with my friends and I. I'm sure they won't mind." I offered.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Amanda cried. "We've been searching for quite some time." She then explained.

"Isn't a bit late to be looking for a compartment? The train left the station nearly half an hour ago." I questioned, beginning to lead the way back to James' compartment.

"Yes, I agree, but you see our friend, Alice, and her boyfriend wanted some...'alone time.' In other words, they kicked us out because they wanted to snog." Lily answered with a mocked disgusted look on her face before laughing.

"What House are you in? I don't think I've ever seen you before. What year are you going to be in?" Amanda asked suddenly, eyeing my lack of robes.

I smiled in response. "I'm going to be a fifth year, but I've been home-schooled all my life, so this will really be my first year. My friend helped convince my parents to let me come, thank God. I haven't been sorted yet, though."

"That's interesting. Are your parents both wizards?" Amanda asked. I raised hesitated before answering cautiously.

"Yes. We come from a huge line of wizards, although I think I have a second cousin who isn't a wizard, but that doesn't really matter. She's actually my favorite cousin out of all of them, but she can't even do accidental magic, which I am somewhat grateful for." They each sent me a confused looked as I glanced back at them over my shoulder.

"Don't ask. Long story short, it involves me being humiliated with a lot of melted cheese." They laughed and I smiled as the awkward moment had passed.

"Sounds lovely," Lily answered. Suddenly curious, I couldn't help but interject.

"Lovely that I got humiliated or lovely that I don't care about people's background?" They looked at each other silently for a moment before responding.

"Both," they said simultaneously.

Somehow, a few moments of idle chatter later, the O.W.L. exams came up. Lily seemed to be obsessed with the subject, but I found both her and her friend, Amanda, to be nice girls. I could easily imagine us all becoming good friends if I was sorted into their House.

"This is the one," I announced, stopping suddenly. Noticing that the door was locked and the window covered, I knocked loudly on the compartment door and shouted,

"Oi, open up!"

"You do it!" I heard James mutter.

"Why me? She's your friend." Sirius responded with a snort.

"But you're closer!" James whined back. Completely missing Lily and Amanda exchanging worried glances as they each placed whose voices they heard, I banged on the compartment door again.

"If one of you dolts. Yes that means you James! If you don't open the door this instant, I'll tell these two girls out here about a certain Christmas party!"

That seemed to do the trick as James finally opened the door with a hasty apology.

"Thank you, glad you see it my way. Mind if they stay?" I asked, entering the compartment and taking a seat across from Sirius (better safe than sorry is what I always say). Sirius rolled his eyes as James cracked a smile.

"Of course I don't mind. They're welcome anytime, especially this lovely redhead." He said smirking. And right then, I remembered where I'd heard of the girls before.

"My God, I am so sorry. I didn't realize your last name was Evans. I knew I'd heard your first name somewhere..."I trailed off glancing between Lily and James. She laughed and walked past James without a second glance.

"It's alright. Can't possibly be that bad, and anyway, I am tired of looking for compartments, so this one will work just fine." Amanda reassured me while she as Lily sat down beside me.

"See, Evans, it's not going to kill you to be in the same room with me." James cried out heartily. Lily responded by suddenly beginning to choke herself.

"Nope, you can still make me want to commit suicide," she retorted. Removing her hands from her neck, she then turned to me. "Is he really your friend?" I was a bit defensive but knew that this would eventually come.

"Yes, why is that bad?"

"I guess it's not horrible, I just don't get how you can be friends with such an arse-"

Amanda sighed and shook her head. "Here we go again," she muttered dryly. Lily glared at Amanda, who in turn, simply moved seats and began talking to Sirius about the Quidditch tryouts that were to be held.

"Anyway, all I mean is that I can't understand how you can be friends with-"

"-Such a fun, entertaining friend, who is incredibly loyal." I interrupted quickly.

"There you go, Evans." James said smiling gratefully at me before turning his attention back to Lily. "That, right there, proves that I am not as dreadful as you seem to think I am. So why won't you go out with me?" She hardly needed a second to answer.

"I won't go out with you simply because if there were a prize for being the most egotistical, immature and annoying prat, you would win first place!"

I could see James hurt really hurt so I hurriedly cut in. "Right, well I'll agree on the ego comment, but you only named the bad things. There are a lot of good qualities about him too."

"I can't hear you...sorry, what was that? You'll need to speak up. I don't hear you very well." Lily answered with a laugh. They make the perfect couple; they're both equally immature!

Remus came back into the compartment just then and I quickly abandoned defending James to Lily and directed all my attention towards him as he took Amanda's seat and began talking with me.

He told me what the meeting was about, and then somehow our chatter turned into a discussion about Astronomy. He was fascinated by the subject just as I was, so it was easy enough to keep the conversation going. About an hour later, after we'd all ordered our own food from the food trolley and were all eating, a thought suddenly entered my mind.

"James, what's going to happen with Operation Mmmmm?" I asked. This caused a loud uproar between the boys, not counting Peter, who was still asleep.

"She knows?" Sirious asked aghast.

"And why shouldn't she?" James defended.

"Are you positive you can actually trust her?" Peter added, looking at me skeptically (well who asked you snoring pig…).

"Yes, of course." James replied incredulous, as if such a question was ridiculous.

"Why?" Sirius questioned, not in a mean tone, but in an openly curious one.

"Because," James answered childishly.

"Because why?" Amanda asked again, quite confused. James looked thoughtful for a moment and then suddenly, his face lit up as if a new idea had just hit him.

"Because," He said simply. I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, fine." I snapped, turning on James. "It's because you're extremely immature, jealous, and just not smart enough to figure out when you're wrong. I've helped you with loads of other big entrances." Lily appeared shocked at my outburst.

"You help them?" She asked demanding for an answer as I smiled nervously, knowing I'd talked before thinking again.

"Well, I don't exactly help them, more like give them tips and… Oh, God, I'm really thick. I am so sorry for what I am about to do" I sighed as I realized that no matter how I explained it, the situation wouldn't be fixed.

Panicking, I hurriedly took out my new wand and mutter a hasty, 'Unrememberos,' under my breath. A loud crack sounded through the compartment and suddenly, all was silent. Seconds later, Lily and Amanda's angry facial expressions changed to ones of pure confusion.

"Jen," Amanda began hesitantly.

"Whose compartment are we in, and what are they doing here?" Lily said, taking over for Amanda and pointing at James, Sirius, Remus and Peter.

"Hmm, my friends were here a second ago. Seems they've left, though. I could go and look for them, if you'd like, and you could stay here until I find them." I offered recovering quickly enough to cover up the gap in time they'd breeched.

"No!" Both girls cried, startling me.

"You know, I think it'd be best if we just went back to our old compartment with Alice." Lily said quickly, giving me a fleeting apologetic glance as she and Amanda began creeping towards the door. I inwardly smiled triumphantly.

"Alright then, I guess I'll see you two in the Great Hall?" They nodded in response, reaching the door and quickly pulling on the handle to open it. "Wish me luck on getting sorted into Gryffindor!" I added as they began to exit.

"Good luck!" They both called before nearly running around the corner back in the direction I'd previously led them away from.

"What on earth did you do to them?" Sirius asked me in awe, and as I looked around at the others, I noticed that both James and Remus had their jaws opened and faces registered in shock. It was hard not to laugh, but I managed to stutter a reply in between bouts of laughter.

"It was a s-simple charm my m-mother taught me not too long ago. It's not very strong, but causes a person to forget everything that occurred from the moment the spell is said to just ten minutes earlier." I explained, and ended up laughing again as they continued to take me in with surprise.

"Alright, fine. You can help with Operation Mmmmm. Just make sure you don't get in the way." Sirius relented, referring back to my unsaid request to help them plan their annual entrance at the Welcoming Feast.

"Sirius, you really need to lay off a bit." I replied with a roll of my eyes. Sirius started to come at me but I quickly stopped him with another incantation.

"Storms of fury, clouds of thunder, make this scruffy lad wonder," I chanted quietly and suddenly, a grey cloud began forming above Sirius' bewildered head and soon after started pouring down rain water.

"How come you never teach me any of the cool charms?" James whined while Sirius scowled and swatted at the cloud above his head.

"You know," Remus said thoughtfully, tapping his chin with one finger and watching as Sirius continued his futile attempts to out-run the rain cloud. "That is one useful charm. It could help me wake up Sirius every morning quite a bit faster than my method; menacing him with Peter's socks." I laughed.

"Make it stop!" Sirius cried, trying in vain to cover his head but found that as soon as he brought an object too close to his head, it would ricochet in the opposite direction.

I smirked. "Not until you apologize."

"Never!" He cried dramatically, his ego being too big to admit defeat.

"Alright then, the rain cloud stays." I answered with an evil smile. Suddenly, a teacher burst in the compartment and, looking around wildly, began shouting.
"What's this I hear about a flood?" He yelled.

"No flood, just a rain cloud," I said lightly and pointed at a scowling Sirius. The teacher looked where I'd pointed and I watched in amusement as a panicked look entered his eyes.

"Oh, God! Who is responsible for this? Perhaps it was you James...or maybe Remus, the Prefect, I do believe." The teacher said, beginning to rant about how irresponsible children had become those days. I was beginning to feel a bit scared but then felt that my guilt overcame my terror at getting into trouble before I'd even reached the school.

"It wasn't them, it was me." I said, while looking at my shoes. The professor simply stared at me in disbelief, seemingly blown away that this wasn't one of the Marauders doings.

"Definitely a Gryffindor," he muttered under his breath with a roll of his eyes. "What is your name, my dear?"

"Jennifer Parker" I answered quickly, not wanted to get in further trouble for not answering quickly enough. I became alarmed when a smile suddenly graced the teacher's face.

"You must be the daughter of Andrew Parker. Merlin, he was an amazing Ravenclaw, excelled in all of his subjects. Hmm…and your mother must be…Emily Scott! Am I correct?" I nodded in astonishment as he smiled at me kindly.

"Yes, I thought so. You are the absolute spitting image of the both of them, and by the looks of this spell," he pointed at the still raining cloud. "You've got your mother's boldness, your father's cleverness, and both of their tempers. I'm sure Mister Black, here, did something dreadful to deserve it, and since I don't know how to counter your spell, I've decided that your punishment will be to simply fix it considering we aren't really in school...yet I'll let you off with a warning! Do I make myself clear"

"Yes sir, and I will reverse the spell," I assured him, feeling relief fill my body.

"Right, oh, and by the way, I would appreciate it very much if you accompanied James, Sirius and Remus to a tea party I'm hosting next week." Before I could answer, he'd already left and closed the compartment door behind him.

"Aren't you going to fix Sirius?" Remus asked me with a laugh moments later. I smirked, the evil smile from before returning to my face.

"I will…eventually."

"See, Padfoot," James said with a laugh. "She's completely wicked but has the perfect amount of innocence thrown in. You saw what she did with Evans and Brown. She's a bloody genius." I blushed but let him continue. "Now, we'd better hurry or there won't be any big entrance, so just suck it up and say you're sorry." He said seriously.

"Alright, fine." Sirius snapped in an annoyed tone. "I give up and I'm sorry. Now take this stupid charm of me."

"No need to get so emotional. There you are," I answered, taking the charm off with one, swift arm motion.

"Right and how about drying me?" He asked crossing his arms, as water continued to drip off his soaked body, though the cloud was long gone.

I smirked "I was only ordered to say the counter curse. Never did I hear the professor mention anything about drying you."

"Oh, sod off, I'll just do it," he snapped, muttering the proper spell under his breath.

"Would you lot like to hear what I am thinking for the big entrance now?" I asked as I calmly took a seat again. Remus closed his book for the first time and nodded while Sirius muttered something along the lines of, 'I hate you.' Peter attempted to say yes but instead yawned and, as he opened his mouth, I was granted with the sight of his horribly rotted teeth.

"That's a relief," James answered with a sigh. "I have, for once in my entire life, no idea what we should do this time."

"Right, so I was thinking you all could…"

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A/N: Guess you'll have to keep on reading. Please do! Please, it's a good story but, even if you don't like it, help me make it better by reviewing with some advice. Honestly, you can't be that lazy, just type like it! Remember, though BE NICE! You can be harsh, but not too harsh…. oh, forget it, JUST REVIEW!