September 1, 1992

Minerva stood at the great hall doors waiting for Hagrid with the first years so then she could give them her beginning-of-year speech. She casted the tempus charm and saw that it was six forty. They were around 10 minutes late. Usually, the students came anywhere from six ten to six thirty, depending on how many students there were and how cooperative they were. Minerva walked outside and stretched her neck to look at the Black Lake.

She couldn't see the boats cross the river yet, but held hope that they were coming soon. She knew that all of the second through seventh years were already in the Great Hall and she figured that they were probably getting antsy. She told herself that she wouldn't wait for that much longer.

It was then when she saw the boats start moving. There was something strange, however- she saw two teenagers that were way too tall to be first years. And those two tall teenagers just had to have flaming red hair. That just led her to one question- what were they up to?

When their boat reached the shore, McGonagall saw that there was another person in it— a girl with hair that matched her brothers'. She was about to scold the three Weasleys, but she saw their faces— they were worried. It was not an expression that Minerva had seen on the Weasley twins' faces that often. The last time she had seen them look so somber was when Angelina Johnson was thrown out of the sky in the championship between Gryffindor and Slytherien in their second year. She was in the hospital wing until the last day of term. What had happened now that they would be here? Had something happened on the train… No, she would have heard about it already.

"Mister Weasleys, would you please come with me for a second? And Rubeus, could you please introduce the children?" Hagrid nodded and Minerva walked toward the great hall— knowing that the two fourth years would follow.

"What happened? Why did you go with the first years instead of on the carriages?" she asked, confused.

"Harry and Ron are missing. They never made it onto the train, or maybe even the platform," said George

"Tell me everything," she said, concerned for the two second years. If last year's demonstration of their recklessness was to say anything, she was rightfully worried.

"Well, you see-"

"Harry stayed with our family during the summer-"

"And we were running a little late-"

"But, we were sure that we got onto the train before the clock turned 11-"

"- but we're not sure if they made it."

"What about Miss Granger?"

"Ginny sat with her. She apparently was very distraught."

"Yeah, Gin said that even Malfoy didn't bother her-"

"When he came into their compartment to most likely bully them-"

"He even looked a little apologetic."

Minerva shook her head. Damn that Severus.

"You two need to go into the great hall, I will deal with this."

"As you say-"

"Minnie, dearest." The twins nodded to McGonagall and sped off to the doors, unbalancing several 11-year-olds in the process. Minerva sighed. Those two brought her back to the glory days with the Marauders; they had the same energy about them.

Minerva walked back over to the worried looking first years and gave her usual speech before turning and going inside, stopping and turning around once to make sure that they knew to follow her.

When they got into the Great Hall Minerva made eye contact with Albus, and then looked to where the Weasleys- minus the two youngest were with a very distraught Hermione Granger was sitting without her two best friends to sit by her side.

Once the song and sorting were over, Minerva went into her designated seat between Albus and Severus.

"We will deal with the Potter and Weasley disappearance debacle later, but we have more important matters to attend to."

"Like what?" Snape sneered.

"We must discuss who we think that Miss Granger worries more about- Mr. Potter or Mr. Weasley."

McGonagall rolled her eyes at Dumbledore and figured that Snape had done the same- or at the very least sneered at the headmaster.

Minerva decided that it couldn't hurt to join in with Albus's little game. "It is obviously Mr. Weasley- look, his entire family is crowded around her."

"They could just as easily be talking about Mr. Potter- he did stay at the burrow this summer after all."

"Well it looks like the Gryffindors aren't the only ones worried- young Malfoy seems rather skittish and keeps glancing over at their table." At this, Snape looked a little closer at the Slytherin table.

"The Weasley Twins informed me that Mr Malfoy went into a compartment that Misses Weasley and Granger were sharing and didn't say anything, instead he looked a little apologetic."

"Interesting…"

The three professors were looking at the second year Slytherin when Snape saw something crash into the Whomping Willow. He told the other two that he would investigate and McGonagall told him that Lockhart— the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for the year— could take care of it before all three of them started chuckling— well as much as they could before they drew attention. Severus walked out of the Great Hall, his robes camouflaging with the shadows on the walls. No one even saw him leave.

Around fifteen minutes of small talk between Albus and Minerva, Snape came back into the Great Hall with his cloak billowing behind him. He walked straight up to the head table where Minerva and Albus were sitting. Severus leaned down so then only the two professors could hear what he was saying. "I have found Potter and Weasel. They decided that it would be a good decision to drive an enchanted flying car to get to school." he watched as Minerva's face turned as red as a muggle firetruck.

"What?!"

"I believe that they should be expelled."

"Severus, take me to them," she said in an authoritative tone, and Snape suddenly felt a shiver of fear of his former professor. Even after all these years, the Scottish woman still frightened him.

Once the two professors got to the office where Potter and Weasley were, Minerva walked in, raised her wand and pulled up two chairs for the two Gryffindors.

"Sit," she said, and they both backed into the newly conjured chairs.

"Explain," she said, her glasses glinting ominously. Weasley launched into the story, starting with the barrier at the station refusing to let them through. "— so we had no choice, Professor, we couldn't get on the train."

"Minerva scoffed. Why didn't you send us a letter by owl? I believe you have an owl?" she said to Harry.

"Well… we didn't think-"

That," said McGonagall, "is obvious." There was a knock on the office door and Snape, with as much of a smile that Minerva ever saw, opened it. There stood Dumbledore.

There was a long and awkward silence until Albus finally broke it. "Please explain to us why you did this."

The two boys went into a story of how they got to school- apparently by a flying car that was conveniently parked at the train station . None of the three professors believed it.

"We'll go and get our stuff," said Weasley in a hopeless sort of voice. What was he talking about? Did he think that they were going to expel them for that? Minerva thought quickly to James, Remus, Peter, and Black and the pranks they pulled. How they weren't expelled was a question that went through almost every student- and professors' mind during what was now called the 'Marauders Era'.

"What are you talking about, Weasley?" barked McGonagall at the boy.

"Well, you're expelling us, aren't you?" said Weasley. Potter looked quickly at Albus.

"Not today, Mr. Weasley," said Dumbledore calmly. "But I must impress upon both of you the seriousness of what you have done. I will be writing to both your families tonight. I must also warn you that if you do anything like this again, I will have no choice but to expel you."

The two boys nodded. After some protest from an angry Severus, it was decided that Minerva would give them their punishment- detention. She smirked a little bit before she gave them food and left.

Minerva was sitting down at her table in her dormitory with a cup of tea cradled in her hands. She couldn't get Harry and his parents out of her head. James would be so proud of his son. She could imagine Sirius and James flying a car to the castle and crash it just to make a big entrance. He loved to be dramatic.

Minerva never gave that bad of a punishment to the four marauders— they were her lions no matter how big of a prank they pulled. And quite frankly, she knew that Lily would have given them a worse punishment than anything Minerva could inflict on them— the silent treatment. When they were in first and second year, James and Black would always bully Lily and Severus, but Eventually, they overcame their differences with Lily.

Once she and James started to date, Lily and Black became friends and had a sibling-like bond that Minerva could never see breaking. Minverva never thought that Black would do such a thing as betray Lily and James, but the facts were facts. What happened happened. But she couldn't stop thinking about the five gryffindors who reminded her why she became a professor. The five students who changed everything.

So as I was rewriting this I realized I'm a sucker for the Marauders. Just wait for year three.