AN: Hey all! Ignis here! This is the second chapter for this, my first ever posted fanfic (yes, I know that here, the first one was HND). Back before this was originally posted, this chapter was betaed by Elwyn and tyrannicpuppy, so many thanks to those guys!
I'll stop boring you and let you go on, so...ON WITH THE STORY!
The two friends had just started to study the map when a voice outside their compartment distracted them.
"Aw, look at that Gred," it said in an overly saccharine tone, "two little lovebirds!"
"I see it Forge," another, very similar voice answered in the same tone, "they are so cute!" It added, gushing.
By now, both Harry and Hermione were blushing beet red. 'Am I that obvious?' Both thought at the same time.
Harry spared a look from the corner of his eye towards the door. There stood two identical redheads, maybe a couple of years older than himself, They were relatively tall, and were sporting mischievous grins on their faces; grins that were suddenly wiped away by two hands, one dark and one tanned, impacting the back of each of their heads.
"Fred, George, play nice," said the dark-skinned girl. She was a bit shorter than the twins, with long, black hair kept neatly in many braids.
"Yeah guys," agreed the tanned one. She had brown, shoulder-length hair kept up in a ponytail, and was around the same height as the other girl. "Don't be mean to them," she added playfully, before they both turned to face the compartment's occupants.
Behind the four of them they could see a dark-skinned boy with black hair kept in dreadlocks trying to stifle his laughter
"Hi!" Chirped the darker-skinned girl, "are you two first years?" She asked them kindly.
Harry and Hermione, both still embarrassed over the twins' teasing, could only nod.
The girl only smiled at them, "well, it's nice to meet you then," she said, "I'm Angelina Johnson, the other girl with me is Alicia Spinnet," the other girl smiled and waved at them, "the two bundles of mischief that teased you are Fred and George Weasley," here, both twins exaggeratedly bowed to them, eliciting a chuckle from Harry and a little giggle from Hermione.
Angelina giggled herself, "and the boy behind the four of us is Lee Jordan," the dreadlocked boy nodded at them with a grin, "we're the Gryffindor's third year, with Alicia, the twins and I being members of the Quidditch team, while Lee is the commentator."
"Say," Alicia suddenly said, joining the conversation, "would you mind if we all sit with you? Your compartment is almost empty with only the two of you," she told them, "and our trunks are kinda heavy." She added with a sheepish grin.
Harry and Hermione looked at each other, nodded, and turned towards the older students.
"Come on in!"
-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-
The older students stowed their trunks and took a seat. The twins and Lee bracketing Harry while the girls bracketed Hermione.
"So," started Lee once he was seated, "you know who we are, but we still don't know who you are," he said, "you do look kinda familiar." He added thoughtfully, looking at Harry.
"Really Lee?" Asked Alicia, "'kinda'? He looks just like Professor James!" She said, before looking a bit more closely at Harry, "Though you have Professor Lily's eyes." She added after her little inspection.
Harry for his part just sighed in mock-annoyance, "you don't know how many times I've heard that," he said, shaking his head, before looking at them with a smirk.
"I'm Harry," he told them, "Harry Potter. Both professors Potter are my parents."
At this, Hermione's eyes sparkled and she turned towards her new friend.
"You didn't tell me that!" She mock-accused him.
"You didn't ask!" Harry answered smirking, "now, why don't you introduce yourself, Hermione?"
The bushy-haired girl just humphed, but the small smile on her face ruined its effect.
"I'm Hermione," she said, "Hermione Granger."
"Well, nice to meet you then, you two," said Angelina with a smile. She already liked these two, they were just so adorable! She would have to remember to tell the twins to start a betting pool on when they would get together though.
"Say," said Harry after a bit, "are you two the Weasley twins?" He asked Fred and George.
"Why, yes we are, Harry," said Fred, or was it George? "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, it's nothing," he said innocently, "just that my parents speak about you two a lot. Mum says that you could turn down the pranks a bit, though we all know she's teasing and trying to stifle her laughter, but Dad just says that you may be able to surpass a group of pranksters from their time at Hogwarts. 'The Marauders' I think he called them."
Alicia laughed while the twins' eyes sparkled.
"Now you've done it," said the tanned girl between giggles, "those two haven't stopped praising the Marauders since around October of our first year!"
"Really?" Harry asked surprised before turning towards the twins, "how did you find out about them? Did my Dad tell you about them?"
"No," said one of the twins, still awestruck at being compared to their idols, before shaking himself and continuing, "we had been caught by Filch and were in his office when Peeves made a mess down the corridor and he had to leave the office," he said, "Fred and I used the opportunity to go through his 'Confiscated and Highly Dangerous' drawer when we found a piece of parchment," he told them, getting more into telling the story, "we knew we didn't have time to go through the full drawer so just took the parchment and left the office."
While George was talking, Fred was going through their trunks looking for something, finally finding it as his twin finished the tale.
"It took us a month to get it to open," Fred said, "I think we frustrated them, because Freya started to give us hints."
It was just at this moment that both twins noticed what was in Harry's hand. They started to look back and forth between the open Map the young Potter had in his hand, and the blank parchment in Fred's.
"Ho-How do you have one?" Asked George, completely gobsmacked while his twin just impersonated a fish, opening and closing his mouth over and over.
During the whole tale, Harry had been putting the pieces together and grew more and more surprised as he understood just how the twins knew about the Marauders. Fred pulling out the blank piece of parchment had sealed the deal.
"You found the original," he whispered.
"The original?" Asked Fred, having regained the ability of speech.
"A-As I told Hermione before you guys arrived," Harry started, "my parents, uncles and aunts made the map during their 5th year. They made this copy for me to take to Hogwarts and Dad gave it to me in the platform."
"Your parents are Marauders?!" The twins asked, almost shouting with glee.
"I knew it was weird that you two were almost never caught!" Said amusedly a female voice from the compartment door.
The whole group looked towards the hallway, where both James and Lily Potter were standing, amused smiles on their faces.
"You really were a prankster, Professor Lily?" Asked Angelina, she couldn't believe that her young professor had been a prankster.
"Oh, she is a prankster," answered James with a smirk, an identical one now on Harry's face, "Artemis here could be the worst out of all of us when she wanted to, to be honest."
"Oh shush Prongs!" Said Lily with a smile, smacking her husband's chest.
"Who were the others?" Asked the awestruck twins, they were being taught by their idols all this time! How cool was that?
James just chuckled a bit before answering.
"Now that would be telling," he told them, smirk still in place, "but I'll tell you what. Lily and I will tell you all some stories about the Marauders during the year. how does that sound?"
They all were quite enthusiastic about the idea, even Hermione was interested after Harry told her the amount of research and work on advanced magics that went into their pranks.
"Well, we should get going," said Lily, "we just came by to check on Harry during our rounds. See you all at the castle!" She told them warmly with a smile before taking James' arms and continuing their patrol of the train.
'This year is already looking up to be extremely good.' Thought Harry with a smile.
-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-
The group spent the rest of the journey chatting, the twins regaling the group with stories of some of their pranks, while Harry responded in kind with stories of how his family taught him how to prank, and the pranks the Marauders pulled on each other after Hogwarts.
It was hours later that both Harry and Hermione had fallen asleep next to each other. Hermione was snuggled in Harry's side, her head resting on his chest while Harry had an arm around her shoulders, his Map and wand on his lap.
Angelina was just looking at them with a silly smile on her face, they were just too cute! But she knew she had to wake them up, they were near the station now and they needed to change after all.
AN: So, how was it? Good? Bad? Let me know in the reviews! Also, if you spot any overlooked errors, don't hesitate to let me know! It's the only way I'll get better after all.
So, this chapter was not as mushy and fluffy as the last one, but I wanted to introduce these characters early on, and give the older chasers a big sister kinda feel that I'm not sure if I achieved. And the only reason I didn't add Oliver too is because I have no idea how to write him outside the quidditch pitch
Anyway, I've got nothing more to add, so I'll see you on my next chapter or story! Or the reviews on other stories, who knows?