Chapter 2: Exchange Students

"Excuse me students, May I please have your attention?" Dumbledore called just as the three Marauders walked into breakfast, all still deep in thought. They looked up to see three tall girls their age standing next to the headmaster. They looked different from the other girls, Remus noticed they had something of a tan, and they each had a big grin on their face, one could tell they were excellent friends. The Hall was silent.

"Excuse me for interrupting your breakfast, but I would like to introduce some new students to you. These girls are part of our new exchange student program and have traveled all the way from California in America to attend Hogwarts, and I am hoping you will give them your most sincere welcome. Jamie Bilden," Dumbledore pointed to a bubbly blonde with bright blue eyes and an easy, open smile, "will be one of our prefects this year while all three have been sorted into Gryffindor House." Cheers from Gryffindor, mostly boys, arose as the girls found a seat at the Gryffindor Table.

"You may now resume your meal" Dumbledore seated himself at the Head Table.

"Damn they're hot" Sirius remarked, "Did you see that one with the brown hair? I think maybe we should go greet our new fellow Gryffindors, don't you think so boys?" Sirius had a lecherous grin that James and Remus knew all too well.

"Hello ladies, we're the Marauders. I'm James Potter, this is Sirius Black and Remus Lupin," Gesturing to each of them.

"Oh yes, we've heard sooooo much about you!" a red-head, with navy blue eyes, and a sprinkle of freckles said excitedly.

"You have?" James said, clearly surprised. They sat down around the girls.

"No," said the blonde, Jamie, laughing. "You just acted like we should. Couldn't help but poke some fun at your self confidence, sorry nothing personal." At this the three lapsed into laughter, real laughter mind you not the silly twittering giggles more common to girls of a certain age. It ended though and Sirius slid next to the brunette who was 1 or 2 inches taller than her already tall friends, but still shorter than the present Marauders. She had spicy hazel eyes, shiny brown hair, and a tan complexion.

"So what are your lovely names?" Remus asked.

"I'm Annie Martin" said the red head.

"I'm Jamie Bilden, which you should know already."

"Yeah, I heard you're a prefect so am I" said Remus.

"Oh awesome, I'm so glad I met another prefect! It's a lot easier than asking around, you'd think that they'd choose someone who's been here for awhile as a prefect. You're going to have to help me find my way around here." Jamie flashed Remus a smile.

"Well they usually do, but I think your exchange sent all the candidates to America." Remus replied.

"And what's your name" asked Sirius giving the brunette an unnoticed once over.

"Elizabeth Lawrence, but you can call me Lizz, everyone does."

Huh, James thought. Even James couldn't believe Sirius had the girl liking him that much already, well a new one, not informed of his reputation. Okay that's not right, Sirius could pick up a girl in the middle of a Quidditch Match while the winning shot was being scored, if he wanted to. Remus, however, caught what was going on.

"You girls do know that here you call everyone by their last names until you are either good friends, dating, or have um… a serious interest in them? It's like flirting." Remus said.

Jamie and Annie had their hands over their mouths, trying very hard not to laugh, while peering over at Lizz who was incredibly embarrassed and turning red. She looked at Sirius who had a disgustingly pleased look on his face. Lizz got a bit angry at that and determined to wipe it off his face she said,

"Well I obviously didn't mean it like that at all."

"You sure?" remarked Sirius as he let a devilish smile, that was known for melting just about every girl's heart (or at least question her morals) within a 10ft. radius, spread across his face. Lizz's color rose more but she didn't falter

"Yah, duh, you can call me Lawrence then." Lizz said and turned away from a very shocked Sirius.

(Later after Herbology…)

"Isn't Hogwarts way better than Saldrons? I love the castle, it's just the kind of place I always wanted to live, and these cloaks, or are the capes?" Jamie swirled hers for the hundredth time, "are so much fun compared to the sailor outfits we had to wear at Saldrons. Not to mention some of the guys here are pretty darn hot." Jamie said gazing at the towering castle.

"Jamie!" Lizz and Annie scolded.

"What?" a smiling Jamie asked, she knew very well what.

"You have a boyfriend in California! A rather cute and very rich boyfriend may I remind you!" Lizz scolded.

"Awww Lizzy I know and I do like Ryan a lot and I'll stay faithful, but even you have to appreciate the hot English boys!"

"It's hard not to." Annie laughed.

They were having a good laugh as they walked back to the castle when they realized a group of girls was headed in their direction. All of them had obviously put a lot of thought into their immovable hair and the inch-thick cake of make-up plastered to their faces. Jamie really tried not to sneer, but god they had hoped to leave this kind back in California. One girl, obviously their leader, walked up ahead of her entourage.

"Hallo my name ees Vivian Lefleur," the girl said with a bad French accent. "I vanted to velcome yu to Hogwarts and vould yu like to, how yu say, "hang" vit us?"

"No thank you, I don't think we could fit in with your, how you say, "gang'. " Jamie said, smiled, and ran off with Annie and Lizz to Charms. They had to work hard to keep their faces straight at the sight of Vivian trying to figure out if she had been insulted or not.

"I don't think they like us Vivian" a small Hufflepuff named Judy said.

"Of course de did dahling, ze vere just shy." Vivian said, turning back to her entourage.

"I didn't think that much make-up could stay plastered to a person's face." Annie said under breath as the three passed through the busy halls. They chuckled, but they realized they had missed Charms somewhere. Then the seam of Jamie's shoulder bag popped and all her things were soon headed on a crash course for the floor.

"Strophicus!"

All of Jamie's things froze in midair a couple of inches from the floor. She looked up to see Remus, wand in hand, striding towards her. Part of her really was not trying to notice how beautiful his eyes were, the other was staring hoping she hadn't left a "feminine item" in the bag.

"Bilden, you okay?"

"Yah, thanx" Jamie was caught off guard by the use of her surname.

"You certainly were carrying a lot of books, how many classes do you take?" He began to pluck the books out of the air as he talked.

"Oh! These aren't for classes I'm reading them for fun! Good thing you came along that librarian looked like she would rip me apart if I hurt the books. God knows I do the same when someone does anything to mine, so I guess I shouldn't really judge." Jamie said, also grabbing her things and flashing Remus another smile as he helped her. Jamie noticed the large pile of books in his hands and bit her lip.

"I… Uh really like to read"

"More like an addiction." said Lizzy popping up beside Jamie and grabbed some of her stuff to help carry, as did Annie.

"Annie reads a lot too!"

"Yes, but not for six hours straight before I do my homework like you." Annie replied.

"Really?" said a grinning Remus. "Well if you're going to be carrying around all these books maybe I can help."

He pointed his wand at Jamie's bag and it immediately sowed itself back up and glowed with a blue light for a couple seconds. He placed the books he had collected in it and handed it to her.

"Now it won't break until you put two tons in it" he wore the tiniest of smiles.

"Cool, where did you pick up that spell?" An astonished and delighted Jamie examined her bag.

"After the sixth time my bag broke I figured there had to be a better solution. So I found the Two Ton Charm."

"Well thanks aga—Oh we forgot about Charms! Uh… Remus, I mean Lupin, would you mind showing us the way to Charms?"

"No problem, I was headed there myself. We'll meet up with James and Sirius."

Once they got to Charms they saw James and Sirius, who had of course realized they had Charms with the girls and had saved them seats. There was a smaller, pale guy beside them and his stare was a bit uncomfortable.

"Hello ladies, we want you to meet another and final Marauder: Peter Pettigrew." Sirius pointed at the pale kid.

"Hi" squeaked Pettigrew. Peter blushed though when Lizz plunked down next to him, Jamie pretended she hadn't noticed.

"Hi" said the girls cheerfully. They were glad to be sitting; their first day was already a little stressful. Professor Flitwick welcomed the class to the new year and launched into his lecture on charms for hair and make-up. He thought he was being kind to the new girls, but he failed to notice they didn't do their hair or make-up. Not that they were hippies or anything, they just never really thought about worrying about it.

"Hey thanks again Lupin." Jamie whispered as she hurriedly scribbled down a charm for hair color.

"Call me Remus"