A/N: I'd like to thank the awesome people who reviewed this story for my last chapter! That's some major big thanks to LozzT-In-Time, zoesalvatore and CuteLikeMomiji! Your reviews and encouragement and, to Lozz and Zoe, friendship that has sprung up from unexpected places, has inspired me to write this chapter! So I hereby dedicate chapter two to you three!

Full Summary: In the year above the famous Marauders, a small group of Hogwarts students stood; these students were some of the first to see the horrors of the new world, the new regime that Lord Voldemort was building. These students weren't, to many people's surprise, just Gryffindors, but also Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and the odd Slytherin. These students would never be remembered after the First Wizarding War as their bravery and determination was not put to simple faces and names – no, these students were a beacon of anonymous hope for all those who were fighting against Voldemort and his followers. Let this story reveal the true people behind the discovery of the infamous Order of the Phoenix. Let this story live on forever. NOTE! My character Elan Morris has a rather weird name; you might think that it is pronounced like the name 'Ellen', but it is actually pronounced like 'Eee-lan' with a stress on the 'ee' sound. Thanks!

Disclaimer: There are some things in life that we would love to own but it just isn't to be: the Potterverse is one of them. This story is for entertainment purposes only! I own only my OCs!

'The more difficulties one has to encounter, within and without, the more significant and the higher in inspiration his life will be.' – Horace Bushnell

Chapter Two

Of noughts and crosses and of planned events

By half past five that evening, the seven girls who were in compartment number thirty-seven were remarkably talkative. They were all done with drawing, bored with reading and all homework had been finished long ago. Currently, Alice was drawing every last detail of Aurora's new boyfriend out the witch while Sam, Charlie, Marlene and Nyxon chatted about the insanely hard Transfiguration homework that they had just completed while Dorcas read the charms book that they had been set by tiny Professor Flitwick. The compartment, packed though it was, was cosy and all the chatter that floated around them like lazy tendrils of cloud made them feel at home. That was shattered, however, when the door was opened and two students poked their heads into the compartment.

Carmen Morris and Elan Morris, two seventh-year Ravenclaws who often hung out with the girls, were identical twin sisters both asian with dark brown, almost black, hair that fell to their waists and slim figures. Carmen was the more girly sister, while Elan liked to be friends with the boys more than she liked to be friends with other girls; the way she looked at it, boys were less bitchy than girls, and if escaping the bitchiness meant not hanging around with other females, then she was fine with it.

"Hey there guys! Nice to see you all! Have nice summers?" Carmen asked warmly, bubbly, while Elan smiled politely and leaned against the doorframe, her naturally straight curtain of black hair falling over her shoulder like a dark waterfall. Carmen's naturally curly hair was a big contrast, falling elegantly down the side of her face and down her back.

"Carmen! Elan!" Charlie exclaimed, standing up and rushing forward to hug the two Ravenclaws. "It's been so long since we saw you guys."

"Our summers were great, you two," Sam told the twins, rolling her eyes yet smiling at her own sister's exhuberence. "How were yours?"

"Good enough," Elan responded after stepping deftly out of Charlie's hugging range. "Went to a rally about Muggleborn rights. It got ambushed by Death Eaters, of course, but all they did was take him off stage and take him down some alley somewhere. We think they Disapparated with him, because none of us could find any of them afterwards. We sent an Owl to Dumbledore as soon as we got to Eeylops but we fear that we were too late to save him." Her cool tone made it seem as though what she was speaking of was nothing more than a simple comment about the weather, but her worried eyes and shaking hands betrayed her true feelings.

Alice, who was melodramatic about everything, slapped a hand over her mouth, stiffling a gasp, as her eyes widened in shock. "Really? The Daily Prophet posted an article about that rally, said it was stopped halfway through but it didn't say why."

Dorcas and Marlene were also very interested in what Elan had said about the rally.

"Wasn't it James Horwick who made that speech about those rights?" Dorcas asked the twins in a grim voice.

"Yup," Carmen answered, having finally been released from Charlie, who had took a step back when Elan had spoken about the desastrous speech-giver. "We watched his face just fall when they came to get him."

"But he must have known that it was coming," Marlene argued. "What sort of idiot gives a speech about Muggleborn rights in this day and age?"

"He wasn't an idiot," Nyxon said quietly, a calculating gleam in her eyes. "He was just standing up for a bunch of Witches and Wizards who aren't aloud to look after themselves right now. There's nothing idiotic about that."

"That's not the point," Marlene began angrilly, but Sam cut her friend off.

"Mar, now isn't the time for this argument." She said sharply, for the strawberry blonde showed all signs of wanting to carry on with her speech. "We can take it to Dumbledore, ask if he has any news about James Horwick, but we're on the school train. We can't afford to have someone overhear us talking about things like this. What if the next person to walk by this compartment was one of those Slytherins who tried to torture that poor girl last year?"

There was a silence in the compartment that seemed stiffled with fear, anger and apprehension. Every one of the girls were looking at another, worried that they had already said too much.

After a minute, Dorcas Aurora decided to break that silence. "You're right, Sam. This is our last year at Hogwarts so we shouldn't waste it; we should use these next nine months to learn as much as we can about defensive magic so that when we finally get out into the world we can make sure that we can keep ourselves, the people we love and innocent people safe against the Death Eaters."

Two or three of them nodded, Marlene muttered 'damn right', and Sam smiled at the Hufflepuff that her sister was so fond of.

When people looked at Aurora Periwinkle, all they saw was a soft Hufflepuff that was stupid, a silly blonde that had a new boyfriend every few months. But those who were close to her, like the girls in the compartment, like the others that they hung out with at the school, knew that she was strong, braver than most and also cleverer. Aurora was the dictionary definition of judged. And everyone loved her for it, but it would also be her downfall.

As the train sped ever on towards Hogsmeade station and towards their final year at the absolute saftely of Hogwarts castle, the girls realised something absolutely crucial: they had to act like adults, though they were children in an adults' world. It felt like playing dress-up, trying on clothes that were too big in an effort to change who you were, what you liked like to the outside world. They had to act like adults and face up to the things that they wanted to face least of all because to conquer your fear is to defeat the part of yourself that doubts who you are, and who doubts theirselves more than teenagers?

So as night fell over the countryside that sped past their windows, after the Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaws had left the compartment to go and find some of their other friends from their own houses so as not to 'rouse suspicion' (as Carmen liked to put it), the four Gryffindor girls were left alone. Sam, Dorcas, Alice and Marlene just sat and looked at eachother, the importance of succeeding in the war that was errupting around their ears, around their worlds, fell over them. It was up to them; it was a war for their generation, and nobody could truly fight this like people their age.

At half past seven, the Hogwarts Express pulled into Hogsmeade station, letting fly a long, fat flume of steam that melted into the inky sky that was littered with thousands of tiny glittering stars that seemed to wink at the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When the four Gryffindors managed to fight, push and squirm their way through the gathering crowd and into a compartment pulled by what seemed to be invisible horses, they finally let free a breath that they hadn't realised they'd been holding. This was it; they were finally going back to the castle that had been their home for the last six years.

The journey in the trundling carriages up the drive of Hogwarts was enjoyable for the four seventeen year-olds; they amused themselves by gossiping about the students that had changed that they had seen when they had gotten off of the train.

"... And did you see Carlisle Morton? Hasn't he changed this year-"

"He's actually hot now!"

"I totally agree! Oh my Merlin!"

"You guys are pathetic for talking about this... But I must say that I agree with every word that you say."

"Yay! We've finally converted Marlene to our way of thinking."

"We should throw a party."

After this, there wasn't much to do but crane their necks out of the dirty little windows that were in the sides of their carriage in an attempt to catch a glimpse of Hogwarts on their way up the drive.

(Of planned events)

In another carriage some way up from these four Gryffindor girls sat four boys fromt eh same house that were quite famous within the walls of the castle. These four boys went by the names of James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew and they liked to call themselves the Marauders. They were famed for their pranks and astounding ability to cheer anyone up, no matter how sad or hurt they were. They were none too shabby in lessons either (apart from Peter, though nobody seemed to remember him all that much; he paled to insignificance compared to his much taller, much better looking and much cleverer friends), all of them quite able to achieve at least E's in their tests and homework.

At the moment, the Marauders were plotting one of two things: their infamous Start of Year Prank. It happened every year on the first day back; most of the younger students attempted to copy the Marauders in their pranks, but none of them were quite as good as when done by the boys themselves. A long piece of parchment lay between the four of them, adorned with a large drawing of the Entrance Hall and the Great Hall including incredibly detailed annotations about exactly where they had to sit in order to detonate the large bundle of fireworks that were to be placed in the very centre of the Hall. Remus Lupin, who was often considered the brainiest of the group, had written the incantation that would do the job so that his three friends would have no trouble whatsoever in starting up the prank, even Peter who was looking as worried as the plan was detailed. And confusing.

When the carriages bumped to a stop outside the large oak doors to the Entrance Hall of the castle, Sirius Black smuggled the parchment into James' hand and hid the bundle of fireworks beneath his robes as they walked nonchalantly into the Hall. Carefully, oh so carefully, he placed the fireworks underneath a loose tile in the floor as James, Remus and Peter distracted any watching Professors ("Oh dear, Professor, Peter seems to have knocked all the silverware off the table!" "Pettigrew, you stupid boy! Clean this up now!"). After a minute or two in which Sirius jiggled the tile back into place, the boys sat down in their aforementioned places and watched the Sorting unfold before them with a critical eye, waiting for the exactly right moment when they would loose off the fireworks. Finally, then the moment came, Remus gave James a sharp jab in the ribs with his elbows, indicating that he was to perform the spell now. James whipped out his wand from his robe pocket, pointed it in the general direction of the loose tile, and muttered "Expellimellius!"

Immediately, a distant fizzing noise sounded from underneath their feet as the fuses caught fire from the incantation. The four boys allowed eachother a fleeting glance before counting down silently.

Three, two, one-

And all of a sudden, all hell broke loose.

A/N: I love this chapter! Big thanks to LozzT-In-Time for betareading this at short notice. If you see any grammatical errors, it's her fault!

~Leila XOXO