Prequel by Syriana

Chapter 5: The Letter, The First Confrontation, and the Train Ride

A week before the Christmas vacation, the mages sat in the Gryffindor Common room planning what would happen over Christmas break. They all had agreed that they wanted to meet over the vacation to celebrate. Terra had said that there was no way that her 'perfectly black Slytherin family' would ever let a Gryffindor set foot in their house. Rachel had stated that her parents would not be home over break and that she would be alone with her sister and could not host something. Remus said something about fur and said he couldn't host either. Sirius had the same excuse as Terra, and Peter just couldn't, for some reason. So the decision was between the Evans' and the Potters. Bickering.

"You guys can all sleep over at our house,"

"We have a great camping place right outside in our backyard,"

"We have the best area for Elemental training,"

"Why would we be training? I thought we were celebrating,"

"Celebrating, and training,"

"Those two don't mix so well,"

"They mix fine, Lily,"

This went on for about 2 hours, before Sirius got up and yelled,

"ENOUGH!" he heaved a little bit, glaring at the two bickering girls. "We will flip a sickle. Fair enough?" The girls nodded, and James added, "and so we don't have more bickering over the side, Lily's heads, and Ahlia's tails," Sirius flipped the sickle in the air, caught it, and looked at it. He simply stated,

"Tails," Ahlia smiled and a few little phoenixes came out of the fire. Terra backed away from it.

"Whoa! Some fire mage in here is quite happy," she said, smiling also. Every one laughed. After a few minutes of laughter and enjoyment of the moment, there came a tap of a great horned owl knocking on the window. Terra's eyes became wide.

"That's my parent's owl," she said, backing away. "Why would they send something to me?" She detached the letter and looked at the address.

"It's written in silver ink. That means it's from my mother. My mother uses silver ink, my father and brother use black, and I use dark gold even if they want me to use the silver," she said, examining the letter carefully, as if it was going to bite her. She gasped after she read it and handed it to Lily, who read it twice.

Teresa,

Do not bother to come home for the holidays now or ever again. We got Lucius' letter and are very disappointed that you are a Gryffindor, but even more disappointed that you are a light mage and not dark as you always let on. We will decide in the future what we will do with you over the holidays. But you have our permission to go with any of your little friends for the holidays, we don't care, just don't contact us.

-Your parents

Everyone read it, and gave Terra what they could to comfort her. Remus even got up from his armchair and went over to the loveseat where she was sitting, and put his arm around her. When everyone stopped crying for her, they all sat in silence for a while, Lily finally told her,

"You'll stay with me," she said, looking at her strongly.

"What?" Terra questioned, shooting her a confused glance

"You'll stay with me. I won't let you stay here, you are one of my best friends," Terra got up and gave her a bear hug.

"Thank you," she said looking into Lily's eyes. "No one ever cared for me before,"

"Now you have friends," Lily said, "No one is left behind. We're like family,"

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Lily had written to her parents that night and told them that she wanted to have a friend for the holidays. She had gotten a response promptly saying she could have as many friends as she wanted, and that they always had enough room. She had told Terra and her friend had smiled at her weakly as if she were thinking about something terrible. Lily knew it was the end of the letter that she had received. Lily was worried about her friend, but did not dwell on it. After all, today was the day they were leaving for home, and they had decided that they would meet up on Christmas day, to celebrate and train (a LITTLE, as Lily had pointed out to Ahlia). The 8 mages exited the common room and journeyed down to the Entrance Hall where they were confronted by a group of 8 Slytherins, a gang that consisted of Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Black, Severus Snape, Bellatrix Black and 5 other students that they did not know. Lucius sneered.

"Little sister. I hope you are not journeying back home now. Didn't mother and father tell you? No Gryffindors allowed," he said calmly.

"Hate to break your heart, Lucius, but my friends offered me a place to stay over the holidays. I have a good group of friends who look after each other, not abandon us because of who we are, nothing like your cruddy family. Each of them has a heart that is worth twice of what you and your friends hearts are worth combined," she said, giving him a hard amethyst glare that she was well known for by now. Lucius shrank under her stare.

"This is my team. Black," indicating Sirius' cousin, Narcissa, "Snape," he said, indicating a boy with greasy black hair and pale skin, "Black," he said, indicating Narcissa's twin, Bellatrix, "Avery," he indicated a boy with dark hair and equally dark eyes, "Lestrage," he pointed to a boy with black hair and blue eyes, "Parkinson," he said and a girl with dark hair and strangely orange eyes nodded her head, "Bullistrode," and a girl with reddish hair and blue eyes stepped forward. Terra just sneered.

"It's not my team, but it is the one that I am on. This is Lupin," Remus stepped up to Terra's right, "Evans," Lily moved to Terra's left, "Potter," James moved up and stood next to Lily, "Black," Sirius stood next to Remus, "Potter," Ahlia took her place next to Sirius, "Pettegrew," Peter stepped up next to Ahlia, "and Martin," Rachel stepped up next to Peter. Together both groups looked intimidating. Lucius leaned down to Terra.

"We are more experienced than you Give up." He said, and Terra just sneered.

"Bring it on," she said. Lucius stepped back and said,

"Have it your way," with that, not caring who saw, Lucius started a violent wind that was deflected by a wind from Peter. Terra used her power to get vines from outside to tie Lucius' hands to the ground, so that he could not use his powers. He was released by Bellatrix, who turned on Terra and was soon battling with her, vines attacking each other, throwing rocks with spare bits of power at the faces of their enemies. Narcissa threw a wind towards the light mages, which was matched by Rachel throwing a wind in the opposite direction. Parkinson threw a fireball gained from one of the torches in the entrance hall, which was caught and thrown back by Ahlia, Avery used a puddle of water to blast at James and Lily, which was deflected and used by James to send back at him. Lily was soon in combat with Bullistrode, as Remus was with Lestrage. The battle lasted all of 15 minutes before a voice yelled,

"ENOUGH!"

The mages all looked up to see Dumbledore walking down the staircase.

"Enough," he repeated. " All of you with mage powers, come with me," with that, he led them up the staircase to a statue of a gargoyle. He said, "Fizzing Whizbees," and the gargoyle jumped aside to reveal a revolving staircase. They all stepped on and Dumbledore opened the door at the top of the stairs, indicating for them to go inside. All 16 walked in, and Dumbledore conjured a few more chairs, seeing as there was a lack of them in his office to hold 16 students. He then spoke up.

"I am very disappointed in all of you. To use your powers is one thing, and though using them against each other is your destiny, it would be better not to battle where the whole school can see you," Dumbledore said, glaring at each in turn. "50 points will be taken from each of your houses and you will each receive detention because of the fact that you were fighting on school grounds. I know it is hard to refrain from fighting your own destined enemy, but sometimes control is the key. I do not expect this to happen again. All of you have a happy holiday," with that, they left the office, and both groups, a safe distance away from each other, started heading to the train again. As they passed the students still in the entrance hall, they heard the whispers begin.

"They're all mages, couldn't you tell-"

"What is a mage-"

"Well, their elements are obvious-"

"Did you see them, how they fought-"

"That Lucius boy and that Terra girl are siblings, wonder why they fought against each other-"

"Those Black girls and the Black boy are cousins, and they were on opposite sides-"

The mages all walked straight through the crowd without even turning back. They knew that if they did they would start a whole new rumor or story that would spread through the school like a forest fire. They all boarded the train, squeezing into one compartment and sitting down, the boys on one side and the girls on the opposite side. James spoke up first.

"The boys and I decided that each of our groups, meaning the guys and the girls, should have names. The guys and I have decided on names that we think you will like," Lily looked straight across at James and asked,

"What are they?" James smiled and indicated the boys.

"We are the Marauders," he said, and then indicated the girls, "You are the Harmonies," Rachel smiled.

"Harmonies?" she asked, giving Peter, who was sitting across from her, a confused look.

"The harmony of the elements. You all get along exactly as you are supposed to, and that is where your name comes from," the girls smiled. The rest of the train ride was full of laughter, jokes, and Sirius being beaten by Ahlia at wizard's chess 3 times before he gave up. Once they had reached Kings Cross, they didn't want to leave.