A/N: So, you know, I obviously can't thank you for the reviews since I'm posting this at the same time as the prologue. But I'm hoping to change the summary, 'cos it totally sucks, and I actually want people to read this, because I like reviews...And that was totally irrelevant. Whatever.

And if any of you are following my other stories, yes, I deleted 'Harping on the Rez' and 'Dangerous Games.' The first one was just too weird and bad and the second one I totally changed the plot. . . I will be posting it again, but not any time soon.

Songs:

Hmm...Tell me, do any of you even want to know?

Chapter 1: Illegitimate Love Children

"I swear to Merlin, Daelia, if you tell Lupin what I just said..."

I giggled as I listened to my best friend, knowing that I would most likely accidentally let slip the fact that Nellie Parker might just have a little crush on our very own Remus Lupin.

Of course, I would never intentionally say anything, but sometimes I ramble, and things that aren't supposed to come out just get said...

Which is why I think that Nellie should just stop telling me things. However, she still has hope that I'll someday be able to keep my mouth shut, and who am I to argue? I may be the scarier of the two of us, but Nellie can always find someone else to injure me if she wanted to.

I stared out the window, watching the trees blur by. We had now been on the Hogwarts Express for about forty-five minutes, on our way to our sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We were now at the stretch of forest on our trip, the part that had always been my favorite part. I grew up in the rural part of England, and I even lived in Ireland for a few years. Nature is kind of...my thing. I've always loved running through the forest, even if I do tend to get lost very easily.

Anyways, I honestly wasn't surprised that Nellie fancied Remus Lupin. He was one fourth of the infamous Marauders.

I still barely understood the name. They were a group of four Gryffindor boys, in our year, who loved to cause trouble. You hardly ever saw them doing anything school-related, (Other than using spells to hex random people) and yet they were still the smartest boys in our year. The whole school, practically. Remus was about the only one that studied; Peter Pettigrew was really just their lapdog.

James Potter. He was a pureblood, which is something people seemed to care about these days, but you would hardly be able to tell. Most pureblood families were obsessed with ridding our world of muggleborns and half-bloods, like me. James and his family were what many called 'blood-traitors' because they didn't care about blood status. Especially considering James has been in love with Lily Evans, a muggleborn and also one of my very good friends, ever since she rejected him sometime in third year. Since then, he's become her own personal stalker. He asks her out every chance he gets, even though she never accepts. Truthfully, I think he just keeps asking her because she's hoping that she'll get so annoyed that she'll got out with him just so he'll shut up.

Brilliant plan, Jamesie-boy.

The last fourth was Sirius Black, man-whore extraordinaire. He and James have been best friends since the first train ride to Hogwarts, and together they reek havoc on the entire school. (Mainly Slytherins, which is why I'm lucky to be in Gryffindor with them.)

Sirius Black is from one of those crazy maniacal pureblood families, but I'm not so sure they like him too much anymore. Everyone in his family has been sorted into Slytherin, so he's the odd one out. And Sirius doesn't really care whether you're muggleborn or your blood is purer than his, just as long as you're not a Slytherin, he'll leave you out of his particularly violent schemes.

I should probably admit now that I don't like Sirius very much. He's good-looking, sure, but he knows it. And he uses it. I can't even remember how many times I've had girls running past with tears running down their cheeks, screaming something about Sirius Black being an arse.

I don't mind Remus, he's actually a very sweet boy, and although his looks are quite nice, too, he doesn't seem to care about them. I don't even talk to Peter, because, honestly, barely anyone does. His looks are nothing compared to the rest of them, and his talent level isn't very high, either. People acknowledge him because of the other three, but no one really knows anything about him.

And James, well...James and I go way back. I knew him when we liked to play in the mud in the backyard, when I still carried around a teddy bear and he still tried to eat tree bark. James may be annoyingly arrogant, but he's always been around to help me, I knew he was serious about Lily, (I mean, come on, the boy hasn't been on a real date in years) and he was very loyal.

Actually, they all were. Especially to each other, but if you were being harassed when you didn't deserve it, they would be there to help. Because of my connection to James, they've all always been a little overprotective when it's not really needed, but I knew there was nothing I could do to stop them. The Marauders would always be stubborn, and if someone in school tried to tell me something else I'd lock them up in the loony bin.

Of course, the fact that I was good friends with James was not exactly appreciated by Lily, but by now she's learned to deal with it.

At least, I think she has. But what I think never really seems to matter, so...

I sighed loudly and pushed my light brown bangs out of my eyes. Nellie stared at me, amused, because she knew how much I hated the fact that I had to brush them out of my face every five minutes. She always told me that I should get them trimmed, but I refused every time. My hair is slightly wavy and goes down to about the middle of my back, and I haven't gotten it actually cut for three years. I've been trying to grow it out, even though I really have no idea why, and I want it to keep growing. It's so light that it's almost blond, and many people like to argue about the fact that it's really just strawberry blond.

My opinion? I don't really care. It never gets too messy, so if it wants to be blue, I don't give a flying dragon.

"So, Daelia, I hear that you decided to get a cat this summer?" A voice said from the door. I turned to see Lily Evans smirking while she leaned against the compartment door. Alice Prewett, another Gryffindor sixth year, was standing right behind her.

"Yeah, so maybe I did decide to get a cat. Is there a problem with that?" I responded, a little defensively.

Lily's smirk grew more pronounced. "Oh, I don't know, maybe because you've been swearing that you'll never get a 'beastly ball of fluff that just eats everything you own' since first year."

I sighed dramatically. "Alas, this beastly ball of fluff was too cute to pass up." I said, motioning towards the cat that was lying on my lap.

It was true, ever since the time during first year when one of the fifth year's cat started rampaging around, utterly ransacking Gryffindor tower, (And eating a pair of my favorite Converse in the process) I'd been swearing that I would never own a cat. I always complained about all the little first years, because it seemed as if they all had cats and kittens that were there specifically to torture me.

I mean, isn't that what the first years themselves are for? They don't need crazy psycho kitties to do it for them.

But when Nellie and I had gone shopping in Diagon Alley for school supplies, she'd needed to go to the magical creatures shop to make sure her owl was okay. And then I'd seen this adorable little silver cat, and she'd looked at me with her yellow eyes, and I had to have her. Since then, she's been perfectly behaved.

"Well, just don't train it to attack or anything. We've got Potter to do that." Nellie said, casting an amused glance at the now scowling Lily.

"Yes, Lils, have you had any run-ins with him yet?" I asked, playing along with Nellie's scheme.

Lily's scowl deepened. "No, but I'm sure it won't be long now. I'm sure Remus has told him that the prefects meeting is over. He always manages to find me when we're on the train."

"It's a train, Lily. There may be lots of people, but it doesn't take more then twenty minutes to find a specific person." Alice chimed in.

"Knowing James, he's probably got some kind of tracker on her, too." I added, causing Lily to glare at me.

See, my dear friend James is obsessed with my other dear friend Lily. He's liked her since second year, but ever since she rejected him...I swear, he asks her out at least twice a week. And it's not always in a nice, romantic way, either.

But we all know that they're going to end up together. Everyone except Lily, of course. And I know that even though James seems to be constantly arrogant, he really does worry about Lily never saying yes.

No, the constantly arrogant one is James' crime buddy, Sirius Black...Who I refuse to say anything else about, because that would be entirely too long.

We've got bets on when Lily is finally going to say yes, although Nellie is already out. I say December of the seventh year. Alice says May of this year, and it varies with all of the other Gryffindor.

We've also got bets on how long Black can actually hold a relationship. His record is three weeks. My bet? My bet is that he can't last any longer than that.

I glanced at Lily to see her grimacing, and I shot her a questioning look. She just stepped into the compartment, Alice trailing behind her, and they both tried to fill up as much space as possible.

At first, I thought that it was going to be James, but when I heard the obnoxious giggling, I knew exactly what was about to happen.

Two girls stepped into our compartment, both taller than any of us. One slightly taller, with black hair (That I knew was died, thanks to the fact that I shared a dormitory with her) and a haughty face that always managed to remind me of Narcissa Black. She was obsessed with wearing heels, and she seemed to think that she ruled all. (When, in contrast, I'm the one that rules all. Well...No. I guess not.) The second, who was slightly shorter with chocolate brown curly hair, practically worshiped the ground that Sirius Black walked on. She had dark brown eyes that were, in my opinion, incredibly boring. She didn't wear stilettos, like the fake black haired girl (Who was really just another boring brunette) but she was almost always wearing boots with four inch heels. She did everything Elvora told her to, and sometimes I wondered if it was just because Elvora was blackmailing her or something of the like.

These two girls, Elvora and Shannen, were two other Gryffindors in our year. The four of us hated them, mainly because they spread gossip wherever they walked. And because we were their dorm mates, we were their prime targets. This one time when I'd gotten the flu and started throwing up in the morning, they felt the need to spread around the whole school that I was pregnant with Professor Slughorn's lovechild.

Another time, when Elvora had caught Nellie with a thong in her trunk, they'd both spread about that she was 'selling herself' to the highest bidder. For months afterward, students kept asking her for. . . services. . . for money.

Just last year, they'd told the whole school that I was having an illicit love affair with Severus Snape, (A very disgusting Slytherin whose obsession with Lily was even more frightening than James' obsession.) all because he had been answering a question about Potions in the library for me. For weeks after, James had refused to talk to me.

Have I mentioned that I seem to be their main target? No? Well, I am.

All because of some stupid nickname that I don't even like...

Anyways, even if most people don't listen to their rumors, there are always a few that do. And then they try to convince the rest of the school...

Let's just say that I doubt that any of us will be sad when we never have to see them again.

"So, girls, long time no see, yeah?" Elvora said, obviously trying to hold a smirk off her face.

No one else responded at first, just glared, so I rolled my eyes and said, "Yes, and we're seeing you all too soon. Don't you have some lowly Slytherin to shag?"

Her eyes locked on me and narrowed. Even if that nickname originally gave her a reason to hate me, the fact that I talk back to her fuels that hatred. I mean, Lily talks back to her too, and so does Alice. But when we're all together I'm usually the one that speaks to her.

Mainly because I have so much fun doing it.

"And don't you have a baby to go see?"

I widened my eyes and put on my most innocent face. "Oh, no, haven't you heard? Old Sluggy decided that he'd rather take care of it. Didn't want our child completely parentless, he said."

Nellie giggled and as Elvora glared at me, Shannen tucked a brown curl away from her face and turned to Nellie. "And how about you, Parker? Still picking your nose while you wait on street corners for some horny muggles?"

Okay, I don't care what they say to me, because I can handle those kinds of things. I fight fire with fire, and sarcasm is like a second language to me. But Nellie? Nellie is sweet and shy, and her self-esteem is low enough as it is.

I whipped out my wand and they both glanced at me cautiously, most likely remembering fourth year when I gave them both bright orange hair and monkey tails. I was just about to think about giving them both a hair growth spell, so their grows fast everywhere, but a voice interrupted me.

"Aw, hexing without us? I'm ashamed of you, Muffin." I flinched as I heard that stupid nickname, not even needing to look towards the compartment door to know who it was.

Elvora stepped aside, smirking and trying to look seductive, while Shannen's eyes brightened and she looked like she'd just been told that she'd inherited a huge fortune or something.

Black smirked a little, too, as he glanced at the two of them and walked into our compartment, James right behind him. He smiled warmly at me for a moment before pulling his gaze to Lily, which was to be expected.

Black walked over and sat next to me, in the spot that Nellie had conveniently vacated seconds ago. I glared at her as I started petting Strawberry. Black was a little too close for comfort as he threw an arm around me and said, "I've missed you, Muffin! You never wrote me!"

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "First of all, neither did you, second of all, I didn't want to write to you. It's just a waste of my life."

He pouted and said, "Aw, Muffin, you wound me. Maybe I didn't write to you because I was too afraid you'd reject me."

I snorted again, only then realizing that Elvora and Shannen were still standing right inside our compartment, both glaring at me.

"Well, Sirius, I'm sure Muffin had other things to do with her time. Like taking care of that precious baby of hers." Elvora sneered.

I knew that Sirius wasn't exactly fond of either Elvora or Shannen, so what he did next was no surprise. He mock gasped and turned to me. "I thought you got rid of it! So are you telling me that I've got another illegitimate child?"

I laughed and Alice and Nellie giggled while Lily glared at James. Elvora glared some more while Shannen looked horrified. Finally, Elvora said, "Come on, Shan, let's go." And tugged on Shannen's arm to get her to stop staring at Sirius like he was her god or something.

I let out a breath as they finally left, reaching up and pulling Sirius' arm off of me. He frowned and said, "Muffin, do I not get to welcome you back?"

I groaned. "Stop calling me that. How many times have we been over this?"

He grinned. "Not sure, love, but I will never stop calling you Muffin."

I groaned again as I leaned my head back, noticing that Alice and Nellie were both stealing glances at the two of us while James talked quietly to Lily. Surprisingly, she didn't look like she wanted to rip his throat out.

I could still remember the day that Sirius gave me that stupid nickname. The first time I'd ever talked to him was breakfast on our first day of classes in first year, and I was apologizing for accidentally throwing throwing a muffin in his face. I'd been aiming for James, just because he was being annoying, but a Ravenclaw had run into me and caused the muffin to go to James' left and hit Sirius right in the face. Sirius had looked shocked for a second and then laughed it off, deciding that he would forever call me 'Muffin.' The fact that muffins were the only thing I was eating that day didn't exactly help my case.

That was the reason that Elvora had started hating me. At the time, she was quite smitten with Sirius, (Still is, actually) and was upset that he'd given me a nickname and not her. She'd even asked me about it one time during the beginning of third year, before she'd gone all rumor-bitch on us.

"So do you think if I did something cute like accidentally hit him with a muffin or something, he'd like me and give me a cite nickname?"

Cute? That nickname is not cute, nor will it ever be. I snorted. "I doubt it. Black just loves to annoy me."

She pouted. "But...Why does he like you more than me?" She exclaimed angrily.

I stared at her like she was crazy, and left the conversation at that.

After that day, she'd joined forces with Shannen, (Who had actually been a sweet girl that both Alice and I were friends with) and together they formed what I liked to call the Vixens. I think you can figure out why I call them that in your own.

A peal of loud thunder broke me from my thoughts. I'd had no idea it was even raining.

Sirius smiled down at me. He knew that I had a fascination with storms, and that I loved when it rained. I always tried to get outside so I could just stand there and let it fall.

But I'd most likely get pneumonia from that, so...

I turned towards the window, but couldn't really see anything because of the droplets that were falling together to form a small stream and racing down the window. All I could see was dark gray and the occasional flash of lightning.

I looked back at Sirius and asked something that I'd been dreading, but had noticed since he first stepped into the compartment. "You seem...better." I started hesitantly, keeping my voice low so that no one else could hear. "I mean, you're always happy to come back to school, but usually...You usually look worse than this when we first get back."

He grinned happily, although his eyes adopted a dark look. "Yeah, I ran away to the Potter's this summer. Got tired of all of it, and...They're like my second family. You didn't know?"

I shook my head. "No, I haven't talked to James all summer. I was in Ireland with...them." I grimaced as I said the last part; he knew exactly who I was talking about, and so would anyone else in this compartment, though they were the only ones. (Other than Remus. Hmm, wonder where dear Remus is today...)

I lived with my twenty-four year old sister, Evangeline, and her husband, Marcus.

Dad? He split when I was eleven. Simple as that. As for Mom, well, that's a bit more complicated.

Mom and Dad? They used to be completely happy. It always gave me hope, seeing them together. I'm not exactly a hopeless romantic, quite the opposite, really. I'm more of a cynic. But when I saw them together...It was obvious that real love was possible. But suddenly, Dad decides that he needs a break and wants to 'see other people.' They got married when they were real young, and he felt as if he needed to know what was out there. In other words, he found some twenty year old and accidentally got her pregnant. (At least, that's my theory.)

Mom had always been a dedicated Healer at St. Mungos, but once Dad left, she went into overdrive. At first, she was probably home for about an hour a day, and when she was, she brought the cases with her. After a few months, on most days, she wouldn't come home at all. Evangeline had already gone to live with Marcus, so I was left to fend for myself. I didn't mind too much, except for the fact that there was never any food, and Mom never left any money for me to go to the grocery store. It was almost like she completely forgot that I lived there.

So, that summer, I practically became a permanent fixture at the Potter house. Sirius was there quite often, too, so we kind of had to tell him why I was always over digging through their fridge or waiting for Mrs. Potter to make something. third

The summer after third year was exactly the same, except I don't think I even saw my mother once. There were many times when I would fall asleep on the Potter's couch while watching a movie with James. None of the family ever seemed to mind, though, and more than once they all suggested that I permanently move in with them. Even Sirius suggested it a few times.

And then, in the middle of fifth year, while we were home for Christmas break and I was sitting in their living room with James and Sirius, Mrs. Potter came through the door with a disturbingly blank face. She informed me that my mother had been attacked by one of the patients she'd been caring for, and that she'd 'passed on.'

The thing that most disturbed me wasn't the fact that I felt entirely alone now. It was the fact that no matter what I thought about, I couldn't bring myself to care as much as I should. Sure, I'd been sad, but I didn't feel like anything tragic had happened.

I was sitting at the kitchen table when Sirius walked in and sat down right next to me. After a few moments, he asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"

I laughed humorlessly. "What's there to talk about? I'm a heartless bitch who can't bring herself to cry over the fact that her mother is dead."

He put an arm around me and pulled me closer. "You're not heartless. Otherwise you wouldn't be feeling so guilty about not caring."

I sighed. "I just...I think I lost her a long time ago, you know? I haven't seen her or talked to her in over a year. I think I've already grieved for this."

So really, I may not particularly like Sirius Black, and I may think that he's a man whore, but he's been there for a lot. I can't exactly bring myself to hate him after everything.

Suddenly, two girls stopped right in front of the closed door to our compartment. The taller girl stood and glared at Sirius for over a minute, glanced at me for a few seconds, and then walked away.

I turned to Sirius and quirked an eyebrow. He grinned sheepishly. "Ex. It was a relationship that didn't end very well."

Lily and I both snorted. "Yeah, and how long did this one last?" I asked.

"Uh...I think it was eight days?" He glanced at James for conformation, and James nodded. "Yeah. Eight days."

Alice shook her head. "What ended it this time?"

Sirius smirked. "Well, she caught me snogging her cousin in James' front yard."

See? Man whore.

Yes. There you go. Now go and review, even though I've already got another chapter up. Just...review.

Disclaimer: This is probably the only time you'll see this. But I don't own Harry Potter. Or the characters, except for my OC's. And this plot, which I have never seen before, (even though I'm sure it's out there) so you cannot accuse me of stealing. Don't be fooled. I'm not J.K. Rowling. :'(