Chapter One: Fireworks and Spitballs
The shouts of children and animals seemed were muffled by the walls of the Hogwarts Express, but Harry knew that outside, on Platform 9 ¾, it was very loud. Judging by the amount of luggage and crying parents, this was the first day of new term. Harry looked around at the compartment he was sitting in. Sitting opposite him was a red-haired, puffy-eyed girl, and a skinny, greasy boy who Harry recognized immediately.
"So what?" Snape was saying to her.
"So she's my sister!" Lily snapped back.
"She's only a—" but Snape did not finish his thought. Instead, he changed tack. "But we're going! This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!"
Harry was confused. He had been here before, seen this memory before. Snape had given it to him just before he died. Had something changed? Perhaps Snape, a more skilled Occlumens than Slughorn, had managed to modify the memory without botching it completely? Harry watched as James and Snape got into their first argument, and both him and his mother left the room, looks of disgust on their faces. Harry made to leave with them, feeling slightly let down, but some invisible force prevented him from following Lily and Snape down the hall. He tried to walk again, but he could not get through the invisible barrier. For a long minute, Harry pondered why he could not follow, but then it struck him that this may not be Snape's memory at all.
He re-entered the compartment with his heart pounding, terrified that he would hit another invisible barrier preventing him from getting into his dad's compartment, but to his excitement, he was able to sit down again, and listen to James and Sirius discussing Quidditch.
"—Cleansweep Three, it just came out," James was saying, gesturing to the luggage rack. "It has brilliant acceleration, way faster than the Shooting Star." Sirius stared at James in envy.
"I know," he said ruefully, "my mum bought one for my brother."
"Does he go to Hogwarts?"
"Nah, he's ten," he told him. "Mum buys him whatever he wants, though. Its like she's half in love with him or something—its almost indecent." James laughed hesitantly, and Harry got the sense that his father did not know whether Sirius was joking or not. The door slid open again, and a peaky, brown-haired boy entered the compartment. Harry thought he knew who this was—eleven-year-old Remus Lupin. His hair was combed, his shirt was clean, and his jeans new, but despite this appearance of wellness, Harry thought he could see even now the faint, dark circles under his eyes.
"Mind if I sit?" he asked, gesturing to the seat Lily had vacated earlier. James gave him a once-over and nodded. "Remus Lupin," he introduced himself.
"James Potter."
"Sirius Black."
Remus nodded and stowed his trunk in the luggage rack, but not before pulling out a book and settling himself across from James. James turned back to Sirius.
"So that Snivellus is a right git, isn't he?" James said. "I reckon we'd better put him in his place." Sirius looked interested.
"And what do you have in mind, Potter?"
James reached into the luggage rack and rummaged through his trunk, eventually pulling out a package of Dr. Filibuster's Wet-Start, No-Heat fireworks. Remus glanced up from his book, but did not say anything.
"I like the way you think," Sirius smirked.
The memory dissolved, and Harry found himself crammed into a boat with James, Sirius, Remus, and a timid-looking, round-faced girl Harry did not think he had ever spoken to, but thought he may have seen once or twice before. Night had fallen, and the waning moon was reflected in the water of the black lake.
"Ready?" James said excitedly, and Sirius nodded. He pulled several fireworks from the inside of his school robes, checked over his shoulder to see that no one was paying any attention, and lobbed the fireworks into the water behind the boat Snape and Lily were sharing with a small, tubby blonde boy.
There was a wiz, and the fireworks ignited, glowing red, orange, and yellow in the black water. Snape looked around, alarmed, and then the fireworks began to shoot out of the water with such force the boat capsized. Lily, Snape, and the chubby boy were thrown into the ice-cold water, while James, Sirius, and several other students laughed uproariously.
"Oi!" Hagrid's boat was speeding towards the place the three children had fallen in the lake. He grabbed each by the neck of their robes and placed them back into their scorched, but otherwise unharmed boat. "Wha' were you thinkin', playin' with fireworks in a boat?" Hagrid demanded.
"W-w-we weren't!" Lily insisted through chattering teeth. "H-honest, M-mr. Hagrid…"
"I-it was them!" said Snape dramatically, pointing to Sirius and James. The boats had reached shore and everyone clamored out of them. Hagrid looked at the two boys, who were trying to appear as innocent as possible.
"Did ya throw those fireworks?" Hagrid demanded, but both boys shook their heads.
"No, we were too far to throw them," said James.
"H-he's lying!" Snape hissed angrily, but Hagrid did not press James or Sirius any further.
"Let's git ya inside and dried up, an' after yer Sorted we can work this ou'," said Hagrid diplomatically, and he led them into the entrance hall. Harry saw James and Sirius exchange triumphant smirks. As Professor McGonagall spoke to the first years, Lily, who had been jostled away from Snape and forced between James and another girl, hissed in James' ear, "You're awful, you know that? Sev can't swim. That wasn't funny. You could have really hurt someone."
"Innocent until proven guilty," James whispered smugly out of the corner of his mouth.
"'Innocent?' I doubt you've ever been innocent a day in your life, you stupid spoiled brat," Lily hissed dangerously.
"Kinky," said James with a smirk, and Sirius laughed under his breath. Lily looked furious.
"You stay away from me," Lily told him darkly, "and stay away from Sev. Or else."
The doors to the Great Hall swung open, and the first years filed in.
The memory changed again. This time, Harry found himself in the Gryffindor boys' dormitory—the same dormitory, he realized with a jolt, that he had occupied during his unfinished schooling at Hogwarts. It looked relatively the same, though without Dean Thomas's posters of the West Ham football club, and the scarlet hangings on the four-poster beds were in better condition than Harry had ever seen them.
"Um, next time you decide to pull something on Evans and Snape can I please not be a part of it?" Harry recognized Peter Pettigrew immediately, with his beady, water eyes, wispy hair, and pudgy fingers. He was dry now, wearing pinstriped pajamas that were far too small for him. His voice was squeakier than Harry remembered it, and far more annoying.
"Sorry, Pete," James laughed. "Just trying to put some filthy Slytherins in their place."
Remus was already changed and in his own four-poster between Sirius' and Peter's, and was reading the same book he had been pursuing on the train.
"Speaking of filthy Slytherins," Sirius said, pulling off his shirt. "My parents are going to shit a chicken when they find out I'm in Gryffindor."
"Why would they do that?" asked Peter.
"Because whole blazing lot of them have been in Slytherin!" said Sirius. "They're all about pureblood dominance—it's really annoying to listen to all the time, and my idiot of a brother just laps it up…I swear to God he's going to die from lack of brains." Peter laughed loudly, and Remus cracked a smile, but still did not look up.
"I'm pureblood, too," Peter piped up.
"Same here," James nodded.
"Are your parents a pair of nut job, blood-obsessed crazies?" asked Sirius bitterly.
"Nah, they're alright," said James. "That's rough, mate. You're okay, though."
"Glad you approve."
"What about you…uh…" James trailed off.
"Remus," Lupin reminded him, not looking up from his book. "I'm half."
"What're you reading?" asked Sirius, taking Remus' book from him and reading the title. "'New Theory of Numerology? Gross! Bilmey, that wasn't even on the booklist!" he tossed the book back at Remus as though it might burn him, who shrugged and picked it back up.
"It's interesting," he said simply.
"You must be one of those weirdo genius kids," James concluded.
"No, I just like to read."
James and Sirius balked at him.
"For fun?" Sirius said.
"No, I read because it makes me miserable."
James and Sirius laughed, and unless Harry was very much mistaken, he was witnessing the formation of the Marauders.
The memory changed again. This time, Harry found himself in McGonagall's classroom. James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus made up the back row. James and Sirius were talking in low voices and laughing quietly, while Peter tried to act like he was in on the joke. Remus, on the other hand, was paying attention.
"An animagus is a person who may take on the form of an animal at will," Lily was saying from her seat directly in front of James, clearly answering a question.
"Very good, Ms. Evans, ten points to Gryffindor."
James coughed loudly, and Harry thought he caught the words, "Suck up." Lily turned around and glared.
"That's enough, Mr. Potter," McGonagall told him, and Lily looked satisfied.
Harry bent closer to James and Sirius to hear their conversation.
"—today, after Potions," James whispered. Sirius nodded.
"I'll nick the seeds over lunch," said Sirius.
"Good, and then we'll—"
"SHH!" Lily had turned around again in her seat. "Pay attention!"
"Ms. Evans!" barked McGonagall, and Lily jumped. "Do you have something you with to share with the rest of the class?"
"No, ma'am," she said quietly, glaring at her desk while James and Sirius laughed silently.
James scrawled a few barely legible words onto a spare bit of parchment ("Are you in?"), balled it up, and tossed it at Remus while McGonagall was writing on the blackboard. It hit him on the head, and he picked it up, unwrapping it and reading it under his desk. He wrote a few words on the parchment, balled it up, and tossed it at Sirius. Harry read the note over Sirius' shoulder: I don't have a choice, do I?
Sirius put the parchment back in his cluttered bag. James, meanwhile, was—what else?—spitting spitballs at the back of Lily's head through a straw. She was attempting to ignore the wet bits of parchment peppering the back of her chair. One hit her directly in the back of the head, hard, and she turned around.
"Stop that," she hissed furiously, picking the spitball out of her red hair and throwing it back at James, who spit another spitball at her forehead in retaliation. Lily jumped up.
"Potter!" she shouted. The class went silent, and Professor McGonagall, who had been writing notes on the chalkboard, dropped her chalk in surprise. Lily went pink.
"Ms. Evans!" McGonagall exclaimed. "Five points from Gryffindor! What is the meaning of this disruption?"
"Professor, Potter keeps spitting spitballs at me!"
McGonagall's lips formed a tight line as she strode purposefully to the back of the classroom and held out her hand.
"Now, Professor," said James, smiling endearingly, "do you really want to give me detention?"
Several students giggled nervously, but McGonagall was not amused. The smile slid off James' face and he reluctantly handed over the straw.
"Once more, and it's detention," she told him, and James nodded.
The bell rang and everyone filed out of class. Sirius was laughing uproariously.
"She's such a little princess," he said to Remus, Sirius, and Peter, just loud enough for Lily to hear. She shot him a dirty look and headed off to her next class with two of her friends.
"Merlin, it's like she has no sense of humor," James complained.
"I know, mate. Who doesn't enjoy getting indirectly spat on?" said Remus sarcastically, and Peter laughed.
"Shut up, Pete," said James, annoyed, shooting Remus a dirty look and--
Suddenly, Harry felt a hand on his shoulder, and the memory dissolved. He found himself standing in his kitchen again—but it wasn't empty.
A/N: Ooooh! What is this? Do I smell a cliffhanger? Anyways, I was shocked at how many people reviewed/read this! 7 reviews and 12 author alerts in 24 hours! You guys rock! So I decided to put this up early. I have exams this week, though, so their might not be another update until Thursday, but I promise there will be a nice, long chapter out by the end of the week. Please review, I really appreciate it. And feel free to tell me what's wrong with this, I want to write the best story possible (a LOT of you complained about how short the last chapter was...I know, I'm sorry, my chapters are all going to be much longer).
-Dem