Wow! Time jump!

The Marauders tumbled into their dorm room, laughing about their latest prank. Already it was known as the Infamous Banana Incident. McGonagall had been positively livid after, when asking who had done it, Madelyn had used a spell to write "Who do you think?" in brilliant, flaming letters above the tables. So it seemed to be the start of a great day!

Sirius wiped a tear from his eye as he plopped onto James's bed, "Oh Merlin, that was brilliant!"

James collapsed forwards onto his pillow and agreed, "It's so bloody perfect! No one would suspect innocent little first years to have caused such a ruckus!"

"Chocolate is in order!" Remus announced, throwing pieces at everyone.

"Success!" Madelyn crowed. "Lashings of ginger beer for everyone! I'm British, you know!"

Remus stared back at her, "Bloody hell, Madelyn, you need to work on your accent."

"Shut up, you damn, bloody wanker."

The all gathered on James's bed, plotting their next move while they were still floating on their pranking high.

"Okay," James began, "So our next prank is on Halloween, agreed?"

"Agreed!" They chorused.

"Right, so do we want—"

James's voice was cut off by something very unfortunate, sudden, and just down- right scary.

For it was at that moment a watery-eyed boy popped up out of nowhere.

"So, it's you blokes who have been causing everything!"

XxXxXxXxX

Two centaurs were looking up at the sky, reading each glint and glimmer.

"It breaks my heart to listen tonight."

The male with long unruly red hair looked at his partner in surprise, "Why? The human world doesn't affect us; their troubles are not of our concern."

The fair centaur smiled faintly, "Aren't they? Perhaps not in the past, but I wonder… what will come next…"

XxXxXxXxX

"HOLY SHIT!"

The marauder's reactions were instantaneous. James scrambled backwards and yanked the covers over his head while Sirius let out a, ahem, very manly screech as he dove off the edge of the bed, accidentally knocking Madelyn over with him.

Remus, on the other hand, snatched up a pillow and held it as high as he could, taking a protective stance over the remaining pile of chocolate. He stared intently at the poor intruder whose eyes had gone very wide indeed.

Said poor soul let out a squeak and clamped his hands over his mouth.

A blanket of silence covered the room until everyone heard someone grunt.

Looking over his own shoulder, Remus could see Madelyn start to drag herself up over the edge of the bed. It wasn't going all that well for her for some reason, and Remus saw why a second later. She managed to get her head over the side, and Remus could see that Sirius' leg was hanging over her shoulder and weighing her down. Both first years were attempting to climb up at the same time and kept getting in each other's way.

After several failed attempts, they managed to get untangled and both scrambled back onto the bed. Madelyn let out a breath and straightened her shirt while Sirius tried to fix his hair.

"I- I'm so s-sorry, I- I didn't mean—"

The round boy stopped attempting to speak when Sirius suddenly leapt off the mattress and grabbed the nuisance by the front of his shirt. The dark haired boy leaned towards his face, eyes daring the fool to talk.

He snarled, "What. Do. You. Think. You. Are. Doing?"

"I- eb- edah—" he sputtered unhelpfully.

Remus was suddenly behind Sirius, and gently pried his hands away from the blonde stranger. He pushed his friend back to the bed and held up his palms in the universal "calm down" gesture.

"Now," he glanced at the intruder, "Name?"

"P-Peter Pettigrew."

"House?"

"Gryffindor."

"Year?"

"F-First."

The marauders all exchanged looks.

Remus turned back to Peter, "Why are you here?"

This was a crucial question, but it only seemed to confuse the boy, "Um… I sleep here…" It sounded like a question.

The marauders all exchanged glances again as Remus felt his eyebrows shoot up in surprise, "Since when?"

"Since the beginning of school!" He was really confused now.

Remus turned his head to look at his friends and saw that they were all wearing the same look of shock.

Peter piped up, seemingly undeterred by their reactions to his presence, "But, you blokes are the ones who have been messing with the school! That's bloody brilliant! No one would believe that first years managed to pull that off! How did you—"

"Shhh!" Madelyn stopped him midsentence with a violent hiss. "Shhh sh-sh-sh-shhhhh…" her hands flung out in a "shut up" motion. "Marauders meeting, now!"

Remus climbed into the bed next to the other marauders and closed the curtains in the face of the lost looking child. The group turned to each, except for Madelyn, who popped her head out and made shooing motions at Peter, "Ch-Chh!"

When he had retreated far back enough for her satisfaction, Madelyn popped back into the pitch-black space.

"Okay, so—"

"Wait! Someone's touching me!"

"Oh, suck it up, you prosy!"

"Er, I think he was talking about me…"

"Ah! Who was that?"

"Who could it be, it's me!"

"James?"

"No, I'm James."

"Ow! You just hit me!"

"No, I didn't."

"Get your hand off my butt."

"Sorry. It does that."

"Oh no!"

"What?"

"I can't find my chocolate!"

"Oh, for the love of Merlin, we've got bigger problems than chocolate, what are we going to do about Peter?"

"We could always murder him."

"We can't kill him, you stupid yank."

"I agree with Sirius, I refuse to commit murder."

"I mean, really! There would be too much evidence against us, so we would never get away with it, and that completely defeats the purpose! I don't exactly want to go to Azkaban quite yet—"

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me! And stop laughing, James."

"Sorry. Not really."

"Well, what are we going to do with him? He's a liability, if he lets Professor Dumbledore know about us, we are in so much trouble and our plans are ruined!"

"I could murder Dumbledore."

"Madelyn, stop that!"

"Is their anyway to force him to be quiet? Terrify him into silence?"

"If the roles were reversed, but he's kinda the one who has dirt on us."

"Wipe his memory?"

"Too inhumane, I'm not doing it."

"Well, you know, we really only need him to keep quiet until the next prank."

"Yes, but we can't trust him!"

"He's a liability! He could over-hear all of our pranks and let people know about them!"

"I can't believe we didn't notice someone who has been living in the same room as us for over a month."

"I can't believe the spare bed was never really empty."

"I can't believe we all fit on this bed."

"I can't believe you have yet to get your hand off my butt."

"Oops, my bad."

"Mates, focus! We need a long-term solution where we can be certain that Peter Pettigrew will not be a lapse in our security!"

It became so quiet you could literally hear the click in everyone's head at the same time.

"Oh, bloody hell…"

"I could murder a tea pot right now."

"Madelyn!"

"Sorry."

XxXxXxXxX

Sirius was the one who withdrew the bed curtain, revealing Peter Pettigrew to the marauders. Blinking to help his eyes adjust to the bright light, the young Black leaned against a bed post, not looking at the boy. His eyes went to James, who was trying to communicate with his friend by using shrugs, glances, and his eyebrows. It may have just been the time of day, but Sirius just did not understand. "What?"

James shook his head and mouthed, "Never mind."

Remus was interrogating Pettigrew again, "What do you plan to do now, eh?"

"Err, I dunno, I hadn't really thought—"

"You plan to tell McGonagall?"

"What? No! I-"

Sirius tuned them out and turned his gaze to Madelyn. She returned it steadily, reading his expression.

"It'll be okay; it won't be that bad. He may even turn out to be fun. You'll see," she whispered.

Sirius sighed, but turned to watch Remus and Peter none the less.

It seemed that the shock was starting to wear off the boy, and he was currently pleading his innocence to Remus, "—Why would I tell someone? I like your pranks! If I told McGonagall or Dumbledore, it would do nothing for me!"

Sirius gave up on listening again. Instead, the eleven-year-old worked on wrapping his head around this sudden change. Sirius Black did not like change, especially the type that he had no hand in. He liked things his way, everything the way he wanted it, and without annoying, useless people getting in the way. Screw compromises, why couldn't he have it all?

Sirius knew that after having Peter join them for their next prank and then ditching him afterwards was a definite possibility. The Black heir found a certain pleasure at the idea of chewing him up and spitting him back out, but the others might not, so Sirius needed to be prepared for the long-term agreement. After a moment of thought, the dark-haired boy decided to leave it up to Peter. Pettigrew would have to prove himself first.

Sirius was snapped out of his train of thought when Remus turned back around with a smile, "Everyone, say hello to our new marauder!"

Beta's omake

"I can't believe we all fit on this bed."

"I can't believe you have yet to get your hand off my butt."

"Oops, my bad."

"I can't believe how much this sounds like the beginning of a fanfiction yaoi orgy."

There was dead silence, before the others burst into conversation.

"Oh God, Madelyn!" James cried. "That's sick!"

Sirius lowered his head into Remus's shoulder and covered his ears (unknowingly proving Madelyn's point). "This can never be unheard." Because of his position, he was the only one who felt Remus's apathetic shrug.

However, the rest of them did hear what Remus had to say about Madelyn's topic. "That's just what I was thinking, actually. Madelyn, do you want to co-write something like that?" An unseen smirk. "This is just giving me a whole bunch of plotbunnies."

Sirius flew away, nearly falling off the bed. "What the hell—you're a fanboy, Remus!?" The shock in his voice was fairly palpable.

Again, Remus shrugged. "So?"

James let out a whimper.

Then Remus felt an unsure hand on his arm—and then someone's hand wrapped around his shoulders and tugged him close. After a second he realized that it was Madelyn—after all, he was fairly certain neither James nor Sirius had curves like that.

"You and I, Remus," Madelyn whispered into his ear, "Will get along just fine."

Remus was surprisingly ok with this.

This is why you shouldn't leave us alone for so long- things like that are created! Wait, that's not actually that bad….

And what the hell do you mean by "Curves like that?!"

Ice: I'm pretty sure neither James nor Sirius has boobs, West. Just saying.

Well…..

btw, in case you didn't get it before, when Madelyn was 'fine with bugs', that was the song 'I Feel Fine' by the Beatles.

West Pharaoh

P.S. This is your capitan speaking. Hehe. Hehehe.