She thought her life was over – but fate gave her another chance, in a world of magic. Now, running around Hogwarts with James Potter and his friends, she's about to make choices that will change the future in ways she never thought possible…

Marauder's Phase

CHAPTER FOUR

Midnight Marauding

I spent most of Saturday sleeping – I was dead tired after running around in the woods all night with a werewolf on my tail. I was also wondering just what I was going to do…about a lot of things.

Food, for one. Plus water.

And shelter.

Company, girl-necessities and certain things to keep myself sane followed.

If I was still a human, that is.

Could I transform? I wasn't sure if I was an Animagi, like the Marauders were but, if I was, then would I look like I had before coming here?

Was I in a different world? Or the same one?

Probably a different one, but it was the Harry Potter world, nonetheless.

And I was in this time, exactly where I'd wanted to be, when Sirius and Remus were the same age as me…and magic was real.

Every time I thought like this, it seemed like a large balloon was swelling inside of me. Happiness would well up inside of me, and I'd have to stand up fast and ran a fair distance until I'd calmed myself down.

By midnight, I'd found my way back to the castle. It was amazing how easy it was to get lost in the Forbidden Forest, and I never had a good sense of direction anyway. The vastness of the woods might've been a good reason why the place was forbidden.

Also, I think I saw a Manticore at one point, but I didn't stick around to find out if it was or not, and just kept on running.

So, at midnight, I was starving, which was another indicator that I couldn't be dead. I hadn't seen anything in the forest that was worth eating and, yes, I'd finally established the fact that I was gonna have to kill to get some food into me.

A rabbit, a badger, or SOMETHING… I thought desperately, sniffing around on the lawn and then, as luck would have it, a rat darted out from between the blades of grass and, with a terrified squeak, it ran away from me.

With a soft growl, I ran after it, chasing it between the blades of grass, closing in, my jaws were just a snap away, and then it would be all over…oh food, glorious food…

Three…two…

And then I screeched to a halt, digging my claws into the grass, because what I had thought was just a rat had suddenly transformed into none other than Peter Pettigrew.

For a split second, I was only angry at him for not being entirely edible to me.

In the next instant, white hot anger like a branding iron lashed over me. This was the boy who would one day grow into the cowardly man who would sell Lily and James Potter to Voldemort. Who would land Sirius Black in Azkaban, and ruin so many different lives. Sure, he was an innocent, cute in a kinda pathetic way, school boy now. But I alone knew the truth. He was the one who…

I wasn't aware I was growling until I felt the hackles along the back of my neck rise up, and I positioned myself into a position of offence. Sure, James and the others wouldn't be too happy about it now, they might even be pretty angry at me, but someday they'd be grateful, when Harry was alive and well and Lily and James weren't dead.

Someday…

"Sirius!" Peter shrieked suddenly, making my ears flatten on the back of my head. "James, Remus, HELP ME!!"

Peter's friends were there in an instant, so fast they would have Apparated had that been logically possible (which it wasn't) – but James was pulling the Invisibility Cloak off the three of them, and I was strongly reminded of another trio of school kids.

Sirius, James and Remus all had their wands pointed at me, although not in a terribly threatening way. Peter scurried to hide behind James, who was in the middle of the three.

"See guys! I told you it'd come back!" He exclaimed, sounding like he'd just proved that Dragon Blood did indeed have twelve uses. He also sounded like he was talking mainly to Sirius, who was smirking.

"Never doubted ya, Prongs," Sirius said. "So you guys – reckon it's an Animagi like us?" He was apparently not addressing Remus at this point, but it was Remus who answered him.

"Now where did you get that from!?" Remus exclaimed quietly, glancing quickly at Sirius, who wasn't taking his eyes off of me.

Sirius held up his free hand, and began counting off on his fingers. "Ah, one: snowy white wolves aren't very common around these parts. Two: it seemed to know that werewolves are attracted to the calls of its own kind or similar." He was obviously mimicking something Remus had said earlier on in the day, because I could see Remus' eyebrow was raised as Sirius went on: "And three: ordinary wolves don't go anywhere near werewolves." He grinned. "It's all there, Moony," And he pointed at me. "That's no ordinary wolf."

"It tried to eat me." Peter whimpered, from behind James' back.

Sirius gave a short, bark-like laugh. "Yeah, but so have I, Wormtail!" He reminded his friend, and I had to grin (if wolves can grin) – anyone who tried to eat Peter Pettigrew was very brave and got a few good points in my book. "And you're not scared of me yet, are you?" He added, smirking.

Peter winced, and hid further behind James' robes.

I felt my body shake with silent laughter.

"Yeah, anyway," James said, bringing the subject back to what had been going on before. "So, about this wolf guys – it saved my life, remember?"

I sat down. At least somebody appreciated me.

"Yeah, I remember," Sirius had apparently thought of something he wasn't too keen on, because his face suddenly darkened. "None of that would've happened if Snivellus hadn't been out of bed, trying to catch what we were doing."

At the mention of the Marauders' enemy, I felt my hackles rise again, and a low growl slipped from between my teeth. The Marauders turned to look at me, surprise registering on each of their faces (I didn't want to think about how cute it made most of them look). I didn't like Snape very much. If he'd gotten what he wanted in the books, then Sirius would've lost his soul, and so would Remus. Plus, Snape was mean to Hermoine, when Draco Malfoy made her teeth grow out. Reflection of the future often show up in things people do in the past, I think. Snape was probably just as bad now as he would be in the future. My loyalties definitely lay with the Marauders. They were the cool ones…

Turning back to his friends, Remus said quietly: "At any rate, I don't think he saw any of us transform," He looked significantly around at the others, but only Peter looked nervous. Sirius and James exchanged a casual look at each other, and Remus sighed, like he'd just lost a great battle or something.

I myself was looking at Peter with great dislike but I had, for the time being, decided to be nice to him. If I got the chance later on in life, however, I would do everything I could to stop him from betraying his friends. I growled again – I suddenly didn't want to see any harm come to James, Sirius and Lupin and, for the time being, I guess Peter was included in that equation, since he was best friends with them.

I sighed. It was time to leave.

"Doesn't it seem like the wolf just decided on a course of action?" Remus asked casually and, at that, the other two turned toward me, at the same time I turned on my tail and ran back into the woods, narrowly missing a spell of some kind, I think it was Stupefy.

Great, now they're trying to hex me or something. I thought wryly, concentrating on my running.

"I'll get it!" I heard Sirius yell and, then, the unmistakable sound of running padded feet behind me, so like my own.

Oh great, that's ALL I need! I groaned inside my mind, suddenly determined to not let myself get caught by Sirius, since I had no idea what the intentions of the Marauders were.

Probably they just wanted to see if I was an Animagi like them (well, three of them), and I knew that they knew the spell to reverse the Animagus Transformation. Well, Peter probably didn't, but no doubt Remus – the smart one – did. And James and Sirius…well, they were the cleverest students in the whole school now, weren't they?

Frustrated all of a sudden, I ran even faster, aware that Padfoot was right behind me.

Doesn't he ever give up? I found myself wondering at one point, and could almost swear I heard him replying: Nope!
With that smug little smirk of his.