In the Beginning: The Marauder's Story

One day, a long time ago, there was a frail, solemn boy named Remus Lupin. Remus´s best friend was another equally pale boy with hair as black as the raven feathers he used in potions class, and piercing blue eyes. Remus and Sirius, although they were best friends, were extreme opposites. Remus was quiet and reserved; extremely intelligent, and solemn. Sirius possessed a bit of a rebellious streak, and was quick to anger; a truly misunderstood creature.

Sirius and Remus walked side by side across the majestic Hogwarts campus. The towers and spires of the castle turned schoolhouse soared in the background. Taking in the beauty of this scene, Sirius scoffed, "I´m so sick of this place. I´m restless! I need to get out."

Remus, partially ignoring his friend´s comments, rolled his eyes.

"We´ve only been back for two weeks, and you´re already giving me the same speech you gave at the end of last year. Still, I don´t understand you. I love this place."

Sirius, obviously unhappy with Remus´s reply, chaffed at his imagined restraints that bound him to the school. Unfortunately, the only way he could express his frustrations was by kicking a rock that was unfortunate enough to rest by the toe of his shoe.

"Ah, bloody hell. I can´t take it! I think it´s due time I pay old Padfoot a visit and get out of here. Do you want to come?"

Remus stared at his friend indignantly.

"Are you mad? Sneaking off campus within the first month of school accompanied by an illegal animagus? No thanks; I´ve had enough of these near expulsion adventures. Besides, we´re taking a trip into Hogsmeade today for the Trade Fair. That´s off-campus, isn´t it?"

Sirius just stood there completely dumbfounded by Remus´s complete lack of understanding.

"Hogsmeade? That place is even worse! A few low-caliber jokes, and a "haunted" house. That´s not my idea of a good time. I guess I´ll just have to go off by myself."

"Whatever suits you," Remus shrugged.

At these words, Sirius shot Remus a hostile stare, opened his mouth as if to say something, closed it, and stormed off. For a moment, Remus started after his mildly overdramatic friend and shouted, "If you keep this up, people will think we´re married!"

~*~*~

Meanwhile, a girl desperately tried to dodge through the bustling streets of Hogsmeade. She hastily moved the basket she was cautiously carrying above her head. Even without a large basket above her, the girl was a sight not easily missed. The sun reflected off her long, burgundy tresses, and shone in her sage green eyes.

"Excuse me, coming through, excuse... Hey!"

An elderly wizard in tattered velvet robes, who was practically running through the streets, collided with the girl, causing her to drop her basket. The baskets contents, brightly colored jewels, scattered about the dusty road.

"Sorry, Holly!" the wizard shouted over his shoulder, and hurried on.

"Great, just my luck..." Holly muttered under her breath. She frantically grasped at the glittering jewels embedded in the dirt before they, or her hands were trampled. Pausing for a moment, Holly looked up and called, "Nips! Get over here! This is supposed to be your job!"

Suddenly, an elongated, black furry creature came scampering around the corner. It was Holly´s Niffler, who was an extreme help to Holly´s chosen profession of selling precious stones. Nifflers possessed an affinity for shiny objects, and with their pointy snouts and flat front feet, Nifflers were perfect for digging through the ground to apprehend them. Within a matter of seconds, Nips successfully placed all the jewels back into the basket. Holly quickly stood back up, and continued down the street.

At the end of the street, there was a circus-like atmosphere buzzing through the air. There were tables and booths of all shapes, colors, and sizes, advertising the most fantastic and exotic products of the wizarding world. Hovering above it all, there was a large sign, glittering and darting about the sky. It proudly displayed the words, "625th Annual World Wizarding Trade Fair!"

Holly sighed, and began gingerly setting her meticulously cut and polished jewels on the table. Holly glanced over at the table to her right. A three-foot tall man with a fluffy, powdery white beard was scurrying about, setting up his display of fairy garments.

"These wizards are more vicious than ever this year," Holly commented to the man.

"Oh, yes," he squeaked. "Even the Hogwarts lot is coming in today. I suspect that this fair will be very successful," he added giddily.

Indeed, Holly saw a group of Hogwarts robes working their way down to her table. She looked back down to her work, but then she suddenly felt her head shoot back up, and found herself staring at one of the Hogwarts boys. He was quietly flipping through the pages of a huge, ancient looking book. Holly could feel her cheeks flushing, and her powers of speech ceased to function.

"Oh no," she thought. "I hate it when this happens..."

~*~*~

High above, on Hogsmeade Mountain, another girl was busy with far different tasks. Her frail figure was bent over a small, crystalline stream, gathering water. A lanky, baby unicorn stood next to her, grazing on the lush, green grass. The sun reflected off of its fuzzy golden fur, and on to the pale skin of the girl. A mass of black curls cascaded over the girl´s shoulder as she let the icy water slide between her fingers.

When her jug was full, she stood up and smiled, as she took in her surroundings with her inexcusably blue eyes. A few feet away from the stream sat a squat, comfortable, yet intricately constructed hut. Near the entrance, there was a large fire pit, with books of all kinds scattered about it: spell books, transfiguration books, Quidditch books, Muggle Studies books; she had read them all. All of this was perched high above the village of Hogsmeade. This mountain setting was Evelyn Everheart´s home, and she cherished the peace and tranquility found on the outskirts of the wizarding world.

Evelyn´s silent musings evaporated when the unicorn, her unicorn, Persephone, gave a sharp whinny of alarm. Looking up, Evelyn asked, "What´s the matter, Percy?"

The only reply Percy gave was pawing the ground anxiously with one of her dainty, golden hooves. Evelyn´s alarm raising, she stood up. She then saw what she thought was a small hippogriff galloping toward them. Only after staring for a moment did she realize that it was a dog, a huge dog, with shaggy black fur. Evelyn moved toward her unicorn.

"What are you so worried about? It´s just..."

Evelyn never finished her sentence. Instead, her back was slammed into the ground by the largest pair of paws she had even seen landing heavily on her chest. Percy let out a piercing shriek of terror. Evelyn´s hand searched desperately across the ground for a weapon. Finally, her hand closed upon her wand. Frantically scouring her mind for something to say, she screamed the first spell that popped into her mind, "Minizous Shrinkarnum!"

Suddenly, the huge beast that had been standing upon her was nothing more than a mere nuisance, nipping her robes and barring its teeth.

"Yeah, not so tough now, are you?" Evelyn said as she scooped the tiny creature into the palm of her hand.

"Ow!" She nearly dropped the miniature dog as it latched its sharp, needle-like teeth around the tip of her finger. Evelyn closed her hand, and shook it until the dog finally let go. She once again flattened her hand, and raised it to her face so that she was eye to eye with the fur ball.

"Now there. Even though you made my finger bleed, I still have the upper hand."

At this, the dog growled indignantly.

"But," Evelyn continued, "if you promise to stop attacking me, I´ll undo the spell, and perhaps find you something to eat. Do we have a deal?"

The dog sat placidly in the middle of Evelyn´s hand, its long, pink tongue flopping at the side of its mouth. It almost seemed to be smiling at her.

"All right then. I´ll take that as a yes. But, no more funny business, or I´ll do something far worse than shrink you."

With that, Evelyn performed the counter curse, and the once again gargantuan creature sat before her, still smiling.

"Wipe that smirk off your face!" Evelyn commanded. "It´s incredibly unnerving."

The dog promptly closed its mouth and continued staring at her.

"Right... Well, unless you´re satisfied with grass, I´m going to have to find you something to eat. So, if you want food, wait here, and I´ll be right back."

The dog just smiled in agreement.

~*~*~

Back down in Hogsmeade, Holly Gollightly was having her own adventure of sorts.

"Stop beating so loudly! Someone´ll hear you!" Holly silently commanded her heart to stop its racket. The mysterious Hogwarts boy was only five tables away, and only kept getting closer. 4 tables... 3 tables... 2 tables... Holly desperately tried to make herself look busy. She was polishing a stone from her runes collection when she heard, "Ah, these are nice, but I think I already have enough Dragon´s Heart opal necklaces, don´t you?"

Holly cautiously sneaked a glance at the boys. One with insatiably messy hair and glasses covering the most brilliant green eyes she had ever seen was holding up one of her necklaces.

"Heh, heh, yeah, James, you already have tons," squeaked another voice. This boy wasn´t nearly as handsome as his two companions. His head only reached to the glasses wearing boy´s shoulder. He had thin, greasy, mousy blond hair combed to one side of his small, round head. The most strikingly unappealing feature of this boy was his beady, rodent-like eyes that sat glistening within the folds of his skin.

"James, why do you feel the need to make fun of every table we come across?"

Holly did not need to look up to know where this voice came from. The boy spoke softly, just like his delicate features. Holly felt a gaze boring into the back of her neck as she fervently wished that she could disapparate to Mongolia. From her crouched view, Holly saw a thin, bony hand pick up one of her Defense Stones. Remus examined the stone with his watery brown eyes. The outside seemed to be clear, but inside, the stone was filled with a substance blacker than the darkest night sky. It possessed a black so pure, that it seemed to suck the color out of the world surrounding it.

"I know what this is..." he breathed. "It´s a Black Heart Stone. It´s filled with a drop of blood from those innocents who have been killed unjustly by trickery or dark magic. Supposedly, it protects you from unforeseen death."

Holly felt a sharp pain in her chest and felt as though her head was floating away. Only then did she notice that she held her breath so she could hear every word.

"Breathe, Holly, breathe," she reminded herself.

Through Remus´s entire speech, James had been eyeing his friend strangely.

"Sometimes Lupin, you´re a bit too loony for me."

All the while, the blond boy at James´s shoulder looked extremely uncomfortable.

"Yeah, well, I don´t know about you, but I´ve had enough of jewels. Let´s go check out those invisible owls over there."

"Good idea, Petticoat," James snickered, and began to walk towards the InvisOwl booth, with Peter "Petticoat" tottering behind him.

"I´ll catch up to you later," Remus said distractedly. He continued to stare at the stone in his hand for a minute, before taking notice of the girl behind the table for the first time. In spite of her efforts to make herself invisible, Remus couldn´t take his eyes off her. He stood there with his mouth open, wondering where his voice ran off to. He finally managed to force his tongue and jaw to move in conjunction with each other and create the sentence, "Er, how much is this?"

Holly paused for a moment, wondering if the voice had really been directed towards her. She looked up and saw Remus holding out the black stone. She managed a smile and said, "eighteen galleons."

Remus´s face noticeably fell.

"Oh," was all he said.

Thinking quickly, Holly responded, "Oh, well, er, that´s just my asking price. I´m willing to haggle."

"Really?"

Holly saw Remus smile for the first time since she´d been watching him. Remus dug his hand into one of his pockets and pulled out fifteen galleons.

"This is all I have," he offered hopefully. Holly took the coins from his willowy hand.

"That´s good enough for me."

Her shy smile suddenly grew into a full-fledged grin. Remus´s smile grew as well.

"Thank you," he said sheepishly. There was an awkward silence before the boy, looking a bit more delicate than usual ventured, "So, what´s your name?"

"Holly Gollightly."

"You don´t happen to go to Hogwarts, do you? I´ve never seen you around before."

"Oh, no, I..."

"Oh, so you go to Beauxbatons, then?" Remus interrupted. "You´re too pretty to go to Durmstrang."

Holly felt her cheeks flush to a color that matched her brilliant burgundy hair. When she recovered from Remus´s compliment, she answered, "No, I... I don´t go to any school. My mum couldn´t afford it."

Remus´s face contorted into an odd look of pity and horror.

"Oh, I... I´m sorry, I didn´t mean... I just assumed..."

Remus´s extreme discomfort made Holly feel all the more at ease.

"Would you like to sit down?" She asked boldly.

Remus continued stuttering for a moment before he realized what Holly had said.

"Sit? Oh, yes, of course..."

~*~*~

"Evie, you´ve really outdone yourself this time. You trekked miles to get food for a dog you made a deal with! A dog! What was he going to do if you didn´t? Drool on you?"

Evie continued badgering herself all the way up to her hut.

Sirius Black lied on his side on the prickly grass in front of Evelyn´s hut reading Voyage´s With Vampires, the debut book by Gilderoy Lockheart. He stopped reading when he heard Holly cursing her stupidity as to why she didn´t simply transfigure something into a steak for the "bloody beast" to eat.

Sirius pretended to keep reading and forced himself not to look at the girl as she reached the top of the hill.

"Here´s your food, you stupid mutt," Evelyn said, throwing a large cut of meat on the ground.

"It´s a tad undercooked, don´t you think?"

Evelyn felt herself finally snap.

"Why, you ungrateful, idiotic creature! Out of the sheer kindness of my heart, I bring you food, and you have the audacity to com..."

Only then did Evelyn realize that typically, dogs did not talk. She also noticed that the dog whom she had been addressing had been replaced by a boy, and a rather handsome one at that.

Sirius felt the girl staring at him. A slight breeze picked up, stirring the grass, and blew a few strands of his shaggy black hair into his face.

"You read this? This Lockheart character is a real git."

Although his voice contained an air of nonchalance, behind the crimson cover of the book, Sirius´s eyes gleamed, and he grinned uncontrollably.

"I wish I could see her face..."

Evelyn stood there staring at this cocky, handsome boy, and felt her body shake with rage.

"You, you... You were a dog! How dare you! Yeah, you think you´re real cute, reading my book. Did you sleep in my bed and eat some porridge too?!"

"Actually, I did, and it was rather cold..."

"You volatile, presumptuous, scruffy looking... Ahh!"

Unable to finish her insult, Evelyn picked up the meat lying on the ground, and hurled it at Sirius´s head. Without even watching to see if she hit her target, Evelyn stormed off, and sat down at the bank of the stream.

Sirius, still smiling, moved from his spot in front of the hut, and sat down next to Evelyn.

"Pleased to meet you, I´m Sirius Black."

He offered the girl his hand, which she eyed as though it were a rabid flobberworm. Locking her gaze with his she said, "Wish I could say the say for you."

Ignoring Sirius´s outstretched hand, Evelyn turned her back to him, pretending she thought the water was far more interesting than he.

Ultimately pleased by Evelyn´s fiery response, Sirius pressed on, "So, does my gracious host have a name?"

Suppressing a smile, for she was sure this devious boy would hear it in her voice, Evie answered without turning around.

"Evelyn. Evelyn Everheart. Perhaps, if you ever give me a reason to like you, you can call me Evie."

"All right then, Evie."

This statement caused just the reaction Sirius had wanted; Evie turned to face him. They sat staring at each other for some time before Sirius broke the silence.

"You´re cute when you´re angry."

"Yeah, pity you´re not," Evie shot back, no longer able to suppress her smile.

Sirius´s heart leapt. His front of confidence was not as sound as it appeared to be. But, this one smile was all the affirmation he needed.

"Pity you´re a terrible liar," Sirius replied, returning Evelyn´s smile.

"I never said I was a good one."

Sirius leaned forward and tucked a curly tendril that had fallen into Evelyn´s face back behind her ear.

"So, what´s a girl like you doing out here all alone?"

"So, what´s a Hogwarts boy like yourself doing turning into an illegal animagus and sneaking off campus?"

Sirius didn´t falter, "I asked you first, dear."

Evelyn cast her blue eyes to the ground. Sirius seized this moment and finally allowed his eyes to take the girl in: her ebony hair, her pale skin, her tiny, delicate hands, and her silk robes, which sparkled like the stars. He watched her bite her wine-stained bottom lip as she looked back at him.

"It´s a long story..."

"I´ve got time," said Sirius.

Once again, both of them smiled.

"Well, I was just a little girl, when..."

~*~*~

"Ow!" Remus Lupin cried out after he hit his head on the underside of the table.

"Sorry, Holly, there´s no more rune starter kits under here. I guess you´re all out."

Holly smiled at her new friend.

"I wouldn´t worry about it, Remus, the fair´s almost over anyway. I was just about to start packing up."

Remus sighed a happy sigh. In all of his years at Hogwarts, and in all of his trips to Hogsmeade, no day had been so rewarding as this one. He spent the whole day with Holly, talking, joking, and selling her unique jewelry creations. Time had gone by so quickly, aside from that first awkward pause, there had been no other break in the conversation. Remus had told her things that Sirius-What ever became of him? -didn´t even know.

Holly placed what little stock there was left back in the basket, and shrunk her table so it would fit in her pocket. Holly surveyed the area one last time before she turned to Remus and asked, "How about a Butterbeer from the Three Broomsticks? I think we´ve earned it."

"Sounds good to me."

The sky had long been dark, and the moonlight cast a soft silver glow over Holly and Remus as they walked towards the Three Broomsticks. The streets were nearly deserted, except for a few remaining stragglers from the fair, and a group of goblins arguing noisily over splitting the profits from their booth.

Holly shivered slightly, and pulled her robes more tightly around her. The gentle breeze from the afternoon had now turned into a strong wind.

Holly greatly welcomed the warm blast of air as Remus pulled open the door to the Three Broomsticks. The bar was far more crowded than usual, with wizards and strange creatures from all parts of the world. Holly and Remus worked their way to a small corner in the back. Mademoiselle Rosmerta with her frizzy red hair piled in a bun on top of her head pushed her way to the back of the room where Remus and Holly were sitting.

"Hey Rosy," Holly said smiling.

"Hii, Holly," Rosy cooed. "Who´s this you´ve got here? A Hogwarts boy, huh? Isn´t it a bit late for you to be out? All of your little friends left hours ago."

Remus´s eyes widened with realization, "Left? Oh no. What time is it?"

Rosy shrugged, "I´m not sure, about ten or so."

Remus stared at Holly.

"Oh no."

In this moment, Remus leaned forward, kissed Holly on the cheek, grabbed his Butterbeer from Rosmerta, and dashed out of the building, all in one swift movement.

Both of the girls stared after him, not quite realizing what happened. Rosmerta shook her head, and laughed.

"You sure do know how to pick `em, Holly. Well, it was nice talking to you. I have work to do."

Holly still sat there in a daze. Her face slowly broke into her largest smile of the day; she hardly knew what to do with herself she was so happy. Holly grabbed her Butterbeer from the table, and hopped lightly out of her stool. Holly left the Three Broomsticks walking on air.

~*~*~

Evelyn Everheart and Sirius Black lied next to each other on the cool grass, staring up at the stars. They had been in this position for hours, talking, listening, and above all things, laughing.

There was a fire in the fire pit, which Evie had insisted that they start without using magic. She and Sirius walked along the outskirts of Hogsmeade stuffing their pockets full of brightly colored fliers advertising the fair that littered the ground. They used these as kindling for the fire which Evie started with some Muggle matches.

Their hard-earned fire surrounded the couple with warmth, and cast happy shadows that danced across their faces. Percy had gone to bed long ago, and was no curled in a ball near the blaze. The occasional pops of the fire and the soft rush of the stream provided the only background noise to Evie and Sirius´s conversation, which was dominated by their maniacal giggling.

"Yeah, so, James and I were in Potions with Slytherin, and Snape, the dark, tormented soul, was only two rows in front of us. So we threw these specialized smoke bombs we designed into his cauldron. There was this weird sort of explosion, and his potion turned this weird, purple color, and smoke started rising from it. The smoke formed into the words, `Stupid Git.´ It was hilarious!"

Sirius had to pause for a moment to regain his composure. He was laughing so hard he could hardly breathe, as was Evelyn.

"You are so evil! I hope this Snape fellow at least did something to deserve it."

"I´m sure he did," Sirius replied. "He was probably following Lilly around again, or something."

There was a contented silence before Evie sat halfway up, so she was looking at Sirius´s face.

"Did you know," she started, "that the star Sirius, is in the constellation Canis Major, which forms the shape of a large dog?"

Sirius smiled up at her.

"I was not aware of that," he said playfully.

"It´s also the brightest star in the night sky. I guess your parents knew what they were doing when they named you."

Sirius continued smiling at her.

"Wait a minute, I thought you hated me, Evelyn Everheart. Don´t tell me our whole relationship has been a lie!"

"I do hate you," said Evie. "So don´t go getting all full of yourself now."

Evelyn winked at him, and pointed to the sky.

"You can´t really see it that well right now, because it´s only ten or so..."

Sirius´s eyes followed her finger, and he reveled in his own happiness until heard the word "ten." Sirius suddenly jumped to his feet.

"You don´t mean, ten at night, do you?"

Evelyn looked at him quizzically, then up at the dark sky.

"Am I missing something here? Because I´m confused."

Sirius shook his head, "No, you´re not missing anything; it´s just that it´s a little late to be strolling back up to the campus."

Evie´s eyes widened, "Oh. Yeah, that´s definitely not good."

"Don´t worry about me. It´s not like I haven´t done it before, and besides, a Marauder never gets caught," Sirius stood up off the ground, and gave Evie a mischievous grin. Then, with infinite grandeur, he pulled Evelyn off the ground and kissed her forehead.

"Now, before I leave you, I must warn you to watch yourself, because a certain wild beast will be stopping in quite frequently to harass you."

Evelyn nodded, "Don´t worry, I´ll be sure to make it suffer."

"Good."

They stood there looking at each other before Sirius finally changed back into the huge black dog he came as, and took off at a lope.

"Get out of here, you stupid mutt!" Evelyn half shouted, half laughed, as the Padfoot gave a last flick of his tail, and vanished into the shadows.