The Beginnings of the Marauders

The first day was a flurry of excitement.

The girls rushed around in their dorms making sure they had everything they needed and spending much of their time primping in the bathroom. When Lily and Alex finally came downstairs they were surprised to see the four boys still waiting for them.

"Took you long enough! I thought we'd have to send someone to search for you soon," James joked.

"Let's just go down to breakfast before they stop serving," said Sirius.

"Lily, is there something we're forgetting?" asked Alex with a sly smile.

"Oh, I do believe you're right."

"Yes...what could possibly be so important down at breakfast that Sirius is about to wet himself with glee?"

"Ah, it's not coming to me, Alex."

"FOOD!" cried James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter in unison.

The two girls laughed as they pushed their way past the boys and headed toward the Great Hall.

During breakfast the students were given their schedules. All first year Gryffindors has herbology, transfiguration, potions, and history of magic on their first day. Classes alternated each day, so on Tuesday they were scheduled for charms, care of magical creatures, and defense against the dark arts.

After they finished eating, they hurried up to Gryffindor Tower to get One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi for their first class. The herbology teacher, Mrs. Sprout, was a very petite lady. She looked somewhat young; she could not have graduated more than a few years ago. She spent most of the time telling them what to expect from her class and topics they would be learning about. After her long, drawn-out introduction, she let them walk through Greenhouse #3 and try to identify the plants using the pictures in their textbook.

"Just a reminder," said Professor Sprout, "no touching, eating, or teasing the plants. Some of them have a nasty temper, and you don't want to know what they can do to you."

And so they spent their morning browsing through plants and chatting with the Hufflepuffs.

The other classes were much the same, with introductions to the class and an easy assignment. In transfiguration, Professor McGonagall had them write an essay due in class Wednesday. For potions, Professor Slughorn went through safe brewing methods and gave them questions on various common ingredients. He seemed rather fond of Lily after she answered most of his questions correctly. The only strange class was history of magic with Professor Binns-a ghost who didn't seem to notice he was dead. His voice droned on as he lectured them on the first known wizards.

At the end of the day, the young first years trudged into the Great Hall for dinner, exhausted from the first day of school after a long summer. Finally, they made their way up to their common room. Lily, Alex, Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter sat in various places staring at the fireplace. It was too early yet to sleep, but they had already finished any homework they had during class, so here they sat.

"Well then," said James. He paused for a long moment before continuing. "I'm off upstairs, any of you fine young gentlemen up to joining me?"

Peter and Remus grunted and shook their heads, but Sirius looked at James for a moment before saying, "I suppose. After all, what else is there to do?" It seemed for the briefest moment an unspoken conversation passed between the two before they made their way up to the common room.

"That can't be good," Alex said, shaking her head. "Those two are bound to cause trouble."

Upstairs, Sirius asked, "So, James, what did you have in mind?"

"Oh, just thought I'd let you in on a little secret," he replied. James' eyes twinkled as he began rummaging through his trunk. He found what he was looking for and pulled out a bundle of silvery fabric. He held it up for Sirius to look at.

"Is that what I think it is?" asked Sirius.

"You bet it is," said James.

"Wow," said Sirius. "An authentic invisibility cloak. I never thought I would see one this close."

"You're telling me. I found this in our attic by some of my dad's rubbish a few days ago. I haven't had much of a chance to check it out, but I have a few good ideas. Shall we?"

"Oh, we shall."

They whispered out a plan to test the cloak and wrapped it around both of them. As they moved out of the dorms, they grabbed their wands, and Sirius pulled a vial of odd-coloured gas out of his pocket. They made their way to the hallway between dorms overlooking the common room and stopped. Sirius opened the top and James tried to use his wand to direct the gas toward the four sitting around the fire.

"Accio," he whispered, but instead of the gas wafting away, it came toward the two. "Accio!" he said again. "Sirius, it's not working!"

"I see that! Hold your breath!"

They took a deep breath and held it while they flailed their arms to try to make the gas leave. It still persisted in moving toward them until James whispered, "Fin-...finite incantatem!"

They rushed back into their dormitory before they dared take another breath and pulled off the cloak. "What was that stuff?" James asked angrily.

"Well, I nicked it from my dad's private store. If you inhale it, your eyes turn purple and your skin turns changes to green with purple polka dots. What on earth kind of spell did you try to use, anyway?"

"Accio, a repelling charm."

Sirius shook his head and smirked. "Accio is the summoning charm, not repelling charm. Thanks to you we almost turned into purple and green aliens."

"Well, how was I supposed to know that? I haven't exactly finished school yet." James was upset, but Sirius just kept laughing. "What are you laughing at?"

"I can't believe we even tried that. I mean, it came from my dad. He told me it changed your skin colours, but for all I know he was lying. It probably caused your arms to grow out your ears or some such."

James glared at him for a minute before replying, "And how do I know that you're telling the truth-that it was an honest mistake?"

"I'm in Gryffindor, aren't I? I'm the first Black not to be sorted into Slytherin. I hate them all; all they care about is death and destruction, and it's just so...unnatural."

"Well, I suppose there is one way to find out if what you're saying is true."

"And what," asked Sirius, "might that be?"

"Follow me," replied James as he grabbed his coat once again and left through the door.

"Where are you two going?" asked Remus.

"Out," replied James curtly, trying to hide the cloak as he walked out the portrait hole. Sirius followed him out and through the corridors to a dark hallway. "All right, Sirius, where is the Slytherin common room?"

"What?"

"The Slytherin common room. You're going to show me where it is and wreak a little havoc on it to prove that you really do dislike them."

"Honestly, James, this is making me way too happy." Sirius was bouncing on the balls of his feet as James looked at him strangely.

"Right, then." He covered both of them with the cloak. "Lead the way."

James walked next to Sirius as they went down several flights of stairs to the dungeon level. They then walked down corridor after corridor until it felt as though they were no longer under the castle itself. Sirius walked up to the entrance and stopped outside. "Okay, this is fairly simple, but effective nonetheless. We sneak inside and upstairs to the bathrooms where we replace the soap with this." He produced another container of a thick, bubble liquid.

"And what is that?"

"Frog Spawn Soap."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. I got it from Diagon Alley myself two days ago. Now all we need is the-"

At that moment, none other than Lucius Malfoy walked up to the bare stone wall and said "Snidget." They quickly and quietly stepped behind him through the entrance that opened in the stone into the Slytherin common room. It looked much different from the Gryffindor room; it was dark like the dungeons and the ceiling was lower than other rooms. Green lamps and elegant chairs were scattered about the room. Sirius and James were momentarily distracted by the new sites before remembering why they were there.

They located the staircase to the dormitory and went up quickly, being careful not to bump into anybody. Once they were inside the boys' bathroom, they waited a few minutes until everybody had left and locked the doors. They emptied the soap dispensers near the sinks and filled them with Frog Spawn Soap. Sirius then pulled out a small package labeled "Bulbadox Powder," mixed it in with the soap and put it in the shower heads. After they were finished, they left and rushed back to their own common room before it got too late.

"Well, I have to hand it to you-that's going to cause some damage," James said after they removed the cloak.

"It's too bad we couldn't get the girls as well. We'd have to get Lily and Alex to do that, though."

"Oh, that's right. Isn't there some kind of enchantment on the stairs?"

"Yeah, boys aren't able to enter the girls' dormitories, but they can still come in ours," he added with a slight wink. They walked up to the portrait of the Fat Lady, gave the password, and entered.

As they walked through the door, everyone else turned to look at them. Remus noticed the cloak in James' hand before he was able to hide it. "What have you two been doing with that?"

"With what?" asked James, feigning innocence but failing horribly.

"The cloak in your hands. It looks...strange."

"Oh, this old thing?" Sirius asked, pointing at it. "It just looks like that because it's near the end of its rope.

Peter looked at it strangely and asked, "It's an invisibility cloak, isn't it?"

"Er..." James glanced at Sirius nervously before responding. "Is that...is that what this is?"

Alex smirked and Lily laughed. Peter nearly nodded his head off in response. Remus made a noise between a grunt and a cough before asking, "And so I repeat-what were you two doing with that?"

"Oh, well, it was just-"

"We were more of-"

"We wanted to-"

James stopped trying to talk at the same time as Sirius, and Sirius finished with, "Just wait until tomorrow. You'll see."

"Unbelievable," muttered Remus. "You've been at this school for one whole day and already you have been up to who knows what. You two are going to end up expelled. I'm going to bed." He got up and walked to the dormitories shaking his head and mumbling to himself the whole way. Peter soon followed him and Alex went up to the girls' dormitories after that.

*****

The next morning at breakfast several Slytherins were notably absent. Others were wearing much more apparel than normal for a Scottish September. When James and Sirius arrived "fashionably late" (as they called it) to breakfast they glanced at the staff table and noticed Professor Dumbledore watching them curiously. Sirius gave a mock bow, earning him a shake of the head from the Headmaster, though the twinkle in his eye was undeniable. The girls glared at them reprovingly while Remus and Peter looked unsure of themselves. Before anybody could say something, Professor Slughorn came up to their table.

"Lily, I was wondering if I could have a word with you?" he asked as he led her away from the table. Once they were out of earshot he began talking. "Wonderful, absolutely wonderful. You must be one of the brightest witches here!"

"Well, I don't think that's true . . . " she began as her cheeks flushed slightly. "You see, I'm a Muggle-born; I don't really know what's going on."

"A Muggle born," he said, half to himself. "Fascinating. You must have done some reading over the summer, then. Your performance in class yesterday was absolutely brilliant!"

"Oh . . . well . . . thank you." Lily wasn't quite sure what to say and was becoming nervous about where this conversation was going.

"Anyway," he continued, "I have a little tradition here at Hogwarts. I like to pick out certain students and give them that extra boost they need to really become someone. I decided I would like to invite you to join my Slug Club, as I call it! What do you say to that?"

"Well, that's, er, great, I guess," she said somewhat lamely.

"Wonderful. We're having dinner in my office tonight, and I expect to see you there! Oh, and one more thing," he added. "Try not to mention this to anybody. It's rather exclusive and we can't have anyone feeling left out, now can we?" he finished, patting her on the back and walking off to breakfast.

Lily returned to the table looking somewhat confused. "What was that all about?" Alex asked her.

"He wants me to join . . . he wants me to join his 'Slug Club,'" she answered.

"His what?" they all asked in unison.

"He called it his 'Slug Club.' It sounds like some type of motivational thing. I don't know. We're meeting for dinner in his office tonight."

"His office?" James asked. "That seems a little strange. Maybe we should go with you."

"Yeah, in case you need protecting or something," Sirius chimed in.

"Well," Lily said, "he sort of said it was exclusive, you know? I don't think he wants too many people at once. But don't worry!" she added. "I'm sure if you just do well in his class he'll be bound to notice you and invite you sometime."

"Who says we need an invitation to actually go?" Alex asked mischievously. "We could just . . . show up. Do you really think he would send us away?"

"I don't know," Lily sighed. "I don't really want to go. I'd much rather just relax in the common room with you five, but he didn't give me much of a choice."

"I'm sure you will be fine," Remus said. "Besides, it's probably just this once. Go ahead and we'll wait up for you later."

"Are you sure? I can tell him I'm busy if you don't want me to go."

"No, it's fine," Sirius reassured her. "We'll follow you up in the invisibility cloak to make sure you get there okay."

"We will?" James asked. "Oh, right, of course we will."

"So that was an invisibility cloak you had last night," Alex smirked.

"Yes, and just imagine the possibilities," Sirius said playfully.

They all finished eating before going to classes again. Lily was distracted through the day by her dinner meeting tonight; she couldn't stop wondering what it was all about. Finally she gave up curiosity and became just plain nervous.