The Six Marauders

Chapter One

Early Evening

Six o'clock, Sunday, September 01, 2007

At the beginning of her seventh year at Hogwarts, Gryffindor Megan Snape, the half-niece of Potions Master Severus Snape, was walking down a corridor. She was going back to the Gryffindor common room to join her best friend Hermione Granger in "oohing" and "ahhing" over her new gadget. It was a Time-Turner, so that she could get to her classes- all fifteen of them.

After living with her reclusive uncle for four years in a dungeon, Meg had been offered a chance to live at the headquarters for the Order. She had jumped at the chance, not wanting to spend another one of her holidays in a classroom, brewing and bottling potions for both the Order and the Ministry. She had lived there, first with Sirius Black. After the death--or disappearance--of Sirius they'd had shifts for people to watch her. Mostly Remus Lupin would take the shifts, though sometimes Alastor Moody would and tell her tales of the "Old Days" when you could hunt Dark wizards and skin 'em alive and the Ministry wouldn't care, and they'd give you gold for it, too. She'd decided a long time ago that she was going to be either a Potions Master like her uncle, or an Auror, like Moody. But for now we go back to the present....

Megan was tossing the Time-Turner into the air and catching it. In one split second she dropped the Time-Turner and was thrown back through time, farther back than she had ever dreamed of . . .

She was falling, falling, falling. She saw the stone steps of a back entrance to the school and did a quick somersault to dodge them and the people on them. She landed on the soft ground, and had the wind knocked out of her for her efforts.

Opening her eyes, she saw a young man that had wavy light brown hair that fell into his eyes offering her a hand up. Taking the hand, she stood up, brushing the dirt off her clothes. She wasn't wearing her school robes, seeing that classes hadn't started yet. She looked around wildly, taking in her surroundings and realized that she wasn't in her element anymore.

"Who are you?" she asked. "Where am I? What year is it? What year are you?" She stared a young man near them who looked suspiciously like Harry. "And Harry, what are you doing here?"

"My name isn't Harry; it's James," said the young man who looked like Harry. "And who are you?"

"I asked you first," she said, like stone.

The one with light brown hair turned to her and smiled.

"Hello, I'm Remus Lupin, this is James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Lily Evans. You're at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the year is 1977. My friends and I are in our fifth year. We're in Gryffindor. Now, as James asked, who are you?"

He looked at her, patiently expecting an answer.

If this is 1977, thought Meg, Then it's the same year as my Uncle Severus's fifth year, so I can't tell them my "name." I'll have to tell them my birth father's name . . .

"My name is Megan Tymour," she said reluctantly. "And I came to talk to Headmaster Dumbledore. He's the only one who can help me."

Remus nodded. "I'll take you. I'm a prefect after all. It's my duty."

He stood up straighter. Meg felt that he was trying to communicate a message to his friends. She fished around in her pocket, making sure her wand was there. Then she put her hand into her vest, which went down to her ankles and was emerald green. It had been a gift from her uncle when she was fifteen.

She looked at her hand and saw something she didn't expect: Her scar wasn't there! When she was fifteen and a half she had accidentally sliced her wrist cutting ingredients for a potion.

Oh my God, she thought. I'm fifteen again!

She stuck her hand into her pocket to check that her back-up wand was still there. It was. Good. She was ready.

"All right, let's go get Professor Dumbledore now," she told Remus, nodding and slightly smiling at him.

She looked up at all the other people. The boy named Sirius had sauntered forward with a certain confidence in his stride.

"It's all right, Moony. I'll take her," he said, grinning at Meg and winking.

"Padfoot, you really shouldn't, how would you explain-" said Remus, before being cut off by Lily.

"Honestly, you two," she said. "I'm the resident girl prefect for Gryffindor, and she looks like she'd be with our group. So I will take her. C'mon Megan, let's go to Dumbledore's office. You can talk to the Headmaster then."

She took Megan's arm and they started to walk away toward the castle. Lily started to talk.

"You might not want to get involved with Sirius, he's a lot wilder than my boyfriend James," she grinned at her boyfriend's name, "But he is nice. So where are you from, Meg? You don't mind me calling you Meg, do you?"

"No, I don't mind being called Meg. My friends call me that all the time. I'm from, um, Paisley," she said, naming the town she was born in. "It's not far from Glasgow. I live in Glasgow now, with my uncle. My mum, um, left me with him when I was six. She ran off with the electric man." Meg looked firmly at a the floor, clearly not telling all of the truth.

Lily looked shocked and interested at the same time.

"Wow," she said. "That's got to be rough for you. I live with my parents and sister, they're Muggles, but my parents love me at least. Sorry, I'm so sorry, I sometimes lose the ability to be tactful," she said seeing Meg's face was slightly red. She had misinterpreted her face, though.

Meg threw her head back and laughed her heart out. "Oh, Lord," she said, panting. "No one ever makes a joke about me to my face, they seem to think I'd break or that I'm such a study freak that I have no sense of humor whatsoever. I hate it when people make fun of my uncle, though. And they do tend to do that. Just because he isn't . . ." mumbling ensued and Lily hardly heard what Meg was saying.

"Here we are." Lily said, when they reached the stone griffin that guarded the Headmaster's office.

"Strawberry Ice!" said Lily, flicking her hands toward the statue. The griffin hopped away and Lily led the way up the stairs into Dumbledore's office.

He seemed the same as always, except his hair was shorter than it was in Meg's Time, but it was the same pearly white. He was wearing the same half-moon glasses, with the same golden frames, and the same twinkling blue eyes behind them. He looked up and smiled at Lily.

"Ah, Ms. Evans, I was hoping to speak with you . . . who is this?" he asked seeing Meg. "Surely you aren't a new student. You are too old to be a first year. Have you come to speak to me, perhaps?" He looked at the new girl expectantly.

He's the same old Dumbledore. Thought Meg.

"Um, yes, Professor, I did want to talk to you about something in private actually. Sorry, Lily," said Meg, apologetically.

Lily nodded and left the office, waiting outside.

Dumbledore turned to Meg, and looked at her. "Now, Miss . . . Er, what is your name Miss?" he asked Meg.

She looked at him and decided he should know everything.

"My name is Megan Anna Snape-Tymour. I'm seventeen, but I feel like I'm fifteen again. I was born in 1990, I was supposed to belong to Hogwarts Class of 2007, but I was foolish and dropped a Time-Turner and was sent back in time. I can tell you things that would change the future, but you--in the future--told the students that if we were accidentally sent back in time, not to tell anyone about the future under any circumstances. I'm now stuck in the fifth year of people who are adults, some of whom are even dead, in my Time. Until you can send me back, I'm stuck here. If I could, may I stay in Gryffindor Tower until I go back? If I ever go back, that is." She stopped, out of breath. She had said all of that very fast.

"That is a lot to think about," he said slowly. "We have never had a student sent so far back in Time before, so I am at a standstill to what I should do. Were you a Gryffindor in your Time?"

Meg nodded.

"Well, then, familiar surroundings may help in a small way. Since Ms. Evans is the only girl in her year, you can stay in the fifth year girls' dormitory. It will just be you and Ms. Evans; I understand she has been lonely without a female friend. I'm not sure if we will be able to send you back with a Time-Turner. Our Time-Turners are only powerful enough to send someone back, or forward, a few hours. You may be stuck here for the rest of your life, Ms. Tymour; I suggest you form friendships. I will advise you though, not to tell people their futures. They may not respond well to them. That is all, you may go back to the tower with Ms. Evans."