Before the Beginning

~Chapter 3~

James woke up slightly disorientated. 'Where am I' he wondered as he stared at the overabundance of red and gold. Red was his favorite color, but this was pushing it. Not even his bedroom at home was this bad! Suddenly he remembered, 'HOGWARTS!' he thought excitedly, and pushed aside his bed curtains to reveal Sirius staring vaguely at him.
"Good morning!" James chirped. Sirius shook his head out of some sort of daze.
"Eh? Oh, morning. What's for breakfast?"
" Yes, let me use my telepathic powers to find out. I don't know, you moron!!! I just woke up! "
"Moody, this morning are we? That time of the month again?" Remus laughed, his voice slightly muffled by his curtains. He jumped through them and threw on his robes. "Race you to the common room!" he yelled over his shoulder.
"Hey! You have a head start!" James and Sirius said in unison. They look at each other and tore down the stairs of the common room. Remus was sitting nest to Lily, sitting comfortably like he had been there all morning.
"Hey guys. Where have you been?" Remus asked innocently, a small smile betraying him.
"Ha ha ha. Now I'm hungry. Let's eat!" Sirius yelled. Lily had been watching this with a grin and unfocused eyes.
"Are they this energetic every morning?" she asked slowly. Remus smiled, pulled out his wand and conjured some water to fall on her head. Cold water. Very cold water. Lily shrieked, then jumped up.
"Remus Lupin, I am going to KILL YOU!!" she ended in a scream, then dashed after him as he had very intelligently started to run. They hurtled down the passageway to the Great Hall, Lily screaming violent threats of death to him before Remus crashed into blue robes, that, strangely, were connected to a person. Lily crashed into him from behind, finally knocking the person over. Remus gulped and looked at the person they knocked over, as he stood up and dusted himself off.
"Uh oh...." Lily said, her eyes wide.
~~~~

"Where are Lily and Remus?" asked Sirius, who had talking with his mouth full down to an art form.
"I dunno, we didn't go THAT fast, did we?"
"If we did I think Remus was more tired then we thought. Now, Lily was exhausted. Probably stayed up half the night talking about make-up. For instance, why is it physically impossible for any girl to put on mascara with their mouth closed. I have seen my mum put on mascara millions of times and not ONCE has she had her mouth closed," Sirius banged his knife and spoon on the table, covering James's already messy hair with yogurt. He didn't seem to notice, so Sirius decided not to mention it.
"Erm... let's go look for them!" James laughed. The two boys jumped up and ran out of the Great Hall, almost knocking over Professor Dumbledore!
"Sorry, sir!" Sirius said, then noticing Lily and Remus standing there with stricken expressions on their face. "Uh, guys? Why aren't you moving? Yoo hooooo!" he waved his hand in front of Lily's face. She shook her head, and glared at him.
"Stop that, or I'll bite you," she frowned, then shook her head. "Not very original, but it'll have to do."
"Uh, Lily? I think you are forgetting something, rather, someone?" Remus asked worriedly. He jerked his head towards the headmaster.
"Oh!" she said, startled, then blushed. " I am really am sorry, sir, and please don't get mad..." She continued on in this fashion until she started to repeat herself, when Dumbledore held up a hand to stop her.
"No worries, my dear, though if you follow through with some of your threats for Mr. Lupin, he won't be able to, er, learn. Now, with that settled," he cast a drying charm on her hair and clothes, which she had forgotten all about. "Oh my..." the Headmaster said with a slight smile. James, Sirius, and Remus were doubled over, trying to remain composed around Dumbledore. Sirius was the first to fall on the floor, looking like he was going through a seizure. James and Remus soon followed, rolling around on the floor like maniacs. The old wizard only raised an eyebrow, before conjuring up a mirror for Lily to use. She had been frowning, confused, then screamed as she saw her reflection. She dropped the mirror which disappeared, mid-fall.
" Nothing to worry about, Ms. Evans, happens to me all the time," the old man said with a beatific smile. Lily had been screaming at the fact that her hair resembled nothing more than a giant topiary, standing straight up about her head. That only made the boys howl louder. "It has to do with all the magic in the air. Much like what the Muggles call static." Remus managed to stop laughing long enough to ask a question.
" Professor, if it happens to you" he snorted at the mental picture, "Then how do you get rid of it?" Lily nodded fiercely making her 'topiary' bounce up and down, causing tears to run down Sirius's face.
"Ah, a simple little charm you might learn this year. Aeouno!" Professor Dumbledore said, tapping Lily's hair. A gust of wind came and flattened her hair down,
then Dumbledore cut off the wind by tapping on Lily's head (which, by now, had VERY flat hair). "There you go! Just refrain from getting your hair wet in classrooms or hallway's." Lily weakly grinned, still in shock.

~~~~
All through breakfast, Lily had to endure the boys teasing comments of 'Topi-Hair', until Lily jumped up, dumped her bowl of oatmeal on poor James head, and
strode out of the Great Hall. Sirius sniggered at the look on James's face.
"Need a little help?" Remus asked innocently, as he pulled out his wand, and conjured another bucket of water to fall on someone's head this morning. James
glared at Remus, then icily declared that the next person to dump anything on his head would regret it. With that out of the way, he jumped up and walked out
of the Great Hall. Watching him leave, Remus asked Sirius,
"Is he mad at me, d'you think?"
"Nah, he cools down after five minutes or so. I should know, I have been friends with him for years. He'll probably want to know what type of spell you used. By the way, how can you do that when we haven't had any classes yet?" Sirius replied.
"I manifested my magic early, so I was taught some to control it earlier then usual. I blew up things too many times otherwise," Remus watched a point above the other boys head, then coughed. "Well, breakfast is over, so we'd better run back and get our bags."
"Merlin! You're right!" Sirius exclaimed, almost tripping as he got up from the table in his haste.
They quickly ran up to the Fat Lady, and said,
"Fidelius Charm." After running back out of the dorm, Remus pulled out his schedule, then grinned.

"Transfiguration!" he said gleefully. Sirius smirked and said,
"James will love that! Evil transfiguring pigeon that he is," Remus raised his eyebrow and remarked delicately,
"Pigeon?"
"Yes, pigeon. Don't ask," Sirius shuddered.
"Right then," Remus murmured as they arrived at the Transfiguration classroom.
It was a large room, and somewhat resembled a menagerie, with all the animals in cages scattered around the room. Torches decorated the stone walls, with a large mahogany desk at the front. Small rectangular tables were neatly lined up in front of her, with space enough for two or three first years in them. The class (Slytherins and Gryffindors) were already sitting down and chatting quietly.
A stern-looking witch in her mid-30's in front of the class, looked up frowning.
"Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black, I presume?" she said crisply. They nodded. "Take a seat, class will be starting in a few minutes. Sirius and Remus hurried to the table that Lily and James were sharing, and sat down.
"Saving a seat? Aw, James, I'm flattered," Sirius said in a falsetto. James rolled his eyes.
"Where were you guys? You were almost late!" Lily hissed as they turned to face their new professor. Sirius opened his mouth to answer Lily, but Remus elbowed him, clearly telling him to shut up.
"I am Professor McGonagall, and I will be your Transfiguration teacher for your time at Hogwarts. Transfiguration requires concentration and attention. Anyone fooling around in this class will be severely punished," she looked around so that she knew they got her meaning. "You will not be doing the more dangerous Transfigurations until your fifth year, but still, magic in this class can go badly awry." That said, she picked up a box full of what seemed full of toothpicks and proceeded to pass them out as they were informed that "Today's practical lesson is a test of how well this class will pick up on transfiguring. You are to change the toothpick in front of you into a needle. This is the correct way to hold your wand, unlike this," here she paused and changed grips," Which is for charms. Any questions? Good. Get to work, then."

Out of the entire class, James was the only person to perfectly change his toothpick into a needle. Remus's had gone all silver and pointy, while Sirius's had caught fire ("You mean I was supposed to NOT cause chaos?!?!," he said with a cheeky grin). Lily had to be reminded repeatedly to hold her wand correctly, as she kept slipping into Charms movement. When she had that down, she was almost as far as Remus. Suddenly, a large chirp could be heard from a lone boy's table. He was sitting still as a statue while a baby chicken with brown feathers walked around the table, seemingly unaware of the fact that it's legs were made of wood, like the rest of it's mobile body. The entire class
just gaped. Professor McGonagall asked shakily
"Would you like to inform the class, and myself, what just happened, Mr. Pettigrew?"
"Not particularly, Professor," said the blonde boy weakly. James sniggered, and Lily elbowed him.
"Ouch!" said James quietly.
"He doesn't need people laughing at him! He's obviously nervous and embarrassed enough, you twit!" Lily scolded.
"Yeah! That was awesome! I wonder who he is?" Sirius exclaimed, not bothering to keep his voice down.
"Peter Pettigrew, first year Gryffindor, YOU SHARE A DORMITORY!!!!" Lily snapped furiously. Remus seemed to be the only one actually paying attention to the
lesson. He was busy scribbling down notes as McGonagall berated Mr. Pettigrew for not paying attention while transfiguring his match.
"Well, not many first year students would be able to do that particular transformation, so... 5 points to Gryffindor," Professor McGonagall ended with a thin
smile. "Ms. Evans! Would you kindly keep your argument down! We are in a class, are we not?" Lily blushed as red as her hair and glared at Sirius.
"Sorry, Professor," she murmured while Sirius just smiled angelically. James rolled his eyes and played with his transfiguring, turning his needle bigger, and pointier.
"HA!" yelled Remus, as he jumped up, brandishing a small needle like a sword. McGonagall cleared her throat, causing him to look at her. She merely raised an eyebrow. Remus flushed and realized what he had just done.

"....oops....."

Sirius jumped up and frantically shook Remus's hand.
"Good show, old chap, you have successfully freaked the class out more than I have!!!" Sirius said in a posh accent. "....I didn't know that was possible." he added with wonder in his voice.
"Someone freakier than you, Sirius? Old Madame Murphy will have a heart attack and die of the fear," James joked,
"'Bout time too, jokes on that witch were getting older then her!" Sirius confided. Lily pulled Remus down to his seat beside her and patted his head like a dog.
"Stay! Good boy!" Lily praised. Remus pouted.
"If we could get on with the..." McGonagall asked, but was cut off by the end of class bell that magically echoed throughout the hallways. "No homework!"
The class cheered, then poured into the hallways. Classes for the rest of the day were easy, seeing as McGonagall was the strictest teacher in Hogwarts.
Later after dinner in the common room, James was approached by the blonde boy who had caused such a ruckus in Transfiguration.
"Hi, I'm Peter Pettigrew. Otherwise known as Chicken Boy," he said, looking up at James with a grin. "Anyway, I was wondering if you could give me a few tips. You got your needle correct right away, and..." he trailed away, looking up hopefully.
"Er, Peter, I'm not sure that I can help much, since I just started too, but I'll tell you what my dad told me. There are three rules for magic. Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate. If you're distracted in anyway, especially with a new spell, then it will
probably go awry." James said uncomfortably. He had never been asked to be a tutor. "Tell you what, I'll get Lily. She probably read about techniques and the like. Don't ask me how, since she is a Muggleborn, but that's Lily. The answers are more confusing then the questions!"
"Is she the redhead? She seems nice," Peter said vaguely. "I heard her telling off you and your friends."
"Yeah, and I don't think I have ever seen Sirius silenced so quickly! I wish I knew how she did that..." James trailed off wistfully. He shook himself out of his daze and jogged up to the door opposite the first year boys dorm, and knocked.
"Don't come in!" a frantic voice yelled. Footsteps pounded towards the door, and it went open a crack.
"Yes?" said the irritable redhead. James knew Lily well enough to tread lightly.
"Er, Lily, Peter here would like to know if you could help him with Transfiguration, concentration, and the like. Because you are a genius, of course, and you are looking at me like you are going to bite my head of so I think I'm going to go now, good luck Peter, don't come out with any lasting scars!" James yelped and ran out of the hall. Lily started to chuck shoes at him. She sighed and turned to Peter.
"So, what do you need help with? I can't make any promises but... I can try!" She smiled brightly. Peter seemed rather confused by her sudden cheeriness, but decided not to question his good fortune.

"I was hoping to get some tips for concentration. James said something about it being the key, and that maybe that you could help me. You did awfully well in McGonagall's class today, and she was being extra strict," he asked hesitantly.
"Okay, I could help you. Do you happen to know where the library is?" And Lily was off! She dragged Peter down the stairs and through the common room, with many amused glances from other students.
"Be careful!" cautioned the Fat Lady. James, Sirius, and Remus looked on with sorrow.
"We'll never see him again," mourned Remus.
"Too bad, he actually had a sense of humor about the Chicken Incident. If he gets out of the Library unscathed, maybe we should hang with him. He's cool. Called himself Chicken Boy," and with that...interesting announcement, the trio sat down and started to plan their first prank. Woe to all the professors the next day....

(Time Skip: Morning in the Great Hall)

James, Sirius, and Remus could barely contain their glee when they arrived at the Great Hall the next morning, early to boot. They drew many suspicious glances by the ever paranoid McGonagall, why they couldn't imagine. Surely it was normal to spontaneously burst into cackles?... Who knew. 'We really need to work on the whole NOT letting them know it was us thing...' Remus thought. A long line of Slytherins strutted in from the dungeons, and (synchronized!) glared at the Gryffindor table, no matter how few students were actually sitting there. Behind the procession of Slyths came a red haired figure who hurtled towards the Gryffindor table and crash-landed next to Remus. Seeing his confused look, she explained.
"I got 'it' out of James last night. I love my temper," Lily grinned. Remus rolled his eyes and wondered how they were ever going to pull a successful prank if he told them to everyone. 'Hopefully, it's just Lily,' he decided. Sirius was a BIT more vocal.
"James told you!?!?! But he is the best secret keeper I know! How did you get it out of him?" Sirius demanded.
"That's my little secret, Siri darling."
"But-" he began.
"Give it up, Dog Star, she'll never tell... I hope." Remus said, and sent a mock suspicious look at her. Lily laughed and shook her head.
"You're a pretty good actor, Remus. Do you think you could grace the theater with your presence? You've got a ready made stage name, anyhow. I took mythology in
Muggle school. Your first name is a boy raised by wolves, and then a surname meaning moon. Very pretty," while Lily was going on about names, the rest of the Great Hall had snuck in, including the Man of The Hour, James himself.
"Morning!" James said, helping himself to scrambled eggs with ketchup. Peter sat next to him, and munched on some toast while commenting on James's food.
"I'll never understand how some extremely weird people who shall remain nameless, can eat ketchup on eggs. Yuck!" He said, wrinkling his nose.

All of a sudden, there was a large BOOM! on the other side of the Great Hall, and a disgusting smell started to permeate the air. Students closest started to gag, some going so far as to run out of the Great Hall, holding their mouths. Professor McGonagall looked simply furious. Or, about as angry as you could look, with a puce tinge to her face. 'Goes lovely with her black hair,' James noted mischievously. He and Sirius were immune to the smell, having used it so many times. The smell in question was the last of his Dungbombs. 'I shall always miss you, valiant warrior!' Lily, Remus, and Peter were not faring so well, and sending the oblivious duo with dud noses glares that promised physical injuries.
"WHOMEVER THE IMBECILIC MARAUDERS WERE THAT PULLED THIS DISGUSTING PRANK ARE, BE WARNED YOU SHALL NOT FLEE RETRIBUTION!!!!!!!!!!" screamed McGonnaFlip, before fleeing the Hall. 'Marauders... hmmm, I'll have to look into that! Thanks, Professor!' thought James. Dumbledore looked amused and disgusted, a combination that made the wizened warlock look rather constipated. Ew. James shook this thought off as he watched the Headmaster perform a Clean-Air charm, and a Revealing Charm, for the Slytherin had sat on the time-released Dungbombs that the Gryffindor first years had so thoughtfully left for them. After finding the source of the stink, he banished them to the nearest wastebasket. After a quick charm, the Slytherin tables were clean as clean, not a single crumb of Dung (TM) left.
"I believe you have classes to go to?" the Professor said mildly. There was a moment of silence, then every single student tried to go through the doors. At the same time. James, Lily, Peter, Remus, and Sirius all hung back to stay away from the murderous Ravenclaws ('Must...get...to class! OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!!!!'). Professor Dumbledore threw the young wizards and witch a twinkling wink before walking out of the Hall. That wink marked a monumental moment in the teachers sanity.
The Marauders were born.