Beyond the Pensieve: The Marauders' Past

Chapter One: Wormtail's New Friends

"Hurry up, Prongs!" Sirius Black yelled out of an open window near the back of the scarlet steam engine that was pulled into Platform 9¾ at King's Cross.

"I'm coming!" James Potter shouted back over the heads of other students that were hurriedly boarding the Hogwarts Express. James shook his jet-black hair out of his blue eyes and struggled to get a better grip on his heavy trunk that he was trying to haul up the steps of the train. The trainwhistle began to blow shrilly, signaling that the Express was about to leave the platform.

"Need some help?" a slightly hoarse voice said at his shoulder.

James smiled as he recognized the voice. "Please and thank you, Moony," he said, stepping over the trunk onto the train.

Remus Lupin bent down and in one deft move he picked up the trunk with ease and walked onto the train, following James, who was leading him to a compartment near the back of the engine.

As the train began to move, slowly at first then faster, James and Remus came to a compartment that was occupied by three people.

There were two boys and one girl in the small room. The girl was pretty and had long, thick crimson hair and astonishingly green eyes. Across from her was a short, squat boy with small, watery eyes and a pointed nose. The other boy was tall and muscular. He had dark hair that casually fell into his chocolate eyes and was very good-looking.

The girl smiled at James, whose stomach did a flip-flop. "Hi," she said sweetly. She scooted over on the seat to make room for him, and then went back to reading a thick, dragon-skin-bound book.

James sat down next to her. "Hi," he said dreamily. Then he turned to the short boy. "Hi, Peter...how are you?"

"Fine," Peter squeeked back quietly.

James turned to the handsome boy. "Hey, Sirius. How was your summer?"

"Oh, you know, the usual; it was horrible, excruciatingly boring and uneventful, and my soul was repeatedly tormented," he said, grimacing and closing his eyes in mock pain.

"Oh, stop being such a melodramatic Prima Dona," the girl said without looking up from her book.

"Awww, is ickle widdle Lilykins feeling a teensy bit cwanky?" Sirius said sarcastically.

Lily scowled at him but didn't say anything. She began reading again, which made James curious as to what was so interesting in that book.

"What are you reading, Lils?" he asked curiously.

"It's the newest. Revised edition of Hogwarts, a History," she answered without looking up.

"Oh...How was your summer?" James said, attempting to engage in conversation with her.

"Oh, it was wonderful!" Lily said enthusiastically. "I vacationed in Sweden and learned about some ancient muggle history there.

"Wow, that sounds fun."

"Yeah, it was."

"Hey, who are the prefects this year?" Sirius asked randomly, smiling. "We need to see which brown-nosers we get to push around this year!"

"I'm one of the prefects," Lily snarled. Her green eyes flashed dangerously.

"And me," Remus said. His face was very red from either anger or embarrassment.

Far from looking abashed, Sirius broke into a triumphant smile. "This is GREAT!" he said ecstatically, causing everyone to stare at him.

" 'Great'?" Lily said. Her eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, don't you see?" Nobody said anything, which seemed to answer Sirius's question. "With you guys as the Gryffindor prefects, we can get away with loads of stuff!"

"Now hold on one minute! You are not going to take advantage of Remus and me!" Lily said angrily. She stood up suddenly, causing her book to fall to the floor.

James hurriedly bent to pick it up as Sirius opened his mouth to protest.

"We wouldn't take advantage of you, we would just...slide out of trouble easier," Sirius said, grinning slyly.

"If you think that we're just going to let you off because you're our friend-"

"Fine, fine. I'm sorry I mentioned it. I promise we won't get into trouble. I promise." But it was obvious that Sirius wasn't going to keep that promise.

* * *

The rest of the train ride was uneventful. Finally, as the sky began to grow dark and overcast, the train shuddered to a stop at the Hogsmeade station.

Peter exited the train first, followed by James and Lily, who were holding hands, Sirius, and Remus brought up the rear. The Marauders quickly found a carriage and began to board it.

James and Lily sat together and gazed out the window together, Lily having put away her book.

Peter sat by Sirius across from them. There was a pause before Remus came in and shut the door.

"What took you, Moony?" Sirius said absently.

Remus hesitated before answering, as though he were deciding whether to tell them or not. He ran his hands through his light brown hair and his matching eyes looked down at the tattered red carpet. "I was encouraging the Thestral that is pulling our carriage to try and get to the castle before it rain," he said at last, indicating the dark clouds that were threatening to pour sheets of water down on them. Everyone must have looked puzzled because he continued. "Well, I have a feeling this carriage will leak, you see."

"You can...I m-mean," Peter stammered quietly, his small eyes darting around, looking for eavesdroppers. "Y-you can, well...er, you can s-see them?"

Remus nodded, still looking at the floor.

"Who did you see die?" Sirius asked. "OUCH!"

Lily had kicked him in the shins.

"What was that for?" he asked angrily, rubbing where she had kicked him.

Lily just glared furiously at him.

"My, um...my brother. He was killed by a Death-eater," Remus said bitterly, staring determinedly at the floor.

The group sat in an uncomfortable silence the rest of the way to the castle.

The carriage finally rumbled to a stop when they reached the looming gray castle. Remus got out first this time, then Sirius, then Lily and James. Peter came out last.

Sirius bounded happily up the castle steps and stopped halfway, sniffing the air in an almost dog-like manner. "Smell that?" he shouted happily over the heads of other students that were making their way to the Great Hall. "Dinner!"

Lily and James, however, were waiting for Remus, who was pulling a burr out of the (to most onlookers) invisible Thestral's mane. "You coming, Moony?" James said uncertainly, exchanging an uneasy look with Lily as Remus patted the Thestral on his head.

"Yeah," Remus said, abandoning the animal and following James and Lily through the crowd to Sirius.