Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I do own my own characters. I have set the characters to Remus and Sirius, not because they are a pairing, but because I don't want to give away any pairings I may make in the story.

Summary: It's the Marauders' third year of schooling, and they're still as naughty as ever. Gail Forester is an unattractive girl. How will she ever make it through school without being the target of pranks?

Time you go on
Chapter 1

It was the beginning of the new year at Hogwarts. Banners depicting the different houses were draped from the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall. Fairy lights and candles floated around the hall. Students had begun to eat the large welcome feast after Dumbledore had finished talking. The hall echoed with the sounds of utensils.

Gail Forester sat in the middle of a bench at the Griffindor table. She was happily shovelling large spoonfuls of mashed potatoes into her mouth. While other people were have conversations with other people about their summer vacations and plans for the new year, Gail was focused on the food. It had been a while since she'd eaten such scrumptious food.

The boy sitting next to her was staring at her with his mouth open slightly. One of the boy's friends elbowed him impatiently. The impatient boy looked over his friend's mousey little head and grinned wickedly, "oye, save some for the rest of us!"

Gail's head snapped up, her dark eyes darting around for the source of the voice. She tried to glare at the haughty boy, but the potatoes stuck on the side of her face just made him laugh.

The small, mousey boy started laughing hysterically, too. Within a second, another boy with glasses and messy hair joined in the laughter. He pulled his wand out as he spoke, "you should really clean your face once in a while! Scourgify!"

Bubbles exploded in Gail's face, filling her eyes and seeping into her mouth. The three boys' laughter became even louder. The smallest boy looked like he was ready to wet himself from laughing too hard. It only took a moment for Gail to reorient herself. Standing up, she walked out of the Great Hall. She was no longer hungry, she just felt sickly embarrassed.

Behind her, she heard echoes of "there goes fatty" and other equally nice things from the other tables.

By the time she made it to the dormitories, the bubbles had dispersed. The whole episode was her fault to begin with. Normally, she wouldn't have sat next anywhere near the three people that were laughing at her. She had heard rumours about a group of Griffindor boys that caused trouble everywhere they went. Gail had never had the pleasure of getting to know them, and hadn't even recognized who she sat beside at dinner.

Darting towards the bathroom, Gail stared at her face in the mirror. It was true that she was pudgy. Her round little face had two squinty eyes staring back at her. She had always been like this, though. It wasn't her fault that she got hungry. She was used to childish teasing and childhood bullies. In the muggle schools, she had endured taunting that was far worse than anything James Potter or Sirius Black could come up with.

They didn't even have the power to make her cry. No, she was not that weak. Gail knew that they would get more enjoyment from her yelling, crying or

Tugging at the side of her shirt, Gail's eyes stared into the mirror. Her clothes weren't the right size. The worst part was that her sleeves were too tight. The rest of the her uniform wasn't right either. The rolls of her stomach stood out and her legs looked huge. She could understand why people would make fun of her.

As she exited the bathroom, the door to the dormitory flew open. A girl stormed into the room, her face was almost the same colour as her red hair. Fuming, she ignored Gail's presences completely and threw herself onto her four-post bed. This was exactly the same as the last three years of school. Gail would always be ignored by the wonderful, lovely Lily Evans, even if they were the only two people in the room. It wasn't really Lily's fault.

Gail preferred to be alone. She also liked small, dark spaces. The deserted bathroom, also known as Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom, was one of the nicer places that she would go to be alone.

While Gail was thinking about sitting in a lovely, dark place, four other girls came into the dormitory. She couldn't quite remember their names, so she just ignored what they were talking about. The three blondes were discussing boys or something equally intelligible. None of the other girls even greeted Gail, who was now scrolled out on the bed, flipping through her new care of magical creatures textbook.

The brunette who had been walking with the other girls, climbed onto Lily's bed.

"C'mon Lily, did you really need to blow up at Potter?" The brunette asked, rubbing her friend's back gently.

"Jo!" Lily groaned, turning her head to glare at the girl, "it wasn't your best friend being hexed. You wouldn't understand."

Joan tilted her head to the side, "well, I guess I would have blown my top if they were hexing you..."

Lily huffed, "I've known Severus since our childhood! If I don't stick up for him, who will?"

Gail couldn't understand why anyone would claim to be friends with someone as repulsive as Severus Snape. She wouldn't ever say that, though. Other people would probably say the same thing about her.

"Ew," one of the blondes piped up, "I can't believe you'd rather be nice to Snivellus than to a babe like James Potter..."

The blonde immediately turned to her friends, "did you see? Sirius Black winked at me during dinner. He is SO yummy. I'd snog him in a second."

The blondes all giggled, and started talking about the attractive boys around the school. Gail promptly blocked out the rest of the vacation. She was too busy admiring the pictures of dragons in her textbook.

The next morning, Gail was sitting at the Griffindor table after finishing her breakfast. She had been staring down at her timetable for a few minutes. Her schedule showed that she had early morning Transfiguration followed by Care of Magical Creatures. It seemed like her course load had expanded too much from the previous year. She almost felt like throwing up. She was scheduled for eight classes.

Transfiguration with the rest of the Griffindors and one of the other houses. Sighing, Gail stood up and exited the Great Hall. She easily found her way to the right classroom. Several students stood around talking. Gai sat in the middle of the class. She was neither an overachiever or a slacker. Normalcy was her game, and it usually worked to keep her working by quietly by herself.

Professor McGonagall's entrance caused silence to ripple through the classroom. Students found their seats quickly, and dug out their school supplies. The only students that dared coming to class after McGonagall were the four Griffindor boys.

Smiling to each other, the boys filed in and took four seats at the back of the class. They pretty much ignored the annoyed glances of Minerva McGonagall. Several Hufflepuff girls had turned in their seats to stare at the boys. So had Lily Evens, but her stare was more sharp. Lily openly glared at them for a few seconds before snapping her head to the front of the class.

This would be one year to remember.

It was so hot. Gail's skin felt like it was melting. It was one of those days where everyone ditched their ties, sweaters, robes and rolled up the sleeves of their shirts. It was like the weather didn't know that it was September. Even Gail had tied her tawny hair up to get it off of her neck. The other students mulled around the grounds, awaiting their Care of Magical Creatures professor, Silvanus Kettleburn.

Professor Kettleburn eventually emerged from his shack on the grounds. His cold gaze lingered on the cherub-like faces of the third years. The man walked with an extremely exaggerated limp. There were rumours that both of the man's legs had been replaced with magically enhanced prosthetic ones. Kettleburn also had a rather ominous hook instead of a left hand. If there was one lesson that could be learned simply from looking at the man, it was to give magical creatures respect and treat them with caution.

"Ah, a bunch of new third years," Kettleburn's dour mood seemed to deepen, "more students, just like last year. Well, we'll start the year with something interesting."

Limping, Kettleburn looped his hook around the handle of a large box. He easily dragged the box into the middle of the semicircle of students. Looking up, the professor grinned and opened the lid. A few students peeked into the box.

"There's nothing in there," a whisper went through the group of students. The students were standing in two large groups, made up of Griffindors and Ravenclaws. The two houses had Care of Magical Creatures together, and were obviously not very friendly with one another.

Professor Kettleburn turned his attention to the box. He dropped his right hand in and grabbed something invisible.

"Does anyone know," Kettleburn started talking, and the students went quiet, "what a diricawl is?"

One of the Griffindor students put her hand up. Her red hair shone in the sun. She ignored the sniggers of the male students behind her. Kettleburn pointed at her, waiting for her response.

"A diricawl is a flightless bird that can make itself invisible if it feels that it's endangered," the girl responded, "muggles have named the diricawl a "dodo" and believe that it is extinct."

"Very good, Miss Evans. I heard you were a clever student from the other professors," Kettleburn gently rubbed his hook across the top of the invisible creature he was holding, "ten points to Griffindor."

Several Ravenclaw students stared at the red-haired girl, wondering why she wasn't in their house. Kettleburn plopped the invisible creature back into the box, causing it to squeak quietly. He didn't seem to care who answered his questions, or which house they came from.

Kettleburn nodded to the class, "make yourself into groups. Each group will get one diricawl. It will be your job today to make the thing reappear before the end of the class. This will demonstrate how fit you are to care for the more timid creatures. Oh... And I will know if you try to remove any of their feathers, so don't even try it."

The first person to take a step forward for their group's diricawl was a boy with glasses and extremely messy hair. It was the same boy that had used the scurgify spell on her face. Kettleburn reached into the box and extracted one of the creatures for the boy. Calmly, the boy grabbed where the professor had. Retreating back to his group, the four boys moved off to find a nice place to spend the rest of the class.

"Too bad," one of the boys was speaking quietly, "I reckon we could have used a few of this guy's feathers for our 'adventures'."

Gail had been so focused on watching the boy with the glasses that she had forgotten that she needed to push herself into a group. Awkwardly, she stared at the five females that she shared a room with in the Griffindor dormitories. Two girls stood away from the other three. None of them really noticed her presence, so she was forced to tap one of the girls on the shoulder. The girl spun around gracefully.

"Oh, Gail," the girl stared at her with slight interest for a moment. She have lovely, rich brown hair. Gail couldn't clearly remember her name, but decided it had to be Joan, or Jo for short. The girl seemed to have some authority about her, but her eyes shone with kindness as she spoke, "want to join our group?"

Gail nodded, speaking quietly, "yes please."

The redhead who had received ten points for Griffindor, Lily Evans, nodded at her. Joan Thestile and Lily Evans were good friends, and they usually paired up for group work. Gail thought that Lily was somewhat intimidating, but she would rather be paired with two girls that would work hard, instead of the three blonde girls that would do no work.

Lily's deep emerald eyes focused on Gail for a moment before she spoke, "I'll got get our diricawl." With that, Lily walked straight up to Kettleburn, who got the invisible bird for her.

The other group of Griffindor girls were smiling and watching the group of boys. They weren't overly interested in getting their own bird. Kettleburn eventually walked over to them, handing them an invisible bird. The silly girls just giggled, walking closer to the boys that they thought were "yummy".

It looked like Lily had received a very twitchy and nervous bird. Her hands kept jerking around, as if the bird was trying to get away. Pleadingly, Lily looked to Jo for help.

"I can't keep a good hold on it," Lily grumbled, "it keeps twitching around and it's pretty heavy. Can I get some help, please?"

Jo, never one to leave her friend high and dry, flustered. She really didn't know what she was doing. Gail, though, had read the book thoroughly for their new class. She always had an affinity for pets, and had wondered if they would be taught how to look after magical pets in the class.

"Set him on the ground, but keep a hold on him," Gail stated calmly, "that way, you won't have to hold such a heavy creature. All we really have to do is calm him down, and maybe make him fall asleep."

After Lily had set the bird on the ground, Gail knelt and stiffly lifted her hand up, and searched for the bird's head. The bird had extremely soft feathers, and a strangely shaped beak. Eventually, Lily's hands stopped being jerked around by the bird. She was able to relax a bit. Jo knelt next to Gail, reaching a hand towards where Lily had her hands on the bird's body.

Eventually, the diricawl calmed down enough that Lily didn't even need to hold it. The bird had settled on the ground in between the three girls and started trumpeting happily. Soon the "dodo" bird had even fallen asleep, and had become visible.

"Whoa," Jo grinned at the plump body of the bird, "there he is!"

"Well done girls," a voice came from behind them. Gail turned to see Kettleburn standing there, admiring their work, "you're the fastest in the class to get yours to settle down. Well done. Twenty points to Griffindor."

"You can join our group again in the future," Lily commanded, turning her gaze from Kettleburn to Gail, "you aren't as slow as you look."

Gail nodded solemly in agreement. It wouldn't hurt to work with Lily and Jo again, it might raise her confidence in herself. The moment of peace between the girls was broken by loud screeching. Undoubtedly, the group of four boys were causing problems again. Lily swivelled her head around, targeting the boys with her cold stare.

"Potter! Black!" Kettleburn yelled at the boys as he made his way over to them. He had obviously been informed as the who the troublemakers in the third year were, "I told you not to try to steal any feathers! Look, you got Pettigrew injured. Detentions for all four of you. Now get your classmate to the hospital wing."

"Come on Peter," the attractive boy, named Sirius Black, hauled Peter to his feet.

Indeed, Pettigrew was injured. The bird had taken a chunk out of the boy's hand with its beak, and had clawed the boy's face up, as well. Potter and Black, Gail thought, looked terribly flustered that they had been caught for nicking such an item. The other boy, Gail didn't know his name, was holding a piece of cloth to Peter's injuries to stop the bleeding. The other students in the class watched them as they pulled Peter Pettigrew back up to the castle.

"Serves them right," Lily said, glaring at the retreating figures of the boys, "they couldn't just behave, they had to go and get one of their friends injured.

Yes, it would be a year to remember.

Author's Note:

Hello! I'd like to take a moment and thank you for reading this story. I plan on making it a romance/mystery, but the type of story may change, along with the main characters. At first, I planned on having poor Gail date Peter, but I don't think anyone would want to read that. I sure don't want to torture anyone with a PeterOC kissing scene. Or do I?

Review please: I want to know which pairing you guys prefer. RemusOC or SiriusOC?

I'm done the next chapter, so if you review, I'll post it quickly. 3

Look forward to Deleted Scenes at the end of my next chapter. I'm bringing funny back.

-Rue