Sirius Black was never so sad in his life as when he heard the news. It was all over everywhere of course; they had sent out a special Midnight Prophet for the event. Though everyone was celebrating, Sirius and his friends were not. Yesterday night had been possibly the worst night of his life when the Prophet came by owl. One of his best friends, Lily Evans, had just been killed. They had not seen Lily in two years; after the break-up between her and his other best friend James, she disappeared. According to the newspapers she had had a son—with god only knows whom—and he had somehow managed to resist the killing curse and rebound it back on You-Know-Who himself.
This was wonderful news for the Wizarding World of course, in fact most people had celebrated on into this lovely day, but it was terrible news for Sirius, James, and their friend Remus. To top it all off, a few days before their other friend Peter had been caught as a DeathEater and was thrown in Azkaban for life. It was the worst week of Sirius' life.
If his week was going badly, he could only imagine what James was going through. James, who had claimed since the break-up almost two years before that he loved Lily more than anything and that he wanted to get back together with her—marry her, even, was more than heart-broken. He had gone into a deep depression, and despite Sirius' attempts, he would not leave his room. 'Things couldn't get any worse than this,' Sirius thought. He was much mistaken.
Chapter One
"Sirius! Remus! We got the letters back!" James exclaimed running through the Mansion, looking for his two best friends. It was 1996, and James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin were all living together in the mansion James had inherited from his parents.
"Great!" said Sirius enthusiastically, snatching his letter from James. Remus just smiled and went over to James, politely taking his.
"Alright, we'll all open them on three," said James. "One…"
"Three!" Sirius cried, ripping his open. James followed with Remus rolling his eyes and using a letter opener to cleanly open his own mail. The three stood there for a minute, reading their own respective letters when they all exclaimed at the same time,
"I'm hired!" The three looked at one another, then they grinned.
"The Marauders are back again!" Sirius shouted, pumping his fist in the air.
"I wonder if we can snatch that map back from old Filch?" James plotted. Remus just shook his head.
"You know, we are going back to Hogwarts to be teachers not Marauders."
"Aw, liven up a little, Moony," Sirius said with a beaming smile.
"I don't know what Dumbledore was thinking," Remus said, "when he hired all three of us."
"He was thinking we were his favorite students," James said.
"Right. What was I thinking?" Remus said with playful sarcasm. Remus was happy that his friends had gotten the other positions, though he wasn't sure just what was going to happen that school year; after all, the Marauders being back as teachers was not an idea that set with the school well. This would be an interesting year.
Although the other two had had wonderful jobs as Aurors (and Remus had a job at a local muggle bookstore), they had decided that they wanted to go back to their old home to teach, and when there was need for a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, they had all applied. James had gotten the position, with Sirius as an assistant teacher; he would be helping James with lesson plans as well as help some of the kids that were struggling. Remus had gotten the position of Care of the Magical Creatures professor and he couldn't be happier. It was an area of his interest, and he was very fond of his own assistant, Hagrid.
Yes, the marauders were back, even if they were to be more responsible than previously.
"I wonder who our protégés are," Sirius wondered with a glint in his eyes.
Remus sighed. This was going to be a long year.
"Come on you two, I think we better go over lesson plans; we only have a month of prep time before school starts!" Remus exclaimed, then took his letter and headed to the library. Nodding in agreement, James and Sirius followed their werewolf friend. He was almost always right, after all.
Not too many miles away just outside Ottery St. Catchpole, a sixteen-year-old boy with jet-black hair and emerald green eyes sat on a bed looking through a photo album. The dilapidated leather book had once belonged to his mother and had somehow been obtained by Hagrid when he left the wreckage of Harry's home fifteen years ago. The pictures were fading now, and turning slightly orange with the exposure to light, but Harry didn't care. They were pictures of his mother at all ages, most of when she was at Hogwarts. The pictures sometimes depicted her with some boys who he assumed were perhaps her friends. Two of the boys had black hair like Harry and one had sandy blonde—and slightly graying—hair.
One of these men he thought might be his father, as the two with black hair looked like they were enough like him. But however many times he asked Hagrid or Dumbledore they would never give him a straight answer. He had even tried asking Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, but they just gave him a sympathetic smile and said that they had no idea. The only thing anyone would ever tell him was that his Father was most likely dead, which was not much of a comforting thought to Harry Evans. He had thought that maybe, just maybe, one day his father would magically appear and take him away from the Dursleys forever, but no such luck. Harry was beginning to believe what everyone said about his father being dead; after all, it had been a time of war and everyone had assured Harry that his mother was not someone to go off and get pregnant with some random drunk. According to them, she was far too sensible for that. The fact still remained however, that Harry was virtually fatherless. He was beginning to even hope now that his father was dead, for what would he say to the man if he ever met him? No, his father perhaps was better off dead. It would just be too awkward.
Harry shut the album and put it in his trunk. Tomorrow he would be heading off to school with his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, as well as with Ron's pretty little sister, Ginny. Harry loved Hogwarts; it was his home and his life was there. It was definitely not all he had ever known, but it was all he had ever wished to know. Harry lay back on his bed, listening to Ron's snoring from the other bed in the room. At Hogwarts he knew he was safe. At Hogwarts he knew he had friends. At Hogwarts he didn't have to worry about such things as his dead parents; or so he thought.
"James, hurry up!" Sirius yelled to him above the noise at the train station. Ah, how James loved this feeling. He was going to ride on the Hogwarts Express once more. Although teachers usually didn't, it was getting close to the full moon and Remus wasn't feeling up to apparating to Hogsmeade. It was never every man for himself with the Marauders, so all of them would take the train to Hogwarts. They got on the train and were in the thick of the chaos; black robes swallowed them up as kids ran up and down the train, looking for the compartment that hid their friends. Suddenly, James found himself almost knocked over.
"Ron, Hermione, wait up!" said the voice right before James was unbalanced.
"Oh, sorry sir," said the teen with messy black hair and green eyes. James did a double take; that kid looked exactly like him, aside from the green eyes. Before James could reply however, the kid was gone.
"Did you see that kid?" James asked Sirius and Remus.
"Huh? What kid? I was looking for a compartment," Sirius replied.
"Sorry mate, so was I," Remus said. James shook his head. Maybe it was just a hallucination. They took a compartment and sat down.
"So, what'd this kid look like," Sirius asked as he put his things away.
"Exactly like me at sixteen," James said. Remus grinned.
"You're going nuts then, James," Remus replied.
"I know. It was just so…weird…because he didn't look exactly like me. He had green eyes instead," James said, shaking his head.
"That's kind of strange. Well, I'm sure if this kid is real, it's just a coincidence. Maybe he's a distant relative, or something," Sirius said when he was done shoving his things in the compartment.
"Yeah, maybe," James said. The three then randomly switched topics to Quidditch, but not to professional Quidditch. They all wanted to talk about the House Cup.
"Gryffindor is my favorite to win," James said.
"Mine too," Sirius chimed in.
"Well of course it would be," Remus replied, rolling his eyes slightly. "Anyway, I think Gryffindor is actually the favorite to win this year; from what I hear, they've had an unbeatable seeker for the past five years."
"Oh what a pity, this would be his last year then," James said, looking slightly disappointed that he'd only get to see this seeker for one year.
"No, actually he's some Quidditch prodigy; he was the first first-year in a century to have gotten on the Quidditch team. They made a whole bunch of exceptions for him," Remus said.
"How do you know all this, Moony?" Sirius asked. Remus raised an eyebrow.
"I read the newspaper."
"Why would he be in the newspaper?" James asked. Remus rolled his eyes.
"Don't tell me you two have honestly never heard of this kid. He's a child prodigy; he's in the newspaper every other day!"
"I try to avoid 'The Prophet' whenever I can. It just lies," James said. Sirius nodded in agreement.
"Well this kid is incredible. He's Lily's son, you remember, Harry Evans. He beat Voldemort in his first and second year here. He captured Peter when he escaped from Azkaban in his third year. He was in the TriWizard Tournament when he was fourteen—which is against the rules, but oh well—and he was that kid that caused such a riot when he broke into the ministry last year to fight Voldemort himself. I can't believe that you two, some of the best Aurors in the business, have never heard of Harry Evans," Remus explained to them.
"Oh, I remember hearing about him now. Must have blocked it out of my memory," James said.
"Why?" Sirius asked. James just gave him a look. "Oh. Right. Lily."
For the rest of the train ride, the three marauders were decidedly silent.
Harry ran down the corridors of the train; he could see Ron and Hermione just up ahead. Harry had gotten stuck in the massive crowd, but Ron and Hermione had kept going. They had obviously not yet realized Harry's absence.
"Ron, Hermione, wait up!" he called, then, since he was looking at Hermione and Ron rather than where he was going, he ran into a very tall person, a man who was too old to be a student. "Oh, sorry sir," he said as the familiar man gave him a second look. Harry, a little freaked out by the sense of familiarity, ran right past him and the other two men he was with and caught up with Ron and Hermione. He thought against telling them about the strange man and instead had a normal ride to Hogwarts.
A/N: Please review.