She thought her life was over – but fate gave her another chance, in a world of magic. Now, running around Hogwarts with James Potter and his friends, she's about to make choices that will change the future in ways she never thought possible…

Marauder's Phase

CHAPTER ONE

Prelude To Magic

I could hear shrieks all around me, as I ran through the thick pine woods, catching my robes on thorny plants, and stumbling here and there. Every so often, I would catch a glimpse of one of my friends through the trees – dressed similarly and doing exactly the same thing as I was. It was Friday, October 31st, and I had arrived in England six days before, using money I had saved up for a year and a half. My friends and I were celebrating what we call 'Friday 31st' – we'd been waiting for Halloween to fall on a Friday for years now, and I'd been saving up the money to come and join them for a night of fun. Since I live all the way over in Australia, I don't get to celebrate Halloween that much at all – and I'd been looking for an excuse to wear my witch robes out in public.

I burst forth into a clearing, where my very best friend, Lilliana Hales, was waiting for me, a huge smile over her beautiful face.

"You all right there, Emma?" She called to me, as I trotted over to meet her.

I was panting, my face flushed with exhilaration from my run. "Yeah, you?"

"Sure, sure," She said, tossing her honey-coloured hair over her shoulder. "We did this last year, remember?"

How could I forget? She had only written to me a seventeen page letter describing the fun they'd had last Halloween, whilst I was stuck at home, grounded, because I'd – accidentally – knocked paint all over another girl's picture in art class. Then, when she'd yelled at me for wrecking her picture, I'd called her a stupid bitch who couldn't see an accident if it hit her in the face. I'd been suspended for saying that, by the way.

To Lilliana, I said: "Where are we supposed to meet the others?" A bunch of Lilliana's friends and cousins were meeting us somewhere, not to far away. We were going to set up camp, and tell ghost stories all night if we could. I knew Lilliana could – she's great at telling ghost stories.

"Over that way," Lilliana pointed east into the trees. "I think I can hear Shrieking Suzie up ahead," And, sure enough, we both heard a high-pitched shriek, followed by a lot of giggling.

Lilliana and I exchanged a smile, and then headed in that direction, carrying the skirts of our robes off the ground so as not to trip on them anymore.

On the way, Lilliana and I talked about one of our favourite topics of conversation – Harry Potter. Both of us have been fans of the books and the movies ever since we were little kids. We take quills to school and use them instead of pens, and can quote the movies by heart. Her favourite is The Philosopher's Stone. I can't get enough of The Prisoner Of Azkaban.

Tonight, we were talking about werewolves.

"No way they could look like that in real life," Lilliana disagreed, referring to the way Remus Lupin looks in the movie. "I reckon they'd look more like normal wolves, only bigger."

"Yeah, with fur," I agreed with her, accidentally scraping my hand along the bark of a tree. "Oh shoot," I muttered, as it bled a little bit. I pressed my palm tightly together and, ignoring the pain, went on: "And not with that stuff that Remus has in the movie."

"Sirius was hell awesome as that huge black dog though, right?" Lilliana said, looking slyly at me.

I smirked. "Hell yeah. Sirius and Remus are both awesome." Lilliana and I are on first name terms with all the Harry Potter characters, especially our favourites. Lilliana reckons the Weasley twins, Fred and George, are the best. I prefer Sirius and Remus (or, Padfoot and Moony), since I like the third book so much. Thoughtfully, I posed a question that we'd discussed before, but never get tired of hearing it. "Hey Lils – would you have wanted to be at Hogwarts during Harry's time, or during James' time?"

Lilliana took no time in replying: "Definitely during Harry's time – I reckon that's where all the action is."

"Yeah, but wouldn't it be cool to hang out with James and the gang, and maybe even be an unregistered Animagi?" I countered.

"I suppose that would have been fun," Lilliana replied, as we made our way through a thick set of trees, and she held the branches back for me so I could go through. "I would have wanted to turn into a doe or something, personally. Or maybe a red elk." She added, as an after-thought, as we reached the high edges of a river, and began to make our way upstream, unaware that something was following us. "You?"

"I really don't know," I admitted truthfully, and I really didn't, because I had never been able to decide on any specific animal (one of our friends, Lacy Youth, had said she would want to be a flying dog, to which I'd replied 'there's no such thing'). "I think, as long as it would have been something big, likes James or Sirius turned into, then I would be okay. I'd want to be able to handle Remus on my own."

"Yeah, sure," Lilliana smirked. "You'd love to have Remus on your own if he was real now, wouldn't you?"

I whacked her upside the head. "Lil!" I scolded her. "That is seriously getting annoying there, girl!" And embarrassing, I added silently.

"Sorry," She said contritely. "I guess he belongs to Tonks, anyway."

"Right," I said, casting my eyes sideways for a moment, before picking up the pace.

"And you're scared of wolves anyway, aren't you?" Lilliana asked me.

"No, Lils, that's you." I snapped, getting annoyed. What I'd said was entirely true – Lilliana is scared of wolves, but I'm not. We don't get wolves in Australia, so I'd never even seen one in real life before. I actually thought such a thing was kinda cool. Now, snakes, yes, I don't like snakes all that much. Them and flying insects getting in my hair.

Lilliana followed me a few paces, and then she stopped. "Hey, Em?"

"Yes?" I asked, from a few paces ahead. I was still walking, and had reached a sort of overhang that juts out over the waterfall on the river, and then there's a part that leads downhill, toward where the campfire was – I could see it.

I had thought Lilliana was going to say something about how Sirius had never had anyone, and I hoped she wouldn't mention Peter Pettigrew, but she didn't say anything of the sort. In fact, what she said was: "There's something behind us…I can hear its feet…and it's growling…" She sounded scared to death.

I wheeled around. "What?"

No sooner had the words left my mouth when a huge grey creature launched itself out of the pine forest, landing about three feet away from Lilliana, who stood frozen to the spot. Her sea-green eyes were locked on the wolf's big yellow ones, and I knew that she was frozen in fear.

"RUN!!" I shouted to her, which seemed to unfreeze her, and she took off running upstream, toward me.

The wolf sprang forward, and gave chase, grabbing Lilliana easily by the ankles and causing her to trip. The wolf dragged her toward him.

"NOOOO!!" Lilliana howled in pain, as I turned around in horror. "LET ME GOOOO!!"

"I'm coming!" I shouted to her, and looked around for something to attack the wolf who was attacking my best friend. I saw a piece of tree branch that looked like it could be broken off easily, and ran for it. I grabbed it with my hands, wincing as the graze on my palm deepened, and then firmly snapping the branch off. Then I ran at the wolf, who had a sobbing Lilliana by the leg, and swung down hard across the wolf's head. "Let go!!" I yelled, as the stick broke into pieces, and the wolf looked up, growling savagely.

To my surprise, he did let go of Lilliana – only to shift his attack to me, of course. Well, I guessed that it was my blood on the tree back there that had attracted him, so it really made no surprise that a wolf was now tearing at my throat – but at least he'd let go of Lilliana.

"EMMA, NO!!!!" Lilliana screamed, as the wolf dragged me closer to the edge of the over-hang. "EMMA!!!!" She was sobbing hysterically now, obviously alarmed at the sight of me, her best friend, covered in blood.

Through the blinding pain in my throat I yelled to her: "LILY, GO!!!!"

"EMMA!!" Lilliana's scream changed to one of terror, as I felt the ground beneath me begin to break. "THE OVERHANG…!!"

It was breaking. I could feel it. Blood was streaming down my front, staining my robes scarlet, but I still managed to scream: "GET OUT OF HERE LILLIANA – NOW!!!!" My last thoughts were of my family – we'd argued, but that was nothing new. I wasn't appreciated by them, my talents weren't what they'd expected, so I knew they wouldn't miss me. Not as much as Lilliana, anyway.

"Run, Lily." I whispered to her, sure that my blood-soaked fifteen year old self with her shoulder length dark brown hair and tear-filled hazel eyes was the last thing she wanted to see.

"Emma…" Lilliana gasped, just before the cliff broke, and both the wolf and I plummeted to our doom.

The last thing I heard was Lilliana's scream in my ears, or maybe it was the wolf's howling – or maybe it was my own choked sob, as I still clutched a piece of the tree branch in my hand, and wished it all to be over with quickly.

I never hit the water.