Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter nor any associated works or products etc. I'm sure by now you all know the drill.

Destined and Doomed

Sirius Black stared in horror at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall. "Prongs, Prongs!" he hissed to the boy with messy hair sitting next to him trying to grab his attention, however James Potter aka Prongs was indulging in his favourite past time; starring at one Lily Evans. Remus Lupin who was sitting opposite them snickered, and then promptly pretended to cough when Sirius turned to glare at him. As James continued to gaze at the object of his affections who was seated several places further down the table, Sirius decided that it was time to resort to drastic action and so, in his infinite wisdom emptied the nearest jug of pumpkin juice over his best friend's head.

"What the hell Sirius?" spluttered the now sopping James. Lily Evans, upon hearing his rather loud outcry, finally turned to look at him and then bestowed upon the unfortunate boy a look of pure contempt before flicking her long red hair over her shoulder and turning decisively away from him. James sighed. Sometimes he couldn't help but wonder what he could have possibly done in a past life to land him with the dubiously sane Sirius Black and so glared at his friend.

Sirius Black noted none of this however. He was, as usual, blissfully oblivious, and now that he was certain that he had his best friend's attention he started in on the latest problem with the world and pointed towards a boy at the Slytherin table. "Look! There's another bloody one! Another wanna-be Death Eater in the school!"

This statement had the desired effect, as James stopped glaring and followed Sirius' gaze, and sure enough there was a new boy at the Slytherin table. He was handsome; in a cold, calculated sort of way. He was tall, lean, muscular, had pale skin, an angular, aristocratic face and straight black hair that fell to his shoulders neatly. But it was the boy's eyes that made James weary; they were a hard, cold, impenetrable emerald green. They were the eyes of someone who had seen too much, and had learnt the hard way that weaknesses could be exploited, and so had learnt to shut down all facial expressions. The result was that this boy looked more like a statue – admittedly a statue of a fallen angel with his looks – than a human being. James had seen that look before on the faces of some of the aurors who worked with his dad, usually the ones who had been tortured.

Before James could express his opinion on the subject however, Dumbledore had risen from his seat and began his start of year speech; "Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts. Although outside our walls a war may rage, I ask that you try to leave the conflict out of the classroom. For those of you who are starting your final two years there is a duelling club that I would recommend that you all attend. Self-defence is a valuable skill in these dangerous times." Dumbledore paused and allowed his piercing blue eyes to sweep the crowd before continuing. "Finally we have a new student this year; Harrison Peters, he was sorted earlier into Slytherin and shall be joining us for his final two years. I wish you all the best for the year and I suggest a good night's sleep before your lessons begin tomorrow. Now, off you go."

As Dumbledore returned to his seat the students stood up and began to file out of the hall. "Look!" Sirius hissed for the second time that night and again pointed towards Harrison Peters. James turned and his heart sank. There was Peters in the company of the Lestrange brothers, Nott, Snape, Malfoy and Avery. These were possibly the worst of the Slytherins. They were easily the most violent, but also the most likely to join the new Dark Lord. As the Marauders watched Peters, with a dangerous grace, stood and headed, with his new friends, towards the doors.

The Marauders made their own way back towards the Gryffindor dorms giving each other dark looks. Surprisingly, when they had reached the safety of their dorms, it was Remus who offered his opinion first. "We avoid him".

Sirius rolled over and stared disbelievingly at him. "You're joking Moony! He's a Slytherin! And he was hanging around with Snivellous! He deserves a start of term prank!"

James looked at Remus. He rarely offered such a firm opinion. "Why Moony?" he asked.

Remus looked tense and then offered in a hard voice "Moony sees him as dangerous. But not fightable dangerous; when I met his eyes, only for a moment, Moony reacted, and he wanted to flee and hide." Remus met each of their eyes to convey his sincerity. "No one has that effect on Moony. Not even this new Dark Lord. Whoever this kid is, he is dangerous. Moony was reading the signs all over the place; the way his face was expressionless, the way he held himself, the way he walked. It would be in our best interests to avoid him." Having said his peace Remus got into bed.

"Wormtail?" asked James

"I say avoid him." Peter's voice quivered dangerously "There was something in the way he looked at me – like he wanted me dead. Then his eyes went all hard and empty – I don't know which was worse".

"Pads?"

Sirius seemed to be carefully assessing his answer. This uncharacteristic behaviour caused the other three marauders to focus on him. "I...I'm not sure. When...when I walked into the hall something about him drew my attention. It wasn't normal. It was...it was like my magic recognised him... like I wanted to be possessed by him". Sirius shuddered and shook off the glazed look that had taken over his eyes. He then turned directly to James and looked him straight in the eyes; "I'll try to avoid him, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to. But..." Sirius paused for a moment and looked uncertain before continuing "Don't leave me alone with him. I just have this feeling that if I'm alone with him something...something will happen".

The marauders sat in silence for a while longer, before they all, by mutual agreement got into bed and tried to get some sleep.