The next morning, the students had begun packing their trunks to leave Hogwarts for the summer. But the four boys had missed breakfast that day, because they had been away until six a.m. the previous night, running around the Dark Forest.

And even after returning to their dorm, they stayed up even longer, joking around and even coming up with new nicknames for each other.

Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.

They were the Marauders.

That was the name they wanted to be known as. The castle belong to them at night, and the world was theirs to conquer. Together, they were unstoppable.

Well, except for that morning, when they couldn't even keep their eyes open enough to make their way down to the Hogwarts Express.

"You know what I've been thinking?" Sirius asked as the boys sat in the compartment, filled with candies they had bought from the Trolley Lady, though were too tired to eat them.

"What?" James asked, his eyes closed.

"What if our kids become half-animals?" said Sirius, making the others laugh.

"Could you imagine?" said James, snorting with laughter. "My baby popping out as a stag waist-down with antlers on his head."

"Your poor wife," Remus chuckled.

"Ah, yes! My beautiful wife: Mrs. Lily Potter!" James said dramatically.

Sirius grimaced. "I feel like I'm about to puke."

"Please don't," Peter groaned. "If someone pukes, I'll puke. Can't help it."

"No one's puking, Peter," said Remus.

"Don't you mean Wormtail?" James sniggered.

"Oh, yes, you're right, sorry," Remus said sarcastically, grinning. "My apologies, Prongs."

"No worries, Moony." James shook a hand at him.

"I can't wait until we're back at Hogwarts again. Oh, we're going to have some fun next year," said Sirius, smirking. "The possibilities are endless. It's going to be the best freaking years of our lives."

"My thoughts exactly, Padfoot," said James, looking outside the train's window with glee. "My thoughts exactly."

***

The only students at Hogwarts who weren't exactly happy about summer, were the Marauders. They couldn't wait until they could be back at school.

But at last, the wait was over as their Hogwarts letters arrived with school owls, carrying the list of their needed books for the upcoming year. They counted the days until they were back at King's Cross, carrying their trunks through the crowded station, finding their way to Platform 9 and 10 with their families.

"I still can't believe they didn't make me a Prefect!" James told Jenna with a huff as they pushed their trolleys through King's Cross station.

"I'm sorry, what?" Jenna scoffed. "James, you spend more time in detention than in classes, what did you expect?"

"Oh, you're one to talk," he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Who did you expect was going to get the badge, then?"

     "Well, for one, I thought that Remus would make Gryffindor's Prefect." she said. "He's way smarter than you, and nicer, and more responsible."

     "Watch it J.P, or one might think that you have a thing for Moony,"  James said teasingly. "But he did get the badge in the end, though, didn't he?"

     Jenna was lucky she had gotten her Metamorphic abilities under control, otherwise her hair would've turned pink. She had changed it back to blue over the summer; blue was her color.

Although with the help of the book she had borrowed from Professor McGonagall the previous year, Jenna had managed to grow her knowledge over her abilities. She had been practicing all summer, even managing to change her face at one point. And for a prank she had brilliantly planned with her brother, Jenna had turned herself to the Ministry of Magic, scaring the living hell out of her parents for a moment.

     "First of all, I don't have a thing for Moony." said Jenna, slightly irritated. "Second, you still haven't explained why you keep calling your friends those weird names. I mean, Padfoot and Prongs? Where did that even come from?"

     "Sorry, can't say, J.P," said James importantly. "Marauder's code."

     Jenna rolled her eyes at the name James and his other three friends called themselves.

     "Alright, here we are," said Mr. Potter as they reached platform 9 and 10. "Jenna, you go first, darling."

     Just as her father had asked, Jenna took a firm grip over her trolley and ran towards the wall and seconds later appeared in platform 9 3/4, the rest of the family following right behind her.

"Why did you want to be a prefect, anyway?" Jenna mused. "You hate those stuff."

     "Well, you said Evans got the badge, didn't she?" said James with a grin, looking around the station to see if he could spot any of his friends.

     "Don't put your hopes up, mate," Jenna joked with a smirk.

     James ignored that remark. "Well, this year I have a strategy. Mark my words; she'll fall in love with me and will finally agree to go out with me."

     "Yeah, well. You know what they say," Jenna started. "Fifth year's a charm."

    But before James could answer her, Jenna had spotted Marlene. Leaving their trollies in the middle of the station, the two girls ran towards each other and hugged one another.

     "Oh, I missed you so much!" said Marlene, breaking away from the hug.

     "Nah, you didn't miss me," said Jenna, giving her a knowing look. "You only missed my mother's pumpkin pies."

     "And did you bring me any?" Marlene asked, narrowing her blue eyes at her.

     Rolling her eyes, Jenna dug into her bag and handed Marlene the whole lot.

     A big smile appearing on her face, the blonde girl waved eagerly at Jenna's mother who was standing a few feet away and yelled over the crowd, "THANK YOU, MRS. POTTER!"

     "Anytime!" Mrs. Potter yelled with the same amount of enthusiasm, laughing and shaking her head in disbelief at the spirit of that girl.

     "I'll go and find Alice, Lily's probably on Prefect duty already," said Marlene, taking a generous bite off her pie.

     She then left and got on the train and Jenna went back to her parents. James had already said his goodbyes and had gone in the train to search for his friends.

     "I'll miss you guys." Jenna smiled sadly, hugging her parents.

     "Write to us often, will you?" Her mother said, smiling back as Jenna nodded.

     "And do us all a favor and stay away from that Sirius Black," said her father, receiving another smack on the arm by Mrs. Potter. "What? Look, I do like that kid a lot. But... you know? A father is always concerned about those lot."

     "What? The handsome lot?" Mrs. Potter raised a brow.

     "Well..." Mr. Potter shrugged. "Yeah, sort of. Just try to stay away, will you?"

     "You don't have to worry, dad," said Jenna. "I have no interest in him at all."

     "Those girls over there would disagree." said Mrs. Potter, pointing at a group of giggling girls who were looking at a handsome boy with long black hair, getting into the train.

     Both Jenna and her dad shook their heads in disbelief.

     "Okay, I'll better go now. Bye." Jenna finally said and with one last wave, she went off through the train, looking for Alice and Marlene's compartment.

     But to her great luck, she spotted none other than her red-headed best friend, Lily Evans.

     "Jen!" Lily said with excitement, bringing Jenna into a bone-crushing hug. "How are you?"

     "Good! And look at you," Jenna glanced at Lily's badge with the word P written on it. "Miss Prefect."

     Lily giggled, but before she could open her mouth and respond, voice called behind her, "Hello, Evans."

     Her smile disappearing into an annoyed look, she turned around, facing the arrogant James Potter as he grinned down at her.

     "Cute badge, Evans," he pointed.

     "Yes, the P stands for 'piss off, Potter'," She said flatly.

     "Oh, you gotta be gentler with me, Evans, prefects ought to be a role model for others," said James.

     Lily then turned back and faced Jenna. "Help me," she muttered, but Jenna only chuckled.

     "Guess you're just on your own now, dear friend." Jenna then patted Lily on the back before waving and going off to find her friends.

     Passing the compartments and glancing inside them, she finally found the one with Alice and Marlene inside it.

     Alice Fortescue was a shy and dreamy girl, always keeping her brown hair short and boy-like. But Marlene McKinnon was the complete opposite, you just couldn't keep the blonde quiet for a second.

     Opening the compartment door, Jenna walked inside and first thing she did was to bring Alice into a hug.

     "Did you have a nice summer?" Alice asked in her dreamy voice, sitting back down on her seat next to the window.

     "Just like always," Jenna answered earnestly. "You?"

     "It was nice." Alice smiled kindly, "I really missed you guys."

     Just then, they saw three boys run past their compartment, their wands out already, even though they weren't going to use them outside of school anyway.

     "They're probably looking for James," said Jenna, recognizing the three boys quickly as Sirius, Remus, and Peter.

     "That Black really is a nice piece of ass, isn't he?" Marlene said thoughtfully.

     "Marlene!" Alice gasped.

     "Oh, don't be such a Lily!" Marlene rolled her eyes, but chuckled afterwards. "Besides, everyone fancies him!"

     "I don't," said Alice.

     "Yeah, but you still think he's handsome, don't you?" Marlene inquired, making Alice blush. "But we all know who Jenna finds more handsome."

     Jenna, who was looking outside the compartment door hopefully, turned her head at that. "Oh, shut up."

     "He's a nice guy, Remus is," Alice said earnestly.

     "Yeah, but he doesn't like me that way." said Jenna, her mind wondering away.

     "Maybe," Marlene shrugged but then grinned again. "But Black likes you that way."

     "Black likes all the girls that way," was Jenna's blunt respond, as she again lost herself in her thoughts, waiting eagerly for the start of their fifth year.

~ The End ~