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Chapter Text

It was their final year at Hogwarts and the four Marauders would soon be able to help Dumbledore in fighting the death eaters who were becoming extremely dangerous. At the end of their previous year the Headmaster had asked to see a number of students that he knew took an interest in helping to stop the number of death eaters that were growing by the day. These students were James Potter, Sirius and Regulus Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Lily Evans, Severus Snape, Frank Longbottom, Alice Green, Helena Williams, Jessie McKay, Ford Richardson, Sarah Hammond and Lisa Jane. Unfortunately not all of these students had agreed to join Dumbledore in fighting the death eaters but thought that their leader was the one to follow. So with the few students that jumped at the chance to do something to help stop Voldemorts follows their last year at Hogwarts was about learning all they could that would help them win this losing war.

As the new year began James Potter found himself once again leading his fellow Marauders into what would be one of their greatest pranks to date.

“Alright lets go over this again. Wormtail you’ll be keeping guard, Moony you'll be in Filch’s office with me redecorating once Sirius has created his diversion a couple of floors above us. Sirius you are to keep Filch distracted for as long as you can. Is everyone ready?”

“Let’s get this party started.” Sirius said as he left the group in order to find Filch before starting his biggest prank yet.
James nodded at Sirius’s departure and headed to Filch’s office followed by the remaining Marauders. Just as he rounded the corner and was walking half way down the corridor he heard someone calling his name.
As he came to a stop he turned to see Lily Evans marching towards them.

“There you are. Where have you been? I've been looking everywhere for you guys. Dumbledore wants to see us in his office.” She stopped to take a breath and looked around; she saw that there were only three people in front of her instead of four. “Where’s Sirius? You guys weren't trying to pull any pranks now were you?”

“Um... No.” They said at the same time.

“I'd hope not otherwise I'll have to report you to Professor McGonagall. Now hurry up and get yourselves up to Dumbledore’s office. Oh and by the way the password is socks.” She said the last part with a smile as she thought about the headmaster’s choice of muggle passwords. Without another word Lily turned on her heel and walked away leaving the three marauders to stare after her.

“We'd better hurry and finish this before she’s sent back.” Of all the days to have a meeting Dumbledore had to pick the day they planned for their best prank yet. Maybe Dumbledore knew what they were up to and decided to interrupt them before they ended up in detention for the fourth time this week. James sighed and led the rest of the way to Filch’s office to finish what they started.

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Ten minutes later the marauders met up with Sirius outside Dumbledore’s office assuming that Lily must have caught up with him and told him he was requested. “Socks” they said and made their way up the staircase and into the headmaster’s office whose door was open waiting for the remaining members to turn up.

“Kind of you to finally join us.” Lily said with a disapproving look on her face while looking at Sirius. By the look on his face it was obvious that she had caught him red handed and told McGonagall who was looking at all four of them with her own disapproving looks.

“Is everyone here?” Dumbledore asked as he entered the room and sat at his desk. “Everyone except for Hammond who is in the hospital and Richardson who has detention with Slughorn” McGonagall reported as she walked to stand beside Dumbledore. “Good. We shall continue without them for today. As you all know Lord Voldemort is getting stronger and gathering more and more followers. We must stand together and fight to prevent him from killing and harming others. In order to do this we need people who are willing to put their lives forward for the actions of our cause which you all are. The minister has informed me that the numbers of Voldemort’s Death Eaters have doubled in size; there is also the number of people who believe in his words. I didn't however gather you here today to discuss these matters. I gathered you all here because I need to make arrangements for you to learn more about what you will be facing next year, the danger which is involved and the possibility that not all of you will see the outcome of our troubles. I want you prepared, which means I want you to study...” Sirius was looking at Dumbledore with his mouth hanging wide open. “Yes Mr Black I mean study. I want you to study spells which will help you and to do that, which means some heavy reading is required. Any question? Yes Miss Evans.”

“I was wondering Professor, where exactly we are going to be doing all this. I mean so others don't know sir.”

“Ahh, yes. I’ve got the perfect room in mind for these lessons. Unfortunately it’s in need of a cleanup. Actually the room in question needs a complete make-over...”

“Albus, please get to the point.”

“Sorry Minerva. I get carried away sometimes. The room needs sorting through which means Mr Potter, Black, Lupin and Pettigrew have kindly volunteered to do...”

“What! I did no such thing...”

“We will now conclude this meeting for this afternoon. You may go back to your dormitories now, everyone that is except for you four and Miss Evan.” Dumbledore said pointing to the four marauders.

“What? What the hell for?”

“Mr Black please try to watch your language. As for why, you know what you did. Oh, and one more outburst like that from you and it’ll be another detention. Am I clear Black?”

“Yes Professor McGonagall. Sorry for being rude Professor Dumbledore sir.”
Dumbledore gave Sirius a nod before continuing. “As I was saying, since the four of you thought your prank on Mr Filch would be funny and you got caught I will be taking 40 points from Gryffindor...”

“But...”

“10 points from each of you, Mr Potter. As your punishment you will all be reporting to Professor McGonagall at 7pm tomorrow night where she will instruct you to your respected tasks. As for you Miss Evans I want you to join them in order to keep an eye on them. I want you to make sure that they do what they have been told to do and not muck about.”

“I would be glad to keep them in line Professor.”

“Good. Now that that is done I would like you all to return to your dormitories.”

Dumbledore turned to Professor McGonagall who held the door open for them as the five Gryffindor’s made their way to Gryffindor tower before turning in for the night.

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The following evening the four Marauders and Lily made their way to McGonagall’s office. For the entire day Lily had not spoken a word to the marauders until 6:45pm to remind them that they had to be in McGonagall’s office at 7pm sharp. When they arrived McGonagall had all ready made a list of the tasks in which each student was to complete that evening.

“Good evening,” she said sharply, warning them not to cross her. “If you will all follow me please.” Professor McGonagall said as she led the way through several or more corridors until she reached a corridor that had a large blank wall. Suddenly a door appeared in the wall which McGonagall opened. “Come along you lot, quickly now”

The marauders and Lily looked around the room. At the back there were shelves and shelves of books that were scattered all over the place. Off to the side there were several dummies that were used for practice with arms and other parts fallen off and on the floor. On another side of the room were several cauldrons with bottles and bottles of ingredients surrounding them along with many other odd objects scattered around the room. “All right; Mr’s Potter and Lupin I would like you both to attend to the potions and books. Mr Black and Pettigrew you two are to repair the practice dummies and to clear away the rest of the junk that is just lying around. Miss Evans will you please write a list of the books that you think we'll need as they've been put away and make sure they do everything correctly and no slacking off. I will be back in several hours to check on your progress.” McGonagall gave a stern look to the marauders’ before walking out of the room leaving behind five silent students.

Lily waved at James and Remus to start with the books There were loads of books scattering the floor, books with defensive spells, conjuring spells, magical creatures, potions, the history of magic, famous witches and wizards and many others. Lily picked up a pile and began cauterising the books. After about two hours of sorting Sirius and Peter had mended the practice dummies and were currently sorting through several piles of random bits and pieces. Remus and James on the other hand gave up on organising the books due to Lily continuously yelling at them for disrupting her order so they were currently sorting through various ingredients. Lily however had just finished the row of shelves she was working on when she picked up a book that attracted her attention.

“Hey guys, come here for a second.”

“What’s up Lilyflower,” James asked her glad for the break.

Lily just scolded at him before turning to Remus. “Take a look at this,” she said as she handed him a book and pointed to several other books she had removed from the shelves and put in a pile on the floor.
Remus looked over the books before turning to James who gave him a puzzled look before turning back to Lily. “Where did you find these?”

“They were just sitting on one of the shelves.” Lily bent down and picked up another book before looking it over.

Sirius on the other hand was getting annoyed with the two of them so he snatched the book from Remus’s hand and read out loud “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” With a puzzled look on his face before turning to both James and Peter who both wore the same puzzled face he had. Turning back to Lily and Remus, Sirius had all but one question in mind “Who the bloody hell is ‘Harry Potter’?”

Chapter Text

Previously: Turning back to Lily and Remus, Sirius had all but one question in mind “Who the bloody hell is ‘Harry Potter’?”

Lily had decided that they would finish cleaning the Room of requirements before taking the books to Professor McGonagall; she would know what to do. Both Sirius and Remus kept asking James if he knew anyone named Harry, James however had no clue who this Harry guy was. His curiosity led to try and sneak a peek at one of the books but Lily had put a charm over them until she took them to McGonagall, much to the others dismay. On his 5th attempt Lilly turned around and snapped at him, she then proceeded to sending him to other side of the room. If James tried for a 6th time she would tell McGonagall what he had been up to last week involving a certain Slytherin.

The marauders managed to finish sorting the room of requirement in relative silence. Lily had threatened them that if they didn’t finish that night then she would make sure they would finish it the following night, that made the boys knuckle down. Once the room was clean enough for Lily’s standard she gathered all seven Harry Potter books into her arms which proved to be a bit difficult and Remus offered to help her, she led the way out of the room and down several corridors before coming to a stop outside Professor McGonagall’s classroom.

“Before we go in I want you all to keep your mouths shut and let me do the talking, unless of course Professor McGonagall asks you a question. Got it.” She said turning to face them to see them nod their heads before turning back around and knocking on the door.

Lily took a deep breath before opening the door and making her way up to the front desk. McGonagall looked up as soon as she heard the door open and watched as the 5 Gryffindor’s made their way towards her. “Is there a particular reason why you have all come here when your supposed to be in detention.” She looked mainly at the marauders.

“We have finished cleaning the room of requirement to a reasonable standard Professor; I even threatened them that if they didn’t finish tonight then I’d make sure they finished it tomorrow.”

Minerva smiled at her fondly. She knew very well that Lily wouldn’t disappoint her, she even reminded her of a younger version of herself. “I’m pleased to her that Miss Evans, but if that’s the case then what are you doing here this late instead of going to bed?”

“While I was cauterising the bookshelves I came across a series of books and Potter swears he doesn’t know who it’s talking about.” McGonagall looked at her in confusion and she suddenly realised why. She quickly signalled Remus to follow her and they both emptied their arms onto the desk. “I wasn’t sure what to make of them and thought it best to bring them to you.”

Minerva picked up one of the books which turned out to be the first one and read the back. As far as she knew there wasn’t anyone in the school named Harry Potter, this was defiantly something for Dumbledore to sort out. “You did well Miss Evans. I will take these to Professor Dumbledore and inform him, but first I will escort you all back to Gryffindor tower.” McGonagall got up from her seat and summoned a bag to her so she could put the books in before leading the now five tired Gryffindor’s back to their tower, which included letting them past the Fat Lady.

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As soon as Lily and the four marauders were inside Gryffindor tower Minerva turned around and made her way back down the corridor. After walking down several more corridors she came to a long corridor where a large statue stood at the end. After saying the password the statue moved aside revealing a staircase that spiralled upwards. Upon reaching the top of their before her stood a large oak door that was slightly ajar.
“You may enter Professor; I was merely rearranging some of my furniture.”

McGonagall didn’t bother asking him how he knew it was her without turning around. Over the years Minerva has grown accustomed to Dumbledore’s extraordinary ways. “Good evening Professor Dumbledore.”
“Evening Minerva, and what do I owe this pleasure?”

“I’ve come to you at the request of Miss Evans. She has assured me that the boys having cleaned the room of requirement to a reasonable standard.”

“That’s good to hear, Argus has been complaining about it for years now. Was there anything else?” Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled in the candle light as he finally turned to face McGonagall; he knew all too well that what she had just said wasn’t the reason why she had come.

“As a matter of fact there is, no one can hide anything from you Albus. Earlier this evening Miss Evans found something rather unusual while she was sorting through some books in the room of requirement.”

“Go on.”

“She found a series of books about some boy named Harry Potter. James claims he knows no boy with this name ever recorded his family tree. Miss Evans brought them to me believing it was the right course of action. I’ve brought the books with me as well, their titles along are very concerning.”

Once McGonagall was finished the room fell into complete silence save for the snoring of some of the previous headmasters in their portraits. Dumbledore was in deep thought, for as long as he had been a teacher here at Hogwarts he had never heard of someone named Harry Potter which left him very puzzled, there was only one explanation but the question was how. For the first time in a long time Albus didn’t have an answer for his question, only time would tell. One thing was clear though, only by looking at the different titles of course, these books may be able to help them in their fight against Voldemort. Coming to a decision Dumbledore turned to face McGonagall before speaking.

“I believe that there is only one way to solve this. If you’d be so kind to inform our recently new recruited students to report to the 7th floor at 6:30pm this Friday. We will have our answers then, as to its unknown origins all those present will need to sign a contract involving its discloser, for safety and other reasons of course.”

“Of course, I’ll inform them after class tomorrow. I now bid you a good night Albus, try not to stay up too late.” With that she gave Dumbledore a slight nod before making her way out of the headmaster’s office, down the spiral staircase and back to her office.

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As the sun began to shine through her window Lily slowly opened her eyes. Sitting up in bed she saw that she was the only one left, her 4 other roommates had already left. She gave a big yawn and stretched her arms before getting up and getting ready for the days lessons. As she made her way down the staircase she saw Remus standing by the portrait door, probably waiting for James, Sirius and Peter. Out of all the marauders Remus was the only one she got along well with. He may seem odd at times but he was kind, gentle, and intelligent and they had a lot in common. Lily had trouble figuring out way he hung out with the other marauders, they got him into trouble most of the time and at times it would frustrate her to no end.

“Good morning Remus.” She said cheerfully as she approached him.

“Morning Lily, what can I do for you?”

“I just thought you might like to have a change and walk to breakfast with me instead.”

Remus was about to think about her offer when he saw Peter come down the stairs, with his mind made up he went over to Peter and told him to tell James and Sirius that he’d met them in the Great Hall. Lily just watched him in wonder before he went to the doorway and opened the portrait for her. As they made their way to the Great Hall Lily and Remus talked about several of their classes and what they would be studding that year, they also talked a bit about the upcoming Quidditch season where she also learned that James had been made Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. As the two approached the Great Hall they found themselves talking about the books they discovered last night. “I wonder what it all means.” Lily said as she sat down on the long seat. It was another 10 minutes before they were joined by the others.

James and Sirius sat down opposite Lily and Remus while Peter sat on the other side next to Remus. “Tell us, what was so important that you couldn’t wait for us.” Sirius all but demanded.

“Lily asked if I wanted to walk with her to breakfast, how could I refuse.” The girl in question blushed slightly while James tried to hide his jealousy.

Truth be told over the past year James had been trying harder than ever to try to be less of an idiot and all the other things Lily called him. During last year’s Christmas holidays James had finally decided to ask Remus on ways he could win Lily over. For some reason unknown to him she actually liked Remus which made him his perfect source of info. Remus had given him a long list of personal traits that James had or did that bugged her. It also didn’t help that at the end of last year James had confused Lily with her friend Lisa Jane, seeing as how Lisa also had long dark red hair and from the back they looked the same and could almost pass for twins except for the fact that Lily had green eyes while Lisa’s were brown.

James was so deep in his thoughts that he hadn’t noticed Lily get up from the table and leave; he also hadn’t noticed Sirius trying to force feed him his toast which had both Remus and Peter sniggering between mouthfuls of food. It was only after Peter bussed out laughing as Sirius tried putting both toast and orange juice into his mouth did James finally snapped out of it, which also caused James to go into a coughing fit. “What are you doing?” He tried to say between coughs.

“Sorry mate, but you were day dreaming again and if you don’t get a move on well be late to class and we have Potions first.” Sirius explained as he handed James several napkins to wipe himself down.

They finished their breakfast in relative silence before making their way down to the dungeons. After Potions the marauders had Defence Against the Dark Arts, then Peter and Remus went to Ancient Runes while James and Sirius had a free class that would become Quidditch practice later on in the year. They met up again for lunch before heading outside for Care of Magical Creatures, where James spotted Lily walking and talking to Severus. Ever since Snape had called her a mudblood Lily had distanced herself from her childhood friend, however there were times when she missed his company and she had seen him starting to hang out with the wrong crowed. Now that most of them had graduated she had hoped to knock some sense into him, James had wondered if that was the reason why Dumbledore had asked Snape to join the order.

Their last subject of the day was Transfiguration, which just happened to be James’s favourite subject it could also be due to the fact that every month they turned themselves into animals in order to keep Remus company. That and must of their class had trouble turning objects into animals let alone themselves. As they made their way back to the castle the marauders could see Lily and Severus several feet in front of them having a heated argument before Lily stormed off leaving everyone far behind her. Usually it was James who put Lily in a foul mood and for once he was glad that he didn’t because upon entering McGonagall’s class she had them all separated and partnered off. Peter was with a brunette Ravenclaw boy, Remus was with a blonde Hufflepuff girl and much to his annoyance Sirius was with Snape. James on the other hand was partnered with Lily which either was going to be a gift or a curse.

“Today we are going to be looking at Animagus, who can tell me what an animagus is?” James’s hand shot straight into the air, even faster than Lily’s. “Yes Potter.”
“An animagus is a witch or wizard who can change into an animal at will. The animal that they change into is most likely to be the same as their patronus as it reflects on the individual’s personality.” He replied with a small smile as he looked at Lily who looked like she was in shock.

“Very good Mr Potter, 5 points to Gryffindor. However seeing as how difficult such a task would be not to mention illegal if not resisted we will be doing something a little different for today’s lesson. Instead today we will be turning animals into objects and back again.” She said as she began to hand out some mice and rats much to Peter’s horror.

Meanwhile Lily just continued to look at James in shock, for the first time ever he actually got points awarded to him in class instead of taken away. Getting points wasn’t the reason for her shock or the fact that James had known the answer to a question, even though that was worth being shocked about as well, it was that she finally had some proof. Sometime ago Snape had told her about Sirius telling him about a werewolf in the shrieking shack. She had found out that James had gone down to stop him, thereby saving his life. But even though he told Dumbledore he would never mention it he did tell Lily, he said that he had seen Lupin turn into the wolf. She had be curious and had followed three of the four marauders one full moon, she of course stayed inside and watched them cross the yard and disappear, and only returning early in the morning. She had tried again the following month but they had disappeared before even leaving the common room in a wave of invisibility. Some things had begun to make sense but still left questions, like how could humans accompany a werewolf but now she understood. Lily knew that Remus’s patronus was a wolf which was connected to the werewolf, James had a stag, Sirius’s was a large dog and Peter’s was a rat. For all the trouble that he caused and was there was one thing that Lily knew for curtain, and that was that James Potter was a very loyal friend. Maybe there was hope for him yet, there was nothing stronger than loyalty except for love.

During the lesson Lily had James show her how to do the spell correctly and by the end of the lesson only 7 students had managed to change their animals into goblets and back again, Sirius of course didn’t help his partner at all but Severus had at least been able to turn his mouse into a goblet, he just couldn’t turn it back. As the lesson come to an end McGonagall called for several of them to stay behind as there was something she had to tell them.

“Good, now that I have you alone I have something important from Dumbledore to discuss with you. Due to a recent discovery, the headmaster would like you all to gather on the 7th floor at 6:30pm tomorrow night, and you mustn’t speak of these to anyone else understand.” They all gave her a yes before she sent them on their way.

Lily had thanked James for his help before heading off to the library to start on her homework before dinner. James just smiled at her and watched as she disappeared around the corner. He would have to say that was the best lesson ever. He wasn’t quite sure what had gotten into Lily but he wasn’t complaining. The boys decided to go back to their dorm and drop of their bags before making their way to the Great Hall. To their surprise Lily, Lisa, Alice and Frank had joined them, and the 8 of them spent the evening talking and laughing with each other.

That night as he lay in bed James had a feeling that this year was going to be a good one, he just had to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. He also thought about the meeting the following night, he knew it had something to do with the books Lily had found he just hoped that they didn’t hold anything too bad. With the day’s events replaying in his mind James finally drifted off into a bliss full sleep and his quite snores soon joined the others.

The next day went by rather quickly despite having Charms, Herbology, Potions, Astronomy and Care of Magical Creatures. At 6:20pm the marauders left the Gryffindor common room at made their way to the 7th floor corridor. At dinner Lily had told them to leave early so they wouldn’t be late and it was a good thing Remus had been checking his watch because as soon as they had joined the small group Dumbledore along with Professor McGonagall, Hagrid and two red heads appeared at the other end of the corridor.

“I’m glad you all could make it.” As he was talking a large door appeared on the wall. “Before I allow you entrance each of you must sign this form.” Dumbledore told them as he held up a scroll and quill. “It says that what happens in this room will stay in this room.”

They all looked at each other before Lily took hold of the quill and signed her name before walking through the door. Once everyone was inside Dumbledore introduced Molly and Arthur Weasley saying that they were here because it was their house that they were currently using as the Orders headquarters. “I have gathered you all here due to the discovering that Miss Evans here has made.” They all turned to look at Lily as they sat down before turning back to Dumbledore. “This discovery is in a form of 7 books, which I believe each book covers a year at Hogwarts. I have gathered you here so we can read them as I feel they may hold the answers in defeating Lord Voldemort.” As soon as he said his name several members but their hands over their ears while McGonagall gave a loud sigh at Dumbledore’s choice of words. “As I was saying, I believe these books hold the answer. Now who would like to go first?”

“I will.” Molly said stretching her arm out so Dumbledore could hand her the first book. “It’s called Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone.” Molly turned it over so she could read the back before beginning the first chapter.

“Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy – until he is rescued by an owl, taken to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, learns to play Quidditch and does battle in a deadly duel. The Reason: HARRY POTTER IS A WIZARD.”