"Here's she comes, Prongs! Your favorite ginger!" shouted one of the boys from across the table as Hermione took a seat to the left of Lily. Hermione nearly did a double-take when she realized she was sitting at a table with her best friend's father.
Breaking Hermione's thoughts, Lily darted back with, "boys, can't we just start of the year without a bunch of nonsense?" rhetorically, of course.
"Good luck with that," muttered the second boy, sitting the further away from Hermione. To her, his overall ora seemed more sophisticated than most.
"Oh, shut it Moony!" said the first, black-haired boy. "So Lily, why don't you introduce us to your new friend here?" he said in a flirtatious way, raising his eyebrow and motioning in Hermione's direction. While Lily elbowed the black-haired boy for his insensitive remark, Hermione simply brushed her hair behind her ear our of nervousness.
"Oh of course! Everyone, this is Harper Slughorn. She's a transfer student from Beauxbaton's. A seventh year, like us," Lily spoke.
Hermione gave a simple, "hello," before the boy sitting directly across from her stuck out his hand in both a quick yet polite manor and spoke his first words to her:
"It's nice to meet you, Harper. The name's Peter Pettigrew."
Now shaking hands with the man who had nearly killed her best friend less than three years ago, trying to keep a straight face became rather difficult for Hermione. He spent his life leading on these people who he called his friends, all for what? To betray them to show loyalty for a rising Dark Lord. She broke the handshake as quickly as she could without causing suspicion before the second boy sitting next to Peter burst out laughing.
"We've got another Sluggy!" said the third boy with a large grin spread across his face.
"James, please have at least a teaspoon of respect for our new friend, please?" Lily asked the third boy in a rather harsh tone. He sarcastically nodded back.
"It seems as if Peter's the only respectful one at this table," Lily said, eyeing James and the black-haired boy in particular. All they did was chuckle.
"Hello Harper, I'm James Potter," spoke the same boy who had just called her 'Sluggy.' She cautiously shook his hand in awe. It was amazing for Hermione to look into the hazel eyes of her best friend's father. Never would she have thought she'd be sitting at a table with James Potter, let alone all of his friends. It was almost as if she were looking directly at Harry, except for his eyes. Those, he got from the woman sitting right next to me.
"And I'm Sirius, Sirius Black," spoke the third boy with a confidence like no other, "I look forward to getting to know you, Harper Slughorn." Accompanied by a smirk, Sirius' introduction did not shock Hermione. All of the stories about him that she had heard, him being a flirtatious lady's man as well as an iconic prankster, seemed to correlate well with his remarks at the dinner table that night. And to Hermione, he seemed much older than seventeen.
Meeting her dark brown eyes with his chocolate ones, the last boy introduced himself as Remus Lupin to Hermione, seemingly the most intelligent yet awkward boy at the table. But it didn't come as a shock for Hermione, as this was her Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher from her third year. He looked very different, however. Maybe Hermione had stared at him for a little longer than she intended to.
Soon enough, the group of six continued on with their meal, only to be collectively interrupted by quick taps on the wine glass of the headmaster. Gathering the attention of the Hogwarts student body, soon, all eyes were on Dumbledore.
"Welcome! Welcome, to another year at Hogwarts. Now, I'd like to say a few words before we become too befuddled by our excellent feast. This year, we have..."
Hermione didn't really pay much attention to Dumbledore's opening speech. Instead, from time to time, she looked at Peter with eyes colder than ice. She was here for one reason, and one reason only. So, it slightly confused Hermione when she peered over at Remus from time to time. He just looked so, different, but in a good way? Hermione didn't know.
"...and off to bed you go," finished Dumbledore with ease. The first years scurried off to bed, trying their best to avoid the nasty groundskeeper that is Argus Filch. Hermione and Lily trailed behind the rest of the Gryffindor students, only a few steps ahead of the boys she had just met.
"Hey Remus," asked Peter, "do you think I've got a chance with Emma Vanity?" he said, trying to be nonchalant.
"Not if get to her first," Sirius snapped first, allowing for Peter's face to grow redder by the second. "Oh wait, she's a Slytherin, isn't she?"
"That's never stopped you before," whispered James.
Interrupting them, Remus added, "you could always invite her to the party tonight."
Of course, the boys' whispers weren't actually whispers. Lily and Hermione could very well hear them, which led to Hermione whipping her head around saying, "party? You're throwing a party?"
"Why of course, Harper," Sirius said calmly, "we've got to start the term off right, don't we?"
"They've done it every year since '74," added Lily.
"I'm really hoping you don't make a mess again, because I remember how you bloody gits left me and Peter to clean it all up last year," Remus nearly shouted. His concerning words sounded a bit overreacted. Peter vigorously nodded his head to Remus' comment, staying more quiet than not.
Despite their friendly bickering, just being around Lily and the boys continued to amaze Hermione. She would be the only one of her generation to know what it was like to be at a Marauders' party, or to possibly get properly pranked by them, or just get to know their teenage selves in general. It left her awestruck. And for the first time yet, Hermione began to miss Harry and Ron and Ginny. But knowing that James and Lily were only steps away from her, made it a little easier.
"You're in for one hell of a surprise," stammered Peter as Sirius and James began teasing Remus for his sudden care for the cleanliness of the common room.
Hermione had been quiet for quite some time now. Sure, watching Remus and James bicker with each other was certainly not shy of entertainment, but that's wasn't why she was here. Hermione had to make herself relatable. She had to get close with these people, one step at a time. Otherwise, it would all be a waste.
"Oh, I know exactly what you mean. Beauxbaton's is certainly not short of messy girls. One look at my old common room will tell you everything you need to know," Hermione laughed, playing Harper better than she anticipated.
"But, James?" Said Remus.
"And Sirius," added Peter.
"Absolute chaos they make."
"The common room was a wreck for days"
"They even lost Gryffindor fifty poin—"
"Alright, that's enough" interrupted Sirius. At this point, Remus and Peter were just making a mockery of the messy boys. They all spoke the language of parody, and Hermione was just hearing the start of it as they finally approached the fat lady.
Laughing yet undistracted, Lily whispered the password, and the painting swung open. The common room was quiet, for now.
"I thought you guys were throwing a party," Hermione asked, curious as to why the common room was set up for nothing out of the ordinary.
"Yeah, where's all the stuff?" vaguely asked Lily.
"Well, Evans and Slughorn, you're in for a treat. Sirius has a little surprise for the two of you, something he found at the term's end last spring," James said.
"It's no short of epic," Sirius added.
"Right this way," James finished as he placed his hand on the cool stone of the wall, tucked away in the back corner of the common room.
Fading through the wall as if they were on platform nine a three-quarters, James and Sirius disappeared into the stone, soon followed by Peter, Remus, and Lily. And once Hermione followed her new friends from 1977 into the hidden room, she wondered if this was just another regular day for the Marauders and Lily.
A/N: thanks so much for reading this far if you have! thanks for 70 views!
A/N UPDATE (6/11/20): something i find funny is that if they were to say harper's name, it would probably come out as "hah-puh." that is all. anyways, 122K reads gang gang thank uuuuu. - callahan