AU in the Harry Potter universe where one of the Marauders was never one of them. Instead was someone completely different.

You've heard the story. The myth of the Marauders. James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. You've heard about the betrayal. The imprisonment. The deaths and castaway. About their rivalry and pranks. Their escapades as young Hogwarts students and best friends.

What you don't know is...

You've got it all wrong.

Wormtail was never a Marauder.

In fact, he was not even a Gryffindor.

Nor an animagus, or friends with James Potter and Sirius Black.

Or-

Padfoot, they get the idea, tell the story now.

Shut up, Prongs, go snog Lily or something.

I can't, she said I had to be here so you would tell the story right.

Lily had you supervise?

What? I'm reliable.

Only to loose Harry with the invisibility cloak.

It was one time! And they never let you forget it!

No one let me forget the one time I chased a butterfly as a werewolf.

You brought it up this time, Moony! It wasn't our fault! I almost forgot about that too.

Bloody-

Language!

You're one to talk, Claws!

I have the baby!

* incoherent baby noises*

Why do you have Harry?

Lily went out with Alice to Diagon Ally.

Where's Frank and Neville then?

*another incoherent baby noise*

:Hey guys, hows the story going?:

They won't let me start!

:Everybody shut up so Sirius can tell the story!:

*babies agree*

Thank you.

*James grumbling*

Shut up you. Now, where was I?

How about you start with our first train ride on the Express? That's where it all started after all.

Good idea, Claws. Will do.

It all started on the train ride on the Hogwarts Express our first year. It had gotten on the train at the same time as Prongs. Only he wasn't Prongs then, just James. We hit it off fast, right after James threw a dung bomb into second year Lucius Malfoy's compartment and ran off, dragging me with him.

We barely made our escape, making it into a compartment we thought was empty.

"Excuse you!"

I looked around to see a red haired girl and a greasy, black haired boy. "Pardon us," I said quickly as James was peaking out the door for our pursuers. "We just met. My name is Sirius Black," I finished with a dramatic bow.

"James Potter," the instigator of the prank returned.

"Lily Evans," the red haired girl's lips twitched up into a smile.

I'd waited for the last one's name but he seemed hesitant. Then, just as he opened his mouth, James shouted, "Get down!"

Not five seconds after we hid, a blonde stuck up raced by with his friends not too far behind.

"That was close,"James breathed, then smiled at me. "Sorry about that, my dad made me promise to bother Malfoy as much as possible this year."

"I want in," I said without hesitation.

"Brilliant, I've got a ton more planned, c'mon," he grabbed my hand and we took off, leaving his future wife and her friend in the compartment.

We ended up sitting with Remus and Pettigrew that train ride even though we didn't bother learning their names too much.

The sorting went pretty much the same as what you know. The greasy haired kid went to Slytherin, Lily went to Gryffindor and so did James and I. And the kid that was on the stool with the hat for almost five minutes.

Come to think of it, Pettigrew seemed to be arguing with the Sorting hat. He was shaking his head and clenching his hands on the stool beneath him. His eyes were covered by the oversized hat but it was clear he knew where the tables were because he was trying to scoot as far from the Slytherin table as much as possible.

"Better be SLY-"

Peter Pettigrew's hand twitched, as if to grab the hat off his head. I don't know what the kid was planning but even though the Sorting hat shouted Gryffindor a second later, it was obvious to all houses and staff that he was a snake in Lion's clothing.

Within the first week, James and I had created horror for the older Malfoy and became closer than brothers. I'm not sure what the others were doing but I remember seeing Pettigrew trying to make friends with those in his house.

He followed James and I around until we learned to avoid him. Then I saw him bothering the shaggy looking Remus that always sat by himself. Until Lily saw and became good friends with him. Unfortunately that meant Pettigrew followed Lily and Snape around too.

By the end of the first month, our pranks had expanded to the entire Slytherin house because we'd seen them picking on everyone. They tried picking on me but they couldn't get a grip. Nothing they said or did bothered me. I was comfortable in my new home and they knew better than to go after James Potter, son of Charles Potter the Auror.

Despite the fact that he was now old and decrepit.

If he heard you say that, you know where you would be?

Eating ice cream, I'm his favorite you know. Now shut up.

It wasn't until the first Quidditch match of the year that our group really got together. We saw it coming, everybody did and it was only a matter of time before it came to a head.

The Slytherins, under the lead of Lucius Malfoy were terrorizing Pettigrew and by association, Evans and Lupin for the entirety of the term. James and I already found out about Lupin and his furry little problem. Not that he knew we knew.

That day after the Quidditch game was over, James and I came across Malfoy doing what he does best. Lording his 'superior social standing' over Lily, Remus and Pettigrew. He and a few of his friends trapped the three of them in ropes behind the stands.

"Thank you for agreeing to help me practice," Malfoy was saying. "It wouldn't do for me to fall behind in my studies now would it?"

"What studies?" Lily challenged. "I've seen you in the Restricted section more often than with your school books!"

Malfoy flicked his wand and she suddenly found herself flying in the air.

"What are you going to do, huh?" Lily screamed from about their heads. "Kill me? Not only will you get expelled but you'll get sent to Azkaban!"

"Shut up, mudblood!" Malfoy growled, clenching his wand so his knuckles turned white.

"Lily, stop talking!" Remus said, trying to keep his voice down still.

"Y-yeah, Lily, or th-they'll-"

"Shut up, you blood-traitor!" One of Malfoy's goons exclaimed.

James suddenly had enough, he ran from the shadows but before he could do anything, Snape popped up snatching the wands in on of Malfoy's goon's hands.

"Snivellus?" I said in surprise.

"What are you afraid a muggleborn would beat you if she had her wand?" He taunted. "And yet, from what I saw she was beating you anyways."

It was that moment that James and I decided never to call him Snivellus again.

"Like you could do any better," Malfoy sneered. "You're too chummy with the mudblood to lay a hand on her."

Snape rose an eyebrow. "I'm wise enough not to," he retorted. "She's the top of our class."

That was when James and I looked at each other and grinned. We were starting to like this guy.

"So you admit it!" Lily said triumphantly, still upside down in the air. "Ha! I knew it, I knew it!"

"Lily, you still have to get Remus to admit it," Snape said, rolling his eyes.

Said red head narrowed her eyes at the werewolf who was glaring at Snape. "Thanks, Severus," he said sarcastically.

"You're welcome," he said smugly as he released them from their bonds and returned their wands.

All through this, Pettigrew was cowering in his spot from the Slytherins. Even Snape, who showed he was trustworthy. And although Snape returned his wand, he still hid behind Lily and Remus as they confronted the second years.

Snape and Remus took spots behind Lily as her green eyes flared with suppressed rage. Fortunately they didn't need to do anything since Malfoy seemed to take Snape's warning to heart. All he did was spit, "Blood-traitor," at Snape and walk off, taking his goons with him.

That was when James and I introduced ourselves properly and invited them in on a prank we were cooking up.

"Are you sure this is not against school rules?" Lily cautiously asked as she charmed the goblets at the Slytherin table. When they drank out of them, they would turn into canaries. It would only last a minute since Lily wasn't advanced enough to put enough power in the spell but it was enough to cause a laugh.

"Of course it is!" James scoffed. "That's what makes it fun!"

Remus and Lily shared a look then both watched as I put a sticking charm on the seats.

"Well, at least you own up to it," Snape commented dryly.

It went like that until Christmas, with Pettigrew following us around as much as he could. It was during Christmas break that we found out what Severus was doing. Lily and Remus had gone home for the holidays and Pettigrew was no where to be seen.

Of course one could never be too sure. The rat had a way of sneaking up on you.

"We could put a tracking charm on him," I suggested as James and I walked into the library looking for Severus. We needed him for a detail on our newest prank.

"Do you know any?" James asked, skeptical.

"No," I deflated. Then I saw him, surrounded by books as usual. "There he is!"

"Sirius, shhh!" James said. "Prince will kick us out."

"Sorry," I said, not at all sorry. "What potion concoction are you cooking up now?" I peaked at the book titles and frowned. "These aren't potion books," I pointed out.

"Astute observation, Black," Severus said flatly. He hid something under a book he was pretending to read.

"This is transfiguration and werewolves," James pointed out. "Did you want to turn into one?" He laughed.

"No," Severus snapped. "I'm working on a project."

"Would said project have anything to do with what McGonagall said in class the other day?" James asked, picking up one of the books. He narrowed his eyes. "Anamagi?"

James and I shared a look then I said, "Did Remus tell you about his furry problem?"

Severus' eyes snapped back and forth between the two of us. "How do you know about that? He's only told me and Lily."

I smirked. "We're brilliant like that," I said, puffing up my chest. "Now, are you doing what we think you're doing?"

Severus eyed us warily. "What do you think I'm doing?"

James leaned forward. "Becoming an animagus so you can help him in the full moon."

"Can we join you?" I added.

That day solidified our friendship into something permanent.

Our first year ended with not much of a bang. We were still trying to get the feel of the place. Not to mention there were already two well established pranksters. Fortunately the Prewitt brothers were graduating that year so next year the Mauraders (as the two fondly called the four of us) would be able to make their mark.

After that first prank together, Lily obstained from joining us in the pranking. However, every once in a while, someone would get on the wrong side of her and those were days when our best work was enacted.

We progressed with our animagus research and the actual transformation much more over the summer holiday. James more so because he actually told his father what he was doing. I know, I was shocked too. First rule in pranking: tell no one unless they are involved.

He would have found out anyways! The entire Potter family are pranksters!

Excuses.

It was actually helpful because Charles Potter was an animagus himself so he was able to give James pointers. Who in turn passed them off to Severus and I...on the train back to Hogwarts only seconds before Remus found us. We were trying to make it a surprise.

It wasn't

Can I please tell the story? And that's a lie, Moony.

Yeah, you had no idea.

Claws, help me out here.

It's true-

Thank you! Next time you doubt-

You had no idea what we were doing.

What?

Haha, I told you!

:That's great and all but kindly shut up so Sirius can tell the story:

*Remus grumbling*

If this keeps happening, we won't get done before Lily and Alice come back.

What was that?

Nothing where was I?

Second yea-

Oh, yeah, that's right!

Our second year, nothing happened much. Besides the fact that Malfoy got turned into a ferret and we got much closer to becoming anamagi.

It was third year things started rolling.

We finally completed our transformations on the fourth full moon of the school year. Remus was in his tree doing his werewolf thing and we were practicing like every other full moon before.

The first to fully transform was James-no surprise there, really. Then it was me-

That was the surprise.

Severus actually took almost all night to do it. He was having problems with one part of the transfiguring part. It wasn't until around three isn't he morning that Severus changed with a pop into the biggest crow I'd ever seen.

It's a Raven, Padfoot.

What ever you tell yourself, Flap-Flap.

Get to the good part, Padfoot!

:Yeah, we don't know how long the girls will be gone.:

What part is that? The part where you get with Lily, Prongs? Or when we created the map?

Take your smug face and put it someplace else, Moony. At least I got the girl!

:He's got you there:

Shut up, Frank.

:So how did you end up making the map?:

That is classified, mate but I will tell you how we got the idea to make a map in the first place.

It all started when I had finally had enough of Pettigrew popping up out of no where. That day-

Oi! Who's telling the story here?

It all started when James had finally had enough of Pettigrew popping up out of no where. That day we had found an empty classroom out of the way enough so we thought we were safe. Unfortunately, he found us just as were were unpacking our stuff.

James and I shared a look and immediately started packing up again.

"Oh, Pettigrew, you just caught us when we were leaving!" James said loudly.

"Yeah, James and I have detention," I added quickly.

"We need to go with them to make sure they get there," Severus drawled lazily, making Pettigrew cower a little.

"Yeah, McGonagall doesn't trust them to get there on their own," Lily smirked.

One by one, we filled out as quickly as we dared. We made our way around the corner, hiding in the classroom there until Remus said the rat had moved on. We decided to stay there since he woudn't think to look there, it was too close to where we were before.

An hour later, James stood up. "We should go, Sirius, we really do have detention tonight," he said.

"What did you do this time?" Lily asked, almost amused.

"We turned Malfoy into a map of Hogwarts," James smirked. "It was McGonagall  that gave us the idea, right after he was late to her class and we over heard what she said."

That got me thinking...and distracted. I walked into the door, not even listening to what James was saying anymore.

"You alright there, Sirius?" James laughed.

"You didn't see a girl there, did you?" Severus almost sneered but it turned into a smile when Remus, James and Lily laughed.

I was hardly paying attention, rubbing my head where I got hit. "Maps," I muttered.

"Maps?" James questioned, looking at me like I'd lost a few marbles.

"Maps! Malfoy!" It was so obvious, I wondered why it took me so long to figure it out. "Tracking! Remus!"

Thrown off by the sudden change in topic, Remus blinked. "What?"

I grabbed Remus' hand, hesitated then grabbed Severus' too. "James! C'mon, we've got a project!"

"We've also got detention!" James yelled, running after me as I dragged the other two out of the room.

"This is more important!" I yelled only to stop suddenly in front of McGonagall.

"Well, what are my marauders up to now?" She said, eyeing the four of us warily. "On your way to detention, I hope?"

"Of course, Professor!" I said cheerfully. "Were you going to meet us there or where you going to ditch?"

"Sirius!" Lily exclaimed in protest.

McGonagall only sighed. "I'm seriously considering doing just that, Mr. Black."

I smirked along with James. "Oh, you're serious, are you?"

"I thought-"

James was interrupted by Remus. "Oh, Merlin, please no."

That may have been the first time the joke was used.

No, the first time it was used was when Prongs asked Frank if he was seriously going to pull a prank on the Ravenclaw kid what was picking on Alice.

Oh, yeah, I remember that.

Good times.

:Yup:

Anyways.

Flash forward to a few weeks later. It's two days before the full moon. We gave it two days because we figured it would give Remus enough time to get used to us in our animagus forms. The first time he saw us has to be one of our favorite memories. We showed Lily at the same time and I think I went deaf for a couple days.

Needless to say, they were not happy at first but the got used to the idea. I think I saw Moony crying later on, he was so touched.

That did not happen you big, fat-

When they finally got used to the idea, Severus brought up a rather good point. "We need to be careful when we talk about this so no one figures out what it is we are talking about," he said.

"We need code names so we can talk about it when we're not in private," I suggested.

"What would our group name be?" James asked, getting really excited about it.

"Marauders," Lily said with out hesitation. "It's stuck, you guys, no one is going to call you anything else."

"I don't know, I kind of like the sound of 'The Strange brothers,'" James said thoughtfully.

"We can't do that," Remus said. "That would sound like we're copying Flernigan and her group, the Weird Sisters."

"Right, alright, Marauders it is," James agreed. "What about our names?"

"Bambi for you, James," Lily said almost immediately, a smile on her lips.

"No!" Remus protested almost as quickly, not bothering to hold back a laugh.

"What?" James looked confusedly between them and then at me, who shrugged. I had no idea what those two where talking about.

"Trust me, James, you don't want to go by that name," Remus said. "We should draw from the physical attributes. Like your antlers, James. We could do Prongs."

"I like it," James agreed with a happy smile.

"What about me?" I asked. "I would rather not be called 'Grimm.'"

"How about Snuffles?" James suggested, a glint in his eye.

He had a book thrown at him. "No."

"You could use Padfoot," Lily suggested.

"Sounds cool," I nodded thoughtfully. "Remus could be Moony because he changes on the full moon."

"That is actually a good idea, good job, Snuffles," Severus said, surprised.

"Shut up, Flap-Flap," I stuck my tongue out at him.

This time I had a book thrown at me, nailing me somehow on the nerve in my arm as I tried to block it. I was curled on the ground, holding my tingling elbow as Lily suggested Claws for the raven animagus.

We didn't figure out the Marauder's Map fully until the end of the summer holiday. Of course once we did, the prank rate went up exponentially but they couldn't prove anything. Not while we used the map and James' cloak.

And Pettigrew was absent a lot more too for some reason.

\Boys! We're home!\

Quick! Hide the Fire-whiskey!

/Why do you have Fire-whiskey out around the babies, James?/

No reason, Lily-flower.

Hey, Alice, how'd the shopping go?

/James Potter, answer the question!/

\Don't think you're getting out of this either, Frank.\

*babies giggle*

Moony, we might have to finish this later.

Yeah, we might be doing it without Padfoot, Frank and Prongs as Lily and Alice are currently killing them.

I wonder how they're going to do it this time?

Weren't you and Lily working on a new potion?

That was for making things glow for Harry and Neville. Do you think she would really use that? It hasn't been tested.

I think by the end of today it will be thoroughly tested.