Yes! I would join! I think that either way you shoudl have nothing to do with Potter. It complicates things. I think next-gen would be best, but I would be OK with doing a Marauders.

I'll join...I guess.

((I'll start, shall I? I'll call my character ... um ... *goes to baby naming website* ... *clicks around* ... Rebecca Merle. (Nice, eh?) But her friends call her Becca. She's a pureblood and a Ravenclaw (fourth-year) with a dark secret (which I won't yet tell). Yes, all my HP characters are Ravenclaw. Because I am smart. How smart, you ask? Let's put it this way. You heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates? Morons. *dies laughing* Oh, how I love that movie. *gets up* *rereads what she just wrote* *sees how many parentheses she used* *is embarrassed* We're starting at Platform 9 ¾, right? OK! NB: Remarks my character makes about Snape are in no way meant to reflect my personal feelings about him –- he really is pretty awesome. But Becca doesn't know that. *starts writing* ...))

//Rebecca Merle//

Pushing my cart with a trunk and my owl, Athena, on it, I stepped into the wall and onto Platform 9 ¾. Mum and Dad followed. I was so glad to be finally going back, so glad this worst summer of my life was finally over. I remembered my time at St. Mungo's, and shuddered. Don't think about that, I commanded myself. "G'bye," I said to Mum and Dad. "Love you." I hugged each of them in turn. "I'll send you an owl."
"Good bye," Dad said. "Have a good term." He smiled. "And we'll send you an owl as well."
"I love you!" Mum said. "Stay safe."
"Love you," I said again, and walked away. My parents were very punctual people – the train wasn't yet here. I scanned the small crowd for people I knew. There was my good friend Lily Evans, but she was with that slimy scumbag Snape, and I couldn't stand him. James Potter was not far away, watching her, ruffling up his hair the way he always did. I rolled my eyes.
Then I saw my friend Jenna Smith. I started to walk toward her, but hesitated. I hated the thought of having to keep this secret from all my friends. And how would they feel about me if they found out? Don't be ridiculous, I told myself harshly, and walked over to where Jenna was standing. "Hey," I said.
"Oh, hi, Becca!" she said cheerfully. She was always cheerful. "How're you doing?"
"Pretty good. You?"
"Great! It's so good to be back."
"Yeah." It was great. I glanced over my shoulder. "Lily's over there, but she's talking to that Snape." Jean was also a friend of Lily's.
"Oh, I know!" she said. "I can't stand him. And the kind of people he hangs out with. Ugh."
"You know, I hear Potter likes her. Wish she'd get a clue and go with him."
"Oh, everyone knows he likes her! It's so obvious." I laughed. "Look at him over there, playing with his hair."
She grinned. "And he hates Snape, like I do. Maybe there will be a horrible accident in, oh, Gryffindor/Slytherin Transfiguration, say. One of Potter's spells will miss its target, and Snape will be dreadfully injured.... Well, we can always dream, eh?"
"Yeah." I smiled. Jean always cheered me up. It was good to see her. And she didn't need know about what had happened. Maybe things would be the same as they had always been.
"So," I said, changing the subject, "how was your summer?"
"Well," she said, "I ..."

***

Hope that was okay. I haven't really done this before. And anyone is welcome to be Jenna if they want.

Lily Evans 14 Gryffindor

I was talking to Severus. I saw all the other girls, including my friend Becca, avoid me. OK, I know he's in Slytherin but he'a a nice guy. But the other girls don't see that. All they see is my consorting with "The enemy." We're talking about our summers. His family went away to South America.  The Aztec Wizards gave him some interesting potions, and he going on and on about them. Good old Severus. How I missed him during my boring summer at home.  Oh good grief! There was that Potter creep. He messes his hair up purposely so it will 'look cool'. PLus as if he's not annoying enough, he likes me! I get teased about him more than Severus. And he's so conceited. Arrggg! I want to go over and break his fancy broomstick over his head.

((So. Guess what I'm going to ask.

Have you guessed?

Pleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleasepleaseplease can we have a young Bellatrix in this? *falls to knees and begs*

/predictability, sorry, but she's so much fun! And this time 'round I have a character she could actively bully without worrying too much about stepping on other people's toes!))

Anyway. I'll use a character I've had bouncing around and fermenting in my head for a while now, shall I? (technically, if anyone's interested, she's from a random LM fanfiction I've been writing in my head whilst bored in Chemistry class. But she'll fit in well enough here)

Name: Marina Buchholz

Age/Year: 15/5th

House: Ravenclaw 

Looks: Slightly tanned, with freckles over the nose. Golden blonde, slightly wavy, not-quite-hip-length hair. A wide face, with smallish dark blue eyes and a slightly upturned nose. Small and thin, with a swimmer's build. Wears thin wire-rimmed spectacles for reading.

Personality: Quiet and shy, but ferocious if you get her angry which mostly happens if you insult/attack her friends. Rather idealistic, though it's balanced by a healthy sense of realism (which is not the same as cynicism, thank you, no matter what I'll try to tell you when I'm feeling particularly misanthropic). A little spacey. Loves swimming.

Family: Muggleborn, though her grandmother was a Squib. No pets, but likes fish and cats.

Electives: Care of Magical Creatures and Divination

*

Marina slipped onto Platform 9 and 3/4 with little fanfare, pushing her trunk along in front of her. It was crowded as ever, and she hesitated at the edge of the throng of students, unwilling to push her way through to the train. Instead she edged her way along the edge and eventually made it into the only slightly less crowded corridors.

She found an empty compartment and slipped inside, curling up on the seat next to the window and leaning out to watch the chaos out on the platform. Marina imagined she could see a sort of order, a pattern in the apparently random crowd movements, cliques gathering together and enemies slowly gravitating away from each other. But then, Marina saw patterns everywhere and it was entirely possible she was making it up.

After some deliberation, however, she decided she wasn't imagining the stable circle of empty air around two students, whom she vaguely recognized as Lily Evans and Severus something-or-other. Lily was rather popular and on the rare occasion that Marina had spoken to her she had been very nice and polite. As for the Severus kid, he hung out with a group of other Slytherin students that even Marina could recognize as the bad crowd.

Marina sighed and turned away from the window. She rummaged through her trunk for a moment before pulling out an old, very well read book with a threadbare cover and half the pages falling out. The title had completely faded away and most of the volume showed signs of severe water damage, but as Marina knew the book practically by heart it didn't matter too much. Still, the act of carefully turning the fragile, stained, ancient pages was somehow comforting. She reached into a pocket and pulled out a pair of rickety-looking spectacles and slid them onto her face, then settled down to read- or rather, squint at the nearly invisible text and recite from memory. 

"Lily my friend he's calling..." They had got on to the train after saying good-bye to thtor parents. Severus's voice was embarassed. Lily smiled "Of course Sev!" Silently she sighed. Sev was spending more and more time with his Slytherian friends. She wandered on, hoping to find some of her other friends.

((Re: Bellatrix: Yay! Unless BananaBerry minds I'll commence the celebrations. /overreaction))

Marina shut her book with a snap as the compartment door slid open again. It was five minutes to the eleven, and if the rest of the train was full she wouldn't be able to get more than a few sentences in edgewise what with everyone leaning in and asking permission to sit.

Or, in the case of the pale, dark-haired girl who had opened the door, sneering at first Marina and then the other girl and walking out again.

The other girl blinked as the compartment door slid shut once more. Marina merely sighed.

"What-?" the other girl began, but Marina cut her off.

"Bellatrix. Of the high-and-mighty Black clan." A scowl passed briefly over her face as she pulled off her glasses, folded them, and shoved them back in a pocket. "Royally needs someone to take her down a few pegs." Marina shrugged. "She's a seventh year. Never met her before?"

"No."

"Consider yourself lucky, then." She supposed that she ought to ask the other girl's name, as a matter of politeness if nothing more, but remained silent, tapping out a rhythm on her knee and staring out the window.

"Uh, I'm Becca," the other girl said, smiling a little uncertainly.

"Marina. Buchholz." Marina returned the smile, briefly, then turned back to the window. "You're in Ravenclaw, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"Me too."

"Where're you from?"

Marina groaned inwardly. Small talk. She hated small talk. "Brighton. But I summer in Greece."

"Oh. Cool."

"Mm."

She continued to stare resolutely out the window, and Becca returned to her magazine, looking a bit nonplussed.