All in the Family

Chapter 50: Snape's Grudge

Sirius at once lost his feet upon landing and face planted a puddle of foul smelling green sludge. No matter how much he tried to spit it out and wipe his face clean, the mess clung to him. By the time he'd at least cleared it away from his eyes and mouth, he got himself onto all fours and looked around to see what should have been a familiar sight.

He was on the very outskirts of Hogsmeade, a place he and his friends frequented far more than the others of Hogwarts and possibly even the villagers themselves. He'd spent more times having adventures in every nook and cranny of this place than even doing homework, if one could believe it. This particular spot, and what it looked down on, meant more to them than words could express. The Shrieking Shack stood in the distance, the measly fence guarding it off, the sheer drop and magic bordering one from going inside through any of the blocked off windows or available door were quite powerful to one who didn't know what they were doing. There was melting snow upon the ground and puddles of mud every few adjacent feet, perfect for a prank to pull or vanish at a moment's notice.

His friends were the ones he was having trouble recognizing.

They had not landed near each other at all, but each held the same expression of shock that was quickly growing into something Sirius had no desire to look at. His breaths were coming out in short, sharp little panting gasps, as if he'd broken a rib. He wished the Devil's Snare were strangling him again, or even better, a venomous tentacula. He'd rather be back in a dragon's cave than fight his blurry vision and see what he knew would be there on his real family.

"Sirius, you daft idiot, how is eating mud any solution to this?" Then there was a warm hand thumping him on the back, a kind voice affectionately telling him to stop being stupid, and James' hand hovering in front of his face.

"How the hell are you lot still," words wavered off, Sirius didn't know how any of them could stand to be around him after what they'd just heard. That didn't stop him from clinging to this while he could, taking Prongs' hand and only staggering for a few moments before his feet steadied beneath him.

"I don't know what to make of the madness of this future," James brutally told him, expression defensive as he scanned around for the book, but he gave Sirius' hand a reassuring squeeze before dropping it. "I do know it hasn't happened yet though, so would you stop panicking about it every other second please?"

Sirius spat out one last glop of mud and still gave a slight grin. "Yeah, I'll try."

"If you manage it, Moony will owe me three galleons," Peter smirked. "We've a running bet you can't go longer than three days without freaking out over something."

"Define freaking out," Sirius huffed with an exaggerated pout.

"Shouting and your general presence are the commonly accepted terms," Remus shrugged. "He almost won last year actually, until you found out it was Wormtail who ate your Potions homework and our deer friend graciously played partisan and gave me the win."

"Aha!" Said Marauder had wandered off from their babble and managed to spot the book resting in a nearby tree. He scaled it the Muggle way for the onlookers.

"I will never understand those four," Lily muttered, shielding her eyes from the sun and waiting for Potter to fall from the tree any second. Maybe he'd land on his fat head and deflate it a bit. "They really can laugh off anything, even attempted murder on each other."

"The kind of friendship we should all aspire for," Alice shrugged.

Lily flushed slightly in unease, thinking if rolls had been twisted slightly and Sev had ever done anything of this scale to her, she couldn't forgive such a thing. The way he was acting now was inexcusable, and the chapter title Potter declared only promised things weren't going to get much better.