“Dirty little Mudblood! You don’t belong here!” shouted the burly boy as he hexed the first year. “Go back to where you belong!” he screamed as the boy whimpered, struggling against the invisible ropes which bound him to the floor.
“What do you think you’re doing?” shouted Sirius as he raced towards the group of Slytherins and pulled out his wand.
“Where’s your army Black?” sneered one of the elder Slytherins as hexes flew between them, incapacitating the majority of the bullies.
“What is going on here?” called a squeaky voice from one end of the corridor. “Good heavens stop that at once!” shouted Flitwick as the Slytherins that were still standing stalked away, glaring at Sirius and muttering curses under their breath.
“What happened Mr Black?”
“They attacked this boy Professor,” said Sirius. “I was only stopping them.”
Flitwick paused, “Duelling in the corridors is not allowed Mr Black; I should give you detention but… as you stopped them bullying someone… we’ll give it a miss this once. But don’t do it again!” he warned as he hurried off.
“Oh look, it’s the mighty Sirius Black,” said Snape as he walked along the corridor. “What are you doing here?”
“Locomotor mortis!” cried Sirius as Snape shouted, “Expelliarmus!” Snape tumbled backwards, his legs stuck together as Sirius smiled. “Just you wait!” he said, his eyes filled with loathing.
“Wait for what? You’re lying on the floor Snivellus,” Sirius taunted, his recovered wand pointed at Snape’s face. “What are you going to do?”
“I’ll… I’ll… I’ll-” Snape’s mouthed thinned even more as he tried to work out an answer.
“You’ll what? Spit it out Snivellus. You know, you’re really not saying anything useful; maybe you shouldn’t say anything at all. Langlock,” said Sirius as Snape’s voice disappeared. “Oh dear. What a pity. Guess I’ll never know what you were about to do now; excuse me while I go cry in a corner,” he said as he kicked Snape’s books everywhere.
“Where do you go? I saw you last week,” said Snape, his voice regained, as Sirius walked away.
“Oh is Snivellus curious now? We go everywhere; why does it matter to you?” Sirius walked away casually as he said, “Press the knot at the base of the Whomping Willow and you’ll see.”
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“Look who it is,” said the boy menacingly as he and his friend closed in on the girl.
“Disgusting, isn’t she?”
“Filthy Mudblood,” said the first boy.
“Immobulus!” shouted one of the Slytherins as the girl tried to run away and was knocked to the floor, dropping her wand.
“Please no!” she whimpered as they advanced on her, wands outstretched. She screamed loudly as she tried to attract someone’s attention.
“Be quiet Mudblood! Silencio!” Mary’s eyes widened as she continued to try and scream but nothing came out. They laughed as they levitated her and dangled her body in the air, waving her throughout the corridor.
“Stop it!” shouted Lily as she ran up the corridor, making the two boys stop and start attacking her.
“Oh look, another one.”
“Expelliarmus!” she shouted, successfully disarming both of them.
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“So when are you going to ask her out?” asked Sirius as James eyed Lily Evans up from the other side of the common room.
“I don’t know.”
“Scared she won’t say yes?”
“No!”
“Yes you are,” laughed Lupin as he finished his Defence Against the Dark Arts essay. “I’ve written two and a half rolls of parchment, do you think that’s enough?”
“I thought he asked for one?” said James as he messed up his hair.
“He did but I did a little extra.”
“Trust Moony to do that,” said Sirius as he laughed at James. “You know she still won’t go out with you; I heard her telling Cassie she was surprised you could still walk your head’s so big the other day.”
“She was talking about me?” asked James as his eyes lit up.
“Yes and what she was saying wasn’t good,” pointed out Sirius as Lily and her friends left for the girls’ dormitories.
“Hey Evans!” he shouted suddenly as she turned around, looking for the person who had called her name. When she saw it was James she frowned. “What?”
“I was wondering if I could borrow your… Charms essay; I’m… two inches short.”
She frowned as she said, “Potter, our Charms homework this week was to practise; we didn’t have an essay.”
“Last week’s? You got the highest in the class, like always? I have to re-do mine,” he said hopefully as he prayed he was correct; he vaguely remembered doing an essay the week before but he definitely didn’t have to re-do it.
“Then do it yourself,” she said coldly as she walked upstairs and James returned to his seat, Sirius, Lupin and Pettigrew laughing like hyenas.
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“What did you think you were doing Sirius? He could have died!” shouted James.
“I wasn’t thinking! I’m sorry! I just thought it would be funny-”
“Funny? Funny that Snape nearly found out Remus’ secret? Funny that I had to save him?”
“I didn’t realise-”
Remus was deathly pale as he sat watching the two boys argue. “Don’t be angry at him James, it’s my fault.”
“No, there is no way it’s your fault that Snivellus decided to follow you; James is right, it’s all my fault. I should never have told him how to get past the Whomping Willow.”
“I should never have thought I could be a normal pupil here,” said Lupin sadly. “I nearly got someone killed.”
“Shut up Remus! It’s not your fault at all! You can’t help it,” said James angrily. “It’s Sirius’ fault for telling Snape how to get past the tree.”
“But he wouldn’t have been in danger if I hadn’t been there.”
“He wouldn’t have been in danger if someone hadn’t told him how to find you,” pointed out James.
“Remus, it’s not your fault. If anyone’s, it’s mine and Snivelly’s. He was the one who decided to follow you, snooping around the castle at night and he wouldn’t have succeeded if I hadn’t told him how to get past the tree.”
“But he could have been killed! I could have killed someone!”
“But you didn’t because James stopped him.”
“Don’t let it get you down Moony; everything’s fine now,” said James.
“I’m so sorry,” said Sirius again. “I never realised he’d follow you and Madam Pomfrey, I just thought he’d go one day when no one was there then assume we just hung out in the Shrieking Shack or something. I honestly didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“I should go and talk to Dumbledore.”
“Why? There’s no need to do that,” they said.
“I have to go home before something serious happens and someone does get hurt.”
“No! You are not going anywhere Remus,” Sirius said strongly. “I am never going to tell anyone that again; Snivellus will never go down there again and we’ll lose a Marauder! I won’t let you go.”
“Me neither Remus. You can’t leave just because of that greasy idiot and the slightly less greasy one next to me,” said James.
“Thanks,” said Sirius sarcastically.
“No problem. Look Remus, you can’t leave; not after all the precautions Dumbledore’s put in place for you. Ok, so Snivelly nearly got hurt, but to be honest, it’s only Snivellus and that’s all because of Sirius. Sirius is never going to do that again, no one knows anything and Dumbledore still has faith in you. Plus you’re a brilliant student and probably the only person capable of keeping us slightly in line.”
“I’m still not happy about it…”
“Ok, you know what. Stay here until the end of the year and if something else happens, then you can leave,” said Sirius. “Deal?”
Remus paused for a moment before saying, “Deal.”
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Cassie sat down beside the dejected boy in front of her. “Are you okay?” she asked quietly.
“Yeah, I’m just having a bit of a bad day,” Remus muttered.
Cassie paused for a moment before continuing, “Do you want to… talk about it?”
“No it’s fine.”
Cassie looked around desperately for Lily, the queen of comforting people, and finally found her at the end of the row.
“What are you doing in the library anyway?” Remus asked, tearing her away from her frantic attempts to catch Lily’s eye.
“Hey! I do come in here you know! I’m not allergic to it, unlike some people you happen to be friends with!” she gasped, making him chuckle weakly. Finally Lily came and sat down opposite them, an enormous stack of books in her arms. “Lily,” she mouthed, nodding her head towards Lupin. ‘Talk to him, something’s wrong and you know I’m rubbish at that sort of thing,’ she scribbled on a scrap piece of parchment, dropping it in Lily’s lap as she said goodbye and told them she was off to the common room.
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“Snape is giving you a really weird look, did you have an argument or something?” asked Cassie as they began their potions.
“Sort of,” said Lily preoccupied, stirring her potion as she diced up her roots.
“Well what happened?”
“He’s started hanging out with some of the Slytherins.”
“Well it was always going to happen Lil; I mean, he is in Slytherin and he has been for three years.”
“I suppose; anyway, I told him that I didn’t like the people he was hanging out with, you know what Avery and Mulciber tried to do to Mary after lessons a couple of days ago and he told me that it was ‘nothing, just a laugh’.”
“A laugh! But they attacked her; she was shaking when she came up to the common room!”
“Exactly! They’re horrible! But then he brought up Potter! As if Potter had anything to do with it!”
“Potter?”
“Yeah! He brought up what Potter does and refused to believe he had nothing to do with it, then,” she said, her voice showing just how strange she thought it was, “he brought up Lupin being ill and then he brought up Potter fancying me!”
“He what?” shrieked Cassie.
“I know! I don’t even know where he got that from but…”
Cassie sniggered. “That’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard! What did you say to him?”
“I told him Potter was an arrogant toerag.”
“Lovely,” she said as she shot a glance at the object of their conversation who was messing around with Sirius. Try as she might to fight it her heart did a funny flip and her stomach constricted as she looked at Sirius’ hair falling into his eyes, his handsome half smile still pinned to his face. “You would be the strangest couple; I’d expect… I don’t know… McGonagall and Slughorn to get together before you two did.”
“Er… sure? That is the worst mental image ever Cassie!”
“Yeah I’m kind of regretting using that as an example now…” she laughed, glancing over at where Sirius was playing some kind of game with James, his head thrown back and his laugh echoing around the room. 'There must be something wrong with me,' she thought to herself as she wodnered why she even liked him in the first place.
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“Who’s that?” asked Cassie as a shadow fell over her where she lay by the lake. “You’re blocking my sun.”
“Sorry,” said a pleasant voice as Cassie’s eyes flew open.
“Potter?” she asked incredulously. “What do you want?”
“I’m looking for Evans.”
“Why?” asked Cassie curiously.
James looked a little embarrassed. “No reason,” he said as he ran his hands through his hair.
Cassie eyed him mistrustfully, not believing a word he said. “Right… well she’s over there,” she said, waving vaguely to a tree behind her before closing her eyes again.
“Thanks,” James said as he walked off leaving Cassie to wonder about what he wanted. She strained her ears to hear the conversation under the tree.
“Why were you talking to Cassie?” Lily asked as she looked up from her book.
“I wanted to know where you were.”
“Why?”
“I was wondering if you’d come to Hogsmeade with me next weekend.”
“No.”
“No?” asked James disbelievingly.
“No Potter, I won’t go to Hogsmeade with you.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to; is it that hard to get your head around?”
“But-”
“No Potter. I don’t want to go to Hogsmeade with you!” she cried.
James stood in front of her for a minute before walking back to his friends slowly looking defeated. “Tough luck mate,” said Sirius with a snigger as they turned away, "maybe next time. You’ve still got another… Moony do the maths! How many more Hogsmeade weekends are there?”
“Fifteen?”
“There you go! Another fifteen weekends to take Evans out to Hogsmeade.”