The Night Before Snape's Worst Memory
"Hi Remus, Professor McGonagall wants to see us both in her office. Potter she wants you too."
Without even acknowledging Sirius' Queen furiously smashing three of James' pawns to dust thanks to Peter's engorgio charm, Lily was already off across the dusk-lit common room and soon out through the portrait hole.
"See guys I hear these rumours that Evans is this sweet, lovely lady. If only I could get a 'Hi James' every once in a new moon I'd be able to agree with everyone" said James, winking at Remus.
Looking up from behind the copy of Practical Defensive Magic and Its Use Against the Dark Arts that he had borrowed from Professor Temple that afternoon for some last minute revision, he glared at James before beginning to repack his bag. "Why don't you grow a pair Prongs and maybe take the initiative with the greetings. Lily has felt nothing short of loathing for you since first year so the chances of it being her to say 'Hi James, wow gee boy what a pleasure to have this chat' first are less likely than Sirius not being a tosser for longer than five minutes."
"Lay-off Moony, Dumbledore and Minny have already chewed me out for that, and it was two weeks ago now! Anyway, I stand by that the grease-ball would have deserved it" Sirius said, having finally managed to return his Queen to normal size after it had started attacking Peter.
Remus had not been waiting for any reply however as he also was up and across the common room in moments, turning to beckon James to hurry up when he reached the Fat Lady.
"Padfoot for the love of Merlin please do not go looking for Snivellus again. I'm hoping to give back all this grease he slobbered on me when I grabbed him, and some. I would hate if you put him out of action before I got the chance," James told Sirius as he too began to rise whilst simultaneously running a hand through his hair.
"Prongs my dear, on my honour as a Marauder and as a wizard I shall remain upon this sofa doing nothing else but thinking about how heroic you shall look when you overcome our mortal enemy. At least until my detention with Filchy. Go now, my young buck, run swiftly, for Moony has already left without you".
"There's a good boy" James cooed back to his best mate and soon he was sprinting through the castle towards McGonagall's office.
Before long James was down in the first floor corridor of the Defence Against the Dark Arts tower, emerging out of one of the many invisible walls he and his friends had found throughout their adventures around the castle and grounds. Ever since October when he, Peter and Sirius had finally becoming Animagi, the Marauders had been together every full moon exploring. It still amused James that the first full moon since then that they couldn't be running with Remus was of course the time that Sirius would take it upon himself to still guarantee that there would be some entertainment. James should really have recognised the look on Sirius' face when he had told him that he and Peter had been put in detention by Slughorn for slipping excessive amounts of Confusing Concoction into Avery's pumpkin-juice goblet he had brought down to the dungeons from lunch. Whilst Avery violently vomited over Snape and Evan Rosier, Peter unfortunately in his laughter got a little too excited and dropped the half-full vile of the remaining Confusing Concoction all over himself and Sirius. Slughorn understood immediately and had Sirius and Peter put into detention. James, wishing he could have been there to witness Snivelly covered in sick, was otherwise lying in the hospital wing having had a bludger to the back of the head after Remus had taught them about this muggle game called dodgeball that they had been playing on their brooms that lunchtime. The plan had been to join Remus after Peter and Sirius had finished their detention and James had been discharged by Madam Pomfrey, but Marlene had come and found James an hour or so after Remus had already gone to the Shrieking Shack and told him that she had seen Snape creeping after Remus.
Walking to the end of the corridor James caught sight of Remus standing outside McGonagall's door, talking to a portrait filled with two young princesses who appeared to be blushing furiously. "If you're done with them, maybe you could show some love to your pack mate" said James to Remus as the other turned to face his friend.
"I don't know Prongs, my pack has been a little too reckless recently and these two pretty ladies have been very kind to cheer me up" Remus motioned back to the painting, which sent the two princesses into giggles. "I am sorry about snapping at you upstairs, I mean you are an idiot with Lily, but it's not you who I'm annoyed at. You after all did stop it before it could have got worse."
"I know Padfoot should never have done it, but he's said sorry to you and he's already got detention every night for the rest of the term. Besides Snivellus isn't going to tell anyone what he saw, Dumbledore made him swear, so I reckon it's best we just all move on and next full moon you can give Padfoot a few good kicks up the back-side."
"Oh I don't need it to be full moon to do that."
"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you beat me down here even though I left before you Remus" came a sudden voice from the red head coming towards them down the corridor.
"Well Evans, you see myself and my good friend Moony here are exceedingly clever and have discovered all manner of secret passageways and little hideaways in Hogwarts. If you agree to go out with me then I'm sure you and I could spend loads of time together exploring them even further."
"And why Potter would I do that when I could go out with Moony and have the same tour minus all the innuendoes and the attempts to lure me into these 'hideaways' I'm sure you and many 5th and 6th year girls are very well acquainted with," replied Lily, winking at Remus. Just as quickly as upstairs she moved to rasp on the office door and entered a moment later when McGonagall called them in.
"I think she is warming to me" whispered James to his friend as he ran a hand through his hair and entered in after Lily.
Minerva McGonagall was sitting behind her desk when the three students entered. Her long brown hair tied back in its usual bun, her glasses forever perched on the tip of her nose. This was a witch that James had really come to love, despite the amount of detentions he still got from her. Not only was she brilliant at magic, but she wasn't the push over that James believed many of the other professors were. James and Sirius had always enjoyed the challenge of trying to get her to smile at one of their pranks, never once has there even been a smirk. Sirius swears that he once heard her chuckle behind his back at something he did, but James knew that was rubbish. James on the other hand was fully aware the way to Minny's affections was through Quidditch. Last year in 4th year when Gryffindor thrashed Slytherin 520-30, with James scoring 240 points himself, he had stolen the microphone from Dirk Cresswell the 3rd year commentator and personally dedicated the match to his head of house. McGonagall gave him a detention for that but she never seemed to follow up on James for not turning up to it.
"Mr. Potter, if you could wait outside whilst I talk to my prefects briefly please."
James, having just taken his place on the chair closest to McGonagall's desk, got back up again and strode off back through the office door. Closing the door behind him, he saw that the two princesses had returned to their frame outside of the Charms classroom on the third floor. In their place now stood a monk writing something on his tablet. "Do you mind if you go get those two princesses back, they are much better on the eye than you" asked James. The monk tilted his nose up to him, and quickly departed the portrait leaving James to slump down alone against the corridor wall.
Five minutes later the office door opened again and out stepped Remus and Lily. Lily swept past the rising James and started off back down the corridor. Remus patted his friend on the shoulder, "you're up kid, but when you leave don't come straight back to the common room, prefer to give Sirius a good seeing too without you being there to break us up."
"First my Minny wants to talk to you before me, now you're telling me I'm going to miss a Padfoot and Moony duel. My evening has been ruined." James huffed as he walked into the office.
"Thank you for waiting Mr. Potter" McGonagall said, motioning James to take a seat. "How do you feel your OWLs have been going?"
"Well, thank you Professor. Charms, Potions and Arithmancy were straight forward. I'm sure Professor Sprout has already let you know about the infamous Chinese Chomping Cabbage saga in my Herbology practical, so that be an issue with that OWL. Care for magical creatures was a laugh. Astronomy good, Runes good, History of Magic boring but easy, and then Muggle Studies which was great apart from this one question on muggle-wizard relations cause I could swear there was once a time a wizard ruled over muggles in a place called Oz. Anyway, got Defence tomorrow afternoon and then Transfiguration of course the following day which should be a doddle because I have the most fantastic professor in the whole wizarding world for that" James finished brightly, smiling sweetly at the woman sat across from him.
"Well, if you're so confident about the exam being 'a doddle' I am expecting full marks then Mr. Potter" replied McGonagall, not deeming the end of that sentence worthy of a response. "And yes Professor Sprout did let me know about that event, including how you flung the cabbage off of your fingers and onto Ms. McKinnon's back. As a chaser of my house quidditch team I had assumed your aim were better thus you could have directed the plant away from any of the other students."
"Well Professor I certainly wasn't aiming for Marlene, she just happened to walk right in front of Snape as the Cabbage was in mid-flight. It was accidently thrown at Snape though of course, my fingers were in the process of being chewed off."
"Hmph, indeed. Anyway that brings me onto what I wanted to discuss with you today, the quidditch team. As you know our captain Ms. Clementine will be graduating at the end of this year and therefore Gryffindor house will be short a captain".
"Not to mention a brilliant seeker, Florence was fantastic on that broom" James chimed in with a grin.
"Quite. I would like to offer the role to you Mr. Potter for the remainder of your time here. The few training sessions I caught glimpses of from my window always showed you as her second-in-commander and I think you have the respect from the rest of the team to hold the top position. Now, I know normally quidditch captains find out they have been selected via the badge being sent to them in their start of year letters but I believed I needed to make something plain to you Mr. Potter. As you know quidditch is a privilege, not a right - no matter how good you are. To become house captain is an extension to that privilege as you will hold many of the same powers that prefects do…"
James had figured where McGonagall was leading onto and quickly jumped in. "I'm sorry to interrupt professor but I understand what you are saying, that I can lose this position if I misbehave. You have granted me this life-changing opportunity that I will forever cherish professor. You are truly the most kind, generous, clever, funny, witty witch I have ever been blessed to get to know. Minerva I will never let you down, I will make an unbreakable-vow with you if that is the confirmation that you need."
"That will not be necessary Mr. Potter. I'm glad to see however that this news has been well received. That will be all then thank you, best get back to your dormitory and think about getting some sleep before your last two OWLs."
James bounced up out of his chair, sent a shower of red sparkles up into the air - claiming it was some accidently magic when McGonagall fixed him with a rather pointed stare - and made his way towards the door and out into the corridor. James Potter, Quidditch Captain. Felt good to say. About time too he felt, though he never had any complaints with Florence as captain as she was really good and it didn't hurt how she looked on a broom. James was sad to see her go, but would make sure to mention to her that he was replacing her at least a dozen or more times. Walking down the corridor, James was about to slide back through the invisible wall that led him to the corridor of the Gryffindor common room when someone suddenly pulled him through from the other side into the darkened passageway.
"I wanted to talk to you" Lily said in the dim light. "Without the prying eyes of every student in this castle" she snappily finished having seen James' eyebrows shoot provocatively upwards in the semi-darkness.
"Oh Evans, I knew you were bluffing when you said you would prefer it to be Remus to show you these passageways. I'm assuming that's how you found out about this one anyway wasn't it. Remus show you himself or you just ran quickly away from McGonagall's office so you could get to a good place to watch where he disappeared?" Grabbing her hand he attempted to drag her down a little further along into the dark, but Lily pulled hard and her hand came away.
"Don't be a toerag Potter, or I'll hex you and leave."
"Hexing people now are we? Wow Evans, never would have guessed a prefect of your perfect calibre would ever commit such a crime. I'm shocked to my core, might have to go and tell Dumbledore. Hey, that rhymed!"
"You're a child. Listen. I heard what you did for Severus the other day. I know you don't like him but I wanted to say thank you for doing it anyways. Now whether you did it for Remus' benefit or maybe because you hated the idea of someone else hurting Severus more than you and stealing your fan club away I don't care. You still did it and I think that was brave and nothing like the normal arrogant James Potter. I'm actually surprised I didn't hear this story from you atop the Gryffindor table at breakfast the following day and only figured it out when Marlene told me and I managed to get it out of Sev." Somehow Lily had managed to get everything out without taking a breath it seemed, and James was standing there bemused beyond all accounts. Lily Evans was thanking him. She was calling him brave. Lily knew about Remus!
"Er sorry Lil I don't know what you're talking about, Remus was in the hospital wing sick that night..." James trailed off, trying to sound as convincing as he could whilst running his hand through his black messy hair.
"He's not sick, it's just a problem. But besides I'm not going to tell anyone anyway so you don't need to worry Potter."
James' chuckled slightly as all the lies he was constructing in his head about Remus not being a werewolf faded at Lily's words. "You know that's what I call it too, his 'furry little problem'. Thank you for keeping silent Evans. You're welcome about Snivellus. Still can't wrap my head around why you and he are mates. You know what happened to Mary three weeks ago with Mulciber, and that twisted arse is all chummy with your good pal Snivelly."
"I wouldn't expect anything to get round your giant inflated head Potter. I'm not friends with Mulciber, he is twisted and what he did to Mary was horrible, but Sev isn't like that."
"How can you say that? He and his mates are death eaters in training, the lot of them. Just because he fancies you and wants to get out of his robes into his tiny moulding underpants with you doesn't negate the fact that he calls every other muggle-born under the sun that disgusting word."
There was a moment silence as the two Gryffindors stared at each other in the dark. James knew his points were valid and he thought he saw Lily looking away in silent agreement. He was about to go on when Lily began again. "I better head back, I told Mary that I would help her with some last minute defence revision. Like I said, I just wanted to say thank you. Maybe one good deed is all that is needed to begin the process of you finally giving up your crown as King Toerag. Who knows, maybe you might change. You wait here, I'm using this passageway now as it is brilliant and we are not under any circumstances risking someone seeing the both of us popping out at the other end together."
Lily started off up the few stairs and then round the corner of the passageway and out of sight. James would have protested and insisted he accompany her the rest of the way in case she got lost. Lily would not have a clue that there were no deviations at all in this passageway until they had got to the end. Instead he leaned against the smooth stone wall and let out a low whistle. Getting quidditch captain and having the girl he has fancied forever pulling him into the dark all in the space of ten minutes. Not a bad night after all it seemed.