AN: Alright, I was going to wait to post this, but I've been getting a lot of pm's and asks regarding the state of this series, so here you are. Chapter one of year four! You should know that you needn't have read the previous three for this one to make sense, and since I think this year is the best so far (in terms of my own skill and such) I recommend reading it whether you've read any of my previous stories or not.
Alright, without further adieu, enjoy...
Chapter 1: An Unusually Common Occurrence
The Marauder's fourth year at Hogwarts began much like every other year. Their parents took them to the station, they boarded the train (rode in the last compartment as always), they caught up with everyone that they hadn't seen over the summer, and some that they had. They bought half of the snacks off the food trolley, they eat all of that food and complained about how full they were until they swore off eating ever again, then played Exploding Snap, went to find the trolley again and bought the remaining half of the snacks, until eventually, the train pulled into the station.
Sirius had grown over the summer and was now towering over the other three boys by five to eight centimeters. Peter was used to being the shortest, but James was not taking Sirius's newfound height very well.
"I'm sure you'll grow eventually." Sirius said, exaggerating the amount that he had to angle his head to look down at his best mate. "Just give it some time, no?"
Of course, that was the only encouraging thing Sirius had to say on the matter. He was quite enjoying being taller than the lads.
"Wish you lot could see the view from up here. It's an entirely different perspective."
Remus was somewhere in the middle, quite enjoying the fact that he wasn't taller than James. He didn't think he would fair too well at the receiving end of the bespectacled boy's glares.
This summer had been good to the boys. Not just in respects to Sirius's height, but they had also just had a splendid time together. All four of the Marauders had spent most of the summer at James' house, playing and attending Quidditch games, researching more on how to become animagi, planning elaborate pranks for the new school year and avoiding their summer homework.
They were starting the school year off on a good foot. It was going to be a good year for them, they could all feel it.
oOoOo
Lily and her friend's fourth year at Hogwarts began much like every other year. Their parents dropped them off at the station, they found each other on the platform then moved to a large compartment that they shared with other fourth year girls from other houses. They finished up their summer homework, gossiped about what fourteen-year-old girls gossip about, snacked on sweets from the trolley, greeted everyone who came into their compartment with much more enthusiasm than was necessary (mostly on Savanna's part,) until eventually, the train pulled into the station.
Savanna had changed over the summer. Her skit was a few inches shorter and her lips were painted a dull red. Her hair was teased, her shirt a bit too tight, and she walked around as though she was following after her chest.
The other girls had started wearing makeup as well, but they had all taken a more subtle approach, experimenting with gloss and eyeliner; their wardrobes adjusting slightly with the addition of real bras, but otherwise staying much the same.
Mary had dark circles under her eyes and smiled too much, taking extra care to listen to what everyone around her was saying and then retaining that information; locking it away for the future should she ever need it.
Lily and Carlee sat in the corner of the compartment and told each other about the highlights of their summer's as if they hadn't seen each other every other week. They smiled and they laughed and they pretended that the dark circles and the tight shirts were normal.
They did this because when you're younger and your friends try and hide things from you, you work hard to find out what they are and you try to help. You stay up late and you talk and you scheme and you pry until you think you've come up with a brilliant plan to fix everything. Then you grow up, and you realize that you don't know how to help and that it's really easier for everyone if you all just pretend that it's all okay.
They were starting the school year off on a foundation of sand. It was going to be a trying year for the girls, though they all pretended they didn't know it.
oOoOo
"Classes start at nine." Remus said, handing out schedules back in the boy's dormitory. "Like they do every year, so before the three of you start to complain, just don't."
"Spiffing advice, Moony." Remus froze at the mention of his nickname, though Sirius didn't seem to notice. He dropped back onto his bed and toed off his shoes. It had been a joke all summer, calling him that; Moony. Remus had laughed along with them, because it was rather fitting, wasn't it? And it had been a couple years now since Sirius had decided that they needed nicknames, Moony was the first one that fit Remus. He had falsely assumed that the nickname was going to disappear once they returned to school, because while it was fitting, it was also rather obvious. "Quality stuff there."
"We're still going to complain." James shrugged, casting a side eye at Remus as he went about taking a Quidditch jersey from his trunk and pinning it to the wall above his bed frame. "It's what we do."
"It's what we're good at." Peter agreed, hanging up some things of his own. A few pictures of the boys, a photo of him and his mother and a picture of a girl that he never talked about. "Always have been-"
"-Always will be." Sirius finished, raising his hand in a mock salute.
"Ridiculous." Remus muttered. He had stood at the foot of his bed listening to this nonsense in a sort of stupor, one brought on by the fact that Sirius was a dunderhead. "Ridiculous." He muttered again, shaking his head and kneeling down to dig through his trunk. "I've got summer homework to finish up, you lot do… Whatever you want." He grabbed his Ancient Runes textbook and walked out the door.
"What did you do that for?" James whipped a pillow across the room at Sirius's head.
"What did I do?" Sirius cried, grabbing the pillow and tossing it over to Peter now.
"You know what you did." Peter said sternly, putting the pillow back on James' bed. "His nickname. It was supposed to be a summer thing."
"No one is going to work it out." Sirius shrugged.
"He thinks they will." James said in a singsong voice.
"Alright mum and dad, I'm sorry."
The other boys soon filed into the dormitory and their conversation came to an end.
oOoOo
"Dad sent Gisele and I to Paris this summer." Savanna was telling Bianca, or really anyone who was listening, as she unpacked her new silk blouses, leather boots and gold earrings. "He's been so good to us these last few months."
Lily leant over her trunk to where Mary was sitting on her bed. "I thought her dad was…"
"Gone?" Mary asked, with her brows raised. "He came back. Apparently Savvy is thrilled."
"Apparently." Lily raised her own brow at her formerly reserved best mate.
"It's real gold." Savanna said, showing them her earrings as her eyes raked over the faces of the on looking girls, waiting for them to say something.
Arianna, a nice Welsh girl who usually only spoke with a girl named Janis (another Gryffindor fourth year) nodded with false enthusiasm at the earrings, so much false enthusiasm that locks of her thick brown hair fell out of her hair tie and into her face. "They are very pretty, Savanna."
"Oh!" Savanna shook her head and giggled. "That's another thing, I would appreciate it if you all called me 'Savvy' from now on. My dad started calling me that, and it just seems more, me. You know?" The girls muttered their assent, but their lack of energy on the topic didn't deter Savanna in the slightest. To make matters better, she didn't appear to be done talking about her summer either. "Have any of you ever been to Paris?"
"Oui." Bianca said, looking non-to-amused as she hung her robes in the wardrobe between her and Arianna's beds. "J'ai vécu en France." Savanna, who most likely only understood the first and last word of what Bianca had said, blinked in her direction a few times before shrugging and returning to whatever she had wanted to say about her trip.
Lily had unpacked her trunk as much as she cared to and then wandered over to Carlee's trunk. She dug through it for a moment before coming across what she had been looking for, a bag of jelly slugs. She held it up victoriously, but only for a moment because Mary soon snatched it from her and jumped onto Carlee's bed to prevent Lily from getting it back so quickly.
Carlee, who had been in the bathroom, putting away her toiletries, returned to find Mary and Lily jumping on and off her bed, chasing each other around. She spotted the bag of candy, which she correctly assumed came from her own trunk, quickly brandished her wand and summoned the candy across the room and to her out stretched hand.
"Oi!" Mary shouted, before seeing who had taken the candy. Lily and her quickly dropped into a sitting position on the edge of Carlee's bed.
"Don't make me tell my brother on you." Carlee said with a satisfied smirk. "He's Head Boy now you know."
"Sorry." Lily said, looking only slightly ashamed of herself.
"I'm not. I want some candy." Mary said, holding out her hands. "Please." She added as an afterthought.
"Hello!" Savanna called from across the room, causing Mary to drop a few of the jelly slugs that Carlee had just poured into her hands. "You three aren't listening to me."
"I'm sorry, Savan- Savvy." Lily said, shaking her head. "I was distracted by sweets."
"Speaking of sweets, I got myself and owl named Lollie-" And she was off again, talking to no one in particular but under the impression that she had the attention of everyone in the room. Lily, Mary and Carlee all exchanged a nervous glance at Savanna's expense and then returned back to their own sections of the room to get ready for bed.
oOoOo
There was always something unsettling about going to DADA every year. By now, they all knew that they were going to have a new professor, but that didn't make it any less strange. Nothing at Hogwarts changed. All of the other professors were stagnant, the castle itself was stagnant, the forest, Hagrid's hut, the train, Hogsmeade, their classmates… Apart from Dumbledore's beard growing a few extra inches and everyone getting older (but imperceptibly so because they were all aging alongside one another), nothing changed.
What really got to the students this year was that no one had told them what had happened to their previous professor. Professor Jewel had been extremely old (it had been rumored that she had attended Hogwarts with Dumbledore) so she might have died, but no one told them anything. It was just accepted that she was gone and that they had a new teacher.
This new Professor was neither young nor old but somewhere in between. He was tall and lean, with spidery legs, and arms that were comically disproportionate to the rest of his body.
"My name is Professor Swindal," He said, looking just above the heads of the students as he turned, scanning the room.
"First day jitters?" James muttered, tilting his chair back so he was leaning against the back wall. "Or is he going to be another Binns and refuse to make eye contact?" Sirius snickered.
"He's got wonky arms." Peter said, squinting and cocking his head to the side. "It's like his body ran out of long and thin genes a bit too early."
"And why does he pick his feet up so high while he walks?" Sirius asked, sweeping the hair off his forehead. "He looks like a puppet."
"He's trying not to trip over his feet. Which looks like quite the task." James said, staring at the long, thin black shoes the professor was wearing.
"You three are terrible." Remus sighed, though he wasn't paying any more attention to what Swindal was saying than they were.
"This class is especially relevant to your generation seeing as how the government seems unable to do anything these days and there are maniacal, crazed, lunatics walking around free, able to maim and kill as they please." This caught everyone's attention. James' chair fell back onto all four legs with a loud clack, and he and the other three marauders leant forward simultaneously.
"What did he just say?" Someone from the other side of the room whispered.
"I said," Swindal spun around and faced the unsuspecting Slytherin. "You're all going to need to know at least the basics, of defense. Not because they will be on your O.W.L.S. next year, though they will, but because I'm afraid that too many of you will be put in a situation where you will need to know how to defend off dark magic." He spun around again, his legs going out to far and his arms not doing much for keeping him balanced, he didn't fall though. He didn't even come close. "Potter!"
James jumped slightly, and then coughed. "Yes, Sir?"
"Front and center." Swindal snapped.
"In trouble already, Potter?" Charles Avery snickered.
"Five points from Slytherin." Swindal spoke directly and without preamble, not even bothering to look at who had spoken. James didn't even have time to throw a smug glance at Avery before Swindal had reached out one of his stubby arms and grabbed him by the shoulder, spinning him around so he was facing the entire class in the very front of the room. "Your mother is Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, yes?"
"Y-yes." James caught Lily's eye and she shrugged. She was sitting in the front of course, Severus Snape on one side and Carlee Baker on the other.
"And," Swindal drew his attention away from Lily. "That must mean that you are well trained in Defensive spells, yes?"
"Well- I mean- no." James said. "No more so than anyone else in the room, sir."
Swindal stopped moving his spidery legs momentarily and crossed his arms, giving James a disapproving glance. "That," He spat, "It entirely irresponsible."
"I'm fourteen!" James ran a hand through his hair. "I'm sure my parents don't want me to think that I'm capable of taking on some Death Eaters-"
"I never said that any of you would leave this room being able to 'take on,' as you put it, a Death Eater. You will simply have a fighting chance at surviving when I'm through with you."
"Excuse me," Kyle Wilkes raised his hand briefly before continuing. "What about those of us that have no reason to fear the Death Eaters? Do we get a different curriculum for the year?" A few Slytherins around him snickered and Professor Swindal's mouth pressed together to form a long, thin line.
"I would hope," He said, sounding much less eccentric than he had thus far. "That even someone like you, Wilkes, would understand the gravity of the situation we find ourselves in today. You and your friends may not be in any danger of being physically attacked, the Death Eaters might not want to take your wand and your right to live in the world you grew up in, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that you have no reason to fear the Death Eaters.
Every liberty that is denied to your fellow magical kind, is a liberty that you are in danger of losing. Every wrong that is done to them is echoed throughout the entity that you have called home. You should be afraid, because of the power that these men have so easily taken without consent. You should be afraid of what else they are capable of, because yes, Mister Wilkes, they are not targeting you today, but what's going to stop them from targeting you tomorrow?"
"My blood status." Wilkes crossed his arms over his chest and jutted out his jaw. Swindal's mouth twitched and his fingers slowly clenched into a fist.
"You're missing the point." He spun around on his heel. "James, maybe you can explain it to him in a different way."
"What?" James' hand jumped to his hair again.
"Explain to your classmates the gravity of what's going on."
"It's wrong." James said. "It's horrible, it's-"
"Yes, it's bad. Why?"
"They're claiming superiority."
"Exactly. And why do they have that superiority?"
"They think they have it because their Pure Bloods and that somehow gives them more claim to the magical world." Swindal clicked his tongue and spun away from James, opening his arms towards the class.
"Can anyone please explain to Mr. Wilkes why this is a bad thing?"
"Why don't we switch the roles around?" Lily said, playing with the ends of her hair. She bit her lip and scrunched up her nose. "Sorry, I should have raised my hand."
"No no, I like where you were going. Continue."
"Well imagine if the world was reversed. Where it was the norm to be a Muggle Born, and being from a family of all wizards was strange and different. What if these Death Eaters only wanted to celebrate people who were unique and the first in their bloodline to have magic? What if they thought that being the first made you more powerful or better at learning magic. What if they were attacking people who came from magical families? If that's what they were doing, everyone would understand how wrong it was. It wouldn't even be a question of belief, it would just be a simple moral issue. Because you can't punish someone for the way they were born, you can't hold their parentage against them."
"That would be stupid." Wilkes said, sitting up a bit straighter and leaning across his desk. "In what world would that ever happen? Who in their right mind, would think that people like you are-"
"Kyle," Swindal interrupted him. "I think it would be most wise if you did not finish that sentence. Though I believe that you are beginning to understand the Muggle borns perspective a bit better." He turned his gaze back over to Lily. "What is your name, dear?"
"Lily Evans."
"Well, Lily Evans, I think you understand the situation a lot better than most." He turned back to James, who was still stuck standing in the middle of the room. "Did you understand what she said?"
"Yes, sir."
"Did you agree with it?"
"It made sense to me, yes."
"Good." He walked about ten paces away from James and then spun around faced him. "Do you know how to cast a protection charm?"
"I know Protego." James shrugged, pulling his wand out.
"I hope so." He smiled and winked at James. And then he proceeded to hex him.
oOoOo
Professor Swindle wasn't the only professor that seemed to want to prepare the students for life after Hogwarts. Lily walked into Transfiguration and took a seat next to James, because they had this class with Ravenclaw, and that meant that Severus wasn't there to make her feel bad about it.
It's not as though she had planned to sit next to him either, they were still talking when they went to sit down and sitting next to each other seemed to be the obvious thing to do. She didn't notice Sirius huff a bit as he fell into the chair on the other side of James or the glare that Carlee sent Sirius as she took the chair on the other side of Lily.
"He didn't even hesitate to dock points." Lily said as she pulled out her new textbook. The binding had been cracked, but she hadn't looked at it nearly as much as she would have liked to. Maybe if she hadn't seen her Grandmother so much this summer, or if Carlee hadn't been over so much, or if her sister hadn't hidden her things every other week...
"I know!" James laughed. "Wilkes said something horrible and Swindle just shut him down. It was brilliant."
"I still think he looks wonky." Sirius sighed, pulling out a bag of sugar quills. "His short arms and all."
"And he kept picking his feet up too high." James added.
"He did look a bit like a puppet." Lily allowed, which only made Sirius roll his eyes because he had already made that observation an hour previous. "I think he's going to be a great professor though."
"I about jumped out of my skin when he threw that first hex at me."
"You got your shield up though. It was pretty impressive."
"Yes, everything James does is mighty imp-"
"Good morning, class." Sirius was interrupted by a very put off looking McGonagall. "Please take out your textbooks and open them to page 321."
"321?" Lily whispered in confusion, opening her book nevertheless, and turning to nearly the end of the book.
"What's got her knickers in a twist?" Sirius muttered. He didn't see the look that Lily threw him.
"I'm more concerned with why we're skipping ahead to the end of the curriculum." She said in a tone that suggested that if he continued talking about the Professor's knickers she would throw her book at his head. Once again, she missed his huff of frustration.
James however, sitting right in the middle of them, had caught it all. He looked nervously between his best mate and the girl he fancied. Fortunately for everyone, Professor McGonagall was not about to give them time to think about such things.
"I am aware that it is the first day of classes and we normally start closer to the beginning of our textbooks, but after what I just witnessed in the corridor…" She trailed off, shaking her head. Lily noticed that her normally immaculate looking bun had a few strand of hair hanging down, and her cheeks were a bit flushed. When she spoke, she seemed to deflate slightly. She no longer looked intimidating or harsh, but tired and sad. "I hope that you all know that I care a great deal for the individual safety of each and every one of you. If any of you should ever feel threatened or frightened because of the actions of anyone in this school, I don't want you to hesitate to come and talk to me. As students of Hogwarts, all of you have a right to feel safe within these walls. And while I may not be able to ensure your safety outside of this castle, I'll be damned if I'll let anything happen to you while you're here." The students all blanched at her use of an explicit, and quite frankly, the rest of her speech as well.
"There aren't many Transfiguration spells that will do you any good in a duel, but there are a few that will help you out a great deal and a few is all you really need." She took a deep breath and gained some of her usual sternness back. "On page 321, there is a list of five spells that you are all more than capable of casting at this point in your education, the first one on the list is…"
And that's how the fourth year Gryffindors spent the first two classes of their fourth year learning how to protect themselves with the help of two very angry professors.
It wasn't until dinner that night that they found out the reason for one of their professors' anger.
oOoOo
The Marauders were sitting on the far end of the Gryffindor table, a bit of space between them and the rest of the students because dinner had officially ended ten minutes ago. James pulled his copy of the Daily Prophet out of his bag and pulled the string that held it all together, tossing it at Peter.
"You haven't read that yet?" Remus asked, helping himself to another plate of mashed potatoes.
"You aren't done eating yet?" James countered. Remus just shrugged.
"You might want to eat some more as well, Potter." Sirius said, a sly grin on his face. "Don't want Remus to get taller than you too." James was going to shoot an insult back at him, but the front page of the Prophet caught his attention.
3 Suspected Death Eaters Walk Free
Remus, who was sitting next to James, spit his mouthful of potatoes across the table at Sirius. "How the hell did that happen?" He asked, ignoring Sirius's sounds of indignation.
"What?" Peter asked.
James read the headline aloud and then continued on to the article, ignoring the protests of his friends at times and speaking over them at others. "Yesterday afternoon, after much of the wizarding world had laid their head to rest, a group of ministry men and woman were holed up discussing the fate of three suspected Death Eaters captured last year by Aurors Moody, McKinnon and MacDonald. The three men, Tybalt Malfoy, Clarence Flint and Mario Travers have been released and cleared of all charges, including Travers murder charges. The court decided, after months of imprisonment for the three men, that there was not sufficient evidence to keep them detained and, in the words of our Minister there's, "No proof that they did any of the crimes that they are being accused of. The Aurors have had their fun, running after false leads and keeping them here on technicalities, but it's time for these men to return home to their families." Later, in an address to the public, the Minister stated that he is going to take a personal interest in the on goings in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to ensure that mistakes like this don't happen in the future. One has to wonder though, was it a mistake? Are we to believe that three Aurors arrested and imprisoned three men without reason? The fact that the names of those who made this decision have still not been released, along with the satisfied smirk that was on Flint's face as he was walked out of the ministry by an enraged looking junior Auror should give us all pause." James put the paper down and finally allowed his friend to say something.
"Is that all?" Remus said quickly, grabbing at the paper.
"It continues on page four." James said quietly.
"Merlin." Peter said, pushing his half-empty plate away from him and slumping over. "Moody caught those blokes and now they're being let go?"
"The Minister let them go." Sirius muttered. "No wonder Swindal and McGonagall were so pissed today." James nodded in agreement.
"That's not why they were upset." Remus said. "Well, I mean it was, but…" He sighed and read another headline. "Corruption in the D.M.L.E. It's by some bird named Rita Skeeter and it's going to make you very angry, James." Remus jerked the paper a bit to straighten it out and then read a few sentences from the article. "Last year around mid-October, an attack on St. Mungo's employees put an extra strain on the Aurors to capture the men that we now know go by the name, 'Death Eater.' It goes on for a bit about nothing in particular- and then, Liza Potter, head of the D.M.L.E., was particularly incentivized to lay the blame on someone seeing as how her husband, Charles Potter, a St. Mungo's healer of undetermined skill, had been one of the healers to be attacked. It is unclear, why she was not taken off the case to prevent such mistakes that ensued." Remus rubbed the back of his neck. "She goes on, basically just agreeing with the Minister and bashing your mum."
"You've got to be kidding me." James snapped, pushing himself up from the table, unable to sit there any longer. He needed to get up and move around. "My mum wasn't one of the Aurors who captured those arse-hats! She was as involved in that case as the Minister was." The rest of the boys got up and followed him. "I know this because she was at the hospital with my dad and me for about three weeks after the St. Mungo's attack." His ranting was causing most of the remaining students in the Great Hall to turn and listen, but James didn't care. "Who is this Skeeter lady anyway and why is the Daily Prophet printing anything she writes? 'Undetermined skill' Ha!"
"Where are we going?" Peter asked.
"I don't know!" James shouted, scaring a second year into jumping out of his way. Remus quietly apologized to the girl as James continued ranting and raving through the corridor. "Why would she say things like that?" He stopped walking, causing Peter to run into him, and looked as though something had just struck him on the head. "And how the hell did those three get released from prison?" He started walking again.
"You know the answer to that." Sirius muttered, his arms crossed over his chest and a bitter look on his face. "They're elite Purebloods, their names are part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. They can do whatever the hell they want and as long as there's not a living witnesses of equal blood status, there's nothing anyone can do about it."
"It's not right!" James all but shouted. "Moody was the arresting Auror for two of the three. Moody!" He repeated. "Doesn't that mean anything?" Sirius shrugged.
"The Minister hates, Moody." Remus said. "And I'm willing to bet money that Henderson was part of the court that let them walk."
"Of course he was." Sirius laughed. "Wasn't his wife a Malfoy?"
"Yes." James huffed. "This is- this is fucked up."
"Immensely fucked up." Sirius agreed.
The four boys meandered about the corridors, following an angry James with no particular destination in mind. Eventually they ended up at the end of the corridor that would lead them to the kitchens, which seemed about right to James. Whenever he was upset, he would march towards the direction of food. Having just stuffed himself senseless at supper however, he didn't really want to go to the kitchens.
It was an unfortunate coincidence really. The fact that James wasn't in the mood for food and had to turn right onto the corridor that would take the Marauders up to the fourth floor and on their way to the Gryffindor Tower; the same corridor that the Slytherins normally took while on their way from the library. And then there was the fact that Severus Snape, Kyle Wilkes and Charles Avery had decided to meet up in the library a couple hours previously and had been on their way back to their common room at the exact moment that would have them cross paths with the Marauders.
The two groups of boys saw each other come into view and James automatically stuck his hands into his pockets, his fist tightening around his wand. He had been in one too many corridors with Slytherins to do anything else.
No one said anything for a long while, and it seemed as though no one was going to, that they would just pass each other and continue on their way. But James had read the paper and Severus had seen James sitting next to Lily in the Great Hall.
"Snivellus." James sneered, brushing his shoulder against the Slytherins as he passed him. While James continued down the corridor, Snape stopped walking and spun around, images of Lily's smiling face running through his mind, a smile that James had put there.
"What the hell is your problem, Potter?" Wilkes and Avery turned to face the Gryffindors, looking more than happy to participate in a corridor-brawl. The Marauders stopped as well, two of them looking like there was nothing that they'd rather do, and two of them looking quite nervous about what they all knew was about to happen.
"What the hell is my problem?" James laughed, clenching his hands into fists at his sides, his wand still in hand.
"That's what I asked." Snape muttered.
"You and your little friends strut around the school, looking down on everyone and I'm the one with the problem?" James took a deep breath and shook his head. "You've got one twisted sense of what constitutes a problem, mate."
"Careful, James." Sirius said with a smirk. "If you use too many big words, Avery won't understand what you're saying."
"Fuck you, Black."
"See?" Sirius's smirk grew. "All one syllable words from him." James laughed and Wilkes walked up a few steps, with a smirk of his own.
"Don't worry about them, blokes." He said, crossing his arms over his chest and looking far more pompous than any fourteen year old had the right to. "They're just a little peeved about Malfoy and the lot being released from prison." He had hit the right (or wrong, depending on how you're looking at things) cord, and he knew it too. James' jaw tightened considerably and Sirius shifted from one foot to the other.
"Even you three have to admit that they shouldn't have been released." Remus said, a bit shocked despite himself. "They were caught red-handed."
"They didn't do anything wrong." Wilkes said, still grinning. "And the testimonies against them were weak, I mean, Travers was captured by MacDonald. He's a Mudblood! Why the hell would anyone believe what he's got to say over someone like Travers?"
"Don't use that word." James snapped. And for his credit, Severus didn't look as though he disagreed with James at that moment. "And they should believe Auror MacDonald over Travers because Travers is scum and-"
"Travers is my Uncle, so watch how you talk about him." Avery said, stepping forward to line up with the other two Slytherins.
"Shut up, Avery." Snape muttered. "And I think the real reason Potter is upset is because someone at the Prophet is finally calling his mum out." Wilkes and Avery looked at Severus, both furrowing their brows, not having read the smaller article in the middle of the paper. James knew that he was talking about the Skeeter article though.
"Calling his mum out? What are you talking about?" Wilkes asked.
"Rita Skeeter," Severus answered, "She wrote a fascinating article about how Liza Potter is abusing her power as head of the D.M.L.E. to make it appear as though she's not an incompetent, hopeless, old hag."
The first thing James shouted was, "Expelliarmus!" Knocking Severus off his feet and causing both Wilkes and Avery to fire hexes as well. By the time Severus was on his feet again, Sirius had been knocked off his due to a Jelly Legs jinx, and Remus had cast a quick protection spell to prevent Wilkes' Knock Back jinx from hitting either him or Peter.
Severus, having received all the reason he needed to retaliate, pulled out his own wand. He looked rather determined as he snapped his wand in James' direction, keeping his mouth closed. James hesitated, not knowing what spell Severus was trying to hit him with when his feet were yanked out from under him and pulled towards the ceiling, where he hung five feet off the ground for a few seconds and then plummeted back down to the floor.
"What the bloody he-"
"Excuse me!" All seven of the boys turned to see Professor Swindal traipsing down the corridor, the tips of his large shoes scraping the stone floors as he went. "What in Merlin's name is going on here?" Both Wilkes and Avery started speaking at the same time, but Swindal held up a hand, and turned to look at Remus, who had been standing off to the side with Peter during much of the fight, casting only Protego. "Why was this young man," He nodded at James. "Hanging from the air?"
Remus looked at James and then Sirius before shrugging. "There was a slight altercation, sir."
"A slight altercation?" Swindal repeated, non-too amused. "Is it allowed for students to get into 'slight alterations'?"
"Sure." Sirius shrugged, testing the new Professor. Swindal raised a brow and crossed his arms. "Well, I mean, they don't expect us to get along all the time," In a quieter voice, "We're just not supposed to attack each other."
"That's what I thought." He frowned and stared down each boy. "All of you will serve detention with me for the next three nights. Report to my classroom at seven o'clock tomorrow. Fail to show up on time and I will hand you over to the caretaker, Mr… Filch, is it?" They nodded. "Now get to your common rooms, lights out is soon."
There were mutterings of 'yes, sir' and then they split back into groups and went their separate ways.
None of them spoke to one another until they reached their dormitory. Frank Longbottom was already in the room, sitting on his bed and finishing some homework. James marched over to his bed and kicked open his trunk.
"You didn't have to do that." Remus muttered, unable to help himself. "We could have walked away."
"You heard what he said about my mum." James muttered, throwing a few pairs of shoes onto the floor, in search of his nightclothes.
"Yes, but we all knew that what he was saying was a lie." Remus pushed. "It wasn't true, your mum is great at her job and almost everyone thinks so."
"Besides," Peter added. "What do you care what Snape thinks? He's a slimy git."
"I don't care what he thinks!" James yanked his pants out of his trunk, threw it on his bed and then started undoing his tie.
"What happened?" Frank finally asked, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.
"Shouldn't you be with your girlfriend?" Sirius snapped, quite angry himself.
Frank raised his brow and tried to catch Peter's eye. Peter was still trying to talk to James however and missed it. "She's studying with Felicity and Carlee. What's got you in such a lovely mood?"
"Did you read the paper?" James asked, choosing to ignore Remus and Peter entirely. "Firstly, how did they get out of prison?" Frank opened his mouth and James spoke up, "Don't answer that, I know the answer, it's just pissing me off. Secondly, there was a second article printed about how my mum is using her power in the ministry to lock up people that she doesn't like and further her political career."
"We ran into some people who seemed to share that opinion." Sirius said. "So we had a bit of an argument."
"With their wands." Remus sighed. "And now we all have detention for the next three days."
"With the Slytherins." Peter muttered.
"With the Slytherins." Remus repeated with a sigh. "Don't know why he thought sticking them all in a room together again would be a good idea."
AN: Reviews are the shit, my friends.