Just then, the two of their visions hazed. Severus had dematerialized the both of them into the same cloud of black smoke, ribboning around the towers of Hogwarts, and swirling into the sky. It was black magic, undoubtedly taught to him by the Carrows. It hurt James, turning into smoke, but that was because Severus was strangling James inside the cloud. James didn't know how to fight back. Severus finally lost control, and the two barreled down into the Hogwarts courtyard.

"Why the hell did you do that?" James panted, his chest heaving.

"I should have done it a long time ago." Severus growled. A flash of red light blasted from the tip of his wand and barely missed James, causing the earth beside him to implode.

"You don't deserve to live!" Another flash of magic, deflected by James' wand.

"It's not my fault Lily hates you now."

"Lily loves me!" Severus was shouting at the top of his lungs, and crying at the same time. "You're the one sneaking out at night, and trying to kill me, and you are helping Grindelwald!"

James' eyes widened. "Okay, who the hell told you I was helping Grindelwald?"

The ground below James' feet erupted at Severus' command, and James tumbled backwards. He tried to land on his feet, but he felt a sharp pain shoot up his left leg. He had somehow fractured it in the fall.

"Once I've killed you, I'll go back and tell Dumbledore. I'll be a hero." A green magic beam burst from Severus' wand, deflected by James.

"You'll go to Azkaban because you're a lunatic." James said. He uttered a charm, and threw Severus across the courtyard, into a tree.

Severus levitated a gargoyle nearby, and flung it at James. James tried deflecting it, but was brought to the ground. His skull was bleeding now, and he held his wound to stop the blood from trickling out.

Lily made her way down the stairs to the courtyard just in time to disarm Severus before he could kill James.

Severus looked at Lily. She was distraught. She ran towards James, and hugged him, and it was the most painful moment of Severus' life.

"The Carrows lied to you, Sev." Lily said. "James has never met Grindelwald, so much as helped him."

Severus walked toward Lily, holding his bleeding arm. "I didn't know. The Carrows told me."

"You were using dark magic. I don't care what it was for, but you almost killed a person."

"I love you Lily." Severus was crying harder than he ever had in his life.

"I love you too, Severus Snape. But I don't see him right now. I see a monster. And since he isn't here, I guess I'll have to settle for James." Lily took one long look at Severus. His hair was tousled. He looked exhausted, and he was damaged from the battle he just started. There was fire in his eyes. If you had seen Severus Snape at the train station, a bright eyed timid little boy, you would have never guessed he would turn into that, and neither did Lily.

As Lily helped James wrap his arm around her, and helped him limp away, Severus fell to his knees, his hands digging in the rubble he created. It was the rubble of his and Lily's relationship, which he had just blown into exile. A tear made its way down Severus' cheek, and taking one last look at Lily's straight auburn hair, and glimmering green eyes, reflecting the beautiful, somber light of the full moon, disappearing from his life forever. He turned back into a ribbon of black smoke, and then disappeared.

"Hey guys?" Sirius shouted across the courtyard to Lily and James. "Haven't you noticed there's a full moon out?"

"Oh, god! Where's Remus?" Lily asked.

"I tried to stop him, but he left. Peter's looking for him now, but I think he's still inside the castle."

-(o)-

James had his arm around Lily, and he was limping into the castle, following Sirius.

"What did Snivelly do to you?" he asked, alarmed.

"Never mind that." James said. "Where did Remus go?"

"He turned out of the hall. I don't know where he went after that."

"The girl's bathroom! He probably hides there every time this happens." James said, his eyes widening.

Sirius ran back into the Hogwarts castle, and James and Lily limped after him. The hallways were in disarray. Grindelwald had sent five or six more trolls to common rooms and classrooms. Sparks flew past as the panicking students fought the trolls back with everything they could. Some trolls were falling to the ground in pain; some students were being thrown into walls and bookshelves. James thought, if Remus got into a fight with a troll…

The halls were being blown up, and James had just gotten to the door of the girl's bathroom, when he and Lily found Dumbledore dueling Grindelwald.

It was James's first good look at Grindelwald. He was of average height, with long grey hair, and dark eyes with bags underneath them. He wore robes that looked like they had been burned, and only a bit of the original grey coloring still remained. His opponent, Dumbledore, was wearing singed blue robes, and was obviously winning the fight. He looked significantly less tired. Sparks flew from both of their wands, and there was a mess of attacking and deflecting between the two.

"How are we going to get through?" Lily asked.

"Run, children!" Dumbledore yelled. One of Grindelwald's curses had gotten through, and Dumbledore held his singed shoulder.

Out of the girl's bathroom, the door suddenly flew off its hinges, and smacked Grindelwald in the side, making him fall. Dumbledore uttered a spell, twirled his wand, and pieces of concrete from the walls peeled off and surrounded Grindelwald, creating a wall around him.

"Go!" Dumbledore urged James to go in the bathroom while Grindelwald was occupied, and he obeyed. Lily helped him in, and just behind him, Grindelwald had burst out of his concrete prison.

James had come in to see Remus, in his giant wolf-beast form, attacking a black dog that he assumed was Remus in an animagus form. Werewolf Remus was bigger than they had initially thought, with luminous yellow eyes that flashed when he blinked. Looking at the numerous scratch marks on the walls, he had obviously done some damage with his claws. Remus looked as if he had been torturing himself before Sirius showed up, and now he was trying to eat him.

Sirius' dog form was black and scraggly. It was adolescent, and had claws that had obviously been used in the fight. But Sirius was tired now, and Remus didn't look like he was breaking a sweat.

Lily pointed her wand at Remus.

"No." James said. "You can't use magic. You'll hurt him. This looks like a job for Prongs." James got down on his knees and turned into his stag form. His leg was still hurting. He was limping on it.

"James, he'll kill you!" Lily held the stag's shoulders, trying to hold it back.

James, still in stag form, flashed a facial expression that looked like a smile, and limped into the fight.

One head-butt from James sent Remus barreling into a wall, whimpering in a dog voice. That whimper soon turned into a snarl, and he lunged at James. James had just gotten out of the way, avoiding getting his head chewed off.

Peter had joined the fight out of a crack in the wall, jumping on Remus' head, and covering his eyes. Remus stumbled around and fell, breaking the wall off a stall.

Lily watched the fight in horror. Peter danced around Remus' head pulling his ears and blocking his vision. James and Sirius weaved around Remus, knocking him down.

Sirius was knocked away by Remus' claw, and reverted back to his human form. His side was bleeding, and he held his wound.

"Lily!" was all Sirius had time to say, before Dumbledore's body was thrown through the wall of the girl's bathroom and landed at Lily's feet. Grindelwald stepped in, and narrowly missed Dumbledore with a curse. Dumbledore was withered, and looked bruised. He got up, and shot a spell at Grindelwald, knocking him down.

"James!" Dumbledore yelled, tossing him a pearlescent-silver cloak, glittering with reflected light. James knew what it was the minute he put it on. It was Grindelwald's cloak of invisibility.

James reverted back to his human form, underneath the cloak. His vision was hazed, like he was drunk, but everyone else couldn't see him. He limped towards Remus, dragging is left leg behind him, as Remus threw Peter off and he landed unconscious on the floor.

"Remus!" James yelled. "Remus, I know you're in there!"

Lily tried helping Dumbledore fight, but every one of her amateur spells was easily deflected.

"Remus, this isn't you!" Remus had now caught James' scent, and slowly walked towards him.

Grindelwald uttered a curse, and Lily was blown across the room, landing unconscious.

"Remus, it's me! James!" Remus swept his claw across the floor, grazing James' stomach and tearing off the cloak.

Dumbledore aimed a curse at the ceiling, causing rubble to fall out of it, on Grindelwald, burying him in the pile of alabaster.

Remus picked up James by his arm, staring at him straight in the eye. Remus' eye was full of fear, unable to stop himself from possibly killing his best friends. James' eye though, was full of sympathy.

"Moony!" he yelled, and Remus stopped. He closed his mouth and the venom left his snarl.

"This is Moony." James said, watching tears try to leave Remus' eyes. "Don't be Moony. You're Remus. Remus is the best person I've ever met, and I want him back. I want Remus back."

Remus stared at James, and then slowly put him down.

"I want Remus back." James said, smiling.

Petrificus Totalus! Dumbledore yelled, pointing his wand at Remus. Remus was petrified now, frozen in his spot. James watched his best friend fall like a statue on the ground. Dumbledore smiled at James. "I'll get you back to your common room."

-(o)-

One week later, all the students were herded into their common rooms as the staff searched for any remaining trolls or debris. There were still windows of time where they could sneak into each other's common rooms, and that was when Dumbledore paid James, Remus, Sirius, Peter, and Lily in the infirmary.

Some of them were better than others. Peter had some bruises and was in a coma. Sirius had bandages coming up his waist. Remus had scratch marks coming up his legs and arms, which he blamed Sirius for, and Lily was sleeping for ninety percent of her time there. James was the worst off. A bandage wrapped around his head where Severus' attack had gotten him. His leg was in a cast, and his waist was mummified in bandages where Remus scratched him. He was awake though, smiling whenever he could.

"Where's Severus?" was the first thing James asked Dumbledore when he sat down in his hospital bed. "He had some injuries."

"Mr. Snape is being treated in my office. He is being treated for some counseling." Dumbledore said.

James cocked his head back in his bed. "What was Grindelwald even trying to do?"

"He was one in a long line of wizards, all trying for the same goal." Dumbledore's eyes went down. "To kill all wizards and witches with non-magic parents."

James stared at Dumbledore intently. Dumbledore took his interest positively and continued, "It has been a point for many dark wizards that only pure-bloods were worthy to study magic. A couple of times in history, a wizard has come here and tried to kill any but a pure-blood."

James closed his eyes and smiled. "Peter says you know about our adventures."

James couldn't see Dumbledore's facial expression, but he sensed warmness. "Do you know why it takes great wizards and witches ages to become an animagus, where it took you and your friends mere months?"

James shook his head.

"Those witches and wizards learned to be animagi out of pure curiosity. They had no reason to try hard outside of pure selfish desire. You, on the other hand, cared for Mr. Lupin. You loved him so much, you tried harder than you ever have before at anything." Dumbledore sniffled, and adjusted his glasses, smiling. "Love is a powerful magic, James."

"So now that you know about the map and the animagus thing, you're going to get us expelled, right?"

"James Potter, I trust you will not use your powers for dark purposes. I know you won't." Dumbledore's voice was reassuring.

"So, is Severus going to be sent to Azkaban or something?"

"Mr. Snape is troubled. He will learn from it, and I'm sure will grow up to be a very noble young man. For now though, he is being counseled. Let's leave it at that. Mr. Black has your invisibility cloak."

Dumbledore left the room, leaving James wondering about what he said. He looked over at Sirius' hospital bed and saw the pearlescent cloak on the desk near him.

"I've decided something." James said aloud, to everyone in the room. "I thought of a code for the marauder's map. How about… Remus, Wormtail, Sirius, and Prongs-"

"Wait, you and Peter get cool animal names and I don't?" Sirius joked. "I want to be called… claw…pad..foot. Yeah! Padfoot!"

"Really? That's the best you've got?" James grinned. "So Remus? Want to be Clawbreath or something?"

"Actually," he said. "Moony is beginning to grow on me."

James was happier than he'd been in a long time. "Okay then! Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs proudly present the Marauder's Map. I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

The rest of the conscious hospital patients repeated after him. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

-(o)-

Severus Snape was tied to a chair. It was necessary to stop him from bludgeoning himself. Dumbledore walked in matter-of-factly and sat down at his desk.

"It wasn't my fault." whispered Severus. Nurses walked around him, treating his wounds. "It was the Carrows."

"The Carrows have left. I'm here to talk about you." said Dumbledore.

"I'm not guilty of anything."

Dumbledore leaned over in his chair towards Severus. "Lily was very precious to you, wasn't she?"

Severus didn't say anything.

"There's nothing you can do for her anymore that can make her happy. Those days are gone."

Severus was crying now.

"But, there is something you can do for her son."

Severus stared straight up at Dumbledore, desperately dissecting his words to find the meaning behind them.

"Lily and James are going to have a son." Dumbledore was whispering. "I've seen him. He will be born, and an age of darkness will follow. But if you follow me, and do what I say, you can do one last favor for Lily that she will never be able to repay."

Severus stared at Dumbledore darkly for a minute, then spoke. "What do you want?"

"You will grow older. When the time comes, you will be a professor here. Lily's son will attend here. He will be in danger here. You must protect him any way you can."

"How long have you known?"

"I've just been waiting for a time to tell you."

Severus looked down for a while and closed his eyes. A tear trickled out of his eye onto the floor. "The Carrows told me James was making a magic map. That it would help Grindelwald find half-bloods."

"In that, they were right…" Dumbledore said. "James was making a map. I could tell in his eyes though, he had completely different intentions for it."

"I hurt him. I hurt Lily."

-(o)-

"So, Lily?" James said. It was summer now. The students were preparing to board the trains to go back to their summer homes. The train station was bustling with students, all with bags of luggage. Lily was with James, Peter, Sirius, and Remus. "You coming back next year?"

"Can't keep me away." Lily and James hugged each other, and she kissed him. It was a warm kiss, and he liked it.

"You can count on Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs." Remus said, smiling.

"B-bye." Peter said.

"Bye." James smiled. "I love you guys."

"Oh my god! The map! You-" Lily panicked for a bit, but James put his arm around her.

"I left it. We decided that we'll come back and get it next year, and eventually, some new prankster of the future will find it." James hugged Lily. Lily giggled.

"Well mischief managed, right?" Sirius said.

"Mischief managed." and the five friends walked into the train.