About three weeks later, James was sitting in potions, the first subject of the day, and was desperately trying to stay awake. It was Tuesday and the night after the full moon. They had spent all night roaming the forest and by now he was dead tired. It had been a great night. Remus had been in a better mood than usual and had been more gentle than usual. Therefore neither James nor Sirius had suffered any major injuries. James hoped that this trend was going to continue in the future. He was tired of mending bones after each full moon. He glanced at Sirius who was sitting next to him. His best mate looked even more tired than James felt. James could see his eyelids drooping and he grabbed Sirius's shoulder and shook him before he could fall asleep and slump unto the desk. Sirius jerked awake. He was confused for a moment, but then seemed to realize what had happened as he gave James a grateful look.

'Next time we prepare some Ever-Alert-potion,' he grumbled. 'I don't think I will make it through the day. And we have transfiguration afterwards. McGonagall will give us detention in a heartbeat if we don't pay proper attention to her class.'

'There is a reason we have never used this stuff,' whispered James back. 'The side effects are severe and get worse if you are already sleep deprived when you are taking it. Besides, it lasts for close to twenty hours. That's way too long. We need to get to back early on a day like this and with this stuff in our system, we would never be able to fall asleep.'

'So, we just have to take it earlier than. At some point during the night,' replied Sirius, whispering as well. He glanced at Slughorn to see if he had noticed their conversation. Fortunately, their teacher was still droning on about the test they had taken during the last lesson. The topic had been antidotes and apparently most of the class had done rather poorly. James did not care at all. He was decent in potions and was not too worried about his grade. Also, he had only taken the topic to be able to become an auror. Currently, he had no desire follow this particular profession, but his father had strongly suggested that he should keep the option open.

Usually, his fathers 'suggestions' were more or less orders, but in this case James could see the reasoning behind the idea. It was not hard to see that the conflict with Voldemort would get worse before it got better. The ministry was going to need more aurors if they wanted to defeat Voldemort. Furthermore, the aurors had to oppose Voldemort's ideology otherwise they would simply be bought and would not properly work against him. If he became an auror, he could make a difference. James was not sure how he felt about fighting Voldemort. On the one hand, he firmly believed that blood status was irrelevant and that Voldemort was wrong. Baby Death Eaters like Avery and Snape caused his blood to boil and he would like nothing more than to throw all of them in jail. On the other hand he was afraid of the consequences of fighting. He had heard about the atrocities the Death Eaters had already committed and he knew that he would not be spared just because he was a pure-blood. The thought of losing his friends and family in this war was unbearable. A part of him still hoped that he could avoid all of it and just become a professional Quidditch player as he had always dreamed. If they would only just catch Voldemort already! Then he would not have to pick any side and could just move on with his life. He was fifteen after all. He was supposed to worry about his grades and about girls rather than with the state of the Wizarding World! It was a terrible time to be a juvenile in.

Sirius's nudged him and James remembered that they were in the middle of a conversation.

'Sorry, I zoned out,' he whispered to his best mate.

'Dreaming about Evans?' Sirius asked with a leer on his face. James eyes flickered to the red head in the first row for a moment before focusing back on Sirius.

'No,' said James. 'The state of the nation if you must know.'

'Of course,' said Sirius, rolling his eyes. 'I was saying that we just have to take the potion at some point in the night.'

'Oh sure,' whispered James. 'We just transform back in the middle of our antics and knock back a few vials. What could possibly go wrong?'

'We don't have to transform back,' said Sirius. 'We just have to stash the potion in a kettle or something in a save place and we can lap it up.'

'That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard,' said James, lowering his voice even further. 'Sure, lets pour a dangerous potion in a puddle, so that a stag, a dog and a rat can all drink from it while they are playing with a werewolf. What a brilliant idea! We don't even know how the potion is going to behave if it is drunk by an animagus. I am a lot bigger as a stag than as a human. Does this mean that I have to adjust the dose? What about Peter? And how do we prevent Moony from drinking it? He is a handful even without a potion to pump him up.'

To James's surprise, Sirius seemed to realize that his idea had some flaws. He opened his mouth to reply, but just closed it again, apparently not sure what to say. James was glad that he had defused this reckless idea for the moment. Sirius's devil-may-care-attitude could get out of hand sometimes. On the one hand it enabled him to do great things without caring about the consequences too much on the other hand it seriously lowered his life expectancy. James considered himself brave as well, but in contrast to Sirius, he usually had the ability to both see the consequences and actually paid them some heed.

Their discussion had ended just in time. Slughorn had stopped ranting about the bloody test by now and was now moving on the discussions of today's topic while handing out the test results.

'We will continue our discussion about antidotes today', he said while slapping down a sheet of paper on James's desk. He glanced at the mark scrawled in the right hand corner of the parchment: Acceptable. It was not a great result, but considering that he had not studied at all for the bloody test it was fine. To his right, Sirius made a face at his mark. James could only briefly see the large P on the test before his best mate crumpled it and stuffed it into his pocket.

'Before we get started, I have one more announcement to make,' said Slughorn. 'Every year the honoured Association for the Advancement of Potion Making has a contest to find talented junior potion makers. Traditionally, this contest is only available for witches and wizards who have finished school, but this year it was decided to open it for sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts. Of course they have created a new category for the young participants as it would quite unfair to pitch them against more experienced potion makers. The task in the contest is to brew a certain potion and improve it more or less slightly when compared to the standard recipe. This year, the Blood Replenishing Potion was chosen. Every one of you may enter the contest. If you win, you will receive two hundred Galleons as prize money. The final ten contestants will be invited to a great final event where the victor will be announced. It is an excellent way to test your skills as well as to make some connections with the establishment of the potion maker society. I highly recommend it. Of course every person taking part in the context will be allowed to use the Restricted Section in the library if it is necessary. You have until the mid of December to finish your potion and have to submit your application until Halloween. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me after class. Now, let's get started.'

'What do you think about that?' asked Sirius. 'I have heard of this Association before. I think my parents are members.'

'My mum is involved in this contest,' said James, pulling a face. 'She bloody loves potion making. She has joined that association decades ago and is part of the committee which will determine the victor. She has even badgered me to enter even though she knows I don't care about potions.'

'You are not going to enter then?' asked Sirius. 'Some extra money would be neat, though.'

'Of course I won't enter,' said James, looking at Sirius as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. 'I am not going to win. I have to compete with potion obsessed people like Evans and Snivellus. I won't spent my precious time fighting a losing battle and I don't want to give them the satisfaction. Also, I don't need the money. You are not going to enter, are you?'

'Nah,' said Sirius. 'You are right. There is no point doing extra school work just to lose against Evans or Snape.'

He made a disgusted face at the mere thought of being bested by those two people. James smiled. Sirius loathed Snape even more than he did and he had never gotten along with Evans. The latter was naturally fuelled by the fact that Evans had broken up more than one of Sirius's late night rendezvous. He was still miffed about her interrupting a perfectly fine blow job at the end of last year.

James glanced at Evans who was sitting next to Marlene in the front row. They were talking in hushed voices. James wondered whether Evans was excited about the contest. Knowing her fondness for potions she would probably enter. She was mental enough to be actually happy about the opportunity to brew more potions. Well, he supposed it made sense for her to take a shot at this opportunity. As a muggle-born, it would be prudent to use any opportunity to make a name for yourself in the Wizarding World. Connections were everything, especially if you wanted to get a job in the Ministry. Money was very helpful, as well. James did not know how well-off Evan's family was, but he doubted that she came from a rich family. The prize money would probably help her finance the last years at school and to get her started for life after Hogwarts. James wondered what she planned to do after school. Knowing Evans, she probably had it all figured out and had chosen her career back in their first year at Hogwarts. She was probably going to join the Ministry in some attempt to make the world a better place.

'So, what is going on with you and Amber?' asked Sirius, interrupting James's musing about Evans. 'You did not sleep in your bed the night before the full moon.'

'We are making progress,' said James who suddenly felt angry about the amount of thought he had spent of Evans again. She was not interested in him, had a boyfriend and had treated him horribly in the past! He was supposed to think about Amber during boring lessons rather than musing about a girl who hated him. 'I spent the night in her dormitory.'

'Did you now?' said Sirius. 'Do they have some protection on the girl dormitories as well? You know like the ridiculous stairs in the Gryffindor dorm.'

'Yeah,' said James. 'Exactly the same one. The work around is also the same. Even Amber knew how to bypass it.'

'Hm, you are probably not the first bloke she has taken into her bed,' said Sirius. 'And did you like it?'

'Yes, and it was not the first time we shagged,' said James. Sirius questions made him remember the night in details. He remember the taste of Amber's lips, the softness of her breast, the mewling sounds she had made as he had pounded into her again and again. He felt himself harden at the memories. Fortunately, his robes were loose enough to hide it from the rest of class. 'We had a go in an abandoned class room two weeks ago.'

'Well done,' said Sirius. 'I am going to need copious details, but this is neither the time nor the place. It seems rather fast, though. Well, fast for you, I mean. I would have shagged her on the first date and be done with it, but you are a bit of a romantic. I am surprised you made it this far before Christmas.'

'Stuff it,' said James. 'It's not that I had to do very much. Amber is rather... eager.'

'Ah, I knew that there was something I liked about her,' said Sirius with a smile on his face. 'Sounds like a keeper to me, James. What do you think?'

'I don't know yet,' said James. 'I like her. She is kind and very easy to get along with. Still, I think that she is keeping me at a distance. There seems to be something she is not telling me. I don't think she wants a proper relationship. As far as I know, the breakup with her ex-boyfriend was rather messy.'

'Do you want a proper relationship with her?' asked Sirius, sagely. 'Remember why you started this thing in the first place.'

'That's what I am trying to figure out,' said James. 'I mean, I originally intended this to be a short fling. Just to get back in the game and to clear my head a bit. But now as I am in, I wonder whether this could be something greater. Maybe Amber and I could have a future together. Maybe she is not just a tool to forget Evans.'

'You are not over her, though,' remarked Sirius.

'How do know?' asked James, even though he knew that Sirius was right. Evans was still on his mind far more often than he would like.

'Mr. Potter, Mr. Black,' boomed Slughorn's voice. 'Would you kindly focus on the task at hand? The instructions are on the blackboard. Get started with your antidote.'

'Sorry Professor,' the two chorused in unison.

Slughorn looked rather unconvinced, but let them off the hook without deducting any points. James glanced at the blackboard and read the instructions for the antidote they were supposed to be brewing. It looked rather complicated and he had not paid any attention to Slughorn's explanations. Normally, he would ask Remus for some pointers, but he was in the hospital wing, recovering from his transformation. Sirius and he were on their own with this one and both of them were dead tired. James sighed as he rose to gather the ingredients. It was going to be a long day.

A few days later James was sitting on one of the plush couches of the Gryffindor common room with Marlene. It was a Friday evening and he was busy proof-reading Marlene's essay regarding partial human transfiguration. Marlene and he had returned from Quidditch practice half an hour ago. She was scribbling an essay for charms, her back resting against his shoulder. It was one of the few times were James was not accompanied by the rest of the Marauders. Remus and Peter were in the library, studying for arithmancy while Sirius was off with some bird. Normally, he would have joined Remus and Peter, as he liked to discuss arithmancy with Remus, but he had promised Marlene to help with this essay and he could not deny that she needed the help.

'Why did you even keep transfiguration?' he asked after crossing out a whole paragraph of the essay. 'You hate the subject and you have no talent for it.'

'I know that,' said Marlene. 'And thanks for the encouraging words. You know that I want to become a healer and that I need transfiguration on a NEWT level to get into the program.'

'Right,' said James, remembering now. 'I sincerely hope that you will not need transfiguration in your day to day work as a healer. Otherwise, your patients will be in a pickle.'

She stuck her tongue out at him.

'I got an E on my transfiguration OWL,' she remarked. 'So I am not that horrible. You just think I am because you are bloody prodigy at transfiguration.'

'You got that E because I tutored you for weeks,' said James. 'And I still think that you should have scored on O regarding all the time I put in.'

'Pish posh,' said Marlene. 'If I scored an O McGonagall would probably have fed me Veritaserum to find out how I cheated on the exam.'

'That's probably true,' said James, refocusing his attention on the essay. He scribble a few annotations on the border of the parchment. He should give Marlene enough pointers to properly redo the bloody thing. It could not be salvaged, but if she started over and followed his hints she should be fine.

Ten minutes later, he was done.

'Here you go,' said James, passing the essay back to her. 'If you want a passing grade, you have to rewrite this thing. I have left you some pointers on the borders.'

'Bloody hell,' groaned Marlene. 'I knew it was not my best piece of work, but it had hoped that it would be an acceptable at least. Well, if it can't be helped, I'll redo it. I need a good grade. McGonagall has not been impressed with my work in this year so far.'

'Are you going to do it tonight?' asked James. 'I can take a look at the new version as well if you hurry up. I have to an essay for potions but otherwise I am free for the night.'

'No, I am not going to do it tonight,' said Marlene. 'I am going to finish the essay for charms and then I am heading to bed. Your bloody Quidditch training has worn me out. I am barely keeping myself awake. If I start another essay, I am going to fall asleep right in this room.'

'You would not be that exhausted if you worked on your endurance like I have told you,' remarked James loftily. 'You could join me for my morning runs. I would not mind the company and you could get fit.'

'Getting up at 6 in the bloody morning so I can run around the lake for an hour no matter how cold or wet it is? I will pass, thank you very much.'

'Oh quit being such a baby,' said James. 'Maybe I should add some more endurance drills to the training sessions. Obviously my players neglect that aspect of their training.'

'Don't you dare,' said Marlene. 'You are crazy enough to work us until we puke.'

'You make it sound like that's a bad thing,' said James.

'McGonagall was nuts to make you Quidditch captain,' grumbled Marlene.

The two of them fell silent again while Marlene was working on her essay. James opened his bag, extracted a roll of parchment, a quill, an inkpot and his potion textbook. He briefly skimmed the section about the properties of combined antidotes before starting his essay.

He must have paid more attention to Slughorn than he remembers as his progress was much faster than he had anticipated. After he had gotten into it the words were flowing out of his quill at a blazing speed. He finished the essay in less than thirty minutes. When he was done he had almost no recollection of what he had written. Expecting the worst, James started to read the essay again. Had he gotten side-tracked while he had been in the zone and had switched topics halfway through the bloody thing? This had happened to him once in his third year and he had not noticed before turning in the essay. McGonagall had not been pleased that he had switched to Confundus Charms halfway through a transfiguration essay. This time, however, he had stayed on topic. In fact, James was rather pleased with the quality of the essay. It was going to be an E at least. Grinning at his own intelligence, he rolled up the essay and placed it in his bag. When he looked up again, he noticed Marlene looking at him. She had twisted her body around, so that she was now facing him and her feet were resting on the ground.

'What?' he asked.

'Have you been using powdered dragon claw?' she asked him.

'What? No, I haven't,' said James.

'You just demolished that stupid essay,' she pointed out. 'And this was a difficult one. I should have taken you much longer to do it.'

'I am naturally brilliant as you should know,' said James haughtily. 'I don't need powdered dragon claw to finish my assignments.'

'Right, I just should have remembered that,' said Marlene rolling her eyes. 'Can I copy yours? I don't think I will have time to do it this weekend.'

'Do it yourself,' grumbled James. 'You just insulted my intelligence by suspecting me of cheating.'

'Touchy, touchy,' said Marlene grinning even more. 'Alright, if you won't help me there, you can tell me something else. What is going on with Marchbanks and yourself? I have heard that you have spent more than one night in the Ravenclaw dormitories.'

'Have you now?' said James. He was not really surprised that his late night visits had been noticed by the school's population. He was a public figure after all, due to his status as Gryffindor Quidditch Captain and as leader of the Marauders. However, he had not expected Marlene to pick up this particular bit of news so quickly. He should have known better as she was quite interested in all kinds of gossip.

'Yes, I have,' she said grinning. 'So, spill.'

'There is nothing to spill,' said James. 'So, I like to spend some nights with Amber. That should hardly be news to you. She is not the first witch I have shagged.'

'I know that you have shagged witches in the past,' said Marlene, not at all fazed by his crude language. 'And you do sound ridiculous when you say dirty words by the way.'

'What?' said James. 'How do I sound ridiculous?'

'You have a posh accent', cried Marlene. 'It sounds ridiculous if you curse like a sailor, because one can hear how upper-class you are just from the way you talk.'

James opened his mouth, but could not think of anything to respond. He had always liked to curse, probably because his parents strongly disliked all uncouth language. He had never considered how it might sound coming out of his mouth. He closed his mouth again and waited for Marlene to continue.

'Anyway, I have the feeling that whatever you have with Amber is more than just some casual shags,' said Marlene. 'It has been going on for longer than your flings have in the past. You tend to distinguish between girls you want to date and girls you want to shag. The latter change with time, but in the past you had only really wanted to date Lily. Maybe that is about to change.'

Her words rang true and James silently cursed her for this accurate assessment. He did not like to talk about this topic in general and he most definitely did not want to discuss his love life in the middle of the bloody common room. Fortunately, Marlene had lowered her voice so much that it did not carry in the loud room. Nevertheless, he had no intention of actually discussing this topic with her. He would just have to stall and hope that she would let him off the hook after a while.

'I thought he had agreed to stay out of each other's love lives,' he said. 'Is our agreement null and void? If so, I am absolutely thrilled to pay your good for nothing boyfriend a visit. I have wanted to have a word with him for a long time.'

'Our agreement still stands,' said Marlene hastily. 'And you leave Charlie alone. I know how you talk with my boyfriends and I prefer not to visit them in the hospital wing thank you very much. I am just trying to help you.'

'Help me?' asked James. 'Help me how?'

'Whatever you are doing with Amber, you should keep doing it,' said Marlene. 'She seems to make you happy and she takes your mind of Lily. Lily's and your life has been significantly improved since you are both dating other people. I think it should stay this way. If it means that you and Amber become a thing, then I am happy for you. She seems to be a nice person. Also, it improves my life as well as I don't have to play mediator between Lily and you.'

'Well, I was not expecting that,' said James, honestly. He had known of course that Marlene had not liked his more or less well planned tries at wooing Lily, but he had still assumed that Marlene wanted him and Lily to act up together as well. Of course, she had never admitted it to him, but she had spent hours of her life calming Lily down and preventing her from hexing him. Still, she had a point. His life had been much easier since he had been dating Amber. Evans's constant rejections had become quite painful in the end. Also, Evans had a boyfriend and this meant that she was off limits. James was not the type of person who stole another man's girl. He left this to Sirius. James wondered briefly who things were going with this Luke character. Then he pushed the thought away. Evans love life was not his business.

'And you can relax,' he said to Marlene. 'I am not going to bother Evans again in the foreseeable future. It has taken me a while to get it, but I know by now that she loathes me. I am not going to waste my time chasing someone who can't even tolerate me.'

'Music to my ears,' said Marlene, smiling. 'I think it is the right decision. There are more than enough witches who want to date you and who can make you happy. Lily is not that special. You don't have to spend all your time at school chasing your idealised version of her.'

To James, Lily was still special as she was the first girl he had been head over heels in love with, but he had to admit that Marlene had a point. Most likely, his perception of Lily was an idealized one, glossing over most of her fault and overemphasizing her lovable qualities. It would be a good idea to bury this idealized version of Evans. Even if by some miracle they would become a couple someday, she would never be able to compete with the godlike version of her he had placed on a pedestal. He had to knock down that pedestal if he ever wanted to be truly happy.

'Right you are,' said James.

'I would have expected more of a fight,' said Marlene suspiciously. 'I have told you to give Lily a break almost constantly over the last two years. Why are you listening to me all of a sudden?'

'Hey, what makes you think I cannot reassess the situation by myself and decided to change my behaviour?'

'The fact that you have refused to do so for years?'

'Details, details,' said James. 'Well, it's all water under the bridge. I may have made some mistakes in the past, but I am wiser now.'

'And I am very proud of you,' said Marlene. 'You know, you should have Amber around more often. I would like to get to know her.'

'Would you know?' asked James. 'And why is that?'

'Is it so strange that I want to know something about my best mate's girlfriend?' asked Marlene innocently.

'Most definitely,' said James. 'You were not exactly happy when I started getting interested in girls romantically, do you remember? I remember you calling the idea of me snogging a girl 'disgusting'. This was one of the reasons we came up with our agreement. Hence, I don't really see why you would want to get to know my pseudo girlfriend all of a sudden.'

'Alright, alright,' said Marlene. 'You got me. I just wanted to share some embarrassing stories about you with Amber. But you caught me, so I will be a good girl and just stay out of your business.'

'That's my girl,' said James, smiling. 'You should know better than trying to trick me like this. I am a Marauder, I can tell if people are lying to me and you are not a very good liar to begin with.'

'Am too,' she said and stuck her tongue out at him. James laughed at her silly behaviour. Marlene always managed to cheer him up.

'Marlene?' said a voice which made James's heart speed up. 'You wanted my help with your potion's essay.'

Lily had just entered the common room and was now standing an arm length from the couch James and Marlene were sitting on. She looked a bit frazzled. Judging by the blush on her cheeks and the ruffled state of her school uniform, James was quite sure that she had been thoroughly snogged mere moments ago. He felt a spike of jealousy in his heart, but it was duller than he had expected. He seemed to be on the right track regarding Lily Evans.

'Right,' said Marlene. 'I am sorry, I have lost track of time. I was supposed to meet you in the library wasn't I?'

'Yes,' said Lily. 'When you did not show up, I had the feeling that you had simply forgotten and that I would find you here. Now grab your stuff, I want to head to bed soon.'

'Did you have a rough day, Evans?' said James innocently. He tried to keep his face passive, but he could feel a smirk appearing on his face.

'It was quite demanding if you must know,' said Lily. She blushed slightly and James knew now for sure that she had been fooling around with her prat of a boyfriend.

'Ah yes, all this strenuous extra-curricular activities can become quite a burden,' he said. He knew that he should not bait her so much, but he could not resist the opportunity to rile her up. He had always enjoyed taking the mickey out of her. The fact that she looked quite good when she was furious did not help.

'Is there something in particular you are alluding to?' asked Lily, her voice becoming cooler. Marlene was watching them with a look of alarm on her face. She seemed to guess that this conversation was not going to end well.

'Oh, I don't know,' said James. 'I am not quite sure what you do in your spare time Evans. But if I had to take a guess, I would guess that snogging your boyfriend in some abandoned classroom is what got you all worn out today.'

'Jealous, Potter?' Lily asked with a smirk on her face. Despite her counter attack James knew that he had gotten to her, because her face was as red as a tomato by now.

'Oh, please,' said James. 'Palmer is not my type, you are free to do with him as you please.'

'That's not what I meant and you know it,' said Lily. 'You are jealous of Luke and act like an ass because of it.'

'You are absolutely wrong my dear,' said James. This was a lie, of course. Naturally, he was jealous of Palmer, but this was not the primary reason why he was picking this fight with Evans. No, he was using this discussion to show her that he would not be chasing after her like a lost puppy anymore. Maybe he was also proofing it to himself at the same time.

'I find it sweetly ironic that you assume that I am jealous of your boyfriend. Seems quite arrogant to me, wouldn't you agree? And I seem to remember some person lecturing me again and again on the importance of being humble. But I seem to have forgotten who it was. Can you remember, Evans?'

'You are a bloody prick, Potter,' hissed Evans, her eyes blazing.

'Maybe, but at least I am not a hypocrite,' said James coolly.

'I am so done with you,' said Evans. 'Marlene, I will meet you in the library, don't keep me waiting.'

She stormed off and slammed the portrait hole shut behind her.

'She seems a bit ticked off, don't you think?' said James and reached for his schoolbag again. He still had an issue of Which Broomstick to finish. Reading the magazine would relax him and help dissipate the anger at Evans which was running through his veins. Still, he felt a small sense of triumph. It felt good to take her down a peg or two. Despite his massive crush on her, he had to admit that she was not the easiest person to get along with.

'What the bloody hell was that?' asked Marlene him. 'Why did you have a go at her like that?'

'I felt like it,' said James, truthfully. 'And you should mind your language.'

'You are unbelievable,' said Marlene, shaking her head. 'Please tell me you are not going to bait her all the time now. This would be even worse than chasing her. I was so looking forward to some peace and quiet.'

'Don't worry about that,' said James. 'I have too much else to do than agitate Evans all day.'

'Thank merlin,' said Marlene. 'You know if the two of you ever got together it will either fail spectacularly of last all your life. You have so much history everything else is impossible.'

'You should hurry up,' said James. 'Evans does not like to wait.'

'Right,' said Marlene, gathering her stuff. 'But don't think you are off the hook in this issue. I will keep a close eye on both you and Lily. If you provoke her again, you will have to deal with me as well.'

'Yes, yes,' said James. Marlene was almost never angry with him and he doubted that she cared this much about Lily's and his relationship. 'I will be a good boy. Now go, before she takes your head.'

Marlene gave him a brief kiss on the cheek before vanishing from the room. Sighing, James settled back in the sofa cushions. He hated how much influence Evans still had over him even when he had given up on her. Hopefully it would get better with time. He picked up the magazine again. With a bit of luck, it would take his mind off Evans.


A few days later, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were on their way to Charms. It was early in the morning and they were late. James had been up early as usual and had even managed to finish his morning run in time, but when he had returned to the dormitory, he had discovered that Sirius was hogging the shower. Remus and Peter had already been angry with their vain friend when James had arrived and their mood had not improved by now. After Sirius was done grooming himself, they barely had time to get ready themselves. After a hurried breakfast, they were now hasting through the corridors. At least Remus did. Both James and Sirius were not in too much of hurry.

'Hurry up,' said Remus. 'We are already five minutes late. We should take the shortcut on the next level. It will buy us a few minutes.'

'Don't get you knickers in a twist, Moony' said Sirius. 'It's just Charms. I don't even need to go to the bloody class to pass it with flying colours and neither do you. You are just worried because you are a boring prefect.'

'Unlike you, I don't want to spend most of my time in school in detention,' said Remus. 'This has nothing to do with me being a prefect. Getting detention for being late is completely pointless. If I end up in detention, I want it to be for some grand prank and not just because one of my roommates is a conceited git.'

'My, my,' said Sirius. 'What nasty words and from our ickle prefect no less. Is it your time of the month? No, wait that was a week ago.'

'I have to agree with Remus,' said Peter. 'Tomorrow you will be the last one to enter the bathroom.'

'Bugger off,' said Sirius. 'So I need some time to look fabulous who cares?'

'You would look fabulous even if you did not spend an hour in the bathroom each morning,' said James, rolling his eyes. 'What are you even doing in there?'

'Just because you have given up on your hair does not mean that everybody else has to abandon hope as well,' said Sirius loftily.

They had just reached the next floor, when a loud sob and a stifled scream reached their ears.

'What was that?' asked Sirius already reaching for his wand.

'Sounds like trouble,' said Remus. 'It's coming from over there. Let's check it out.'

'Finally some action,' said Sirius, smiling and he marched along the corridor.

They quickly found the source of the commotion. A group of Slytherins had corned a young girl. She was no older than a third year and judging from her yellow scarf was a member of Hufflepuff House. Her attackers were Avery, Mulciber, Snape and to James's surprise, Regulus Black. He could feel Sirius tensing up at finding his brother in this company. This was going to get ugly very fast if Sirius lost his temper. Avery had his wand out and had placed it under the girl's chin. Mulciber had his out as well, but was only waving it around threateningly. Snape and Regulus were hanging back a bit. Both of them had yet to draw their wands.

'Well, well, well,' said James. 'What do we have here?'

'Seems like some slimy snakes are bullying a young girl,' said Sirius, his face filled with rage. 'Regulus I must say I am quite disappointed in the company you keep. I thought you knew better then to association yourself with this filth.'

'Oh look boys,' said Avery. 'It is our gang of blood traitors and half-bloods. You are one to talk about bad company Black. You are a disappointment to your family.'

'Whatever is going on here, it stops now,' said Remus. 'Let her go and get to class and I will let you walk away without a detention.'

'We don't care about detention,' snapped Mulciber. 'And I am not going to be bossed around by a half-blood like you Lupin.'

'No you prefer to get bossed around by dark wizards,' said Sirius. 'Now let her go, before we hex you into oblivion.'

'Why don't you give it a try, you blood traitor,' snarled Avery. 'You need to learn not to mess with your betters.'

'Your betters?' asked James, raising an eyebrow. 'Avery I must say that is a bold claim coming from you. Whether or not the Avery blood line is truly pure is debateable. Wasn't one of your great grandfathers a Muggle-born? In each case, the Black line is immaculate. So, if anyone here should mind his betters, it is you.'

'You have no right to lecture me about blood purity, Potter,' snarled Avery. 'You are no better than him. A blood traitor to the core.'

Normally, James would have used this opportunity to embrace his status at a blood traitor. However, his father's warning were still fresh in his mind. It was foolish to openly state his opinion here. It would accomplish nothing and only reinforce his family's reputation as blood traitors. No, he had to frame it in a different way. James did not like to play these political games, but he knew that they were necessary in these times.

'I have every right to lecture you,' he said, drawling his voice like he had heard the more arrogant pure-bloods do countless times. 'Not only is your blood-status questionable, you even behave like a common thug. Ambushing young girls to hex and coerce them hardly is appropriate for a young pure-blooded wizard from a good family. Yet, I find you and your comrades here in just that situation. You claim to fight for blood purity, but it seems to me you are dragging it in the mud in the process. Now let her go and we all go our separate ways.'

James had expected Avery to hex him directly after he finished his little speech. However, the Slytherin look at James with a pensive expression on his face. Before Avery could make his decision Mulciber made it for him.

'Let's go,' he said. 'It is not worth the trouble.'

'It is your lucky day, Potter,' said Snape. 'Next time the odds might not be that favourable.'

'I would hardly call even odds favourable,' drawled James. 'But I will look forward to continuing this discussion with you Snape.'

Mulciber let go of the girl and pushed her over to them. She bumped into Sirius who stabilized her easily. Before anyone could stop her, she fled down the corridor. Both the Marauders and the Slytherins watched her go.

'I can't believe you picked a fight with us over pathetic mudblood like her,' snarled Regulus. 'You Gryffindors have no common sense.'

'Don't call her that,' snarled Sirius and raised his wand. 'It is you who lacks common sense as you associate with these dark wizards.'

'Sirius, put the wand down,' said James. He himself was gripping his wand tightly and would have like nothing more than to cures these four baby death eaters. Nevertheless, he swallowed his anger. It would do him no good to land himself in detention over this. Also, it would make his acting less credible if he lost his temper over some ugly words.

'But James...,' said Sirius.

'Now, Sirius,' said James.

To James relief, Sirius lowered his wand. He could hear him grumbling under his breath, but the situation was a lot less serious now.

'Would a good lapdog you are, Black,' said Snape, mockingly. 'It is sad that Potter has to hold your leash to prevent you from getting into too much trouble.'

'Well gentlemen,' said James, before Sirius could rise to the bait. 'I think we all should get to class. It has been a pleasure.'

He turned to his mates.

'Let's go, we should have been in class ten minutes ago.'

He gave the Slytherins a mock salute before moving down the corridor. The rest of the Marauders followed him slowly. James expected the Slytherins to attack them from behind, but to his surprise nothing happened. As soon as they were out of earshot, he started another conversation.

'Well, that went better than expected,' he said. 'We managed to rescue the girl without firing a single spell.'

'You should not have held me back,' growled Sirius. 'I would have hexed little Regulus into a bloody pulp. What does this bloody fool think he is doing? Running around with scum like that?'

'Hexing him would not have changed anything,' said James. 'I am sorry Sirius, but this is hardly a surprise given your family's background.'

'It would have made me feel better,' said Sirius stubbornly. 'I had hope that Regulus could follow my example and stay out of this whole business. But I guess his Slytherin friends are pulling him in and I bet Snape is first in line. The greasy git simply uses Regulus to get at me. He knows that I cannot stand the thought of my brother being involved with the dark arts.'

'I doubt that Snape has this kind of pull on your brother,' said Remus. 'I think Regulus is just a bit confused at the moment. I think he will turn around before he gets seriously involved with Voldemort.'

'I hope you are right,' said Sirius darkly. 'Still, I feel that we have given Snivellus too much leeway. It is about time that we teach him some manners. How dare he take part in attacking a little girl like that? He must be punished!'

'Did anybody know who that girl was?' asked James. 'We should have made sure that she was alright instead of just letting her escape. I don't like the thought of her running around in the castle in her state. She is probably in shock.'

'I think her name is Jasmine Parker,' said Peter. 'As far as I know she is an acquaintance of Marlene. Should we head to the dormitory and look for her on the map?'

'That would work, be we are already very late,' said James. 'We are going to get detention without a doubt, but if we show up any later or skip the lesson completely, it will be a week's worth of detention rather than just a single day. Maybe we should look for her during lunch. Then we can make sure that she is alright.'

'You guys go ahead to charms,' said Sirius. 'I will hop back to the dormitory, grab the map and look for her. I don't care about the detention. Also, I need some time to think this over. I would not be able to concentrate anyway.'

'Sirius, you really should come to class with us,' said Remus. 'I have read the school rules and it is possible to get expelled due to repeated small offences. Your record is so filled with detentions it is a wonder they have not expelled you by now. You should be more careful in the future.'

'Bullocks,' said Sirius. 'If they have not expelled me by now they will not expel me in the future. Dumbledore is too soft and McGonagall likes me too much.'

'Remus is not wrong,' said James. 'It is true that they have been lenient with us, but I am sure that they will be stricter in the future. After all, we get older and this means we are expected to act more mature. We should not push our luck.'

'Just because you are on your way to becoming a model student does not mean that I have to stop having fun,' said Sirius coldly. 'Now if you are done lecturing me, I am going to find that girl.'

He stalked off in huff. James could hear him cursing all the way down the corridor.

'That went well,' said James. 'We should not have pushed him like this.'

'He will get over it,' said Peter encouragingly. 'You know Sirius. His temper tantrums may be intimidating, but give him an hour and everything will be back to normal.'

'Not always,' said Remus. 'He can hold a grudge for a long time if he thinks he is right. I think he is more ticked off at his brother than at us, though.'

'True,' said James. 'I can see why he is upset, but I have a bad feeling about this. Sirius hardly needs a reason to hex Slytherins and his brother's corruption gives him quite a reason. We should keep an eye on him before he does anything stupid.'

'I was quite impressed in the way you handled this, James,' said Remus. 'I would have expected you to throw a curse as soon as you spotted the Slytherins. Instead, you even held Sirius back. Quite impressive indeed.'

'Oh, I wanted nothing more than to hex these bastards,' said James. 'But I realized that hexing them would not change anything. Also, I have made a promise to my dad and intent to keep it. Nevertheless, it is disturbing what they think they can get away with. It is getting worse.'

'Yes,' admitted Remus grudgingly. 'Both inside and outside of school. The ministry is not making any progress in dealing with Voldemort and his cronies and this affects the school as well. Scum like Avery and Mulciber think their times has come and test the boundaries. I would not be surprised to see them join the Death Eaters after school.'

'Maybe they already have,' squeaked Peter with a note of fear in his voice. 'They are vile enough to do it in a heartbeat.'

'I don't think they have,' said James. 'Someone like Voldemort does not joke around. He has no interest in common bullies like Avery and Mulciber. Just because they can frighten some younger girls at Hogwarts does not mean that they are useful. I am more worried about Snape.'

'Why?' said Remus. 'Snape normally does not stalk around the school bullying muggle-borns. He was friends with Evans for a long time. I don't think that he is as bad as the other two.'

'He is even worse,' said James. 'He is far cleverer than Avery and Mulciber and he is brilliant at making potions. A good potion maker is in high demand and Snape is very ambitious and highly interested in dark magic. If we have any aspiring Death Eaters at school, I would bet my Nimbus that Snape is one of them.'

'I think you are overreacting,' said Remus. 'Your history with Snape is clouding your judgement. I know that he has been trying to mend things with Evans. He would not do that if he had any plans to become a Death Eater. Joining Voldemort would make him an enemy of every muggle-born.'

'Snape would do anything for power,' said James firmly. 'I don't know what is going on between him and Evans and frankly, I don't want to know. Still, I am very sure that we should keep a close eye on Snape.'

'Personally, I am more worried about him keeping a close eye on us,' said Remus darkly. 'Have you noticed how he keeps looking at me? I think he suspects something, James. I could be very bad if he catches us during a full moon.'

'Snape will never catch us,' said Peter confidently. 'We are far too clever for him.'

'I agree, but we should not underestimate him. 'Do you think he knows something Remus?'

'No, he would already have spilled the beans if he knew,' said Remus. 'After all, he hates me. He would like nothing more than to ruin my life by telling everyone my secret.'

'Yeah, that's probably true,' said James. 'Alright, we will have to be more careful and will have to watch out for Snape. Let's just hope that Sirius calms down a bit. If he continues to blame Snape for his brother's misbehaviour, he will use any chance to jump Snape. This could be very bad if he finds Snape during a full moon.'

Remus paled at the thought.

'You have to talk some sense into him, James,' he said. 'If Sirius wants to hex Snape he must do it without endangering us.'

'I can try, but I doubt that he will listen to me,' said James. 'Sirius can be very vindictive and he has been nursing a grudge against Snape for a quite a while now.'

'Just do it,' said Remus. 'You are the only thing he ever listens to.'

'Alright, alright,' said James. 'Now let's get a move on, we have to get to class.'