Chapter 4:

As the three Maruaders walked towards there favorite tree after lunch, James noticed Lily hunched over at the edge of the Black Lake. It looked like she was crying and it gave James a sort of pleasure, yet made him sad at the same time.

"Prongs, are you coming?" Siruis' question pulled James out of his thoughts about Lily.

He looked at his best friend and said, "Yeah, Padfoot, on my way."

As they made it their spot and sat down, Remus looked at James and asked, "What's on your mind. Prongs? You seemed distracted by something."

James tore his gaze away from Lily again as she got up and head towards the castle with her head down. He shook his head to clear his head before answering. "Yeah, I'm fine, just thinking about the Quidditch match on Sunday."

"That's in two day, Prongs, you'll do fine." Sirius assured him, running a hand through is perfect hair without messing up a single strand. "You guys always win anyway, so there's no need to worry."

"I know, but Slytherin has uped there game and keeps getting better." James kept the conversation going, so Remus and Sirius didn't catch that he was really thinking about Lily again. "I would never be able to live it down if we lost to them. And plus, if they win, they take the lead in the House Points and there's no way I'm losing the House Cup to them again for the third year in a row."

Sirius snorted as Remus said, "I think we got them beat this year, Prongs. We are so many points ahead because of all my work in class, even if by some chance you guys lose the Quidditch match, we'll still be in the lead."

"You better be right, Moony. I want to kick their arse this year." James snorted as he laid in the grass. "They never deserve to win anything, those stupid Snakes."

"Where in the world did Wormtail get off to?" James mussed as he caught a fly out of the air.

Remus looked over the top of the book he had been reading and said, "I have no idea. He seemed pretty mad when you slapped him at lunch."

"He probably went to go cry about it. He'll probably come find us later. He can never stay away from us for too long, we're to cool for that." Sirius said as he started pulling up grass and throwing it Remus to distract him from his reading.

"He deserved that slap to the backof the head, the little weasle." James snorted as he sat back up. "He's starting to sound more and more like a snake each day."

Remus' jaw dropped and Sirius froze in shook at the statement.

"Prongs," Remus whispered. "You don't really think he'd ever start hanging out with any of the Slytherins, do you?"

James shrugged and said, "I don't know, Moony. He's been acting strange lately, like he thinks he found better friends than us. Like he thinks there's someone else at this school who would stand up for his stupid arse."

Sirius snorted and said, "Yeah, right. We barely stand up for him, Prongs, do you really think some stupid Slytherin would?"

"You never know, Padfoot." James shrugged again.

"What would the Slytherins have to gain by being friends with him?" Remus asked. "It's not like they're exactly found of us, Prongs."

"Maybe he's spying on the Gryffindors or something, I don't know." James suggested. "He just hasn't been following us around as much as he used to and it's weird. He's also been acting like he's better than everyone else in the common room as well."

Remus and Sirius just looked at him, shocked at what he was saying.

"You can't be serious, Prongs." Sirius stated, still stunned. "Wormtail is spineless, you don't really think he could ever spy on any, especially us, do you?"

James just shrugged again and laid back down.

"What brought this on, Prongs?" Remus asked, laying down his book.

"I don't know." James answered, looking at Remus. "I guess just seeing Evans so cozy with the snakes made me think about the distance Wormtail has put between us and hismself and how much he's changed."

"Oh, not stinking Evans again, Prongs!" Sirius shouted, throwing his hands up in frustration. "Give it up! She's never going to fall for you. Plus, there's a ton of normal girls in this castle that would love to be with you, just choose one of them!"

James threw a rock hard at Sirius and said, "Shove off, Padfoot. You don't know what you're talking about."

Sirius got angry and threw the rock back at him and shouted, "And you do? Spouting all of this stuff off about Wormtail and the snakes just because he's not following you around and worshipping the ground you walk on every second of the day anymore?"

A crowd was now gathering to watch the two friends fight. Sirius Black and James Potter were known for always causing trouble and always having each others backs, no matter what. That made this argument that much more interesting than most school fights.

James shot to his feet, pulled out his wand, and said dangerously, "I don't need anyone worshipping the ground I walk on, Black. I just call things like I see them."

Sirius jumped up too, wand in hand as he shot back, "Yes you do, Potter. That's why you've never told Wormtail to get lost ages ago. You just needed someone smaller and weaker following you around so you felt like a big shot."

"Oh, and you don't?" James shouted as more people gathered around them. "You enjoyed having Wormtail around as much as I did, because you knew you'd never be as good at Quidditch as I am, or as smart as Remus is!"

Finally, Remus stood up, got in the middle of his two friends, and said, "Stop it, the both of you. You both know you don't mean any of those things. You're just stressed from all the studying. Now, calm down, both of you!"

"To hell if I didn't mean it, Moony." James snorted in anger, his wand still raised at Sirius under Remus' arm. "He's just jealous of both of us, which is why he always wanted to keep Peter around, so he could feel smarter and more powerful than someone for a change."

"Oh, that's rich," Sirius snorted too, wand still raised as well. "Coming from the spoiled brat who sits around and whines because Lily Evans doesn't want to be with him. Now I can understand why she would rather be with Snape."

Sirius spat at James' feet and stocked off towards the castle. He was so angry, he didn't even realize where his feet were taking him, and he didn't care, as long as they got him away from James Potter.

He was so lost in his anger, when he got through the castle doors, he bumped into Snape and he actually said sorry. Sirius shook his head clear when he realized who he actually said sorry too. Even though he defended Snape back in the courtyard against James, he still didn't want to be seen being nice to a Slyerthin.

They just stared at each other for a few moments before each inclined their heads a little and went their separate ways without any insults or snide remarks.

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