7

Professor McGonagall had been waiting for James and Sirius back near the
entrance to the Gryffindor common room. She had been so furious she was nearly
beyond words.

'Detention,' she had blurted rather shortly. 'Both of you. For two weeks.'

She had begun to walk away when she stopped and turned back once more. 'And ten
points from Gryffindor. For each of you.'

James sighed as he and Sirius slunk back into the portrait hole, but to their
surprise, they were greeted with applause. The common room was packed and front
and center stood Peter. 'Nicely done!' he was saying.

James and Sirius looked at each other, shrugged, and sank into a low bow.
'Thank you, thank you,' Sirius said. 'Really, I say, what a splendid show of
admiration.'

James chuckled as Sirius hammed it up for the crowd. Everyone wanted to hear
the story-it was not exactly news that Snape and his posse weren't overly
popular within the Gryffindor house. The fact that James, Sirius and Peter had
given them what-for seemed to be a cause for celebration.

Not everyone was celebrating, however. James spotted Lily sitting by the fire,
glaring daggers at him. He made his way over, trying uselessly to smooth his
hair. 'All right, Evans?' he asked cheerily. She said nothing. 'What's the
matter?' he asked.

'You know,' she said coldly. 'Just when I start thinking that maybe, just
maybe, you're not a complete imbecile, you go and prove me completely wrong,'
she said.

James worked his mouth for a moment. 'Is this about Snivellus?'

'And again!' Lily said, exasperated. 'What is your problem with him? He said
sorry-'

'Did he?' James asked.

Lily's eyes flashed. 'Yes,' she said defensively. 'What is your problem with
him?'

James raised his arms. 'Sorry, you're right. I do like Snivelly, really, I do.
There's just things about him I don't like.'

'Such as?' Lily asked.

'Well...everything, just about,' James said and he cracked a smile. When he saw
Lily begin to huff up, he raised a hand. 'Anyway, to my point-he said he never
said sorry. He said that was you.'

Lily's mouth worked furiously for a moment. 'Well he was lying, obviously.'

'There's a nice trait in a friend,' James said sarcastically.

'Oh, and you never lie, do you?' Lily sneered.

'Name one time that I have,' James retorted.

This seemed to distract Lily. She fumed to herself and turned her back on
James, muttering into the fire. James turned to find Peter behind him. 'I
looked everywhere for Remus,' he said. 'But I couldn't find him. Do you have
any idea where he is?'

James' stomach clenched as he remembered Dumbledore's words. 'Yeah...I do,' he
said. He quickly recounted his and Sirius' conversation with Dumbledore, and he
was aware of Lily listening in by the angry snorts and scoffs she was making at
the various points of the conversation.

'I feel terrible,' mumbled Peter. But then he brightened. 'Maybe we could be
waiting for him when he gets back? We could ask McGonagall, she could tell us.'

James nodded enthusiastically. 'Good idea, Peter.'

Peter looked over James' shoulder at Lily who was scowling again. 'I think
she's just in a bad mood because of the full moon,' he said in what he hoped
was a confident tone.

'Yeah?' James asked as he and Peter walked over to join Sirius. 'So how does
that explain her for the rest of the month?'

*

The next morning, James, Sirius and Peter approached Professor McGonagall
during breakfast and asked when Remus would be back so they could meet him.
They were surprised when Dumbledore answered for her.

'I'm afraid that Remus does not get back until quite late,' he said.

'But...he came back during the day last time,' Sirius said in a somewhat abrupt
manner.

Dumbledore didn't seem phased. 'I can assure you, Sirius, that he will be back
quite late this time. I will certainly convey that you wished to greet him, but
I cannot allow you to break curfew.'

The three boys walked away, slightly downtrodden. Sirius' head snapped up.
'Well, this isn't the end of it,' he said confidently.

'What? You heard Dumbledore,' Peter said, fear in his voice.

'Come on, are you a man or a mouse?' Sirius replied. 'I say we sneak out at
night and be ready for him!'

'Won't he have a teacher escorting him?' Peter asked.

Sirius waved his objections aside. 'We can be quiet. It'll be a laugh, won't
it? Remus seeing us follow him through the castle-oh, we can make faces at
him, and the teacher won't have any idea what's going on!'

James was nodding enthusiastically. 'I like this plan. Come on, Peter, what do
you say?'

Peter rubbed his hands together nervously. 'How are we going to do it?'

They spent the rest of the afternoon going over various ideas. There were
charms, of course, that would render them invisible, but none of them felt
confident enough to try it just yet. They resolved that the best course of
action would simply be to hide behind as many obstacles as they could.

'I don't know about this,' Peter said as they left Charms, a class in which
they had hardly listened to a word Professor Flitwick had spoken. 'We'll be out
after curfew, after being told not to by Dumbledore, and risking being seen by
a teacher!'

Sirius made as if he heard a noise. 'Anyone else hearing a mouse sniffing
around?' he elbowed Peter in the ribs. 'Come on, it'll be fun.'

They got back to their common room and James retreated to his bed to change out
of his robes. He didn't want any long black cloaks giving him away in the
corridor. He opened his rucksack to grab something more form fitting when his
hand grazed something inside of his bag. He opened it to see a carefully
wrapped present, containing something that felt like cloth.

Instantly, he remembered-the first day on the platform, his father had told
him they had packed a gift. James flushed somewhat; he was already somewhat
notorious for using as few clothes as possible. They were several months into
school and he hadn't even gone through his whole bag yet.

James ripped the wrapping off the gift and stared, comprehension donning slowly
upon him, on what was in his hands.

*

'Where'd James go? I thought he was going to be right back,' Sirius was
muttering as he paced in front of the fire. 'We need to find a good hiding
place before curfew sta-AAAAAAARGH!'

Peter looked up from what he was doing and nearly fell over his chair in
fright. A disembodied head had just appeared in front of Sirius, who appeared
to be doing his best to climb the wall to escape.

'Take it easy, you coward, it's just me!' James' voice said happily. And with
that, he disappeared completely again.

'How-' Peter began, but he suddenly yelped as a hand appeared in front of his
face.

'Go on, take it, I'll help you up,' came James' voice. Peter slowly did and he
was hoisted to his feet. Suddenly, James appeared before him, a long,
billowing, silver cloak in his hand.

Sirius' eyes were bugging out of his head. 'No way,' he breathed. 'Is that...is
that an actual...?'

'Invisibility cloak!' James hissed with delight.

Peter and Sirius spent the next several minutes fawning over the cloak, quickly
checking the portrait hole to make sure no one was about to barge in on them.
'Where did you get this?' Sirius asked, eyes still wide with wonder.

'It was my Dad's,' James said proudly.

'Wicked,' Peter breathed. 'Where'd he get it?'

James shrugged. 'It's an ancient family heir loom. Every father in my family
has passed it on down to their son,' he said happily. 'I must admit, it flies
in the face of Dad's whole 'stay out of trouble' bit.'

'This is going to make tonight easy,' Sirius exclaimed. 'Shall we go give it a
whirl?'

'Yeah, I think we can all fit under it...'

*

James, Peter and Sirius walked quietly through the corridors of the school.
Curfew was not yet in effect, but the prefects were beginning to marshall the
students off towards their rooms. The three of them were about to head down the
stairs towards the main hall when they spotted two people in a heated
discussion on the staircase-Snape and Lily.

'...I just don't understand why you have to sink to his level,' Lily was saying
in a hot voice.

'Sink to his level?' Snape replied, acid in his tone. 'Really! I was just
walking with my friends, he and that idiotic Black-'

Lily laughed sarcastically. 'Your friends?' she echoed. 'Mulciber, Dolohov and
Avery? The three who would rather have been taught at Durmstrang? These are
your good friends now?'

Snape was silent. It looked like he was trying to choose his words very
carefully. 'It is important,' he said slowly, 'to be safe.'

James, Sirius and Peter were thoroughly confused. From the look on Lily's face,
so was she. 'You're going to need to explain that one to me, Severus.'

Snape looked pained. 'Since when is it Severus?'

Lily sighed. 'I don't know...I just feel like I hardly know you anymore,' she
said quietly.

'Of course you know me, Lily,' Snape pleaded. 'We're still friends, we still
care about each other. I still care about you,' he said quietly, putting a hand
on her shoulder which she quickly shrugged off. He retracted his hand, looking
somewhat stung.

'I do care about you, Sev,' Lily said. 'You're just making the wrong friends.'

Snape snorted. 'And who would the right ones be? Potter and his gang?'

Sirius elbowed James in the ribs.

Lily's eyes narrowed at Snape. 'Why do you always bring him up? In case you've
forgotten, I know you cast the first stone.'

'He's...he's a...he's just arrogant!' Snape snarled. It looked as if he had
wanted to say something worse.

'Be that as it may,' Lily said coldly, 'at least his friends aren't into the
Dark Arts.' Snape was staring at the floor now and Lily's tone softened. 'I just don't understand. I want to, I really do, but I just don't think I get it.'

Snape looked at her. 'Something's coming,' he said quietly. 'Something big. We're all going to have to choose sides.'

'What do you mean?' Lily asked.

'It's not about the Dark Arts, and whether I support them or not,' Snape said quietly. 'It's about being safe.'

Lily's eyes narrowed again. 'There's always a choice, Sev. It's between doing what is right and doing what is easy.'

'That's incredibly naive,' Snape said, his voice rising slightly. 'Better Dark than Dead-'

'Is that what your new friends are saying?' Lily asked coldly. 'Some sort of rallying cry, perhaps? Well I don't want anything to do with it and...and I'm appauled that you would,' she said.

'What a wanker,' Sirius whispered as they watched Lily storm off. 'Watch this,' he added with a grin as he pulled his wand out of his pocket. 'Glisseo,' he murmured.

There was a sudden cry-the stairs underneath Snape had suddenly disappeared, transformed into a rather steep ramp. Snape scrabbled wildly for something to hold onto as he rocketed down the ramp, eventually crumpling to a heap at the bottom.

Sirius, Peter and James clapped their hands over their mouths to keep from laughing. They watched as Snape gathered himself at the base of the stairs, wand drawn, looking angrily around for whomever had cast the spell. Finally, after satisfying himself that no one was there, he stalked off in what James presumed was the direction of the Slytherin common room.

'Come on,' James whispered and they quietly made towards the front hall. 'What do you suppose that was all about?' he asked.

'No idea,' Sirius replied. 'He definitely knows more than he was letting on though.'

'What do you think could be coming?' Peter asked.

James frowned. 'We'll just have to wait and see. Now come on.'

*

They waited for what felt like hours by the entrance to the great hall. It was quiet, and there were no teachers around. James was beginning to wonder who exactly was supposed to meet Remus at the door, when suddenly the great doors opened.

'Easy now, there's a good lad,' came Madam Pomfrey's voice. She lurched into view supporting someone who looked very badly injured. James couldn't quite make out the figure from his vantage point.

Sirius gave him a sharp poke in the side. 'James,' he hissed. 'That's Remus!'

Dumbledore and McGonagall had arrived in the hall now and they were speaking in hushed voices. 'How is he, Poppy?' Dumbledore asked quietly.

'It appears to have been a bad night, Professor Dumbledore,' Madam Pomfrey replied. 'We should get him straight up to the infirmary. I should be able to have him back in his bed before sunrise.'

'Will you need any help?' McGonagall asked.

'Yes, thank you, Minerva. A second set of hands would be most appreciated.'

James, Sirius and Peter watched in quiet amazement. They were slowly edging towards the staircase to get back to the common room when Dumbledore stopped moving. The three of them froze and for one agonizing second, he seemed to turn and look directly at them. A peculiar look crossed his face, and then he was gone. The boys hurried up the staircase to the Gryffindor common room and made their way inside, it was quite deserted. Throwing the cloak off of themselves, they stood and stared at each other for a moment.

Peter broke the silence. 'What happened to him?' he whispered.

None of them had an answer.