A/N: Hey guys! Here's the next chapter! :) It was giving me a really hard time at first, but I ended up having a bit of fun with it once I came up with a better way to approach it.

And as a reminder, Lily Luna and James are obviously on good terms at this point, cuz they played Quidditch together. To them, that's like, sacred. Lol.

Chapter 10: Sides and Badges

I hurried to the dungeon corridor where I'd seen James and Severus Snape, taking secret passages and short cuts along the way to avoid meeting anyone. Before I went down the last staircase, I paused to catch my breath a little so that I could pass off my being there as simply coincidental. just that whole got lost excuse would probably work fine.

Then I heard a shout from downstairs, and decided not to wait any longer.

As soon as I reached the dungeon corridor I had to dodge a mass of flying sparks.

"Oi!" I exclaimed, and whipped out my wand as I ran up to the boys, "What's going on down here?"

James spun around when he heard me, "Luna? What're you - immobulus! - doing here?"

He was bald.

Looks like Snape got a shot in, I thought, amused. But I have a decent sense of priorities so instead of commenting on that I said, "The question is what in Merlin's name are you two-"

But I didn't finish because right then one of Snape's spells hit me square in the chest, and I fell back with an oomf as it hit me.

The hell!? I wasn't planning on taking sides, but did the bugger just shoot that right at me?

"Luna! Are you ok?" asked James before casting a stunner in Snape's direction.

"Fine." I wheezed from the floor, rather embarrassed and my eyes tearing up a little because my palms and my butt hurt where they'd hit the floor.

As I got back on my feet, Snape yelled with a sneer, "Looks like your new housemate isn't too quick witted in a duel, Potter!"

My eyes narrowed and I clutched my wand tighter in my hand. So he had aimed at me on purpose when he shot that spell then! What had I ever done to him? I think I could see now why my grandpa wasn't on friendly terms with this git.

And unfortunately for Snape, I was quick witted, especially in a duel. I'd been in a dueling club for the better part of my time at Hogwarts, and I've had a lot of practice. I just hadn't been aware that I was dueling him. Until now.

So I slashed my wand through the air in two diagonals, using a move Dad had developed himself and taught us. He called it double casting because it lets you shoot two spells practically at the same time, making the second one really hard to deflect unless your opponent's got a really strong shield charm going. So my first spell was a simple stunner, and for the second one I chose the Bat-Bogey Hex, which, looking back on it, might've been a little mean, but, well, my butt really hurt.

And just as expected, Snape blocked the stunner but the hex hit him right on target.

It was pretty effective, in fact unusually so. I guess it was because Snape's nose was rather large and there must've been an especially high number of bogeys in there. They also must've been pretty impressive in size because the bats they transformed into certainly were.

As Snape stumbled backward, clearly disoriented, his head no longer visible behind the mass of bats swarming around it. He was yelling something and trying to whack away the bats with his hands, though anyone who's ever felt the wrath of the Bat-Bogies would know that's not a good idea because it gets them aggressive and that's when they start biting.

Beside me, James was laughing his head off. And honestly, I found the sight more than a bit amusing myself.

"Brilliant- Merlin! Bloody brilliant!" James exclaimed when we finally stopped laughing, wiping tears from his eyes.

"It's one of my favorites." I shrugged, still smiling.

"You've really got to teach it to me sometime."

"Yeah, course." I said, happy at how awesomely I was getting along with my grandfather.

"And, you know, thanks for helping out."

"Anytime."

It was almost a sweet moment, except James was still bald, plus Snape's angry shouts and the bat screeches were pretty loud in the background. It looked like he was attempting to zap them down with his wand now.

"We should probably get out of here though," said James. "Before any other Slytherins come. Their common room's right around the corner."

We left Snape to deal with his predicament. I almost felt bad for him about that. Almost. But not really because apart from the ache in my backside, my palms were also burning a bit and clearly in need of some of healing magic.

"Over here," James indicated a hidden passageway once we left the dungeons.

"Wow." I said once he pulled back the tapestry, remembering who I was supposed to be and that I should act surprised. Really though it was the same passage way I'd taken to get down there. "This castle is really amazing."

Once we exited the narrow passage and started walking side-by-side again, James said, "Seriously. Thanks for your help back there. And that spell, awesome."

"Why did you guys start fighting in the first place?" I could see a bruise fading in on his forehead, above his left eyebrow.

"Because Snape's a Slytherin creep." he said very seriously. "You've probably noticed that the Slytherins aren't the friendliest folk here at Hogwarts. As a general rule, you should avoid them."

"I guess." I shrugged. From my experience, Slytherins definitely weren't the friendliest, but they were alright once you got to know them. I dated a bloke from Slytherin once, but we broke up after us Gryffindors kicked Slytherin's arse in a Quidditch game. They were generally our biggest Quidditch rivals, and the guy's fragile ego just couldn't take a little teasing on my part. So yeah, Slytherins were competitive. And honestly I have heard a few bad things said of them in my family.. Especially by Uncle Ron, now that I thought about it. Still, avoiding them entirely seemed a bit much, didn't it? I wanted James to explain. "What exactly's so bad about them?"

"For one, they never miss a chance to get back at us Gryffindors. They just really resent us for being better than them, so approaching a group of them alone is generally a bad idea." James warned me. "Also, they all buy into the whole pureblood supremacy thing. Really, they're the worst sort of idiots. You're not Muggleborn, are you?"

"No, just have a grandma who was." I said, slightly absent-minded because I was thinking about what he was saying. It did seem like Slytherin house was under the most influence from the wrong side of the war... All those students I'd seen earlier in the day teasing the boy and calling Lily a Mudblood were Slytherin. I guess it wasn't about Quidditch rivalries anymore. I guess that now, Slytherins really were dangerous...

"Well as long as they don't know about your grandma, your probably safe from the worst of them." James continued. "But you're still a Gryffindor, so don't be surprised if the buggers go out of their way to make things unpleasant for you."

I was frowning, remembering something Aunt Hermione had told us before, about the house rivalries being a lot worse during Voldemort's time than during my generation at Hogwarts. And I realized, maybe that's why Snape had attacked me so readily. I guess me being a Gryffindor and him being a Slytherin had automatically put us on opposing sides. My Gryffindor badge must've chosen my side for me.

"So that's why you two attacked each other?" I said softly. "I didn't know the house rivalries were that bad."

"Yeah." Nodded James, and suddenly his voice was even more severe. "It's all gotten worse since You-Know-Who's been coming into the picture, too. The Slytherins are buying right into his bullshit." He paused, hostility showing on his face now. "I'm pretty sure Snape's a Death Eater now. One of You-Know-You's little followers, you know. He as good as told me that tonight."

Oh. I guess that explained it, why James attacked him.

Well, I knew that was supposed to happen, actually. Severus Snape was supposed to be a real Death Eater at the beginning. And although I knew that eventually he'll be a hero on our side, for now he'd be acting as an enemy, so I would have to treat him as one.

I wondered why he'd become a Death Eater, since obviously he had a bit of good inside him somewhere. Why would he join someone like Voldemort? I thought, perhaps at least in part, his Slytherin badge chose that.

"By the way," James turned to me suddenly, anger gone from his face now, "Can you, er, do me a favor and not mention that whole incident to Lily? She would really disapprove. She doesn't - BLOODY OW!"

He stopped, hunched over clutching his head again.

I stopped too, startled at his outcry. It was just like before, at the Quidditch pitch.

He moaned, still holding his head.

"Umm..are you ok?" I asked tentatively, unsure of what to do. It looked like he was really in pain.

James didn't answer but slowly looked up at me again.

Then he said, "Sorry? Who- who are you?"

I stared wide-eyed, suddenly hit with the realization why James was having such bad headaches. I had totally forgotten to worry about it, with all the other things going on! I hadn't even thought to make sure nothing went wrong with my Memory Charms!

"Wait, oh. Luna. I knew that." James spoke again, his forehead furrowed. "Sorry. Wow, I really blanked out there for a moment. These bloody headaches! They're just getting worse."

"Um." I said, panicking a little, but still coming up with a plan. "Hey, I think I'm gonna stop by the hospital wing before getting back to the tower. Get a potion for my palms." I held my hands up for him to see the damage the dungeon floor had done to them.

"Oh, well I'll come too." he offered. "To keep you company, you know, make sure you don't get lost in the castle. Unfortunately, Pomfrey doesn't actually have anything to help me."

"Nah, I- uh- also have this rash- on my shoulder- and I kinda want her to take a look at it too." He raised an eyebrow so I added, for emphasis, "It's green." Really, I was working on the fly here. "It might take awhile for her to diagnose and I don't want you to wait too long."

"Alright." He seemed to believe me for the most part. "I hope it's not from the Flobberworm stuff. Sorry about that again."

"Should've looked were I was going." I shrugged.

James, trying to be helpful, gave me a bunch of directions to the hospital wing before walking off, to which I nodded along to as though I cared. The second he was out-of-sight though I started off towards the library, which was of course going to be my destination all along, though now I had a different reason to go there.

It looked like I'd be spending my night finding out how to fix a bad Memory Charm, and the ancient runes books would have to wait.

A/N:

Poor Snape, he's too fun too make fun of, lol. I just can't help it, even though I do rather like him.

Tehe.

What do you guys think?