A/N: Enjoy!

Chapter 10

Severus's POV

For the first time after our argument in Fifth year, Lily sat next to me in Ancient Runes. Lupin sat behind us and placed his bag and the chair next to him so that no one could take it. It was the first day of classes since the accident and we were all worried about how James was doing; not that I'd admit it.

Luckily, it was quite an easy day. According to Lupin, James had Divination first followed by an hour of Charms and then nothing until after lunch when he had Herbology and Potions. My timetable meant that I would be in his classes for Transfiguration and Potions but he wouldn't be in any class alone since at least one of his friends was in each lesson.

After my own lesson of Herbology, which was at the same time as James's Charms class, I hurried to the Gryffindor Tower where Lily was waiting for me with Lupin, Pettigrew, Black and James. Since I'd agreed to help James learn how to use his magic when he couldn't see, we'd agreed to find a place to train and his friends wanted to come along too.

"We know a good place to practise," James announced when I got there, nodding in my direction as a welcome. I noticed that none of his friends looked pleased to hear James's statement but they didn't look like they would cause any problems.

"Good," I nodded. "Do you want to show me it now so that I know where to go next time?"

"We also need to organise a time," Lily added, smiling briefly at me before following James down the corridor.

Black blocked my path before I could start after them, but Pettigrew and Lupin followed James and Lily after exchanged worried glances. I waited for Black to speak, purposely not showing any emotion, though I did raise one of my eyebrows to irritate him.

"What's your deal?" He demanded in a harsh whisper, his eyes flickering to James's back. "You couldn't bear to be near James last week and now suddenly you want to be his best friend?"

"I don't expect you to understand, Black," I sneered. "But Wizard tradition dictates that I repay my debt to James. He pulled me out of the way of that potion; I therefor owe him something in return."

"You didn't try to repay him when he saved your life," Black argued, his eyes were filled with suspicion but I could see that he was beginning to believe me; he was raised with Pure-blood traditions and the idea of repaying a debt would have seemed reasonable to anyone in that society. A society that the so-called 'Marauders' mistakenly thought I belonged to.

"He wouldn't have had to save me if you hadn't tried to kill me in the first place," I snarled. "He corrected your mistake; I owe him nothing for that."

"You're really only doing this to repay him?" He questioned, still suspicious.

"Why else would I be here?" I shot back, side-stepping the question. There was no way that I was going to admit to Black about the guilt I felt every time I saw James's sightless eyes or the way that some part of me, the part that felt responsible for his accident, also felt slightly protective of him. Black would never understand that the longer I was around James the more I forgot our past and began to see him as an ally, if not a friend.

It was hard for me to trust anyone; the only person I'd ever trusted in my life was Lily and when we ended our friendship I felt as if I'd lost my only family. As James and I began to put our past hatred behind us, my broken bond with Lily slowly began to heal itself and I could never repay James for that.

I loved Lily, I probably always would, but I accepted that we would never be more than friends and if I could gain her friendship back then I would have everything I needed. The fact that James was on his way to becoming a friend was an unexpected surprise and I wasn't sure how I felt about it. On the upside it would mean that he wouldn't bother me anymore, but it also meant that I had to accept that James had more sides than I'd thought.

"Are you two coming or not?" James called, breaking the tense moment between Black and me.

Black gave me one last inquiring glance before turning around and taking his place on James's right side, close enough that he could reach out if he needed to but not so close that James would feel crowded and get annoyed. I followed behind them next to Lily and Lupin, the only other Marauder that seemed to actually have no problems with my presence.

Eventually, we made it to the seventh floor corridor. I watched with interest as Pettigrew paced in front of a section of wall until a door appeared as if it had always been there. The Marauders exchanged grins at Lily's surprised face as they led us inside. I, too, was surprised but I'd learnt quickly in Slytherin to not show my emotions.

We stepped into a big room; it had a few bookshelves on one wall and a few red chairs and couches around a table near to the shelves, but the rest of the room was covered in gym mats that were perfect for training and would provide a soft place to avoid getting hurt.

"What is this place?" Lily breathed, walking over to the shelves to get a better look at the books there. "I've never even heard of it before."

"It's called the Room of Requirement," Black answered with a cocky grin.

"Or the Come and Go room," Lupin interrupted, ignoring Black as he rolled his eyes. Lupin continued to describe how the room was used, adding that it couldn't be used to create food or drinks.

"It's perfect," I commented grudgingly. "It will serve our purposes well."

"What a great compliment," James laughed. "I thought you'd like it." A loud growl interrupted before we could say anything else, looking up I noticed Pettigrew blush while the others laughed.

"I suppose we should go get lunch," Black chuckled. "It seems Wormtail it hungry."

"When isn't he?" James quipped, dodging a swipe from Pettigrew as if he could see it coming. I guessed it must have been from their close friendship; it was most likely a natural reflex after saying something like that.

"When should we meet up again?" Lily asked curiously, staring as James.

To answer, James dug two pieces of parchment out of his pocket and handed one to Lily and the other to me. "Anything you write on these will appear on our parchments too. I'll write the meeting time on once I know when we can meet up."

Black looked disgusted by the fact that I now had a way of reading his conversations to his friends, but kept quiet after James put his arm around his shoulders. Pettigrew didn't look much happier about it either but he followed his friends lead and settled with just shooting me a glare. Lupin just shrugged and pulled his own parchment out to show us how it worked.

Lily and I left together to walk to the Great Hall for lunch since we sensed that the Marauders wanted some time to talk between them without an audience. We had to split up to our separate house tables once we got there, but it was nice to know that Lily wasn't just putting up with me because she, too, wanted to help James.

Since I'd been hanging around the Gryffindors, I was treated even worse in Slytherin. They couldn't get away with much in public, so as long I wasn't in the Common Room, they had to settle with treating me like a leper and subtly making comments or pushing into me when walking.

It had been bad from the moment I'd told them I no longer agreed with the Dark Lord, but by trying to help James, the other Slytherins were now convinced that I'd joined the other side and had betrayed them.

Even with my treatment from the Slytherins getting worse and the other Marauders openly admitting that they didn't trust or like me, I was still determined to help James. Nothing was going to stop me from continuing down the path I'd started following. As far as I was concerned, my chosen path led me away from all of my mistakes and was beginning to take me closer to the happiest part of my life; Lily.

By the time Potions came around, I was more than relieved to take my seat next to Lily and was absolutely delighted when she smiled at me. Potions class was where I felt most at home but I'd never make another potion if it meant seeing Lily smile at me like I was her friend again. The fact that she'd willingly smiled at me made me feel like I was flying.

I saw Black take his normal seat and raised my eyebrow at him in question when I saw that James wasn't with him. Motioning a writing gesture, he pulled out a piece of parchment. Understanding what he meant, I got out my parchment and waited to see what he wanted to tell me.

He said he wasn't feeling up to it, the writing appeared on the page in front of me in Black's handwriting. Insisted that I come and tell you.

I nodded and put the parchment back into my robes pocket, ignoring the knot in my stomach that told me that something was wrong. My common sense told me that James was fine, he was probably back in Gryffindor Tower with Pettigrew or Lupin, but the part of me that always warned me of trouble was telling me that something was happening and it wasn't good.

I noticed that Lily and Black looked nervous too and Black kept glancing at the classroom door as if he just wanted the lesson to end so he could leave. I hoped that it was just because we were worried about him and didn't like that we weren't a hundred per cent sure where he was, but a deeper part of me that I'd learnt to rely on contradicted that hope.

A/N: Sort-of-but-not-really-a-cliff-hanger. I hope you liked this chapter. Please review! :)