AN: The next installment has arrived. I am out of school and I still have yet to get a job so I have plenty of time to write (most of which is not this story, sorry) but here we go I am writing this now and for those of you who read "Every End Has a Beginning" I swear I am trying to update really I am but I'm fresh out of ideas. I have so many ideas for later on in the fic but none for now, but I'm trying still so hopefully I'll update and that'll put me back on track.

Return to Hogwarts

"Bye!" Molly Weasley cried from the door as all the children left the house to head back to Hogwarts for the rest of the year. Christmas break was now over and they had to get back to their normal school life. "Love you!" She said just as Harry was pushed out the door and it shut behind her, they could swear they still heard her saying goodbye to them.

The Marauders were some of the first to leave the house and they watched Harry walk down the stairs after the heavily disguised Tonks as Number Twelve shrunk back into the building before their eyes.

Lupin was already waiting for them at the sidewalk with his wand hanging limply at his side. He was in the house with them earlier, but he was also the first one out the door to make sure no one was waiting to hex them or anything. Now they all rushed over to him as he patiently waited for them to give him the signal that they were ready to leave so he could call the Knight Bus.

"Come on," she began as they reached Lupin. "The quicker we get on the bus the better."

With that signal Lupin outstretched his arm with his hand held tightly in his hand and seconds later… BANG. The deep purple triple decker bus was standing before them in all its glory. It stopped mere inches from them and just barley missed the lamppost that they stood next to.

Stan walked out with pimples and purple uniform in tact as he began to recite what he was required to. "Welcome to the –"

"Yes, yes we know, thank you." Tonks interrupted him as she pushed past him to walk on the bus. "On, on, get on." She said shoving the teenagers onto the bus with Lupin bringing up the rear.

The four marauders walked on and looked around, not much had changed about the Knight Bus since the seventies. The chandelier was still hanging from the ceiling swaying slightly from the jolting stop, the chairs, rather then beds since it was no longer night time, were mismatched and all over the place.

As they walked up the isle the conductor stared at Harry. "'Ere – it's 'Arry -- !"

Tonks quickly interrupted him. "If you shout his name I will curse you into oblivion," she said in a menacing tone as she shoved Ginny and Hermione forward.

They all took seats on the bus, trying to stay together, Ron marveled at the sight of the bus the whole time. He kept saying how he always wanted to go on and how cool it was to ride it. The Marauders on the other hand had been on it several times during their time in school back in the seventies. Some occasions happy and others not so much.

Tonks looked at the seats as they tried to sit down in a group, though she couldn't quite find any that were all together. "It looks like we'll have to split up." She said regrettably.

"We'll sit with Harry!" Sirius offered so they could try and find out what Sirius had been keeping from them.

"The four for of you? With Harry?" She asked. "I don't know, shouldn't he stay with Ron and Hermione?" She asked looking over to Lupin.

"It's up to them." Lupin said holding his hands up. "But I think I can safely say that those four won't need us watching them, they're all seventh years, and I know for a fact they're more then capable. But if you like I'll stay with them, I think we can all fit in the back. You can stay with Hermione, Ron, Fred, George and Ginny."

She nodded. "Fair enough, is that okay with all of you?" She asked turning to the kids.

Ron and Hermione agreed hesitantly, they didn't want to sit away from harry but they suspected the Marauders wanted to sit with him for a reason. Or maybe James just wanted to speak with his son, they could grant him that at least.

"Good," Tonks said clapping her hands together and waving her group around after handing Stan the money for the ride as did Remus and the rest of them.

Lupin nodded his head over in the direction of the empty seats in the back; Harry sat with Sirius and James while Remus sat with Peter and Lupin in a row of seats in front of them. They saw Tonks and her group of teenagers go up the stairs and to another level to take a seat with Stan the conductor following them with his eyes the whole way, he seemed quite interested in harry but then again who in the wizarding world wasn't?

The second the Knight Bus sped off Remus and Peter jumped up and leaned on the back of the seats staring at Harry, just like James and Sirius were from their seats. Lupin raised a brow in their direction but decided not to interfere and went back to staring out the window.

"What is it?" Harry asked knowing there was a question hanging in the air, even though he didn't know what it was… yet.

"What did Snape talk to you about?" James asked.

"What's the deal with older me? He was all bummed out." Sirius asked.

"Why is no one telling us anything?" Remus asked.

"Don't they think we can keep a secret?" Peter continued.

Harry nodded. "Okay well," he said in a low voice conscious of Stan who was keeping an eye on him. "That's just the thing, a bit of a secret, can't tell you here too many people, back at school thought I promise when we're in our dorm rooms."

Lupin turned his head around. "You better not be telling anybody anything in here." He said even though he knew they weren't. "I don't care what you do once your in the privacy of the dorms, I know these four can cast one hell of a soundproof charm but not here."

"We know, Professor Moony, we know." Sirius said holding his hand up even though he really didn't know anything. "Harry already yelled at us."

Harry covered his face and rolled his eyes. "I promise, I'll tell you everything when we reach school, okay? Can you wait another couple hours until we're back in our dorms?"

"I dunno, Wormtail's been known to piss himself from excitement." James said with a smirk.

"Hey." Peter said.

"He's true though," Sirius said. "Whenever Prongs takes out that snitch of his you get all over excited and start jumping around like Moony when he sees chocolate."

"I do not jump around." Remus argued.

"That's true." James countered. "You drool."

From the window Lupin smiled and chuckled slightly, the playful conversation reminded him so much of when he went to school with them, in fact he was sure he remembered having this conversation at some point in his seventh year. But they probably had this conversation a lot, quite a few times he remembered them all arguing about the other little quirks or faults and making fun of them, it had become almost like a game.

The group around him never ceased to talk for the entire trip and the two he had next to had yet to move from their backwards positions on the chair, he knew if they were in any sort of proper bus they would have been yelled at for how they were sitting. And especially if they came to a stop they would both tumble over roughly.

"'Ello 'Arry!" Stan said cheerfully as he finally walked over now that Tonks was out of his way and they were deeper into the trip. "How you been doin'? Been seein' your name loads of times in the paper, but it was never nuffin' very nice, I said to Ern, I said, 'e didn't seem like a nutter when we met 'im, just goes to show dunnit?" He asked with his thick accent like this was all casual conversation as he handed them their tickets.

"Harry's not a nutter." Sirius said, defending his soon to be Godson.

"Yeah, I'll bet you anything he's saner then anyone on this bus." James said his temper rising, no one made fun of his son like that.

Harry waved his hand around to dismiss it all. "Forget about it, guys." He said as Stan slowly crept away noticing that he had started something. "It doesn't really matter."

"You're a bigger man then these two." Remus pointed out nodding his head to James and Sirius. "You're lucky they didn't break the man's neck."

"We would have too." James said with a glare toward the direction of Stan. "Who does he think he is… crazy pimple faced geek, bet he's never had a date."

Lupin laughed, he remembered back in the days when you were rated by how cool or popular you were by the number of dates you have per year, now that he was in his thirties and fighting Voldemort dating didn't seem so important anymore. But with Andy always at his side, he never really had a problem with dating, she was always there.

The ride was as pleasant as it could get, Remus and peter had fallen out of their seats several times from the way they were sitting. But that wasn't to say no one else fell out, they could hear Ron complaining from above them. They were told they would be making one more stop before they arrived at the Hogwarts stop, one of the women on the bus wasn't feeling her best from the bumpy ride.

The bus jolted off once again like always but this time there was a loud bang and they were no longer rolling through the streets of London, they were rushing down the street of Hogsmeade. There was snow everywhere, it made all the shops and pubs looks like a snow globe in the early morning light. After a minute of going down the streets there was another BANG and the buss sopped in front of the gates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

They watched as Lupin stood up and motioned for them to stand as well. He helped them with some of their luggage and walked down the isle to the door, Tonks and her group soon came down and met them, she was helping them with their luggage as well.

They stepped off the bus and looked back as they stood at the gates to the two adults standing at the doors of the bus. "You'll be safe once you're on the grounds." Tonks explained motioning vaguely to the grounds of the school. "Have a good term okay?" She said with a small smile.

"Look after yourselves." Lupin said looking at them all. "And you four, don't get into too much trouble and if you do I will hear about it." He told the Marauders.

"Oh c'mon, Professor Moony." James said speaking for the group. "What are you talking about? You know we'll get in trouble no matter what."

The older man smirked. "That's true I suppose, and listen." He lowered his voice and moved over to Harry, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Harry, I know you don't like Snape, but he is a superb Occlumens and we all – Sirius included – want you to learn to protect yourself, so work hard alright? And don't let these four bring you down."

"Yeah, all right." Harry said dropping his gaze to the ground and mumbling and then looking up to Lupin's face. "See you then…"

"What's he talking about?" Sirius whispered to James.

"I have no idea." He responded.

"What's Occlumens?" Peter asked in a low voice to his friends.

"I think I have an idea of what's happening." Remus said to them.

Sirius sighed in a frustrate way. "Well then enlighten us."

"Later."

They all said their lengthy goodbyes to Tonks and Lupin and began walking up the long slippery drive up to the castle, they had a feeling the adults were watching them leave for a bit to make sure they got there safely. What was with parents, or any adult rather, and doing that.

"You know," Hermione began right after they heard the loud bang of the Knight Bus as it finally took off. "I bet I could knit a few more house elf hats before I get to bed tonight…" She mused.

Sirius moaned, he always thought the idea of trying to free the Hogwarts elves were stupid and he knew everyone else thought the same way she was just too stubborn to listen to any of them about it. He glanced around and saw that everyone else, aside from Hermione, had similar expressions on their faces, they were thinking the exact same thing as him.

Non one responded her in fear that they would slip up and ridicule her ideas and no one wanted her to begin a rant. Fred and George on the other hand did whisper to one another and begin giggling. They soon made it up to the large oak doors and pushed them open, they saw that most of the students were already wandering around the castle a lot of them not even in their uniforms yet and what was the point really? They wouldn't be starting classes until the next day, today was just a day to hang out and get back in the swing of things.

They walked through the halls with their luggage in toe behind them, lucky for them they were all Gryffindors and they all had the same destination. They reached the portrait and said the password, there was no need for them to check in and let Dumbledore know they had arrived, at times like this there was a checklist at the door, a magic quill wrote down all the names of the students who arrived back at the school, so they would know if someone did not return.

They entered the Gryffindor common room and saw a few familiar faces sitting on the couch in front of the warm fire talking quietly. Hermione and Ginny split off from the boys and began walking up to the girls dormitories, the two girls that were sitting in front of the fire popped up and followed them the boys could hear their chatter for some time even after they disappeared.

"Now you," Sirius said pointing to Harry. "Owe us an explanation."

"An explanation of what?" Fred asked.

"Is it about that Snape business Lupin was talking about?" George asked.

Harry nodded. "Yeah… Come on, we'll go to our dorm and I'll tell you guys all about it." He said deciding since Fred and George seemed to know part of it that he might as well tell them the rest, if he didn't he knew he was in for them annoying him until he gave in and told them.

The eight boys practically ran up the stairs to Harry and Ron's dorm room which happen to be the first one they came across. They all just threw their trunks in the corner and piled onto the beds and faced harry, waiting for their explination.

"So?" James asked.

"Well," Harry began. "Snape came the other day and told me I would be taking Occlumency lessons from his starting tomorrow."

"And I'll ask again," Peter said. "What is that?"

"It's a type of defense." Remus started and everyone looked to him. "It's a magic used to keep people from invading your mind and your personal thoughts. Voldemort can get into peoples minds and control your actions, or control what you're thinking, possessed if you will."

"Like with what happened to Ginny?" Fred asked.

"Yeah." Remus said having heard of the incident with her during Harry's second year.

"I hate Voldemort." George said acidly after recalling it and what he did to Ginny.

Harry nodded and gave a humorless laugh. "You're not alone in that bit trust me. But they want to teach it to me so Voldemort can't try to get in my mind… so he can't figure out all our plans and trick me and so forth, because you al know about those dreams I've been having and Dumbledore wants them to stop."

"Snivillus is teaching all this to you?" Sirius asked. "No wonder Black was getting his panties in a twist, I don't like him teaching it to you either."

"Well you are the same person." Ron said. "I would think you would have similar ideas."

Peter shuddered. "Extra lessons with Snape, that's gotta be awful, I can barley stand to be in his class for Potions."

"Lucky for you, you're done with Potions." Sirius said giving him a sideways glance from the corner of his eyes, Sirius had taken an advanced Potions class this year since Potions always was his best subject, he didn't know Snape was the professor at the time he agreed. He was just going by his class schedule from before they traveled through time.

"But do you think it'll work?" James asked, not entirely on board with the idea of his rival teaching his son but also wanting Harry to be as safe from Voldemort as possible.

He shrugged. "I hope, I really don't fancy having those dreams anymore… or nightmares rather…"

"You think it is Voldemort inside your head?" Remus asked.

"What else would it be? How else would I have known what was happening to Ron's dad? I was seeing it through the eyes of Voldemort's snake I know I was. It had to of been that, no other explanation as far as I can tell. Only time will tell if it works though, I hope it does."

"We're all hoping it does." Ron muttered. "But if you hadn't been seeing what Voldemort was seeing or whatever then my dad would have died, so I guess we were kind of lucky that you saw that."

"But Voldemort didn't know what you were seeing, that was on accident… right?" Remus asked and Harry nodded. "I thought so, that means that next time you might not be so lucky, you never know if it's something he wants you to see or something that happened on accident."

"Some scary stuff." Sirius said lounging back against the headboard zoned off in his own world of thoughts.

"It is." James agreed and it was several more minutes before they were all able to drag themselves from their own minds and get into a more upbeat and cheerful conversation. One that didn't involve Voldemort or the war or anything… well it did involve a war… the war the Gryffindors verses the Slytherins, the Marauders were currently pushing ideas into the other minds of how to maim their opponents.