9 Years with the Marauders: 1972-1981. Beginning in 2nd year, the trials and tribulations of the Marauders right up until the deaths of James and Lily Potter. Remus/Sirius relationship-centric. James/Lily. Warning SLASH! Contains m/m content in later chapters.

DISCLAIMER: All characters, locations, and bits (with a few exceptions) are property of J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. Studios.

NOTES ON THIS CHAPTER: Fall, 1975. WARNING: This chapter contains strong language.

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Severus Snape was staring at him. Remus slowly peered over his shoulder to the Slytherin. Snape was conveniently staring at his cauldron. However, a moment later Severus glanced up between strands of dark hair, and for a split second their eyes met. Remus felt a shiver go down his spine at the morbid curiosity and hatred he felt in that second of a connection. He quickly turned back around, chewing on his lower lip as he slowly sliced up his lemongrass. He still felt a pair of beady, black eyes drilling into the back of his skull.

Sirius next to him was fidgeting. Remus had taken it upon himself to carefully prepare their ingredients. He could not afford to let Sirius get impatient and overzealous with the potion. "Next?"

The teen groaned. Remus rolled his eyes. "Padfoot. What next?"

Sirius broke into a grin, and his finger found the part on the textbook page they were reading. "Er... slice the lemongrass."

"I just did that." Remus tapped his knife against the table impatiently.

"Oh. Crush five beetles – gross by the way – and remove the shells before stirring them in."

"Thank you." Remus grabbed one of the dead beetles and set it on the wooden cutting board, pressing the flat of the blade against the beetle's back until it popped – too much like a peanut for Remus' appetite. He peeled off the shell and put the rest of the beetles in the cauldron, watching the color.

Sirius fidgeted again. Remus sighed. "Moony, do you think James has come up with a Marauder name yet?"

Remus glanced over at James. James had just poured the beetles in, shells and all, because he was busy staring longingly over at Lily, who was deliberately ignoring him as she worked with Snape. "No, I really don't think so."

Sirius flicked a beetle leg at James, who jerked back to attention, nearly dropping the knife in the potion. "What, Sirius?"

"Padfoot!" Sirius said haughtily. "We shouldn't call each other by our given names. It's too... common. Like all marauding armies of old, we need proper battle names! These are the names of warriors!"

James smirked. "So what do you think of Cloven?"

Sirius stared at him. "What? Cloven is all you can come up with? For Merlin's sake! James it's been a month."

Peter perked up. "I still want to be called Scurrier."

"That is an equally stupid name." Sirius said, as Remus turned around to slowly pour in three drops of Laughing Stock.

"I don't see how Padfoot is all that amazing." James grumbled, but he seemed to consider it. "I thought we were going with a foot theme, that's why I picked Cloven."

Sirius sighed dramatically. "What about... Hart. That's another word for stag."

James shook his head. Remus turned to talk to them, and spotted Snape looking at him again. He paused, his train of thought lost, and then blinked. "I like Scurrier." He attempted.

Sirius waved him off. "No no. It's got to be a physical description. Pad. Foot." He tapped his palm. "Why don't you do something with antlers, James? Points? Er... Pointy? Velvet? No..."

Remus blinked. "Prongs?"

All three boys stopped and looked at him. He looked surprised as a grin broke over Sirius' and James' mouths simultaneously. "Brilliant!" They both cried out. Slughorn looked over at them, and suddenly they were all very preoccupied checking their potions, Remus giving the potion one counter-clockwise stir and then reading the instructions.

"Prongs it is." Sirius said after Slughorn had walked by without stopping.

"What about me?"

"We'll get to you, Pete." Sirius said dismissively.

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"Why did you spend the whole hour looking at Remus?" Sirius demanded. His wand was pointed between Severus' eyes, and the other boy was glaring furiously at him. He'd managed to trap the greasy-haired teen in a corner, performing a Leg-Locker Curse so that the Slytherin couldn't run off.

"Stuff it Black. I know you think that the world revolves around you and your little friends..." Snape trailed off as Sirius jabbed the wand into his cheek.

"You were looking. I'm not stupid."

"Really? That comes as a complete surprise."

Sirius was growing impatient. "I will use this thing, Snivellus, now would you just talk so I can go on with my day pretending that you don't exist except in my nightmares?"

"You dream about me? I'm flattered Black."

Sirius punched him. It was very satisfying. It did not, however, encourage Snape to talk, and so Sirius left him there in the hall with the curse to hop around and find someone with the willingness to undo it.

He stomped down to the Great Hall and slumped into the lunch table. Remus had been reading an article in the Daily Prophet, and now he looked over the edge of the paper, raising an eyebrow. "You took a while in the bathroom."

"Asking me about my pissing habits?" Sirius said, rather grumpily though he didn't mean to be.

Remus seemed nonplussed. "You would probably be better suited asking Madam Pomfrey about that." He rustled the paper and went back to reading.

"Prongs." Sirius turned to James, who was gazing down the table at a gaggle of girls. Sirius recognized a head of crimson among them, and groaned. He flung a piece of bread at James, who jerked up. "Thank you. Now, I've got an idea."

James didn't really look interested, and Sirius waited patiently until he sighed. "Okay, Padfoot, what."

"We need a map." Sirius said excitedly.

Remus was now listening. Not openly, but Sirius had noticed the newspaper moved down a hair, and the tips of Remus' ears were now visible. James raised an eyebrow. "We already know where everything is."

"Yes but... this would be a special map." Sirius bounced excitedly, and Peter nearly choked on the crust of his sandwich. "It would show us."

"Show us what."

"Well, remember this summer when Remus took us to that place, and there was a map with the whole downtown area, and in the middle of the map had a little triangle that said 'you are here'?"

"Yeah, I remember." The newspaper had inched a bit lower, and now Remus' eyes were peering over the edge, watching him.

"Well what if we had a map like that, only not only did it tell us where we were anywhere in the castle and on the grounds, but it also told us where everyone else is!"

James sat up a bit straighter. He stopped glancing furtively over at Lily and her friends, and he started to scratch his chin. Remus huffed, setting down the paper. "Realistically, that map would be enormous! There are hundreds of thousands of rooms, hallways, floor after floor, all the towers and dungeons and basements and not to mention the grounds. There's no possible way you could make it on a singe piece of paper without making it the size of this whole damn table!"

"No..." James was thinking now, and Sirius' grin grew even wider. "We could make it in layers. It would fold up."

"But Hogwarts is Unplottable, you can't put it on a map."

"No," James repeated, cleaning his glasses on his robes. "You can't put it on a map of like... England, or Europe or whatever. You can't map it in reference to another place. But, if you are doing a map that only involves Hogwarts, nothing else... we wouldn't be able to put Hogsmeade on there, and probably a part of the Forbidden Forest, but we could put in the lake and Hagrid's hut, and all the secret passages..."

Remus was looking peaky, and Sirius chimed in. "And the little triangles, they could move!"

"Oh, we should make them into little footsteps." Peter suggested, and James' eyes brightened at the thought.

"Brilliant Wormtail!"

"But... you can't..." Remus looked helplessly at his three friends.

Sirius smirked. "Moony, think of the books you'd get to read. Think of the precedence. Think of the glory! We'd be the first magical mappers of Hogwarts!"

"Cartographers." Remus corrected inanely. "Magical cartographers."

"No Moony, we're making a map, not carts. Honestly, are you even listening?"

The werewolf's mouth parted as though he was going to say something, and then after a moment, the newspaper slowly rose back into place, obscuring his face. Sirius thought he heard a sound rather like a strangled groan, and then he turned back to James, who was already ticking off on his fingers the supplies and books they were going to need.

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"This is the last ruddy time I'm going to ask."

"Oh, because the other times were so effective. Why don't you just punch me and get it over with?"

"Believe you me, I'm resisting the urge."

The black eyes of Severus Snape looked up at Sirius. Sirius had knocked him completely on the floor, and now the Slytherin sat sprawled in the abandoned hallway. "For the last time, I haven't been making googly eyes at your boyfriend."

Sirius scowled. "You've been watching him for the past week. I was nice before, but next I'm going to make you vomit slugs until tomorrow morning. I bet your housemates will love that."

A slow grin passed over Severus' face, and Sirius felt all the blood in his body immediately go rushing past his ears. "Why don't you do the easy thing and just sic Moony on me?"

"Shut the hell up, you have no right to use that name. Wait... what do you mean?"

"Oh please. I know that you know. Vanishes once a month, comes back the next day looking like hell, you four aren't the only people in the world taking Defense Against the Dark Arts you know. And just yesterday I pulled these off his book bag!" Severus' hand dug into his pocket and extracted three long brown, wiry hairs. "Do you think I should take them to Dumbledore? See what he thinks of your little friend? Where have you been hiding him once a month? I know you have something to do with it, only you could be so stupid as to let a monster patrol around the school like it means nothing."

Sirius did actually punch Severus this time, and as the teen stumbled backwards he was laughing, a horrid, nasally laugh that became liquidy as his nose began to bleed. "You vile, slime-covered scum." Sirius hissed. There was no way to get out of this now. Severus would know just by Sirius' reaction that his guesses had been spot on. Now Sirius' prime enemy knew what Remus was, knew he was a werewolf, and he was going to do something about it.

Severus wiped his nose unceremoniously on his sleeve and grinned. "Touched a nerve, Black?"

"I hope you slam into the Whomping Willow!" Sirius hissed. "While you're trying to hunt down 'clues' to prove your little theory. And I hope that it beats you to a bloody pulp before you ever lay a finger on that knot!"

Oh shit. Snape blinked. Sirius sucked in his breath. He hadn't meant to say that. He hadn't meant to reveal it to him. He had just been so angry. Don't read into that. "The Whomping Willow?" He hissed, and Sirius felt something akin to fear for the first time in his young life.

"Yes. The Whomping Willow. I hope it... whomps you." Sirius said, dragging himself to his full height and glaring down at the slimeball in front of him. He tried to play it off as though he had brought the Willow into the conversation merely to confuse Snape. The Slytherin wasn't buying it.

"No, that's not what you said." Severus gazed at Sirius curiously, trying to decipher what the boy was getting at.

"Sod off, Snivellus." Sirius whirled and stomped off, leaving the Slytherin in the middle of the hallway with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Oh shit, oh shit." Sirius was confused by what had just occurred, but the cold fear gripped him even tighter than ever. What did Severus intend to do anyway? Take his news to Dumbledore, probably. Dumbledore who was helping Remus keep his secret. He would force Severus to keeping the secret through any means necessary. Probably Obliviate him. Right, that's what was going to happen.

Snape would never do something as stupid as actually go out to the Whomping Willow and poke it until he found the passageway. Sirius recalled pointedly that he had not even revealed the fact that there was a secret passageway. So Severus would just investigate, hopefully get his brains pounded in, and then give up. Right. If he even went near the Whomping Willow.

"Right," Sirius repeated to himself, taking a deep breath and calming down. Things would sort themselves out.

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Two days later, Remus gathered up all his things after dinner and handed them over to Sirius. "I'll see you guys... later." He said, and there was a hint of a grin on his face as he headed out of the Great Hall. This was only the third moon that they would be joining him on, but Remus was already happier than he had ever been. Sirius had noticed it. His shoulders no longer curved down like an old man's, and he frowned less, and he even seemed more normal, if that was a good word for it.

Sirius, James, and Peter all changed into clothes that were easy to transform in and out of. Keeping their clothes on while Animagi was a trick they were still mastering. It was possible to change with their entire outfits intact, but they had to concentrate. James had read somewhere that tight-fitting, light clothing, like tank tops, t-shirts, or sweatpants, changed more easily because they were closer to the skin. James was the best at keeping his clothes, managing to even wear jeans without losing them. Sirius had yet to master the art of pants. James joked that it was because Sirius wasn't a big fan of pants to begin with.

James stacked a few extra clothes and an outfit for Remus on an armchair. The common room was filled with people at this time of day, but they were getting better at sneaking out of the portrait hole. James also had the Cloak, which they wore out to the Willow and then left in a safe place to retrieve when morning came around.

"James!" Matilda piped up, coming over and standing right in front of the bespectacled boy, fluttering her eyelashes.

"Er... Hi Mattie." He said kindly, moving so the clothing was hidden behind himself.

"I was wondering... if you wanted to study with me?" Her hands were behind her back, and her chest was puffed out lightly, and James found himself hard pressed not to look at the front of her ultra-tight sweater.

"I'd love to really, but... studying isn't my thing."

"Well... that's okay. We don't have to study." One of her fingers trailed a line down the front of James' chest, and he fought back the urge to chuckle at the ticklish sensation.

Sirius was sitting on the sofa and peering out one of the windows. He adjusted himself, looking at the grounds. James assumed that he was watching for the sunset. They had all agreed – after having to listen to Remus transform the first time – that they much preferred showing up after the werewolf was already changed. No offense to Remus, but it was a terrible process to have to listen to, and this way was far less obvious to the other students as well.

"Listen, Mattie."

"Come oooon, Jamie." She said sweetly. He grimaced.

"Really, I..." He looked over at Sirius one more time. This time Sirius' posture was no longer one of idle curiosity. Now his back was stiff, his shoulders were straight out, and his face had the exact same expression on it that a dog who had just caught a scent usually had, his nose pointed down out the window. "Sirius?"

Sirius looked up at him, and James knew something was wrong. "Er, I left something... in Transfiguration!" The dark-haired boy announced, jumping up off the sofa.

"Right. I'll go with you to get it. Wormtail! Come on!"

Peter appeared from where ever he had been a moment ago, and James barely even glanced at Matilda before scooping up the clothing and heading for the hallway. Once they were outside, Sirius turned to him.

"I might have done something bad..."

James was being quiet. Sirius didn't like it when James was quiet. The fact of the matter was, James was only quiet for two reasons. The first reason was when they were under the Invisibility Cloak trying not to get caught. This was the exciting kind of quiet, the kind where Sirius could hear James breathing and feel his heart pounding. The only other time was when James was very angry.

When Sirius was mad, he broke things. He cursed people, and jinxed his friends, and was generally annoyed and brooding. When James was mad though, he just got very quiet, and he would think over his words, and he would choose the words that could do the most damage, before delivering a scathing remark, or letting the words build up inside him until they exploded in anger. He also sometimes punched things. Sirius hoped that James would not punch him.

"You told him about the Willow." James finally said, and Sirius exhaled slowly in relief.

"Yeah, but..."

"You told him to hit the knot on the Willow."

"Well... not word for word. I mean, I didn't go, 'Hey, Remus is hiding in a secret passageway that you can get to by hitting the knot in the Willow.' I just... told him that I hoped the Willow hit him a few good ones. The bit about the knot came out accidentally"

"So Snivellus comes up to you and tells you that he knows Remus is a... is fuzzy," He lowered his voice as a few students walked by. They were all huddled in a curve underneath some stairs. Peter was holding the clothing and the Cloak and looking very nervous. "And you tell him to go poke the Willow?"
"Prongs, it wasn't like that."

"What was it like!" James was raising his voice now, his eyes flashing dangerously. Sirius felt rather like a small child, and that didn't help his mood at all. "Please Pads, shower us with your infinite wisdom!"

"I thought he was going to go to Dumbledore!" Sirius finally shot back, curling his hands into fists. "I thought that he was only telling me to get my goat, and he was going to go to Dumbledore first and then Dumbledore would give him some excuse and forbid him from doing anything stupid!"

"Snivellus isn't going to go to Dumbledore! He thinks he's got to prove without a doubt so that he can prove he's better than everyone else!" James hissed. He was rubbing the side of his head. Rather hysterically, Sirius recalled that Remus did the exact same thing when Sirius was being insufferable.

"Oh sod off! How was I supposed to know that he was going to try and hit the Whomping Willow! No one touches the damn thing!"

"He wouldn't have if you hadn't TOLD HIM TO GO HIT IT!" James roared angrily, and Sirius ducked backwards as James swung at him in his anger.

Now the two boys were both angry. James' chest was heaving as he steadied himself, and Sirius was frustrated as hell that James was getting so angry over nothing. "The chances that he'll actually hit the damn thing are impossible!"

James fisted one hand in his hair, presumably in an attempt to occupy his fingers with something other than beating the snot out of Sirius. "You idiot! There are only so many knots on the fucking tree to begin with! If he keeps plugging away at it like he does with his fucking potions then OF COURSE HE'LL HIT IT."

Sirius was fuming, but he really had no argument. "Oh! Sh-shut up!"

"WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN WHEN HE FINDS THE PASSAGE?" James was shouting now, but thankfully the area was deserted. Of course all the yelling was going to attract someone sooner or later. James jabbed a finger at the nearest window. "REMUS IS ALREADY TRANSFORMED, YOU GREAT SODDING MORON! DO YOU THINK HE'D EVER FORGIVE HIMSELF IF HE HURT SOMEONE?"

The older – and stupider – of the two of them froze. Peter made a sort of half-strangled sound, and James stood, his face red, pointing at the window. It was dark out, and a few white beams of moon were piercing the clouds. Sirius' mouth opened, but he really had nothing to say. James was, unfortunately, right.

"Shit." He finally said.

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James seemed to calm down significantly now that Sirius was no longer arguing with him. Instead he straightened up, and seemed to immediately take charge. "Okay, Pete, you go find McGonagall, or Dumbledore, or ANYONE, and tell them that you saw Severus Snape sneaking around on the grounds after dark. Hell, if you can find Hagrid, that would be perfect." Peter dropped everything and ran for it. James grabbed the Cloak and whirled around. "When did you see Snape?"

Sirius thought about it, "Er... I think it was twenty minutes ago, what with all the yelling and-"

"We've got no time, we have to go get him ourselves." James wrapped the Cloak around the two of them and started to run. It was extremely difficult to run while under the Cloak, but Sirius was managing to keep up. They jogged down to the front of the castle, sidestepped Miss Penny, and escaped out the front door.

Once they were half-way across the lawn, James made an annoyed noise and dragged the Cloak off. He let it fly behind him like a flag as he broke into a sprint. "When we get there, you go dog and distract Remus, I'll get Snape. Don't let him see you change!" He was yelling over his shoulder. Sirius for a moment marveled at James' plans, thought up generally on the spot and always bloody brilliant.

They arrived at the Willow. No one was there, and the tree was moving and swaying. Either Snape had given up, or he'd already gotten in. James looked around frantically and saw a long stick off to the side. "Wingardium Leviosa!" James shouted, and the stick flew with frantic speed between the branches and hit the knot hard. The tree froze.

James scrambled forward and jumped into the passageway. Sirius followed. They could hear movement up ahead, a great scraping noise, and quieter padding noises. Snape, Sirius guessed, was trying to sneak up to the Shack. They hurried forward, not bothering to light their wands. They saw a light towards the end, and they heard the scraping and growling growing louder.

Finally they saw Snape. He had his lit wand in front of him, and he was mumbling to himself. His wand was moving above his head, examining the wooden trap door. Above, Sirius heard the sounds of Remus moving around. He was surprised it wasn't louder. But the wolf had been calmer ever since it had gotten its monthly runs around the forest, and he could only conclude that it was waiting for them to arrive.

James bumped his head on a root, and hissed without meaning to. Snape whirled around. "You!" He shouted. Suddenly there was silence from above.

All three boys watched as the trap door suddenly rattled, one giant paw scratching against it. They heard sniffing, and Severus turned white as a sheet as there was a howl. Even Sirius felt his stomach drop into his knees at the howl. It was filled with pain, and rage, and a certain sadistic glee, as the wolf realized that there was a human below him that he didn't recognize as being one of the pack. Then there was a great crash, and Sirius realized with sickening alarm that the wolf was slamming itself into the ground to try and break the trap door. But it was nearly six inches thick and reinforced with metal underneath. The howl came again, and Severus looked at it.

"Is that him?" Severus demanded as the howl was followed by barks and whines and furious scraping and pounding. He pointed his wand at the door again. "Is that the beast? Did you think you would send me here to die?" Snape was hysterical, ranting and shouting, and before either of them could react he shrieked, "ALOHOMORA."

Sirius had no idea what possessed Severus to unlock the door. He couldn't possibly have been that stupid. Sirius reacted on instinct. James was shouting something, Sirius thought it was the Body-Bind Curse but really had no idea. He went dog instantly and leapt through the open door, just in time to keep the wolf from jumping down as it had been about to.

He tackled it into the piano, and he felt one of the legs break and the entire instrument fell sideways and partially on the dog's hindquarters. He whined, and scrambled out from under it as the wolf made another bid for the hole in the floor. He grabbed the wolf's back leg, biting down hard and yanking back. The wolf turned on him, swiping him hard and sending him into the wall. He got up, one back paw trailing, and circled to the trap door to put himself between the wolf and the humans still in the tunnel. James was still yelling, but after another moment Sirius in the back of the dog's mind understood him. "COME ON SIRIUS!"

The dog obeyed, falling backwards into the hole. He transformed back as he hit the ground, reaching up and yanking the trap door back down. "Colloportus!" James shouted. Snape was still frozen, and Sirius collapsed against the tunnel wall. Above them, the wolf had become livid. The scraping and pounding became furious, the barks, growls, and howls even more filled with rage.

"Help me drag him." James demanded, lighting his wand and holding it up. Sirius however, didn't have to respond, because James seemed to grow stark white as he saw the state that Sirius was in. "Bloody hell... I..."

Sirius was barely conscious and fighting through the pain, and he heard James letting out a string of curses as he tried to think. A moment later, James had swished his wand through the air and flicked it back, and Sirius felt himself floating. Snape in front of him was still frozen, but he too was hovering, his black eyes wandering everywhere, glittering dangerously.

They emerged from the passageway, and James had to half-drag Sirius a bit because his Hover Charm wasn't quite strong enough to do much more than move them a few inches off the ground. Once they were in place, Sirius blearily attempted to sit up. Snape was still locked in place, but Sirius could see his face had become rather beet-like in color as he clearly attempted to speak despite the curse. Sirius felt almost amused in a way, realizing that they were sitting in the middle of the Hogwarts' grounds with James, who was near hysterics, Snape, who was trapped in a curse but clearly about to have a brain aneurysm, and Sirius, who was wearing only a pair of boxers and his leg twisted up in a way that legs just didn't.

"Stay still, I've got to find some way to get you to the hospital wing..." James said, kneeling next to Sirius and looking at him worriedly.

"I believe, Mr. Potter, that I can handle that." James turned, and the glow at the tip of his wand lit up the figure walking towards them, blue light glinting off of a pair of half-moon spectacles.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Aaaand. Another cliffhanger. I was really influenced by several other fanfictions when I wrote this. The Incident is of course a very popular bit of Marauder's history, as it is both canon, and yet left vague enough in the books that JKR really left us wide open to interpret it as we will. I never believed that Sirius would ever maliciously send Severus to die at the hands of Remus. First of all, despite the fact that Sirius was a prankster and hated Severus, he never caused anyone permanent harm, and I don't think he is capable of killing someone that is "innocent". (Of course he was willing to kill Death Eaters and Peter, but they had already proved they were more than guilty of terrible crimes). And second of all, Sirius knows only too well how Remus struggled with his lycanthropy, and he would never "sic" Remus on anyone because he knows the repercussions, not just Azkaban or anything like that, but the emotional consequences it would have on his friend. With that said, I hope you enjoy my interpretation.

Also, I've decided to keep the Teen Rating until someone complains about it. Instead, any chapters that contain offensive language or content will be labeled up at the top, so that anyone with sensitive tastes can skip those chapters or whatever it is they do. I think Teen is more than good enough. If you have a problem with this, feel free to send me an email or mention it in your review, and we can discuss it.

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK:

hotpinkfleur: in every single chapter, because she is, as always, my ever-present writing advisor and friend *hug*

LoverFaery, freakyprincess-87, Padfoot's Blondie, NonrealityRocks, pshhh yeahh: My personal fan club? I don't know what to call you guys except AWESOME. Keep reviewing and I'll keep writing!