AN: Okay, well, I thought I posted this chapter about forever ago, but apparently I didn't. Good news, the next update will be along shortly because I've already wrote chapter 26 and most of 27. Sorry about that. :/

Chapter 25: Woes of Armature Cartographers

February and March came to Hogwarts and passed by clumsily.

Regulus ended up with another couple weeks of detention and a few visits to the hospital wing because Rabastan wouldn't let him say no anymore.

Savanna was spending more time out of the Gryffindor tower and without her friends.

Sirius and James were spending extraordinary amounts of time in the library.

Remus was spending the same amount of time anxious and upset.

Carlee was pretending that everything was fine.

Lily and Sev were spending more time together, and therefore less time with their other friends. Neither one of them had much of a problem with it, seeing as how Lily's friends were all acting strange and Sev's friends weren't exactly pleasant company.

Mary didn't know what to do about what Savanna and Carlee had told her and both girls were pretending that they hadn't broken down in front of her wasn't helping her deal with it.

When April finally rolled around, everyone was a bit wound up and in much need of the sun that the month brought with it. The last Quidditch game of the year was in a week, exams were still far off enough that they could ignore them and so they did.

oOoOo

"You promise it's not noticeable?" Remus asked again, turning his head to a different angle so James, Sirius and Peter could inspect his most recent scars, running down the length of his jaw.

"No." James said earnestly. "It's hardly noticeable at all."

"Except when you stick your chin out like that." Peter grinned. "Don't do that and you'll be fine."

"Yeah, no one will see mate."

And they were telling the truth. It wasn't the scars on his jaw that was noticeable. It was the bruises on his hands and the slight limp that he was walking with. In Remus's mind however, bruises and limps were easily explainable. Scars that had just randomly appeared on his face though, they were a bit more conspicuous.

"Are we really just going down to the lake to study?" James asked, kicking a stone off the path that led down to the Black lake.

"Yes." Remus huffed, pulling his bag up higher on his shoulder. James and Sirius exchanged a look. Remus was being stubborn again and wouldn't let any of the boys carry his things for him even though his strap was only hurting his already aching shoulder. "We've got three exams coming up."

"Practice exams. They don't count as anything." Peter said with a shrug. "I think we should work on that Transfiguration essay that McGonagall set. Two feet on Boris Hacksworth. I don't know about you three, but I don't care for Mr. Hacksworth."

"Cheers." Sirius nodded.

"I brought some Transfiguration books with me, but they're not about Boris." James grinned.

"We're not doing that down here." Remus hissed. "Anyone could see, we'll be out in the open."

"If they see us with a book about Animagi, what are they going to think, Remus?" James asked. "Do you really think they'll make the jump from that to your- you know- your furry little problem."

"My what?" Remus asked, looking slightly amused.

"Your furry little problem." Sirius laughed and shoved James' shoulder. "That's rich mate."

"It's discrete and, I mean, it's true." James defended.

"I wouldn't call it a little problem." Remus said, but he was still smiling. Somehow, his friends always managed to make this horrible thing seem a little less horrible.

"Sounds like you're talking about a rabbit or something." Peter snorted.

Ahead of them, a student had lost his balance on the still damp path and dropped his books. Sirius let out a laugh at their expense but and Remus stepped up to help them.

"Here you go." Remus said as he handed the books back.

"I didn't need your help." Remus looked up and saw that the person he had just helped was Snape.

"Just being helpful." Remus shrugged, not sure why the Slytherin was being so hostile. They weren't friends, nor had they had any friendly interactions thus far, but Remus was helping him.

"Nice bruises." Snape muttered, nodding at Remus's hands. "Your mates pick on you when there aren't any defenseless first years around?"

"What are you talking about, Snape?" Remus asked. "James and Sirius don't-"

"That's rich, Snivellus." Sirius laughed. "Remus, I suggest you go wash your hands now. The slime he secretes might devour you."

"Sirius, don't." Remus turned and glared at his friend. He didn't want them to start anything right now. He had enough to worry about with the aches in his back and the fact that his injuries were more noticeable than the lads had led him to believe.

"He's suggesting that we beat you up in our free time." James said, looking outraged.

"You don't!" Remus said. "So why do we need to pay it any attention. Let's just go down to the lake."

"So you get those bruises all on your own then?" Snape shoved the books that he had dropped into his bag and took out his wand. James and Sirius both mimicked his actions. "Can't stand your pathetic excuse for friends, so you punch walls to manage the embarrassment? I'd punch walls if I had to be seen with Black and Potter too." Peter sighed and walked over to stand next to Remus, between Snape and the dark haired Marauders, before any of the boys could do anything.

"Remus wants to go study." Peter said to James, knowing that talking to Sirius right now was a lost cause.

"We don't let filth like him speak to us like that." Sirius muttered. James looked over at him, looking slightly taken aback by his vehement tone.

"I don't think he meant it like that mate." James said quietly, lowering his wand. Sirius jerked his head in James' direction and cocked a brow.

"No?" He asked. "Then how did he mean it? You know he spends all his time with Mulciber and Yaxley, Avery and Lestrange. If he didn't mean it like that, then how did he mean it?" He didn't let James answer and turned back to Snape, who was sneering at him.

"Oh get off your bloody high horse, Black." He snarled. "I wasn't talking about how you're some blood traitor, Pure Blood prince. I just meant that the two of you are complete arses. And completely arrogant by the sounds of it. You know," He looked malicious now. James got a really bad feeling about what was about to come out of his mouth. "You're brother not much like you."

"You bloody idiot." Remus muttered under his breath, resting his head in his hand.

"My brother is a good kid." Sirius said darkly, taking a step forward and pushing Peter out of the way. He stood toe to toe with Snape, who clearly knew that he had the upper hand.

"By whose definition?" He asked.

Everything happened so fast after that, that James wasn't completely sure who fired the first hex. All he knew was that one moment, both Snape and Sirius had been standing up and the next moment they were both knocked clean off their feet. Snape's legs were twitching around and he was unable to get back on his feet. And Sirius had been hit with 'impeadamente,' which just slowed his action down to a comical speed. Both boys were trying to move towards their wands, and neither one of them was getting anywhere.

"That's enough." Remus shouted, stepping up and easily grabbing both boys wands. He took the curses off them and then returned each wand to its owner, holding Sirius's gaze just a moment longer than he did Snape's.

"Prats." Snape muttered, casting one last loathing look at the Marauders before scuttling away. Sirius huffed after him and then wirled around on Remus.

"What was that?"

"Are you really asking me that?" Remus snapped. "Do you want to get detention-"

"Who cares about bloody detention?"

"You can't act like that just because he notices that I have bruises! You do that and he'll work out that there is actually something more to them."

"I wasn't acting like that because- I know that we have to be discrete! I hexed the git because of what he was saying about us!"

"I just wish you wouldn't give him any reason to pay attention to me." Remus sighed, rolling his shoulder to stretch it out and dropping his book bag to the ground. "I don't want someone like him interested in why I'm always injured." Sirius looked ready to argue some more so James dropped his hand on Sirius's shoulder and shook his head. Sirius looked back at Remus, who was still working at his shoulder and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Remus." Sirius muttered. "I shouldn't be acting like a git, not today especially." Remus didn't like it when the boys treated him differently, but he wasn't about to argue with an apology. He nodded his head and picked up his bag again.

"Let's just go and write our Transfiguration essay, okay?"

"Sounds good." Peter nodded.

James and Sirius let Peter and Remus walk ahead of them.

"What did he mean? About my brother." Sirius kicked at a stone and they both watched it bounce down the path. "You don't think my brother is… doing anything wrong, do you?"

"No." James said sounding quite sure. "Reg's a good kid, he seems thickheaded like you."

"Is that an insult?"

"Not in this case." James smirked. "Look, we know that Reg was set up for that whole Bertram thing, maybe Snape doesn't know that we knew. He was just trying to make you doubt him or something."

"He's a slimy git."

"I know that." James shrugged. "But you can't start something over Remus again. You know how he is."

"It wasn't about-"

"It was close enough."

"Yeah, alright."

oOoOo

Lily hated hearing things second hand. She hated it even more when she shouldn't have had to hear it second hand. She had seen Severus and maybe she thought it was odd when he ducked his head and pretended that he hadn't seen her, but she didn't automatically assume that he was keeping something from her. And she had talked to James less than an hour ago. Did he mention what had happened? No. He just smiled at her like he always does and ran a hand through that obnoxious hair of his. She was friends with both of them. They both had the opportunity to tell her. She was furious with both of them.

Unfortunately for James, he was easier to get to.

"Potter!" Lily shouted, pushing open the door to the boys dormitory. It was the first time she had entered the boy's dormitory and by the looks on all the boys faces, it was the first time a girl had been in the dormitory.

"Hullo, Lils." James had been sprawled out on his bed with a few textbooks and a tin of sweets, but he had quickly jumped to his feet when she had shouted.

"What are you doing up here?" Ian asked, stepping out into the middle of the room and impeding Lily's path to James. She didn't want to go any farther into the room though. She suddenly felt extremely self-conscious with all these boys looking at her, waiting for her to say something else or do something. She really hadn't thought this whole barging into the boys dormitory thing through.

"I need to talk to you." She muttered, looking down at the floor and toeing the corner of a rug. A few of the boys (Sirius included and especially, of course) let out a few catcalls as James made his way towards her (both of them completely red in the face.)

"What's this about?" He asked, once they were safely down the stairs and in a quiet section of the common room. "Are you alright?"

"Why do you both insist on lying to me?" She shook her head and let it fall into her hands. "You and Sev got into a fight earlier." She stated. It wasn't a question, but she wanted answers, some sort of explanation, that was implied by her tone.

"Of sorts." James nodded, looking slightly weary.

"Of sorts? I heard it was four on one, Potter." Lily said through gritted teeth. James noticed the use of his surname and scratched the back of his neck. "Four on one."

"That's not true." James said quickly. "Remus and Peter didn't do anything." Then he rolled his eyes. "Remus never does anything. And I-" Lily, who thought she knew that statement to be decidedly false, scoffed.

"Two against one isn't exactly fair either."

"It's not like Sirius held his arms while I hit him." James shrugged, not bothering to correct her but also getting more defensive. "You should have heard the things he was saying, Lils-"

"Don't call me that." She snapped. "I understand that the three of you don't get along very well, but-"

"Remus helped him pick up his-"

"Don't interrupt me!" James laughed at the hypocrisy of that, which Lily ignored. "Leave him alone! I know he's different and he says things that aren't exactly pleasant sometimes, but he's still a person and you can't just attack people."

"Why are you even friends with him?" James shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "He's so- He's just-"

"What?" Lily crossed her arms over her chest and took a step towards James. "He's just what?"

"Mean!" James cried. "He's mean! He's not a nice person!"

"You sound like a child." She shook her head. "I don't know why I'm surprised."

"No." James put his hand on her shoulder before she could turn and walk away. "I'm not letting you get angry with me for no good reason again." Lily was about to interrupt, but James didn't give her the opportunity to. "We were walking down to the lake when Snape tripped on the wet stones and dropped his books. Remus went over to help him pick them up and it escalated from there. We were going to walk away, Remus isn't feeling well and he wanted us to walk away so we were and then Snape fired a hex at Sirius. That's what happened. That's the truth." It wasn't exactly the truth, but he had a feeling that Lily wouldn't accept the truth as easily as she would this.

Lily moved her shoulder so his hand dropped back to his side. "Sirius must have said something to him-"

"Of course Sirius said something, but so did Snape." James laughed. "That's not why you're upset though. You said you were upset because we attacked him. Which we didn't!"

"You verbally attacked him."

"For Merlin's sake, Evans!" His hand was in his hair again. "He started it! Why are you angry with me?"

"I'm not angry with you!" She huffed.

"Really?" James laughed, giving her an exasperated look. "Are you sure? Because you really sound like you're angry with me."

"I'm not!" Then she sighed and smiled a bit, unable to help herself when he looked so ridiculously helpless. "I'm not. I just… I know you don't think I should care. Technically it doesn't involve me at all, I get that. But you're both my friends and I… I don't know."

"You're kind of doing a one eighty on me, Evans." James crossed his hand over his chest.

"Why can't you two just leave each other alone?" Lily asked. "That's really all I want. You don't have to like each other, you don't have to get along, just leave each other alone. That really shouldn't be too difficult."

"I don't go out of my way to interact with him, Lils. I promise, I don't. It was a freak encounter. Why does it bother you anyway?"

"I feel like I'm supposed to pick sides." She shrugged. "I mean, you don't really say anything but Sev loves to tell me how much of a prat you are, and he does it even more when you and your mates do something to him."

"Aw, you feel the need to stick up for me?"

"No." Lily snapped. "I just feel guilty about not sticking up for you. Picking sides really wasn't the correct way to describe it."

"Well gee, thanks."

"You are a git to him, what am I supposed to say?"

"He's a git back."

"I know that."

"Well maybe you should tell him that."

"Why would I do that?"

"You're standing here telling me what a prat I am, why can't you tell Snape?"

"I- Well-" She shook her head and crossed her arms. "No one ever tells you what a stupid pounce you are," She tucked her hair behind her ear. "I'm obligated to by default."

"You're not obligated to tell him?"

"No." Lily snapped. "Look," She sighed and rubbed her hands against her face. "You're right, this isn't any of my business, forget that I yelled at you, or even mentioned it."

"O-kay." He cocked his head to the side. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." She smiled a bit and shook her head.

"M'kay. You want to meet up in the library later to work on Arithmancy?"

"Sound good. After dinner?"

"Sure." James smiled and winked at her and it was only then that Lily remembered that James fancied her. She found it strange that she hadn't been dwelling on it ever since she heard Peter and Sirius in the corridor a few months ago, she wasn't even sure if she believed them. James and her were mates, that was all there was too it.

oOoOo

"You don't have to help me with this you know." Alice bit her lip and twirled her hair around her index finger. "I can ask someone else if you want. Felicity and Mary are coming down soon."

"No, no," Frank said, turning through the pages of Alice's Charms textbook. "I remember where the answer is, it's next to the picture of the troll."

"Oh!" Alice leant over the table and flipped to the correct page, their hands brushing together in the process. Alice blushed and looked down, hoping that Frank wasn't looking at her. "It's quite impressive that you can remember things like this from last year." Frank cleared his throat.

"Yes, here it is." He pointed to a paragraph next to the troll picture. "This is the answer."

"Thanks." Alice read the text and then fell back onto her chair, creating the most distance between the pair of Gryffindors since Alice had joined Frank at the table. They were sitting in the common room, both working on homework and helping each other. Alice may have been a year under Frank, but she knew quite a bit about Transfigurations and Potions and was able to offer some help.

"So," Frank said once Alice had finished scribbling down the last of her answers. "Are you excited for the game this weekend?" His cheeks were tinted red, but Alice didn't think anything of it because they did that sometimes while they talked.

"Of course I am!" She said quickly, closing her book and slipping it into her bag. "It's Quidditch isn't it? Why wouldn't I be excited?" Frank laughed.

"You sound like James."

"Well, my enthusiasm doesn't go quite that far," She bowed her head. "But I do love a good game."

"You ever think about playing?" She laughed.

"Maybe if I could get more than three feet off the ground without wanting to vomit."

"You're afraid of heights?" Frank smirked. "How does that work exactly? We live in the tallest tower and you sit in the stands down in the pitch, those are high off the ground."

"Yes, but there is a firm, solid foundation under my feet. I don't think it's a fear of heights so much as it is a fear of falling."

"Okay, that makes more sense."

"What about you?" Alice tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and tilted her head to the side. "Have you ever thought about playing?"

"I don't think so. It would be fun, but I'm not really all that good."

"That's what practice is for." His cheeks went even redder.

"Look, Alice," He picked up his quill and started twirling it around in his fingers. "The reason I brought up the match was because I was," He took a deep breath. "I was wondering if maybeyouwouldgowithme."

It came out rushed, but Alice was able to catch what he had said. She reached her hand across the table and put it on top of his.

"I would love to." She smiled. Frank looked up at her with wide eyes, looking quite shocked for a moment. Then his face split into a huge grin and it made Alice laugh. "You didn't think I was going to say no, did you?"

"I was hoping you'd say 'yes,' but I wasn't assuming that you would." He rubbed the back of his neck with the hand that wasn't under Alice's. "I mean…" He trailed off and shook his head. Alice pursed her lips and laced her fingers through his.

"I think I fancy you, Frank." She said, feeling oddly confident while telling him this for the first time, telling anyone this for the first time.

"I…think I fancy you, Alice." His cheeks turned red again. "Actually, I'm quite certain of it if I'm being honest."

"Me too." She squeezed his hand and felt a warm bubbly feeling filling her up. She felt an extremely strong urge to both jump up and down and laugh hysterically. She was now quite certain that she would give James a run for his money on her excitement level for Saturday's game.

oOoOo

The last Quidditch match of the season was this Saturday and James, along with the rest of the Gryffindor team, was in a manic, anxiety induced, panic attack. They had won one game and lost one game. Whether or not they won the house cup was entirely weighted upon the outcome of this game.

"We have to finish the game 200 points up if we want to win. That means we have to catch the snitch or I have to score a record number of shots in a game." James was telling the Marauders for the umpteenth time. "And while I do go around acting as though I'm the team's greatest asset, I can't score more than eighteen shots in one match."

"Admitting defeat already, Potter?" It was Hufflepuff chaser, Albert Buxly. Hufflepuff had won two of their three games this year and were in the lead for the cup. They had trounced the Gryffindor team while James had been in the hospital visiting his father, and lost only to Ravenclaw by an extremely close score of 40 points.

"You wish, Buxly." James grinned. Hufflepuffs were always good for good natured ribbing. Unlike the Ravenclaws who kept casting glares in James' general direction.

"The cup will look good in Sprouts office I think. She'll put it right between her two favorite plants and-"

"She'll have to pry it out of my hands." McGonagall said firmly, walking up behind the boys and stopping for a brief moment to check in with James (to make sure that he was still in possession of all his limbs and hadn't accepted any strange foods from anyone. She was quite paranoid.)

"Sometimes I wish Sprout cared that much about Quidditch." Albert sighed. "Bet she lets you slack off in class before a big game too."

"Not even a little." James laughed. "I think she's actually harsher on me occasionally."

"That has nothing to do with you being on the Quidditch team." Remus said. "I think it has more to do with the fact that you're never paying attention and always causing some sort of disturbance." Albert laughed.

"Well, make sure none of the Ravenclaws hex you." He said by way of farewell.

"I'm not always causing a disturbance." James said, looking over at Sirius to see why he was being so quiet. He was checking out the map again.

"You managed to turn three different people's hair orange last cl-"

"Is there something wrong with it?" James interrupted, peering over Sirius's shoulder.

"I'm still trying to work out how we're going to put the stairs on here." Sirius shrugged. "There's over one hundred and forty of them, and they all move or turn invisible or whatever they feel like doing."

"We could just make the staircases move on the map." Peter said. James and Sirius both raised their brow at him.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know." Peter scowled, "But you're going to do it with the people in the school, aren't you? So why not do it to the stairs as well?"

"He's got a point." Remus said, "Not that either of you are listening to me."

"We are too, stop your grumbling." James shoved Remus's shoulder. "And you both make good points. Sirius, we're going to have to work out how to make the stairs move."

"I was afraid you were going to say that." He sighed, folding up the mag and shoving it in his bag. "I suppose this means we're going to the library again then?"

"You suppose correctly." Remus said.

"Not me." James stopped in the middle of the corridor. The other three boys stopped as well and looked at him. "I've got about three hundred hours of practice to attend between now and Saturday. Good luck with the map."

"Good luck with the chaffing." Sirius snickered and James grimaced.

"I expect an ice bath waiting for me when I get back to the dorm."

"Then you're going to be sorely disappointed. Or maybe sore and disappointed." Remus grinned. James just shook his head and started walking down the corridor.

"You are all horrible friends."

"He says that quite often." Peter said. This just caused Remus and Sirius fall into hysterics.

AN: Don't forget to drop me a review. Best wishes, Craz