Author's Notes: This story is the effort of a group of dedicated Gryffindors, written for the house fan fiction contest at Third Floor Corridor. In this chapter, Pennilyn Novus was the author.

While we wish Harry Potter belonged to us, we do not own him, nor the books, nor the movies. They are owned by J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury Books, Warner Brothers, and possibly a few others. No harm is intended, and no profit is being made.

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Chapter Twenty-Six

The next morning, still half asleep, the boys escorted Remus to the hospital wing where Madam Pomfrey was waiting for him.

"Feeling ill this morning, Mr. Lupin?" she inquired politely, smiling nervously at the other boys.

"I'm afraid I am," Remus replied tiredly, sinking onto the bed that Madam Pomfrey indicated.

"Well, never fear," the matron replied. "We'll have you right as rain in a day or two."

James and Peter bade Remus a farewell, and Sirius stepped forward, hugging him briefly, which surprised Remus, and the others as well. "Take care, Remus," Sirius said, averting his eyes and hurrying out of the room.

"What is with him?" Remus asked, looking bewildered.

"No idea," James replied, mystified.

Peter shrugged.

"Boys, shouldn't you be heading to breakfast?" Madam Pomfrey said pointedly.

"We should, of course, Madam," James said, smiling winningly. "Thank you for reminding us!"

"He won't remember; he never remembers," Sirius told himself, standing at the sink in the second floor girls' bathroom, unable to make himself look at his reflection. "It's for Regulus," he said forcefully. "And he won't remember!"

Classes that day passed without anything unusual happening, for which James was thankful. In between classes, he pulled out the map and studied it, and happened to see shortly after lunch, Madam Pomfrey escorting Remus down through the tunnel beneath the Whomping Willow that led to the Shrieking Shack. He also happened to see, just before he put the map away, Sirius standing in the second floor girls' bathroom.

Well, that was odd.

"Where's your fourth little reject?" Snape drawled, his lips pursed unpleasantly.

James glared at Snape and continued to gather his potion ingredients, but Sirius hung back.

"He's sick," Peter defended, his small body quivering with barely contained anger.

"He's sick," Snape mimicked. "He's always sick. Every time I turn around, he's sick. He's like a girl, I swear. He's sick every month."

Sirius tensed, sensing how close Snape was to reasoning out the truth. Not yet, Sirius thought. Snape couldn't figure it out yet. Not until later, when it would be too late.

Apparently, James also sensed danger, because he quickly snapped, "Maybe he's sick because he keeps sitting too close to you. I know the smell of you is certainly turning my stomach. Maybe if you washed occasionally, you wouldn't smell so foul."

"Or be so greasy," Peter added.

"Or have such grimy pants," Sirius said, going for the kill.

Snape flushed for a moment, his eyes narrowing.

Professor Slughorn chose that moment to appear in the potion's cupboard, his jovial smile not reaching his eyes. "Have your supplies, boys? Excellent. Return to your seats, now." It wasn't a suggestion, it was a command, and shooting Snape one last look, Sirius followed James back to their desk.

James wasn't concentrating on their potion, it was clear, but then again, neither was Sirius. But while Sirius could see that James was too busy watching Lily, who was working diligently, her red hair pulled back in a neat knot at the back of her neck except for one lock which had worked itself loose and fell in front of her face causing her to continually tuck it behind her ear, Sirius himself was too distracted thinking about what he was going to say to Snape at the end of the lesson.

At the end of class, the potion he and James had made smelled of rotten eggs and was a putrid shade of green instead of the clear blue it was supposed to be, but with a sigh, Sirius poured some into a vial and headed for Slughorn's desk.

Afterward, Sirius hung back, claiming he wanted to discuss what went wrong with their potion with Slughorn, a claim which James clearly did not buy but wasn't going to argue. He watched as his friends shuffled off together, likely to go take a nap and prepare for the first transformation of the year.

Snape emerged from the classroom, deep in discussion with one of his friends.

"Snape!" Sirius barked, stepping forward.

Snape whirled, his wand drawn, and Sirius held up his hands. "I have a proposition for you," he said.

Snape regarded him, his eyes narrowed. "Very well," he said after a moment.

"Alone," Sirius said, nodding to Avery.

After another moment, Snape nodded and said something in an undertone to Avery, who glared at Sirius before he turned and hurried on his way.

"Now we're alone. What did you want?" Snape said, his wand still in his hand.

"I want you to leave my brother alone," Sirius told him, stepping forward to close the distance.

Snape snorted. "That's far too maudlin for you, Black. Leave your brother alone? Is that what you want from me? Why should I do this for you? What have you done for me, or your brother, but make our lives miserable?"

"I have not made his life miserable!" Sirius denied hotly.

"Your existence makes his life miserable," Snape said in a slicing whisper as a group of students walked past.

"I want you to leave him alone!" Sirius repeated, feeling his face flush.

"And I want to know why I should do it? What's in it for me? You said you had a proposition. Surely, even you know a proposition involves give and take."

Sirius took a deep breath. It was now or never.

"There's a secret passage under the Whomping Willow. If you go down through it tonight, you'll see something."

"You're trying to get me killed," Snape snorted, and Sirius stopped breathing for a moment. "The Whomping Willow? I'll be dead before I get anywhere near this supposed secret passage that will take me to see 'something'."

"You wanted to know where Remus was," Sirius said quickly. "If you go through that passage, you'll find him. There's a knob at the base of the tree, a knot. If you poke it with a stick, the tree stops moving and you can get into the passage."

Snape continued to stare at him, his eyes unblinking. "And for this information, you want me to leave your brother alone?"

"Yes," Sirius said hotly.

Snape shook his head. "You need to learn to make better deals, Black." Then without another word, he turned and walked away, leaving Sirius alone in a mixture of emotions.

"Come on, Padfoot!" James urged, kicking at the bathroom door. "Did you die in there?"

Sirius's muffled reply came through the door, but James didn't understand what he'd said.

"We're going to be late getting through the tunnel," James continued on, pausing to look out the window. It was fully dark now, and it was only a matter of minutes until the moon rose. Remus would be wondering where they were. They hadn't missed a transformation since they'd become Animagi, and James didn't want this one to be the first time they did.

Peter huffed and sat down on his bed. "He's worse than a girl," he muttered, his feet swinging off the end of his bed.

James pulled out the Marauder's Map, still feeling immensely proud every time he opened it. He examined the common room and saw Lily sitting by herself at a table. Further examination showed the same strange people at various entrances to the castle and the grounds, and James was very curious how it was nobody else had seen them to comment on their presence. And what were they doing in the castle, anyway?

Out at the edge of the map, he suddenly saw something that made his blood go cold: a tiny figure labeled Severus Snape, in the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack, where in just minutes, there would be a full-fledged werewolf.

"Oh, Merlin…" James breathed, feeling his heart thump sickeningly in his chest. He swore, stuffing the map into his pocket and glancing out the window. He'd never make it in time.

"We have to go now!" he yelled, flinging open the door and racing down the stairs. He heard Peter and Sirius behind him, calling his name, thundering down the stairs in his wake. He exploded into the common room and rushed out through the portrait hole, not even stopping to check if his friends were still behind him.

"James!" he heard Peter gasping behind him as he sprinted through the corridors. "James, what's wrong?"

"Snape!" James shouted over his shoulder. "Snape in the tunnel!"

"Snape?" Peter cried.

"IN THE TUNNEL!" James roared, furious and frightened all at once. If Snape saw, if Snape couldn't escape, if Snape did get away… all the possibilities were too horrific to consider. First and foremost, however, James knew he had to get there, and he had to stop Remus before he did something he'd hate himself for forever.