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A/N: Sorry! It's been a while. School stuff caught up with me, as did sleep. I'm updating now and should be back to my usual schedule soon.

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The valentines ball started at 7:30. The Marauders hadn't wanted to be too early, so they had arranged to meet their dates there around 8:00. Emily had also not told James about Lily and Snape. She hadn't purposely kept the information from him, merely forgotten in the strange euphoria after Toby had left.

The Marauders drifted off when they arrived, keeping company with their partners. Emily and Toby immediately headed for the tables to the side of the dance floor, nearest the big table of food running along one wall.

'Looks like Cupid threw up in here.' Toby remarked, looking up at the floating hearts and streams of pink ribbons.

Emily snorted, it summed up the room critically but perfectly in under 10 words.

'I wish I could make those thing throw up. Or just shut them up.' She indicated to small cherubs flying round the room, charmed to sing and play a harp. At that exact moment one of them opened its mouth and spewed glitter and small paper hearts all over her.

With a look of extreme distaste, Emily, shook her hair in an attempt to remove the worst of the debris. Toby was laughing at the irony of it, and Emily shot him a glare.

'I didn't mean like that.'

'1 galleon Professor Dumbledore designed and enchanted these himself.' Toby muttered, casting a glance in the headmasters direction, who seemed to be looking at Emily and smiling.

'Well I can't see Hecate doing it!'

'I dunno... Might be why it sprayed you.'

Emily grinned again, still picking bits of glitter out of her hair.

'So, you want a drink?' Tony asked, referring to a bowl of punch, the same sickly shade of pink as the rest of the room.

'I'd avoid that actually.' Emily advised. 'I think James and Sirius slipped something in it, but Remus refused to help them with the potion, so it probably went wrong.'

'And this is why I asked you here.' Toby said smiling wryly. Toby and Emily continued to talk, the banter flowing easily, occasionally switching to something more intellectual, before regaining its usual humour. Toby started commentating on couples in the room and some particular styles of dancing, frequently broken up with his and Emily's laughter.

...

Sirius and Mary had talked for a bit, then Mary had inevitably headed over to talk to Lily as well. This would have been fine except for the fact that Sirius and Snape couldn't bear to next to each other for that long. Sirius split off to find James, when it became clear Snape wasn't going to leave.

He found him charming Isabel while eating at on of the tables to the side.

'Slimeball eight o'clock.' Sirius greeted him with.

James glanced behind him to his left, and sure enough saw Lily with Snape. James face hardened for a moment, and he seem genuinely bewildered and shocked. Then he removed all unwanted emotion and turned back. 'Later.' He confirmed, nodding at Isabel. Even James knew it wasn't a good idea to confront the girl who was your first choice in front of your current date, especially if it was about that subject.

'Ok.' Sirius responded, and headed over to where Remus was sat.

...

Remus glanced at Laura, then his eyes quickly darted away again. At 11, and shy to boot, neither one had wanted to make the first move. Eventually, Laura commented on something she knew Remus liked: Chocolate.

'For a valentines feast, you'd think they'd have heart shape chocolate or something.' She said, more to break the silence then anything else.

'Surprising isn't it?' Remus grinned. It felt like fate was on his side tonight. About time, life in general owed Remus a few favours to candle stuff out. 'Guess its good that I brought you some myself then.' Remus reached into his pocket and enlarged a small box into a substantially bigger size.

Laura smiled, touched at the thoughtfulness, then looked a bit bewildered. 'But how did you get them? They're from honeydukes-'

Remus smiled at her ability to recognise chocolate.

'And we didn't know about the Dance in the holidays.'

Remus smiled mysteriously. 'Magic.' In reality. The marauders had headed down to hogsmead yesterday, to stock up.

'Very funny.' Laura said, rolling her eyes slightly. At that moment Sirius bounded up the them, and that eased the tension slightly. Sirius confidence was bordering on arrogance, but at the same time, it did break down uncomfortable boarders so for once Remus was grateful.

After about an hour, the formal couples had almost fully dispersed, and people were now mingling freely. It was about this time when Sirius and James went to confront Snape. Toby made a remark about a heading collision, and Emily looked up to see James and Sirius heading for Snape.

'Crap.' She said softly under her breath. Then she turned to Toby, who oddly enough hadn't brought himself to go and talk with his own friends yet, like most of the other couples. Emily thought his probably because they just went as friends in the first place. 'We might want to watch this.'

Remus wasn't sure if he had a sixth sense for sensing trouble because he was a werewolf, or because of his current friends were, but he could sense it. Either way, he looked up and saw James heading towards Snape at that exact moment. Sirius had told him all about Snape and Lily before, so he at least knew what it was about. Putting down a cup of punch that was there for de rotational purposes only, he had no intention of drinking it, he swore softly, and went to try and head James off.

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A/N: Yea I'm back! Exited for the long built up confrontation? I am, cause I don't know exactly how it's going to go yet! You'd better hope the marauders visit me in my dreams and tell me! (Reviews can sometimes inspire these visits... ;)