A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I'll explain at the end.

This chapter is a bit different from the usual. I hope you like getting inside other character's heads :)

Tuesday 24th October, 6:15 pm

'Ah, Minerva, Wonderful. Everyone's here,' Albus said. He held up the small box which had arrived shortly after the Howler and gazed around the Staff Room. 'It would seem we have some plans to make.'

'Surely we're not actually going to take part in this game?' Tabitha asked. 'You don't think it's all a bit childish?'

'Certainly, it's childish. But why on earth should that mean we wouldn't play? A little childish fun once in a while keeps us young,' Albus said, smiling at the Arithmancy professor. She was excellent at her job, but a little uptight, in his opinion. Allowing herself to act like a child for once might do her some good.

'I, for one, think it's an excellent idea. I've already got some ideas.'

'Thank you, Filius,' Albus said. He could always count on the fun-loving Charms teacher for a little competitive spirit. 'I look forward to hearing them, but first, I think I should clarify something. I don't intend for us to try to win this competition. That wouldn't be fair. But I do think this is a wonderful opportunity to test the students' magical proficiency.' And make them consider the various aspects of defence and protection, he finished mentally.

The news that Riddle was gaining support—now going by the name of Lord Voldemort—weighed heavily in his mind, reminding him of that time in his past that he tried so hard not to think about. If things went the way he expected them to, everyone would need to be proficient in protective magic if they hoped to survive.

He was drawn from the dark turn his thoughts had taken by a groan from Filius. 'I don't see much point in a competition if one isn't trying to win.'

'You're a teacher, Filius. Try to act like it, yes?' Minerva said, smirking at him.

Filius laughed. 'You can talk. That was you I saw chasing squirrels down by the forest this morning, wasn't it?'

Minerva stuck her nose in the air. 'When you've mastered the animagus transformation, you may talk to me about indulging one's animal instincts. Until then, I'll thank you to keep your comments to yourself.'

Albus cleared his throat above the chuckles from the other staff. They were all well used to Filius and Minerva's playful banter, but now was not the time. 'Quite,' he said. 'But back to the subject at hand. I propose we set up an obstacle course composed of our various specialties to put the students through their paces.'

'Sounds like a capital idea to me,' Horace said. 'How soon will you be needing our contributions?'

'By lunchtime tomorrow, I think,' Albus said. 'I'd like to have everything set up well before the five pm deadline.'

'I'll have mine with you first thing tomorrow, Albus,' Deasura said. 'But if that's all, I need to be going. I have an appointment to keep.'

Albus waved her off. He knew she was giving private defence lessons to Remus Lupin and his friends, an endeavour of which he wholeheartedly approved. Most people would probably think him quite mad for hiring a vampire, but she was an accomplished duellist, and the perfect mentor for young Remus. He wanted the boy to see that his disease didn't have to mean his life was over, as well as be able to defend himself when he left the safety of Hogwarts. When he first saw him, he'd been unsure if the child would survive until seventh year, but the friendships he'd formed with the Black, Potter, and Pettigrew children had done him the world of good. He was looking much happier these days, and Poppy had reported his full moons were getting easier. Albus suspected that might also have something to do with Lupin's friends, but he'd decided not to pry into that too much. He didn't want to be forced to put a stop to something that was helping. All in all, he was quite hopeful about the boy's future.

'Perhaps we should offer a prize for the winning team,' Minerva suggested. 'To encourage participation. House points, maybe?'

'That's not very exciting,' Rolanda said. 'If we want these teenagers to get off their lazy backsides, we need to offer them something they'll enjoy.'

Minerva raised an eyebrow at the flying teacher. 'Like?'

'A party, of course.'

'A party is certainly doable,' Albus said. 'I'll speak with Teely and announce it at breakfast.'

'Do you have a location in mind for the obstacle course?' Pomona asked. 'If not, I know of a particularly long secret passage that would be ideal.'

'That sounds marvellous,' Albus said. 'Would you be able to show me now?'

She nodded. 'I don't have a class for another hour.'

'Wonderful. If there are no further questions?' No one spoke up, so Albus smiled at Pomona and waved his hand towards the door. 'Lead the way.'

Tuesday 24th October, 7pm

Peter let out a sigh of relief when they arrived at the Defence classroom to find Professor Tenebris absent. Maybe she'd forgotten about them. He knew it was wishful thinking, but he couldn't help but hope.

Not that he didn't want to learn how to fight; he wanted that very much. For Remus, yes, but also because he only had three years left until He would be free again, and he wanted to be prepared. The plan for today's lesson was the problem. Professor Tenebris was bigger than him. She was stronger than him. And she was, frankly, quite terrifying. The thought of fighting her was even worse. Peter tried to breathe through his anxiety the way Remus had taught him. He wasn't alone now. This wasn't like the last time, and his friends wouldn't let anything bad happen to him.

'Do you think this is a test?' Sirius asked suddenly. 'She likes tests, doesn't she? Maybe we should get our wands out, ready. She might be planning a sneak attack.'

'Fuck, you're right,' James said, pulling his wand from its holster.

Peter reached around to his hip and pulled out his own wand, glancing warily around the room. This was exactly what he meant. It never would have occurred to him that Professor Tenebris' lateness might be planned.

'It's more likely that Dumbledore called a meeting about the competition,' Remus said. But he also pulled out his wand. 'However, that doesn't mean she won't take advantage of it.'

'Perhaps we should take advantage of it,' Sirius suggested, arching an eyebrow.

'What a marvellous idea, Twinkles,' James said. 'At the very least, we should spread out. She'll have a harder time targeting us if we're not all clumped together.'

Oh no, not good. If they spread out, he'd be alone.

'Pairs,' Remus said, to Peter's relief. 'Split our attack, but not too much.'

'Sandcastle formation?' James asked.

Remus nodded and joined James, while Peter followed Sirius to the other side of the room. "The sandcastle formation" was the codename they'd chosen for separating into pairs with a designated defender and attacker—a reference to their time in the sand-wars. Peter was the defender for his pair, so he positioned himself a step ahead of Sirius where they were standing under the stairs to Tenebris' office. James and Remus were on the other side of the room, squatting behind a desk.

Peter gripped his wand tightly. Being responsible for someone else's safety always made him anxious, but that was the very reason he had to do it. If he didn't face his fears, he would never stop being afraid. Watching Remus battle against his fear of being touched at the end of last year had inspired him to defeat his own demons. And, sure, Remus might now claim it hadn't really been a phobia, just the mistaken belief he would infect others. But Peter reasoned that he'd been avoiding touching people for so long through fear of infecting them, that it had become a phobia. Learning it wasn't true wouldn't automatically take away the fear associated with the action. After all, logically, he knew that common house spiders wouldn't hurt him, but it didn't stop him freaking out at the sight of one.

And if Remus could do that, then he could do this. Professor Tenebris wouldn't really be trying to hurt them, anyway. Probably. Much.

The classroom door flew open so fast that it smashed into the wall with a thunderous crash, and Peter jumped but resisted the impulse to throw up a shield. If he cast it too soon, it might fail before it was needed. Immediately following the door opening, a bright blue light blazed across the room, impacting exactly where the four of them had been standing before deciding to spread out, followed by a smirking Professor Tenebris. Peter stifled a laugh when her expression faltered at not finding them where she expected.

'Stupefy!' James and Sirius both shouted from opposite sides of the room.

Professor Tenebris reacted without a pause, leaping backwards to avoid the spells which crossed in midair. James' stunner was heading straight for them. Shit!

'Protego!' Peter and Remus both said, throwing up the shields to deflect the friendly fire.

'Good job, preparing for an attack, boys,' Professor Tenebris said. 'But perhaps directly opposite each other wasn't the best choice.' She waved her wand and sent purple lights towards first Peter and Sirius, and then James and Peter.

She hadn't used an incantation, and Peter didn't recognise the wand movement or the visual effect created by the spell. He had no idea what she had cast and couldn't be sure his shield would protect them.

'Crumble,' he muttered, loud enough for only Sirius to hear. They both dropped to the floor, letting the spell hit the wall behind them before standing back up.

'Sunshine, sparkle-punch-paralysis!' Sirius shouted, making Peter choke on his laughter. James had come up with that one, and it sounded even stupider in use than it had when they were memorising them. On the plus side, he doubted the Professor would be able to figure out what was about to happen.

'Lumos maxima,' Sirius whispered at the same moment that Peter aimed his wand and closed his eyes. The backs of his eyelids lit up red as the bright light from Sirius and James' wands burst to life, hopefully blinding the Professor. Peter waited a second before casting his bodybind to give Remus time to cast first. If everything went to plan, Tenebris would be knocked into the path of Peter's spell by Remus' knockback jinx.

At the sound of Sirius' 'Nox.' Peter opened his eyes in time to see the professor freeing herself from the bodybind. She immediately cast a smokescreen powerful enough to fill the centre of the room, and by the time Remus had cleared it, she was gone.

'Where is she?' James asked.

Peter's eyes darted around the room, but he could see no sign of her.

'She's disillusioned herself,' Sirius said. 'Look for a shimmer.'

They all looked around, raking their gazes over the walls and floor in search of the telltale disturbance in the air, which gave away a disillusioned person, and failing to notice themselves drifting towards the centre of the room while doing so. Not until Remus yelped, anyway.

'It was a good start, boys. But what do you plan to do now? Drop your wands.'

Peter turned around to find Professor Tenebris had Remus in a chokehold, her wand pressed to the side of his head.

While they'd discussed this possibility during their planning, none of them had been able to come up with a workable plan to free a captured friend safely—not without using the cloak, and James didn't want other people to know about it—so they did as instructed and placed their wands on the floor in front of them.

Professor Tenebris removed her wand from Remus and released him. 'Excellent work, boys. Let's go over what happened and what you should have done differently.'

Wednesday 25th October, 4 pm

Severus watched from his corner of the common room as the prefects left, the Head Boy clutching that stupid crystal in his hand as if it was a rare and potent potion ingredient. He couldn't believe his House were lowering themselves to play this inane game organised by the Marauders.

Merely thinking their name made his lip curl. He was almost certain of their true identity—Potter and his disgusting entourage, though he was loath to admit any of them might be smart enough to pull it off. Black was arrogant and lazy, never appearing to do any work in class and acting as if everyone else lived only to be his adoring audience. Pettigrew was nothing but a sycophant, perpetually in awe of his slightly more intelligent friends. He spent his time following them around like a lost puppy, cheering them on in their quest to make everyone else's lives uncomfortable. Lupin, well. There was something off about him. Severus didn't know what, yet, but there was definitely something. Potter was the worst of them, though, strutting around as if he owned the school and constantly messing his hair up like he thought it made him look good and not like he'd recently lost a fight with a bowtruckle. And Severus really didn't like the way he was always staring at Lily.

Looking back down at the table, he picked up the leaflet Mulciber had given him to read earlier. He'd apparently obtained it at a rally he and his friends attended during the summer, and he thought Severus might be interested. He was right. The page was topped with an odd symbol, a skull with a snake emerging from its mouth like a weird kind of tongue, a little off-putting, but the rest was intriguing enough to overlook it.

Lord Voldemort talked of a glimmering future for wizard-kind. A revolution; a future where they no longer hid in fear of muggles, but lived openly, practising their magic wherever they pleased. He wished to repeal the Statute of Secrecy and reveal the existence of magic to the muggles. If such a thing had happened fifteen years ago, Severus' life would have been vastly improved. Perhaps his father would have never married his mother had he already known she was a witch, or perhaps he still would have, but wouldn't hold the resentment of her keeping it from him. Either way, Severus wouldn't have to listen to his drunken ranting and violent outbursts every time he went home. It was too late for him, but if Lord Voldemort could achieve the things he claimed, perhaps some future half-blood might be saved from the same fate.

Severus glanced around, looking for someone who might be interested to pass the leaflet on to. 'Black!' he called, spotting the dark hair of the first-year sitting in a nearby armchair.

Black looked up from the book he was reading. 'Yes?'

Standing from the table, Severus walked over and handed him the leaflet. 'I thought this might interest you.'

Black frowned as he looked it over. 'I think this is the guy my cousin Bellatrix was talking about during the summer, but she called him the Dark Lord. Said he would put muggles and mudbloods in their proper place, whatever that means.'

'He just wants us to not have to hide from the muggles anymore and stop behaving as though we're inferior to them,' Severus said, ignoring the twinge of disquiet at the term mudblood. Lily was muggleborn, but the leaflet said nothing about them, anyway. Black's cousin probably misunderstood.

'That doesn't sound so bad.'

'Mulciber and some others are holding a meeting about it on Saturday,' Severus told him. 'You should come.'

'I'll think about it. Where's the meeting?' Black held the leaflet out, and Severus took it. He'd meant for the boy to keep it, but it wasn't worth arguing over.

After telling him the time and place, he took his leave. He wanted to see Lily before dinner.

It didn't take him long to locate her in the library, sitting at a secluded table near the back of the main room. The evening light coming in through the large windows brought out the golden undertones in her hair and made it shine.

'Lily,' he said, causing her to look up.

'Hi, Sev.'

'What are you doing?'

She wrinkled her nose and flipped the book closed so he could see the cover. 'Transfiguration homework. Nothing exciting. Has your House hidden their crystal yet?'

Severus rolled his eyes, taking a seat opposite her. 'You too, Lily? Everyone's going silly over this game.'

'Lighten up, Sev. It's just a bit of fun.'

'A waste of everyone's time, you mean. But to answer your question, yes they're doing it now.'

She leaned across the table. 'If you think it's so silly, you won't mind telling me where it is, will you?'

Severus chuckled. 'Nice try, but I'm not going to betray my House, even if it is stupid.'

'I knew you cared about it!' Lily grinned at him like she'd won some kind of prize. The smile made her whole face light up, causing a flutter deep inside his stomach.

'I care about not annoying my House-mates,' he said. 'Are you ready for dinner?'

'Oh, is it five o'clock already? Yes, let me just put these books back.' She scurried away, returning a minute later with flushed cheeks to shove her parchment and quill into her bag. 'Alright, let's go. What's that?'

Severus looked to see what she was pointing at and realised he was still holding the leaflet. 'Oh, it's about a wizard who's trying to start a revolution. He wants to repeal the Statute of Secrecy and stop hiding from the muggles.'

Lily looked interested, so he gave her the paper and waited while she read it. Her eyes scanned back and forth across the page, and the closer she got to the bottom, the deeper her frown grew. 'I don't like this, Sev,' she said, finally. 'The surface message is pretty and enticing, but the undertones… Something about the language. It reminds me of when we learned about the rise of Hitler in primary school.'

'You're imagining things,' he said. 'Just think about it. Maybe come to the meeting this weekend?'

Lily was hesitant, but he persuaded her to give it a chance before they parted for dinner. A world where they no longer had to hide. Just imagine it.

Thursday 26th October, 10 am

'Right,' James said, pulling out a sheet of parchment. 'Bubbles, you've got the dungeons, ground and first floor.' Peter nodded, and James turned to Remus. 'Moons, you're covering the second, third, and fourth. I'm doing the fifth, sixth, and seventh. Twinkles, you need to search the outside areas and the astronomy tower.'

Sirius nodded, trying not to grin. James hadn't minded in the slightest when he asked to be assigned to search outside so he could sneak into the owlery and send off his order form to Honeydukes. Remus was going to be dumbstruck at the size of the box of chocolates he was buying.

'See you all in an hour,' James said. 'We'll exchange notes in Defence.'

They separated off, and Sirius ran downstairs—quickly leaving Peter behind—and out of the front doors. He went to the owlery first, sending off his order form with one of the school owls before looking around for anything suspicious. He didn't think any of the Houses would hide their crystal there, but James had insisted he check.

Next he went to the training grounds, where flying lessons were held, followed by the Quidditch pitch. Really, there was no point in checking any of the outdoor locations, their hiding potential was limited at best, but James liked to be thorough. He skirted around Hagrid's hut, and skimmed the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest, ending up at the Whomping Willow. The passage wasn't technically a restricted space, and so not against the rules. As far as they knew, no one but them knew how to access it, but it wouldn't hurt to look.

Sirius glanced around furtively for witnesses before levitating a stick to poke at the knot at the base of the trunk and freeze the tree. There was nothing down there, of course. He'd known there wouldn't be. The only people who ever went down there, besides Remus and Madam Pomfrey, were the Marauders and they hadn't been back since they left in the early hours of Monday morning to beg Professor McGonagall for access to a bath for Remus.

Merlin, that bath had almost caused no end of trouble.

Not only had Sirius almost had a heart attack when he heard him slip over and crack his head open on the floor, but when Remus finally let him in he'd been moments away from making a complete fool of himself. Remus was always so careful to keep his scars covered; Sirius had never caught so much as a glimpse of them before that day. Even though they all knew about and accepted his lycanthropy, Remus was so self-conscious about the scarring, Sirius had imagined they must be unbearably ugly and disfiguring.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Despite knowing Remus would hate it, Sirius hadn't been able to keep his eyes off them and he hadn't been lying when he told Remus they were sexy as fuck. Where Remus saw pain and weakness, Sirius only saw bravery and strength. He'd seen the brutal effects of a night spent with the wolf's rage last January when Remus had almost died, but somehow seeing the remnants of years of full moons etched into Remus' skin accompanied with his self-deprecating smile and the ugly lies he told himself being spoken out loud made it clearer than ever before how much Remus had suffered and overcome. To Sirius' utter discomfort, he'd been filled with an overwhelming urge to kiss him. Even going so far as to imagine Remus' eyes flicking down to his lips for half a second.

How delusional could he be?

Remus had made it clear what he thought about gay people back at the sleepover. He'd be horrified if he knew Sirius wanted to kiss him again, and then he might push him away. Sirius couldn't bear to lose the physical affection and comfort after such a short time when he'd been deprived of it for so long. There was nothing else to do but hide his attraction and hope Remus never found out. At least he didn't need to worry about accidentally saying something he shouldn't. He'd been flirting with Remus since they first became friends; he'd probably be more suspicious if Sirius didn't blurt out something suggestive several times a day.

He reached the last location he needed to check and stopped walking, gazing out over the dark, gently shifting water. They hadn't thought to ban hiding the crystals in the lake, and it wasn't technically a restricted area, so it was possible. But Sirius couldn't imagine anyone wanting to brave the frigid water for the sake of winning a game. He had first-hand experience of just how cold it was, and it wasn't something he had any desire to repeat.

A gust of wind coming off the water made him shiver, and he pulled his cloak tighter around himself as he turned away, beginning the trudge back to the relative warmth of the castle. He could only hope the others had more luck than him.

Friday 27th October, 1 am

Pandora smiled at her team of prefects and seventh-year volunteers as they prepared to leave. Gryffindor's camp had been discovered early on Thursday morning by a third-year called Gray, who had reported its location immediately along with making a few recommendations on how to proceed. The boy was a bit of a war buff—special interests like that weren't uncommon among the Ravenclaws—and he studied both magical and muggle war tactics, but held a particular fascination with the muggle conflict known as World War Two.

Never above utilising their members' unique talents, Pandora had appointed the boy Chief Advisor for the mission. He'd begun by choosing six of the smallest first-years, asking Pandora to disillusion them, and sending them to spy on Gryffindor's camp to discover how their crystal was protected.

They'd returned to the common room shortly before dinner, reporting the disused classroom the Gryffindor's were using as their base was guarded at all times by at least four people, the corridors leading to it were alarmed and the crystal itself was nowhere to be seen. That news had been followed by some debate about the possibility the whole thing was a ruse, a decoy to waste their time while the crystal was stashed elsewhere. But Pandora didn't think so.

After discussing it with Gray, they'd decided to combine two muggle tactics: the pincer movement, and a slightly altered version of what Gray called the creeping barrage. By attacking at night, they hoped the number of guards would be low, and potentially sleepy. Of course, that limited the number of people they could take with them, but most of the seventh year Ravenclaws had free periods first thing on Friday, so weren't too concerned with the late hour.

The plan was simple. They would split into two teams, approaching the classroom from both ends of the corridor and intentionally set off the alarms, forcing the guards to split their defence. Once the guards were alerted to their attack, the creeping barrage would begin. Moving forward slowly, half the group would cast a continuous smokescreen down the corridor, while the other half cast a volley of Pandora's modified stunning spell, which created a bright flash of light along with the standard red stunner. The combination should, in theory, keep the Gryffindor guards blind to the approaching Ravenclaws until they were upon them, hopefully taking one or two of them down along the way. A quick stunning spell would take care of the rest, and they'd have plenty of time to search the classroom. As long as they revived them before they left, they wouldn't be breaking the rules.

Gray was giving some last-minute advice to their party before they left. 'Before you end the barrage, make sure the attackers are nicely spread out, pincer movements rely on the attackers having space. Oh, and here…' he handed a small bag to Xenophilius, who'd be leading one group while Pandora led the other. 'Thankfully, the magical world wasn't included in the Geneva Convention.' He laughed, and then seemed to realise no one understood the joke. 'They're dungbombs. I thought you could levitate them into the classroom to force them out if they're not reacting to the alarms. The Geneva Convention forbids the use of gas and biological weapons.'

Pandora laughed. 'The Gryffindors won't know what hit them. You've done a brilliant job, Gray.' She turned to the waiting group. 'Is everyone ready?'

It took them ten minutes to get down to the first floor where the disused classroom the Gryffindors were camping in was located. After handing out dungbombs to everyone, half of the group split off, and Xenophilius blew Pandora a kiss before he led them off to follow the route which would take them to the other end of the corridor. They appeared there two minutes later, quickly getting into position before Xenophilius gave the signal.

Pandora cast the levitation charm on her dungbomb as the other Ravenclaws all did the same around her. The moment they floated them a foot down the corridor, a shrill alarm sounded, and the sound of voices came from inside the room, although Pandora couldn't make out what they were saying. No one emerged, so they'd obviously decided not to be drawn out. They would regret that in a moment.

With a flick of her wand, Pandora launched the dungbomb into the room, quickly cancelling the charm so the momentum would carry it to the wall with enough force to smash it open. Several more dungbombs followed hers through the door, and a moment later, four Gryffindors ran out, covering their mouths and noses with sleeve-covered hands.

The Ravenclaws immediately started up the barrage, half of them casting the smokescreen charm to obscure their vision, the other half casting the modified stunner, filling the dim corridor with blinding flashes of bright light, before creeping forwards slowly.

The Gryffindors didn't hesitate to fire back, launching a flurry of hexes in both directions. A few Ravenclaws fell on either side of Pandora, but she didn't stop to help them. They'd be fine until they got back.

When they reached the classroom, all the defenders were lying still on the floor, and Pandora checked them quickly for injuries, but they appeared to be fine.

'Bubble-head charms?' Xenophilius suggested, covering his mouth and nose with the sleeve of his robes.

Pandora smiled at her boyfriend. 'Good idea.'

She cast the spell on the fifth and sixth year prefects first before seeing to herself. Xenophilius and the seventh years were able to cast their own, and they followed on her heels into the classroom, glancing around for potential hiding places.

It didn't take them long to discover the tunnel behind the blackboard and the Gryffindor's crystal lying just inside. Pandora transfigured it blue and bronze triumphantly, and they left to place it in the magical cage with their own, reviving their fallen comrades and the defeated enemy on the way.

Friday 27th October, 8:30 am

James caught Sirius' eye across the door and held up three fingers, folding down one at a time in a silent countdown. When he was left holding up nothing but a fist, a wolfish grin broke out across Sirius' face and he blasted the door open with a whispered, 'depulso.'

The strength of his cast was surprising with how quietly he verbalised and the door smashed back against the wall inside the dungeon room, echoed by an identical crash as their fellow Gryffindor second-years did the same at the opposite entrance to the room.

The location of the Slytherin's camp had been discovered by some scouting seventh-years overnight, and the news had been a welcome boost to House morale after Toby had delivered the blow at breakfast that the Ravenclaws had stolen their crystal shortly after midnight. A raiding party had been quickly formed from second and fifth years, who both had a free period on Friday morning. Naturally, the Marauders had volunteered, all of them as eager as James had expected, but he was surprised when Lily and her friends also signed up. Surprised and proud. His Lily flower wasn't afraid of battling a bunch of slimy Slytherins.

James spotted her entering through the opposite door, her wand at the ready and her stance strong and proud. Merlin, she was beautiful.

'Get your head back in the game, Sunshine,' Sirius whispered as he passed him. James blinked and turned his attention to the rest of the room.

There were roughly fifteen Slytherins gathered around their crystal, which was floating, suspended, in a clear globe filled with liquid. It really put Gryffindors defences to shame. James shook that thought away and concentrated. The Slytherins were all fairly short, no more than third years, probably second and first. Yes, that was Regulus there, near the back. Merlin, the boy looked pale, and the shadows under his eyes were worryingly deep.

James pointed his wand at the closest Slytherin and began firing off a barrage of spells in their direction, inching down the wall towards the back corner of the room as he did so. His job was to draw the defenders' attention and get them turned around, and it was working like a charm.

A moment later, the third entrance to the room creaked open and the fifth-year Gryffindors slipped inside, unnoticed by the Slytherins. James kept up his distraction, but his gaze kept flicking over to where Lily was battling her own group of Slytherins. She'd scraped her hair back into a high ponytail at the crown of her head, and the thick rope of red hair was whipping around her as she tossed her head from one side to the other, keeping up with spells coming her way. It was mesmerising.

The older Gryffindors took aim and cast at the backs of the Slytherins, who turned and cried out in outrage at their dishonourable tactics before returning fire. The battle raged on, both sides attacking and defending well, but the Slytherins were slowly losing.

James and his friends had reached the corner of the room and began to move along the back wall. The girls were doing the same on the other side, closing the gap between them and encircling the remaining Slytherins, who themselves were encircling their crystal but, realising their predicament, were also beginning to panic.

James was quite impressed that Regulus was still standing, considering his limited education so far. Most of the first years had already fallen, but he had placed himself strategically beside an older student, and was using their shield to protect himself.

Beside James, Lily's presence tugged at his attention, and he had to fight himself to keep focusing on the battle and not look her way. But when three of the remaining Slytherins all aimed their wands in her direction, at the same moment he saw her shield flicker out of the corner of his eye, there was nothing he could do to stop his impulse to jump in front of her.

Unfortunately, he misjudged her position and, instead of heroically protecting her from the horrific curses the Slytherins had no doubt been intending to inflict on her, he knocked her to the ground and fell on top of her.

Lily squeaked in surprise as she fell, but it didn't take her long to recover and a moment later she was shoving at him. 'What the hell, Potter? Get off of me.'

James scrambled to his feet, running his hand through his hair nervously. The battle still raging around them was all but forgotten in his embarrassment. He offered her his hand to help her up. 'Shit. Sorry, Evans. I was trying to protect you.'

She ignored his hand and pulled herself to her feet, scowling at him as she readied her wand. 'I don't need you to protect me. I'm perfectly capable, thank you.' As if to prove her point, she fired off a couple of hexes James had never seen before. One impacted Regulus, causing him to float three feet into the air and spin fast for a minute before falling to the floor, stunned.

'What the fuck did you just do to my brother, Evans?' Sirius shouted.

'What we're here for,' she said, tossing her hair.

James groaned. Not only had Lily interpreted his attempt at teamwork as some masculine protector bullshit, but now he was going to have Sirius' dramatics to deal with.

A few minutes later, the battle was over, and the Gryffindors were victorious. Now all they had to do was work out how to get the crystal.

'Looks like a Sanders Sphere,' one of the fifth-years said, eyeing the globe.

'A what?' James whispered to Sirius. Sirius shrugged.

'Clever,' another said. 'Attempt to destroy the crystal if anyone gets through the defence. But not clever enough. Alright, we'll need several people working together to break it. I'm fairly good at Transfiguration, Taylor, you're good at Charms—'

'I'm alright, but nothing special,' the boy whose name was apparently Taylor interrupted.

'Don't be modest. I've seen you in class, you're brilliant. Can you do an Evaporation Charm?'

Taylor nodded, but frowned, fidgeting with his wand. So James offered him a reassuring smile. The boy seemed nervous about being relied upon for something important. He was also blushing at the other boy's praise. James glanced between the two. They'd make a cute couple. He hoped they figured out they liked each other soon.

'Anyone confident enough in their speed to catch the crystal? You'll have about half a second to cast, and you need to be accurate.'

James nudged Sirius with his elbow. He'd never seen anyone with reactions as fast as his.

Sirius grinned at James and raised his hand. 'I can do it.'

'You sure?' the boy asked. His expression looked doubtful. 'If you miss, the crystal will probably smash.'

'I won't miss,' Sirius said, his voice dripping with confidence.

'He won't miss,' James agreed.

'Alright, then. All we need is a potion. Anything will do. Does anyone have one on them?'

Lily glanced at her friends, but they all shook their heads, as did the other fifth-years. Shuffling his feet nervously, Peter put his hand up. 'Um, I've got a vial of pain-relief potion. Well, it was supposed to be a pain-relief potion. I was experimenting. But it didn't really go to plan, and it just makes your skin turn green for twenty minutes. Will that do?'

The self-appointed leader raised his eyebrows. 'I'm not even going to ask why a second-year is experimenting with pain-relief potions. It should be fine.'

He held out his hand and Peter reached into his pocket, pulling out a small crystal vial of sparkling purple liquid and handing it over.

After inspecting the contents, the fifth-year returned it to Peter. 'You were part of the team that cheated in the sand-war heats last year, right?'

'We didn't cheat!' James said, crossing his arms. If there was one thing he hated almost as much as bullies, it was cheaters. 'The prefects agreed we followed the stated rules.'

The boy chuckled, holding his hands up in defence. 'I meant no offence. Honestly, I thought what you did was brilliant. I only brought it up, because if he was a part of that, then he should have no problem doing this.'

'Oh,' James said. Then he brightened and slapped Peter on the back. 'Pete's your man. He won't let you down.'

Peter glanced at him sideways, and James noticed the anxiety building in his eyes. His breathing was coming faster and harsher, and his hands were shaking ever so slightly. Placing a calming hand on Peter's back, just between his shoulder blades, James bent close to his ear and whispered. 'You've got this, Bubbles. Nothing to worry about.'

Hearing his Marauder nickname seemed to bolster him. His spine straightened, and the shaking eased. 'What do you need me to do?' he asked, his voice barely quivering. James felt a flash of pride.

'Levitate the potion up above the Sphere and pour the contents out over it.'

Peter nodded. 'Sounds simple enough.'

The fifth-year gave instructions to everyone else involved in the extraction effort, and the participants took positions around the Sphere, while James and the others stood well back out of the way.

Peter went first, and James grinned proudly as he watched him levitate the tiny vial and pour the contents out. The moment the potion touched the top of the Sphere, it seemed to expand, the liquid spreading to cover way more surface area than should have been possible. Instead of dripping to the floor, it clung to the clear sides of the globe and slithered its way to the bottom until the entire thing was coated with sparkling purple.

'Cool,' James said.

Suddenly, the potion vanished, and the globe turned black. Apparently, the fifth-year was expecting that, because he acted immediately, flicking his pre-aimed wand at the globe. He grinned as the outer skin transformed into a thousand butterflies, fluttering into the air and causing the liquid encased within to collapse.

Before it could flood the classroom, Taylor flew into action, casting the Evaporation Charm and turning the liquid into steam, leaving nothing but the crystal. Which fell. Fast.

An inch from the floor, it stopped dead, before rising back into the air and floating into Sirius' outstretched hand. He grinned, pointed his wand at the green and silver crystal and turned it Gryffindor red and gold, before holding it up with triumph in his eyes.

Once the cheering had died down, and the Slytherins had been revived, the Gryffindors ran back to their Tower, and Sirius handed the crystal over to Toby and Sally when they came outside.

James pulled Sirius away and dragged him through the portrait hole. 'Come on, let's leave them to decide where to hide it. I want to talk to you.'

Remus and Peter took the hint and stayed in the common room while James led Sirius upstairs to their dorm.

After closing the door, James didn't bother leading up to it. Sirius didn't have the patience for long, drawn-out conversations. 'You need to talk to Regulus.'

Sirius rolled his eyes. 'Fuck sake, James—'

'No, Sirius. No more excuses. The kid looks like shit, and you're his brother. It's your job to look out for him. Find out what's going on.' James glared at him, trying to mimic the expression his mum used when she'd had enough of his arguments. The one that always made him give in. It seemed to work because Sirius deflated.

'What's the point? He won't tell me anything.'

'You don't know that if you don't try,' James said. 'Look, I know you're sore about the Slytherin thing and what he told your mother, but that's no reason to cut him out of your life.'

Sirius refused to meet his eyes, twiddling with a loose thread at the end of his sleeve before turning on his heel, flouncing to his bed and throwing himself onto it, dramatically, face-first.

James rolled his eyes and went to sit down next to him. 'Talk to me?'

Sirius mumbled something into his quilt that James couldn't understand.

'What?'

Sirius rolled over and sat up. 'I said. You'll think I'm stupid.'

'I already think you're stupid, so you might as well tell me.'

'Wow! Thanks, mate.'

'Any time.' James grinned and nudged him. 'Go on.'

Sirius sighed. 'When someone does something that hurts you, do you ever think, like, they did it on purpose because they secretly hate you and want you to be sad. And then you react to that. But later you calm down and realise you were a twat? But by then it's too late and you're so embarrassed you can't bring yourself to fix it, and so you just pretend it never happened and hope it goes away?'

James raised his eyebrows. 'The first part, yeah, all the time. But I normally just apologise for being a twat. The second part seems kind of silly to me. The sooner you fix it, the sooner you can stop feeling bad about it.'

'I'm not good at apologising.'

'You apologise to Remus all the time,' James said.

Sirius rolled his eyes. 'Remus is different.'

'How?' James asked, wondering if Sirius would admit what he already knew.

Sirius shrugged. 'He just is. I don't know.'

That would be a no, then. 'Look, from what you've told me, Reg has been a good brother to you. He doesn't deserve you shutting him out like you are, and I think it's really hurting him. So be a big boy and go sort it out.'

Sirius scowled at him before flopping back onto the bed and covering his eyes with his arm. 'Fine, mum, I'll talk to Reg, alright?'

'There's a good boy,' James said, patting him on the head.

A/N: Hi! I hope you enjoyed that :D

So, I had to stop writing this to write my final assignment for uni this year. Normally I'd give you a head's up, but I'd intended to get this chapter posted before I stopped and I just ran out of time. So sorry for leaving you hanging. I also intended to have the whole competition in one chapter, but it was getting really long and it had already been nearly a month, so I decided this was a good place to stop.

Good news: University is over until October, and I have nothing to do but write for the next four months :D