Saturday 1st February 1975

Hagrid's Hut, 11:30

"Come on, Sev!" Lily called behind her as she ran ahead.

Severus rolled his eyes. They were both fourteen now. Solid teenagers. They definitely shouldn't be running about like mere children.

"Sev!"

But he also didn't want to get left behind. Or disobey that tone coming from Lily. So, he chased after her and hoped no one from Slytherin saw him. Not that they would be anywhere near Hagrid's Hut anyway.

At least they'd had fresh snowfall recently and the paths and ground were no longer slippy with compacted snow and ice. It crunched underfoot which meant he wasn't going to fall flat on his face.

"I'm coming, I'm coming."

Thank goodn- Merlin, thank Merlin for his recent growth spurt. It meant he could easily catch up with Lily in a few strides without too much effort. She still got to the hut before him though.

"Too slow," she crowed, sticking her tongue out at him. "I win."

"Because we were really racing."

"Of course."

Severus sighed but gave her a smile. That was such a Lily response.

"Remember, don't eat the rock cakes," Lily instructed. "They'll break your teeth."

Lovely. Why on earth did the man serve them then?

"What do I do with them then?"

"Feed them to Fang."

"His dog?"

Lily nodded.

"And that's safe?"

That got him a shrug. "Apparently so."

Severus didn't get a chance to ask any more questions (and he had a lot of questions) as Lily reached forwards and happily knocked on the door. Barking almost started up immediately.

"Fang geh away from th'door," came Hagrid's gruff voice.

There were some barks and a shoving noise and finally the door opened, Hagrid filling it completely.

"Lily!" he said happily, beaming widely at her. "And you brought your friend!"

Lily darted forward for a hug, Hagrid lifting her off her feet.

"This is Severus," she said, absentmindedly rubbing at her ribs when she was released.

"Nice to meet you," Severus said, slowly sticking out his hand.

It was soon engulfed by Hagrid's massive paw and vigorously shaken. Severus swore his whole body moved with it. That was a bit much.

"Come in, come in," they were directed. "Righ' on by the fire."

"You have it nice and warm," Lily complimented, shrugging off her robes and scarf.

Severus copied her and stood awkwardly, not knowing where to put them.

"Just put them on my bed," Hagrid told him, waving a massive hand over at the opposite corner of the room.

Lily was already doing just that, apparently well versed on what to do in here. How many times had she been down?

"Come sit by the fire," Hagrid said. "Warm yourselves up. The wind is blowing something fierce out there."

And there were the infamous rock cakes right there on the table they were now sitting at. They looked pretty inconspicuous, a bit on the large side but pretty normal otherwise.

"I think I've turned into an icicle," Lily agreed, laying claim to a seat.

Severus slipped into the one next to her and was immediately overwhelmed by the heat coming from the fire. Wow. That was intense.

What was also intense was the weight that settled on his knees. Severus jumped as he realised that Hagrid's big bloodhound, Fang, had rested his head on his lap and was looking up at him with big eyes. He had never really realised just how large the dog was. It was almost intimidatingly so.

"None o'tha', Fang," Hagrid scolded, thankfully drawing the dog off Severus. "You ent gettin' any food off them." Fang barked his complaint. "Awful beggar, he is," Hagrid said to Severus.

"At least he's cute," Lily defended the mutt.

Sensing sympathy, Fang squirmed his way in between the two of them. Obligingly, Lily gave him head scratches, making the creature drool in contentment.

Drool that he had also left of him, Severus noted in disgust looking down at his robes. Brilliant. Just brilliant. There was nothing "cute" about drool or about that creature.

Not that he would admit it but Severus preferred to always see dogs from a distance. Especially the large ones with accompany large teeth. Like Fang here. Not that Fang seemed to be dangerous. He was looking up at Lily with big doleful eyes and wagging his tail as she lavished attention on him.

"So, how have yeh all been?" Hagrid asked, settling himself opposite them, a large smile on his face.

Wednesday 5th February 1975

Slytherin Common Room, 19:30

"Did you hear?" Alecto greeted him with as he joined his year mates.

Regulus just raised an eyebrow. That could mean many, many things in this school. There was an awful lot you could hear. If you listened. And looked.

For example, Regulus noticed that Leila Lestrange was sitting just far away from them to not be in anyone's line of sight but close enough to "overhear" things from at least three different groups. His included.

"I heard that Snape kid in the year above us went to Hagrid's."

Oh, that was rather interesting. Definitely more so than the usual drivel Alecto came out with. Who really cared who was kissing who? Girls, honestly.

But a Slytherin going down to Hagrid's? The Groundskeeper? Wow. That was, well, that was intriguing. And possibly disturbing.

He was not the only one who thought this. Leila looked up from her careful filing of her nails, her bored expression replaced with a carefully composed one.

"Oh?" she asked, sounding uninterested.

Regulus' friends jumped, startled that a fifth year was even talking to them.

"Yeah," Alecto affirmed, nodding her head. "He went down the other day with that Gryffindor friend of his-"

"-a mudblood," Leila interrupted.

"Yeah, her, and they spent the afternoon there."

"I've heard he's the best to ask anything about creatures," Regulus threw in.

It didn't matter how much superior you were to someone, if someone had information that you needed their status didn't matter. As long as you were discreet about it. Something that Snape apparently hadn't learned. But what would you expect from a half-blood?

"All the best Potions ingredients are in the Forbidden Forest," Leila agreed. "Hagrid would know where they are."

Alecto was looking disappointed that her "news" wasn't causing a big outcry. Oh, it was definitely something to be concerned about but she seemed to have no facts whatsoever about what had happened. No point in jumping to conclusions no matter how suspicious things seemed.

That is what Gryffindors did, after all.

Monday 10th February 1975

Gryffindor Common Room, 08:00

"I can't believe you asked her again," Sirius teased James.

He had just failed to get Evans to go out with him yet again. Okay, maybe Sirius should be more sympathetic but it really was just too funny for him. Did James really think that by asking for a second or third time that he was going to get a different answer?

"I thought she would change her mind," James said, face reddening.

"Well, she definitely did not," Remus commented.

Sirius hadn't thought that James' face could get any redder but apparently it could.

"She could have," Peter said, ever supportive.

Also, the only one of them sympathetic to James' plight at the moment.

"But she didn't."

Okay, that got Remus sending him a frown. Better stop before he got told off. That was no fun, especially from Remus. He had a way of tearing a strip off you with all those fancy words he knew.

"Why don't you ask another girl out? Surely you can get one of them to go out with you." Sirius suggested instead.

See? He could be nice and helpful.

"I don't want to ask another girl out," James said stubbornly.

Which was rather silly of him. Why keep on asking a girl who clearly wanted nothing to do with you? Sirius was sure at least one other girl would say yes to him. He'd seen a few of them eye his friend up and giggle in embarrassment as he walked past them. Not as many that did so to Sirius, of course (he was much better looking, after all), but there were still a few.

"You are being ridiculous," Sirius said with an eye roll.

"I don't see you asking any girls out."

"Yeah, weren't you meant to?" Remus asked.

Sirius gave him a look of confusion. Remus sighed.

"The bet?"

"Oh yeah!"

He had forgotten about that. Not on purpose, there had just been much more important things to think about. Like pranks. But that was easily fixed.

"Still think you can do it?" Peter asked.

"Of course."

He wasn't James, after all. Of course, he could get a girl to go out with him. Couldn't he?

He spotted one of the girls from their year who was standing a bit away from the other girls. Perfect.

"I'm even going to do it right now," he announced, picking himself up and dusting himself off.

Had to look decent when you spoke to a girl, after all. Maybe that was James' problem. The boy always did look untidy. He didn't know much about girls but he did know that they didn't like untidiness. Or dirt. Girls were usually neat and clean in his experience.

"What?" James spluttered. "You can't just do that."

"But I am."

"But what about your plan? You need to think about how you're going to do this!"

"I'm going to walk right up to her and ask her out," Sirius told him.

"One problem," Remus said.

"Yes?"

"Who are you asking out?"

Sirius pointed to the girl who was still standing by herself thankfully. "Her."

"Quigley?" James asked in amazement.

"Oh, is that her name?"

That was going to be good to know. Names were important.

"Elizabeth," Remus added.

Sirius looked at him in confusion.

"Her first name," Remus explained. "It's Elizabeth."

Ah, yes, that was definitely a good thing to know. Elizabeth. That was a nice name.

"Elizabeth, Elizabeth," he said to himself, walking over to her.

"He's not going to manage it," he heard James say confidently.

Oh, just watch him. He was going to do this.

"Hi," Sirius greeted, tapping her on the shoulder.

Maybe he shouldn't have done that from behind because she jumped what must have been three feet into the air. Whoops. Not a good start but he could recover. Just once her heart rate recovered.

"Hu," he repeated once she had turned around to face him with wide open eyes. "Elizabeth, isn't it? Elizabeth Quigley?"

"Y-yes," she stuttered out, a blush rising to her cheeks. "And you're Sirius."

He grinned at her. "Guilty."

That, for some reason, made her blush even more. Girls really were strange; it wasn't just Evans. Actually, at least Evans talked. Quigley here wasn't doing much of that.

"You got any plans this weekend?" he asked, trying to sound as confident as possible.

She shook her head.

"Want to go to Hogsmeade together on Saturday?"

"It's Valentine's Day weekend," she stated, eyes - if it was even possible- widening even more.

"Exactly."

And now her cheeks were a dark shade of red. Was that normal? Or healthy? She still wasn't talking to him. Did she already have a date? How early did other people plan these sorts of things?

"So, do you want to go?" Sirius asked, making a big effort not to let any of his impatience seep into his voice.

That snapped Quigley out of whatever daydream she was in and she nodded vigorously.

"Oh, yes please!"

He beamed at her. "Excellent. Meet down here in the morning?"

Another nod. The two of them exchanged smiles before Quigley ran over to her friends. Lots of squealing and giggling followed.

"Told you I could do it," Sirius told James as his friends came up from behind him.

"Whatever."

Wednesday 12th February 1975

Gryffindor Common Room, 16:00

Lily left the Common Room in complete disgust, Marlene trailing along behind her while chuckling. Something she did not appreciate but knew she would not be able to stop. So, she ignored it in favour of stomping down the corridor.

Why did boys have to be so stupid? Was it a male thing or a teenage boy thing? She hoped it was the latter - that meant they'd (eventually) grow out of it. Hopefully.

Okay, she couldn't take it anymore.

"Shut up, Marlene!"

This wasn't funny! It was awkward. It was embarrassing. It was annoying. Absolutely nothing to laugh about.

"He was a third year!" Marlene cackled. "What's that? The third one?"

"Second."

No point in exaggerating things here. It was already bad enough.

"Which makes it the fourth?"

"Fifth."

Marlene's grin got wider again. "Five, really?"

Lily nodded shortly. It was times like this when she really needed to get new friends.

"So that makes it the fifth boy who has asked you out," she finished quite gleefully.

Lily just glared again. That was the only thing she could think of that wouldn't antagonise Marlene any further. Anyway, there was nothing else for her to say.

"You could have said yes to one of them. That way you'd have a date this weekend."

"I don't need a date this weekend."

Just because it was Valentine's day did not mean that she needed a boyfriend!

"Not even Peters? You have to admit, he's kind of cute."

That is where Lily had to disagree. Morgan Peters in their year was not that cute. Decent looking but not cute.

"You go out with him then."

"It wasn't me who he asked out."

Lily made a disgruntled noise. She didn't even understand why Peter's asked her out when she had turned down Broadmoor. Not to mention Potter.

There wasn't even anyone in particular she fancied. Well, Lily blushed, not in her year. Yes, that seventh year who played Beater was very handsome, Duncan Weasley, but he was a seventh year. Definitely not interested in a mere fourth year. And he had a girlfriend anyway. So, no, there was no one who she realistically fancied.

All the boys in her year were kind of gross. They were all awkward and gangly and still very much idiots in her opinion. Definitely not people she wanted to go out with. No thank you. She didn't understand why girls in her year got all moony-eyed over them. Waste of time.

Saturday 15th February 1975

Gryffindor Common Room, 10:00

"Bye," Sirius waved to his friends as they left him in the Common Room all alone.

They were going off to Hogsmeade and he wasn't. Well, not with them. And not quite yet. Because he had a date that wasn't ready.

He had a date. A date for Valentine's weekend. It was a bit weird to think about. Especially since the only reason he had one was because of a bet. Which he won, by the way. He would have to rub it in James' face later. Had they put anything on that bet? He really should have because picking up his winnings would just be the icing on the cake.

But now he waited for his date. Hopefully she'd be down soon, he didn't want to spend the whole day in Hogsmeade. For one, how was he supposed to spend the whole day with someone he barely knew? Yes, they were in the same House but Sirius honestly didn't think he'd spoken more than a couple of sentences to her in the past four years. And now they were going on a date.

"Hi, Sirius," a soft voice suddenly greeted him.

He jumped and inwardly cursed himself for not being more aware of his surroundings. Plastering on a smile, he took Quigley's hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it like he had been trained to.

"Elizabeth, you look lovely," he returned the greeting.

She really did. She had done her hair in this bun with the front of her hair braided into it. Her earrings and necklace matched, though they weren't Goblin made, Sirius noticed. Of course, he would never ever bring that up but he had literally been trained to notice these things. Annoyingly.

"You're very ha- I mean, you look very handsome," she replied with a blush.

Sirius couldn't help but preen at that. It was nice for other people to notice what he already knew.

"Thank you. Are you ready to go?"

She nodded quickly. "Oh yes, I can't wait."

Well then, hopefully he wouldn't disappoint. He offered her his arm and she gave another giggle (she did an awful lot of giggling) and linked her arm with his. It felt kind of weird but nice.

"Let's go to Hogsmeade," he said, leading them out of the Common Room.

Monday 17th February 1975

Library, 17:00

"I'm thinking that we should do this," next month," James said quietly, pointing to something on a piece of parchment in front of him. "That would start March off with a bang."

Sirius was leaning over his shoulder and nodded. "Yeah, but not with ducks."

"What about geese?" Peter suggested. "They're more obnoxious."

"Just because you always get bit by them-"

"They're evil!" Peter insisted.

"Shhh," Remus scolded, looking up from his book.

He did not want to be thrown out of the Library again because of his friends. It was a good thing he was on such good terms with Madam Pince or he would never be allowed back in. Yes, he liked plotting pranks as much as the next Marauder but the Library was not the place to do it. Especially not when there was homework to be done. Homework first and then pranks. It really wasn't that hard.

"It bought we were doing the one with the rain at the start of the month?"

"No, that one is for the end of the first week."

"Ah. That means we shouldn't use water at the start."

James nodded in agreement. "Have to keep the pranks unique."

Peter frowned at the page in their 'Pranking Grimoire' that held next month's schedule of pranks. (Yes, they had a schedule for pranks - timing and spacing were very important).

"We have like eight pranks planned for the first half of the month and only two for the rest of it."

"That's because we haven't added the St Patrick's Day one in until," Sirius objected.

"That still makes the first half of the month heavily weighted."

"As Shakespeare said, beware the Ides of March," he said jokingly as he read.

Then all he heard was silence.

Remus looked up to see his friends blinking owlishly at him. Not at all helped that James looked a bit like an owl when his eyes were wide open thanks to his glasses.

"What?"

"You really expect us to know what the 'Ides of March' are?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Never mind of March, I want to know what just ides are," James added.

"It means "divide" in Latin," Sirius said helpfully.

"I know that but you can't have 'The divide of March', that just doesn't make any sense!"

"Halfway through March?" Peter suggested. "The fifteenth?"

"Kind of," Remus actually agreed, much to their evident surprise.

"Really?" James asked sceptically.

"Ides were originally meant to mark the full moon in Ancient Rome," Remus explained.

"Ah, hence "beware" them," James said with an understanding nod.

"And then Julius Caesar- a really important person in Rome," he added when he got looks of confusion. "Got stabbed on that day."

"Even worse," Sirius said solemnly.

"So that's what Shakespeare was referring to in his play and where we get the saying from in the modern day "

It really was mazing just how much influence Shakespeare had over modern English. His friends looked like they were mulling over this concept.

"So, Ides just means the fifteenth of March," James concluded.

"Exactly."

"But Shakespeare made it mean that something bad would happen on it thanks to some man getting stabbed."

It was rather amusing to hear Julius Caesar be referred to as "some man" but at least James understood.

"Yes. Shakespeare was rather good at things like that. He put a lot of our modern English words into everyday speech."

He reached into his bag to pull out his copy of "Julius Caesar". That had some sayings that had been introduced by Shakespeare like 'itching palm' and 'a dish fit for the gods'. It didn't have the most but it would prove his point.

There was some whispering going on above him which made him look up sharply. There was both James and Sirius grinning somewhat maniacally at him. His stomach sank.

"Why do I feel like I've just given you two a very, very bad idea?"

Tuesday 18th February 1975

Fourth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 16:00

"We have so many maps of different parts of the school," Remus complained as he sifted through the loose bits of parchment that were stuck in their "Pranking Grimoire" as Sirius and James kept on referring to it as.

They really did. James seemed to draw a new one every time the planned out a large-ish prank. Just of the area they needed, never the whole corridor or whatever, which meant that the damn things couldn't be reused.

"Hey, these ones pretty much make up the whole second floor," Sirius said, arranging a few scraps together.

Remus looked over at the creation and raised his eyebrows in surprise. You know what? They did. There was a gap at the end of it but yeah, pretty much the whole corridor was drawn out of about six separate pieces.

"Same for the Entrance Hall," Peter said, pulling a few others together.

"You've basically done the whole school," Remus turned to James.

"Why are they loose? They should be stuck down," James complained.

Out of all the things he had to be a perfectionist about, their Pranking Grimoire was one? Really?

"They're definitely loose," Remus said, giving the book a shake.

To prove his point, more scraps of parchment fluttered out of it. Mostly sketches of corridors and classrooms from the looks of things.

"Don't do that!"

James snatched the floating pieces out of thin air and clutched them to him protectively.

"It's not our fault they're loose," Sirius told him. "You should gave stuck them down properly."

"I used glue!"

"Sticking charms are better."

"We could make a whole map of the school out of these!" Peter said, holding some of the pieces up in awe.

Thursday 20th February 1975

Dungeons, 18:30

Severus froze as he felt fingernails dig into his shoulder.

"Running around all by yourself, Snape?"

At that voice, Severus relaxed slightly. It wasn't someone who was trying to jump him, it was just the youngest Lestrange. Not that there was any "just" about Leila. She always had this edge about her that felt dangerous but she would never demean herself to physically rough someone up so he was probably safe. Physically anyway. Probably not from her tongue.

"Hi, Leila," he greeted warily as he slowly turned around.

Thankfully, her grip loosened so he could face her properly. Not that that was much better because that stare of hers really freaked him out. It was like she could read into your soul. Which was stupid, he knew, but that's what it felt like.

"Hello, Snape."

She didn't look at all too happy to see him despite her acknowledging him first. Severus knew better than to ever try and get her attention. He knew his place in Slytherin House, no matter how much he disliked it. That and Leila kind of scared him. More so than her brothers.

"Is there something you need?" he asked, trying to keep his tone as neutral as possible.

"Plenty but not much you can help me with," she said dismissively.

It was supposed to rankle him but it didn't. He wasn't going to get involved in pettiness. That's what they wanted so they could point out his "poor breeding" like he was some sort of mongrel.

She didn't elaborate on what she meant either. Like she expected him to know what she was talking about. Which he didn't, obviously.

"What do you want?" he asked in exasperation, having lost patience with this conversation already.

He would like to get to the Potions Lab at some point this evening, after all.

Leila looked more amused than annoyed at his question. Which was probably a good thing.

"Just an interesting rumour going around about you," she said as if she was bored.

"Oh?"

That wasn't too surprising. Unfortunately, there were quite a few rumours going around Slytherin House about him at any one time. Mainly about his parentage but also about his abilities. The purebloods just didn't seem to understand that skill and talent did not depend on who your parents were. The most recent rumour was that he was using a Potion to give himself skills. Yes, they never heard how ridiculous they sounded.

"Oh, yes," she continued, giving him a sly smile. "Going down to Hagrid's. With that little friend of yours from Gryffindor."

Lily was never a good topic to be brought up with any Slytherin, Severus had learnt that very early on. So, he just stopped talking about her and tried not to make it so obvious when he went to be with her. It had stopped a lot of the scathing remarks but not all of them. He thought he had been careful when going down to Hagrid's. Obviously not.

"Yes." he stated, there was no point in hiding it if she already knew.

Her eyes glittered at him. "Poor company, wasn't it?"

How on earth was he supposed to respond to that?

Saturday 22nd February 1975

Gryffindor Common Room, 15:30

Elizabeth giggled and waved at Black as he walked past. He shot her this stupid grin of his which made Elizabeth blush even more.

"I can't believe Sirius Black asked you out," Mary said in amazement and not without a little envy.

Alice tried not to roll her eyes. Sure, Black had status and wealth but he was incredibly annoying. Definitely the most obnoxious of the Marauders. No matter how good looking he was.

Alice blushed at that and shook her head. She really shouldn't be thinking of thoughts like that since she had Frank. Who was very handsome, of course.

"He was such a gentleman during our date," Elizabeth gushed.

"Well, he is a Black," Alice reminded her. "He's supposed to be a gentleman."

"He doesn't always act like one though," Elizabeth replied and then gave a dreamy smile. "But he did on our date."

"That is so romantic," Mary sighed.

Again, Alice tried not to roll her eyes even though neither of them knew what they were talking about. Behaving properly wasn't romantic, it should really be a given. What was romantic was holding hands across a table or swinging them between each other as they walked nowhere in particular or remembering what food you liked.

Yes, Frank was very romantic and they had had an excellent Valentine's day. Not that anyone had asked her. Apparently, the two of them were old news and Alice didn't know what to think about that.

"Did you kiss?" Mary asked Elizabeth in a conspiratorial whisper.

"Not on your first date!" Alice said in a scandalous tone but leaned in to listen.

Elizabeth blushed.

Wednesday 26th February 1975

Library, 16:00

"No Lupin this time?" Severus inquired, looking around the table Lily was occupying.

There was only one set of books, Lily's obviously. Which was odd as he knew that Lupin often joined her straight after school - also preferring to get his homework out of the way.

He and Severus rarely crossed paths but when they did Severus genuinely had no complaint. Which was odd. But apparently the Marauder was quite different away from those friends of his.

Lily shook her head. "Not this time. He's away home."

He raised an eyebrow. "Again?"

"Yeah. Aunt still isn't great."

"She's been sick for a long time..."

Lily shrugged. "Some people are like that. Mum says some people like to live out of spite. There's this one guy on my street who-"

Severus really didn't want to hear about someone who he didn't know so he interrupted her.

"But does he have to see her during the week? He misses school for it."

Surely visiting relatives, if you absolutely had to do that, could be done at the weekend?

That just got him a shrug from Lily.

"I don't know. Obviously, he does or he wouldn't be doing it. Remus doesn't seem to be the type of person to miss school unless he had to."

Unfortunately, that was true. Lupin was quite the bookworm. Severus didn't understand why he hung around with the rest of those Marauders who seemed to avoid the Library at all costs.

"Sounds exhausting," was Severus' final thought on that as he pulled out his Charms textbook. "Did you understand what Flitwick was talking about today?"