Sunday 2nd May 1976

McGonagall's Office, 15:09

Alice bit her lip and looked at the closed door. No. She couldn't do it. She couldn't. So, she wouldn't. Turning around, Alice got halfway down the corridor before she changed her mind and walked back to the door. Only to state at it again.

Was this really a good idea? This couldn't be a good idea.

It wasn't. She didn't have an appointment and it was the weekend and she might not even be in her Office...

"Are you going to come in, Miss Smith?" Professor McGonagall's voice drifted through the door.

Alice froze. How did she do that? It wasn't like the ability to see through doors was a thing. Was it? Though, Professor McGonagall was very talented so it wouldn't exactly be a surprised.

Pushing gently on the handle, Alice poked her head into the office.

"Ma'am?"

"Do come in, Miss Smith. Before you wear a hole in the stone floor."

"Yes, Professor," she said hurriedly, fumbling with the door behind her.

Was it too late to excuse herself now? She could just turn away and say she was fine. Everything was fine. But everything wasn't fine, was it? And turning tail and running wasn't a very Gryffindor thing to do. Because that's what she was. A Gryffindor.

"Please sit."

Alice could do that. She could follow instructions. That was easy. So, she sat.

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

That made her panic. Did she want to talk about anything? Should she? She didn't even know how to put her thoughts into words.

'Thunk'

Suddenly there was a biscuit tin in front of her.

"Have a biscuit, Miss Smith."

Oh, there were ginger newts. Alice could always go for a ginger newt and this way she wouldn't have to talk.

Strangely, Professor McGonagall said nothing as she delicately ate her biscuit (she wasn't just going to shove it into her mouth like some sort of animal). She thought she would have talked. She was the one that brought Alice in here, after all but she didn't. She was just looking at her and Alice couldn't read her expression.

Eventually, she finished her biscuit and just sat there with her hands nearly folded in her lap. No twisting fingers or shaking wrists. No. She wouldn't make even more of an embarrassment of herself.

"So, is there anything in particular that you needed to talk about?" Professor McGonagall tried to gently direct her.

Alice shook her head. Rude but suddenly her tongue wasn't working, her mouth was so dry. And why did she feel like she needed to cry? Oh, this was horrible. She just wanted to get out of here and be by herself somewhere...

Just as Alice was about to make up some garbled excuse to leave, Professor McGonagall started talking.

"Is this about your NEWTs?" She asked gently.

It always surprised Alice how gentle Professor McGonagall could be. She was so severe and stern. But that wasn't what mattered at the moment.

Alice gasped and looked up at her. How on earth did she know?

"How?"

"Strangely enough, Miss Smith, I do keep track of the students in my care."

Alice blushed. She hadn't meant to imply that Professor McGonagall didn't care. But Alice hadn't told her anything yet so how did she know? Could she ask that? Was that rude? Inappropriate? Would she be even told anything? She was just a child, after all. Though she was sixteen. Nearly an adult. Not that that mattered. Not when it came to her parents.

"My parents don't want me to do them," she finally said in a measured tone, looking at the tin of biscuits rather than her Head of House. It was easier that way. "And I didn't think I would be doing them but-"

"Lord and Lady Longbottom have very strong opinions on your education." Professor McGonagall finished for her. "That very much differ from your parents."

Alice couldn't help but flinch as the memory of what happened over Easter came to mind. Professor McGonagall gave her a sympathetic look.

"Yes, ma'am," she said quietly.

That summed it up quite perfectly but that didn't mean she knew what to do! Or if she was supposed to do anything. It wasn't really her decision to make at the end of the day.

But she didn't know what decision was going to be made and that was the problem. How was she supposed to meet expectations when she didn't know what her expectations were? It was literally eating her up inside. She wished that Easter dinner had never happened. Or that they had just kept her completely unaware of the argument.

"It appears that the only opinion I haven't heard is the one that matters most."

Alice looked at her in confusion. Was her grandfather going to be brought into this? He was the Head of the family but over something like this? When her family wasn't even the main branch?

"Yours, Alice," Professor McGonagall said gently.

That was even more confusing for her. What did her opinion matter in all this?

"Mine?"

"Yes, your opinion. It's rather important in all of this, isn't it?"

"It is?"

How so? She didn't understand. Why would her opinion matter on this? Her opinion wasn't worth anything. It didn't really involve her.

A shocked look flitted across Professor McGonagall's face before she could school her features. And now she just looked somewhat sad.

"Of course, your opinion matters, Alice. This all concerns you, doesn't it?"

Alice shrugged. Yes, she had managed to keep that awful habit but it came in useful for times like this.

"Not really."

Now the Professor looked baffled, it was an odd look on her.

"But this is about your education? Of course, it concerns you."

"It doesn't really matter either way," Alice tried to explain. "It's not like I'm going to have a career after school."

Professor McGonagall pursed her lips at that but nodded.

"True but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a voice. This is a decision that will dictate the next two years of your life."

That was very true. If she didn't do her NEWTs, she and Frank would probably be married as soon as he graduated Hogwarts. That was pretty normal. If she did do her NEWTs, they would have to wait another year. And she did want to be married to Frank... but she also quite liked school as well. And she was always going to get married to Frank, of course she was. But she had never really considered the idea of staying on at school.

Would it really be that bad? Yes, NEWTs were tough, she wasn't stupid after all, but she didn't necessarily need to get the best marks. Or even really good ones. And it wasn't like her social status would change. The Longbottoms wanted her to do her NEWTs. And this way she got to see Frank for a whole extra year before they got married...

But then there were her parents. They weren't happy with this revelation. They didn't believe girls should be overly educated no matter what Alice wanted...

"I don't think I'm a very good Gryffindor," she said almost randomly.

It didn't really have any relation to what they were talking about, did it? But it was all she could think about. Because she wasn't, was she? A Gryffindor would be able to voice her own opinion, wouldn't she? And actually, have her own opinion in the first place.

"And why do you think that?"

Alice came to a stop at that. Wasn't it obvious? She thought it was obvious. It wasn't like she fit in.

"I'm... I'm just not," she said weakly.

See? That should prove it! There was nothing bold or confident about what she just said. Or thought.

"I'm not supposed to be a Gryffindor," she added.

Because yes, even after five years she still somewhat felt like this.

"You think you should be a Hufflepuff."

That was a statement, not a question but Alice nodded anyway.

"I'm a Smith."

That just made McGonagall look at her again. Not accusingly or anything just looking. Why didn't she just say something? Anything? All this silence was getting to her.

"I know what you think you should be." Professor McGonagall finally said. "Not what you are."

What did that even mean? That didn't make any sense. Of course, she was a Smith. That was her surname. There was no thinking about it.

"I meant that you're viewing yourself as what other people want you to be, not what you want to be," she explained, seeing Alice's confusion.

Oh. That made a lot more sense. Even if Alice disagreed somewhat. Why wouldn't you want to act like other people want you to? That's how you got other people to like you, right? She wanted other people to like her.

"I don't think I'm brave enough to do something like that."

"True courage is sometimes just finding the ability to be yourself."

That sounded like very sage advice. Too bad Alice couldn't do anything with it.

"What if you don't know who you really are?"

Saturday 8th May 1976

Hogwarts Grounds, 11:30

Remus thought he knew his friends, really knew them, until they came up with something like this. Something so ridiculous and out there that it really should have been out of the question. Obviously, not for these three. He didn't know whether they were geniuses, idiots, thick or all three. He was going with all three, as contradictory as that was.

"I can't believe that you're actually planning out a full moon," Remus said with a shake of his head.

The very idea was foreign to him. Then again, the whole process at that time of month was involuntary for him. It wasn't like he could control anything so he didn't put any thought into it. There was just no point.

Of course, his friends didn't have this problem. Not at all. Their transformations were completely voluntary, after all. Yes, Remus was more than a little bit jealous. He couldn't help it. It would be nice not to experience pain on a transformation.

But it was no use dwelling on that. He couldn't change it. That was the whole point of a cursed bite, after all.

"Well, it would make it more interesting," James replied.

"Because turning into animals and hanging out with a werewolf isn't interesting enough?"

Sirius smirked at him, "Well, we already do half of that every day so, no, I wouldn't say it was interesting enough."

Remus stared blankly at him before he realised what he was saying. Then he gave Sirius a shove.

"I am too interesting!" he argued.

"If you say so," Sirius said with laugh.

"We still haven't agreed on anything," Peter pointed out.

"Maybe more dog toys?" Sirius suggested with laugh.

That got him another shove from Remus. And a good thump. One of those stupid dog toys was more than enough, thank you very much. It didn't even last long. It had ended up in shreds.

"No more dog toys," he said sternly.

Sirius gave him a grin which very much said that he was not going to obey that order. Great.

"Why don't we leave the Shrieking Shack?" James suggested.

That had to be the worst idea that had ever come out of his mouth. Seriously.

"I don't know-" Remus said hesitantly.

"We can control you. Surely it would be easier outside if you weren't as frustrated?"

"I know that..." Remus said reluctantly.

"Then what's the problem?"

"I don't want to eat any deer or rabbits or anything..."

Huh. That made them all sit back and think for a moment. That was actually a fair point. Who would want to wake up realising they had eaten a rabbit? Yuck.

If that happened, would you have blood all over you in the morning? Remus shuddered at the thought. His own blood was bad enough but another animal's? His tomato rolled at the thought.

"Maybe if you eat a really big meal beforehand, you'll be too full to eat anything when you transform?" Peter suggested hesitantly.

Remus shook his head, "There's no way that would wo-" wait a second, that actually made a bit of sense. He jerked his head around to Peter. "Actually-"

"How much would you have to eat?" Sirius wondered out loud.

"However much a wolf needs?" James suggested.

They both turned to look at him questioningly.

"I don't know!" He retorted, crossing his arms.

"Really?"

Remus sighed. It wasn't like he knew everything.

Thursday 13th May 1976

Shrieking Shack, 22:00

It kind of sucked, in James' opinion, that Remus still wouldn't let them be in the Shrieking Shack as he transformed. And he would never really tell them why. The current excuse was that he didn't want Madam Pomfrey to accidentally see them. But they weren't going to be them, they were going to be animals so surely, she wouldn't think anything of it? Peter at the very least could hide. He was a rat for crying out loud! People never saw those!

But no. Remus was quite insistent on that, so insistent that they acquiesced. They didn't want him completely barring them from the Shack! That wouldn't be fun at all. And they wouldn't get to help Remus. Sometimes it was good to just do as you were told.

"Ah! Peter!"

James had almost fallen over the younger boy. Again. They really were too big for this cloak now. It only really fit two of them. Just about.

"Sorry."

They were nearly at the Whomping Willow anyway. They just had to be careful going across the grounds on the off chance that someone was peering out of the windows. James didn't know how they would explain being out here. That might actually be beyond their capabilities.

"I'm going to transform now," Peter whispered.

"Ok."

James also didn't know why they were whispering. It wasn't like there was anyone around to hear them but it seemed like the best thing to do. The grounds were really, really creepy at night.

There was a brief blur and suddenly Peter the rat was on the ground in front of them. He gave them a squeak before running under the branches of the Whomping Willow. They didn't get anywhere near him. The branches soon froze and James and Sirius leapt into action.

Remus didn't want to risk anything so they couldn't be human in the passageway. It was still so cool to actually transform. And weird to be on hooves but at least he no longer had any balance issues! Those had not been fun to experience, especially when Sirius and Peter had got the hang of walking in their forms so easily. Sirius had taken a bit longer to learn how to run properly but at least he didn't look like a right idiot when he did fall! Not like James. There was nothing graceful about a stag with its legs in every direction.

Speaking about not graceful, there really was no graceful way to dart around the frozen branches of the tree. You just had to be fast so they didn't start moving while you were still under them. That had happened to Sirius last month. Thankfully he had only just skinned his tail. He could have had his eye taken out or something!

James tried not to flinch as his antlers trailed along the ceiling. He just about fit in this corridor.

A snarling noise came from behind the only door that was up ahead. Snarling and snapping. Remus had already changed.

'BANG'

That was probably him slamming himself against the wall or something. Remus did say that the wolf got agitated, wanting to be free.

Well, that's what they were here for. There was no way that anyone in the right mind would let an unsupervised and uncontrolled werewolf out in the wide open. But one that was supervised could run all he wanted. Maybe even in the Forbidden Forest! Now there was an idea!

"Grrrrr!"

Okay, they were coming, they were coming!

As usual, James flung himself against the door. Remus always made sure not completely lock it - he used a weaker spell to do so that failed under brute force. And it gave way after a third run at it and a bit of help from Sirius. Peter cheered them on safely from the side.

They were immediately greeted by a snapping wolf but Sirius was ready for him. He launched himself at Remus and both canines went rolling across the floor.

They struggled for dominance and slowly but surely, Remus' actions became a little more playful than aggressive. He tried to fling himself at James but James braced himself and used his antlers to stop him.

This was great fun! And Remus wasn't attacking himself so win win all around. He was just... attacking them instead. But it wasn't really attacking. He was just trying to assert his dominance.

James winced as Remus ran into his side. Maybe he could assert his dominance in the wide, open air. Less painful that way.

He kicked the door open and a blast of cool air came through. He hadn't realised just how musty the shack was until that literal breath of fresh air.

Remus came to a screeching halt and took a deep sniff of the air. Now, see, this was welfare the wolf and Remus very much differed. Remus would have been suspicious of the sudden gust of air. Wary even.

The wolf had absolutely none of Remus' reservations. It took one sniff of the tempting fresh air and bolted. James hadn't known that wolves could move that fast.

Wait, Remus was moving fast. Alone. Outside. Sirius seemed to come to the same realisation as they both bolted for the entrance at the same time.

James didn't even check to see if Peter was coming along. He couldn't. Not with a werewolf on the loose! Maybe they hadn't thought this through...

"Awooo!" Remus howled when he stood still for a moment.

Hilariously, Sirius tried to copy him but the problem was that Sirius didn't know how to howl. He just managed to make weird, throaty noises.

Remus then made a mad dash towards the forest. Phew, at least they would be out of sight. There should also be plenty of things for Remus to jump of, which should tire him out.

Friday 14th May 1976

Forbidden Forest, 05:00

James groaned loudly as light pierced through his eyelids. Normally he would be up with the sun but not tonight. Not when he hadn't got a lot of sleep. Or any sleep really.

Remus had been so excited to be outside that he didn't stop for ages. It was like he wouldn't tire at all. Unlike the rest of them. James couldn't even remember transforming back last night, he was that tired. He must have though because he was very much human now.

James stretched half-heartedly, his limbs moving across the ground. Leaves made a lot of noise when they moved. And dry earth made a lot of mess. Little clouds of it appeared with his movements.

"Shut up, Sirius grumbled from across the way, also of the same opinion apparently. "Too early." He waved his hand about, making the leaves flutter around him.

With a sigh, James sat up and leaned against the handily placed tree. Honestly, why was he the only morning person here?

Wait a second. Forest floor. Leaves. Trees. Crap!

"Sirius!" James hissed, shaking him. "Sirius!"

"Go away!"

"We're in the Forbidden Forest!"

James didn't think that Sirius had shot upright that quick in his life. His eyes were basically bugging out of his head.

"What?"

"Shhh! Not so loud!"

You wouldn't know what was crawling about in here and James would really rather not get eaten.

Sirius clamped his hands over his own mouth but looked at James with wide eyes. James took the opportunity to look around them. Just whereabouts in the Forest, were they? How far in were they? All he could see were trees surrounding the little clearing they had apparently settled themselves in. Which told him absolutely nothing about where they were except that they were very much in a forest.

"We're in the Forest!" Sirius hissed.

"Yes."

"Why are you so calm about this?"

James didn't know why he was so calm. It wasn't like he knew what he was doing or anything because he definitely didn't.

Sirius shook his head at him in exasperation and started to shake Remus.

"Moony! Moony wake up!"

"Don't do that!" James protested. "Let him sleep."

He'd just spent the last eight hours transforming from a human to a werewolf and back again, after all. Remus definitely deserved his sleep.

"You do realise we need to get him back to the Whomping Willow before Madam Pomfrey get there, don't you?"

Ah. That thought very much hadn't come to him. Yes. This was a problem.

"Moony, wake up!"

Monday 17th May 1976

Gryffindor Common Room, 17:00

"Want to go to Hogsmeade again?" Sirius asked as casually as possible.

It wasn't like it mattered what she said. No, not at all. Last time was fun and he kind of wanted to do it again. Not that that meant anything. No, definitely not.

McKinnon looked at him suspiciously.

"This wasn't part of the deal. You won your bet with your friends."

That was true. And James' face had been hilarious but... well, his time with McKinnon had been fun. Lots of fun actually. She was really, really funny. And sure, the last Hogsmeade weekends he had taken different girls with him but he kind of wanted to go with McKinnon again.

"Well, no," he replied. "It wasn't. But this isn't about the deal."

"It isn't?" she asked in surprise. "Then what is it?"

"Is it really so surprising that I would just ask you out, McKinnon?"

"Yes," she stated simply.

Ouch. Okay then. He would have to fix it. Of course, Sirius would ask someone like McKinnon out. He'd asked out far less interesting girls before.

But McKinnon was interesting. And intriguing. She didn't behave in a way he was used to and just seemed to make up her own rules as she went along. It was kind of cool.

"Well, I'm asking you out now."

"Actually, you're doing an awful lot of talking about asking me out without asking me out," she corrected.

Sirius smirked right back at her. "I believe my opening sentence was to ask you out."

Ah ha! That stumped her. She opened and closed her mouth like a fish before folding her arms and huffing. It was kind of funny though Sirius knew better than to say that.

"So?" he pressed.

"What?"

Oh, that was rather snappy. Somebody didn't like that he was currently coming out on top.

"Do you want to go out with me at the next Hogsmeade weekend?"

And now she was just looking at him again, though this time it was because she was sizing him up. Seeing if he was being honest.

Seemingly satisfied by her analysis, Marlene nodded.

"Sure. Sounds fun."

He wiggled his eyebrows at her which earned him a punch to the arm. Yes, it was going to be fun.

Thursday 20th May 1976

Fifth Floor Corridor, 23:00

"Are you sure we won't get caught?" Peter asked nervously, looking all around them.

He was making the Invisibility Cloak move too much. It was hard enough to keep it on them as it was without needless movement being added to it.

"No one is patrolling up here tonight," Remus assured him.

It really was useful having a friend who was a Prefect. He could tell them where not to go so they wouldn't get talk.

"Are you sure?"

James thrust the map underneath Peter's nose.

"See? There's no one even on this floor, never mind this corridor."

They were testing the map out, yet again. It had sort of taken a back seat due to everyone's Animagus Transformations and school in general. But now they were ready to get at it again. It was nearly done, after all. Until they came up with something else, they wanted to add to it.

This time instead of counting people in rooms it actually showed people's positions. Or, that was the idea. Hopefully. This time without burning a hole in the parchment with any luck. James really didn't want to have to draw out the floor plans of the entire castle again. Though it had given him the opportunity to correct the angle of that wall down in the dungeons...

"Okay," Remus said, looking around them. We need to be in the exact centre of the room for this spell to work."

They had to be in each room that they wanted the map to pick up on, so this was going to take a while. And then they were going to have to figure out something for the corridors... their work was never done.

"I have the tape measures," Sirius said, holding two of the four up.

"Okay, let's do this then."

Peter and James each grabbed a tape measure and picked adjacent walls to start from. They were going to do the measurements across the room while Remus and Sirius were going to go across the walls.

"Wait, me and Sirius need to go first," Remus said, folding the map back into his pocket. "Or else you won't start in the middle."

Why did they always manage to choose things that were more complicated than they originally sounded?

But they managed it. Eventually. And probably with more noise than was strictly necessary. And, yes, there was an incident with the tape measure and the measuring spell not matching up. The subsequent argument was just ridiculous... but they managed it. Well, the setting up part anyway.

"Hey! There's us!" Sirius exclaimed excitedly, jabbing the piece of parchment with a finger.

"Don't stick a hole in it," Remus chided, pulling it away from him.

Thankfully. There was already enough room for error tonight, they didn't need to damage the parchment in a way that was easily avoidable.

But Sirius was right. There were four dots in on the parchment in this room, each labelled with their name.

"That's so cool," James cheered.

"Does it work when we move?" Peter asked.

They all looked to Remus who had, of course, done more reading than what was required for this.

Remus sighed. Probably because he had already explained this to them and they hadn't been fully listening.

"It should."

"Let's spread out and see!" Sirius said excitedly.

They all moved to different corners of the classroom.

"Um, did anyone actually lift the map?" Remus asked in exasperation.

"You didn't either," James pointed out as he scrambled to retrieve it. "Hey, it worked! The dots moved!"

"How about now?" Sirius asked, transforming into Padfoot and running around in a circle.

The dots moved in a similar manner on the map.

"It does! The dot moved with you."

"It even knows it's Sirius when he's not human," Remus observed, making James jump as he hadn't realised, he was coming up behind him.

"I suppose his magical signature doesn't change..."

"True."

"Still cool," James offered.

"Um, guys?" Peter asked, interrupting their self-congratulations. "How many rooms are in the castle?"

That made them come to a stop. Hilariously, Sirius came to a skidding one. Apparently, dogs didn't do too well with sudden movements on stone.

James groaned. "There has to be hundreds."

"We could just do the most commonly used ones," Remus logically suggested.

"But that means we'll leave ones out!" James complained.

The very thought of leaving the map incomplete made him twitch.

Saturday 22nd May 1976

Entrance Hall, 12:00

"Hey, Sev! Sev!" Lily called over as her friend was leaving the Dungeons.

He jumped as if he had been startled. Then his smiled. He really didn't smile enough but she had learned that by telling him that he would just smile less.

"Hi, Lily," he greeted quietly.

He was looking rather tired and paler than normal. Knowing him he was probably spending far too long in the Potions Labs. Again. She would have to go back to dragging him out of there just before curfew again. She hadn't done that in a while, hadn't had the time. Actually, she hadn't spent much time with Severus at all recently. Both of them were just so busy. Which was a shame. But maybe she could change that now...

"Are you free?"

"Yes," he said eagerly. "I'm free. What do you want to do?"

"Do you want to come to Hagrid's with me?"

She was visiting the Groundskeeper again. Something she liked to do at least once a month. He was fun to talk to and knew all sorts of interesting things. He had even given her some potions ingredients from the Forest!

Severus' face fell at that and he shook his head. Before he could reply, Lily heard a sniggering from behind her. Turning around, her face fell. It was Avery and Mulciber. Great. The two people she hated most in Hogwarts. She tried to make it a rule not to hate anyone but she made an exception for those two. They had literally spent the last two years proclaiming this "You Know Who" the Daily Prophet kept on referring to had the right idea with muggles and such. That and they were just nasty.

"Why would anyone want to go see that oaf?" Mulciber asked.

"Hagrid is very nice and people enjoy his company," Lily shot back. "Unlike you two."

"Well, you're such poor company that I see why you talk with the likes of him," Avery sneered.

"At least he has his own ideas and opinions," she retorted. "Instead of being an echo chamber."

Satisfyingly, neither had a response for that. Though their faces did turn an interesting shade of purple.

"So, are you coming, Sev?" Lily asked, turning her back on them.

Severus looked conflicted but slowly he shook his head.

"No, I, I, uh, have things to do."

Lily frowned. "You just said you were free."

Avery chose this moment to put his arm across Severus shoulders.

"He's just embarrassed to have forgotten about a little meeting he was having with us, isn't that right, Snape?"

"Um, yes. That's right."

He looked very uncomfortable about it.

Thursday 27th May 1976

Hogwarts Grounds, 16:00

"I thought we were supposed to be friends?" Severus was saying to Lily, "Best friends?"

He was completely and utterly exasperated with her. She wasn't listening to him at all!

"We are, Sev, but I don't like some of the people you're hanging round with! I'm sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him, Sev, he's creepy! D'you know what he tried to do to Mary Macdonald the other day?"

Lily had reached a pillar and leaned against it, looking searchingly up into his face. He was finally a good bit taller than her now. Something he was very happy with. What he wasn't happy with was her attack on his friends! She was completely overreacting.

"That was nothing," he said. "It was a laugh, that's all-"

Not that he had got to participate (thankfully in hindsight or Lily would be really mad with him) but they had let him watch. It had been funny watching her shriek and run around like that.

"It was Dark Magic, and if you think that's funny-"

Severus rolled his eyes. It wasn't that bad. Barely touching on it. Again, an overreaction.

"What about the stuff Potter and his mates get up to?" demanded Severus, unable to hold in his resentment.

Why were the things he and his friends did to people horrible but what the Marauders did was hilarious? It just didn't make sense!

"What's Potter got to do with anything?" Lily asked exasperatedly.

Oh, like she didn't know what he was talking about. She wasn't even trying.

"They sneak out at night. Get up to all sorts of trouble," he said sullenly.

"Yes," she said, giving him an uncomprehending look. "To do mischief, childish mischief but not horrible things!"

See, this was what he meant about the unfairness! It was blatant!

"Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they're doing at night?"

"I'm just trying to show you they're not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are."

Lily was so annoyed with Severus. She was. But the intensity of his gaze made her blush. She didn't think they were wonderful. That was stupid. They were clever (too clever sometimes) and funny but they certainly weren't wonderful. They were full of themselves, they were cocky, they bragged...

"I know James Potter's an arrogant toerag," she said, cutting across Snape. "I don't need you to tell me that. But Mulciber's and Avery's idea of humour is just evil. Evil, Sev. I don't understand how you can be friends with them."

"You just don't understand!" He said in frustration.

She really didn't. Lily didn't understand why anyone would be friends with Avery and Mulciber, least of all Sev. They were nasty, mean, little cowards. Not to mention bigoted and horrible and rude. They had no saving qualities.

"Then make me understand."

"You wouldn't get it," he replied sullenly. "Just like you don't get that Potter and his stupid friends are even worse."

Lily huffed. Well, if he was going to be like that.

"They don't use Dark Magic, though."

With that final statement, she spun on her heel and walked away.