A/N) Please Read: I'm trusting you guys a lot with this chapter. There's a lot that could be taken out of context and I don't want any immature comments. I've already told you how I feel about James/Sirius pairings, when I say they're studying in private in the middle of the night I mean they're studying in private in the middle of the night. Nothing more, please don't put words in my writing that are not there.

Chapter 116

A Very Bad Day

Peter woke to a very noisy dorm. The windows were wide open the bright and shiny outside filtering into the room. James and Sirius seemed to be celebrating the first truly warm day of the year by levitating globs of paint (where they got globs of paint Peter didn't know) and dropping them on the early bird students as they got a head start for the lines in the various shops at Hogsmeade. Remus also had his wand pointed at a hovering orb of bright pink paint, but he looked like he had a very specific target in mind. Peter meandered to the window just as Remus dropped it, a dark snicker coming from his mouth when it hit Rodolphus Lestrange showering him in neon pink.

Lestrange had been found spending more time in the hospital wing while Remus was there than any of them liked, trying to overhear what his real condition was. James and Sirius thought Snape put him up to it.

Sirius and James howled in laughter, they were too far up for the victims to hear or see them well enough to determine their identities though they likely knew anyway. Peter could only tell it had been Lestrange because his hair was too curly to be Snape and too long to be Regulus, and Remus didn't have a grudge against anyone else with black hair.

"Nice one, Moony." James laughed, dropping his own puke green paint on someone with white-blond hair, a Malfoy, but Peter didn't know which one.

"Thank you," Remus said with pride in his voice. He looked like he'd had a surprisingly good night's sleep, wasn't there a full moon coming?

The ant-sized students hurried off after the first few paint bombs leaving a laughing Sirius and a hysterical James.

"It'll take Malfoy forever to get that out of his hair." James managed to choke out between giggles.

Their fun now over the Marauders got themselves ready for their trip to Hogsmeade. None of them wore robes, though Sirius was still a little uncomfortable in just James' magically lengthened trousers (he didn't own any himself,) and a black tee, but he liked the design (a cartoony line drawing of an emo girl with headphones on and music notes surrounding her.) Only Remus was willing to wear long sleeves of any sort, due to the warmth of the day, though he only wore a thin denim jacket.

"I'll go through the passage with Sirius, we'll meet you outside Honeydukes," James said running a hand through his hair (his version of brushing it since it looked about the same either way) and sloppily making his bed.

"Right." Remus nodded watching James before looking at his own bed and shrugging. Remus never made his bed, ever, Peter usually tried, but it wasn't ever very good.

Sirius' always looked like he'd never even slept on it.

"Ready to go, Padfoot?" James called to the bathroom.

"NO!" Sirius yelled back.

"For Merlin's sake, tell me you're not still doing your hair." James rolled his eyes but had a smirk on his face.

"My hair tie's all stretched out." Sirius wasn't yelling anymore, every once in a great while he'd realize how silly he sounded when he complained about his hair.

"So fix it," James called back.

"James, you don't just fix it! I need a new one."

"Of course I don't. I break hair ties, not fix them." James sighed, flopping back on his messy bed as he waited.

"You wouldn't dare." Sirius' voice was low, Peter shivered he hated when Sirius sounded like that.

"Truer words have never been spoken," James muttered and Remus chuckled.

"We're going to head out," Remus told him and he pointed at the bathroom. "I'd rather not wait for that."

Peter nodded and they left the dorm.

The common room was more crowded than usual, nearly all of the third years and up were in the common room waiting for that one friend who took forever to get ready, Peter was thankful they weren't waiting.

"Remus, Peter..." Alice called over from the couches where Lily Evans, Marlene McKinnon, Mary McDonald, and Zoe Radke were also sitting. They walked over, Peter thought they looked nice. Mary was the only one wearing a robe, but it wasn't a school robe, it was a dull pink and she wore it like a coat. Marlene and Lily both had their hair in ponytails, but Zoe's blond hair looked the same as ever, short and messy with a thin braid that was longer than the rest of it.

Peter thought it was cute, but James teased her about it.

Remus was going to greet them but was interrupted by a yell.

"James, let go!" The entire room turned to the boys staircase, James appeared at the top of it dragging Sirius by the arm. They stopped when James could see the common room. Sirius' was holding his hair up with his free hand, though that didn't help it look any better.

"Which of you lot has a hair tie this prat can use?" He asked and the entirety of the female population in the common room (sans the girls on the couch) raised their hands desperately.

To Peter's surprise, Marlene took the hair tie out of her own hair and flung it at James like a rubber band.

"Thank you," James said catching it easily and handing the hair tie to Sirius. Sirius glared at him, deliberating, before snatching it and walking back upstairs, purposefully pushing James down the stairs. James got up before his attention was taken by the Quidditch captain.

Lily glared at Marlene who ran a hand through her, now free, hair.

"What?" Marlene asked her cheeks tinged pink.

"Really, Marlene?" Lily responded with a question of her own.

"You think he'll wear it?" Marlene ignored her.

"He took it didn't he?" Remus answered shrugging, he had a smile on his face. "I didn't know you liked Sirius."

Sure they'd seen her blush, or play with her hair... or act like a girl in general, but all girls did that when Sirius was around. It was different for her to actually like him.

Alice laughed, "She's fancied Sirius since first year."

"You never mentioned it," Remus gave a mock look of hurt.

"That was because she was smart enough to realize she could do better." Lily crossed her arms, normally Peter would have thought she was being harsh, but since James has been able to talk again he's been extra... enthusiastic about his affections towards her.

"Well, that and he hadn't hit puberty yet." Zoe teased, making Marlene turn even redder. "And, I noticed he pierced his ears? How is it possible he got even hotter?"

Remus' cheeks tinged pink when they mentioned Sirius' ear piercing, as though he was hoping they wouldn't notice his own, he had little steel gray hoops on today.

"That's not why..." Marlene tried but was interrupted, likely because no one believed her.

"Speaking of Sirius' ear piercing," Alice said with laughter in her eyes, "did you guys see this." She walked over to the bulletin board pulled a piece of parchment off and handed it to Remus, Peter looked over his shoulder. It was an advertisement, one of the students were offering to do ear piercing for a ridiculous price.

"You have got to be joking," Mary said when Alice handed it to the girls also. "That's pathetic. Sirius Black does it so now the entire school has to have their ears pierced?"

"Look at that price!" Lily exclaimed in disbelief, "muggle shops do it for free, and that takes more actual effort."

"It's not just here either," Alice said as she took the page back to the bulletin board, "Diggory told me it's in the Hufflepuff common room too."

Remus was about to respond, but a yell by the boys staircase interrupted him again.

"When was the last time you actually bothered to come to practice, Potter!" Once again, the entire room turned to watch the shouting match. This time it was the Quidditch captain, Matthew Smith, who was yelling.

"I don't need to practice, I'm better than everyone else regardless." James remained calm despite the captain's furious shout.

"Well, how am I supposed to know that if you don't even show up to games?" Smith's face was turning red, his fury fueled by James' boast and all-together attitude.

"I'm busy." James tried.

"I have half a mind to kick you off the team right now." That clearly hadn't been the answer Smith was looking for.

"You wouldn't dare." James' eyes narrowed.

"Oh yeah? And why not?" Smith was trying to look intimidating, even getting far too close to James' face in that attempt, but James didn't even flinch.

"Because if Sirius and I go you have no one else who's even half decent." James shrugged, Peter was in awe at how he could stare down a furious seventh year like that.

"I'd rather have a team full of lousy players than apathetic ones." Smith threatened.

"I am not apathetic," James growled, his eyes narrowing, but Smith seemed to be glad he'd finally touched a nerve.

"Yes, you are, Potter, and I'm sick of it. I..."

"I HAVE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO CARE ABOUT THAN QUIDDITCH RIGHT NOW!" James screamed and the room went silent. Never in all four years of school had any of them heard James completely lose his temper, he'd get mad, he'd storm off in a fit, he'd argue till the hippogriffs came home, but he never lost control. Smith's face went pale and Sirius stood in the stairway looking at James in horror. Even he'd never heard James scream like that.

Peter had been expecting it for some time, actually though he'd never expected it to be so public. With everything James was attempting to handle at once it had to come out eventually. The animagi training was taking its toll on all of them, but compared to James and Sirius, Peter had it easy. They were up all of any nights that they could get away with, any time Remus was sound asleep or in the medical wing, and they were the ones who had to study well over a hundred books to find the best methods of doing each step without getting caught. This, of course, was causing James and Sirius' grades to fall, Sirius got lucky here since the only two people that gave a crap about his grades were McGonagall, who was too busy to nag him about it and Remus, who was too nice. James had been getting letters from his parents, and all the teachers were keeping him after class at least once a week to explain why exactly he hadn't bothered to even look at the material.

Then there were the lies. James wasn't bad at lying, but he was a horrible liar. He hated lying to people, hated being dishonest and sneaky, it wasn't in his nature to hide things. Constantly lying to the teachers about his grades was hard enough, but lying to Remus was tearing James apart. Peter could see it every time they had to do it, every time Remus asked what they were doing that made them so exhausted when they came to see him in the medical wing, every time Remus noticed a weird book somewhere they'd missed when putting everything away at five in the morning after another all-nighter on the floor hidden under a makeshift tent of James' and Sirius' blankets (which were now permanently enchanted to block out light and sound due to the amount of times those spells were placed on them.)

Then there were his repeated attempts to ask out Evans that were getting more and more humiliating by the day.

James was having a rough school year, but he never showed it. If any of them were upset it was almost always Sirius, James would be the one to calm him down and suggest a method of stress relief. James didn't blow up under stress, and Sirius didn't seem to know how to handle it when he finally did.

Peter watched Sirius watch James. Sirius looked hesitant, frightened even, like a lost puppy with its tail between it's legs.

"Let's go, Sirius," James said but walked out the door alone, Sirius didn't follow at first but tried to shake it off and follow calling for James to wait on him.

The room was still quiet when Remus and Peter left it.

It was even nicer outside than it had seemed from the window, there were birds singing and the giant squid was sunbathing on the water's surface. The Whomping Willow even had a few leaves to smack birds away from.

The walk to Hogsmeade was so much nicer when it wasn't freezing cold out.

Remus waved to Hagrid as they approached the gate from the grounds. "All right, Remus? They piling on homework for exams yet?"

Remus smiled, they'd had time to put James' outburst in the back of their minds until they saw him again on the way down. Remus seemed anxious to talk to James though. "They're starting to give us homework for OWLs let alone exams."

Hagrid gave a chuckle.

"Where's James and Sirius?" Hagrid asked looking around as though he expected them to pop out of nowhere.

"Sirius doesn't have a permission slip, so James stays behind with him sometimes," Remus explained his smile fading though Hagrid didn't notice. Hagrid didn't look convinced but opened the gate for them and the group coming up behind them.

"Yeah, sure he does." Hagrid gave an amused smile that was almost hidden under his facial hair, but he let them pass anyway.

The storefronts of Hogsmeade reflected the change in weather: all of the windows in The Three Broomsticks were open, many of the owls in the post office were sleeping outside rather than inside, and Hogsmeade had all its Easter candies on display. The colors lifted Remus' spirit a little... though it could have been all the chocolate on display as well.

They stopped outside the colorful sweet shop, waiting for James and Sirius and chatting about all the new candies they could see before even entering the store.

Remus pointed at a licorice wrapped in golden paper about to say something when they heard their names being called from behind them. They turned, expecting Sirius and James, but what they saw made Peter's heart drop in his stomach.

Snape, Lestrange, Avery, Malfoy, Mulciber, and two more Slytherins that Peter didn't know looking angrily in their direction, many of them had paint all over them. Peter hid behind Remus.

"Where's your bodyguard, Lupin?" Lestrange asked his tone mocking.

"I don't need a bodyguard," Remus had his wand out already, his reflexes were better than an average person's.

"He really doesn't, you know." They both turned to see James and Sirius walk out of the sweet shop both with wands in their hands. The Slytherins looked upset that they no longer had an easy target but no less dangerous.

"Love the new looks," Sirius smirked at them, Peter wished he'd be quiet.

"You keep your mouth shut, traitor!" Lestrange had his wand pointed directly at Sirius. People were beginning to notice the confrontation, some seemed hopeful, but most just kept clear of the area as much as possible.

"Or what?" Sirius laughed. "Why would I be afraid of you? You're a moron."

"That's not what Bellatrix seemed to think, over the holidays." Lestrange had a smirk directed only towards Sirius.

"What do we care about what she thinks?" James asked, thinking it proved Sirius' point, but Peter knew he was wrong. Sirius' eyes flashed with pain for only a second before his face contorted with rage. Whatever Lestrange had been getting at, it had worked.

"Leave us alone, or you'll regret it," Remus warned it was surprisingly bold for Remus.

"I really don't think we will," Lestrange smirked, the pink paint all over him negated some of the threat by the sheer hilarity of it... Peter hadn't realized when Remus dropped it that it was sparkly.

Peter ran for cover the moment Malfoy cast the first spell, watching from his hiding place. He wasn't the only one either, by now everyone was running to get out of the line of fire, even those who looked hopeful before. Well nearly everyone, Frank and Alice were running towards the fight rather than away. Frank blasted Snape in the back just before he had an open shot at James who was busy blocking Avery's curse. Snape seemed dead set on getting James, he was the only person the greasy-haired git aimed at. Sirius must have noticed this as well since he made a point to be in between Snape and James as often as possible. James and Sirius managed a few nonverbal spells, but they weren't proficient enough to use them to full effect in a real combat situation. And this was definitely a real combat situation Peter realized when one of the Slytherins he didn't know screamed the incantation for the cruciatus curse for the whole street to hear. Frank just barely managed to pull Alice out of the way leaving the unforgivable to land harmlessly on a window. The sound of the glass shattering was drowned out by Frank's furious retaliation.

Most of the Slytherin's looked frightened at this, wanting to leave and avoid the association, but Snape and Lestrange weren't having second thoughts, both driven by hate rather than anger. When a few more students stood and fought against the Slytherins to help them, Malfoy and the Slytherin that Peter didn't know (the one who wasn't unconscious on the ground at Frank's feet) ran for it. A few Gryffindors (as well as Frank and Alice) from the group that joined to help ran after them leaving only Sirius, Remus, James, and a Ravenclaw girl against Snape, Lestrange, Avery, and the seventh year Mulciber.

Remus and the Ravenclaw girl had Avery and Mulciber backed into a corner, Remus' reflexes complemented her wide range of spells surprisingly well since they didn't even know each other.

Sirius and James weren't doing quite as well with the other two, Snape was using spells Peter had never even heard of and Lestrange (while his fighting only served to prove what Sirius was saying about him being an idiot) was strong. His spells had a tendency to be bigger than Sirius judged them leaving him with a burn or a scratch that infected almost instantly.

Then Snape did something that surprised them all, he aimed at Sirius.

Sirius was extremely open to Snape, not expecting him to leave his primary target and focusing solely on Lestrange who took most of his concentration just to block.

At James' call, Sirius only had time to look up in his direction before he was pushed to the ground rolling into a building, dazed for just a moment. The explosion in the wake of the spell shattered the windows of the shops in the area and rattled the ones on the rest of the street.

Mulciber let out a swear as he saw the damage and he, Avery, and Lestrange were gone before the dust settled.

Sirius ran towards the wreckage of Honeydukes the moment he could figure out what was happening. Snape was advancing on James' unconscious form with a smile that would haunt Peter's dreams before Sirius turned his wand on him.

"Rosso!" Sirius screamed, and Snape howled in pain, backing up and clutching his right arm. It and his shoulder were covered in bright red bleeding scratches. Scratches, rather than cuts because they were nowhere neat enough to be called cuts. Peter was horrified, it wasn't the first time he'd seen Sirius use dark magic on someone, it happened once their second year also... but this was different.

That was the last Peter saw, however, the sight of Snape's arm and James unconscious on the ground made him dizzy the moment he tried to stand.

Peter fainted before he had a chance to fall.