A/N: Thank you to everyone who has review this story. If I ever meet you, I
will bake you brownies! (Except Aure. she's getting her May Day present
soon) This chapter is about 7 pages long including Author notes, which
rivals all the other except the Romeo and Juliet scene, but that was about
3 chapters put together. This one could have been broken up into two or
three, but I like it better in its entirety. Enjoy, I'm off to have a party
for completing my first fanfic.
The teachers had already arranged for Remus to take his Friday O.W.L.s on that Thursday night before he had to leave the castle for the Shrieking Shack. Sirius had finally figured out exactly how he was going to get his revenge on Remus for taking his girlfriend, and at the same time, he would get rid of Snape.
Sirius had plotted this carefully between tests in order to make sure that it did not get messed up and also that no one would suspect him being up to something. But then, Sirius always seemed to be up to something, just never something that might kill someone and sentence his friend inevitably to Azkaban. It certainly seemed that Mr. Black had gone temporarily mad.
Early on Saturday morning, while none of the others were up yet, he went down toward the Entrance Hall to try and find Severus Snape. When Snape finally did come up from the dungeons, with Lucius close behind. He sneered when he saw Sirius waiting there, and from the looks of things, for him. "Good morning Severus," said Sirius, in a sincere nice tone.
"And what exactly do you want, Black? You and your group going to come out and pounce on me at any moment?" He asked. Lucius just stood there behind Snape with his usual smirk.
"I have been noticing all year that you've been slithering around in, what I'm guessing, an attempt to try and get us all suspended, and I want to help you purge the school of Peter, Remus and especially James." replied Sirius. He knew exactly how to get Snape to stop and listen to him for more than two seconds.
"Why should I believe that you're going to help me get your friends suspended?" replied Severus, looking very doubtful at the truth of this statement.
"We had a huge difference of opinion and I'm currently mad at them all, so I suggest you take my offer before I decide I might not want them to leave. It's a lot more fun to have their help when I pull pranks on you." responded Sirius with a grin.
"Alright, what do you have to offer?" he asked, getting slowly irritated.
"Well, rumor is that they all sneaked out of the castle about 3 AM, so that was about two hours ago, and went through the Whomping Willow to Hogsmeade for the day. I do not know how they figured they would get away with it, but all you have to do. Go down by the tree and find a long enough branch to hit the knot in the Willow and it'll freeze. Then you just go down the trapdoor right next to the spot you hit and walk along for a while and you'll more than likely catch them all by surprise," whispered Sirius, making sure Lucius could not hear a word of what they were saying. "And don't let Lucius follow you, or he might take you off track of the current plot."
Snape just nodded a bit, went and said something to Lucius before storming off to the dark grounds. Lucius' eyes turned to slits as he watched Sirius for a moment and then he went off to get breakfast on his own. Sirius just smiled to himself, chuckling a bit. It wasn't extremely long before James could be seen coming down with Peter, Lily and Gwen not far behind.
"And what exactly has you awake this early?" asked Peter, yawning. "We all woke up when we didn't hear you snoring in bed. Plus you look extremely happy for being up this early."
"Well I just got rid of all of our troubles all at once," replied Sirius, looking extremely pleased with himself.
"I don't like his tone." commented Lily.
"I really don't like his tone," added Gwen.
"What the matter with his tone?" Asked Peter. The two girls just glared at him irritatedly.
"May I asked exactly which trouble of ours you purged the school of now?" asked James exhaustedly. The lack of sleep had finally caught up with him.
"Severus." said Sirius gleefully. This single word seemed to drag all sleepiness out of all of them.
"Snape?" said James in disbelief.
Gwen already had Sirius by the collar of his shirt though. "I'd strongly insinuate for you to tell us exactly how you did that, so I'll be forced to kill you here and now and if what happened is what I think happened, I might anyhow."
"It's just a bit of fun. It will probably be sunrise before he reaches the Shrieking Shack anyway," said Sirius in a strained voice.
"Me taedet tecum." said Gwen with a scoff, not letting him go quite yet. "It's an hour until dawn, and you are so lucky that we did get up. Expelliarmus!"
The spell knocked Sirius back into the stairs and his wand flew out of his pocket and rolled down the stairs. He was perfectly fine, just a bit stunned. Gwen turned and walked straight out of the castle, running toward the Whomping Willow. James was right at her heels. "Do you have a plan here?" he asked quite seriously.
"Get in the tunnel and yell really loud and hope I'm not too late," replied Gwen, not pausing for a moment.
"And what if he can't hear you. Hogsmeade is a good distance away Gwen," responded James. "Let me go. In the difference of a split second, I have the advantage here."
"If you go then half of Snape's head will be chewed off before you even try!"
"Just." James grabbed her by the shoulder and made her stop. "Trust me here. I don't want Remus gone any less than you do. For different reasons, I can assure you, but nevertheless I do not want to get Snape killed. Not like this. All else fails, I can transform so I won't get hurt."
"Well get going then!" Exclaimed Gwen, handing his a tree branch lying nearby. "Good luck."
James used his wand to light up the dark tunnel. He was running quickly and trying not to trip over any roots that could be in his way since he did not see any light ahead of him to indicate Snape might be near. From the distance he had gone so far he had to be near the town's border at least. Every muscle in his legs was aching from running so much, but James knew that if he did not get there in enough time, it would be on his conscience as well as Remus' and Sirius'. Finally, in the distance, he could see the slimy haired git, but he the trap door all the way opened and was about to climb out into the Shrieking Shack. He was too tired to yell out, so James quickly transformed into a graceful stag and somehow got up just behind Snape. He saw the werewolf slowly creeping up on Snape, so, without further hesitation, James grabbed him by the end of his robes back into the tunnel.
"What in the name of all that's magic possessed you to go over here?!" exclaimed James, still too mad at Sirius to be falling over laughing at the fact that Snape had wet himself.
"What was. How. Who." Snape could not even make out intelligible sentences.
James sighed in exasperation. "I have a feeling all you questions will be answered by Professor Dumbledore as soon as we get back to the castle," he said, motioning for Snape to follow him.
The sun was slowly rising went the two got back to the entrance to the tunnel, neither saying a word to each other. There were three teachers along with the rest of the Marauders waiting right outside the Willow, and they dragged the two boys outside since the tree was still frozen after several pokes. "Well are you happy now, Mr. Snape. If it weren't for Mr. Potter here, you might be dead right now," said Professor Dumbledore. Snape looked over at James, who just gave him a faint smile. For a split second, he did not have that stuck up Quidditch player grin.
"I do believe that this is grounds for suspension for both Mr. Black and Mr. Snape," commented Professor Weasley as if this was an everyday occurrence. Neither Severus nor Sirius looked to confidant about the outcome of this conversation between the teachers.
"Out of school boundaries. Putting a fellow student in the face of danger where death could have been a more than likely outcome? Sounds more like a good reason for a night in Azkaban," added Professor Greenleaf.
Professor Dumbledore seemed to be amused by this, but was not likely to suspend either of them. "I think that this is a fair enough lesson for both boys. Along with a subtraction of 50 points from both Gryffindor and Slytherin and detention with Mr. Filch this whole week." The two seemed to agree with this, but then the thought of having detention all week with Filch would be unbearable in itself. "And now Mr. Potter."
James had not dared to look over at Sirius because he would probably have to hit him if he did, though it did look like Sirius already had a black eye. "Yes Sir?" He had the feeling he was going to get Gryffindor a few more lost points for running out of the castle while it was still pitch black out. After their lead had just been broken and he knew Ravenclaw would be in the lead as it was.
"It takes a great amount of bravery to do what you did down there this morning. Especially considering you knew what you would find at the other end. I do believe 50 points is in line for Gryffindor, if my co workers will agree." Dumbledore looked at the two other teachers who seemed to still be busy scolding the others for being out there.
"I'd say a hundred if Ravenclaw weren't so close behind Gryffindor," replied Professor Weasley. "Don't want to give them too much of an advantage, do we?"
"Fifty sounds good. It will make it easier for us to make up a good story, since no one here is allowed to repeat what happened here under penalty of 200 points getting taken off your house," said Professor Greenleaf. And when she told you something, you knew you better do it or she might feed you to the orcs or perhaps the drows.
"But what do I tell Lucius?" asked Snape.
"You got caught by the teachers before you got extremely far," replied Professor Greenleaf. "If he does not believe you, then tell him to ask me and I will more than happily repeat the same story. Now all of you get back to the castle, and I do not want to hear another peep about this and I have very good hearing." The Gryffindors all nodded, heading back to the castle, all not talking to Sirius. "This includes the fact that you shall not repeat to another soul that you now know where Mr. Lupin goes off to once a month. Do we understand each other, Mr. Snape?"
"Perfectly Ma'am."
*~*~*~*~*~*
The only results that Sirius got out of this extremely inappropriate prank was scrubbing the dungeons with his might-have-been victim. After a few days of having the silent treatment given to him by all of his friends, including Remus now that he was back in the castle, Sirius did begin to regret his actions. No matter how many times he tried to say that he was sorry though, they ignored him.
"Morning Gwen," he said early one day in the last week of June. There was no one else around since everyone was putting together most of their things since the Hogwarts Express would be leaving for London tomorrow morning. He did not actually expect a reply out of her though.
"Hullo Sirius. Come to try and kill another one of us have you?" she replied. It was a bit of an insult, but a reply figured Sirius.
"Not when I have to take care of a black eye that a certain someone in this room gave to me," he commented.
Gwen looked around the room, and, since there was no one else around, looked back at him with confusion etched all over her face. "Well why are you going around and hitting yourself in the eye?" She asked. "Though I would be too if I had done even half of the traitorous things you've pulled off this month."
Sirius just looked at her. He was not about to laugh at that and he knew better than too physically hit girls. He would hit on them all he wanted, but not hit them. "You're so sharp there, you might want to be afraid of poking yourself," he replied.
"Well so far I've busted your inflated ego, so it's done me some good," she shot back.
"What is your problem, Gwen?" It was surprising that no one had come down and overheard them by now.
Gwen just scoffed. "Me? I have a problem, do I Sirius?"
"Yes. Yes, you do," Sirius replied matter-of-factly.
"Of course I have problem, I'm a human being after all. I do not have half as many as you seem to have to work out, but I have problems like the rest of the population of England. Do you have any idea what it is going to be like for James and I this summer? Having to go through day by day with the constant knowledge that no matter where we look, neither of us is going to see our dad again? Of course you don't. Hopefully you will never have to know that kind of pain to lose someone that means so much to you. Yes, I am wishing you well here, believe it or not. Or perhaps you're referring to Remus here, and if you are, you are, nor have you ever really been, my first choice of a boyfriend. I felt sorry for you and that was it. With Remus." For a moment she caught her breath a bit and sighed. "I don't care. I really do not care that he has to go away once a month due to the full moon. I love him, and nothing that you can do at this point can make me stop. But if anyone has the problem that you are referring to. It's yourself Sirius."
Since she had now rendered him speechless for the moment, Gwen stood up from her chair and went up the staircase to the girls' dormitory.
"Heads, we talk to him again, tails, we throw him out the window. Sound like a good plan?" came James' voice from the staircase.
"I hate to tell you, Prongs, but that's a double headed coin," remarked Remus. The two could be seen coming down with Peter in tow.
James gave off an extremely fake sigh. "Well I guess we don't get to throw him out the window today. Besides, knowing him he'd bounce."
"That would be a sight. Padfoot the amazing bouncing Grim," asserted Peter.
"You're going to think amazing bouncing Grim, Wormtail." commented Sirius, speaking at last. "How much of that did you three hear?"
"Somewhere from the busted inflated ego on." Said James. "And she's 150% right on that. All of it."
"Wow. I can never get a 100% on anything and she's getting 150." sighed Peter.
"Then I suppose I owe you all an apology. To Remus for almost getting him in front of the werewolf control panel at the MoM. To James for basically making you but your life on the line to save that bloody git. And Peter. for having a name that messes him up so much in Astronomy," replied Sirius.
"Not to push you to do anything now, Sirius, but I think you may want to give one to Gwen too. Even if she did hit you. and insulted you. and basically got her payback, I think she deserves that much," replied James.
"Do I have to?!"
"YES!" replied the other three Marauders at once.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Lily, Remus and Gwen had gotten a different compartment than the others since no matter what they did, Gwen refused to even be close to Sirius. Remus and Lily just went along so she would not be lonely and they had seen Sirius all year as it was. The ride was extremely peaceful with James stopping by every now and then, and Lily reassuring him that he wasn't going to find out half way through the summer that his sister was pregnant, which got her a couple of Every Flavour beans pelted at her.
"May I borrow my sister for a minute?" he asked at one point, just popping in without a knock.
"As long as you return her in the same condition she left in." replied Lily. Gwen went out into the hallway to see what her darling brother could possibly want.
"Do not even start up with Sirius, James, because I refuse," she said right off the bat.
"Nothing to do with Sirius in the least. I was just wondering how you're doing considering we both know what we're going home to," replied James.
"What comes comes. I just take the good with the bad and hope for the best," she replied with a smile. "And you?"
"I'm just not happy that you stole my girlfriend away on the train ride back, but I'm learning to deal with it. I think I'll be fine Gwen."
"Anything else you wanted?"
"Nothing I can think of, you?"
"Well now that you mention it," replied Gwen. "I have discovered something this year. That is that I will never in a million years understand what Lily sees in you. But I have figured out exactly why you must be so crazy over her."
"And why exactly is that?" Asked James, wondering if he really wanted to know.
"Because she is a damn good kisser."
The teachers had already arranged for Remus to take his Friday O.W.L.s on that Thursday night before he had to leave the castle for the Shrieking Shack. Sirius had finally figured out exactly how he was going to get his revenge on Remus for taking his girlfriend, and at the same time, he would get rid of Snape.
Sirius had plotted this carefully between tests in order to make sure that it did not get messed up and also that no one would suspect him being up to something. But then, Sirius always seemed to be up to something, just never something that might kill someone and sentence his friend inevitably to Azkaban. It certainly seemed that Mr. Black had gone temporarily mad.
Early on Saturday morning, while none of the others were up yet, he went down toward the Entrance Hall to try and find Severus Snape. When Snape finally did come up from the dungeons, with Lucius close behind. He sneered when he saw Sirius waiting there, and from the looks of things, for him. "Good morning Severus," said Sirius, in a sincere nice tone.
"And what exactly do you want, Black? You and your group going to come out and pounce on me at any moment?" He asked. Lucius just stood there behind Snape with his usual smirk.
"I have been noticing all year that you've been slithering around in, what I'm guessing, an attempt to try and get us all suspended, and I want to help you purge the school of Peter, Remus and especially James." replied Sirius. He knew exactly how to get Snape to stop and listen to him for more than two seconds.
"Why should I believe that you're going to help me get your friends suspended?" replied Severus, looking very doubtful at the truth of this statement.
"We had a huge difference of opinion and I'm currently mad at them all, so I suggest you take my offer before I decide I might not want them to leave. It's a lot more fun to have their help when I pull pranks on you." responded Sirius with a grin.
"Alright, what do you have to offer?" he asked, getting slowly irritated.
"Well, rumor is that they all sneaked out of the castle about 3 AM, so that was about two hours ago, and went through the Whomping Willow to Hogsmeade for the day. I do not know how they figured they would get away with it, but all you have to do. Go down by the tree and find a long enough branch to hit the knot in the Willow and it'll freeze. Then you just go down the trapdoor right next to the spot you hit and walk along for a while and you'll more than likely catch them all by surprise," whispered Sirius, making sure Lucius could not hear a word of what they were saying. "And don't let Lucius follow you, or he might take you off track of the current plot."
Snape just nodded a bit, went and said something to Lucius before storming off to the dark grounds. Lucius' eyes turned to slits as he watched Sirius for a moment and then he went off to get breakfast on his own. Sirius just smiled to himself, chuckling a bit. It wasn't extremely long before James could be seen coming down with Peter, Lily and Gwen not far behind.
"And what exactly has you awake this early?" asked Peter, yawning. "We all woke up when we didn't hear you snoring in bed. Plus you look extremely happy for being up this early."
"Well I just got rid of all of our troubles all at once," replied Sirius, looking extremely pleased with himself.
"I don't like his tone." commented Lily.
"I really don't like his tone," added Gwen.
"What the matter with his tone?" Asked Peter. The two girls just glared at him irritatedly.
"May I asked exactly which trouble of ours you purged the school of now?" asked James exhaustedly. The lack of sleep had finally caught up with him.
"Severus." said Sirius gleefully. This single word seemed to drag all sleepiness out of all of them.
"Snape?" said James in disbelief.
Gwen already had Sirius by the collar of his shirt though. "I'd strongly insinuate for you to tell us exactly how you did that, so I'll be forced to kill you here and now and if what happened is what I think happened, I might anyhow."
"It's just a bit of fun. It will probably be sunrise before he reaches the Shrieking Shack anyway," said Sirius in a strained voice.
"Me taedet tecum." said Gwen with a scoff, not letting him go quite yet. "It's an hour until dawn, and you are so lucky that we did get up. Expelliarmus!"
The spell knocked Sirius back into the stairs and his wand flew out of his pocket and rolled down the stairs. He was perfectly fine, just a bit stunned. Gwen turned and walked straight out of the castle, running toward the Whomping Willow. James was right at her heels. "Do you have a plan here?" he asked quite seriously.
"Get in the tunnel and yell really loud and hope I'm not too late," replied Gwen, not pausing for a moment.
"And what if he can't hear you. Hogsmeade is a good distance away Gwen," responded James. "Let me go. In the difference of a split second, I have the advantage here."
"If you go then half of Snape's head will be chewed off before you even try!"
"Just." James grabbed her by the shoulder and made her stop. "Trust me here. I don't want Remus gone any less than you do. For different reasons, I can assure you, but nevertheless I do not want to get Snape killed. Not like this. All else fails, I can transform so I won't get hurt."
"Well get going then!" Exclaimed Gwen, handing his a tree branch lying nearby. "Good luck."
James used his wand to light up the dark tunnel. He was running quickly and trying not to trip over any roots that could be in his way since he did not see any light ahead of him to indicate Snape might be near. From the distance he had gone so far he had to be near the town's border at least. Every muscle in his legs was aching from running so much, but James knew that if he did not get there in enough time, it would be on his conscience as well as Remus' and Sirius'. Finally, in the distance, he could see the slimy haired git, but he the trap door all the way opened and was about to climb out into the Shrieking Shack. He was too tired to yell out, so James quickly transformed into a graceful stag and somehow got up just behind Snape. He saw the werewolf slowly creeping up on Snape, so, without further hesitation, James grabbed him by the end of his robes back into the tunnel.
"What in the name of all that's magic possessed you to go over here?!" exclaimed James, still too mad at Sirius to be falling over laughing at the fact that Snape had wet himself.
"What was. How. Who." Snape could not even make out intelligible sentences.
James sighed in exasperation. "I have a feeling all you questions will be answered by Professor Dumbledore as soon as we get back to the castle," he said, motioning for Snape to follow him.
The sun was slowly rising went the two got back to the entrance to the tunnel, neither saying a word to each other. There were three teachers along with the rest of the Marauders waiting right outside the Willow, and they dragged the two boys outside since the tree was still frozen after several pokes. "Well are you happy now, Mr. Snape. If it weren't for Mr. Potter here, you might be dead right now," said Professor Dumbledore. Snape looked over at James, who just gave him a faint smile. For a split second, he did not have that stuck up Quidditch player grin.
"I do believe that this is grounds for suspension for both Mr. Black and Mr. Snape," commented Professor Weasley as if this was an everyday occurrence. Neither Severus nor Sirius looked to confidant about the outcome of this conversation between the teachers.
"Out of school boundaries. Putting a fellow student in the face of danger where death could have been a more than likely outcome? Sounds more like a good reason for a night in Azkaban," added Professor Greenleaf.
Professor Dumbledore seemed to be amused by this, but was not likely to suspend either of them. "I think that this is a fair enough lesson for both boys. Along with a subtraction of 50 points from both Gryffindor and Slytherin and detention with Mr. Filch this whole week." The two seemed to agree with this, but then the thought of having detention all week with Filch would be unbearable in itself. "And now Mr. Potter."
James had not dared to look over at Sirius because he would probably have to hit him if he did, though it did look like Sirius already had a black eye. "Yes Sir?" He had the feeling he was going to get Gryffindor a few more lost points for running out of the castle while it was still pitch black out. After their lead had just been broken and he knew Ravenclaw would be in the lead as it was.
"It takes a great amount of bravery to do what you did down there this morning. Especially considering you knew what you would find at the other end. I do believe 50 points is in line for Gryffindor, if my co workers will agree." Dumbledore looked at the two other teachers who seemed to still be busy scolding the others for being out there.
"I'd say a hundred if Ravenclaw weren't so close behind Gryffindor," replied Professor Weasley. "Don't want to give them too much of an advantage, do we?"
"Fifty sounds good. It will make it easier for us to make up a good story, since no one here is allowed to repeat what happened here under penalty of 200 points getting taken off your house," said Professor Greenleaf. And when she told you something, you knew you better do it or she might feed you to the orcs or perhaps the drows.
"But what do I tell Lucius?" asked Snape.
"You got caught by the teachers before you got extremely far," replied Professor Greenleaf. "If he does not believe you, then tell him to ask me and I will more than happily repeat the same story. Now all of you get back to the castle, and I do not want to hear another peep about this and I have very good hearing." The Gryffindors all nodded, heading back to the castle, all not talking to Sirius. "This includes the fact that you shall not repeat to another soul that you now know where Mr. Lupin goes off to once a month. Do we understand each other, Mr. Snape?"
"Perfectly Ma'am."
*~*~*~*~*~*
The only results that Sirius got out of this extremely inappropriate prank was scrubbing the dungeons with his might-have-been victim. After a few days of having the silent treatment given to him by all of his friends, including Remus now that he was back in the castle, Sirius did begin to regret his actions. No matter how many times he tried to say that he was sorry though, they ignored him.
"Morning Gwen," he said early one day in the last week of June. There was no one else around since everyone was putting together most of their things since the Hogwarts Express would be leaving for London tomorrow morning. He did not actually expect a reply out of her though.
"Hullo Sirius. Come to try and kill another one of us have you?" she replied. It was a bit of an insult, but a reply figured Sirius.
"Not when I have to take care of a black eye that a certain someone in this room gave to me," he commented.
Gwen looked around the room, and, since there was no one else around, looked back at him with confusion etched all over her face. "Well why are you going around and hitting yourself in the eye?" She asked. "Though I would be too if I had done even half of the traitorous things you've pulled off this month."
Sirius just looked at her. He was not about to laugh at that and he knew better than too physically hit girls. He would hit on them all he wanted, but not hit them. "You're so sharp there, you might want to be afraid of poking yourself," he replied.
"Well so far I've busted your inflated ego, so it's done me some good," she shot back.
"What is your problem, Gwen?" It was surprising that no one had come down and overheard them by now.
Gwen just scoffed. "Me? I have a problem, do I Sirius?"
"Yes. Yes, you do," Sirius replied matter-of-factly.
"Of course I have problem, I'm a human being after all. I do not have half as many as you seem to have to work out, but I have problems like the rest of the population of England. Do you have any idea what it is going to be like for James and I this summer? Having to go through day by day with the constant knowledge that no matter where we look, neither of us is going to see our dad again? Of course you don't. Hopefully you will never have to know that kind of pain to lose someone that means so much to you. Yes, I am wishing you well here, believe it or not. Or perhaps you're referring to Remus here, and if you are, you are, nor have you ever really been, my first choice of a boyfriend. I felt sorry for you and that was it. With Remus." For a moment she caught her breath a bit and sighed. "I don't care. I really do not care that he has to go away once a month due to the full moon. I love him, and nothing that you can do at this point can make me stop. But if anyone has the problem that you are referring to. It's yourself Sirius."
Since she had now rendered him speechless for the moment, Gwen stood up from her chair and went up the staircase to the girls' dormitory.
"Heads, we talk to him again, tails, we throw him out the window. Sound like a good plan?" came James' voice from the staircase.
"I hate to tell you, Prongs, but that's a double headed coin," remarked Remus. The two could be seen coming down with Peter in tow.
James gave off an extremely fake sigh. "Well I guess we don't get to throw him out the window today. Besides, knowing him he'd bounce."
"That would be a sight. Padfoot the amazing bouncing Grim," asserted Peter.
"You're going to think amazing bouncing Grim, Wormtail." commented Sirius, speaking at last. "How much of that did you three hear?"
"Somewhere from the busted inflated ego on." Said James. "And she's 150% right on that. All of it."
"Wow. I can never get a 100% on anything and she's getting 150." sighed Peter.
"Then I suppose I owe you all an apology. To Remus for almost getting him in front of the werewolf control panel at the MoM. To James for basically making you but your life on the line to save that bloody git. And Peter. for having a name that messes him up so much in Astronomy," replied Sirius.
"Not to push you to do anything now, Sirius, but I think you may want to give one to Gwen too. Even if she did hit you. and insulted you. and basically got her payback, I think she deserves that much," replied James.
"Do I have to?!"
"YES!" replied the other three Marauders at once.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Lily, Remus and Gwen had gotten a different compartment than the others since no matter what they did, Gwen refused to even be close to Sirius. Remus and Lily just went along so she would not be lonely and they had seen Sirius all year as it was. The ride was extremely peaceful with James stopping by every now and then, and Lily reassuring him that he wasn't going to find out half way through the summer that his sister was pregnant, which got her a couple of Every Flavour beans pelted at her.
"May I borrow my sister for a minute?" he asked at one point, just popping in without a knock.
"As long as you return her in the same condition she left in." replied Lily. Gwen went out into the hallway to see what her darling brother could possibly want.
"Do not even start up with Sirius, James, because I refuse," she said right off the bat.
"Nothing to do with Sirius in the least. I was just wondering how you're doing considering we both know what we're going home to," replied James.
"What comes comes. I just take the good with the bad and hope for the best," she replied with a smile. "And you?"
"I'm just not happy that you stole my girlfriend away on the train ride back, but I'm learning to deal with it. I think I'll be fine Gwen."
"Anything else you wanted?"
"Nothing I can think of, you?"
"Well now that you mention it," replied Gwen. "I have discovered something this year. That is that I will never in a million years understand what Lily sees in you. But I have figured out exactly why you must be so crazy over her."
"And why exactly is that?" Asked James, wondering if he really wanted to know.
"Because she is a damn good kisser."