James Apparated near the Shrieking Shack the night before the full moon. He crept onto Hogwart's grounds and through the Willow into the Shack. He emerged from the trapdoor. He heard a shuffling from upstairs and headed up the rickety staircase. Remus and Sirius were deep in discussion. They looked up and nodded at him as he entered. James did his usual thing and explored every corner of the room before taking a seat on the wooden floor. James was weird like that. He was paranoid and obsessive-compulsive. He always checked every corner of every room he entered. He didn't use furniture unless absolutely necessary. His two friends turned to him.
"I sent Peter an owl, but I don't know if he'll be coming. Dumbledore should be here soon and he said he's bringing a promising young Auror who's been working on defeating Voldemort since he graduated." Remus told him. James nodded to show he got the message and began a sort of meditation. He expanded his awareness. He traveled out of the shack and up to the school. Dumbledore was leaving his office. James couldn't quite see who was behind him. Dumbledore muttered something to the dark figure who said something else. They were joined by yet another figure at the main door. James saw this person clearly and gritted his teeth. Snape. The figure behind Dumbledore shrank back from both Snape's handshake and Snape's 'friendly' smile. James happily realized who the other person was. His mind zoomed back to his body.
"It's Lily!" He exclaimed to his friends. They laughed at his zeal. "And Snape." He finally added. That sobered the other two considerably.
"Does he want someone to die tonight?" Remus asked, breaking the silence.
"Probably." Sirius answered through gritted teeth. The trap door creaked open.
"Allow me to help you there, Ms. Evans." They heard Snape say. Every muscle in Sirius' body tensed. James laid a restraining hand on his shoulder as they heard Lily reply.
"No thank you, Mr. Snape. I'm perfectly capable myself." Lily was being very formal, a sure sign she was pissed.
"I wasn't implying that you weren't, Ms. Evans. I'm sure a top-grade Auror like yourself can take care of herself. The boys could almost hear her reply to that, although she didn't say anything out loud.
'And I'm sure a top-grade Death Eater like yourself would be perfectly happy to kill an Auror like me. Oh wait, you already tried that.' They were laughing when the three newcomers entered the room. Sirius couldn't wait to start the fighting.
"This house bring back deadly memories, Grease-ball?" The other four young people chuckled at his behaviour. It was even funnier when Sirius stood up and went over to Lily. He took her hand in his.
"Such a pleasure to see you again, Ms. Evans." He said demurely, lightly kissing her hand. He was mocking Snape, and doing an excellent job. Lily decided to play along.
"Ah, yes, Mr. Black. I do admit, our last meeting was not under such pleasant circumstances." The two gave each other looks of such (fake) passion that Snape was almost forced to ask.
"What circumstances?" Lily gave him a look of haughty disdain.
"Not that it is any of your business, but I found Mr. Black here in a very compromising position with my best friend."
"It was an excellent row." Remus chimed in, adding fuel to the fire.
"Are you implying that you and Mr. Black are seeing each other?" Snape asked Lily, incredulous. She smiled broadly.
"Mr. Snape, I'm not implying it, I'm saying it." Dumbledore decided to put an end to it there.
"We are not here to discuss Ms. Evans' love life, as interesting as that might be." He conjured up comfy chairs and a conference table.
"Then what are we here to discuss, Sir?" James asked.
"Excellent question, James. But first, anyone care for a starburst?" He asked, pulling out a bag of muggle candy. Snape looked disdainfully at them, he detested everything muggle, except Lily, of course. She jumped up immediately.
"Thank you, Professor. They're my favorite!" She exclaimed. Dumbledore tossed a few at her and she eagerly snatched them up. The three Marauders that were present agreed to try.
"You wanna see something cool?" Lily asked. They all nodded. She popped the candy into her mouth, wrapper and all. They could see her teeth and tongue working for about ten seconds before she reached into her mouth and pulled the wrapper out and chewed the candy.
"Super choette!" Yelled Sirius. "Je veux apprendre!" They knew he really liked it. Sirius only ever spoke in French if he really liked something.
"D'accord." Agreed Lily and Sirius grinned.
"Enough," Dumbledore commanded, tired of their foolishness. "You are here to face the rising threat of Voldemort. (A/N Did that remind anyone of Elrond's speech at Rivendell? I didn't mean for it to. It just came out that way.) He has been gathering followers since you were in school here. Even before that, but he wasn't as dangerous then."
"What makes him so dangerous now?" Sirius interrupted. Snape answered.
"This," he said, pulling up his sleeve. On his left forearm was a tattoo of a snake coming out of the mouth of a skull. "It's called a Dark Mark. With it he can control most of his followers. He can call them to him, inflict pain on them even if they are far away. He sends a green projection of it into the sky after he makes a kill." They all fell silent.
"You wear one," accused Remus. Snape nodded.
"But I am not a loyal follower. My parents pressured me into it. I became a spy."
"A rather good one, too," Dumbledore added. Snape turned red. Was he blushing?
"I thought you said moldy-Voldie uses the Mark to control his followers. How are you not controlled? Maybe you are being controlled and you don't know it. Or you're fooling us and getting information to the evil bastard." The men stared at Lily.
"Moldy-Voldie?" James asked wonderingly.
"Did that even make sense?" Remus thought aloud. Sirius put his arm around her shoulders.
"She takes after me," he proclaimed proudly. Lily was about to shrug off his arm and make some witty comment at him, but remembered the act they were putting on for Snape and held her tongue. Snape frowned at them and answered Lily's question.
"I happen to have a particularly strong will," he stated simply. The other four young people looked at Dumbledore.
"Severus has my trust," was all he said. They looked at each other, still not sure. Then Lily nodded. She believed them. Remus followed her lead, then James a little reluctantly. They looked at Sirius expectantly.
"Everyone here must trust everyone else explicitly. If you have a problem I suggest you leave," Dumbledore stated, loud and clear. Sirius stood up.