The students of Hogwarts all breathed sighs of relief when the bell rang to signal the end of their last exam of the term.  The Marauders rolled up their History of Magic essays and handed them to Professor Binns as he glided through the rows rambling on in his monotonous voice.  He seemed to be the only one in the entire school who hadn't noticed that school was out for another year, but then again, he hadn't noticed his own death either.

Students piled out of classrooms, whooping for joy while some of the Muggle-born children chanted "no more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks!" and their friends asked what pencils were.

Sirius seemed to be the only student in the entire school who was dreading the coming vacation.  As the end of term approached, his normally good mood had been turning dark.  He seemed to be going into overdrive with the pranks, storing up as many good memories as possible to get him through the coming months; he wasn't looking forward to his family's reaction about his being sorted into Gryffindor.

The four boys joined the throng of students heading outside to enjoy their freedom.  There was a large group of upperclassmen messing around the Whomping Willow (the game Sirius had invented as a bet earlier in the year had turned into a full-blown school sport), but for once they didn't feel like joining in.  Sirius's gloomy mood was rubbing off on his friends no matter how hard they all tried to enjoy their last days of school.  Peter was whining that he'd failed his exams while James absently assured him otherwise.

They'd only been walking around for about ten minutes when the results of their exams magically appeared posted on one of the great doors.  The Marauders drifted over and pushed their way to the front of the crowd of first years to see what they'd gotten.  They skimmed over their grades, but there were no real surprises.  Sirius had the top marks in the year in Transfiguration ("Bet McGonagall loved that.") with 115 points (McGonagall had given extra credit to students who were able to perform advanced Transfiguration spells), followed by James with a 113.  In Charms James had the highest score with a 109, Remus beat them all in Defense Against the Dark Arts with a 107, followed by Sirius with a 104 and…

"Snape? How'd that git get those kind of marks?  Isn't it supposed to be Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

James had the highest overall marks of all the first years; Sirius had refused to study which resulted in C's in both History of Magic and Herbology, and Remus's D in Potions had dropped his average considerably.

"A 79!  One more point and I would have got a friggin' B!  I hate Binns!" Sirius ranted.

James raised an eyebrow.  "Well maybe if you'd studied at all you would have gotten your B."

"Or if you'd at least cracked a book all year." Remus added.

"For your information, Moony, I did "crack a book," I spent an entire hour drawing Quidditch figures in the History of Magic textbook."

They all laughed as they continued to skim the list of grades.  To James's fury, Snape had beaten him by four points in Potions.

"Oh come on, James, you knew Smeral would favor the Slytherins.  He always does." Peter piped up.

"But there was nothing wrong with my potion!  Nothing!  I double-checked every step!" he insisted, running a hand through his already messy hair.

"You have way too much time on your hands." Remus said, shaking his head.  Remus had never been any good at brewing potions and he wasn't all that interested in learning.

Sirius patted his best friend on the shoulder consolingly.  "Just look at Snape's Transfiguration grade.  That should make you feel better."

"At least you got a 96." Remus winced.  "That puts you 39 points up on me."

James grinned lopsidedly.  "No offense, Moony, but beating you in Potions isn't much of an accomplishment."

Remus punched him on the arm and Sirius broke in before it could turn into an all-out wrestling match right there on the steps of the castle with all the other first years crowded around trying to get a look at their own grades and watching the three most popular underclassmen at the school (everyone seemed to forget Peter's existence when talking about how hot the Marauders were).

"Why don't we go find Snivellus so James can have his revenge." Sirius suggested, grinning wickedly.

The devilish gleam that came to James's eyes at the prospect perfectly matched Sirius's evil grin. 

"I love the way you think, Sir."

"Only because I think exactly like you."

"Of course."

They found Snape sitting near the edge of the lake, reading again.

"This is too easy." James said in a bored voice as he leveled his wand at the greasy Slytherin.

Snape's body began to rise off the ground, but he was so absorbed in his book, and James performed the spell so well that the boy didn't notice until he was hovering three feet in the air and began to draw the attention of the students around him.  The laughter of a group of third year Hufflepuff girls caused Snape to look up from his book, and when he saw the ground was no longer beneath him, he tried to jump to his feet.  Since there was nothing supporting his other than James's spell, he merely succeeded in making himself look foolish.

They had now attracted the quite a crowd and James decided to make the spectacle more entertaining.  He was met with cheers of encouragement as he floated Snape out over the lake and repeatedly threatened to drop him into the water.  Peter was so excited that his voice was breathy as he murmured "Do it, do it."

"You sound like you're watchin' porn or sumthin, Pete." Sirius said disgustedly.

"Sirius!"

"Hey, I'm not the one goin' around sayin' 'do it, do it,' don't yell at me."

Remus was smirking slightly as James dropped Snape and caught him only inches from the surface of the lake, but it was Sirius who seemed to get the biggest kick out of making a fool of the boy who was always so cruel to Muggle-born children.  He bewitched Snape's body to act like a ballerina, much to the amusement of the audience and the furious embarrassment of Snape.

Snape was suspended in mid-air, rising and dropping, his body beyond his control and inverting itself into a difficult scorpion position that he wasn't nearly flexible enough to pull off.  Instead of looking graceful, he looked ridiculous and the fury on his face only made it worse.

"Fucking Mudblood lover!" he screeched at James.

Both James and Sirius looked like they would've liked to ring Snape's neck, but it was Remus who nudged James and motioned in the direction of the giant squid, basking in the shallows and stretching its tentacles lazily.  James grinned and made Snape dangle about five feet over the squid.  He was writhing crazily against the enchantment Sirius had put on him, making himself look more outlandish than ever and attracting the attention of the squid.

It reached out two enormous tentacles for him, but James started a game of cat and mouse, using Snape as the mouse.  Eventually he gave in to the cries of 'Drop him!' and allowed the squid to grab Snape.  The Slytherin screamed like a little girl as a wet, suction cup-covered tentacle wrapped around him and others started to prod him curiously as if trying to determine what he was. 

Soon the squid tired of its squealing prey and dropped him like a piece of garbage into the lake.  Snape was left to swim to shore (or dog paddle, more accurately) where he was met by the howling laughter of his classmates and James's condescending voice.

"See, Snape, wizards don't actually melt when they get wet.  You could actually take a shower and wash that filthy hair of yours."

Snape refused to answer as he stomped past them, dripping wet, and headed toward the castle.