YOU MAY NOTICE CHRONICLES IS ON HOLD. THIS ISN'T, THIS I CAN WRITE, DESPITE DUMB OotP.

Disclaimer: J.K.'s

A/N: I AM SO SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY!! I will write my hand off this week, finishing this story with one long chapter (hopefully) and then writing the sequel. Before Saturday.

Puh, look at the pathetic A/N. ::mockingly:: I'm so sorry about the delay. I'll finish before Saturday. Well, it's Sunday today and I am…annoyed. Sad. And all that. Let's see…this is now a 'written before' fic. And I'm continuing the way I want, ignoring J.K. REMUS IS NOT A PREFECT IN MY WORLD! JAMES IS! AND THEY ARE NOT THE ARROGANT, HORRIBLE BASTARDS J.K. MADE THEM!

Italics are flashback.

For a while, James moped. Nothing anyone said or did made him feel any better. But it was Sirius who finally made a difference on February 17.

"Look Prongs, we all know you miss her and all that, but really. You do have a damn life! Get over the girl!"

James glared at Sirius, then laughed. "I suppose you're right. I really haven't been much fun lately have I?"

"Well," Remus said, trying to have a little more tact than Sirius, "You had to er--take time to get over it."

"I'm guessing that's your polite way of saying 'Get a life!'" James said.

Remus grinned. "You could say that."

"Well, I'm all for it. It was depressing, being depressed."

Sirius and Remus laughed. "Well, I can help with that," Remus said. "Remember at the beginning of the year I said we should Switch Slytherin Quidditch robes? We haven't done it yet."

James grinned. "Well the next match--Slytherin versus Gryffindor--is…oh my God, it's in two weeks and we need a new Beater! Okay, I'll put up signs in the common room, but first I should tell McGonagall and ask if we can use the field…we'll just use it during practice time, so that's not a problem. Maybe you should try out Remus, you're pretty good, and hmm, what else. It should be someone with experience, right? Any other suggestions?"

Sirius whooped and punched the air. "Jamie is back!"

Remus grinned, but rolled his eyes at Sirius. "I guess so. And I don't know James…"

"Oh, come on. You're a great Beater. I've seen you," James replied.

"Maybe…" Remus said reluctantly.

The group left the dormitory and went into the common room. James immediately sat down and began writing furiously. He also Summoned several things, including his Quidditch diagram.

"We had better leave him alone," Sirius said to Remus. "He's in Quidditch mode."

Remus nodded. "You're right.

Sirius hesitated for a second, then said, "So, are you going to try for it?"

Remus sighed. "If you really think I'm good…"

"You are, Remie. You're actually better than me."

Remus snorted. "Come on Sirius, you're feared by all the Quidditch teams. Everyone is afraid you'll kill them with a Bludger."

"No Remus, you are good. You've practiced with us, James, Annie, Gus and me. You can fly faster and better, even though your broom is worse--no offense--and you can hit the Bludgers much harder than me," Sirius said.

Remus shook his head. "You must've been having an off day," he insisted.

"I wouldn't lie to you Remus," Sirius protested.

"You have," Remus hissed.

"What--?"

"Sixth year, remember," Remus snapped.

Sirius felt as if he had been slapped. "Remus, that was the stupidest thing I've ever done--I've told you, I'm sorry!"

Remus gave him a look worthy of Snape. "But did you mean it?"

"Of course!" Sirius exclaimed.

"I doubt it," Remus hissed.

Sirius felt tears in his eyes. "Remus, I did! I thought everything was okay between us!"

Remus quite suddenly threw up. He then passed out.

"James!" Sirius yelled.

James looked up, annoyed. "Wha--?" The question died on his lips, and he ran over to them.

"What happened?" he asked, kneeling beside Remus, carefully avoiding the puddle of vomit.

"We were talking, then suddenly Remus turned it into an argument. So we were arguing, and then he suddenly threw up and passed out," Sirius explained.

James looked puzzled. "We should take him to Madam Pomfrey."

Sirius nodded and began to say the spell to clean up the mess from the floor.

"Wait!" James exclaimed. "Look."

Sirius looked at the mess. "Ew James, what--?" He saw quite suddenly what. Remus' vomit was a rainbow of colors. Strange colors, like magenta and bright blue.

"He must have drunk a potion. Or something," James said. "We should have Madam Pomfrey look at this."

"How are we going to get that to Madam Pomfrey?" Sirius asked.

James thought a second, then said, "We have her come up here. I'll be right back." James left through the portrait hole.

After a few minutes had passed, Remus stirred. "Sirius?" he said weakly.

"Yes, it's me," Sirius replied.

"I'm sorry. So very sorry," Remus murmured.

Sirius frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Earlier. Snape, a potion, I…" he slipped into unconsciousness once again.

Before Sirius could do anything, James and Madam Pomfrey came in.

"What happened Black?" Madam Pomfrey asked briskly.

Sirius explained again, then added the recent bout of wakefulness Remus had gone through. "He woke up, apologized and said 'Snape, a potion, I…'. And we were going to bring him to you somehow when James noticed his vomit was several strange colors."

Madam Pomfrey Summoned a little kit. She opened it and took out a small vial that couldn't hold more than a tablespoon of liquid. She filled it halfway with Remus' vomit, then put a few drops of this potion, a few drops of that potion into it, shook it, and set it aside. She then took out a second vial, and punctured Remus' finger. She let several drops of blood drip into the vial, until it was half full, put in three drops of some potion, then she seemed to remember something. "I'll need one drop of blood from one of you."

Sirius held out his finger. "Use me."

"What blood type are you dear?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

Sirius shrugged. "Just regular old O positive."

"Perfect," Madam Pomfrey said. She punctured Sirius' finger, who winced slightly, then held the vial of Remus' blood under his finger. One drop of blood fell into it, and it hissed and turned silver. Madam Pomfrey shook it as well and set it aside. She then picked up the first vial. The combination of liquids inside had turned a gross sort of brown color. She put half of this into a third vial, and kept the other half inside. She turned back to the vial of blood, which had turned steely gray. She poured half of this into the third vial along with the other liquid. She shook this and it turned a sickening shade of yellow. James actually gagged upon seeing it. Madam Pomfrey sighed. "There is a potion detectable, though I'm not sure which one. Perhaps Professor Carson--"

"No!" Sirius said.

Madam Pomfrey looked at Sirius questioningly. "Why ever not?"

"Well, Carson--Professor Carson--is quite, well, er…prejudiced. I'm not sure he'd want to, and he doesn't even really like Remus anyway," Sirius explained.

"Although I probably shouldn't, I agree Mr. Black. But who else is there?"

James spoke up. "Can I try, Madam Pomfrey?"

"I suppose," she said reluctantly, "But be careful with that!"

James nodded, closed his eyes, passed his wand over the vial and murmured a spell. He did several more spells this way.

Sirius sighed and turned away. He looked at Remus, right into Remus' open eyes.

"Sirius?" Remus questioned again, a bit more strongly then before.

"Yes, I'm still here," Sirius replied.

"Snape…in my pumpkin juice…slipped a--"

"Friend-Foe Potion!" James exclaimed in triumph.

Remus nodded slightly. "He really does hate us, you know."

"That's all very well Mr. Lupin, but you need to be taken to the Hospital Wing immediately!" Madam Pomfrey snapped.

Remus sighed. "Don't I spend enough time in there?" he questioned.

"Well, no doubt you are nearly well, seeing as you are able to be sarcastic, but I will not be satisfied until I am sure you are all right," Madam Pomfrey said, but she was now smiling affectionately at Remus. She then conjured a stretcher and began to levitate Remus onto it.

"Wait a minute, I can walk!" Remus protested.

Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips. "Oh, very well."

Remus stood up and immediately wobbled. Sirius and James grabbed his arms to prevent him from falling. He shook them off and started toward the door of the portrait hole. James, Sirius, and Madam Pomfrey followed behind.

"So, what is a Friend-Foe Potion?" Sirius asked. "I've heard of it, I think, but I don't know what it does exactly."

"Well, when a sore subject is brought up between friends, the person who has taken the potion will turn it into an argument. After arguing for a few minutes, the potion will wear off. However, if the person tries to fight the potion, it will result in them passing out and throwing up," James said.

Sirius fell silent and remained that way until they were at the Hospital Wing. Then he said to James, "Snape has hell to pay."

James nodded. "Pink tutu?"

"Too kind."

"Red bikini?"

"Too disgusting!"

"Telling the teachers about those pictures of Lily?"

"Too incriminating, and way below the belt."

"Blackmailing with the pictures?"

"What for? There's no need."

James nodded grimly. "Yes there is. Tell him to leave us alone, or we'll tell. We won't, obviously, but we can make him think we will."

Sirius shrugged. "Why not?"

James grinned.

"You seem to be perfectly fine," Madam Pomfrey said to Remus. "You can leave."

Remus walked straight out the door, without even looking at his friends.

"Remus, wait up!" Sirius yelled, running out the door, James following.

"Rem!" James called. The two boys slowed their pace as the drew even with the werewolf.

"Hey, Remie, why didn't you wait?" James asked.

Remus just shook his head. Sirius saw tears in his eyes. Sirius fell back and said quietly to James, "Just follow us, okay?" James nodded, and Sirius stepped back up beside Remus.

"Remie?"

Remus looked sadly at Sirius. "I'm so sorry Sirius. I know you're sorry, it was Snape, and that potion, I couldn't help it. I saw how much I hurt you. I'm so sorry."

"Hey, look, I understand. He's just a slimy git. Don't worry about it. Okay?"

Remus sniffled and nodded. Sirius hugged him. "Thanks Siri."

"No problem."

~*~

In five days, the Quidditch team had the tryouts. "Quite a crowd turned up," James commented.

"Yeah," replied Sirius.

"There's Remus, and Sturgis Podmore, and Wormtail--he hasn't got a chance--and…"

Sirius tuned James out. He was remembering the day he had gotten the position for Beater. It had been under these very same circumstances, when he was in his third year. It had happened just before the Christmas holidays. Sirius had decided to go home for Christmas, and his parents had been so proud…

"Beater, Sirius! Oh, how wonderful!" Ursa gushed.

Sirius grinned. "Yeah, I'm the Beater. One of the Beaters anyway."

"I'm proud of you son," Corvus said.

"We'll have to get you something extra special for Christmas," Ursa said. "Lyra, honey, did you hear that? Sirius is a Beater!"

Lyra, who at the time was five, said, "What's a Beater?"

Sirius pretended to faint. "What's a Beater?" he repeated. "Why, my dearest darling little sister, a Beater is the best da--the best position in Quidditch ever. We get to hit stuff with clubs!"

Corvus chuckled. "Only the Bludgers son, only the Bludgers."

Sirius sighed. That was one of the last good times he had had with his family. He was annoyed with himself when he realized he was on the verge of tears.

Luckily, James called to him at that moment. "Come on Sirius, the first person is up! Get in the air!"

Sirius immediately took flight.

James yelled loudly, so everyone could hear him, "Okay everyone, the rest of the team is going to be holding an ordinary practice, you'll just join in, except out other Beater, Sirius, isn't going to be doing much. If he spots something that the potential Beater won't be able to get that's life threatening, well, then he'll hit it. Okay then, Peter Pettigrew, you're up first!"

Peter looked nervous and took the Beater's club from Sirius, who handed it to him solemnly. Then he flew away, towards the middle of the pitch.

James blew his whistle and the Bludgers started zooming around, as did the Snitch. "Oh yeah, I forgot!" James yelled. "Mundungus Fletcher, the Seeker, and I, a Chaser, are on the other team! Aim for us!"

The Bludger zoomed towards Arabella Figg. Peter went after it, but he was flying sort of haphazardly. He wasn't going to make it. Sirius flew over to her, just in case. She wasn't moving, though it was obviously taking all her resolve not to fly away. At the last possible second, Sirius hit the Bludger away, not aiming at anything.

"What'd you do that for?!" Peter yelled. "I was almost there!"

"Yeah, but by the time you did, Bella's nose would be mush!" Sirius replied.

Peter looked annoyed. He turned away, obviously in a bad mood. He never even saw the second Bludger coming toward him. It hit him full in the face, causing a bad nosebleed, and possibly a break.

"Tough luck!" James yelled. "Hospital Wing! Sturgis Podmore, you're up!"

Sturgis took the club from Peter, flew up into the air, and began looking out for the Bludgers. When one flew past him, obviously heading for Wood, he tore after it. He swung his club back--and dropped it. He dove after it, but while he was concentrating on retrieving the club, the Bludger made for Arabella. Sirius knew Podmore would never retrieve the club quickly enough, so he hit the Bludger away.

Podmore had recovered the club by now, and was defending himself with it. He hit the Bludger, and the club went flying again. This time, it collided with the back of Sirius' head.

It was only Corvus' constant blows to the head that kept Sirius from passing out. He even managed to catch the club as it fell.

James was livid. "Podmore, would you mind not injuring our Beater?! The game's in less than two weeks and we don't have time to train two new Beaters, we barely have time to train one!" Podmore scowled. "You okay?" James added to Sirius.

"Fine, fine, let's just get on with it!"

A few hours later, Sirius was exhausted. They had played with twenty different people, and none of them had been half as good as Annie had been. Only Remus was left now, and Sirius was glad.

Remus flew up and took the bat from James, who had retrieved it from the teachers' stands, after the previous person had thrown it there in temper. He smiled nervously at Sirius, who flashed him a brief and tired smile.

The Bludgers began to rocket around again. One was headed for Wood, the other for Arabella. Remus flew towards Wood first, and slammed the Bludger towards James, as instructed. A split-second later, he pelted the second one towards James as well. James was forced to do a Sloth Grip Roll to avoid the first Bludger, then immediately roll back upright to avoid the second one mere seconds later. Remus played with a sort of fierce concentration neither Sirius nor James had ever seen him exhibit while doing anything before. When James blew his whistle fifteen minutes later, he quickly conferred with the rest of the team.

"Remus," said Arabella immediately.

Wood nodded. "Hate to say it Sirius, but he's better than you."

"I know," Sirius said, grinning. "That's what I told him."

"Are we all agreed?" James asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Good. Then I'll announce it--normally we'd wait a week or so, mostly for the anticipation, it's tradition, but we don't have the time." He flew up over everyone and yelled, "We have come to a conclusion. First of all, you all did pretty well, but only one of you can be a Beater. Second of all, we would normally make you wait a week before we tell you this, but we have a game in less than two, so--REMUS LUPIN, WELCOME TO THE TEAM!" All the people who had tried out applauded for Remus, who looked shocked.

James landed and walked over to where Sirius and Remus were standing. "Great job Rem," he said.

"I wasn't--I'm not--wow," Remus replied.

"Remus is in sho-sho-shock," Sirius yawned, attempting to grin but failing miserably because he was so tired.

Remus looked worriedly at Sirius. "Sirius, I'm not sure you should go to sleep before you see Madam Pomfrey, you might have a concussion from Podmore."

Sirius sighed. "Remus, I appreciate your concern, I really do, but I'm fine. I've been hit much harder than that in quick succession without getting a concussion, so you really don't need to worry." He looked bitter as he said it.

"Sirius--" Remus began, but Sirius cut him off.

"If you're going to say anything about my parents Remus, don't," Sirius snapped, immediately regretting it, when he saw Remus' hurt look. "Remus, I'm sorry, I'm just really tired and I want to go to bed. No hard feelings, right?"

Remus' look brightened a bit. "Of course not."

The three boys went to the dormitory, where Sirius fell onto his bed fully dressed and fell asleep instantly.

Sirius woke up two hours later to find that someone had removed his shoes, socks, and jeans and had pulled the blankets over him. He sat up and looked around. Remus was sitting at the end of his bed, reading a book.

He looked up when he heard Sirius' bed springs squeak. "Hey, I was just about to wake you. It's nearly dinner time. Are you still tired?"

"Exhausted," Sirius said. "Even if I could get out of bed, I'd have to go to dinner barefoot and without pants, because I can't be buggered to put my clothes back on."

Remus grinned guiltily. "That was my fault. That you're not wearing any shoes or pants I mean. I thought you'd be more comfortable, so I magicked them off."

"Thanks. I'm hungry though. But I guess I'll just stay here, I really don't think I can or want to get up," Sirius said.

Remus grinned again. "James has it covered. He's gone to the kitchens to get you some food. He figured you would be, and I quote "too lazy" to go to dinner."

"He should try guarding an entire Quidditch team from a bunch of horrible potential Beaters, not to mention taking quite a few Bludgers to various parts of the body and a club to the back of the head," Sirius grumbled. "There were maybe two good people out there, including you."

"I don't whether I should take that as a compliment or not," Remus said jokingly.

Sirius yawned and said, "Whichever you like, I don't really care. Though it was meant as a compliment."

Before Remus could respond, James came in. "Dinner is served!" He was carrying a tray with three plates on it. "I brought up a plate for Remus and me too, so you wouldn't have to eat alone."

Sirius grinned mischievously. "So, I'm 'too lazy' now am I?"

James shot a mock-glare at Remus, who was looking innocent. "Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but now you mention it…yes."

Sirius stuck his tongue out at James. "I have such wonderful friends," he said sarcastically.

Remus took a plate and handed it to Sirius, took another and handed it to James, finally taking his own. "You know, I really think you do."

Responses:

Mononoke: I hope so too! And of COURSE I've thought about Harry. James' or not, well, you'll have to see. One word. SEQUEL.

Jeswin: Yea, you like it! You've got Annie spot on. James needed a girlfriend, Sirius had Lily, thus I made Annie, and that's why she went bye-bye. And this could be AU…well, it is, but ignore that for now. It could be AU, and Sirius' parents DO kill him…EPILOGUE.

Ciria: James isn't QUITE like the crying on a friend's shoulder. I can see Remus doing it, but not James. James doesn't really seem to care, other than the depression bit. Of COURSE there will be a Harry Potter. Son of James and Lily, though, you'll have to see. SEQUEL.

lara: Thanks! Yes, it was Lily POTTER. But this COULD be AU…you'll see. SEQUEL.

o0o-Sir Sirius Black 4eva-o0o: Glad you like the pairing! And you'll have to see. SEQUEL.

Tiger Lily: Thanks! That part WAS fun to write.

Vera: Thanks, here you go.

A/N 2: Wow, I'm surprised more people didn't ask about Harry sooner. All inquiries about him will be solved in the part that is in caps in your response. For example, Jeswin wonders if Sirius' parents will kill him, and that will be solved in the epilogue. A bunch of other people wonder about Harry, that will be solved in the sequel.