"Fine. I won't bother in future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus."

Lily's comment to Snape was so good that I wanted to go over to her, shake her hand and give her an award for great comebacks. If Snape was going to call her a mudblood, she was very much in her right to call him Snivellus.

After a few seconds of thinking about Lily's comment, my attention was drawn back to James who was red in the face, pointing his wand at Snape and shouting, "Apologise to Evans!"

I thought Lily was going to take James's side now, but she shouted back at him and told him that he was just as bad as Snape was, then insulted James and left.

I watched James and saw his face fall, but as soon as he noticed there was still a crowd of students around us, watching expectantly to see if the humiliation of Snape would continue, James pointed his wand at Snape, who was walking away from us and hoisted him up by his ankle again.

"Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?" James said to the crowd, and they all let out a cheer. I looked back at Lily, who was making her way to the castle but still in earshot of James. She didn't even flinch.

I looked back at Snape, whose trousers were now on the floor. Surely James wouldn't take off his underpants...

Not that Snape didn't deserve that kind of humiliation, especially after what he'd just called Lily, but I certainly didn't want to see him under his pants, and I'm sure everyone in the crowd didn't either unless they were perverts.

Thankfully, Professor Flitwick emerged from the castle soon after, and as soon as he saw the scene that was unfolding by the tree, he drew his wand and started shouting at everyone and running toward us.

"Mr. Potter, this is behaviour I'd expect from a first-year!" he squeaked, and as James looked at him, Snape dropped to the ground. "That's twenty points from Gryffindor and detention with me. That detention's right now, Potter."

"But Professor, how am I meant to practice for my Defence Against the Dark Arts practical exam?" James asked.

"Why weren't you doing that just now instead of picking on Mr. Snape?" Flitwick asked. James didn't have a response to that, so he just followed Professor Flitwick back toward the castle.

The crowd began to disperse, and Snape, who was still buttoning up his trousers, scurried off with them.

We didn't see James again until we were lining up outside the Great Hall for the second time that day, this time for our Defence Against the Dark Arts practical examination.

"How was detention, Prongs?" Sirius asked James when we saw him.

"Prongs?" I repeated, realising this was the second time Sirius was using this nickname for James today.

"Oh, yeah," said James. "I think I want that to be my name for... y'know. Because like, prongs... antlers... I dunno, I just thought it sounded cool..."

"No, yeah, it is cool," I said.

"Anyway, how was the detention?" Sirius asked.

James rolled his eyes. "Alright, I suppose. Flitwick made me write lines."

"That's not too bad," said Sirius.

"But you missed out on valuable time to practice for this exam," I said to James, who just shrugged.

"I don't need to practice for this class," he said. "I only argued with Flitwick about it because I didn't want to go to detention at all."

"I don't need to practice for this one either, I reckon I'll easily get an Outstanding," said Sirius.

The examiners let us in soon after Sirius had said that, and everyone in our year fell silent and filed into the Great Hall to begin our practical exam.

The next day was Friday and the last day of the first week of O.W.L.s. Two exams took place on that day: Ancient Runes and muggle studies. That meant that Peter had the day off, but, to my great annoyance, he didn't use it to his advantage by studying for his other classes, he just slacked off and played Exploding Snap with some seventh year who had the day from their N.E.W.T exams and were slacking off as well.

The weekend between the two weeks of exams was extremely stressful, as we didn't know what order the rest of our exams would be in, we just knew what we had left. Transfiguration, History of Magic, Astronomy, Arithmancy, and Divination.

On Saturday night it was the full moon, and the third night I spent with the marauders in their Animagus forms. James seemed really content with the nickname 'Prongs', and I thought it suited him in his stag form, so we all agreed that that was his permanent name.

Once again, I was completely uninjured, as the other marauders kept the wolf's self-destruction at bay by keeping me occupied with weird games that they made up. It sucked that I'd have to go through the next two full moons without them.

"But when we come back after the summer, the full moons are going to be epic," Sirius said on Sunday morning when he and the other two marauders visited me in the Hospital Wing.

"Yeah," said James. "We were thinking, why should we always stay in the Shrieking Shack?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because otherwise, I'll kill the entire student body?" I said in mock confusion.

"Well, you're not killing us while we're in the shack with you," said Sirius.

"Yeah, because you're animals," I said.

"But don't you feel calmer when we're there?" said James. "I mean, you don't act violently at all, not even to yourself. I reckon we can keep the wolf you under control."

"We're not leaving the shack," I said. "We're already running a big enough risk with you guys being with me, I can't go out into the open."

"Alright..." said Sirius, exchanging a look with James.

Monday was the Transfiguration exam, and I'd studied really hard for it, so I thought I did OK in both the written and practical exams. Tuesday was Arithmancy, and I was sure I'd passed, but I didn't think I'd get an overly good mark, and the same applied to Astronomy on Wednesday and Divination on Thursday.

The final exam was History of Magic on Friday the eighteenth of June. There was no practical exam for History of Magic, so when I finished my written exam with twenty minutes to spare, I felt my stomach squirm as I watched the large clock tick.

When the examiners finally took our papers and let us go, the entire year burst out of the Great Hall cheering.

"We did it!" Davey Gudgeon shouted. "We're N.E.W.T students now!"

"We don't get our marks back until the summer break..." said Lily nervously. "Waiting a week for our normal end-of-year exams was bad enough, but three weeks?"

"Three weeks of relaxation," said Peter.

"It's not very relaxing not knowing if you did well enough to be able to do a career you want!" said Lily. I would have agreed with her, but I already knew that I couldn't get the career I wanted.

During the week off, the marauders and I snuck into Hogsmeade every single day. The weather was so hot that our shirts were sticking to our backs. Over the course of the week, we all spent a ridiculous amount of money buying ice cream, purchasing multiple ice creams from Hogsmeade's overpriced ice cream shop each day.

When we weren't eating ice cream, we were swimming in the Great Lake. On Tuesday afternoon, James transformed into a stag and jumped into the Great Lake like that, causing a splash so big that Peter and I, who were still standing almost ten metres from the lake, got wet.

"God, Prongs!" Peter cried, wiping the water away from his face. James transformed back into himself and shot us a grin.

Soon, when all four of us were in the lake, the other three were all swimming as their animals, and I felt bad for thinking it, but I felt really left out.

They were all in their Animagus forms, having a great time, and I was stuck just as a human, swimming around with a bloody stag, dog, and rat.

I was being ungrateful, though. They were literally Animagus for me. I couldn't turn around and think that I wanted to be one too just because I wanted to be included. I was acting like a child for thinking like that, though. After all the other marauders had done for me.

On the train back to London on the first Sunday of July, the other three were trying to decide on Sirius and Peter's Animagus nicknames.

"Shaggy's just not doing it for me," said Sirius. "It's just weird. Plus, our names should be more subtle. Like, similar to James's name, just referring to one part of our animal body. Like I could by Floppy, referring to my floppy ears, or something to do with my tail, or..."

"Or your paws," I said. "Because you're the only one out of the three of you who has paws."

"Oh, yeah, that's a really good point," said Sirius. "Um... Coolpaw? Pawpaw? I dunno..."

"What about me?" Peter asked.

"I still reckon you should be Whiskers," said James, and Peter rolled his eyes.

"I'm not being called Whiskers, that's stupid," he said.

"A name will come to you guys, don't stress about it," said James. "Anyway, do you guys have any plans for the summer?"

"Whatever you're doing," said Sirius.

"No," said Peter and I together.

"Great," said James. "You'll be able to come to mine?"

"Yeah, I'll be free most days," I said.

"And what about the full moons?" said Sirius. "Should we come to you, or do you want to come to Godric's Hollow?"

I let out a sudden laugh. "What?"

"So we can spend the moons with you," said Sirius, and then I realised he wasn't joking.

"If I came to you, James's parents would find out that you're Animagus, and if you came to me, my parents would find out you're Animagus, and then they would tell James's parents that you're Animagus," I said. "I don't think letting our parents know about this is the best idea. Plus, it's only two full moons. I can go two nights on my own."

"I get what you're saying, but are you sure?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, I'm sure," I said. "Don't be Animagus over the summer."

The first week of summer was very slow. Mainly because I was waiting impatiently for Saturday when my O.W.L results would be posted, but it was also just boring.

I didn't hear from the other marauders at all, and it made me wonder what they were up to and why they hadn't written to me. But then again, I hadn't written to them, either, because my mind was too occupied with the thoughts of my results to think about sending a letter to anyone.

On Saturday, I got up bright and early and checked the mail, but there was nothing. By the time my parents woke up, I was already completely ready for the day, sitting near the front door, waiting for an owl.

"Do you want some breakfast, Remus?" Mum asked, turning on the kettle.

"I already had some," I said, not looking away from the door.

"You're waiting for your marks, aren't you?" Dad asked, and I just nodded. "I remember my results came in around nine in the morning, so it should only be another ten minutes or so."

I felt my stomach flip. "Did you do well?"

"Fairly well, yeah," said Dad. "I mean, I got the job I want, didn't I?"

"Oh, yeah..." I said, standing up and walking to where my parents were in the kitchen. "About getting jobs you want... you know how I wanted to be a teacher?"

"Yeah?" said Dad.

I took in a deep breath. I'd been holding off telling my parents about what happened during the Careers Advice meeting.

"Well, I can't be a teacher," I said.

"What? Why?" Mum asked.

"Because of my..."

A sound from the front door interrupted me. I looked at the slip in the door and saw an envelope drop through it. My eyes widening, I scrambled over to the envelope, tore it open, and read the top of the parchment.

ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS