Er ..Okay, a small warning.

This isn't a new chapter for The Fifth Marauder, which is currently on hiatus as I'm not sure what to do next.  I know what's going to happen, I just haven't yet figured out how to get there yet.  I'd rather put off posting than to screw up the entire plot and have to repost everything again.

I'm posting a short, one-shot, spin-off of The Fifth Marauder called The Continuing Escapades of the Five Marauders.  Writing this gave me the idea for TFM.

It's about the five Marauders in their school days – the real, Snape-Obliviated Past, not the one in the books.  This is what Snape remembers.

The Continuing Escapades of the Five Marauders

All For One, One For All

By Alarun

Ryujin@bolt.com

            "The what?"

            "The Christmas Ball.  Remember?  There's one every Christmas.  Ball Day?  Ringing a bell?"

            "Oh.  What?"

            "Did you test another of your potions on yourself again?"

            "It's called the Absconditus Intellego Potion.  I wonder what it means."

"Er, Severus …you drank a potion and you don't know what it does?"

"Well, I did know.  I just seem to have forgotten."

"Come on, Sev.  The Hospital Wing again."

"The what?"

****

"Let's see …Absconditus means 'hidden or concealed,' and Intellego means 'to understand.'  Ah.  I see."  Remus Lupin snapped his Latin dictionary shut with a muffled clunk and set it down on the Gryffindor Common Room table. 

"So …Sev just took away his ability to understand...anything.  I hope it wears off before the ball."  Lily Evans rolled her eyes and chuckled to herself, imagining herself standing radiantly in her new green dress with her boyfriend laying in an infirmary bed, not quite sure who she was.  Or who he was, for that matter.

"Oh, it will.  I'm starting to feel better already."  Sirius sat up on the couch, holding his pounding head in his hands.  "I wish Madam Pomfrey could treat phantom pains."

"I guess we're lucky he waited until the weekend, anyway.  Why can't he test his potions on the Slytherins like a normal potions student?"

"Slytherins lie," James supplied.  "You know well enough to never trust a Slytherin to give you an accurate recollection of unknown potions' effects."

****

Madam Pomfrey had finally turned her back on the Gryffindor, allowing him to silently stalk unseen out of the Hospital Wing. 

Severus rounded the corner for the Gryffindor Tower and bumped straight into an unmovable brick wall.

The brick wall was Goyle, Severus noted as he looked up from his sitting position in front of the Slytherin gang.  Next to him were Crabbe, and a smirking Lucius Malfoy.  The three were two years older than him, in their seventh and final year at Hogwarts.  Severus tried to push himself to his feet before Malfoy's goons could touch him, but he was too slow, and they each grabbed an arm.

"Why, if it isn't the undergrown Gryffindor.  And look, he's coming from the Infirmary.  Mess up another of your concoctions, Potions Brat?"  Lucius smirked evilly as Severus tried to pull his arms free. 

"Let me go, Malfoy."  Severus choked as Crabbe hit his chest with the back of his hand. 

"Not just yet, Brat.  Either you are going to do my potions homework for me, or I'm going to practice the new Unforgivable Curse I learned over summer break.  What do you say?"

"I say, eat dirt, Malfoy!"  A shriek from the shadowed corner resounded throughout the corridor.  James Potter removed his magically enlarged invisibility cloak from over his friends.  He, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Lily Evans, Arabella Rhymes and a slightly cowering Peter Pettigrew jumped to Severus Snape's rescue.