Disclaimer: Who would actually be stupid enough to believe that we own Harry Potter? I mean, really! Who in the world doesn't know that JKR wrote those (fantastic) books?

Chapter 15

Harry was woken early the next morning by James and Sirius. They'd somehow snuck into his dormitory and, without waking anyone else up, had emptied a jug of icy-cold water over his head. Obviously, they'd been sure of his most likely reaction to being woken in this manner and had placed him in a full-body-bind before waking him. Unfortunately for them, that didn't stop him from shouting. James quickly clamped a hand over Harry's mouth to shut him up.

"Shut up Harry!" he hissed. "Are you trying to wake up the whole school or something?"

Harry glared icily.

James grinned at him. "Promise to be quiet?" He waited for Harry's nod before removing his hand. "Good boy."

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Harry demanded.

A groan from Ron's bed told Harry that his friend had woken up. "Harry?" Ron said blearily. "Whassamatter? Someone attacking you?"

"No, Ron. Go back to sleep. It's just those two idiots," Harry replied.

Ron emitted a loud snore a second later.

Harry glared at James and Sirius again. "Do the counter-curse already!"

Sirius happily complied, allowing James to pull Harry out of bed as he lifted the body-bind. The two of them started to push Harry towards the door, but Harry struggled free of them quickly and made his way back to his bedside table.

"What are you doing?" Sirius hissed.

Harry groped around the small table for a second before he found his glasses. "What does it look like?"

Sirius rolled his eyes and the two of them pulled Harry out into the common room, where they pushed him onto a squishy sofa. They dragged another sofa so that it was facing opposite Harry's one and sat down, staring stonily at him.

"What?" Harry asked after some time.

James cleared his throat. "What's your problem with us?"

"Problem?" Harry repeated. "I don't have a problem."

"Well you've sure been acting like it," Sirius said. "You've been avoiding us, and snapping at us, and telling us to grow up."

"You act like you're scared of me and you hate Sirius. Why?" James asked.

Harry stared at them for a moment. "I don't. I mean, I don't hate you, and I'm not scared of you. Not really."

"But?" James prompted.

Harry sighed. "Forget it. You wouldn't understand." He made to get up and walk away, but James and Sirius stopped him.

"Explain it," James said gently. "We want to understand."

They pushed Harry back into the sofa and sat down opposite him again. Harry found himself unable to look at them.

"Please, Harry?" James pleaded.

Harry closed his eyes. "Think about it. My parents are dead. Since I came to Hogwarts, everyone, with the obvious exception of Snape, has told me what wonderful people they were. How smart and funny and caring, and just plain good. I met Sirius and Remus in my third year, and they told me about the marauders, and all the pranks you guys played when you were kids. Sirius was the only person that ever wanted me around - wanted to give me a home - and he died. It was my fault that he died. It was my entire fault. Now you're here Sirius, and every time I see you I remember what happened at the Ministry. I don't hate you at all, I just, I'm sorry."

Sirius stared at Harry for a moment. "You blame yourself for that? But Old-Moony told us what happened. That was so not your fault."

Harry let out a shuddering sigh.

"Really. As the person who dies, I think I should be the one who gets to decide who takes the blame," Sirius said, "and I blame Voldemort. It's entirely his fault."

They sat in silence for a while longer before James spoke again. "That still doesn't explain why you seem to be afraid of me."

Harry looked directly at him. "I'm not afraid of you."

"Then what?"

"Its just kind of weird," Harry explained, "seeing your dead father, alive and at the same age as you."

James paled. "I didn't think of that way."

"Ok, well, I for one am sick of all this morbid atmosphere," Sirius announced, standing up and stretching. "Harry, we need the invisibility cloak."

"What for?" Harry asked, caught off guard by the sudden change of subject.

Sirius sniggered. "'What for,' he asks."

James grinned. "It is an essential part of our plan."

"What plan is that?" Harry asked, still slightly weary.

Sirius and James answered in unison, now both wearing malicious grins. "To annoy Snape and McGonagall, amuse Dumbledore, aggravate Filch, and otherwise cause general mischief and mayhem."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Did you rehearse that?"

James and Sirius looked slightly put out.

()()()

A few hours later, Sirius and James were crouched under the invisibility cloak, waiting just outside the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room. They were waiting for Malfoy and his goons to come out so that they could follow them. The time it took to walk from the dungeons to the Great Hall, they figured, should be ample time to combine the appropriate hexes to improve Malfoy's appearance.

When Malfoy exited Slytherin with Crabbe and Goyle following closely in his wake, James and Sirius tailed them. They were confused when the Slytherins turned the opposite direction to what they'd expected when they got to the corridore that was the quickest path to the Great Hall.

"Where are they going?" James hissed.

"I dunno," Sirius hissed back. "Check the map. It could be a short-cut."

James shook his head. "This isn't a short-cut. I know these passages pretty well. I drew this part of the map, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. Where does this corridore lead then, genius?"

"One of the old wings," James replied. "It wasn't in use when we drew the map, but I suppose it could be now."

"We may as well keep following them. We can see if they're up to anything, and we can check if we need to update the map while we're there." Sirius suggested.

They ended up in an old classroom that obviously hadn't been used in a long time. Everything that wasn't covered by a white sheet was coated with a thick layer of dust. A couple of other Slytherins that James and Sirius recognised as Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson were already there.

"Draco," Blaise started as soon as Malfoy had closed the door. "What is this all about? Why did you call us here?"

Malfoy pulled a piece of parchment out of his pocket and signalled for Blaise to cast a silencing charm about the room. "My father owled me last night. Apparently, those exchange students in Gryffindor aren't what they seem. We need to get rid of them."

A/N Sploogal speaking. Hello everyone! ::waves:: I'm really sorry for the delay on this chapter. I had started it, but my computer died and I lost everything. Absolutely everything. It took me a couple of days to get it working again, then it half died again and I got sick, so I haven't been able to work on any fanfiction at all. Sorry if this chapter is riddled with bad spelling and evil formatting. My computer won't let me use Word, so I'm stuck with a program that doesn't have spell-check or a half-decent formatting system. Hopefully Star can get that sorted out before she posts this. ::smiles at Star::

A/N Star here. How would you all like for reviewer responses to be written by me? ::grin:: well they are!! YAY!!! Reviewer responses!!!!!!

Reviewer Responses

Hermione21: Thank you for the compliment. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Moonylover2000: ::grin:: we love to hear people like this fic.

Girlknight: LOL Snape is freaky. ::sniggles:: that's funny. He is quite freaky though…hm…I wonder what else we can do to him. I will pass your regards on to Sploogal.

Tigerclub15: I hope we added soon enough for you!

Blackstar9: Yes! Snape can be a total fool. Maybe he didn't pick on The Marauders because he didn't want it to seem like he hated them more that he did. (ok…I don't know if that sentence made any sense at all!! I hope you understood it) Yes…Lucky Ron! Good thing he warned Neville though. Poor kid would have had his head bitten off.

IncognitoChocobo: Yay! You thought it was an awesome chapter! I take pride in that because I wrote the previous chapter. Heehee. We both try our best with the characters personalities. We think it's fun. Really? Well, Hagrid is rather easy. He is also a lot of fun. He can be hilarious, moody, angry, or parenty. He's fun! We updated! Hope you like!

J.E.A.R.K. Potter: YAY!! Updates!! Don't you love them!

Seth blade: LOL! Purple on Snape good! Heehee. I like it too. I think that Sploogal does too, because she's the one who picked it! Oooo I want purple shoes! That'd be soooo awesome! Those would be the coolest shoes in the world. I want some.

Amanda Lily Potter: She wasn't with The Marauders when they did the prank. If she had been, she would have come. It's the same reason Peter isn't in the fic. He was in detention. Glad you like it, though!

Orlin: Of course there's more! There shall always be more!! (until we finish that if ::wink::) Glad you like the idea. YAY JAMES!!!!!!! I love both him and Sirius.

Spiffycool: LOL! I see you are a Ron fan. I will talk to Sploogal and we'll see what we can do to satisfy you. Heehee. I love Ron fans. I am a Ron fan. Go Ron! (I like Sirius too) Go Sirius!! Lalalala. Ok…I've gone totally off topic. Where was I? Oh yes. I am happy you like the idea!

Krizue: We will continue! Thank you for reading. So happy you like it!

AznCrazeeApplez: Oh I totally agree with you! If something like this happened in the next HP book I would be soooo happy! That would be totally awesome!

She-Who-Snogs-Weaesly-Boys: Sirius ::sobs:: I love him sooo much. I miss him. This fic is dedicated to the memory of Sirius Black, the best HP character of all. I have tears in my eyes!!! ::wipes them away:: Sirius! ::howls::

Shadowrayne: Um…I will pass the message on to Sploogal…::Walks away quickly::

Jeanne2: It wasn't too short. We tried! ::grins:: I hope you like this one!

Harrylissa=luv: We will keep up the ggod work! (Had to use ggod. It's how you used it!) ::grin::

Phoebe666: You're welcome. Here is an update.

Darkdestiny2000: Apology accepted. I hope you are feeling better! ::sobs:: It sucks being sick during the summer. I hate that. Have fun at soccer camp!

Hye em yes: I know. It will be sad that they don't remember anything. Hm…I have to ask. Where did you get your name? It is so different.

PrincessSkywalkerOrgana: We added!

Saturnmkch12: Hm…how did you get your name? Glad you like the story. Here is an update!

Freedom isn't Free: Nothing's free. Glad you like the fic! We will continue to add until we die. No, just kidding. Heehee Twinkly! Hope you like this chappie.

Dadaiiro: Yeah. It is much more common to see Harry visiting the past. We decided we like it this way. (so different that the norm.) Yes…no Peter is always a plus. Of course…if we had sent him he would prolly have been killed by Harry. Hm…maybe we should bring Peter. ::sinister laugh:: Yeah, they are being brats. But I agree with Hagrid. They are prolly scared. ::nods:: Poor Harry. It would be horrible to see two people you love alive and well. Especially since they're acting like they're invincible. You'll have to wait and see about all of your questions! I hope you are pleased with what happens, though!

Silvercrystal77: Heehee. Poor Ron. I would kill Sirius and James if I were he. Harry might protest a little, though. Hm…oh well! Sorry Harry!

Firefur1: Yay! Glad you love it and think it's awesome. We updated…not too soon but soon enough!

Koriaena: Yay! It's cool so far! Heehee. Glad you think it's good. I hope you continue to enjoy it!

Amber Spririt: Heehee. I love Sirius. He's mine! No girl for him but me!! ::sticks tongue out::

Lyra Skywalker: Heehee. Glad you like it! Go Sirius! Go Remus! They are awesome!

Skylaguna1890: Heehee. I love the prank ideas too. They make me laugh. Hm…well seeing as how James and Harry are both 16. I don't think there could be much father/son bonding. It would be a little awkward, don't you think?

QueenBeth2: Oh I bet it is weird between Remus and Remus. Hey, I think I would freak out and avoid myself. ::grin:: It would be too weird!

CandyCola: YAY! You like it! Yeah, I (Star) am currently living in America. Miami (FL) to be exact. I moved to the States a little while ago. Sploogal is from Australia. I dunno about her holidays. I think she is out for spring or something. Here is the update! What part of Australia are you from?

Kerei Kitsune: Heehee! If you keep forgetting why don't you go read it over? ::grin:: It is what I do when I'm bored. Which is a lot lately…

Slytherin Rogue: I am so happy you took the time to review. I hope you can be online more often now! Hope you like this chapter!