They met Hermione, Remus, and James down in the dungeons afterwards. Hermione, of course, had a book out and was flipping through it. While James and Remus were bickering over something. Hermione looked up when they approached. "Oh, hullo, you two," she announced. "Everyone was very . . . erm . . . interested in James. I told them he's a visiting relative of yours, Harry. I hope you don't mind."
"Why would I?" Harry asked, glancing over at his father. "In some ways he is."
"Well, he's hardly your cousin, but it was the best I could think of," Hermione admitted. "So how was Divination?"
Ron scowled at her, looking quite disgusted at her question. "Well, let's just say if Harry was on his deathbed, then Trelawney'd have it right. She says he's gonna die. You'd think she'd be sick of it by now, wouldn't you?"
"Yeah," Sirius announced with a grin. "He's gonna trip on one of those carpets she's got, fall down her ladder, and break his neck."
"Well, that's a bit more plausible than usual," Hermione said doubtfully.
"Sirius made that up," Harry answered, shaking his head. "He also announced that a rat would make the Irish Quidditch team this year, so I don't think Trelawney's very impressed with us."
"Ron put that idea in my head!" Sirius announced defensively. "A prediction in Peter's honor. Where is Wormtail, anyway?"
"No idea," Remus announced, breaking off his argument with James to join in the conversation. "He was in Muggle Studies, who's surprised he lingered there?"
No one was, especially since Peter wandered down a few moments later. "You could tell me where we were going to be next," he whined. "I had to ask the professor. Sounded like a right idiot, I expect."
"As if that's anything unusual," Sirius announced.
"What did you tell the students?" Hermione demanded. "I mean, you've got to have told them something, once they noticed you. . . ."
"They didn't," Peter muttered. He sounded rather hurt.
"Well, yeah, there's only one of you, and you didn't have a bat-eyed professor trying to invent something dastardly about your appearance," Ron announced bitterly.
"I told you to drop the class," Hermione announced longsufferingly. "But you two never listen."
"A right James and Sirius," Remus announced with a grin. "He's his father's son, all right." He glanced over at James, who'd raised an eyebrow. "Yes, James, that was an insult," Remus supplied.
James rolled his eyes but didn't retaliate. "I'd think it was complementing Harry and Ron, Moony."
"You would."
Before long, James and Remus were embroiled in their argument again. This was so far from unusual that both Peter and Sirius acted as if nothing was happening. Hermione turned back to her book, and Ron and Harry rolled their eyes at each other. After a few minutes, however, Hermione looked up. "You four . . . might want to skip this class," she announced softly.
Sirius and James started and glanced at each other. They could both tell by now that a suggestion like this from Hermione would be very rare. Remus arched an eyebrow. "Why?"
Hermione sighed. "Snape teaches potions."
"Why would we want to miss this?" Sirius demanded, flashing teeth in his maniac grin. "I mean, c'mon, why should we be the ones avoiding Snivellus? It should be the other way around, right?"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged significant glances. "He's an adult, now," Hermione whispered finally. "And a teacher."
"What difference does that make to us?" James asked.
The three of them sighed. "Well, he'd love an excuse to give us detention, so we'd better get going," Harry muttered darkly. The other six of them nodded and followed him into the classroom.
Draco Malfoy grinned wickedly at Harry when they entered. "So who're your friends, Potter?" he demanded. "Or has Dumbledore still got you a guard? And in school now?"
Harry's breath came out a hiss; he barely heard Hermione's "Ignore him."
"A guard?" James asked.
No one answered him. With one hand around Harry's elbow, Hermione guided all six of them to another few desks. A few moments later, any brewing fight was prevented by Snape's entry into his classroom. "For those of you that came back," he announced. "I have particular challenges." He flicked his wand at the blackboard, and a difficult looking potion appeared on the blackboard. "I'll see if you've done anything over the summer," he announced.
"Why'd we continue?" Ron demanded to no one on particular.
"Because you want to be aurors," Hermione announced, snappishly. "And look, you should be able to handle it. You passed your OWLs, didn't you?"
Ron and Harry looked at her like she was nuts. "But he must've planned something awful," Ron protested. "I mean, he'll try to get rid of most of the rest of us by seventh year, right?"
Hermione rolled her eyes and started taking ingredients out. "You two should be able to handle it," she announced. "Or you shouldn't've come back. I'm not going to help."
"Did we ask for it?" Ron demanded. He looked over at Sirius and Remus. "Did we ask for help?"
Sirius looked at him, cocked his head, and didn't answer. Remus grinned. "Not exactly. But you could tell you were hinting at it. . . ." his voice trailed off.
Ron looked completely dumbfounded, but he started to copy Hermione in taking things out. Peter served the purpose of botching the entire thing worse than Neville would have. He didn't, at least, melt his cauldron, so Snape just stared at the billowing grey smoke as if he'd seen nothing more disgusting in his life. Hermione, as usual, managed to produce precisely what Snape had asked for, and the other three Marauders pretty close. Harry's and Ron's were somewhere in between; probably not functional but not the worst in what of the class was supposed to be there. Snape could hardly look less pleased about the inability to give them "D"s.
When he let out, all seven of them made a rush for the door. Sirius and James, on the other hand, heard his cold voice announce, "Potter, Black, I want a word."
James paused, and Sirius shoved him in the back. "For all we know he's talking about Harry."
"And you?"
"Fifteen seconds ago I decided I answer only to Padfoot," Sirius announced loftily. "Now get going! I really don't want to put up with him."
Snape had contrived, however, to be in their way. "I don't want to deal with either of your silly little games," he announced.
"What? We don't play games," Sirius replied. "Haven't changed much in twenty years, have you?"
"You know what I mean," Snape pointed out. "And you know it quite well. I don't want to have to put up with it. I am, after all, an adult."
"That changes things . . . how?" James asked.
"I didn't think you two liked detentions, but then again, I may be wrong," Snape growled. He let them leave, however.
Author's Note: Thank you everybody for the reviews! This wasn't quite as plot-orientated as I'd intended, because it turned out there were STILL loose ends, and some semblance to the Snape/Marauder relationship had to be established. Gah. I promise there's a plot, and I will get to it soon. Cheers! — Loki