Deep in thought, Severus decided the rest of his work could wait until tomorrow, and slipped out of his office. He replaced the wards almost carelessly, giving them no more thought than a Muggle might give to turning a key, and then began the ascent from the dungeons, his mind still orbiting around what Harry had just said.

What if James Potter had lived another fifteen years? It was a dangerous road to venture down, the lane of what if, but Severus took those first steps gingerly. He had hated James Potter, and with good reason, reasons that even his son could not deny, but, however one studied those reasons, they were born of childhood animosity and schoolboy rivalries. And, James had been killed when he was still very young. Severus thought back to his own early twenties, and grimaced inwardly. He was little more than a child even then, even if he had been a professor already. It would take him another five years before the passionate hatred of youth dissolved into the indifferent bitterness of adulthood; what if James Potter had been given the same luxury of years?

Idly, Severus thought back to the last two days and to the tentative overtures of friendship between himself and Remus. Would something similar have happened between himself and James? Not likely; there was never any relenting between you and Sirius, after all, and even Lupin admits that part of the reason he's been reaching out to you is that he's lost all his old friends. Possibly, the'd hate each other as much now as they did. Odd, that one. It was possible that changing the past in such a fundamental way could very easy produce the same results. But, Severus liked to think he was mature enough that, if he ran into James and Lily Potter today, by some odd twist of fate, that he would be able to conduct himself in a civilized manner with them. That if Harry Potter had parents who were alive, he would be able to write progress reports to them without holding the past against any of them.

And, maybe, having a child would have changed them. Severus had often heard that having a child was an event that changed a person's life and attitude in more ways than any other event could. Perhaps James and Sirius would have grown apart, as the former would have had the need to grow up, and the latter never would.

"Severus?"

He stopped abruptly, his eyes closed. "Did you not have enough of my presence over the last two days that you felt the need to seek me out here now?"

When Severus opened his eyes again, Lupin was standing in front of him. "I came to give Dumbledore a report," he replied. "And I thought I'd pay you a visit as well, since I was here."

"What sort of report?" Severus asked softly, taking the first bait offered in lieu of the second.

"Surely we can find someplace less public to discuss it..." Remus suggested, and Severus nodded, stifling a sigh.

"I just set the wards on my office, so it will be at least four hours before it's safe to enter, so suppose that leaves my quarters."

"Why is it unsafe to re-enter your office?"

Severus lifted an eyebrow. "I've had enough brushes with the Polyjuice potion these last few years that I don't trust anyone," he replied, then refused to say another word. His wards were more than mere passwords and stinging hexes to unwind; they were linked to his personage as well, and he'd little desire to see anyone get past all his safeguards. Remus wisely left the line of questioning alone.

They walked silently the rest of the way to Severus' rooms, and, once inside, Severus illuminated the sitting room with a murmured 'lumos'. Gesturing to a chair, he walked over to his sideboard. "Wine?" he asked, removing the stopper from a bottle of Madeira, "Or perhaps something less sophisticated. I have a spare bottle of butterbeer that I don't know how I came by." It was a cheap jab, and he didn't know why he bothered, as such barbs tended to roll over Lupin like water over wax.

"Wine is fine," the other man replied, and Severus' hand hovered over the bottles for a moment, contemplating. He'd little faith in Lupin's ability to judge wine, and little desire to waste a good wine on someone who didn't understand it. But, Madeira wasn't necessarily a fine wine, just unique, and easy to understand. He finally poured a measure into the glass and handed it to Lupin as he setteld himself in his chair.

"So," he said, swirling the liquid absently in his glass. "What sort of report were you giving to Dumbledore?"

Lupin's nose twitched slightly as he brought the glass to his lips, and the first sip he took was small. He apparently decided he liked the wine, though, and took another drink. "Fred and George have managed to make that parchment of theirs work," he replied. "At least, it tracked them over half of Muggle London today. It's going to require a fair bit of effort to have everyone out setting the charms, and Dumbledore is of the opinion that we should wait until as close to time as possible before we do so, but it looks as though we have our plan of action."

Severus breathed a sigh of relief, but he still felt uneasy. "I'll be glad when it's all over," he murmured, and took a sip of his wine. "I'll be glad when all of this is over."

"You and Harry had your lessons today?" Lupin asked, and Severus nodded.

"He had more success this time," Severus replied. "He at least wasn't offering me thoughts for the taking, but time will tell if he can hold the defenses under duress."

Lupin gazed thoughtfully into his wineglass. "And there were no more mishaps, then, I take it?"

Severus looked up sharply. "What do you know about mishaps?" he asked, feeling his gut wrench.

"Calm down," Lupin replied, setting his glass aside. "I shouldn't have mentioned it."

"What do you know?" Severus repeated slowly, enunciating each word with care. "What did Potter tell you that I specifically told him to tell no one?"

Lupin sighed softly and looked positively miserable as he stared into his wineglass. "Don't blame Harry," he pleaded softly. "And don't interrupt until I tell you everything." And then Lupin launched into a detailed explanation of Harry's visit via Floo powder just after having peered into the penseive. He told Severus what Harry said, what the boy had seen, and then took a deep breath. "And before you get upset," which it was really a bit too late for, "I want you to understand, Severus. Harry was very upset. He was heartbroken that his father had treated you like that, and that it had been because Sirius was bored and that I, as a prefect, had done nothing to stop it. He came to us for an explanation, Severus, not to poke fun at you. He wanted to know if we really were all that bad."

"And what did you tell him?" Severus asked levelly, his fist clenched around the stem of his glass, his lip twitching from the effort of not throwing the glass at the wall and Lupin from the room.

"We—Sirius and I both—told him that we were jerks at that age. Severus, I won't pretend that I regretted it much at the time, but in retrospect I do. We had no call for half the things we did, and for the other half... well... we should have kept our tempers and wands in our pockets." He took a sip of his wine again, and frowned contemplatively. "As should you have. I can't think of many things I did at that age that I'm proud of now, but those things least of all."

Severus stood abruptly and stalked over to the sideboard, leaning his hands against it, trying desperately to take control of his anger and humiliation. That brat had no business telling Lupin and Black anything. His hands clutched at the edge of the sideboard.

"Listen," Remus' voice was dangerously close to him, and Severus hoped for his sake that the other wizard had the presence of mind to not come any closer. "I know it isn't much comfort, but Harry didn't remind us of anything we didn't already remember..."

"Get out." It was barely a whisper, but it carried a sharp edge.

"Severus... if I could change what we did back then..."

"Now."

"Severus..." this was accompanied by a hand on his shoulder, and that was all it took to make Severus snap. He spun around, drawing his wand from within the folds of his robes as he did and pointing it to Lupin's chest.

"Get out," he repeated slowly, his left fist still clenched, knuckles turning white and entire arm shaking. His right hand, though, was steady as he held the wand to Lupin's chest. "Get out before I do something I will regret."

Lupin looked at the wand, then at Severus' face, which had turned a nasty, pale shade. A vein pumped visibly against his temple, and his eyes were dark, glittering dangerously. His lips, tightened into a snarl, were drawn back slightly, and it was probably a measure of the last fifteen years of practicing control that he had not muttered any spells yet. Lupin held up his hands, his eyes locked on Severus', and then bent to put his glass on the sideboard. He took a step back. "I am sorry," he insisted softly as he backed from the room. "Truly."

As soon as the door clicked shut, Severus jerked the stopper from a bottle of cognac and poured himself a liberal portion of it, then tipped his head back and tossed it down his throat. He refilled his glass and did it again, and only after the third measure of it did he take the bottle and glass and sink into a chair. He closed his eyes.

"Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?"

Severus batted ineffectively at his robes, trying desperately to get them out of his way so that he could counterattack Potter, but his robes were conspiring against him. Every time he made an inch of headway, they swirled around him again, once more hindering his ability to move. 'Calm,' he told himself sternly. 'You'll get nowhere by fighting your robes.'

A cheer rose from all around him, and Severus felt his face heating, and not all of the redness in it was from the blood which was gathering there. He forced himself to remain calm, though, gathering his robes in one hand and making a last desperate attempt to push them out of his way so he could see his target; James Potter was going to pay for this humiliation.

"Oh, come on!" James was saying. "You can all do better than that! I want to hear it! Now, who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?"

The roar was louder this time, and a slow chant was taking the gathered students. "Off with his pants! Off with his pants!"

"Well, what do you think, Sirius? Is that good enough?"

There was a derisive snort. "Hell, I think that the fact that it's Tuesday is a good enough reason."

Once more, Severus tried to gather his robes, but he was unnerved by a sudden gust of cool breeze where there had been none a moment ago. 'They wouldn't have really done it, would they?' As much as he hated them, Severus hadn't thought they would really do it. They were tormenting him, but he had a feeling James and Sirius would keep batting the question back and forth until one of them had an excuse to stop. But suddenly, he was wondering if they really had. He focused his thoughts, and, to his relief, found that he was still in possession of his underpants and put his mind back to the task of moving his increasingly cumbersome robes out of the way.

"James, Sirius, that's enough." Lupin's voice. It was, often as not, Lupin who was their excuse to stop, though it was seldom anything Severus knew about.

"Aww, come on Moony. Don't you want to see how he stacks up? Hey, there we go, James! We should take bets first." That was Black's voice.

"Let him go," Lupin said sternly, or what passed for sternly from the Gryffindor prefect to his friends. "Before I count three, or I'm getting McGonagall."

"You wouldn't." Pettigrew sounded horrified at the thought.

"Don't try me."

"But James isn't hurting anything. Just having a little fun."

"One..."

"You know, it might be worth the detention..."

"Two... I swear it, guys, McGonagall won't be pleased..."

"McGonagall isn't pleased." That voice had belonged to the woman in question, and there was a squeak from one of the boys. "Put him down, now, Potter."

Severus was half-expecting it when he suddenly fell to the ground, so he had his arms crossed in front of him, protecting his face, but he cringed at the crunch of bones and a low moan escaped his lips, despite his determination not to give them the satisfaction.

"I am ashamed that boys from my own House would be involved in something so... so..." she was sputtering slightly. Severus managed to roll into a seated position, his left arm lying uselessly in his lap while he tried to gather his bag and wand with his right, wanting to slip away as quickly as possible. He stole a look at McGonagall, and her face was red. "All of you. Report to the Headmaster, immediately. This is inexcusable. And you all," she spun around, taking in the crowd which had shrunk considerably. "It is despicable that you would all stand there and watch. Two points from each of you!"

Severus had nearly gathered himself to his feet again, but he lost his balance and fell, crushing his injured arm again. This time the pain was far worse than the initital pain of breaking it, and he bit his lip, trying not to cry out. He succeeded, but instead of the sharp cry, it was a whimper which escaped. Even worse, in his opinion, as a whimper was so pathetic.

He felt a firm hand on his shoulder, helping him up then, and McGonagall placed her arm around his back. "Let me see," she said gently, taking his arm. He winced as she touched it, and recoiled from her, but she was firm in her tenderness. "Let's get you to the Hospital Wing," she said softly. "Madame Pomfrey will heal it in no time."

"My bag," he murmured, and she looked over at it, then bent to pick it up, collecting his wand too.

"You, there," she pointed at someone, and it was Lily Evans who came forward. "Carry this, please." She handed his bag to the Gryffindor, and Severus avoided looking at either of them, keeping his head down. He did manage to jerk his arm away from Professor McGonagall, though at great expense of pain, and he removed himself from the arm she'd placed around him.

"I don't need help," he hissed. "I can get there on my own."

"Don't be a fool, Mr. Snape," McGonagall replied tightly, placing her arm around his shoulders again. "Now come on."

Once more he jerked away from her, and, after a moment she sighed and conceded. He took himself to the Hospital Wing, with McGonagall and Lily trailing a few steps behind him.

"What happened?!" Madame Pomfrey demanded as Severus walked through the door. She was far less easy to shake off than McGonagall had been, and her touch, while stronger, was infinitely more gentle as she took his arm and led him to the nearest bed.

"Lily, you can leave his bag there. Thank you for carrying it," McGonagall was saying. Lily obeyed, and then bit her lower lip, taking a step forward.

"Here's your wand," she offered quietly, holding it out to him.

Severus took it, not meeting her eyes.

"I'm sorry they were such asshole—er..."

Severus snorted softly and could almost feel the reproachful look from McGonagall. "If it weren't for the circumstances, Miss Evans, I would be appalled at such language. As it happens, though, I'm quite in agreement at the moment. Now go on. Severus will be all right."

After Lily had gone, McGonagall slipped her arm around Severus' shoulders again while Madame Pomfrey was making preparations. "Are you all right?" she asked quietly, her head close to his, her voice barely a whisper.

"I'm fine," he replied testily, trying to disengage himself from her. It wasn't so easy when he was sitting, though.

"All right, Mr. Snape. This is going to hurt a bit, I'm afraid," Madame Pomfrey said, returning.

McGonagall reached for his uninjured hand and clasped it firmly in hers, a gesture that was, at once, humiliating and comforting. "There," she said softly, using her other hand to turn his head into her shoulder. "It will go easier if you don't watch."

The pain of the bones shifting back into place was enough to make Severus moan again, and he squeezed McGonagall's hand tightly. She squeezed back and held him close, and he was glad for her presence, leaning his head against her shoulder.

"There we are," Madame Pomfrey said, patting his leg sympathetically. "Now you just sit still so I can wrap that..." Even the wrapping was uncomfortable, and it was a numbing pain that crept up his arm. "Here we go, take this," she held a vial of green liquid to his lips, and he reluctantly allowed her to tip the contents down his throat. "There, now, just lie back."

"How long will I be here?" he asked nervously. He still had three OWLs to take, and he needed to be studying.

"An hour or two," Madame Pomfrey replied. "Now, just rest quietly."

McGonagall smiled and smoothed his hair away from his face, then patted his shoulder. "Not long enough to get you out of your Transfiguration test," she told him teasingly. "Just relax for a while."

As the curtain was drawn around him, Severus heard Pomfrey asking in a tight voice, "What happened, Minerva."

He could almost hear the tightening of her lips. "Those four boys are not going to wriggle their way out of this one," she muttered. "I'll see to..." and her voice drifted away.

Severus opened his eyes again, and drained his fourth glass of brandy, then threw the glass at the wall, watching it shatter. He stood and shoved the stopper back into the bottle, then stalked into his bed chamber, where he crawled into bed, barely taking the time to remove his robes and shoes. As soon as he closed his eyes, he was dreaming fitfully of a scrawny, unliked Slytherin being constantly tormented by other students.

A/N: Okay, I give up on naming chapters. ;) I just don't have it in me. Maybe I'll eventually get back to that, but for now... pft