Chapter 24

It was the waiting Remus hated most. The transformations were painful but he could bear that, it was the waiting for the first glimpse of moonlight. Naturally the Shrieking Shack had no windows, for which he was glad, but it meant that he had no way of knowing the time.

It was about five to nine when Professor McGonagall bundled him down the passage, Remus guessed that only a minute had passed. So again, he was left alone with his thoughts. All of the Gryffindors, especially those who knew James well, found that their thoughts were full of him. Remus knew that Lily and Sirius were trying to find out what had happened to James, and had it not been full moon, he would have helped them. Thankfully it was the last night, after a day spent recuperating, he would be back to normal and able to rejoin the Marauders.

It was his first full moon alone for years. Ever since the fifth year, James, Sirius and Peter had kept him company and slightly more human during the transformations. He had almost forgotten what it was like to be completely wolf again.

He guessed that five minutes had passed when he felt the familiar pain creep up.

"Here we go again."

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She hoped that Minerva had got Lupin to the Shack in time. Normally she would do it herself but Potter was taking up most of her time. Thanks to Black and Evans she had found that he had several broken ribs, naturally she had fixed them in a trice but something still wasn't right.

Madam Pomfrey noticed that Sirius and Lily seemed to be spending all their time in the wing. It seemed as though Lily would be spending the night there, normally she would have forbidden it, but seeing her there touched the nurse. It reminded her of having to shoo out Potter when Lily had been burnt, and it also reminded her of her own youth.

What it was to be young and in love.

Shaking her head, Madam Pomfrey cleared her thoughts; she was supposed to be working. Her desk was covered in books she was trying everything she could to cure him. But after two days searching, she had drawn a blank. Still she had never failed to help a student before, and she didn't plan on starting.

She had tried every spell, charm and potion she could think of and was now searching through the books looking for more ideas. Every broken rib had been mended, she thought that he may have internal injuries and had cast healing spells on those too, just in case. Even if he wasn't completely conscious, he should at least be stirring.

The clock outside striking nine brought her back to earth. Sighing she returned to her books.

'It's going to be a very long night'

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It was only five to nine and Lily was almost asleep. She couldn't be bothered to go back to her room so she curled up on one of the beds in the hospital wing. She had been chatting to Sirius for the past few hours since they had come back form their detentions and found to her surprise that he wasn't quite as bad as she thought. There was even a small part of her that wished she had more time to spend with him. Immediately after thinking this she felt incredibly guilty. The side of Sirius that people saw most, Lily suspected was just a front. Although he may pretend to be laid back, he really cared. Sirius would be crushed of something happened to James.

They all would.

It had only been two days and she was beginning to miss him. It sounded pathetic even to her. It was worse, seeing James in front of her but being just out of reach. It wouldn't be as bad if he could just move slightly, but his lifeless body looked almost..........Lily couldn't make herself think of the word 'dead'.

Vaguely she took a few of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, a gift no doubt from one of James's well-wishers. In the few hours after word had got out that James was lying seriously injured in the Hospital Wing, it seemed as though everyone in the school came to see him (bar Slytherins naturally). But by the end of the second day only the Marauders and a few close friends were left.

Isabelle had come to rescue Sirius a few minutes ago. But no doubt he would be back, and he would probably bring Belle back too. The absence of Remus was starting to confuse Lily; surely he cared what was happening to his best friend?

But she was too sleepy to think about that anymore. The last thing she heard that night was the clock outside the hospital striking 9.

"Goodnight James," Lily whispered.

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Sirius was itching to be outside. The full moon was pouring through the dormitory windows, reminding Sirius of where he should be. He should be out with Remus, not slobbing around inside with his girlfriend.

"Are you okay?" Isabelle asked. Sirius was distracted, but then if her best friend were lying unconscious she would be a bit sidetracked too.

"Yeah," he smiled. Concern was radiating from every inch of her face. "Yeah, I'm fine," To convince her, he looked up into her eyes. God, he loved her eyes. They were so violet and so unusual, although too sounded corny (and if you repeat it to anyone he'll say that he was drunk) but he could stare into them all day.

How could he have not noticed her before this year? But guiltily he realised that he already knew the answer. Because she was quiet, because she wasn't a slapper, and because she wasn't his usual type. Running through the list in his head, he could see why.

First there was Ellis-Loud, blonde, blue-eyed and very popular; and then various others, different years, different houses, but they were all loud, mainly blonde and blue eyed, but all popular. With a track record like that, it's a wonder that he noticed Isabelle at all, let alone seven years too late. A small quiet girl, with black hair and violet eyes: not exactly his usual type.

Perhaps if they had got together back in the first year, they would still be together. Probably behaving like an old married couple by now, instead of just like a middle-aged married couple. But Sirius had to admit that it suited him. Maybe he was going soft in his old age.

"What you grinning at?" Isabelle asked, eyes sleepy but slightly smiling. Sirius ran through everything he had thought of in the last five minutes, and grinned back.

"Oh, nothing much,"

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He was in the Common Room, surrounded by people, but he was sitting alone. As usual. Greasy nose barely an inch away from the parchment he was writing on, as usual.

Sirius would have been delighted if he knew just how much he had got to Snape, that morning. As much as Severus wanted to ignore his taunts and jibes, a niggling little voice in his head just wouldn't let them go.

"Would any of them really save you? Would they even care if you died? Look what Black did in revenge for Potter," at this he felt his nose gingerly, "Would anyone here bother doing that for you?"

Shaking his head, he tired to clear his thoughts, but they kept returning to a small black haired boy lying in a hospital bed.

He hadn't meant to hurt him that badly. People were saying that he was in a coma now, and that Madam Pomfrey didn't know how to fix him. No, he had never meant to kill him, just to scare him or a couple of broken bones at best. It would get Potter back for everything he had done to Severus, during the past seven years.

He had friends here. Obviously. He was only sitting alone because he wanted to finish his Potions assignment. Due in next month. He did have friends, he must do. At that Snape could almost hear Black's voice in his head.

"Just keep telling yourself that. Snivellus."

To prove it, almost as much to Sirius as to himself he called out to a group of girls going down into the dormitories. With a jolt, he realised that Bella was with them. No doubt she was some distant cousin of Sirius. They had the same name, same thick black hair, and the same arrogance. But Bella was different to her cousin. She had none of that traitorous holier- than-thou crap that Sirius seemed so fond of. Just good old-fashioned pureblood values. And Severus adored her for it.

"Night!" he called down after them. What he had hoped for was a goodnight back; what he had expected was a stony silence; what he dreaded he received. All of them, all five of them glanced at each other before bursting into laughter. Calling back a volley of abuse they only stopped when a large seventh year approached them.

"Hey girls! Leave it......." He said, they stopped laughing instantly and Severus breathed a sigh of relief. See? Someone cared what happened to him.

"Or there'll be nothing left for us!" he finished, and the Common Room roared with laughter. Grabbing his homework, Snape pushed past them and ran into the dormitories.

He couldn't go to sleep yet, it was only nine o'clock. To think that only five minutes before he had been peacefully sitting in a corner doing his homework.

As he settled into bed he realised with a shock that there was not a single person in his house who cared about him. And if a friend meant someone who cared whether you lived or died, his greatest friend in the world was James Potter.

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Students could get very complicated, thought Dumbledore to himself as he replaced a strange silver instrument onto one of his many shelves.

Of course by now he knew exactly what had happened to James and who was responsible for it. Naturally as Headmaster, it was his duty to make sure that Severus Snape was punished for it. But then another thought struck him, how many times had he overlooked the feud between Potter and Snape in the past? They had loathed each other from the moment they had set eyes upon each other, was there really anything he could do about it? Maybe he should just let it play out, students normally sorted out their affairs, quite well on their own.

He knew that Sirius and Lily had found out all they could about the match. It really was quite ingenious of Miss Evans to think of using the Pensieve. She was defiantly the right choice for Head Girl. All he needed to do now was to wait for them to come to him. He could not go to them, that would mean telling them about several of the instruments that decorated his office. He could not tell them how he knew, no student would ever trust him again if they knew that he had the power to see what they were doing anywhere in the castle. Besides, he hated having to spy on them like that, but it had made most interesting viewing.

Dumbledore wondered if he really needed to punish Snape. Perhaps the humiliation caused by Sirius was enough; certainly the worst was yet to come.

Sighing, Dumbledore thought back to when he was as young as the seventh years. It hurt his head to think so far back, but he was sure that he had never been so complicated.

On the hour dozens of things in his office chimed, clanged, whistled and hooted. The old wizard frowned to himself. He could think back easily, all that time ago to his youth; yet he could not think of a single thing that he had done in the past five minutes.

Old age was really getting to him.

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The traditional 'Thanks for Reading and PLEASE REVIEW IT!' I'm going to politely ignore the fact that I only got TWO reviews for the last chapter.

Thank you to: Rose-Mariann-Johnston and certified weirdo!