Here's another update chapter, and it's quite long… (Is that good or bad?) Anyway, hope you enjoy it! And thanks so much to brennqt14! I wouldn't update without your reviews!!

Chapter 15

Easter past as quickly as the previous few months had done and over Easter there had been no strange news in the newspapers. "Maybe it's finally finished," Peter said thoughtfully at breakfast while Remus scanned the Daily prophet.

"Or maybe whoever's doing it is doing something else." Remus said darkly. "For the time being anyway."

But Remus was becoming less and less interested in the news and was becoming more and more interested in his schoolwork. Sirius was often complaining loudly about this so Remus had taken to bringing his books either into the main hall where friends from different houses would sit chatting, or outside.

"I don't see how it can bother you," Remus said grumpily as Sirius faked a huge coughing fit as Remus fumbled in his bag for his History of magic notes. "Have you even started revising yet?"

"No," Sirius said. "Come on we've got ages! Why don't you come and investigate that statue of the humpbacked witch with Prongs and me?"

"You already know there's a secret passageway there! You just want to stop me working don't you?" Remus said angrily. "Well if you're not coming with me I'll go with Peter."

"He's right really Padfoot," James said. "After all, we need to pass these exams to get into the second year."

"I suppose," Sirius said looking disappointed. "I don't exactly want to have to stay at home for the rest of my school life…"

So the four of them made their way outside to the sunny grounds and spread out their books by the lake. James noticed that Snape was sitting close to them, he too had his nose buried in a book but this was not one of their schoolbooks…

"What's this Snivelly?" Sirius said as he crept over and grabbed the book from Snape.

"It's a book Black." Snape said glaring at the lake.

"It's a book on the Dark arts," Sirius said looking disgusted.

"Now how would this be useful?" James said joining them.

"It's interesting." Snape said through gritted teeth.

"Oh yes, fascinating. Reading about ancient curses. Like you've got the brains to try any of them."

"I'll try them on you if you don't watch out." Snape said angrily. "Now leave me alone."

James and Sirius left him, throwing the book over their shoulder as they went. "Shame it didn't fall in the lake." James said bitterly as they sat back down with Remus and Peter.

Snape was now sitting alone at breakfast, lunch and dinner. He was no longer strutting down the corridors accompanied by a pack of seventh years. His nose was often pressed so close to his book that Sirius often commented openly that he was amazed it was still legible through all the grease. After seven times of hearing this, Snape apparently had had enough. He turned so suddenly it made several people jump and shouted "Flatus canitus!"

At once Sirius, James, Peter and Remus were knocked backwards as though by an invisible force. Snape tucked his wand back inside the pocket of his robes. "Been looking for someone to try that out on." He said quietly and then slipped away down the corridor.

Sirius and James were shaking with fury. Remus was trying to calm Peter down, who had tripped over his robes and had been sent flying into a suit of armour which clashed and banged dangerously. "He is not getting away with this," Sirius said fiercely. "He'll pay…"

"Calm down you two," Remus said turning to them. "It's not a very complex spell he used. And you can hardly say it did you much harm. He's just got too obsessed with the dark arts… He's obviously been reading about blasting curses, though that petty excuse for an attempt shows how little he actually knows."

"Yeah…" James said still glaring after Snape. "What an idiot."

It was the next day when Sirius and James decided that Snape was getting much too well… like them. "Hello there Snivellus." They said in mock politeness as they arrived outside the potions classroom to find Snape already waiting there.

"Leave me alone," Snape said, then his lip curled. "Or, I'll curse you."

"I'd like to see you try," Sirius said though he was fishing around in his bag for his wand.

"How about a duel?" Snape said, lowering his wand.

James looked at Sirius. There was no Remus to decline the offer, no Peter to whimper that they would be killed… There was nothing to stop them from saying 'yes'. They were quiet for a moment.

"Well, I thought you'd be too scared. Or else…" A look of understanding flashed across his oily face. "You see… Gryffindors are a lot like Slytherins." Snape glared at them. "I know what you're planning."

"And what's that?" Sirius said angrily.

"You're going to say you won't come… Then you're going to turn up anyway…" Snape said, sounding very pleased with himself.

"One problem genius," Sirius said looking at Snape with equal dislike. "If we say we won't come, you won't bother turning up anyway, and also how are we supposed to know when or where you will be? You haven't even told us yet!"

"But I will bother turning up," Snape said looking slightly crestfallen though he still had a nasty gleam in his hollow black eyes. "Because your plan is to turn up too…"

"Says who?" James said. "You don't know that, we could just stay in the Gryffindor common room and laugh that you've turned up to duel with nobody. Isn't that more likely?"

Snape did not reply for a moment. "I do know." He said. "I know a lot more than you think I do actually…" His eyes narrowed. Remus, Peter and Professor Blint were coming. "So, will you come? Twelve o clock, third floor corridor, by the trophy room." Snape said quickly.

James and Sirius exchanged looks then not wanting it to look like Snape had won said, "Of course we'll come."

"Let's not say anything to the others though," James whispered as Remus and Peter arrived and Snape sidled into the classroom.

That night in the common room, James and Sirius flicked briskly through a book of useful hexes Remus had given James for a birthday present. "This looks good," James said. "The bat-bogey hex… Looks quite hard though… Maybe we should wait until third year."

"What are you two doing?" Remus asked as he sat down opposite them.

"Er…" James said hastily shutting the book. "Homework."

Remus gave them a slightly disbelieving look but continued scribbling then after a while paused and looked up. "We don't have homework. Our homework was to revise, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Sirius said quickly. "That's what we meant by homework."

Remus said nothing and half an hour later he and Peter went up to bed.

"Great," James said happily. "Well, I think we've got enough to send Snivelly to the hospital wing… hopefully for a long time… Let's bring the cloak,"

Sirius nodded then said suddenly, "But how are we going to get it? It's in the dormitory remember?"

James looked thoughtfully at Sirius for a while then said, "Well… I could say… We needed it for… I know! Because we want to keep studying but there's a prefect in the common room and he's objecting to it."

"He's never going to believe that," Sirius said laughing. "But it's worth a try isn't it?"

So James disappeared upstairs and seconds later had return with the invisibility cloak tucked safely under his arm. "He didn't even ask!" James said grinning from ear to ear.

"Shall we go?" Sirius asked at ten to midnight. They were the only ones left in the common room, apart from a few sleepy looking fifth and seventh years with revision notes open in front of them.

"Yeah," James said. "Let's go." So the pair of them threw the cloak over themselves and crept out of the common room unnoticed.