Chapter Five

Sam woke as the sun began to streak into the dorm room. She yawned and contemplated going back to sleep, as she had only gone to bed three hours earlier. Shaking her head, she got up and gathered her things for the day.

At breakfast the fifth year students were more active than they had been for the past two weeks. There were four O.W.L. tests left. Sam smiled; these last ones were her best subjects. Defense Against the Dark Arts practical in the morning and the written in the afternoon. Tomorrow were her Transfiguration tests.

"Five for minutes," Professor Flitwick called.

Sam put down her quill and reread her answers. Happily, she put down her parchment and stretched, glancing around the room as she did so. The boy named Snape was still writing, but Sam shrugged it off. His score was none of her concern. She was certain she would get an 'O' and that's all that mattered to her.

James Potter turned in his seat and glanced at Sirius. Padfoot leaned the chair onto two legs, relaxed, and gave Prongs a thumbs-up. Sam glanced at the girl next to her who was plainly checking out Sirius. Sam shook her head in disgust.

'What's so great about him anyways?' she thought, 'Most of the girls here are head-over-heels for him or one of his friends. Speaking of his friends, why does this one have to sit right next to me?'

Glancing at the boy on her right, Remus, wasn't it? She watched him fiddle with his quill as he looked over his answers. Sam smirked to herself.

"Quills down please," the short Charms teacher said.

Parchments zoomed at him, knocking him over. Two Hufflepuffs near the front helped him up. Students poured onto the grounds. Younger students were still in class, giving the older ones space to study for their last tests.

Sam hung back a bit while people filed out, she never did care for big crowds. Then darting back to the common room she dropped off her books.

'No sense in studying when you've memorized the book,' she reasoned.

Sam was itching to get outside and walk by the lake. As she neared the door she saw a larger group gathered by the beech tree near the lake. Drawing closer, she was able to see and hear what was going on. Snape was on the ground, stiff and foaming at the mouth with pink bubbles. Sam was shoved aside, roughly, and barely had time to register the name of the girl with bright red hair.

"Leave him ALONE!" she yelled.

James Potter, resident troublemaker, let his voice drop to a more 'mature' tone, "All right, Evans?"

Sam noticed people starting to leave the gathering, obviously looking to avoid trouble. She knew she too should leave, but couldn't bring herself to abandon the poor boy that was being so cruelly tortured.

"I wouldn't go out with you if it were a choice between you and the giant squid," Lily Evans responded.

Sirius shrugged internally, 'Guess I was imagining things at the beginning of the year then.'

Out loud he said, "Bad luck Prongs," then, turning to face their prey, he noticed Snape had grabbed his wand, "OY!"

WHOOSH! A flash of light flew past James' face and sliced his cheek. Moments later Severus was upside down in the air. A few in the crowd around Sam cheered.

"Let him down!" Evans said, getting frustrated.

FWUMP! Snape hit the ground and was just barely regained his balance when,

"Locomotor Mortis!" Sirius' voice rang out, and Snape fell over again.

Lily whipped her wand out and Sam subtly slipped her own into her hand and gripped it tightly. The boys eyed Lily's wand with some nervousness. Lily was one of the best students in the year when it came to charms and hexes. Sam tuned out the conversation to assess the situation a bit better, but her attention was drawn back when she heard Severus say,

"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"

Sam winced, 'Bad move, very bad move.'

James was beside himself, "Apologize to Evans!"

'This isn't going well at all. Oh bother, there goes her rant. Why isn't Remus doing anything? Why is he just sitting there like nothing is happening?' Sam wondered, twitching with annoyance.

"... You make me SICK," Lily screamed as she stormed off.

"Evans!" James shouted after her, "Hey, EVANS!"

She totally ignored him and kept walking.

'And then there was one, I guess stopping this madness is up to me, now. And I was really hoping I wouldn't have to get involved...'

She glanced up at the group in time to see Snape whisked off the ground again.

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

Sam had had enough and stepped forward, "Sirius Black, I cannot believe you!"

Everyone turned to look at her, even Remus glanced up. Sirius himself, bore a look of mild surprise but quickly replaced it with the look of a cool smirk, amusement danced in his eyes.

"Well, well, if it isn't Miss Halloway. What can I do for you, love?"

"Firstly, you can stop calling me 'love'. I am certainly not yours, nor do I wish to be. Second, you can let Severus go."

"Oy, Padfoot, I think she likes Snivelly better than you," Peter piped up.

"Stuff it, Wormtail," Sirius replied, shooting him a glare. Turning to Sam, he added in his most civil tone, "Miss Halloway, you'll excuse me if I refuse your request. You see, this is a tradition of sorts, and -"

Sam didn't even give him time to finish, "You think you're better than him, don't you?"

"Well, of course. But -"

"Here's a little news flash for you then, Black. You're no better than he is. Neither is Potter."

James, who had been watching the little tiff and brooding, stiffened slightly at the mention of his name.

"Neither is anyone at this bloody school for that matter. These stupid house rivalries are ridiculous! No one is better than anyone else! Least of all your little gang, Black. What is it you call yourselves? 'The Marauders'? Well, guess what? You lot are probably the lowest there is. Terrorizing people you don't like, overwhelming them by numbers and brute force. Evans was right, you really are sickening."

Sam paused for a breath and continued, rounding on someone else. "And you, Lupin, you may not be doing anything at the moment but you're just as bad as them, if not worse. Its one thing to be a gutless bully, but it's worse to be a spineless bystander. You're smart, Lupin, you know this is wrong, but you still sit there, pretending to read and act like nothing is happening! Some Prefect! If I were headmistress I'd revoke your badge right now. Luckily for you, I'm not."

Sam, having said her piece, fell silent and glared at the stunned look of those around her. Sirius quickly regained his composure. Having no leverage on Sam, he rounded on Severus, who he had set back on the ground, though he was still immobile.

"Accepting help from her are we? Is she 'pure' enough for you?"

"I don't need help from anyone," Severus muttered, though obviously in a position that would state the contrary.

No one moved when Sam marched right up to Sirius and slapped him across his face.

"Don't change the subject when I'm speaking to you Sirius Black."

While he looked stunned, and James suppressed a small chuckle, Sam undid the magical binds that held Severus and watched him head quickly back to the castle. All that were left in the area were the Marauders and Sam.

"What did he ever do to you, for you to be so mean to him?" Sam asked softly, watching him go.

"Well, he's an annoying know-it-all who never bathes and-"

Still speaking softly, Sam cut him off, "So you have no real reason then…"

The words hung in the air as Sirius struggled to find a reason that would convince this girl that what he was doing was okay and to fill in this tiny, but steadily growing gap of doubt that had formed in him.

"You had no reason to slap me you know. I was merely pointing out the truth, Slytherins, are only pure bloods and only accept help from purebloods."

Sam's eyes blazed as she slapped him again, "You were reminding me again, just how mismatched I am with this school. I don't belong in Slytherin, yet it fits me so perfectly. I will never be able to fit in and you have to keep rubbing that in don't you?"

"Why are you so upset? I mean Snivels had no right to accept your help and not Lily's. Just because you're a pure-blood-"

Smack! "What gives you the right to assume I'm a pure-blood! Just because that's my house standard! You really are unbelievable, Black! I thought I just told you that you needed to get over your version of what's right and wrong!"

Sam began to quickly walk away. Sirius called after her several times, but she just kept walking towards the castle and soon disappeared indoors. Sirius cursed under his breath and James came to stand by him.

Putting a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder he said, "'S'alright Padfoot. You win some, you lose some. And from the looks of it we both lost pretty big today. At least you can avoid your triggers. I get nothing but ice every time I so much as lay a finger on Snivelly. If you don't bring up bloodlines you should be back on top in no time."

Remus came closer, to add his advice, though not nearly so pleasant, "You might want to lay off Snivelly for a while, though. She seemed pretty upset about that, too."

That said, the Marauders headed inside to grab the invisibility cloak and then off to Hogshead to sneak a few butterbeers before bed.

Sam slunk into the first classroom she came across, assuming it to be empty and needing a little quiet time to sort out her thoughts. She jumped when she saw who was in the room with her; Severus jumped too.

Sam brought it up first, "I'm sorry about earlier, I didn't mean to intervene but I couldn't stand around and let Sirius mistreat someone."

"Black tends to do that, whether you want him to or not. But… thank you, none the less. You're the first person to ever stand up for me."

These words surprised Sam. Surely his own family cared enough to stand up for him, but no, based on the bitter honesty in his voice and the downcast look on his face, not even they, related to him by blood, had ever stood up for him. If that was the case, Sam suspected he had never had a real friend in his life.

"May I ask why you did it?" Severus posed the question quietly, and Sam barely caught it.

She answered just as quietly, still leaning in the doorway, "I know what you're thinking. You think I did it out of pity. Or out of the need to stand by people in my house. But you're wrong. I did it because it was the right thing to do, and mostly, I did it because that's what friends are for. That's what they do; they look out for each other."

"But we're not-" Severus started.

"It's what friend's do, Severus, that's all there is to it," as she said this, Sam glided out the door and up to her dorm room, not even giving Severus another chance at voicing his protests at the friendship.

5