Disclaimer: I in no way, shape, or form own Harry Potter, the story, or the characters within. It all belongs to J.K. Rowling and various publishing companies. The only thing I own is the idea for this story, and I'm not making any money off of it so it's not much to brag about.

Update: June 15, 2005. Rearranged and added prologues to chapters 3 and 4. Few minor editing tweaks.

Chapter 3
The Potions N.E.W.T.

I read somewhere once upon a time that Muggles used playing cards like these to tell the future. Don't think we ever studied that one in Divination class, but then I never really studied much of anything in Divination.

Sometimes, though, I wish…

But it's too late for wishes now, isn't it.

You know, there was a time I didn't believe in fate. There was a time I thought whatever fate we made was our own, that we were masters of our own destiny and all that bull. I wish I could still think that. It's just, you know, too much has happened. How can I believe in free will when I've tried my hardest and done my best and still been screwed at every turn? How am I supposed to think the world isn't out to steamroll over one Sirius Black?

Me? Bitter? Maybe a little. Let's be realistic here.

Damn it, the cards are getting blurry. I'm no stranger to tears. You don't survive twelve years in Azkaban and never know what it's like to sob until your throat is raw and there's nothing left but an empty pit in your stomach. But this isn't the place. All this soul searching is going to my head, making me dwell on things I should have buried long ago. Maybe I should just keep playing the game. Maybe these cards will tell me something I don't know. Maybe, just maybe, I'll finally win.

It is often said that misery loves company, and so the Marauders could not stay divided as long as NEWTs stood as a common obstacle.

James heard the final call and the clatter of quills and parchment flying through the air as he leaned against the wall outside the common room waiting for his friends. He'd finished up the potions NEWT with a few minutes to spare, but had paused outside the doors to wait for the others. Besides, Lily was just around the corner waiting for her own friends, and even though he didn't dare approach her and her rather volatile temper during the NEWT period, he was happy to just know she was there.

The hall suddenly filled with voices as the test-takers began to file out of the common room, and James heard quite a number of complaints over the difficulty of the exam. Grumbling at the wizard who'd cursed all Potters to be short, James stood on tiptoes and strained to see over the crowd, looking for Sirius' dark head above the rest of the seventh years. Sirius caught sight of him and waved, cutting through the crowd to where James stood against the wall.

"Devil of a test," Sirius remarked when he was within earshot. "Can't believe you got done so quickly." Apparently, the previous day's fight was forgotten, as Sirius leaned close and whispered with a sly smile, "wouldn't have anything to do with a certain Ms. Evans handing in her paper twenty minutes early, would it?"

James whacked him on the back of the head in response. "Don't be ridiculous, Padfoot. It's got nothing to do with that. There were so many defensive potions on that exam, I'd be surprised if any Slytherin passed. It was practically a DADA exam."

Sirius looked incredulous. "Practically a DADA exam?" he parroted. "You expect me to buy that? I'm ashamed, Prongs, that you'd find me so foolish."

"Oh, don't worry, we all find you foolish." Remus had approached unnoticed, and grinned at Sirius when the other spun around to face him. "Well, there's one NEWT down. And we all know James aced it. How'd you do, Padfoot?"

Sirius shrugged. "All right, I suppose. Though Mother would've pitched a fit over the questions they asked. 'Potions is the art of pure-bloods' she'd always say, and that was as muggle friendly a portions test as any we've ever taken. Seems like someone at Hogwarts has got some anti-Voldemort agenda"

Peter, who had also approached unnoticed, squeaked at the name. "D-don't say that!" he stammered, glancing around worriedly. "S-some people might not have realized it, you know, and y-you don't want them f-finding out. Just think what could happen if You-Know-Who came to Hogwarts."

James laughed shortly. "Don't be ridiculous, Wormtail. How could Voldemort get in here? This is Hogwarts, and Dumbledore is more powerful than Voldemort could ever be."

Peter nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes, of course. You-Know-Who can't get in here, but still…"

"Peter, you worry too much," Sirius interrupted, though he seemed distracted. James traced his gaze and found him looking at Severus Snape. "Greasy git," Sirius muttered to his friends. "Look at him. Probably thinks he's aced the potions NEWT. If he's got it in the bag, it's sure enough not all good spells."

The greasy git in question was slinking down the hall, muttering to himself as he walked with his nose stuck in a book. Looking closer, James realized Sirius was right; there were none of the furtive glances, none of the nervous tension that always surrounded him, replaced, for the time being, with a calm confidence that James found quite irksome. Severus Snape, blight to Hogwarts and all Houses, should not look confident. James sighed, casting a glance towards the end of the hall from where he could hear Lily's laughter as she talked with her friends. He really, really wanted to remind Severus of his place, he had promised Lily he'd leave the wanker alone for NEWTS time. She wouldn't talk to him for a week if he broke it, after all.

James realized how lost in his own thoughts he had been when he jumped at Remus' voice, sounding firmer than was its usual want. "Let it be," the werewolf was nearly growling, a firm grip of Sirius' arm the only thing holding the other back. "The last thing you need in the middle of N.E.W.T.s is another detention."

Sirius glared, but gave in, though he didn't look at all happy about it. He continued to sneer at Severus as the others began to discuss the exam.

"So what can you use to replace baby's blood if you don't want to commit human sacrifice?" Peter asked. "I think I completely botched it."

Remus frowned thoughtfully. "That one was hard, wasn't it?" he replied. "I don't think there's anything more potent than baby's blood if you're doing a regeneration potion of any sort, but I wrote that you could use cow milk and ground unicorn horn in a pinch. Sort of seems to defeat the point of keeping the potion pure, though, doesn't it, which is what the question seemed to be going for."

A nasally voice interrupted what James had been about to say. "Pure?" it asked. "Why should something like you worry about purity when you're going to be the one who eats a baby some day?'

James spun around, surprised that Snape had dared approached them. Calm, he reminded himself, taking a deep breath. Remember Hogsmead. Remember Lily. He looked over towards Sirius and saw that the Slytherin's approach had been no surprise to his friend. Sirius had been tracking Snape the entire time.

Remus flinched, Snape's words touching a nerve. Sirius was quick to jump to his defense.

"At least if he eats a baby, it'll be involuntary, you Death Eater trash!" he yelled, loud enough that most heads in the room turned their way. Remus looked as though he wished he could shrink into his robes, while Sirius and Snape glared at each other, incensed.

"If anyone's Death Eater trash around here, it isn't me." Snape spoke calmly and quietly, though in the hush that had overtaken the hallway, everyone could hear. "Or should I remind you who's the pureblood here and who's not?"

James wasn't sure if it was him or Sirius who hit Snape first, but the Slytherin was down in a second, a hand clutching at his bloody nose as the two boys advanced on him. James was distantly aware of Remus grabbing at his arm, pleading for them to stop, and of Peter's cheers in the background. What caught his attention, however, was how he was suddenly unable to move, try as he might to continue pummeling Snivelus Snape. Judging from the curses he could hear to the right, Sirius had found himself in exactly the same situation.

"Fighting in the halls are we? We do realize that this is a fully punishable breach of school rules, don't we?" Professor Dainspore, the young, bespeckled divination teacher whom all, without question, hated for his anal retentiveness and the sheer joy he seemed to get from punishing students, approached them. He gave a high pitched giggle, something more fitting for a giddy third year girl than the twenty-something divination professor whose gray hair was already showing. "I think I see some detention in the future." He flicked his wand and suddenly the invisible hand holding James in place disappeared and the boy straitened to face the young professor. Sirius, who had been fighting the spell, crashed to the floor with a startled curse.

Dainspore peered down at him through his narrow spectacles, eyebrows raised, before beginning to count off on his fingers. "Let's see now, fighting in the halls, that's four days detention each. Accusing each other of being Death Eaters, another two. Disturbing the peace, that's one more day. So a week of detention for each of you. Oh yes, and 100 points from Gryffindore and 25 from Slytherin. I'll be seeing the five of you this afternoon."

"F-five of us?" Peter squeaked once the professor had moved on. "I didn't do anything."

Remus just sighed. "Will you ever learn to keep your mouth shut?" he asked Sirius wearily.

Sirius just glared, a dangerous look in his eyes. Remus sighed again. "I'm not accusing you, you know," he said, a little sharper than he intended. "So you can stop looking at me like that. It would just be nice if you'd learn to keep your mouth shut every once in a while."

Whatever Sirius might have said in response, and judging by the expression on his face it wouldn't have been pleasant, was cut off by a shrill, feminine voice full of anger. Both boys turned to see James cowering before Lily, a look of pure embarrassment on his face as his girlfriend let the entire seventh year know how she felt about James' behavior. Needless to say, she was not happy.

"You promised," she yelled, and James seemed to shrink before her. "You swore right on that you wouldn't pick fights with him anymore! And look what you do! Not one day goes by and you've got detention because you couldn't stop yourself from picking on him. There's no way you'll get me to go with you to Hogsmede, James Potter, and I'll certainly not be seeing you for a good week!" With a flick of her red hair, she was off trouncing down the hall, nose in the air. The other Griffindor girls flocked around her, sniffing in James' direction as they too disappeared around the corner.

James mussed up his hair, staring after her. "What's her problem," he mused nonchalantly, though there was a tightness about his eyes that belayed his worry. He shrugged. "Silly girls. How are we supposed to know what's going through their heads? What do you want to do before detention?" he asked, turning back to his friends.

"Put a Frogbomb in Dainspore's office, that's what," Sirius growled, looking quite serious. The others ignored him.

Peter tugged on James' sleeve. "Shouldn't you go after her?" he asked, pointing to where Lily had disappeared around the corner. "She might still go to Hogsmede with you if you ask her nice enough."

James gave a sharp, barking laugh that seemed like it should rather have come from Sirius. "If I beg her, you mean." James shook his head. "No, better to just let her be. She'll come back when she's good and ready for more."

"You think she really wants more?" Remus asked, looking skeptical.

James whacked him on the head. "Enough with your smart mouth. Of course she wants more. Who wouldn't?"

"Getting back to the subject of Frogbombs," Sirius interrupted, apparently still caught up in revenge on Dainspore.

Remus hushed him with a nod of the head, gesturing over Sirius' shoulder. "Be quiet," he hissed. "He's coming back. Don't get us any more detentions."

Sirius glared, and Remus was quite sure he was about to start off on how it hadn't been his fault they'd gotten detention. Again. And Remus was about to tell him to keep quite. Again. But unexpectedly, no protests came out of Sirius' mouth. As Dainspore came up to them, Sirius and Remus both found themselves at a loss for words. Their teacher looked off into the distance, eyes glazed, at some far off point down the hall that appeared no different to them than any other part of the corridore. Dainspore walked slowly up to the quiet group, and as he moved through the crowd of students all chattering on about the N.E.W.T.s, the hall gradually got quieter and quieter. With all eyes focused on him, Dainspore walked up to the Marauders and gazed at them all for a long moment with unblinking eyes.

Sirius was the first to break the silence. "Um, hello," he ventured, waving a hand in front of Dainspore's face. "Everything all right?"

"Stop it!" Peter ordered, grabbing Sirius' hand midair. "Don't get us in anymore trouble. Sorry, sir."

Dainspore didn't answer, simply stared at them with the same unblinking gaze. Remus was reminded uncomfortably of a snake scenting its prey.

"Are you all right, sir?" James asked, stepping forward. "You seem rather out of it, Professor."

Again, Dainspore remained silent. "Maybe it's some sort of seizure. Or brainwashing spell," Remus guessed, looking curiously at the divination teacher.

As soon as Remus had finished speaking, Dainspore began to talk in a low, monotonous voice that sounded nothing like his usual, slightly manical lisp. "Three times defeated, the Dark Lord will laugh. One of your own will live to betray you. Pure blood shall be spilt, an innocent lost, and the eye of the storm crosses our palms."

The entire hall came to a hush as Dainspore began shrieking, pointing wildly at the four boys standing before him as he did so, eyes wild and foam flying from his mouth. "Victim, Innocent, Dark-spawn, Betrayer!" He chanted the same words over and over again, his gestures growing wilder and his shouting turned more and more into gibberish as he did so, until it seemed he could last no longer.

James stepped forward to catch the thin professor as his eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped sideways, as though he were a puppet whose strings had been cut. As James eased his professor to the ground, those blue eyes shot open. There was none of the previous madness in them as he looked right at James and whispered in a voice almost too low to hear, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, James Potter."

"What?" James asked, but the professor's eyes had slipped shut. James shook him, calling his name, but there was no response. There was a rush of noise behind him as Dumbledore and McGonagall ran up behind him.

McGonagall took one look at Dainspore, pale and still on the floor beside James, and ran for the nurse. Dumbledore eyes James and his friends critically. "What happened?" he demanded, with none of his usual good humor.

The question prompted chaos, as everyone rushed to tell the headmaster how the divination professor had come to be laying unconscious on the floor. However, after a few moments Dumbledore's roar for quiet was heard above all the voices.

"Thank you," he said, watching as McGonagall returned with the nurse, who together lifted Dainspore into the air and floated him off down the cooridore as quickly as possible. "Now," Dumbeldore said, turning to the students. "I want everyone but James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter to return to their halls and their studying and I do not want to hear of any false rumors started by this incident. I'll make an official report at supper tonight." As soon as he had shooed the lingering students out of the hallway, the authoritative manner disappeared.

"Now then," he said, turning back to the Marauders, "can I interest you in some Everyflavor Beans in my office?" It wasn't an offer so much as a command.

Several hours later, three rather subdued boys and one overly hyperactive boy stepped out of the portrait that led to Dumbledore's office.

Peter spoke a mile a minute, practically bouncing with each step. "A real prophecy!" he was saying. "Can you believe it? The headmaster said that was a real prophecy, about us! That means we'll be important, doesn't it? Isn't it exciting?"

Remus sighed. "Did you hear what he said? Someone will be betrayed and it'll help Voldemort. And one of us is the betrayer. That's not something to get excited about."

Peter shrugged. "Why not?" he asked. "He said something about pure-blood, didn't he? That means it won't be us since we're not pure blood. It's one of them." He waved a hand towards Sirius and James who walked ahead of them.

"Shut up," Sirius growled, whirling around, and Peter did because he was a little scared of his friend when he got that look sort of look about him. "What does that bloody old git know, anyway? If it's even a real prophecy, it doesn't have to be about us. We just happened to be standing there. But like that old phony would actually be right. Divination is bollux."

Remus seemed to like that and nodded his agreement, and Peter, although he looked rather unexcited by the idea, agreed it might not be a prophecy about them.

"So what about it, James?" Sirius asked, nudging his friend with his elbow. "It's not necessarily about us, right? So stop looking so glum."

James shook his head. "No, it is about us," he corrected quietly.

Sirius stopped short, eyes narrowed. "Don't be daft, James," he scolded glibly, though there was a hint of desperation in his voice. "There's no way you can know that."

James didn't turn around, but spoke with head bowed to the boys behind him. "He said my name," he admitted.

Sirius had nothing to say to that, so Remus stepped forward. "When you caught him?" he asked. James nodded. "Did he say anything else?"

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, James Potter. James shook his head. "No," he replied. "Just that. Just my name."

"Well, maybe he was just waking up and was surprised. Maybe he said your name because you caught him. Maybe he was going to give you another detention for casting a spell on him or something." The desperation was back in Sirius' voice now.

"No!" James shouted, sharper than he intended, cutting Sirius off. "It was a part of the prophecy. I know, so don't question it, okay. Let's just go back to Gryffindor Tower."

"I don't want to go back yet," Remus said. "Everyone's going to be whispering and staring and I don't want to deal with it. I'll see you at supper." He took off down the hall in the opposite direction, and the others watched him go.

"Maybe he's got the right idea," James mused.

"Let's just go," Sirius said, grabbing James by the arm and pulling him along. "Everyone knows divination is the single most useless class at Hogwarts and Dainspore the single most useless teacher unless you're out for as many detentions as you can get."

The two walked silently back to their hall, Peter following along behind, ignoring the little feeling in his stomach that told him Remus was right, this was a Bad Thing and that he shouldn't be so excited about it. But at the same time, a prophecy had been told, a prophecy about him and his friends. A prophecy that said they would be important in the battle against You-Know-Who. A prophecy that gave him hope that he wouldn't always have to stand in the shadows and watch his friends do great things he could never hope to achieve.

He bit his lip so his friends wouldn't see his smile.

TBC…

A/N: Whew...I've been holding onto that for months now, just waiting to edit it. Sorry it's been so long, but I've been SO busy lately...Would anyone be interested in signing a petition to make 30 hour days? One more chapter, and what was originally planned as the 1st chapter will be complete. Hopefully, that chapter won't take me 2 months, but seeing as I'm writing a thesis right now, it just might. You're forewarned. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed and I hope you enjoyed!
--Kohinyun