A/N Well I figure this is going to be the almost last chapter. Chapter 14 will be the last...I think. I am still heavily considering making a sequel to this one,although I am not quite sure if I should...oh the dilemma! Once again, I apologize for the lack of ... a little something something in this chapter - I wrote it quickly as I wanted to update it today before work, but I got up a little later than I had planned.

Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to Nora17. This is Sirius.

Disclaimer: Jack said to Willy, "Hey, did you know that Percephone doesn't own any rights to Harry Potter whatsoever?" Willy said to Jack, "Yeah, of course! She's mentioned it 12 times already, so isn't it obvious by now?"

Chapter 13 - The Grim Brothers

Then, a few days later after James had retrieved all of the things he had been supposed to, Sirius Black apparated outside the Potter Estate. Perfection, as of that moment, no longer existed to James anymore. Lily Evans had decided it to be best for everyone if she left the Potters', claiming James and she had spent enough time together for the summer, and that it was now time for him to spend time with his friends.

It was stupid at its best, to James, and he had objected until his face turned purple. He had followed her into her room, watched her pack away all her things, and had argued that eventually Lily would have to face Sirius and Remus and Peter and the entire Hogwarts community including the professors regarding her relationship with him. She had explained it had nothing to do with their relationship, that she wasn't scared or the least bit worried about anyone's reaction (as she never did care) and that she just wanted what was best for her.

And then he had tapped his foot and crossed his arms over his chest. What was best for her? He had been rapidly losing his patience and had demanded an explanation. She had also been purple in the face, by this time, and her eyes had gotten that Gleam of Death back in them, and she had glared at James in a way that said 'I want to smash your face in with my fist.' Yes, perfection had slipped away.

But James, no longer flinching at the Gleam of Death, kept on pushing. Then, and then, Lily exploded. "I'M GOING TO APOLOGIZE TO PETUNIA, YOU GIT! I NEED TO DO THIS, REMEMBER? YOU SAID SO YOURSELF! AND NOW I'M TAKING YOUR ADVICE AND I'M GOING TO SPEND THE LAST WEEKS OF VACATION WITH MY SISTER!"

James' eyes had felt a sudden pull towards the ground. He had never sunk so low in his life. He had, all this time, believed that Lily had been cowering away from what she would inevitably face, yet in all reality, she was stopping her current cowering. She was going to face her agony.

Of course, he had immediately apologized. How rude of him it would have been had he not thought of it.

"You better be," she had replied stubbornly. She continued grabbing her last few things, including a photo of her parents, and had shoved them hastily in her trunk, closing it with a flick of her wand. He saw her, out of the corner of his eyes, picking up the crinkled ticket he had given her and watched as she slipped it into her pocket. That made his heart smile. At least this fight had not been the death of them.

"Would you like help with your trunk?" he had asked as gentleman-like as ever. She had shook her head no, used her wand to levitate her trunk, and had walked quickly past James. He hadn't even had the time to grab her wrist and pull her towards him like he had pictured doing in his mind, pulling her into a warm embrace making her forget about their nasty argument. He was hopeless. Sure, he was great at planning things, but doing things on the whim required a bit more effort. He would have to remember that later.

This is the reason why perfection disapparated from the place where merely minutes later Sirius Black's entire body, along with a loud CRACK! had appeared. James, seeing Sirius, almost forgot the entire ordeal with Lily, and he stood to greet his 'big brother'.

"Prongs!" Sirius had beaten him to it.

"Padfoot!" James greeted heartily back. "You look terrible!" And he did. Not that his face had lost any of its appeal, James was merely commenting on his ripped clothes and the large bruise covering his neck. "What happened to you?"

Sirius smiled and shrugged. "I was trying a few things last night, you know, what with their being a female Marauder and all, and I still have to work on some of our exploding –"

"Sirius!" interrupted an elderly woman's voice. James always knew Sirius cared much about his Mum because of moments like these. He dropped everything, his wand included, ran up past the gates and picked up Gwendolyn Potter in a warm and playful embrace.

"MUUUUUUUUUM!" He kissed her forehead. "I missed you!"

James' Mum slapped Sirius' arm. He rubbed it in mock pain. "What was tha' for?" his brows were creased in very real concern.

"Don't you ever go off without telling me first, dear. I had to pry your location out of James. You must always, always, Sirius Black, tell me first." She was serious. James knew, he had heard the same thing at the age of eleven when he, Sirius and Remus had decided to spend Christmas together. His Mum had actually walked into the Gryffindor common room, had grabbed James' wrist and had tugged on it, ordering him to stand up by pulling (softly) at his ear. Really, the whole entire thing had been more of a show than anything. Then she had given him 'the talk' that he was always to let his parents know where he was and who he was with. You know, boring ol' parent stuff.

"Sorry, Mum. It won't happen again," he said in a sort of "fine then, be that way" voice. Mrs Potter chose to ignore his tone, smiled warmly, and pulled him into another warm hug.

"I'm glad to have both my sons for at least a little while," she smiled and turned on her heel. Both Sirius and James knew that meant to follow her back up to the house. James picked up Sirius' things, Sirius picking up a few things himself, and they made their way up the entryway.

When they walked past the fountain, Sirius chuckled. James laughed as well. Oh how stupid they had been!

James found it particularly disturbing when he walked into his home. The entire front room had been recoloured, turned into a bright green lounge. The same green as the gloves he had worn. "Erm, Ma?"

"Shush, dear. I was trying something new." She looked like she was up to no good. There wasn't a doubt in James' mind that he had picked up his bad habits from her.

James and Sirius spent the most of their first week together catching up on things, like Remus' transformations, Peter's unfortunate lack of a backbone as well as their own lives. Much had changed in Sirius, according to James, and he was anxious to know what had given him that extra…edge. Their second and their week had been spent with Remus and Peter setting up things for the grand event.

They were sitting on their brooms, hovering over the estate, keeping an eye on their master plans to make sure none of them accidentally got set off, and James was waiting for Sirius to tell him what had changed. It appeared Sirius was doing the same.

"What happened this summer, Padfoot?" he asked finally, unable to hold back his curiosity. He hoped Sirius would catch on.

He did. "Things changed, Prongs." James' stomach tightened.

"Such as?" He wasn't being too tell-all. James wondered if he'd be able to tell him everything that had gone on during his summer.

"My uncle's death, seeing what things were like at Remus', stuff like that." There was a pause. James wished he had gone with Sirius to Remus'. Whatever had happened…was beyond him. "You not being there at all this summer, things changed, that's all."

"We're still the same though, aren't we?" James felt like a little boy pleading his best friend to not stop playing together. He didn't care that he looked pathetic, that he sounded desperate because quite frankly, James felt pathetic and he was desperate. His friends were everything to him. He never had realized until now that without them, he would be lost.

Sirius smiled at him. "Yeah, o' course, why wouldn't we?" James wished he knew what he was thinking.

"I dunno," he replied in earnest, "I just thought that, well what with everyone changing and all, I just, I don't want anything to be odd between us."

James felt uncomfortable under Sirius' stare. He seemed to be measuring him, to be taking him in for the first time, really getting to see James as he was, not as strong as he appeared, but really, a fragile piece of glass, much like Remus and himself concerning their own respective weaknesses. "You've changed too."

"Is that good?"

Sirius smiled. "Yeah. Well, it's not bad, since I guess we've all changed." They were dancing around it, dancing around the subject they knew would inevitably spring up in both their minds, but they couldn't bring themselves to address it. James didn't want to bring it up. He wanted to talk about it, yes, but to bring it up would be devastating, disastrous, it would mean – "About Snape, James." Oh, well good. Sirius was bringing it up. James then thought about how he didn't really want to talk about it at all. How the past was past and the future was still waiting.

"It's alright - "

"No it isn't. I know it and you do too. Moony's down right furious about it, well at least he was, I think he's better now. But I just, I need to explain – "

"You don't need to explain anything to me, Sirius. You've already apologized to me and I've accepted, and I take it you've also apologized to Remus and he's accepted. And well, I know Severus won't accept any apology from any of us, so he's sort of not important at the moment."

Sirius directed his gaze back out towards the front of the estate. "Severus. Severus Snape. I don't know if you know what I feel when I see him."

"Oh but I do. I can't stand the bugger. He's slimy, greasy, and he's just one of those people you wish were never born. Really, I am surprised no one else is as hard on him as we are." It was common knowledge. Snape was the freak of freaks, the lowest of low. No one in school liked him. He was skittish, a bit on the pale side – almost vampire like – he loved the dark arts, for some reason excelled at potions, all the weird dodgy things in their world, Snape had a knack for. He gave James the shivers whenever he walked by when they were younger, and since James had become taller and less scrawny than the beady eyed boy, the shivers had transformed into loathing. Now, all James wanted to do was to bring him as most humiliation as ever possible. He deserved it.

"We'll have to leave him alone this year though, mate. Dumbledore made me promise." Sirius trailed off, obviously not pleased about the promise they had all made to their headmaster.

"He means well, Dumbledore. Perhaps we really should leave Snape alone. For now. After Hogwarts, all's fair play." James winked at Sirius who resumed his devilish grin.

Why it was James didn't feel as strongly about what he had said as he knew he would have felt a few months ago, James was sure it was due to the mishap. Seeing Snape's fear, smelling it, feeling the hostility directed towards him in such a great quantity… the unforgettable lack of appreciation… James had saved his life, whether Snape would ever admit it to himself, he'd never know. But magic is as magic was and Snape was thus bound to the Potter line until his debt was repaid. Not that it was anything James thought he really needed; after all, what good could Snape do that James himself couldn't?

"How's Lily?" James felt his mind snap back into his head. Lily. His stomach felt queasy. She hadn't written or made any contact since his father's birthday. She had sent an owl to his mother and in the letter she had written: Tell James I miss him, and that I'm always there if he feels the need to write. That had been it. Of course, he had been grateful that she had even thought about him, that she had written even a small line concerning him but, being James, he wanted more. He wanted her to write him that she knew he was sorry and that she had actually thought their argument silly and that no matter what she'd hold on to her ticket.

"I dunno, she's fine, I guess." He didn't feel like talking about Lily. He felt like talking to Lily.

"Mum tells me you two were quite the friendly ones towards each other." James merely nodded with a slight smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "You're not joking? You two actually got along well?"

James shrugged. "Well, we sort of decided to let whatever happened at school stay there, you know, so that summer could be enjoyable."

"And was it?"

James' lips gave up their resistance and sprung into a full out smile. "Yeah," he stared off towards the house they had sort of ambushed together, "Yeah, I think it was."

"I still don't understand, Prongs. Lily Evans. She's a bit of a nutter, isn't she?"

"Umm," what was that supposed to mean?

"Sort of like you, I guess. She seems scattered, completely lost yet comfortably so, you know? I dunno. I just thought you'd go for the more level headed, less argumentative, more obedient type."

"You figured wrong."

"I guess I did."

Silence. Why did every conversation carried out between two teenagers always result into some sort of silence? Even if it was a comfortable or at least a not-so awkward silence, it was still silence and the silence was sometimes enough to drive someone mad!

"Are you serious this time? About Lily, I mean?" He seemed a bit … well his voice was off, sort of like it was after… Well he didn't remember when, but James was sure he had heard that voice at one point or another.

"I hope so. We got along well, you know, and she's just amazing, really she is. And I don't know if it'll last long, but I personally hope it lasts until the day I die. And if it does," he carried on not realizing Sirius had been about to say something, "then I hope I die first so that I don't have to endure the loneliness that life would become without her.

Sirius rode and pulled up right beside his best mate, patting him on the back. "Sounds a bit grim, if you'd ask me mate." James shrugged. It had been his honest more private feelings and thoughts. And he had revealed them to the one friend of his he knew would appreciate hearing them.

"I meant every word."

"I know you did. But I will personally never understand you, mate. I just wish you all the best."

It only occurred to them then how good a friend Sirius actually was, how despite their differences, he always found a way to make James feel like less of an idiot, like more of a 'man', like… Sirius was his best friend. Best Friend. Remus would never have been able to make James feel accepted the way Sirius did. He felt bad for not even considering Peter as a candidate, but the truth was truth; Sirius was his brother. Nothing would ever change that.

Then his mind went back to Lily, as it so often did. He couldn't wait until September 1st.