When Dorcas saw Sirius three hours later on the way down to breakfast, she smiled calmly at him. He smiled back and immediately walked over to her in the common room, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Good morning," something pulling at the side of his mouth.

"Good morning," she wrapped an arm around his middle, nuzzling into his chest.

Annabelle and Gwendolyn, who were walking behind Dorcas, kept stealing glances at each other; trying to interpret this new development. Sirius looked up at them.

"Don't worry about it," she whispered. "But let me handle Cade, alright?"

"Can I pummel him, please?"

"No," she chuckled into his chest. "He's really not that bad."

Sirius pulled her in tighter, "Yes, he is."

"Just because he doesn't like you," she said. Then she looked up at him and broke into a rare toothy grin. It was the most beautiful thing Sirius had ever seen.

"James," Lily was truly exasperated. The two were standing in their common room about two feet from each other. Both had taken stubborn stances. Lily's arms were waving wildly while James' were angrily folded across his chest. "You cannot do this."

"Come on Lily," he pleaded. "Did you really expect me to stop pulling pranks just because we started dating?"

Lily huffed. "You are Head Boy, James Potter, and I have overlooked your pranks, even after Cade Bradley caught you in the Ravenclaw common room. But you cannot do this."

"We've always pranked the Slytherins," he shook his head in disbelief at her disapproval.

She began pacing. "But things are different now," she was wringing her hands. "You've seen the way Rosier and Montague have been walking around this place like they own it."

"The way Sirius and I do?" he smirked a little, shifting his weight to one leg.

"NO," she stopped and whipped around to look at him. "James, you have to be serious about this." James chuckled at his best friend's name, but shut up when Lily shot him a look. "They've been making comments about all the terrible things they're going to do when the year is up. Rosier actually threatened me in Potions the other day."

James' face suddenly contorted with a huge swell of protective anger. "I'll kill him."

"No James," she walked to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. "There's no point. But if you prank them, there's no telling how they'll react. We're not kids anymore, James; they won't just try to hit you with a bat-bogey hex. They're so…so terrifyingly confident. I'm afraid they might try to actually hurt you……" Her head dropped as her breathing slowed. When she looked up, she had tears in her eyes, "Or worse."

"Oh Lily," he wrapped his arms around her and she buried her head in his chest. "I doubt that Rosier will try to kill me at school. Besides, we're pranking Snape, not him."

Lily suddenly pushed him away violently. He moved back a couple of steps. "You are such an idiot. Haven't you seen who's suddenly become the third member of their disgusting little trio," she wiped at the tears coming from her eyes as she yelled. "If you prank Snape, then Rosier will get involved."

"It's just a harmless joke," James shrugged. "There's no reason Snape should react any differently than he ever has."

"He hates you James," she said; sniffing up her tears angrily.

"He's always hated me."

Lily sighed loudly. "But he never had anyone to take his side before. Don't you think that he would have done something much worse to you if he had the resources?" She was pleading, "Well, now he has them."

"Lily," he rolled his eyes and tried to hug her. She ducked out of his embrace and the stubborn frown cemented itself on her face. "Rosier is not going to kill me if I prank Snape. You're being ridiculous."

"RIDICULOUS!" her green eyes suddenly filled with an anger James hadn't seen since last spring. "So me caring about what happens to you is ridiculous!"

"That's not…."

"FINE!" she yelled, inches from his face. "If you want to go get yourself hurt, go! I don't care." The way she sat down on the armchair; her arms folded, James knew that she really did care.

"Lily, come on…"

"GO!"

James sighed, unsure of what to do, and walked into his bedroom.

Despite Lily's objections, they pulled the prank anyway. With the help of the map, the four Marauders snuck first into the Potions dungeon where they picked up daisy roots, a shrivelfig, a caterpillar, a rat spleen, and some leech juice. Remus, as the only one of the four who had ever shown any sort of talent at all for Potions, mixed the shrinking solution.

Then, quietly and quickly, they made their way down to the Slytherin common room. The dark dungeon-like chamber gleamed with green glass and a large silver urn on the mantle caught the small amount of light that streamed in from the slotted windows at the top of the walls. The boys snuck down a dark corridor into the 7th year's dormitory and immediately found Snape's bed thanks to the copy of Magic Moste Evile lying on his trunk.

"Trash," James had muttered angrily, as he let three drops of the solution fall on Snape's greasy nose.

They hurried out of the dormitories; Peter almost tripping over Rosier's trunk. Quickly and quietly, they snuck out of the lounge and up the trap door. The castle was silent and eerie with the slight glow of the moon streaming through the occasional window.

"Lily's going to kill me," James sighed as they reached the place where he was to leave them. "Can I come sleep in the tower tonight?"

Sirius laughed.

"Don't laugh at me."

"Yeah," Remus smirked. "Soon Dorcas will be doing the same thing to you."

"Doubt it," Sirius smiled at the mention of the girl's name.

"Get in there Prongs," Remus pushed him a little. "You're going to have to handle it eventually."

Sirius and Peter shrugged in agreement.

Taking a deep breath, James turned to the corridor. "Wish me luck."

"Good Luck."

The next day, Snape's nose was almost invisible, it was so small. The entire Advanced Transfiguration class had burst into laughter when he walked in; except for Lily, who instead glared at James as he shrunk in his chair a little. Snape didn't even realize that his nose had changed at all until Professor McGonagall mentioned that perhaps he should go to the hospital wing. As he walked out of the Transfiguration classroom, he glared at James and Sirius. That night at supper, he approached the Maraduers.

"You're going to pay for this," he scowled.

"Snivellus," Sirius had drawled, lazily sipping on pumpkin juice. "You've been saying that for years. We really don't believe you anymore."

Lily was sitting next to James; turned away with her arms crossed and a scowl. James didn't say anything to Snape since he was too concerned with being ignored by his girlfriend.

"Potter," Snape said. "I'm challenging you to a duel tonight."

James suddenly turned to look at Snape. Unfazed, he shrugged and said, "Okay. Coming, Sirius?" Lily scoffed loudly and James turned back to her.

"Of course," Sirius said almost with a laugh.

Snape smiled nastily. "The empty classroom on the 4th floor at midnight then?"

James nodded; still concentrating on Lily. "Fine."

That night James and Sirius met in the Gryffindor common room and made their way to the classroom. They had brought the map since James was Head Boy and being caught dueling after curfew would look rather bad.

"How long do you think this will take?" Sirius asked in a bored tone.

"Not long," James dismissed it. "Why? Do you and Dorcas have something planned?" He smirked suggestively.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" The way Sirius smiled made it obvious that they did have something planned. "Evans still mad at you?"

James frowned, nodding. "It'll blow over though, once I come back victorious over Snape. She thinks he's going to get all of his Slytherin cronies to help him out."

Sirius laughed. "Snape has cronies?"

'That's what I said," James sighed. "Come on, we're here."

They opened the door and found the room empty. Sirius perched himself on the large desk.

"Late," he rolled his eyes. "Of course."

"Maybe he got cold feet…"

Suddenly the door burst open. Snape stood there, a malicious grin across his face. Sirius jumped off of the desk because Snape wasn't alone. There were five people behind him: Rosier, Montague, Victoria Avery, Adrian Pritchard, and Regulus.

"How does it feel to be outnumbered now?" Snape growled. "I told you that you would regret the way you treated me."

Sirius and James looked at each other, whipping out their wands.

"Expelliarmus," James yelled suddenly. Snape's wand flew out of his hand."EXPELLIARMUS," Rosier shouted. Sirius' wand was ripped from his grasp. Furious, Sirius simply ran at Rosier and knocked him over before he had a chance to react. He pulled his wand from Rosier's grip and shouted, "Impedimenta," at Montague who was advancing on James.

"Petrificus Totalus!" James shot a blast of green light at Pritchard.

Sirius pushed himself off of Rosier and screamed, "Stupefy!" Rosier was knocked back a couple of steps.

"Sirius," James yelled, "watch out!"

He turned quickly to see Victoria with her wand drawn. He dodged a shot of purple light and shot a Jelly-legs curse at her. She dodged it.

Meanwhile Regulus was dueling with James, who still had Snape's wand clutched in his left hand. Finally, Regulus hit James with an Impediment jinx. He fell hard, breaking his glasses, and Snape grabbed his wand; pointing it menacingly at James.

Sirius finally hit Victoria, screaming "Incarcerous." She fell as the ropes tangled around her ankles. He ran to James' side, yelling "Sectumsempra" as he did.

Snape screamed loudly as a deep gash appeared on his left shoulder. He clutched it and backed up against the wall. Sirius helped James up.

"Alright?" he asked.

James nodded; looking at the person standing in front of them. 15-year-old Regulus Black stood watching his brother help James Potter up from the floor.

"So this is the sort of crowd you've been hanging around with, Regulus?" Sirius spat. "I think mum would be awfully proud."

"I'm not the one running around with mudbloods and traitors," Regulus' face looked remarkably similar to Sirius' except for the presence of their mother's narrow brown eyes where Sirius' deep gray ones were.

James bristled at the word "mudblood" and pointed his wand at Regulus' neck.

"Don't worry about it James," Sirius glared at his younger brother. "He's just repeating what, no doubt, my mother has told him about me. But Regulus, I don't give a damn what either of you say. You were never my family. James was always my real brother."

Regulus flinched a little and pointed his wand sharply at Sirius.

"Sectumsempra," the voice was Snape's. He had recovered enough to send a cut to Sirius' forearm.

"Petrificus Totalus," James screamed. Snape dropped to the floor. Rosier and Montague were beginning to come to and he grabbed Sirius' arm. "Come on."

They ran from the classroom: James shouting "Colloportus" at the door. When they had reached an open corridor, they stopped. They were breathing heavily.

"Alright?" James asked.

Sirius looked down at his arm. The gash was about five inches long and rather deep. Wincing, he nodded. "You?"

James nodded. "Merlin, that wasn't what I expected."

"I know."

"I guess Lily was right," he looked down at his shoes. "I'd better go tell her."

Sirius nodded and began the trip back up to Gryffindor tower.

"Sirius," James' voice made him turn around. "Did you mean it when you said I was your real brother?"

"Of course," he shrugged.

James smiled and nodded once at him. "You're mine too, you know."

"Yeah, I know." Sirius smiled slightly and walked up the stairs. James rubbed his sore shoulder as he walked to his dormitory. He had fallen on it when Regulus hit him with the impediment jinx. When he reached the engraved door, he muttered the password and it swung open. Lily was pacing the common room and wringing her hands, obviously waiting up for him. When she saw his cracked glasses and his bruised cheek, she gasped.

"James," she ran to him. "What happened?"

"You were right," he said, collapsing on the loveseat. "Snape brought five other people. Sirius and I fought them off."

"Oh Merlin," she said under her breath, sitting next to him.

"I know," he took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Suddenly tears filled Lily's eyes. "Promise me you will never pull another stupid prank."

James looked up at her; shoving his glasses back on. "No," he said. "I'm not going to stop doing what I've always done."

"JAMES!" she yelled. "Why are being such an idiot!"

He glared at her. "This is how I've always been, Lily. I didn't suddenly start doing these things."

"I know," she gaped. "But other things have changed James."

"I'm not promising Lily," he said firmly.

"FINE!" she yelled, jumping off the love seat and throwing her arms up in the air. "Then I'm not going to sit around and watch you get yourself killed. This…us…it's over. I'm done."

And with that she stormed into her bedroom, slamming the door loudly as she did. James dropped his head into his hands when the noise had subsided. Not really believing what Lily had just said, James reached for the map to see how Sirius was doing on his way back to Gryffindor Tower. His pockets were empty. He turned them out completely to make sure. They were empty. He had lost the map.