A/N: Sorry! I know it's been a while, but a lot has been going on. People ticking me off on line, ending a few things, and just general, end of the school year stress. It's sucked. Anyways, thanks to the three people who reviewed this fic, as well as the two who reviewed 'Flame's world.' It means a lot to me. Especially the comment on the review I left myself under another penname.

Disclaimer: Nagini's mine. For one reason and one reason only. Think I'll offer points to who ever figures it out…

Severus arrived early to find Nagini shifting through papers, occasionally jotting something down on a chart. She didn't even look up before answering. "McGonnagal."

"What's her plot this time?" He asked.

Nagini shrugged. "No idea. Kitty showed up late last night, a bit plastered I think, and demanded a copy of my family tree. A little pointless, I think she knows more about my family than I do!"

Severus snickered. "Sounds like the cat. Any thing interesting?"

"Other than my great-great aunt Gerald twice removed taking baths with Grindewald when they were three?" She finally looked up. "Looking a little green around the gills, are you okay?"

Severus swallowed slowly at the image his mind pulled up. Nagini handing him a photo of a person who was clearly male didn't help matters. "Are you sure it wasn't 'uncle'?"

She shook her head. "I'm sure. Near the start of Grindewald's reign, he turned him into a her. It's 'aunt'." Severus blinked.

"Why?"

"Dunno. I think s/he knew Grindewald was going to go into power and wanted to be his mistress or something. What ever it was, he killed her 10 months later, after she had his only heir. So what's up with your family? Anything as disturbing as mine?"

Severus shook his head. "I don't know."

Nagini looked up and stared at him. "What do you mean, you don't know?"

He shrugged. "I never met them. Mum refuses to speak of them and dad's, well, the apple never falls far from the tree."

"Trash?"

"Scum of the muggle world."

"Ah. Do you want to know? I've pulled up copies of every announcement the Daily Prophet's ever made and an extra chart, if you want them." She looked very serious. He nodded and she handed them over. They worked for a while, silent save for the rustling of papers and scratching of quills. Severus finally found a few relevant articles when Bellatrix stormed in, Lily trying to calm her.

"How dare they!" Bellatrix shrieked.

Nagini spoke without ever looking up. "What happened?"

Lily, trying to get some chocolate into Bellatrix (knowing it would help), said two words. "The Marauders."

Nagini's eye roll could be heard from her tone of voice. "What did they do this time?"

Bellatrix shoved Lily away long enough to answer. "What did they do! I'll tell you what they did!"

"Bella – " Bellatrix smacked Lily's arm off of her.

"They've hung all on my underwear in the entrance hall!"

Nagini looked up and her eyes bugged out. "What?"

Bellatrix nodded, finally calming enough for Lily to get close enough to shove a piece of chocolate in her mouth. "Every last pair of knickers." She swallowed. "That's no all. Severus?"

"Hmm?"

"They got yours too."

Nagini pulled out one of her old essays and turned it to the blank side. "Well that settles it. How do we prank them?" In the commotion of scheming a proper revenge for the infamous Marauders, Severus slipped the articles into his sleeve.

"What about that picture?" He said, joining the discussion.

The girls looked at each other. "Which picture?" she ventured. They only had a few shots of the Marauders, and very few of those were embarrassing. And for some reason, when they handed the camera to Lily, they tended to be of Potter…

He grinned. "Mr. Snuggles."

(Change)

They snuck out the next night, wands in hand. Giggling, Lily and Bella enlarged it and cast the adhesive charm while Sev and Gini levitated it up. Lily then handed over a beautiful prize. Pictures of the other Marauders. Pettigrew in his boxers, hauling himself out of bed. Lupin picking his nose with his wand while casting the summoning charm on his boogers. And best of all, Potter falling off of his broom, while flying 5 feet off of the ground and a slow speed. Snickering, they added the new pictures to the picture of Black.

Saying their good nights, the foursome went to bed for real.

(Change)

Severus drew his curtains closed and added the wards before adding the newspaper copies he'd snitched from Nagini. One was the day he was born. Another was the day his parents had married. Eileen Prince. It wasn't he first time he'd seen the name, after all, for the past week, Severus had scoured the library for information of the woman and her family. The Prince family had a reputation for their blood purity and knowledge. They were, as their name suggests, princes of the wizarding world. Up until Grindewald, that is. They faded from view, restricted by the ministry for their knowledge of 'dark magic.' Knowledge, not practice. They'd disappeared completely, with his mother being disowned for marrying a muggle and his (unknown) uncle disappearing with all of the family holdings. Severus sighed and began to fill out his chart. He didn't have much more to find on his mother and uncle, mostly the blood purity. He snorted. The Half-Blood Prince, that's what he was. A book in his bag caught his eye. After failing yet another test, Slughorn, in his infinite wisdom, had given him a simpler potions book. Which, he was loathe to admit, had helped. Regardless, he'd yet to put his name on it. An idea, more of a joke, really, struck him and he snagged the book. With an amused smirk on his lips, he wrote 'Property of the Half-Blood Prince' on the back. Snickering, Severus set it aside. Finally seeing that he had again failed to grab the book he needed for his project, he put the papers away, hoping to catch the library before breakfast and classes.

(Change)

Nagini had turned in her family chart, only to find out that the kitty was trying to meddle and wanted to work undisturbed. Not wanting to study alone, she managed to talk them into studying in their room. Bellatrix was about to have a heart attack.

"Nagini, are you sure you don't have your Potions books? If I don't get this essay in, Slughorn'll fail me!"

"I don't have any! Ask Lily!"

"She's already been through my bag." Lily replied, still focused on her Charms paper.

"Hey!" Nagini yanked her bag away from Bellatrix.

"Severus!" Bellatrix shouted as he walked in. "Do you still have that book Slughorn gave you?" He handed it over. "Thank you!" Peace finally settled as the excitable Bellatrix had been calmed. They spread around the room and worked for a while before Lily finished. She looked around, off in thought, when a bit of writing caught her eye. She walked over and grabbed Severus's book, where it was written.

"'Property of the Half-Blood Prince'?" She turned to Severus, who had frozen at her words. "Severus, what is this?"

A/N: Mwahahahahaha! I had fun, can you tell. Little confession, I was at an engineering seminar when I wrote about half of it. The other half was written at school. Moving on, time for the questions!

Points Q's and actions (for once):

20 points to anyone who reads and reviews Flame's world.

5 points to anyone who reads and reviews this one.

5 points to anyone who guesses why Nagini's mine, other than 'original character'.

25 points to anyone who gets it right, and it'll explain a lot.

5 points to anyone who makes a guess as to the reason of the title of this fic.

10 points in addition to the original 5 to anyone who actually gets it right.

5 points to anyone who makes a guess as to their nicknames later on. (Per person, guessing all 4 gets you 20 points)

10 points in addition to the original 5 to any one who actually gets one right. (Per person, getting all 4 right gets you 40 points, and Severus's is obvious if you've read book 6)

5 points to anyone who guesses Buttercupper's color. Limit of 3 guesses.

10 points to anyone who gets it right. (This'll be interesting.)

Note to anyone who either met Buttercupper or I've told about him: You are not allowed to get those points. It's not fair, and I would like to enjoy the responses. Since you know, you are invited to join me.

Gryffindor: 20

Hufflepuff: 0

Ravenclaw: 40

Slytherin: 10

Slytherins, please do more this chap! There's only one person in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw! My house is loosing to Gryffindor! Screams in agony Randomly cheers up Okay then! Smiles Congrats to Kitsune's Grrl for her work in Ravenclaw. Then again, the fact that I know in real life may help. Hmmm… Thinks for a moment

Please review! Until later,

Layelleswen