1Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter. It belongs to J.K Rowling.
Snape's black robes billowed out behind him, and James rose to his feet, pulling out his wand. Lily quickly stood as well.
"Leave us alone, Snivellus!" James ordered. Snape smirked.
"If it were left to me, Potter, I'd have nothing to do with you. As a matter a fact, I thought I was finished dealing with you sixteen years ago." Snape remarked coolly. James moved quicker than Harry thought possible, grabbing Snape by the collar and pulling him closer.
"Murderer!" James hissed. Snape muttered a spell that caused James's hand to drop off his collar.
"Unless your son has fudged the details, Prongs, it is your 'friend' Peter who is the murderer." James expression turned sour. As of last night, he had learned the truth. 'I knew Peter had betrayed us when Voldemort came in. But I wanted to think he'd been tortured. Peter hated pain.'James had admitted. "Funny how you seemed to have handpicked a group of murderers to be your friends." Quicker than anyone else could have reacted, James grabbed Snape's throat and threw him to the ground, snatching the wand out of Snape's hand and tossing it away.
"James!" Lily exclaimed. Sirius reached over and pulled James forcibly off Snape, who rose off the ground in a huff.
"You stay away from us!" James threatened.
"I never had an intentions of coming near you all. That job was made considerably easier by the fact that you were dead! If it weren't for Remus, you wouldn't be here at all! For all your courage and bravery at school, you certainly lacked it in life!" Snape hissed.
"Severus, I want you to leave us alone!" Lily said coolly, stepping in front of James.
"You cannot always protect your buffoon of a husband, Evans!"
"Your fight has gone on for long enough! All of you, just apologize and get it over with!" Lily ordered. James reached forward and with one yank, pulled up the sleeve of Snape's robes. The Dark Mark was there, still burned into the flesh as it had been for years.
"I'm supposed to apologize to this?" James snapped. Sirius's fists clenched and his body tightened. Lily stepped back, clearly shocked.
"Severus! I thought you were smarter than that!" she scolded sadly.
"It's all right, Lils. He works with Dumbledore now." Sirius said, his voice tight despite the reassurance. James snorted.
"Now!" James protested loudly. Suddenly, Snape punched James hard across his cheek. Lily shrieked and Sirius roared in anger.
"Hit him back!" Sirius growled. "The low-life, scheming, son of a,"
"Sirius!" Lily chastised, momentarily forgetting the two fighters. James launched himself at Snape, dropping his wand in the process. The two men struggled, and James clearly had the upper hand. Snape saw an opening and leapt to his feet, followed by James. James went to punch Snape, but was distracted by Snape's hands wrapping around his throat. Lily screamed and Sirius was just about to launch himself into the fray when Harry got up off his knees and pushed his way in between the two. He pointed the wand into Snape's face, and Snape quickly dropped his hold.
"What are you going to do? Tickle me?" Severus sneered. Harry smiled ruefully.
"We both know I could do more than that, Professor. You may have been secretly opposing Voldemort all these years, but I've been fighting him, and who knows, maybe I picked up a curse or two." Harry threatened thinly. Snape glowered at his student, and then retrieved his wand.
"Twenty points from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter." Severus snapped. Then he hurriedly took his leave up the path. James clapped Harry on the shoulder.
"Thanks." he said proudly. Harry grinned and tucked away his wand. Sirius grinned and laughed, his barking, mocking laughter causing Snape to hunch over as he walked away.
"I knew you were a fighter, just like thick-headed Prongs!" Sirius gloated. James threw a playful punch at Sirius's shoulder.
"Who are you calling thick headed? I remember that time that you wrestled in the middle of the hallway with Jerry Black because he called you," Lily cut off James's reminiscence by throwing herself into his arms.
"Hey, let's try and keep you in one piece!" she said teasingly, resting her head against his chest. James laughed.
"I always come out on top Lils, you know that." James replied. Lily rolled her eyes.
"Not always. Remember that time that," James caught her lips in his hand.
"We don't need to recall every last event!" James said quickly. Lily rolled her eyes and knocked away his hand. She slipped her arm around James's waist and turned to Harry.
"Don't you have classes, Harry?" Harry realized that yes, he did have classes, but he felt reluctant to let them all leave his sights.
"Aw, let Harry stay. He can miss a couple classes. James and I did, and look how we turned out!" Sirius scoffed, smirking and rumpling Harry's already rumpled hair. Lily released her hold on James and took Harry's arm.
"There's no way I'm allowing him to turn out like you two. I have half a mind to divorce James and marry Remus. He never gave me any trouble!" she said teasingly.
"I think marrying Moony would be a bit difficult at the moment." There was a silent pause.
"I don't need to go to class." Harry volunteered, willing to say anything to break the silence.
"Let him stay and get reacquainted!" Sirius protested loudly.
"Come on Lils! Besides, the boys who skip class seem to make the best husbands." James said with a wink. Lily groaned.
"Sure they do. Now I have an egotistical trouble maker on my hands!" James laughed and swept Lily up in his arms and spun her in a circle. Once James came to a halt, Lily produced her wand from inside her robes and said a quick, breathless spell. A watch suddenly affixed itself to Harry's wrist. "You two have an hour. When it's up, the watch will go off, and if you ignore it still, Harry will just be pulled up to the castle by his watch. James and I are going to go take a walk." Harry was about to nod 'okay' when Sirius barked out in laughter.
"C'mon, Harry may not have a girlfriend but he's sixteen, and I had twenty-four girlfriends (not like I counted or anything), but I think we know what it means when a couple is 'going to take a walk'. I mean, I never used it, because my girlfriend never cared if people knew," Sirius started smugly before Lily interrupted.
"You mean you never had the decency and you wanted people to know!" Lily corrected.
"But still, we both know that you and James will be hidden behind a rock or something snogging." Sirius finished simply. Lily fumbled her way out of James's arms and whacked Sirius over the head, then took James's hand and marched away.
"ONE HOUR!" she called back. Harry grinned and Sirius laughed again.
"The two amigos again, huh?" Sirius asked, slinging his arm around Harry's neck.
"I guess so." They wandered closer to the Forbidden Forest and sat.
"I feel bad for you. The idea of my parents snogging..." Sirius shuddered. "Used to give me nightmares." Sirius had the air of someone with a seriously repressed memory.
"I think it's nice." Harry said quietly. "Better than thinking of them six feet under."
"Guess so." Sirius said quietly. "By now, the idea of those two together doesn't bother me at all. I mean, James had been going on about that since nearly third year."
"Did he date a lot then?" Harry asked quickly, realizing how desperate he sounded. He was had been wondering if all Potter men had typically been very good with women, and that he was defective. Sirius snorted.
"Lily was his only girlfriend. He was obsessed with her for years. Really amusing, actually. Once or twice a month, I'd say really casually that I'd overheard one of Lily's friends saying she fancied him and your dad got so excited he'd turn bright red and would start acting like more of a prat than usual. When he realized I was kidding, he'd try and pummel me, and occasionally he'd win." Sirius said, reminiscing. The two continued talking for awhile, and suddenly, the watch on Harry's wrist trilled. Sirius took Harry's wand from his hand and muttered 'Silencio'. The alarm was silenced.
"That was smart." Harry complimented. Sirius did a mock bow.
"Thank you." Suddenly, the alarm returned in twice the volume, the shock nearly knocking Harry and Sirius over. Suddenly, invisible hands forced Harry to his feet and began to pull him towards the castle.
"Get off!" Harry muttered, bracing his feet in the dirt. Two trails of upturned dirt formed behind him as the watch continued to drag him. Harry fought against the watch to no avail and Sirius, who was watching the whole thing, was laughing hysterically at the sight of Harry being dragged away. Harry, annoyed, gave up struggling and whipped out his wand again. With a simple incantation, he set the hem of Sirius's robes on fire. He heard Sirius yelp, and then the distance became too great for him to witness the effects of his incantation anymore, and he was dragged off by the watch.