Chapter 9

"Do you understand yet, Pete?" Sirius chuckled at the aggravation in Remus' voice as the werewolf, for what must have been the 4th time that day, was trying to explain charms theory to their... rather slow friend.

Peter still looked incredibly lost.

"You're wasting your time Moony." Sirius told him with a wolfish grin, causing Remus to glare at him and turn his attention to Peter again who looked like he would begin to cry at any moment.

Sirius, in one of his many acts to try and get James involved in their conversations, nudged the bespectacled boy, causing James' elbow to slide into the butter dish.

"Sirius, bugger off." Even so, he turned his attention towards his best mate.

"I was just going to point out that Lily isn't here."

"I've noticed."

"Aren't you going to go looking for her?"

"No."

Sirius frowned and passed a knowing look to Peter and Remus who were watching the exchange with worried eyes.

Remus jumped in. "You haven't been talking much to her lately..."

"There's nothing to say." He viscously cut into a potato.

Sirius let out an exasperated sigh. "What ever happened to the Prongsie who would run around the school looking for the love of his life."

This comment went a bit too far, and they all realized it as soon as it came slipped from the tall boy's mouth. He shut his mouth with a snap and turned cautious eyes on James who was gripping his knife rather tightly.

Without an explosion like they expected, he dropped the utensil, stood from the table, and in a rather dark voice told them he was going to head up to the commons to study.

There was a resounding silence as the group of boys watched him slump out of the Great Hall. They all turned to each other as he turned the corner.

"He's been avoiding Lily."

Sirius sighed. "I know. He's miserable about it too."

"Why is he avoiding her?" Peter interjected, cowering back slightly as Sirius turned blue, gray eyes on him. He however, just shrugged.

"It could be a number of reasons." Remus' eyes were on the doorway. "It could have something to do with her worrying about her parents. James' parents..." he faltered. "Well... they weren't even safe and they weren't muggles." He opened his mouth to explain further, but suddenly closed it, his eyebrows contracted over his stormy eyes.

He suddenly stood. "Some thing's going on out there."

Sirius bent back on the bench in order to see out the doorway. A few Slytherins were slipping out through it, all wearing secret grins.

"Shit."

He stood from the table and strode after Remus towards the doors, Peter at their heels. All with mixtures of panic and dread flooding them.

The entrance hall was in the exact state they expected it to be in.

James was walking next to a tall, bulky Slytherin boy named Braiden Edwards who smelt bad and had terrible rotting teeth. Both had their wands out as they headed out of the hall to the court yard outside.

The group of Slytherins whom had been in the hall were following casually behind, all with their hands in their pockets, fingering their wands no doubt.

James was glaring at them all, and when his gaze caught with his friend's a small flicker of relief passed across his face before he turned to look resolutely in the direction they were headed.

Sirius cursed again and began to follow, his own hand wrapped firmly around his wand and he felt Remus and Peter follow suite behind him.

It was cold outside. The wind was sweeping dead leaves along the ground and leafless winter branches rattled together. There had been frost that morning on their window pane, signs of winter settling in.

They all hated winter.

Edwards had been the first to attack, knocking James to his side where he smacked his head against the cobblestones. Edwards hadn't even used magic, only smashed a boulder sized fist into the side of his head.

His glasses had flew off, landing too far out of his reach.

Sirius and the others sprang into action, just as the other Slytherins came to their senses and pulled their own wands from their pockets.

Nobody moved as James stood quietly to his feet, and several other students laughed at him.

He didn't seem to care.

He didn't seem to care he couldn't see properly either.

It didn't stop him from raising his wand arm and blasting Edwards back a few paces onto his rear, and than blasting a few of his mates who were recently gawfing at him.

It turned into a full on attack when Sirius, Remus and Peter began firing off shots at the remaining Slytherins. Though Peter was taken out fairly quickly in the action. He was gushing blood all over the cobblestones from a continually bleeding nose.

Sirius had a long cut along his arm that was stinging like mad. He ignored it.

In the center of it all was James, fighting like it was his last battle, standing strong and proud, dodging spells despite his poor eyesight and limp he'd obtained in his left leg. A mad look to his eyes that made Sirius hesitate when he came to his side when the last Slytherin fell.

"James."

He didn't look around, only blocked a spell aimed at them by a blonde girl who was rushing down the stairs with Severus Snape and Regulus Black in tow.

Narcissa.

Everyone backed off. Her smile gave them goose bumps as she came calmly forward. The hand she held her wand in, twitching uncomfortably. "Potter."

James's hands were shaking, and Sirius thought for a moment that he might snap his wand in half.

Regulus had his wand pointed at Remus and Peter threateningly. Snape stayed near the door.

"Word is you've gone a bit mad." Her voice was shrill with amusement, her blue eyes crinkled with laughter. Her wand was held steadily in front of her. "Miss your parents?"

James took a sharp intake of breath, made a quick movement with his wand with no incantation.

Narcissa let out a gasp of surprise, crumpling to the cobblestone, and before any of them could react, McGonagall, Slughorn and Lily came rushing down from the castle. In a moment all their wands were plucked from their hands and went soaring in their direction.

There was also a strangle cry from Lily and McGonagall shrieked. "Mr. Potter!"

Sirius spun wildly towards where James had previously been standing, and made a sudden grab to pull him back. He was going towards the unconscious Narcissa without faltering and was only brought down when Flitwick squeaked out a "Incarcerous" causing James to fall to his side, bound in tight ropes which came from the charms professor's wand.

Both teachers hurried forward.

"You three," McGonagall pointed to Sirius, Remus and Peter. Her voice was dangerous, her face pulled into a deep frown. "Up to the headmaster. Now."

They didn't waste any time, and the last thing they saw before heading into the castle and towards the headmaster's office was McGonagall conjuring up a stretcher for Narcissa who seemed to be unable to wake up, and Flitwick unbinding James who seemed to have calmed down.

Lily stood in the doorway, watching them walk up the stairs, but when Sirius tried to catch her eyes, she turned her gaze quickly to the floor, crossing her arms over her chest. A curtain of red hair hid her face.

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Detention. Every night for a month was what they looked forward to. They still weren't quite sure about James' fate, as he had yet to come out of the Headmaster's office, but knew it would probably be worse than there's. Narcissa was still unconcious in the hospital wing, and had seemed to suffer from internal bleeding.

They'd been told she could have died.

Remus had gotten off a bit lighter than the others, due to the fact the full moon was fast approuching. Dumbledore did not expect him to sit a detention far past midnight when he would surely be ill because of his coming transformation. He did, however, press upon them the seriousness of this situation, and pointed out that Remus would have to go through the night alone because of their actions.

They were all feeling horribly guilty, and had a hard time meeting Moony's eyes after that.

Lily watched them all from the other side of the room. Watched as they hunched around the fire, not saying a word. She wasn't about to talk to them either.

They no doubt thought this was all her fault, and she still couldn't shake the memory of the look James had given her as Flitwick marched him towards Dumbledore's office.

She was afraid to face him.

But what else was she suppose to do. She was worried, and obviously for good reason. If she hadn't gotten the professors to come down to the court yard, James could have killed one of the Slytherins and been expelled from Hogwarts. In turn, he'd be vunerable to the Death Eaters, and useless to the cause. She knew he wouldnt' want that.

Not after what they did to his parents.

Exacting revenge at school wasn't the clever way of going about this.

And where James might be furious with her, she was angry with him all the same, and she was going to let him know so.

At around 7:30, James finally entered the common room and stopped in front of the other Marauders, well Lily refused to make her presence known yet. He hadn't yet seen her, huddled into the chair in the corner near the chess board.

He planted his hands on his hips and frowned. "I've got two months worth of detention." She was angry to hear his tone was more angry than regretful, and watched as Remus shifted uncomfortably. Sirius was scowling, but ever the loyal friend, did not say anything.

No doubt they were all thinking the same thing. The fight had been pointless, no matter how much they felt the Slytherins had deserved it.

"At least they know better than to run off their mouths now."

She shot up out of her seat, momentarily startling James who turned at the sudden movement. They were all looking at her; watching as she balled her hands into fists and hot tears spilled down her cheeks from her anger.

She watched as his face suddenly clouded with an anger that directly imiated hers.

"Is that all you think about?" She hissed her words, and she felt herself trembling. "Revenge?"

"You just want me to sit back, twiddling my thumbs, do you?"

"Yes!" She threw up her hands and marched towards him, stopping just short of his arm length. "You think you've won, do you? Think that it's just going to stop now because of some petty brawl at school?"

He opened his mouth for an angry retort, his hazel eyes flashing but she was already going on. "You haven't changed at all than!"

Before he could say anything, she was hurtling up the stairs to her dorm room where she threw herself onto the bed and cried out her frustrations.

She felt she'd lost him, which was horrible, seeing as she felt she just found him.