Chapter 3

Severus was the last of the Marauders, a name suggested by James Potter for their gang, to sit under the hat, shortly after Peter Pettigrew and James Potter. All his confederates were in Gryffindor. He put the hat onto his head with a gasp.

"The last Prince! Your family always goes into …."

"I want Gryffindor," said Severus, hastily, inside his head.

"Gryffindor! Well, well, we have a brave young one to defy convention and to stand up for friends; very well, GRYFFINDOR!" it added the last word out loud.

Severus heaved a sigh of relief. The sleek, blonde head of Lucius Malfoy, at the Slytherin table was scowling at him, as at Sirius Black. Severus high-fived Sirius.

"We escaped!" he whooped, jubilantly.

"Yeah, mate, we did," said Sirius.

OoOoOo

The austere witch with glasses, who had been in charge of calling out their names for the sorting hat, was named, they discovered, Minerva McGonagall, and she was their new house head. She looked over her glasses at the new arrivals.

"Weel, we've never had a Black in Gryffindor before; nor yet a Prince," she said.

Sirius gave her a cheeky grin.

"Don't worry, Ma'am, we'll raises some hell for the Slythers," he said.

"I dinnae doot that," sighed McGonagall. "Seein' as ye're already friends wi' Mr. Potter, whose father was at school in my time. Mr. Prince, ye're no' an associate of yon precious pair?" she nodded to James and Sirius with companionable arms draped over each other's shoulders.

"Yes ma'am," said Severus. "We're against bullies."

"Weel, it's a good scheme," said McGonagall. "Congratulations, Miss Evans, on finding your magic, better late than never."

Petunia blushed.

"Thank you, ma'am," she said. Petunia wondered if Madam McGonagall knew that she had written to Professor Dumbledore, begging to be allowed to come with her sister; and had a sneaking suspicion that the middle aged witch had known. How embarrassing! And yet, she was here on her own magical merits, not at the discretion of the headmaster, and it was thanks to Severus, who had been actually pretty generous in letting bygones be bygones. She surreptitiously reached out to squeeze his hand, and Severus smiled at her.

He would never really like Petunia as well as he did Lily, but she wasn't so bad really, now she wasn't jealous, he reflected.

McGonagall led her new little lions off to give them into the care of a pair of prefects, to be shown to their rooms, and reflected that today's sorting had been quite a surprise. It was particularly interesting to see that the Black boy and the Prince boy, both plainly used to the best from their old and conservative pure blood families – Severus really had filled out to be a healthy looking little boy – were chatting happily to the two muggle born girls, and too to poor Remus Lupin. McGonagall sighed and hoped that the boy would not lose their friendship over having to disappear every month, and being unable to explain why.

However, her sharp ears caught the Prince boy saying,

"And we can look in the library for books on runes, and if nothing else we can inscribe you with runes that make you sleep when the moon is full."

"Is that possible?" Remus was hungry for it.

"Oh, anything is possible with runes," said Severus, airily. "I think it might even be more powerful than potions."

"But will it work on me when I … you know, when my skin isn't my skin any more?"

Severus stopped dead, and had to apologise to the child behind him who walked right into him. He resumed his motion and touched Remus on the arm.

"All we can do is try," he said. "It might need an amulet though."

"So long as it isn't silver," said Remus.

"Don't take this as an insult, but I was thinking of getting an ordinary dog's tag because you can scratch telephone numbers and things – muggle information about finding a dog's home – onto them," said Severus. "Though if it works we'll have to find out how to make something more permanent."

"I'm not insulted, just … just blown away that someone cares," said Remus.

"We all care, all us Marauders," said Severus.

McGonagall suppressed a groan. Marauders? Whatever next, a most unsettling name if all they planned to do was to oppose bullies.

Well, doubtless she would be hearing that name more often.

OoOoOo

"Boil potion? Why do we need to make a boil potion?" muttered James. "I mean, it'd be neat to put in a water bomb to throw at Malfoy, but what is that doing in a real lesson?" He eyed the fat professor with pepper-and-salt hair and a walrus moustache with disfavour.

"It teaches us several stirring techniques that we'll come to use in more useful potions," said Severus, patiently, having read through the text books. "Almost all the potions through to year five are about techniques, how to grind, crush, cut, dice, stir and so on. Some ingredients will give you different results entirely if cut longitudinally than if cut horizontally, and different if cut to crushed, or one method might enhance their efficacy, another reduce it. Nobody is ever going to use most of these early potions but you will get used to the techniques."

"Excellent, my boy!" Professor Slughorn had overheard, and he boomed his approval. "You must come to tea with me, with my little club on Friday."

"Uh … thank you, sir," said Severus, without too much enthusiasm. "I'm sure we'll all be glad to come."

Slughorn opened his mouth to say that the invitation was not universal, but the seven were seated near each other, and he had already considered asking the pretty red head, and her plainer twin, as he thought Petunia was, whose techniques were good, and Sirius Black and James Potter, who were prominent members of society. He could put up with the quiet boy who was the partner of the Prince lad and the child who was actually working quite methodically.

Severus had given both Petunia and Lily some lessons, and Petunia was doing well enough, being used to learning cookery at school. Both Evans girls appeared to have the touch. In fact, none of the Marauders was bad at potioneering, and Peter Pettigrew was delighted to have a class he was actually good at. He had failed to get anywhere with any spells so far in either charms or transfiguration. Flitwick had tutted slightly that Severus, Lily and Petunia used the old fashioned incantation 'Lux' not 'Lumos' but as all of them undoubtedly got light on the end of their wand … and in the case of Petunia, illuminated rising bubbles … he let it go. Severus had not had a problem transfiguring his matchstick into a needle, and nor had James or Lily. Sirius had almost bust a gut not to be outdone by James, but Petunia, Peter and Remus had managed no more than a silvery sheen to their matchstick.

OoOoOo

The Marauders were on the way, a trifle reluctantly, to attend the Slug Club when they heard cries of anguish. Sensible first years of course would have promptly run away, but the Marauders exchanged a glance and ran towards the sounds of trouble.

Two students wearing masks were holding a rather unprepossessing man of middle years up against a wall with their wands, firing stinging hexes at him. One of them was hissing,

"You don't know your place, squib! You should be on your knees to us. Cru…"

He never completed the curse because Severus and Sirius at least knew what it was and by common consent they dove for the bully's knees. The other Marauders went for the other bully.

The spells the first years had at their disposal were somewhat limited, but those who had grown up with muggles knew about dirty fighting, and James, Sirius and Peter seemed to pick it up quickly enough.

Severus had his teeth latched onto the wand wrist of the boy who had been casting the Unforgivable, and Lily and Petunia copied him on each wrist of the other. It did not take the seven youngsters long to subdue their prey, and tie them up with parts of their own clothing. It was not surprising that when the masks were pulled off, one of them turned out to be Lucius Malfoy.

"Oh! The poor cat!" Lily ran to pick up the unconscious body of a tabby cat.

"I know the healing rune," said Severus. "Keep an eye on Malfoy, Peter, and if he moves jam your wand up his arse and cast the stinging hex."

"Y … yes, Severus," said Peter, who didn't know the stinging hex but had no intention of admitting it.

Severus traced runes around the cat on the floor, where they flooded with light. Nothing happened.

"Bugger," said Severus. "I shall have to activate them." He slid out his silver knife and cut the end of his finger, and traced the bloody finger over the runes.

The cat's laboured breathing – her ribs appeared to have been stove in by a kick – became quieter, and she suddenly sat up and mewed.

"Yes, madam, you may leave the circle," said Severus, solemnly. Then he sat down hard.

The cat went and rubbed around the legs of the man

"Young mister, you gave some magic for my Mrs. Norris," said the man.

"I wasn't going to let those bullies win by killing a Squib's kneazle," said Severus. "Please, who are you?"

"I'm Argus Filch; the caretaker, and the likes of them should be flogged."

"I'm inclined to agree," said James Potter. "Picking on squibs is like picking on muggles, it's indefensible and wrong. I say, should one of us go to the headmaster?"

"What's a squib?" asked Lily.

"Someone born to a wizarding family who can't do magic," said James.

"Or has had it blocked with trauma when you consider the way some parents test to see if their kids are manifesting magic yet," said Severus.

"But … isn't it a special need that should be helped?" said Lily.

"Yes, and they have special cats who can sense magic," said Sirius.

"But there are still rotters who pick on anyone different," said Remus. "Were we going to send for the headmaster by the way?"

"Send Lily; she looks the most innocuous," said Sirius.

"Are you insulting my sister?" asked Petunia.

"Merlin no! just that the headmaster is going to take the impassioned plea of one of you two with more seriousness than from one of us boys, and you're too honest to put your head on one side to look winsome," said Sirius.

Petunia was trying to work out whether or not this was an insult as well; sometimes James and Sirius could be a little crass and she and Lily had to sit on them, metaphorically.

"I'm going," said Lily, and went.

"I think we need to take Mr. Filch to the hospital wing," said Severus, anxiously. "I can't do any more runic healing, I'm about drained. Sorry, sir, but your cat was in mortal danger."

"I thank you for saving my cat, don't matter about me," said Filch. "To whom do I owe that?"

"Severus Prince," said Severus, and introduced the others. He hesitated. "Tuney, do you mind if we tell him?"

"No, not at all!" said Petunia, helping Mr. Filch to sit down on the floor and putting an arm around him. "I don't know if you can help him, Sev, but if you can, it's our duty to all learn runes and cure squibs." She turned to Filch. "I was born a muggle. Our parents are muggles. My sister manifested magic, and I didn't. Sev's grandfather helped with runes and a ritual and suddenly, bang! I had magic. And I think we ought to help Mr. Filch by learning the runes."

"Yeah," said Sirius. "Having a cat isn't any good if some arse hurts the cat, and I can't think how hard it would be not to be able to do basic grooming spells."

"You aren't supposed to out of school anyway," said Remus.

"And anyone in the Noble and Ancient Family Black with added arrogance and twiddly bits takes the blindest bit of notice?" said Sirius.

"Oh, I suppose not, you poncey git," said Remus, with a faint smile.

"That's me," said Sirius, cheerfully. "Peter, get ready with that stinging hex, Malfoy thinks he might like to move."

Malfoy's fingers were creeping towards his wand. James kicked it away. He stamped on Malfoy's fingers for good measure.

"Unnecessary, surely, Mr. Potter?" the headmaster's voice sounded.

"I was afraid he might know hand movements in wandless magic and he seemed to be using a ritual finger movement," said James, smoothly.

"Very well, I will accept that excuse," said the headmaster. "Well, well, Malfoy and Rookwood. Argus, would you care to tell me what happened?"

"They caught me unawares, headmaster," said Argus. "Kicked Mrs. Norris so hard, young Mr. Prince had to use runes to stop her dying. And then they were firing spells at me."

"Malfoy started to say the cruciatus curse on Mr. Filch when Sirius and me jumped him," said Severus.

"Lies!" cried Malfoy. "They've confunded Filch to think it was us, when it was them, and we were acting as prefects to stop them, but they used dark magic!"

"We didn't actually use any magic," said Petunia. "We put the boot in muggle-fashion 'cos we don't know enough hexes yet."

"That Prince boy tried to cast a severing hex on my wrist, I felt it!" blustered Malfoy. "That's dark magic!"

"I bit him," said Severus, "At great personal risk of being poisoned."

"The embellishment was unnecessary," said Dumbledore. "Dear me, Lucius, how very disappointed I am in you. I fear that you and Nicodemus are going to be losing your prefect status at least. And of course a very stiff detention."

"They ought to be expelled for trying to kill Mrs. Norris and attacking a staff member," said Petunia.

"They ought to be in Azkaban for trying to use an Unforgivable," said James.

"Thank you, I will manage my school in my own way," said Dumbledore. "One can hope that they will learn the error of their ways."

"Hope springs eternal but clock springs are reliable," muttered Severus.

"Very well, children, I will deal with these miscreants, Argus, can you walk if these excellent children help you up to the hospital wing? I'm sure our new mediwitch Miss Pomfrey is equal to sorting you out. If you cannot …"

"I can walk, headmaster," said Argus, proudly. "And I'm right grateful to these young 'uns, can you give them house points, sir?"

"Of course! One hundred points to Gryffindor!" said Dumbledore, happily.

The youngsters took turns helping Filch.

"What you said about runes … I'd give anything …" he said, hungrily.

"I will talk to my grandfather," said Severus. "I told him I didn't think there was such a thing as a true squib so he might be prepared to come and do it for you. If not, it'll take me a while to learn."

"It hurts for a while but it's worth it," said Petunia. "Oh Sev, do you think your grandfather will come?"

"Well, he was interested in my views, and though it was worth looking into," said Severus. "But it's best not to say too much in case he can't or won't or it doesn't work. I don't know enough to be sure, sir," he added to Filch. "I can only try."

"Ar, and that's a better promise to make than promising the earth," said Filch.

It had been an eventful evening.

"And we missed the damn Slug Club," said Sirius.

"Did we want to go anyway?" said Severus.

"No, but it might be useful to get insights into potions if he likes us," said James. "Let's run quickly and tell Professor Slughorn how we ran into some bullies."

"Yes, but we won't get too specific," said Sirius.

They arrived as the refreshments were being served.

"My dear children! Did you mistake the time?" Slughorn boomed.

"No, sir, we had a run in with some older bullies," said Lily, smiling disarmingly. "But they weren't expecting us to stick together."

"Tut tut! I wonder who they could have been?" said Slughorn.

"Malfoy and Rookwood," said James. "We left them with the headmaster."

"Dear me! And you little ones … remarkable!" said Slughorn.

They beamed at him.