April 14, 1978

It was a lovely Friday afternoon, students were spread out over the castle grounds enjoying the breeze and the sun. The marauders were lounging under their favourite beech tree by the lake. It was a fine day, James had decided earlier, that's why he had barely payed attention in any of his classes. It really should be illegal to stuff kids up in classrooms when the outdoors offer such a nice backdrop for tomfoolery. It was even worse when the teachers opened the windows just a peek and the warm and heavenly breeze floated serenely into the classroom intoxicating everyone and making it extremely impossible to focus. Of course he really wouldn't have payed attention anyway, he was frightfully busy composing a perfectly amazing love poem for Lily.

"Mates, the slimy git is coming our way, how should we torture him today?" Sirius said, maliciously rubbing his hands together.

"Sirius, no." Remus said without looking up from his book.

Sirius looked ruefully at Remus, "Moony, what are you doing reading while we are out here plotting revenge against Snivellus?"

"What has he done to you?"

"It's really more of his existence that bothers me, but in general we are at war with him and we cannot lose face! Or more importantly the upperhand! He must not be allowed to pass within sight of us without being punished!"

Sirius gestured wildly, barely avoiding falling onto his face.

"Pads, perhaps we ought not to-"

"Not you too Prongsie! It's because of that Evans girl isn't it?"

"Lily, Pads, her name is Lily."

"I am aware of her name, James, Lilyflower is simply corrupting you and turning you into a pansy!"

James glared at Sirius, before launching himself unceremoniously at Sirius. They tumbled over the grounds wrestling like good Englishmen should when insulted, until they heard a slimy sneer above them.

Popping up with twin gigantic, evil grins on their faces as the stared at Snivellus.

From a few meters away, Remus sensed the trouble before it happened and finally looked up from his charms book.

"Pete, my good man, we are about to witness history unless we put a stop to it."

Peter looked around confused, as he so often was, Remus dully wondered how he managed to dress himself in the morning.

Marching over to where the commotion was brewing, Remus stuck out his hands in an effort to separate the parties.

"-slimy git!"

"I can't believe that's all you can come up with, what a couple of toddlers, I don't have the time for this nonsense you disgusting animals!" Snape started to walk away, but not before Sirius had drawn his wand and hit him with a hex. Remus wasn't quite sure which one, but it looked pretty painful.

Snape turned, convulsing from the spell, and spat at Sirius.

"How dare you, you swine!" Sirius yelled, turning red.

James relaxed as ever simply said, "Snivellus duel, you, me, tonight, bring one of your dumber friends as your second."

"You have such options in that department, each dumber than a brick, but that must be why they can bring themselves to be around you, git!" Sirius mutters the last bit more to himself.

Remus wasn't really sure what to do at this point. "No, James, you can't-"

"I accept." Snape said, his lip curling in a sinister way and revealing slightly yellowing teeth.

o0o

"YOU ABSOLUTE LUNATIC! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU COULD EVER BE SO STUPID! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WERE YOU THINKING! GAH!" Lily screamed at the top of her lungs.

Remus could practically hear James cowering and Lily's arms waving madly about.

Lily thundered down the stairs and slammed her books down on the table. James came rushing down a second later looking slightly embarrassed.

"He's a git! Lily, he spit on Sirius, he was asking for it, plus it'll be in secret so we won't get in trouble!" James was saying soothingly.

Lily simply was not having it. She ignored these comments, and turned her body away from James. She already had her arms crossed, but they seemed to tighten. Remus wondered vaguely if she was able to breathe through it.

However, his main concern was Sirius, who, surprisingly, was reading. He was smiling evilly and seemed very unaware of his best mate being screamed at by a very red person.

"Sirius, what are you reading?" Remus inquired softly.

He laughed lowly, "Oh dear Moony, dear innocent Moony, this is going to be the very end of Snivellus Snape." He laughed again.

Remus didn't think Sirius would kill Snape. Would he?

o0o

Lily really didn't know much about duels, but she did know that if one party was incapacitated before the duel began there would be no duel. And this fact she held onto very tightly, along with the corners of James' invisibility cloak as she tiptoed down the hallway. She knew that the common place for a duel was in the Trophy Room, for whatever reason she didn't know, perhaps the trophies of past students inspired the current misbehaving students into a greater frenzy, either way she was sure this is where she would find Severus Snape, along with whichever friend he decided to drag along, waiting for James and Sirius tonight.

Lily peeked in through the glass inlaid in the door. He was there. He had brought along Rosier, another model Death Eater to be. Rosier, for his part, seemed nonchalant, he sat lazily on a crate and watched with mild disinterest as Snape paced across the room practicing wand motions.

Lily took a steadying breath and stepped inside.

o0o

Sirius and James were laughing as they strolled down towards the Trophy Room. Remus had made a very strong plea for them not to go, but in the end they had said it was about honor and snuck out under Remus' scarred nose.

James was extraordinarily unconcerned about the events that should unfold. Like they had told Remus, this really was about honor. They were almost done with school and apart from the immense likelihood that they would meet Snivellus on the battlefield in the war, they weren't likely to get another excuse to curse the nose off of him.

James was however, very concerned that Lily might break up with him because of this, which would leave him so depressed he doubted he would be able to get out of bed even to pee. It really was terrifying how much he loved Lily, he'd spent all these years loving her and finally they were together and he was so afraid of losing her that it made his heart beat madly in fear every time he thought about it.

Truly terrifying, how much he would do for her. Except this. This he needed to do. Snivellus had hurt her and plus he was on a direct track to joining up with Vol- err You-Know-Who, and becoming a Death Eater, at which point he would be a danger to everyone.

"Prongs, this is going to be so good! I'm going to love watching him go down mate, you are going to own his ass!"

A loud crash sounded down the hallway and they rushed forward. It had come from the Trophy Room

"Uh Sirius, what was that?"

A/N: HE HE HE! Sorry, part 2 next week. LeAvE a reViEw!