Author's Note:

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the lovely memories bestowed from Snape those belong to JKR from chapter thirty-three of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; however I did take liberty a wee bit.

I sometimes find myself writing Marauder stories with no actual plot or plan or reason and sometimes I try to find a way to squeeze them in somewhere (which I am doing now). I hope you enjoy them because I really loved writing them.

Reviews and Comments: To E-Dett: Thank you for agreeing with me about Snape. People trying to justify his choices is sometimes hard to swallow. In the end, he made bad choices, yes, but he is definitely not a good person. Thank you! I think the Pensieve will be a great gift as well! To Claire Fraser: Thank you for loving the memories! Thanks for saying my Snape and Sirius conversation was brilliant! I do try to keep them in character.

Thank you very much for reading and please, please review!

Your reviews give me life! They give me inspiration! And they make me want to keep writing for more than just myself! Thank you!

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO:

The One With the Memories Part I

"Don't you want to see what else Snape left us?"

Remus nodded. "Most definitely, but let's view the Sorting, Padfoot. It sounds like a good memory that I'd like to revisit."

Sirius shrugged and poured his second memory into the basin.

As the train slowed and they arrived at the Hogsmeade station, Sirius followed the girl, Lily, and her friend with the greasy hair off of the train and into the rowboats provided by the huge hairy man with the booming voice. He was pretty sure that he had said his name was Hagrid and he had immediately brought a smile to Sirius' face. He found himself in a boat with three girls that he didn't recognize, having lost sight of James amongst the commotion of disembarking, but he soon learned the girls were called Mary, Dory, and Hestia. Then they were moving towards the castle propelled by magic across the glistening Black Lake.

He followed them into the Great Hall, looking around eagerly. His eyes stopped as they fell upon a tall slender woman with dark brown hair pulled tight in a bun, square glasses on the end of her nose. She wore a dark green velvet dress buttoned at the neck and a black cloak. She was staring down at all of them rather sternly, but he caught the sparkle in her eye that immediately made him smile. To his surprise she smiled back at him before resuming her stern face as she looked at the upcoming students.

"Good evening. I am Professor McGonagall. I am Head of Gryffindor House, Deputy Headmistress as well as the Transfiguration teacher. I welcome you all to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I hope to see some of you in my own house and I look forward to being your teacher. You will soon follow me into the Great Hall where you will be sorted into your houses. Each house has its own unique history and background where you will discover new friends and a wonderful sense of House Pride. The four houses are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Please note that you can earn your house points based on good behaviour and your studies or for any reason a teacher deems appropriate. Any rule breaking will result in a loss of points. At the end of the term, the house with the most points will be awarded the House Cup in a grand feast and celebration." Her eyes moved over the nervous fidgeting of the students before her gaze landed on Sirius again.

He simply grinned at her. There was something about her that made him smile. He had a feeling that she wasn't quite as stern as she was letting on, yet he had a strong sense that she wasn't one to be trifled with either.

"Now follow me," she announced before leading the students into the Great Hall.

Sirius' eyes widened as they stepped into the magnificent hall. The ceiling had been enchanted to look like the night sky outside and was covered in floating candles. There were four very long tables across the hall, full of students, and one large table across the front of the hall full of the professors. They walked up the middle of the hall, stopping in a crowd around Professor McGonagall where a dirty old hat sat on a stool.

To his surprise, it began to sing. As he listened to it outline the qualities of the four houses his mind immediately went to Slytherin once more. Was it really where he wanted to be?

Slytherin: The house for the cunning, the house of the purebloods, the house that held his entire family. Slytherin: Where you could use your intelligence to step up in the world. It wasn't a bad house, but was he cunning enough?

He didn't think so.

Ravenclaw: Where wit and intelligence were prized. They loved to learn, to answer riddles, and to philosophize life. Was that him?

He wasn't sure.

Gryffindor: For the brave and courageous; those who were chivalrous to others.

He definitely wasn't very brave, he thought.

Hufflepuff: For the hard workers. The ones dedicated to fairness, acceptance, and loyalty. That one sounded nice.

But since he had never seen fairness in his life that might not be the house for him either.

Sirius stared at the hat and swallowed. Slytherin was his family house. The house that everyone expected him to be placed in; to succeed in. But he knew that it wasn't the place for him. In fact, not one of the four houses that the hat had sung about sounded like a place where he could belong. His eyes found James who was pointing to the hat in excitement. Was James' father right? Would the hat really take his thoughts into account? He looked up at Professor McGonagall again, not listening to her words. Having her as head of his house would be kind of nice, wouldn't it?

But everyone in the Black family went to Slytherin.

His palms began to sweat and he placed them in his pockets as he bit his bottom lip. Professor McGonagall unrolled the parchment in her hands and began to read names aloud:

"Anderson, Sarah!"

A small girl with curly brown hair hopped up onto the stool. The hat was placed on her head and there was silence in the hall and then -

"Ravenclaw!"

"Avery, Lionel!"

"Slytherin!"

"Black, Sirius!"

Sirius stepped forward, his eyes on his feet as he moved towards the stool. His palms were sweating profusely and he closed his eyes as the hat fell over them. He jumped when the hat spoke in his ear.

"Hmm, difficult. You want to prove yourself, but you don't want to be like the rest of your family. Lots of wit here, intelligence to be sure, loyalty... but where to put you?"

Not Slytherin, Sirius thought, I don't want to be like my family.

"Slytherin is not the house for you, of this I am sure, but with your courage, better be — GRYFFINDOR!"

The last word was yelled out to the whole hall and Sirius couldn't stop the huge grin from plastering across his face as he made to take his seat. He was slapped on the back by a few Gryffindor students as he took his seat at the table feeling immensely relieved and terrified at the same time. His parents were not going to be pleased that he had chosen a different house than Slytherin. His eyes met James' who was grinning widely at him and giving him two thumbs up.

He listened to the names of the other students with half an ear: Brown, Burbage, Campbell, Carrow and Carrow, Casey, Chang, Davies, Diggory… and then he perked up when he heard, Evans, Lily. He watched the sweet little redhead from the train take her seat up on the stool nervously and the hat fell over her face. It took less than five seconds for the hat to call out Gryffindor and she hurried forward to sit next to him.

"Hi, looks like we're to be housemates!" she exclaimed, grinning widely at him.

He grinned back, a huge smile on his face. "It looks like. Your friend Snivellus will be disappointed."

Lily's smile faded. "It's Severus. No need to be so rude," she said, turning away from him.

He shrugged and turned back to the hat as more names were called: Fawley, Fields, Flint, Fortescue, Gudgeon, Jones, then Kane, Deanna was also made a Gryffindor. She sat down across from Sirius with a big grin on her face.

"Gryffindors, eh? Fantastic!"

Sirius grinned and turned back to the hat as McGonagall called out Kendrick, Lestrange, Li and then Lupin, Remus was the next Gryffindor chosen.

Sirius watched the boy with the crescent shaped scar over his eyebrow head over to the cheering Gryffindor table. He took a seat next to Lily and smiled. He had light golden brown hair and golden brown eyes.

Sirius smiled at him. "Hi! I'm Sirius, this is Lily."

"Remus," he said smiling kindly. "Nice to meet you. That was more nerve wracking than I expected."

Sirius nodded in understanding, turning his attention back. His eyes were on James who was still practically bouncing on his feet. He wondered if the energetic boy ever stood still. He hoped that he was in Gryffindor. He had never met anyone so full of life and energy as the scrawny boy or more determined to be sorted into the house.

Professor McGonagall continued to call out names: Mason and then McDonald, Mary and McKinnon, Marlene, and Meadows, Dorcas were also Gryffindors and Sirius moved down the bench to make room for the three new girls. Monroe went to Hufflepuff then Nott went to Slytherin, and then Parkinson before Pettigrew, Peter became the seventh Gryffindor chosen. Sirius cheered as Peter took his seat with them and then Potter, James was called forth.

"Gryffindor!" The hat called out and Sirius found himself clapping the loudest, grinning widely as James took his seat with them.

"You were right, mate!"

James grinned widely. "I told you it was my house!"

The names continued with the Ps, putting two twin boys named Prewitt into Ravenclaw before Rosier, Rowle, Sampson, Scamander were sorted. Shacklebolt, Kingsley was also made a Gryffindor; Shafiq, and then finally, Snape, Severus was called.

Sirius watched as Lily stood up on the bench to watch her friend try the hat on.

"Slytherin!"

Lily sat down, her eyes sad. "We've been separated into different houses!"

Sirius put his arm around her in reassurance. She looked absolutely crushed. "It's okay, Lily. It doesn't mean you'll never see him. We'll still have classes together and whatnot. I'm sure you guys will still be friends."

She nodded, stealing a glance at Snape who wasn't even looking in her direction.

Now that all of the people were sorted, his stomach was starting to grumble and he wondered how much longer the food would be. He listened with half an ear as Spinnet, Vance, Wilkes, and then finally Zabini and Zusack were sorted.

Then the man at the front of the Great Hall in dark pink robes with purple moons on them stood up. His long white beard was tucked into his belt as he smiled at the room.

"Good evening to all. For those new students, I am Professor Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of this school. I welcome you all to a wonderful year where I'm sure we will have much fun and learn a lot. I have a few important announcements to make. Quidditch tryouts for the house teams will be two weeks from today. There will be notices in your house common rooms. Only second years and above are eligible to play on the school teams. There is to be no magic used in the corridors. And the Forbidden Forest is of course, forbidden. New this year, Hagrid has planted a large tree out in the grounds called the Whomping Willow. I advise caution to all students approaching it as it is very solitary and doesn't like anyone to be near it. The tree will strike out if you approach it. Now, tuck in." He raised his hands and food immediately appeared on all of the tables.

Sirius watched as Lily's eyes widened in wonder.

"Wow!"

He laughed and helped himself to some food. He couldn't stop smiling.

Remus was grinning widely when they resurfaced in the kitchen. They all looked so young arriving at Hogwarts. He picked up another bottle.

"I still can't believe that Snape actually sent you some memories and if they are half as good as that first one was…?"

Sirius grinned widely. "I know. I'm really impressed. We should look at another one of Snape's memories."

Remus chuckled, it felt kind of wrong to be viewing the memories that Snape had sent, but his curiosity was greater than his sense of morality at the moment. "Yes, we should," and he poured another one of Snape's memories into the basin.

The two of them fell headlong into the sunlight of the memory, their feet found warm ground.

When Sirius straightened up, he saw that he was in a nearly deserted playground. A single huge chimney dominated the distant skyline. Two girls were swinging backward and forward, and a skinny boy was watching them from behind a clump of bushes. His black hair was overlong and his clothes were so mismatched that it looked deliberate: Too short jeans, a shabby, overlarge coat that might have belonged to a grown man, and an odd smock-like shirt.

Sirius moved closer to the boy. Snape looked no more than nine or ten years old, sallow, small, stringy. There was undisguised greed in his thin face as he watched the younger of the two girls swinging higher and higher than her sister.

"Lily, don't do it!" The older girl shrieked.

But the girl had let go of the swing at the very height of its arc and flown into the air, quite literally flown, launched herself skyward with a great shout of laughter, and instead of crumpling on the playground asphalt, she soared like a trapeze artist through the air, staying up far too long, landing far too lightly.

Remus had sudden flashback of Harry doing almost the identical thing at the park a few months back, the day that he had met Ginny Weasley. The thought made him smile as the other girl yelled at Lily.

"Mummy told you not to!"

Petunia stopped her swing by dragging the heels of her sandals on the ground, making a crunching, grinding sound, then leapt up, hands on hips.

"Mummy said that you weren't allowed, Lily!"

"But I'm fine," Lily said, still giggling. "Tuney, look at this. Watch what I can do."

Petunia glanced around. The playground was deserted apart from themselves and, though the girls did not know it, Snape. Lily had picked up a fallen flower from the bush behind where Snape lurked. Petunia advanced, evidently torn between curiosity and disapproval. Lily waited until Petunia was near enough to have a clear view, then held out her palm. The flower sat there, opening and closing its petals, like some bizarre, many-lipped oyster.

"Stop it!" Petunia shrieked.

"It's not hurting you," Lily said, but she closed her hand on the blossom and threw it back to the ground.

"It's not right," Petunia said, but her eyes had followed the flower's flight to the ground and lingered upon it. "How do you do it?" she added, and there was definite longing in her voice.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Snape could no longer contain himself, but had jumped out from behind the bushes.

Petunia shrieked and ran backward toward the swings, but Lily, though clearly startled, remained where she was. Snape seemed to regret his appearance. A dull flush of colour mounted the sallow cheeks as he looked at Lily.

"What's obvious?" Lily asked.

Snape had an air of nervous excitement. With a glance at the distant Petunia, now hovering beside the swings, he lowered his voice and said, "I know what you are."

"What do you mean?"

"You're… you're a witch," Snape whispered.

She looked affronted. "That's not a very nice thing to say to somebody!"

She turned, nose in the air, and marched off toward her sister.

"No!" Snape said. He was highly coloured now. He flapped after the girls, looking ludicrously bat-like, like his older self.

The sisters considered him, united in disapproval, both holding on to one of the swing poles, as though it was the safe place.

"You are," Snape said to Lily. "You are a witch. I've been watching you for a while. But there's nothing wrong with that. My mum's one, and I'm a wizard."

Petunia's laugh was like cold water.

"Wizard!" she shrieked, her courage returned now that she had recovered from the shock of his unexpected appearance. "I know who you are. You're that Snape boy! They live down Spinner's End by the river," she told Lily, and it was evident from her tone that she considered the address a poor recommendation. "Why have you been spying on us?"

"Haven't been spying," Snape said, hot and uncomfortable and dirty-haired in the bright sunlight. "Wouldn't spy on you, anyway," he added spitefully, "You're a Muggle."

Though Petunia evidently did not understand the word, she could hardly mistake the tone.

"Lily, come on, we're leaving!" she said shrilly.

Lily obeyed her sister at once, glaring at Snape as she left. He stood watching them as they marched through the playground gate, leaving Snape standing there in bitter disappointment.

The scene dissolved, and re-formed around them.

They were now in a small thicket of trees. Sirius could see a sunlit river glittering through their trunks. The shadows cast by the trees made a basin of cool green shade. Two children sat facing each other, cross-legged on the ground. Snape had removed his coat now; his odd smock looked less peculiar in the half light.

" …and the Ministry can punish you if you do magic outside school, you get letters."

"But I have done magic outside school!"

"We're all right. We haven't got wands yet. They let you off when you're a kid and you can't help it. But once your eleven," he nodded importantly, "and they start training you, then you've got to go careful."

There was a little silence. Lily had picked up a fallen twig and twirled it in the air, and Sirius figured that she was imaging it was her wand. Then she dropped the twig, leaned in toward the boy, and said, "It is real, isn't it? It's not a joke? Petunia says that you're lying to me. Petunia says that there isn't a Hogwarts. It is real, isn't it?"

"It's real for us," Snape said. "Not for her. But we'll get the letter, you and me."

"Really?" Lily whispered.

"Definitely," Snape said, and even with his poorly cut hair and his odd clothes, he struck an oddly impressive figure sprawled in front of her, brimful of confidence in his destiny.

"And will it really come by owl?" Lily whispered.

"Normally," Snape said. "But you're Muggleborn, so someone from the school will have to come and explain it to your parents."

"Does it make a difference, being Muggleborn?"

Snape hesitated. His black eyes, eager in the greenish gloom, moved over the pale face, the dark red hair. "No," he said. "It doesn't make any difference."

"Good," Lily said, relaxing. It was clear that she had been worrying.

"You've got loads of magic," Snape said. "I saw that. All the time I was watching you…"

His voice trailed away; she was not listening, but had stretched out on the leafy ground and was looking up at the canopy of leaves overhead. He watched her as greedily as he had watched her in the playground.

"How are things at your house?" Lily asked.

A little crease appeared between his eyes.

"Fine," he said.

"They're not arguing anymore?"

"Oh yes, they're arguing," Snape said. He picked up a fistful of leaves and began tearing them apart, apparently unaware of what he was doing. "But it won't be that long and I'll be gone."

"Doesn't your dad like magic?"

"He doesn't like anything, much," Snape said.

"Severus?"

A little smile twisted Snape's mouth when she said his name.

"Yeah?"

"Tell me about the Dementors again."

"What d'you want to know about them for?"

"If I use magic outside school —"

"They wouldn't give you to the Dementors for that! Dementors are for people who do really bad stuff. They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban. You're not going to end up in Azkaban, you're too —"

He turned red again and shredded more leaves. Then a small rustling noise behind them made them turn: Petunia, hiding behind a tree, had lost her footing.

"Tuney!" Lily said, surprise and welcome in her voice, but Snape had jumped to his feet.

"Who's spying now?" he shouted. "What d'you want?"

Petunia was breathless, alarmed at being caught. "What is that you're wearing, anyway?" she said, pointing at Snape's chest. "Your mum's blouse?"

There was a crack.

A branch over Petunia's head had fallen.

Lily screamed.

The branch caught Petunia on the shoulder, and she staggered backward and burst into tears.

"Tuney!"

But Petunia was already running away.

Lily rounded on Snape. "Did you make that happen?"

"No."

He looked both defiant and scared.

"You did!" she was backing away from him. "You did! You hurt her!"

"No — no, I didn't!"

But the lie did not convince Lily. After one last burning look, she ran from the little thicket, off after her sister, and Snape looked miserable and confused…

Remus stared at Sirius in surprise. "Look how close-minded he was even then. Poor Lily, she really trusted him, you know? That was always something she regretted, not making amends with him."

Sirius shook his head. "I still can't believe that he gave these to me for Harry. Look how little Lily was and her sister… they really did use to be close, but you could see even then, Petunia was jealous of what her sister could do."

Remus nodded, scratching his chin as he scooped up the new memories and labelled the bottles. "These are really amazing, Padfoot. Harry is going to be so lucky to have these stored away for him one day."

"I hope so," he said eyeing the newly labelled bottles. "I'm almost afraid to see what other memories Snape left us."

Remus smiled and picked up one of the bottles that belonged to Sirius. "Well, let's check out one of yours and we'll see. Now that I'm trapped on this ride down memory lane — I'm intrigued."

Sirius chuckled and watched his friend pour his next memory into the Pensieve. "I'm debating about this one. But you can help me decide if it's something I should share or not."

Remus nodded and leaned his face down into the memory.

Sirius hurried up the stairs to his dormitory with the other boys on his heels after the feast. He stepped into the spacious room, smiling at the five beds there. Their trunks had already been placed at the end of each bed and he was pleased to find himself on the far right hand side. Next to him was James by the window, then on the other side was Peter, then Remus, and then on the far left next to the door to the bath was Kingsley.

James hurried forward and jumped onto his bed, grinning widely. "This is great!"

Peter laughed, jumping onto his own bed. "Definitely! It's so brill that we all got placed into Gryffindor! And I met Remus on the train first and you met Sirius!"

James nodded eagerly. "Exactly, Pete! Kismet!"

Sirius chuckled as he took a seat on his bed. "I for one am glad to be in Gryffindor, though I know my parents won't be pleased. Do you think they'd notice if I didn't write home to tell them?"

Remus snorted from the doorway. "If they're anything like mine they most definitely would. I'm almost tempted to start writing home now just so I won't get nagged."

James laughed. "I promised my mum I'd write by the end of the week, I think that's soon enough. By then I'll have way more to say anyway!"

Sirius stretched out on his bed, tucking his arms behind his head. "Do you think classes will be hard?"

James shook his head. "Nah, I think we'll be fine. We find out our schedules at breakfast tomorrow, that prefect Cross told me. Hey, why do you think the Forbidden Forest is you know, forbidden?"

Sirius' eyebrow rose slightly. "Isn't there supposed to be dark creatures in there?"

Peter scratched his head. "Centaurs and unicorns and stuff, but also I heard there's an entire army of giant spiders and werewolves."

James laughed. "Giant spiders? No way that's true!" He glanced out the window of the tower. "Probably werewolves though and maybe vampires. I think I want to explore it one day."

Sirius sat up, eyeing James suspiciously. "You're pulling our leg."

"No really! I bet it's really brilliant in there. Probably scary too. Don't you wanna?" he asked, turning to look at them his eyes dancing in excitement.

"I think before we go wandering off to explore forbidden areas of the school grounds we should first figure out where our classes are and maybe how to find our way in the castle itself," Kingsley suggested, shaking his head at them with a smile. "Save the adventures for a while." he said as he made his way into the bath.

James grinned widely when the door closed. "I suppose he's right. And what's with this tree? If it's so dangerous to approach it, why even plant it on the school grounds in the first place?"

Peter nodded. "Yeah, that's weird. It must have some important herbological quality or something."

"I'm knackered from all of that food," Sirius said, yawning loudly. "I'm heading to bed."

He pulled off his shirt and James' eyes fell on the long white scars that crisscrossed on his back.

"Sirius, what the hell happened to your back?"

"Huh?" Sirius asked, pulling his shirt back up. "Oh, nothing."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to pry." James said quickly. He knew he had a terrible habit of just blabbing out whatever he was thinking.

Sirius shook his head. "No, it's okay. It's just they're old. Don't even remember how I got them. Goodnight."

He closed the bed curtains around him and closed his eyes.

Remus nodded when his friend pulled him from the memory. He understood what his friend was asking. "You don't know if you want Harry to know how similar your childhoods were." When Sirius didn't answer, he reached forward to touch his friend's arm. "You still have those scars on your back, Padfoot."

"They're so faded now, you can barely see them. And my tattoos cover the majority of the scarring."

Remus got up to make himself a cup of tea as he spoke. "It's a nice memory, Sirius. You can see James was already chomping at the bit for an adventure. I'm sure Harry would like to see that. I think as much as you can possibly show him is always a good thing."

Sirius smiled at his friend. "I hope you're right."

End Author's Notes:

Here is the Students from the Marauder generation. Last names present are from JKR's list and a few original characters who come up later in ASC.

Gryffindor:

Sirius Black

Remus Lupin

Peter Pettigrew

James Potter

Kingsley Shacklebolt

Lily Evans

Hestia Jones

Deanna Kane (original character)

Mary McDonald

Marlene McKinnon

Dorcas Meadows

Ravenclaw:

Robert Brown (first name by me)

David Casey (original character)

Bertrand Davies (first name by me)

Simon Fawley (first name by me)

Gideon Prewitt

Fabian Prewitt

Henry Wilkes (first name by me)

Sarah Anderson (first name by me)

Marsali Campbell (first name by me)

Katerina Kendrick (first name by me)

Ji Li (first name by me)

Emmeline Vance

Hufflepuff:

Christian Burbage (first name by me)

Hu Chang (first name by me)

Amos Diggory

Florean Fortescue

Nathaniel Monroe (first name by me)

Thomas Scamander (first name by me)

Jonathan Zusack (first name by me)

Calypso Fields (original character)

Grace Gudgeon (first name by me)

Alice Mason

Delta Sahni (original character)

Erin Spinnet (first name by me)

Slytherin:

Lionel Avery (first name by me)

Amycus Carrow

Magnus Flint (first name by me)

Rabastan Lestrange

Theolonius Nott (first name by me)

Cornelius Parkinson (first name by me)

Evan Rosier

Adam Rowle (first name by me)

Christopher Sampson (first name by me)

Zain Shafiq (first name by me)

Severus Snape

Giovanni Zabini (first name by me)

Alecto Carrow

Caroline Collins (original character)

Athena Cross (original character)

Thanks for reading and please review!