Standard disclaimer applies.

Some quotations come from the the Prisoner of Azkaban, which is owned by J.K. That lucky slag.

Italics flashback

All anti-Slytherin comments are those solely of Mr. Sirius Black and do not in any reflect the author's own opinions.

Chapter 8

Of Memories and Moons

Sirius Black's plans never did carry out well.

Occasionally one or two of them went off without a hitch, but that was very rare. James's plans always went perfectly. Maybe that was because he squared them with Moony beforehand, unlike Sirius who just barged into things without a second thought. He really should have learned by now that just dragging children into a creepy old "haunted" house would have its repercussions, but once again he was Sirius Black, and at the time he couldn't be bothered with consequences.

"Peter Pettigrew's dead!" Harry said. "He killed them twelve years ago!" (1)

The boy screamed like his mother, Sirius thought annoyed and his face twitched slightly from the memory.

The innumerable times that Lily Evans screeched at James for small trifling things, he'd remember that yell anywhere. Maybe Harry wasn't so much like James after all. That thought put a smile on Sirius's face, which only served to make the girl leaned closer to the child with the broken leg. Rolling his eyes, Sirius turned to look towards Harry when Scrabbers tail poked out from a gap in the boy's fingers.

Quickly, Sirius threw Crookshanks, who had previously been snuggling into his chest, to the floor and lunged for the rat.

"Sirius, NO!" Remus yelled, literally dragging his friend away from the horrified child. (2)

Remus was telling him that they had to explain.

Well, screw that, Sirius thought furiously. He'd waited too long.

Sirius continued to struggle against his werewolf friend, while Remus was holding him back and trying to make him see reason. If he could just Moony to move a little to the left, he'd be able to use his weight as leverage and get Peter. Remus, sensing what Sirius was trying to do, tightened the hold on his old friend and whispered, "Nice try, Siri."

Growling in frustration and exhaustion, Sirius sagged against Remus. "All right then. Tell them what you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for." Sirius said never taking his eyes off Peter. (3)

Remus Lupin was too tired and too old to deal with this.

Sirius Black was struggling to get to Peter like the deranged man that Remus had previously believed him to be and the children were petrified that he was trying to kill their rat or Harry or something.

It was all disastrous and bordering on absurd.

As Sirius weight sagged against him, he slowly let go. Making sure that it wasn't some sort of trap to get to Peter, Remus continued to stare at Sirius in apprehension. He began to tell the story about his "furry little problem" and the accomplishments of his fellow Marauders. After a few moments of talking the children seemed to calm down and relax a little. Harry mentioned Snape's name and Sirius's head snapped up.

"Snape?" Sirius said looking towards Remus with a look of genuine curiosity. "What's he got to do with this?" (4)

"He's teaching here, Sirius."

A look of furious hatred splashed into Sirius's darkly hallowed eyes. His upper lip twitched and his eyes narrowed.

Ah, even after all these years. Sirius still can't stand that man, Remus thought fondly smiling slightly at his friend's childish reaction.

Then a voice made itself known, and stepping out of the shadows with Harry's invisibility cloak in tow, was Severus Snape with a vicious sneer already in place.

Sirius jumped up.

That voice dripping with snarky sarcasm and vile intentions.

Snivellus.

Everything sped up very quickly. Remus was arguing with Snape, but the man didn't listen. He never did. He bound Moony and pointed his wand straight between Sirius's eyes. Snape's dark eyes sparkling menacingly, begging Sirius to give him a reason.

Sirius glared back and was suddenly reminded of why he hated this man. The snark, his stupid greasy hair, the tattoo that graced the inside of his forearm, the overall animosity that was spewed between them over the years, and the one reason above all else that Sirius hated him, for making James hate him.

It had been in there sixth year that Sirius had finally managed to get one up on Snape and it had backfired in his face magnificently.

He'd been lurking about in the shadows and following Snivellus around for weeks now. It wasn't something that he was proud of, but the look on Snape's face would be well worth the effort. It wasn't stalking per say, because Sirius Black didn't stalk people. It was unbecoming of a Gryffindor to do something as Slytheriny as that, he was simply watching and waiting. Plotting if you will, nothing wrong about that.

Lately, Sirius had noticed that Severus had been watching them closely. A little too closely, especially James. He'd been eyeing him up all week and he'd get what was coming to him. Oh, yes he would. Because you see, Sirius had thought up a great plan, a plan so ingenious that it could never be traced back to him.

Sirius grinned roguishly as he thought about the conversation he'd just held with Snivellus concerning a certain "haunted house." Severus would be dead and it wouldn't be anyone's fault but his own. Sirius was sure that Remus couldn't be charged if only for the fact that Dumbledore seemed to have a soft spot for the werewolf.

Sirius had told Snape when, where, and how to get in, now all he had to do was wait.

"Sirius how could you?" James Potter yelled at his best friend. Former best friend, he had to remind himself of that. No best friend of his hurt a good person like Remus, no best friend of his tried to kill someone.

"Prongs, I didn't mean to hurt Remus. I was only trying to get Snivellus to leave us alone" Sirius said his voice breaking and his eyes pleading at James to understand.

"I can't believe you were so careless," James said running a hand through his messy hair, "Lily was right about you." James finished staring coldly into Sirius eyes.

"What? James, what are you talking about?" Sirius said his back upright and shoulders rolled back. Standing defensively and trying not to cry, Sirius began to feel numb. It would only make it worse if he was crying.

"She said that you were dangerous. You're reckless. She said you'd get us all killed one day," James spoke sneeringly.

"I would never try to kill you, James. I love you." Sirius said his voice completely honest and eyes open wide. His throat was dry and his breath was haggard. His hands were sweating. He couldn't feel anything.

Everything was wrong.

"I hate you." James said with such sternness that there was no doubt his eyes as he stared into Sirius's gob smacked face.

Sirius, who was standing at the doorway to the Hospital Wing tears streaming down his face, was at a loss of words. Remus stirred in the bed next to James and with one last disgusted glance at Sirius he turned away to attend Moony.

Everything gone so unbelievably wrong, Sirius thought shaking as he walked away. Half way to the Common Room, Sirus collapsed against a wall with a sob and slid down to the floors. He wrapped his arms around his knees and with his hair acting as a curtain around his face he cried.

He remained that way until day break.

After a few months, all was seemingly well once again between the Marauders, but James forgot to take those words back and Sirius always remembered.

Sirius found himself in the tunnel with Harry and the children being led by Moony towards the castle. Peter was bound and Snape unconscious. All seemed to be going well.

"You look remarkably like him, Harry." Sirius said to his newly admitted Godson. (5)

I've just got to remember that you're not him, Sirius thought to himself. Watching the boy with emotions that didn't belong to this thirteen year old child, it wasn't Harry's fault that he looked like James.

He offered to let the boy stay at his house, assuming that he still had one. The boy eagerly agreed and Sirius felt his heart thump to life again. A little piece of James was better than nothing, he supposed.

Through the opening of the tunnel Sirius glanced at the full moon and his eyes darted to Monny, whose body was contorting in pain.

Oh, no.

Not tonight, Remus, any night but tonight.

Footnotes 1-5: From POA owned by J.K.

A/N: Thanks for reading and hopefully reviewing. If you do, you'll receive the Marauder of your choice. : ) Come, on. You know you want to.

Cheers!

--Oh, and the part about Severus "eyeing up James" is totally a hallucination of Sirius's mind. He's jealous of Lily and dispelling his emotions elsewhere.

Elsewhere is referring to poor Severus, of course. The poor dear never catches a break.