A/N: Gah, I'm sorry, I'm a terrible person. I've just been extremely busy, with finals in May and then I immediately went to FRANCE afterward, which was absolutely amazing, by the way. So, I'm sorry for the terribly long wait, but this one's really long and there's some supa-awesome ACTION.

Happy reading!

Must We Go There

Lily had rounds with Remus that night, and she arrived at the front of the school to see him already waiting there, leaning against the wall. Lily noticed that the Marauders all had a certain stance about them. They were all very different, of course, but they all leaned against the wall like that a lot, or they all seemed to have a mischievous air about them (some more than others, obviously).

She studied him thoughtfully as she approached, and he was staring off into space with a concentrated furrowed brow and his hands in his pockets.

"Something troubling you?" she asked as she stopped in front of him.

He was broken out of his reverie and shook his head slightly. "Oh – blimey, Lily, I didn't even see you coming."

"I realized," she said, half-smiling. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head and started walking; she followed him. "Nothing, really, it's just James." He said, and she noticed the slightly pointed tone in his voice.

She raised an eyebrow. "Really. Well, I would know – I haven't talked to him recently."

"Trust me, we've noticed – what with him moaning into his pillow all the time. Sirius says he's 'just going to Wingardium Leviosa his ass out the window until he promises to man up'." He recited respectively, and she laughed, though it troubled her a bit. And the sad part is, the first part isn't even a joke, he thought to himself exasperatedly.

"Well, Remus, you understand, don't you?" she said after a moment, hoping that at least someone would. Her friends were urging her to give Potter a break, but she just – there was something in her that just didn't want to forgive him, because . . . because . . .

"Lily, why don't you tell me what's really going on here?" he murmured after a moment of studying her face discreetly.

She swallowed and squeezed her eyes shut, not thinking about what she was saying as she blurted, "Something in me doesn't want to forgive James, Remus. It's just that I don't want – I don't think I can be friends with him."

"What?" he said – that was not what he was expecting.

"If it was anyone else, you, Dorcas, Alice, Mary, even Sirius – I would've forgiven you by now, of course I would have. And I even know that that stupid thing in McGonagall's class was Sirius' fault, but . . . but with James . . . it's like I'd be watching a nearly six-year battle die, and I'd be . . . the loser." She breathed out the last part, realizing how childish that sounded. She opened her eyes and didn't look at him, ashamed.

"Lily . . . you really need to give him a chance. He's not as bad as he acts sometimes, honest. He just . . . gets flustered around you, and acts stupid."

"Only around me?" she grumbled, wrinkling her nose.

He chuckled. "You have more power over him than you know, Lily Evans. Just give him a chance to be around you more, and maybe he'll become – well, not less stupid, but more used to . . . your charm." He chuckled, knowing his wording was terrible.

She gave him a look, laughing, and then they were both laughing. Lily looked over to him and she realized how handsome Remus really was –

She stopped herself short and shook her head sharply. Oh no, she could not be getting a crush on Remus Lupin. That would just muck her life up, make it more difficult than it had to be. She had school work to worry about, and friends, and – and . . .

But as she caught sight of him chuckling again, probably at her dumbfounded expression, she couldn't help smile back, and she wondered what she had gotten herself into.

XXX

James, unknowing that the love of his life was having a realization of a fancy for one of his best mates, was back up in his dorm room with his arm over his eyes as he laid on the bed. Sirius was hunched in a chair, eyes focused on the Marauders Map, and Peter was sleeping in his bed, one arm and leg draping off the side as a line of drool went down the comforter. James peeked at his two friends and rolled his eyes at Peter before sitting up. He waited for Sirius to take notice of his restlessness, but he did nothing, if not pointedly ignore it by giving a little sigh himself, looking to another part of the map. James sighed heavily once again, and he knew Sirius was definitely mocking him when he gave another huge sigh of his own. James glared at him and Sirius glanced up at him, then let out a snort, followed by a long series of chuckles.

"You're pathetic, you know that?" Sirius asked, setting the Map down.

James scowled and ignored him, asking instead, "Where's Lily?"

"You're such a stalker," he muttered, but looked anyway. "Oh, yeah, she's doing rounds with Remus, remember? He told us, but I'm pretty sure you were still wallowing in self-pity at that point."

He rolled his eyes and plopped back down on the bed. "How am I supposed to try harder if she's always avoiding me?" he asked, and even to him he sounded whiny and childish.

"You sound like a child," Sirius sighed, voicing his thoughts. "Just go up to her tomorrow, and don't act like the daft prick you usually are."

James snorted and closed his eyes, more tired than he thought. "Easier said than done, Padfoot . . . easier said than done. . ."

XXX

The Marauders were walking down the corridor the next day towards McGonagall's class – late, of course – as they laughed at some joke James cracked.

And that's when things turned around. Remus, who was walking on the end, was knocked into by the passing Slytherin group. Remus stumbled back and tried to join back into his group without James and Sirius noticing the commotion, but it was too late. Sirius had noticed and turned to see that it wasn't just another group of the slimy gits – it was the King and Queen of the slimy gits, Bellatrix and Rodolphus, followed by their jeering cronies. They laughed as the Sirius came to a halt, already seething at the sight of his cousin. Everyone was aware of the rumors spreading of their involvement with the Voldemort character, that didn't seem like he would be slowing down any time soon. In fact, he was getting rapidly more and more popular in the news, and everyone also knew that the Daily Prophet never really gave away the seriousness of these types of problems. No one really wanted to know how bad Lord Voldemort – or 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' as people were calling him – really was.

As all the Marauders stopped and realized what happened, the Slytherins stopped as well, Bellatrix sauntering forward to meet her cousin in no man's land between the two rival groups.

"Well, well, well," she chuckled, her heavily lidded eyes looking over him. "If it isn't my wittle cousin, all grown up. I see you're still just as idiotically noble as I remember."

"I see you're still just as unimaginably psychotic as I remember." He sneered, and her eyes flashed, her arms dropping from her waist and grabbing for her wand.

But then she paused and gave him a smile. "Oh, please, Sirius, don't jump into fights you're not prepared for." She chastised with an edge of real danger in her voice, her eyes darkening.

"Oh, trust me, I've been ready for this ever since summer." He said, reaching for his own wand.

She laughed after a moment. "Oh, yes! You were friends with those obnoxious twins that were so tragically killed," she said, then laughed manically, "Tell, me – how's the sweet little sister doing?"

All the Marauders let out various yells of outrage at this, but Sirius was the one who acted out the harshest, having just been waiting for the right moment – "Impedimenta!" – but Bellatrix was quick, having been waiting for it as well, and easily blocked it, sending a curse his way.

As a full-fledged duel began, the Marauders quickly debated on whether to stop it or not. Sirius would get into Sirius trouble if they were found out, which as extremely likely, but Bellatrix also deserved it. So, they agreed that if Sirius went down, they were all going down with him. They joined in on the fight, first against Bellatrix, who received a multitude of curses and jinxes against the four of them, until the other Slytherins joined in.

Sirius kept with Bellatrix, James took on Lestrange, Remus with Mulciber, and Peter with Wilkes. Luckily, they were an even amount on both sides, and none were outnumbered. Sirius and Bellatrix were practically equal in skill, and they both only received few blows, while Peter was struggling with Wilkes. Wilkes laughed as Peter fell to the ground with a tricky jinx that sent a sensation of spiders crawling up and down his body.

"It's almost too easy." He sneered as he stood over his, lifting his wand to send another curse his way, but James caught sight of this and, instead of firing another hex at Lestrange, he swooped his wand to Wilkes, yelling, "Stupefy!"

Wilkes fell to the ground, across Peter, unconscious. Peter sent James a grateful look and James saluted him with a bright grin when Peter widened his eyes, exclaiming, "James – watch out!"

James looked back to Lestrange, but not in time to block the curse that was coming his way. It hit him with resounding force, sending him flying into the wall behind him. Not only that, but, to the boys alarm, James starting seizing.

"James!"

"You bloody son of a –"

"Peter, get help!"

Remus, abandoning his rather simple duel with Mulciber, ran over to James, quickly followed by Sirius. The Slytherins looked on in quiet amusement. Lestrange raised his wand to take care of the other two, but Bellatrix caught his arm, half-smiling as he watched the boys from under her voluminous hair.

"Not yet, Rodolphus. Not here. Besides, if we finish them all off now, who will there be to stand a chance against us once we're out?"

Rodolphus smirked but his eyes flicked back to the distressed boys, chuckling. "I was only going to have a little fun, Bella, not kill them."

She leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Not now, my love."

Meanwhile, Remus and Sirius gave up on trying to revive their friend while waiting for Peter, instead started to carry him to the him to the Hospital Wing. Sirius and Remus didn't know how, but they soon started yelling at each other as they struggled through the main corridor of the school – "Don't drop him!" "Look, Moony! He's bloody foaming form his mouth!" "Where the hell is Peter?" "You're dropping his foot!" "My hands are sweaty!" – and making too much of a commotion, really, not to be noticed.

It was Professor Rollan that ran out of his classroom first, the class following close behind. No doubt this would be the new and very possibly warped gossip of the month.

"Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, what is going on here?" he exclaimed, going over to help them. He used a levitating spell, which was probably a better idea than attempting to carry him, but Sirius and Remus weren't exactly in their right minds.

"No time – Lestrange sent a cruse at him –" Sirius started, but Professor Rollan was already running to the Hospital Wing, a floating James, a distressed Remus, a frantic Sirius, and his excited class following behind.

The four girls were part of Professor Rollan's class – a class which the Marauders were supposed to be in as well – but they were certainly not excited. They tried to push their way up to the front with Remus and Sirius, but didn't achieve in doing so until they all burst into the Hospital Wing, much to Madam Pomfrey's astonishment. She immediately took hold of James and shooed everyone out of the room, except Remus and Sirius, because they'd seen what has happened.

"What happened?" Mary gasped as they were shoved out of the room by Madam Pomfrey – even Professor Rollan – and the big oak doors shut in their faces.

"I don't know." Dorcas whispered.

"God, what if something really bad happened to him, and I never got the chance to apologize for how horrible I've been?" Lily murmured, a surprising but overwhelming sadness washing over her.

Alice put her hand on her friends back soothingly and the four of them sat outside the Hospital Wing while the others filed back to the classroom. Professor Rollan crouched down and studied them.

"I'll excuse you from the rest of them class, but I can't speak for the rest of the teachers," he said, but the look he gave them implied that he thought they should just skip. He sighed and was about to go when he said, "I really hope he's okay, girls. I know you were good friends with him."

Lily swallowed when his eyes locked with hers and she got the slightly annoyed, slightly awed feeling that he really knew too much about everyone's personal lives than was healthy. Then, he stood and followed the class back to the room, leaving the four girls alone to camp out until Madam Pomfrey would allow them to see James.

They didn't talk much.

XXX

After the class was rounded out, Madam Pomfrey fired questions at the two flustered boys – what was the curse? They didn't know. How long was he left like this? About ten minutes. Has he ever been faced with anything like this before? Not that they knew of.

As they answered a few more questions, they watched as she quickly checked his fever and didn't look pleased with the result. She then gave him something that would "hopefully stop the foaming" and, thankfully, it did. She then scanned his body with her wand, and Sirius couldn't help but want to scream, "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? CAN'T YOU SEE HE'S SEIZING? GIVE HIM SOMETHING!"

Madam Pomfrey glanced at the boys and she flourished her wand, the curtains around James bed closing around them. Sirius lunged forward indignantly, but Remus grasped his shoulder, giving him a weary look.

"Do you want to help him?"

"Yes—"

"Then leave them alone."

And with that, Remus collapsed into a chair, and, after a moment's hesitation, Sirius followed suit.

All they could do now was wait.