"What are you thinking!"

Sirius grunted as he slammed up against the mahogany cabinets that lined this secret corridor for some reason and James felt like shaking him again. So he did, pulling his friend back and pushing him forward again with a thud that made the free-standing furniture wobble.

"What?" Sirius yelled, "Seriously, Prongs. Fuck off, it was a prank."

His friend shoved back and James let go of Padfoot's robes before they ripped- or you know, he broke a rib. Beaters had a lot of upper arm strength.

"You almost telling Snivelus where Moony holes up during the full moon is a fucking prank?" James stared at his friend in disbelief. "What the hell, Padfoot. Seriously. And don't make the fucking joke, it's not the time."

His friend grinned and said, "No need if you're going to do it for me." James raised his fist again. "Alright, alright. Hold on, let me explain!"

"Fine, explain." Crossing his arms over his chest, James was almost tempted to assume his stag form just for the intimidation factor. He was likely to end up with his antlers stuck in a curtain or something like last time he tried that though, so he settled for scowling at his best friend.

"Ok, a few things to start off on the why. First, the greaseball almost has Remus' condition figured out anyway. I heard him talking about it with a couple of his Death Eater pals. They laughed it off, but he's pretty much worked it out."

"Fuck," James muttered. That wasn't good news. As soon as Snape had proof that Remus was a werewolf he would get their friend expelled immediately.

"So, he's going to know soon anyway. There's only so much we could do to prevent it. He'll know by the end of this year or sometime early next year anyway."

"And you thought moving that up to next week was a great idea? Or getting the snot nosed punk killed and Remus thrown in Azkaban?"

Sirius gave him a disgusted look, maybe a little hurt too, and James held up a hand to prevent his angry retort. "Hold on, I'm sorry. I know you wouldn't do that." At least not on purpose. While he hated them, Sirius still had a touch of the darkness that infected the Blacks' sometimes. A certain edge, or reckless abandon, that was more tempered in the rest of the Marauders.

"So the plan was, what, scare him straight?"

"Not exactly. I found a... spell... I think will work, it lets you 'take back' a secret that you've revealed to someone." Sirius turned his head, looking down the corridor as he spoke, and his mouth twisted a little.

James sighed in relief, his mind following the logical path that this new information provided. Sirius reveals Remus is a werewolf, he uses this spell, Snape can't reveal the information to anyone. It sounded like a good plan. Then he frowned- Padfoot was acting too guilty for it to be that simple.

"There's something you're not telling me, Padfoot. Where did you find this spell?"

Sirius let out a breath, then slid down the wall. He looked up at James again, then shrugged. "I figured a lot of this out during Christmas break. While I was stuck at home after Dad tracked me down at your place. I got the spell out of the Black family library."

"Dark magic. You hate that stuff, Pads. We hate that stuff." There wasn't really any heat to it though. What would he do to keep Remus safe? A single dark spell versus his friend's future being completely destroyed.

"I'm glossing over things too." Sirius draped his arms over his knees and dropped his head back to lean against the cabinet behind him. "Snape has to know Remus is a werewolf. Like in his bones, so I'm thinking he has to see him and ideally be completely shocked and probably scared out of his mind." He grinned. "Though that could just be me making the most out of a bad situation and wanting to see Snivellus wet his pants."

James snickered despite himself. "So that's why the hints about the Willow rather than just telling him outright?"

"Yep."

"Still seems like it has way too many chances to go wrong, Sirius. Snivellus could get killed, Snivellus could get cursed, Remus could get cursed or maimed if Snivellus isn't quite as much of a pansy as we assume. Admittedly, two out of those three aren't super horrible, aside from the fact that Remus probably ends up expelled and going to prison.

"Plus, why the hell didn't you tell us?"

Sirius shrugged. "Plausible deniability. The less you guys knew, the more likely it was that if any of those things did happen that you wouldn't be caught up in it."

Sliding into the same position as his friend, James gave the matter some thought. Sirius seemed content to let him think. He couldn't deny that things would get dire fast if Snape actually figured out Remus' condition without any restraints on his behavior. The bastard wouldn't let a chance to harm any of the Marauders go by, even if Remus wasn't the main instigator.

The plan on its surface was good. It would be nice if they could use something like Obliviate instead, but he didn't think Sirius or himself had the skill for that. They'd end up wiping out too much or not replacing it with something plausible and Snape would know something was wrong and have Pomfrey reverse it. This spell sounded more targeted.

Plus, Snape wetting himself would be priceless. Even if they couldn't ever tell anyone about it, it would be a memory he took out and savored in his old age.

Almost as if he sensed James' thoughts, Sirius said, "I'll admit it was a stupid plan, Prongs." He paused and then, while James was still in shock from an actual admission of failure he continued on slyly, "-with one person. With two though, we could make it work."

James smirked. Now that was the Padfoot he was expecting.

"Ok, but we can't do it this year. If we're doing this, we're doing it right. The full Marauder's experience and we make sure we protect ourselves- Disillusion maybe, so Snape doesn't see us. We need to finish the Map too, so we can make sure no one else is around. This has to be flawless."

Grinning, Sirius leaned forward and punched James in the shoulder. "Awesome. This is going to be completely epic."

...

Fuck. This was so far from flawless that James couldn't even tell where it had all gone wrong.

It was almost six months since Sirius and he had their conversation and they had been busy little beavers during that time. Both of them had learned how to Disillusion themselves, though James had quite a bit less need for it with his invisiblity cloak. That never worked that well when he was in stag form though, and he didn't want to chance it slipping off.

Being the Transfiguration prodigy that he was, James had come up with the brilliant idea of having a disillusioned wall in front of Snape. A couple of them, just to be sure. It was perfect, even if he wasn't stupid enough to run away, Snape would be attacking the wall and Remus would be stopped by his own. Who cares?

Both he and Sirius knew the secrets spell now. Or perhaps ritual was a better word. They were controllng the environment, the people, and the places involved to a large extent.

So why the fuck did it go this wrong?

Glancing back over the shoulder straining against Remus, he winced as he saw the rapidly widening pool of blood that surrounded Snivelus' body. The boy was very, very unconscious and was surrounded by the practically powdered remains of the conjured masonry wall. They had kept Remus away from his throat, but his right arm was practically stripped to the bone and his torso had been shredded by the werewolf's claws.

It had started off fine. Remus was patrolling the corridor after they "accidentally" left the door ajar on their way out. Snape came in like clockwork, was stopped by his own wall and then the dumb fucker had finited the Disillusion spell on it.

What did that matter though, right? So he could see the spell and knew something was up- it still left him standing in the circle Sirius and he had prepared. After seeing Remus in the distance, he had snarled their friend's name, so they knew he had put it together. Everything was set just right- a quick cutting spell released his blood into the ingredients at his feet, the circle lit up with a dark purple light just like they had practiced on each other and everything was primed.

Sirius and he both cracked out the finishing chant in unison, and then everything fucking went to hell.

The wall behind Snivellus had just about exploded and a snarling mass of fur, teeth, and claws had pounced on the Slytherin. James knew intimately what being bit by his friend felt like, but he had never been this frenzied and out of control before in their entire time with him. If Snape hadn't gotten his arm up in time they would already be murderers.

He and Sirius hadn't let their shock last long though and they had charged the other Marauder immediately. Snape was already unconscious by the time they hit Moony, but their friend was barely budged by the attack and immediately turned upon his invisible attackers. And while their Animagi forms prevented them from being cursed, the wounds he inflicted still bled.

That revealed the next thing they had fucked up. The damned spell hadn't taken hold like it had in their testing. Which meant Snape was an Occlumens or had some other protection and this entire thing had been doomed from the start one way or another- Sirius and James weren't though and the primed ritual had seized upon the pair as soon as they spilled their blood into the circle.

Who the fuck learned Occlumency by their 5th year? The Blacks didn't even start that shit until their children were adults.

He had no idea what secret had just been sealed, but he hadn't had much time to think about it. While his stag form was stronger than Remus, the corridor didn't give him room to maneuver. Sirius was better off, but they had still been rolling around on top of someone who was likely to be dead in minutes anyway even without this. It was only a matter of time before he put a hoof through the sap's head. They had needed to do something.

Taking a breath that almost choked him with the raw smell of blood that permeated the corridor and very nearly engaged flight reflexes that were hard-wired into this form, he had taken a step back for a moment. He trusted Padfoot to hold their friend. Repositioning himself, he lowered his head and grunted at Sirius- the enormous black dog taking the hint and diving to one side as he charged forward to engage Remus with his antlers this time.

He was lucky he hadn't lost his eyes to that, but it had gotten their friend far enough back that Snape at least was out the way. Still, the current stand off wasn't sustainable either- Moony was going to turn his attention more towards directly attacking him when he realized that he couldn't get past to get at Snape and the Disillusionment Charm which was already on its last legs would peter out completely.

James tried to think of a way out of this, but his mind just blanked. He was already feeling a little woozy from blood loss and Sirius didn't look a lot better as he darted in and out, nipping at Moony and occasionally shoulder checking him when he looked likely to slip out of the weight of Prongs pinning him against the wall. It took both of them just to keep their friend from Snape, which meant neither could go get help.

Why the hell hadn't they brought Wormtail into this? He was their best lookout and if any prank required a lookout, it was this one. More of Sirius' plausible deniability he supposed.

He was thinking about making another attempt to push Remus further down the corridor and through a door when the werewolf abruptly let out a sharp yelp and went barreling down the corridor on his own- though clearly not of his own volition if the way he was tumbling about and skidding across the floor meant anything.

James gaped for a moment as one last push shoved Remus through the door to the Shrieking Shack and slammed it shut. Stunned, he tried to turn and one of his legs gave out entirely, leaving him sprawled across Sirius. A moment's thought let his form shrink and he groaned as he rolled over in human form. Sirius just whined, his eyes on the figure of Dumbledore standing further down the corridor in as imposing a stance as he had ever seen.

The killer of Grindlewald, and this was probably the first time he had thought of Dumbledore in those terms since first year, gave the pair of them a look that seemed to hold equal parts anger and sadness, then turned to Snape. A sharp whistle saw Fawkes flying down the corridor as he knelt beside the young Slytherin and then all three vanished in a ball of flame.

Groaning, James buried his head in his hands, then ran them through his hair as he stared at the blood-spattered dirt he was sitting in. Needless to say, it didn't have much effect on the bird's nest sitting on his head.

"I'm sorry, Prongs." Head snapping up, James felt stunned yet again as he saw Peter step out of the shadows, his shoulders hunched over and his face worried.

"Wormtail? What the... How'd you even know we were down here?"

The smaller boy just shrugged slightly. "You guys obviously had something big going on and well, I followed you. Wanted to make sure it wasn't intended for me." He grinned a little, though when he looked down shyly at James' own answering grin he went abruptly pale and the smile drained away with a gulp.

James followed his gaze and his own grin became a bit strained as he saw the pool of blood still covering the circle.

"Trust me, Wormtail, we should be thanking you, not accepting apologies." Sirius had finally transformed back and had rolled over and was looking towards Pete as well. Wincing, he noted a particularly long gash still leaking blood along his side.

Pulling out his wand, he said, "Episkey," and waved his wand at a gash along Padfoot's ribs as his best friend did the same thing to his gnawed on shoulder.

Peter winced as he saw the wounds the two had incurred, but said, "It's not so much that, but... guys, this is really, really serious. And..." He gulped. "...I can't afford to be kicked out of Hogwarts. And that's kind of the best case scenario I can see coming out of this. I can't, I can't take that risk.

"That's why the apologies, I mean we've been through everything together, but... I can't be associated with this. It's too much."

For a moment, James felt flushed, anger and betrayal surging through him at the words. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked back at Sirius, who was looking as serious as he had ever seen him. Certainly more serious than Pete had ever seen him, since he hadn't been around much this past summer after the fallout with Sirius' parents. His turgid emotions drained away and he just nodded tiredly.

"We know, Pete," Sirius said simply. "It's why we never brought you in. We knew it could go bad."

And that kind of summed it up, didn't it? They knew it could go bad and they did it anyway. The benefits had seemed to outweigh the risks and they would have to hope Remus would see it that way as well. He didn't imagine that the school's Board of Governors would, regardless of their explanation.

There wasn't really much more to say after that. The three of them spent their last few minutes together in companionable silence, unbroken by the typical ribald jokes and horseplay that characterized their relationship and then Dumbledore was back.

...

James, Sirius, Remus, and Pete had probably visited this office more often than most of the Professors in their 5 years at Hogwarts. So sitting before Dumbledore was not a new experience. Except that this time it was and he knew it.

There were no momentary smiles that let them know the man could take a joke. The eyes flashed, they didn't twinkle. The whirligigs, thingamabobs, and other weird things Dumbledore had collected were all eerily silent.

Peter had told his tale hesitantly, glancing over at James and Sirius periodically. The few attempts the two of them had made to interject had been shut down unceremoniously, which had started a slow burn in James' gut. Their only chance at getting out of this without being expelled was sitting in this room, but if he wouldn't even give them a chance to explain they were screwed.

"...so I dispelled the ward protecting the school from Remus." James shook his head, trying to clear it so he could pay attention to what Wormtail had just said. He hadn't heard this part in detail, though it seemed he had missed most of it anyway. "I figured that was the quickest way to let someone, anyone, know that something was wrong."

The smaller boy shrugged slightly, but the statement provoked the first expression of approval from Dumbledore that whole night. "That was impressively quick thinking, Peter, and it likely saved young Severus' life."

James and Sirius both slumped in relief and James felt a tension that he hadn't realized was resting in the back of his mind release. "He's alive then?" He had blurted out the sentence before he realized he intended to do so and almost cringed as Dumbledore turned his attention to him again. The Headmaster didn't stop them again this time, but that might only be because James had stopped talking after those three words.

"He was in critical condition at St. Mungo's when I left him," Dumbledore said after a moment's pause. His expression of approval had washed away upon turning back to James and Sirius, but his voice didn't hold the same stenorious thunder that had started this meeting. Instead, it held traces of what James thought was relief and sadness in addition to the anger which had simmered in the man all night.

"He still may not survive, but the healer seemed to think it likely and promised to contact me immediately should anything change." He gestured at the floo almost absently to punctuate his statement. "As we have not been interrupted, I believe Severus still lives."

Glancing back at Peter again, Dumbledore said, "I believe I've heard as much as I need from you, Mr. Pettigrew. You are dismissed, but please do not talk about this until you have heard from me again."

Their friend nodded and slipped out of his chair, shoulders hunched and expression miserable as he left the room quietly without a backwards glance at James and Sirius. James was glad at least one of the Marauders might get out of this, he still wasn't sure how Dumbledore would react when they told him the full truth.

"Peter didn't have anything to do with this."

"I know, Mr. Black. I believe his story was mostly accurate. What I am interested in now is your own explanation, though I am glad that your first thoughts were at least not for yourselves." Dumbledore glanced at James again, and then turned his attention back to Padfoot.

Leaning forward on his desk, the old man steepled his fingers in front of himself and gave the two of them very piercing stares. "Tell me in your own words what possessed you to do this. At the very least, you have destroyed Mr. Lupins chances of finishing his schooling at Hogwarts and quite possibly anywhere else. I will not be able to cover up his involvement when Severus wakes even assuming he was unaware himself."

"He wasn't," James said urgently. "Aware that is. No one was, except for Sirius and I."

Dumbledore nodded, seeming unsurprised. After a few minutes of silence as James and Sirius exchanged looks, trying to decide who would go first, he said, "Let me summarize what I have learned so far, gentleman.

"First, the two of you have been planning something for some time. Mr. Pettigrew noted suspicious behavior as far back as the beginning of the year, even if he misattributed it. It apparently revolved around the Whomping Willow and the secret corridor beneath it, which Mr. Lupin presumably revealed to you for his own reasons in the past." Sirius and James winced. While Remus may not have been responsible for tonight, they couldn't deny that he had ultimately been the one to reveal that secret after they had admitted to knowing he was a werewolf.

"Second, your target was Mr. Snape, with whom you have had a number of infractions reported over the past five years. Enough to generate several warnings from the Deputy Headmistress, particularly last year after Ms. Evans was made a prefect."

James paled at that statement- and not because of the warnings. He had been more than aware of that when he had embarked on this little journey. They broke the school record in fifth year, there was no way it wasn't going to factor into this. He had forgotten about Lily though. She had never approved of their focus on Snivelus, though she hadn't said anything after the end of last year. He couldn't imagine what she would do when she heard about this though. He had finally gotten her to agree to at least allow him to hang around her as a friend.

"Third, whatever your plans tonight, you have condemned a man to a curse that more often than not halves the life expectancy of a wizard and puts countless others at risk. You might have killed him outright if it weren't for your friend and I believe it is safe to say that you may have ended at least two of your friendships. Remus is not going to take the news that he nearly killed someone well."

That was the understatement of the night if anything was, James thought. Remus was terrified of his curse and the damage that he could cause under it. They had known that since second year when they used a boggart in a prank. He hadn't managed a successful 'Riddikulus' on the moon that showed up when he faced one until the middle of fourth year.

"Finally, you are, in fact, Animagi, something I observed myself as Mr. Potter transformed. Unregistered Animagi, seeing as I would have been notified had you submitted the appropriate forms or indeed, taken up an independent study under the only registered Animagi we have in the school."

Dumbledore looked exhausted after reciting that list.

"So tell me what justified these actions. What made you think this was in the least bit a reasonable response to whatever Mr. Snape might have done?"

While they weren't true justifications, James thought he could present some compelling rationalizations to justify his and Sirius' stupidity. Snivellus was far from innocent in all of this, and while he couldn't honestly say that he deserved to be cursed, he had brought a lot of this down upon himself. They hadn't compelled the bastard to search out the "secret" of the Whomping Willow, he had come explicitly to see Remus transform so that he would have the "proof" he needed to get one of ours expelled or worse. Hell, they hadn't even needed to mislead him, other than in who was providing the information. He lined himself up for the slaughter in the hopes of taking down Remus.

If they were guilty of an attempt at manslaughter or whatever else was to be pinned upon them, Snape was guilty of exactly the same, he just hadn't managed to pull it off directly. Morally anyway, James suspected that legally there weren't many repercussions for exposing a werewolf and ruining his life or getting him hunted down like a wild animal by some bigot.

Opening his mouth to raise these points, to outline what they had done to protect those who were involved tonight and the valid reasons for those actions, however, James found himself unable to speak. The not entirely eloquent, but perhaps persuasive speech failed to materialize. The truths that he wanted to spill wouldn't come out and he could see upon looking to his left that he wasn't alone in this.

What a bloody perfect capstone to this night.

Breaking off from reminiscing as he spun his little tale, one that bore only trace elements of the memories he had been recalling, James said, "Needless to say, a mistake of that particular... magnitude wasn't going to be forgiven easily. Dark magic, dark creatures, and a student that nearly ended up dying? Dumbledore didn't put up much of a fight and we were expelled only a few days later."

James had learned very quickly after that first discussion with Dumbledore that when it came to the Mistake, there was all the leeway in the world, so long as you never actually told the truth. Or perhaps it was just the freshness of the bond that completely sealed their lips that night.

Certainly since then, he and Sirius had competed for who could spin the most elements of the truth into the story without actually tripping over the lines the spell had engraved in their minds around 'It'.

Narcissa's lips quirked slightly, as they had done several times throughout the tale so far. He had yet to actually get a laugh out of her despite that though and it was beginning to drive him a bit mad. Scarcely wetting her lips with the champagne he had provided, she murmured, "And you claim it was the spell that did it? It hardly seems like it should be that effective."

A casual shrug was all that James responded with and an attempt at humble that didn't quite make it past his smirk. "I assume it was the fact that we used spell components from our own Animagi forms for it- whatever it was, Snape lost control of his bodily functions almost immediately. With the backlash stunning us, we would have been forced to simply watch as it spiraled well beyond a certain trouser staining accident if it weren't for our friend Peter."

Sadly, James could actually testify to the validity of that claim now. The spell he had chosen for tonight's tale was not one that he would have countenanced even knowing a few years ago, but James and Sirius had taken a number of lessons home from the Mistake that he suspected Dumbledore hadn't planned with his attempt to provide 'consequences'. That phrase had been a common refrain over the weeks that he and Sirius had fought to avoid Azkaban. More or less on their own after that disastrous interview with Dumbledore.

A better understanding of Dark Magic was an unfortunate consequence of the research they had undertaken during that time in order to try and remove the effects of the miscast secrecy ritual. Getting access to the only library of the stuff available on the other hand had been largely responsible for their understanding of the rituals limits when it came to lying and the 'reconciliation' that Sirius had with his family. Nothing quite like attempted murder of a filthy Halfblood and following the family business to mend fences with your misanthropic relatives.

"I am forced to admit to being intrigued by the Animagi claim as well. I've seldom heard of one below the age of 30, let alone 15 or 16," Narcissa said, her voice and expression laced with the faintest trace of disbelief. "I don't believe I've ever actually seen one."

Grinning, James said, "Ahh, now that one I can back up immediately though. Would you like to see?" This had potential, if Narcissa was willing to play along as he thought she might- and he could rid himself of the old biddies playing chaperone. Pulling that off and wandering away with Lucius' luscious and lovely fiancee would no doubt at least prime the fireworks and if he could impress an impressive woman, all the better.

Certainly enough of dwelling on the past, he had a pleasant present plentiful with polite and proper pulchritude to ponder. Prettiness? Possibly an improvement, but he thought the gravitas of the older word fit Narcissa better. Not that he particularly intended to present the punchline to the woman in front of him anyway.

He grinned to himself nonetheless. If you couldn't amuse yourself, what was the point? His mistakes had taught him that much at least. They had also increased a certain pre-existing facility with words, which was good, because his companion for the evening had noted the inappropriately large smile in response to her agreement. Time for a bit of damage control.