Here's the next chap. Thanks for the awesome review Jolly Ozzy Jones! I love Remus too, of course : )

Oh, useless brownie points for whoever can guess who Damocles is in J.K.'s books.

Standard disclaimers apply.

Chapter 16

Dark Days

Remus glowed with pleasure in the Great Hall. He was back at Hogwarts, wedged between Sirius and Peter, stuffing his face with mashed potatoes and basking in the comfortable light of the candles. He had friends again. He thought they had forgotten them.

"We sent you owls," they had all said on the train.

"I tried calling you too," said James, "But the guy who answered said no one named Remus lived there."

"I hear the Ministry is really filtering the owls the now," said Peter, "Maybe they just got lost."

Sirius frowned, "All of our owls got lost? Remus, are your parents the type to not give you your mail? It's just that mine are and I have to go to drastic measures to get it."

Remus had shook his head, "No, they wouldn't do that, though they didn't let me use Maku to deliver anything…"

"Hey," James ribbed Sirius, "Look at Snivelus."

Severus Snape was melting away from the festivities like a shadow. He somehow avoided detection with ease as he slipped into a corridor. James pulled his Invisibility Cloak from his pocket, "Let's follow him."

Sirius motioned Peter and Remus under the table where they uncomfortably filed under the Invisibility Cloak. They lumbered after Snape as quietly as possible. They saw him round the corner, muttering to himself, his large hooked nose buried in a book.

"I think he just feels like reading, guys," said Remus, not sure why he joined this little excursion in rule breaking, which could only end in one or more people getting cursed.

The foursome stumbled and tottered slowly down the corridor until Remus stopped, nearly derailing the whole caravan, he could hear several voices.

"What're you doing?" snapped James.

"There's people talking."

"I don't hear anything," and they moved forward, but stopped yet again, when the other boys heard the voices too.

"They sound angry," said Peter, who took an anxious step backwards, "Let's go back to the feast."

"Quiet!" Sirius hissed.

The boys waited with bated breath at the corner of the corridor. Though they were invisible, they feared to round it. Suddenly there were shouts, a flash of light, a loud crack, and what sounded like the high pitched scream of horses. Peter squealed like a stuck pig and fled back to the Great Hall. The other boys rushed forward.

The sight made the boys cling to each other, their Invisibility Cloak slipping off. Remus could not bear to look at it. He buried his head in Sirius's shoulder, stifling a whimper. He felt sick.

Severus stood with his back turned to them, clutching his large, leather bound book to his chest to keep himself from quaking to the floor. Above him were three house elves hanging from the ceiling, cords pulled tightly around their snapped necks. Their eyes bulged to the point where they looked like they were going to pop out of their heads. Their limbs were broken and askew, giving them the appearance of ghoulish marionettes.

James pulled his wand out and shouted, "Snape!"

Snape whirled around, his normally cold eyes were wide with an animal like fear, "Expelliarmus!"

James fell and skidded across the floor. Before any further action could be taken, a shout emanated from the corridor.

"Potter! Snape! What are—oh God!" It was Professor McGonagall, the staff, and most of the Great Hall. No one had heard the rumbling of hundreds of feet in the face of the terrifying scene on the ceiling.

Shrieks, ominous mutterings, sobs and even cruel laughter could be heard from the great throng of students. Dumbledore stood before them with his arms spread wide on either side of him, as though hoping his purple and starred robes would shield the students from the horror twenty feet above them.

"Prefects," he said gravely, "Escort all the students to their houses immediately."

The shaky prefects did as they were told and the corridor mercifully drained of people until only James, Sirius, Remus, Snape, and a very jittery Peter remained-- held to spot by Professor McGonagall. Dumbledore waved his wand to lower the house elves gently to the floor.

"Minerva," he said quietly, "Please take these poor souls up to the hospital ward."

"You five," he said to the boys, "Come with me."

Dumbledore's voice seemed to unfreeze Remus, who finally pulled away from Sirius. Despite the circumstances, he felt embarrassed and hoped Sirius would not think him a coward, or worse. Dumbledore led them to the deserted staff lounge and motioned them all to sit down in the comfortable chairs.

"What happened?" he asked gently, though his half moon glasses flashed, making his expression inscrutable.

"Snape did it!" James viciously jabbed a finger at Snape.

Snaped snarled, "I didn't do anything Potter! They were already like that!"

Sirius scoffed, "You would say that. What's that book you got there?"

Snape hugged the book closer to his chest, "It's just something I'm reading."

"Show me the book, Severus," asked Dumbledore without a hint of accusation in his voice.

Snape reluctantly showed him the title.

"Petrifying Potions?No doubt lifted from the restricted section, but that is of minor importance at the moment. Peter tells me there was a great flash of light…"

Snape snorted, "Surprised he could see anything with those piggy eyes—which were most likely shut."

"You greasy git!" James spat and drew his wand.

The boys began into a dangerously escalating shouting match.

"Quiet all of you!" Remus's voice trembled. Half of him wished he had not spoke, but the other half wished to throttle everyone in the room, "How can you all behave like this in the face of what just happened?"

James and Sirius looked away and Snape hid behind a veil of hair. Remus hesitated before launching into the full story, leaving out only the bit about the Invisibility Cloak.

Dumbledore was quiet for a moment, as though in deep thought. Then he said, "Alright, you may leave. Severus, I must ask that you stay for a moment."

The boys made their way shakily to the Gryffindor common room, which was completely deserted, all the students being forced to stay in their dormitories. As they climbed up to their dormitory Sirius said quietly, "I shouldn't have been such an ass. No way Snape could have performed Dark Magic like that."

James merely huffed and collapsed on his bed. The other three followed suit, clinging to their pillows and drifting into an uneasy and nightmare filled sleep.

The moment they entered the Great Hall in the morning, the Marauders knew Hogwarts had changed. Dread paced over the students like a foul-breathed beast. Only the Slytherin table seemed remotely normal. When there was conversation, words like "You-Know-Who" and "Death Eaters" were spoken. For the next several weeks, a grayness enveloped the classrooms, the students, the teachers, everything.

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James burst into the library and began a little jig complete with an obnoxious chant, "Wooooo! I'm a Seeker ! I'm Seeker! Go Lions! I'm a Seeker! I—Ack!"

"Contemptible boy!" shrieked Madam Pince as she swung at James with a particularly hefty tome.

"That's great man!" whooped Sirius.

"Go James!" cheered Peter.

Remus looked up from his homework and smiled, "Good for you," he said weakly.

"OUT! OUT ALL OF YOU!" roared Madam Pince and the boys fled the library.

The students had begun to recover from the terrible first night, especially when the culprit (at least one of them) was found out by Dumbledore. He was a seventh year named Arnold Dudvin who bore the Dark Mark on his arm. While the students were greatly unnerved at having a Death Eater in their midst, knowing he would be shipped off to Azkaban made their recovery much easier. However the house elves still lived in constant fear.

"Your gran still has cancer Remus? Not to be rude, but shouldn't she be y'know, dead, by now? Ouch!" Peter rubbed the crown of his head where Sirius's wand had thwacked it.

"She I-er, it went into remission over the summer, but it's back again," said Remus quickly.

"Sirius probably just wishes he had a decent family member he could lament over like you do," James jabbed, which earned him a cold glare from Sirius.

"Hey! Why don't you hit him? Oww!" whined Peter.

Sirius stormed away from his three friends, "You shouldn't have said that," Remus said quietly.

James merely frowned and was quiet for once in his life before perking up considerably when he saw Lily Evans floating past. He followed her and Remus swore he could see a bit of drool on his mouth.

He sighed and tried to lose Peter who now had nothing better to do than annoy him. He wanted to study in peace. He weaved through the corridors and dodged into any secret passage he could find. Soon he found himself in a deserted corridor.

"Let go of me! Levicorpus" shouted a worryingly familiar girl's voice.

"Agh! Filthy little Mudblood!"

"Get her! Hold her down!"

Remus drew his wand and broke into a run, sliding the last few paces around the corner. He barely had time to register the three men with their faces hidden and Lily, sans James, struggling on the corridor's stone floor before he fired a spell, "ExpectoPatronum!"

A silver wisp escaped from his wand and absolutely terrified the masked criminals, which saw something much greater.

"Run!" the three turned tail and fled, the great, silver beast chasing them as they went.

Lily sat up, though her usually smooth auburn hair was frazzled, she was more or less unscathed.

"Lily, are you alright?" Remus rushed toward her. Outside of the Marauders, Lily was his best friend and the only one who he could study and be around for long periods of time with without succumbing to overwhelming annoyance.

"Oh, Remus!" Lily threw her arms around his neck and he quite easily pulled her up, "Was that a patronus? That's very difficult magic! How did you learn it? It looked like a giant dog. I would have been very frightened of it had I not read about patronuses in the library the other day," she babbled.

"Er, you don't seem very frightened for being assaulted--" Remus started but stopped when he caught a whiff of salt. Lily had broken down and was sobbing on his shoulder.

"Remus I thought I was going to die! If you hadn't come along…I-I th-thought they were going to kill me and string me up like the house elves. That's what they said! They, ah--" Lily completely and clutched Remus like a lifeline. Remus did not know what to do other than stroke her hair and whisper warm reassurances.

"Lily? Lily Lily Lovebird? I know you love playing hard to get sweetums but--"

James had suddenly emerged from a narrow passageway and was struck dumb. His friend and his "girlfriend" were locked in a loving embrace.

Gasp! Like? Don't like? Review. Next Chapter: He's a What? James has a furry little problem.