A/N: I really like this fic… I enjoy writing to it. I know James is a tad… OOC. Forgive me. I need him to be, though. Although, in my skewed mind, I can see him acting this way. Increase his spitefulness by just a degree, and I think James could reach this level of malice. Maybe he'll be sorted out in the end… *shrugs*

Anywho! Hope you enjoy!

Chapter One: Revenge, So Much Sweeter Once Embittered

"Come on James! I'm so boooored!" James looked up from the book he was reading and cast his friend a sympathetic look. Sometimes Sirius was a handful.

"Sorry mate," he smiled as he pointed to the book. "Have to read this first."

"Why?" Sirius asked. James frowned and turned back to the book.

"Because I'm curious about something," James said simply, running a hand tiredly through his hair.

"What about?" his friend persisted, sitting up more. James shook his head, both from humor and exasperation.

"Can't you go find Moony and bother him for a bit?" He watched as Sirius pouted, his shoulder length, black hair a little mussed from laying.

"Certainly. You know how much he loves to be bothered when he's studying," Sirius replied sarcastically.

"What do you think I'm doing?" James asked.

"But this isn't for school, Prongs," Sirius supplied knowingly, waving a hand towards James' book.

"Well, go find Peter then," James sighed, trying in vain to read in his book. Sirius was about to say something, James saw, but he shut his mouth the next second. Sirius got up abruptly from the chair he'd been lounging in and made his way to the portrait hole. James could have sworn he heard, as Sirius was climbing through the hole, "--little prat," but he didn't know if it was directed at him or not.

Again, James ran a hand through his tangled black mane that stuck up every which way. Sirius was getting restless these days, and James wondered what it was that was bothering him so much. However, he never asked. Sirius should know that whatever it was, he could tell James; James wasn't going to force it out of him.

He reclined back in his chair, the front two legs lifting off the ground--he used a levitating charm to keep his chair steady-- folded his arms behind his head, and looked about the abandoned Gryffindor common room. Tapestries, woven stories of the heroic deeds of James' Gryffindor predecessors, adorned the faded, red walls like a wallpapered book. There was a fire blazing orange in it's hearth, and worn, high-back chairs circled it invitingly. James was sitting in the back on the room, off in a corner as it was one of his favorite spots.

A place where he had a perfect view of everyone else.

Lily often chose the chair closest to the hearth-- if she could get it-- and it always left James an ideal view of her concentrated (and unaware) profile as she lost herself to books and homework.

James let out another one of his increasing sighs.

But she wasn't there then and neither was anyone else, so James shook his head, dropped the front two legs of his seat back down on the ground with a clunk, and turned to his book.

He read and read and read, and after awhile, the words became nothing more than blurred lines of ink. He blinked his eyes and they watered. He removed his glasses and rubbed at the very corners of them in slow, circular motions. Finally, he closed the book forcefully and shoved it away from him. He propped his elbows on the table, entwined his fingers before his face, and rested his forehead against his knuckles.

And again he sighed.

What had all that meant? He had been curious, after what Dumbledore had said-- or let slip-- but it was so difficult to find what it all had meant. This book had proven to be just as vague and elusive as all the other useless tomes he had pursued.

He dropped his arms before him upon the table, fingers still interlaced, and rested his head, instead, against the cool form of the wooden desk.

It shouldn't be such a big deal to him. He was curious; that was all, and it wasn't as if this was the most important thing he should be concentrating on. There was Lily to think about-- and how he liked thinking of that-- and there was also the O.W.L.S to get ready for-- but James wasn't particularly worried about them; pranks to invent-- at least for bored Sirius' sake; quidditch practices-- the Slytherins could not be allowed any triumphs this year, James vowed; and so many other things.

What was one unfulfilled curiosity anyway?

He turned his head so that his ear and cheek were laying on the table and stared at one of the windows across the room. All he could see was the sky burning pink, yellow, and orange. It would be supper time soon, but James wasn't particularly hungry. He didn't know if it was because of his unsuccessful, academic conquest or because he hadn't been riding all that day yet.

Decidedly, he lifted himself up and strode to the fifth year boys' dormitories. He entered the room, four empty and made beds occupied the circular room, and he strode to his own bed. He grabbed his infamous cloak that looked like a spilled, viscous, shimmering liquid. It was a beloved tool of his and one that always guaranteed a sudden getaway when pranks went awry. With the cloak in hand, he set off to the Quidditch field. He needed the cloak just in case he stayed out too late.

He walked the corridors, and many people called out his name and waved to him as he passed. He returned the greetings, wave, smile, and all, and messed up his hair as he passed by a particular group of girls-- many of whom were Lily's friends.

As he passed outside Hogwarts entrance, he also passed by a gang of seventh year Slytherins-- James recognized the cool features of Lucius Malfoy, one of the most arrogant of Slytherins, and who was, no doubt, leading that mindless group of snakes. They glared at James like he was an infectious disease, and he smiled and waved enthusiastically in turn, like they were some of his best mates. They visibly bristled at that, turned on they're uppity, little heels, and pranced away like the little gits they were.

Merlin, he hated those bastards.

The grass made soft, rustling sounds as he walked, and soon he reached the wide, green expanses of the playing field. After retrieving his broom with a well used Accio charm, he swung his leg over his wooded steed and breathed in richly, letting the somewhat arid, summer air fill his lungs. Then he kicked off and tore upwards.

He rose and rose until he was well above the treetops surrounding the field-- until he could see Hagrid's hut perfectly on the other side of Hogwarts' grounds-- until he even thought he could see the little town of Hogsmeade way on the other side of the black lake. Once he thought he was high enough, James paused, and watched as a sea of clouds slowly drifted by beneath him.

Then he leaned forward, nose almost touching his broom, and shredded through those clouds. Winds whipped at his face and ripped through his hair, and it both stung and soothed him. Yes, this always cheered him up.

He shot upwards and then dived downwards. He looped in circles, tried to flip off his broom but missed and had to accio his broom towards himself before he fell (and was wholly thankful no one was around to see his blunder); and finally landed on the ground when the sky became an inky, dark blue. He stowed away his precious broom before he set off for dinner.

He felt better already.

"Did you do something to Evans again?"

James looked up from the potatoes he'd been cramming in his mouth, and looked down the table. He caught Lily's green-- and for some reason, glaring-- eyes, and gulped the lumpy food down painfully. He looked to Sirius.

"No-- why? Why is she looking so miffed?" James asked. "Maybe you did something," he accused.

"Please, James," came Remus' calm voice, his expression tired as he brushed his light brown fringe from his eyes. "No one can make her as mad as you, and judging by that venomous look--" he glanced towards Lily, "--you've done something." James snorted and ruffled his hair unknowingly.

He was about to stake his claim on innocence when something abruptly came to the foreground of his mind. A promise he'd made… A promised he'd made last week… A promise he'd help Lily with the essay set by Professor Corbarden, their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and which was due… tomorrow…

Shit!

And then Sirius was laughing, the bark-like sound of it filling the hall. The prat.

"Shut it, Sirius," James growled, dropping his head out of Evans-glare range, his face close to his plate.

"When you're right, you're right, mate!" Sirius laughed, ignoring his guilty friend.

"She'll get over it-- whatever you've done. She always does," Remus said, biting into small cut of steak. Good ol' Moony.

"Did I ever mention I liked you best?" James said to Remus over his corn and potatoes. A pea was flicked at his face, the green bit hitting him in the corner of his eye. James went to glare at Sirius who was innocently cutting into some chicken.

"What did you do?" came the squeaky voice of Peter, a small, round boy with mousy hair and mousy features. James smiled deviously.

"Oh, you know how it is…" James said elusively, and Peter nodded his head like he knew what James was talking about. Sirius quirked one eloquent eyebrow.

"Leaving something unfulfilled, Jamesie?" Sirius asked, just as vaguely. James waggled his eyebrows suggestively, and Sirius laughed. Remus rolled his eyes, and brought a book out from Merlin knows where, while Peter looked from James to Sirius.

"In all honesty," Sirius said, a bit breathless, "what are you going to do to rectify this little botch of yours?" James felt confident to sit back up, assured that Lily was no longer trying to glare daggers at him.

"It's as Remy says," James began.

"I hate that name, James," Remus quipped from behind his book.

"She'll come around," James finished, ignoring his friend.

So dinner past by with no more death threats for James, and it ended with another one of Dumbledore's short, sweet, and barking mad speeches. As the plates were spelled clean, James and the rest of his Marauder friends made their way, behind the chattering crowd of students to the Gryffindor tower. James kept his unwavering focus on the bobbing, red head of Lily several feet away, thinking he could make it up to her that evening, while Sirius prattled on about Professor Slughorn's latest get-together.

James was nodding his head instinctively at the parts he should-- years around Sirius had honed this skill-- when he saw someone brush their arm not so casually against Lily's, the arm belonging to a familiar (and hated) Slytherin.

The slimy bastard!

James felt a growl collect in his throat, but he held it back as his hand reached for his wand tucked away in his robes. Sirius, being as intuitive as James was, also made for his wand; however, James stayed his own and Sirius' hand. There were too many people around.

James snarled as Lily turned to Snape, a fifth year Slytherin whose greasy hair framed a sullen, hallow face and one big nose, and she smiled! Snivellus upturned his nose, like he was too good to apologize, but mumbled something nonetheless. Lily inclined her head, and that's where the Gryffindors and Slytherins parted their ways-- as well as Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Remus was oblivious to what had just happened and followed the Gryffindors, and though Peter noticed that Sirius and James had stopped, Sirius had shaken his head at him. So Peter turned and followed Remus, his head slightly bowed.

James felt torn for a brief moment as he came to the crossroad where the groups separated. A part of him would like nothing more than to go after Snape and hex him into oblivion while another part wanted to run off to Lily and apologize for earlier and also comfort her from her traumatizing encounter with that slimy snake. Sirius waited patiently by his side as James deliberated between the two options.

Finally, he concealed his wand back into his robes and wordlessly made his way to the Gryffindor tower. It took Sirius a moment to realize they weren't going to follow Snape, but soon James heard his friend padding to catching up to him.

"I know that look," Sirius said simply, stashing away his own wand. James smiled and knew it wasn't pleasant.

Neither of those options were as good as the third one.

"Best go win my fairest lady's heart… again," James said, heading for the Gryffindor tower.

"Again?" Sirius repeated incredulously. "When did you ever win it to begin with?"

The only good thing about Professor Binns' class was being able to sleep.

James had gone to bed last night, heated and indignant, and hadn't slept too well because of it. He didn't think Lily would have reacted so angrily after he had apologized. He had tried to tell her that it was only because his dear mate, Remus, had been cornered by the brutish Slytherins that he had missed their study date, and it had been up to James, the brave Gryffindor that he was, to try and save Remus.

It would have worked if Sirius hadn't piped up and told Lily that Remus had been studying with him in the library all afternoon.

Stupid Padfoot.

Lily had really gotten angry after that. She had even gone so far as to try and jinx James by having the title LIAR flash in red and gold across his forehead. It had taken James (with the enforced help of Sirius) nearly two hours to remove it. Even now, if someone looked hard enough, they could still probably see the thin outline of the word.

James grumbled into his folded arms while Professor Binns droned on and on about some treaty the wizards and muggles had made years and years ago. Like James could care. He peeked over his arm and looked about the room. Remus was bent over parchment, writing furiously-- he was one of the tiny few who took Binns seriously-- while Peter was doodling all over his papers.

Sirius was trying to make some pass at a Ravenclaw girl by charming her quill to write the words 'Fancy a snog later?' all across her notes. She didn't look too eager on the uptake, but James had to hand it to Sirius. The boy never had let an opportunity pass him by.

Lily, who was several seats ahead of him and diagonal from his desk, was the only other one besides Remus (and a couple Ravenclaws) who was bothering with notes. Her red hair was draped over her thin shoulders as her hand moved fluidly across the parchment. From time to time, she would flip her hair back over onto her back, and James really wished he could just touch it.

James burrowed his face into his sleeves, though, and let out another grumble. He was still peeved with Lily, no matter how pretty she looked. He fell asleep moments later, thinking how he was going to make it up to her. He could trust his mates to wake him up.

Besides, he didn't want to be all groggy for his next class: Potions.

No, James smirked before his daydreams took him, Don't want to fall asleep next class.

James walked into Potions class and took his usual seat, Sirius taking his next to James, while Remus and Peter sat behind them. Lily sat in the front row and all the way across the room from James. Normally she sat in front of him, that was how James had planned the seating, but not today. It seemed she'd rather be surrounded by the Slytherins.

That was fine with James.

He'd give her the front row of the show.

Seconds later, the Slytherins filed in. Rosier, a boy with dark, muddy red hair and one of the dumbest brutes James had ever had the misfortune of seeing, stalked in, and just behind him, the very spidery, Slytherin boy James had been waiting for. James smirked as he watched the skittish Snivellus slide into a seat, a row just in front of Lily. James concealed his vengeful mirth at the perfect vantage point he had now.

Sirius caught James' expression, and looked over at the Slytherins. It didn't take but a second later for Sirius' expression to match James'.

"Wonder what kind of things Snivelly writes in his potions book," James said offhandedly. Snivellus was always writing things down into the book. Sirius' smirk widened.

"It's probably his little diary," Sirius said.

"Is that so?" James uttered. He got up from his seat and strode over to where Lily was. Sirius followed.

"Evans," James announced, stepping up in front of her desk, Sirius slightly behind him and to his left. She didn't so much as look at him but dropped her books onto her desk with a loud thud. "Oh no, Evans, don't be angry with me. You know I can't handle it," James said, making his voice intentionally louder than it should be.

She glared at him.

"If you think that I even remotely care, you are sadly mistaken, Potter," she said evenly, her green eyes sharp, her usually round lips pulled into a thin line. James had to focus.

"Must we use such formalities?" he asked, leaning on her desk and completely ignoring her retort. He saw out of the corner of his eye, Sirius reaching down towards the floor. "It makes our relationship a mockery, Lily," he said.

"You're the only mockery around here, James," Lily responded with pseudo sweetness, looking pointedly at his forehead, and James resisted the urge to cover it. There came a chorus of 'Oooooh' broken in with laughter from his housemates. This kind of interaction between him and Lily was nothing new to his fellow Gryffindors, and James knew they rather enjoyed Lily rejecting him time and time again.

But this time was different. James knew what he was doing.

"You know… I might be able to straighten my act if only someone were to show me the error of my ways," he said, picking up one of her books and flipping it this way and that as if examining it. "Are you up to it?" he asked suddenly. He felt the whole room silence. He even had the complete, absorbed attention of the one person this little show was for.

James smiled because he couldn't help himself.

Lily blinked several times; James watched as her long lashes went up and down.

"Are you insulting me, Potter?" she asked, tone flat, taking the book from his hand. James shook his head. He really needed to hurry up before Old Slughorn arrived.

"Dearest Lily, surely such a thing is not even possible?" he asked innocently, folding his arms behind his back. As Lily opened her mouth to respond, he felt something pushed into his open hand.

A spine.

A spine of a book.

Just then there came a loud noise, like a crashing of chairs, a grunt, and then there was a lot of shouting.

"Watch where you're going, Black," snarled one boy. James turned to look, along with everyone else. Snivellus was on the floor, his chair toppled over him and his black, greasy looking hair brushed all into his face. Sirius was standing up looking as if he hadn't done anything wrong in his entire life, but James knew better.

"Sorry there, Snivelly. Didn't seem to notice you there," Sirius droned. "At all, actually," he added, earning several laughs from the others. James watched as Snivellus' upper lip rose into a snarl, his black eyes glaring maliciously.

As much as James would have been amused to watch this particular bit of Snape-bating, he had things to do. While everyone was completely fixated on the scene of Sirius and Snivelly, James shuffled to a corner of the room, oblivious by all. He looked at the Potions book that Sirius had retrieved for him. The spine was worn and the fabric cover was torn in the corners and fraying. It was all dirty, and splotches of James didn't even want to know what were all over it.

But needs must, James supposed, resenting touching the tome.

He pulled out his wand, muttered a few choice incantations, tapped the cover of the book a few times, muttered another spell, and then he was done.

Sidling back to where he was, no one the wiser, he placed the book back into the bag it belonged to.

"Quit pretending to be anything other than the little sycophant you are, Black," Snivellus hissed, standing up and trying his best to stare down Sirius who was several inches taller. James saw the Slytherin's fingers twitching toward his robe and knew he had to step in. This is where Act One needed to conclude, James thought, and Slughorn would be coming in any second now-- the man was always late to his own classes.

"Don't be so pretentious, Snivellus," James said coolly, laying a hand on Sirius' shoulder. Snape froze just a second before turning to glare at James. "Maybe you should apologize for always having yourself in the way," he said dryly. He heard Sirius laugh next to him.

Before Snape could even lash out or before Lily could admonish him, James strode back to his desk, Sirius already having made his way back, just as Professor Slughorn came striding in.

"Alright, we have a lot to cover, as you all know!" the Professor announced brusquely, hurrying to the board, unaware of what had just happened. Snape scrambled into his seat and looked as if he had deeply shamed his house. James smirked.

"The O.W.L.S. have a very special talent of sneaking up on you when you least expect it, and we must have you all prepared!" Slughorn sang as he flicked his wand. Instructions for a potion appeared on the board, and it looked slightly complicated, even for James. "We've been easing into our lessons these past couple of weeks, but now we have to hit them hard!

"I will be utterly disappointed if any of you fail my subject," Slughorn said, turning to look at the class. "But some of you I have the highest assurance of," he winked at Lily, James saw, and nodded to Snivelly. James thought it intolerable for his lovely Lily to be put on the same level as Snivellus.

Ah well, Snivellus would get his.

James opened to the page the directions told him to while Slughorn went on and on about the level of difficulty this potion was. The only reason why James even pretended to care about this class was because Lily had said it was her favorite.

"James," came Remus' soft voice behind him. James leaned back in his chair and tilted his head thoughtfully to show he was listening. "What did you do?" Moony asked him.

Just like a prefect.

"What do you mean?" he asked confusedly as he flipped the pages lazily.

"I know you're up to something," Remus whispered, "only because Sirius looks like Christmas has come early." James frowned exasperatedly over at Sirius who in turn scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"What, mate?" Sirius pouted. "Remus is just pickin' on you again," he said. He tilted back in his chair, and he gave Remus a lopsided, upside-down grin. "Our hands are clean," he smiled. Remus' mouth got very tight, James saw from his peripheral vision.

"Just don't get us into trouble," he quipped as he turned to his own Potions book.

"Us? What have you done?" Sirius asked, letting the legs of the chair thunk back onto the floor. He turned around to face Remus expectantly. "Feeling guilty, are you?" he asked, grinning.

"Me and Peter are always lumped in with your troubles," he said, his eyes moving back and forth over the words in his book. "Guilty by association." Sirius frowned and was about to reply when Slughorn rapped the board several times with his wand.

"Now, now, you four," he called, looking over at James and them, "Get to work or you will not make it in my class," he admonished gently. Slughorn, even though he was head of Slytherin, never punished James and his mates. Something about their charisma and talents made Slughorn… favor them. James saw Snape give the professor a look of incredulity, and it only fueled his fire.

"Yes, sir," James said automatically, finding the page at last. Sedosomnio, the title of the chapter read. James sighed. He remembered his mother making this for him and adding it to his tea whenever he had had nightmares as a kid-- He had always like the peppermint his mum had added to it-- and he felt a twinge of sympathy for his mum as he read over the instructions again.

Nasty little concoction to make.

Without a word, Sirius got up and walked over to the cabinet to retrieve the ingredients they would need while James set up their cauldron and tools. Ingredients in tow, Sirius came back just as James had lit the fire under the cauldron. They set to work quietly, Remus and Peter mirroring them as they, too, went to work.

But James was only biding his time.

They chopped the coriander, minced the leaves of the valerian, and James had to be careful when crushing the rue, not wanting any of the plant's oil to burn his skin. Minutes passed-- Slughorn made his rounds from student to student, observing their progress, praising Lily, clucking his tongue at Nott-- and James was being the good, diligent schoolboy as he stirred the ingredients in the cauldron.

After awhile, though, Sirius nudged him in the arm, and James knew, without even looking, that his friend's expression would be asking him if it was time yet. James smiled minutely and pulled out his wand from inside his robes. He adjusted the intensity of the flame with a spell, and then, as he was putting it back into his robes, he gave his wand another small wave, intoned a spell quietly, before he concealed it in his sleeve.

A crash of books and swishing of papers sounded, and James watched as Snape scrambled to pick them all up. Sadly, for him, as his book had fallen, it had also opened. James couldn't restrain the smile even if he had wanted to.

"OH YES!!"

Snape's hand stopped just short of the book.

"GODS, I WANT YOU!!" the book shouted. Snape's face paled to a lovely, and sickeningly, shade of white. The rest of the class fell silent, and Slughorn spun around as the book exclaimed more and more obscene things. "Ah-- that's… so… GOOD!!"

James watched with amusement as Snape's inky, pupil-less eyes widened so that his dark irises were but small circles against the white of his eyes. Slughorn began ordering Snape to shut the book up, hovering over him, face red with indignation, as the class erupted into fits of hysteria-- even the Slytherins laughed. Peter was banging his fist on his desk, shaking with laughter, as Sirius' eyes glinted with delight. Snape just sat there.

"Mmm-- MERLIN!! YES!!" the book yelled.

Finally, Snape lunged for the book and tried to shut it. It didn't, though. It was a common spell James had used to keep the book from shutting. Wizards used it all the time so that they didn't loose their place, or so that books, which sometimes had the nasty ability of being sentient, didn't shut themselves closed on the reader.

If Snape couldn't figure that out, he deserved it all.

"Don't-- STOP…!!"

Sirius was doubled over laughing now along with the rest of the class as the book moaned and screamed-- Slughorn looked as if he was going to hex something or someone-- while Snape just kneeled over it, book clutched in his white hands, looking helpless and incensed.

It was all so sweet for James.

Snivellus should know better.

James looked over at Lily. She was tilting over her desk looking as if she were struggling between helping Snivelly and keeping to her Gryffindor decorum which prohibited such a thing towards a Slytherin. James frowned. She should be laughing alongside everyone else, not fighting some urge to help him!

But she didn't seem amused at all.

James felt the hilarity and satisfaction in him whither away. What was the point if the girl he was avenging, the girl this whole prank was set up for, didn't find it funny? There wasn't one. James no longer found it funny either. Now he just didn't care.

He caught Snape glaring at him, eyes conveying that he knew exactly who to blame for this, but James felt nothing. He merely looked at Snape; Snape was nothing more than some black speck on the floor to James right then. James went back to his potion which was simmering just as it needed to. He'd get good marks for this one, James knew. Just like how Mum used to make…

Finally, Snape had seemed to remember the counter-spell to the that which locked his book open. James heard the muffled shut, and then the ecstasy-filled exclamations of the book deafened. But the entire class was still laughing, say for Snape, Remus, Lily, and now James.

Slughorn paused for a short moment, appearing stunned the book had actually stopped it's declarations, before turning to his board and furiously writing out the day's notes on the board as he lectured the class. Slughorn was ventilating to no one in particular, just fuming away as if the whole incident had been wholly offensive to him and not Snivellus. James just copied down the notes onto some parchment in between stirring the potion now bubbling blue while the class' laughter began to quiet a little.

All of a sudden, Sirius slapped James across the back just as James was mixing the contents, and it made the ladle he held knock into the cauldron, causing the contents to slosh dangerously close to the rim.

"Careful, Sirius," James said. "You don't want to spill the potion, do you?" Sirius took James' nonchalance as added humor to the prank they had just pulled, so he went along with it.

"'Course not, James," he said with a breathless voice, still chuckling a bit, "These kinds of things must be taken seriously." He started laughing again, but James didn't really know from what. James didn't really care at the moment either. Apart from apathy, he only felt one another sensation.

And it was building in the pit of his stomach.

He let Sirius add chamomile to the potion, the final ingredient, while he focused on that sensation. It wasn't nausea, James knew; after that one night him and Sirius had waged to see who could drink the most butterbeers in one sitting, there could be no confusion as to how queasiness felt. He didn't think it was gas-- that was more painful than anything-- and he knew it wasn't because he was hungry-- all those pancakes he had eaten…

No, this felt… heavy… and it rose and fell like a wave of sorts.

"Hey, wanna pour this and hand it in?" Sirius asked him suddenly, breaking James from his thoughts. He looked to Sirius who was bent over the cauldron and wrinkling his nose as he sniffed the potion. Sirius, without looking at him, held out a phial to him, and James took it wordlessly, ladling in some of the Sedosomnio they'd made. He vanished what remained of the potion in the cauldron-- Sirius looked as if he was getting dazed from the fumes of it-- and made his way to place his and Sirius sample with everyone else's on Slughorn's desk.

As he made his way back, however, he walked past Snape. For a brief moment, he had caught Snape's eye, and that feeling in him reeled. Only, he felt it in his chest. It was a tightening pressure, and it made James stagger for a moment. He clutched at his chest for the briefest of seconds, before the feeling subsided and was gone, just like that.

Snape hesitated for a moment beside him. Then Snape smiled. It was ruthless.

"I'd say that was guilt," Snape hissed at him, his voice low and almost unintelligible, "but I think we both know better than that." James didn't even ponder what Snape had meant by that. He merely straightened fully so that he was looking down at Snape.

"I actually didn't know a lot of things until today," James said vaguely, smiling just slightly. "Tell me, Snivellus, what exactly is that book for?" he added lightly. Those closet to James and Snape laughed again, but Snape remained emotionless as he stared up at James.

"You have quite the imagination, Potter," Snape said coldly, quietly, spitting James' name as he spoke. And then he moved past James and to Slughorn's desk. James turned his head to retort something clever when he caught Lily's eyes.

There was no anger there.

No, that was sheer disappointment.

James held back his words and instead strode back to his desk where Sirius was waiting and watching him curiously.

"What was that about?" his friend asked him, cleaning up their supplies.

"What was what about?" James asked, plopping into his seat and running his hand through his hair.

"That-- just now-- with Snivellus." James peeked over his friend and grinned.

"I don't think he appreciated our prank, Sirius," James replied solemnly. He saw Remus shake his head slowly from the corner of his eye. Sirius feigned hurt.

"But that was a brilliant bit," Sirius protested. James shrugged his shoulders and put his hands in the air.

"What can I say, Sirius?" He lowered his hands and stared off at nothing in particular. "Suppose we'll just have to try harder the next time," he said distantly.

He heard Sirius snort in approval. Of course there'd be a next time.

Soon class was dismissed-- Slughorn looked all too eager to have everyone leave-- and Snape was the first out the door, the little snake. Everyone else, as they left, were all talking about the hilarity of Snape and the orgasmic book. James was just following behind Remus when his arm was grabbed suddenly and he was pulled back.

"Oy! What the hell do you think you're--" but he stopped as he registered it was Lily who had stopped him. "Oh," he said simply as Lily let his arm go. Sirius made to stay behind, but James waved his hand for him to leave. Sirius hesitated for a moment, but whether by Lily's expression or Remus' insistence, he left. James pretended to brush off some imaginary dust while he waited for Lily's lecture.

It didn't come.

She merely looked at him.

"Did you like the show?" James asked casually as students walked by.

"Don't," she snapped. That was good. James could work with anger.

"You mean you didn't? That's a shame, and after all the hard work--"

"Don't," she repeated, interjecting. James sighed.

"What is it Evans? I don't want to be late for Transfiguration," James said. "You know how McGonagall gets when someone's late to her--"

"Do you feel any better?" she asked him. Her tone was cold, and it was unlike anything James had ever heard from her before. He couldn't even think of anything to respond with, he was that stunned. "Yes, I supposed you would," she answered. James had enough reaction in him to feel his jaw tightened at that statement.

With one last tense second of Lily holding James captive with her disappointment, James felt the reverberation of that feeling from earlier, and then she was off, leaving James to stand there alone.

Her footsteps were echoing along the now abandoned corridor, and the light pouring in from the windows was bright.

And it was so strange.

The sensation claiming him once again was so strange. It started in his stomach and rose and rose until it was in the center of his esophagus.

And it burned.

But this wasn't like anything he had felt before. It was almost as if it were bile, jetting up from his gut, and yet James knew it wasn't that. It felt like a tightening pressure, like when he had held his breath for too long and everything would shrivel inside him until he let the breath out. And it was heavy. It was like a stone had been tossed to the very bottom of his stomach, and it was pulling him down.

And all James could do in that moment, caught in something he didn't know, was to try and breathe steadily.

A/N: Please review!!