Snivellus' Assistance

The Marauders woke the morning with the rest of the school, dragging their trunks into the entrance hall to be place on the Hogwarts express, or, in Peter's case, rushing round the common room and dormitory in a blind panic looking for the spell book Sirius had hidden under his pillow. Once Peter had located said book, and Sirius had been told off by Remus, they made their way to the carriages waiting to take them to Hogsmeade station. Once Peter, Sirius, Remus and James had found an empty compartment Sirius declared phase one of 'Operation-get-Evans-to-fall-for-Prongs-so-that-he-will-stop-his-babyish-moaning-and-pathetic-whining'.

"Can't we change the name?" James said, scowling at Sirius while Peter and Remus howled with laughter.

"No. It is the perfect name for our mission." Sirius replied. "Anyway, do you want to hear plan A or not?"

James crossed his arms and glared, but nodded his head stiffly.

"Snivellus." Said Sirius simply to general looks of shock and confusion on his friends faces.

"What about him?" Asked Peter and James together, while Remus said "Oh!" But then suddenly looked wary.

"We need to find out twenty things about the elusive Miss Evans yes?" Said Sirius, to murmurs of agreement from Peter and James. "So how do we get the information? From Snivellus!" He finished, smiling proudly at his own brilliance. His smile faltered as he looked at the still confused expressions around him. "Oh come on! It's simple! Who knows Evans better than anyone? Snape! He was her friend, for whatever reason, for ages! He is bound to know stuff about her!"

James beamed at his friend. "Padfoot, sometimes I could just kiss you."
"Errrm no thanks. No offence Prongsee, but your not my type. I'm not into antlers."

"And how are you planning to get this information out of Snape?" Asked Remus sternly, he was the only one who was not smiling.

"Well, I wasn't thinking about asking him nicely…" Sirius trailed off, an evil grin lighting up his handsome face.

"No. Absolutely not! I will not be party to a gang up on a fellow student especially when he has done nothing wrong!"

"Oh, come on Moony-"

"No I will not 'come on!' I'm a Prefect Sirius, and just because you are my friend does not mean I will turn a blind eye to-"

"We promise not to do any permanent damage, this is about Prongs' future happiness!"

Remus turned a furious face to James, who had quickly put his best puppy dog eyes on. Remus' retaliation wavered and finally collapsed under his friend's evil cuteness.

"Fine." He grumbled through gritted teeth. "But I will not be there when you do it and if I found out you have seriously hurt him there will be consequences." And with that he swept from the compartment, slamming the door so hard the glass shattered.

"THAT'S DAMAGE TO SCHOOL PROPPERTY MOONY!" Sirius bellowed after him. Remus yelled where he could stick his school property, before sliding into another compartment.

"Reparo!" Said James with a casual flick of his wand, and the glass flew back into the frame.

"He'll be fine," Sirius leaned back into his seat, completely unaffected by the confrontation. "He just needs to cool off. Chuck us one of those chocolate frogs Wormtail, I'm starving."

About an hour later the three boys slid under the Invisibility Cloak, and made their way down the train in search of Severus Snape. On their way they saw Remus sitting in the same compartment as Lily. James glowered at his friend, what he wouldn't give to be sitting in that compartment…

"There he is" breathed Sirius in James' ear. And sure enough in a compartment, on his own, sat Severus Snape, his hooked nose buried in a book. Peter slid the door open and they entered, swinging off the Cloak as the door shut with a barely audible click.

"Accio!" The book Snape was holding zoomed into Sirius' hands, it was Advanced Potion Making. "Half-blood Prince?" Sirius scorned. "The only thing your prince of Snivellus is-"

Snape rocketed to his feet, his wand drawn. "Stupefy!" he yelled, but James was too quick for him. "Portago!" The stunning spell rebounded and hit the seat Snape had occupied just seconds ago. "Levicorpus!" Snape flew into the air, hoisted by his ankle. Peter dashed forwards and grabbed Snape's wand which had fallen out of his hand as he had risen into the air.

"Potter! Black! Let me down NOW! Pettigrew, give me my wand!" Snape snarled, his lank, greasy, black hair falling into his equally dark eyes. His sallow skinned face, becoming pinker due to anger and the blood rushing to his head.

"Now Snivellus," Sirius said in a falsely mollifying voice, "that's no way to talk to us. Especially when we have wands and you don't." He sat down on a seat, his arms behind his head as he watched Snape dangle from above. Peter sat down next to him, a look of anticipation lighting up his watery eyes.

"Right Snape," Said James "we want you to ask you a few questions, and you are going to answer them or else."
Snape looked at James apprehensively through his furious eyes.

"What sort of questions?" he asked, trying to ignore the pounding in his head, still struggling to get down.

"Questions about…about Evans"

Snape stopped and looked at James through narrowed eyes, hate burning into James' face like lasers.

"Why? Why do you have to ask me about Lily? Why don't you ask her yourself?"

"You know she hates me and you were her friend for ages…"
Despite his anger, Snape felt a whoop of hope. She still doesn't like Potter.

"And why do you want to know about her? You think she will take you? You're not good enough for her! She deserves someone like…like-"

"Like YOU?" Sirius yelled from his seat howling with laughter grabbing Peter for support. "Dear Merlin that is the funniest thing I have heard all year! Lily Potter fall for you!" Tears of laughter running down Sirius' handsome face while Peter chuckled wickedly.

"You know she would never take you, not after what happened in our fifth year." James said glaring at the greasy haired boy that, no matter what his friends said, was a threat to his chance with Evans.

"And you think that because she won't take me I'll help YOU get her!" Snape thundered spitting with rage.

"Why yes," Said James quite calmly. "Yes I do." He pointed his wand back directly into Snape's face just a Peter and Sirius did the same, standing on either side of James. Snape's brain whirred, trying to think of a way out the situation but he could see none.

"Fine." He said through gritted teeth.

"Okay," Said James, surprised but delighted at how well this was going. "Question number one…"

They interrogated Snape about Lily for close to an hour, but by the time they finished, the train was almost at Kings Cross.

"Come on Prongs, if you want to find Evans before we leave we better get going." Sirius said running a hand through his long dark hair. The three of them went to leave the compartment and Peter was just opening the door when a furious Snape yelled "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Oh, right" Sirius flicked his wand Snape crashed to the floor head first. He got up just in time to catch his wand which Peter had thrown at him. Before he could even attempt to hex any of the Marauders however, Snape was doubled over in pain, clutching his face which was swelling rapidly under his fingers. From what seemed like a long way away he could hear the laughter of three boys and the shutting of a compartment door.