James Potter stormed up the road, his gaze almost constantly shifting from the house numbers to the crumpled piece of paper held in his hand. Finally, half way down the road, he found the house he needed to, number 17.

Leaping the fence (opening it took up too much time) he practically ran up the path, donned on either side by the flowers so commonly loved by muggle housewives. Raising his fist to the door he suddenly realised how rude it would seem to hammer on someone's door if he had the wrong house, as he was sure no one would know there was a reason for him doing so. So, instead, he knocked politely, and settled for bouncing on his feet, willing the residents of the house to open the door.

Finally, after moments of waiting which seemed like an eternity, he could hear voices coming towards the door, complaining about the callers at this time of night. His heart was pounding in his chest, hoping with every fibre of his being that he was in the right place, and that his best friend was all right.

James heard the door click open, and a face appeared peering through the gap, a face he did not recognise. Fear jumped into his chest, as he tried to speak. Finally his words came to him.

"Do- does Lily live here? Lily Evans?" He asked, trying hard to stop his voice from quavering.

"Umm…yeah, hold on…" The girl replied, turning around to face back into the house, "Lils, it's for you" she shouted. Lily didn't even bother to reply, she just ran to the door, yanked it open, and let out a huge sigh of relief,

"Thank Merlin! He's through here, follow me…" She managed to stutter out, before she turned and led James through the hall to a room on their left. Immediately upon entering, James knew that Sirius was in a bad way, worse off than ever. He was hunched over, obviously pale, and very, very thin. Just as James found his voice again, and was about to speak, someone else came into the room, an older man, carrying a glass of water.

"So this is the boy's brother then?" Everyone could tell this was the wrong thing to say straight away, from the reaction of the thin boy.

"No, no…" He muttered, going rigid with fear, and staring at the older man, "No, he can't be here, please, make him go, please," The rest of the words were lost as Sirius started to shake with a mixture of silent sobs and fear. Glaring at the man, whom James could only assume was Lily's father, he was across the room in an instant, dropping to his knees and pulling his best friend into a hug,

"He's not here mate, it's ok, it's me, Prongs, I'm here, it'll all be ok now…" Murmering his comforts, James became quite oblivious to the world around him and Sirius, therefore, not noticing the hush in the room, then the whispered conversation going on between Lily and her father,

"I thought you said he was his brother…" Richard Evans said in s slightly disapproving tone,

"Well, technically, if you think about it to do with blood, he's, well, not. But everyone at Hogwarts knows that, well, their best friends. More than best friends really, sort of, like brothers, even though their not related…the sort of risk their lives to save each other kind of people. All the Marauders are…but yeah…and anyway, you saw how he reacted when he thought Regulus was here."

"I suppose so, but we really should inform his parents or someone." This, however, awoke the two boys to the world around them. Sirius, who had been calming down, was immediately alert, and obviously (to those who knew him before this encounter) scared, James, on the other hand, took charge of the situation,

"NO!" He shouted before remembering his place, "no, don't tell them. He can come back to mine, my parents will be home tomorrow morning, he'll be staying with us now." Sirius' hand twitched in James', making James look into his eyes, "You're not going back there. No way. We'll send someone round to get your things…a Pureblood to be safe…"

"They won't hurt them…" Sirius spoke, very quietly, his voice croaky with misuse, "Not now, they won't want to be insulted by the ministry"

"Right, but that reminds me…" James tailed off, "umm…well…what have they…done this time? St Mungo's? But you don't have to go." He added quickly in response to his best friends reaction.

"No, not Mungo's I don't think anyway…it was the usual stuff…basement…no letters…cruciatus curse" He added bitterly, and a gasp was heard from Lily across the room. The other residents just looked bewildered.

"But, but that's illegal!" she said, so disgusted that it was almost inaudible.

"No shit Sherlock" Sirius replied snideishly (ssh it's a word now).

"Hey, stop being a git!" James replied immediately, "and anyway, who's Sherlock?"

"I dunno…Moony said it to me once, when I…" Sirius donned a lopsided grin at this point,

"DON'T NEED TO KNOW!" James replied very loudly, but grinning also, hitting Sirius on the back. And of course, being best friends like they were, noticed the wince the smaller boy attempted to hide. "What did they do? Sirius?" his voice was quiet, almost a whisper, tears were coming to his eyes, he could feel it. They had scarred Sirius emotionally, but they had never physically hurt him, and certainly never done both.

Sirius looked his best friend in his eyes, then started to remove his shirt, slipping it off his shoulders, he turned around, showing James and the others his back, which was covered in semi-healed cuts.

"How'd this happen? Sirius?"

"It seems that Snape has been teaching dear Regulus some tricks." Sirius replied, bitterness showing through in his voice.

Lily was getting paler by the second, "Severus?" She asked in a whisper to no one in particular, hardly daring to believe her ears,

"Severus Snape?" asked her father, "As in the boy who lived down Spinners End?"

Lily nodded slowly, a single tear running down her cheek.