I've got good news, and I've got bad news. I finally found my book, which means updates again. But, school starts in a few weeks, so updates will slow down even more. However, I will try to update at least once before school starts again in a few weeks. So, here's an update about a side event to tide you over until then, even though it's short. Anyone who just wants to read about the group's comments, skip to the next chapter (when it's uploaded, of course). For those of you confused about the title, gaiden means 'side story.'

Harry yawned and raised his head from the pillow. The last week had been extremely exhausting for him and Ginny; having ten extra mouths to feed put them both through the ringer. And it didn't exactly help that two of those mouths were the infamous Weasley Twins, and another five were members of the Marauders.

Harry gazed at his beloved wife, who was lying next to him in bed. Ginny had taken the news that her twin brothers were alive and whole again exceedingly well. She had been a lot happier than she had been since Fred had died in that battle a few years ago, even humming a jaunty tune to herself when she cooked with Hermione and Lily.

Speaking of those two, Harry could hear them now; they were both banging about the kitchen, chattering to each other about various things.

" – and then, James tried to cast a hovering charm on himself, but he accidentally pointed his wand at his legs, so he was hanging upside-down!" Lily was saying over Hermione's raucous laughter.

Harry heard a groan from the bedroom next to his, and suppressed a chuckle. His father would not be happy if he heard what the women were talking about.

"WHAT THE HELL?" James roared, fate's tempting being answered.

Harry chuckled. That was their cover blown. He heard furious stomping from the stairs going into the kitchen, and Sirius roaring with laughter from upstairs.

"Whuzzgoinon…" Ginny mumbled from beside him.

"Nothing, dear, it's just James and Sirius being James and Sirius," Harry mumbled back. Ginny grunted something in response and rolled over, falling back asleep instantly. Harry smiled. Ginny was not a morning person by any definition of the word.

"Oh…God…" Sirius gasped when he came up from where he'd landed on the floor from laughing, "James…Severus…Bwahahahaha!"

"What?" George asked eagerly. "What'd they do?"

"Oh, nothing…" said Sirius mysteriously.

"They did something. Now tell us what they did!" Fred whined.

"First, you've gotta promise you will never, ever tell James I'm telling you this," spoke Sirius.

"Fine, whatever, just tell us!" said the Twins in union.

"Okay then. It was our third year, and James was trying to get Lily's attention once again…"

"How often did he try to get Lily's attention, anyway?" asked George.

"About once every hour, sometimes two or three. Now, do you really want to know what happened, or do you want to ask questions, stopping you from knowing what happened?"

"We want to know what happened!"

Sirius smirked. "Okay, so James was trying to impress Lily, as usual, when…"

"BWAHAHAHAHAHA!" the Twins roared from downstairs. Severus groaned and sat up in bed, muttering to himself.

"Why do I have to be surrounded by morons? Why can't James be in my place?" His mutterings were interrupted when someone knocked at the door to his room.

"Severus?" Moony asked through the door. "You might want to know why they're laughing."

"…Alright. So, why are they laughing?"

"Come out here."

Severus groaned. He swung his feet out of the bed and padded to the door, thoughts whirling. 'No, they couldn't know…could they?"

When Severus opened his door, Moony was standing there, tapping his feet.

"Okay," Severus sighed, "why are they laughing?"

Moony beckoned the younger man forward and whispered something into his ear. Severus' eyes widened.

"…Fuck…"

Padfoot sat up in bed, tiredly rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Why must there be so much noise? Does everyone want to interrupt my beauty sleep or something?"

"Padfoot, you up?" Petunia asked through his door.

"No, I'm still trying to convince myself that I'm still sleeping, what else would I be doing?" he answered sarcastically.

"Well, there's something that my sister told me to tell you about James," Petunia answered. Padfoot perked up.

"Blackmail? Yes!"

Petunia was confused by Padfoot's random outburst, but she carried on talking anyway. "If you come out here, then I can tell you what it is."

Padfoot was in front of her when she blinked. "Tell me, tell me!"

"Okay…" And she told him. Padfoot let out a loud, barklike laugh.

"Oh yeah, that! I totally forgot about that!" he laughed, wiping a tear from his eye. "Ah, memories… But, I can tell you what really happened."

"Fine then, shoot."

Padfoot pretended to load a finger gun, and pointed it at her. "Bang."

Petunia rolled her eyes. "Tell me, or you will never see Mr. Bubbles again."

"NOOOOO!"

"Then tell me."

"Fine… So, this is what happened…"

They were silent for a moment. "Are you going to tell me what happened, or will Mr. Bubbles have to meet fire?"

"NO! I was just waiting for the author to have a scene cut."

"CUT THE SCENE, AUTHOR!" yelled Petunia after a moment's pause.

Ron threw a pillow at the source of the loud noise (his alarm clock), rolled over, and fell asleep again.

James stormed into the kitchen. "Alright, Lily, why're you telling her about that?"

Lily giggled. "I have no idea what the that you're speaking about is."

James rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Sure you don't. Meanwhile, I'm going to go coat myself with honey, griffin feathers, and unicorn horns, and try to make myself commit suicide with them, because that will make just about as much sense."

"Sure it will, dear, sure it will."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!" Hermione yelled loudly enough to almost break through the house's soundproof charm. James and Lily shut up immediately. "Thank you."

Ron didn't even stir from the incredibly loud noise that had just filled every corner of Grimmald Place.

When everyone other than Ron had arrived in the kitchen, James was fuming with anger, and Severus was flushed from embarrassment, from the fact that everyone else there knew why they were all laughing. "Why…"

"Because everyone else here is a jackass, that's why," James muttered back. "Now listen, I've got a plan to get back at them. We're going to need some dirt on each of them, though."

"Why should I go through with your plan, considering how the one in the…incident went?"

"Because we're going to embarrass each of them as much as they've embarrassed us."

Severus was quiet for a moment, mulling the plan over in his head. Then, finally, he reached a decision, and stuck his hand out. "Deal." They shook hands, and the partnership between James Potter and Severus Snape to get back at the others was formed. They each allowed an evil smile to creep onto each of their faces in anticipation.

"Who's first?" asked James. Severus consulted the clipboard in his hands before responding with: "Ron."

James was confused. "Why Ron?"

"Because he's still asleep, so it'll be easy to get some dirt on him without him knowing," Severus replied with an eyeroll.

James allowed another evil grin for himself. "Excellent…"

He was interrupted, though, when the door to the kitchen opened and Ron stumbled in, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Wha's all th' noise for?" he asked with a yawn.

"Well…" Hermione answered with a giggle. She motioned him over, and began whispering into his ear. By the time she had finished, he was roaring with laughter.

James and Severus sighed. "Not excellent anymore…"

Can anyone guess what happened between James, Lily, and Severus in their third year? By the way, I need some ideas about the blackmail stuff; I've only got a few right now.