Disclaimer: I own nothing that originally belongs to JK Rowling and do not earn money doing this. It is purely for fun, and because I dearly miss the HP series.

Cause & Effect

James Potter's eyes nearly popped out of his head as Sirius told him about his encounter with Snape.

"YOU DID WHAT?" James roared, "Are you insane? By this time Moony will have already changed! He's dangerous Sirius!"

"Like Snape's actually going to take me seriously," Sirius replied in irritation, "I just told him that to shut him up."

James punched Sirius in the arm, "You bloody arrogant prat! What if Snape gets bitten? Or worse! Killed! You'll be expelled either way you bloody git!"

Without another word James had bolted out of Gryffindor tower toward the Whomping Willow.

Within the following hour, Sirius, James and Snape sat in Professor Dumbledore's office. Snape was thoroughly shaken, but unhurt. James had arrived in time to save the Slytherin from Remus' fully fledged werewolf form; but not in time to save him from catching sight of him. Remus would be angry tomorrow when he woke up human.

"I must impress upon you the seriousness of what you've done Mr. Black. A student could have been killed and to risk your own friend's education," Dumbledore said. He wasn't yelling, but the disappointment in his voice was worse than if he had been.

"I will be taking fifty points from Gryffindor, and you will be serving a week of detention with Professor McGonagall, Mr. Black. Mr. Snape, you are forbidden to ever repeat what you've seen tonight. And Mr. Potter, fifteen points to Gryffindor. It's a rare quality for people to be able to stand up to their friends."

The three boys nodded wordlessly before leaving the Headmaster's office.

James didn't speak to Sirius for the rest of the night, although Sirius realized he probably deserved it. Twenty minutes before curfew he left the common room to fetch a book he'd need for his homework from the library.

It was there that Sirius ran, quite literally into another student.

"Sorry!" Sirius said quickly collecting the girl's books without looking at her, "I wasn't watching where I was going-"

Jacqueline stood in front of him with her eyebrow raised in his direction. He'd been babbling so quickly she hadn't caught a single word he'd said.

"You seem to run into me a lot," Jacqueline said observantly, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Yeah...it wasn't on purpose this time," Sirius replied, handing her the stack of books that had once been in her arms.

"Your brother, he's in Slytherin isn't he?" Jacqueline asked.

Sirius nodded, "Regulus, yeah. Although he's not really my brother now I suppose. My family disowned me over the summer."

"Why?"

Sirius shrugged, "It's a long story, and I'm sure you don't want to hold those books all night."

"You're a very strange person Sirius Black," she said in observationally, a small inkling of a smile crossing her face.

"I-uh...is that a compliment?"

Jacqueline shrugged, "We'll see."

The girl took off down the corridor, heading down the stairs back to Slytherin House's dungeon common room. Sirius stood rooted on the spot, still slightly dazed that they'd had an actual conversation. A second later he realized where he was supposed to be going and took off toward the library. Madam Pince wasn't pleased that he'd arrived ten minutes before the library was due to close, but she allowed him in – even assisting him in finding the proper book.

"What could you have possibly been thinking of?" Remus asked Sirius at breakfast on Monday morning.

"I don't know. He was annoying me; I wasn't thinking straight," Sirius grumbled, "I'm sorry Moony."

Remus sighed heavily, "Doesn't matter I suppose...no one was hurt."

"Sorry we didn't get to come run with you either," Sirius added.

"It's probably better that way."

"Can't possibly mean that Moony," James' voice cut in as he took his usual seat beside Sirius.

"Where's Peter?"

James snorted, "Finishing his Defence Against the Dark Arts essay. You know him; leave everything to the last minute."

The morning passed quickly, Defence Against the Dark Arts was followed by Ancient Runes – the only class that Sirius didn't have with the rest of the Marauders. He entered the classroom where Professor Babbling was already sitting on top of her desk. The woman was only a few years older than Sirius; in fact, she'd been Head Girl the year that he'd started at Hogwarts.

The rest of the class filed in and Sirius was overjoyed to see that Jacqueline was in this class as well. She took the vacant seat beside Derek Avery, another Slytherin student whom was well known for his interest in the Dark Arts. The class began, and soon they were set to the task of decoding several problems on their own. Sirius breezed through it, much like he did most of his subjects.

"Done already Mr. Black?" Babbling asked with interest.

Sirius smiled, "Of course. You can look it over if you want."

"I doubt I'll need to, your work's normally always perfect. You probably could've been a school Prefect if you weren't always in trouble."

"Where's the fun in life if you're not breaking rules?" Sirius asked.

Babbling laughed before shaking her head and moving along the row of students to check how they were doing on their work. Class ended twenty minutes later and lunch began with a frenzy to get to the Great Hall.

The rest of the Marauders were already in the Great Hall by the time Sirius arrived from the sixth floor. He slid in beside Remus who was wolfing down enough food for three people.

"Easy Moony, the elves are going to go on strike if you eat more than the entire school," Sirius said jokingly.

Remus glanced at him, rolled his eyes in response and continued to shovel forkfuls of mashed potatoes in his mouth. Remus was always hungry after his monthly changes; it was a tiring process and often left him inhaling any food in sight for over a week.

"So, I was thinking...how do you feel about cheese?" James asked casually.

"Cheese...? And by this I assume you mean the dairy by-product?" Sirius asked.

"Is there any other?" Remus inquired.

"What do you have planned Prongsy?"

Author's Note: It's been a while, and for that I am incredibly sorry! I've had some major writer's block and wasn't sure where I wanted the story to go. But I have decided there will be a sequel, and I'm going to start writing the rest of this story over the next few weeks.