Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter or Harry Potter related copyrights.

That afternoon, after James and Sirius had sorted things about between them and reached a mutual decision about agreeing to disagree about Lily, something clicked for them. This was one of the few fights that they had ever resolved themselves. Usually Remus had a hand in making them see reason and getting them to apologize to each other.

After that particular thought process, the minds of the two boys who were sitting in their dormitory, turned to their missing Marauder. He had made it pretty clear to them that they were not to talk to him under any circumstances and upon pain of death, were not to refer to him as a Marauder or include him in any of their schemes. However, they were not willing to accept this; now all they needed was a plan to get him back.

James started pacing and mumbling, and after about a minute, Sirius could no longer follow it. Sirius knew his friend well enough to just let him pace whatever it was out completely. It was James' way of clearing his mind and it often worked.

Finally, after five minutes, James came out of his pacing and said, "We have to talk to him."

"It took you five minutes to think of that?!"

"Who says that Remus was the only one I was plotting against? What if I spent thirty seconds on him and the rest figuring out a way to throw you into the Great Lake without you knowing anything?"

"Well then you had better go back to pacing because now you need to come up with something really special because I know what you're going to do."

"Or so you think," said James enigmatically.

"So… Moony?"

"Yeah, we got to go talk to him."

"How? He's gotten to be a pro at avoiding us. He is still a Marauder after all, so he knows all of the secret ways of the castle almost as well as we do."

"Which is why we have to set a trap," grinned James.

"I like it. Tell me more," said Sirius.

Mid-way through the explanation of James' theory, Peter returned huffing to the dormitory from the kitchens, carrying a basket. Sirius broke out the food and James restarted the planning process. Once he was finished, Sirius put in all of his suggestions and then they came to the part where Remus would tweak their plan and make sure that it woukdnt get them all sent to Azkaban. They just skipped it and went to Peter's part; the distractions and plotting of escape routes. Soon, they had devised the toughest plan they had ever attempted- to trap and contain a Marauder.

-----

Remus was walking down the hall alone after class a few days later feeling rather miserable because the second full moon of the school year was quickly approaching; in fact it was only two nights away. While thinking of the full moon, Remus' thoughts quickly turned to his friends, his companions during the transformations. Without his presence reminding the three boys of the full moon, they hadn't remembered to be at the Shrieking Shack for their werewolf friend at his first transformation. That had really sent Remus over the edge. Now he knew that they weren't going to be there for next one, and it didn't look as if they would ever be with him on full moons again.

Things weren't looking up for Remus. He hated fighting and avoiding the Marauders. For one, they, even though he was mad at them, were like his brothers and the second thing was that they were very hard to avoid. For some reason, unknown to Remus, the boys had actually started to miss him and were now trying to corner him to sort things out. So, for the past week it had been a battle of who knew the castle better.

He was also far from happy about the state if his relationship with Lily. Neither of them had exchanged a pleasant word since their fight in the common room. It was as if their close friendship had simply dissolved. Then Remus remembered telling her to stay out of his life. Ruefully, he finally realized that she was only doing as he asked.

These were the thoughts that were occupying Remus' head when he stopped short right in front of a large puddle of green slime that was spread out on the hallway floor with only a foot between it and the wall on one side. Remus knew better than to try and magically make something that the Marauders had, more than likely, cooked up disappear . He also knew that it was stupid to try and jump over or walk through it.

So, Remus sighed and started to walk along the very edge of the suspicious looking substance and sidled along the wall. He was about half-way along when suddenly the floor disappeared from under his feet and he found himself traveling along a sooty chute. Then all of a sudden, the chute ended abruptly and Remus landed with a loud thump on the brick floor of a large fireplace that he recognized as belonging in the Hogwarts kitchens. Instantly fire sprang up in front of the trapped, former, Marauder. Remus knew that if he tried to get rid of the flames magically, there could be some serious and possibly harmful side-effects. It was one of the Marauder's more genius ideas- make something annoying, obnoxious, or in-the-way appear and then charm it to get bigger or have weird side-effects if anyone tried to get rid of it.

Sighing again, Remus shifted to get in a more comfortable position and pulled a book out of his schoolbag. He had not read more than five pages when he heard the distinct sound of James and Sirius having one of their "discussions" outside of the large room that Remus was in. They were probably two corridors away, but both boys had loud, deep voices and Remus had very perceptive hearing, so he could hear them clearly.

"Wormtail said that he saw him fall down!" protested James.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything," argued Sirius. "For all we know he could have escaped by now!"

Referring to an earlier part of their conversation about the effectiveness of having Peter as their messenger, James said, "But Peter's legs aren't that short!"

"What do you mean? It's amazing he can walk, but running? It probably took him ten minutes to get to us," said Sirius somewhat angrily. Peter was so slow sometimes and it often caused Sirius to be short-tempered.

"But even if it has been a while since he fell in, that doesn't mean he figured out how to get out. After all these years Moo-Remus must have figured out that it is stupid to try and avoid our traps and pranks."

"Yeah, you're right; everyone else in the school has and they haven't even seen the stuff that we deemed too dangerous to attempt in school."

"But Moo-Remus has and he knows what we're capable of."

Sirius chuckled, "Yeah it's a good thing that we aren't Slytherins or else a certain red-headed muggle-born Gryffindor would have found herself alone in a jungle in Peru a long time ago."

James didn't laugh, but tickled the pear and stepped inside the kitchens.

Sirius and James glanced around the room and James said, "I guess we missed him after all."

"No look, the flames are still up, he must be hiding behind them," Sirius whispered just loud enough for Remus to hear with his superior senses that came with being a werewolf.

Since Remus heard Sirius' last comment, he stood up, brushed himself off and said coolly, "I was not hiding, I was merely sitting down."

"Well, no matter," said Sirius lightly. "We're all here now except for Wormtail who is cleaning up the goop upstairs."

"Yes, and we have some stuff we want to say," said James seriously.

"Go ahead, but I'm not going to guarantee that I will listen," said Remus.

"You don't have a choice," said James. "We're going to talk and you know you are going to listen."

"Ok, so what is up with you? You're avoiding us and you aren't a Marauder anymore?" asked Sirius.

"Marauders are for life Moo-Remus."

"Not always James, especially not in this case. It's over, end of story," said Remus. "Accept it and move on. Find another friend to abandon."

Then Remus waved his wand, deeming that if there were some side-effects that they would at least, in all probability, get James and Sirius too, and the fire in front of him disappeared. He placed his book back in his bag and then picked up his bag and left. When he was at the door to the hallway, Sirius called out from behind him, "So, you don't want any company tomorrow night?"

"No Sirius, no I don't. I don't need you guys and I never have."

And then he stepped out into the hallway, probably to go to the library to study with his new Ravenclaw friends. James and Sirius were left with a feeling of loss similar to the feeling attributed to losing a major appendage. True, Remus had been avoiding them for weeks, but now there was no denying the fact that he no longer wanted to be a Marauder or their friend.

-----

Lily Evans was sitting in the office of the Headmaster, the perfect picture of poise and patience. However, if one was privy to the thoughts of Miss Evans, one would find that internally she was very annoyed. James Potter was, once again, late for a meeting with the Headmaster. Lily and James had both gotten the message about the time and place for the meeting after Transfiguration that afternoon, so his absence was not because he didn't know.

As Lily took another sip of the tea she had been offered and continued on with polite discussion with the Headmaster, she decided that James Potter was the absolute prat she had initially thought of him as and decided that she had been under some sort of spell at the end of the previous school year.

Finally, James made his grand entrance. Breathing deeply, James apologized for being fourteen minutes late. He then took his seat. To her credit, Lily's outward demeanor did not falter one iota, she still carried every bit the regal appearance of a stately ice queen.

"Well, now that you are both here," said Dumbledore with the customary twinkle in his eye. "I would like to elaborate on the idea which I introduced to the both of you earlier this year. As you know, last May, I was contacted by the Department of International Magical Cooperation. They are hosting a international foreign exchange student program this year. As I believe that international cooperation between wizards is imperative, I decided to enlist Hogwarts in this program. There are sixteen schools, including Hogwarts, that are participating.

"Thirty students have been chosen from each school and two students, a boy and a girl, will attend their new school for a month. I notified the parents and selected students over the summer.

"There will be a meeting of the involved students from all of the schools in London in two weeks on October 15. I would like both of you to attend and then accompany the exchange students back here to Hogwarts. They will then be sorted into the houses they will stay in for the month.

"The final aspect of this program is that from each school, there will be a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher exchange. From Hogwarts, Professor Aligne, has offered to go abroad. The teacher that will come here is from an American school. His name is Professor Richard Gills.

"Now do either of you have any questions?"

James shook his head, but Lily asked, "What kind of meeting will it be with all the students?"

The Headmaster answered, "A formal one. You will both be expected to wear appropriate formal attire. You and the students from Hogwarts will ride the Hogwarts Express to London, and will then be transported by the Ministry to the hotel where the ball is being held. The train will leave at nine in the morning on the 15th. The ball is that night and the following day, a tour of London is scheduled for the exchange students. The next day, you and the students will return to Hogwarts on the train, which will be leaving at the customary eleven a.m.."

"Professor?"

"Yes Miss Evans?"

"Is it alright if I don't attend the tour of London? I'm very familiar with it."

"What other activities did you have in mind?"

"Well," she said slowly. "My brother-in-law lives in London, could I possibly visit him?"

"As long as Mr. Potter accompanies you," said Professor Dumbledore. "The two of you may do anything you like for that day, as long as you return to the hotel at the appointed hour."

"Thank you Professor," said Lily quietly. Her hopes were dashed; there was no way that Potter would let her do anything she would consider fun.

"Any other questions?"

This time both Heads shook their heads.

"Okay, thank you for your time. There will be a meeting on Wednesday for all of the students that have been selected to go over the details. It will be at seven o'clock and Professor McGonagall has graciously allowed her classroom for the meeting place. If you have any other questions, my office is always open, provided you know the password of course," he said with a smile.

"Good night Professor," said Lily warmly as she got up from her armchair. "Thank you for the tea."

"Good evening Miss Evans, Mr. Potter."

"Bye Professor," said James.

As the two exited the spacious office, not a word was exchanged. In fact, the whole walk back to the common room was silent. Both of them seemed to have a lot weighing on their minds. Right before Lily gave the password for the Fat Lady, James said to her, "Evans?"

"Yes Potter?"

"I'm sorry for what I said about you a few days ago at breakfast."

"I'm sorry for provoking yet another fight between us," said Lily following his lead.

"It wasn't entirely your fault. I was upset because the night before that my mom wrote me saying that my dad had decided to return to active auror duty because of all of the attacks. It just…"

"Ruffled your feathers the wrong way?" suggested Lily.

"Yeah, I suppose that works," said James with a queer smile on his lips.

"Friends?" asked Lily as she held out her hand for James to shake.

"I think it would be for the best," said James as he clasped her hand. "After all, things haven't been going very smoothly in the school because of us."

"Yeah, the Prefects have taken sides you know."

"Yeah, half egg you on during out fights at meetings and half urge me on."

"They'll be so disappointed that we've reconciled."

"Ummm, they'll actually have to do work during the meetings instead of watching us fight for an hour."

"Pity."

"Lily?"

"Yeah?"

"Things aren't really good between us, are they?"

Lily let out a breath, "No, no they aren't. No one can turn around from wishing the other to get struck by lightning to being the best of friends. I was starting to wonder there for a moment."

"Wonder what?"

"If I was the only one who noticed how incredibly awkward that conversation was."

"Nope, I definitely noticed it too. So acquaintances then?"

"That sounds like a start to me," said Lily.

She gave the password to the Fat Lady, who had been growing rather impatient; they went inside and went their separate ways, each feeling relieved of a heavy burden.