Retaliation

Remus realised he was glaring at the door and turned away, checking Sirius' heart rate and wondering why the girls had come up. Obviously to see Sirius, but something told him that wasn't all of it; Lily had been on edge all evening. Maybe it was the new experience of going out with someone, or work, or something else entirely; he couldn't be sure. Something had had him on edge since Sirius had told him about Snape sneaking up on Lily and Caradoc earlier. Oddly James hadn't said a word about it and he was usually the first to disparage anything Snape did; maybe it was because it was Lily.

James had been quiet all day, well; only since they left for Hogsmeade and they found out Lily was going with Dearborn.

He had his hand against Sirius' neck, counting his pulse against the watch on his wrist. It would be a little while before the blood replenishing potion would begin to work and Sirius had barely been able to stand when Frank came in.

Sirius blinked and looked up at the ceiling, 'I think the Slytherins are pissed after we hammered them yesterday. Mulciber, Snape and Compton tried to take me on as I came out the library,' he grinned twistedly, 'Compton'll be walking with a limp for a while, but Snape got me.'

'Yeah, we can see that,' Remus replied with a half-smile; there was no else in the school who had such a talent for the particular curse that had been used on Sirius. Indeed, Remus had tried to look it up and had been unable to find any references to it anywhere.

'Your heart's a little fast, but you'll be fine once the potion kicks in. Just make sure you put another lot of dittany on that before you go to lessons tomorrow, or Frank'll realise we lied to him,' he continued, gesturing at the inflamed line down the side of Sirius' neck.

'Yeah, will do,' Sirius replied, making himself comfortable on his bed, 'Hey, Prongs.'

James looked up from where he was studying Peter's Map which was currently in the process of being covered in runic symbols as well as their plan of Hogwarts, 'Yeah?'

'You know Evans didn't snog Dearborn, right?'

James' eyes lit up, 'What happened then? How do you know?'

'I saw Mary in the library; she seemed oddly pissed off about it.'

'Not surprised,' James muttered, 'She tried to threaten me into leaving Lily alone.'

Peter looked up, guffawing at the idea of someone threatening James, 'What?'

'Yeah, only I couldn't get her to back off without looking like the bad guy.'

Remus suddenly realised he gripping his wand in his pocket and let go.

'So what are you going to do?' Sirius pressed.

'We're… I dunno, something's happening; I like her, she might or might not like me, I haven't asked her out or anything lately. We'll just see where it goes.' James muttered, turning back to the map.

A week passed and Lily fell into a rhythm; she went to lessons, she sat between the girls and the Marauders at meals, she did some of her homework with James, and spent time with the Marauders when she didn't have anything else to do. Mary seemed to have taken some kind of insult that she hadn't got with Caradoc and wasn't talking to her apart from when Mulciber fell down three flights of stairs on Tuesday. Mary immediately accused the Marauders, but Lily had seen him stand a book that fallen out of someone's bag and landed on the steps. The book had slid and he had fallen.

Mary had ended up in tears; telling Lily that she was just going to get hurt and that James was still just a bully and an arrogant idiot, and if she couldn't see that it was obviously set up then Lily was just as bad as him. Lily had said something she really shouldn't have about Mary continuing to sit beside Rosier in Transfiguration and her hanging around with Slytherins.

Lily found herself spending more time with Laura and Dorcas who hung about with the Marauders more often than she and Mary ever had. She began to notice though that apart from at times when the Common Room was absolutely packed, and they somehow still managed to get the sofa by the fire, the Marauders spent very little time in Gryffindor Tower. In fact the Marauders never seemed to be anywhere.

Lily would be bored during a free lesson and think of finding them, just for something to take her mind of work but she could hardly ever find them. She even screwed up the courage to go to their dormitory again, but had only found Remus in there writing a letter to his Mum, so she thought it best to leave him alone.

Sirius had given up on girls currently; he wanted to get the Map finished so they could get the Slytherins back properly. Watching Mulciber shoot down a few flights of stairs may have been amusing, but Snape was proving a problem. The Slytherins seemed to be moving around as a unit lately and he wanted Snape separate so he could pay him back.

When the Marauders wanted to, they worked fast and thoroughly; they had learnt the basics of Ancient Runes and worked off the principles needed for Pensieves. A lot of ward research was being done as well, and an overall plan was slowly forming. It had taken the majority of their time recently and Remus had told him he had been interrupted while sketching out the last of the runes for the map, by Lily who had come up to their dorm.

Sirius wasn't sure if he was right or not, but Lily seemed to have been spending an inordinate amount of time with them lately. But on the other hand, they had been making an effort to spend more time in the Common Room with the girls; they didn't want anyone thinking they might be up to something since they hadn't done anything drastic for a week or two.

Sirius had a suspicion though, concerning the Slytherins; first Mulciber tried to curse Peter and he got a hell of a shock. Then Avery hexed Remus under a teacher's nose and got away with it. Then the whole Slytherin team tried them on at the Quidditch match, but that was to be expected and now the bastards had gone after him. He had a feeling they would go after James next and something brutal in him was looking forward to it; he'd break Snivellus' overly large nose if he ever got the chance.

His chance came sooner than he had expected.

Midway through November, as the nights were getting dark earlier, they were coming back in from an afternoon Herbology session and using their usual route back to Gryffindor. They came out in a deserted corridor on the fifth floor and found themselves face to face with Avery, Wilkes and, most importantly, Snape.

There was a split second hesitation before Avery went for his wand just before Sirius did and he almost cheered as his instincts bounced into play, but James' reactions got him there quicker and he stepped forward, punching Snivelly in the face. Before immediately going down under a barrage of bludgeoning hexes from Wilkes and Avery.

Sirius heard something snap as James fell back and produced a shield charm as Peter dragged James back into the alcove they had emerged from. Remus had his wand out by then and put Avery on his arse with a flourish. Sirius' shield charm failed and he had to duck an incoming curse.

'You're going to have to do better than that, Simeon,' he laughed, knowing Wilkes hated his first name.

Then Snivelly was back on his feet, clutching his bleeding nose with one hand and firing curses with his wand.

A gash appeared along Remus' forearm at the same instant Sirius felt his feet slide under him and he went down heavily, but not before he'd got Avery with repulsion charm. The Slytherin literally flew backwards down the corridor, colliding with a suit of armour with a clattering sound like a pair of cymbals being dropped down a set of stairs.

Then James was pulling him to his feet with one hand, grimacing at the same time as Remus tripped Snape.

As he came to his feet, he saw Wilkes change his aim from Peter to James who hadn't yet turned back to the battle and cast a concussion hex. Before he could push James out of the way, it had hit him in the back of the head, throwing them both forwards and there was an awful crack as James' landed face down on the floor.

Then Flitwick arrived and ruined it by disarming all of them.

Thankfully, Snape was still on the floor and Sirius stepped forward and thumped his foot into the Slytherin's crotch before Flitwick could stop him. He heard the air go out of Snivelly's lungs in an oof and the boy had gasp for breath so he could let out a thin, high scream.

Sirius couldn't help but laugh as Flitwick handed him an extra week's worth of detentions and James was carted off to the Hospital Wing. It had been a fairly solid connection between boot and ball.

'Look, James; if they went after each of us, what's to say they stop there?' Sirius asked.

'They wouldn't try and curse girls,' James pointed out to the mirror cupped in his good hand.

'This Averyand Mulciber we're talking about, isn't it?'

'They wouldn't.' James said.

As usual they had been put in separate detentions, and as usual they were talking about more important things than writing lines. James had had his wand confiscated and been given him a thousand lines to write, but once Flitwick had locked him in the Charms classroom and gone to give Sirius his punishment he taken out Peter's wand and charmed the quill to write for him.

James's collar bone had been broken and he had come away with mild concussion, but Peter had ducked back down the secret staircase and got clean away. His left arm was still in a sling and he was wobbling around a bit, but on the upside Snape was now having to take his time sitting down in every lesson he went to.

'Anyway, more importantly; it's full moon on Tuesday. What do you think about trying to set up a new ward as we wander about? It's easier than tampering with stuff we don't really understand.'

Sirius considered this, 'Alright then. I'm not doing the full boundary though; I can't be arsed to trek round the Forest all night; or all the way to Hogsmeade for that matter.'

'Fair play; we'll just do the surrounding area of the castle and see if it works.'

James leaned back in his chair, all in all it hadn't been so bad; even if he hadn't been able to see Sirius give Snivelly the boot there were some definite rewards.

Since Avery had started it, Lily hadn't complained that they had been bullying Snape; indeed she hadn't mentioned him once since the Hogsmeade trip. If anything she had never been closer; by his side the instant he wobbled. Concussion was hell; he couldn't concentrate, he couldn't think and he kept losing his balance. He was still doing Quidditch, even if Miss Pomfrey had banned him, but for the look of concern on Lily's face when Dorcas let slip that he was still doing training sessions, James would have jumped into a nest full of chimaeras.