After two extra hours of reassuring his parents and Sirius, they split up. James' parents come to Hogwarts as well to talk to Dumbledore, but Sirius stays back in the hospital to have a conversation with Voldemort, and Tom runs around unchecked testing his new spell breaking knowledge on unsuspecting patients.

James and Harry return from the hospital and go straight to McGonagall, demanding a redo because Gryffindor subbed in three bench players to make up for the three that ran off suddenly and they lost painfully. James brings out full doe eyes and keeps reminding her how he was oh so scared after being attacked.

The consensus is that while James' attacker will be caught and punished, it doesn't have any standing with how Hufflepuff won the match. McGonagall looks pained as she says this because she's just as much of a quidditch fan as they are but stands firm.

Harry is there, to drag James out of the room when it looks like he's going to resort to begging, and also comfort James in his time of need.

"We should find Remus and Sirius," Harry offers. "I'm worried they found something."

James sighs exaggeratedly to hide the fact that he's distracting Harry right now exactly because he thinks they found something. "Whatever, they have the map, they'll find us. Do you think Lily will hand feed me chocolate if I tell her how sad I am?"

"You can always try," Harry offers and follows after James because he's not leaving his dad's side unless Remus or Sirius take over.

Remus stands off to the side with his arms crossed, a muffling ward up.

Sirius is crouched low, sitting back on his heels and head tilted oddly, a storm in his eyes and grin too sharp.

"-just locked him in there," the Hufflepuff sobs, sitting back against the hallway's wall next to his friend where the spell threw him. "Didn't hurt Potter at all. It was just meant to stall a bit, get a few goals up. He was always meant to be found, or – or break out!"

"You're saying you locked him in the closet where he was bleeding out," Sirius muses. "And you were the last ones to see him. And you took his wand so he couldn't defend himself. You're hearing what this sounds like, right?"

"I swear," the other Hufflepuff stutters. "We-we'll take veritaserum, we'll swear it on our magic."

"Oh, no, I believe you," Sirius laughs. "Look at you, you don't have the balls. No, what this sounds like is attempted murder and you're technically accessory before the fact considering how well you set it up."

The Hufflepuffs stare at him, with wide eyes.

"Don't worry, it's just a couple years in Azkaban," Sirius offers reassuringly. "That is, of course, if the Potters press charges."

"Wi-will they?" squeaks a Hufflepuff.

"That depends on you," Sirius murmurs with a growing smirk. "Because you see, Jamie is a real nice guy who values honesty. If you confess to sabotaging the quidditch game, he won't mind, we'll all put it behind us."

The Hufflepuffs are nodding vigorously.

Harry stands out of sight behind library shelves, just barely within the muffling ward, after getting the spell creation book James told him to find which he now realises was a distraction.

"Snape almost fucking killed me!" James cries in outrage.

"You attacked him first!" Lily snaps back.

"Well I wouldn't know considering he obliviated me! That's pretty convenient, isn't it?"

"Are you saying you wouldn't have fought him?" Lily scoffs.

"My wand was locked in a separate classroom!"

"Severus said he moved it there after you attacked him!"

"Fine, I probably fucking started it, but he put me in the hospital!" James yells. "And you're taking his side?"

Lily grits her teeth and stands sharply, packing her things. "Alright, I'll admit it, I don't care who started it." She stands, bag over a shoulder. "Why was the Dark Lord in your hospital room?"

"Oh, now we get to it, that spread fast," James laughs mockingly. "There you go, don't give a fuck about me, do you?"

"It was a small cut," Lily snaps.

"I was bleeding out!"

"Severus said-"

"Snape is fucking liar, you dumbass!" James screams.

"Don't you insult me, James!" Lily yells back. "You don't have the fucking right when you're following a Dark Lord who kills mudbloods like me."

"I'm not a follower, I'm a hostage, like I told you," James hisses. "But you know what? Voldemort actually fixed me, so yeah, he looks like a pretty fucking outstanding guy where I'm at right now."

"We're breaking up," Lily states. "And I don't want you to ever talk to me again." She shoves past and storms out.

James whirls around. "You can't break up with me, I'm breaking up with you!"

Remus is lying down with his hands behind his head, James face down on top of him. Sirius is lying on his side, perched precariously on the edge of the mattress because they really can't fit three of them into the same bed anymore.

"Fuck, Harry knows," Sirius sighs when the silence stretches on too long.

James groans into Remus' collarbones. The Marauders knew exactly who it would be, but they were counting on Harry not knowing and the teachers not finding out until after the revenge.

"We can't do anything now," Sirius complains, slapping James' back. "They're going to know we killed him."

"We're not going to kill him," Remus scoffs. "But fine, yes, anything that happens is going to point straight back to us, especially since Harry told the teachers it was Snape."

"I can't believe he told the teachers!" Sirius explodes, pushing up onto his elbow. "Our Harry, constantly watching adults he doesn't know like they're about to shank him. He doesn't even feel safe talking about anything more than schoolwork with the other students!"

"Well, let's be clear," James cuts in. "Harry isn't doing it to be a good student or to save Snape, he's doing it so we don't go off the deep end."

"Such a sweet kid, but he's a bit late for that," Remus muses. "Hey, can we use Voldemort's baby Death Eaters – you know, the Slytherins that told you to go to them for anything?"

"Getting other people to do it for you is so lame," Sirius rejects. He slaps James' back again. "Hey, Jamie? Aren't you a little quiet? Where's that mad genius plotting?"

James grumbles and pushes himself up onto his folded forearms on Remus' chest. "I just…look, I don't remember and I don't care."

James has a problem where he gets distracted and can't hold a grudge properly. Sometimes he'd bump into Snape and dig his claws in for a week, then forget the Slytherin even exists until three months later. So it's not like he was expecting to do anything drastic anyway, just something quick before James moves on - especially since they'd have to sneak around Harry anyway.

And it's not that he's not upset about being hurt, but again, he doesn't remember and it was fixed in a day (and he got a lot of nice attention from everyone) so it's not affecting him. James gets hurt a lot, hanging with Moony, or he's done it to himself for some stupid reason, it's all water off a duck's back by this point.

Besides, far from Tom's assessment that any loss is a disgrace, James knows for a fact that he's not the strongest. He grew up with Sirius what-is-this-holding-back-you-speak-of Black, and a frumpy nerd with werewolf strength. James doesn't win fights, period.

So James was fine, and yeah he'd fuck around with Snape a bit, probably some casual jinxes, a couples fights in the halls, possibly shove him into the lake once or twice.

But then Lily happened and James is now fucking pissed off.

"But Snape told Lily that shit," James continues. "Except I can't even get mad at her because she's the mother of my child – except Harry already went after her."

Sirius blinks. "What, really?"

"Yeah, he heard us arguing in the library," James admits. "You know how he gets when people fight, all sad and mopey thinking about how everyone around him is going to die soon. He hates that, keeps saying there's not enough time to waste it on being upset."

"And…he definitely isn't up for seeing a therapist?" Remus asks. "That conversation hasn't changed?"

"No, but he seems to be having it out with Voldemort and Tom," James offers up. "Every time he yells at them he seems a little bit lighter afterwards, like he's finally got something off his chest."

"As long as it's helping I guess," Sirius muses. "So what do you want to do?"

"Let's do some quiet stuff, skip the public humiliation for now," James suggests. "Snape won't snitch anyway, he knows no one will take his side. Of course Harry will catch on and we'll have to stop then." James shrugs casually, kicking up his feet and swinging them in the air. "Let's just have fun with it."