James Potter was, for once, going to sleep with an untroubled mind. They'd shut down Snivelus!
He didn't seem to like Levicorpus as much as he had before they'd finally gotten Evans to pull her head out of her arse about him. And as for Sectumsempra, well.
The Marauders had thrown pranking aside and overpowered Malfoy, Mulciber, Nott, Avery, Crabbe and Goyle. Without ever showing their faces. If masks worked for them, they worked for the Marauders. Sauce for the goose was sauce for the gander. They'd grabbed the six, not only stunned them but used good, Muggle chloroform. Moved them out the tunnel to Hogsmeade. They were left there by the Shrieking Shack, and the Marauders had gone back to their room.
The six older boys were picked up by family friends of the Marauders, who'd all suffered losses at the hands of the self-proclaimed "Death Eaters." They had been stripped to their underwear to give better access for fists and feet.
Just before they put the boot in, one of them had noticed a faint, flickering mark on the left arm of one of the 7th years. It took a while, but eventually magic revealed the same mark on all six. Combined with their bragging insinuations about how they would rape and kill "mudbloods" and even half-bloods if they didn't know their place, and their promising retaliation from their "Lord," they all realised that this very dark mark confirmed they were, in fact, "Death Eaters." And they were, more importantly, of age. This would earn them a double ration.
Even magic can't fix some things quickly. James learned that the six would not only miss their NEWTs but were going to be in St Mungo's all summer, meaning the Marauders wouldn't have to deal with them, hopefully, ever again. And so much for your friends, Snivelus.
Not having Evans hold James back meant Snivvy could look forward to the same if he didn't watch himself. In fact, James had celebrated Snape's final break with Evans by grabbing the bastard, dragging him to an empty classroom, and slamming him against the wall. Then he told him that having your heart blown up, or being beheaded by a Diffindo, for instance, was even harder to fix than being hit by Sectumsempra. James knew first-hand how scary the latter was.
"And make no mistake, Snivelus. If you even start that curse again, I. Will. Kill. You. This is the only warning you get. Even if you are fantasising getting lucky, Snivvy, just remember, Sirius has been holding back. He won't kill you as cleanly as I would. It will be hours, Snivvy. Hours," James told him, using the wall judiciously for emphasis.
Neither of them were of age, but James Potter clearly didn't mind having his wand snapped for killing Snape while the latter was performing a lethal dark curse, if it would even come to that. It had always outraged James that a half-blood would be with the "blood purity" crowd. Couldn't the idiot see that that put James on a much higher level than him?
Facing the threat, combined with the loss of his older "friends," Snape had ceased his attacks across the board. If he pranked, he would be pranked four times as bad. And if he escalated ...
James had assumed this would be the year Snape tried to get Remus expelled as a werewolf, so the Marauders had assembled a list, with witness statements, of all his crimes since joining Hogwarts. They shoved it in front of Slughorn and Dumbledore and said, if Snape gets Remus out, he's out. All of this goes to Crouch, it goes to the Board. Slughorn promised to curtail Snape. That was the last base covered.
The Death Eaters had only been stunned, once each. And it was a long enough time before they were found that it would be impossible to determine by whom. Aurors had a hard time solving crimes that didn't involve magic. Abraxas Malfoy had promised retribution, but he had lost the leaders of Slytherin and of the Death Eater faction, and he didn't have enough allies on the Hogwarts Board to force an investigation of how Lucius and his friends had gotten to Hogsmeade. He resolved to place his son on the Board, and pack it with Voldemort's supporters. He'd also flooed Dumbledore and warned him that "his Lord" had given him something that would allow him to take his vengeance on Hogwarts if he was thwarted.
Uncharacteristically, the Headmaster, who had been Chief Warlock for a long time and part of the ICW, rumoured to be replacing the outgoing Mugwump whenever he retired, didn't keep it "in house." He straightforwardly reported it to Crouch at the DMLE. Of course, Bagnold backed Abraxas up, and his house wasn't raided, but the threat was on record. Dumbledore brought it up at the Wizengamot, having carefully prepared a brief on Abraxas, whose history was riddled with suspicion of murder and theft. Most of the Wizengamot had children at Hogwarts. Abraxas had been banned from the council. The Malfoy family wasn't really old enough or prominent enough to merit a permanent seat.
At Hogwarts, the pureblood bigot faction sensed their star was waning. Had it happened when the current sixth-years were first-years, it would have probably changed how history unfolded, but by this point, the damage was done. They would keep their heads down for one or two years, the boys would become Death Eaters, and the girls would marry them. That was the culture Slughorn, and by neglect, Dumbledore had created in Slytherin house.
James' parents and grandparents had always kept him informed about the politics of the wizarding world. They suspected the "Dark Lord" and his followers, with little to lose, would turn to murder and destruction in a big way. Dumbledore had made very quiet inquiries about organizing a watch group on them, but James' parents worried he was too concerned with non-violence, and would probably do more harm than good.
"If you're going to escalate matters, James," said Fleamont, "you had better be ready to follow up on your actions." His tone made it clear he knew who was behind the matter of the 7th-years.
"Well," said James, thoughtfully. "As true as that is, Dumbles is a good wizard to have on your side. It can't hurt us to hear him out."
"I wonder," said Euphemia.
For whatever reason, that was his last thought before sleeping the sleep of the just.
