A/N: A slightly shorter chapter! This was originally over 20 pages since we're coming up to the end of part one, so I had to separate it out a bit differently :)

(Chapter Fifteen)

The Herbology OWL exam passed without event and there was a collective sigh of release from the Gryffindors that there were no additional encounters between someone in their House and Slytherin. Just that morning, it was observed that more rubies had disappeared from the Gryffindor hourglass. Because Sirius and James had been a little more destructive than usual this year, Gryffindor was sitting right in last place. If they had been anyone else, they might have gotten a lot more flack from their peers, but anyone who knew them and had gone to school with them the last five years were well aware that they garnered Gryffindor points almost as often as they lost them. This year, it just happened to be in the negatives as far as points gained.

For everyone else, it seemed like yesterday would be the last encounter of the year. Sirius, however, knew better than to be so optimistic. He was surprised that Snape had not blasted him with a hex or jinx that morning, regardless of what Dumbledore had said.

Sirius, James, and Remus's last OWL exam took place on top of the Astronomy tower at night, where they charted stars and planets. Each student was allowed to turn in their star charts and then leave the exam. Remus was one of the first students to finish, with James following shortly after. He flashed Sirius a grin as he left and he returned it in kind. He had gotten distracted in the middle of the exam, turning his telescope out to watch some thestrals play above the forest trees. James had already told him that he was going to sneak off with Marlene that night to iron out their summer plans, though, so he would not be returning to the common room immediately, anyway.

After Sirius finished, he glanced at Peter's star chart, but could tell that he was going to be one of the last to leave. If Peter's studying progress for Divination was any example, he had severe doubts on how well he was going to do with this exam. Peter was the only one that had an OWL exam to complete, which was Divination, and which he had been anxious about since none of them were in the class with him. It left him with very little support and the inability to copy off of anyone's homework that year.

I'll be amazed if he scrapes by enough OWLs for next year at the rate he's going, Sirius thought to himself.

There were a few students waiting in the staircase waiting for friends after he turned in his chart. Deciding against staying, thinking Peter was going to be more than an hour until he was done, he headed down the long staircase. With exams out of the way, Sirius could focus on the map again. Him, James, and Remus had only just begun mapping it and it appeared that there was no chance of finishing it until next year since they would be unable to use magic during summer. It was disappointing, as they had wanted to have it done by next year so they had a full year to test it out and modify it if needed so it would be fully operational for their last year. Of course, if neither Sirius nor James had been distracted by girls this year, they might have met that deadline.

Just as Sirius thought this, the hairs on the back of his neck began to stand up. He had taken a shortcut through a dark, portrait-lined corridor that few students knew outside of some of the older students. Without knowing quite why, he ducked behind a wall, pulling his wand out of his robes. A spell flew past him, missing him. It hit the wall near a portrait, leaving an ugly gouge mark in the bricks. The wizard in the portrait uttered a startled cry as it ran into one of the neighboring portraits, hiding behind a chair. Peering around the wall, Sirius was unsurprised to find Snape was standing with his wand aloft. He looked more malevolent than usual.

"You're becoming quite the stalker these days, Snivellus," Sirius drawled, brandishing his wand as he stepped out from behind the wall. "The Death Eaters will love that. You can be their nasty little spy that sits in the dark."

"A better job than you'll have after school," Snape spat and then raised his wand.

Sirius had expected him to use sectumsempra, but caught sight of the green light before he dodged out of the way. For a moment, he stared at him in disbelief. There was a grim, satisfied look on Snape's face that he did not like. That had been more than just a mere hex or jinx – he had been trying to kill him.

"Not sure I've heard of someone using the Killing Curse in school," Sirius said at last, forcing a casual tone. In spite of being unnerved, he could not help but goad Snape more. "What? Ready to show your true colours now that Lily wants nothing to do with you?"

"You've ruined my life, Black," he hissed in return and shot another curse at him. This time, Sirius barely dodged it. He countered with a hex and Snape was able to scramble out of the way, although he was breathing hard with anger by then. "Everything was perfect until you got involved!"

"Perfect for you, maybe," Sirius retorted. "And by the way, you ruined your own life."

"I didn't do anything! I was taking care of her! She and I – "

"Shut the hell up already! You sound like a daft cunt every time you talk about this."

Sirius directed a spell behind Snape, who turned in confusion. Sirius had enchanted one of the stone gargoyles to life and it flew at Snape. With a swift spell, Snape had shattered the gargoyle, but by the time he had turned around to face Sirius again, he was already bearing down upon him. He knew he could not fight against the Killing Curse and frankly, inflicting spell damage on him was not nearly as satisfying.

A flicker of surprise cast over Snape's face before Sirius punched him. The skinnier boy went crashing to the ground, his nose splitting open. Sirius shook his hand, wincing at the pain of hitting his bony face with his bare knuckles. While Snape was down, he hastily disarmed him before he could get another Killing Curse directed at him. He was not about to take a chance with another one of those being shot at him. There was no counter-curse for that particular brand of evil.

"You're not getting this back tonight," Sirius said, waving Snape's wand at him tauntingly. "You can do yourself a nice little scavenger hunt around the castle, courtesy of me."

"You bastard," Snape growled, holding his nose that was spurting a copious amount of blood all over the front of his robe.

"Watch your mouth, otherwise I'll be inclined to clean it out for you again."

Not heeding the fact that Sirius had two wands or that he was smaller than him, Snape charged at him. Sirius was so surprised that when Snape's shoulder hit him, the two of them went down and the wands went flying. Sirius swore violently, kicking at Snape, who was grappling around his waist in a desperate attempt to keep him from his wand. Blood spewed everywhere, down onto Sirius and on the rugs of the floor.

"Get off, you git!"

Snape's grip was surprisingly strong, but thankfully, Sirius had the advantage of being larger with brute strength. After a few minutes struggle, he was able to dislodge one of his legs and deliver a painful blow to Snape's ribs that had him howling and releasing his grip on Sirius. Sirius, panting, scrambled over to the wands and snatched them up before the other boy could recover. He was covered in Snape's blood now and he could feel a few pain spots where Snape's bony fists had flailed into him, including his jaw where he was sure it would end up bruising.

"I'm going to kill you," Snape gasped out, stumbling to his feet and glaring at Sirius through the dark. "It might not be tonight or even soon, but I'd watch your back. I'm going to make sure – "

"You're mental," Sirius interrupted angrily. "All this over a girl? Are you fucking mad?"

"She's not just a girl!" he shrieked almost hysterically and his voice caught, as if he were trying not to cry. "Not to me! She was my e-everything! And you ruined it – all of it!"

"I didn't do shit!" he spat back. "She already had issues with you before I came along! You could've had her – "

"I'm not going to touch one of your sluts! Your left-overs!"

A rush of cold anger wafted over Sirius and he thrust his wand towards him, his own hand shaking with the injustice of the insult.

"Call her that again and see what I do – I dare you."

"You've ruined her."

"We don't live in the Victorian era, Snape, get over yourself!" Sirius said disgustedly. "What were you going to do if she dated another guy earlier in school? Decide that since she's been with someone else, you can't be with her?"

"I'm not going to stick my dick where yours has been, Black!"

"Well, good thing you don't even have a chance of that now! You won't ever have to worry about that!"

There was a pause where Snape looked stung.

"You...you and her have – ?"

"You're such a hypocrite and a liar," Sirius said, casting him a contemptuous glance. "Listen to yourself. You didn't even really think it and the moment I say it, you get all hurt. If Lily wanted you tomorrow, you'd take her regardless. Stop lying to yourself about how you feel. It's pathetic."

"I'm not – that isn't – don't tell me how I feel!"

"Then make some bloody sense for once!"

A silence fell over them, Snape breathing hard in the corridor. His eyes kept flickering between his wand that was clenched in Sirius's hand, to the floor, and then back up to his face. It was clear he was wracking his mind, trying to figure out a way to get his wand without Sirius catching him first. His face, which had been so flushed with anger, was now returning to its normal color, although it was hard to tell by the amount of blood on his face. His nose had slowed to a trickle, but Sirius was fairly certain he had broken it.

"What does your family think?" Snape asked at last in a much quieter, more level voice.

"About what?"

"That you're dating a Muggle? Or have you not told her that your family supports the Dark Lord?"

"She already knows about my family," Sirius dismissed.

"But they don't know." Snape gave an unpleasant little smile. "And if I let it slip, it would get back to them fast. Regulus can't have your back all the time, not even for this. They'll go home and tell their families. It'll get back to your family eventually."

"You think I care what my family thinks about me?" Sirius gave a derisive laugh. "Go ahead – do it. Seems like a waste considering your whole plan here was to keep Lily safe from the Slytherins. How do you think they'll feel about a pureblood dating a Muggle-born? It's not going to matter that I'm in Gryffindor."

Snape wavered for a moment, uncertainty crossing over his face. "They wouldn't."

"You don't get it, do you?" Sirius tapped his temple with his index finger meaningfully. "There's really nothing up there, is there? Does your family torture Muggles for fun? Do they celebrate a festival designed to hunt down Muggles and use the Cruciatus Curse until they go insane? You're not really about that life until you've lived it. You're parading around school like you're ready to be a Death Eater like the rest of them, but you don't really understand what it's like to be a part of that life and the fact that you actually think your good-for-nothing friends would actually spare her just makes you look dense."

"You think – you dare – you don't know me! You don't know my life, Black!"

"And you don't know mine!" Sirius snarled back. "I can tell you didn't live the life of a pureblood! You reek of being a half-blood. Only a half-blood tries this hard to be something he's not!"

"Don't you talk to me about blood status!"

"Why? Because I'm a blood traitor? Because I'm in Gryffindor?" Sirius taunted. "I'm still born a Black, I'm still above you from your friends' perspective. Think about that the next time you want to threaten me. The only one who gets hurt by 'exposing me' is Lily."

Snape appeared as if he were going to combust any minute. Sirius was sure he had never seen him look at him with such absolute loathing – in fact, he did not think anyone had looked at him thusly. It gave him some satisfaction to throw his name around, even if it left him with a slimy feeling, like he had come in close contact with something particularly filthy. Nonetheless, he was not going to stand being threatened by Snape of all people, much less threatened with something that he, himself, had been trying to avoid. It was one of the reasons that Sirius had been hesitant himself about going public with Lily prematurely. Being the girlfriend of either him or Regulus put a good deal more eyes on the girl in question purely because of their family connections and the type of people within their family.

"Why are you toying with her?" Snape asked after regaining control of himself. He had changed tactics again. "You could have any other girl – why her?"

"Yes, because I'd go to all this trouble just to play mind games with a girl," Sirius sarcastically quipped.

Snape merely stared back at him.

"What do you want me to say? That I fancy her? Would that make you feel better?"

"You? Fancy her?" Snape scoffed. "You're not capable."

"I'd say the same for you," Sirius coldly replied.

"You're dating her out of selfishness."

"Love is selfish, you idiot."

"But you don't," Snape insisted, although by his panicked expression, it seemed he was saying it more of fear than actual belief. "You couldn't. You can't."

"I don't need to tell you whether I do or not, but I sure as hell wouldn't be dealing with your shit if I didn't!"

"No!"

This seemed to be too much for Snape. The moment's distraction had allowed him to summon his wand back to him. Sirius swore angrily and threw himself to the side just as the Killing Curse was shot towards him. He scrambled behind a wall as Snape shot the spell left and right from rage. There was nothing he could do while Snape was filling the corridor with Killing Curses. If even an animal had innocently passed by and gotten hit, it would have died instantly.

There was a brief second's respite where Snape paused, panting from exertion, and Sirius sprang out from behind the wall, immobilizing Snape with a spell and causing him to freeze in place. He had not been aware that he had started sweating while trying to squeeze himself away from the curse. It was a miracle that he had even managed to act fast enough in order to stop Snape in his rampage.

Wiping his palms over his robes, Sirius cautiously approached Snape and then plucked his wand out of his paralyzed fingers. Somewhere behind him, he could hear a door opening and closing and student voices. The corridor was a mess, the broken gargoyle lying in pieces and spell damage having destroyed several portraits and some of the furniture that had been innocently lying in the wake of the curse. He gave Severus a very nasty smile as he waved his wand in his face.

"I'd like to see how you're going to get yourself out of this one, Snivelly."

He took a few steps back, just far enough that he would not be easily discernible, but close enough to still cast the counter-spell. Luckily, it was not just students, but one of the professors as well. There was an alarmed exclamation from the professor and as soon as he heard that, Sirius did the counter-spell to release Snape from his immobilization and then hurried down the hall. He could hear the professor shouting at Snape, which was the only satisfaction he would be getting from this incident.

At the end of the corridor, Sirius followed the winding staircase that he knew would lead into the sixth-floor corridor. Once he had put some space between himself and the staircase, he found a narrow archway hidden behind a tapestry and worked on siphoning off Snape's blood from his robes. It was not a clean job, but he at least looked less like a mess. He could still feel his jaw smarting from where Snape had punched him. No doubt he would be seeking out help from the Gryffindor girls to help cover it up with cosmetics.

Resigned to the fact that he would be walking in looking somewhat worse for wear, he vanished Snape's wand to the owlery and dearly hoped that it would take him until the last second of term to find it. He rather hoped he missed the train from Hogwarts because of it.

He did not immediately return to the common room, wandering the upper floors for a while until his blood was not boiling so much. By the time he turned his path back to Gryffindor tower, he could feel the burn of resentment and anger towards Snape still coursing through him strongly. The entire conversation had been outrageous, everything from Snape's insults to his threats. He felt no remorse for misleading Snape into thinking that he and Lily had slept together or even openly revealing his feelings for her to him. He knew that Snape was not going to tell anyone about his relationship with Lily, not if he really cared about keeping her safe from those that were aspiring to be Death Eaters. There was a high chance he might tell Regulus, however, if only to get back at him in some small way. That, at least, he could handle. If it ever got out to his mother, that might be a less manageable crisis. He chose not to linger too long on that possibility.

Him? Kill me? Sirius scoffed in his head. If I meet that puke outside of school, he'd better hope that he kills me before I get to him first.

If he had hated Snape before, it was nothing compared to now.

When he arrived in the common room, he knew by the stares that he must have looked worse than he thought he did. He instantly regretted not stopping in a bathroom first because when he slunk towards the couch where Remus was sitting, his friend immediately took one look at him and sprang to his feet.

"Sirius! What happened to you?" Remus asked, looking at him aghast. "You look like you got jumped."

"Don't be a pest, Moony," Sirius grumbled. "It's not that bad."

"You're covered in blood, mate."

"Where?"

Sirius moved to a mirror that was situated on one of the walls and almost groaned aloud. In the light, he realized that while his robes were, in fact, rather clean-looking, he had not gotten any of the blood that had smeared on his hands, neck and face. One side of his jaw was swollen and turning an unflattering shade of yellow. In the mirror, he caught sight of Lily staring at him in undisguised horror, an expression that was reflected in quite a few faces.

"Alright," he said lightly, turning away from the mirror, "I know it looks bad, but it's just from a bout of Muggle fighting."

"Who in the world were you Muggle fighting?"

"C'mon now, I've got enough enemies, don't make me choose one."

Remus's eyebrows shot up. "You mean you don't know?"

"I wouldn't say that," Sirius replied and cast him a meaningful look as he headed towards the staircase. Even as he made his way across the room, he could feel everyone staring after him. He was sure that some wild story would be spreading over the entirety of Gryffindor House and end up all over the school by the time they were all back at King's Cross station.

Remus followed him up to the boys' dormitory, where he pulled off his robes, leaving him standing only in his breeches. He went to the bathroom and after wetting a towel, stepped back into the empty dormitory where Remus was sitting at the end of his bed. He scrubbed vigorously at the blood on his face and neck, glad to get the last remnants of Snape off of him.

"Look at you," Remus said, gesturing towards Sirius's slim torso. "You're covered in bruises. What'd they do, have you lie down and stomp on you?"

"Might as well have," Sirius said vaguely.

"Well, who was it?" he persisted.

"Who do you think? Who else has it in for me?"

"Snape did this?"

"I'm lucky I'm not dead." Sirius inspected himself in a mirror over one of the dressing tables, tossing the cloth on top of it. He still looked awful, but at least he was not covered in blood. His wavy, shoulder-length hair was a mess. He ran his fingers through it several times and realized that some of the blood had crusted over and came off in flakes. That would have to be a task for later when he managed to shower. Turning away, he leaned his palms back on the dressing table as he faced Remus. "He tried using the Killing Curse on me – more than once, by the way."

"You're joking." Remus shook his head slowly. "What's gotten into him? You don't think it's because of yesterday?"

"He was probably out for James first, but couldn't find him," Sirius lied, tipping his head back and heaving a long sigh. "Never thought I'd say I'd be glad to leave Hogwarts."

"Hello? Sirius?" a voice called before another figure materialized.

Lily poked her head around and then immediately went pink upon seeing his state of undress. Remus had turned to look at her, so he did not see Sirius straighten up in alarm. He ended up smacking his elbow against the front of the dresser and grabbed onto it, clenching his teeth. That would be another addition to his glorious collection of bruises. Lily took a step towards him fretfully and then stilled herself, looking far too embarrassed.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "I didn't think you'd be naked."

"He's only got his shirt off," Remus said laughing, apparently oblivious to any undertones between them. "And anyway, isn't that your fault for coming up to the boys' dormitory?"

"That's hardly expected," she said crossly, scowling at Remus before turning her gaze back to Sirius. "I only came up because – well, you look a mess. I can help you with all those bruises."

"How kind of you," Sirius said sarcastically, aware that Remus was watching them with a little too much interest.

"If you go out this way, you're going to drag our whole House into next-term detention," she replied stoutly, "if not losing us all of our House points."

"Fair enough." He shrugged. "Go on, then."

"What've you got?" Remus asked her as she pulled out a few vials and a small pot.

"They're healing-accelerants," she explained as she rounded the four-poster bed to hand them to Sirius. "They work with the salve so that the bruises will heal in a few hours instead of days. The girls use them for hickeys." She shot Sirius a look as she said this, reminding him that their excursion in the library had left her with one just near her collarbone.

Perhaps the encounter with Snape had left him dull-witted, but he could not help himself.

As she was uncorking the vials and the salve pot, he openly flirted, "You sure you didn't just come up here hoping I had my clothes off, Evans? I would've given you a free show."

"Padfoot," Remus half-sighed, half-laughed as he shook his head. "For God's sake, read the room."

"Yes, really," Lily said, although her lips had twitched. Thankfully, her back was turned to Remus. "Don't you have anything better to do than harass people?"

"Not really," Sirius admitted with a smirk. "I thought all of us were on friendly terms after yesterday?"

"Not that friendly." She shoved the salve pot into his hands. "Just make sure you drink these after applying the salve. It's not going to work otherwise."

She turned on her heel, flouncing out of the room with Remus grinning after her. Once she had gone, he cast Sirius a sarcastic look.

"Nicely done," Remus said. "You never fail to amaze me at how well you manage yourself with women."

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked lightly, applying the salve generously to his jaw. "I thought I did brilliantly."

"At least she didn't threaten to hex you like she does James. Could've been worse."

Sirius laughed at this observation, but after he had applied the salve to the bruises and drank the vials of potion, his thoughts had drifted elsewhere. He never would have thought she would risk exposing herself to Remus, yet she had come up here in order to give him the healing products. It was a small gesture and if James and Marlene had been there, perhaps she would not have been as bold.

Even so, it gave him hope for the future.