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More Than He Ever Had


Although the flag was taken down rather promptly, and Sirius, Lily, and Frank Longbottom were given a detention each for their work upon it (Sirius given one for each incident), the were assured by Professor McGonagall that the measuring stick that Frank had helped to spellotape to the spire of Gryffindor Tower had remained upon the tower. The measuring stick, McGonagall claimed, had been adhered so well that it was just impossible to remove from the spire… though Sirius could’ve sworn he saw her wink when she said it.

“A WHOLE METER HIGHER!” Frank was saying loudly at the Gryffindor table that night at dinner, after he, Sirius, and Lily had been sentenced by McGonagall, “A WHOOOOOLE METER HIGHER!” Several Ravenclaw boys were scowling and muttering to one another unhappily at the next table, glaring over at Frank as he bragged.

Everyone was talking about the flag and the stick, though, not just the Ravenclaws. Everyone was waiting to see what insane thing Sirius Black would do next, whispering in hushed voices about him being mad, about rumors they’d heard that Sirius and Remus had broken up, though nobody knew why, and all this madness from Sirius Black was the slow burn of a pending meltdown… Bets were collected on how long it would take before Sirius Black completely lost it, and what sort of madness he would be involved in next. Everyone had their eyes on Sirius.

Remus knew the moment he got into bed after returning from the Shrieking Shack that Sirius had been there. Aside from the dog hair that he found in the sheets, he could smell his scent lingering on the pillows and he hugged the pillow that smelled the most of him close, burying his face into it, and crying silently that night, his back turned to the rest of the room - trying to ignore the feeling of Sirius staring at him from his own bed across the room. It was only a room between them, but it might as well have been the entire world.

James meanwhile, angry that Severus Snape had not come to Lily’s defense in the incident with Mulciber and the others, had taken to sending small spells in Snape’s direction on whim in the hallways. For instance, they might pass him on their way through the courtyard to Herbology and James would wave his wand and undo the seams at the bottom of Snape’s bookbag, sending his belongings crashing to the stones at his feet, his ink bottles smashing and staining his dirty old shoes. Or else he would send a stinging charm or a langlock… or untie his shoelaces from afar and retie them together so that when Snape tried to walk he would trip and fall on his fat nose. He always was sure to do these things when Lily wasn’t around or wasn’t looking, and he’d raise his eyebrows at Snape or, even more annoying, one of the time he’d tripped him in the hallway, he pretended to go to Snape’s rescue and offer him a hand up. That particular time, Lily had come ‘round the corner just as Snape had fallen down and James had made certain that she saw he offered Severus help -- she didn’t need to know it was him that had tripped the bastard to begin with.

Only Sirius and the other Marauders knew of this, and Sirius was prone to doing it for James in James’s absence - only he cared less whether Lily Evans knew what he was up to. After all, he didn’t have a pending date just a few days away with her. He could do whatever the hell he wanted to Snape in the halls, and so it was that he engorged Snape’s nose one day and shouted, “Oi Snivellus, no wonder you can’t keep your nose out of other people’s business!” and another time he waved his wand so that Severus’s necktie tightened itself against his throat and Snape was left tugging at the thing, trying to loosen it.

Of course this walked a fine line, too, and Severus would glare and threaten to reveal the secret about Remus Lupin, but slowly Sirius got more and more confident that there was something keeping Severus from actually doing it - because he never did it, despite the threats, and soon the threat became sort of… unthreatening.

At least to Sirius. To Remus, of course, it was still a horrible disaster waiting to happen.

“If you don’t stop doing that, he’s going to tell everyone… about me,” Remus said nervously one night in the dormitory when Sirius was chuckling over having magicked the pages of Severus’s textbooks together so that he was seen in the Great Hall struggling to get the book cover to open and some of the other Slytherins had obviously been making fun of him for it. “He’s going to follow through with it one of these times he threatens.”

“If he were going to tell, he would’ve bloody done it by now,” Sirius said.

“You don’t know that,” Remus argued, “You don’t know. You think you know, but you don’t! This is how you end up doing idiotic things like leading him through the tunnel to get bit by a werewolf! Because you don’t stop and think things all the way through!”

Sirius looked hurt. “I’m sorry,” he said, and he’d spent the rest of the night in dog form on his bed, unmoving, curled up and back-to the others, staring at the wall.

Remus felt bad the moment he’d said it, but there was no taking it back - Sirius wouldn’t respond when he tried. So Remus had laid awake that night, too, feeling miserable for having hurt Sirius… though a part of him didn’t know why he felt bad for just speaking the truth. He’d been hurt but he didn’t need to hurt Sirius back… but despite how often he reminded himself of that, he found himself making snide remarks more than he meant to and Remus hated himself for it. That instant when Sirius’s eyes would go from dancing happy grey to dark voids of charcoal would haunt him every time… He wanted to fix it, but he didn’t know how. It hurt, it seemed, with or without Sirius Black.

As promised by Madam Pomfrey, Horace Slughorn was back to teaching within a couple days, having recovered from the seizing charm. He treated Lily Evans with particular care, checking on her, and giving her special tips about the potions she was mixing in class, winking and patting her shoulder with his heavy hands as he walked past, complementing the cauldron bubbling between her and James Potter on the table top. He frowned into the cauldron at Severus Snape’s table - where Snape wasn’t helping Sirius much with the preparation, making them fall behind, all because he was too busy watching Lily and James and feeling miserable because she refused to look his way at all…

James Potter and the other Marauders refused to leave her side, too, when she was in the dungeons, glowering at Severus as he hovered, hoping to talk to her. Remus helped her pack up her potions kit and clean out her cauldron and Peter offered to carry it for her, and Sirius and James walked on either side of her, glaring at any of the Slytherins they passed, daring them to even attempt to lay a finger upon Lily Evans. Nobody dared.

Severus Snape felt cheated of an opportunity to apologize, and he hated James Potter more than he ever had... He seethed and waited for a chance to get him back.




“We only have three more days before the Hogsmeade weekend,” said Liam anxiously. The three plotting first year boys were sitting in their dormitory - Darcy and Ollie down stairs with Lily Evans at the homework table - talking in low voices. “We need that cloak in order for our plan to work and if we miss the Hogsmeade weekend, we’ll have to find some other way out of the castle. We need it.”

Dexter scratched the back of his neck, “But there’s always at least one of the Marauders in their room lately. Either Sirius is up there avoiding Remus in the common room or else Remus is up there avoiding Sirius!”

“We need to create some sort of diversion that will distract all four of them at once for at least five minutes,” Wally declared, “Something that’ll keep ‘em from going up there so one of us can run in, find the cloak, and sneak back out without them knowing we were there at all.”

“But what kind of diversion?” asked Liam. “What would distract all four of them at once?”

“Really,” Dexter said, “We only need to distract whichever one is in the dorm at the time.”

Wally gnawed his lower lip, thinking.

The door opened up and they all three turned to look as Ollie walked into the room. His eyes flickered to Wally, then back down as he hurried to his desk. “Sorry guys…” he murmured, grabbing his textbook from the table.

Wally watched him carefully. “Alright, Ollie?”

“Yes,” Ollie said, “You?”

“Couldn’t be better,” Wally answered.

Ollie hesitated, holding his textbook awkwardly. “Are you… are you coming downstairs? To study? I… we… miss you… all of you.”

“Maybe later,” Wally answered, “We’re busy. Official business. Run along.”

Ollie flushed and turned for the door again. “Sorry,” he murmured again and he ducked out the door.

Wally rolled his eyes and turned back to the other guys. “He’s been acting strange lately.”

Dexter glanced at Liam.

“I think he fancies you,” Liam said.

Wally snorted. “Fancies me?”

“Yeah,” Liam said.

“That’s ridiculous,” Wally answered.

Liam shrugged.

“What if we snuck back during classes?” Dexter suddenly said.

Both Wally and Liam looked at Dexter with confusion.

“To get the cloak, I mean,” Dexter said. “One of us gets ill during one of the classes that we know conflicts with one of theirs and that person comes back here, gets the cloak instead of to see Pomfrey.

“Brilliant,” said Liam, grinning. “What do you think Wally?”

Wally was staring at the door. “What?” He turned about to face them.

So Liam recapped Dexter’s idea and Wally lit up and they started to make plans as Ollie’s strange behavior and possible fancying were forgotten.




“TWO DAYS! Two days.” James announced, singing the words as he pranced along the corridor toward Defense Against the Dark Arts class. He was walking on sunshine, his eyes aglow, cheeks flush with excitement, practically skipping. “Two days ‘til my date with Evans, two days!” They were on the moving staircases, and Sirius was hung over again, groaning with the motion of the stairs and the loud exuberance of James, annoyed by both as he hung over Peter’s shoulders, his eyes sensitive to the light streaming through the windows far overhead.

They were just coming ‘round the bend on the second floor when they ran into the Slytherins on their way to Transfiguration - though James was too busy excitedly shouting his joy over his date to notice. It was the first time that he’d passed Snape in the hall in sometime without hexing him… Lily was coming up the stone staircase from the Great Hall with Ali Prewitt and Frank Longbottom by her side, having just finished breakfast… and Severus Snape saw his opportunity.

With a flick of his wand - James Potter’s belt had snapped and as the leather straps fell away, his trousers button popped as well and down they fell about his ankles, making him trip over the material suddenly bunched about his feet and slam head-first into one of the suits of armor, knocking it over with a great clatter of metal chainmail, his underpants - white crew cut underpants - were on full display as he twisted and tumbled onto his back, his underpants tight enough that they left very little to the imagination.

“Holy shit, Prongs,” Sirius murmured.

Peter and Remus sprang forward to help James up as Sirius turned around and saw Severus Snape there, snickering with Goyle and Mulciber as they ran off down the corridor. “BASTARDS!” Sirius shouted and ran after them, but they sped ‘round the corner in the hall before he could so much as draw his wand to do anything else.

Frank, Ali, and Lily hurried up the steps to help, Frank running in the direction the three Slytherins had gone in the same as Sirius had done, while the girls went to help James stand up. Poor James turned scarlet red and struggled to get his trousers pulled up, clutching the waistband at his belly, his face burning with embarrassment.

“Here’s the button,” Peter said, holding it up and James took it, still clutching the front of his pants as he rushed off to the nearest boys toilet, followed by Remus, whose face was just as flushed with embarrassment for James as James’s own face was. He’d probably need help with the sewing charm to mend the button, Remus reasoned, and so he’d gone along to assist James with fixing the trousers closure.

In Defense Against the Dark Arts, Gideon and Fabian Prewett were talking away, covering old material in revision for the O.W.L.s, but James could barely hear them, he was so painfully aware of the smirk on Lily Evans’ face across the aisle from him, and he hunkered down over his parchment, his face burning, horrified by what happened… Suddenly a note landed on his desk - a bunched up ball thrown by Sirius Black while the Prewett twins had their backs turned. He unfurled it.

Don’t worry about it, mate. You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of down there. Evans was probably quite impressed.

James looked up at Sirius, who gave him a thumbs up sign and a wink.

James shifted uncomfortably, his face burning still hotter if that was even possible, and absolutely hating Severus Snape more than he ever had...