A Marauder With "Snivellus"?

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Wolfstar
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I'm online pretty much most of the day, unless I'm working, then I'll be off from about 10am to 3:30, or from about 5pm to 11pm (UK time)
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Fantasy, Real-Life, Modern, Magical, Romance, Fanbased
Beth Bridges lugged her trunk up onto the train, but then dropped the heavy object on her foot. "Merlin!" She cursed under her breath. Just then she felt a tap on her shoulder, and a deep chuckle.

"Need some help, Talons?" She turned and rolled her eyes at one of her four best friends, Sirius Black. He was just the same as the year before, but except that his grin had got even cheekier.

"Nah, I'm good. My foot's just throbbing happily." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. She glanced up the train, and her eyes widened. Just a few feet away was the guy she had fancied for years, but he was the type of guy that if her mates ever found out, she would never hear the end of it.

She turned away, and began to haul the heavy trunk down the aisle. However, she wasn't looking where she was going, and banged into someone. "Oh, sorr-" She began, but as she turned around, she came face to face with a guy with a sallow complexion, hooked nose, and long, black hair, the guy she had liked for years - Severus Snape.
 
First day of school! Severus was as excited about returning to Hogwarts as he was leaving summer. In the early summers, he had spent some time with Lily, but their days had grown apart. It was unfortunate, but he was starting to come to terms with it. Well, he had been starting for quite some time.

His cheer, however, was dimmed slightly when he saw the Marauders start to gather just a car over. He could ignore them, though.

"Hey Sev!" Vulcan Mulciber was leaning out a window. Severus grinned, his cheer returned. He grabbed his trunk and all but threw it through the nearest door before climbing in himself. Only to be slammed into by one Beth Bridges. Dear Merlin! Why couldn't the Marauders just disappear? It wasn't like he was even at Hogwarts yet.

Severus sneered, "Can't even find the words to finish an apologize? Tsk, I didn't think even you could forget that much over one summer."

"Watch it, Snape," James snapped, popping his head out of the compartment, but his look considerably softened when Remus tugged on his sleeve.

"Cool it, Head Boy. New year, remember?" James sighed. Some habits just didn't want to die. Lily, he chanted in his head. Lily. It was his mantra.

Severus simply glared at the new Head Boy until his face disappeared into the compartment again. New year or not, Severus was not going to forgive Potter (or any of them, for that matter) anything.
 
Beth looked away quickly, and bent her head to her trunk to hide her blush. She refastened the top of it, and dragged it into the compartment, where her other three best mates were:

Remus Lupin - the tall, sandy-haired boy with the best marks in the year - every year - and a secret that only Beth, Sirius, James, and their other friend Peter knew. She grinned, and hugged him. "Hey Moonster. Good summer?" She smiled, and turned around to the other boy in the compartment-

James Potter, Head Boy, and one of the two most-sought after boys in the seventh year. His black hair stuck up at the back as usual, and his hazel eyes twinkled behind their glasses. "James!" She raised a hand in the air for a high-five.

Sirius entered the compartment behind her and lounged on the seat by the window with a grin. "Beth here almost knocked Snivellus off his feet - I wish you had done it!" He laughed.

Beth looked away awkwardly - she loved her best mates - they were like brothers to her - but she hated it when they hexed and jinxed, and generally made Severus's life hell.
 
Severus shoved his trunk into the compartment his friends were in, and huffed into a seat. "Just one more year," he muttered.

"Just one more year, and then we can be rid of them forever," Vulcan reminded him. Severus couldn't help but smile. The Dark Lord might not step down to acknowledge his personal foes, but there was no denying that Severus would learn enough. He probably already knew enough to take down the James Potter and Sirius Black, but he wouldn't dare do anything that would get him kicked out of Hogwarts. It was his last year, and Hogwarts was his home more so than anything else.

---

"Ten points from Slytherin!" James said laughing. If Slytherins so much as toed it, he would be there. They were still up to no good, and it wasn't the sort of easy mischievousness that he had a love for. Their sort was the wrong sort -- the dark sort. Remus pointedly looked from James to Beth and back again. Though it was a small gesture, James caught it. "Oh come on, Talons. It's our last year. Smiling will do you good. Here." James pulled out a pile of chocolate frogs and dumped them on the table.
 
Beth grinned, and opened a chocolate frog. "Yeah - and this year is going to be awesome! I can't wait til we get to Hogwarts and I can stretch my wings." In fourth year, James, Sirius, Peter, and Beth had all become Animagi to help Remus when he transformed, and her Animagus form was a peregrine falcon.

Sirius grinned as well, and exclaimed, "Yeah - our last year as the Marauders...... after this, we'll be adults." He put on a mock-serious expression.

~~~~

They soon arrived at Hogwarts, and Beth nabbed them all a carriage to share on the way up to the castle. "C'mon!" She called back to them.
 
James whooped as they got off the train. Remus sauntered after at a slower, calmer pace.

"We'll win the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup, and pass our NEWTs, well, you will," James rambled excitedly, bumping Remus at his reference about the NEWTs. The rest of them weren't too bad off, but it wouldn't be quite the same sort of passing that Remus always managed.

"Carriage, Prongs. Get in it."

"Wh... Oh yes. Thanks Talons!" James climbed into the carriage and off they went.

---

"No manners," Severus sighed, glaring at the group of Marauders cut whom had cut they off from the carriage they had been gunning for.

"Let's go after them," Vulcan suggested, fingering his wand. Avery put a hand on Mulciber's shoulder, but it was Severus who spoke.

"Trains right there. We go after them, they'll just put us back on it and ship us back home," but Severus had to admit there was quite some appeal to the idea. "Bet the feast will be good."
 
Despite the slightly uncomfortable scene that had just occurred outside, Beth’s spirits could not help but lift at the sound of the incoherent chatter already issuing from the Great Hall. Just being back at Hogwarts again – even if it was her last year – brought joy such as she had never experienced anywhere else. She followed Sirius and Peter into the hall, sitting across from them at the Gryffindor table.

“You are going to need to wipe that smirk off your face, mate,” said Sirius as James sat down. As one, the five of them looked down the table to where Lily Evans was sitting with her friend Mary Macdonald. She glanced up, apparently sensing the eyes on her, and smiled at James. Beth’s eyes nearly popped out of her head; ever since she had known her, Lily had hated James’s guts with an unrestrained passion. In fact, if memory served, she was fond of calling him an "arrogant toerag."

Well, this was certainly an interesting development, she thought.

“Hey, so I’ve been doing some thinking,” said Peter suddenly, leaning forward conspiratorially; everyone else mirrored him. “This year, during Remus’s transformations –“

The reaction was violent and simultaneous. Beth, who was next to him, clapped a hand over her friend’s mouth. Sirius swore loudly, causing a few second years to glanced at him with wide-eyed shock.

“Do you want Beth to eat you?” Sirius said, his words humorous but a dark look appearing in his eyes. “I swear I will let her do it, falcons aren’t going to turn up their noses at rats.” He leaned forward a little more to offset the strange looks now being given to them. “You know you can’t go shouting about that.”

“I wasn’t shouting,” said Peter stubbornly, his nose and cheeks bright red from embarrassment despite his protestations. “You guys are the ones who made it a big deal.” Nevertheless, he lowered his voice. “But I was thinking – this year, we don’t all need to go together, do we?”

“What do you mean?” said Beth sceptically, craning her head around to see if the first years had arrived yet; the sooner they moved off this topic, the better, in her opinion. All four of them went with Remus to the Shrieking Shack together, as Sirius had said it would be safer that way, in case something went wrong.

“Well, think about it,” he urged. “Last year, we never really needed all of us there, did we? There’s really only two of us needed, and the other two could catch up on homework, or something –“

“Wormy,” said Sirius, cautiously slipping into his nickname for Peter lest anyone else should hear, “let us think. When was the last time anyone besides Beth and Remus really cared about their schoolwork?”

“Well, he has a point,” Beth pointed out. “Using all four of our Animagus forms is a little bit… conspicuous. We could try it.” She turned to James, who seemed to be considering the idea carefully in his mind. As he was the person under discussion, Remus didn’t offer his opinion, but merely looked mildly interested in the thing as a whole, Beth noted with some amusement - typical Remus.
 
"Don't see why," James replied, but he did dutifully turn back toward their little group. "I just got me a smile! Did you see that?" Of course, they just moved onto the next topic. Lily was, after all, his own little dream and while his friends did support him, they just didn't quite dream the same dream.

James's reaction to Peter was nearly the same as Sirius, just with all the swear words backwards. Some might even call it a practiced reaction. Remus, on the other hand, just bowed his head and peaked left and right, hoping no one had actually heard. He wanted to drop the subject altogether. It never made him comfortable to talk about it, not even when they were alone. It was a secret that didn't need to be known.

"He does not have a point!" James countered, "Look. We need Wormtail to get in, and no offense, but Padfoot and I are the only ones who could ever actually keep him in check. And we need Talons's eyes on scout, well, I guess we have the map, but it's kind of hard to operate, you know," if you have hooves or paws or something. Really good for when they were in wizard form and could use wands, though.

"I get it," Remus said with a smile. "You don't have to come if you don't want to. We already have precautions in place. You all know that." Even though his face looked cheerful, mentally, Remus recalled the day they had told him they were training to be Animagi. It had been, well, he couldn't believe they would try to do something like that for him. "Let's just drop it, okay? Enjoy the show and the feast." Remus pointed up to the front of the stage where a new batch of first years were already standing. Professor McGonagall was just starting to open the scroll of names.

James, howevr, didn't believe Remus's words. There was nothing anyone could say that would stop him from spending his full moon's as a stag. Not even Lily. Well ... for now.

|+++|

"So you going to go to the Snake Club again?" Avery asked.

"Up to Evan if he wants to run it again," Severus said. His answer, though, was actually a yes. The club in question was one formed entirely by Slytherin students for the purpose of learning the Dark Arts. The point of school, after all, was to learn, was it not? And learning Dark Art was still learning.

Avery, however, scoffed at this remark. "You're just as good. You could lead it."

Severus laughed. "If it were about brewing potions, then maybe, but there's a class for that."
 
Glancing back toward the doors again, Beth saw that a line of students had just entered, single-file, with Professor McGonagall at the front. She was glad for the distraction, because the last thing they needed was attention drawn to the matter. But her eyes shifted to the right, towards the Slytherin table, which was situated closest to the door. And quite without meaning to, she caught the gaze of Severus Snape and she blushed.

She turned around quickly, heart racing. It looked as though Severus might have seen the entire conversation about Remus and the others’ Animagi forms – although that was utterly impossible. But it was possible that he'd realized they were talking, and what's more, realized they were talking secretly. He was all the way across the hall, and no one could eavesdrop from that far away. But he definitely looked like he wanted to know what they’d been talking about so secretly, and would have paid dearly to have heard it. The blood thudded in Beth’s ears, and she did not dare to turn around again.

The first of the new students stumbled forward suddenly to place the Sorting Hat on her head; she had managed to miss the whole sorting song while she had been lost in her thoughts. Facing forward with a slightly more resolute expression on her face, she doggedly watched the rest of the ceremony, finally clapping for the last time as a boy called Archibald Young was sorted into Ravenclaw.

Dumbledore rose from his chair to give a few start-of-term announcements, and Beth finally chanced to sneak another glance at the Slytherin table behind her. Snape was talking to his mate Avery now. Maybe she’d imagined the whole thing, muddling it up with her own foolish crush. That had to be the explanation.

Dinner had been finished, and the dishes cleared for pudding, when Sirius leaned forward suddenly, as though about to impart more news that was for their ears only. “I’ve only just remembered,” he said excitedly. “I overheard Mum and Dad talking about something right before we left. It’s got something to do with… You-Know-Who.”

A collective shiver seemed to run through the group. Beth didn’t know a lot about You-Know-Who, as it was understandably not printed a lot in the papers, but she knew he was an extremely powerful and dark wizard, a strong proponent of blood purity among the magical world. Sirius’s family ran along the edges of this crowd as well, and supported the idea of eliminating Muggle-borns from wizarding society.

“Apparently there’s some group,” he continued, “that’s setting about getting together to put an end to You-Know-Who. It’s supposed to be led by Dumbledore himself.” All eyes turned to Dumbledore, seated at the top table; Beth thought that this might be false information, as he looked too old to be leading much of anything except Hogwarts.