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Marauders for Life


Severus searched the Hogwarts Express until he found Lily Evans. She was sitting with her friends and he pushed open the door and they all turned to look at time. Emmaline Vance and Marlene McKinnon stood up the moment they saw him, both stepped in between Severus and Lily. “We know what you’ve done, Snape,” Marlene said, glowering at him, “And you aren’t allowed to see Lily.”

Severus blinked in surprise at the hostility. “Lily,” he called, “What is this idiocy?”

Lily stood up and pressed her way around Marlene’s shoulder, “It’s alright, you lot.” Ali Prewitt glared up at him from her seat, though, and her eyes were so wide and penetrating that Severus actually felt more intimidated by that little pixie of a girl than he did of the other two combined. He turned to focus solely on Lily. “Sev, I don’t want to talk to you right now.”

He’d been waiting since the End of Term party to speak with Lily. Nobody ever let him close. Twice he’d been headed off on his way to the Gryffindor table - once by Sirius Black and another time by Frank Longbottom. He’d decided he loathed Longbottom as much as he loathed the other four Gryffindor gits and he scowled now, not liking these girls Lily was friends with much either. “Well you have to talk to me at some point,” he said.

“I really don’t,” she answered. “You have no idea how much what you did to me hurts, Sev. You’ve done me wrong, so very wrong.”

“Well I can’t really make it right without you giving me a second chance,” he argued.

“I’ve given you countless chances in the last few years Severus,” Lily replied.

Annalee McKinnon snapped, “All she’s ever given you is chance after chance.”

Severus looked at her helplessly, like a fish that had suddenly been taken out of it’s bowl of water and his mouth opened and shut a couple times and his eyes filled with tears, “Lily.”

“I’ll write you when I’ve had a chance to calm down a little bit, Sev,” she said as levelly as she could. She hated to see him so close to crying because, despite everything that he’d done, he was still her Severus. When Lily looked at him, she could still see the lonely little boy in his eyes, the one she’d felt so bad for at the playground, who’d approached her so timidly, who had opened her eyes to the wonder of real magic and told her fairy-tales about dragons and wizard schools. Deep down, he was still the same boy, and she couldn’t truly ever hate that boy. “I just need some space right now, okay? Please try to understand.”

Severus swept his hand over his eyes, destroying the tears building in them, and he turned on his heel and left the compartment. Lily watched him go, but, even though she felt terrible, she didn’t stop him. It was a first and she sank back onto the compartment bench, feeling quite different - as though she’d turned a point in her life, like a switch that had been waiting to be flipped. An era had ended. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and felt the train lurch away from the station.

Severus stormed off until he found an empty compartment, far away at the back of the train, and he let himself in and used a spell to lock the door, sitting on the floor so his back pressed against it instead of on the bench, not wanting to see anybody or to be seen, and he closed his eyes and banged his head slowly against the door. “Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid,” he murmured under his breath at himself. “I’m so bloody stupid.” The tears flowed across his face freely.

Suddenly there was a crack! and before him stood Kreacher, the Black family house elf. The old thing quaked, his body all gnarly and shriveled, and he looked about until he met Severus’s stare. “Kreacher’s Master Orion has ordered Kreacher to go to the Hogwarts Express and collect Severus Snape,” Kreacher croaked. “He’s to be taking Severus Snape to the Dark Lord.”

Severus looked surprised, “What? Now?”

Kreacher nodded, and he hobbled forward, favoring one of his feet over the other and Severus noticed there was a great burn-scar welted into his skin there, sore and red and horrible looking. He wondered what happened to the elf. Kreacher grabbed hold on Severus’s arm and with a crack! they had disapparated from the train.

Several students tried to get into that compartment later, and when they found it locked only to find it empty when they alohamoraed their way in, a rumor started spreading across the train that one of the compartments was haunted.




Sirius and the boys had gotten their compartment without any hassle and settled themselves into their benches and Remus stared out the window at the forest flashing past the window as the train moved through them, leaving behind Hogwarts and Hogsmeade and all of the north, headed for London.

None of the four of them could believe another year had come and gone, that they were here again already, back on the Express, headed away for another summer…

Peter was worried about what life at home would be like over the summer without his mum about. He was dreading what he would arrive to find, remembering Remus’s tales of the empty boxes from the pub that had covered the house. He worried that Cecil and Maggie might’ve been living in a similar manner over the past months. In all the time since he’d been home, he’d only heard from Cecil once, despite all of the plethora of letters that he sent to them. Maggie had never written back to him, not even once, and he honestly felt a little betrayed that she hadn’t contacted him. He’d never told the boys about the only words she’d spoken to him - never talked to them at all about his mum - he’d suppressed all the myriad of feelings that he’d had and as the train roared away from the safety of Hogwarts, they were flooding him, and he felt as though a giant were rolling a boulder onto his chest with every mile they crossed.

James was headed home, too, thankfully, for the Potters finally cleared from their quarantine. He had been profusely warned by his mother, though, that Charlus still had a couple of the scales on his face that the healers at St. Mungo’s hadn’t been able to repair, a sign of a deep infection that, although still dormant in his father, was not contagious to anybody else. He was worried about seeing his father like that, though. Charlus wasn’t a young man, but he had never looked as old as he was, never acted it, either, and the thought of his handsome face having been marred by something as terrible as dragon scale unnerved James and he had worried whether he’d be able to keep from looking horrified the first time he saw his father… He didn’t want to hurt his feelings…

Remus was nervous about his father, too, but for an entirely different reason. He would be telling Lyall that summer that his son was not only a werewolf, but gay, and he worried what Lyall’s reaction would be. It was important, though, he felt, a step he needed to take and though the mere thought of telling him made his palms sweat and hands shake, he felt that having Lyall’s acceptance vitally important - something that he needed before he could truly have the confidence to pursue any love. He looked over at Sirius as the train’s wheels clack-clack-clacked on the rails and he drew a deep breath, gathering strength from his smile as he talked and laughed through the ride.

Sirius, as horrible a thought as it was, was headed for Number 12 Grimmauld Place. He was praying the train would go as slow as it could, so much did he dread going there… But he had nowhere else to go. The Potters quarantine had only been lifted for James, it would be midway through July before anyone else could go to the Potter house. The Pettigrews were in the midst of their mourning and Sirius would just not feel right going home with Peter (and he hadn’t been invited there anyway). Remus had offered to have Sirius come to the Lupin house, but Sirius had balked. He needed time away from Remus, to let some of the things that had been stirred up in recent days settle down. He felt like time apart would do them both good, though he’d promised to make the journey there and spend the full moon with him, no matter what it took. Number 12 was the only place left for him… So he had set his jaw quite bravely and made up his mind, even though all of the others thought he was mental. James begged him to go to the Lupin’s, fearful of what Orion and Walburga and Regulus would do to him at Grimmauld Place, but Sirius refused. He had to face the demons.

“We have to get together at least once this summer,” Sirius said, “I’m going to miss you lot something sore.”

“Agreed!” said James, “I’ll go mad without getting to be around you lads. Maybe we could meet up at Diagon Alley at some point and go shopping for our school supplies for next term.”

“I don’t know I’ll be allowed but if my mu--” Peter stopped mid-sentence, catching himself, a look of surprised horror on his face. “I’ll ask my dad,” he ammended.

The other three looked very uncomfortable for a long moment.

“Can you believe it, we’ll be fourth years next time we’re on this train?” Remus asked suddenly, trying to lighten the mood. “Can you believe we’ve known each other for that long? It feels like it’s gone so quickly, but at the same time it feels as though I’ve known you gits for all my life, too.”

James laughed, “Perhaps we’ve known each other a hundred lives over.”

“Perhaps,” said Remus.

They looked about at one another and Sirius, suddenly feeling quite dramatic, said, “Marauders for life?” He stuck his hand out into the center of the compartment.

Remus reached out and placed his on top of Sirius’s, then James, and finally Peter put his on the pile and together, all four of them said, “Marauders for life.”

There came a knock on the door and the compartment slid open. “Something from the trolley, dears?” asked the trolley witch, smiling kindly about at their little faces.

James smiled and reached into his pocket and held up his coin purse. “Yes, we’ll take the lot!”




Kreacher and Severus came out on the street before a house that Severus had never been to before. It was huge, as large as Malfoy Manor. As they passed through ivy-covered brick walls, fixed to the heavy black iron gate, he noticed a large crest, reading LeStrange. He looked up at the estate and they walked across a wide yard of of pristine green grass and perfectly trimmed bushes that had been pruned into whimsical dream-land shapes. They knocked on a black-painted wood door that also more the crest, this one as a door knocker, and the door opened and Bellatrix peered around the frame, her thick brown curls falling over one shoulder a s she leaned and smiled with all of her teeth as she opened the door, “He’s here, my Lord!” she sing-songed, dancing through the house. Severus followed after her after closing the door behind himself and the old house elf.

They arrived to the parlor and there was Voldemort, turning to see Severus enter and he, too, smiled widely, at the sight of him. “Yes… yes, there you are, Severus, come. I have a very important job I need for you to do rather immediately, otherwise I would not have bothered you, of course… Busy as I’m sure you’ve been with that little girlfriend of yours.” The last words were spoken as a sneer.

Severus stiffened. Then, he said the most truthful thing he could to protect Lily. “I don’t have a girlfriend any longer. We’ve broken up.”

Voldemort didn’t look in the least bit remorseful, but he said, “So sorry to hear it,” in a cold, flat voice.

Remembering himself, Severus bowed low, “My Lord, what can I do to serve you?”

Voldemort grabbed hold of Severus’s shoulders quickly, pulling him out of the bow and wheeling him around. “I have use of your legilimency skills, my boy,” Voldemort said, “She refuses to tell me the information I need from her.” And Severus was brought face-to-face with a middle aged woman with the blonde hair. She was tied, hanging upside down from the ceiling, her face red from the blood that had rushed to her head. She was still, her eyes closed as she rotated in the air slowly. She unmistakably the same woman as Severus had seen in Peter Pettigrew’s mind.

A chill went up Severus spine.

“Mopsus says I will have the Boy,” Voldemort explained, “And she is the key to getting to him, but she refuses to talk.”

“Mopsus?” asked Severus, tearing his eyes from the woman before him.

“Yes,” Voldemort said, and he waved his wand. “Ennervate.”

The woman’s eyes sprang open.