Snivellus
James Potter followed Sirius down the steps of the Knight Bus and onto the empty London street.
"That's nine Sickles and three Knuts each, lads," Ernie called after them.
Ernie Prang, the aged driver of the Knight Bus, had risen from his seat and was leaning out of the Bus door, looking expectantly at the two teenagers.
Sirius stopped still, and James walked right into him.
"Watch it, mate!" James laughed. Then he caught sight of the look on Sirius' face. "What's wrong?"
"I -er - don't have nine Sickles and three Knuts," Sirius muttered, staring at his boots, "Sorry, Ern, but I'm kind of broke right now, I -"
"Well what ruddy use is that? You're gonna have to cough up somehow, sonny," Ernie grumbled.
"It's fine, Ernie, I'm paying," said James, digging a hand into his pocket to find the coins.
"No - don't do that, Prongs," Sirius said quickly, batting away James's fistful of silver and bronze.
"What else are you going to do?" asked James, one eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, what else are you going to do, sonny?" said Ernie.
"I'll - I -" Sirius faltered, "I'll just go to Gringotts or something -"
"No you won't," said James. Sirius glared at him. James simply smiled at him. Sirius had always hated taking charity - whether it was anything from a Knut to a Galleon - from anyone.
"No - honest, Prongs - don't -" Sirius protested, but James tipped a handful of coins into Ernie's outstretched hand.
"'Bout time!" Ernie grumbled, slamming the door of the Knight Bus shut. There was a loud bang and a puff of purple smoke, and the Bus vanished. James turned and led the way towards a small, shabby-looking pub called The Leaky Cauldron.
"You didn't have to do that," Sirius mumbled as they walked, talking again to his boots.
"Yeah, I did," said James, "How else were you supposed to pay?"
"Well, I could've…I dunno," Sirius muttered. "Okay, fine. I couldn't have paid. Look, I'll pay you back when I get some gold out of Gringotts."
"No you won't," James said firmly. Sirius opened his mouth to argue but James cut in first. "Mate, you've left home and you're underage - you can't go back home to get whatever money you had there, and you can't earn any money till you're seventeen next year. I'm not going to let you waste nine Sickles and three Knuts on a bloody Bus fare."
Sirius fidgeted awkwardly but didn't say anything. James smiled again and walked ahead of Sirius into the Leaky Cauldron.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black! It's good to see you two again," called Tom the barman as they walked into the pub, "Haven't seen you lads in a long time."
"Dark times, Tom," said James with a mischievous smile. It was a common excuse for anything and everything now that Lord Voldemort was at large.
"So they tell me, son, so they tell me," said Tom seriously, "You won't be stopping for a drink then?"
James glanced over a Sirius, who had become strangely interested in a burn on a near-by table.
"Er…just two Butterbeers, Tom."
Tom slid the drinks across the bar to James, who in exchange handed him seven Sickles. James handed one of the tankards to Sirius, who grudgingly accepted. Sirius leant against a table, drawing lines in the condensation on his tankard with his finger, but not drinking.
"Drink," James urged.
Sirius threw James an adverse look, drained his tankard in one, and slammed it down on the table with a loud thud.
"Now can we go," he said in a dangerously quiet voice.
James took a long drink from his own tankard.
"Now we can go," he said, setting down his half-empty drink and walking swiftly from the room. Sirius followed him.
"Look, Prongs, I -" Sirius began.
"I pay your fare 'cause you're broke and 'cause that's what friends do, and you get mad at me. I buy you a drink 'cause you're down and 'cause that's what friends do, and you snap at me. I'm just trying to be nice here, Padfoot -"
"I'm sorry, Prongs, I've just -"
"- Had a long day. I know." James turned away and began counting the bricks on the wall infront of them, tapping the occasional one with his wand.
"Prongs, I'm sorry I-"
"It's fine, Padfoot," said James, arranging a smile on his face, "Come on, we're keeping Moony and Wormtail waiting."
Sirius smiled back awkwardly and followed James through the archway that had appeared in the brick wall, and into Diagon Ally.
James spotted Remus and Peter straight away. They were sitting together at a table outside Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlour. Peter was shovelling down a foot-tall strawberry sundae as though it was his last day on earth but Remus, who had a small bowl of plain ice cream in front of him, was making no attempt to eat.
"Moony! Wormtail!" Sirius yelled, apparently back to his usual self.
They both looked up, Peter waving frantically at them, Remus beckoning them over. James and Sirius joined them, pulling up extra chairs. Sirius turned his around to sit on it backwards, leaning one arm and his chin on the top of the backrest.
"You going to eat that, Moony," he asked. Remus shook his head, pushing the bowl towards Sirius. Sirius wolfed it down in a matter of seconds. If he hadn't been specifically told otherwise, James would have sworn that Sirius' sole purpose in life was to eat as much as possible.
"So what actually happened with Regul- ?" Remus began, breaking off mid -sentence having caught sight of James, who had been mouthing "shut up" and making frantic gestures from behind Sirius.
"I'm going to Gringotts," Sirius said abruptly, kicking his chair away and standing up. "Need to take out some gold. I'll catch up with you all later."
"Wait, we'll go with you -" Remus began, but Sirius already turned and walked swiftly away.
"Was that because of me?" he asked James anxiously.
"Yes and no," said James. Remus continued to stare at James, completely perplexed. "He's just a bit down about it all right now. He'll come around."
Remus still didn't look convinced.
"Look, let's just give him some space for a bit. Let's go and get your Astronomy stuff, Moony; Padfoot won't be missing anything that way, and he can have some time to cool off."
The three of them walked a little way down the empty street to Ptolemaeus's Astronomy Supplies for Remus to buy himself a new telescope. The shop was completely empty, apart from a scrawny looking wizard wearing a large travelling cloak who stood behind the till. The sight of it made James feel slightly depressed. The streets of the wizarding world had been empty as long as James could remember - ever since the war had started. He had never known Diagon Ally to accompany any more than ten witches and wizards at a time, but it still saddened him to think that, some time ago, these cobbled streets had been - as his parents had told him - so busy that you could hardly move.
James and Peter wandered silently around the shop, closely watched by the shopkeeper, while Remus bought himself a new telescope. Remus rejoined them a few moments later, carefully tucking his money bag and telescope into the battered satchel that he had slung over his shoulder.
"So what did happen with Regulus? Or hasn't Padfoot told you either," Remus muttered in James’ ear.
The two of them slipped unnoticed behind a large stand of spindly silver instruments that James recognized as Lunar Charters, having bought one as a birthday gift for Remus in his third year. Peter, conveniently distracted by a pure gold replica of the solar system, didn't notice them disappear.
"He wouldn't tell me everything, but he told me some of it," James said in an undertone, "He said that he had an argument with his mum about Muggle-hunting, and then Regulus got involved and it all sort of spun out of control."
"Oh," said Remus, looking apprehensive, "So I take it that's when Padfoot started flying Hexes everywhere?"
"Hey - you can't say that he wasn't provoked! The poor guy was thrown down the basement stairs before he got a fair chance at the fight!" James snapped, trying and failing to keep his voice to a whisper.
"I never said that, Prongs," Remus said steadily, "I just mean that Padfoot got a lot of Ministry Warnings that night, and they didn't just appear out of nowhere."
"I know what you meant, Moony, but I'm just saying that the guy's had a pretty hard time of it and you can't blame him for loosing his temper once in a while -"
"Who's had a pretty hard time of what, and who can't you blame for loosing their temper once in a while?" It was Peter.
James turned away.
"Sirius," Remus explained.
"Oh," Peter said heavily, "I should've guessed you were -"
"Yeah, well, enough of talking behind the guy's back - we need to find him," James said loudly, cutting Peter off.
He led the way back into the Ally and up towards Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Sirius was sitting on the stone steps leading to the entrance of the bank, a harsh black silhouette against the pale brick of the building. James could see him tossing a large moneybag between his hands, a slight frown on his face, but this frown vanished the instant that he spotted James, Remus and Peter walking towards him.
"I've got my money," he announced brightly, jumping up off the step to greet them, "So I can pay you back now, Prongs."
"No, don't worry about that," said James quickly, "We'll sort that out later. Let's get our books first."
Sirius allowed the frown to cross his face again, but didn't argue. The four of them entered Flourish and Blotts as each one had around ten new books to buy, but Sirius soon detached himself, stepping down a separate isle than the other three. James, deciding it was best to leave Sirius alone, continued walking with Remus and Peter, pretending to be interested in a book called Horrendous Hexes and Criminal Curses: The Advanced Guide by Professor Vindictus Viridian that Peter had found, when there was a sudden commotion from the next isle. There was a steady sequence of loud thuds, followed by a piercing shriek of anger from the shopkeeper.
James, Remus and Peter hurtled around the corner to find Sirius walking calmly down the isle, one arm outstretched, knocking the books cleanly off the shelves one by one, chased by the livid shopkeeper, Mrs. Holland.
"What do you think you are doing?" she shrieked, picking up one of the fallen books and waving it exasperatedly in front of Sirius's face, "What did you do that for?"
"Why not?" said Sirius bluntly.
"Why not? Because that's unsold merchandise that you're destroying, that's why not!" cried Mrs. Holland.
Sirius shrugged, pulling out his wand to Charm the books back into place.
"Oh, no you don't, laddie! I won't tolerate teenage hooligans wreaking havoc in my shop!"
"I'm not wreaking havoc," Sirius said simply. “I’m cleaning.”
"Don't you dare!" hissed Mrs. Holland. "Now, what's your name, kid? I'll be reporting you!"
"It's Black. Sirius Black."
Mrs. Holland froze.
"Black?" she whispered, "Black, you say?"
"Yup. Sirius Black," Sirius repeated, his face darkening.
"Well, I - no harm done, really - I'll just pop these back on the shelves then - just an accident," stammered Mrs. Holland, hurriedly clearing a path for Sirius through the books, "There you go, son. You - you have a nice day now."
"Thanks," Sirius said smoothly. He slipped his wand back into an inside pocket of his cloak and walked swiftly from the shop.
"Pathetic, isn't it?" he spat once James, Remus and Peter had caught up with him.
"What's pathetic?" asked Peter.
"That was. Just because I'm a Black she let me off. It's pathetic."
"Oh," said Remus quietly, "So that's why you did it."
"What, knocked off the books?" said Sirius, "Yeah. Thought I'd test her to see if she -" Sirius broke off, staring straight ahead. He had become very still, like a wild dog that had just sensed it's prey, a malicious grin sliding onto his face.
"Padfoot? What is it?" Remus asked. But James recognized that look in an instant, a grin to match Sirius' sliding onto his own face. He followed Sirius' gaze and, sure enough, walking straight out of Knockturn Ally was -
"Snivellus."
A skinny, stringy looking teenager was walking past them, his oily black hair jumping about his face. The twitchy manner in which Severus Snape walked reminded James of a spider. If only he was that easy to squash, James thought bitterly.
"Alright, Snivellus?" Sirius said loudly. Snape gave an exceptionally large twitch, but otherwise showed no sign that he had heard Sirius speak.
"What, you're not even going to say hello?" Sirius called mockingly.
Sirius whipped out his wand and gave it a sharp flick in Snape's direction. Snape was dragged suddenly backwards, tripping over the hem of his cloak and falling to the ground. He came to a halt at Sirius' feet, flat on his back, desperately trying to disentangle himself from his robes.
"Had a good summer, Snivelly?" James asked.
Snape scrambled to his feet, cursing, and plunged a hand into his robes for his wand.
Sirius fired a Stinging Hex at him just in time and Snape recoiled, rubbing an angry red scorch mark that had appeared on his forearm.
"No spells from you today, Snivelly," Sirius taunted, "Not until you can learn to play nicely. You need to learn to respect your superiors."
Snape shot a Stinging Hex back at Sirius, catching him on the shoulder. Sirius laughed mockingly.
"Turning my own spells against me, Snivellus? Don't you even have enough brains to think up your own?"
"If you knew!" Snape hissed. "You filthy hypocrite -"
"Hypocrite," Sirius spat, "When have I ever used the same spell as you in a fight? It's pathetic, Snivelly, and even someone as stupid as you should be able to think up their own defense."
"And of course you'd know all about fighting your defense, wouldn't you, Black," Snape said in a low voice, "Of course, you're so excellent at it…"
"What's that supposed to mean?" James snapped.
"Well, I'm only saying that maybe if Black had learnt to practice as he preaches, then maybe he wouldn't have been kicked out."
"Kicked out?" Sirius snarled, "What are you talking about, Snivelly?"
"Isn't it true that the almighty rebellious Black was chucked out of his own home by - unless my information is incorrect - his little brother?"
Sirius froze. Snape leapt at the opportunity and whipped his wand through the air, hissing a curse under his breath.
Levicorpus! James thought, flicking his wand at Snape. Snape was jerked into the air by his ankle, his hair falling over his face like an oily black curtain.
"Don't you dare!" James yelled, but Sirius drowned out his voice with a stream of spells.
Sirius was livid; he was firing curses at Snape one after the other, every one of them hitting him squarely in the chest. The levitation spell shattered, sending Snape painfully to the ground. Sirius shot a Full Body-Bind curse at Snape, immobilizing him, then raised his wand for another.
"Sectumsem-" he shouted, but James wrenched the wand downwards before Sirius could complete the curse.
"Sirius!" he hissed, grabbing Sirius by the arms, "Leave it!"
"Get off me!" Sirius snarled, trying to wrench free of James' grip, but James pulled him backwards, away from Snape.
"Leave it," James repeated, stopping only when he had brought at least four shop doorways between Sirius and Snape. Sirius stopped struggling and turned slowly to face James.
"What did you just say?" he said quietly.
"I told you to leave him," James repeated.
"Since when have you ever stood up for that cringing piece of filth?" Sirius snapped.
"Never," said James quickly, insulted, "But you lost it, mate."
"Lost it?" Sirius repeated, "You think I lost it? That greasy little slime-ball knew! And he was gloating about Regulus -"
"I know, mate, but you can't slice him in half with Sectumsempra in the middle of Diagon Ally! I know this whole thing with your family has been hard for you, but you had no reason to take it out on Snape like that!"
"You’re always saying that there's reason enough in the fact that he exists," Sirius said testily.
"Yeah, to knock him about a bit because he's a slimy little Dark-orientated git, and sure, maybe a bit more because he was gloating about you leaving home, but you can't go slashing people in half in the middle of the street! Not even Snape! Especially these days; people will think you're into the Dark Arts."
"I'm not - you know I'd never - I'm not one of them, James!" Sirius protested.
"I know you're not, but you're acting like it."
James felt a slight chill emitting from Sirius.
"Fine," Sirius said quietly, "I get it."
Sirius turned on his heal and strode down the Alley and out of sight.
"Padfoot!" James called. "Sirius, wait!"
But Sirius didn't turn around.
"Damn it," James muttered.
"What's up?" Remus appeared at James's shoulder.
"Padfoot."
"Ah. Well, I thinks it's best to leave him to - er - cool off, for a while," Remus said awkwardly.
"Yeah…I suppose. I'll talk to him later. I'll have to; I live with the guy now."
"Yeah, you do," Remus said, putting a sympathetic hand on James's shoulder, "Good luck."
"Thanks," James muttered, not all together reassured.
"He'll come around, don't worry," Remus promised.
"Yeah, I suppose. He always does."
"C'mon, Wormtail's getting restless." Remus removed his hand from James' shoulder, turning and walking back to the crumpled black heap that was Snape.
James watched Remus speak the counter-curse to the Full-Body-Bind, pointing his wand dully at Snape. Snape scrambled to his feet, cursing, silver and green sparks spitting from his wand. James watched Snape hurry past, muttering under his breath.
James sighed, still staring blankly down the Ally where he could just make out Sirius' minute form striding furiously back to the Leaky Cauldron.
"Hey, Prongs? You okay?" It was Remus again.
James shrugged.
"Me too," said Remus, leaning heavily on James's shoulder.
"You okay?" James asked, suddenly remembering that it was only a few days since full moon, "How's your…you know…furry little problem?"
Remus smiled.
"Just as furry and problematic as usual," he said grimly.
James patted him sympathetically on the shoulder, but stopped quickly as he felt Remus wince.
"I'm okay," Remus said in response to James' worried glance, "I'm just tired."
James nodded, though not altogether convinced. He looked back down the Ally at the pub that Sirius had vanished into. Had Sirius really crossed the line back there, with Snape? Or was it James who had been out of line?
"It's not you who should be feeling guilty," said Remus. James looked up to find Remus watching him. "It was a decent thing that you did back there."
"A decent thing?" James repeated, appalled, "I did a decent thing for Snape? Kill me, Moony."
Remus laughed.
"Come on," he said, "We ought to follow him."
"Yeah, you're right," James said heavily. He looked over his shoulder and called to Peter, who had been standing several feet away, apparently unsure whether or not to join them.
Peter hurried over to stand on Remus’ other side, grasping Remus’ upper arm to give him a little more support, though James knew it made little difference as Peter had an ineffectual amount of strength to offer. The three of them walked steadily down Diagon Ally, Remus leaning heavily on James, following in Sirius' wake.
FourFold by Furry Little Problem
Chapter Notes: Last chapter! This is the final instalment of FourFold, and therefore is the ending!
Hope you’ve all enjoyed this story, and keep an eye on my Author’s Page – I’ll be submitting another Marauder’s Era fic soon called “Fidelity”. It’s really good and really long, so keep a look out for it!
Final wave of *hugs* to Bewitcher_SR . Thanks for your help!
Thanks for reading everyone, and thankyou so much to everyone who reviewed – I really appreciate your feedback.
Thanks!
Enjoy,
Furry