“POTTER!” a familiar nasally voice yelled.

James turned, they had just left the train and were now entering the carriages. For the first time James could see the thestrals that pulled them. He didn’t know if he had seen the exact moment Harry had died or if all the memories Harry had shown him had done it.

Severus Snape stomped toward them, still young, a slightly large nose and greasy hair. His dark eyes filled with rage and malice. His black wand was already in his hand raising to point at James.

Instantly James’s own was in his, the weeks of training having him ready.

“Lacero!” Snape yelled.

A Cutting Curse, distinctly different from the Severing Charm.

However James needn’t have bothered. Sirius was there in an instant, his own wand forward.

“Protego!”

The spell shield absorbed the curse and James saw Sirius’s face darken a snarl curling his lip.

“Already looking for some fun Snivillus?! I would have thought you’d be hiding away like the pig nosed bat you are,” Sirius growled. “Extetar!”

Snape flicked away the Horn Tongue Hex. Damn, he was good. Summer training with Death Eaters or just his own practice and skill?

“Sev! Stop!” Lily said, running to them.

Her eyes were still a bit red and puffy from crying, but she grabbed Snape by his wand arm, forcefully lowering it just before Snape could say the next curse.

But Sirius still had his up.

“Entomorphis!”

The sweet green spell shot toward Severus, who couldn’t defend himself, but James pulled up his own wand, aiming it precisely as Harry had taught him.

“Stupefy!”

A bit of extra power in the spell made it move faster than Sirius’s, and directly collided with it, making the two spells ricochet off one another and shoot off in different directions hitting no one.

Sirius turned on James, confusion and anger on his face.

“What are you doing?! He tried to curse you!” Sirius said.

“And you might have hit Evans accidently! Want to be the one to explain to McGonagall that you tried to hex someone with their wand down? Or why her new Prefect has grasshopper wings?”

“Do grasshoppers have wings?” Peter mumbled. “They are called grasshoppers.”

The other two Marauders were flanking James now, both their wands out and ready.

“I think I’d come out of the explanation on top. Minnie knows Snivillus is darker than the shit he puts in the toilet,” Sirius said, ignoring Peter.

“Ew,” James said in disgust, then ran a hand through his hair. “Come on Sirius, it's the first day and I really don’t want to deal with this shit right now.”

“That was a dark curse James!”

James grimaced. The Cutting Curse might have seriously injured him if Snape put in enough power.

“I know, but again, I’m not in the mood. I just wanna go to sleep in the dorm.”

James would think on Snape later. He really was tired from telling Sirius and Remus his story over and over again as they questioned him for details. Why the hell did Sirius care how many pairs of shoes Harry had?

Meanwhile Lily was harshly whispering to Severus.

“I told you it was a misunderstanding on my part. James didn’t do anything to me.”

“James?” Snape said darkly.

Lily rolled her eyes.

“Potter, James, who cares? I can’t believe you didn’t listen to me when I said it was nothing. Really! The Cutting Curse? That could have seriously hurt him. It could have gotten you expelled! His father is on the Wizengamot you know.”

That only made the expression on Snape’s face worse. As if he was annoyed that James had a father with power rather than the backlash that could have come from the attack.

Remus pulled Sirius and James into one of the carriages, and James caught one last look of Lily looking at him with a bit of thanks, while Snape stewed in anger.

Peter pulled the door shut and they sat in their usual order James next to Sirius and across from Peter. With James and Peter the two closest to the door.

Sirius huffed in agitation, putting his feet up between where Remus and Peter sat.

“What was that James!” he growled, still raging at the fact James was almost hurt.

“Some nice spellwork,” Remus said. “Did you mean for that to happen with the Stupefy?”

“Yeah, practiced it with Harry over the summer, can't tell you how many Tickling Jinxes hit me.”

Sirius apparently was not done complaining because he spoke over the two.

“James, you just defended Snivillus! You might have said that crap about Evans, but you can’t fool me. You didn’t want to retaliate against the darkest bloke in Slytherin. Who, again, tried to slice you open.”

Sirius wasn’t letting it go, and James knew he wouldn’t take a dismissal well. He might just go out to attack Snape again. Sirius was stupidly loyal like that. Always ready to curse first and question later.

James ran a hand roughly through his wild hair, his own agitation growing. He had wanted to slowly stop with the Snape stuff. Not just throw it out there.

“I- ugh. Well- no… I think we should lay off of Sni-Snape a bit.”

Everyone gaped at him then. Man, Harry had changed everything. To the Marauders Snivillus would be a life-long enemy. Peter didn’t really have an issue with him, and started any of the trouble, but as the smallest of the four Snape liked to mess with him a lot.

James knew Remus didn’t like what they did to Snape. He had tried to stop them quite a few times. It had actually ruined him from being good friends with Evans in the early years as Evans had told him to either drop the three of them or stop talking to her. Remus had chosen them.

And of course Sirius couldn’t stand the guy. He looked like everything Sirius hated about his family put into one. Only instead of being on the receiving end of the torment he more often than not was the one who tormented Snape. The cycle of hatred.

James… Well, James didn’t like Severus for similar reasons. Snape was a textbook Slytherin, just not politically powerful or a good socialite. Meanwhile James was a textbook Gryffindor, just that bravery had sometimes been recklessness or mean-spirited instead. Then there was the jealousy, something he would never admit, could barely admit it to himself.

Severus Snape, Snivillus, the dark, unkempt, loner… loser, was best friends with the only person James had never been able to get along with, and had never been able to get out of his head. Despite hating all other muggleborn, and hanging out with wanna be Death Eaters, Lily would rather hang out with Snape than James.

Sirius grabbed James by the face.

“What did that crazy old man do to you? Are you Imperioused?”

“No,” James said, cheeks squished together making his lips like a fish’s.

“Not that I’m not glad James, I’ve been wanting you guys to calm it down for years, but why?” Remus said.

Sirius still held his face, but James turned his head to look at the other two, who snorted at the sight.

“Just, well Harry kind of put some things together about Snape for me.”

Sirius grunted in disgust, throwing James’s head away. It bounced off the wall of the carriage.

“Ow! What was that!” James yelped, rubbing the back of his head

“Ah, my bad. Just trying to knock the sense back into you,” Sirius grumbled.

Damn Sirius was bad at apologizing.

“What did he put in perspective James?” Remus asked.

Thank Remus to keep things on topic.

James knew a lot about Severus, even some things Lily didn’t, so he couldn't just say. Oh you know he acts like a slimy cur because he is abused by his dad, his mom is weak willed, and he’s only ever had one friend that means so much to him he was willing to go against a crazy powerful megalomaniac in order to protect her, even to the point of protecting her child after her death.

He thought about what to say for a few moments, the rocking of the carriage being the only noise as they waited.

“Well. You guys remember when Remus went all ballistic when I spent a few hundred Galleons on new stuff for him?”

It had been late first-year, Remus always wore ratty clothing. His parents found it hard to keep a job or stay in one place when others realized their son was a werewolf. Not to mention all the money they had to spend on Remus’s monthly wounds.

Not that they knew he was a werewolf at the time.

“Yeah. He said that you didn’t understand the worth of money and how someone who grew up with a silver spoon in their mouth wouldn’t know how to take care of themselves in the real world,” Sirius said with his excellent memory.

James pointed at him.

“There, that exactly.”

The three looked confused.

“Well he wasn’t wrong. I wouldn’t know how to take care of myself. I was never taught how to. I don’t know how to… what's the word?”

“Budget,” Remus supplied.

“Yeah, that. I’d be unable to budget my stuff. Probably go broke in the first week spending all my money eating out. So… What if Snape is the same?”

“There’s no way Snivellus is rich,” Sirius said, but the other two had contemplative looks on their faces.

Peter looked like he came to what James was saying first, but Remus spoke before him.

“So you’re saying Snape is a “dingy, dark, greasy haired loner” because he never knew how to be anything else?” Remus said, grimacing at the oft used description.

“Yes, but-”

“But he’s saying Snape didn’t have the right parental figure to teach him those things,” Peter said. “Think about it. We call his hair greasy all the time, and talk about how he needs to shower. But what if his Mum and Dad were absent or… abusive. He was never taught how to take care of himself like that. And even though we call him out on it, he didn’t grow up with it so it's hard for him to fix or do. He doesn’t have the habit of hygiene.”

Sirius looked disgusted.

“Really? My parents are as abusive as they get, but I can still shower.”

“That’s because your Mum and Dad are stuck up Purebloods. I bet you know more about shampoo than most girls in our year,” Remus said with a smile.

“Your hair is very pretty Sirius,” James agreed, grabbing a lock of it.

“Oh? I would say dashing, but pretty will work.”

“Alright you ponce,” James laughed, yanking on the lock hard enough to cause Sirius to yelp.

Sirius smacked James’s hand away, and slid his back down to where it rested on the seat, legs still on the other bench.

“Okay so he has shitty parents, doesn’t change the fact that he’s a git who hangs out with the next generation of Death Eaters. We all know he admires them. Probably thinking about joining You-Know-Who himself.”

“Not his fault he was sorted into Slytherin.”

“Oh? Didn’t he shout out their praises from day one? He wanted to be one. Look at me, I was raised pure Slytherin, the bigotry flows strongly in me, but do I act like that?”

“Well kinda-” Peter said.

Sirius jumped up face contorted in rage.

“What did you say you fucking-”

James pulled him down. Sirius struggled against James, yanking away and scowling at him then glaring back at Peter who was huddled up in fear.

“Sirius… I- well I hate to say it, but that is exactly what a Slytherin would do if you called them a blood-traitor,” Remus said.

The Black Heir’s jaw clenched, eyes blazing.

“I know. I know, you don’t agree with what your family believes, but don’t you remember first year? It took you months to say muggleborn instead of, well you know,” Remus continued.

“That wasn’t my fault though, I didn’t know they had a different name. And if you don’t remember I didn’t end up in Slytherin, and I don’t call them that anymore. I changed. I- Am- Not- Like- Them!”

“True, but-”

Sirius threw his hands up in the air.

“No, lets stop this. I- hmmmmm. First day, no need for stupid shit right? I’ll think on the Snivillus crap, but don’t think I’ll suddenly be bumping uglies with snakes.”

“Why are you so gross?” James said.

James saw Sirius move his glare out the window.

His best friend never did like change. Didn’t like criticism either, reminded him of his family too much. For all the issues they said Snape had, Sirius had just as much if not more. Only he was handsome and could take care of himself so he wasn’t as easily talked down to.

Sirius came from a shitty home, and wanted to belong somewhere without expectations.

Peter never met his own expectations of himself, and wanted to be wanted.

Remus felt like an unworthy monster, and didn’t feel like he belonged anywhere.

James… James was lucky.

He could see what Harry meant when he said James was a leader. Normally that would have inflated his ego, but in this context it filled him with sadness.

The Marauders were a broken group of children, held together by a kid who never grew up wanting.

-

10 more Chapters up on my Pa treon

Pa tre on.c om/BronzeTurtle