The Marauder's Tale [MOONY, WORMTAIL, PADFOOT, & PRONGS]

XVI. Practicing

"Hey, Snivellus!"

To Sirius' delight, Snape stopped and turned around when he heard the name. They must have been using it a lot for that to happen. Sirius ran the last few steps to catch up with him.

"What do you want, Black?" he asked, sounding completely annoyed.

"I want to talk to you," Sirius said evenly.

"And just what do you have to say that I might be interested in hearing?"

"I want to warn you," Sirius said, his eyes narrowing. "Stay away from my brother."

Severus' eyes widened in surprise. "What did you say?"

"I said to stay away from my brother. He's told me what great friends you are. Quite honestly, I think he can do better."

"What, you think you and your friends would be better for him?" Severus sneered. "You're a disgrace to your family name. How do you think it affects your brother, having to carry that around with him every day? He knows that the Black family would kick you out if it could. Why shouldn't he be friends with people like me - people that his family would approve of?"

Sirius stepped closer. "Watch it, Snivellus."

"What? You don't like hearing about how your family feels about you?"

"That would be the same way they've always felt about me, and the same way I've always felt about them," Sirius replied. "My only concern in my family is Regulus. You leave him alone, or you'll have me to answer to."

He turned quickly, and walked off before Severus had time to reply. He was in no mood to hear more about how much his family didn't want him. He knew it was true. His mother was probably at home right now trying to find a reason to get him a Christmas present. But he didn't want them, either. Except for Regulus. He would do anything to get Regulus away from them.

"Where have you been?" James asked as Sirius entered the common room. He was watching Remus and Peter play wizard chess.

"Having a little chat with Snivellus," Sirius replied. "I think he enjoyed it as much as I did."

"Does he still have all his limbs?" Remus asked.

"I didn't hex him," Sirius said. "I just told him to stay away from Regulus."

"And if he doesn't?" Peter asked.

Sirius grinned. "Then I'll be forced to hex him."

James laughed. "I knew hexing would be involved somehow."

"Are we going to practice tonight?" Peter asked. They had taken to referring to their Animagi research as "practicing" so no one would guess what they were doing.

"Yeah, fine by me," Sirius said. "I need something to distract myself from Snivellus."

"Sure," Remus said, never lifting his eyes from the chessboard. "This will be a good distraction, too. We haven't seen Snivellus waiting for us since Regulus called him off, and that's been weeks now."

"Yeah, tonight's good," James said. "Don't forget, we have a Quidditch match tomorrow, so I won't be able to practice then."

"Neither will we!" Sirius exclaimed. "Do you think we'd miss one of your matches?"

James grinned. This match was against their archrival, Slytherin, and would determine whether or not they could pay for the Quidditch Cup. Derek declared that they had the best shot of winning the Cup that they had in years. James and Olivia talked about the upcoming match almost constantly when they saw each other. They couldn't believe that they were on a team that could make it that far.