All Right, Evans?

Chapter 6

Thursday, 8:58 A.M.

"We're going to be late," Remus said as he led his friends across the entrance hall towards the dungeons. They had two minutes before double Potions started, all because James and Sirius had been stuck in detention until midnight and decided to have a bit of a lay-in.

"Who cares?" Sirius yawned hugely. "The less time we spend with the Slytherins, the better."

"Don't you live in a house full of Slytherins?" Peter reminded him.

James laughed, but Sirius was unperturbed.

"All the more reason to avoid them at school," he said. "Bunch of lying, scheming -"

"Said the Marauder," Remus muttered as they descended the steps into the dimly lit dungeon corridor. Then, more loudly, he continued. "Really, Padfoot, you're awfully prejudiced for someone who claims to loathe the Slytherins for the exact same reason."

Sirius looked affronted. "Are you calling me a hypocrite?"

It was James who answered him then. "Yeah, a bit, but don't you think it's better to dislike someone for being a Muggle-hating git than to actually be the Muggle-hating git?"

Remus lifted his eyes to the ceiling. "I'm sorry for bringing it up at all."

"It's really too early to be philosophical," Peter agreed.

James shrugged. "Not like there's any love lost between Gryffindor and Slytherin, anyway."

"Hear, hear," Sirius muttered under his breath as they entered the Potions classroom.

Professor Slughorn shook his massive head at the four of them. "Boys, boys," he chided good-naturedly, "cutting it a bit close, aren't we?"

"Sorry, Professor," they chanted in unison as they took their usual seats in the back of the classroom.

Lily shot James a sort of exasperated half-smile when he passed her, and he felt his heart jump eagerly up into his throat. The rest of the Marauders rolled their eyes at the giddy look on their friend's face but didn't comment further.

As they pulled out the necessary ingredients that Slughorn had listed on the blackboard, Remus looked pointedly at James and Sirius and said, "See, you're wrong."

"Yeah, Moony, but I'm out of dragon claw, and I don't see how salamander teeth are allthat different -"

"Not about the ingredients," Remus interrupted, "although your potion's going to congeal if you do that, Padfoot; here, I've got extra dragon claw you can use. No, I meant you're wrong about Slytherins. Look at Slughorn, he's not so bad."

Peter nodded. "Even McGonagall might've docked us points for tardiness, and she's Head of Gryffindor."

Sirius snorted, causing some of his newly powdered dragon claw to scatter over the table. "That's only because Slughorn's got a soft spot for Prongs here."

James looked up from his Potions book. "What are you on about? Slughorn's got his favorites, and you don't see me skipping off to Slug Club meetings every other week."

"Well, no," Sirius conceded, "but you've got that whole 'fancying Evans' thing in common, so he must feel some sort of kinship."

James laughed. "Come off it."

"What? He must reckon you've got a good head on your shoulders, since you've spent the last year or so publicly announcing your affection. Me, I think you're a bit of a moron, but to each his own."

Remus looked about as unconvinced as James. "Slughorn never favored Snape much," he pointed out, "and Lily actually liked him."

James frowned at Remus's choice of words, but Sirius merely shrugged and said, "James has better hair."