Waking up, Sirius thought for a second that he was back at Grimmauld Place, in his parents' room. Green and silver hangings, green bedcovers, and a silver ceiling replaced the red and gold that he was so used to.

"Sirius, are you okay?" Remus asked, seeing Sirius sit up and look around with a confused look on his face. Suddenly, comprehension gleamed in Sirius' eyes and he groaned, laying back down.

"I thought it was just a bad dream!" he said angrily.

"James reacted the same way." Remus said, getting up and walking over to Sirius' bed. He sat down beside Sirius, running his fingers through the long black hair of his best friend. "I didn't want to believe it either." he confessed, hanging his head slightly.

"This is absolutely insane. We had no warning whatsoever that this would happen to us! This was supposed to be our best year at Hogwarts yet, Moony!" Sirius ranted angrily, panting by the end of it.

Remus stood up again, starting to pace as he thought.

"What good would it have done to warn us?" he asked Sirius, angry at the situation himself. "I don't think that anyone would allow us to just transfer schools on a whim, and our only other options would have been Durmstrang, Beauxbatons, or private tutors, anyway."

"I think I'd rather go to Beauxbatons." James said, coming out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. "It would be better than Hogwarts at the moment."

Remus nodded in agreement, sitting back down on Sirius' bed. James got his clothes, dressed, and then joined them.

"Breakfast is going to start in about an hour." Sirius said, sounding depressed, a definite first when it came to food. "Should we just wait up here for an hour, or should we try to brave the common room?"

"On the one hand, I don't want them to think that we're afraid of them. On the other hand, if we go down there…" Remus said, trailing off.

"If they try anything, we're going to hurt them, the mood we're in right now." James finished. Remus nodded, curling up to Sirius tighter.

"Can you check the Map to see where Lily is?" Remus asked James. "If she's down there alone, I want to be there for her."

James got to his feet, going to his trunk on the other side of the room.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." he said, smiling as the ink spread across the previously blank parchment. Remus and Sirius got up and stood beside him.

"There she is." Sirius said, pointing to the map. "She's alone in a dorm room."

"I think that they didn't want to risk mixing us all together immediately. We have our own dorm, after all. And look, the two Ravenclaw guys are rooming together, and the three girls." Remus said, his finger tracing their names.

"And there's that Hufflepuff girl, Aurora. You know, the one who's dating Lovegood." James said.

"Is there a way to let Lily know our plans?" Sirius asked. "That way, we don't have to worry if the Slytherins are going to kill her."

"I think I'd be more worried for the Slytherins." Remus said, laughing a little. "Lily won't put up with anything that they try."

"True. For once, it's going to be amusing to see her curse the spit out of someone." James said.

"Other than you, you mean." Sirius said, teasing James.

"Exactly." James said, grinning at him.

"Should be interesting. After all, Lily has a vicious streak in her." Remus mentioned.

"Don't we all?" James asked. "We just never really let anyone know about it."

"Anyway, back to letting Lily know. I think that I could send her a quick letter, the way we sometimes pass notes in History of Magic." Remus said, grabbing a spare roll of parchment and a quill and taking a seat at the desk in the middle of the room.

"And yet you scold James and I for passing notes?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow at Remus. "Shame on you, Remus, passing notes." he scolded him jokingly.

"Lily and I aren't dumb enough to pass notes in front of a teacher who would love to assign us detentions!" Remus defended himself, blushing. "You know McGonagall hates anyone not paying attention."

"Minnie loves us no matter what we do." James said, sounding perfectly convinced. "She gives us detentions so that we can spend more time with her."

Remus snorted. "If you say so." He finished the letter, and got his wand from his bed stand.

"Will you ever teach us that spell?" Sirius asked in exasperation as Remus nonverbally enchanted the parchment to fly.

"Nope." Remus said, grinning when Sirius pouted.

"What did you tell her?" he asked.

"Just that we weren't ready to go down yet, but that we'd meet her in forty minutes. That will give us enough time for Padfoot and I to shower, and for me to start filling those empty bookcases up." Remus replied.

"Cool." Sirius said, stretching. "I call dibs on the shower."

"Alright. Prongs, could you help me with some of my books?"

"Sure." James said, wincing slightly. He knew how many books Remus had, and he was pretty sure that it would take more than forty minutes to go through them all.

"When did you put these books here?" James asked, motioning to an already-filled bookcase.

"Those aren't mine." Remus said in confusion. He walked over to the bookcase. "How To Win At Any Cost? Fool-Proof Alibis? They all seem to be about how to be a Slytherin!"

"Typical. Bet you anything that Slughorn put them in here so that you can teach us from them." James said, sneering at the books. "I'm calling this bookcase the Slytherinization Agenda, just so you know."

"Ooh, a big word." Remus said, laughing when James threw a book at him. Remus cast a Cushioning Charm on the book, so that it wasn't damaged.

"Look, their covers are all green and silver!" James said, looking at the books closer.

"I should read them, just to get a feel for how the Slytherins think and all." Remus said, chewing his lip as he reached for one.

"Later." Sirius said, coming out of the bathroom dressed for class, scowling as he tied the green and silver Slytherin tie around his neck. "Once you get your shower, we can meet Evans."

"Lily." Remus reminded him patiently, grabbing his clothes. Sirius nodded, grabbing his hairbrush from his trunk.

"Hurry up, Moony! I don't want my hair to dry like this." Sirius said, pushing Remus toward the bathroom.

James checked the map again while his friends argued over the bathroom. It seemed like all of the other new Slytherins had the same idea as them, staying in their dorms until the last second. The common room was packed with Slytherin's upper years, almost none of whom had been resorted. Only seven were in new Houses: three were now in Gryffindor and four in Ravenclaw.

Out of all the Slytherins, James was most worried about Severus Snape. He and his friends had bullied Snape relentlessly, and now they were trapped in his house. You didn't have to be a genius to know that this was going to end catastrophically badly. If the shoe was on the other foot, he knew that he'd already have tried something.

Even Professor Dumbledore may not be able to stop Snape now that they were resorted into Slytherin.

His friends barged out of the bathroom, interrupting his worried thoughts. He told himself that he was just being overdramatic, but he couldn't shake off the bad feeling he had.

"Are we ready to go?" Remus asked.

"Not really, but we don't have a choice." was Sirius' annoyed reply. He looked at Remus apologetically a second later. "I'm sorry, Moony. I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"I understand, Padfoot. This is your worst nightmare."

"Literally. I used to have nightmares when I was ten about being a Slytherin." Sirius confessed.

"With the family you have, I'm not surprised." James said, rolling his eyes.

"Normally, I'd snap at them about how I was sorted into Gryffindor, which means that I'm nothing like them, but they'll probably point out that I'm not a Gryffindor anymore, and I really don't want to get into that." Sirius said, shaking his head.

"Since Hogwarts decided to ignore our requests, maybe we should just go along with this for now." Remus said, shrugging. "At least, we shouldn't borrow trouble."

"And on that note, let's go down to the Common Room, full of people who hate our guts and would love to see us drowned in a cauldron, and try not to kill them." James chimed in, smiling when Sirius and Remus laughed.

As they walked out the door and headed down the staircase, they saw Lily coming down the opposite staircase. They met at the base of the stairs, before turning to look at all of Slytherin House's Fifth through Seventh years gathered in front of the entranceway.

"Remember, play nice." Remus murmured quietly to his friends. They nodded slightly, approaching the blockade. They stopped about ten feet away.

"Do you all really think that you'll get out of here without a lesson?" Bellatrix Black asked, pulling out her wand. "You don't belong here."

"Define nice." Sirius said to Remus, putting his hand on his wand without looking away from Bellatrix. "Because I think it would be nice for my eyes if some of that wild hair of hers was cut off. I won't cut her neck…much."

James laughed appreciatively. "Nice. I would have gone for her fingernails, personally, but your method works too."

Lily nodded. "I think that maybe she wasn't suited to being an onion. What do you all think of a worm?"

"Love it." was Remus' opinion, as he looked straight into Bellatrix's eyes, letting some of the wolf's amber color seep into his normally blue eyes. She flinched, almost imperceptibly, but the former Gryffindors caught it. They all smiled viciously. They almost never let their sadistic sides out to play, but they enjoyed it when they had the chance.

"You're outnumbered." Bellatrix said smoothly, shocked when they all looked at her and shrugged.

"Honestly, I don't think that really matters." Lily said. "Because maybe one of your friends would get us, but we would already have destroyed you."

Every Slytherin gasped at her words, said in such a calm tone that it seemed like she was talking about the weather or homework.

"Anyone else?" Sirius asked, pushing Bellatrix out of the way. He turned to meet the eyes of every Slytherin.

"Come on, I'm starving." James said, pushing through the crowd. The others followed him, not backing down. The Slytherins parted to let them through.

Half an hour later, at a section of the breakfast table that was pretty much deserted, the Marauders and Lily noticed that the Slytherins were glancing at them and whispering among themselves.

"Merlin, can they make it any more obvious? Why not just stand up with a sign that says 'We couldn't bully them'?" Sirius asked in exasperation after a few minutes.

"I don't know." Remus said, grabbing some more scrambled eggs and fruit. "For all that this is the house of cunning, they don't seem to follow their own rules very well."

"Exactly." Sirius said, poking James' hand with a fork when he tried to steal a piece of bacon. "They've never been too good at subtlety, but this is just pathetic."

"Subtlety? You're lecturing someone on subtlety?" Remus teased. Sirius stuck his tongue out.

"Look!" Lily exclaimed, pointing to Gryffindor's table.

"Speaking of subtlety…" she smacked Remus' shoulder for that comment, not looking away from whatever had caught her attention.

"Frank and Alice are holding hands!" she said excitedly.

"Good for them. Frank's been trying to get up the courage to ask her all year." James said.

When Frank glanced over to their table, they raised their glasses toward him, and he beamed. He nudged Alice, who looked over and smiled when she saw their friends celebrating their new relationship.

"Well, I guess that's everyone from our study group except you and I." Lily said, looking at Remus.

"You'll probably be next." he said, pouring himself a cup of tea.

"What about you, James?" Lily asked. "I noticed that you've finally stopped asking me out."

"I'll tell you later." he promised, glancing at the Slytherins who were close enough to eavesdrop. She bobbed her head slightly in understanding.

"I think that you two will become friends, now that there's no flirting." Sirius said. "You both have the same sense of humor."

Lily smiled at James. "I think that I'd like that."

James grinned back at her.

"Anyone caught your eye, Lily?" Remus asked, before dropping his voice. "I hope you're not still crushing on…" he let his sentence drift off, looking at her meaningfully.

She winced, looking down at her plate. "It's just hard for me to let him go, Rem. You know how it is. He was my best friend for so long."

"He doesn't care about you. He made that very clear." Remus said gently, doing his best not to hurt her feelings as he made his point. "It's been a year and a half, and he hasn't even apologized for what he called you."

"Wait, are you talking about Snivellus?" Sirius asked, looking between them. Remus nodded.

Sirius turned to Lily. "That situation is nothing but trouble, Lils. Trust me, he's practicing magic that you don't want to be dealing with."

"Dark magic?" she asked, looking as if she would throw up.

"He's best friends with Lucius Malfoy and Rudolphus Lestrange. He's definitely doing at least some dark magic. It's practically food to their lot." he said in disgust.

"Wouldn't Professor Dumbledore sense it?" James asked. "Can't the Aurors do something?"

"Prongs, you can't arrest someone just for being Dark. It's when it's illegal magic that it becomes a problem, and most dark magic isn't illegal. Dumbledore can sense their magical affinity, but he can't do anything about it." Remus explained. "And there's almost no way to tell just from the feel of magic whether it's illegal or not, except in the case of the Unforgivables. They actually taint your magic, making it extremely dark for several hours." he continued.

"Huh. So, there's really no way to know?" Lily asked, leaning in.

"Not unless you cast Priori Incantatum, which doesn't work on wandless spells, not to mention you can clear your wand history out pretty easily." Sirius cut in, taking over the explanation.

"How do you know so much about this?" Lily asked him.

"I'm a Black. We're taught this stuff as bedtime stories." he said, scowling at the memories. "My mother used to make me study for two hours a day about all the different facets of magic."

"So, every Dark family knows all of this?" Remus asked. They were getting into this discussion, ignoring everyone else at the table.

"Pretty much. I mean, my family has their secrets, just like every other Pureblood family, but for the most part, yeah." Sirius said. "How do you know, Remus?"

"I had to learn." he said, rubbing at the bite-shaped scar over his heart. It was his nervous tic, the unconscious movement he made whenever they talked about his lycanthropy. "Once I found out that my…situation was permanent, I did all the research that I could on the subject. I even had Dad take me to Knockturn Alley to get a few Darker books on the subject. According to them, I'm considered neutral, and that's only because I've never cast a dark spell. Dark magic is my natural affinity."

"Wow. Do you still have those books?" Lily asked. "I'd love to read them."

"Yeah, I've got them in my trunk, under a glamour that makes it seem like they're about History Of Magic."

"Clever." Lily said. "No one ever reads anything about that subject."

"Exactly." Remus said. "And it's not like anyone would believe that I would care about dark magic."

"So, just because you're a werewolf, it actually changes your magic?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, it's the reason that we're classified as Dark Creatures."

"Guys, I think it's time for class." Sirius interrupted their discussion, seeing their classmates rise around them. "Better hurry if you want a good seat in Charms." he said, jokingly. Everyone knew that Lily and Remus had no problem kicking other people out of their seats.

As they got up, Lucius Malfoy watched them leave, eyebrows raised.

For all their intelligence, the Marauders and Lily had forgotten one crucial thing: a privacy charm.