James trudged morosely down a dimly-lit corridor, wand lit but held low in his limp hand. He muttered angrily to himself, swore as he narrowly missed a suit of armour, and kicked the wall next to him in frustration. He let out an aggravated sigh and sank onto the floor, leaning back against the wall and extinguishing his wand with a murmured "Nox". It left him in near-total darkness in an empty, abandoned-looking corridor, it being almost midnight. He shut his eyes and leant his head back against the wall too, the previous event that had led to this point replaying in his head...

**FLASHBACK**

He was sitting on his bed, in bad spirits, when his best mate, partner-in-crime, and almost-brother, Sirius, walked in. Sirius took one glance at James and sank opposite him on his own bed, a not-completely covered exasperated look on his face.

He asked, "What the hell happened to you?" in that extremely tactful way that only Sirius could pull off.

James' eyes flashed momentarily and he snarled at the ground. "Nothing." He didn't want to snap or sound angry at Sirius, but he couldn't help it. Earlier that day, James had seen Lily Evans sucking face with the Ravenclaw, Thomas Goldstein, and looking like she was enjoying herself too. From then on, he'd snapped at anyone and everyone, though he hadn't sen Sirius till now (since he was at detention), so the latter was unaware of his bad mood.

His est mate cocked an eyebrow skeptically. "Right. I'll just let you wallow in self-despair then, yeah? 'Cause it's not like I can help when I don't even know what the hell's wrong with you." Sirius was becoming increasingly frustrated by his mate's now common behavious, but tried to hide it to avoid a full-blown argument.

James sneered. "Yeah, like there's a hell of a lot of stuff you can do. Why don't you just - I don't know - mind your own business for once?" he spat, his previous anger lashing out.

Sirius looked taken aback but stood up and said angrily, "So tyhat's how you're gunna be?" he leered as James also stood up, glaring. "It's about Evans again, isn't it?" he continued, fury now latching onto his tones. "You always go moping around after her, like some - some stupid, lovesick puppy, well here's a newsflash, mate: she doesn't like you!" He said these words with such force that James was momentarily stung. But he reared back again.

"Well, some best mate you are! You're -"

"Don't even go there." Sirius cut in in low, menacing tones. "Don't you dare call me a bad best mate when all you do these days is act more hormonal than a teenage girl," he spat disgstedly, grey eyes turned stony. "'Evans cursed me today!' 'Evans yelled at me and I didn't do anything!' 'Evans won't even smile at me' - Well, i'm sick of it! I'm sick of hearing you complain about the same thing everyday, I'm sick of-"

"You don't even understand!" James retaliated furiously. "This isn't some stupid crush anymore! You- you're supposed to support me in this anyway! I -"

"Hold it. Hold it right there." said Sirius coldly, slowly. "You're doing it again. You're turning this into another rant about her! Well what about us, huh? What about me and Moony and Wormtail? We're your freakin' mates, you ungrateful git!" his voice grew louder with each word. James just stared at him."Oh, but you don't give a damn about us, do you? What we do isn't associated with Lily Evans, why should it be important to you, James Potter, Mr. I'm So High And Mighty I Don't Even Give A Freaking Damn About My Best Mates!"

"That's not true!" snapped James automatically, the words pouring out of his mouth before he could even think. "It's not like any of you know what I go through 'cause of her! And I do give a freaking damn about you all," he said in a low voice, though it was cold. "I never thought you'd say that, out of all people. You guys are like my brothers -!"

But he got cut off again, as Sirius narrowed his eyes and said quietly, "Well you have a funny way of showing it. We try cheering you up, you go all moody. We wanna play a prank, you tell us to piss off. We try to do what brothers do and what do you do? You push us away like you don't even appreciate our efforts!" He crossed his arms and finished off in a disgusted tone, "And we're sick of it."

James stared at him for a moment, speechless, then shouldered past him to the door. Then he heard Sirius mutter venomously, "She's not even bloody worth it."

James saw red as his rage boile over. With a growl, he spun around and broughthis clenched fist onto Sirius' face, right on his eyes. He didn't stay to see the result, but stormed out of the dorm, pushing past Remus too, who was just coming up the stairs looking bewildered. James dashed out of the Common Room in a rage, not even considering where his feet led him, his mind reeling after that argument - his first real argument with his best mate.

**END FLASHBACK**

James opened his eyes as he heard footsteps approaching. A quiet, familiar voice called out, "James?" He looked up to see a shadowy fiure approach, his wand lit up and held in front of him. It was Remus. James looked back at the opposite wall as Remus came closer, then crouched next to him.

"So..." he began awkwardly, hesitating at James' icy expression. The messy-haired Marauder glanced back at him and sighed, clearing his expression.

"How'd you find me?" he asked after a while. The young werewolf gestured to the piece of parchment inhis hnds - the Marauders' Map. James nodded comprehensively. Remus studied him for a moment then said, "You need to talk to him."

James snorted. "What, and get another ear-bahing?" he muttered aggravatedly. His friend hesitated again.

"Well, you - you sort of had it coming," he replied cautiously, as though afraid that James would lash out at him. But the latter just closed his eyes an leaned his head back again.

"Yeah, I know that... I was a right git, wasn't i?"

He smiled wryly. "To put it mildly, yeah, you were."

James managed a small grin too, but it quickly disappeared as he stared at his right fist, the one that had punched Sirius. He felt sickened by what he'd done, ashamed. Remus watched him silently, then said evenly, "He didn't mean to say all that, you know."

"Yeah? He sure looked like he did." muttered James, though there was no venom in his voice. He came to a decision and hauled himself to his feet.

"Where are you going?" asked Remus, also getting up. James' mouth twisted in a half-smile.

"I'm going to talk some sense into that idiot." he said curtly, making his way back to the common room, Remus following with a lookof mingled apprehension and relief on his face.

Sirius was still in the dorm, sitting on the edge of his bed and reducing random bits of paper to ashes with his wand. He looked up when James walked in (Remus had said he'll wait in the common room) and James flinched slightly, not only at the cold glare his bestmate was giving him, but also from his rapidly-bruising right eyes. He didn't know he'd hit him that hard.

"So..." James began, leaning against his own bed post, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck,

"What?" said Sirius coolly, getting to feet so he wouln't have to look up at James. "Come to finish your job? Decided that deserve two black eyes?" JAmes cringed again at his tone, then let out a breath, steadying himself.

"No." he said firmly, keeping his voice even and his gaze steady. "I came to apologise, Padfoot, believe it or not."

A flicker of surprise showed on Sirius' face but he quickly regained his composture. He narrowed hs eyes at James, a slight sneer worthy of Snape on his face. "Yeah, right. I reckon you should piss off and not call me by my nickname, Potter. That's reserved for my real mates."

James' eyes widened for a second, feeling as though Sirus had just hexed him with the force that he'd said 'Potter'. But he mentally shook himself and crossed his arms.

"Okay, look, if you can stop being a git for a second and listen to me,I'll piss off all you want. just listen."

Sirius stared at him with an indifferent expression, but didn't say anything. James inwardly sighed wth relief. "Alright, I'm only saying this once, 'cause it's against Marauder's code to go all sissy and babble on about apologies." He paused to draw a breath. Sirius continued staring at him silently. "Alright, first thing's first: I'm not big on these un-manly feelings talk thingy, so I'll just settle with, I'm a right git and prat and I know that, and you have every right in this twisted world - and my permission - to beat me up now, because I know you mate, and I know you're just burning to do that."

There was a bit of a strained silence, then Sirius grinned wickedly and jumped at James, tackling him back. The latter of the two gave a startled shout but it turned into muffled laughter as Sirius play-pounded him.

"Damn it, mate, I can't breathe!" gasped James, still laughing. Sirius smirked and got off him to give James some air. James sucked in a big breath then got up, dusted himself, and returned the smirk.

"Let out all your pented up anger, then?" he asked mockingly as Sirius also got up. He contemplated he messy-haired Marauder for a moment before replying, "Nah, not yet," and shoving him back playfully. Unfortunately, James stumbled back and trpped on his trunk then failed to cushion his fall. His glasses flew off and he banged intothe corner of his bed, right next to his left eye.

"Shit, sorry mate," apologised Sirius. "You alright?" He hauled his best mate up and winced at the bruise starting to form. James touched it gingerly then threw his mate a wide grin.

"Awesome! Think of the cool stories we can make up for these!" he cried happily and Sirius barked a laugh at the daydreaking expression on James' face. He clapped him on the shoulder.

"Great idea, Prongs. We can probably pull of an ambush with Death Eaters, and say we beat the crap out of them and got away with only a black eyes each," he mused, a grin starting to form on his face.

James looked over and smirked. "Oh, so you can call me Prongs, but I can't call you Padfoot?"

Sirius considered him. "Oh, alright, I give you permission to call me that again... but-"

"You two fine then?"

The two teens looked over to the doorway where Remus was standing, an eyebrow raised amusedly as he surveyed them.

"As fine as rain, Moony," replied James happily, receiving two odd looks.

"Erm, 'as fine as rain'...?" commented Sirius questioningly, looking like he feared for his mate's sanity. "Mate, I think that hit addled your brains."

"Hit? What- Oh. Padfoot, tell me you didn't give Prongs that black eye." said Remus disdainfully as he walked over to them, a faint smile playing on his lips.

Sirius shook his head and snickered. "Nah, though I probably should've, huh?"

James nodded seriously. "As the saying goes, An eye for an eye, a tooth for a claw, a... um... well, something like that," he raked a hand through his hair confusedly. Remus and Sirius shared troubled looks.

"Er, right," said Remus as Sirius cocked an eyebrow. "Prongs are you feeling alright?"

The boy in question nodded again, this time looking more dazed than serious. "Yep, sue, why wouldn't I? Don't answer that," he added quickly as they both opened their mouths. He leaned back against the bedpost and looked around the room, returning back to his less-dazed self. "Y'know what guys? Next year's our final year here. After that, the Marauders won't ever wreak havoc and mayhem inside this castle."

"Unless we all fail our NEWTs and have to repeat," supplied Sirius with an amused grin.

"Yeah, 'cause that's likely to happen," said Remus, rolling his eyes and turning back to James to continue.

The raven-haired Marauder looked at both of them, a familiar Marauder-y glint in his hazel eyes. "Next year... next year's our year - the Marauder's year. We're gunna make it a year for all to remember. We're gunna go all-out in everything - the students will remember us for ages, and the teachers won't teach another group of boys more... more marauderly than us. We're going out with a bang, boys." He concluded, and the three teens knocked fists.

"What about Evans?" asked Sirius, eyebrow raised questioningly. James imitated his notion.

"What about her?"

The other two exchanged looks. "Well? Aren't you gunna go all out to get her next year, or what?"

James gazed at the far wall of their dorm, a slightly wistful expression on his face. But then he turned back to his mates and shrugged. "No. As I said, next year's for the Marauders only. We need to enjoy our last year here before we go out to the big bad world. And we've all got eachother's backs when we go out there."

Remus and Sirius knew he didn't want to discuss the topic of Lily anymore, so they wisely kept didn't comment.

"Onya, mate. Couldn't have put it better myself." said Sirius with a crooked grin. Remus nodded and slapped James on the shoulder.

"You're right. Next year's our year."

James surveyed his best mates contently, knowing that they'll stay brothers till the end.

A/N: So, whaddaya think? x3 This is the first time I attempt something like this, and I'm actually pretty pleased with it. I hope I got that insights to a guy's mind right, since I'm not exactly experienced in this.

So, just a small fanfic of the boys' brotherly love for each other. =) Like it? Hate it? Review please. ^^

Izzy xo