Severus Snape's hand shook with excitement as he kept his wand trained directly to Remus Lupin's body. Slowly, Remus turned around, his arms were still raised up, and he faced Severus, who shoved his wand deep against Remus Lupin's chest with one hand, and held up the shivering fabric of the invisibility cloak.

"I found this by the base of the Whomping Willow," Severus said, throwing the cloak aside. He jabbed Remus with the tip of his wand again harshly. "Very useful, Potter, I thank you."

Sirius leaped to his feet.

Severus was breathless, staring between Remus and Sirius with a look of ecstatic excitement. "You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here?" He grinned wickedly at Sirius, then looked to Remus again. "I've just been to your office, Lupin. You forgot to take your potion tonight."

Remus's face paled.

"That's right..." Severus nodded. "I was taking your goblet to the you - and lucky I did... Lucky for me, I mean. Lying on the floor by your cozy little scene by the fire, I found a certain Map! One glance at it told me all that I needed to know! I saw you running down this passageway and out of sight... a secret little rendezvous, perhaps?" He looked at Sirius.

"Severus --" Remus started, but Severus stabbed him again with the wand so hard that Remus stumbled a step backwards.

Sirius moved to catch him, but Severus hissed, "Not... a step... further... Black." 

Sirius stopped dead in his tracks, glaring at Severus Snape with a fury unmatched by any other that any of the students had seen before. Even more hatred shone on Sirius's face now as he looked at Snape than he'd had looking at the rat moments before.

"I've told the Headmaster time... and time again... that you're helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin... and here... is... the... proof." He was staring at Sirius, even though he was talking to Remus. "Not even I imagined that you'd have the nerve to use this old place as your hideout --"

"You don't have very good imagination then, you git," Sirius snapped.

"My imagination is just fine," Severus smiled, "I can imagine the dementors sucking that arrogant attitude right out of you... you'll be vastly improved once they've finished with you..."

"Severus, you're making a mistake," Remus murmured, his voice urgent and low, words spoken through grit teeth. "You haven't heard everything - I can explain, see - Sirius isn't here to kill Harry --"

Severus interrupted him, as though Remus's words meant nothing. "TWO MORE FOR AZKABAN TONIGHT!" His eyes were gleaming. Still keeping Remus at wandpoint, but staring at Sirius, Snape added, "I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this..." he glanced at Remus and laughed darkly, "He was quite convinced that you were harmless, you know, Lupin... you know... a tame werewolf... as if there can be such a thing as a tamed monster."

"Shut your slimy mouth," Sirius hissed.

"And you - the guards of Azkaban will be quite pleased to have their quarry back!" Severus looked at Sirius. "They'll be delighted to see you again, I am sure."

"You fool," Remus said. "Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?"

"Back inside?" Severus's mouth twisted in a horrid smile. "Who said anything about him going back inside?"

Suddenly, the wand he was pressing to Remus's chest burst with bright golden, snakelike cords that wrapped around Remus's body, knotting themselves tightly around him, squeezing his arms to his sides so tightly that Remus could feel the blood throbbing in his arms, the circulation cutting off. The cords wrapped up and around his chest, around his neck and mouth, and down over his wrists, legs and ankles... He over balanced and fell to the floor, unable to move.

Sirius let out a roar of rage like a wounded lion and started forward toward Severus Snape, face red with fury, "You fucking piece of absolute fucking pondscum - you heinous, bleating sack of sh--"

"GIVE ME A REASON!" Severus bellowed and he raised his wand, pressing it directly between Sirius's eyes so that the point of it pressed into the bridge of his nose. "Give me a reason and I swear I will do it - you would fulfill... my...every...dream."

It would be impossible to say which of them showed more hatred now - Severus or Sirius - as they stood like that, facing one another. Everything in Sirius was screaming to unleash his mouth on Severus, but at the same time....

Harry stood there, paralyzed.

He didn't know what to do.

He didn't know what to believe.

With Severus and Sirius both distracted by one another, he looked around at Hermione and Ron with question in his eyes. What should he do? There was confusion ringing back to him from their faces, though Hermione was staring at Remus Lupin's bound body on the floor with a look that was a mixture of pity and worry. Ron struggled to hold onto Scabbers, his hands clutching tight to the rat's body, careful not to let his snapping mouth too close to his hand.

Hermione stared into Remus's eyes for a long moment.

Finally, tentatively, she stepped forward, and her voice shook with timidity as she spoke. "P-Professor Snape... it wouldn't -- it wouldn't hurt to hear what they've got to say, w-would it?"

"Miss. Granger you are already facing suspension from this school!" Severus spat, glaring at the three of them. "You, Potter, and Weasley are all out of bounds and in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf. For once in your life, will you PLEASE hold your tongue."

"But if there was a mistake --"

Hermione was thinking how terrible Snape was and how, despite that everything pointed in the other direction, that perhaps Sirius Black wasn't guilty after all and that maybe Severus Snape had it all wrong and --

"KEEP QUIET, STUPID GIRL!" Severus suddenly bellowed, outraged, "YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, YOU DO NOT KNOW!"

Sparks flew out of Severus's wand, which was still pressed to Sirius's nose and Sirius let out a shout and took a step backwards, nearly tripping over Remus. He caught himself only just and looked down, afraid he might've stepped on Remus.

Whatever the sparks were, they appeared to have been harmless, and Sirius looked back up at Snape wildly. Had a full grown wizard seriously just been so bothered by a little girl's plea for justice that he had done accidental magic?

That ain't normal. Sirius thought.

"SHUT UP! DO NOT MOVE!" yelled Severus. Then it was him who was laughing manically. "Vengeance is very sweet, Black, very sweet indeed. Gods alive how I hoped I would be the one who would catch you, be the one who got to call the dementors when you set a toe out of line... so please... fight. Fight to escape. Make my day."

Sirius looked down to Remus at his feet. 

"You have to do this right, Sirius!" the words echoed in his head.

He looked back up at Severus.

"The jokes on you, Severus... as long as Ron brings his rat with us up to the castle then I - I'll come quietly. No fight at all."

"Up to the castle? I don't think we should have to go as far as all the way up to the castle. We only need to get within the bounds of the Hogwarts grounds and once we get out of the Willow, I can call on the dementors from there. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black... pleased enough to give you a little Kiss, I daresay..."

What little color there was in Black's face left it.

"Come on, all of you," Severus said. He bent and grabbed hold of the ends of the strands of Remus's bindings and yanked, pulling Remus roughly a couple of feet across the floor so that he made a cry of pain, muffled by the ties that kept his mouth shut. "I will drag the werewolf. Perhaps the dementors will have a little Kiss for him, too." He looked directly at Sirius. "You both might enjoy that."

Severus's eyes were about as insane as eyes could be and they were enough to chill Sirius to the bone. He was so angry, he would do anything to have his wand, but it was bound to Remus's side, and there was no hope of getting to it before Snape would have time to blast him to smithereens.

Sirius looked over at Harry.

Harry's eyes were trained on Severus, and his eyes were wide with fear and anger and --

Do it right. Do it right. Do the right thing. 

What would James do? 

James would see to it that everyone else got out of this safe. 

James would sacrifice himself it meant getting these kids - HIS KID - out of this Shack and back to safety.

"Please, Severus... Please, you have to listen to me... I know we've had our differences, but - I - I swear on James Potter's honor --"

Severus laughed. "Not much to swear on."

Every muscle tightened in Sirius Black.

Severus turned and started to pull Remus across the floor of the clubhouse room, trailing him in the dust.

Suddenly, Harry was standing in the doorway, blocking Severus Snape's path.

Snape stopped and stared at Harry.

Severus sneered at Harry. "Get out of the way."

"No," Harry said quietly.

"Get out of the way, Potter!" Severus's face was red with anger. "You're in enough trouble already. If I hadn't been here to save your skin ---"

"Professor Lupin could've killed me about a hundred times this year!" Harry said, "I've been alone with him loads of times, having defense lessons against the dementors! If he was helping Black then why didn't he just finish me off then?"

"Do not ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works!" hissed Snape. "Now GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!"

"No."

"POTTER!"

"YOU'RE PATHETIC!" Harry yelled, "JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN --"

"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" Severus bellowed over Harry's loudest voice. He was so mad he looked ready to implode. "LIKE FATHER LIKE SON, POTTER! I saved your neck; you should be GRATEFUL, THANKING ME ON BENDED KNEES! You would've been well served if he HAD killed you! You'd have died like your father - too arrogant that you might be mistaken about Black. Now get out of my way, or I WILL MAKE YOU GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!"

"I SAID NO!" Harry shouted, his face screwed up with determination.

Sirius would've recognized that look - and the foot stamp that went with it - absolutely anywhere.

Oh, bloody hell. This is gonna be good. 

Do you see this Lilith? Bloody hell. James, do you see?

Do you see what your boy just did?

"EXPELLIARMUS!" Harry bellowed at the top of his voice, with every ounce of determination and rage in his body.

There was a blast so loud that the shutters over the windows shook with it and it was certain that the flash had to have been visible clear to the center of the village. Sirius shielded his eyes and was bowled backwards over Remus's bound up body, landing on the floor on his arse on the opposite side, legs hanging over him. Ron and Hermione were standing up, too, for it wasn't just Harry who had shouted - it was all three of them at once, and the spells all struck Snape in the chest, sending him flying backwards - hard - directly into the wall that had once been covered with pictures and things, still speckled with bits and remains of spellotape and thumbtacks. Severus slammed into the wall so hard that the plaster cracked behind him and he slid to the wall, limp and unconscious, a trickle of blood oozing from under his hair where his head had slammed into a cross beam.

Harry's eyes were wide. He looked around at the other two in shock, and Hermione's jaw dropped, Ron clutched the nearest post of the bed and looked frantically between Harry and Hermione, too, still holding onto Scabbers tightly with his other hand.

"Ohhh no," breathed Hermione and she dropped her wand to her feet, staring at it like she was looking at a dangerous weapon. She looked at Harry then to Ron and back to Harry again. "Oh no. Oh no. We're in such a lot of big trouble! Ohhh... We've just attacked a teacher! We attacked a TEACHER!" Her voice was shaking.

Sirius slow-clapped from the floor.

"Well," Sirius grinned and a barking laugh rose up from deep in him. "I think that this may just have been James's proudest moment of his entire life - if only he'd been here to see it!"