Ever since their talk with Daisy, the Marauders could not help but think of the many different kinds of pranks they could play on the Hufflepuff house. After the grandiose prank they planned for the Ravenclaws, and the numerous pranks they had directed at the Slytherins, they knew the Hufflepuff scheme had to be perfect. They had some different plans in the works, fragments of ideas, pieces of a plan, but for this particular prank, they figured it should start at the drawing board.

And so they did, hours upon hours were spent labouring over each detail of the plan. It wasn't until Monday that the whole plan was complete, and on Tuesday they began to set things into motion. The Gryffindor boys were all sitting under a stairwell talking over the plans when things stopped falling into place.

"Listen the hallway is exactly two meters long, so if we are going to be in the hallway we need to..." James' sentence was cut off by an exasperated sigh from Sirius.

"Wait! I swear the hallway was two point zero five meters long, which would change things."

"No, the hallway is definitely only two meters," James stated clearly.

Sirius shuffled through his sketches and notes laid out on the floor until he picked up a sketched floor plan of the corridor. "See right here" Sirius gestured at the paper, which read 2.05 meters.

"Wait, was this written before or after the staircases moved? Because the end of the corridor might be slightly narrower now." Remus asked.

"Maybe we should go and remeasure to double-check" Peter piped in quietly.

"Good idea, Pete" James agreed. "Let's go now to make sure nothing goes wrong tomorrow."

Scooping up the papers on the floor the boys made their way to the kitchen corridor. While down there they were happened across by Severus Snape and Malcolm Mulciber– another Slytherin boy in their year.

"What are you four doing down here" Severus sneered.

"We could ask you the same thing, Snivellus," James said staring dead into Snape's cold near-black eyes.

"I won't have you making another mockery of Slytherin with your idiotic pranks" he snapped moving closer to James.

"Oh yeah, and what are you gonna do to stop us?" Sirius said standing up taller and walking next to James.

"Shut up you filthy little blood traitor, your parents don't even-" Snape could not even finish his sentence before James punched him. Reeling back, Snape stumbled falling backwards with not even a moment to spare before James was on top of him, a few more punches connected before Snape finally processed what was going on enough to fight back.

"Mors stimulus" Snape shouted, jumping back from the shock of the hex, James quickly regained his balance and grabbed his wand.

"Expelliarmus" James shouted, sending Severus' wand across the room. With Snape weaponless, James reverted back to physical fighting, launching himself onto the other and yelling, "Don't you dare talk badly about Sirius."

"BOYS!" Professor Sprout shouted in her shrill voice. "Break it up!" After a few seconds of the boys not listening, she started again, "Petrificus Totalus Duo," Falling like boards on the floor, the boys were frozen, the only exception being their eyes which moved about wildly.

"I don't know who started this fight, but it's over! You both have detention this weekend" Professor Sprout lectured before turning to Malcolm, Remus, Sirius, and Peter, "Now I don't know why none of you boys would have tried to stop this, but I am very disappointed" she sighed shaking her head. "50 points will be taken from both Slytherin and Gryffindor." She turned to leave, muttering the counter curse for James and Severus before walking up the stairs.

Stumbling to his feet, James walked over to where his three friends stood. Malcolm walked over to Severus pulling him to his feet. Snape wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand and sneered at the Marauders before sulking up the steps.

"Are you okay?" Peter quietly asked.

"'M fine" James insisted brushing his busted lip which was already slightly swollen.

"Perhaps we should postpone the prank we had planned" Remus interjects.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," Sirius mutters, "Let's just go, dinner is in an hour" They all muttered words of agreement and ascended the stairs with all of their notes for the prank that they could no longer use.

Crawling through the portrait hole, the boys made their way into the common room. Their entrance gained the attention of Lily Evans who closed her book and turned to face the boys.

"Well you lot look cheerful," she said with heavy sarcasm. "Professor McGonagall catch you trying to stir up mischief again?"

"Actually, it was Sprout this time" Peter chimed in, attempting to be helpful, but only getting an elbow shove and glare from Sirius and James respectfully.

"Wow, I didn't even think Sprout gave out detentions, I'm assuming that's what you received, you must've really done something this time" Lily spoke as she stood up and walked towards the group. "Oh my god! James what happened to your face!"

"Oh," James said reaching up to the cut lip and bruised cheek he received from the fight. "There was a bit of an altercation with" he paused, realising that explaining the situation probably would not help his case.

"Altercation with whom?" Lily asked, pausing for a reply, but it did not take her long to put the pieces together. "Oh my god, it was Sev, wasn't it?" She was growing more furious, but also more worried with each word. None of the Marauders dared to reply, they stood in shame and silence. "Wasn't it!" she said louder, and with a little more force.

"Well, you see... " James started, but he was quickly cut off.

"Don't speak, you boys are impossible!" She pushed past the four boys and went through the portrait hole, presumably to find Severus. The boys held their silence, for the first time, they weren't sure if the prank was worth it.

--------------------------

The air was still extremely cold even halfway through January. It was even harsher at night, which made this particular Astronomy class quite unpleasant. Even halfway up the tower, the children began to complain about the chill they could already feel. Once ascended up the stairs, the view was unbeatable, you could see the whole night sky with the gorgeous stars. This made it the obvious choice for astronomy classes. Tonight Professor Nyota had the telescopes placed all around the tower to observe the constellations. The students were broken up into pairs and there was quite a bit of bickering going on with Sirius and James.

"Quit hogging the telescope." James angrily muttered.

"Oh, hush up, I can't focus on the constellations if you keep blabbering."

"Well if you actually shared maybe we'd get our assignment done"

"Relax, James! We're gonna finish it, we have like another week."

"Two days."

"What!" Sirius said, looking up from the telescope for the first time since they got paired off.

"Ha! I knew that would work" James said, seizing the opportunity to look through the telescope. "You take your grades way too seriously, mate."

"Shove off, you know my parents would kill me if I wasn't top of my class," Sirius said, kind of laughing it off, but the humour was lost on James. It was silent between the two of them for a moment. However, the silence did allow them to properly look at the stars. The view was truly breathtaking, a sight that was especially appreciated by Sirius. Much like his namesake, Sirius loved astronomy. Even though his parents practically forced him to memorise the night sky, it was still something he enjoyed learning on his own.

Sirius's voice finally broke their silence, "On a serious note, when is our assignment due?"

"On a Sirius note–"

"James!" Sirius laughed, cutting his friend off from the terrible pun.

"Kidding, kidding. It's due next week, just like you thought."

"Okay, so how about we just knock it out tomorrow during the free period? Then we won't have to worry about it"

"You've got to be kidding me, Sirius, we have a week, why rush?"

"Because, if we wait, we will never do it or we will make Remus do it and he's gonna give us another lecture."

"Yeah, I definitely can't handle the disapproving looks from Remus anymore" James laughed, "he's worse than my mum."

"Moony does have certain motherly qualities"

"What was that, Sirius?" Remus chimed in from where his telescope stood about 5 meters away.

"Nothing, Remus," Sirius replied, although it did not convince Remus. However, Remus decided not to press the issue further, but instead to just chuckle, roll his eyes and turn his attention back to Peter who had just managed to mess with the focus of their telescope.

When the class finally ended, the students hurried back to their dorms to escape the cold. The Marauders, however, were sitting by the fire chatting whilst they warmed up.

"All I am saying is that Puddlemore United is going to beat Yorkshire, I mean they have Elvernish as a Chaser." James was getting a bit heated in his defence.

"But Yorkshire has Blumbing as a Keeper, there's no way they can lose" Sirius argued.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." Sirius stood his ground

"You willing to bet on that?"

"Hell yeah, how much?"

"2 Galleons," James said confidently.

"You're on," Sirius said, sticking out his hand for James to shake, once they shook on it, it was settled.

"You two are insufferable," Remus said not even bothering to look up from his book.

"You love us, Remus," James retorts, laughing along with Sirius. During the commotion, Lily made her way down the stairs and into the common room.

"What are you guys doing up," Lily asks in an accusatory tone, "I mean you two I get," she gestures to Sirius and James.

"I don't like your accusations, Lily," Sirius says feigning hurt. "Besides you're up too. We could ask you the same."

"What are you doing up, Lily?" Remus bookmarked his page and looked up a bit concerned.

"Oh my goodness, are you reading the book I lent you!" Lily exclaimed. "How are you liking it?"

"It's absolutely lovely," Remus said smiling, but continued in a calm voice, "Why are you changing the subject?"

"I'm not changing the subject," Lily said, eyes shifting to the floor as she began to move towards the painting hole.

Sirius slid right in front of her, "Woah there, where are you headed?"

"It's none of your business, Black" Lily gritted her teeth and attempted to move around Sirius only to run into James.

"Evans, what's the rush?" James said, "I would ask if you have a hot date, but I'm right here."

"Don't make me hex both of you," she said.

"Just tell us where you're going and we'll move."

"And why would I trust your word, Black?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean, Evans, I am very trustworthy"

"Fine, it's an early birthday surprise from Sev, goodbye" Lily dashed out the door to escape further questioning from the boys.

"Her birthday is coming up?" James exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's on the 30th," Remus said, "I thought you knew."

"No, I didn't, that would be something you share, Rem" James paused, "Merlin, I need to figure out what to get her"

"Do you really think you're going to win her over after you practically interrogated her at the door?" But James was already lost in his thoughts about what to get Lily. "Well, on that note, I'm going to bed now." He collected his book and ascended the stairs.

"Sirius, we've got planning to do," James shouted.

"Shhhhh, you're gonna wake up Peter!" Sirius scolded.

"Too late," Peter mumbled, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"Sorry," James said, scratching the back of his head in slight embarrassment.

"It's fine, I'm going to bed." He replied, going up the stairs, leaving James and Sirius alone in the common room.

"Okay, we've got work to do," James said, getting back to his previous statement.

"James, it's nearly three in the morning, we're going to bed"

"But–"

"Bed, James"

--------------------------

The weekend at Hogwarts approached the chill keeping most of the students inside the safe boundaries of the castle's thick walls, however, some students were enjoying the fresh layer of snow on the ground along with the continued flurries coming from the sky. Among those students were Lily and Severus, who were enjoying a nice stroll through the Middle Courtyard.

"All I'm saying is, if you crushed the snake fangs and sliced the Pungous Onions, the potion would be way more potent," Severus said.

"Sev, I'm not saying you're wrong," Lily sighed, "But I think it's a little dangerous for you to be messing around with potion instructions."

"The textbooks, haven't been updated in ages, Lily, someone should change things"

"Well, you're awfully young to die in some horrible potion experiment," Lily said getting slightly heated. "Besides, I was talking to Professor Slughorn a few days ago and he was telling me about a student of his. She's a little older than us, a third-year, and she likes to mess around creating spells and potions of her own."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Severus said, confused as to the point of the story.

"Well, last year she was concocting a potion and it exploded!" Lily sat down under a tree.

"Merlin!" Severus said, sitting beside her. "Is she ok?"

"She's fine, but it seared her eyebrows off and they couldn't grow back for two months!"

"Heaven forbid, I'm sure it scared the blokes away." Severus sarcastically threw back.

Hitting him on the shoulder, Lily continued, "You're missing the point, she could've been seriously hurt, and so can you."

"Well she's fine, and so am I."

"I just worry about you, that's all," Lily said softly.

Severus' face softened, "I know, and I'll be careful."

"Swear?"

"Swear." Severus stood up, brushing snow off of his robes and offering a hand to Lily. She ignored it, however, standing up by herself, almost as if she had something to prove. They continued walking side by side through the courtyard.

"Since when do you and Slughhorn chat anyways," Severus asked.

"He was speaking to me about some club of his, mentioning that if I make it continue into his N.E.W.T.-level class I should consider joining. Don't be surprised when he asks you, I'm sure you're next, you are top of the class,"

"Interesting," he pondered, "I think we should join, you know when we're older."

"As long as we do it together" she smiled.

"Of course," he smiled looking at her face, but her attention was captured by James Potter running past them. "Oi Potter, where you going off to in such a hurry?" James spun to face Severus, his cheeks red and splotchy with fresh tears brimming in his eyes.

"Shove off Snivellus," James said, attempting to put menace behind his voice, but failing as the words quivered. Without giving Lily and Severus much time to think about it, he was already gone, rushing into the castle leaving the pair confused.

Reaching his desired location, James finally stopped running and in the hollow of a stairwell finally took heaving breaths, exhausted from running. After sitting down he cried for a while, the sobs echoing miserably throughout the stairwell as he hiccuped trying to calm down. Eventually, when his cries subsided he stood up to compose himself and with newly steadied breathing and a dry face, James headed up the stairs. Thankfully the hallways were, for the most part, deserted. He was nearly to the common room when he ran straight into Lily Evans.

"James!" she exclaimed, "Are you ok? Earlier you seemed–"

"I'm fine," he said shortly, ducking his head to avoid looking her in the eyes.

"It doesn't seem like you are..." she trailed off, finding the whole matter a little bit stressful.

"Well, I am," anger was rising in James' voice, he turned and began to head down the stairs.

"Where are you going?"

"It's none of your business, Evans" Deciding it was better not to follow him, Lily did the next best thing and sent his friend after him.

The sun was setting and the already cold air was becoming even sharper with the wind. Regardless of the temperature, Remus trudged through the previously fallen snow, in the direction of the Quidditch pitch where he knew James would be. As he approached the pitch he could see James lying like a starfish down in the centre of the field, a thin layer of snow on his coat suggesting that he had been there for a while.

"Haven't seen you since you left for the Owlery after lunch," Remus said, taking a seat in the snow next to James, "Has something happened?"

"No," James said, getting defensive as he sat up and spoke to Remus.

Not believing him, Remus pressed on, "Really? Because I spoke to Lily about an hour ago and she told me a different story"

"Well it's not really any of her damn business and she should know that."

"Relax mate, I don't know why you're so upset, but you can't honestly think holding it in is any better." Remus scooted closer to James, putting a comforting hand on the other boy's shoulder and looking him in the eyes, "Talk to me."

After a long pause of silence, James finally drew in a deep breath and spoke in as steady a voice as he could manage, "My mum is sick, I got a letter from my dad today."

"That's why you didn't come back from the Owlery?" Remus questioned.

"Well I went to the edge of campus to read the letter and finish up some homework, you know because it's pretty peaceful out by the Forbidden Forest, but when I read the letter, I–" his voice broke, a few tears fell from his eye, but he wiped them away with the back of his hand, "I was just freaking out so I ran, I don't know exactly where I was planning on going, but I headed towards the castle. Then I passed Lily and she was with Snivellus, and I told him off, but I ran into her again later and kind of blew up on her, but I just don't know what to do anymore, I'm–"

"Breathe," Remus said calmly, "You're spiralling and you're only going to make things worse."

James flopped backwards into the snow, calming down with the silence between the boys. "What's it like?"

"What?" Remus responded, confused about what James was talking about.

"Having a parent sick, your mom is sick too, isn't she."

"Oh... " Remus said, looking a bit taken aback. "Well, sickness in general just kind of sucks." Remus let out a dry laugh. "You feel so run down and it takes so much energy just to do the simple things, but that's not even the worst part. I mean, yeah, your body is exhausted and that is not fun at all, but the emotions. When you're sick you feel useless sometimes, and when things are worse, hopeless. It makes you wonder if things can get better, you know?"

"For your mom?" James said, pausing for Remus' response.

"Uh yeah," Remus said looking down and continuing. "But of course, it isn't just one person who is affected, it is the people around them too. Everyone who cares about the person feels a part of that pain because when you're close to them, you go through it with them, not in the same way, but it hurts nonetheless."

"Like when you get kind of sickly around the time you visit your mother," James added, trying to understand everything Remus was saying.

Remus sighed shaking his head a little, but smiling nonetheless, "Just like that."

"That sounds awful, Rem, how do you manage? I mean I found out today and everything