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Severus swiveled, wand dropping down into his hand almost automatically. This couldn't be happening. Not even Black could be stupid enough to start another fight right at the foot of the stairs outside Dumbledore's office. Especially not a grand total fifteen minutes after they'd arrived back from being suspended for the exact same bloody thing.

However, empirical evidence suggested that that was precisely what was happening, and the headmaster's door was already shut, and Severus wasn't about to let that useless prat—

"Sirius, shut up," Lupin snarled, startling Severus a bit given the other boy's usual status of follower. It apparently surprised Black and Potter too as Lupin grabbed Black's wand arm and forced it down and then shoved him sideways towards Potter. "James, get him out of here. I'll catch up with you in a few minutes. Snape, I need to talk to you."

"Why don't—"

Whatever Black had been going to say was cut off as Potter jammed an elbow into his side and then looped an arm over his shoulders and dragged him away, muttering fiercely under his breath. Severus was tempted to turn on heel and stalk off as well, but Lupin was still standing there, and given what had just happened he wasn't about to turn his back on a Marauder. Even one who didn't usually initiate fights.

"Look, Snape, this time it went too far and I don't think it ended well for any of us," Lupin said, his words coming out in a rush. "So can we just call a truce or whatever and avoid each other as much as we can for the rest of the year? No pranks, no duels, no nothing, we won't even look at you if we can help it. I swear. As long as you do the same for us."

"I'm not the one that got us into this," Severus snapped. "You really think you can put a muzzle on that arse Black, or is this just another way to give him the opportunity to take the first shot? Again."

Lupin's eyes flashed. "It's not his fault."

"Oh, really? So Professor McGonagall threw the first hex?"

"What?" Lupin blinked as if Severus had been making an actual suggestion. "No, of course not. It's just…." He trailed off, shaking his head. "It's complicated, okay? His parents…." Another shake, and he refused to meet Severus' eyes for a moment. "Look, it's none of your business, but things are really tough for him right now. He gets angry sometimes, and he's just trying to distract himself from thinking about it."

"Life is tough for everyone," Severus sneered. "You'll forgive me if I'm not falling to pieces with sympathy for someone who uses that as an excuse to torment me. Especially when it's on top of what you lot always pull." The mention of distraction nagged at his memory, but he didn't have any attention to spare for it with Lupin starting to speak again.

"Well, it's not like you don't give as good as you get. If you didn't, this wouldn't have gone on as long as it has. And besides, you're not exactly innocent of everything either—Peter didn't even have time to stand up before you flattened him and according to his owl he just got out of the Hospital Wing yesterday!"

Severus' fingers clenched tighter around his wand. "And how is that my problem?"

Lupin suck in his breath sharply and opened his mouth to respond. And then closed his eyes and let the air out slowly again, holding up his hands without a wand in either of them. "Just...never mind. Forget it. It's done; it's over; I'm sorry I even said anything. From now on, James and Peter and I will handle Sirius, and if you don't start it, we'll make sure that he doesn't either. Call it a cease-fire instead of a truce if that makes it easier. Do we have a deal?"

"And neither Potter nor Pettigrew nor yourself will 'start it' either?" Severus asked, not even attempting to hide his skepticism. Potter in particular was an instigator at least as often as Black, especially when Severus was trying to study with Lily. And while Lupin and Pettigrew were less so—or, rather, less so and generally too useless to—he'd be a fool not to include them in the agreement as well.

"None of us," Lupin said. "My word."

"Fine," Severus said after a minute. "I agree." There was no reason not to agree; it was exactly what Alastor had told him to do. And it wasn't like he wanted the consequences of another fight either. "But if you can't control that idiot, or if any of the rest of you lot breaks the agreement, I will defend myself."

"That is the least surprising thing I've heard today." Lupin nodded. "Cease-fire. Done." He nodded sharply and then took a step back, turning to follow the other two members of the Prat Patrol.

Severus kept an eye on him until he'd rounded the corner and then swiveled and headed for the dungeons, shaking his head as he went. He might have agreed, but he had no expectation that the agreement would hold even a week no matter what Lupin thought. He'd be surprised if it lasted more than twenty-four hours.

Severus stared at the Polyjuice Potion. He probably shouldn't even be thinking about going through with this. A snort. No 'probably' about it, he definitely shouldn't be thinking about going through with this. But it was so close to done….

So far things had been going okay since the suspension. Or at least about as well as could be expected. The Moronic Marauders had, amazingly, kept Lupin's promise and thus far he hadn't been hit with so much as a hair-growing hex. Some of that probably had something to do with the fact that their professors and the headmaster were keeping a closer eye on them than usual—it was making getting to his potions tricky sometimes—but this was longer than Severus remembered them ever going previously without a row of one form or another. He'd even been able to report honestly to Alastor that he was staying out of trouble in their last owl exchange, and wasn't that an odd feeling. He fingered the last reply, still tucked in his pocket. Alastor had been pleased with that which was almost enough to make him give up on his plan.

He sighed. But the Polyjuice Potion was done, or next thing to it, and he'd confirmed that the weirdness with the Marauders did have a pattern. Not quite a perfect one, it wasn't exactly monthly like he'd initially thought, but it was close enough for him to have a pretty good idea for when to keep an eye out. And if he wanted to use the Polyjuice, he needed to start looking for something from a young Gryffindor now. It would be such a shame to have gone to all this trouble and waste it now.

The easiest way to get a hair or a fingernail clipping or something like that without risking himself would be to ask Lily since she shared a dorm with them, but there was no way that she'd go along with him. He could already hear her opinion of the whole idea. She approved completely of this whole 'cease-fire' thing, even if she insisted on praising that prat Potter, too, and never mind that he'd had nothing to do with it. And never mind that there was no way that it could last forever, either. It was another reason to go along with the dislike of wasting the Polyjuice, he supposed; when the truce did break down—through no fault of his own—it would be stupid to be completely unprepared.

So, how to obtain the materials that he needed? The second easiest way to get a hair sample from a Gryffindor first year involved sneaking up behind one of the idiots and yanking out a few strands, but that would be just a little obvious. And following one around waiting for hair to fall out was weird. Not to mention more than a little obvious.

Regulus was sounding better and better considering that Severus could just steal his hairbrush, but according to the Hogwarts rumor mill—the less-rumor-more-fact version that even Severus with next to nothing in the way of close ties to the other students was privy to—Black had officially split with his family. Which meant that ease of accessing personal material or not, Regulus might have nearly as little access to Black, or even excuse to follow him around, as Severus.

Severus checked the potion for consistency. He had enough for two attempts, maybe three. Which should be more than enough. If he decided to go through it, which he still probably shouldn't, but…maybe just once. Just in case. And so it wouldn't go to waste.

The chime signaling approaching curfew meant that he couldn't go hunting Gryffindor castoffs tonight even if he wanted to, and he sighed and stoppered the vials before pushing himself to his feet.

He slipped through the corridors back to the entrance of the Slytherin dungeons, keeping an eye out more out of habit than anything else. Well, he did need to keep an eye out for Slughorn and the headmaster since they'd popped up out of nowhere to 'chat' with him more than once she'd he'd returned, and he certainly wasn't going to completely discount the Moronic Marauders no matter what the current state of the cease fire was, but beyond that…. Well, beyond that and the more focused eyes of a few of the other professors, things were kind of weird. Not that he'd had many close friends before, in fact he could count those he called 'friend' in this place on one hand with fingers to spare, but without the Marauders harassing him, it was almost like he didn't exist.

A couple of his housemates—Rosier and that lot—would scowl at Severus when they remembered, and Severus wasn't about to leave his things unguarded or Aberdeen unwarded, but for the most part they seemed to be tied up with something the older students were organizing. Severus neither had nor wanted any part in that, especially since he'd overheard the name Riddle once or twice. If he'd kept up with the potions over the summer he'd probably know more, but given how that had gone, right now he was just as pleased that he wasn't worth their notice.

There were other Slytherin students, both in his year and those below it—and a few above, for that matter—that weren't a part of that group, but he'd never particularly connected with any of them before. He didn't see a reason to change that now and clearly neither did they.

He and Lily still studied together sometimes, but she was aiming for a slightly different set of NEWT classes than he was and was focusing on the corresponding set of OWLs because of it. Well, they both planned on Potions, obviously, but they were both competent enough for an O without a great deal of revising and knew it. On the other hand, while Severus wanted an OWL for Arithmancy, she wasn't sure she was going to continue it after this year no matter what score she received and would be perfectly content with an E. Not exactly good news to Severus' ears when he had to have an O to continue on to NEWTs. On his part he had neither interest nor hope in Transfiguration, to the point where there was no sense in even trying to study for that one with her, especially when that prat Potter somehow decided that it was okay to invite himself those study sessions. There was no way that Severus could look at his smirking face when Severus could barely manage a third-year assignment without hexing him on general principle.

Severus didn't actually mind Charms, but it wasn't something that he planned to continue with, and he had to put more attention on his Herbology revising as befitted someone planning to go into Potions as a career. And, of course, he had to spend quite a bit of time on Defense because they'd had so many incompetent professors that there were gaping holes in his theoretical knowledge if not so much on the practical side. Lily regarded that particular subject as more of a distasteful necessity than a real focus of study. Severus fingered his letter again. Alastor took it seriously, at least, and had promised to send Severus a text that he'd found particularly useful, even if it had come with a stern warning about the consequences of using any spells on his classmates.

There were no surprise appearances of any unwelcome students or even more unwelcome staff before Severus let himself into the Slytherin common room, and he ignored the huddle of his housemates around the fireplace and headed for his room. It was empty, and he sighed and let Aberdeen lose on the bed for a few minutes. How to get that hair? If he had an invisibility cloak he would just follow one of them and yank, but those weren't the kinds of things that most students had in their possession. He could Accio a hair to him, but a first year was likely to howl about having his hair yanked out which was hardly discrete. Especially since he'd have to do it in a crowd or it would be obvious who had cast the spell.

He stroked a finger down Aberdeen's back lightly. Then again, indiscrete might not be the end of the world. If Severus performed the spell during the course of some meal…it was no trick to take a seat at the end of the table, he hardly had a pack of friends jostling to sit by him, which would make retrieving a floating hair easier to hide. Well, as long as he was at the end of the table farthest from the professors, obviously. In fact, some little nitwit was shrieking at another table would actually give him some cover. Of course, it would be a Gryffindor, which meant that the Moronic Marauders were bound to look at him eventually, but he was a past master at concealing a wand in his sleeve and he could look as surprised as anyone when the need arose. And of the Prat Patrol, from what Severus had seen Lupin was the only one even competent enough at Potions to even recognize the word Polyjuice never mind be aware of the ingredients required. He was hardly the most devious wizard among the lot of them.