The first thing they did when they left the dorms that morning, was have breakfast.

Snape or rather Severus as he insists on being called, insisted.

...

Alright he threatened to leave the room and go looking for the real Severus Snape if they didn't.

It was the most bizarre thing they'd ever witnessed. Severus Snape was buzzing and fussing over James that morning. Fixing his tie and complimenting him on his hair and smiling at James and giggling! Snape was fucking giggling!

It was so disturbing. Especially since he did all of that while wearing nothing but one of James' shirts because-

"I'm only allowed to wear James' clothes, or whatever he picks out for me."

James had gone a bright red at that one, Sirius just looked at him with a frown while Remus shook his head with a pitying look.

By the time they got to breakfast most of the Great hall was filled with students already. Naturally they'd all looked over to the Slytherin table and of course all three just stopped and stared at Snape who was sitting between Regulus and Avery for the moment. His eyes were on a book as he absently took small bites from the toast on his plate while nodding every now and then as Regulus prattled on beside him, while his other hand toyed with his hair.

Just then Avery nudged the raven with his elbow before nodding up ahead and Snape looked up to find them staring at him. The Slytherin's lips twisted into a sneer and that same hateful glare as always fixed on them before he just looked back to his book.

After watching Snape fawn and fuss over James that morning, seeing Snape back to his old hateful self was both comforting and incredibly terrifying.

"I can't tell him."

"You don't have a choice."

"Moony I can't."

"Yes you can."

James let his head fall onto the table with a thud and Remus shook his head, "You know, the longer you wait, the harder it will be."

"No."

Remus sighed and looked over to Sirius for a little support but realised that he wouldn't be getting any from the Animagus. Sirius still hadn't entirely processed that whole James being in love with Snape thing so he thought it best to just leave him out of it for a while. Although even Remus had to admit-

"It's a little hard to believe that you actually feel that way about him." James looked up at Remus but didn't lift his head from the table.

"What?"

"You've never even been nice to him James."

James sighed as he looked up at the table on the other side of the hall, but still didn't lift his head. "He's a snarky prat."

"You've said that, multiple times. I don't really understand what it is that you love about him." James said nothing and Remus shrugged, "Fine, you don't have to tell me." And then he leaned in to whisper against the chaser's ear, "I'll just ask Severus later. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to tell me all about your, what did he call them; fantasies about Snape?"

"Alright fine!" James huffed, "I-I like his eyes."

"His eyes?"

"And I... I like his mouth and his hands and his voice is... I like his voice, a lot."

"Okay." The voice bit they all understood. Even Sirius with his insistent loathing of the Slytherin admitted that Severus bloody Snape had a voice.

James continued, "And he's really really smart and interesting. I like that he doesn't just do whatever I want him to do. And I like how he smirks when he's insulting me and I like how when he's working on a potion he sticks his tongue out a bit at the corner of his mouth and how he plays with his hair or his sleeves when he's reading. And he does this thing with his hands when's he's frustrated with school work-"

"Wow." Sirius suddenly said and James looked up at his friend with a glare.

Remus sighed, "James if this is how you've felt the whole time then why didn't you just-"

"Tell him? Are you insane? Just look at that terrifying bat!" James said finally lifting his head to gesture to the Slytherin, "Would you just walk up to Snape and say something like that?" Remus looked up at Snape and a visible shiver went down his spine. Sirius looked up at the Slytherin and cringed hard.

"You've made your point." James huffed again just as Remus continued, "Bullying him the way you have been doesn't really seem like a good idea either."

"I wasn't trying to bully him, I just... I was just... he's just so." James groaned as he let his head fall on the table again, "I just wanted him to pay attention that's all. The only people he talks to are Evans and those slimy bastards and we're not in the same house so I can't even use that as an excuse-"

"So you decided to bully him."

"He's such a prat."

Remus sighed, "Alright, I think the best thing for now at least is to go to the library and find the book Sirius used. Then you're going to need to stop pranking Snape and maybe just, stay away from him for a while."

James looked up, "But-"

"At least until we've figured out what to do. That goes for you as well Sirius."

James looked up at the Animagus and Sirius raised his hands in surrender. "I won't do anything I swear. Having one Snape living in our dorm is bad enough."

"Right the other one." James said with a heavy sigh and Remus scoffed.

"I think he'll be fine long as we keep him inside." He looked at James and started to smile, "I'm sure he'd never do anything to upset Jamie."

Sirius let out a bark of laughter and James glared at the werewolf, "Don't ever call me that again."

"Why because only Severus is allowed to call you that?" Sirius scoffed.

"Shut up."

"Fine, if you don't want to talk about it then we'll just ask Severus to tell us all about your desires later; like how you want to marry him, and how many kids you want and why no one's allowed to touch him and why he's only allowed to wear your clothing, and exactly what kind of clothing you'd pick for him to wear-"

"Someone kill me." James groaned wrapping his arms over his head and Remus couldn't help but laugh.