BLAME

“I take full responsibility for my actions, Sir, I know that you’re going to have to expel me. There is no excuse for what happened. I’m sorry to have to put my parents through this. And Professor McGonagall, I just really wanted to tell her how sorry I am and …”His voice trailed off. Dumbledore’s cold periwinkle eyes regarded him intently, as though engaging in some complicated mental Arithmancy.“If Severus Snape corroborates what you just told me, I’m afraid that is correct, you will be expelled, Mr Potter.” A Marauders What If...?What if James had been blamed for the Prank?What if he got expelled at the end of Fifth Year?What if there was never a Lily Evans and James Potter, Head Boy and Head Girl? If they parted enemies, if they never got together in their final year in Hogwarts? What if the marauders lost James? What then?

My thanks to @hp-marauders-fics on Tumblr for the incredible ask that inspired this and to the prompt from @jilychallenge for January - First Wizarding War and “James gets kidnapped and Lily storms in on the death eater headquarters to get him back because it just got personal, you bastards”I’ve written a canon prank fic called Boys Don’t Cry which tries to explain why Sirius told Snape about the Whomping Willow, and the sequel to that We Can Be Heroes, a canon marauders fic (with a happy ending), which starts with James trying (and failing) to take the blame for Sirius’ role in The Prank. This is a What If...? of that idea