the_debt_of_time

"I saw you two and my dad and... and Pettigrew. My dad had Snape in the air, and
my mum came to rescue him, and she.. ." Harry looked disturbed by the memory he had
seen.
When Sirius seemed to recall it, he had the grace to look ashamed.
"I wouldn't like you to judge your father on what you saw there, Harry. He was only
fifteen," Remus said quietly.
"I'm fifteen!" Harry countered.
"Look, Harry.. ." Sirius began with a sigh. "James and Snape hated each other
from the moment they set eyes on each other. It was just one of those things. You can
understand that, can't you? I think James was everything Snape wanted to be; he was
popular, he was good at Quidditch—good at pretty much everything. Snape was just this
little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts, and James... Whatever else he may
have seemed to you, Harry, he always hated the Dark Arts."
"Yeah," Harry muttered, clearly not listening to every word Sirius was saying. "But
he just attacked Snape for no good reason, just because... well, just because you said you
were bored."
"I'm not proud of it," Sirius uttered quickly. "There are a lot of things I'm not proud
of from back then, son. Snape's memories will never show me in a good light. The same
goes for your dad."
Remus frowned at Sirius, remembering that the Slytherin had been attacked for a
reason. It might not have been a good one, but Mia's character had been called into
question at the time, and he remembered something about Snape laughing at a joke made
at her expense.
"Look, Harry. What you've got to understand is that your father and Sirius were the
best in the school at whatever they did," Remus said and then smacked Sirius when he had
the audacity to look smug about it. "Everyone thought they were the height of cool. If they
sometimes got a bit carried away―"
"If we were sometimes arrogant little berks, you mean," Sirius interjected.
Remus smiled.
"He kept messing up his hair," Harry mumbled in a pained voice.
Sirius and Remus laughed.
"I forgot that he used to do that," Sirius said affectionately.