"i'm not kidding when i say i am tired enough to sit on you"

*

The second half of the year welcomed the students back to Hogwarts with a fantastic feast and the usual inspirational speech from Professor Dumbledore. They returned to their common rooms tired, well-fed, and happy to be home. Almost immediately, though, the sixth years fell into despair, as their N.E.W.T. exams were in the not so distant future, and the teachers seemed intent on reminding them of this.

"I can't believe this," Sirius grumbled after he walked out of Muggle Studies their first week back. "1977 has an agenda. It wants to kill us all."

Marlene rolled her eyes at him, sarcasm dripping from her every move. "It's an essay, Sirius. And it's only January 4th. Relax about 1977, it's not out to get you."

"Two rolls of parchment on that Muggle World War due next week? There must be some obscure law against that."

Marlene rolled her eyes as she tried to precariously balance all of her schoolbooks in her arms. "Why did you even take Muggle Studies? It was an elective. You don't technically need it to become an Auror."

"Yeah, I know, but my parents had to buy textbooks on Muggles, which irritated them to all end, so I took the class."

"You're impossible, Black," she said, giggling. "Mitchell's told me all about Gryffindor's training schedule for Quidditch, since they're playing Slytherin in a few weeks. It's killer. I don't know how they're gonna survive."

Sirius laughed so loudly that half of the busy corridor turned to look at them. "I'll tell you how. Mental breakdowns, occasional screaming, and angsty shower songs."

Marlene looked troubled. "But Eva's really good at handling pressure."

"I wasn't talking about Eva."

*

As Marlene and Sirius argued in the hallway, Eva sat on the library floor, her back against a shelf. She found it easier to study in a comfortable position, and as long as Madam Pince couldn't see her, she knew she wouldn't get into any trouble for it. Her fingers tapped the pen against the parchment absentmindedly. Instead of the essay, her thoughts drifted to the upcoming match, the most highly anticipated one of the year: Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Her distraction, however, had another distraction. And its name was James Potter.

"I can't do this."

Eva did her very best not to roll her eyes. Her very best was nowhere near enough. "James Fleamont Potter, I swear-"

"I can't! What made me think I could take so many N.E.W.T.s?"

James couldn't stop pacing. He hadn't been to the school library in two years, which did nothing to help his steadily rising anxiety. When they arrived, Eva had piled a large stack of books on the floor before informing him that he would need every single one of them to complete his assignments. His glasses sat perched on the top of his messy black hair as he ranted (rather dramatically, at least in Eva's opinion) about his classes.

"Maybe your over-inflated ego convinced you to do it," she answered demurely, already diving back into her History of Magic essay. "When was the first Dementor attack in England?"

"How should I know?" He replied, exasperated. "And insulting my ego doesn't shrink it, Blondie, so you might as well quit while you're ahead."

She sighed and put her essay down, trying to ignore the exhaustion plaguing her. "You realize we have a Quidditch practice in an hour, you still have to eat and finish the assignment for Slughorn, and you could have had it at least half-done by now if you hadn't spent forty-five minutes freaking out?"

"What?" James sputtered. Eva thought he looked completely out of place in the library. His scarlet Quidditch robes seemed too flashy next to the ancient books and dusty shelves. "What about you?"

"Hm, let's see." She pretended to think. "Instead of gallivanting around the castle with Sirius last night, I finished my Arithmancy assignment and my charts for Astronomy. While you were flirting incessantly with a clearly not interested Lily, I spent my free period with Kriss in here, and she helped me study for the Potions exam. Currently, I'm sitting on the floor writing my essay on Dementors and listening to you complain about your actually amazing life that suddenly has a few speed bumps. So, yeah, I'm going to go to Quidditch and then I'm going to bed early. I need it."

James gaped at her, shock written all over his face. "Holy cannoli, woman. You're a force of nature."

"There's a five-letter word that starts with a B. You could use one of them," Eva said, already back to scribbling away at her work.

"Excuse me, but that is not a kind thing to call anyone."

Eva rolled her eyes yet again. "The word is brain, genius. Try using yours."

James fully prepared himself with a fiery retort when Eva yawned widely. It was then that he noticed the dark circles under her eyes that hadn't been there over the holiday break. "Blondie, are you doing okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," she said, barely paying any attention to him.

"You look kind of like a trainwreck."

"Thank you very much. That makes me feel wonderful," she replied sarcastically. James knelt down next to her, concern in his hazel eyes.

"How much sleep have you been getting?"

She avoided his gaze and buried her nose in a book, but she felt her cheeks flaming up. "Enough."

"Eva love, did you know that you mess with your hair when you lie?" Sure enough, she glanced down to find her fingers twisted in a blonde curl. James grinned at her. "Every single time."

Eva ignored his remarks. "See, I've got it all figured out. While you all are desperately trying to finish your work during the weekend, I'm going to catch up on sleep. Look at Sirius! He runs on about five hours of sleep every night and he's the most obnoxiously energetic person I've ever met."

James made a face. "I can't tell if you think that's a good thing or not."

"It doesn't matter. What I'm saying is that I'm fine. I can do this. I'm just a little tired is all." Eva began to slide books into her bag, making sure they were safely packed with the diligence of a Ravenclaw.

James grabbed his mountain of books and trailed after her as well as he could. "We have Quidditch! The biggest match of the season's in a few weeks! We can't afford for you to injure yourself more than usual."

Her eyebrow arched. "More than usual?"

"I've seen you on stairs. Heck, I've seen you on solid ground. You're a walking hazard."

She sighed. "I want to be mad, but you're completely right."

"You're bloody impossible," he grumbled. "You and Remus both. Incorrigible. Just take care of yourself, okay?"

"Yes, Mum."

*

Later on that night, about half of their group had retreated to the common room for some well-deserved relaxation. Sirius took up an entire couch as he lazily paged through a Stephen King novel he found on Remus' nightstand, humming the Bee Gees without realizing it. Marlene sat curled up in her favorite armchair under a pile of blankets while writing a letter to her parents. Peter and Lily were roasting marshmallows in front of the fireplace and playing Exploding Snap. With James and Eva still at Quidditch practice, Remus was the only one missing. Both Sirius and Peter knew they could track him with the map, but neither cared enough to dig around for it. Out of them all, he was the least likely to get into trouble, and if he did get into trouble, he was the least likely to be caught.

The fire crackled in the background, giving the room a homey feeling to everyone who gathered there. No one spoke for the longest time, just content with being around each other. Finally, Sirius put down the book and nonchalantly covered it with a pillow, hoping the others wouldn't notice.

"Something wrong, Black?" Lily teased, tucking her long red hair behind her ear before reaching for another marshmallow.

"The world is freaky enough without horror books," Sirius replied defiantly, lounging on the couch again as he tried not to seem unnerved by what he'd just read. "I don't know why Moony reads stuff like that."

"Oh! Is the big cool Gryffindor boy scared of a Muggle book?"

"No!"

"He definitely is," Peter chimed in.

"Absolutely," Marlene added.

Sirius lay in brooding silence for a long enough time that everyone believed he had let it go when out of nowhere, he sat up and yelled at the top of his lungs, "DOLLS AREN'T SUPPOSED TO COME TO LIFE AND HAUNT BASEMENTS AND STAB PEOPLE! THEY'RE MEANT TO MAKE KIDS HAPPY!"

Eva chose this exact moment to walk in, James trudging behind her. Both looked thoroughly exhausted and irritated. Eva stood above Sirius, eyeing him with zero humor.

"Please scoot over. I'm not kidding when I say I am tired enough to sit on you."

"Aw, is the Quidditch queen sleepy?" Sirius said in a mock-sad voice, but he did make room for the girl. She immediately sank into the cushions and closed her eyes. "Come on Eva, just go to bed. You look like you need it."

"No," she protested. "I barely got to talk to some of you today."

"Yes," Sirius said sarcastically. "Falling asleep on the couch definitely counts as socialization."

She opened one eye just enough for him to glimpse her green iris. "Do me a favor and shut up."

"Anything for my favorite athlete." Sirius grinned and put an arm around her, pulling the girl closer to him. Even bone-tired, she could feel her heart rate increase, but she felt so cozy leaning against him and didn't protest.

"I can't believe I'm not your favorite athlete, but okay." James sat on the rug right in between Peter and Lily and snagged the cooked marshmallow from her stick.

"Hey!" She grabbed a book from the table and whacked him with it just as Peter ducked out of the way.

James grinned mischievously up at her. "If you'd like to taste it, Evans, you could just kiss me."

"Or you could just have another marshmallow," Peter said, tossing her one. She caught in her mouth, smiling brightly. Sirius and Peter applauded.

"Thanks, Pete. And Potter, I'd sooner kiss the giant squid," she replied, crossing her arms, but her expression told him she wasn't all that mad.

"You love me."

She scrunched up her nose. "As if."

"All right, lovebirds, that's enough," Marlene said, fake gagging from her chair. "How was Quidditch?"

"Fine," James answered. "Your brother might be insane, though. Mitchell started with this long speech I'm sure he spent hours writing in his bed about how we need to be a team and trust each other and all that, so we all had to help each other train."

Peter glanced up from the game of Exploding Snap. "What's so bad about that?"

James rolled his eyes. "Instead of normal drills, tonight was all about 'teamwork.' Marlene, he had us do trust falls. Off of our brooms. I may have let him fall the one time just because I wanted practice to end early!"

"You dropped Mitchell off of his broom?!?"

"Don't worry, he's fine. No one else fell off. We were only a few feet off of the ground. He's only a little bruised up. Unfortunately."

"Don't be so hard on McKinnon. He only wants us to win," Eva mumbled, her eyes still closed. Considering he thought she was asleep and he was already jumpy from reading that book, Sirius almost fell off of the couch in shock.

James threw a marshmallow at her, and she quickly raised a hand to catch it. "Blondie, he had all six of us try to score a goal in you at once and let the Bludgers try to knock you off your broom at the same time."

Lily gasped. "That's dangerous!"

"And then I fell, and then you caught me. See? Practice."

"After all this, we'd better win. That's all I'm saying." James noticed the book haphazardly shoved under a pillow and retrieved it. "Who was reading Steven King?"

Lily stood up and messed up Sirius' silky hair until he swatted her away. "If he has nightmares, blame Remus."

"Blame me for what?" Remus asked. He walked into the common room, still in his school uniform. Sitting on Marlene's armchair, his eyes fell on the book in James' hand, and an amused smirk appeared on his face. "I told you you wouldn't like it, Pads."

"Hey, I'm not perfect!" Sirius claimed dramatically, raising the hand that wasn't wrapped around Eva. "I wear leather jackets like no one's business. I volunteer too much. I occasionally don't listen to people. Sue me. Besides, that book is messed up, man, messed up!"

Marlene finished her letter and folded it up. She tossed one of her many blankets on top of Remus' head before asking, "Where were you? You weren't at dinner."

In the firelight it was hard to tell, but a faint pink tinted his scarred cheeks. "I was down at Hagrid's," he replied.

"Why?"

"He needed help," was all he said.

Sirius grinned to himself at his friend's obvious lie, grinning wider when he saw that Eva had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Carefully, he stood and scooped her up, hoping that she wouldn't wake. He crept towards the stairs to the girls dormitory.

Lily looked at the others with raised eyebrows. Biting her lip, she asked, "Should we remind him?"

"No, no, let it happen," James whispered, his eyes glued on the scene. They all waited in anticipation. "Any second now..."

First they heard a yelp, then a thud, then more screaming as both Sirius and Eva tumbled down what used to be a set of stairs but turned into a slide when Sirius tried to enter the girl's dormitory. The stairs were enchanted to keep boys out at all costs. Everyone else roared in laughter, especially when Eva started yelling at Sirius before dissolving into laughter of her own.

After an undetermined time of laughter Eva and Sirius fell asleep on the floor near the stairs. He had an arm around her, and his chin rested on the top of her head, which was on his chest. Marlene tossed one of her blankets to Peter before drifting off, and James and Lily had piled pillows on the ground. Both the redhead prefect and the bespectacled chaser slept soundly, their hands inches apart.

Remus only shook his head at his friends. He took some of Marlene's blankets from her sleeping form and covered them all before camping out on the couch and falling asleep himself, a smile still on his face.