Peter paces the hallway, listening to Emaline hum some muggle tune as she finishes getting ready in her bedroom. Their mother had advised him to say something kind to his sister before they left for the Potters' annual Christmas Eve party, hating to see her children upset with one another, especially during the holidays. While it wasn't the worst idea, he hadn't the slightest clue as to what to say.

When Sirius came bounding into the compartment on the Hogwarts Express one week prior, shouting with glee about kissing Emaline, Peter had not believed him. He had quickly grown cross with the boy, telling him that liking his sister gives him no excuse to spread lies about her. Remus had been skeptical as well, but James believed his best friend wholeheartedly and took the news to mean his chances with Lily are better than he ever could have dreamed.

It wasn't until Peter overheard Emaline telling their mother about the kiss that he finally believed it. And, while he felt bad for calling Sirius a liar, in that moment he wished he had done a whole lot more than simply telling him to shut his mouth.

He has hardly spoken to her since, making it quite clear how he feels about this turn of events. She could have any boy in Hogwarts; for her to choose one of his closest friends felt like a personal betrayal.

He truly wants Emaline to be happy, and he wants Sirius to be happy. But surely they do not have to find that happiness within each other.

Her door flies open and Peter squeaks, expecting to be met with hexes after being so stubbornly rude. Thankfully, she merely fixes him with a glare, though it's effective enough to make him feel as small as his animagus.

"You can save your breath. I'm not going to snog any more of your friends."

"Oh, ok- you want James and Remus too?!"

Emaline raises an eyebrow, a smile ruining her agitated facade as Peter finally catches on.

"You were joking," he states dumbly.

With his heart still recovering from the heart attack her sarcasm nearly caused, he's forgotten what he even came to her door for. Emaline sighs, mistaking his silence as him still being upset with her, and starts to brush past him to find their mother.

"Wait!" She pauses and looks back at him, expecting him to ask her to stay away from Sirius as well. "You are technically an adult now."

Emaline laughs, the tension between the siblings finally disappearing with his ridiculous statement.

"How very observant of you, Pete."

He grins, his own nerves going away. "What I mean is, I can't tell you who you can and can't be with, and I'm sorry for being such a baby about it."

She's at a loss for words, having expected anything but an apology out of her younger brother. In all their years of petty fights, neither of them had ever actually said those two words to each other.

Communication is hardly the Pettigrew family's strong suit. Problems and conflicts are usually solved with favorite candies and new jewelry. To hear Peter say he's sorry has Emaline fighting back tears that are threatening to ruin her mascara.

Their mother comes to her rescue, announcing from the living room that she's about to apparate to the Potters' with or without her children.

The teenagers shriek and hurry down the hallway, quickly latching onto each of her arms before she can follow through with the threat. With one yet to have passed her apparition test and the other too young to take it, they'd be forced to walk over a mile in the snow.

One tight squeeze and a sharp crack later and they're standing in the Potter's warm foyer. Misty, the house elf, greets them and leads them into a lounge where most of the guests have gathered.

Peter hurries away the moment he spots James, who has been trying and failing to hide from his mother and his host responsibilities since the party began.

Emaline catches sight of Sirius, her heart skipping a beat as she recalls the last time she saw him.

He sees her as well, smiling in her direction for the briefest of moments before promptly returning to his conversation with Lyall Lupin.

Her smile falters for only a moment before she scolds herself for the disappointment hitting her heart. She certainly can't expect the boy to drop everything he's doing to be by her side simply because they kissed once.

Not wishing to spend the entirety of her evening discussing her plans for a future outside of Hogwarts with all of the older guests, she quickly heads for the stairs.

Sirius watches her go, his attention no longer on Lyall in the slightest.

Being the oldest Potter, James has no choice but to be a welcoming host alongside his parents at every party they throw, while his younger brother gets to have all the fun avoiding the boring adults.

Sirius, thanks to his prestigious upbringing, is quite good at these types of things and somehow always gets roped into helping James, no matter how badly he may want to follow one gorgeous blonde around all night.

The moment Emaline reaches the second floor, loud laughter replaces the quiet conversations occurring downstairs. She follows the noise, as well as the peculiar smell of smoke, though it's scent is far different from any cigarette she's ever smelled, until she reaches the right door.

Without so much as a knock, she throws it open, startling everyone inside. Atlas nearly falls out his open bedroom window, hurrying to hide the contraband behind his back. Cordelia freezes and nudges her older brother, waiting to be scolded by the older girl.

Remus merely lazily rolls his head from where he's lounging in a chair, smiling dazedly and half-heartedly waving before taking another hit of his blunt, not phased in the slightest.

Emaline snatches it out of his mouth, causing him to choke and sputter out the smoke in his surprise.

"What is this?"

"It's a blunt," Remus wheezes, recovering from his coughing fit. "He said bluntly," he adds, giggling at his own joke.

"But what's in it?"

"The devil's lettuce," Atlas answers in a voice used to tell scary stories, hardly able to get the simple words out before dissolving into his own fit of giggles.

"Surely you've heard of weed," Cordelia interjects, far kinder and appearing far more sober than the boys. Emaline only looks at her blankly, wondering why anyone would willingly smoke weeds. "Don't you want to be a Healer? How do you not know what cannabis is?"

"The medicinal plant?" Emaline finally realizes, though she is still confused as to why the boys need such a medicine.

The girl isn't completely clueless. She knows there are students that prefer funny-smelling cigarettes such as these over normal ones. She's seen them at parties. But, having never had a desire to smoke a regular cigarette, she was never curious enough to try or ask about the different ones, always having simply brushed it off as perhaps being a different brand.

She has read plenty on medicinal plants to know about cannabis and it's many healing properties, as well as the fact that it is prescribed to many. However, she never stopped to consider that people who do not need the medicine desire to take it. The whole notion seemed absurd.

"Would you like to try it?" Remus asks, watching her with more amusement than she thinks the situation calls for. "I hate to share, but I'll make an exception for your first time."

"But it's medicine." She wrinkles her nose, thinking of all the nasty concoctions she's had to drink over the years to cure her sicknesses.

"Don't think of it as a medicine. Think of it as," Atlas waves his hands around, searching for the right word. "Think of it as alcohol but without a hangover."

Emaline shrugs and puts the blunt to her lips, earning cheers all around.

If Remus willingly smokes this stuff around his younger sister, then it can't be all that bad, or any worse than anything alcohol has ever done to her. Besides, if she absolutely hates it, then lesson learned.

With a snap of his fingers, Remus lights it and she takes a small hit, inhaling practically nothing. Before anyone can offer advice, she takes a far longer drag, coughing what feels like both lungs and her stomach up as she exhales.

Her eyes watering, she sits down on the floor and hands the medicinal cigarette up to Remus, wondering how quickly she'll start to feel the effects.

"I can't wait to tell Sirius I'm the first person to get you high." Remus grins, looking down at her. "He's going to be so pissed."

The idea of Sirius puts butterflies in her stomach and she takes the blunt back without even thinking about it.

It isn't long before Emaline's sense of time is altered entirely. It's either been two minutes or two hours since she first sat down and now she's leaning against Remus's chair.

Atlas and Cordelia are telling a story, or maybe they're having a conversation. She can hear them talking, but she's not exactly listening.

The door opens and she whirls around - or, at least, that's what she thinks she does. In reality, her head turns so slowly that the newcomer is already out of sight by the time she can see the door.

She frowns, hoping she'll remember later to ask if hallucinations are normal when it comes to this type of thing.

"You should-"

"Hey!" Remus cuts off whatever Sirius is about to say, tugging on his arm and pointing to the floor. "Look what I did!"

Sirius follows his finger, watching as Emaline all too slowly registers what is said and looks up, her eyes far more red than the white they ought to be.

She smiles before quickly growing embarrassed at the realization he knows what she's done and dropping her head into her hands, hardly muffling her own giggles.

He crouches in front of her, gently tugging on her hands until she looks up at him. Neither of them are sure if her cheeks are red because she's blushing or she's been laughing too hard.

"Hey," he whispers, his own amusement evident. "How're you feeling?"

"I'm hungry," she whispers back. "Like really hungry."

Sirius grins, standing up and helping her to her feet. He lets go of her hands but she latches back onto one, following behind him as they walk out of Atlas's bedroom.

He had originally come up to warn only three people that James will be upstairs shortly. But, upon seeing Emaline, his priorities shifted entirely.

James barely tolerates the marauders smoking. If he were to see his favorite quidditch player roped into their antics, Sirius quite honestly believes the world would end.

Emaline freezes in the hallway, tugging on Sirius's hand so hard that he stumbles back when he tries to take a step forward. His gaze falls on her comically widened eyes and it takes everything in him not to laugh.

"What's wrong?"

"There's people down there." She's still whispering, and points to the staircase with her free hand.

"Yeah," he agrees, dropping his voice to match hers again. "People are usually at parties."

"They're going to know I smoked!"

"Just trust me."

Emaline nods slowly, allowing him to actually move when he goes to walk this time. He leads her closer to the stairs but turns and walks into a different bedroom, shutting the door just as James goes rushing by.

She jumps into the middle of the bed the moment he releases her hand, giggling as she falls back and pillows completely surround her. She sits back up just as quickly when Sirius puts piles of chocolates and candies in front of her, gasping as though she hasn't tasted food in decades.

Sirius sits on the edge of the bed, watching amusedly as she completely forgets he's there, too lost in her own world up in the clouds. He wonders how she could possibly get any cuter, sifting through the piles with a childlike fascination.

In all the years he's been head over heels for the girl now only a few inches away from him, he never once thought the first time he gets her in his bedroom would be to give her sweets and hide her from two of his best friends because his other best friend gave her drugs.

"Does your rule apply to when I'm stoned too?" Emaline questions, startling Sirius out of his thoughts.

"What rule?"

"Your kissing rule."

His eyebrows wrinkle together, still unsure as to what her muddled mind could possibly be talking about. She huffs and eats another piece of chocolate, unnecessarily agitated he isn't on the same wavelength as her.

"You won't kiss me when I'm drunk," she explains slowly, as though she's the one in the right state of mind and not the other way around.

"So you want to know if I'll kiss you when you're stoned?" Sirius finishes for her, unable to hide his grin.

Emaline nods eagerly, her heart beginning to race as Sirius climbs across the bed until his face is only centimeters from hers, so close he can smell the chocolate on her breath.

She leans forward to connect their lips and Sirius draws back, a teasing smirk on his lips.

"Yes, my rule applies to stoned Ema as well."

"You tease!" She shrieks, playfully shoving him away.

"You know you love it."

"Fuck you." She sticks her tongue out stubbornly.

"You can when you're sober."

The pillow Emaline launches at Sirius hits him with enough force to knock him off the bed.

"Arsehole!"

"You know you love it!"