"Bleedin' idiot," Sirius was muttering, his eyes stinging, fists balled with the effort to keep any tears from leaking out of his stupid eyes. "Probably a trap, probably dragging him back to Havmork right now... Never learn... Thick as porridge..." 

There was a touch on his shoulder and Sirius bucked, whirling about, and finding Remus, breathless, having come up behind to catch him up. "Whoa," Rey said, ducking Sirius's flailing arm of surprise, "Down, doggy."

Sirius's mouth set firmly. "It isn't funny, Remus."

Remus sighed, "I know it isn't funny, I know." He carefully measured his voice to be soothing. "Padfoot, I know it isn't funny, I'm just trying to lighten the mood... to make you feel better."

"Well, I don't," Sirius grumbled, looking down at the ground with a perturbed stare.

Remus rubbed Sirius's shoulders and ducked to try and look Sirius in the eye. "Hey," he said, "Listen to me." Sirius looked up and their eyes locked. "I know you've been through a lot with your family and that Regulus... well, Regulus is a very touchy subject. I know that. And I know that as much as you'd never admit it that the way your mum and dad were toward Regulus made you jealous --"

"Jealous!" Sirius started, but Remus motioned for him to calm and hear him out.

"--made you jealous, because they doted over him and made him out to be the perfect son at exactly the same time as they were mistreating and disowning you." Remus stared into Sirius's scowling face. "But Regulus can't be blamed for what your mum and dad did."

Sirius said, "No but he can be blamed for what he has done... and that's a whole load of evil, working for You-Know-Who."

Remus shrugged. "He's done some good, too, though, Padfoot. He helped us rescue James last year. We never would've found Havmork without Regulus."

"I s'pose," Sirius ceded.

"And do you honestly think that Maryrose would be with someone evil?" Remus questioned, "Sweet little Maryrose?"

"Who knows," Sirius muttered, "Who knows anymore what anyone could justify in their minds these days?"

Remus said, "He's in the Order."

"Which we haven't even held a meeting of in ages," Sirius replied, shrugging. "What good's a bloody dark-defying Order if we don't even meet up and discuss the dark rubbish we're trying to defy? What good's it if we don't even defy anything?"

"I mean, we can hold a meeting, Sirius, it's us who needs to call it, isn't it?"

Sirius shrugged. He stared down at the ground, at the toes of his boots.

Remus reached over and pushed a loose strand of Sirius's hair over his ear as it had fallen out of the knot at the back of his head. He drew a deep breath, tracing his fingers gently along Sirius's jawline and lifting his chin carefully with two fingertips. "You know that James still is your best friend, don't you?"

Sirius's mouth twitched at the corner.

"Whatever time he spends with Lily Evans instead of us has no impact on whether you're his best mate or not, Sirius. It doesn't change a bloody thing, nothing could," Remus smiled, "Everyone knows that even I am only playing for seconds against your brotherhood with James Potter, love."

Sirius's eyes were burning again and he rolled them up to avoid Remus's gaze and turned, his throat tight. 

"James Potter loves you so bleedin' much, and you him," Remus said, "He's just in love, Padfoot, and it's new and it's exciting and he's distracted a bit, but he isn't going anywhere, no more than you were when we first started going together."

Sirius murmured, "What if he does? What if he thinks she's funnier than me?"

"Well that wouldn't be very hard, love, your humor is rubbish," Remus replied, wiping an escaped tear from Sirius's cheek.

Sirius snorted under his breath quietly and shook his head, "Tosser."

Remus kissed Sirius's cheek. "I'm your tosser, any rate."

Sirius sighed deeply and when Remus touched his forehead against Sirius's, he felt a surge of warm fuzzy mushiness fill him up from his very toes. He laced his fingers through Remus's and he drew a deep breath, "This is what Charlus and Dora do," he commented.

"I know," Remus answered.

Sirius closed his eyes.

"Sirius," Remus said quietly after several long moments had passed, after their breathing had synced and Sirius had calmed immensely.

"Moony?" Sirius mumbled.

Remus said, "We have to go back there and see what was the matter with Regulus."

Sirius paused for several long beats and Remus worried he was about to blow up all over again, but instead Sirius nodded, and he rounded 'bout and started back down the pathway toward the spot where they'd left James, Maryrose, and Regulus.

But when they reached the place where they'd left James, Regulus, and Maryrose, none of them were there. Remus looked around, then slid down the bank to the shore where Regulus had been sitting on the rock. He looked around, biting on his lower lip in concentration, but there was no hint, no clue... 

POP!

Snuffles came bounding down onto the shore and began sniffing about, searching, hunting... following a scent for a moment, then doubling back as he lost the trace of it... returning again and again to the waters edge before he finally transformed back into Sirius Black, who sat in the soggy dirt at the edge of the lake, staring out at it with a transfixed expression. 

"If I didn't know any better," Sirius murmured, "I'd guess they'd gone in the lake."

Remus was staring across the sparkling water, "I was just thinking the same thing."

Sirius looked over at Remus., back to the water, then returning to Remus. "Don't reckon you have a charm for that, do you?" he asked.

Remus thought for a long moment, and then he raised his wand...

Peter was sitting by himself on the bench outside of Honeyduke's, eating a bar of chocolate he'd originally bought for a gift for Remus. It was after midday and he'd managed to eat through all the gifts he'd gotten his friends, as well as half the sweets he'd bought for himself, jamming them in his cheeks like a fat little chipmunk. His lips were rimmed with melted fudge, and he sat staring at the stupid Mickey Mouse on the watch, which he'd withdrawn from his pocket, wondering if anyone on the planet would give a damn if it stopped ticking this very moment.

"Peter!" Lily's voice broke through his dark thoughts and Peter looked up to see her coming toward him, a whole group of girls, including Wendy, in her wake and he quickly attempted sitting up straighter as the came over, his face flushing as he tucked the watch away hurriedly before any of them could see it - especially Lily, who knew very well that James was missing his. "What're you doing out here all by yourself?" she looked up at the shop windows, "Are the others inside?" After all, she was having withdrawals from lack of James, and even though the rules were that she wasn't to spend time with him during the Hogmeade day, she couldn't help but hope for a accidental run-in that might result in a bit of a kiss - even a peck on the cheek - anything to sooth her craving for James...

Peter shook his head, though, "I'm alone." Then, "S'pose that's for the best anyhow."

"Well that's a horrible thing to say," Lily said as the others came 'round, and Wendy went over to hug Peter awkwardly - far too stiff to be a couple, really.

Peter hugged Wendy back. "Hullo," he murmured.

"Hullo," Wendy replied, and she let her arms drop away from his because of how stiff and nervous he felt and she looked down at her trainers, wishing she knew what she'd done wrong to make Peter Pettigrew so stand-offish.

Lily asked, "Where are the others, if not with you?"

Peter shrugged, "Dunno... I left James and... well, I sort of took a wrong turn a bit, ended up out by the clearing toward the Shrieking Shack - because I'm a ruddy idiot - and by the time I got back on the path... well, who knows where they'd gone. James and Sirius had a fight and Sirius was right torqued and stormed away and Remus was after him, and I haven't any idea where they are now."

"A fight about what?" Lily's brows cinched in worry.

"Regulus," Peter said.

Lily sighed, "Bloody hell, not again."

Peter nodded and jammed the rest of the chocolate bar into his mouth. "Yeah, again. On the path coming down from the castle, we met Regulus and Maryrose and something was the matter with Regulus but Sirius didn't really want to find out what it was about and --"

"Yeah, there was something wrong with Regulus," Wendy said, "He was walking with Maryrose and me and he suddenly stopped and went on own by the bank of the lake and started acting very strangely, Maryrose went to see what the matter was and that was when I joined you lot on the road."

Lily looked back down the road toward the castle, then to Marlene and Ali.

"We're coming with you," Ali said firmly, as though she'd read Lily's mind.