September 1st- 1974

The train whistle howled loud and clear, and the wheel's began pulling off. James, Peter, and Remus exchanged very uneasy looks as they scanned the platform that was beginning to move beneath their feet, then glanced back into their usual compartment that now held an empty seat. Had Sirius simply gotten on the train without their noticing? He must have, since the Black's had been seen dropping off Regulus. Sirius' friends had been expecting the last surly Black to make his entrance as far behind his supposed family as possible, but now it seemed they must have just missed him in the crowd.

"He was still alive last you saw him, right James?" Peter kept biting at his nails rather than look to him as he eyed the barrier.

"Was totally normal the three weeks he was around," James agreed. He bit his lip rather than keep going, the pang of why he'd had to voluntarily return home this summer had his mind spinning in all sorts of awful directions. Had his parents grown suspicious of their animagus practice and done something to him?

As the train started to really pick up speed, they backed in and began to pull the door shut, when Peter shouted, "Wait!"

Startled and turning back around at once, they saw quite clearly what he'd noticed. Sirius was running towards the train at full speed, his trunk under one hand, and his owl clutched tightly in the other. James reacted first, pulling his wand out and summoning his friend. Clearly startled, Sirius lost his footing as he sailed forward, tumbling into him face first, luggage and all, James' back now unpleasantly melded to the stairs.

They groaned miserably as Remus and Peter made quick work of disentangling the pair. Sirius sat back, red-faced and tousled, and only after his stuff had been stored away and he plopped down on a seat did he huff, "Thanks. Could have been a little more subtle about telling me how much you wanted me-"

"Shut up Sirius," James groaned, still rubbing at his abused rib cage, "and tell me why the bloody hell you were so late."

"Can't do both now can I?" He grumbled, pushing his hair out of his face, and finally sitting himself up in a more dignified fashion. Then immediately slouching in his seat and rubbing at his right arm.

"You all right there?" Remus asked in concern.

Sirius eyed them all wearily, and waited long after they had taken their seats and the trolley had come around before saying, "It hurts."

Peter snorted and snapped, "Well thank you for that, we thought you were rubbing it for fun."

Sirius opened his mouth with a very crude look on his face, but James wasn't going to let him deflect with raunchy humor. "Come on Sirius, why did you almost miss the train, and what's wrong with your arm?"

He sighed, let his head fall back against the cushion and answered the ceiling, "Cause my parents are off their rocker."

"We discovered that several years ago," James nodded, "but I'd like specifics if you don't mind."

"What'd they do this time?" Remus asked in sympathy.

His head lolled back to stare them all down for a moment before he sighed and said, "They decided against informing me they were leaving this morning. Basically been ignoring my existence all summer, so I shouldn't have been too surprised, and since I couldn't apparate with them to the platform I had to ride my broom here. I'll be lucky if I wasn't seen, and fined for it!"

Peter, Remus, and James all called his parents a different curse word each, and Sirius smiled indulgently at them after saying that he had been far more colorful when he realized their actions.

The houses hadn't even faded from the windows though when Remus' eyes were already starting to sag shut and he was listing against the window. Only forcing himself on his feet, an inhuman amount of sugar from the trolley, and worry had kept him awake this long with it being a full moon tonight, but now in the middle of a bright afternoon he was losing the fight right in the middle of Sirius demanding to see Peter's letters to Atria all summer.

They didn't really need to fall quiet, but they respectfully fell off anyways as he did.

"So, was it worth it?" James breathed as the snores started to rumble around them along with the rocking.

"One month to the day," Sirius whispered, "didn't even notice," he finished, still rubbing at his shoulder.

"Lucky you," Peter grumbled, "mum was in tears half the time trying to talk me into going to the doctors, but she couldn't afford it and I wasn't running a fever, so I won by default."

The two didn't entirely follow all of that, but they got the gist and were just thankful the longest part of it was done. Now came the hard part.

They couldn't start on that now though, so before Sirius could start in on him again, Peter quietly excused himself to go see Atria for a bit while James had his back turned to start digging out his Transfiguration book, and Sirius' eyes were starting to droop as well.

"Sure you're alright mate?" James whispered when he'd sat back down and saw Sirius curling into the cushions much the same way Remus was, still favoring one side. There was always something so, off, about him when he came back from that place, something James could never put his finger on but absolutely knew he did not like.

"Yeah," he sighed, his voice dragging a bit. Reasonable enough as his head started to loll against the door. "Just, didn't sleep well with that thing in my mouth," he finished in nearly unintelligible garbles.

James got back to his feet and went rummaging back through his things, coming up with two jumpers and stuffing them under each of their heads before cracking open his book, and he was so distracted he didn't even see the flash of red hair go past his window.

4

Lily sighed as she found herself once again pacing the length of this blasted train. She wondered if Sev hoped she'd just get tired of doing it, this was such a routine she'd been able to pick up on half a dozen things over the course of her years.

That compartment halfway down had a hard to place catch, you could almost always hear the conversation inside because students didn't bother fighting with it. Potter and his friends somehow always got the ones close to the very front, probably terrorizing others away from it, so she tried to check there last. Slughorn's favorite was in use this time, and she was tempted to just join his invitation rather than keep at this pitiful attempt. She was convinced he had to be purposefully avoiding her by now to check in with those other Slytherins, maybe she should start returning the favor and see how he liked it.

"Hey, Lily!" She turned to see him running towards her, looking quite pleased with himself. "We must have been just missing each other, been looking all over for you! I got us our own carriage, come on."

She smiled and hugged him from behind, causing him to laugh in surprise as he opened it with a grand gesture. As the two lounged out, she pretended not to notice his bald faced lie, she couldn't have just missed him in his own carriage, and she'd spotted two seventh years in here on her last pass through. Sev couldn't just make them leave though, right? It had to be the same one though, because they were still right across from the group of Ravenclaws who were practicing for Toad Choir. Apparently she'd just gotten too good at keeping herself from asking questions.

4

The weather did not keep up its bright, cheerful mood as the day wore on, clouds were rolling in by lunch. By the time the afternoon vanished entirely, James was having to read by the tip of his wandlight as a roll of thunder drowned out the door opening once more, startling Sirius awake while Peter sidled back in. Remus didn't even twitch.

"So, how was your girlfriend?" Sirius demanded around a yawn. The nap that had given Sirius some color back in his face seemed to be draining right out of Remus.

"Don't," Peter groaned, "we still haven't, I mean, don't make it weird Sirius."

"Come on Pete," James giggled, reaching over with his feet to nudge at his and force him to stop blushing. "We just want to know! Please?"

"We were talking about joining Charms club this year," he admitted with a grin.

"Ooh, joining a club together, only one step off from a marriage proposal really," Sirius smirked.

"I hate you both," he huffed.

"You here that Sirius!" James gasped. "His love for another woman's already nudging us out!"

"Honestly man, respect the Marauders code!" Sirius mock scowled. He made as if to smack at Peter, before wincing and sitting back in his seat and trying to pretend like nothing had happened.

The two watched him, like they hoped he wasn't really stupid enough to think they weren't going to notice, but he just muttered something about the bathroom and left. He didn't even come back as the train began to slow, and by the time he did slip back in and hastily change clothes neither of them could spare the chance to watch him jerkily put his uniform on they were desperately trying to get Remus awake enough to move.

Rain was lashing down like a weapon upon them, and that still barely kept Remus' eyes open. He passed right out again the moment he slumped across the carriage, leaving the three of them to squash on one side and watch pitifully.

"I'll skip the feast and take him right up to the hospital wing," Sirius volunteered as they rounded the bend and the school came into sight.

"Guess it's for the best," James didn't look happy to be agreeing. "I'll go with you-"

"No, it's fine, I've got him," Sirius said briskly. He didn't wait for permission, the carriage didn't even come to a full stop before he was awkwardly trying to keep Remus against his left side and stumbling through the icy downpour.

"He's as bad as the ruddy werewolf," James scowled as they sprinted behind him into the Entrance Hall, he wasn't even sure Peter could hear him. "Think he'll ever tell us what's with that place of his?" He was still tempted to go charging up the stairs after them, but to their utter relief Madam Pomfrey arrived at the top of the stairs anyways, and the two reluctantly let themselves go with the flow into the Great Hall as they reminded themselves she'd know Remus' schedule as well as them by now.

Sirius did not make a late appearance though, he didn't come down to dinner at all that night. They sat impatiently through the sorting without hearing a single word of it, didn't even look up as the new DADA teacher was announced, and barely took of a bite of their dessert before finally skiving off up to their tower, where Sirius was also absent. Peter waited by the door, both of them still in damp clothes as James quickly rummaged through his trunk now at the foot of his bed and swung the invisibility cloak around them both.

Remus wasn't there, he must have already been taken down to the Whomping Willow, but Sirius was in his own bed, in hospital garb, fast asleep. The two shuffled guiltily in place he must have hurt himself worse than they thought when he'd been pulled onto the train like that and left quickly before Madam Pomfrey came back.

4

Sirius finally came down at the tail end of dinner the next day, and he seemed the only one happy for it.

"Remind me to use that excuse next year Pete," James pouted at him while stabbing at a meatball. "Skiving classes in the hospital wing, why haven't we thought of that?"

"Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't try and use it up for the whole week," Peter agreed.

"What are you two on about?" Sirius tried to ask around shoving a whole roasted bird in his mouth. He hadn't woken up in time for breakfast, Madam Pomfrey had not provided him lunch as he was possibly still too 'delicate', and had released him with presumably enough time to eat before this meal was up.

James showed him their Monday schedule, and Sirius looked offended, and all the more smug at the day he'd missed. Double History of Magic, Double Potions, and Double Herbology, it had been almost worth it to spend his first day back here in the hospital wing for that.

"How was Remus looking?" James asked softly as Sirius tried sucking the marrow out of a chicken bone.

"Dead as ever," he sighed, chucking it across the hall and managing to hit Snape on the head even from this distance.

"Black, Potter," McGonagall had swooped down on them even faster than usual, Sirius hadn't even finished stuffing his pockets yet.

"I know," James groaned.

"We're going," Sirius raised his hands in surrender and the three excused themselves from the rest of the meal regardless with their plates in hand, bypassing their hourglass that now had five points less, making a pit stop at the kitchens, and finally going up to their dorms to start up some Transfiguration practice.

Their patronuses had been correct, and even without them the long process had finally gifted them with the knowledge of exactly what animal they would now have to spend the time transforming every joint in their body, one piece at a time into and back to that animal.

"Here," James dumped the last of his food onto Peter's bed and laid out an innocuous looking dinner plate onto Remus'. "Convinced Vosper to give these to me, we've got Quidditch practice at the crack of dawn by the way, and if this works, it should turn back into a mushroom." He cleared his throat and said with confidence, "Homorphus."

The plate shook for a moment, before transfiguring back to its original state as if in fast forward, a tiny little mushroom sitting there in moments.

"Alright, your turn," he nudged Sirius forward. He too managed it on the first try, but it took Peter four to get his to change back, Charms still wasn't his best. Now that they had a means to fix any major mishaps though, they began on the toes.

4

Professor Jebediah Novac was waiting eagerly at the front of the class as they entered Thursday evening. He was extremely tall, even those with the best growth spurts over the summer had to crane their heads a bit to get a glimpse at his dark skinned face, but at least he was smiling, his wand already at his side.

"Welcome class," his enthusiasm was infectious, Lily felt more than anything Potter and his lot behind her shut up and look to the front curiously. Sev already had this class yesterday morning, and she'd listened eagerly to find out what they were in for this year. He'd at least promised her this guy was competent enough to perform a spell, so her hand was the first to eagerly shoot up when he then asked for a volunteer.

"Thank you Miss..."

"Evans," she answered happily as she tied her hair back and drew her wand.

"Yes, of course," he grinned. "Now, fourth year students should be focusing their energy on curses this year, and I thought we would start off with how to block some of those before we go off practicing, so we're going to be learning Protego, Miss Evans, or the shield charm. Now don't go running off and telling Flitwick on me," he finished in a mock whisper, causing them to chuckle. "So, just send whatever curse you'd like at me."

Lily only thought for a moment before shouting, "Ignis." A little jet of flame came shooting out of her wand.

"Protego," he returned without hesitation, and for just a moment her bright orange flames bounced off of seemingly nothing and then vanished. Presumably not according to plan though, the spell promptly stopped after five seconds and he crashed back into the wall.

"Professor!" Lily yelped in concern, her own spell stopping without the catastrophe as she dropped her wand and went to help, but he was already getting back to his feet and laughing it off. "Not to worry, not to worry, happens all the time! I've a finicky wand, you see. Now, I hope you were all paying attention!"

He gestured her back to her seat and tried to keep going with the same attitude, but when he pointed his wand at the board near the end of class once more for them to start copying down their lesson plan, the words appeared, and his wand flew right out of his hand to hit the ceiling, causing sparks of protest on its descent down and nearly singing Patricia Bishops hair.

Lily sighed as she went off to find Sev, grumbling all the way about how at least he hadn't assigned homework. She found him in their favorite unused classroom, scratching away in his potions book, but there was no cauldron at the ready this time. He looked up eagerly upon her arrival.

"So who did Novac hit in class? Please tell me it was Potter or one of his lot?" He smirked.

"Nobody," she frowned as she pulled out her own copy. "It was almost me and that Bishop girl, but otherwise he's just an idiot."

He sighed and shrugged it off as he went back to his book, still slashing at the margins, but as she leaned over, she couldn't spot an ingredient in the spiky writing.

"What are you doing?" She finally asked, keeping the flustered tone out of her voice she didn't just know.

"Working on a spell," he admitted without looking up.

"Oh, still trying to make up your own," she grinned. "You're going to be the one putting holes in this castle soon."

"I've already got one completely perfected," he looked up from his long hair to grin right at her. "This great buzzing noise will appear around anyone's ears! Nobody could ever interrupt us again! And this one," he tapped the tip of his quill impatiently on his book, "will glue your tongue to the roof of your mouth, shut up any idiots who interrupt us! So far it only sticks there for a few moments, I'm trying to make it last longer. I can teach you, if you want."

"I think I'll wait," she said quickly, she'd had enough of spells today. "I wanted to have another try at the Polyjuice Potion, I got extra supplies from the Apothecary over the summer."

He happily agreed, and the two spent a delightful evening going over how much better they'd be at teaching DADA than any of the idiots they'd gotten while sorting out lacewing flies.

4

Thanks to Vosper using up his Quidditch booking practices all week, they were released for the weekend. Remus was as rearing to go as anyone by then, he didn't even bring up homework until Sunday evening they spent every waking available hour going door to door, corridor by corridor, floor by floor as they determinedly tried to figure out if there could possibly be anymore secret passages out of the school.

Even having lived here for three years though and exploring this place with all the consequences that came of that from their multiple detentions, even they started getting turned around and arguing about which way they'd come by the third floor. Filch showed up and shooed them off regardless, but it only burned their conviction brighter as they went up to the mirror instead and made a trip to Hogsmeade for the evening before anyone else in the school could.

4

October

"James, you're drooling," Peter grumbled as he mock wiped spittle off his Arithmancy book, resisting the urge to shove the idiots blank parchment into his open mouth.

"Huh?" He muttered without looking away from the red hair two seats in front of them.

The bell rang regardless, and he only wrote down half of what was on the board before Vector banished it, he didn't even get a chance to wave at Evans as she passed by, he had to kick Remus' chair out from under him to get him to wake up.

He collapsed with an undignified snort and glared balefully up at them around a yawn, his parchment just as blank.

"Honestly," Peter sighed, "between the two of you, I think you should be doing my Charms homework every time I ask."

Remus took the offered hand even as he kept rubbing at his dark rimmed eyes while James didn't even bother to look chagrined.

"There's got to be something I'm missing," he huffed as he grabbed Remus' bag. "She spends too much time around that Snivellus bloke, I can't figure out how to keep her attention."

Remus yawned rather than answer and Peter told himself he was grateful James wasn't turning and demanding of him what he'd done to keep Atria still talking to him, it's not like he really knew himself. They met up with Sirius anyways at lunch, who was as usual inhumanly smug about whatever he'd been up to in his Muggle Studies class, but he didn't even start his bragging as he frowned worriedly at Remus.

"Should make two full moons in one month illegal somehow," Sirius sighed as he began dishing stew onto Remus' plate.

"I'll let the planetary gods know," he groused back.

"At least this one's already over, and the next is on Halloween," Peter offered. "That's worth some kind of laugh."

Nobody laughed, and James kept going like no change of subject had been offered. "Sirius, how in Merlin's pants did you convince Maggie Smelters to go out with you! She's a year above us, and you've already dumped her!"

"Not to mention a Transfiguration prodigy," Sirius needlessly added with a smirk, "so I made her jealous, told her I could help her out."

"You're an idiot," Remus informed around another yawn.

Peter shot Sirius a warning look, but James seemed to be considering the suggestion as he slurped up his meal. He glanced hopefully down the table and seemed so distracted watching Evans, he didn't realize he'd dunked a bit of bread into his drink rather than his food until he popped it into his mouth, and then swallowed anyways to hide any such thing.

Heather Valson laughed from the other side of a burly seventh year.

James leaned around him to smile at her, already considering daring Sirius to do the same so they could get a game going.

4

"Behind you," James' voice from no where whispered into Sirius' ear, and he schooled his features well not to react as he turned casually around to see a door already propped open. He walked in like he had a purpose to be in an unused classroom and closed it firmly behind him, and only then did James take off the cloak.

"Who are we hiding from this time?" Sirius asked eagerly.

"Snape," he sneered. "Arsehole was trying to follow me, again. Don't know what he means by it."

"Guy's got no brains of his own James, I keep telling you," Sirius rolled his eyes. 

"Don't underestimate him Sirius," James cautioned. "Took Madam Pomfrey half a day to reverse that manibus hex on you, I don't know where he gets half of these!"

"Come on then, let's get out of here before he gets his slime all over us," Sirius clearly wasn't listening.

James pressed his ear to the door, counting to sixty in his head, and then pulled the cloak back on to give the door the smallest crack and grabbed his mirror, flashing it out first to check the coast was clear. Snape's greasy hair was just going around the corner, and the two nipped back out under the cloak, following him now.

He scowled when he got to the staircase and glanced back at the main floor, but seemed to give up for now at least and made to start heading down the stairs. They decided to help him.

"Glisseo!" James said, just as Sirius shot, "viscosi," at his hand resting on the banister.

The stairs smoothly transitioned to a slide beneath his feet while his fingers were now glued to their grip, and they laughed in delight  as they took off up the stairs instead.

4

They finally found one after nearly two months of looking, and they weren't even going to dump James in the lake for not shutting up about it being his idea, he was technically right. They'd found it by following Evans down into the dungeons, and then traversing the area out of boredom when she'd threatened to curse them all with Novac's newest spell, and considering she'd sent that desk harder into the wall than the teacher, they believed her and scarpered.

Instead they were passing dusty alcoves and spiderwebs a plenty, James insisting something good had to be down here, when they came across a statue of a house-elf in a random nook.

They were deep in the bowels of the castle by now, even the Slytherin's probably didn't traverse this way much, but the cobwebs and dust were still missing from the house-elves firm work. Remus had been the only one curious enough to lean over and rub the sleeve of his robes vigorously at the base of the stone to see the covered letters. The name Hooky was displayed, along with the proud proclamation she'd been the first house-elf to ever be here at Hogwarts. The others had already grown bored and tried to keep going, but Remus just hadn't been able to fight off the oddity of it being here, even the house-elves not cleaning it, and so tapped it and said, "dissendium." Nothing happened, and he scrambled madly in his mind as he looked at the dusty thing while the others had already turned a corner and were out of sight. "Tergeo," he tried.

Every trace of residue vanished from every crevice, the toga she wore and the Hogwarts crest shining like new, and the head swung open like Nearly-Headless Nick's. He screamed in delight to find a long, empty tunnel.

The others came racing back nearly too late as Remus jumped down, and he missed the shoving match that had them all trying to follow at once. Once they'd raced down to the other end, they were even more surprised it wasn't just their excitement that had made this seem like the shortest tunnel yet, as they popped right out of a trash can bin in Hogsmeade station.

The absent train made the platform feel eerie, like they were waiting for nothing. The castle wasn't even visible in the distance, nor were the houses to the village. They simply stood, as if alone in the world under the dark night and grinned at each other, whooping and high fiving loud enough it was probably a good thing they'd found the most secluded place in the whole world. After all, who had a reason to be here any other time of year?

4

Lily could admit when something was her fault. She'd absolutely been trying to outshine Sev in their favorite class that morning when she carelessly splashed a little too much bulbadox powder into her potion without the scale in hopes it would boil faster than his.

The results had the two of them covered in nasty boils it took Madam Pomfrey only moments to clean up, but she was still apologizing hours later on the way down to dinner when they were mercifully released. 

"It's no big deal Lily," he still laughed off, he'd been as cheerful as the Fat Friar in the Hospital Wing with her all day, it was more a miracle than anything nobody else had come in to disturb them, not even his friends. "I would have likely done the same thing in moments, I wasn't paying attention and almost added the porcupine quills without taking it off the fire. You probably saved us from an even larger explosion!"

She hooked her arm through his and leaned into him for as long as she could before they had to separate to their different tables at opposite ends of the hall as usual. 

4

November

Sirius always found a new level of obnoxious on his birthday, and it didn't help he'd been key in their Quidditch victory, hitting that Bludger right at the Slytherin Seeker so that Bless could swoop in for the win.

Remus was still extremely sore and cranky, so Sirius thought he was doing him a kindness by having him out on the grounds and not even suggesting a skip into the Forest today, just a nice leisurely walk around the lake as he treated them to yet another revision of the game.

Peter was distracted from his scouting for on comers by watching another of those freaky, horse looking things come shooting out of the forest at the treetops, snapping its mouth at a raven, only just visible by the skeleton like wings. He didn't notice the approach until it was too late to warn James to get the cloak out.

Claw arrived first, bounding out of the forest, tail still threatening to wag right off of his own butt as he came galloping forward and cutting Sirius off by once more shoving his nose somewhere it arguably shouldn't be if you aren't a dog, yet.

"I could set my watch by you four," Hagrid laughed in exasperation, crossbow already strapped to his back. He seemed even more vast in the moon's lighting as he began waving them back towards the castle. "Come on you lot, should tell McGonagall I should."

"Oh come on Hagrid," Sirius wheedled. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. "It's my birthday, can't you just let us off with a warning?"

"Like a warning's ever stopped you," he chuckled, finally reaching out and grabbing the collar of his dog to drag him back. Hagrid didn't follow them up the stone steps though, and instead attempted a stern look to get through the great, bushy beard. "Alright then, just for tonight! I don't want to catch you four out again the rest of this month!"

"Yes sir," they all chirped at once, James even saluting him as they took off inside before he could change his mind.

"He's a good bloke," Sirius was still grinning as they did go back for the tower, he didn't really want a detention on his birthday.

"Can't think of anyone who would say a bad word against him," Peter agreed.

"Ever wonder how he got to be that size though?" James asked, twirling his wand between his fingers. "Even Novac and Dumbledore barely reach his chin, and that's not even mentioning how wide he is."

"Not really our business I suppose," Remus grumbled.

"As if that's ever stopped them," Peter needlessly reminded, as his comment had only made the other two look even more intrigued.

4

James was doodling along the back of his astronomy homework, a very elaborate picture of him and Evans holding hands and basking in front of the fireplace. Peter was off at his Charms club and Remus and Sirius were serving some detention for Slughorn, so he was waiting up for one of them to get back while being in this very spot.

A flash of red hair sat across from him. His heart leapt, he looked up eagerly in hopes his delusion had become reality, only to sigh in disappointment. "Hi Heather, what's up?"

She went the color of the flames, her blue eyes not quite able to meet his as she stammered, "ah, the um, the Hogsmeade trip, this weekend."

"Yes," he prompted when she seemed likely to stop there.

"Well, erm, it'll be my first one going, I mean obviously, and well, wouldyouwanttogowithme?" She finished all in a rush.

James just looked at her blankly. He glanced over and saw Hestia Jones watching eagerly from the other side of the common room, it didn't seem they were fighting, so it's not like she thought she'd have to go alone and get lost or something.

She ducked her face miserably into her hands as the silence just dragged on. He cleared his throat and said, "I guess, I mean if you'd like a tour of the place, I'd be happy to." He wasn't going to deny the fun of showing someone else after all, he just wasn't sure why she looked so embarrassed to be asking.

"Oh, thanks James! We're going to have so much fun!" She burst out of her seat and hugged him before sprinting back to her friend, James was still scratching at his neck in confusion when Peter finally came back.

"Are you still stumped on that?" Peter asked in exasperation, holding his hand out for his paperwork. "It was an easy assignment, all we had to do was copy-"

"Know what's up with Heather Valson?" He cut in. Peter always kept up on what everyone else was doing, maybe he knew what she'd been so nervous about. "None of those Slytherin's have been bothering her have they?" He finished threateningly, she was a nice kid and he'd take a detention to get back at them for it.

"Nothing up to speak of," he shrugged as he started pulling out his own books and supplies. "She's been trying to learn how to draw, asked McGonagall for some extra Transfiguration help, but nothing out of the ordinary."

"Huh," James shrugged as he went back to his doodling, drawing a few more lines to really make the fire look alive, he needed to work on his shading. "She just asked me if we'd spend some time in Hogsmeade with her, so just checking."

Peter dropped his bottle of ink, James yelped and jerked his precious picture away before it could spill all over it.

"You idiot," Peter laughed, not even bothering to clean up the mess he was shaking so much, forcing James to do it before he put his art back down.

"What?" He demanded, before picking up a pillow and stuffing it into his face as Evans walked by. His heart felt like it was going to thud out of his chest as she started undoing her tie. If he was lucky she'd come back downstairs in her pj's to do her homework, the pretty tie-dye ones that were as mesmerizing as her to watch, or maybe she'd change into some warm sweats with that hoodie that had wings on the back.

Peter finally managed to get the pillow off his face, and James had no regrets for his action as the idiot was still laughing.

"James, mate," Peter was close to wiping tears out of his eyes by this point, James was resisting the urge to start shoving the pillow into his pie hole. "Heather asked you out."

"Huh?" He muttered, before his eyes widened in surprise. He looked over to see Heather laughing damn near as hard as Peter for his antics, and he bit his lip. He should go over there and correct her, he even got up to do just this, but then Evans came down in a rainbow of glory pajamas, and he bolted to her side instead and said loudly, "where would you like to go on our date first Heather?"

He felt like bursting into song Evans actually did look up from only a few tables over in surprise, he didn't give a care so did half the common room. He reached out and took Heather's hand, grinning as Evans' eyes narrowed on him in dislike once more before turning back away, but that was just phase one of jealousy, right? He'd have to ask Sirius that when he got back.

At least he was a perfect gentlemen the whole trip, but every time he looked down he couldn't help a flash of disappointment it was her wide-eyed blues watching him in fascination as he showed off the Shrieking Shack and the secret vineyard behind Dervish and Bangs.

4

"A really handsome troll?"

"No Sirius."

"Peter's long lost dad?" 

"What does that have to do with his gigantic size?" Peter demanded. 

"Clearly you need to brush up on your giants Pete," James snorted. "Hagrid's note even half the size of a full grown one."

"Maybe he's a werewolf," Sirius suddenly declared like he'd made the most brilliant of deductions.

Remus pounced on him. Even the first years didn't look up as the two went wrestling around the floor this time, Bobby Saigle stepping casually over them to get to the portrait hole.

Sirius stopped abruptly when Bless and Tegan walked in, straightening up to his feet and running his fingers through his hair, giving one last kick to Remus as he said smoothly, "evening ladies. Bless, just wanted to congratulate you again on that win, really something you were, I'd love you to show me those moves."

"Trying to take my spot on the team?" She challenged even as she smiled back at the flattery.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he promised, edging closer. 

She knew exactly what that smile meant, but she side eyed James before going any farther and answering, "Would you perhaps like to sit with us at the match for Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw next week? I can show you all kinds of moves by then."

Sirius knew exactly what had just happened, and he had no issues being used by her in the meantime until she realized it was never going to happen. "I'd love that."

Remus jabbed him in the back of the knee, but at least he waited until the two departed.

Sirius looked down liked he'd forgotten he was there. Then his smile brightened and Remus cringed into the carpet.

"You're coming to the match with us next weekend."

"Sirius," Remus whined. "Why me?"

"Because James is already pretending to like one girl and I don't want Atria to kill Peter," Sirius said like it was obvious. "Just talk to Tegan while Bless and I sneak under the stands, don't want to ditch the poor thing."

"Absolutely not," Remus stated in no uncertain terms, crossing his arms and clearly intending to stay right here for the next week just to prove his point. The plush carpet really was quite comfortable, he was mildly confident he could talk Peter into bringing him food and the majority of his homework, at least Kettleburn wouldn't dock him too much for missing that class, now he just had to figure out how to use the bathroom-

"Oh come on!" Sirius groaned, "I'm not even setting you up, I swear, just talk Quidditch with the girl for a few hours!"

"You're quite confident in yourself," James snorted.

"I'll not do it," Remus stated. He glanced uneasily around, finally lowering his voice to hiss, "not this weekend you idiot!"

It wasn't like Sirius had forgotten, but he still thought Remus could drag his butt from the hospital wing this one time! "I'll spring you from Madam Pomfrey, I thought you'd be thanking me."

"No. Absolutely not," Remus stated.

Sirius got a challenging gleam in his eye, but finally returned to his homework.

Remus gulped, but reached up to grab a pillow from the couch, not caring for the dirty look Veronica Fletch gave him as he dislodged her elbow from it as he sprawled out on the ground, now on eye level with Patricia Bishop for once.

It took him nothing to fall asleep, and especially the week preceding a full moon he was a very heavy sleeper. Still, even he would have thought he'd notice what Sirius had done to him when he woke up before the laughter caught his ears.

He'd been wrong, Sirius wasn't going to hold a grudge next week when he didn't do it. He was preemptively getting revenge now.

"That's a nice color on you mate," Peter told him, leaning over the couch with tears running down his face. 

The dress was not a good color on him, he looked more like he was wearing bits of elephant skin. He yanked his wand from a still available pocket and jabbed so hard at it there was probably a tear there now, but it didn't change back to his robes.

"Sirius!" He shouted, but too late, the portrait hole had long since closed.

Heart thudding in his chest, Remus went bolting up the staircase before the rest of the common room pissed themselves with laughter.

He came back down the stairs with it hanging from one hand so he could strangle Sirius with it, but again he fell victim to trying to predict Sirius' next move. He would have thought he'd try bolting to their first class of the morning and skipping breakfast, but witnesses and a teacher weren't going to stop Remus this time.

The bright flash of blue light did, and he yelped to once again find his clothes had changed, this time to a plaid skirt and a halter top.

Sirius had circled back and was lounging in the common room in easy murdering distance. 

"You're right Remus, that outfit does look better," Sirius nodded to himself while Remus tried to charge at him, Sirius flipping out of the chair and easily dodging him. "I'm worried you'll catch a cold though, here, let's try something else."  Another flash of blue light, and he was wearing a pink cardigan over a floor length wool skirt. "Much better!" Sirius praised, "still working out the kinks of-" 

He had to duck the curse sent his way, but still leapt clean over a table while saying, "I thought you'd appreciate it! Now you can sit with the girl without freaking out! I'm sure I can even give you matching outfits the day of!"

The bastard went tearing out of the portrait hole again before Remus could catch him, and he almost made the mistake of going after him before he caught himself with one foot out. The Fat Lady would never let him back in while classes were going on, and the warning bell chose that moment to ring. He dashed back up the stairs and changed clothes quickly again. 

He stopped from going back down the stairs though as he wondered how far Sirius would push this. Experience told him he wouldn't give up unless Remus did something to force him to say otherwise. Biting his lip, he went to James' trunk, and gave a merciful sigh his cloak was right there at the top. Swinging it on, he padded slowly and carefully down the stairs once more.

Sirius at least wasn't waiting for him this time, but he wasn't taking chances, cautiously assessing every step down to their Transfiguration class. 

"Potter! Black! Will you pay attention!" Remus smiled and leaned casually against the wall, waiting patiently under the cloak until the bell rang.

They were the last three to leave, and Peter poked his head out first, swiveling side to side carefully before saying, "all clear. Are you really going to keep this up the rest of the week?"

Sirius came strutting out looking far too pleased with himself. "He's probably just going to hide in the dorms all day-"

Remus' hexes were as formidable as Sirius' transfiguration, there was a suctioning noise in the air around him before he sunk into the floor, stuck from the waist up. Remus had Sirius' wand in his hand before he even knew what happened.

"You're an arsehole," Remus pleasantly informed him as he removed the cloak.

"But you love me anyways?" Sirius offered, wiggling in place, and sinking deeper.

"Nope," Remus smirked.

"Fine, fine," he relented, making grabby motions for his wand back as he sunk up to his chest. "You win this time, alright?"

Remus still held his wand tantalizingly above his fingers, meeting his eyes for several long seconds. He was up to his armpits. "Say it Sirius."

Sirius groaned but forced out the words. "You win Remus!"

He dropped the wand, and Sirius grumbled as he got himself out of the floor.

The arsehole still hooked up with Bless over the weekend too.

4

December

With his back to the portrait hole, Remus hadn't realized there was anyone behind him until Sirius said loudly in his ear, "Knight to H3."

He started, nearly toppling the board over, and causing Peter to snicker.

Rubbing his ear, and alternatively glaring from both Peter to Sirius, he asked Peter, "why didn't you tell me they were behind me?"

"You told me to be quiet so you could concentrate," he responded, the gleam of mischief prevalent.

Remus rolled his eyes as he made his move, ignoring James and Sirius as they sunk into nearby chairs, and trying very hard to ignore their comments.

"-told you they were up here!"

James responded back, "Well, they said they were going to be in the library, why are they even up here?"

Sirius slumped back in his chair as he muttered, "I get really sick of wandering around the whole castle just to find you two. Why don't you just come with us when we go to the kitchens?"

"Or at least stay where you say you're going to be," James agreed, digging an éclair out of his pocket, and beginning to eat it.

Peter had just made his countermove, and looked up at the two with surprise saying, "Now there's an idea."

"What?" Sirius asked, taking his wand out of his pocket and beginning to twirl it around between his fingers in boredom.

"I get sick of wandering around to find you two as well. Why shouldn't we come up with something to help us find one another."

Remus gave his own move back, before responding without looking up, "Because you'd need to make a bloody map of the whole school, which that alone could take weeks. The charms that would make what you're saying possible are- come on you bloody castle, he's just a pawn!" He cut himself off to egg on his piece.

James and Sirius sat up straighter, not looking so bored anymore.

Glancing about the deserted common room, they leaned in and James whispered, "Wait, finish what you were saying Remus."

He turned confused eyes to his friend, missing the next move Peter gave as he responded, "What?"

"Map of the school?" Sirius prompted. "Advanced charms?"

Remus scoffed as he turned back to the game, distracted by what Peter had just done. They remained impatiently quiet until Remus said, "Check," before going back to the actual conversation and saying, "It was a joke you two. There's not an actual map of the castle, it's unplottable, you'd have to draw the whole thing by hand. Sure I can think of a few spells that could track people in the school, but there's no way to single out four people. It's a general spell, mapping where everyone in that location would be."

Then he broke off again in frustration as Peter took out his other bishop.

He missed a bit of the next part, James and Sirius had continued on without him as he made his next move, saying, "Check," again at the end.

"That's brilliant," Sirius breathed in his ear again.

Remus jerked back, giving his friends uneasy looks at what he saw on their faces. "What is?"

"Were you not listening?" James asked in disbelief

"If you two haven't noticed, I'm a bit busy at the mome-"

"Checkmate!" Peter said with glee, and Remus looked down at the board in disbelief as Peter's Queen took his crown. Cursing and leaning back in his seat he griped, "Now see what you made me do!"

"You guys should come distract him more often," Peter said with glee, "another match?" He asked, already setting up his pieces again.

"Forget about that you two," James said now practically bouncing in his seat. "Don't you realize what we've just stumbled across?"

"What?" Remus and Peter asked together.

"A Marauder's Map," James and Sirius answered.

Plans for the thing began in earnest, and had to be redesigned seven different times before one of them even approved of the layout they were using, not to mention James' drawing abilities were still coming along and they weren't even sure when he was trying to identify a corridor from a staircase half the time. What with Christmas being right around the corner and James and Peter leaving once more on holiday, they couldn't even invest as much time into it as they wished. It was definitely a work in progress.

4

Sirius bit his lip to stop himself from laughing as the idiot waited until he was sure Evans was looking before kissing Heather on the cheek and going out of the portrait hole for the train. She waved eagerly at him the whole time, the poor kid.

"Someone really should put them out of their misery," Remus sighed.

"I will after holidays," Sirius shrugged. "It's obviously not been working," Evans had just rolled her eyes at the display as usual, if anything this seemed to be making it all worse. "What about you then?" Sirius asked.

"What about me?" Remus shrugged, digging around in his bag for something, why he'd even brought it down to say goodbye to those two Sirius didn't know.

"Peter and Atria are finally official, James has himself a fake girlfriend and is still pinning after Evans. I could list the girls I've gone out with, if you'd like some hints on where to start," he finished.

"I'd rather eat chalk," Remus stated.

"Oh come on Remus," Sirius laughed as he finally found a thing of Bean's at the bottom of his bag. "You're the only one of us who hasn't kissed a girl yet, it's getting sad mate."

He said nothing, and it wasn't because he was choking on an odd flavor, the arse hole was actually enjoying two he'd popped in his mouth at once. Sirius still swore he was faking the fact he'd never managed to grab a bad bean.

Remus still went oddly deaf and refused to respond to Sirius nearly the entire break whenever he tried to bring it up, and it wasn't until he woke up in the hospital wing after his most recent full moon the Saturday after Christmas did he really think Sirius would get it.

He was propped up in his usual chair, rocking it on two legs and singing quietly to himself God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriff. He was still playing with the little spinning top Remus had gotten him that promised to never stop no matter the surface, and so far that had been proven true as he had it balanced on his nose.

The only thing that was missing was James humming along and Peter applauding the two.

"Oh good, you're awake!" Sirius grinned, his voice louder than the bang noise the chair made as it landed on all fours.

Remus looked wearily to Madam Pomfrey's door, but Sirius waved off the concern. "Don't worry about it, Aubrey told Atria who told Peter of this spell to put around doors, makes a buzzing noise so others can't hear what's going on. She won't hear us anymore, isn't that cool!"

"Yeah, it is," he agreed around a jaw cracking yawn, only his voice coming out so hoarse reminded Sirius and he had to pocket the top and reach for some water for him.

He waited patiently until Remus was almost sitting up before continuing, "you know, she's not dating anyone, I bet you and her, and Atria and Peter could go on a double date sometimes," he non-so-subtly hinted.

Remus' hand tensed around the glass, he resisted the urge to throw it in Sirius' face only for how nice it still was to wake up to him being here. "Are you really this stupid, or do you think it's just funny to mock me for this?"

Sirius sat back in surprise. Long used to Remus getting snappy, he hadn't seen him in a real temper in quite some time. "I, what, Remus-"

"Sirius, no girl will ever want anything to do with me," he finally said what his friend seemed too obtuse to get. "I still think it's a dream half the time you three put up with me, you really think some flighty teenager will never ask why I'm always so sick, Merlin I don't even know if I can swap spit with them!" He finished, nearly shouting at the end anyways, and grateful for it, he almost felt like crying instead.

"Oh, hey, Remus," Sirius groaned, and suddenly he was on the bed beside him, pulling him into a half hug. Remus finally set the glass aside rather than dumping it on his head as his hand brushed over a particularly throbbing gash on his arm and he didn't even flinch, nor would he later when it glinted silvery light in their dorm. "Don't be ridiculous alright, we eat and drink after each other all the time, there's nothing wrong with your spit." 

Sirius hid his own anger well, that Remus' dad apparently never said anything like this to him, that nobody ever explained anything to any of them and they'd been working all this out on their own. They'd always have to stick together to figure anything out.

Remus couldn't help a watery snort of laughter, the tightness in his chest finally loosening somewhat.

"Listen," Sirius gave his shoulder a friendly shake. "Nobody said you had to blab your secret to the first girl you peck on the cheek, alright. Just do what you did with us, get to know some people, and then maybe if you like them, ease into the subject or something."

"You make it sound far too easy," he sighed.

"It is that easy," Sirius insisted with absolute confidence. "Those two idiots have gotten girlfriends thanks to my help, you can too if you really want."

"I, don't, really," but he looked Sirius in the eye now. "I mean it Sirius, just, not yet. I'm not, there yet."

"Alright," Sirius shrugged like the matter was settled. "Let me know when you are and you'll have one by the week though, mark my words."

"I won't bet against you," Remus chuckled.

4

January

"I heard Potter broke up with Valson," Sev used as a greeting as he slammed down into the seat beside her.

"Hello to you too," she rolled her eyes, "and happy birthday."

"Yes, thank you," he huffed. "Is it true?" He pulled out his Study of Ancient Runes textbook without taking his eyes off her.

"How should I know?" She grumbled, still shuffling through her own papers for that translation page. "I don't keep track of their lives half as much as you do."

"Oh," he seemed mildly appeased with that answer and tugged at a bit of promising looking parchment near the top, and she cried in triumph he'd found it.

Professor Babbling called attention then, rapping his wand on the chalkboard. "Let's see who paid attention to the homework then, who can tell me how to correctly pronounce these two words?"

He had ehwaz and eihwaz on the board, and Lily at least knew half the answer so raised her hand tentatively.

"Pettigrew," he called.

"Ehwaz literally means horse, while eihwaz means yew-tree." He answered promptly.

"Correct, ten points for Gryffindor, now," he turned back and began drawing the more distinct runes. "Pronunciation is key here, and though they mean nor look nothing alike, why would they be pronounced so similarly? Turn to page 198 in your books please and let's discuss."

"Idiot probably had to have his girlfriend whisper the answer," Severus huffed under his breath.

Lily frowned at him for the that, glancing over to see the two holding hands and whispering to each other excitedly. Her stomach knotted up just a bit, she would have liked to take Sev's hand and see him smile like that, but she didn't want to do it right after he'd said something so unnecessarily mean.

Professor Babbling couldn't seem to stop hopping to different topics and never quite got to the point of his own original question, giving them a pile of homework to make up for his lapse as the bell rang and they all tried to take off.

"Good luck with Novac today," he offered as he followed her down to said class. "Guy tried to teach us the four point spell in our class, and his wand shot right out the window."

"Great," she sighed. She stopped at the stairs though that would be her departure and hesitated, and he stopped willingly, even smiling in encouragement. Nothing was really stopping her from doing it now, even just reaching out and squeezing his fingers, maybe-

"Hey Sev, come on!"

She closed her eyes rather than look around, but against their usual agreement, she didn't immediately dart off as his other friends arrived, the sting of them using her nickname for him suddenly had her rooted to the spot. How long had that been going on? She opened them tentatively, a sudden conviction in her heart. If he offered to keep walking her to class, she'd definitely do more than just hold his hand.

She blinked to see he was already half down the staircase, waving to her without looking.

4

Their Marauders Map was coming along beautifully, even if James still hadn't declared it as his final draft, he now kept the spare bit of parchment on him at all times as they'd gone first through the dungeons, making sure to mark every single important location. They didn't even have to go to the grounds to do the same, they knew that place like the back of their hand, so they were on the first floor today.

"Think Evans would like it if I took one of these and put it up in our dorm for her birthday?" James suddenly asked as they went down the Tapestry Corridor, you couldn't even see the walls they were all so covered by the bright cloths, ranging from silk to wool and done up with every conceivable design known to man. He kept eyeing one in particular that had every feather from a bird you could name drifting from top to bottom in an endless fall.

"I think she'd set it on fire again, so I wouldn't risk it," Peter snorted.

"She pierced her ears over the holiday, did you notice," he said just a bit dreamily as if he hadn't even heard. "Not like her, she never even pulls her hair back except in potions and I've never seen a trace of makeup, she doesn't even do her nails! Those green stones do make her eyes shine though. I still don't think she likes jewelry much, but maybe she's changing her mind on that. What if I got her a nice broach, she could pin it in her hair while in potions, practical and pretty, just like her."

None of them were listing to a word, he'd been at it constantly since he returned from break and she'd once again not acknowledged him offering her a present that morning on her birthday, they weren't sure they wanted to know what that smell was lingering from the girls dorm sinking down to the common room they'd quickly left, but James seemed blissfully adamant she must have set it on fire by accident. Again.

Remus was brushing his hand along a very pretty tapestry that depicted waves crashing against a rocky shore, it even smelt like the ocean he was standing so close and all but petting the fabric. Sirius was having his fun tapping one that was a rainbow of geometric designs in an almost dizzying pattern.

They finally made it all the way down to the end without a real incident, there wasn't even a window to check out of, so were turning back when Peter stopped in surprise as a smaller one caught his eye. It was half the size of the others and nearly swallowed by one that had a fancy looking purple tree with petals floating all around it swaying of its own accord, but those bunches of houses looked oddly familiar, and finally it clicked he was staring at a tapestry of Hogsmeade.

"Hey guys," he called them back. They reluctantly returned, and he tried his best not to smirk it took them twice as long to zero in on the one he was standing right in front of. Peter grandly pushed it aside, and at first his heart skipped a beat in surprise not to see anything, but finally there at the bottom was a miniscule hole.

"There's no way that's another passage to Hogsmeade," James disagreed, getting flat down on his stomach to look through. "Even your arse couldn't fit in there Peter."

"Must be though, I can't believe it's a coincidence," Remus backed him up.

"Hang on," Sirius tried, "engorgio," he drew his wand and tapped the edge of the hole, and it did magically expand, though barely enough. He'd still have to crawl through on all fours.

Peter still happily volunteered to go first, and though being ten times worse than the ones to the mountains for how cramped the whole thing was, he found it more than worth it as he found himself coming up in an empty lot, Zonko's visible only a few building's down.

"Ha!" Peter bellowed in triumph, and none of them even smacked him for it this time.

4

Lily sighed as she awoke to a purring cat that wasn't hers snuggled against her chest. She pulled Bongo in closer, scratching him under the chin as Bless' alarm went off and she went immediately for the showers. It was hardly worth it to get out of bed on a normal Thursday for History of Magic first thing in the morning, today was not going to be one of those days.

Only Mary whispered a friendly Happy Birthday as they all trickled out, and she was rewarded for her tardiness by finally descending into an empty common room, at least avoiding Potter for a while longer.

When she made it to class, Binns was already in full swing and didn't even look up as she snuck in and took a seat. Lupin was asleep in class as usual, snoring nearly loud enough to drown out the sound of his vacuum voice, his three friends were talking without even whispering. Potter had even brought that stupid Snitch to class! She dug her book out and kept low in her seat hoping not to draw their attention, she usually used this class to free read the book and take her own notes anyways.

She'd just loaded up her quill to begin, and was so busy trying to drown out all the other noises, she nearly missed the conversation going on right in front of her until she heard, "it's her birthday, I'm just suggesting we offer her to sit with us at lunch."

Lily looked up in surprise to see her four dorm mates in the table right in front of her. Mary and Bless weren't doing much better about keeping their voices down. Ersa was doing some makeup homework and didn't look up, while Patricia was under the table doing whatever she did down there, but her stomach tightened in a knot as none of them seemed to realize she was behind them.

"And I'm telling you," Bless hissed with such venom in her voice, Lily cringed even lower in her seat, "if you do, I will move. Tegan swears it was that Snivellus freak who got Tommy Hagen, are you calling my sister a liar?"

"No," Mary said quickly, "just, that Evans might not have had anything to do with it."

"She hangs around with him!" Bless stated. "Every time I've tried saying something about him in the room, she snaps and gets all huffy. I don't know why you bother Mary, or you're probably going to be next, again."

The quill snapped in her hand, but she left the discarded pieces as she repacked her things and was sprinting madly from the room, her ears buzzing, her eyes burning as she ran blindly. Binns still never looked up.

'It was not true,' she kept telling herself. 'Sev would never!' She had half a mind to go back up there and yell it in Bless's face, but she didn't get a choice to do anything about it as her foot sunk blindly right out from under her.

She screamed, her bag went sailing down the staircase, but she remained painfully rooted to the spot, so distracted even her ingrained instinct to hop the trick step on this secret passage had deserted her.

No matter how painfully she pulled and twisted, her leg only sunk deeper, and finally she was just left in place crying more in frustration than anything. By the time the bell rang for classes to be let out, she hung her head and didn't care if it was Potter who came upon her, her leg was numb and she'd been begging for twenty minutes already for a teacher to give her detention if it would get her out.

"Evans?" She looked up in surprise at the voice even as her heart sank. Apparently there was a worse option than that toe rag.

"Hi, Mulciber," she said through gritted teeth. Avery was at his shoulder, his twisted face sneering more than anything as usual as he held her ink dripping bag, but Mulciber's pompous smile was at least trying for friendly as he offered her a hand.

She swallowed her surprise and took it, gasping in relief to finally be out and immediately doubling over to message her leg.

Her bag swung into view nearly hitting her nose, and she took it from Avery with a weary, "thanks."

"We're not all bad you know," Mulciber still had that smarmy look that she wanted to punch, but for the first time she tried to tell herself maybe he didn't deserve it. "Sev speaks very highly of you," he added, his hands going casually to his pockets.

She swallowed and fought back a cringe of disgust as she copied him. "Yeah, same," she said slowly.

He laughed then, though she couldn't imagine what was funny, as he finally removed his hand from his pocket and waved casually to her, hopping the stairs and continuing his ascent, Avery snickering beside him the whole time. She limped all the way down to her next class, her stomach boiling with shame, but for who even she wasn't sure of.

4

February

"I hate you all," James groaned as he swatted yet another frozen branch from his face.

"Stop pouting James," Sirius laughed.

"You're only yelling because Evans didn't swoon at your Valentine," Remus agreed.

"Well why didn't she!" He demanded of a nearby grazing unicorn, who didn't even look up at their approach as it nuzzled through the patchy snow. "I worked really hard on that!"

"Oh, I'm sure she'll appreciate your efforts when she stops laughing," Peter snickered.

"Don't know what you have to be laughing at," Sirius suddenly told him, switching mates. "I'll bet Atria's going to dump your arse any day, spending such a beloved holiday out here with us."

"She's not into the whole thing, I keep telling you lot that," Peter rolled his eyes. "We prefer talking about mad things other places celebrate anyways. She wants to visit Peru some day, did you know they-"

"Hey Remus, come check this out!" James suddenly yelled, all three going over to investigate a track they'd never seen before.

Remus bent down and traced it curiously, the thing was massive, his hand barely fit into the pad, and the four toes each had little divot marks in front of them, they could only imagine the claws that went with this thing.

"Manticore, I'm sure of it," he said after a few moments. "Hasn't been long since it came through here either. I told you we found a den for one in this area last month."

"Well I don't recommend meeting it now," Sirius was more than happy to start off in a new direction. He'd only gone a dozen feet though when something came falling out of a tree, and all four yelled in fright imagining a man eating lion-headed monster pouncing.

It was only just slightly less dangerous, the baby hippogriff letting out its own startled wail.

The buckskin, horse half hide stamped its wobbly legs, the gorgeous wings flapping downy feathers all about, and the very sharp beak and talons flashed dangerously close to Sirius even as the foal tried backpedaling away, the baby feathers giving it no support as it tried to escape.

He fell to the ground and scrambled madly away, while Remus darted forward and bowed to get its attention. The infant slowed, instinct finally won out and it gave a half bow back, before it began chirping and looking up to the sky once more in distress.

"Poor thing must have fallen out of its nest," Remus crooned, his hands itching to stroke the soft feathers. "I've never seen one this young, must be less than a month old."

"Which means mama isn't too far off," Sirius uneasily reminded as he got to his feet and grabbed Remus' elbow. They barely made it back to the pawprint though when they turned in surprise at the squawk of protest, and saw they were being followed.

"No, no, little one," Remus turned to scold. "Your mother will get you back up there, now go," but as he waved his hand, it just shied even closer. The massive wings kept ruffling uneasily at the sides, a few more feathers even began shedding in its distress revealing the deep gold color beneath as well.

"Oh fine," he caved, reaching forward to start scratching at the beak. "If your mother eats me though, I blame you."

The babe leaned into the touch with a nuzzle, while Sirius shrugged and decided to duck down curiously if they were sticking around. "Got yourself a filly there Remus," he told him as he stood back up. "Don't ever say girls don't like you anymore."

He flipped him the bird, causing James to laugh. "Not in front of the baby!"

"She is adorable," Peter grinned, stepping cautiously closer now. "Starting to wish I'd taken Care of Magical Creatures."

"Oh Kettleburn would never get a chance to bring something like this to class," Remus corrected as she leaned half her weight against him now as he kept scratching, and she wasn't exactly light. "No, the full grown hippogriffs he showed us at the start of the term is as close as we'd get. They have to nurse from their mothers at least three times a day with supplements of whatever they bring back, mice, polecats, and the like, she should be old enough now she'll start trying to eat them live herself. Mum would never let us get close enough while that was going on. Maybe Hagrid comes around though, she's quite friendly-"

The baby suddenly squawked in protest, her wings flapping so hard in distress she knocked Remus to the ground. This only made her rear up in fear, something being so near her feet she couldn't even see. A deep, inhuman snarl knocked all three of them rolling as the manticore pounced down.

"Remus!" The shouting didn't drown out the suddenly louder shriek of fury, all he could do was curl up into a ball, instinctively covering his head and neck as claws and talons, beaks and fangs began flashing in and out of his sight in a furious battle.

"Confringo!"

The blasting hex startled both of the large beasts as a young tree exploded, and when it was shot again far too close, the manticore finally took off with a roar of fury.

James and Sirius tried to dodge forward and grab him, but the solid black hippogriff still reared in a furry at the threat while Remus bled beneath her feet.

Peter stuffed his wand away, all three forced their stiff backs into a bow, but she merely snapped her beak, forcing them all to go even farther back still bent over until they were nearly out of sight. Her eyesight was too good, she didn't let down her defense and refused to take her eyes off them even as she bowed back.

Finally she turned and snapped her beak at her baby instead, who was nuzzling and licking at the blood coming out of Remus' side. She didn't seem to like the taste much though as she finally turned away with her mother and the two cantered off out of sight.

They rushed to his side in the same moment, Peter pulling his wand back out at once in case the other one circled back while Sirius lifted his shaking hands away from the injury to let James better inspect the wound. At least it wasn't as bad as they'd feared, no intestines were spilling out and all his limbs were still attached, but they were deep, as bad as the ones he inflicted on himself, with the lovely added bonus of one of his legs being crushed.

James refused to let his wand tremble with nerves as he finally put into practice spells he'd learned for not exactly this occasion.

Remus struggled to open his eyes, his body just as sore as if he had gone through another full moon to see Sirius holding his hands and James doing something. His side flashed cold and then pleasantly warm, but the shock didn't really wear off until Peter shouted, "guys!"

"Right yeah, should be good," James said, and then he was on his feet and being dragged along while his head was still spinning, the copper tang of blood still in the air.

"What just happened?" He blearily demanded.

"Mama's not the one who tried to eat you," Sirius said like that explained everything.

"What?" he tried again, coming out of it enough to look down at himself. His clothes were red stained and torn, but that was it. Shouldn't he be leaving a trail of organs? "How?" He demanded, stumbling hard, but their hold only tightened as they finally found a trail they hadn't had to use in years to get back out of here.

"What, Madam Pomfrey shouldn't have to be the only nurse in school should she?" James asked innocently enough.

Remus' head was still spinning just a little too much to put together what they were saying, and by the time they got to the dorms and were laughing the whole thing off, Remus was just too exhausted from adrenaline burn to ask.

4

"How much do you think McGonagall will kill me for flooding her office?" Sirius asked Remus, casually enough as he joined him on the grounds by the lake as always for the start of this class.

"On a scale of one to ten?" Remus asked without looking up from his text. "You're dead. Personally, I don't take well to my things being wet either."

"Damn," Sirius sighed, ringing the last of the water out of his hair.

"Why, exactly, are you trying to join the ghosts anyways?" Remus asked as he flipped a page.

"I wasn't aiming for her office!" Sirius protested, "it just happened to be there, I got the Noble twins back for that slug they put in my dinner. How the hell they managed that I still don't know, neither of them are in our house!"

"You're a true miracle Sirius," Remus chuckled as Kettleburn arrived.

"Maybe I'll get lucky and neither of them will tell her I did it," Sirius shrugged without remorse.

"Yes, I'm so sure they'll cover for you," Remus snorted as he closed his book and they began following his excited hobble.

He led them to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, but stopped right in the shadows of the trees where he had five nests obviously built by him what with the hay poking out of the crates, but inside each were a different array of broken egg shells.

"Books out please," he called cheerfully. "You'll be spending class today identifying what these are, you may partner up, but only two, to be turned in at the end of class. Let me know if you get stuck on one too long!"

The two didn't even bother to look up at the others, Remus just flipped his book back open and Sirius went through his dripping wet bag, trying to come up with some usable parchment and at least pretend to help.

The first didn't even seem to have anything in them for a moment, before Remus realized the tiny little black specks were supposed to be it. "Well those are obviously doxy eggs," Remus surmised at once as he stepped up to the box on the far left, not even glancing back at his book as he moved on.

"Bet if I told Peter they were a new kind of raisin he'd eat them?" Sirius snickered as he wrote that down.

Remus just grinned but chose not to indulge him, pausing on the batch of brown eggs that Sirius helpfully said looked like fudge balls.

"Would you please get your mind off of dessert?" Remus asked as he started flipping through his book for the egg laying section.

"I miss Honeydukes," Sirius sighed. "I'm almost out of chocoballs, we need to make another visit soon."

"Yes well, there's a Hogsmeade trip in two weeks," he said just a touch louder than necessary, not to mention the stupid comment as they could go there tonight, and Sirius looked around to see Mulciber and Avery were listening in rather than trying, they hadn't even cracked their own books open.

Atria and Aubrey were at the other end still working on their first, holding some sticky looking substance up to the light in confusion. Sirius smiled and went back to his parchment, silently writing down Acromantula eggs for the last box already. 

"Aha!" Remus declared in triumph, flipping the book around to show Sirius excitedly, "think that matches?"

They obviously were Runespoor eggs, the description and image were a perfect match, but Sirius grinned and nodded silently as he wrote those down as well.

The next batch were glowing red and giving off intense heat, it was a miracle they hadn't caught their box on fire yet. Sirius cringed slightly behind Remus as he whispered, "those aren't dragon eggs, are they?"

"What, oh no," Remus said at once as he ducked down, putting his face very close. "They're far too small, even the Peruvian Vipertooth, the smallest breed, don't have eggs this size, relax Sirius."

Unfortunately, his reaction had drawn the Slytherin's even closer, and they were now sneering right at him. Sirius flipped his hair over his shoulder and gave them a haughty sneer right back, but Kettleburn had as good a timing as McGonagall.

"Now boys," he scolded with a friendly enough wave of his stick at the green glad students. "I don't see your book, can you tell me what these are already?"

"Err, no sir," Avery said without taking his eyes off Sirius, who now casually dropped his quill and let his hand drift towards his pocket as if he had a spare in there rather than his wand.

"Well then, you'd best press on, don't want to get homework without the samples now do you?" Kettleburn's smile remained friendly enough, but there was a sudden note of authority that reminded them all he'd tamed as many creatures as he'd been victim to.

They went back off to the first box while Sirius mechanically bent to get his quill, but neither party really took their eyes off the other as Remus leaned in and whispered in his ear, "ashwinder eggs." His thumb in the now mostly closed book, though he'd been prepared to throw it at their face if either of them said a word to Sirius. 

The two only had to glance at the shining pieces in the last box to recognize the occamy eggs, and Sirius swiftly turned their paper in. Neither of them took their hands off their wands until they made it back to the common room though.

4

March

The rabbit was pure black this time. It was also chewing on his pillow.

"Sirius!" He whined, resisting the urge to shove it off the bed, it wasn't the critters fault. "You promised!"

"I said I wasn't getting you a rabbit this year," Sirius agreed without looking up from tying his tie. "Maybe he's for me Remus, you don't know my life."

"I'm more aware of your existence than you I'm sure," Remus groused. "Why is your rabbit on my bed?"

"We share everything!" Sirius did turn to look at him then with the widest, most innocent eyes.

"We're not sharing the bruise I'm about to give you," Remus promised.

James and Peter must have had the kind forethought to let him sleep in on his birthday, Sirius didn't seem to possess the notion as he tucked the little black thing under his arm and followed him around with it while juggling breakfast in one hand.

"Here Remus, hold Bob," Sirius foisted the little bunny upon him while mock digging in his bag, despite the fact they were heading to Herbology and his gloves were sticking out of his pocket.

"Well that didn't take long," Remus huffed as he supported his feet and stroked the ears.

"Bob?" Peter asked, reaching up to scritch just above the little pink nose.

"A perfectly normal name I wish I'd gotten," Sirius shrugged.

"So, are you saying we should start calling you Bob?" James laughed.

"Then I would have to start calling you Jim-bo," Sirius stated in no uncertain terms.

James ducked behind Remus and chose not to answer that while he enforced Sirius to take his blasted joke back before they entered class.

Sprout predictably kicked Sirius out and docked twenty points from Gryffindor for bringing the rabbit to class, and Sirius waved cheerfully to them, his silhouette visible the whole time against the door during class as he nuzzled the rabbit.

"What's with him?" Hue asked as he began pruning his butterfly bush.

"He's dealing with Remus' furry little problem," James said as if that answered everything. Remus resisted the urge to strangle him.

"And why does Sirius have Remus' rabbit?" Henry logically followed up.

"In class," Hue rolled his eyes.

"Do you not keep an eye on your problem pets?" James batted his eyes innocently.

James was saved from being strangled by Professor Sprout coming around and telling them all to get to work. They exited to see Sirius had moved down the lawn a bit and was having a cheerful conversation with Hagrid and Kettleburn, Claw was sniffing somethings else's butt for once.

"He's not just mine though!" Sirius was saying grandly as he spotted them approaching. "Remus and I have shared custody of the little guy."

"Sirius," he whined.

"Well I can't take him on holiday," Sirius went wide-eyed and innocent. "A grievous lapse of foresight on my part! Surely you could take him for the summer!"

"Well, if you're needing a new home for the fellow, I have a friend," Kettleburn suddenly offered. "She breeds these common kinds with jackalopes and is documenting the outcome. Tells me she even got a skvader from the last batch!"

"That's a great idea Professor!" Remus said sincerely.

"Oh, but," Sirius pouted, clutching Bob tighter.

"He'll be well taken care of, I promise," Kettleburn patted him kindly on the shoulder. "Shouldn't have a pet you can't take care of though, can you," he reminded gently.

Remus was looking at Sirius pleadingly, and he really wasn't going to subject this poor thing back to Grimmauld place with him in the company of his owl, so he sighed as he offered the rabbit over.

"You're a monster Remus," Sirius told him the moment the two walked off, Hagrid now cradling it like a kids glove oh so carefully. "Getting rid of your pet like that!"

"You're a true miracle Sirius," Remus snorted.

4

"Neither of you could have warned me?" James demanded as he flopped down in his seat.

"Hey James, don't go up to the dorms," Peter shrugged without looking up from his scratchy notes.

"Sirius has got Juniper Carnell up there, and they're not studying Herbology," Remus added as an afterthought while he flipped the page of his book.

"You're both arseholes," James pleasantly informed.

"And what better birthday gift could we give than reminding you of this shared trauma?" Remus grinned at him now.

"Not making me suffer the sight of that," he scowled.

"At least Atria isn't allowed in here, otherwise we'd be dealing with it twice as much," Remus shrugged while Peter still blushed.

"Yes, yes, Sirius has made no less than seventeen jokes about this, and no we haven't yet! Shut it!"

At least James got a laugh out of that as well, until Evans walked past and he lost all train of thought anyways except the two of them possibly sneaking off. He went after her, leaving the two to share commiserating looks.

"I give it a minute," Peter shook his head.

"You're being generous today," Remus smirked.

"It's his birthday, maybe she'll take pity on him."

He was back in thirty seconds, slouching in his chair once more and shaking cat litter from his hair. He leaned over without concern for getting some on Remus' assignment he was desperately trying to finish around an exhausted yawn as James happily suggested a good closing countercharm for transfiguring cacti into flowers. He stumbled off barely an hour later for the hospital wing just as Sirius finally came down the stairs.

"Finally," James groused.

"Did Remus already leave?" Sirius pouted.

"Yeah, and good thing, we've got to make up time now before our Quidditch practice," he huffed, grabbing Sirius and pulling him up the stairs backwards.

Usually they preferred to go down to the hill in Hogsmeade over the Shrieking Shack. Their dorm just housed too much exposure with any prefect popping in at all hours and too much noise in general from the common room below, and they liked to think they were closer to Remus while practicing and he somehow knew. Tonight just didn't house enough time though.

Their Animagus practice was taking far longer than they would have thought, none of them had even progressed past their waist, and it didn't help if they did it the slightest bit wrong they had to start all over, lest they always wanted to change and have that body part all wrong. Peter was almost progressing past them, he had a long bald tail in no time sticking out of his pants leg which meant he'd progressed to the first segment of his spine. It didn't help the two had even less time to practice because of their sport and got so impatient they'd each had to start over twice; but they were getting there.

4

April

"Err, April Fools?" James offered in explanation.

"To the Headmaster's office, now!" McGonagall barked, while Flitwick escorted the poor bewildered kid off to the hospital wing. Her reaction seemed unreasonable, as the tiny Charms professor only had to flick his wand and repair the gaping hole in the side of the castle, but she remained silently determined as she marched them all the way up there.

He looked up from some paperwork and smiled benignly at them, stapling his fingers together and watching with interest as McGonagall laid out, "these four have escalated to destroying half the school, and now a student can't remove his hat from his head, I don't know what they were intending to happen-"

"All of someone else's clothes to come off, actually," Sirius helpfully inserted, ignoring the jab from Remus.

"I think we accidentally made the opposite happen, but he surprised us from doing it right. I don't want to know how he's going to go to the bathroom," James agreed as Peter stamped on his foot.

"Detention, all four of you!" She snapped, effectively silencing them, "and fifty points from Gryffindor!"

They'd long since learned better than to argue that point.

"I hope the headmaster can impress upon you the poor choices you've made," she finished stiffly as she finally left. Peter would still later swear she was trying not to laugh.

"Well you four," his long white beard quivered and sparkled in the sun. "Have you anything to say for yourself?"

"Nah," James shrugged.

"We won't do it again?" Sirius had the audacity to make it sound like a question.

Remus had to fight the urge to hide behind the three of them in shame as his laser blue eyes examined them. Peter was trying not to shake on the spot with nerves.

He sighed as he stood from his desk, towering above them as he circled around, only to plop back on it on their side and wave his wand, the one chair duplicating so that there were now four in front of him. "Please, sit," he offered.

All four of them edged to one like they were waiting for a trick themselves, but finally eased into the plushy cushions.

He turned and shuffled around on his desk for a moment before coming up with a copy of the Daily Prophet, and swinging it around to show them the headline.

MISSING RISE TO TRIPLE DIGITS, MINISTRY TO ISSUE PAMPHLETS SOON FOR SECURITY QUESTIONS:

Below that, they presumed, was a copy of said future pamphlet, though he folded the paper and set it back on his desk before they could read it. "When I felt the castle tremble from your little stunt, I was in the middle of filling out some paperwork allowing Corvus Higgs to be pulled from the castle temporarily, his mother has recently gone missing."

James and Sirius were not smiling anymore.

"The laughter that echoed up to my door as I heard the students joy for your shenanigans was, to put it mildly, a very calming effect," he finished with the saddest little smile at the lot of them. "I would implore you four not to do something so extravagant again as put my students in danger when you later calculate the risk of your next stunt."

James swallowed a lump in his throat. Sirius was still blinking spastically like he couldn't understand why the yelling hadn't started yet.

"You're dismissed," he concluded calmly, hopping back up and circling calmly back to his own seat. By the time he sat down his door was closing with a snap, and he was finally able to chuckle to himself.

4

"Great job today Black," Vosper said as he hung up his Quidditch uniform, readjusted his Captain's badge, and then walked out without glancing behind him, therefore missing Sirius flipping him off.

He turned to his best friend in fury and demanded. "How many times do I have to tell him I hate being called that!"

James couldn't help but smile slightly at his friends outrage, but verbally said, "You know he just does it to annoy you."

"Well I like your last name. Black is my favorite color after all."

James and Sirius turned around, their eyes landing on fellow teammate, Veronica Fletch, fresh from her shower. They then realized they were the only three left in the locker room, and James came to the sudden memory of these two flirting all night, despite her being a seventh year and the two of them fourth years.

James cleared his throat loudly, and noted that he was ignored for it, so he said, "Yes well, I'll just be going then. Later Sirius."

"Yeah," he called absently, taking a step closer to the girl without glancing over at his best friend as he left.

James snorted when he was out of earshot, making his way over to the Broom Shed and putting away his broom, already deciding the next time he saw Sirius, he would have a new hound dog joke lined up and waiting.

He made his way back to the common room, finding his two other friends, and three other students in there. He hadn't realized practice had run so late. He made his way upstairs to grab his school bag, and only when he sat down at their usual table, did Peter glance up at him and say softly, "''Ello," did James look over at Remus and frowned.

It had been a full moon last night, and his friend was still worn out from the ordeal. Remus was just lucky Madam Pomfrey had released him from the hospital wing a day earlier then she normally did, but since Easter Holidays were next week and Remus always liked finishing his homework before the holidays, Remus had won the argument; promising he would rest during the break. Now it seemed that extra day of rest would have done him some good, rather than snoozing on his potions book. "How long he been out?" He asked quietly, not wanting to wake him.

"Almost as soon as we sat down after dinner," Peter whispered back, "I was going to wake him up right before you came in."

"Don't," James sighed. He knew Remus would get mad later, but he was thinking about later as well. His friend needed sleep more than anything right now, "I'll tell him I told you not to wake him up, he can yell at me."

"Better you than me," Peter muttered, shuffling his own papers around and getting back to his work. James had just dug out his own stack of homework when the door opened behind him. At first he didn't think anything of it, but then one of the two girl's voices caught his attention, "-believe that jerk blew me off."

James whipped his head around, seeing Veronica come in with one of her friends, and looking very flustered. She was making her way towards the fire place as she continued, "I was only going to go out with him for a few weeks, he did help us a lot in the last game after all, but to not even show up!"

"You did only give him a few minutes, maybe he got caught up with something," her friend offered. "I shouldn't have gone in there when I saw you, maybe it scared him off."

Veronica snorted, pausing by the fireplace and warming her hands, she retorted, "Please, all of his friends are already up here. He was just going to put his broom up, then he said he was going to meet me in the trophy room." Deciding she was warmed up enough, she stepped away from the fireplace and they both made their way to the girl's staircase.

She had just put her foot on the first step when James finally broke out of his shock, and stood up to yell, "What's going on?"

He managed to startle all of the other occupants in the room, even Remus into snorting and jerking up with a hand mark pressed against his face. James didn't notice, his eyes fixed on the girl. She looked rather annoyed at him, stating, "Oh, you heard me. Probably sat around laughing with him about it before I even asked." Then she sniffed and really did go up the stairs. James watched her go, wanting to run after her, but already having made that mistake already, and knowing it would do no good.

He was probably overreacting. Then why did he feel like a fist was twisting away at his innards?

Sirius had agreed to meet in the trophy room in five minutes, and so he hurried out to the broom shed with both of theirs. He had been trying to be swav, offering to put her broom away for her, giving her time to go up there and 'freshen up' like she had said. He was in a hurry, and in his rush he made no notice to the extra shadow in the night.

Wrenching open the door, he stuffed their brooms in there, and made to close it when there was a flash of white light, his arms and legs snapped together, and he toppled backwards. He could see the bright twinkling stars above now, he and Veronica had flirted longer then he thought if it was fully dark out, and he also got a full view of Severus Snape leaning over him, smirking.

"Well, well, well, look what I've got," he began, giving Sirius a nasty smirk. "Here I was expecting to run into a friend, and instead I manage to catch an arse off guard."

He tried to say something, but his face was frozen in that same stupid smile he'd had plastered on his face. Snape's smile widened, and Sirius was horrified when he bent down and began dragging him back around, behind the broom shed. Out of sight to anyone, unless you walked back around there. There was a tightening in his chest now as Snape whispered, "don't worry Black, I'm sure those jokes about man-eating spiders in the forest aren't real. Someone is sure to find you back here...eventually."

He walked off, though Sirius couldn't watch him, he was sure he faded into the falling blackness with ease. At first he was just annoyed that slimeball had gotten the drop on him. Then, as hours continued to creep by, fear really did begin coming up. He wasn't actually afraid of the man eating spiders, they lived too deep into the forest to be a worry all the way over here. What he was afraid of was not being found all night. His friends had most likely gone to bed, James would have told them about his supposed hook up. Veronica would assume he had just decided not to come, a preposterous idea according to him but no one could hear that now!

The outside of his body may have been frozen solid, but he could still feel. Like his muscles beginning to strain from being in one position too long, his mouth was getting really dry from being unable to swallow. The only reason he hadn't died from oxygen intake was the ability to still breath through his frozen nose, though it was strained, not being able to move his chest properly and all.

Time kept dragging on, and he began longingly wishing he could simply fall asleep. He knew for a fact when his friends woke up and realized he wasn't in the dormitory, they would head down to first breakfast, then the kitchen. Not seeing him in either of those places, they would logically seek out his would be date that night, find out he'd never met up with her, then come out here to the Quidditch Pitch looking for him.

His mind floundered at that point. Even then, they might not find him though. Unless you walked directly behind the broom shed, which none of them had an actual reason to do, they could walk right past him and they'd never know. Hell, he might just be stuck out here forever! What happened to a person who was stuck in the Full Body bind curse forever? His mind was exaggerating of course, but he really didn't know how long it took this particular curse to wear off.

The moon, while covered in clouds, was high in the sky before he finally did hear noise. He tried desperately to do something, anything, to draw attention to himself. Then he doubled those efforts as he heard James calling his name.

He was being very, obviously, loud. Any other time he would have laughed at his friend for being the opposite of subtle, but now all he wanted was to yell right back. As the shouting continued to grow fainter, he became more desperate. Struggling with all of his might, he tried furiously to lash out someway, anyway! Then his foot moved. It was the smallest twitch of motion, but it gave him immense glee as he realized this. Clearly, the spell was starting to wear off. He'd be more pissed off later about exactly how long he must have been lying there for this to occur.

He lost track of the shouting for a few moments as he concentrated more than he ever had in his life on twisting first his foot, then the one leg back and forth, until finally he had enough range in motion to kick the broom shed.

In his mind's excitement, he hadn't taken note that James' voice had been joined by two others, but now when all three stopped at once he did notice.

He did it again, harder this time, and now he could make out all three of his friends distinctive voices headed towards him. He kicked out again, and then there was a bright flash of light flaring across his face. Any other time Sirius might have either laughed, or been highly concerned at the look on James' face. Now all he could really feel was relief.

After he had been released from his binds, and had mutinously told them what had happened, James was all up for heading down to the Slytherin common room right now and getting back at that slime ball!

Remus however, pointed out the lack of logic in forcing their way into that particular dormitory at this time of night. They would have to get their revenge back some other time.

4

"Erm," Lily cleared her throat awkwardly against her better judgement, she still wasn't convinced this was a good idea, and even less so when she felt distinctly outnumbered today. The Carrow twins were in attendance to this little study group, and for a deranged moment she even wondered if that was Potter's friend Black there in the corner, before he looked up and she saw he was too small, with solid black eyes. His little brother then, the one who had attended Slughorn's most recent party, impressive for a second year.

Sev waved eagerly for her to sit beside him though, he'd been so deliriously happy lately she'd agreed to keep coming to their group study sessions, because at least now they'd gone to passively ignoring her rather than antagonizing her. At least she was used to that from her sister.

"So," Mulciber cleared his throat importantly, and Lily was already starting to regret this, his voice still grated on her nerves. "Let's just take turns going around the table I guess. Regulus, you can pick the subject we start with, it being your birthday and all."

He had a rather haughty demeanor that reminded her unpleasantly of his brother, and she gritted her teeth at remembering seeing him last week watching him try to transfigure Dirk Cresswell into a lamp for reasons beyond anyone and kept her place. "Defense Against the Dark Arts," his voice was smooth, and already had an edge of that superiority his brother had perfected.

"Always a solid choice," he nodded pompously as he pulled out a folder with those notes, flipping it open to the first page. "Alright, name at least one of the Unforgivable Curses."

Lily blinked around, feeling stupider than ever. There were unforgivable curses?

"Come on," Avery sighed impatiently when an answer wasn't immediately given, "you're supposed to be some prodigy, right?"

The little Black had hesitated too long, visibly biting at the inside of his cheek in thought, as Mulciber prodded him with his wand, and he yelped in pain.

"Hey!" Lily shouted in protest, suddenly understanding why they had these in an empty classroom instead of the library now.

He turned his shiny green eyes on her in disgust, his wand now leveling at her instead.

"Relax guys," Sev jumped up quickly, though the wand didn't waver as she quickly drew her own.

"He's just a kid," she insisted, "I don't even know what you're talking about!"

"My dad mentioned one," Black suddenly cut in, his eyes leveled on her in undisguised disgust. "He hasn't told me the name of it yet though. The torture curse?"

"Cruciatus, close enough," Mulciber nodded, finally lowering his wand.

Lily opened and closed her mouth two more times, but no words came out as she snatched up her bag and stormed out. At least Sev came after her.

"Lily," he groaned, tugging on her bag to try and get her to stop, and to her disbelief when she looked at him he was still glancing back. "Relax, the kid wasn't hurt-"

"That's not the point!" She snapped. "I tried, and I'm not going back!"

"You didn't even-" he began, but she slapped his hand away and kept going. He sighed but stayed with her at least, the two going up to the library and studying silently the rest of the evening.

4

May

They'd cataloged all the way up to the third floor corridor by now, and were quite frustrated with themselves there just didn't seem to be time to do everything as their Quidditch final was creeping up on them and exams after that, they weren't even going to be able to finish this by the end of the year, let alone anything else they had going.

Sirius was sighing and pacing around in front of an ugly one-eyed witch statue impatiently as James and Peter were still arguing about the placement of a statues mount back on the last floor! Remus was leaning against a window at the end of the corridor as look out, since it was nearly curfew, and very clearly trying not to laugh.

The bell rang, and they all sighed as they realized they were officially late, time for another argument with the Fat Lady. James folded up the parchment and they began to walk off, only for the statue to open behind them.

Hue poked his head out, glancing around, while Henry's voice hissed from out of sight, "anyone up there?"

"No," he muttered, easing himself out.

"I told you you were hearing things, now we're going to be late," Henry huffed as he shoved his friend out.

They came out from behind the statue and spotted them at the end of the corridor.

"Damn," both boys sighed.

"How did you-" James screeched loud enough to draw half the teachers here before Remus slapped his hand over his mouth.

"Seventh year bloke showed us," Hue shrugged, already half walking to the other corridor.

"Yeah, we caught him coming out just like you did us," Henry agreed, already trying to wave and turn the corner.

"Wait!" James pleaded, "tell us-"

"Figure it out for yourself," Hue's voice shouted as they departed.

"What arseholes," James huffed.

"It's no wonder you made friends with them," Remus agreed.

No one was going to suggest heading back for the common room now as they all circled around it and began prodding their wands at every spot they could, cursing the two Hufflepuffs closing it behind them. After nearly fifteen minutes they were starting to get a little frustrated there was no obvious trigger to this one, and short of Sirius' suggestion to just blow up the statue, nothing they poked nor spell they uttered was giving a result this time.

"Okay, okay," James waved his hands for silence, and they all did so. He paused with his head cocked to the side to make sure nobody was coming yet, only the wind in the old castle echoed back. "Let's just, think for a second. They've all had a trick right, what are we missing with this one?"

"Maybe we're just being too complicated," Peter offered.

"Right, yeah, because tapping it and saying open sesame will probably work," Sirius rolled his eyes.

Remus cocked his head to the side, tapped the witches hump, and said, "dissendium."

It opened.

"Yes!" James pumped his fist in triumph.

"You arse," Sirius congratulated, trying to grab Remus and force him in head first already.

Remus shoved his hands away and went sliding down a new metal shoot once more.

"You know, it's never occurred to me," Peter said long after they'd started walking, "how many people do you think know about the other secret entrances?"

"I really don't think anyone does about the mirror," Sirius shrugged, "I've been leaving stashes of dungbombs in there and they never go missing, and that sheet we tied around the mountains is still there."

"The statue has dust on it both times we've been since," James shrugged, "so maybe that one's just for us, but hard to say. At least we're definitely the only ones who know about the Whomping Willow one."

"Well let's keep it that way," Remus stated. Then he cursed in surprise as his head thumped against something, and he happily shoved it out of the way to get a look inside. His mouth fell open. He needed the unpleasant prod from Sirius this time to move and even then he still almost couldn't.

His friends were not going to wait so patiently, cramming themselves all painfully against the entrance to get an eye full of heaven. 

4

Sirius was walking back from his last detention from flooding McGonagall's office when he smelt the smoke. He wasn't really alarmed at first, tipping his nose in the air and sniffing this way and that curiously, ears pricked if anyone was screaming for help, but honestly setting something on fire in this castle by accident was a common enough practice, and they did it once a week on purpose in their dorm to roast whatever they'd gotten from the kitchens for fun. 

He headed curiously back down the corridor towards her office, and then quickly past it. He'd already forgotten whatever he'd been in there copying lines for the past two months and didn't want a repeat, nor did he want to be blamed for whatever seemed to be happening. Turning a winding bend, he spotted gray smoke billowing out of  Google Stump's portrait. 

His stomach knotted uncomfortably as he imagined some kid trapped in there while trying to use the secret entrance behind it and went running forward, snapping, "Volo futurus unus," before the stuttering portrait could even start.

He swung open, and Sirius got a face full, coughing and gagging at once, but still brushing his hand furiously side to side under his nose as he tried to get a look inside.

"Hey, anybody in there?" He called, his eyes already starting to water, his throat croaking unpleasantly, and his skin started to twitch uncomfortably as he began getting some Gringotts flashbacks. That dragon had spat fire at him for hours, but it was still the roaring that woke him from nightmares all last year, this just wasn't a pleasant reminder.

Sirius bravely began edging in, scolding himself this passage couldn't fit the smallest dragon, but he still couldn't even spot the fire, let alone what could have started it.

Something shoved him hard from behind, he found himself able to breath just slightly easier as he sprawled out on the floor, but his light source was gone as the wall was slammed shut behind him.

Panic seized his heart as he began coughing in earnest, fumbling for his wand without even sure of what spell he could use to get out of this, nor if he could utter any such thing. He tried getting desperately back to his feet, but his knees wouldn't even support him anymore and he fell back against the smooth stone wall, the sound of the cart speeding off behind, the dragon's roar and milky eyes zeroing in on him in outrage as it opened its maw and a jet of flames only just missed him as he ducked down, but the tunnel was too steep to get back up without the magic of those carts, a goblin had cheerfully informed him as they went down, and he was trapped as the roaring shook dust that still caught little sparks of flames around him, the noise reverberating on and on-

"Black! Come on, breathe!"

"I'll go get McGonagall, you keep hitting his back like that, I think that's what you're supposed to do."

His head was swimming, he hadn't even realized he'd vomited until someone said, "urgh," and the wet splatter met his ears, but his stomach felt somewhat better even though his eyes wouldn't stop swimming long enough for him to focus. He still couldn't stop coughing though, his throat felt like he'd been swallowing flames and his lungs still hurt terribly as he stayed slumped on his side, and the heavy thumping on his back didn't register until Aubrey Bertram stopped and looked up hopefully.

Sirius could barely function enough to move his eyes and follow, seeing Atria sprinting back with McGonagall behind her.

"Mister Black," his head swam funnily, he'd never heard that tone before. "What happened?"

"Don' know," he said honestly, his feet still refusing to support his weight as the two kept him upright and began steering him towards the hospital wing. "Was a fire," he tried, but his voice still sounded so garbled it was a wonder if they could understand him, and he spat a bit of gray sludge out of his mouth next ruining the rest anyways.

He wondered if he'd passed out again, he found himself on a bed and staring blearily up at Remus. "Well this is a turn," he muttered.

"Sirius!" He shouted so loud Sirius flinched. "He's awake," he called far too loud over his shoulder, before turning back and demanding in a scary calm voice, "what happened?"

"Don't know," he said again, and this time it seemed to come out coherently, even if his throat did still rasp as bad as Remus', who offered him water this time with a smile he didn't really feel. Turn of circumstances indeed, if Madam Pomfrey had released him when he wanted to he wouldn't have been here when Sirius was dragged in.

Said nurse snatched the glass away despite his protest and gave her wand a gentle prod at his throat, and then had him swallow something that soothed better than any ice all the way to his stomach. He coughed spectacularly again into his lap and was disgusted to see more gray phlegm.

"You may answer Professor McGonagall's questions," she stated in a very no nonsense tone, "and that is all Mister Black, and no extraneous words!" 

McGonagall stood at the foot of the bed, hands clasped behind her back and gazing beadily at him. Now there was an expression he knew well. "I didn't do it."  

"Well I should hope not," she said not unkindly. "You four have yet tried to burn this school down, thankfully. You have nothing else to attest to, however?"

"No mam," he said honestly, he raised the blanket and tried to cough into that this time before he answered. "Smelt the smoke, thought someone might be in there, and then," he trailed off miserably, the rest was fuzzy at best, he felt thirteen again and wanted to crawl under his bed and not move for a month, while half his mind was wondering if this would get him out of exams next week.

She nodded curtly, even patted his foot, before turning to Madam Pomfrey, the two having some whispered conversation he hadn't a care to listen in on, she didn't even seem suspicious for once.

He stayed smushed against his pillow, face turned away from Remus as shame burned through him once more, he swore he could still hear the roaring in his ears as the smell of smoke lingered in his nose. He didn't know where James or Peter were, but he was as grateful they weren't hovering as he felt near tears again; even as he wanted James to throw his arm around him and promise it would be okay and Peter to encourage one of his jokes just for that sense of normalcy.

"Sirius," Remus whispered from above him still like they were already up in their dorms trying not to wake the others. Sirius actually fought back a smile for a second as he tried to feign sleep. "Did you know a dragons weakest point was its eye?" He randomly spouted, and Sirius had no choice but to turn his head and grin at the oddball. "Just get it once, and bam, they'll cower away from you like little scolded puppies I'm sure. Also, I translated the school motto out of boredom last night while I was holed up here and after you lot left, did you know it stands for never poke a sleeping dragon in the eye? Stupid really, that's the best strategy, I don't much like our founders sense of teaching now-"

He finally started snickering just like Remus had wanted, which devolved into another coughing fit and Madam Pomfrey bustling back over, shooing Remus to his own bed while she administered another round of that nice cooling salve down his throat. The two shot each other grins over her shoulder, and Remus kept at it all that night.

4

June

"And Atria's still sticking with she didn't see anything?" James demanded as he hung upside down on his bed, though it didn't seem to be helping him think any.

"That's not the question I asked," Peter scowled. "And sticking with?" Peter looked absolutely affronted now, "I told you she's been having trouble with her Transfiguration, she could have been coming to ask McGonagall for help-"

"Yeah, yeah," he still didn't really buy it, but as neither girl had ever been seen around the rest of the Slytherins he wasn't harassing her for anything else she could have seen. "I still think it was that Terrance git," James scowled as he sat up and began rolling a galleon between his knuckles. "1827?"

"Not even close," Peter snorted, "1612."

"I still don't buy it," Sirius shrugged as James was passed the book and the coin was tossed to Sirius. "They have no reason to retaliate since they didn't get detention when I got toilet water on them, and they've left me alone ever since. This is a weirdly long con for something so small before."

His ugly reminder of how it wouldn't have been small for Sirius if things had gone any further was met with uneasy silence before James cleared his throat and asked, "What year did Albert Boot resign, and why?"

"1752?" Sirius tried, "and, something to do with Great Britain."

"Close enough," James shrugged, flipping back a few chapters closer to the beginning of the goblin rebellions.

Sirius just wanted to put the whole thing behind him and not ever think of it again, but James kept upping suspects from his own mental list. He didn't even seem to register the next question he asked, while Sirius desperately hoped to keep him distracted as his mind scrambled through the notes he'd stolen from some Ravenclaw named Longbottom.

Finally Sirius ran out of steam though, there were only so many dates he could keep straight in his head, and accepted the book while tossing the coin to Remus.

He tapped it against his bedpost and didn't even seem to hear Sirius. "Oi, did I turn into Binns over here?" Sirius demanded.

"I think it was Mulciber and Avery," Remus finally whispered.

James and Peter sat up straighter, eyes narrowed dangerously for this conclusion, but Sirius just rolled his eyes. "They've been going after Muggle-borns and the like Remus, which I'm notoriously not. Now do you know which rebellion Urg the Unclean got onto his Chocolate Frog Card for or not?"

He still didn't answer, his tapping pace was increasing. "That's not an absolute rule though. We know they've already gone after Laurence for being a half-blood."

Sirius narrowed his eyes unpleasantly at him now right along with James and Peter but for a totally different reason. Still, it was clear he wasn't going to win this one, so he snapped the book shut and made to get up.

"Where are you going?" James demanded, already bouncing up and following along. He hadn't an alone moment since he'd woken up in the hospital wing, but he couldn't really complain about that, he was going to miss the company all too soon.

"To go curse those two idiots, better than studying! Even if they weren't the ones to do it, I'm sure they deserve it for something, and if they did, than all the better." 

They followed willingly as he left the dorm, but stopped on the seventh floor as they each asked a different painting where those two had been last seen.  Edward Rabnott came back, and between arguing with his other two portrait companions told them he'd been mulling around the greenhouses.

Their cartography of the castle was already coming in handy, they'd already discovered three new passages this year that got them down to the bottom of the castle in record time and ending behind the shaded glass and heavy vines to get a peek at what turned out to be very reliable intel.

Sirius' stomach dropped as he saw exactly why he hadn't wanted this confrontation though. Regulus was amongst them, along with Snivellus, the Carrow twins, and some bloke from Ravenclaw. They were all huddled together and whispering, and while his little brother was the smallest by far in the group, Sirius couldn't take his eyes off of him as he nodded along.

James wasn't waiting around, he snagged the nearest leaf and set it alight, grabbing Sirius first and pulling him back, as soon the whole orchard reeked of the smoke. The lot had to go sprinting out coughing and waving their hands without ever seeing the four of them as they made a quick move to the Forbidden Forest's edge.

They had to depart fast as Professor Sprout was already coming out to check on her precious plants, and Sirius laughed along with them back up to the tower for the whole thing around a heavy heart.

4

All the studying in the world couldn't have saved them from their disastrous History of Magic exam anyways, but the four of them still felt optimistic they'd answered one right a peace.

Their own DADA exam got cancelled due to Novac finally having one too many problems, his wand backfired so bad he put himself and Gemma MacMillan in the hospital wing.

The others were at least a more moderate range of success, Sirius and James passing their Transfigurations with ease once more, their animals changing into beautifully shaped water goblets, while Peter's still had a tail, and Remus' was still shaking.

They all got through their Summoning charms without much fuss, but the three of them had to cheat off of Peter's every move to even have a prayer of passing Potions. Sirius and Remus had a natural breeze through Kettleburn's final on how to approach hippogriffs, and Sirius whizzed right through his Muggle-Studies final while James still couldn't even remember half the questions.

"We should be allowed to drop classes after third year if we didn't like them," James groaned miserably after the Arithmancy madness once more, it had gone just slightly better having taken it the morning after Astronomy, but not by much.

"And miss out on these headaches, how could you?" Remus sighed.

Sirius got his dues for laughing at them that evening in Herbology, and Peter didn't really think it was fair Ancient Runes were held last even if he did get through them fine.

Mostly, when all was said and done, they were just sad to say goodbye to each other for the summer as they began packing up their bags.

"By James!" 

Hue and Henry cut in to their very important tiff as they waved and snagged their carriage. 

Sirius hit Peter upside the head. "This is all your fault! No I don't want to pet your nonexistent horses Peter, drop it!"

Peter rubbed at the spot and sighed, but thankfully Sirius was distracted as Vosper came up behind them.  "Have a good summer Potter, Black," he waved casually while getting in with a few of his friends.

"Sirius no," James made to grab his arm to stop him cursing their captain, again, but stopped in surprise to see he didn't need to this time, he had a contemplative look on his face James instantly knew he was going to love.

"We need nicknames," he declared out of the blue.

"What?" Remus was sure he'd heard wrong.

"Sirius, no," Peter groaned.

"Sirius, yes!" James laughed in delight. "That's brilliant!"

"Don't encourage him," Remus scowled.

"I've always wanted to change my name," Sirius kept going, throwing his arm around James' shoulder and now full blown grinning. "Now we get to pick names."

"You are not naming us!" Remus insisted.

"We call you an arsehole often enough," Peter sighed, "can't you just start responding to that?"

"Too late, this is happening," James cheered as he steered Sirius away, the other two following behind in exasperated amusement why they put up with them.

4

Lily spent the train ride alone.

Not literally, a couple who had just graduated from Ravenclaw spent the whole time giving her dirty looks. She would have happily vacated, but she kept waiting for Sev to come join her, and it just didn't seem to be happening this time. She gazed down at the bracelet the whole time, watching the little flickers of light dance about and wondered who she was fooling.