Sirius stretched before pulling his undershirt back on. He heard a giggle issue from his counterpart and he looked up.
"Yours," Leigh said, holding out a white button-down oxford shirt.
Sirius took his shirt back and Leigh began to search for her own.
"What was that?" she gasped, suddenly alert. "Do you think it could be a professor?"
Sirius shook his head; he was never worried.
"Don't worry about it babe," he said, leaning in to kiss her firmly on the cheek. "Same time, same place?"
Before he got an answer, Sirius pushed the tapestry aside and left the hidden stairway, finishing buttoning his shirt as he walked. He whistled to himself.
On approaching the Fat Lady, he saw Olivia Goldman returning at the same time as himself.
"Good night?" Sirius jeered. "Or did the library extend its hours and no one informed me?"
Olivia simply rolled her eyes and climbed through the portrait hole before him, proceeding straight up the stairs and in to her dormitory.
James and Remus were sitting at a table tucked in the corner under a window. Remus had his face glued to the binding of a book and James was testing his balance in the armchair he tilted back in, running his hands vigorously through his hair.
"Rough night?" Sirius asked as he approached. "Maybe, if you'd spent it as I had, you –"
"Would have Chlamydia?" Remus interjected, hardly tearing his attention from the book.
Sirius let out a snort. "Good one, Moony. But not quite. Ravenclaw girls are clean, they don't mess around."
"Apparently, they do," Remus muttered.
Just then, Peter stumbled his way through the entrance to the common room, having returned from detention.
"How was detention, Wormtail? Slughorn make you pickle toads again?"
Peter shook his head ruefully.
"Worse – I had to skin leeches."
James made a face of disgust.
"In what potion known to man would someone use leech skin?"
Peter shrugged. "You've got me."
Suddenly, a grin took over James' face. "Sirius was about to tell us about his night. Wanna have a listen, Wormtail?"
"Please, Prongs, don't bring him in to it. Just listening will probably give him a boner. The poor boy's probably never even seen a girl shirtless."
Peter set his mouth, knowing he couldn't disagree.
"So who was it?" James prompted.
"Leigh. Leigh Knowlton."
"She asian?" James asked, trying to put a face to the name. Sirius nodded; James shrugged. "You've done better."
"Yeah, well just because you haven't tapped that Evans girl yet doesn't mean you need to rain on my parade."
James made a start, when Remus cleared his throat, stopping James in his tracks. Remus always regulated the skirmishes between the two of them. Peter always sat back and watched.
"So are we running that thing, tomorrow night?" James didn't answer soon enough and James got impatient. He opened his mouth to repeat his question when James held up a finger.
Remus, still not looking away from his book, said, "3 … 2 … 1 … and –" CRASH!
From through the window, the four boys could see an explosion of light two towers down. Peter clapped excitedly, teetering on the verge of wetting himself; Remus smirked satisfactorily to himself; and James wooped aloud. Sirius looked half-amused, half-down-trodden.
"Couldn't have waited for me?" Sirius asked dolefully.
"Sorry, Padfoot," James said, patting Sirius on the back and exhaling a last laugh as he returned to his chair. "You snooze you lose. See, it's ironic, because you weren't quite sleeping with –"
"I get it!" Sirius snapped.
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