Summary: Sirius has been acting strange and James has no idea what is wrong. Remus does though he heard it from a little bird with red hair …

Slowly drifting towards consciousness one hazel eye opened which was quickly followed by the other. The right eye observed through the narrow slit the bed covers and the bed next to him and the left eye observed only white which he believed was most likely his pillow. Groaning slightly he turned onto his back to stare up at the ceiling of his four poster bed. Then feeling himself balancing on the side of his bed he tried to save himself but with no luck. BANG! His slim frame made contacted with the wooden floor. His right shoulder was in agony.

'Ouch,' came the delayed response.

'Prongs what on earth are you doing?' the voice of Remus Lupin otherwise known as Moony was heard and James Potter opened his eyes again to see the sandy-haired boy peering down at him for where he sat in his bed. James groaned and shook his head as if to tell him he no idea. He sat up grabbing his glasses from the side table and shoving them firmly on his nose. Suddenly hi view became much more focused and he then tried to stand up but yet again luck escaped him and having his legs tangled in his sheets James Potter fell back to the ground with an almighty crash which awaken yet another of his bedroom companions.

'Prongs,' came the resigned voice of Wormtail better known as Peter Pettigrew.

'Don't ask,' muttered James gruffly as he untangled himself and got back to standing position. He shook his head picking up his sheets and returning them to his bed. He didn't bother to make the bed. He didn't see the point; he was just going to get back in it at the end of the day so making it neat and tidy made no sense. He dragged a hand through the already messy dark brown hair making it all the messier. He glanced at the clock on his bedside table and decided he's might as well begin dressing just as Moony and Wormtail were doing. He pulled off his pyjamas and pulled on his school robes. He threw the ties around his neck not bothering to tie it at present and then stalked over to the bed where the curtains were still closed. Pulling open the curtains he intended to jump on the owner of the bed but never did as the occupant was occupying the bed as usual. James frowned.

'Moony, Wormtail,' he asked his right eyebrow flicking up, 'where is Padfoot?'

'No idea Prongs mate,' Remus replied pulling on his scuffed black shoes and not looking up at James.

'Maybe he's already up and awake,' piped up Peter in a high pitched voice that was his usual. James observed his two best friends and frowned. Sirius Black, his best friend, had been acting extremely odd lately. He often kept disappearing on his own and getting up earlier than the others, sometimes he looked like he hadn't even been to bed. James could not for the life of him imagine what was going on. At first he thought Sirius had a new girl but Sirius would have told him if that was the case and anyway she would have been hanging around like a bad smell. He sighed.

'I'll go see if he's in the common room,' he said and with that he left the dorm closing the door with a slight bang but not seeing the look given between the other two behind him. He headed down the stairs being very careful to take each stair at a time because knowing his luck this morning he would trip and fall head first down into the common room no doubt ending up at Lily's feet. It wasn't exactly the way to impress your girlfriend first thing in the morning. As he jumped the last step into the common room the first person he saw was Lily Evans would had just emerged from the girl's dorms with two of her good friends Hesita Jones and Emmeline Vance. He gave her a hurried kiss on the mouth before scanning the common room for Sirius. He wasn't there.

'God Padfoot where are you?' James murmured to himself slightly annoyed now at the disappearance of his best friend. As though Sirius had heard him the door to the common room opened and the tall, handsome, raven-haired boy appeared before his eyes looking slightly tired but thoroughly pleased with himself. He didn't see James at first but as soon as he heard the voice of the girls he glanced up. His hand immediately went through his hair making parts of it stand on end. There was titter from a couple of girls sitting near the fireplace who were staring at him but other than that no one but James seemed to have noticed his appearance into the common room.

'Hey Sirius,' James said moving towards his best mate who grinned at him. 'Where have you been? Did you get up early this morning?'

Before Sirius could answer the common room floor swung open again but this time to reveal a young girl wearing school robes with the patch of Ravenclaw on them. Yet the presence of this Ravenclaw was no extraordinary thing. The beautiful girl had long brown hair, tanned skin and beautiful emerald eyes that were slightly slanted like cat's eyes. Her slim lips curved upwards in a pleasant smile as she saw both James and Sirius standing before her. James immediately moved over to her.

'Hey Serena,' he said beaming at her as he hugged her tightly swinging her round. Serena Rosa White had been James' best friend since he was two years old. They had grown up together and sustained fifteen years of friendship without ever having a major fight. She was like the little sister he never had even though she was only a month or two younger than him. He adored her and was very overprotective of her. A lot of guys had been too nervous to ask Serena out for fear that James would hex them although Serena soon seen to that.

'Morning James,' she said kissing him on the cheek. 'Hey Sirius.' She gave Sirius and quick hug before making her way over to Lily, Hesita and Emmeline, her best friends apart from James of course. The girls all spoke together in low voices for a minute there eyes darting at the two boys over by the entrance to the Gryffindor Common room and then James looked back at Sirius whose eyes seemed to be trained on the group of girls.

'Padfoot, could you stop thinking of girls for one second and look at me?" asked James waving a hand in front of Sirius' face. 'I mean you've been acting really strange recently. You disappear on your own half the time, you are never in bed when I wake up in the morning and sometimes I believe you don't even sleep. What on earth having you been doing with yourself? It's not like you to be so secretive. Tell me what is going on?'

'Nothing Prongs,' said Sirius shrugging. 'Come on let's go for breakfast. I am absolutely famished. I think I could eat a whole hippogriff to myself.'

James laughed and dropped the subject. If Sirius didn't want to tell him anything then it was up to him. James knew that he would find out eventually but until then he didn't need to pester the boy with questions. Sirius would tell him in his own time or at least James hoped her would. He couldn't think what would be so serious that Sirius couldn't tell him. They had been best friends since first year so surely there was nothing happening that Sirius couldn't tell him, they had never had secrets from each other before.

…. X ….

Red head Lily Evans sat in Charms next to Remus Lupin her eyes trained on her best friend the beautiful Ravenclaw who was sitting down nearer to the front beside Frank Longbottom. Lily's almond shaped, green eyes observed them laughing together. Lily smiled. Serena had the gift of making friends with anyone but then she supposed Frank wasn't the hardest person to get along with. Serena and Frank had always got on well. They had sat together in Charms since first year and had grown to be really good friends. Lily's eyes then shifted to rest on her boyfriend, Serena's other best friend, James Potter. He was sitting near the back on the class leaning lazily back in his chair chatting aimlessly to his best friend, the handsome Sirius Black. Lily observed the latter of the two boys. His black hair hung in his grey eyes which were specked with blue. He sat back, slouching almost in his chair looking every bit handsome. Lily could see a couple of girls in the class glancing eagerly his way. Lily knew that at one point that they might have had a choice but now there was none. What Lily noticed and that James did not was the way Sirius' eyes kept flickering down the front of the class to where the beautiful Ravenclaw was sitting. His eyes were taking in every detail of her, the long hair, the stunning eyes, the unflawed skin and the slim lips that uttered her soft smoky laugh.

'Do you think they can make it work?' she asked Remus suddenly. Remus Lupin glanced up from his work to follow Lily's eye line to Sirius. He then glanced down at Serena who at that point glanced up the back at Sirius before turning back to speak to Frank. Remus tilted his head slightly scratching his ear with his quill for a moment. He shrugged unsure of what to think.

'Well I don't know any other girl who could keep Sirius under her grip as well as Serena could,' he eventually replied. 'I mean Sirius has always been slightly in awe of Serena, he has always respected her and he has always accepted her for who she is. To him or to us rather, she has been there since the beginning and she is the only girl who has really seemed not to be in awe of us as a group. Another thing is Sirius always told us he would never settle down so if he feels that he is ready to do that with Serena then he must be in love with her. What about her?'

Lily observed her best friend again. She just didn't know what to make of it. Serena was classed the smartest witch in Hogwarts but not only that Serena was one of Hogwarts biggest flirts just like Sirius himself. Serena flirted with everyone, apart from James of course but Lily didn't know if Serena had any plans to give that part of her up. Lily had never heard Serena speak of Sirius and although she, Hesita and Emmeline had always suspected that she liked him more than she let on she had never imagined that Serena would ever agree to actually marry Sirius Black. Lily couldn't get her head round it. She could hardly believe that Sirius black had it in him to propose to anyone let alone her best friend but none the less Serena Rosa White sat down the front of the room with Sirius' school ring on a chain round her neck which was too big to fit on her finger. Lily could hardly believe Serena was engaged … to be married and to a Black none the less.

'I don't know,' she said softly. 'All I know is that if they don't tell James soon he'll flip. He'll even have a go at me for not telling him. I don't know how he'll take it like but I hope he'll be happy for them. After all Serena is a smart girl and if she loves Sirius then surely he'll be happy.'

'I don't know,' said Remus glancing at his other best friend who was completely oblivious to them discussing him. 'It's Serena, I have no idea how he'll act.'

…. X ….

And so it continued for a few days after Lily and Remus' discussion in Charms. James became more and more frustrated by his best friends disappearance and was determined to find out exactly where he was disappearing too. Lily and Remus felt rather on edge for a couple of days. Hesita and Emmeline were to feeling the stress of knowing such an important secret and as for Peter he wasn't even allowed to be around James on his own for fear he might blurt it out during one of James' rants about the forever disappearing Sirius.

The one day the four marauders and Lily were sitting by he fire. James and Sirius were playing chess as Lily and Remus read. Peter just sat and watched the chess game. As James gave a winning cheer Lily and Remus looked up surprised. For the first time in the History of the friendship Sirius had lost a game of chess to James. Remus could hardly believe his eyes as Sirius rose from his seat and excused himself. As the door of the common room closed behind him James looked thoroughly irritated. He just couldn't understand it.

'That is it,' said James muttering under his breath. 'He couldn't even stay to allow me to gloat over him, not even for three seconds. Right, Remus, give the map.'

Remus glanced at Lily and then delved into his pocket to retrieve the piece of parchment more commonly known as the Marauders Map. James took the parchment from Remus and Lily rolled her eyes. James' curiosity was really getting on her nerves. Couldn't he just let Sirius be? Lily had only seen the Marauder's Map once before but she knew that James would see that Sirius was meeting Serena if he read it. Lily held her breath.

'I solemnly swear I'm up to no good,' muttered James tapping the parchment with his wand. Remus closed his eyes tightly as James scanned the parchment looking for Sirius Black. Lily watched as she saw his eyes light up with triumph of finding him on the map. His eyes followed Sirius down the corridors and through the school going to the marble staircase. He saw the black dot labelled Sirius Black stop by another black dot on the stairs. His eyes scanned over it and the name registered in his head … Serena White.

James flew along the corridors towards the marble staircase with Lily and Remus hot on his heels, Peter trotting hurriedly behind them trying to keep up. He turned the corner into another corridor running his feet thundering on the ground and his robes flying out behind him. As he reached the top of the marble staircase he stopped as suddenly as though he had been shot. His hazel eyes lit upon his best friends standing next to each other. Serena's emerald eyes were sparkling with tears that threatened to stain her cheeks and Sirius had a huge grin across his face as he slipped a beautiful silver and emerald ring over the knuckle of Serena's wedding finger.

'What?' he gasped.

Serena and Sirius turned to see him as Lily, Remus and Peter came up beside him. Serena bit her lip and even Sirius looked slightly awkward. Lily grasped Remus' arm in apprehension, wondering if James was going to explode. The whole scene before them was tense and Peter twitched nervously beside Remus. James stood staring and then suddenly the angry expression faded replaced with a look of sheer joy.

'It's about bloody time too,' he said moving over and enveloping the both of them in a hug. 'The two of you just refuse to get yourselves together. I mean I didn't quite think marriage but if that's the way you want to go then brilliant. Congratulations.'

Everyone stared at James in sheer astonishment. Nobody could believe his reaction. James grinned at their faces and then threw back his head to roar with laughter. When he finally subsided he beamed round the group gathered by the top of the marble staircase.

'Eventually it all paid off,' he said grinning mischievously.

'What did?' asked Serena.

'Playing Matchmaker of course.'