"Did you know Remus has a girlfriend?" demanded James.
"He what?" Sirius froze in the dormitory doorway, his stomach doing a sudden flip-flop.
His eyes moved quickly from James's accusatory glare, to Peter's expression of wide-eyed excitement, to Remus, sitting on his bed, carefully-blank face pointed firmly at a book, cheeks flushed red.
"He won't say who it is," James scowled, "but Pete says he saw them together behind greenhouse three."
"Greenhouse three?" Sirius repeated faintly, gaze swiveling back to Peter.
"It's true!" cried Peter. "I saw them! They were - er - that is, I saw Moony, but not who he was with. She was behind the bushes. Kneeling down. In front of him. You know ..." He made an obscene gesture, round cheeks flushed almost as red as Remus's.
"She was sucking him off!" James declared, throwing his hands in the air. "I thought we weren't supposed to have any secrets from each other! I mean, if he only fancied someone, or even if he just kissed them, that would be different, but if it's serious -"
Remus gave a small start, and Sirius made a sound that he quickly converted into a cough.
"Of course it's serious!" said Peter. "Moony wouldn't do something like that with someone he wasn't serious about, would he?"
"It's private," Remus informed them. The corner of his mouth twitched. "Maybe it's Sirius. I hope it's serious. I'll let you know once we've talked it over."
Sirius choked on his fake cough.
James glanced back and forth between them, a look of dawning horror on his face. "It's not Evans, is it?"
"It is not," said Remus, and pressed his lips firmly together once more, eyes not moving from his book.
"Then who?" moaned Peter, who hated to be left out of anything. "Tell us, Moony! You know we won't tell anyone."
"Do you have any idea?" James appealed to Sirius.
Sirius barely trusted himself to speak. "I might," he said stiffly, struggling for control of his face.
"Who?" demanded James and Peter in unison.
"If Moony doesn't want to say yet, then I won't either," Sirius said in a rush, before diving behind his bed curtains, and shoving his face into a pillow to muffle his helpless laughter.
He could only imagine what James and Peter would have said if they had noticed the smudges of dirt on his robes, just at knee-height.
Their secret was half out, which meant they could not put off telling their friends for much longer. Sirius was glad. He did not like keeping secrets from James.
He wished he could tell everyone how he felt about Remus. But more than anyone, he needed to make sure Remus knew. Remus had said he hoped their relationship was serious. Sirius stifled another giggle of delight. He did not mind at all who knew he was in love with Remus, as long as Remus knew it, too.