He stepped into the room, taking in the four poster beds and the unsettling tidiness which marked the labors of the Hogwarts house elves. It would soon be wreaked by the unstoppable force of boy, of course, but despite the unfriendly cleanliness, the dorm room was a sight for sore eyes.

Sirius felt light. His footsteps had a newly recovered spring that he had missed for the past months, and he slowly felt his body and mind soaking up the magical atmosphere of the room, trickling in the feeling of life and personality until he started feeling like himself again.

It was hell, this process of growing in confidence and swagger before reverting to a vegetable for a soul-sucking summer, but it was just the way it was. It had always been this way, and Sirius had worked out a system throughout the years.

He had skipped the welcome feast. He never felt too hungry anyway, and James and Peter knew better than to search for him by now. No, the hustle of familiar faces rushing together, trapped in one loud room, jittery first years tripping over their long, hopeful robes, eating up precious minutes with their bothersome personalities and preferences…

No, it was much better to sneak into one of the many secret passageways and hurriedly move to the dorm he had missed so much. Just to sit. And think. And not think. Just sitting.

The first day always took a lot from him. Friends and acquaintances greeting and expecting Sirius Black to be Sirius Black.

But it was hard to be Sirius Black after not being him in so long, Sirius fumed. Sirius Black was great. It took a lot of effort to be him. Starting with a few hours of silence.

For all his want of company, just when it was in his grasp, he just wanted some solitude.

Hours past, and Sirius was feeling much better, just in time for the door to fling open.

"Lily has a boyfriend."

His enraged best friend stormed into the room and collapsed headfirst into his bed. Peter trailed behind, huffing annoyed sighs at the dramatics.

"Good. Now he can rant to you, because I've had enough. The berk wouldn't stop muttering for the entire feast." Peter shrugged off his bag, throwing it offhandedly towards Sirius. "Speaking of the feast, I've a few bread rolls in there if you want a bite before bed."

Sirius slid the invisibility cloak over from his head and grinned appreciatively as he took in the contents. Peter had smuggled in a feast short of a full bodied turkey. Picking up a leg of chicken, he asked, "How'd you two know I was here?"

Peter rolled his eyes. "James let you borrow the cloak today at the Express, so we figured you were up here sulking or whatever it is that you always do today."

As Sirius was about to indignantly protest his sulking, James angrily asked, "Are you both just going to ignore the fact that Evans got herself a boyfriend? I could use some words of consolation, you prats."

Sirius took a bite out of a buttery croissant. "Yes, yes, Evans has a boyfriend. Good for her, sucks for you. She's pretty hot."

From across the room, Peter nodded in agreement as he shrugged into his sleep clothes. "I've been telling him that he's lucky that this hadn't happened any sooner. She's one of the best looking girls in our year."

"Oh Peter, you poor innocent sod," Sirius said sorrowfully. "It's not luck that Evans hasn't been getting offers. Of course you'd be surprised if she's only just now getting her first boyfriend."

"What do you mean?" Peter asked.

"Ask loverboy over there," Sirius said helpfully, pointing to where James was now desperately looking outside the window in an attempt at being romantically longing.

"I've been threatening to cut off the balls of every bloke who wanted to ask her out for the past three years," James said. "It really shows you my devotion, but she never really understood that it was all in the name of love."

"I believe that the exact words mentioned were creepy and sad," Sirius pitched in.

"Oh." Peter looked a strange mix of both frightened and impressed. "Well, that explains why Evans never had a date until now. How'd you know who had intentions of asking her out?"

"Sneaky Salazar over here snooped for me," James said, reaching over to grab an eclair from the magnificent spread of food. Sirius slapped the hand away, making his way through the sausages.

"You just ate," he said incredulously. "Are you really taking my food?"

James nursed his wounded hand with an equally wounded expression. "I'm eating out of heartbreak."

"Wait, wait, wait," Peter said. "How would you know what blokes were into Evans?"

Sirius shrugged. "I'll ask around for you for a fee, you know that."

"I never got that," Peter said, shaking his head. "You're stinking rich, why bother with these favors?" The three of them finished off the last few morsels of food before flinging the trash onto the floor. Sirius felt satisfied as he surveyed the small mess. He was home.

"Well, I'm saving up," he said in response to Peter, "I keep wasting away my dear family money while I'm in school, but I'm saving up to leave. We're in sixth year now, and I'm not going back into that hellhole after we leave Hogwarts."

Peter and James made some vaguely sympathetic noises before climbing back into their own beds.

"Well, it was a good run James," Peter said. "You did your best, but now that she has a boyfriend, you should back off."

Sirius nodded. "And no one can say you didn't give it your all. No one."

James glared. "I'm not giving up."

"You've had a crush on this girl since third year," said Peter. "Hasn't she suffered enough?"

"And aren't you a little bored by now?" Sirius asked, "She still won't give you the time of day."

"You guys are supposed to be comforting me." James protested. "I'm your best mate and I'm heartbroken here." He burrowed into the covers in a fit of self-pity.

"Well," Peter said, awkwardly pulling the covers away from James's head in a vaguely comforting manner, "I'm sorry James, but really, we all knew this day would come. Head up, lad."

James moaned brokenly. "I can't believe that she would do this to me. Doesn't she know how I feel?"

"Oh I think she knows how you feel plenty," Peter said. "I wouldn't worry about that, that's the least of your worries. You have made it very clear how you feel."

Sirius shrugged, patting James on his very messy head. "Well, maybe now you can finally take a hint and leave that poor girl alone. It's not like she was your girlfriend… or even just your friend, actually. In fact, she kind of hates you, doesn't she?"

In the very back corners of his mind, Sirius knew that he and Peter sucked balls at comforting a broken-hearted sixteen year old boy, but really, Sirius comforted himself with the fact that he was incredibly good looking and very talented at nearly everything else. Everyone was allowed their flaws, after all.

James poked his head out from under the covers. "You two suck. I need new friends."

Sirius and Peter snorted.

"Good luck finding those," Peter said.

"We're all you got," Sirius added.

James understandably looked a little miffed. "And that," he said dramatically, "saddens me most of all."

Sirius shrugged and walked back to his bed, gesturing for Peter to do the same. They had carried out their obligatory best mate duties of comforting a fellow marauder in need. At least, that was how Sirius saw it. Peter seemed to agree, for as soon as he got back to his Martin Miggs comic book, he asked offhandedly, "Who is the lucky bloke, by the way?"

James had caught on to the fact that his mates were assholes who were done in their lukewarm attempt to comfort him. Chucking a pillow at each of them respectively, he sullenly stated, "I dunno, some bloke she met during the summer."

"Ah," Peter said wisely, "during the summer, when you weren't there to hex his balls off. Smart girl."

James threw him a filthy glare. Peter ignored him, shoving a chocolate in his mouth and keeping his eyes resolutely on the comic book.

Sirius, on the other hand sat up, giving the conversation his full attention. "So he doesn't go here? What, is he a muggle?"

"Might be," James shrugged, "for all I know he could be a recluse troll living under an abandoned bridge. Lily got a little testy with me after I asked a couple of innocent questions."

"He nearly interrogated her," Peter said. "I thought she'd been guilty of a crime or something. It was frightening."

"He must be a muggle," Sirius puzzled, "if he's a wizard living in Europe and he doesn't come to Hogwarts, that's a little fishy, isn't it?"

"There's always Beauxbatons and Durmstrang," James said gloomily.

"Well what do you know about him?" Peter asked, his curiosity also piqued. "Is he our age?"

"Well I dunno, do I?" James snapped, irritated.

Suddenly, he sat up and pointed at Sirius with a crazed glare in his eyes. "You!" James shouted, launching from his bed back to Sirius.

Sirius gulped. This was something that had happened before, with terrible consequences. "Yes, me. What, you lunatic? I'm not her new boyfriend."

"You can spy for me! You're pretty chummy with her nowadays, aren't you?" James asked suspiciously. "You can go and do a little sniffing around."

"Yeah?" Sirius said, affronted. "And why on earth would I do that, you lovesick buffoon?"

James glared at him with narrowed eyes. "What do you want?"

From the sidelines, Peter clapped his hands in excitement. "Tell Potter to fork over a shitload of galleons!"

Sirius considered it. James was loaded, and he could always just ask for more from his parents. Then again, James was his friend, and he really did like the Evans girl.

"Hmm," Sirius said, "maybe I should, Pete. He can afford it easily, after all."

"Oh come on," James said, "you're going to make me pay for you just asking around a few questions? That's cold, Black."

"Fine," Sirius said reluctantly. "I guess you did let me borrow your cloak for today." Sirius balled up the cloak and tucked it into the special corner of James's trunk. "I'll do it for five galleons."

"Ah that's boring," Peter said, turning away.

In contrast, James hopped up. "Come on mate, hurry up. If you wait any longer I might as well just wait for the rumor mill to come around."

"You want me to go now?" Sirius grinned. "How much do you want this? Would you agree to owing me a favor too?"

"I'm not that much of an idiot," James glowered. "You'd get me tangled up in some illegal shit."

Sirius smirked. "Come on, James," he wheedled. "Have a little faith me, won't you mate?"

Peter laughed. "Why the hell you he trust you?"

"Because I'm such a trustworthy being," Sirius joked, "I'd do anything for my friends!" Turning to a trapped James Potter, Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Well? What'll it be?"

James rolled his eyes. "Fine," he said, "but if the information's not satisfactory, I'm not doing or giving you shit, Black."

"Good," Sirius said. "And don't worry your little head, Potter. We both know that I'm going to sniff out more than you'll ever want to know. I never disappoint."

"Big talk from someone who's already a step behind Bertha Jorkins." James plopped back onto his bed. "You're such an arrogant asshole, why are we even friends?"

Peter shrugged. "He's plenty pretty, isn't he? We need a pretty one in our group, and you're not cutting it."

"And that," Sirius said, as he shrugged on his robe, "is why you're my favorite, Pete."

Before pushing open the door he called over his shoulder, "And Bertha Jorkins graduated last year, you dumbass!"

Whistling, he stepped out in search of Lily Evans, feeling like himself again.