I know it's November, but what can I say, I'm slow.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling has that honor and, though I hope to become as brilliant a writer as she, I am not her.


Setting: Gryffindor Common Room, sometime in October, fifth year

"A pirate!"

Remus barely had time to lift his homework to safety before Sirius was jumping atop the table and striking a pose with his right hand, in the shape of an O, held up to his eye. "Oh Merlin, do I even want to know?" he asked himself aloud, then shook his head. "No, I don't."

"Yes you do, Moony!" Sirius shouted, pointing his makeshift telescope down at his exasperated friend.

"No, I really don't-"

"The suspense is killing you, am I right?"

"Not even close-"

"I'm going to be a pirate!" Sirius proclaimed excitedly, overriding Remus' protests.

"For the rest of your life?"

Sirius beamed down at him. "No - well, possibly. Could I do that? But I meant for Halloween this year - I'm going to be a pirate! And I need a parrot. How do you feel about feathers?"

"Fat chance."

"Alright, then, I need a First Mate. And you'd look quite dashing with an eye patch and bandana, Remy."

Not for the first time since he'd (foolishly) befriended Sirius in First Year, Remus felt his eye twitching in that nervous tic he'd mysteriously developed around the same time. "Sirius," he began, then thought better of it. Heaving a sigh, he acquiesced. "Alright, but I refuse to wear a peg leg."

"What, are you mad? I'm wearing the peg leg, you get the eye patch. Now come on, we have to start making our costumes. D'you think Wormtail would let me Transfigure him into a parrot?"