Remus and Sirius were sitting in the schools' library. Remus sat with a pile of books around him and was trying to study. Sirius sat with his feet on the table, arms behind his head and his chair tipped back on two legs.

Remus sighed and set his book down on the table in front of him. He glared at Sirius, who sat across from him. "You're going to hurt yourself, you know that right?" he scolded his friend.

Sirius smirked. "Only if I fall." he answered his friend.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Why do I bother?"

Sirius let his feet fall to the floor and leaned forward on the table. "Because you love me so much." he said jokingly with a wink and smile.

Remus stared at the other boy for a moment then shook his head. "No, that's not it." he deadpanned.

Sirius sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. He knew Remus was joking but couldn't help the pained feeling in his heart. He narrowed his eyes at his friend. "You're just as bad as James you know."

Remus laughed. "I believe I've learned more from you actually." Sirius snorted. "But speaking of James." Remus' tone became serious. "What's up with him today?"

Sirius shrugged and sighed. He knew what James had tried to do all day but couldn't tell Remus without telling him things he wasn't ready to say. "Don't know."

Remus frowned. "Somehow, I don't believe that."

Sirius ran a hand through his hair nervously. "Look, Rem, I…." Sirius was cut off by a voice calling to them.

"Hey Sirius, Remus." Peter said with a wave towards them. "Shhh." the librarian reprimanded him. "Sorry," he whispered to her. He stood next to his friends' table. "Remus, I need your help with a project."

"What kind of project?" Sirius asked suspiciously.

"Ah, um." Peter stumbled.

Reus smiled as he stood up. "I'm sure it's just that essay for transfiguration." he grabbed his books. "It's due on Monday, remember?" he glanced at Sirius.

Sirius shrugged. "That's what Sundays' are for."

Remus snickered. "Now who sounds like James?"

Sirius looked at Remus with a hurt expression. "No need to be insulting." a smile played at the corner of his lips. Remus laughed.

"That's kind of mean," Peter spoke up. "I know James teases all of us but at least we're in the room when he does" he said matter-of-factly. Both of his friends cast him a curious look.

Sirius narrowed his eyes. Remus heard a small squeak come from Peter. Sirius' expression relaxed. "You're right Peter, We're sorry." The other two boys looked at him, surprised. "You know Pete," Sirius began. "James is lucky to have you." Peter gave him a puzzled looked. "Yep," Sirius said slapping a hand on the table. "You're going to make James a fine wife someday."

Remus snorted then clapped his free hand over his mouth in embarrassment. Sirius sent him an amused looked. Peter, however, huffed in annoyance and turned to leave. "What?" Sirius called to him as Peter began walking away. "You were in the room!" he laughed.

"Shh.." the librarian called to them. "Sorry," Remus told her. He turned his attention to Sirius. "Sirius," he said sternly. "Was that necessary?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Asks the guy who was laughing?"

Remus thought for a moment. "Yeah, well.." he trailed. "I better get going." he smiled, waved and began to walk away to find Peter. Before Remus got too far he turned back to his friend. "Hey, could you go find James?, it's getting kind of late and I think he's still down by the lake." he asked politely.

Sirius looked at Remus curiously. "I'm surprised you still care if he gets in trouble or not, after what's happened so far today."

Remus frowned. "Yeah, he's been a pain in the arse today and I still plan on getting him back but he's still a friend."

Sirius smiled at his friend and nodded. "Sure, I'll see if I can find him."

"Thanks" Remus said, returning Sirius' smile. "Better catch up to Peter." he said as he turned again and left Sirius alone.

Sirius watched his friend walk away. When he was sure Remus was gone he thumped his head against the table. He winced at the pain. "James is right," he muttered against the table. "I've got to tell him."

James sighed as he stared up at the sky from underneath his and his friends' favorite tree. It was getting late and he knew he should be heading inside but he just needed a few more minutes.

It was Sirius' birthday and all James had wanted to do for his friend was give him a few birthday surprises. Ones that would not only make him happy but also make him more confident in confessing his, not so secret, feelings for their other friend. Nothing up to this point worked and he was frustrated.

The first surprise was Remus, Sirius' crush, having to come out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel. James didn't doubt that one had caused some warm and fuzzy feelings, "Okay," James thought. "Maybe not fuzzy feelings, but warm ones for sure." he laughed to himself. It still wasn't anything that caused his friend to realize he couldn't ignore how he felt. The other, well didn't work out either and failed so terribly James didn't want to recap it.

James realized now that he had gone about the whole thing the wrong way. He shouldn't be talking to Sirius about feelings, he should talk to Remus. James sat up. Convincing Remus that Sirius returned his feelings without actually spilling his friends' secret was the problem. He narrowed his eyes and looked around. "Now how do I do that?' he said aloud. Spotting a small grove of wild flowers growing off in the direction of Hagrids' shed he smiled. "That might do."

James stood up and walked over to the grove. He quickly gathered together some of the best flowers. It was starting to get dark and was a bit hard to tell which ones looked good and not wilted but he did his best. After he had a good bunch together James used his wand to clean them and figured he'd find something in the common room to bind them. "Now I'll tell Remus they're from Sirius and say that Sirius was too nervous to give them to him himself." James thought and smirked. "This is bound to work."

Making his way back up to the castle James cursed himself for not bringing his invisibility cloak with him. It was late and the prefects would be making their rounds soon. James made his way through the halls as quickly and quietly as he could. Once he reached it, he ducked down one of the secret passages his friends and him had found.

Remus and Peter had made their way back to the Gryffindor common room in silence until they had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Peter," Remus began. "Stop."

Peter listened to his friend and glanced up at him with surprise. "What?" he asked.

Remus breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly. "I asked Sirius but he declined to tell me anything. Would you know why James' has been acting weird today?'

Peter looked down at his feet. "What is it Peter?" Remus pressed his friend.

"I, ah, well," Peter faltered.

"Come on Peter, you can tell me" Remus urged.

Peter sighed loudly and raised his head back towards the other boy. "Well, it's like this.." he trailed and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "There's this boy, he's a friend and he likes this other boy, another friend and we wanted to, well, James wanted to…" Peter tried to explain but was cut off by Remus.

"Nevermind, it's okay." Remus told his friend. He sighed, obviously James was hiding something from him and both Sirius and Peter seemed reluctant to tell him anything. "Let's get inside and start decorating for the party, James and Sirius should be up soon." he led the way into the common room.

Sirius had searched for James in all the usual places, the Quidditch pitch, under their groups' favorite tree down by the lake and Hagrids' cabin. There was no sign of him and it had already turned dark.

Frustrated and tired, Sirius decided to head back. He carefully made his way back to the castle and began the long hike back to the common room, ducking into secret hallways when possible.

James entered the common room and whistled. "You guys did a brilliant job!" he exclaimed as he walked further into the room. He turned his attention to the sound of someone's "Hmpf" and a foot tapping on the floor.

"Not all of us are guys, Potter." Lily Evans announced annoyed.

James beamed at her. "I've noticed," he said, a bit suggestively. Lily pulled a face but James ignored her. "You ladies," he corrected. "did a brilliant job too."

Lily frowned then glanced at James' hand. "Please say those aren't for me." she pled.

James gave her a puzzled look then looked at the flowers in his hand. He had forgotten he had them. "Sorry to disappoint you Evans," he began with a laugh. "But they're not."

"Oh," Lily said quietly and James smirked when he notice she seemed a bit disappointed. "Who are they for?" she asked curiously.

James laughed again. "Remus." he stated. "I'd love to woo you some more Evans but I really have to find Remus and give him these." he gestured with the flowers.

Lily would have said something clever but at that moment she felt she must have missed something. She merely nodded in Remus' direction and watched James cross the room towards his friend, giving her a grin and a wink before he walked away. She stood there puzzled a moment longer before walking away herself and joining her friends.

James held the flowers in his hand behind his back, he had to wait for the right moment before he gave them to Remus. He was happy he'd gotten a ribbon from one of the girls when he first came, the flowers were no longer making a mess. "Remus I need to talk to you a moment." he said with a pointed look towards Frank, whom Remus had talked to earlier. Frank smiled politely and excused himself. James cleared his throat. "I have something for you." he smiled. "It's from …." he was cut off by a loud, "He's coming!" James hung his head. "No," he thought. "Not yet." he felt frustrated.

The room went quiet and the lights flicked off. A thump and a string of curses broke the silence a moment later. The lights quickly came back on and everyone, including James and Remus shouted, "Happy Birthday!"

Sirius jumped at the announcement, startled. After James' morning and afternoon stunts he and Remus had hardly seen their friend and figured James' had been moping. Sirius hadn't expected a party and if he were to be honest he would even say the thought of it still be his birthday had slipped his mind.

He walked into the room and smiled as students came forward to wish him a happy birthday. He was friends with many but only acquaintances with the others but appreciated their company and well-wishes the same.

After giving a polite thank-you to everyone else Sirius began making his way towards James and Remus, who stood in a corner near the stairway for the boys' dormitory. He stepped dead in his tracks at what he saw. He was too far away to hear them but he watched as James pulled a small bouquet of flowers from behind his back and handed them to Remus with a large smile on his face. "What the …." he didn't finish his sentence, he merely narrowed his eyes as he continued to watch.

Remus frowned as he stared at the flowers. He glanced at James questioningly.

"I know I've been acting weird all day but I want you know there's a good reason for it." James began. Remus listened patiently.

James had been going to tell Remus the flowers were from Sirius but changed his mind. That would have been the same as telling his friend Sirius' secret. Rather, James hoped that Remus would guess it, in the end James should have known better. "These are from someone who fancies you a lot, they're in our year and well," he paused and straightened out his glasses. "They're a boy." James finished quickly.

Remus was more than a little surprised to hear that. His brows creased for a moment then in a flash the day's events ploughed through his mind and the conversation with Peter rang clear. His eyes widened with realization and disbelief, "No, this wasn't happening," Remus breathed in deeply, "Not James!" he thought. He felt panicked. He grabbed James' arm, "We need to talk!" Remus said, leading James to the staircase.