Fourth year

            "Where are you going? It's already past curfew," demanded Remus as Sirius glanced at his watch and stood as though to exit the common room. Remus' voice cut through the velvet thick silence of the James and Peter looked up startled at the noise.

"Date," answered Sirius casually.

Remus frowned. It was hard to tell with Sirius' face only partly illuminated by the dying embers of the fire and half a dozen candles but Remus was sure he was lying.

"A date that doesn't start until one in the morning?"

"Some people," Sirius replied haughtily, "like adventure and passion and illicit trysts with charming suitors."

"Thought it was you who had a date," James muttered.

            Peter giggled.

            Remus narrowed his eyes. "Who with? You were seeing that Gryffindor third year this morning and she hasn't walked past us."

            "That blond from Hufflepuff."

The sentence was perfect, it was delivered with the perfect amount of smug bastardry that so characterised Sirius, could actually refer to half of Hufflepuff House and it wasn't unheard of for Sirus to arrange a meeting with a girl whose name he didn't know. Either he was telling the truth or he was a very god liar. And Remus knew for a fact that Sirius Black was a very good liar who sometimes told the truth, so either was possible.

He was about to concede defeat when he became aware that Sirius had locked eyes with James and the two were communication in their unnatural silent little way.

"Right!" he demanded, "What is going on?"

"Nothing," replied both boys innocently, too innocently.

"You're so untrusting Moony. As though we'd ever do anything wrong…well, we might but we would mention it so that you didn't get caught in the crossfire."

"Don't give me that Potter. I know you're doing something, frankly I don't much care but we've already spent half the night doing a punishment essay for McGongall due to," Remus tried valiantly to repress a smirk, "the rather regrettable mouse incident, and I have actual work to do tomorrow because it's the moon on Friday. I don't have time to be in shit tomorrow night."

"You won't Moony," replied James soothingly. "It's just phase one tonight," he added just as Sirius said, "It's just a date."

Remus looked from one of them to the other and fought the urge to start punching. "What is phase one?"

Sirius and James exchanged another look. Remus had the distinct impression they were trying not to laugh.

"It's a renaissance mission," piped up Peter, "they've found a new secret passageway."

This was such an anticlimax that Remus actually did throw his inkpot at James, who jerked backwards and toppled a pile of books from the table to the floor. "You are such an ignoramus. Why not just say that? I could have gotten this last paragraph finish ten minutes ago if I hadn't been worrying about Playboy over there running amok without supervision."

James tilted his chair back. "Didn't want to worry you. Besides, you like exploring and we thought you might feel left out."

"I'm not a girl Potter. I can cope with the idea of not being the integral component to every outing."

Sirius took his chance and headed for the door. He raised his hand by way of acknowledgement as Peter called, "Good luck," and left, the sounds of the others bickering following him out into the deserted corridor.

Silence fell once again over the common room table, punctuated only by the sounds of scratching. James was hoping that Remus would let the matter drop, and that they could procure a new passageway to show him. He was also hoping that everything went alright for Sirius. It would have been safer to try in the common room, but they couldn't risk being caught.

Remus sighed and leaned over the side of the table to root through the books that he had dropped earlier. After a moment he pulled up a deep burgundy book: Theoretician to Expert. Your Anamagi Transformation.

"I thought you'd forgotten about this. I haven't heard you mention it in ages."

James shifted in his seat. "We got stuck."

"And there was the Quidditch season," Peter reminded him helpfully.

"Plus, we know you don't strictly approve so we try and keep a low profile."

"Does this have something to do with this passageway?"

James sighed; sometimes Remus was just to astute for his own good, or more accurately for James' good. He again tried the wounded innocence. "You're so suspicious Moony. You should have been in Slytherin; they always assume people are plotting against them too."

"We usually are," commented Remus mildly. "So does it?"

"Sirius thinks he's got it, but we couldn't risk him being caught transforming in here," he confessed after a long moment.

"So he's gone where?"

 "The shack."

Remus' lips moved soundlessly for a moment. The plan was inherently stupid and much more complicated than it needed to be but he couldn't find a single complaint. He scrawled half a dozen more words. "I'm going to bed."

James and Peter watched him stomp up the stairs in relative silence. "He took that well."

"Yes. Shall we go and see how Sirius is getting on?"