A/N Aaand I'm back here as well!!

The next day, the four boys searched for Ivy during lunch, spotting her just as she walked out of the Great Hall. "It's almost time for class," Remus observed. "You'd better catch her before she meets up with her friends."

"Right." Kevin got up from the table and hurried after her. His friends followed behind at a safe interval. They walked out of the Great Hall to see that Kevin was already walking beside her, apparently asking her a question. The girl nodded and smiled, and Kevin smiled back, completely at ease. The two of them continued talking as they walked towards the Charms classroom. About halfway there, they were joined by three or four of Ivy's friends, but Kevin didn't fade back.

"How does he do it?" Remus wondered in amazement, watching as Ivy introduced Kevin to her friends. Kevin said something to each of them, then joined in their conversation as if they had known each other for years. When they reached the classroom, Kevin finally left the girls, waiting outside the door. When the three boys reached him, he was grinning broadly.

"I'd say that's worth five Galleons to see," he said to Sirius, "but I suppose ten Sickles will have to do."

"Not so fast," Sirius grumbled. "Let's see if she so much as looks at you again."

During the class, it could not have been clearer that Sirius had lost. Ivy glanced at Kevin all through the lesson, and when she caught his eye once or twice, she smiled at him.

"I think we have a winner," James grinned as they walked out of the classroom.

"All right, all right," Sirius responded, shrugging it off. "I'll get you the money. We've got free time now, though, I say we go outside before it starts raining again."

"If it'll make you feel better," Kevin replied. They left the castle and began walking across the grounds, looking occasionally at the gray sky that was threatening to begin pouring again.

"Well, we're outside, what should we do now?" Remus asked, trying to keep his hands warm in his pockets. Silence met his words; then, James' face lit up.

"What about a round of Spell Tag?" he suggested. Remus and Kevin looked at him blankly.

"Spell Tag?" Kevin repeated, and Sirius joined in enthusiastically.

"Yeah!" he exclaimed. "You set boundaries in the woods, or somewhere that's easy to hide in, then you go at each other with jinxes and hexes."

"Sounds like loads of fun to me," Remus said somewhat sarcastically. James missed the sarcasm.

"Yeah, it is!" he replied. "Nothing big, you know, just things you can undo a few seconds after you've hit the person."

"How do you keep score?" Kevin asked, and Sirius pulled out a piece of paper.

"James' dad helped us to make this when his mum wasn't looking," Sirius grinned. "You just write the names of the people that are playing, and it'll keep track of the hits they get."

"This is all well and good, but where are we going to play?" reasoned Remus. Even before anyone answered, he knew (and dreaded) what they were going to say.

"Well . . ." James said, turning towards the Forbidden Forest.

"I thought there were things in there." Kevin didn't look too keen on going into the Forest.

"Yeah, if you go in deep enough," Sirius told him. "We'll just stay on the edge."

James and Sirius led the way, and Sirius drew a long line on the ground just outside of the trees. "Everyone touch your wand to the line," he ordered, and they obeyed. "Once you're inside now, you can't get out. The boundaries wear off in twenty or thirty minutes. Ready?"

The four boys checked over their shoulder to see that no one was watching, and darted into the thick trees. Remus walked through the forest for a minute, straining to hear footsteps. Someone was off to the right. Quietly, he moved towards him, and saw that it was Kevin. Raising his wand, he tried to decide what jinx to use.

"Rictusempra!" James hit Remus from his left, and Remus fell to the ground, doubled over with laughter. He tried to speak, but James' Tickling Charm had done its work. As soon as he was released, Remus sprang to his feet, but James and Kevin had both disappeared.

Remus tried to walk quietly and find someone quickly, but he was no match for James and Sirius' experience at the game. Sirius got him with a Jelly-Legs curse and James used Levicorpus before he managed to sneak up on James.

"Tarantellegra!"

Instantly, James' feet began jerking out of control. James was so surprised that he fell backwards, his feet still kicking in the air. Remus was so glad he had finally gotten a hit that he forgot to run after he had lifted the jinx. When James raised his wand, Remus ducked under his friend's hex and sprinted away – straight into Kevin. Automatically, Remus raised his wand and cast Levicorpus, just as Kevin said an unfamiliar spell. Remus' vision went black, and he clapped a hand to his eyes.

"Let me down!" Kevin bellowed.

"I can't see you!" Remus shouted back. Light suddenly returned to his eyes, and he saw Kevin turning purple in the face. Remus let him down and took off running again, stopping only when he thought he was a safe distance from the others. He didn't even hear anyone coming up behind him.

"Stupefy!"

When the boundaries began to wear off, Kevin met James and Sirius just outside of the trees, and Sirius pulled out the scorekeeping paper. "James is first with fifteen hits," he said, and James bowed deeply. "Then – Kevin with ten, and I got nine."

"You got beat out by a first-timer!" James exclaimed.

"Barely," Sirius answered, rolling his eyes. "Remus – Remus only got two!"

"He's a soft-hearted fellow," James smiled. "Where is he, anyway? D'you think he got lost?"

"You didn't forget to lift a hex, did you?" Sirius asked Kevin, who shook his head.

"One of you Stupefied him, did you forget to bring him back around?" Kevin wondered, and James and Sirius looked at each other.

"I didn't do it," Sirius said, looking expectantly at James.

"It wasn't me!" James protested. "I've never Stupefied someone for a game, just in case it goes wrong and puts them into a coma or something."

The three of them looked at each other, worry starting to surface, and plunged back into the trees.