A big long Remus, Sirius and James chapter. In fact, probably a bit Sirius heavy. Hopefully you like Sirius.

"An' 'ow can I 'elp yer, Jim?"

James, who was basking in the warmth of Hagrid's Hut with a large mug of tea pressed firmly in his hands, considered. "Girl trouble."

Hagrid chuckled. "No offence or anythin', Jim, bu' I'm not exactly the best person ter ask about tha'."

James smiled. "I'm sure you were a right charmer in your day, Haggers."

"Don' call me 'Haggers', you lil' git," Hagrid said with a small laugh. "An' I can assure you I wasn'. I was the animal man. Nobody likes the animal man."

"I thought girls found that attractive," James mused. "Don't they all love animals?"

"Yeh, cute fluffy ones an' all," Hagrid replied, taking a sip from his mug. "No' big beasts like dragons or spiders though. Seriously misunderstood creatures, dragons."

"Do you have any wooing advice for him?" asked Sirius as he entered the hut with a grin from ear to ear, his black hair windswept. "He won't listen to me and the guys."

"Yeah, that's because you'd have me humiliate myself publicly."

"You don't need help from me to do that," Sirius said with a smile. He looked up at Hagrid. "Do you have a hairbrush?"

"Urgh..."

The groan was quite amusing. Remus turned to look at Sirius, who was slouched in his chair, his head thrown back dramatically as he rocked on the hind legs of the seat, James's Snitch in hand.

"Is he okay?" Remus asked with raised eyebrows to James. James looked up at his friend with a grin, before giving Sirius a small push. It was enough to push him out of balance; he landed on the floor with a clatter.

The disturbance went unnoticed by Professor Binns, who was busy drawling away about goblins, but it attracted quite a lot of attention from people around them. Peter threw a venomous look at the three of them, angry that they had wound up seated together whilst he had to sit next to Edna Hurst of Hufflepuff House.

"James, you dick," snapped Sirius, trying to hide his smile as he caught the metal ball now trying to escape back to the Quidditch pitch.

"In response to your question, Remus," James grinned as he snatched the Snitch back from Sirius's hand, "yes, I think he is okay."

"I'm not okay," Sirius assured them. "I'm so damn bored. Look outside! There is snow! Snow! Proper bow snow! It never snows, never ever!" He pointed theatrically out of the window, to amused smirks from James and Remus. "And where are we? In History of Magic, listening to some old git who died probably from hearing his own voice too long ramble on about elves that died a hundred and eleventy nine thousand years ago. And I find this shockingly unfair." He stabbed his quill onto his empty note pad moodily and began to doodle.

James and Remus exchanged a look and both had to stifle their snorts before they returned to their work.

'Proper bow snow' had indeed fallen overnight; a few centimetres dusted the grounds like sugar. The clouds still looked a heavy purple-tinged grey, suggesting that heavier flakes would fall later.

Sirius had been right; there was never any snow, merely a constant rain for the majority of Great Britain's year, and it was a shame that they were trapped in this classroom, but he had dramatized it absurdly.

"It's going to be a cold Quidditch practice tonight, Pads," James mused, shivering at the thought.

"But a fit, agile Chaser like you won't let the cold get to them, would they?" teased Remus.

"Yeah, but he's a skinny little rake," Sirius grinned. "Look at that." He pulled James's arm up and closed his hand around his wrist to prove just how slender the chaser was.

"Piss off, Sirius." James wrenched his hand free with a smile. "You should curse Snape and see if anyone notices."

"Oh, because no one will notice hexes rebounding off the classroom walls, even if it does hit them," Remus said sarcastically, amusement playing at his face.

"Whatever we do, can we do something?" Sirius pleaded as he rocked back in his seat. "I'm actually contemplating chopping off an arm here to see if Binns'll let me go to the hospital wing."

"Take his wand off him, James, before he does anything stupid," advised Remus. Sirius, hearing this, smashed all four chair legs onto the ground, glaring at them both as they began to laugh.

"You two don't understand sarcasm well, do you?"

"Well, you don't apply it properly," Remus replied. "You need to learn from me: the King of Satire."

"What do you think would happen if I threw a book at Binns?" asked Sirius, ignoring Remus's previous comment.

"What normally happens when you throw something at a ghost?"

"Yeah, but do you think he'd notice?" asked Sirius with a grin.

"I bet you five galleons that he doesn't," James challenged immediately.

"I bet he does," Remus argued. "Here, James, I'll take you on. Sirius can be our unbiased adjudicator."

"Five galleons?" James raised his eyebrows. "Are you really willing to bet that much?"

Remus nodded. "Bring it."

Sirius grinned. "Okay, lads, here we go then." He lifted the ink bottle from the desk's inkwell and launched it through the middle of the teacher's head. There was a loud smash as it hit the stone floor a few metres behind Binns, splattering nearby students with blue ink. A few of them screamed; it satisfied Sirius to see that both Evans and MacDonald had been splashed with large amounts.

Binns himself temporarily looked as if he had been dragged from a stupor. He looked directly at Sirius, who smiled back and rolled his eyes. "You, boy, wait outside."

Sirius obeyed, standing up to leave the classroom. There were whispers and hisses all around the classroom until the door shut and Binns returned to his continuous drone.

Remus sat in silence for a few moments, his quill blotting a huge stain where it had come to rest on his parchment.

"Psst," James hissed. "Rem. I dare you to throw something at Binns."

"We've established he notices, you owe me five galleons."

"I double dare you."

"No."

"You can't back out of a double dare."

Remus smiled. "Okay, if we're playing like this... I triple dare you to run through him."

"What?" James asked incredulously. "Are you mental?"

"Can't back out of a triple dare."

"You're psychotic," snapped James, but he nodded. "You won't hold anything against me. You bloody throw something first."

Remus nodded with a smile, before lifting up his textbook and hurling it at his teacher. The rest of the class jumped once more, before giving annoyed tuts and hisses. Binns looked up angrily.

"You there, boy, what's your name?"

James's eyes were wide enough to pop out of his head. "But I didn't throw it!"

"If there is one more disruption from this back bench, the whole class will be remaining behind," Binns threatened, and the others in the class groaned angrily. "As for now, you can go and wait outside."

James stood up angrily, his chair clattering to the ground behind him. He turned to Remus, who shrugged and muttered, "You asked for it."

"I never break a dare," James snared, and he launched himself through the teacher on his way from the classroom. "Fuck, that was cold," he snapped as he got outside. Sirius was sat on the ground outside, levitating a conker above his head. "I thought you'd have gone by now."

"I knew you'd get kicked out too," shrugged Sirius, making a grab for the conker and stowing it away in his robes. "Free period now though," he smiled. "Binns'll never remember he sent us out."

"And it's only four days till end of term and all," James shrugged with a smile. The words caused Sirius's to falter. James regretted it.

"Are you going home?" he asked quietly.

"I received a letter of my orders," said Sirius in a jokey tone, though James could hear his hurt under his voice. "Apparently there is to be a party that I must attend, as the no good heir and all. Otherwise I can stay here."

James smiled sympathetically. "I'll write to you."

Sirius snorted. "Don't expect me to write back, okay? It's too much effort." He seemed to consider this. "Hey, you know what? We need a better way of communication. One that's simple and quick and untraceable."

"Like...?" James prompted.

"Like something small and portable. Subtle like a portkey, but... not as simple. Something that we can talk to each other on. My Mum'll never let me install a telly-thing though."

James thought. "Hey, what about like, a mirror or something?" he suggested after a couple of moments. "It's not an unnatural thing to have in our possession, is it? And we could talk to each other through it."

Sirius snorted. "And where will we get these mirrors?"

"Prefect's Bathroom," grinned James. "We'll bully the password out of Remus, swipe two extraordinarily nice mirrors and charm them."

"Yeah," replied Sirius. "Yeah, okay."

"Great."

"Except, I already know the password. And I swear I saw some selling in Hogsmeade."

James smiled. "Fancy a little trip out then, Paddy?" He offered him his arm.

"Oh, James," Sirius said, seizing James's arm with a theatrical little skip, "I thought you'd never ask."

The remaining days of the Hogwarts year passed in a whirl of artificial snowflakes and floating baubles. Remus had smashed Peter at Wizard Chess fourteen times in a row; Sirius and James tested their new two-way mirrors by speaking to each other, one in the common room and one in the dormitory.

Sirius and Remus had also spent excessive time developing their potion; Myrtle had been in fits when Sirius confessed his undying love for her under the influence of it. When he had come to, he had been both confused and entertained.

"At least we know it works," he grinned.

"Thanks for loaning us your bathroom, Myrtle," Remus said kindly after they had finished, a steaming vial of Amortentia stopped and placed in Sirius's pocket.

Myrtle sniffed. "Will you come back?" she asked him.

Remus exchanged a look with Sirius.

"We can if you want to," the latter said.

"Promise you'll visit me," she told Remus, who nodded, looking a little taken aback. They thanked her again, and left the second floor bathroom.

"Ooooh, Moony, someone's got an admirer!" Sirius teased as soon as they reached the corridor. Remus's cheeks flushed a little.
"Shut up," he mumbled.

"Well, you are pretty damn cute, you with your mop top and your cute little face..." Sirius grabbed his cheeks and squeezed them. Remus shoved him off with a laugh; Sirius smiled.

"Ah, what'll I do over Christmas without you?" he sighed. "I'll have no-one to tease. Apart from Regulus. But he's easy to wind up. Woe is me."

Remus laughed. "Well, we'll make it a bomb of a last night," he said with a surreptitious edge to his voice.

"That, Moony," Sirius said, "sounds like a bloody good idea."

Christmas next chapter I believe! :D Ah, wistful thinking. And it's only February.