James walked out of the shower in his red Gryffindor towel, his hair wet and dripping on the carpet. "I'm done," he announced. "But um, something's wrong with the soaps."

"What do you mean?" asked Peter.

"The soap wont lather, it won't do anything," he explained.

"What, is it like… frozen?" asked Peter, making an awkward face.

"Don't be dim, Peter. Ever heard of a soap freezing?" said Sirius.

"So, what did you do?" Peter asked James.

"I had to use shampoo on my body, no big deal," he replied, shrugging.

"That is atrocious, James, why would you do that? You should have borrowed my shower gel!" said Sirius.

James laughed at him. "I don't really care," he replied.

Sirius shook his head exasperatedly and stood up, about to go for his shower, when Peter said, "What's that?"

"What?" the others asked.

Peter bent down and picked up a sleek black shoe, a ladies' shoe with a seven-inch heel. "Whose is this?" he asked them, and they all stared at Remus' closed curtains. Peter's face broke out slowly into a grin, but no one else was impressed.

"That's Evans' shoe," said Sirius. Peter's smile turned into a grimace.

"No, wait, wait," said James, remembering what happened. "I mean yes, that is Evans' shoe," he whispered and the other two wore identical horrified expressions.

"Chill, they didn't shag. They came back really really drunk last night, and just fell asleep."

Sirius' face relaxed. "Oh," he said.

"How do you know they didn't shag?" asked Peter. "I mean they could've used a Muffliato? Or they could've shagged wherever they were, and just came back here to sleep?"

Sirius's face looked horrified again.

"Just don't, Wormtail. That's not true, okay. We are not going down that horrid path again. Let's just wake them up," said James.

And they all stood there, no one wanting to be the first one to wake them up. In the end, James sighed, and called, "Moony? Remus. Wake up, we are going down for breakfast in a while."

They heard a snort. Sirius and Peter grinned at each other. A groan, like someone was stretching. A female someone. James quickly put his clothes on.

"Ow, Remus, you're lying on my hair!"

"Oh sorry-" then Remus was laughing.

"What?" Lily's annoyed voice.

"Look at your hair!" Remus said and laughed some more.

James sat on his bed and waited for them to come out. Sirius hid behind the curtains of his own, mortified to show his face.

"My dress. It's so crumpled," she whined.

"Oh. So, it wasn't all a dream then," said Remus gloomily.

Sirius felt awful. Just kill me already.

"You're lucky it isn't a big sopping mess," Remus added.

"Huh?"

"Don't you remember? You were gonna jump into the pool, fully clothed," he said and laughed. "You're such an idiot."

Lily gasped. "You're a prat," she said.

"Twit."

"Knob."

James and Peter laughed silently. Lily poked her head out and pushed the curtains aside, ignoring James completely.

"Morning, Evans. Big night?" James couldn't resist asking. His hand automatically went to his hair and he ruffled it. "Sounded fun."

Lily huffed. "Two words, Potter. Purple balloons," she said, and he shut up immediately. She stood up and put her heels on, and James viewed it in slow-motion. Lily Evans standing on the tips of her dainty toes, bending one leg and putting a shoe on, then on the other one. It was all very graceful and somehow a little erotic, and it was the most glorious thing he'd ever witnessed.

"See you later," she said to Remus, and was just about to walk out, but she stopped abruptly. "What the devil is that?!" she asked, pointing to Peter's bedside table.

"Er," said Peter.

"Why do you have a sickle in your room?" she asked.

"You mean a coin?" asked James lamely.

She picked the curved blade up with two fingers and showed it to the others, demanding an explanation. No one answered. She raised an eyebrow at Peter.

"It was for a Halloween prank…" he mumbled.

"Gah, Wormy!" said James.

"What is Wormy? Some kind of code word?" she asked Remus.

He chuckled. "Well, sort of. It's our nickname for Peter," he replied.

"Remus, I'm disappointed in you! Why is this still here?" she asked.

"No, no. I er… didn't let them use it for that prank," he said.

"Yeah, he didn't," said Peter.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Whatever! I'm confiscating this weapon! It's dangerous," she said, and walked out of the room with it.

"Spoilsport," Peter muttered and James smacked him on the head.

"Ow."

Remus followed her out of the dorm and stood on the landing. "Walk of shame, Lily Evans!" they heard him say laughingly.

"True. And I didn't even do the shameful deed for which I'm being shamed," she said and they both laughed. Sirius opened up his curtains again, grinning at James.

"I know you have potential, though," said Remus.

"What do you mean?!" she exclaimed.

"I remember what you did with those spring rolls," he said.

"So?" There was a silence. "Oh, eww Remus! You have a dirty mind! You do know what I'm holding, right?" she said, and he laughed.

"Sure, Lily, and if you didn't have one too, you'd have never guessed correctly," he replied.

"Walking away. Now," she said, and they heard her laugh as the sound of her heels faded away.

"Where have you been?" demanded Alice as soon as Lily walked into their dorm room.

"Yeah, we were so worried," said Marlene, with her hands on her hips.

"We thought you'd been kidnapped by some death eater or something," said Mary. "Pratap said they'd shut down the party, but you never returned…"

"And why on Earth do you have a sickle?!" exclaimed Alice.

"I'm so sorry, girls," said Lily, smiling sheepishly. "Something happened, and Remus wasn't alright."

"Was he injured too?" asked Marlene. "Don't tell me it was because of this sickle?!"

"No, he's fine. I mean he's not injured," she said. "I can't tell you."

"Yeah, fine. But you were with him this whole time?" asked Mary.

"Yeah, er… I was in their dorm," she said, smirking. The girls exclaimed.

"You were in the Marauders' dorm?! What does it look like?" asked Mary avidly.

"Nothing remarkable. Except that Potter and Black's side of the room was oddly clean and the other side was messy. Really messy," said Lily.

"Huh," said Marlene. "You would normally assume the opposite."

Lily nodded at her. "That's where I confiscated this from," she said, carefully placing the sickle on the writing desk at the window.

Marlene laughed. "Should've guessed!"

"So, you slept in Lupin's bed?" asked Mary.

"Obviously," said Marlene.

"And… nothing happened?" asked Mary.

"Of course not, Mary! I've already told you, he's like a brother to me!"

"Yeah, alright, just checking," said Mary and the others chuckled.

Then Lily took out a clear-looking nail polish out of her purse and showed it to the others, chuckling.

"Your base coat? What did you do?" they asked.

"After Remus fell asleep, I went into their bathroom and painted all of their soaps with it!" she said.

"What!" said Marlene, and the girls all guffawed.

"I think I heard Potter tell the others that the soap won't lather," she said weakly and they all laughed again. "And Pettigrew was wondering if the soap froze…!"

"That's so good!" said Mary, her eyes were watering.

"So simple, yet so effective," said Alice.

"The pranksters were pranked!" yelled Marlene triumphantly.

Remus came back into the dorm, still chuckling. "Morning, James. Sirius," he said, smiling at them.

"Morning…" said Sirius.

"You're in a chipper mood, Moony," said James.

"I met a werewolf at the party."

"Did you?" asked James.

Remus told him all about Nyctimus, the Greek pianist. "And he calls us Lycans, which is way cooler than the word werewolf."

"See, I told you life isn't going to be that bad," he said, smiling.

"Yeah, yeah Mr. Optimist, you were right," said Remus, grinning back. James chuckled. "But more importantly, we got drunk last night," he continued. "In Slughorn's office, would you believe? Slughorn looks more rotund in pyjamas."

They chuckled.

"Well, his work robes are usually black, and as you know, black is slimming," said Sirius.

"It is, it is," said Remus, nodding.

"Well, I'm off for a shower," said Peter, gathering up his towel and clothes.

"No, Pete, I was going to go!" said Sirius loudly and tried to pull Peter back. And when that didn't work, he tried to push him out of the way, and they both tried to get into the bathroom, struggling at the doorway.

"You always do this!" said Peter, grunting.

"You always want to go when it's my turn!"

"You two know there are two cubicles, right?" said James. "One for each of you."

"Don't be ridiculous, Prongs, no one's using that second one, the shower's never warm enough," said Peter. That shower malfunctioned ever since a stray charm had hit it, way back in their third year. Peter gave Sirius a particularly strong push and slipped into the bathroom. Then he ran all the way to the cubicle, giggling.

"Oh, whatever," said Sirius, and turned around. He and Remus looked at each other for a moment and looked away again. The mood was similarly awkward throughout the morning and through lunch too. As long as the banter was flowing, it was alright. But the silence was unbearable. It screamed of betrayal and confusion. But also of friendship.

At dinner, James randomly decided he wanted to sit beside Peter. Remus reluctantly took his seat beside Sirius, careful not to touch any part of him. But halfway through, some of James' teammates came and squeezed in next to them to discuss training schedules, and Remus and Sirius were pushed together.

Remus tried to ignore it and continued to eat his dinner.

After finalising the trainings for the next week, Branimir Hristov, one of the beaters, stood up to leave. Then he suddenly clapped on Sirius' shoulder and said, "So Black, you and Wallace, huh? Excellent, excellent!"

Everyone laughed, and Sirius gave them a fake grin so they would leave. After they left, Remus slowly moved away from him.

"Wallace?" asked James blankly.

Sirius didn't respond. He thought he could hear a strange ringing in his ear.

"Padfoot, I'm talking to you. What was that about Wallace? Did he mean Amanda Wallace?"

"Amanda?" Peter asked. "You and Amanda hit it off last night, then?".

James was furious, and both Sirius and Remus wouldn't lift their eyes off their plates. "It was a mistake. I think I was too drunk. I don't know how it happened," Sirius finally mumbled.

James looked at Remus, but Remus' face revealed nothing. James didn't push it, but when they went back to their table in the Common room, he asked Sirius to help him look for his Defence essay, and Sirius followed him up to the dorm.

"What the hell happened at the party, Sirius? You are going to tell me everything," James asked, slamming the dorm door shut.

"It was a complete dog's dinner. I honestly don't know what happened, I-"

"You said at dinner that you were drunk. How drunk were you, exactly? You were supposed to be helping Dorcas! You weren't supposed to get drunk at all!"

"I know, I know! I didn't even drink that much. I don't understand it!"

"Did you drink firewhiskey again? You know it doesn't suit you."

"No! Only wine."

"Fine, only wine. Then what happened?"

"I don't know what happened, James. Or how it happened. But I... at one point I was snogging Amanda."

There was a silence, as James scratched his neck. "Do you mean she forced herself on you?"

"No. I was kissing her too."

"You're joking, right? What the bloody hell do you mean by that? You don't even like girls!" Sirius looked miserable. "Or do you like girls now?" James asked.

"I don't."

"Are you sure? You snogged a girl, a person of the female sex," said James, shoving him. Sirius didn't even resist, he didn't even move away. James put his hands on his hips and took some deep breaths. He looked down at his feet as he spoke again. "What's the matter with you, mate? Why do you want to throw away the best thing that ever happened to you?"

"I don't want to throw it away! I don't know-"

"Yes, you said that a hundred times already. You don't know what happened. Does Moony know?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Maybe that's why they decided to get wasted."

"Evans is such a good friend-"

"Just shut up, Sirius."

"These girls will be the death of me."

"There's another girl you need to know about," said James slowly.

"Oh no, who is it? My mother?" asked Sirius, laughing like an idiot. "Don't tell me she already knows I snogged a mu- a muggleborn."

"What? No," said James, frowning. "Were you just about to say the m-word?!"

"No!" said Sirius hurriedly.

"Don't lie."

"My family uses the word often-"

"That's no excuse!"

"I was only using it in relation to my mother, I would never use it on my own!"

James frowned again. "So you're not allowed to date muggleborns?"

"Are you kidding me, James?" asked Sirius incredulously. "No! You know enough about my family to know the answer to that question."

"But it's your choice!"

Sirius just laughed humourlessly at that.

From this conversation, James gathered that Sirius' family probably had people spying on him. "Anyway," he said. "You know, last night, when Moony and Evans came back to the dorm completely sloshed, I overheard them talking. Remus mentioned something about a... girlfriend back in the village," he said, anxiously awaiting Sirius' reaction.

"Girlfriend?" asked Sirius blankly.

"Yeah, he was thanking Evans for something, I can't remember what," replied James, still anxious.

"Moony has a girlfriend?" asked Sirius again, his eyes wide. "But why did he hide it?!"

"What are you angry at me for? I'm just telling you what I overheard! And I'm not even sure," James said.

"Huh. Just because I don't have any friends back home, I think no one has. I still wish he'd told us though. What's there to be ashamed of, I wonder," said Sirius, sounding oddly casual. His brain was sluggish again, he felt like he needed to dig up his emotions from the ground again. He has a girlfriend. That's why he didn't ask Dorcas out. But then why did he...
Sirius sat down on James' bed. Oh, what a fool I was. How am I supposed to act now? Should I be angry? But he never said anything. Am I supposed to be the good friend and support his relationship and be happy for him?
His mind didn't seem to be able to tell him how to react to the news. The sound of thunder outside felt soothing, and Sirius closed his eyes.

"Padfoot…"

Sirius scoffed. "Well, I'm glad I didn't do anything, that would've been awkward," said Sirius, without opening his eyes.

"I still think he fancies you," James told him.

"Yeah, well I'm not a home wrecker."

"They're not a married couple! He spends more time with you than with her."

"All the more reason to be just friends."

"You're not particularly good at that."

"At what?"

"Being just-friends with Remus Lupin."

Sirius sighed and opened his eyes.

"We'll ask him before he leaves." James told him.

"What! He's going home for the holidays?!"

"We all are. You're coming to mine, its decided."

"Yeah, he probably wants to catch up with his girlfriend... Are you sure I can come to yours?"

"Yes, Sirius. It'll be fun."

"Okay then."

The last two days of term had the common room abuzz with excited conversations about presents, parties and plans for trips. The Marauders were chilling in the Common room, enjoying the festive atmosphere.

"What are your plans, Peter? Any chance you'll come to my house for New Year's at least? There's going to be a big party at the Estate, you know," James asked him.

"Think Wormy. All that extravagant food and drink... mmm…" said Sirius, rubbing his belly. Remus and James chuckled.

"I'll try," Peter told them, grinning. "We're supposed to be going to Ireland, to visit my mum's cousins. The estranged Nortons," he said, raising his eyebrows.

"Should be interesting. Don't forget to write to us and tell us all about the family drama," said Remus, grinning.

"Sure, Moony. You write to us too, and tell us about your escapades," Peter told him, wiggling his eyebrows.

Remus made a funny face. "What escapades? My house is getting renovated, and I have no idea why my mum decided to hire muggle interior designer. It's is going to be super-boring and tedious. And then mum's signed me up to volunteer at a Muggle old-age home," Remus told them.

"Oh, you know what I meant. Your Luuuurve-escapades," said Peter. Remus was confused now, he looked at the other two, they awkwardly half-smiled, pursing their lips identically.

"What?" he asked them.

"We know about your girlfriend, Moony," Peter told him.

"I have a girlfriend now?" asked Remus.

"The girlfriend who lives in your village," James added.

Remus exhaled slowly and pressed the bridge of his nose. Then he blinked at all of them from under his hand. "Congratulations, lads, you take the biscuit this time. That was a false trail that Lily laid for Charlotte Briggs and her friends at Slughorn's party, so they wouldn't try and eat me," he told them, with an extremely exasperated expression.

The Marauders looked extremely sheepish, and he burst out laughing at their expressions. Just then, Lily arrived, and she looked delighted to see him laughing. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Oh, Lily!" he said, leaning on her shoulder to support himself. "Remember the fib you told Briggs and her friends? These idiots thought it was true!" he said, and she started laughing too. It took almost ten minutes for the two of them to sober up. The Marauders tried to keep their poker faces up, but failed miserably. It was so silly.

"Big plans for Christmas, Evans?" James asked her.

"Yes, but nothing I'll be telling you about," she answered coolly. "Oh, by the way, since I took your shift last time, it's your turn tonight," she told Remus and he nodded.

"Wait, you have rounds?" asked Sirius, in dismay.

"Come on, Moony!" whined James.

"Evans, you did this on purpose!" Peter accused her, and she nodded.

"I did, actually. And Remus agreed," she told them bossily.

Remus just smiled. "Who am I with?" he asked her.

"Head boy," she replied.

"Oh, fuck Diggory!" said Sirius, angrily.

"I'd rather fuck-" Remus stopped himself in time. "...not… I'd rather not," he finished.

Lily looked up at him with the most evil smirk on her face, like she knew exactly what he'd been about to say. "What's your problem with Diggory, Black?" she asked, cleverly covering for him.

Remus sighed in relief. The boys had noticed nothing.

"He thinks I'm a blood purist! He basically accused me of being a Death eater!" he said indignantly.

"What!" Lily and Remus exclaimed at the same time.

"It's true, you can ask Jones if you want!" he said.

"When did he say that?!" asked Remus angrily.

"That day when you... got that fever," replied Sirius, and he knew Remus was also remembering that moment in the tunnel.

"That is not on, he knows you helped Dorcas catch an actual death eater!" said Remus after a few moments, lowering his voice to a whisper.

"Well, this was before the party, right? … but I still hate him!" said Sirius, folding his hands.

"An unlicked cub, if there ever was one," said Remus, making Sirius chortle.

"Also, he hates me because I was Dorcas' date to the party," Sirius added, shrugging.

Lily laughed. "Oh yeah, he always manages to make things awkward when she's around, it's so cringe," she exclaimed, and James blushed at her unintentional implication.

"Okay, I guess I have to go now, I'll be back at midnight," said Remus and turned around to leave.

"Yeah, I'll see you later, Remus," said Lily and awkwardly slid away.

"Wait, you don't hate us, do you?" asked Sirius hurriedly moving closer to Remus.

"What? Why would I hate you guys?" he asked, looking puzzled.

"For assuming you had a secret girlfriend," said James.

"Oh... well, look," Remus began, removing Sirius' hand from his elbow. "That one time, you thought I was dating Lily, and now, this. I do wish you guys would trust me. But I can understand, I've kept a lot of secrets over the years," he said, nodding at them.

"Are there any other secrets you're keeping from us?" asked James.

"Even if I was, I wouldn't be likely to tell you now, would I?" he replied, grinning.