The snow fell softly on the grounds of the castle as Sirius opened and closed the Marauder's Map in boredom. Beside him, Remus was scrawling out a Defense Against the Dark Arts essay.

"I'm bored," Sirius said.

Remus looked up. "You could finish your assignment."

"That's just more boring."

Remus rolled his eyes. "What's James up to?"

"Trying to help Peter get a date for Valentine's Day."

"Does he think that's likely to work? How many girls are going to go on a first date on Valentine's Day?"

Sirius shrugged. "Peter's optimistic."

"Well, he did have the longest relationship out of any of us."

"True, but a month and a half still isn't that long, and I choose not to be in long relationships because-"

"Because you have commitment issues," said Remus.

Sirius opened his mouth to argue, but then shut it. "You're one to talk."

"You know why I don't do relationships."

"Yes." Sirius changed the subject. "James could have had almost any girl in the school."

"But he only wants one."

"Do you think she'll go for him?"

"Maybe. He's finally started to cool his head down a bit. That's a good start. And she's single too, even though she could probably get a good number of people to go out with her. I think she likes him."

"Must be nice," Sirius said. He wished somebody liked him. The girls would look at him, sure, and they would want to go on dates with him, but they only ever wanted him for his looks, and the attitude he gave off, like he didn't care about anything. But the truth was he did care about things, and he wanted girls to like him for who he really was, the way his friends did. He never really voiced those thoughts, and he knew what Remus would say if he did; that he should stop pretending not to care about things, then, and show who he really was more openly. The problem was, he couldn't do that, not really. Too many years of being forced to hide the way he felt about things from his parents and family, being told to remain silent. He thought again, as he had for months, about his decision to leave his parents' house; with each passing day he grew more sure it had been the correct thing to do.

"You alright?" Remus asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Oh. Fine."

As Sirius walked down the hallway and passed Regulus, he averted his eyes. He had tried to avoid him all year; now that they didn't live together anymore, they barely even qualified as brothers. He had given up hope of turning Regulus way from their parents' ways; if something was going to change Regulus's mind, it wasn't going to be Sirius. While trying to avert his eyes, he accidentally ran straight into Lily, making her drop her book.

"Sorry!" he said, bending down to pick it up.

She took the book back from him. "Thanks. Try and watch where you're going, would you?"

"Sorry," he said again. He found his eyes instinctively looking back at Regulus, now down the hallway a ways.

Lily followed his gaze. "That's your brother, isn't it?"

Sirius nodded.

"Complicated?" she asked, and he looked at her and frowned. How would she know?

"You could say that."

She nodded. "Siblings often are, aren't they? My sister and I hardly talk anymore."

"Your sister's a-a Muggle, right?"

"Yes. And she thinks I'm some sort of freak."

"Regulus probably thinks I'm a freak too," said Sirius. "Being a Gryffindor and all."

"Nothing wrong with being the odd one out," said Lily. "If other people can't see that, that's their problem."

He grinned slightly at that. "Well, got to get to class. See you around."

"You too."