Saturday 2nd November 1974

Fourth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 19:00

"No, see, the wand movement is this," James was trying to explain to Peter, wand aloft.

See, Peter was a bit confused over why his Transfiguration was going wrong. He hadn't been able to get it in class and he wasn't getting it out of class either. The frustrating thing was that he was nearly right, which meant that he was doing something small wrong. So small that he couldn't see what it was.

Hence, the demonstration by James. Which, unfortunately, wasn't helping him.

"I can't see it," Peter complained.

That was the exact same wand movement he had been doing! So why wasn't it going right?

"You're going too fast," Sirius remonstrated, standing up from his bed. "You can't see the subtle flick at the end of the downward sweep."

"There's a flick?"

Why hadn't anyone mentioned a flick? He hadn't been doing a flick!

James gave him an encouraging look. "You nearly had it. You pull up instead of flicking up."

Peter looked down at his wand. "Oh."

"Look, I'll show you," said Sirius, pulling his wand out.

"You've got a wand holster?" James asked in amazement.

Sirius looked down at his hip were there was a piece of leather none of them had noticed before and nodded.

"Yeah, my father got me one over the summer. Deemed me old enough."

"Lucky!"

"I'm surprised you don't have one."

"Dad says when I hit my magical maturity, I can have one."

That was at least another two years away. Maybe one, depending on his magic. Peter doubted that James would be able to wait that long.

"Do the stars mean anything?" Remus asked, bending over to peer at the leather.

Sirius unhooked it from his belt and held it up so they could all see it better. The leather was all glossy looking.

"It's Canis Major," Sirius replied. "Squeezed in, of course. It's-"

"-the constellation with Sirius in it," James finished.

Peter gave him a look of amazement. How did he know that? Sirius echoed his thoughts.

"Knowing constellations isn't just a Black Family thing," James said defensively.

"But how do you know the stars in it?" Peter asked.

He could identify a few constellations as well, Orion, the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia were all very easy to spot. But there was no way he could tell you individual star names. Sirius was a star, right?

"We all take Astronomy, Peter."

He blinked at James. Oh yeah. That was a subject he should probably be paying more attention in.

James' attention went back to Sirius.

"It's really cool looking."

"Didn't think you'd like something so bright," Remus commented, nodding at the leather. "I would have thought you would have gone for a dark brown."

"It gets darker as it ages and how much you polish it," Sirius explained. "I have to do that every night."

That sounded like an awful lot of work for something so small.

"They're expensive, aren't they?" Peter asked with a touch of envy in his tone.

He'd never seen them in the shops he had gone into, only in the windows of the more high-end shops. The ones where you looked longingly at the displays instead of going into the shop. Peter was sure those types of shops had wards preventing you from going in if you didn't have a certain amount of money.

Sirius shrugged. "Don't know. My father paid for it. But this," he indicated to his holster, "is custom made with some extra decorative work and protection charms woven in. Standard, off the shelf, ones would be cheaper."

Must be nice to have that much money. Even the standard ones were way out of his price range. Not that he'd ever get one, probably. His dad said they were a waste. That's what pockets were for.

It was still really cool looking though.

Sirius then realised that they were all staring at him and blushed, pulling his robes closed so that his holster was covered again. He coughed.

"What about this wand movement then?"

Wednesday 6th November 1974

Library, 19:30

Lily rubbed at her eyes as the words on the page in front of her blurred. She didn't think she had taken anything in for the past twenty minutes.

This year was definitely a step up from last year. There was no question about it. No longer were they learning the basics and doing multiple iterations of the same but slightly different each time thing. Now they were expected to apply that knowledge and figure things out for themselves. It was awful. Especially since she found herself spending a lot more of her free time studying.

As she stretched her arms, she looked around her only to see the bowed heads of her friends. They were in various stages of studying as well. Marlene was glaring at her Charms textbook and Beth had her Transfiguration textbook upside down - neither thing was a good sign.

Oh, she really needed a break but this essay also needed to be done. She did not want to get into the habit of leaving it until the night before. That was a slippery slope that Lily refused to go down. She wasn't Potter, after all.

"Did you ever figure out who left you that Valentine's card last year?" Beth asked suddenly, looking up from her work.

"Technically, it was this year," Lily corrected. "And what brought this on?"

Beth blushed and quickly looked down at the table.

"She had a crush on Black," Marlene said in a bored tone.

"Really?"

"No!" Beth blurted out but her face just got redder, saying otherwise.

"No way!"

Beth? A crush on Black of all people? Why?

"I don't!"

"You spend all your time staring at him in the Common Room," Marlene informed her.

"No, I don't!"

"Hearts in your eyes and everything."

Beth threw Lily's first attempt at a Herbology essay at Marlene. The scrunched-up bit of parchment hit her in the head.

"Shut up!"

Lily shook her head at the two of them.

"You're going to get us thrown out," she scolded in a whisper- not stupid enough to risk the wrath of Madam Pince.

"Then make her shut up!"

Lily looked at Marlene before rolling her eyes again. "You know that's impossible."

Marlene blew a triumphant raspberry. It was a very wet one, Lily observed in disgust, leaning away from her.

"Wait, how do you know I got a Valentine?" Lily asked suspiciously. "I didn't tell anyone."

"Except for Marlene," Beth pointed out.

"I didn't blab!" Marlene said defensively as Lily turned to glare at her.

"You did, however, go and interrogate every single boy you could. It didn't take a Ravenclaw to figure out why."

"Marlene!" Lily said, all embarrassed.

"Hey, it was important to find out."

"No, it wasn't."

"Was."

"Not!"

"Was!"

"Not!"

"I can't believe that you were the first of us to get a Valentine and you don't even want to find out who it was from," Marlene complained.

"Jealous?" Beth jibed, trying to get her own back.

Lily snorted at the suggestion.

"She's not jealous. She's being nosey."

"I'm not nosey! It's important to know!"

"So, it's not. Tell her, Beth."

Both girls turned to look at their rather tall friend. Looking thoughtful, Beth didn't answer straight away.

"I don't know, Lily," she said thoughtfully.

Lily groaned. "Not you too!"

"Aren't you the littlest bit curious?"

"No."

"It's unnatural!" Marlene declared. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Finding out my Valentine is not an adventure."

"Not the way you're looking at it, it's not."

Friday 8th November 1974

Great Hall, 08:15

Remus had finally eaten enough breakfast to satisfy James (who he swore had been talking to his mother) which meant be could now ignore everyone around him in favour of his book. It was a very good book and was just begging to be read. So that's what he was doing.

It made the normal breakfast noises slip away as he submerged himself in his characters' world.

"I hate him," James announced after several minutes.

"Who do you hate?" Remus asked disinterestedly, flipping through the pages of another one of his books.

First one turned out to be not that interesting after all so it had been banished to the depths of his bag and this one yanked from it.

"Him."

Still not looking up from his book, Remus said, "You're going to have to give me more than that."

A frustrated noise came from James and he pulled the book out of his hands.

"Hey!"

That was the copy of The Pickwick Papers that Sirius got him!

"Him!" James hissed, pointing across the Hall.

Rolling his eyes, Remus followed his finger and raised an eyebrow.

"Snape? You hate Snape? I mean I know Sirius dislikes him and you aren't fond of him but hate really is a strong word."

"Well, I hate him."

Now James just sounded like a toddler. Pouty bottom lip and everything. Remus almost laughed but held himself back as he noticed that James was frowning.

"You don't really."

"Don't tell me how I'm feeling."

Remus sighed. Great. Now James was annoyed. At least he wasn't Sirius because that would be worse - Sirius sulked when he was annoyed (though he always denied it).

"Why do you hate him?" he asked in a long-suffering tone.

James just made another huffing noise and didn't answer. Well, if he wanted to be like that then, Remus was going to get back to his book. At least it wasn't annoying. Like how James' quiet seething was. If he wasn't going to use his word, Remus was not going to humour. Like you would treat a small child.

Thankfully, it was against James' nature to stay quiet for long and Remus soon got his explanation for his friend's odd behaviour.

"Look at him. Talking so easily to Evans and laughing with her."

"You do realise that she and Snape have been friends since before Hogwarts, right?" Remus asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, well, I mean..." James blustered.

"So, of course they can talk to each other."

"But it's just not fair!"

James really was being ridiculous, what was new there? But this crushes he had on Evans had him acting even more so.

"You could just go up there and talk to her," Remus pointed out.

That's what normal people did, after all. Though that suggestion made James look at him like he'd grown another head.

"I can't do that," James said. "I have nothing to say."

"Most people just say hi."

"It needs to be interesting. What do you think Snape talks to her about?"

"He's always asking the Defence Professor about curses and everything," Sirius grumbled, angrily stabbing a potato. "Thinks he knows so much about them."

"Pretty sure he actually does know a lot about them," Remus commented.

He certainly discussed them enough in class. Always in conjunction with their counter-spells, of course. The Professor was actually happy to talk about them this year because that's what the fourth-year curriculum was all about.

"Only the theory," Sirius scoffed. "He's never seen them in practice. What they can do."

"And you have?"

Pointedly, Sirius didn't answer but a dark look came over his face. Not for the first time, Remus wondered what went on behind the closed doors of the Black House.

Tuesday 12th November 1974

Library, 18:00

Frank shook his head as he saw Kingsley's completed essay sitting on top of his pile of textbooks. It was unfair that Kingsley could write one so quickly and easily without even trying. He could so easily get his homework out of the way quickly but he rarely did - instead leaving it to the last minute (if he did it at all) in favour of some obscure or extremely random piece of knowledge. Knowledge that was almost certainly not useful to anybody.

It was easy to forget that Kingsley was intelligent and quick thinking despite those traits being the hallmark of a Ravenclaw. He was just so spacey and random most of the time.

Frank, on the other hand, actually had to work to get most of his good grades. And work hard too. Not that working hard seemed to help him understand any of this.

"Need a hand?" Kingsley offered, interrupting his increasingly depressing thoughts.

And that was even worse! There was no smugness or badness about Kingsley, he was always willing to help.

Frank shook his head. "No thank you."

Kingsley definitely wasn't the best person to explain things to you. He either didn't know something or went into far, far, far too much confusing detail. There was no in between.

Kingsley shrugged. "Ok. I'm here if you need me."

Frank gave him a smile and nodded. Now, that was something Kingsley was consistent about. Being there.

Now, if only being in close proximity to him would transfer some of that Ravenclaw knowledge to his head. No, Frank shook his head. Bad idea. Knowing his luck, he would just get all the exact measurements of the Ravenclaw Common Room (though Kingsley never did explain why be needed to know that).

Saturday 16th November 1974

Entrance Hall, 16:00

Severus seethed inwardly as he watched Potter stand and chatting happily in the middle of the small crowd with his friends. They were all looking at him so admirably, so slavishly. It was just ridiculous.

So, what that he'd scored the winning goal for Gryffindor (and several others besides)? Who cares that he and his little friends managed to spell everyone's skin red and gold in celebration? Severus glared at his garish striped hand. Such a stupid prank. Not everyone wanted to support Gryffindor. Though, apparently his admiring crowd did. Idiots. It wasn't even that funny. Annoying. Annoying is what it was.

"Does he have to be so obnoxious?" Severus asked out loud.

"Who?" Lily replied.

Severus sighed. Surely it was obvious who he was talking about?

"Potter," he said, jerking his head towards the boy in question.

"Oh, him," she said unenthusiastically.

"Yes, him."

Didn't she see how annoying he was being, blocking everyone's way like that? Really? He had to hold his stupid little court here?

"Just ignore him," she said dismissively.

"Why does he have to block the way?"

"Technically, the other students are. As big as Potter's head is, it can't actually block the corridor."

Severus almost chuckled at that. It was a funny image. But no, he wasn't going to be amused at any part of this.

"Well, he could think of others for once and move. I'm sure his little sheep would follow him."

Because that's what they were. Sheep. Stupid ones at that. Being good at Quidditch was definitely not worth that amount of admiration. It wasn't like it was difficult. Severus conveniently ignored the fact that he was only comfortable flying at a steady speed and increasing that speed at all was not a good thing for him.

Lily just shrugged again. "We can get past.

"That's not the point," Severus grumbled. "The point is that it's stupid that people block the corridor because they are worshipping someone over Quidditch."

"They aren't really worshipping him and he did score the highest," Lily said with a shrug.

Severus glared at her. "Don't tell me you've joined his little fan club too."

She snorted and tossed her hair over one shoulder. "Hardly. But you can't argue with facts. He is Gryffindor's best Chaser this year."

He just made an annoyed noise. Being good at sports wasn't a good reason for people to act like idiots around Potter. Twittering like some sort of overgrown bird with stupid grins on their faces. Did they even know how stupid they all looked? Like they didn't have a brain between them. All this over sports. It was ridiculous.

"Come on," Lily said, tugging him on the arm. "Just ignore him."

"Kind of hard when he's taking up the whole corridor."

That came out in an extremely snarky tone. He had meant it to. Lily didn't look too impressed by it and sighed.

"Just come on," she coaxed, striding forwards.

He followed but reluctantly as it made them walk right past Potter.

"What did you think of the game, Evans?" came the call.

"The team did well!" she retorted.

"Me especially, huh?"

"It was obviously a team effort," she shot back with a grin.

The pout on Potter's face almost made it worth it walking past him.

Monday 18th November 1974

Hufflepuff Common Room, 20:00

"Oh, he's never going to notice me."

"Oh, he will. He's just a boy." came a simpering reply.

"Takes time," another voice agreed. "They aren't as mature as girls, you know."

Tonks couldn't help but snort at the ridiculousness of the entire conversation. Boys, boys, boys. That's all she heard her dorm mates talk about these days. It was like a switch had been flipped as soon as they became teenagers. Tonks didn't understand it. First boys were gross and silly and now they were still silly but also something to giggle over? See? It didn't make any sense.

"Have you got something to add, Tonks?" Cornelia Wallace asked her, hands on her hips and eyebrow raised.

Tonks raised her hands defensively. "No, nothing to add."

Which just made Cornelia narrow her eyes at her. Not that Tonks had made any effort into making her voice sound sincere. Hey, Professor Sprout said that she had the makings of a model student if her mouth didn't run off so much. Hey, she was part Black. Sarcasm was in her blood practically.

"Oh no, please share with everyone."

Okay, she did not appreciate the sarcasm in return. Tonks frowned at her. What did she want from her? An honest answer? Because Tonks would give it to her.

"Why do you care what a boy thinks of you?" she asked bluntly, folding her arms.

Cornelia sighed and rolled her eyes at Martha, her best friend (currently anyway - that was also something that constantly changed since becoming a teenager). Who made a tutting noise in response. Apparently, all of this was meant to mean something but Merlin knows what - Tonks certainly didn't know.

"Oh, honestly, Tonks, do I really have to spell it out?"

"In English, if possible," Tonks requested in a snarky tone.

"Don't you want to go out with a boy?" Cornelia answered with a question.

"He needs to like you to ask you out," Martha added.

"Cornelia is worried he won't, you see, Annabelle added cheerfully, having stayed quiet up to now.

"Shut up, Annabelle Smith!" Cornelia shrieked.

Tonks frowned again. "What boy do you like?"

"No one," Cornelia said firmly.

Annabelle gave her a confused look. "It thought you said-?"

"It's none of her business!"

Looking between the two of them, Tonks shook her head and decided she really didn't want to know.

"Why don't you just ask him?" Tonks asked.

That got her an insulted look in response.

"Girls don't ask boys out," Martha informed her.

"Why not? It's the seventies."

Women were doing more than ever before, as mum and dad always told her proudly. They were in politics, science and Merlin knows what else. It was great!

"They just don't."

Okay, okay. There was no arguing with that tone, was there?

"Okay then," she replied disinterestedly, kind of sorry she even asked now.

"It's okay for you, Tonks," Cornelia sneered. "You can turn into whatever you want. The rest of us actually have to try."

Tonks recoiled at that remark, it was said with such venom.

"What do you mean?" she demanded, that didn't make any sense at all.

It was making her annoyed. Even a bit angry. She could see the tips of her hair turn red in response.

"That! I'm talking about that!" Cornelia explained, pointing right at Tonks' face.

"What about my face?"

It was one thing being snarky with her but Cornelia didn't need to be insulting as well.

"Not your face, your hair!"

"My hair?"

"You can change it?"

Tonks gave her a confused look. "Yes. That's what being a Metamorphmagus means."

She thought everyone in Hogwarts knew that by now except maybe some of the first years.

"Grah!"

Tonks thought that Cornelia was a tiny bit annoyed with her. The noise of frustration gave it away, as well as the fact that she threw her hands up in the air as she was making it.

"It means it would be easier for a boy to like you," Annabelle explained, always the calmer of the three. "You could just get rid of whatever he liked."

That still didn't make a lot of sense to her. She looked down at herself and frowned. Why would she change herself for a boy?

Thursday 21st November 1974

Fourth Floor Corridor, 17:00

Alice hummed happily as she made her way down to dinner. It wasn't often she did that as she left the Library but she had had a very productive time there this afternoon. She actually got all her Transfiguration homework done on the first try. Unheard of for her in recent years but something had just clicked today, which was very satisfying.

So, she was now very ready for dinner. And maybe two servings of desert. Alice felt like she had earned it today.

"Hi, Alice," Frank greeted, walking towards her.

"Hello, Frank," she returned. "Not going to dinner?"

She was proud that she didn't blush or stutter at all there. She was getting much better at talking to him.

"I am," he reassured her. "I was looking for you, actually."

"For me?"

He suddenly looked very shy and rubbed the back of his head. A nervous habit of his that she found really cute.

"Uh, yeah, I just wanted to ask if you wanted to sit with me at dinner?"

Alice was pretty sure her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. Would she ever?

"Oh, yes please," she answered quickly, not needing to give it any thought.

"Really?"

"Sounds fun," she gave him a shy smile.

They both stared a bit awkwardly at each other, not knowing what to do next. They were getting better at that too.

Frank coughed and then offered her his arm.

"Allow me," he said formally.

"As you wish, kind sir," she giggled, linking her arm with his.

Monday 25th November 1974

Dungeons, 08:45

He heard them before he saw them. The Gryffindors that was. They had Potions this morning. Not exactly hard to tell considering the sheer amount of noise they made. Why was it Gryffindors that made so much noise? It wasn't like other Houses didn't make noise but they didn't make enough noise for all the other Houses combined like the Gryffindors did.

Regulus' eyes narrowed as he realised just what Gryffindors it was. It was the fourth years. He should have known. Only his brother and his friends were capable of producing that much volume. Didn't they know that they were outside a classroom? Just because there wasn't currently a class in there did not give them a reason to act like hooligans. Honestly. It was completely inappropriate, not to mention disrespectful. It was like they didn't care at all. Which they probably didn't, to be honest. Gryffindors rarely did from the looks of things. He knew Sirius didn't. He seemed to thrive on being disrespectful. Always did. It had gotten worse since he had come to Hogwarts. That's what being a Gryffindor apparently did to you. Made you speak out more with no care for subtleties. Idiotic is what that was. Just like his fooling around right now.

Avery and Carrow were watching him carefully but they weren't going to see anything. Not from him anyway. Imperceptibly, Regulus straightened his back and refused to look anywhere but forwards. There was nothing here worth grabbing his attention anyway.

Friday 29th November 1974

Fourth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 11:50

Peter lay staring up at the lush red curtains of his bed. The whole dorm was silent, as it would be when it was basically midnight. Well, silence was the wrong word as Sirius was snoring and James was mumbling in his sleep. But no one was talking or shouting or moving about the place so it was basically silent. Which was a bit odd and sort of a bit unnerving but he had other things to focus on.

He looked over at his alarm clock and he could just make out its face in the moonlight. It wasn't quite midnight yet. Just thirty more seconds. Twenty-five. Twenty-four...

Okay, this was a bit silly. It wasn't like something was magically going to change just because the clock struck midnight. Actually, he couldn't even be sure if it was midnight that was the end or when the moon set. They never did quite figure that out. So, Peter was not going to tempt fate and spit it out at midnight. He'd wait until the sun rose.

Ten, nine, eight...

It was still kind of exciting, though. All this leaf holding was finally coming to an end.

Four, three, two, one! Midnight! Peter grinned to himself and poked the mandrake leaf in his mouth with his tongue. Yep, it was still there. Surprisingly, not dissolved into a sticky, sludgy mess. It definitely didn't taste too good. But he had done it! He was basically there! All he had to do was sleep until the morning and he wouldn't be behind James and Sirius anymore. He could wait eagerly for a thunderstorm just like them.

With that last pleasant thought, Peter settled back down in his bed and fell asleep.

Saturday 30th November 1974

Fourth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 07:45

Sirius woke up already annoyed as the sun fell right across his face. Definitely not the most pleasant way to be torn from the land of dreams.

"Urgh," he grumbled, rolling over so his face was buried in his pillow.

Who had left the curtains open last night?

"Good morning everyone!"

Okay, that got Sirius sitting upright, glaring blearily across the dorm. That did not sound like James, the usual culprit for stupidly early morning nonsense. It sounded like-

"Beautiful day, isn't it?" Peter asked, suddenly coming into his view with an uncharacteristic beaming smile on his face.

"Peter?"

Obviously, it was him as Sirius could see him right there but his brain was still waking up and that's all he could manage.

"Good Morning, Sirius," his short friend said in reply.

Was he still beaming? How one earth was Peter smiling so widely first thing in the morning. Had he been hit by a cheering charm or something? That had been making its rounds around the school this term. Which was hilarious but no fun for whoever got hit by hit. It turns out, smiling too much really did hurt your cheeks.

"Are you okay?"

"I am absolutely perfect. Perfectly perfect actually."

Sirius gave him a long look and debated about prying further. The dreamy smile on Peter's face was freaking him out a bit. Maybe he should just pull the covers over his head and try to go back to sleep. It was too early after all.

And now Peter was cheerfully humming as he started getting himself ready for the day because of course he was. Sirius groaned loudly and flung himself back on his pillows.

"Wha-What's going on?" James asked through a yawn, finally waking up.

"Something's wrong with Peter."

That got him a pillow in the face.

"Nothing's wrong with me. Actually, everything is very, very right!"

"Oh?"

Peter took the opportunity to stuck his tongue out and grin even wider.

"I did it!" he proclaimed in a slightly slurred voice around his tongue.