Monday 1st December 1975

Gryffindor Common Room, 20:00

All the girls were fawning over Black. Which, unfortunately, wasn't a new thing in recent years. Everyone seemed to think he was so handsome. Lily didn't see it. And all the girls were being more ridiculous than usual too. They were basically hanging off him. Urgh. It was just so stupid. Why would anyone get that ridiculous over a boy of all things? It just didn't make any sense.

"He is kind of hot," Marlene told her.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Not you too, Marlene."

She had thought more of her best friend.

"Hey, I'm not over there drooling over him," Marlene said defensively. "But even I can admit that he's hot."

"He's not really."

Her friend gave her a look of disbelief. "Really? You don't think Sirius Black is hot?"

Lily scrunched up her nose. "Not particularly.

"There's something wrong with you, Lily."

No, there was obviously something wrong with Marlene. Sirius Black? Really? With his over groomed hair and swagger? No thank you. She liked her boys a bit scruffy looking, thank you very much.

"Hey, Evans, McKinnon," Black greeted as he walked past them, apparently finished with his little simpering posse.

Though, they didn't look like they wanted to be done with him. There really was too much pouting and swooning going on over there.

"Black."

"Hey, Sirius," Marlene replied in a friendlier tone than Lily. "I like your jacket."

Black actually smiled, an honest to God smile - not a smirk, at the compliment and looked down at himself.

"You do? It's new."

"We figured," Lily couldn't help but say drily.

"Like it, Evans?" Black asked lazily.

Lily rolled her eyes at him. "You look like you've just fallen off a motorbike."

For some reason he looked inordinately pleased with that.

Thursday 4th December 1975

Gryffindor Table, Great Hall, 08:00

"And there's the post," James said needlessly as the owls soared overhead.

The Potter owl landed in front of James, a parcel attached to him as well as a letter.

The other three got their newspapers. Peter also got a letter from home that he eagerly began reading.

"Oh, dad sent toffees," James said happily. "A package for each of us."

"I still find it hilarious that you dad actually likes cooking," Sirius said with an eyeroll, though he gratefully took his share of the toffee (it even had a cute note on it from Mr Potter, honestly, the Potter were such saps sometimes). "I mean, you guys have House Elves."

"Eh," James shrugged. "They do nearly all the cooking. Dad loves to bake and make sweets. Says it's nice and precise. Like making Potions."

Still odd to Sirius but he wasn't going to complain. That might mean him getting no treats the next time they were sent out.

"Tell your dad thanks," Remus said with a smile as he opened his toffee. "Mine is coated in chocolate!"

Of course it was. And of course their resident sweet tooth was actually having toffee before he ate breakfast. Or was it for breakfast?

"Dont have chocolate before breakfast!" James scolded. "At least have a piece of toast first."

"Nope," Remus said, popping another one in his mouth. "Not when there's chocolate."

Sirius sniggered and shook his head as James tried to snatch the toffees off Remus. Why he thought he would have better reflexes than a werewolf, Sirius didn't know. All that ended up happening was that James somehow managed to send his butter knife flying across the table and -

"Potter!"

- land right on Lily Evans' robes.

"Sorry, Evans!" James called across. "I didn't mean that to happen, it just did!"

"Maybe if you stopped acting like an idiot things like that wouldn't happen,' she said with a sniff.

"Where's the fun in that?" he asked with a weird grin.

Evans rolled her eyes at him and resumed her conversation with McKinnon. Who, by the way, was looking very nice today.

"What was that?" Sirius asked, turning to him.

"What was what?"

"That weird smile on your face?"

"I wasn't doing a weird smile! And smiles are supposed to be on your face, Sirius."

"You were!" Sirius insisted. It wasn't James' normal smile at all.

"You were," Remus confirmed, finally putting his toffees away and reaching for his newspaper. "When you were talking to Lily."

James huffed and crossed his arms. "Was not."

"Were too," Sirius retorted.

"I don't need to listen to this," James said, putting his nose in the air, though there was a faint blush on his cheeks.

"Why do all of us get a newspaper?" James asked suddenly, looking down in front of them. "Surely we only need one or two between us?"

"Because you always end up losing yours, Sirius always destroys his, Peter actually reads it and I like to read it and then do the crossword. Sharing just wouldn't work," Remus replied.

"I don't always destroy mine," Sirius replied, feeling insulted.

"You do," they all chorused.

Hmpf. That wasn't fair. He did not!

"Hey, Sirius," James said, pointing to the front page of Remus' newspaper. "Look."

Sorius looked over, expecting so see yet another Dark Mark (that's what the Daily Prophet was starting to call those skull shapes those criminals were casting over houses that they'd killed people in) or maybe even the Head of the Auror Department. They were starting to get involved in this gang that was terrorising the outside world. Apparently, the Hit Wizards hadn't been doing a good enough job. But the front page contained neither of those things. In fact, it was mainly taken up by an absolutely massive heading.

'Lestrange Brothers Wanted For Questioning'

Then he had to read it again because there was no way he was reading that correctly. Nope, it definitely said the Lestrange brothers. What in Merlin's name...?

"What?" Sirius exclaimed, reaching for Remus paper but it was moved out of his reach.

"You have your own," Remus scolded.

Oh yeah, he did. It even had the same headline. He roughly opened his (tearing it slightly in his haste) and quickly scanned the article. Huh. That was something he wouldn't have guessed. Rudolphus and Rabastian Lestrange were brought in for questioning over incidents related to the recent terrorist attacks by this person named Voldemort. Huh. Weird name. Anyway, allegedly, they had been up to 'suspicious activities', not that those were specified and brought in by the Aurors. There was even a quote from Bellatrix about "how much of a disgrace the Ministry were for daring to do such a thing". Brilliant.

"Didn't your cousin marry a Lestrange?" James asked.

"Yes." Sirius replied shortly. "Bellatrix married the eldest."

He would really rather not think of the man. Or his cousin for that matter. Or anyone related to his family.

"Rudolphus?" Peter asked, checking the newspaper again.

"Yep."

Oh, the very thought of that man made him angry. Bellatrix was bad enough by herself but with him she was impossible. And even more cruel if that was possible. Like he said, he'd rather not talk about it. Though it lookednlike the Ministry felt like they had to talk about it. Or the Auror Department anyway. Ou, that was not going to go over well with some of the older families. The darker families. They would just see the Aurors as a bunch of upstarts who didn't know their place.

Surely it was all an exaggeration anyway? Rudolphus and Rabastian were mean and cunning but surely they weren't stupid as well? They wouldn't get tangled up in the likes of this, would they? That was just silly. Stupid even. And wrong. These people hurt people. It didn't matter if they were muggles, they were still people.

"And what did I say about you destroying your newspaper?" Remus asked pointedly.

Sirius looked down at his hands only to see that his newspaper had ripped from him clenching it so hard. Oh. He hadn't realised he had done that. He unbleached his hands and watched bits of paper float onto the table. Whoops.

Up and down the table, the Lestranges were the only thing people were talking about. Of course they were. They were the heir and spare of a prominent family. Who wouldn't be talking about that?

"Can you believe it?"

"Such an important family..."

"... you think they did it?"

"The Ministry is being moronic again, honestly."

"That family was always a bit weird."

"Rudolphus sounds like the reindeer name," he heard Evans say. "You know, Rudolph."

"I have no clue what you're talking about," McKinnon replied, shaking her head.

You and me both, Sirius thought. Reindeer name? Reindeer had names?

"You know, the Christmas song?" Evans tried.

"There's no song about reindeer."

Evans frowned. "Must be just a Muggle one then."

Huh. Muggles really were odd.

Saturday 6th December 1975

Fifth Floor Corridor, 15:30

Peter slipped away to check his trap. The salesperson was right, it was pretty easy to set up. He had even gone a step further and placed it in a dusty area so he could see if there were actually rats about.

The first few days he had had to move it about, trying to find where they went. Then there were just rat footprints around it but none of them took the cheese bait he had put in it. So it was back to the drawing board. What rat didn't like cheese? Really? Then he remembered that the salesperson mentioned something about bacon fat so he used that instead. And now he was checking if that had worked.

Hopefully the 'humane' part of the trap name worked because he really didn't want to deal with a dead rat. Well, it would technically be easier to handle and study but it was also more than a little bit gross and disgusting. No thank you.

And... it worked! There was an actual rat in the trap! A very annoyed, loudly squeaking one but it was there!

Carefully, he picked it up. Wow, it was a big rat. Or maybe all rats were this size? The rat stopped moving briefly, probably in shock from being picked up, before angrily rushing around the rather small trap again. The movement of which almost made Peter drop it.

"Bad rat!" he scolded and immediately felt foolish for doing so.

It wasn't like it could understand him. Though, apparently it did because it stopped moving to stare at him, nose quivering. Then it went back to moving about but not as vigorously this time. Huh. Cool. Rats really were smart.

Now just to get it back to the dorm without anyone seeing it. Peter didn't think that girls would appreciate seeing him carry a rat about the place. He could just hear the shrieks now. It would be probably ten times worse than when someone's cat brought a mouse over to them to proudly show off.

Peter chuckled at the memory. James had grabbed it by the tail and waved it around, much to everyone's disgust.

No, everyone seeing a rat would definitely not be a good idea. He would have to hide it. Under his cloak? Was that too obvious? Oh, wait, he was a wizard. Duh. Though apparently he was a stupid one. He could make it invisible! Or sort of. He hadn't really mastered the spell properly yet. Peter took out his wand and tapped the cage. It went kind of see through but a bit blurry, like you were looking through frosted glass. That would have to do. He did say that he wasn't that good at it. Hopefully it would be enough to get back to the dorm.

And it was, surprisingly enough. But no one made him stop and talk or anything. He just walked on by people. Which was useful.

The dorm was still empty, which wasn't a surprise. James and Sirius would be kept in detention until curfew and who knows when Remus would get back from his Prefect duties? Some of those Prefects really liked to go on a bit.

Peter set the cage on his bed and reversed the spell, the rat coming back into view. It was still moving around a lot.

Now, how was he supposed to get it to stop moving so he could study it?

Tuesday 9th December 1975

Entrance Hall, 12:30

It was nice to be talking to Sirius again, he always made her laugh. Which she needed at the minute because, well, she had been feeling a bit down recently. Teenagers sucked sometimes and that's all she was going to say about it. Well, she hadn't said anything but you know what she meant.

"Do you think I should give it a shot next year, then?" she asked.

They had been talking about quidditch, with Tonks being a big fan and Sirius being on the Gryffindor team there was a lot to talk about. Especially since one of the Hufflepuff beaters had got himself injured and his parents had decreed that he needed to focus more on his studies even when he got healed (apparently it had been a rather nasty fracture). So, the Hufflepuff team were now holding tryouts this Friday.

"Definitely. You'll be great," he encouraged.

"As Beater, though?" she asked doubtfully.

Girls didn't normally try out for that position, never mind actually make the position. You were supposed to need a lot of strength for it. Strength that girls allegedly didn't have.

"I don't see why not."

Sirius was so encouraging. Even if it was over something that probably wouldn't happen.

"I don't know. I'm pretty small. And Gudgeon in your year is trying out. He's pretty big and muscley."

Sirius snorted. "Gudgeon's an idiot. You should definitely go for it."

Dora felt like she really should defend a fellow Housemate but... yeah, Gudgeon really was an idiot. He seemed to enjoy being purposefully obtuse. It was infuriating. He also had quite the entitled attitude. Also infuriating.

"Well, what can I do to make up for my size?"

"Be fast," Sirius advised. "You'll be able to move quicker so use tbat to your advantage. And be as precise as you can. The direction is determined by your swing, not just where you hit it."

She nodded, that seemed to be sound advice.

"Swing is important," Tonks repeated in am effort to remember it for tryouts.

She really did want this. Flying was so much fun and she really enjoyed Quidditch. This would be the perfect opportunity. She just had to grab it. There was just one thing worrying her...

"How do you balance?"

Beaters used both hands for most swings. And those were the strong ones! How on earth was she supposed to manage that and still stay on her broom?

Sirius gave her a knowing look. "Scared your lack of grace is going to carry over to flying?"

Bingo.

"I mean... I can fly and not fall off my broom but both hands are firmly on the handle..."

"You'll be a bit wobbly at first but that goes away pretty fast."

"It does?"

Sirius looked at her for a moment before nodding. "I have an idea, why don't we take ourselves off to the Quidditch Pitch this evening and you can practice hovering with no hands?"

Tonks dived at Sirius to engukf him in a hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! That would be so good!"

Sirius shifted uncomfortably but gave her a hug back. "No problem."

Just over Sirius' shoulder, she saw Remus approach. He looked very purposeful, walking like that. It made him look very tall. Had he always been that tall? He was taller than Sirius and, well, he looked very nice, okay?

"Sirius! Tonks!" Remus greeted.

"Moony!"

"H-hi," she managed to get out, stepping back from Sirius.

Oh, that sound so bad. Why did she stutter? It was just Remus.

"What are you up to?"

"Just giving Dora here some tips on being a Beater. She's trying out for the Hufflepuff team."

"That's great! I hope you get in," Remus said encouragingly.

Blushing violently, she felt her brain come to a halt.

"Uh, um. Yes. Thanks. Yeah. I, I just remembered! Yeah, remembered that, that, I had... I have homework!" she stuttered out. "Gotta go, bye!"

And with that she darted away before Sirius could even respond to her.

Sirius watched as Dora scuttled away before turning to Remus, eyebrow raised.

"What did you say to her?"

"I didn't say anything!" Remus said defensively. "I just got here."

Sirius rolled his eyes, was Remjs really that dense. "I mean to scare her off like that, you must have been pretty intimidating."

"I am not intimidating."

He really wasn't but Dora obviously thought so. Why else would she run off like that?

"Well, you obviously scared her!"

He couldn't help but feel a bit protective of the younger girl. She was one of the few members of his family that he actually liked.

"I haven't scared her!"

Wednesday 10th December 1975

Fifth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 19:30

"Peter, why is there a rat on a leash in the dorm?"

Peter froze and went "uhhhh."

He had not been expecting Remus to be back. He was supposed to be studying in the library with Evans. Not back here in the dorm.

"Peter?"

"Um, yes," Peter dropped the leash and the rat took that as an excuse to make a bid for freedom.

Thankfully Remus' reflexes were quick and he managed to grab it. The rat did not appreciate it and tried to bite him but Remis grabbed it by the tail.

"Do you have a cage for him?"

Wordlessly, Peter grabbed the thankfully open cage and Remus all but flung the rat inside it.

"Well, he's feisty."

"Yeah."

Remus raised an eyebrow at him. "You never did say why you had a rat in here in the first place? Is he a new pet?"

Peter shook his head. "I caught him in one of the abandoned classrooms."

"Seriously? Why?"

Peter blushed so hard that he honestly thought steam was coming out of his ears. Slowly and haltingly, he explained his rather stupid sounding plan in hindsight.

It all came spilling out; his inability to draw and meditate, his idea, the sneaking around the castle and the capturing of the rat. He was quite out of breath when it was all said and done.

"And you managed to do all this without us realising?" Resmu asked, looking fairly impressed.

"Um, yes?"

"Cool. But you know you could have just asked for help, right?"

Peter blushed. "I didn't want to appear stupid."

"You're not stupid."

He felt like it sometimes. Remus was so smart and James and Sirius were so brilliant. What was he?

"Please don't tell James and Sirius?" he asked pleadingly

The two of them were at Quidditch Practice and definitely wouldn't be back until curfew. Hopefully anyway. Sure, practice normally finished up around eight or half eight but James had started to get way more serious about his Quidditch this year so he normally got someone (usually Sirius) to run drills with him until they both got fed up. Or their fingers went numb. Whatever came first.

"Why?"

"Well, it's a bit silly, isn't it?"

Especially since he felt like he was getting nowhere with this method. It would be different if he had soemtbing to show for it.

"Not at all!" Remus shook his head. "Everyone learns differently. I like to sit and study one thing at a time, James flits between about five different subjects at once and Sirius crams. Of course you would be different. It's natural."

Well, that was true. And it made him feel a bit better.

"I guess..."

"See? So what have you learned?" Remus was now looking at gim expectantly.

"You really want to hear about rats?"

"Yes. You're a rat so of course."

"Rats are really quite interesting," Peter said excitedly. "They have so much personality and move so quickly!"

"That's really cool, Pete," Remus said genuinely. "Have you learnt a lot about them?"

Of course, Remus was all about the learning. Honestly, Peter agreed with James and Sirius, Remus would have made a great Ravenclaw

"Loads!"

Peter had never felt so enthusiastic about a project before. It was so cool.

"Did you know that rats look after each other when they're sick. And then they can do something like this," Peter said, turning his body slightly.

Of course, he looked absolutely nothing like a rat. Actually, he looked pretty ridiculous. And the move wasn't anything like the rat actually did because it needed the ear twitch to go with it.

"Peter."

"Then they can do this cool thing with their noses and even their tails that helps them communicate with other rats..."

"Peter."

"Also, their tails do all sorts of cool things. Not just communicate! It helps them regulate their body temperature at night, helps their balance and to prop themselves up for extra reach when they're looking for food!"

"Peter!"

Peter suddenly stopped amd looked at Remus with wide eyes.

"What?"

Was something wrong? Was he being stupid.

"You have whiskers and a tail."

"Oh. What?"

Remus pointed at his face, "You have whiskers," then he pointed to his butt. "And a tail."

He reached up to touch his face. Oh, wow. He had whiskers. Long ones! They felt weird. He pulled on one. Ouch. Yep, they were definitely attached to him. Then he felt something twitch behind him.

That was right! He had a tail behind him! He, Peter Pettigrew, had a tail! A rat's one! One that could do loads of stuff! Cool!

Remus looked just as excited as he felt. Both of them were grinning like maniacs.

"Let's go show James and Sirius!"

Friday 12th December 1975

Quidditch Pitch, 16:00

Tonks tried not to shiver too much as she waited along with the other hopefuls. There were more than she expected. She thought that some of them were first years. They had to be, they were clutching the school brooms.

Would first years even make a good Beater? They were tiny! And literally had no muscle. Well, neither did she but she had more than them!

"Tonks?" Diggory asked in disbelief. "You're trying out for Beater?"

"Yep!" Tonks said in a far more confident voice than she felt.

"Seriously?"

She faltered a bit at his deprecating tone but she stood her ground.

"Yes. I want to be a Beater."

Diggory looked at her long and hard before snorting and bursting into laughter.

"Oh, that's a good one," he said amd then waved his hand. "You were always funny, Tonks. Now, stop wasting my time."

"I'm not being funny! I want to tryout for the Beater position!"

Diggory looked at her incredulously. "No way. You're being ridiculous."

"I'm not!"

"You're a girl!"

Tonks' temper flared, making everyone recoil as her hair quickly shifted. "What's that got to do with it?"

"Well, you're weak."

"Excuse me?"

"Give her a chance, Amos," Edgar said. "It's only fair."

"She's just wasting our time!"

"She might not."

"I won't," Tonks reassured them. "Just you see."

Diggory looked her up and down and then shrugged.

"Oh, okay grab a bat and get up in the air."

She tried not to squeak in excitement as she did just that. Thank Merlin Sirius had done a few drills with her so she wasn't surprised by the bat's weight.

Wobbling only a bit, she took off one handed before leveling out. This was going to be fine. Just fine.

"I'm just amazed she can even lift the bat," Diggory muttered.

Tonks decided to ignore him, mainly because she was trying not to make it too obvious that she was trying to get a comfortable grip. It was so big in her hands. Or maybe her hands were just small.

Diggory blew a whistle and they all winced. That was shrill.

"Right, everyone! Let's get started!"

She just had to take a deep breath and remember what she and Sirius had practiced. She could do this.

And she did it! She outflow everyone. All Sirius' tips worked! Sure, her aim needed some improvement but she didn't fall off her broom! And she managed to hit the Bludger!

Swooping down to land again, Tonks faced a thoroughly disgruntled and shocked Amos Diggory.

"That was some good flying, Tonks!" Bones told her.

She beamed at him.

"I'm the captain here," Diggory said bitingly, turning to her. "But you did fly well Tonks. A few things to work on but you flew well."

"I was better," bragged Gudgeon, swaggering around with his broom.

"You also have things to work on," he was told, making him deflate slightly.

That made her feel hopeful. At least Diggory was being fair.

"I'll let you know in a few days who's got it."

Gryffindor Common Room, 19:00

Alice was currently standing in front of a rather flushed Frank. He looked pretty cute like that. He had asked her to step away from his friends for a moment but had yet to say anything except to ask how her day had been going. He could have asked that in front of her friends.

"You know the Yule Ball?" he asked.

"Yes?"

It was just for sixth and seventh years, unless you were asked by a sixth or seventh year. It was always like that.

"Well, uh, I was wondering if you would, um," Frank cleared his throat. "If you would do me the honour of accompanying me to it?"

Alice beamed at him. "Of course I would!"

She had been waiting for him to ask her. It was expected, as they were betrothed and officially going out with each other. But it was nice to be asked and Alice wasn't going to lie, she had been rather nervous that he wasn't going to ask her. But only a small part of her.

Frank gave a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank you!"

Aw, he was so sweet. He had been worried she was going to say no! Of course she would never do that.

Monday 15th December 1975

Gryffindor Table, Great Hall, 08:30

All the warning Sirius got was a happy squeal before arms wrapped around him from behind.

"I got it! I got the Beater position!"

Ah, it was Tonks. Sirius chuckled and twisted around so he could hug her back.

"Well done! I told you you could do it!"

"Because of your help!"

"What's going on?" James asked, looking up from his breakfast.

"Dora here tried out for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and got in!"

All of his friends congratulated her, making her face and hair blush furiously. Particularly when she looked at Remus.

"You really helped," she told him.

"Nah," he brushed her off. It was all you."

"Looks like we'll be seeing each other on the Pitch then," James said with a grin.

"I'll try to knock you off your broom," she promised with a matching grin.

Fifth Year Boys Dorm, 16:30

"Hey, James?"

"Yeah, Moony?" James replied, looking up from his Transfiguration textbook, the only cool book he read seriously.

Remus dangled the medallion in front of his face. "Can I ask you a few questions on this?"

"Yeah, of course."

He even closed his textbook and sat up straight for him.

"What did you want to know?"

"Lots."

He laughed. "Of course you do. You want to know everything."

That was normally an insult but James said it so warmly that Remus couldn't help but blush a bit. He couldn't help it if he liked to learn things!

"Well, where do you want me to start?"

Remus thought for a moment. Where did he want James to start? There was so much he wanted to know.

"Why did you give us them?" he finally decided with.

"Because it shows that you're under the House of Potter's protection. That you're close to me. And important."

And that made Remus blush all over again.

"But why give us something for that?" He pressed on.

It was like a fancier version of a friendship bracelet or something.

James shrugged. "It's something some families do and it keeps the people we care about safe to an extent."

"What do you mean?"

"There's a few protection charms in it. And it's a portkey."

"What?"

Did he hear that right?

"Yeah, an emergency portkey. If you get into trouble or something and clutch it and say 'Keep me safe', it will bring you to Potter Manor. Sets off all sorts of wards too."

"But, but, why?"

"Because Potters look after their own."

Tuesday 16th December 1975

Gryffindor Common Room, 20:30

Lily squinted above them suspiciously. "Is that mistletoe?"

It better not be mistletoe. That would be the worst thing in the world, being trapped underneath mistletoe with James Potter. Of all the people in the world that she did not want to kiss, he was pretty high up on that list.

Thankfully, it wasn't directly overhead. It was off to the side. Unfortunately, Potter was right in front of her, preventing her from getting as far away from it (and him) as she could.

"Yep!" Potter said happily.

Why was he so happy about it? Weren't boys supposed to hate it or something? Trust Potter to be different.

"You know what we have to do now," he said, waggling his eyebrows.

"Walk away."

"Wal- no! Kiss, Evans, you kiss under the mistletoe."

"We're not under the mistletoe," she pointed out.

James looked up and frowned. Ha! Now she could get away. Except, he wasn't moving. Why wasn't he moving?

Oh, he was. But just his arm. No, he wasn't going to-

"Are you... are you pulling down mistletoe?"

He was, Goddammit. And now everyone was staring at them. Fantastic. Why did this sort of thing have to happen to her?

"Now we're under it," he said proudly.

"No."

"It's tradition, Evans. You can't turn your back on tradition!"

"I don't care about tradition, you try and get me under the mistletoe and I will punch you."

Frank looked up when he heard a rather loud yelp. Honestly, half the time being a Prefect in Gryffindor meant breaking up stupid spats because someone hit someone. It was frustrating.

Strangely, he didn't see two students glaring at each other nor any students with visible injuries (he had dealt with so many black eyes this year that he no longer needed to bring the student to Madam Pomfrey to fix up). No, instead he saw James standing doubled over, clutching his stomach. There was no one else around him.

"Evans just punched Potter in the stomach!" Stuart said gleefully.

Frank sighed. What had James done now? He just couldn't leave that poor girl alone, could he?

Thursday 18th December 1975

Fifth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 19:30

James set his pencil down, feeling very satisfied with himself. That was a pretty good drawing of a stag, his best yet. This time he got the hooves the right shape. They weren't all clunky this time - no, they were smooth and delicate. This had to match his stag form, it just had to.

His last drawing had been pretty close. On visualising it he had felt a tingle go down his spine and not just on his head. James had hoped that that had meant he was going to do a full transformation but no such luck.

Just the stupid antlers again. Well, the antlers weren't stupid just easy now. It could shift them back and forth at will now, which was pretty cool. But he seemed to be stuck on that step. Which was not cool.

Friday 19th December 1975

Fifth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 10:00

"You going to be okay over the break?" James asked Sirius softly.

"Huh?" Sirius gave him a look of confusion. "Oh, yeah. Of course."

James raised an eyebrow. He didn't believe that for a second. They all knew what Sirius' parents were like. Why Sirius always returned after every holiday in pain. Why he was always so anxious when a letter came from home. Why be never talked about home exceot in a self-deprecating way.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Sirius continued, locking his trunk.

"I dunno, just, be careful. Yeah?"

He couldn't help but be worried. You were supposed to be safest at home but Sirius wasn't. He really really wasn't. And then there was this whole business of Dead Eaters or whatever those terrorists were calling themselves. The world was just going crazy recently. It really was. James didn't like it. The world wasn't supposed to go crazy. It wasn't!

"Write?" James asked anxiously.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "It's only two weeks, James."

That was such a long time!

Fifth Year Gryffindor Girls Dorm, 10:30

"Are you coming?" Mary asked, shrugging her bag over her back.

It was the fifth year's turn to use McGonnagall's fireplace to floo home, if they needed to.

"No." Alice shook her head. "I'm going home on Sunday. I'm attending the Yule Ball with Frank tomorrow, remember?"

"Oh yeah. You're so lucky," Mary said enviously. "The Yule Ball at Hogwarts is supposed to be amazing."

"Yeah," Alice said dreamily.

"You'll have to tell me all about it in the New Year."

"I could always write."

Mary shook her head. "You'll leave something out. We're going to sit down and talk about it and you're going to tell me everything.