Author's note: This is the sequel to This Is Why We Get Along So Well and There Are Worse Ways to Spend Christmas. It can be read on its own, but it makes more sense if you're already familiar with these idiots and their shenanigans.

The story is complete and will be updated Sundays and Tuesdays.

Sorry in advance for the sheer amount of nonsense in this fic — I blame the idiots.

Saturday, December 31, 1977

"Whose idea was it to play this game?" Remus asked, preparing to drink after his sleeve brushed the large tower of cards in the center of the table and knocked several to the floor. "At this rate I'm not going to be awake at midnight."

"It was your idea, Moony," Sirius said. "Finish your drink and roll up those bloody sleeves. You'll be fine." He checked his watch and stood up, bumping his leg against the table and wincing as the card tower gave an ominous wobble. "Shit, it's almost midnight. Prongs, what did we do with the champagne?"

"You never brought it down, you prat," Mary's voice called from the mirror propped on the table beside the card tower. "Remember? Lily said 'We forgot the champagne,' and you said you'd worry about it later once you'd had a drink, and here we are about ten drinks later and you've yet to get off your arse."

"That's bold considering I'm in charge of pulling your cards for you," Sirius said, crouching down to peer into the mirror. "It'd be a shame if I knocked the whole tower over and you had to finish your drink."

"You're supposed to remain impartial when you pick her cards, Padfoot," Remus reminded him. "Otherwise it's not fair."

"She shouldn't have trusted me to pick for her," Sirius said with a shrug. "And don't act like you didn't bump into the table on purpose the last time you pulled Peter's card."

Peter's face appeared in the mirror next to Mary's, looking indignant after noticing the sly smile spreading across Remus's face.

"Here," Lily said, handing around pint glasses printed with the Chudley Cannons logo and attempting to remove the cork from a champagne bottle. "You know, we really ought to get some nicer glasses."

"That's not very nice, Evans." James reached for the bottle, but she waved him away and continued to struggle with the cork. "Those glasses bring Padfoot joy, and seeing as it's impossible to get any joy from watching the Cannons play, we shouldn't deprive him."

"You're both arseholes," Sirius said, plucking the champagne bottle from Lily's hands. "We don't have all night, Evans."

He tapped the cork with his wand, sending it shooting across the table and knocking the two-way mirror into the card tower. Cards fluttered to the ground, and several of them burst into flames. Remus stamped the fire out amid roars of laughter while Sirius righted the mirror.

"What did you idiots do?" Mary asked, pressing her face closer to the glass as she tried to make sense of the uproar happening on the other side of the mirror.

"Moony, your sleeve's smoking," Peter observed as he nudged Mary aside to make room for him.

"Hurry up and pour that champagne," Lily urged, holding her glass out to Sirius. "It's almost midnight."

"Do you two have champagne?" James asked, leaning closer to the mirror as Sirius filled his Chudley Cannons glass.

"All we have is gin," Peter said with a wry smile. "Not that I'm complaining," he added with an apologetic glance at Mary.

"Complain all you like," Mary said, holding up her glass and grimacing. "It tastes like they took all the Christmas trees in the Great Hall and made them into a beverage, but I didn't have time to get anything else, and it's better than going thirsty."

"I kind of like it," Peter said with a shrug.

"Get ready!" James called. He stood and pulled Lily up beside him. "Ten, nine, eight…"

The rest of them joined in, getting louder and louder until they finished the countdown and screamed, "Happy New Year!"

James and Lily kissed and Remus set off a confetti bomb which went off with a loud bang and filled the room with red smoke and gold confetti. Shaking bits of gold from his hair, Sirius held his glass up to the mirror.

"Happy New Year, Macdonald," he said, watching her hair fall into her eyes and wishing he could brush her curls aside.

She smiled and moved her glass to meet his, laughing as they clinked glasses even hundreds of miles apart.

"Happy New Year, Black," she murmured before draining her glass.

Her fingers rested against the mirror, and without thinking Sirius put his hand up to hers, as if he could somehow reach through the mirror and touch her. For a moment they stayed that way, unmoving, and he could have sworn he could feel the heat of her skin. Then she laughed and pushed her hair out of her face, and he pulled his hand back, finishing his drink and telling himself that nothing besides a drunken toast had passed between them. He turned to find James and Lily locked in a tight embrace while Remus poured himself more champagne and spilled half of it on his trousers. Grinning, Sirius fished the cork from under the table and threw it across the room at Lily's head.

"Oi, want to stop snogging over there so we can finish the game?" he called. "And Moony, I'd drink straight from the bottle at this point, because pouring it seems to be giving you a bit of trouble."

The next time Sirius checked his watch, almost three hours had passed. Mary had stopped responding after the last game, and he could hear slow, steady breathing coming from the mirror.

"You asleep too, Pete?" he asked.

"Almost," Peter said, his face filling the mirror as he stifled a yawn. "I think I'm gonna go lay down. Mary said she would feel rude taking my bed, but…" He moved the mirror and Mary came into view, slumped across the bed with her hair covering her face. "I guess I'll be on the couch after all."

When Peter said good night and Sirius tapped the mirror to end the connection, he looked around and saw that Remus and James were both asleep. Lily was draped across James's lap, her eyes drifting shut, but when she saw Sirius watching her she roused herself and extricated herself from James's arms.

"I guess it's just you and me, Evans," Sirius said as the two of them sat down cross-legged on the floor in front of the fire.

"Guess so. I'm shocked, honestly. James never falls asleep before me." She looked over and watched him sleep, smiling to herself until Sirius followed her gaze and chuckled. "Shut up," she murmured, giving his shoulder a light shove. "He's cute when he sleeps."

Sirius looked at James, then turned back to Lily, snorting with laughter. "Evans, he's drooling. But sure, cute."

"Shut up," she repeated. She watched James for another moment, then turned back to Sirius, fixing him with one of those piercing Lily Evans stares that seemed to bore right into his soul. "Do you miss Mary?"

Nice try, Evans. He pulled his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and frowned. "Do you think Moony will be able to tell I smoked in here if I blow the smoke into the fire?"

Lily tilted her head sideways and studied him, then burst into laughter. "You didn't answer my question."

"And you didn't answer mine."

She didn't reply, but instead took the pack of cigarettes from his hand and pulled out two, lighting her own and handing the other to Sirius.

"Fair enough," he said, lighting his cigarette and taking a long drag, then blowing the smoke into the fire.

They smoked in silence, listening to the sound of their friends sleeping and the occasional pop of a log in the fire. Lily's eyes were beginning to droop again when Sirius found himself speaking.

"I do," he said, and his voice sounded too loud in the hushed, sleepy atmosphere.

Lily flicked a bit of ash into the fire and stretched her legs out in front of her, then turned to look at him. "You do what?"

He exhaled a long stream of smoke into the fire. "I do miss Macdonald." His voice was barely above a whisper.

"Of course you do." She stifled a yawn, then rested her head on his shoulder. "Why can't you just admit when you care about someone? Why is that so hard for you?"

Her question echoed in his mind, and he considered taking the time to come up with an answer for himself, then explaining it in a way that would make sense to Lily. The task seemed impossibly taxing for three in the morning, so he took a last drag on his cigarette and tossed it into the fire.

"You're asking a lot of hard questions, Evans," he said. "You really expect me to explain the workings of my fucked up mind when it barely makes sense to me?"

She picked her head up from his shoulder to grin at him. "Yeah, all right. I'll leave it alone for now."

"Good." He reached for a half-full box of Bertie Botts that had been abandoned on the table and selected one before tossing it into his mouth. "Maybe your New Year's resolution this year should be to mind your own business."

"Sod off," she said as she helped herself to a handful of Bertie Botts and popped a green one into her mouth.

He shrugged and threw another bean into the air, moving his head sideways to catch it. "Fine. If you don't like that one, maybe a good resolution would be to shag Prongs more often."

His laughter turned to a cry of indignation when she threw a Bertie Botts and it bounced off his forehead.

"I've never heard him complain," she said primly as she selected another grass flavored bean and bit into it.

"Well, it's James, so I can't see him complaining. Still, doesn't mean he wouldn't like it a bit more often, you know?"

He braced himself in case she threw more candy at him, but she seemed to have decided to ignore his comments. She stretched out on the floor and propped her head on her elbow to look at him, then peered into the box of Bertie Botts and fished out another green one.

"I haven't really thought about a resolution, because I don't know what to expect out of this year," she admitted, spitting a half-chewed bean into the fire. "I thought it was grass, but it's lime," she explained. "I hate lime."

"You like grass but spit out lime?" he asked, shaking his head in disbelief. "You're a strange one, Evans."

She made a face and continued to search through the box for her preferred flavor. "I'm not going to let you shame me for my Bertie Botts preferences." She pressed her eye to the opening in the box, then tossed it aside in irritation when she had exhausted the supply of grass flavored beans. "What do you think this year will be like? I know we're meant to be making plans for when we leave Hogwarts, and Slughorn's been talking to me about doing this research internship with Democles Belby, which would be ideal under normal circumstances, but I can't seem to get too invested in my career when things are slowly turning to shit a bit more every day."

He lay down on his back beside her with his arms folded behind his head. Little bits of gold confetti littered the ground beneath him and clung to his body. From the sofa, Remus let out a soft snore and shifted his position. It was still and quiet, as though they were the only people in the whole castle. As he stared up at the ceiling he tried to imagine the future, but it was all a vague, shadowy unknown after June.

"I don't know what the year will be like, and I don't see the point of trying to speculate other than driving ourselves mad."

She sighed in irritation and opened her mouth to argue, but Sirius held up a hand and plowed ahead.

"But I will say this. I can't see you standing by and letting the world turn to shit because you're too wrapped up in your bloody potions career. You're far too meddlesome for that."

He turned to look at her and saw a reluctant smile spread across her face.

"And I know this is going to sound incredibly dramatic—"

"Pretty much everything you say sounds incredibly dramatic," she said, smirking.

He laughed, amused by the smug expression on her face. "Sod you. Anyway, I was going to say that if things get a bit dicey, I know James would die before he lets anything happen to you."

She had been rummaging through the Bertie Botts again, but at his words she paused to look at him, the box forgotten in her hand. Her eyes were wide and her mouth slightly parted.

"And, even though you just accused me of being a drama queen…" He flashed her a teasing grin, then his face turned serious again and his voice dropped to a murmur. "I would do the same."

She stared at him for a moment, her eyes so full of emotion that Sirius feared she was about to cry. But then her lips turned up into a smile, and she reached over and rested a hand on his arm.

"Me too," she said. "Even though you are an obnoxious drama queen."

They lay there without speaking as the fire warmed their skin and began to melt the Bertie Botts. Sirius rolled onto his back again and studied the ceiling, hoping this conversation would remain a dramatic hypothetical rather than a grim reality they would have to face. When his thoughts began to whirl, he got to his feet, then offered Lily a hand up.

"Come on, let's go to bed. Or actually, I'll sleep down here if you and Prongs want to get a jumpstart on your resolution."

"I never said that was my New Year's resolution," she said, stretching her stiff limbs.

Sirius shrugged. "You never said it wasn't. Here, I'll even wake him up for you." He stood by the staircase and watched James with amusement as he said without raising his voice, "Prongs, wake up. Evans wants to have sex with you — look, Evans, he's awake. It's like magic!"

As they trudged up to the dormitory, laughing and stumbling up the stairs to collapse into bed, Sirius considered the year ahead. Lily's question lingered in his mind, but he pushed it aside, because it was impossible to answer and thinking about it made his head hurt. He thought about the rest of the conversation, the easy air of openness between them, the promise they had made to each other and its implications. Somehow it would all be okay if he had his friends, because they always managed to find a way. Sirius smiled to himself as he fell asleep, comforted despite all the unknowns the year might bring.

Sunday, January 1, 1978

Sirius lay on his stomach in front of the fire with quill, ink, parchment, and various textbooks spread out around him. The two-way mirror was propped against several textbooks, surrounded by enough snacks to sustain him through a long day of studying. While James and Lily sat curled together in an armchair, too wrapped up in each other to notice anything else, and Remus sat in some remote corner of the library, Sirius leaned closer to the mirror and said, "Mary Macdonald."

After a moment Mary's face appeared in the mirror with the familiar Hogwarts Express compartment in the background. She sat on the floor with her back resting against one of the seats. Sirius could see Peter behind her unwrapping a chocolate frog. He could almost feel the motion of the train just from looking at the compartment, and it felt strange that he was not spending the day traveling back to Hogwarts.

"I didn't think you'd be up before noon after the night we all had," Mary said, looking at him in amusement.

Sirius thought back to the previous evening, but he had only vague, fuzzy memories that made his head hurt.

She laughed and twirled a strand of hair around her finger. "Anyway, is that your homework? That seems a bit ambitious, doesn't it, Peter?"

Peter bit the head off his chocolate frog and examined the card before tossing it aside and looking at the mirror.

"A bit, yeah," he said through a mouthful of chocolate frog.

"I'd much rather be hiding away in the dormitory, regretting my existence." He stifled a yawn and reached for the mug of coffee he had brought up from breakfast."But I figure we'll need all day if we're going to get our homework done before you get back." His eyes traveled over the books scattered around him and settled on A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration. "I thought we might start with Minnie's essay first, but I'm open to other suggestions."

"That's fine with me, but why can't we do some of this tonight?"

"We're going to be busy tonight," Sirius said, raising his eyebrows. The mirror was positioned to give him a perfect view of the front of her shirt. His eyes lingered on the hint of red lace peeking through the thin fabric, making him wish the train ride to Hogwarts wasn't torturously long. "Is that new?"

She nodded and glanced over her shoulder at Peter. Once she saw that he was occupied with searching for something in his bag, she pulled her shirt to the side to give Sirius a better look.

"You like it?" she asked, smirking and replacing her shirt as Peter emerged from his trunk with another chocolate frog.

"I do, although I'd like it better on the floor."

She grinned and adjusted the mirror to further improve Sirius's view, and he couldn't help but appreciate her for this. While some girls acted coy or even prudish in response to comments like this, Mary seemed to enjoy the attention. Bloody hell, I love her, he thought, and the words gave him a slight pang of discomfort because he still didn't quite know how to handle this particular emotion.

"How did I know you were going to say that," she said. "Melanie bought it for me, if you can believe it."

Sirius grinned as he pictured Mary's mother winking and making some suggestive comment as she handed over a wrapped present. "Bless her. Did you wear it for me?"

"Well I certainly didn't wear it for Peter." She turned to flash Peter an apologetic grin and added, "No offense."

Peter looked up from the chocolate frog card he had been studying and frowned. "Sorry, I stopped listening because it seemed like the conversation was getting a bit, er, intimate," he said, looking sheepish as he returned his gaze to the card in his hand.

"You're a good friend, Pete," Sirius said, raising his voice so Peter could hear him from across the compartment. "Moony would've thrown something at me."

"Yeah, well, Moony's not as tolerant of awkward situations," Peter said with a shrug. "Besides, throwing something at the mirror wouldn't be that effective."

"So, should I stop teasing you via mirror so we can get some actual work done?" Mary asked as she opened her trunk to retrieve her textbooks.

Sirius sighed and reached for a piece of parchment. "Yeah, I suppose. But maybe we can take a study break later and you can show me the matching pants? I assume there are matching pants?"

The smug little smile that spread across her face was all the answer he needed.

"Right, Wormtail, are you joining us?"

"Yeah, Transfiguration, right?" Peter said, holding up his textbook. "I figure I'll at least start my work, but if I fall asleep or get bored I can always finish later when I'm exiled from the dormitory for hours."

Sirius grinned. "Good thinking," he said before turning to Lily and James and raising his voice. "Prongs, Evans, do you want to do the Transfiguration homework with us?"

James gazed dreamily at Lily while she ran her fingers through his hair. Neither of them answered.

"Help, Prongs, my life is in danger and you're the only one who can help me!" Sirius called, but there was no response except Lily's soft laughter as James murmured something only she could hear.

"You're shit friends, you know that?" Sirius said, crumpling a piece of parchment and tossing it at James's head. "Can't even stop snogging for a second to save my life."

The parchment hit James in the forehead and bounced off, but he snatched it out of the air and tossed it back at Sirius before it could hit the ground.

"Is there a reason you're throwing things at my head?" he asked, chuckling as he watched Sirius bat the parchment away and send it skittering into the fire.. "Or are you just bored?"

"I was going to ask if you wanted to join our mirror study session to do the Transfiguration essay, but I don't want to interrupt this." He made a face and gestured at the two of them.

"We already did Transfiguration," Lily said, a note of apology in her voice as she disentangled her fingers from James's hair. "We were going to ask if you wanted to do it with us, but I think you were asleep or something."

"We haven't done Defense yet, though," James added. "And we still have to practice that spell for Flitwick — I can't remember what it is, never mind how to do it. So tell us when you've finished with Transfiguration and we'll join you."

"Yeah, all right, but if I call your names and you ignore me again because you're too busy whispering sweet nothings and tickling each other, you're bloody dead to me."

As he spoke, they settled back into whatever private conversation Sirius had interrupted. Smiling to himself, he moved the mirror until it showed Lily and James blissfully wrapped up in each other.

"Look at this, Macdonald," he said. "Have you ever seen such an obnoxious display of couply behavior in your entire life?"

Mary giggled and pretended to vomit. "I dunno, maybe that time they kissed goodbye before Lily left to go to the loo?

"Or what about when James sang Lily to sleep that time she was too upset about a Daily Prophet article to fall asleep?" Peter suggested.

"Well, that would've been sweet if it wasn't that annoying Paul Simon song," Sirius admitted. "Anyway, Pete, what are we meant to be writing about? My brain's not in school mode yet."

Peter flipped through his homework planner and grinned when he reached the correct page. "All I wrote was, 'Chapter 15 — Padfoot will remember what to do."

The brief fragment of instructions sparked a memory, and Sirius found himself transported to that last Transfiguration class before the holidays

"Oh, right. I do." He paged through his book until he located chapter 15. "Okay, open to page 201…"

Hours later Peter had dozed off halfway through practicing the Invisibility Charm. Sirius could just make out his snores over the rattle of the train as he pressed his face close to the mirror to observe Mary's wand movement.

"I don't think you're flourishing enough," he said. "Show me again?"

Mary repeated the motion and sent sparks at Peter when her wand collided with the mirror.

"You always say that." She chuckled as Peter stirred and shifted in his seat but didn't wake up. "There is such a thing as too much flourishing, you know."

"But there's also such thing as not enough flourishing," he insisted. "Just try a bit more, and stand back so I can see better. I think the problem is your—"

She held up her hand. "If you say wrist movement I'm going to hex you right through this mirror. Fucking wrist movement… I'll give you wrist movement." She glared at him and made an obscene gesture.

He smirked and raised his eyebrows. "Promise?"

"That's not the way Flitwick taught us to do it," Lily said, appearing behind Sirius and giggling at Mary's grumpy expression.

"Yes, I realize that." Mary sighed and pushed her hair out of her face, sinking back down onto the floor. "Maybe we should take a break and come back to this when I get to Hogwarts."

"No, I think you've almost got it," Sirius said. "We've got to finish everything before you get back. Come on, I'll show you again and then you can give it another try."

"I think you're both doing it wrong, actually," Lily said, an apologetic note in her voice. "Mary, you need a bit more flourish, and Sirius, you're doing way too much. That's why the edges of the boundary keep flickering, because you're accidentally trying to include too much area. Here, I'll show you."

She drew a circle in the air with her wand, then executed the wrist movement with the perfect amount of flourish while clearly enunciating the incantation. Sirius stood frozen, while Mary pressed her face against the mirror to see. As they watched, the sofa and everything in a six foot radius around it disappeared.

"Nice one, Evans!" Sirius said, giving her a thumbs up. "It's too bad Prongs went to the library with Moony. He would've been impressed."

Lily shook her head, although her smile told him she was pleased with herself.

"It's not that impressive, really. Let's see you do it. Just do the movement like I did."

Lily crossed her arms and watched Sirius make the fireplace invisible, then they both peered at the mirror to watch Mary conceal the entire row of seats. He smiled at the slight surprise he often noticed on Mary's face when she'd done well at something. She admired her handiwork for a moment, then she performed the counter charm and the compartment seats reappeared.

Lily beamed with pride. "See? I knew you two could do it. Should we do Defense now, do you think? We can get a start while we wait for James and Remus to get back from the library with the books we need."

When they finally put the finishing touches on the Defense Against the Dark Arts essay, it had grown dark outside.

"We must be almost there," Mary said. "Good thing, because my brain hurts."

Sirius grinned and rolled up his finished Defense essay. "Don't worry, I'm done forcing you to use your brain for the evening."

"I'll see you in a little while, then?"

"Yeah, just come straight up to the dormitory. Don't bother with dinner or even saying hello to everyone else, just meet me upstairs."

"Yeah, all right," she said, her face slightly flushed with eager anticipation. "See you then."

When she broke the connection, Sirius went upstairs to put the mirror away, but he didn't stay there. Instead, he slipped on his jacket and returned to the common room.

"Where are you going?" Lily asked.

"Nowhere," Sirius muttered. "I'll be right back."

"He's going to meet Mary at the station," Remus said, a knowing smile spreading across his face. "That's sweet, Pads."

Sirius scowled and shoved his hands into his pockets. "No it's not. I'm just—"

"Yes it is." Remus stood and bounded across the room toward the dormitory stairs. "Hang on, I'm coming with you."

"Do you think Peter will be offended if we don't go to meet him?" Lily asked.

She and James were wedged into the same armchair with their arms draped around each other, and neither of them looked inclined to move.

"Nah, he'll be fine," James said, kissing the top of Lily's head. "Tell him we're saving his seat for him."

All three of them looked at Peter's usual armchair, piled high with books, jumpers, and candy in his absence.

"I suppose we should clean that off," Lily mused.

As she tried to access her wand without leaving James's embrace, Remus returned from the dormitory wearing his usual winter attire that consisted of multiple jumpers, a jacket, hat, scarf, and mittens.

"Great, Moony, you're ready for our trek to the bloody Arctic," Sirius said, toying with the tassels on the scarf.

"It's cold out there," Remus said as he batted Sirius's hand away. "Come on, you don't want Mary to think you forgot about her."

"She doesn't know I'm coming," Sirius grumbled, following Sirius out into the corridor.

It was cold and drafty outside of the common room's cozy warmth, and Sirius could picture Mary shivering in only her red leather jacket.

"You're surprising her?" Remus glanced sideways to look at him, his face splitting into a wide grin. "Padfoot, that's adorable."

"It's not bloody adorable," Sirius protested. "It was just a last minute idea that I didn't have time to mention to her.

"Whatever you say."

The smug expression remained on his friend's face, however, and Sirius gave up on correcting him as they descended a staircase on the way to the Entrance Hall. If Remus wanted to think he was a sentimental sod, well, that was his prerogative, just like it was his prerogative to wear ten bloody layers every time it was the slightest bit chilly outside. I think that scarf is cutting off bloodflow to his head.

"Does Seven know you're coming to meet her?" Sirius asked.

He had hoped the question would take the attention off his own relationship, and he wasn't disappointed. Remus's face lit up when Sirius mentioned Seven's name, and his hand rested on his front pocket where the corner of a letter peeked out.

"Yeah, we confirmed in our last letters. She said I didn't have to come because she knows I get cold, but there was no way I was going to let that stop me."

"Has she seen you dress to go outside in the winter?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows and eying Remus's clothing. "How can she worry about you getting cold if she's seen this?"

Remus's smile didn't falter as he drew his scarf tighter around his neck and adjusted his hat.

"Sod you. I'm not going to be embarrassed about dressing properly for the weather, unlike some people."

He cast a dubious look at Sirius's leather jacket.

"Rubbish. This is appropriate attire for almost all weather."

He looked down at his jacket fondly and trailed a finger along the supple leather. Remus watched him and shook his head in exasperation.

"Whatever you say."

It was every bit as cold outside as Remus had predicted, but Sirius enjoyed the bracing air as they set off across the grounds to the station. It was a clear night, and the sky was dotted with stars. Sirius has a fleeting memory of sitting on one of the Potters' pool chairs with Mary, naming off phony constellations to make her laugh. That was ages ago, long before they realized their actual feelings for each other, and yet somehow Sirius felt that on some level he had known all along. It had always been so easy between them, so relaxed and comfortable but also exciting and spontaneous and a little risky. After all, who else would be just as content to sit around drinking wine in their underwear, but also to stumble to a tattoo parlor on a whim in the same night?

The train hadn't arrived yet when they reached the station, so they stood shivering and watching their breath steaming in the icy air. Sirius strained to hear the train approaching, but the only sound was the stamping of the thestrals as they waited to bring the students back to the castle. Remus looked over at him, happiness visible on his face even with his scarf and hat concealing everything but his eyes.

"Thanks," he said, reaching up to push his hat further up on his head. "For staying over Christmas, I mean. I know it wasn't the most fun Christmas you've ever had."

Sirius laughed and fixed Remus with an incredulous stare. "Are you kidding? You're aware of where I spent Christmas until I moved in with Prongs, right? Why would I ever complain about staying here for Christmas?"

Remus shrugged and fiddled with the end of his scarf. "Oh, I dunno, I suppose it was a bit quieter than what you would've liked."

"Moony, last night we were up until three am singing on top of the table and passing the Quaffle back and forth."

Remus grinned at the memory. "Well, yeah, but I meant the days right before and after, you know."

His smile faded as he made the veiled reference to the full moon, which had fallen on Christmas Day. They had moved their beds down to the common room in front of the fire so Remus wouldn't have to climb the stairs in his exhausted state. Later they had made a blanket fort, roasted marshmallows, and wore their pajamas all day. He had even read The Hobbit to Remus to take his mind off the upcoming transformation, although Sirius threatened to hex him if he told anyone. Thinking back on those days gave him a cozy, warm feeling despite the chill in the air.

"Don't be stupid. I enjoyed that."

"But I'm sure you would've liked to spend part of your holiday with Mary," Remus insisted.

"Of course I would have, but not if it meant ditching you and Prongs and Evans. Macdonald wouldn't have wanted me to do that."

Remus's scarf had slipped down to reveal his stubborn frown, but Sirius continued before he could argue further.

"You know Macdonald would've stayed if she didn't have her mum to think about. Peter, too. And Macdonald and I were fine — we made do with the mirrors."

"I don't like the look on your face," Remus said, his face wrinkling in disgust. "Please don't tell me you did something disturbing with the mirrors. I use those."

"Fine, I won't tell you," Sirius said with a wicked grin. "Anyway, no offense, but shut the fuck up."

Remus appeared to think this over before nodding his head in a grudging agreement.

"Good. Hey, are you going to tell Seven I read The Hobbit to you?"

Remus laughed and shook his head. "You said you'd hex me if I told anyone. Besides, she might get jealous."

"You're probably right. There's no way she's as good at reading aloud as I am."

"Says the bloke who kept saying 'Dildo' instead of 'Bilbo,'" Remus said, glancing sideways at him and smiling reproachfully.

Sirius shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets. A dull tingle began to spread through his fingers as he wiggled them to get the blood flowing again.

"Yeah, well, it made you laugh," he said.

In the distance a cloud of steam and a high whistle announced the arrival of the train. It came to a stop with a screech, emitting a stream of chattering students. Sirius scanned the crowd, searching for a glimpse of Mary's red leather jacket and curly hair. Several people greeted him as they walked past, but he barely acknowledged them. A first year carrying a guitar case said hello no fewer than three times before Sirius noticed and gave him a perfunctory nod.

"She's over there."

Another first year stood grinning at Sirius, pointing at something over his shoulder. She continued to prattle on, but Sirius only heard the first sentence. He turned and saw Mary jostling past a group of Ravenclaws with Peter close behind her. His shoulders relaxed and a smile spread across his face as he watched her catch sight of him and quicken her pace.

"…allowed to call her your girlfriend now, right? You're officially dating since that whole thing at Slughorn's party, aren't you? Thanks a lot for that, by the way, why'd you have to go and lose Gryffindor all those points?"

He turned back to her, still smiling, and held up a hand. "Kath, I know I'm not supposed to swear in front of you because you're bloody nine years old or whatever, but do me a favor and shut the fuck up."

"I'm not nine, you arsehole!" she began, her eyes wide with indignation. "I'm twelve now, and—"

He stopped listening. He felt someone give his shoulder a light shove, then turned to see Mary grinning at him, her cheeks flushed from the cold and her hair falling into her face.

"What happened to 'Meet me in the dormitory and don't bother saying hi to anyone first,' you prat?"

He reached out and pushed the hair out of her face before he could stop himself. He caught a faint whiff of Sleekeazy's, only then realizing how much he had missed the scent.

"I came to make sure you didn't get distracted along the way," he said.

They hung back for a moment, grinning at each other, and then Sirius stepped forward and pulled her in for a kiss. Everything about her was warm: her lips moving against his, her hand sliding underneath his jacket and t-shirt to trail up and down his chest and stomach, her soft breath against his skin. He knew this was what he and Mary would typically consider couply behavior, but fuck it. If people walking by wanted to gawk or whistle or remark about what a cute couple they made, then they bloody well could. He had waited two weeks for a proper snog, and he was going to enjoy it.

When they broke apart Peter was watching them with an amused look on his face, and Remus was nowhere to be found.

"I think you really broke Stacy Tremblay's heart, Padfoot," Peter said. "She just walked by and gave you the dirtiest look."

Sirius lit a cigarette and handed one to Mary, taking pleasure in even this simple gesture after smoking in solitude for the past two weeks.

"Bloody idiot," he said after exhaling a long stream of smoke. "And people expect me to believe she was in the running for Head Girl? I told her about a million times that we were just shagging and I didn't want anything more. If she was dumb enough to think she could change my mind, that's her own fault."

"Anyone who is dumb enough to fall for you probably got at least one T on their O.W.L.s," Mary said, a wry smile on her lips.

Sirius glanced sideways at her. "Well, you did get a T on your History of Magic O.W.L., didn't you?"

She shoved his shoulder, harder than the first time. "You're such an arsehole."

Peter looked from Sirius to Mary, his lips pressed together to keep the question from bursting out.

"I didn't actually get a T," Mary said, laughing. "Although I'm not sure a D is much better."

"Oh, that's all right, I got a D, too," Peter admitted.

His shoulders slumped just the slightest bit, and Sirius wondered whether he had been hoping to hear that Mary was even worse at something than he was.

"Did Remus go to get us a carriage?" Mary asked. Sirius could feel her shivering as the cold seeped in through her jacket, and Sirius pulled her closer against him.

"Yeah, it's that one over there," Peter said as he pointed across the station at one of the carriages. "He figured you'd want to smoke a cigarette first."

Sirius and Mary looked at each other and smirked.

"I'll bet you anything he and Seven are in there absolutely tearing each others' clothes off," Sirius muttered.

"Doubt it," Mary said. She took a drag on her cigarette, and the way her lips parted was so impossibly sexy that Sirius had to force himself not to stare. "Not when they know we're about to join them. They're not that bold."

"You mean they're not us?" Sirius laughed and brushed a piece of Mary's hair out of his face. She's been back five minutes and her bloody hair is already everywhere, he thought, but he had missed the maddening omnipresence of her hair, and somewhat enjoyed the opportunity to remove it from his person with feigned irritation.

"It's also pretty unlikely, considering how many layers Moony is currently wearing," Peter said. "It's fairly cold out tonight, so I reckon he's wearing at least two jumpers."

"Might be three, actually," Sirius said. "Seven has her work cut out for her. I'd say all they have time for is snogging with a bit of groping."

"Under the clothes groping, though," Mary added. "Because, you know, it's cold out."

"On that note," Peter said, nodding in the direction of the carriage. "Should we go interrupt the supposed under the clothes groping?"

The ride back to the castle dragged on. Mary sat pressed close to Sirius, although there was plenty of room in the carriage. Mary nodded along, pretending to listen as the others chatted about Christmas, Quidditch, and homework, but Sirius didn't even bother feigning interest. He was too distracted by the warmth of Mary's leg beside his.

You missed me," Mary murmured in his ear as she ran her hands through his hair and began to pull the strands into a loose braid.

"I don't remember saying that." He toyed with a strand of her hair, tickling her neck with it until she abandoned the braid and swatted his hand away. "Why are you braiding my hair, by the way?"

Her nimble fingers were already at work separating his hair into sections and tugging it into a braid again.

"It gives me something to focus on." She finished the braid and secured it with a hair tie she wore around her wrist.

"Something to focus on other than how much you want to tear my clothes off?" he whispered, enjoying the wicked smile that spread across her face at his words.

"I don't remember saying that," she whispered back before setting to work on another braid.

When they finally made it back to Gryffindor Tower, Mary held up a preemptive hand before James and Lily could do more than smile and wave from their armchair.

"I've been instructed to head straight to the dormitory without bothering to say hello to you," she said, allowing Sirius to steer her in the direction of the staircase. "See you in a bit!"

"I think it goes without saying, but don't come upstairs!" Sirius called over his shoulder, and then he was bounding up the stairs with Mary's hand clutched in his.

They burst through the door and tumbled into the room, kicking off their shoes and dropping their jackets onto the floor. Mary hopped onto the bed and lay back with her hair spread across the pillow. Sirius stood back for a moment, removing his shirt and admiring the way she looked against his rumpled duvet. The bed was really only big enough for one person, yet for the past two weeks he had been kept awake by a fierce, aching loneliness. Now her jacket was on his floor and her hair was on his pillow and everything was as it should be.

"Why're you looking at me like that?"

She rolled over onto her side and propped her head in her hand. Her shirt sat in a crumpled heap next to her, and the red lace bra stood out against her pale skin.

He leaned against the bedpost and grinned. "Just wondering if I was right about the bra when I said it would look better on the floor."

She reached behind her back and deftly unhooked the clasp, then removed it and threw it at him in one fluid motion.

"See for yourself," she murmured.

He caught it and tossed it down beside her jacket and one of his boots, then continued to admire Mary.

"I was right," he said with a satisfied nod. "I always am." He watched her for another moment, then added without intending to, "I did miss you. I really fucking missed you."

"I know," she said, smiling that knowing smile of hers that drove him mad. "Now shut up and get over here."

Later Sirius slipped back into bed with his pack of cigarettes and a chocolate bar stolen from Remus's trunk. He broke off a piece of the chocolate for himself and handed the rest to Mary, smiling as she reached for it without opening her eyes. The chocolate melted in his mouth as Mary settled into her usual spot with her head resting on his chest. He blew a lock of her hair out of his face and heaved a sigh of contentment as her fingers traced their familiar path along the scar on his chest. He was too relaxed to even bother reaching for his wand to light a cigarette.

"Are you ever going to tell me the story of how you got this?"

The sound of Mary's voice made his eyes flutter open, although he hadn't even been aware that they had closed. Her hand had drifted from his chest to his arm, where a slightly jagged scar extended from his wrist to his elbow.

"At some point, but not today," he said, reaching for her hand and guiding it back under the blankets. "I don't want anything to bring us down tonight. Tonight is about excessive shagging and stealing Moony's chocolate."

She looked up at him, and he saw a flicker of something in her face that didn't bode well.

"What?" When she shook her head and attempted to burrow under the covers, he pulled back the blankets to expose her face once again. "Come on, Macdonald. Out with it."

She sighed, then reached across him and helped herself to a cigarette, using his wand to light it before offering him the pack.

"I heard something on the train, but then I decided to wait until tomorrow to tell you because it is probably going to bring us down a bit. So why don't we just lay here and enjoy a smoke and the rest of this stolen chocolate and pretend our only problem is how annoyed Remus is going to be when it smells like smoke in here later?"

Sirius lit his cigarette and took a long drag, then exhaled and watched his own smoke mingle with Mary's. Down in the common room there was a muffled crash followed by shouts and laughter, and Sirius realized they hadn't even bothered to shut the door all the way. He pointed his wand at it and it shut with a soft click.

"Nah, just tell me. If it brings us down, or rather, when it brings us down, we can just distract each other." He traced a finger along the curve of her waist to indicate what sort of distraction he meant.

She moved closer to him and draped her leg over his. "I don't know if it even means anything, but you know Abby Gamp? I heard her parents didn't let her come back to Hogwarts. I guess they think it's safer to homeschool her until things settle down."

Her voice remained casual and even, but the slight tension in her body betrayed her true feelings. Sirius tugged on a curl and laughed, hoping to banish the uneasiness he could sense lurking behind her smile, because it made him uneasy.

"You think that's going to bring down our night, Macdonald? They probably pulled her from school when they found out she's dating that tosser Jeffrey Broadmoore," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "What does Gamp leaving school have to do with us?"

She reached across him again, this time to drop her cigarette into an empty Butterbeer bottle, then returned to nestle beside him. When she sighed, her warm breath stirred little pieces of his hair.

"Maybe nothing. But it made me wonder. If her parents think it's not safe here…"

"That's bloody stupid, though. I guarantee it's safer here for her than at home. I think the Gamps live just outside of London. Did you see what happened—"

She put a hand on his arm, and the tightness in her grip was enough to make him break off mid sentence.

"Yeah, I did," she muttered. "Of course I did, that's not that far from my flat. I know it's a lot safer here than it is out there. I just…" She twirled a strand of hair around her finger and bit her lip as she searched for the words. "If things are getting bad enough that parents are keeping their kids home from school, well, that's not exactly great news, is it?"

"No, it's not," Sirius agreed. "But let's be honest. There is no fucking good news these days, is there?"

Her finger was now turning white from the tightly wrapped curl, so Sirius reached over and gently pried the hair from her finger. He rolled over onto his side, then glanced back at her over his shoulder. "Now make yourself useful and play with my hair, will you?"