Disclaimer: Still don't own them. Tried to buy them, but they were too expensive. Randi belongs to me. Any similarities between her and you are purely coincidental.

Sirius finished his breakfast, pushed away his plate, and went up to the tower to get dressed for class. He smiled to himself at the success of his plan so far, and his mind wandered back to what had started this whole thing in the first place. No, it hadn't been the flowers he'd given Molly, it had been several days ago, when they were out to Hogsmeade in secret to get some more pranks from the joke shop.

James had lent them his Invisibility Cloak, and they'd taken the tunnel behind the witch statue. It was rare that Sirius and Remus were alone together, usually it was Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, as it said on the Marauder's Map, or Sirius and Remus and James, or Sirius and Remus and Peter, or Sirius and James by themselves. But this time James had been forced to write an extra paper for Transfiguration as punishment for Transfiguring Severus Snape into an eight-track tape. It took hours to get him back to normal, since no one knew what an eight-track tape was, except for Arthur Weasley, who had to be tracked down from the owlery. James had explained, however, that if they had attempted to put Snape into a little machine James showed them, he would play "Fly Me to the Moon" quite nicely. Which was more than could be said for him when he was human. Sirius often wondered why Prongs was so enamored with muggle artifacts. At any rate, James had been stuck in detention writing his essay, so it was up to Remus and Sirius to carry out the mission.

-----

They'd hurried down the tunnel and out into the rainy little wizarding town. Sirius was glad for the invisibility cloak, otherwise he and Remus would have been soaked by the time they got to the joke shop.

"Skipping class again?" chuckled the proprietor as they ducked in out of the rain.

"Oh, no, sir, we have permission," Sirius lied.

Remus nodded. "We're doing research."

The man behind the counter nodded. He was more inclined to trust the smaller sandy-haired boy than the tall, lanky one. He was known to be studious and pragmatic. The other one was quite a bit of a trickster, and besides, his hair was too long.

Sirius smiled disarmingly. "Though, while we're here, we might as well see what new things you've got in stock..."

Remus touched Sirius on the shoulder. "I'll go get what we need for the research. You can go ahead and look around, Sirius."

Sirius grinned devilishly. "Thanks, Remus. I do believe I will."

Remus wandered around to the back of the shop. Sirius's eyes went immediately to the large display of firecrackers in the middle of the room.

Several minutes later, Remus set down a large handful of the most researchable-looking items he could find on the counter. Sirius sauntered up and looked over what Remus had gotten, then deposited his own handful of various dangerous tricks and firecrackers on Remus's pile. He reached into his pocket and counted out the money needed to buy the items out onto the counter. The proprietor bagged up their purchases and they walked quickly out the door, looking over each other's loot. The proprietor hurried after them after a few moments. "Oi, boys! You forgot your--" He looked around. The rain was coming down quite heavily now, but there was no sign of the two boys. They had simply disappeared. "--change," the man finished disheartenedly, and, shaking his head, went back inside.

Sirius glanced at Remus as they hurried back to the tunnel to get out of the rain. Remus's face was flushed and for once not pale at all. Sirius smiled. It was good to see Remus looking healthy for a change, even if it was just an illusion from the running he'd been doing. They ducked inside and quickly made their way to the back, making sure no one was looking in their direction before they pulled up the boards in the floor and slid into the tunnel. They hurried down the path to the statue, glanced at the Map to make sure no one was nearby, and moved the statue aside. Or tried to. The statue wouldn't move with the usual password. Sirius shoved at it. He looked to Remus for help. They shoved together. Nothing happened. Sirius, frustrated, hit the statue repeatedly with his fists. He changed to dog form and attacked the unmoving statue. Panting, he laid down on the floor and transformed back.

"Bah! What are we going to do now?"

"Well, I suppose we'll have to go to the shrieking shack and take the tunnel back from there," Remus replied apprehensively. The shrieking shack made him nervous. Two days ago in DADA they'd covered boggarts. Remus hadn't liked that at all. He hadn't frozen up or screamed or anything when he'd seen the full moon, but he looked at his hands. They weren't changing, and he realized the moon wasn't real, but as he continued to look at his hands they hadn't stopped shaking.

"What are you thinking, Moony?" Sirius's voice broke Remus out of his reverie.

"Uh.. what?" Remus looked up, startled.

"Your eyes had this faraway look in them. Anyway, I agree. We should go back up."

Remus nodded.

They made their way back up the tunnel, but when they got there, they found that the trapdoor wouldn't move. Sirius looked up through the cracks and realized that some idiot had pulled his chair over their escape route. He frowned. "Well, this is just perfect."

Remus looked at him. "What is it?"

Sirius turned to his friend. "Oh, someone pulled a heavy chair over the door."

Remus closed his eyes. "Lovely. Now what do we do?"

"Wait, I guess. James knows where we went. Eventually when we don't come back he'll come and find us. Or-- wait, I know! James gave me this mirror-- " Sirius rummaged in his pockets. "It allows me to contact him wherever he is." He continued to search.

"Do you think that's a good idea? I mean, he could be still in detention..."

"Oh, who cares? We're trapped in here, and this is our only salvation. Ah! Here it is."

"All right, Padfoot. I guess we don't have much of a choice."

"That's the spirit." Sirius looked into the mirror. "Prongs. You there?"

Nothing.

Sirius tried again, louder and more irritably. "James. James Potter. Come in, James. Do you copy?"

Remus held his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing. James's face appeared in the mirror.

"Sorry, I was just getting out of detention. I had to walk out of the room."

"Right. Sorry. Prongs, we're.. in a bit of a bind."

"A bind? What do you mean?"

"Well, we're stuck in the tunnel."

"How did you manage that?"

"Well, it's a long story. I'll explain later. Just get us out of here."

"Right. I'm on my way."

"Thanks." Sirius put the mirror back in his pocket. "Very useful device."

Remus looked fascinated. "Indeed."

"Well, James will be a while, he's going to go fetch Peter first, I imagine."
"Let me look over what you got in the joke shop."

Sirius's eyes glinted. "Right... we did go there, didn't we?" He sat down on the ground and poured the contents of the bag out on the floor.

"Hey, what's this?" Sirius held up a rather ordinary looking square.

"Well, it doesn't look dangerous, like maybe a paperweight or something, right?"

"Right."

"However... when you press these two sides..." Remus touched the sides lightly, "It turns into a very large metal-looking thing with lots of slashing parts and loud noises. Looks like something worth researching, doesn't it?"

"Yes." Sirius said, grinning. "It sounds very dangerous."

Remus smiled. "Normally I don't go after dangerous things, but I figured you and James could come up with some use for it."

Sirius grinned deviously. "I'm sure we can." He was silent for a moment. "Hey, Remus?"

"Yeah?"

"We don't really talk too often, do we? I mean, unless you're helping me with my homework."

"No, I guess not. At least, not alone. Why do you mention it?"

Sirius shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I hadn't realized how fun you are." He laughed.

Remus laughed too. "Well, thanks for the compliment, Padfoot."

"You're welcome, Moony." Sirius tackled Remus to the ground.

"Yii! What are you doing?"

Sirius pinned Remus down and grinned. "Care for a wrestling match, moony?"

"Would you be terribly offended if I said no?"

"Yes."

Remus grinned. "I guess there's nothing to be done for it, then." He maneuvered quickly and was soon on top of Sirius, pinning the other boy's shoulders to the ground with his knees. He counted to ten. Sirius struggled but couldn't get his shoulders up. "I win," Remus grinned. "Now what?"

"Now you get off me."

Remus slid off and laid down on the hard-packed earth.

Sirius rubbed his shoulder. "How'd you do that? You're such a little bony kid.."

"Werewolf strength. And thanks for pointing out my flaws."

Sirius stuck out his tongue. "I didn't say it was a flaw, did I?"

Remus shrugged.

Sirius sat up and went to lie down next to Remus. Looking at him, he noticed that although Remus was a year older than the rest of the sixth-years (on account of missing a year due to werewolf bite), he looked much younger. It wasn't just his poor eating habits that made him skinny, Sirius realized, Remus had thin, birdlike bones. His face came to a point around his nose, and his eyes were very large and expressive, like those of a child. They were the color of unrefined gold. His sandy hair, usually kept very short, was now nearly an inch and a half long. Sirius hadn't even noticed that his hair was growing out and hadn't been cut. It looked shaggy.

"Moony, you need a haircut."

Remus looked over to Sirius lazily. "No, I don't. I'm growing it out."

"Oh. Why?"

Remus shrugged. "Because I can, I guess." He continued. "When I was a kid, my hair was very fine and stick-straight. After I got bitten, it started to come in shaggy and curly. My parents got sick of my complaining about knots in my hair, so it got cut all off."

Sirius looked at Remus. The older boy's face was expressionless, his eyes thoughtful. "Hum."

Remus sighed and looked at the ceiling. "Yeah. I guess I'm rebelling." He laughed suddenly.

Sirius chuckled. "So am I. Only, I'm a lot more bold."

Remus looked at Sirius suddenly. "If I hadn't been bitten I would've been in Gryffindor."

Sirius looked startled. "What?"

"I would have been in Gryffindor. but afterward, I was afraid of my own shadow. Taking risks had gotten me into a lot of trouble, and I couldn't take any more."

"Oh." Sirius was shocked. "Why are you telling me all this?"

Remus shrugged. "I never have."

"Oh. Remus can I tell you something?"

"Yeah. I've pretty much poured my heart out to you for no reason. Go ahead."

"I--"

At that moment, the witch swung open. Remus and Sirius ran to greet James and Peter.

"What took you so long?" Sirius whined.

"We couldn't figure out what was wrong with it."

"Oh. And?"

"We had to force it." James held up a spent packet of firecrackers.

"Oh. Well, all's well that ends well, right, Moony?"

Remus swallowed. He was beginning to feel a bit trapped for no apparent reason at all. "Right. Let's get out of here." He had no way of knowing it, but Sirius was feeling the same sensation.

-----

Sirius quickly changed into his school robes. He went down through the common room, nearly bumping into Molly.

"Oh, hello, Molly."

"Hi, Sirius."

"You look pretty today."

She was wearing pajamas.

"Thank you.. I think."

"Molly, will you do me a favor?"

Molly looked skeptical.

"I'll owe you. I promise."

"All right. What is it?"

"I need you to talk to that Ravenclaw friend of yours.. what's her name?"

"Randi."

"Right. Randi. I need you to ask her to meet me in the library at the beginning of lunch."

"Alright. I can do that." Molly smiled. "I was just afraid it was going to be something devious, knowing what I know about you."

Sirius grinned. "No, of course not. I wouldn't send anyone off on a dangerous errand."

Molly smiled at Sirius warmly. He hoped she wasn't beginning to have feelings for him.

Sirius smiled. "Thanks, Molly. You're a doll." He left for class.

-----

It was nearly lunchtime. The Gryffindors had Potions with the Slytherins. Sirius was restless. James looked over at him. "What's bugging you, Sirius?"

"Nothing. I just want to get out of here. I'm bored out of my mind," Sirius lied.

"Yeah, me too." James flicked a drop of his unfinished potion at Snape. It hit his hair, which sizzled and caught fire.

Snape began to shriek and run around the room.

James looked shocked. "It seems," he whispered to Sirius, "that I've started a grease fire."

Eventually the flame was put out, Snape was sent to the infirmary, and class was dismissed. James began to walk in the direction of the Great Hall, but Sirius touched his arm. "I have to go to the library for a bit. I'll be there soon."

"Right." James nodded and walked in the direction of dinner.

Next chapter: Sirius talks to Randi. Molly and James are left alone in the common room. Arthur Weasley is still nowhere to be seen.

By the way, it was Sirius who bruised his upper arm. Remember when he was rubbing it?