Sirius couldn't eat a thing that morning at breakfast. No matter how many times Remus prodded his bowl of cornflakes towards him, Sirius refused to touch it. Privately, Remus felt that was a good idea, because it's not everyday after all, that you get up the nerve to talk to Mona AND keep the contents of your stomach contained.

Peter, of course, was oblivious to the whole ordeal, as he simply at there, munching away happily on his bacon and humming every so often to himself. Sirius looked as if he were about to throw up, regardless of the fact he had eaten nothing.

"You really ought to eat something, Sirius," Remus said gently, twirling his fork between his fingers.

Sirius groaned. "Ugh. Can't. Eat. Going. To. Be. Sick."

At that moment, Peter decided to look up, and saw Sirius looking like he was going to be sick. "What's wrong Sirius? It's the bacon, isn't it? Yeah, it tastes a bit odd, I agree. I reckon the house-elves overcooked it or something, or-"

Remus gave him a look just then, giving Peter the message right away, and he went back to gnawing at his bacon rinds.

Sighing, Remus turned back to Sirius, only to see that his friend's eyes had gone wider than saucers. "R-Rem..."

Remus turned to where Sirius was gaping, and saw Mona enter the Great Hall with several of her Ravenclaw friends, all of who were giggling madly at something undoubtedly amusing. If Remus was not mistaken, he thought he caught Mona take a fleeting glance at the Gryffindor table where the four boys were seated, then quickly turn to one of her friends.

Sirius must have noticed this as well, because an ever-so-tiny bead of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"Calm down Sirius," Remus said soothingly, but Sirius was now trembling slightly. "I can't do this, Rem," he choked out.

"Of course you can!" Remus encouraged his friend, patting him slightly on the back. "Now finish your cereal, you can't practice Vanishing spells on an empty stomach. And besides, there's about ten minutes before Transfiguration anyway, which will give you plenty of time to talk to-"

Sirius' head crashing facedown onto the table was enough to tell Remus that he would need another goblet of pumpkin juice.

----------------------

"There she is! That is her, isn't it?"

"Keep your voice down, you ninny! Did it never occur to you that people can actually hear you from seven feet away?"

"Oh shut it, the pair of you."

"I think I'm going to be sick."

Peter (now rubbing his head and looking at James with a frown), James (looking mortified at being told off by Remus), Remus (trying desperately to support Sirius standing up), and Sirius (looking as if he'd like nothing better than to run like hell) were peering around a corner, watching as Mona Aylesworth and her gaggle of friends made their way closer and closer to where the four friends were situated.

"Ah, there's Lily," James suddenly said, looking straight at the red-haired girl standing a good distance away from the rest of them. "I'll be going now then, see you later." And with that, James Potter strode proudly over to where Lily Evans was standing with her friends, deliberately messing up his hair in the process.

"Git," Sirius muttered, but he looked like he was going to go after James. "I'll go with him-"

"Oh, no you won't," Remus said sternly, pulling Sirius back against the wall, eye on the group of Ravenclaw girls who were coming closer still. "Alright Sirius," he said in a rather business-like tone as he turned to face Sirius' pallid expression, "it's now or never."

" 'Never' is looking like a real good option right now," Sirius half-mumbled, half-whined. Remus smiled but had to marvel at Sirius as he suddenly straightened up- he actually looked like he was going to go through with it before-

"Oy! Are you Mona?"

Remus froze as he heard Peter's voice yell out. Turning around slowly, he saw Mona Aylesworth look around at Peter, a puzzled expression on her otherwise stunning face. "Erm, yes..."

Peter brightened. "Oh good! Because my friend here, Sirius-" Peter pointed directly at a motionless Sirius "-you might know him, he wants to ask you something VERY important that he's been wanting to ask you for a very long time, so be nice to him, and don't hurt his feelings and get him upset, because you know, when Sirius is mad, he usually takes it out on me, so...er...yeah, talk to him, will you?"

Peter had said this all very quickly but it had not taken very long at all for Mona to look far beyond perplexed. She turned her head slightly towards Sirius, who had gone completely rigid, shaking with terror, but face the most brilliant shade of the visible spectrum.

Peter simply stood there, toothy grin on his face, looking mighty pleased with himself. That is, until he caught sight of Remus attempting to bang his head into the wall and shaking his head. Only then did Peter look at Sirius and the most unusual shade of magenta he had turned. Peter's mouth dropped wide open and comprehension dawned on his face. He glanced quickly at Mona who was giving all three very funny looks. "Er...never mind what I just said!" Peter interjected quickly, fear and embarrassment spreading across his face like wildfire. "I, uh, guess I just had a little too much pumpkin juice- Is there a Hogsmeade trip today?" He chuckled rather meekly, looking from Remus, who was avoiding Peter's eyes, to Sirius, who seemed to be turning blue at a sudden spurt of rage. "Erm- got to go!" Peter squealed swiftly, spinning around and bolting in the opposite direction, hurtling right into a group of Gryffindors.

Mona nodded her head once, confusion still clear on her face. "Right then, I'll just...go." She nodded curtly at Remus once, and turned around, head bowed a little, but enough just so that Remus caught ever so small a glance of what seemed to be a tiny grin on Mona's face...

Meanwhile, Sirius, having not noticed this favourably good sign, had already bolted off down the hallway at top speed after a fear-stricken Peter, shouting all sort of obscenities, some involving being roasted over a spit fire on a broomstick, others much more graphic and harsh.

Remus shook his head, mainly because of all the things that could go wrong in so short a time. Sighing knowingly, he headed off in the direction of where Peter and Sirius had bolted off to, rolling up his sleeves, fully aware with the feeling that he would probably have to be peeling Peter off the wall and bailing Sirius out of prison thereafter.

"Remus!" James jogged up to him, grin spread widely over his face. "How's it going mate? Hey-" James looked around only to find that two of his comrades were missing "-how did it go with Sirius and Mona?"

FIN