By the time Sirius and James got back to the Gryffindor common room Remus had completed his task. Greta, fortunately, had returned to Hufflepuff. Sirius slid into a seat next to Robin Lark and put an arm around the back of her chair.
"Hey there."
She stood up to remove his arm, and then sat back down. He raised his eyebrows.
"Okey dokey, I can see Lupin hasn't shifted his taste a jot and I'm going to go visit Pearl E. White."
Robin snorted and turned back to Lupin, who did not approve of such girls. Pearl was extremely flaky, something that Sirius could commiserate with. Robin glanced toward James.
"Are you going to sit down or what?"
"Who bit off your shoulder?" James said. He followed Sirius to the foot of the girls' dorm and peered up. "Is she coming?"
"Eventually, yes."
They waited a few minutes. Pearl came down.
"Hi."
"Hi," he said, rather glibly he thought.
"What do you want?"
"Are you hungry?"
"Not really. Why?"
"Do you want to go to the kitchens?"
"I'm not hungry," she said.
"What about Hogsmeade?"
"No, Sirius," James said warningly. Pearl was intrigued.
"Hogsmeade? How?"
"Just a little secret of ours," Sirius said, tapping his nose. "Go on, James, you know you've done it."
"Yes, but that was –" There was no way around it. "Pearl isn't very trustworthy."
Pearl covered her mouth with a hand, her eyes filling up with tears. Sirius put an arm around her shoulders.
"Shh, honey, I know you are. This is very secret, though. If anyone finds out we'll be in a lot of trouble."
"I'd never tell a soul," she whispered.
"Yes she would."
"Potter, go. Find someone to bring along or study or something, I don't care."