"Where is he?" Sirius Black moodily leaned against the wall of the Gryffindor Common Room, shaking his hair from his eyes as he peered around for his missing companion. Remus, to whom he had been talking to, merely shrugged and continued reading his book. Padfoot scowled at his friend, glaring disapprovingly at the book he had been reading for the past hour.
"You are not helping."
"'Course I'm not." Remus murmured, clearly oblivious to whatever Sirius was saying and much too engrossed in his book. Sirius grunted and turned away from him, still looking over his shoulder at the entrance to the Common Room. After staring at the unmoving portrait for a while longer, Sirius seemed to have made up his mind about something, voicing a comment.
"We need to set up mouse traps."
"What? Those muggle rat-catching contraptions? Peter only got lost, there's no need to try and-" Remus objected, but Sirius quickly corrected him.
"-No, for James. We can try and 'snap' him out of it, ha ha…"
"That was a pathetic joke- and I don't think he'll fit in a mouse trap."
"His toes will." Padfoot said with a rather dark tone, a smirk quickly flashing across his rugged features. A twitch of a grin appeared on the corners of Moony's mouth, but he managed to keep a straight face. Just as he opened his mouth to reply, the faint sounds of someone talking on the other end were heard, a feminine voice- though low- and a normal teenage voice. Sirius hastily flung himself forward against the portrait, pressing his ear against it to try and hear what was happening on the other side. Remus shook his head at his friend's actions, smiling to himself as his nose was once again buried in his book. Sirius, on the other hand, was busy trying to piece together the conversation going on.
"…Just let me SIIIING for YOO-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOOOO!" The female voice said, transcending from a normal speaking tone to an exaggerated operatic sing-song voice. A male's voice came next, sounded exasperated.
"Just let me in- Frogspawn, frogspawn, frogspawn- how many times do I have to say it?"
"No SIIII-HIIII-HIIIIIEEEIIIINGUHing for you?" The female voice burst out into song on the word 'singing', and Sirius had to draw back and cover his ears for a moment because of the extremely high- and off- pitch. The boy's voice continued, sounding even angrier
"No, just let me in!"
"Oh, fine, just wait a tick." The female voice snapped, sounding huffy and disappointed. Sirius, too involved in trying to figure out who the boy's voice belonged to, remembered too late that the woman's voice belonged to the portrait, which meant she would be opening in a moment. Indeed she did- the painting swung inwards, pushing Padfoot (who was already pressed up against its back, listening) quickly into the opposing wall. The eavesdropping boy let out a dog-like yelp, smashed momentarily in between the painting's back and the castle wall. When the portrait swung easily back into place, Sirius groaned, closed his eyes, and sunk down onto the ground, feeling very flattened. From beyond he could hear Remus's cheery voice, finally withdrawing from his book and speaking to whoever has just entered.
"Wotcher, Prongs!" Sirius perked up like a dog who had heard its name called. His eyes snapped open and he stared ahead, seeing Remus greeting James. Sirius's eyes narrowed and he rose from the ground, prepared to storm forward and finally give James a piece of his mind. But put his foot forward to charge, the portrait swung open and once again sandwiched him against the wall. When the painting returned to its normal place, Sirius just fell forward on his face, groaning even louder. From where he was staring at the deep red carpet, his face squashed into it, he heard Remus's happy voice again.
"Oh, and hiya, Wormtail! Where have you two been?"
"Well, Wormtail got lost, we know that." Sirius quickly piped up, wrenching his head from the floor. He quickly stood up and seemed to be very surprised at Remus's scowling face, and an extremely annoyed look from a rather ruffled Peter. James looked happy about something or other. Sirius, grinning inwardly, leaned against the wall and looked to Peter and Remus with a look of mock confusion.
"Why're you all looking at me like that?"
"You lost Peter. He didn't get lost." Moony protested, frowning as Sirius grinned even broader. Peter nodded in agreement, making Sirius have to work very had to keep his face at least semi-straight.
"Oh, was I walking too fast for him?"
"You were sprinting down the halls and turning corners as fast as possible. The only was I could keep up was by, well, smelling you."
"I was so bloody brilliant!" Sirius cut in, punching the air with his fist and looking pleased. "I was sprinting and ducking and you two were lagging like you had sticksap on the bottom of your shoes, I could have totally gotten you lost if- wait, you smelled me!"
"Just another perk of my, ah, 'condition', Padfoot." Remus said, frowning.
"And you smell like week-old dungbombs." James smoothly cut in, grinning as he ruffled his hair with his free hand.
"Oh, so now you come back to us- after total defeat." Sirius snapped, not at all in the mood to joke now that he really noticed James was there. James looked slightly alarmed, looking wildly from Sirius and shooting a suspicious glance at Peter.
"How do you know about that!"
"We saw you across the lake." Remus said simply, calmly watching the two as they snapped at each other. James, hearing Remus give his comment, suddenly looked relieved. He nervously brushed his hand through his hair, making it even more untidy.
"Oh, that. I thought- never mind. So, you saw what happened across the-"
"-Never mind! Something else happened? Don't tell me you went chasing after her even when you stormed out of the library! We went looking for you-"
"-But Sirius got distracted; thinking it was much more fun to get Peter and I lost-"
"-And you made me wander around the castle all by myself-"
"-But none of that matters!" Black snarled, glowering at Lupin and Pettigrew. "What matters is there's something that Prongs isn't telling us!"
Sirius and Remus looked expectantly at James, while Peter attempted to look suddenly interested in his shoelaces. Sirius gave Peter a scrutinizing look before returning his glare at James.
"So, what are you 'never minding' about? Did something happen with Lily? Did something happen with Peter? Something happened, and I'm going to find out even if you don't tell me." After stating this, he gave Peter a rather significant look, smirking. Peter, who had looked up from his shoelaces, took this as something to take warning from and looked rather apprehensive. James; knowing that Peter would cave in when Sirius interrogated him about what happened, decided to just give up and tell.
"Fine- I met Evans on the way from the library."
"HA! I knew it." Black let out a bark of laughter, punching the air with his fist as a look of triumph quickly passed over his rugged features.
"What happened to your shoes?" The highly-observant Remus questioned, staring at James's socked feet. Sirius shot an angry look towards his interrupting friend, and then looked to James, nodding for him to go on. James rolled his eyes at Sirius's eagerness, but continued.
"We… talked. And… she didn't seem too happy. She, er, put a charm on my shoes and made them stick to the floor." He looked towards Remus, a lopsided grin coming across his face. "That answers the shoe question."
"'She didn't seem too happy.' Why?" Sirius nosily questioned, frowning.
"Well… I dunno; she doesn't like how we treat Snevillus."
"What, she's sticking up for that pointy-faced git?" Sirius growled, obviously not very fond of Severus. Peter sniggered and James nodded in reply. Sirius continued, looking surly. "Figures. Who does she think she is, anyways- savior of the Slytherins?"
"Yup." James answered, grinning. Peter sniggered even louder and Sirius couldn't repress his own smile. Remus rolled his eyes. Suddenly, Sirius looked… serious (no pun intended) again.
"So, this means your going to go soft on us to impress her?"
"What!" James sputtered, laughing. "Sure, I like her, but not that much." Sirius looked slightly relieved. "If we stopped, who wouwd poor Sevvy-wevvy have to pway wif?" James spoke in a feigned baby voice, clasping his hands together underneath his chin in mock concern. Sirius laughed in his dog-like way, and Peter's sniggering was reaching the volume of irritatingly earsplitting. After a few moments of the three animagi laughing loudly together (the werewolf had held his book up to his face to mask his chortling), they subsided. James and Sirius grinned at each other while Peter continued to titter shrilly. Finally, Sirius turned around to the smaller boy, looking annoyed.
"Are you trying to break every glass in the castle?"
Pettigrew stopped abruptly, turning a bit red. The four boys glanced at each other for a brief moment, and silently headed up to the dormitory- it was late, anyways.
