"Sirius. Sirius, wake up. Siiiiriuuuuusssss! SIIIIRIUUUSSSS! Sirius, you lazy mutt, get the hell up!"

Sirius flung the blankets off of him, landing to the floor, swung his legs over the edge of his bed and leaped into a sitting position. He quickly ran his hand through his hair and rubbed the crust out of his eyes. "I'm - I'm awake. Am I late for class? Oh great, if I'm late for McGonagalls' class again she's going to kill me, or worse, double my homework. James, can you hand me my shirt and -" James cut Sirius off with a laugh.

"Sirius, calm yourself mate. We're not at Hogwarts. Remember, we graduated two months ago." He gave Sirius a good, hard slap on the back and chuckled again.

"Wh- where am I then?" asked Sirius, looking around, a bit bewildered by the well known fact. His vision was still hazy from sleep, so it took him a moment or two to recognize the familiar furnishings covered in dirty clothes and rubbish that was his new home.

James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all pitched in their money (some more than others) and rented a place close to Hogwarts. The reason for the location was simply because they loved running into their old teachers and classmates. Besides that, they still hadn't gotten over the fact that they were allowed to go to Hogsmeade any time they wanted to. One of the more important reasons though, was that they wanted to keep close to the Shrieking Shack. At least, until they found a better place for their monthly romp.

There was a minute of silence while Sirius sat on his bed, yawning and scratching his head. Then James made a show of clearing his throat, which got Sirius' attention. He looked up at James, expecting him to speak, but James just looked at him, as if expecting Sirius to speak. Sirius was completely confused by this, and after a few minutes of mutual staring, decided he wasn't about to sit there all day waiting for James to speak when James looked at him as if he had cleared his throat.

"Yeah?"

"What's today Sirius?" asked James, half expecting him to remember, but subconsciously knowing not to expect anything short of "today is today, because yesterday was yesterday". As he had thought, Sirius just looked at his feet as if he were trying to remember, when, in actuality, he was just waiting for James to tell him. James sighed through a smile. Then he grinned and said, closer to squealed, "Today you and Remus are coming with me to pick out an engagement ring for Lily!" he stopped, a puzzled look on his face, then " I never thought I'd be so excited about jewelry." The puzzle look continued for a fraction of a second as he reflected on this, then his focus returned to Sirius. "Please hurry up though, I don't want this to take all day. I'm hoping it'll only take an hour or so." James then left the room. Sirius could hear James muffled voice telling Remus about Sirius' waking words. Sirius' just sat there, on his bed, staring at his pinstriped pajama pants. He was trying to remember yesterday, but they were all just quick flashes of moments. Him brushing his teeth, a yellow towel secured around his waist (flash) sitting at a park, punching James' shoulder as squirrel after squirrel ran by (flash) eating dinner, Remus throwing a piece of Peters chicken at Sirius, Peter yelling at Remus in turn for wasting perfectly good chicken (flash) James announcing triumphantly that he planed to marry Lily, and nobody, not even Lily herself, was going to stop him. He then proceeded to pass out, his slack face crashing-landing in a bowl of peanuts. (flash) Remus and Sirius guiding James and Peter to their beds, both beyond drunk, Remus and Sirius not far behind, but sober enough to find their apartment after the fifth try. Sirius chuckled, but it came out a thick, throaty noise due to the thick layer of mucus that had formed from his drooling overnight.

He slowly heaved himself out of bed and wearily made his way down the hall into their only bathroom. He closed his eyes as he released what he was sure to be over a liter full of piss into, on, and around the toilet (morning aim is never good). He then proceeded to strip off his pants and boxers and step down into the curtained off square of flooring that was their shower.