"And so," Sirius's voice sounded muffled through a mouthful of doughnut, "When I tried to get the old bat to reschedule my detention to Thursday, she doubled it to two hours!"

"Really?" From behind his huge iced bun, Remus could just about make out Peter's wide, shocked eyes. "But that's not fair!"

Sirius shrugged, wiping sugar from his upper lip. "I know. Doesn't mean I'm going to go to it, though."

The four of them were currently lounging in the kitchens, being served with so many cakes and doughnuts Remus lost count. Not that the house-elves were complaining, as far as he could see, judging from the huge, devoted grins on their faces they were loving serving up so much food.

"Yeah, but Sirius, this is McGonagall we're talking about here! She'll skin you alive if you don't turn up!" Not that James looked particularly bothered, as he helped himself to a generous portion of sponge cake. In fact, it was hard to decipher exactly what it was James looked like, behind the cream moustache and beard Sirius had given him earlier.

A huge, silver platter laden with doughnuts floated right in front of his eyes, making Remus yelp in surprise.

"Does sir want more doughnuts?" squeaked a large, blue eyed elf, beaming toothily up at him. "Sparky has made plenty, sir!"

"Er…" mumbled Remus, cautiously edging his chair away. "Um…no, thank you, I'm quite full…"

The large, sky blue eyes narrowed.

"Sparky wishes sir would have some more," squeaked the voice, though Remus could have sworn it had almost a growl to it, "Sir needs to be fattened up, if Sparky could take the liberty to say, sir…" The platter was so close he felt the metal sides digging into his throat. In a panic he looked down, and felt alarmed to see Sparky grin a little manically, eyes wide and bolting.

"Ah…" Remus cleared his throat nervously. "You know, maybe I will have another…thanks, Sparky…" Hand shaking, he pulled a random bun from the sticky pile teetering under his nose.

Much to his relief, the elf smiled happily and trotted off, huge platter balanced carefully in his long fingered hands. Remus watched him go, vowing to never refuse food from a house elf again.

"…what about you, Remus?"

With a start, he tuned abruptly back into the conversation. "Sorry?" he asked stupidly, blinking over at James.

"I said, don't you think McGonagall needs to loosen up a little?"

"Huh?" Remus stared at him, frowning. Then, with a jolt of memory, "Oh right. Yeah. Probably."

Sirius leaned forwards, moodily shredding up a piece of banana bread. "Oh, she needs to loosen up all right." A piece of crust hit the floor. "If how she sets her detentions is anything to go by." Another piece bounced across the tiles, scattering crumbs. "I'd say five years in a padded room ought to do it." With a sigh, he pulled off the rest of the crust and stuffed the soft, yellow bread into his mouth.

Remus watched him. "Why d'you do that?" he asked curiously.

Sirius glanced over at him. "Do what?"

"Pull off your crusts like that."

Sirius looked in surprise at the crusts on the floor. "I dunno."

Silence fell for a moment, as they all stared into space, thinking their own thoughts. Remus turned his gaze on the bustling house elves doing the washing up. Or at least, using their magic to make the plates wash themselves. It looked quite complicated, Remus thought. Even as he watched one house elf was directing four scrubbing brushes at once to clean pots with one hand, and was chopping up carrots with the other.

"It's 'cause they taste all burnt."

In confusion, they all turned their heads to focus on Peter, who stared earnestly back at them.

"Huh?" James and Sirius said simultaneously, reflecting Remus's thoughts exactly.

"The crust on the banana bread. It always tastes burnt!"

More silence. Peter blushed slightly.

"Riiiiight," James said slowly, raising his eyebrows. "Moving on from that fascinating piece of knowledge…Sirius, when is that detention supposed to be?"

"Uh…" Sirius checked his watch. "In four minutes time."

James stood up. "You're going to it."

"What?" Sirius stared at him like he was crazy. "Why?"

"Because if you don't, then she'll give you one for every night of the week! And you know what's happening this week, don't you?"

"Yes, James," replied Sirius promptly, "Bonfire night."

"Ye- no! What the hell? We have Quidditch practise, dummy! And the team needs you!" James punched one hand into the other, a look of fierce pride on his face. Then he looked at Sirius. "What's bonfire night?"

Sirius shrugged, glancing at Peter. "Peter was the one who told me about it. Apparently, it's the day all muggles go crazy and set off loads of bombs that make pretty colours."

Peter nodded. "It's true!"

"Really?" For a moment, James looked as though he wanted to inquire further into this, but shook himself out of it. "Anyway, whatever. Look, you're going to this detention. Now."

The four of them trailed out the portrait hole, Sirius audibly grumbling, "This is so unfair, I never make you go to your detentions!" yet following along behind everyone else quite willingly.

They all eventually made it to her classroom, with Sirius only ten minutes late, and they left him to mutter and grumble his way through the hour there.

0o0

It was midnight.

Clouds scurried across a starless sky, driven by a harsh wind that blew, cold enough to numb the skin of any mortal. The lake rippled as though it were liquid metal; cold grey waves lapping the black shores.

Remus glanced out the window and shuddered, goose bumps prickling up and down his arms.

"Hey, Remus! We're back!"

He jumped and spun round, grinning as the three boys spilled through the door, arms laden with bottles of pumpkin juice, buns and anything else. They all looked flushed and excited, eyes gleaming.

"Honey, I'm home," drawled Sirius, dumping his load on his bed. "You should have come with us, Remus! It was great, we nearly got caught by Filch twice!"

He beamed, as though any sane person couldn't possibly wish for more than almost getting caught rule breaking by a caretaker.

"Oh yeah, we sure did!" said James, very sarcastically, "I mean, we saw him at the end of the corridor, it was such a near miss!"

Sirius smacked him round the head with a bag of rock cakes. "Oi! He looked right at us, and stopped for a moment. So there!" He stuck out his tongue, which might have been more effective if he had been able to keep the huge, hyper grin off his face.

James regarded him without smiling. "Sirius, doing childish things like that is not big and it's not clever." He sighed, shaking his head seriously, then pulled the corners of his mouth down, crossed his eyes and waggled his tongue as widely as he could.

Peter and Sirius cracked up, and Remus couldn't stop himself from chuckling too. He looked so ridiculous!

"Very – very nice James," chortled Sirius eventually, "Now get your mask off, its not Halloween yet."

"Oh, cheers!" retorted James, "I'll have you know that this face gets all the girls falling at my feet."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. I call it: 'The Potter Charm'"

Sirius shook his head, dark eyes gleaming. "Potter Charm, my arse! How many girlfriends have you had exactly, James?"

The four of them, without any talking had somehow come to sit in a rough circle on the floor. Sirius was lolling back on his elbows, Peter was on his stomach with a mouth already full of sweets. James leaned on a bed, one arm sprawled on top of it. He looked rather pink.

"Loads of girls fancy me!"

"So? It doesn't mean anything unless you actually go out with one of them. Which you haven't done yet!"

James went even redder. "Oh well. I can just stay a handsome bachelor for my entire life, never being tied down!" He grinned suddenly, leaning his head back on the mattress as well. "Isn't that a good thing?"

There was a pause. Then, "S'pose so," grunted Sirius, while Peter nodded slowly, a jelly slug hanging down his chin.

James looked over at Remus. "What about you, Remus? What d'you reckon?"

Remus frowned, taken aback at being asked his opinion. "Er – I dunno." He looked at his feet. "I don't think I have much choice in the matter," he added softly.

He immediately fought the urge to slap his hand over his mouth. He didn't know how that had slipped out. Heart speeding up slightly, he looked round and saw them all staring at him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Sirius bluntly, "You betrothed or something?"

Oh Merlin. He'd landed himself in this one. "Of course not!" he laughed nervously. "It's just…no girl would ever look twice at me."

Which was perfectly true. After all, no-one ever had. He felt the colour in his cheeks deepen as they all blinked at him in surprise.

"What are you talking about?" said Sirius, "That Evans girl likes you."

It took a while to realise what he meant. "She does not!" Remus looked at him, stunned. "I've only ever talked to her once, and even then we were only doing homework!"

James shook his head, sighing. "And Remus, how did you end up doing, ah, homework together?"

"I can't remember," muttered Remus defiantly, "It was just a…spur of the moment thing."

Sirius gave a very high pitched chuckle. "A lot of things happen on the spur of the moment, y'know Remus!"

"Like you're the big expert," Remus grinned, then checked himself. Sirius might not like him saying that. Anxiously, he looked over at him.

On the contrary, Sirius smirked right back at him. "More expert than you, apparently! And you!" He directed the last part of this statement at James, earning him a thump on the head with a pillow.

"Ooooh, has it progressed to pillows now James? Should I be scared?" Sirius crawled across the floor, cowering behind Remus. "Help me, Remus, save me from the wrath of James's pillow!"

A bag of marshmallows sailed through the air, aiming for his face. Sirius, however, reached out and caught them deftly before it touched a thing.

"Thanks, James! How did you know?" He laughed, ripping open the bag and then shoved four in his mouth at once.

James, smiling despite himself, flopped back down on the floor. "So, how'd detention with Maggy-Goo go?"

Sirius blinked. "'Oo?" he asked, accidentally spitting parts of marshmallow onto Remus's trousers. "Ooopsh, sorry Remush…" He swallowed. "Who's Maggy-Goo?"

James rolled his eyes as though it were obvious. "McGonagall. Duh."

"Why'd you say…?"

James shrugged. "Felt like it."

Sirius stared at him. Then he shrugged, obviously deciding to not even bother. "It went okay. She lectured me for being late for half of it anyway, so all I had to do was switch off and nod politely every time she paused. It was easy."

Remus looked at him. "What about the rest of it?"

"Lines. Must have been feeling too lazy to think up a real punishment."

Remus leaned back, letting the three of them talk, or sometimes, throw things at each other. He studied Sirius's face, animated eyes shining even when they were discussing the dullest of things, his arms gesturing wildly. There was James, his emotions not worn on his face as boldly as Sirius, yet it was still there, the odd quirk of his lip or laugh, the fall and rise of his voice, letting the world know (or at least the three other people in the room) that he was content. Peter…well, Remus had seen Peter nervous. He would fidget, sweat and sometimes, if you looked closely enough, you could see his eye muscle twitch. Not now. He was tuned closely into the conversation, piping up often with comments, or laughing along with the jokes.

They were comfortable around him, Remus realised. They were all totally at ease, not holding up any guards or masks. He'd never been around people that long without them flinching when he approached them, or kept their voices at a forced neutral around him. That was at home, where his secret was known by his entire family, cousins, aunts and uncles included. They nearly all treated him like he was some sick, highly contagious invalid. One cousin wouldn't even let him touch her.

Cautiously, he lifted an arm and tapped Sirius tentatively on the arm.

Sirius glanced round. "Wassup?" he asked cheerfully. Another spray of chewed marshmallow hit Remus on the cheeks. He wiped it off, grimacing.

"Er…Can I have a marshmallow?"

"No." Sirius's face was deadpan, then he laughed. "Don't look so worried! I was only kidding. Take your dammed marshmallow." He tossed the bag into Remus's lap, and Remus scooped them up.

As he chewed on his single marshmallow, he noticed how he was drawn right into the circle, not sitting on the outskirts of it as he automatically did at home. It was though he had been accepted. It felt…strange. Almost as though he was trespassing, or doing something against the rules.

Yet good. It definitely felt good.

So sod it. If they were comfortable around him, then he could be at ease around them.

After all, he thought with a touch of irony, wasn't that what friends were for?

Yet all the time, even when they engaged in an all-out marshmallow war, a niggling voice kept whispering at the back of his mind: But do they really know what they're accepting?

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

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