Remus woke up to the rather painful sensation of being jerked backwards and forwards by his shoulders. At first he thought it all part of the interesting dream he'd just been having, but as it dawned on him that the voice urgently whispering his name belonged to James, his brain started to click into action. After all, James only ever woke you up if it was an emergency. Other than that he just left any sleeper well alone.

"Nggggh?" Remus cracked open an eye to squint at James's wide eyed expression, before feeling the heavy hooks of sleep drag them closed again. The shaking became more violent.

"Remus! Wake up!"

"Huh?" Remus mumbled, peeling open his eyes again to check it definitely wasn't a dream. Unfortunately, James was still there and all-too solid. He looked panicked. Funny. James hardly ever flipped out over anything.

"Wassa matter, James?" Remus finally found the strength to sit up in bed to stare groggily at James, back slumped. James pulled an agonised face, pressing one finger to his lips with his eyes popping. Remus, however, was still completely at sea.

"There's someone in here!"

The statement took a while to sink in. Remus blinked at James, feeling totally baffled. "Er – yeah, there usually is…"

"No! I mean, someone I don't know! Some guy with short black hair is lying in Sirius's bed!" James's eyes were wide and genuine, and before Remus could reply he had hauled him up out of bed and dragged him over to Sirius's bed. "Look," he said in a deathly whisper, "There. Now you're not telling me that's Sirius!"

Staring, Remus gave a huge yawn and squinted at the patch of dark hair on the white pillow through watering eyes. For a moment he frowned, trying to figure out who could possibly be – and then he remembered. It was certainly strange how completely unrecognisable Sirius looked from the back now.

"That is Sirius," he mumbled sleepily, glancing up at the clock. "I'm going back to bed…"

James gave a very sarcastic snort, folding his arms and looking down his nose at Remus. "Have you gone silly over night? Earth to Remus. Earth to Remus. Sirius has long hair, remember?"

The figure on the bed shifted at his words, rolling onto his side so his sleeping face was in their direction. James's mouth fell open. For a moment he seemed totally speechless.

"Remus?" he whispered, eyes glued to Sirius's face, "Is that…Sirius?"

"Yes, James," Remus yawned, though it was vaguely amusing to see James look so totally shell shocked, "He had his hair cut yesterday. Can I go back to bed now?"

He didn't seem to hear him. James continued to stand there, staring at Sirius and frowning so hard his face looked squashed. "You're seriously saying that's him?"

"Yes, I am," sighed Remus, and without bothering to witness what was sure to be an amusing reunion between Sirius and James, he trailed back to bed. It was, as he noticed as he glanced up at the clock, five o'clock in the morning, after all.

0o0

Two hours later and Remus found himself traipsing down the stairs into the common room with James, Sirius and Peter, his hair sticking up at all angles and eyes still full of sleep. Peter trailed alongside him, frankly looking like death warmed up, something Remus decided tactfully not to point that out, knowing he could hardly look any better himself. James and Sirius, of course, were acting like it was mid-afternoon already and were bickering loudly right in Remus's ear.

"…ah, just shut up about my hair already, Potter, you're obviously bursting with jealousy…"

"Jealous? Me? No way in hell, Black, I'm just saying you look weird, is all."

"Well, thanks very much! I thought it actually looked alright, but if Jamesie says it looks weird…"

"I didn't say it like that! All I said was…"

A girl walking across the common room glared at them, disturbed by their loud voices. She was probably in the year above, Remus thought, as she was fairly taller than them. As she shook her head and made to move on, however, Remus saw her do the smallest of double-takes, her eyes widening. Very briefly, she stood still, eyes glued to either James or Sirius as though she couldn't quite believe her eyes. Frowning, Remus glanced behind him, but all he saw were his arguing mates. Looking back, he saw the girl had walked away, and was now climbing out the portrait hole, her large blue eyes looking over her shoulder at them.

Strange.

Things got stranger, however, as they too clambered through the hole and walked along the corridors to the Great Hall. Almost every girl they passed seemed to do a double-take as they came around the corner, their gazes fixed unblinkingly on James and Sirius as though they were strolling around naked. One girl with pigtails walked straight into a wall she was so busy staring at them, and went so red her face resembled a tomato. Girls muttered to each other as they caught sight of them, the younger ones standing rather closer together than was ordinary, looking rather pink, whereas the older ones tossed their hair and stared openly, lips slightly apart.

It was only as they came into the Great Hall and sat down did it finally dawn on Remus exactly what, or rather who, they were all looking at.

"D'you ever get the feeling someone's watching you?" mumbled Sirius, rubbing the back of his neck and glancing round the Hall. Behind him, a pack of girls giggled and started whispering to each other, their eyes constantly flickering over to Sirius. Remus shook his head, bemused.

"I mean, I know I'm devastatingly handsome and everything," he continued sarcastically, "But why the hell is everyone staring at us?"

James gave a mock wave over at the whispering girls, who all fell about laughing and, much to his surprise, waved back. Remus swallowed a snort of laughter and started buttering his toast, watching Sirius out the corner of his eye.

After complaining loudly about it was so unfair, he'd only had his hair cut and now it felt like the whole world was staring at him, Sirius finally found solitude in ramming his mouth so full with bacon he couldn't talk, and sat there chewing, a vaguely disgruntled look on his face. Silence fell over the four of them, sitting there trying to ignore the blatant looks and comments being thrown their way. Remus didn't particularly mind. When it came to shutting out the outside world, he had quite a talent at it, after all, he had had a lot of practise.

James, on the other hand, had not.

"I swear I'm going to say something to them in a minute," James growled, whipping his head round as a girls high pitched laughter rang out behind him, "If they laugh just once more…"

Sirius, his mouth too full to speak, nodded furiously and stuck his thumbs up to show he approved of this idea.

"Anyone would think we'd sprouted an extra arm…and they all keep whispering to each other as well, like they all have this huge secret!"

"Yeah!" Peter chipped in, wide eyed, "And then they look over here and start giggling again! I wonder what they're saying."

Remus sat up slightly straighter at this point. Carefully, making sure not to make it too obvious, he leant backwards, towards the Ravenclaw table where most of the laughing girls were sitting whispering to each other. After shutting out James and Peter's ranting voices, he concentrated on listening to the higher ones, the ones muttering to each other right behind him…

"…Black…never noticed…I mean, wow!"

"…looking this way…new hair…merlin…"

"Hiya, you alright?"

Remus jumped violently as the last sentence burst his ear drums at about sixty decibels. Wincing and looking round he stared as someone he had never seen in his life plopped herself down on the bench between James and Sirius, who both leapt backwards in shock.

"Vicki!" James cried at once, his face a mixture of happiness and terror, and they all stared at the newcomer, slightly dumfounded. 'Vicki' wasn't exactly average in her looks. For the first time since he had heard of her, Remus finally understood why she was so popular. With her dark red, ringlety hair tumbling seductively over her shoulders and slanted green eyes, lined with thick dark eyelashes she had half the student population turning their heads to look at her, and she seemed to know it. Smiling confidently round at all of them, she reached out and took a grape from the centre of the table, biting into it with perfect, straight teeth. Peter gazed at her, agog.

"Hi," she said, her voice velvety and smooth, the voice of a singer, "I'm Vicki. It's nice to meet you all."

"Pleasure," muttered Remus, praying she wouldn't talk to him. Peter managed a faint squeak, and Sirius, his mouth still full up with bacon, merely nodded, though his eyes were wide.

"Vicki," said James again, his voice much more deeper, talking in a way Remus had never heard him use before, "It's real nice of you to come over here and everything, last night was…"

"Sirius, is it?" Vicki said, putting her back to James to face the still chomping Sirius, "It's especially nice to meet you."

Sirius froze. Remus frowned, taken aback at the way she had so blatantly ignored her so called 'boyfriend.' James himself was looking totally shocked, as though Vicki had just kicked him in the teeth.

Giving an enormous swallow, Sirius sought desperately for something to say. "It's- er – nice to meet you too!" He gave a nervous little laugh, eyes zooming over to Remus, to James, to Vicki again. He seemed quite bewildered, and kept craning his head to look at James.

Vicki leaned forwards, gently touching his arm with one long-nailed finger and he jumped as though he'd been stung. "I've been thinking about you a lot, recently. You might even say…I can't get you out of my mind." Her head tilted to one side, gazing intently into his eyes. "How would you like to accompany me for a walk round the lake tonight?"

Sirius's mouth fell open, giving Vicki a very pleasant view of mashed up bacon stuck in his teeth. James's eyes were two narrowed slits behind Vicki's back, his knuckles white from clenching the tabletop so hard, breathing heavily through his nose.

For one long moment, Sirius didn't say anything. He simply sat there, staring at Vicki as though he couldn't quite believe his ears. Briefly he flashed a glance at Remus, pleading for help, but Remus could only sit and watch, waiting on tenterhooks for his reply. They all watched in silence as Sirius's dark eyes darted from Vicki to his hands, Vicki to back again. Sumner herself had her head held expectantly on one side, small smile stretching her lips as though already convinced of his answer. Remus chanced a look at James and saw his eyes were locked with Sirius, face held stiff and grim, fingers tap-tap-tapping on the table, getting heaver and more insistent and the seconds grew longer.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Sirius was staring at James, a guarded look in his eyes.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Vicki's smirk was slipping, blinking with her long, soft eyelashes as she gazed at Sirius, awaiting his answer.

Tap. Tap. Tap. James's other hand was clenched in his lap, his lip curling up to almost a sneer, eyes two slits in his face.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Everyone was staring at Sirius, their eyes locked without mercy on his face, and he seemed to be wilting under the pressure, and looked as though any minute he was going to –

"QUIT STARING AT ME!"

crack.

"What?" Vicki looked shocked. Sirius whipped his head round to look at her.

"Not you! Them!" he flapped his hands at Remus, James and Peter, and Vicki peered round at them, confused. Then she looked back at him, her face hardening.

"I'll take that as a no, shall I?"

"Huh?" Sirius stared at her, then shook his head as though trying to clear his thoughts. "No. Yes. I mean, no! Oh, bloody hell…" He swallowed, and began biting his fingernail. "What I meant to say was…aren't you…and James…going out?" he gestured with his fingers towards James, who promptly went scarlet. Vicki glanced over her shoulder at him with a frown.

"Him?"

It was only one word. One single, mono syllable word. Yet as soon as it she said it James's face crumpled and flushed even worse. Abruptly he stood up and walked out as fast as he could, and Sirius watched him go, a torn look in his eyes. Then, without another word he too stood up and headed out after him as well, leaving Vicki sitting there on her own, who for a moment looked completely thunderstruck. Out of all the people she'd ever asked out, Remus could safely say from her expression that none of them had ever done that before.

He looked at her uncertainly, then exchanged a helpless look with Peter. Or rather, he would have exchanged a helpless look with Peter if he wasn't still staring, open mouthed at what was clearly an angel to him, no matter how many boys she dropped.

Vicki sank her head gracefully into her hands, then proclaimed loudly to no-one in particular, "Well. How rude." She sighed and folded her arms on the tabletop, smiling ruefully over at Remus. "Are they always like that?"

"Er…" Remus shrugged, avoiding her gaze. She shook her head and dropped her chin delicately onto one hand, gazing over at him with large, orb-like green eyes.

"I don't suppose you would like to accompany me for a stroll around the lake tonight?"

Remus was thankful nothing was in his mouth, otherwise he would have spat it all over the table in his shock. "What? No!" he snapped, rather more forcefully than he intended. Vicki didn't seem to mind, however, and only shrugged and stood up.

"It was worth a shot. You're kind of cute, you know. I suppose you have a girlfriend?"

Wordlessly, Remus shook his head and watched her smile and walk away. Then he went back to his toast, shaking slightly.

Eight in the morning and it had been the craziest day he'd had so far.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Guess what? ONLY SIX REVIEWS UNTILL WE HIT THE BIG 100!

Whoo! Triple figures! I can hardly believe it!

Big shout-out to Carly, if she's reading this, as she promised she would. Go read her stories under PocketPoodle, at because they rock! Trust me, I've read them.

Love and peace to all of you. Don't forget to review and break up my revision…

Mooncheese xxx