"Gods above," Sirius Black muttered to himself distractedly as he gazed through a pair of binoculars, an unforgiving and gluttonous smirk spreading across his handsome face. "Would you take a look at these two?"

Remus Lupin, sat on a bench with a book open on his lap at the far end of the balcony, chuckled. "I really don't think you should be spying on them, do you, Sirius?"

Sirius either chose to ignore Lupin, or was so completely engrossed in watching the dramatic scene before him unfold, that he didn't even hear.

"Hah, check out that grin," Sirius noticed, grinning himself. "Harry's got it bad this time."

Padfoot and the Professor were both lounging around this evening on their own balcony, one that hung from one of the many towers of Hogwarts, and one which they had unofficially claimed as their private place - for discussing highly urgent and important school matters, of course. Nothing else. Oh - except for being a peeping tom on ones Godson and the unlikely object of his affections.

Lupin decided to point this out to Sirius, who turned a dog-like ruffled head of long black hair over a bony shoulder and grinned with a mouthful of only slightly jagged white teeth.

Sirius and Lupin were certainly different. They were a strong contrast, just like Harry and Draco. Sirius was tall, gangly and pale, with an untidy mane of incredibly thick black hair and scruffy threadbare robes. He bounded about with all the enthusiasm of an eager dog: what's this, what's that, who are you, is this edible…? Lupin, on the other hand, was shorter, although just as stick-like, with brown hair flecked grey, and worn, toffee coloured skin flecked with more brown. He wore glasses, usually paired with a teacher-like frown or sarcastic smirk, and was more often than not carrying around a book of some size or description. Chalk and cheese indeed.

"I'm not peeping," Sirius insisted, and looked upwards as he searched for the right word. "I prefer to think of it as … uh, Godfathering."

"Sirius," Lupin said sternly, but with a smile, and reached a hand out to take the charmed binoculars. "It's time to stop now."

As Lupin held a hand out, Sirius' next exclamation overlapped what the Professor had said. "Look, they're really going for it --!"

"Enough!" Lupin laughed, now snatching the binoculars and depositing them in his large coat pocket before turning back to his seat and picking up his book. Sirius turned around, leaning on the balcony with both elbows, and faced Lupin.

"Why do you always spoil my fun, Remus?" Sirius whined with a mock pout directed towards the Professor.

Lupin looked up from his book slowly and gently pushed his wire-framed spectacles back onto his nose, looking over the lenses in exactly the same manner that he inspected his pupils. "And why don't you ever listen to me, Sirius?"

Padfoot grinned and folded his fingers into a gun-like shape, pretending to "shoot" at his partner. "Touche, Professor."

Lupin was eager to get back to his reading (Entertaining Tales of Muggle Mischief and Madness), but it appeared that Sirius wanted to talk some more.

"But still," the Animagus continued thoughtfully, "Who would've thought it, eh? Harry and Malfoy."

"We were the same," Lupin shrugged with a smile, his eyes glazing over with remembrance for just a few seconds. "An unlikely couple."

"Slow dancing to imaginary music?" Sirius scoffed and raised an eyebrow. "C'mon, Remus, we were hardly that … soppy."

"Oh, I seem to remember an event that happened during our sixth year on a summers night not entirely dissimilar to this one," Lupin said softly, and paused when Sirius' face showed no sign of familiarity. "You remember? When we stood together on this very balcony, slow dancing to imaginary music."

"Ah," Sirius remembered, blushing only slightly. "Point taken."

They fell silent again for a few minutes; Sirius lounging around lazily with his weight hanging over the stone wall of the balcony, and Lupin slowly flicking through the pages of his leather-bound book. Lupin eventually looked up, scratching his head.

"But I heard that Harry had been boasting about something to do with Ron," he noted with some confusion, and Sirius turned around.

"There was an incident," Sirius explained, wandering over to Lupin's bench and plopping himself down. "An incident that involved Harry, Ron, a particularly sweaty Quidditch practice, and an empty broom cupboard."

"Ah."

"Harry was pretty pleased about that for a while, yes," Sirius mused, nodding along slowly with his thoughts. He crossed his legs and slouched into the bench, folding one arm across the back and sneaking the other around Lupin's shoulders. "And, by the sounds of my charmed binoculars – " Sirius' eyes twinkled mischievously, " – Draco got pretty jealous. But – "

" – but tonight they kissed and made up – literally." Lupin smiled knowingly. Sirius sat up with interest, feigning surprise.

"What's this? A joke, from stuffy Professor Moony himself?" he cried mockingly.

"Spare me your sarcasm," Lupin said with a grin, and readjusted his glasses. As he made to return once again to his reading, one of Sirius' strong hands landed broadly on the page. The owner of the hand leant in close to Lupin's ear.

"Books are for bed," he whispered in a sing-song voice. Lupin cocked a sceptical eyebrow.

"Is that so?" he played along. "I could have sworn you preferred much more exciting activities in bed than reading, Padfoot."

Sirius shuffled himself closer still, his face so close to Lupin's that Sirius' nose nudged the arm of his partner's spectacles. Sirius' other arm had found itself on Lupin's shoulder, clutching onto him tightly.

"And you?" Sirius prompted in his husk, dog-like tones.

"And I…" Lupin said slowly, bowing his head a little and turning his head to meet Sirius'.

"You…?" Sirius lengthened out the word; he was enjoying this game.

"And I…" Lupin repeated. In the next instant, he planted a soft kiss on Sirius' waiting lips. The shaggy haired man swooned with delight and leant forwards, eager for more. But suddenly Lupin pulled away, and jumped to his feet.

"And I … have got to go and take my potion," Lupin finished on an anti-climax, giving his watch a quick glance. Sirius sighed hugely and flopped down onto the bench, sprawled out on his front. He pretended to sob into the wood for a few moments, before looking up. His dark eyes glinted in the moonlight, and he only noticed then that it was a full moon.

"I forgot about that," Sirius moaned with a pout. He brushed a clump of matted black hair behind one ear; it simply fell back down again.

"Well, it's a good thing I remembered," Lupin said, a little stuffily; that was the teacher part of him, creeping up and escaping to the surface. He shifted about, straightening his robes. "Or I could well be gnawing at your neck right now."

Before Lupin had realised the double meaning of the casual comment that had just slipped from his mouth, Sirius' face broke into a cheeky grin, his slightly fanged canine teeth showing.

"Don't tease me, Lupin," he joked. Lupin's face contorted into many different expressions, his mouth twisting with confusion, before he finally settled on casual indifference.

"Are you coming, or not?" Lupin asked genuinely, and when Sirius' face broke into yet another mischievous grin, Lupin gave himself a light smack on the forehead. Another comment with a double meaning, which would have meant nothing to most people - but Sirius never failed to notice these things. The shaggy-haired man rose to his feet, still smirking broadly.

"You know something, Sirius," Lupin sighed, but he was smiling. "You have all the maturity of a first year student."

"Would you expect anything less?" Sirius beamed. Lupin looked up into his glittering eyes.

"No, Sirius," he said honestly, as Sirius looped his arm through his own, and the pair headed for the entrance that lead off the balcony, back into Hogwarts. "No, I would not."