Disclaimer: Once again I'll say it: to my great disappointment, I don't own Padfoot, Prongs, or Moony. However, to my great pleasure I don't own Wormtail. Lil Miss Shiring is definitely mine, though.

Stage 2: Teasing

The four friends trekked across the grounds toward the Hogwarts castle on their way to Potions. As they did so, they merged with the same group of girls that Remus had been looking at—including Helen Shiring. James started running his fingers back through his hair, giving it a windswept look as if he had just dismounted from his broom, causing some of the girls to giggle. Sirius, not to be outdone, pulled out his wand and started doing tricks with it, flipping it around a few times, then made flowers come out of it without saying a word and presented them to the prettiest girl of the lot. Remus, meanwhile, attempted to disappear, his head angled down so his shaggy hair concealed the vivid blush on his cheeks. Peter, of course, was in the background, being the least noticed of the four.

Remus did sneak glimpses up at Shiring and noticed, with no small amount of gratification, that she was not one of those blushing and giggling at the antics of the two handsomer Marauders. He normally didn't really mind Sirius and James showing off, but this time it really bugged him. Couldn't they give it a rest? If they were so convinced that he was in love with Shiring, why did they have to start showing off when she was right there? He didn't say any of this, of course. He never voiced these things. Soon enough, they were ascending the steps to the great doors of Hogwarts castle, heading for a class where he knew the situation would only worsen.

James and Sirius weren't really the types to notice those in a class that they didn't know or if they weren't interesting. Shiring was always bent over her work, and while she was definitely pretty—the blush on Remus' face increased—she also had glasses and freckles, and while this appealed to Remus, she wasn't the type for the other two to be interested in. Which was best, of course. If those two were interested in her (or if she was interested in them), then Remus would have had even less of a chance. Shiring had always been in their Potions class; James and Sirius had just never noticed. Lily Evans and Severus Snape were also in their Potions class, so that could explain it. Remus wasn't at all sure what his friends would do with the knowledge that he had a crush on Shiring, but he knew he didn't want to find out. With a sigh, he realized that things had only just begun.

They queued up by the door to the dungeon, Remus attempting to hide behind James and Sirius, who were only too happy to keep the attention on them. Behind them, came Snape, his nose in a book as usual, and Evans. Most of Shiring's group of friends had broken off, so she now stood leaning against the wall, looking off down the corridor ponderously. Remus tried to watch her and be discreet about it, but ended up blushing every time someone so much as glanced at him, so he pulled a book out of his bag and stuck his nose in it to avoid looking stupid.

There were several other people there, of course, but none of them were really particularly important. There were a few more Ravenclaws, some from Shiring's group but apparently not really close to her in particular, some Hufflepuffs, a few more Slytherins who did not come with Snape, and one other Gryffindor. Peter had broken off from their group, as he wasn't anywhere near good enough at Potions to be continuing at the N.E.W.T. level. He had an off-period and had gone to the library to work on some homework, though it was doubtful that he would get much done without one of the other Marauders there to help him.

Slughorn soon arrived, putting a halt to the showing off of James and Sirius, and the class filed into the dungeon, the trio going in last. James and Sirius paused on the threshold to survey where everyone was sitting and chose a table at an opportune location: Evans was on one side, Snape was in front of her, and Shiring was to the other side. Gloomily, Remus joined them at the table, hoping his friends would get distracted by the lure of flirting with Evans (for James) and tormenting Snape (for Sirius).

He would have no such luck.

"All right, class," began Professor Slughorn jovially, "please get out your scales and ingredients, as well as your books. Today, you'll be brewing a quick little potion—found on page 20 of your book—though not necessarily easy! It's called the Draught of Temperation, a little something that calms serious mood swings. Very helpful once you get married, boys." Slughorn winked at the class. "All right, then. Hop to it! These potions should take no longer than forty-five minutes to complete."

There was a general rustle as everyone got out the things they would need, flipped open books, and started fires under their cauldrons. James, predictably, almost instantly leaned over and started whispering to Evans. "Hey, Evans," he said, his voice changed rather noticeably to make him sound older and more mature, "do you have any spare porcupine quills? I'm all out, and I figured that the best potion-maker in the class was bound to have the best ingredients, too..." Unconsciously, he rumpled his hair.

She didn't even spare him an irritated glance. "Borrow some from your friends, Potter," she said, counting out beetle eyes.

James affected a hurt look. "Why, aren't you my friend, Evans?"

This time she did look up, but only to glare at him briefly before looking back down at the beetle eyes. "I didn't realize you were that impossibly thick, Potter." With an irritated breath, she dumped her handful of beetle eyes back into the container. "You made me lose count. Shut up, and go away."

Sirius snickered as James slid back into his seat to pull out his own container of beetle eyes. "Looks like she could use a dose of this Draught of Temperation herself."

"Shut it, Padfoot," snapped James, starting to count out the number of eyes he would need for the potion.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Touchy touchy," he murmured, though clearly annoyed that James would take his rejection anger out on him. In order to relieve his own frustration, Sirius took a few beetle eyes and started flicking them into Snape's cauldron, intent on ruining the boy's potion. Unfortunately for Snape—and fortunately for the peace of the class—he didn't notice what was being done, and Sirius quit just as he turned to dump the required number of beetle eyes into the cauldron. Sirius smirked, satisfied that the potion Snape was brewing would be ruined, and proceeded to count off his own beetle eyes.

For the next fifteen minutes, Remus thought it was too good to be true. It seemed that James and Sirius were too preoccupied being annoyed to remember to bug him about his crush. He worked himself up into such a good mood about it that he actually started humming to himself as he cut up ginger roots and put them into the steadily brewing potion.

Unfortunately, this reminded his two friends about what had happened during break, and they promptly forgot their little argument and turned to him.

"Why haven't you talked to her, Moony?" Sirius asked, feigning innocence.

"She's working on her potion," Remus answered, attempting to keep the blush from rising again and failing miserably.

"Hey, she does know your name, right?" James put in with an annoying grin on his face.

"Of course she knows my name, Prongs. I'm not as invisible as you two seem to think." Remus happily noted that a little hurt showed on the faces of his two friends, as he was far too annoyed at them to feel bad for hurting their feelings.

"We know you're not invisible." Sirius's voice regained its silky quality, like a dog's fur rubbed the right way. "We just wanted to make sure you've actually spoken to her, that's all." Remus didn't reply.

"She's right next to you, mate." James leaned around Sirius and nudged him. "Go on, say something."

"She's working," Remus insisted.

"How do you know she doesn't like talking while she's working? She seemed pretty fine with it out on the grounds."

"But those were her friends."

"Oh, does she hate you?" Sirius asked, glancing over at Shiring, who seemed rather intent on stirring her cauldron.

"She doesn't hate me."

"Then talk to her," James asserted.

"Why aren't you talking to Evans, Prongs?" Remus asked abruptly.

James paused. "So she does hate you."

"She doesn't hate me!"

"If you're comparing talking to her to me talking to Evans, then she has to hate you."

Remus paused. He had a point. Slughorn walked by, and the three boys applied themselves to their cauldrons, falling silent for the moment. Remus hoped that would shut the other two boys up, but as soon as the professor was out of earshot again, they resumed talking.

"So, what did you do to her?" Sirius asked, pretending to be diligent upon stirring his cauldron.

"I didn't do anything," Remus insisted through gritted teeth.

"Then why does she hate you?"

"I already told you, Paddy, she doesn't hate me."

James snickered, and Sirius glared at each boy in turn. "I told you not to call me that," Sirius growled.

"Then quit it!"

"Don't make me mutilate your nickname, Moony, because I will."

"Oh, I'm so scared."

"Shut it, Moo-Moo."

Remus snorted. "Oh, how intelligent. I'm definitely going to turn into a cow, now, just because you called me Moo-Moo."

Sirius's face colored angrily, but James interjected before something bad could come of it. "You still haven't told us why you won't talk to her. Or why she isn't talking to you."

"She's not talking to me because she's working, and I'm not talking to her for the same reason."

"You can keep saying that, it doesn't make it true," retorted Sirius, plainly recovered from the wound to his pride.

"You know, Padfoot, just because girls swoon when you talk doesn't mean that happens for everyone."

"Aw, look, the big bad wolf's afraid of rejection."

"Oh, ha ha," said Remus, making a face when adding the ground-up porcupine quill caused the potion to start smelling remarkably like a Dung Bomb.

"Is it supposed to do that?" James wrinkled his nose at his own cauldron. Evans, next to him, snorted under her breath. James glanced over at her, rumpled his hair absently, and looked into her cauldron. Not only did it not smell bad, but it wasn't the ugly green color like James and Remus had. However, it looked suspiciously like water. She shot him a superior look.

Slughorn walked by, pausing by Evans' cauldron. He leaned down and smelled it, smiling. "Excellent, Miss Evans, excellent! Not that I expected any less from you." He turned to James, who was glaring sulkily down at his cauldron. He tutted. "Mr. Potter, you've been neglecting your cauldron, haven't you?"

"What? Oh. No."

"Aha, but you have." He tapped the page in Advanced Potion Making. "Pay attention to your instructions, Mr. Potter. You are supposed to stir constantly after adding the ginger root. It will turn gray, then you grind up the quill and it will look like Miss Evans' potion." He leaned around James and peered into Sirius' cauldron. "Better, Mr. Black." He leaned in a little further. "Perhaps spend less time preparing before entering your first ingredient, hm?" Sirius rolled his eyes as Slughorn moved over to Remus. "Ah, you have the same problem as Mr. Potter. Be careful, boys." The trio stayed silent as Slughorn moved on to Shiring. "Very good, Miss Shiring, though a little off. My guess would be not enough powdered porcupine quill."

Sirius looked over at Snape and snickered. Snape was looking slightly agitated as he stirred his cauldron and scribbled in his book at the same time. Sirius elbowed his two friends, but only James joined him in watching Snape as Slughorn drew nearer to him.

"Ah, Mr. Snape. Hm. Oh dear, what happened here?"

"Not sure, Professor." Snape's eyes flickered briefly to the pair watching him.

"That's not like you, Mr. Snape." Slughorn frowned. "Come, come, everyone makes mistakes. Don't fret about it." He examined the potion more closely. Though the contents weren't visible from the Marauders' table, it seemed to be emitting thin yellow smoke. "Well, I'm not sure... I would say that it was an early problem, and you attempted to fix it. This is a very delicate potion, however. You would've done better to start over." As Slughorn moved on, Snape shot a venomous glare to Sirius and James, who were laughing openly.

"All right, class," Slughorn said from the front of the room, "you should all now leave your potions to simmer for a few minutes, then take them off the fire to set." Remus mentally groaned. Since they didn't have anything else to do James and Sirius would start in again.

However, instead, James leaned over to Evans again. "Hey, Evans, I have an off-period next block. Do you think you could tutor me in Potions, since you're so talented?"

Without looking up, she said, "If you actually had any interest in learning Potions, I might consider it."

"Of course I'm interested."

Evans went on as if he hadn't spoken. "But the fact is that the only reason you want to 'study' is so you can tell your friends that I finally dated you."

"You judge too quickly, Evans."

"Which is something I have no intention of doing. Besides, if I ever did date you, I would probably be hexed beyond recognition by your fan club."

"Fan club? What do you—"

"So why don't you settle for one of them? I'm sure they would be more than willing to sigh over your superb Quidditch skills and your natural magical talent. I'm not."

"If you would just—"

"And there's no wind in here, Potter." She shot his hair—which he had just rumpled again—a disdainful look. "Shouldn't your hair have flattened by now?"

James sat back in his seat, glowering.

"You could try leaving her be, mate," Sirius suggested. "You know, not proving her right with every word you say." James glared at him, and he shrugged. "Just saying."

"And you guys wonder why I don't want to talk to Shiring," Remus muttered.

"I thought you said she didn't hate you," mocked James.

"She doesn't. But Evans didn't hate you until after you opened your fat mouth." That shut James up.

James spent the rest of the period brooding, which got Sirius in a bad mood, so they both stayed silent until the bell rang. Remus was only too happy to let them lapse into silence, since if they started talking again, he was sure more teasing would be what came out of their mouths. They turned in vials of their potions, cleaned up, and packed their bags.

The trio started walking down the corridor, heading out of the dungeons. Remus had Muggle Studies next, but the other two had never taken it, so they had an off-period. However, once they were a little bit away from the Potions dungeon, someone called them to a halt. The three turned to see a livid Snape standing there with his wand clenched in a white-knuckled grip. James and Sirius instantly went on guard. James put his hand in his pocket, though he didn't actually pull the wand out, in case someone came along to break them up, so Snape would get all the blame. Sirius, though, had gone casually still, his hand slowly inching toward his pocket, like a dog stalking through grass toward prey.

"All right, Snivellus?" Sirius asked casually, scorn painting his tone and face as he looked at the Slytherin boy.

"You. You ruined my potion," snarled Snape, lifting his wand some.

"Yeah, what of it? I noticed that you didn't go running to Slughorn about it."

"I can deal with my own problems."

James snorted. "Since when?" Remus sighed and turned, leaving his friends to do as they pleased. He touched the prefect badge on his chest and sighed again. It was times like these he wished he'd never been given the responsibility of being a prefect. That didn't mean he was going to stay and be party to it, though. Besides, his friends might have as much time as they wanted, but he had to get to his Muggle Studies classroom for next block.

Instead of replying, Snape lifted his wand and started an incantation. However, Sirius was quicker off the mark, pulling his wand out and snarling "Expelliarmus" almost simultaneously. "You know," he said casually, advancing on the wandless Snape who backed away warily, "it's rude to attack without warning." Snape looked around to try and find his wand while still keeping an eye on his attackers. "You would've done better to complain to a teacher, Snivelly."

"I don't need a teacher's help," Snape ground out, having noticed that his wand was lying by James' foot. James, seeing where Snape's eyes were, crouched down and picked the wand up, tossing it casually up and down.

"Ah, but the situation indicates otherwise." Sirius smirked cruelly. "Shall I teach you a lesson for your underhanded dueling style?"

"Look who's talking. You're attacking an unarmed opponent."

"And you deserved being disarmed for not giving warning of your attack. So, we're even." Snape's eyes were darting around, unable to settle anywhere, but not fully allowing himself to stop looking at Sirius and James. His manner was that of rabbit cornered by wolves. With no means to defend himself, he was going to settle for getting out of the mess he was in, reporting the theft of his wand, and fighting another day.

Just as Sirius lifted his wand, however, Evans came around the corner. "Oh, not this again," she burst out, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at Sirius and James.

"He attacked us, Evans!"

"I couldn't care less about Snivellus," she retorted. "Though I couldn't fail to notice that you're attacking a wandless opponent. Isn't that a bit low, even for you Black?" Sirius' face colored, and he lowered his wand sullenly. "Don't you two have anything better to do than show off? Honestly?" She shot a venomous look at Snape and walked past him. However, when she made to walk past James, he stepped in front of her. "Move, Potter," she said coldly.

"I still want that tutoring session," he answered smoothly.

"Why don't you ask Snivellus?" she said with a sweet smile to match her voice. She smirked at his cloudy expression and dodged around him. "Oh, go play with your Snitch or something, Potter," she called over her shoulder.

James glowered at Snape, who had backed a little more down the corridor, waiting to see what they would do. James lifted his wand, there was a flash of light, and Snape was hanging upside-down with his robes tangled around his armpits. "Come on," he muttered to Sirius, dropping Snape's wand. "Let's leave him to be found by someone."

Sirius shrugged and put his wand away, turning to follow James. "Have fun, Snivelly," he called brightly over his shoulder as they left.

Out on the grounds once more, James dropped his bag on the ground and stretched out on the grass, pulling out his own personal Snitch. He'd nicked it last year sometime around the O.W.L. testing, and no one had pinned it back to him, so he'd kept it. Sirius sat down next to him and picked up a nearby rock, tossing it up and down while James played with his Snitch, letting it go then catching it before it could escape. Sirius finally chunked the rock out across the grounds and laid back, looking up at the clear, blue sky.

"So, how are things with the noble and most ancient house of Black?" James asked casually, taking on a deep, mocking tone when reciting Mrs. Black's favorite nickname for her surname.

Sirius snorted derisively. "How the hell should I know? Like Mum ever bothers sending me letters unless I've disgraced the family name."

"You mean you haven't done that yet this year?" Sirius lifted an eyebrow, and James dropped his sarcastic tone. "You haven't told me anything about what happened this summer."

"Because nothing happened this summer. Mum pestered me about being in Gryffindor; Regulus accused me no less than a thousand times of being a Muggle-lover; and Kreacher kept stealing my things and giving them to Mum as 'proof' that I'm a 'traitor.'" He paused. "So, yeah. The usual." They lapsed into silence for a few minutes. "What about your summer? How are good ol' Mum and Dad?"

James laughed. "Please don't call them that when they can hear you. You know they disapprove of your attitude toward your family."

"Yeah, well, let them try living with Mum for a while," Sirius retorted darkly. "See if they like it."

"Family is really important to Mum and Dad. They pretty much think you should love your family no matter what. Even if you don't like them much."

"I don't like them or love them. Mum's always threatening to kick me out of the house. Wish she'd get around to it one of these days."

"You might regret that someday." Sirius barked a laugh. "No, I'm serious. It probably isn't a great idea to alienate yourself from your family. The Blacks are an influential family. That could screw over your future."

"And if I don't care?"

James shrugged. "I'm just saying be a little more careful. Or at least think through your recklessness."

"Your parents are rubbing off on you." James chuckled. "So, are you going to answer my question or not?"

James shrugged again. "Nothing really interesting happened. Managed to run into Evans in Diagon Alley, though."

Sirius snorted. "What did she do to you?"

"There was no lasting damage," James protested, but Sirius remained silent until he went on. "Let's just say she didn't take kindly to my chivalry."

"Chivalry my ass," snorted Sirius, but James would say no more on the matter. They lapsed into another bout of silence. After a while, Sirius sat up and stared around, bored. Few people were out on the grounds, either because they were in a class or because they were studying. Sirius pulled up grass a blade at a time, picking at it until he didn't have enough to pick at anymore and had to pull up another one. Finally, he sighed loudly. "I'm bored."

"Well, what do you want to do?" asked James, still lying out on the grass, playing with his Snitch.

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be bored, would I?" James only chuckled. "Can you believe that ol' Moony's in love?"

"Eh, it was bound to happen someday. Maybe he'll be luckier than I am."

"You know, if you'd give up on Evans, you'd be plenty lucky."

"But she's the only girl here that's worth getting."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Back to Moony." James snorted. "He's not like you and I, Prongs. He's liable to let the best things in life just float on by if he isn't given a push."

James caught the Snitch and sat up, eyeing Sirius critically. "So, you're proposing we give him a 'push?'"

Sirius grinned wickedly. "Exactly, my dear Prongs. Exactly."

"Weren't we 'pushing' him all during Potions?"

Sirius shrugged. "More like taunting than pushing, really."

"Well, then, Padfoot my friend. What do you propose we do?"