Hope Mochudi slipped furtively out of the boys' dormitory, pressing into the shadow of the wall. Her dark skin blended oddly with the deeper layers of shadow in the corners of the red wall, making her like a smudge in her dark robes. It wouldn't do to be seen here, so near the war zone. Before taking the final step off the stairway into the common room she glanced furtively around. Convinced no one was watching, she ducked around, into the common room then up the next stairwell to the girls' dormitories. There she paused for a moment, listening carefully, before letting herself into her room.

A great black dog awaited her, making a thick rug on Hope's bed. "Hope's allergic to just about everything with fur, you know," she said. The black mass wiggled slightly, as though in pleasure. Of course, she thought, that's probably why he chose that spot. She noted that his furry side, the part most likely to leave traces of that gorgeous black fur, was right on the pillow.

Hope peered into one of the vanity mirrors. Her face screwed up in an odd sort of concentrating grimace. Her skin lightened, her hair straightened and shaded from dark chocolate to raven, her eyes became lighter. With a shake of her head, Nym cleared her vision. "I suppose I'm lucky she doesn't wear glasses," she said with a sigh. "That would have been a give away for sure. As it was, I think the clothes were a little off."

Sirius, lounging on Hope's bed where the dog had been an instant before, shrugged unconcernedly. "She's a little older than you, I suppose. It happens. You could probably change it if you really wanted."

Nym frowned at him. She'd had the talk about growing up with her mother before coming, so she wasn't completely in the dark about puberty, but it wasn't something she particularly wanted to discuss with her cousin. As in, never. "Don't look at me like that," Sirius said. "You look like you're stuck in the middle of one of your transformations." Nym's scowl deepened. Here he was casually blabbing her secret. Just because there was no one around, didn't mean he could let his tongue go. "Anyway, I'm just saying. Oh, and next time, maybe do something about your ears. Mocha-dee always wears huge earrings."

"My ears aren't pierced."

"So pierce them."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Cause it's stupid to do that just so I can look like her."

"Bet you're scared."

"And you're not? Remus has a fang in his ear, and so does James. Even Peter has a stud. But not you."

Sirius scowled at her from under his mop of hair. "Alright. You win. No earrings. We're almost done anyway, right?"

Nym nodded. "Tuesday, seven sharp. They'll all be waiting."

Sirius's face split into a huge grin. "You have no idea how glad I am to hear that. You're a blessing Nym, you really are. A gift right direct from the gods of mischief."

Nym couldn't help but smile just a little at that. "You going to tell me your plan or what?"

"Or what. Come on, want to go for a celebratory drink at the Broomsticks?"

"It's a Hogsmeade weekend." Since the disastrous encounter with Zack, Nym had resolved never to go into town on a designated weekend again. At least, not until she was legitimately allowed.

"So? Come on, Nym, where's your sense of adventure gone?"

"It's not exactly an adventure. We've been there so often."

"Yeah. But Jamie-boy doesn't propose every time."

"What?" Nym yelped. "He's doing that today? I thought…"

"Less than an hour to go until the poor slob seals his own fate."

Nym's cloak shot into her hand almost fast enough for a casual observer to suspect magic. For once, it wasn't. "Can't leave him alone, then. Who knows what stupid thing he might try."

She hurried towards the secret passage, but Sirius caught her elbow and pulled her the other way, towards the main doors of the castle. "I can't go out that way," Nym protested. "I'll be seen."

"It's faster. Pull your cloak up and change on the way. Come on," he said impatiently as Nym paused to pull her cloak closer about her.

"Sorry, it's hard to run with a cloak pulled around you like this."

"Change quick then."

She followed Sirius, who ran most of the way down the road to the village. He slowed to a walk at the edge of town, allowing Nym to catch up. She leant over, breathing heavily. "What's the rush?"

"Sorry. Gotta find James."

They found him in near the Three Broomsticks, walking slowly with his arm around Evans. He paused near the fountain in the centre square. Nym spotted Remus and Peter lounging on opposite sides of the square. Remus was running his long fingers along his wand reflectively, and didn't seem quite as relaxed as he was trying to make out. Peter kept glancing around nervously, licking his lips. Although it was a cool spring day, the sort that Nym really loved with all its vagrant breezes and bright sunshine, sweat beaded on his forehead. James glanced up and caught sight of them. He raised an eyebrow, and Sirius gave him a thumbs up. James winked back. Evans didn't notice anything.

James stopped her, and turned her to face him. He said something, smiling strangely at Evans. If that's what love looks like, Nym thought wryly, I'm never falling for it. At the same moment, Sirius, Remus and Peter raised their wands. The water in the fountain shot up, turning all the brilliant colors of the rainbow so it fell, scintillating, around the square. Peter and Remus each kicked a crate near their feet, releasing multicolored streams that shot up and flew in a cyclone around James and Evans. Through the wash of color, Nym could see James kneeling, holding something up to Evans and saying something earnestly. She was smiling down at him, and Nym thought she might be crying. Batty, the both of them.

The multicolored streams resolved themselves into leprechauns, which floated above the square, raining gold down on the stunned watchers. James stood up and kissed Lily. Sirius gave a whoop and bounded towards the couple, grinning from ear to ear. Nym followed more sedately. She would never, ever understand James, or Sirius for that matter.

Evans was smiling shyly, but seemed radiantly happy. James's grin was even broader than Sirius's. Nym was about to say something before remembering that Evans had never met Min Nigellus. The same thought seemed to occur to Remus, who had come up to join the group. The fountain was slowly shrinking back to its original size, but now the multicolored water was actually wet, and all around them people were getting soaked. A clear rain shield hovered above James and Evans, so that the water splashed around the dry island that the group stood in.

"Evans, this is Min Nigellus, Sirius's cousin. Which he'd remember," he added scathingly for Sirius's benefit, "if he wasn't so eager to congratulate you both." He laughed, and Sirius shrugged happily.

"Yeah, well, about time, James."

James laughed too. "Thanks guys."

They said a few more pleasantries, then James and Evans wandered off hand in hand. "You know," Peter said thoughtfully, "that was really a lot of fun. We should do stuff like that more often."

"How many times do you think James is going to propose?" Sirius said snidely. Peter shrugged, going red.

"I just meant, the colors and stuff. You know. A lot of people seemed to think it was really pretty."

"Did they really," Remus commented absently.

"Yeah. And I was thinking, I dunno, we could do it as a business after we graduate."

"There's an idea." Remus didn't even seem to be listening.

"Sorry dude." Sirius, it seemed, was. "Moony's gonna be a teacher, and Prongs and me got our sights on being Aurors."

"Well," said Peter, decisive for once in his life, "I think that's what I'll do."

"I think," Remus said slowly, "that perhaps we should give you a bit of practice then. Tell me, Paddy, what day is it?"

Sirius stopped, counting on his fingers. "Why, I do believe it's April first." A slow grin spread on his face, almost equal to the silly one James had been wearing. "Yes, I do believe pretty colors are in order. What do you say, Min?"

Nym pretended to think about it for a minute. It sounded like a lot more fun than that stupid scheme with the first year boys. "On one condition."

"What?" Peter sounded mistrustful. He probably thought it was going to be something stupid. Nym didn't particularly care what he thought. Peter was a tub of annoying lard anyway.

"Well, see, the way I figure it, we should be doing good deeds, you know? Helping people out. So I was thinking… you know that little bar behind the Hogshead? The one that no one ever goes into?"

"What, you want to help get them some business?" Peter asked incredulously.

"Shut up and hear me out," Nym snapped. "That one – what's it called, the Two Broomsticks or something? – had to be done in purple. With rainbows, if possible."

"Um… Min, you know what that signifies, don't you?" Remus said a bit uncertainly. A slow smile was spreading on Sirius's face, though he still looked a bit mystified.

"Yeah. Well, I just thought, you know, a gay bar should have some advertising. You know, be proud, like those muggles in America are always saying."

Sirius was laughing out loud now. Remus was grinning widely. Even Peter was smiling a bit hesitantly. "I like it. No, scratch that, I love it," Sirius said. "But how do you know it's a gay bar. I didn't even know that."

"I, um, went in to use the loo one day." Nym felt herself flushing. Dammit, it was so easy to see her blush with this color skin. Her normal pale cheeks hardly even turned rosy.

Sirius stopped grinning suddenly. "Wait. Did you say it was called the…. Eeww. That's just nasty." Min nodded. "Well," Sirius took a deep breath, "I guess we should give them a big sign to go with their purple walls."

"You can do that, thank you," Remus said tartly. "Personally, I find it rather disgusting." Peter didn't say anything.

"So how are we going to do this? I mean, people will know something's up if we go around waving our wands and buildings turn all sorts of colors around us." Nym asked.

"Well," Sirius looked a bit uncertain. "We could put a time delay on the spells…"

Remus shook his head. "Not a chance. Two reasons." He held up two of his long grey fingers. "One, Min can't do it. She doesn't know anything like that yet. Peter can't do it either, except by fluke. Two, that's too much magic. It leaves residue."

"Which means…?" Peter asked.

"It can be traced. And it's more fun if you don't get caught."

"We will make them hard to take off, though, won't we?" Peter asked anxiously.

"Sure." Remus shrugged. "That's easy enough. I'll let the rest of you decorate, and I'll do that."

"We still haven't decided how we'll do it," Nym pointed out.

"Aren't you the voice of sweet reason," Sirius said peevishly. "This is too complicated for me."

Remus waved a dismissive hand. "Leave it. Although… have we shown Min the view from the clock tower yet? It's really quite impressive." His sly grin left no doubt as to his plans once they got up there.

"You're brilliant, Moony. Whatever would we do without you?"

"Fail?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

As they climbed down the stairs from the clock tower some hours later, Nym couldn't help but marvel at the beauty of Hogsmeade. It was positively festive. They'd done out more than half the buildings in the village in brilliant colors. Some were gathering rather large crowds. The Shrieking Shack was a vibrant yellow, painted with sinister looking black shapes that resembled all manner of monsters. The Three Broomsticks, Nym's personal project, had windows that changed colors every time the door opened. There were a couple of third years opening and closing the door just to see them change, and maybe trying to guess what color came next. But the biggest crowd was around the Two Broomsticks, where several people were pointing and laughing at Sirius's highly suggestive sign. Apparently he'd had no hesitation about turning the name of the place into the colorful metaphor that had so disturbed him earlier. It looked the pub had closed down early.

"Now, how about that celebratory drink?" Sirius asked.