A/N: Author's notes are going to stop here, so to keep up with progress, check out my website - xanga. com/virtuous devil(they won't let me put in a hyperlink... grrr...). It's an online diary so I'm warning you now, it's not always pleasant. I'll also reply to questions and reviews there. Keep reading guys, you have no idea how much energy you give me every day!

Christmas was closer than was comfortable. Sirius was ducking between the hallways, making full use of every secret passage in the castle in order to escape the over excited girls begging him to go with them to the ball.

'Just ask one and they'll leave you alone!' Remus said, one cold night when Sirius had come stomping into the common room, scrubbing bright pink lipstick from his cheek, a scowl embossed on his face. 'Just pick a normal one!'

'Which one?' Padfoot spat, falling angrily into a huge, squashy armchair. 'They all squeal and cry and carry on, there's no normal ones on the planet!'

I laughed and leaned back against the edge of the sofa. Sirius growled.

'Got one, have you? They're trailing you too, you know. Not openly, they're planning on slipping you love potions or Confounding you into saying yes or something.'

I stopped laughing.

Remus dropped his head over his parchment as Peter snickered at my fallen face. 'I honestly don't see why either of you just ask someone.'

Sirius frowned and looked around the room. 'What about Bianca?'

Remus shook his head. 'She's taken.'

'By who? She'll change her mind when I ask her!' He said arrogantly.

'By me,' Remus said with a smirk.

Sirius scowled and stared into the fire. 'Well, she was the only decent one. Who am I going to choose now?'

Peter, lolling on the floor, rolled onto his back and stared up at Sirius. 'What happened to Susan?'

Sirius answered this with a muffled groan and an incomprehensible rant into the nearest pillow. I only managed to pick up the words 'wench', 'stupid' and 'bloody freaking joke'.

My guess was he was unimpressed.

Padfoot stared daggers at me. 'Alright, James, who are you taking then, huh?'

I made a show of examining my nails. 'I was thinking of asking Evans, actually.' Sirius laughed, Peter giggling nervously and Remus… well, Remus just nodded and smiled secretively. 'Are you nuts? That's little thief? Why the hell would you want to ask her?'

I shrugged. 'She's Head Girl, I'm Head Boy… makes sense…'

'Is that all?' his face was quickly turning a strong puce. 'She's a thief, James!'

'I told you before, didn't I? She never did it!'

'Has she said that?'

'No…'

'Then she's guilty!'

I shook my head. The guy was furious, almost spitting in my face with rage. Peter had long since stopped giggling and had edged backward, Remus calmly flicked the corner of the parchment and sighed and I just leaned back carelessly. I could argue this. How? I had a trick up my sleeve. Well… in my pocket. No, not that.

'No, Padfoot. She's not.'

'Oh? And how do you know that?'

'She never wrote about us being Animagi,' I said, lowering my voice.

'She never did what with the who now?'

'She never said a word about Remus, either.'

Moony looked up and frowned. 'But she's known for… for ages!'

'I know.'

They were all staring at me, the whites of their eyes showing. I grinned at the ceiling. 'See, Padfoot old friend, you looked at what was written. Not what wasn't written.' I sat up and pulled out the small torn section of entry from the diary that had been sitting comfortably in my pocket.

'Remember this?'

'The guys and I sneaked out of the castle today, and made our way to Hogsmeade. I never thought I'd have the guts to do it. Fair enough, I've done it every now and then when I really needed to, but other than that… They were actually a heap of fun, even when we were almost caught afterwards. But going to Zonko's first was classic…'

I saw Remus smile and nod. I saw Peter's forehead crease. And I watched Siruis' eyes widen. He looked up at me, and I nodded, grinning.

'You get it now?'

'But who else would have known that we went to Hogsmeade? Maybe she forgot…'

Remus shook his head and scratched above his eye. 'No, not with all the talking we did about it afterwards. Merlin, we almost got caught!'

Peter snorted. 'Yeah, like that hasn't happened often!' He giggled then coughed and fell silent at the expression on our faces.

I leaned back into me chair and grinned. 'So someone she told wrote about it. Because I'm sure Lily Dearest would remember that we were dragged to the Three Broomsticks first and she made us go to Zonko's last to minimize the chances of us pranking her on the trip. So, I think she just happened to lose her diary and someone filled out the rest for her.'

Sirius frowned and rubbed his forehead with his fingers and thumb. 'So who..?'

His eyes widened, Remus knocked over his bottle of ink and Peter remained looking confused.

'No way.'

'Yep. And umm… Sirius, in that early entry, who did it say was her guardian?'

'Shit.'

'Exactly.'