Disclaimer: I own every Nancy Drew in hardcover from 1 to 56.

But I don't own anything that sounds like it came from a person who goes by the name JK Rowling.

So you can't sue me.

Ha ha.


"Peachiekeens"

The word was mixed with a rush of air as the Fat Lady, still rubbing sleep from her eyes, swung the portrait aside revealing the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room. Ella slipped in hoping the no one had seen her transf—

"Miss Daveien."

The stern voice that echoed across the room held an authority that made the teen begin to panic. A barely audible gasp escaped her mouth; Ella's green eyes darted over to the sound of the stern voice. The fear that someone would stumble across her secret, she was unregistered after all, constantly played with her nerves, lurking at the back of her mind.

The words had come from the couch in front of the fireplace which, at the moment, was the resting place of a rather large lump jiggling up and down with laughter.

Laughter?

The soft light emitted from the last of the burning flames fell upon black locks perfectly framing a male face, corners of his mouth turned up as he tried to suppress the burst of laughter welled up inside of him.

Sirius Black.

Her frame relaxed, but her eyes darted to slits shooting daggers at the boy as she herself plopped down on the couch. She was the prankster's easiest target, easily spooked and quite gullible despite her display of knowledge in the classroom.

Ella had actually dated what was now the most sought after figure in the school, but that had been back when they were only fourth years, and the relationship lasted three snogging sessions and a week before the romantic vibe turned into one of friendship.

The fact Ella was an animagus went unknown for only a few weeks after Sirius and she had mutually dumped each other. The Maruaders, in a moment of what all sensitive females would describe as "pure cruelty," had decided to see if a cat really did land on all fours when dropped from the height of a decent sized tree. It was pure chance that they picked a ginger tabby with a scrunched face, which happened to transform (in the cover of leafy branches, a difficult thing to do) into a nasty tempered female that was afraid of heights.

The incident, after the shock had worn off, sparked an idea in the scheming mind of James Potter who came up with the brilliant plan that he, Sirius, and Peter should become animagi, too. As they explained to Ella later that day after apologizing to her several times, transforming into animals would be perfect for pulling pranks and sneaking out of the castle at night in search of adventure.

"You already are animals," she'd pointed out.

"Yes," James had said taking the joke with good humor, "But we need your help to become animagi."

"And Remus?" she asked mildly surprised the fourth member of the group hadn't been mentioned.

"He doesn't care for becoming an animagus," Sirius said, feeding her the lie the boys had come up with earlier. For good measure he added, "And he can help out with the pranks under James's invisibility cloak."

For this he was jammed in the ribs by his friend's elbow for accidentally spilling one of the Maruader's best kept secrets. But Ella bought the story, and the work began.

The research and practice that was required to learn the spell took more time and effort then the boys bargained for. Still, the learning progressed at a quick rate. Ella helped them every once and a while, never knowing the true reason for the long hours of work, never guessing Remus's monthly problem.

It had all worked out in the end. And there were nights far from the full moon dedicated to pranking, snooping, and adventure seeking, where Ella would join the Marauders with Remus under the invisibility cloak. Aside from these nights she was not close friends with their group; perhaps even friends would be too strong a word for their once-in-a-while nightly outings. But it didn't matter so long as the secret of the four was kept. And so far, it had been.

Turning to face the room's new occupant Sirius struck up the conversation. "So, spying on the Slytherins again, or looking for mice?"

"Helping first years find Mr. Snuffles," Ella said squirming around on the couch trying to find a comfortable position.

Sirius briefly perked up at a name as whimsical as Mr. Snuffles. "Should I ask?"

"No," Ella replied, "Because I'm too tired to go through it all. By the way, what are you doing up so late?"

Had the room been flooded with light perhaps the question would not have been asked in such a casual tone, for Sirius looked like he needed either a nap or a paper bag to cover his face. The sparkle that could usually be seen in his grey eyes was missing and the reason was related to the dark circles that surrounded the peepers. His skin was paler then normal, and his entire face was weighed down with a plight that had to do with the full moon.

Tonight had been Moony's painful transformation and whether it was the nippy November chill or something else brewing in the night, Remus's werewolf form was more ferocious and uncontrollable then ever before. It had taken every last bit of strength to herd the beast back to the Shrieking Shack much earlier then usual due to a nasty swipe on James's back caused by a giant werewolf claw. In fact, the mentioned boy was now in the informatory being treated for the bloody streaks that shot off bullets of pain with each muscle movement.

Who knew what had possessed Remus to suddenly lash out against the familiar stag? Any other full moon and Sirius may not have been so worried, but lately Moony had been, well, moody. Moony, moody, Sirius mentally chuckled as the thought flashed across his mind.

"What are you laughing at?"

Oops, the chuckling hadn't been mental after all. The adolescent blamed the embarrassment he was feeling right now on the fact he was tired.

"Nothing," Sirius said answering Ella's latter question.

"Couldn't sleep?" she asked, still wondering why Sirius was up starring nonchalantly at the last of the burning embers.

"Yeah," Sirius said in a plain voice revealing his tiredness.

The two sat there quietly, hypnotized by the silence of the night. Several minutes passed before Sirius broke the silence.

"By the way, you owe me ten galleons."

"What?" The response was somewhere between a yelp and a sound in such high wavelengths that only dogs could hear it.

"Yep," Sirius said, a smile creeping up the corners of his mouth and into his voice, "Tonight marked the six hundred and twenty ninth time James asked Lily out."

"Really?" Ella's calm voice was mixed with fake excitement and curiosity, "That's something you don't hear everyday, James asking Lily out."

"It's something you hear every other day," Sirius said, "But you've never heard Lily say yes."

"Neither have you," Ella pointed out, lacking a good comeback.

"Ah, yes," Sirius said, his voice taking on the tone of one who was speaking with a secret wisdom, "But our dear James has."

It took Ella a minute to brush off the sleepy feeling enough to understand what these words meant, but once they did, her heavy eyelids disappeared and her eyes widened with surprise.

"You don't mean that…"

"Yep," Sirius said, "She finally said yes. Actually, I think there was more snogging then talking but they're officially dating."

In true female fashion Ella released another high pitched squeal, after, of course squashing one of the couch's decorative pillows to her mouth as to not wake the entire castle up.

"So," Sirius stated again amused at her behavior, "You owe me ten galleons."

"Wafur?" she teased him, speaking the words with the pillow still muffling her voice, making the sounds unintelligible to Sirius who snatched the fluffy item out of her hands in an equally teasing manner.

"What for?" Ella repeated again trying to delay giving Sirius anything for as long as she could.

"Our little bet. I said Lily would say yes after James asked her five hundred and sixty-three times and you though she'd say yes after seven hundred ninety-one times. I'm closer," he explained with a satisfied smirk.

"But she didn't say yes, she kissed him."

"Actually, I think he kissed her first," Sirius said getting sidetracked. Ella was in no rush to get him back on the topic of the bet.

"Let's wake them up and get the story," she suggested in a perky voice that didn't seem to fit the time of night, unless alcohol was involved of course. Sirius was about to agree and suggest using a bucket of cold water when he recalled that James wouldn't be in his normal Heads bedroom. Once again, the entire night and the past week of Remus's depressed mood knocked the thrill out of him. His back ached and every muscle in his body, especially those in his eyelids, begged for rest. A yawn overtook his face, giving Ella a hint that the conversation would have to be continued in the morning, or, seeing as it was an early hour already, after the two had gotten some shut eye.

Sirius stirred from his position first, clumsily getting to his feet.

"You know," he said drowsily pulling a random topic out of the air, "We're going to have to have another animagi night soon."

Ella stretched her arms out in front of her, one of her more cat-like moments. "Well Padfoot, could you figure out a date with Prongs and Wormtail? Just not the twenty-second or the fifth of next month, Moony and I've got perfect duty stuff." Ella let the words roll of her tongue without much concern for proper grammar.

"Consider it done, hon." Sirius said, and then once again gave a little laugh in the back of his mind at the rhyming words.

"What's so funny?" Ella asked him upon hearing the chortles, beginning to wonder if the lack of sleep was affecting Sirius' brain.

Damn it, he really needed to address that laughing problem soon.

Trying to shrug of his stupidity Sirius began to ascend the stairs to the boy's dorms, but only reached step number two before giving one last comment to the figure still reluctant to leave the warmth of the couch where she'd gotten quite cozy.

"You still owe me ten galleons."

Ella looked up into Sirius's eyes, her own green ones holding an I-really-could-care-less glare, but when she spoke her voice was like a purr.

"Night Padfoot."

He began to climb the steps again, but his words still reached the Common Room.

"Night Crookshanks."