When James awoke the next morning, he found himself and a snoring Peter alone in the Marauders' dorm. This struck him as quite strange: Remus was recovering in the hospital wing, of course, but Sirius was hardly ever awake before him, preferring to sleep in until the others dragged him out of bed for class. Sirius's bed, in fact, looked entirely unslept in, its sheets pulled up into the same tangled mess they'd been in the night before.

"Oi, Peter." James grabbed a book from beside his bed and chucked it at his friend. Peter woke with a start mid-snore and blinked blearily up at James, rubbing the back of his head where the book's spine had whacked him.

"What was that for?" Peter muttered crossly as he peered around the room. "Where's Sirius?"

"That's what I was going to ask you."

"Well, how would I know? I've been asleep this whole time!"

"I dunno," James admitted. "I just wanted someone to share in my confusion, I suppose. Also, I'm hungry. Let's go down for breakfast."

James half-expected Sirius to pop up in the Great Hall while they ate their bacon and toast and pumpkin juice, but he was instead treated to a series of glares from Lily a few seats down, to which he responded with an innocent wave she promptly ignored. She must have heard about Sirius Petrificus Totalus-ing Snape the other day and suspected he was the culprit. It wasn't fair: James had hexed and jinxed Snape many times over throughout the years, but why should he have to face Lily's anger over something Sirius did?

After they finished eating, James and Peter headed back up to their dorm to prepare for class, with James already planning on sneaking out of Muggle Studies to search for Sirius when he found the Marauder in question sitting with Remus against the back bay window. They were conversing in low voices, stopping abruptly at James and Peter's entrance and looking up at them like deer caught in headlights.

"Moony and Padfoot," said James, shaking his head. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Where were you, Sirius?" Peter asked. "James and I couldn't find you this morning."

"I was in the hospital wing with Remus." Sirius and Remus stood up, both of them looking a bit odd. Sirius's voice was odd, too—James could immediately tell that something was up.

"What happened?" he asked, narrowing his eyes. Neither of them answered. Sirius's face had gone white as a sheet, and he was biting his lip; he was scared, James realized. Something had happened, and Sirius was scared to tell James about it.

"There are no secrets among Marauders," James reminded them. "Right, Peter?"

"Right," Peter replied. "You can trust us with anything."

Sirius still looked nervous. Remus stepped forward and took his hand, frowning concernedly. "We don't have to tell them if you don't want to, Sirius," he said quietly. Now James's heart was racing—what the hell was going on?

"No, we do," Sirius said firmly. He raised his chin, swallowing. "James is right: no secrets among Marauders." He drew in a shaky breath. "Remus and I spent last night snogging in the hospital wing, right under Pomfrey's nose. And most of this morning, too."

The room went dead silent. Peter raised a hand to his mouth, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. Remus and Sirius's eyes flicked between him and James, neither of them moving or letting any expression show on their faces.

Then James broke out into a sudden, massively wide grin. "I knew it," he said. "I bloody knew it!"

Sirius blinked. "Knew what? What are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on, Sirius, I'm not an idiot. The way you two have been staring after each other all term…I mean, I know what pining looks like better than anyone, don't I?"

"Seriously?" Sirius's eyebrows had shot up. "How come you never said anything?"

"I was waiting for you two to figure it out for yourselves. I've been waiting for months, mate."

"But…you're both boys," Peter said uncomprehendingly. "I didn't know you could do that."

"You most certainly can," said Remus. He was looking much more relaxed than he had a minute ago. He tightened his grip on Sirius's hand.

"None of this leaves this room, though," Sirius said quickly. "If Snivellus and his gang found out, or my brother…."

James swiped his fingers across his lips. "Don't worry, Pads. They won't hear anything from us." He looked to Peter with an eyebrow raised.

Peter, who still looked incredibly taken aback, raised his arms. "Of course they won't," he squeaked, stammering a little. "But how…how does two boys snogging even work?"

Sirius gave him a sly smile. "Like this." He grabbed Remus and pulled him close, cocking his head to plant a kiss on his lips. Remus leaned into him and closed his eyes with a surprised little moan. Peter's jaw dropped nearly to the floor.

James widened his eyes, a bit shocked as well by Sirius's forwardness. He had a brief flash of jealousy, wishing for a moment that he could snog Lily so unashamedly, but he quickly pushed it aside. Now was certainly not the time to be thinking about Lily Evans.

"In honor of these recent developments," James said as the snogging Marauders finally broke apart, "I say we skip class and sneak off to The Three Broomsticks for a pint of butterbeer. My treat, of course."

"I think that's the best idea you've had yet, Prongs," Sirius replied, his arm still tight around Remus's waist. "Let's get out of here."