The presents had returned! Sirius was ecstatic. No longer was he moping and being miserable between classes, or refusing to play exploding snap in favour of sulking – the latter being a complaint from a rather exasperated Peter. In fact, Sirius felt on top of the world, so much so that he almost didn't mind that his search for the gift-giver was getting nowhere. Almost. The Marauders had been trying and failing to follow any leads since the last full moon and Sirius was growing bored. In the time since the gifts had briefly stopped, he had received a charm for health and well-being that he wore constantly round his neck, hidden beneath his shirt and tie of course; a bespelled notebook, which he had been using to record all his marvellous prank ideas in as no one could access it but him; three boxes of Honeydukes chocolate, seriously his admirer rivalled Remus when it came to their obsession with chocolate; and a Gryffindor house scarf. This person was a master when it came to gift-giving – Sirius had been shivering and wishing he had something warmer to put on only the other day at the quidditch match.

Sirius thought he might, just a little bit, like this person. The only person for a while who had seemed to know what he truly wanted and while that was a little stalkery, Sirius was just amazed that someone cared enough to pay him that much attention. Although, he was exceedingly handsome so that must have accounted for some of it. Hurtfully, the birds that dogged his footsteps wherever he went in the corridors only wanted his legendary kissing skills, not one of them had ever tried to comfort him or ask him how he was feeling. They never seemed to care how he felt except to wonder why he didn't like them. This was different. This was someone who had seen his biggest insecurity and liked him all the more for it.

James was being an impatient twit though, so his deep, self-discovering musings would have to wait.

"Tap, Tap, Tap. Can you hear that? That's my foot, tapping as it wonders why you aren't here. Now. Because, knowing you, you want to be here so you can understand my latest idea for my amazing prank, don't you?"

This last bit was uttered rather dangerously so Sirius let out a long-suffering sigh and dragged his feet as he shuffled towards James.

"Prongsie, dear, I don't particularly feel like a prank today."

Mouth agape, James' eyes seemed unable to drag themselves away from the (obviously alien) creature standing in front of him. His mouth moved up and down.

"I'm astounded, astonished, you could knock me down with a feather. Who are you and what have you done with Sirius Black?"

"Har de har har."

"What's up? I've never even heard that traitorous phrase come out of your mouth before. There must be something really wrong. Is there someone who I need to duel? More insults I need to throw at Slytherins?"

"Nah, I'm just thinking about these notes I keep getting."

"You mean the ones from your secret admirer?"

"Prongsie, they don't necessarily admire me," Sirius said whilst preening. James shot him a sceptical look, "well we'll see alright. I don't want to get my hopes up."

"So you do like them then. I knew it. Peter and I had a bet. He's going to be so gutted that he lost. He really bought the whole, 'Oh I don't even know them I definitely can't like them' rubbish."

"I…I dunno…not really…I guess?" Sirius protested feebly.

"You are far gone."

"I need help. How did you know that you liked Lily?"

"Well, I'd look over and her hair would be the only thing I could see. I would hex people in the corridors just to have her come over to me – just to be able to see that temper she has. Just to…"

"Yh that's enough. I really don't think you can particularly help me here…"

"No. It's just that when I'm doing something, I just randomly think of her out of the blue, or I just want to make her smile – not that it ever works of course – and when I see other people laughing with her I feel this surge of jealousy. I notice all the little things about her, her mannerisms. I miss her so much when she's out of sight that I can't imagine what life would be like without her always near."

James was just describing wanting to be somebody's friend, Sirius was sure. Sirius missed Moony when he wasn't around, but that was because they were friends. Surely James was being delusional because wanting to make them smile, feeling jealous when someone else did it instead, randomly thinking about them out of the blue; that wasn't how he felt about his secret admirer. They just made him feel warm and safe and comforted. He guessed it was because it felt like they truly cared.

"Well it isn't like that for me Prongsie. I think that's just symptoms of friendship, not anything else."

"Whatever you say mate. Fancy a game of exploding snap down in the common room to take your mind off this whole business?"

"Sure."

As they ambled down the stairs to the common room, Sirius pushed the conversation with James to the back of his mind. It wasn't doing wonders for his concentration and he needed all of the concentration he could get, what with his tendency to have a short attention span and subsequently end up with a singed face during exploding snap, though as of yet it hadn't touched his hair, which he supposed was something to be grateful for. Remus was sitting in the common room mussing up his hair absentmindedly as he engrossed himself in the latest instalment of his favourite series. Something to do with genius's and elves Sirius thought. He waltzed over there, wishing to avoid the exploding snap game for a little longer, because humiliating defeat was not something he often looked forward to.

He stooped forward and plucked the book from Remus's hands, surprised when, instead of demanding that he give it back at once, Remus didn't even notice, as if he was thinking about something else and not reading. How odd was that? He clicked once or twice in front of Remus' nose.

"Uhuh. Wait, why do you have my book?"

Sirius simply raised an eyebrow, more interested in the fact that Remus was still staring into space, except he was staring in the direction of Sirius. It was an odd feeling, someone staring through you.

"Well you didn't even notice I took it at first so it can't be that captivating. Are you proud of me moony? I learned a posh word, 'captivating'."

Sirius could almost hear Remus resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

"Whatever, give it back. I was lost in thought."

"Whatever could be more interesting than this book on which you have rhap-sod-ised about at length. You even said it was more interesting than us! Several times! Also, did I pronounce that word right?"

"It's pronounced rhapsodised and I … I wasn't thinking about anything you'd find interesting."

Sirius was intrigued; Remus' slowly rising blush belied his words.

"No, no I am truly interested in what you were thinking about."

This time, Remus started twiddling his thumbs – something Sirius had long ago realised Remus only did when nervous.

"I was thinking abut the latest homework for arithmancy."

"Now, now Moony, you can be honest with me, after all you're a terrible liar."

"I. Was. Not. Thinking. About. Anything. Interesting. Ok?"

Sirius' alarm must have shown on his face. Remus never snapped so quickly.

"I'm sorry it's just a touchy subject."

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Nah."

"In that case, I invite you to beat me at a game of exploding snap," Sirius announced pompously, in his best imitation of professor Slughorn. Remus smiled and Sirius thought it was absolutely worth any soot on his face that he would doubtless receive from the impending game to feel so warm inside.

"Come on, let's go."

Sirius only briefly wondered why Remus' behaviour was so strange. It wasn't important now that Remus was smiling again.

A/N:

This is a longer chapter than normal just on its own, so I'm going to post Remus's point of view separately. Did anyone catch the hints of romance yet? I think they're subtle, but I'm usually pretty terrible at that so I can't be sure.