Saturday 1st March 1977

Library, 11:00

It really was nice to study with people who weren't insane every now and then. It was why he joined Lily in the Library and sometime some of her friends. It was McKinnon today, who, surprisingly, wasn't down on the Quidditch Pitch. He was pretty sure James and Sirius was but maybe that wasn't a team thing and just a James and Sirius thing. Which was fine by him because that meant that they weren't getting up to mischief yet again. Well, hopefully anyway.

Not that that was his problem. It was their own fault if they didn't have a way to get out of their messes on standby like he did. It didn't even take that much planning!

On the other hand, he was doing something constructive. Or, he was. Homework had been abandoned for a very intense talk about animals between the two girls.

"Well, dogs are really intelligent," Remus said with a shrug in response to a question from Lily about the best pet. "And they're friendly. Definitely the best pet."

"Too bad we're not allowed them at Hogwarts," McKinnon mused. "It would be so much fun. I have a collie dog at home who is just amazing."

"Farm work?" Remus asked.

She nodded. "Though, he's really dad's. And a working dog - not really a pet. He would probably try to herd the firsties if I brought him here."

Remus snorted at the image that conjured in his head. First years were smaller than your average sheep - it would probably be easy for a dog to herd them.

"What do you think, Lily?" she asked, turning to her.

"I'm more of a cat person, to be honest," Lily commented absentmindedly as she tried to find something in her Transfiguration textbook.

Remus froze in place and stared at her in disbelief.

"You're what?"

"A cat person," she repeated, obviously not seeing the problem here. "Cats are cute."

"So are dogs."

She raised an eyebrow at his petulant tone but he didn't care. Who liked cats over dogs?

"Cats aren't as messy, either," she listed off. "And they're useful."

"Dogs are more useful," Marlene argued. "You don't see cats used for herding animals."

"Not all dogs do either," Lily retorted. "Cats are full of character."

"And dogs aren't?"

"If you call happy and silly character..."

Remus and Marlene shook their heads in despair at her, making her roll her eyes.

"Can't we just agree that I'm a cat person and the two of you are dog people?" Lily asked.

Marlene and Remus looked at each other before turning back to Lily.

"No!"

Gryffindor Common Room, 19:00

"James! James! James! James!" Sirius shouted, coming to a halt in front of him.

He really sounded like a yapping dog there but James didn't think it was prudent to say so. Sirius hated anything that associated him with lapdogs and not more impressive, larger dogs. Yappy rats he called the likes of terriers.

"Oh, give over, Padfoot," he said with a sigh.

Really, sometimes Sirius could go on so.

"She's a cat person, Prongs!" Sirius exclaimed. "A cat person! You can't trust her!"

"You're being ridiculous."

"I am not! You can't trust cats!"

James sighed and shook his head. "Remus, tell him he's being ridiculous."

"I don't know, James," Remus said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. "He does have a point."

"See?" Sirius exclaimed, waving his arms at Remus. "And Remus is the sensible one so it has to be true!"

"Lily liking cats is not a judgement of her character."

"Yes, it is!"

"A judgement of bad character too," Remus added.

"Remus!"

"It's cats, Prongs," Remus said earnestly.

"Nasty creatures," Peter shuddered.

"See? Even Wormtail agrees!"

"Wormtail is a rat, of course he doesn't like cats. It's only natural."

"Exactly," Peter agreed with a nod. "You can't expect me to like cats."

He gave another shudder.

"Peter is obviously a good judge of character."

"You can't apply that to animals!"

"Sure, you can."

"And it proves how poor her character is," Sirius finished.

"It really doesn't."

Then Sirius did something completely ridiculous and fell to the floor, clutching at James' robes.

"Oh no! Evans's love of cats has changed you! Changed you I say!"

He wasn't making sense at all and was causing quite the spectacle. And not the good kind.

"Is there a reason why Black is vilifying my liking of cats?" Evans asked in amusement.

James snorted and gave his so-called best mate a prod with his foot before shaking his head.

"Nope. Just Padfoot being dramatic."

To prove his point, Sirius groaned. Or was it a moan? Either way he made this stupid gasping noise and said "cats" in disgust again.

"He is that," Evans agreed, giving him a poke of her own.

He made a very fake sounding in pain noise, finishing it up with a completely unnecessary gasp.

"Oh, get up, Padfoot." James said in exasperation.

Of course, Sirius didn't listen to him. He was still too busy 'moaning in pain and disbelief'. Idiot.

Evans got this glint in her eye that James had never seen before.

"Oh, I know how to sort this," she said airily.

He raised a sceptical eyebrow at her. "You do?"

"Oh, yes, you just have to-"

With reflexes James hadn't seen off the Quidditch Pitch, Evans's hand shot towards Sirius' head and firmly grabbed him by the ear. Sirius didn't even get a chance to give an outraged yelp before she pulled on it, forcing him to get to his feet. Or, more like on his toes. He even added a howl for dramatic effect. James could only look on in shock and amusement.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"

Somehow Evans managed to keep him on his toes despite being a good bit shorter than him. Probably because she had him at an angle. It was all quite funny.

James wasn't sure if he was supposed to rescue his best mate or something but Evans didn't seem to be doing too much harm to him.

"Are you going to stop being ridiculous?" Evans asked sweetly.

Sirius didn't reply in favour of trying to struggle free. No that he was successful or anything. Evans really did have a strong grip. James was impressed, Sirius was definitely a good bit stronger than her yet she held on.

"Ow!" he howled as she gave his ear a good twist.

"Well?"

"I'll be good! I'll be good!"

Evans snorted bit let go of his ear. "You, Black, have no ability to be good but I'll take the sentiment behind it."

And then she just walked away! As cool as that. Wow.

"You could be checking be over instead of staring at Evans," Sirius said petulantly, rubbing at his ear.

Tuesday 4th March 1977

Slytherin Common Room, 20:30

Severus couldn't help but frown at the small cluster of students by the fire. They had been whispering together for quite a long time, none of them paying attention to their surroundings.

Now, whispering was normal in the Slytherin Common Room - it was how you kept things to yourself but made everyone else aware that you had something important to talk about.

Obviously, this group thought they had something very important to talk about. Like he said, they had been whispering for about half an hour now and Regulus Black was right in the centre of it.

Something was happening, that was definitely the case because it looked like no one was checking for people getting to close. Not that anyone would dare. But what? What would get them so excited? This group rarely showed any sort of emotion unless it was glee at getting someone into trouble - then they were all smiles. So, it was very odd that they were both excited and annoyed about something.

Then he caught bits of their conversation.

"We haven't left school yet."

"I don't want to look ridiculous."

"I want to present the best version of myself."

That was all from Regulus, by the way. The younger Black seemed to be getting annoyed enough to not realise how loud he was speaking. Not that his comments made any sense when he couldn't hear the rest of the conversation.

Then someone nudged him and Regulus glared and looked around then started whispering again.

Yes, this was all very strange and Severus wanted to both know more and get as far away as possible. Sometimes disturbing things came from his housemates.

He saw Regulus frown and shake his head, gesticulating something. It was times like this that Severus wished he could read lips.

Avery was being quite insistent about something- unusually so, especially when dealing with Regulus. Normally everyone would just go with whatever he said, no arguments. He was basically the Prince of Slytherin House, after all.

Prince. A far better name than Snape. If only his mother used that instead of his father's name. It wasn't even for the weight such a name would carry Slytherin (which would be a lot more than some Muggle surname but he wasn't in anyone's good book in this House at the moment), it was more for the distance from his father. It wasn't like Severus was proud of being son to a drunken lout who didn't care about his family...

But he digressed. He had been thinking about Regulus, not himself. He couldn't help but wonder what had happened to cause a disagreement between him and a loyal follower - Avery. Or was it even a disagreement? Regulus certainly wasn't looking happy about something and Avery looked like he was trying to push whatever Regulus was against. No one else seemed to have an opinion.

Was it worth getting a bit closer to see if he could pick up on what was going on? Maybe more than just Regulus' outbursts? Severus almost immediately rejected that idea. No, that was definitely a bad idea - far too obvious. There was literally a clear circle around the little group. And he didn't want to think what they would do to him.

Friday 7th March 1977

Library, 16:00

"I'm not sure I like the moping any more than the irritableness."

Frank looked tiredly up from the homework he had written absolutely nothing for to look at Elsie.

"What do you mean?"

He couldn't even summon up annoyance at her question. He just felt... drained. Cast afloat. Unable to feel anything. He was aware that that was quite dramatic but he couldn't help it, he was very much in love.

"You know what I mean," Elsie replied, sitting herself across from him without invitation.

"No, I think you'll find that I don't."

"You don't do anything except work and even that is done with a long face instead of a look of concentration. And you barely speak to anyone anymore. Even when you were all intense about your working you would at least talk to one of us."

Had he really changed that much in one month? Actually, maybe that wasn't too surprising. He had been dealt quite a personal blow. Of course, he was going to have some sort of reaction to that, he wasn't made of stone!

"The McRaes all said your girlfriend shouted at you way back on St Valentine's Day." Elsie prompted when it became obvious that no answer was forthcoming.

Was nothing a secret in Hogwarts? Did they know when he sneezed as well?

"Yes," he replied reluctantly when it became obvious that she had been expecting a response.

"And she's still mad at you?"

That was absolutely nobody's business at all. But it was fairly obvious for those who paid any attention so he may as well answer truthfully.

"She must be because she hasn't talked to me."

He was pretty sure that for the first week or so, Alice had been annoyed at him but he wasn't sure for the most recent week or so. Alice had seemed to be avoiding him. He hadn't actually seen her outside of meals and maybe briefly in the evening - though there were always a crowd of people between them. He wasn't sure whether Alice managed that on purpose or not.

"Not at all?"

Frank shook his head. Of only je knew where he had gone wrong! He could fix it then; he knew he could.

"Huh." Elsie looked stumped by this.

Later on, Frank still wouldn't understand why he did it, maybe it was her simple want to help. Or maybe he was tired of bottling things up. Or maybe Elsie was just persuasive. Whatever the reason, Frank found himself telling her about everything that had happened and what he thought it had meant (though, obviously it was wrong because he had been unable to fix things between him and Alice).

Elsie, for once, listened patiently and didn't interrupt once. Not that Frank could exactly appreciate it as he was pouring his heart out. He didn't think he had ever said so much about one person in his life. But that was how important Alice was to him.

But now what? What could he do now that he had said everything there was to say? Could Elsie help him?

"So, what I'm hearing is that if you make up with Alice, you'll stop moping around," Elsie said thoughtfully.

"Elsie."

He knew she wasn't going to take this seriously. He just knew it.

"Calm down," she told him in an uncharacteristically sharp tone. So, he did. More out of shock than anything else. "We'll think of something to sort all this out. It's just a misunderstanding. I think."

"But what can I do?" he asked pathetically.

Elsie stood up and patted him on the shoulder.

"Nothing. Yet. Let me sort something out first."

And then she left. Without explaining anything. Because that wasn't ominous at all.

Sunday 9th March 1977

Library, 11:30

"Still avoiding Frank, then?"

Lily's sudden voice made her jump and drop her textbook onto the table.

"I'm just doing some work," Alice dismissed, not looking at Lily in favour of flicking through the pages to find her lost one.

Because she was working. Doing schoolwork. And not thinking of Frank. She wasn't. NEWTS were difficult and to make sure you did well you had to keep on top of things. And that was what she was doing. Keeping on top of her schoolwork. And maybe actually a little bit ahead. She had a lot more spare time on her hands, after all.

And that was okay. It wasn't like she missed Frank or anything. No, not at all.

She flung her quill down, eating ink splatter across her textbook. Oh, who was she kidding? Of course, she missed Frank. He was her betrothed. In fact, he was more than that, he was her friend. And she missed her friend. She missed how he would always listen to her, how he would nudge her shoulder to get her attention, how he would smile when something made him happy. She just missed him, okay?

"Doing work and avoiding Frank."

Alice sighed. She didn't want to get into this with Lily, as much as the red head was a good listener. It didn't matter how good a listener Lily was because she didn't want to talk about it. Not even a little bit.

"We're both busy," Alice excused. "NEWT years for both of us and he has the exams in two months."

Lily didn't look too impressed by that excuse.

"You could still talk to him, you know. You aren't revising or doing work all the time."

"And what do you know?" Alice snapped at her. "It's not like you've ever had a boyfriend, is it?"

Lily recoiled at that and Alice immediately felt guilty. That was a horrible thing to say to someone. Especially to someone who had been trying to help. Even if she didn't want to be helped. Or maybe she did. Oh, all of this was so confusing.

"I'm sorry," she replied quickly before Lily could say something.

"I didn't mean to pry," Lily said quietly.

"You weren't. Not really." She was just being a friend. A good friend. She rubbed at her eyes, suddenly feeling very tired. "I just don't know what to do."

"What happened exactly?"

"Oh, I don't know. Something. Everything. Well, I do know but it's stupid."

Really stupid if she thought about it. But it still made her annoyed so maybe it wasn't that stupid? Oh, emotions were confusing. Why did they have to have them? It would be so much easier if they just didn't feel anything. No love, no confusion, no anger, no jealously. They could all just get on with their lives and that would be that.

Lily was looking at her expectantly. Oh, she may as well explain herself then, shouldn't she?

"I got angry with hi.," Alice confessed. "Mad, even. It wasn't pretty."

Another point against her. A young lady really ought not to display her displeasure like she did. It was quite inappropriate. Unseemly. Yet another reason why there was no way she was good enough for Frank.

"Does he know why you're mad at him?"

That question made her open and close her mouth. Her automatic response was yes, of course Frank knew but... had she actually told him? Or had she just shouted at him and stomped off, not giving him a chance to do anything? Did whatever she had shouted even make sense? She just knew that she had felt something snap inside of her and then suddenly she was shouting. And then she left. Thinking back, Alice thought that she didn't even give Frank time to blink.

Lily gave her a knowing look, making her blush.

"You need to talk to him."

Alice pouted. "That's all you seem to suggest. Don't you have any other advice?"

Lily arched an eyebrow, making her feel kind of small. "I only suggest it because it's the thing that will probably fix your problem. Or at least help it."

"But talking is so hard."

"The right thing isn't always easy. And hard isn't necessarily bad, Alice."

Alice sighed heavily. She was sure Lily was right but, well, did she have to be right?

Wednesday 12th March 1977

Second Floor Corridor, 15:30

Alice was trying to dodge around a crowd of first years who were very happy that lessons were finished for today. It took a lot of concentration not to get sent flailing somewhere. Honestly, why were the first years like this? She didn't remember ever being this boisterous.

"Smith! Hey, Smith!"

Alice's stomach sank as she heard the last voice she wanted to hear. Elsie Malkin. Great. She put a smile on her face and returned the greeting.

"Hi, Elsie."

"Mind if I walk with you for a bit?"

Now, that immediately confused Alice because there was no way the two of them should be going the same direction. Alice was going to Gryffindor Tower and surely Elsie would be going to the Hufflepuff Basement. Unless, Alice's stomach sank, Elsie also needed to go to Gryffindor Tower.

She swallowed heavily and nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

The weird thing was, Elsie didn't do much talking either. Or any. The two of them just walked along in silence, Alice very much feeling on edge. What did Elsie want?

"I don't fancy him, you know," Elsie said suddenly.

"Excuse me?"

"Frank. I don't fancy Frank," the Hufflepuff repeated like it was the most obvious place in the world.

"What?"

Alice knew that wasn't what she should say - it was rude - but she just couldn't help it. There was no way Elsie said what she thought she heard.

"I. Don't. Fancy. Frank," Elsie said slowly.

Oh. She had said what Alice thought she heard. Huh. Wait... what?

"You don't?"

The older girl had the audacity to look amused at her question.

"No. I don't. Never have, never will."

"But, but-"

Oh, great. Now she sounded like some sort of stuttering idiot as well as stupid. Fantastic. This was getting better and better.

Elsie patted her arm sympathetically. "You have no reason to be jealous of me. Frank is just a good friend to all of his friends, no matter if they're girls or boys."

The jealous comment made Alice blush Oh, okay. Maybe she had been a little jealous. But Elsie always made Frank smile and she was a pureblood (albeit one of lower status than her and Frank) and she was a Hufflepuff. What more did the girl need?

Gryffindor Common Room, 19:30

Sirius was doing a bit of James-like behaviour. Evans Watching the rest of the Marauders liked to call it. He hadn't intended to stare at her weirdly like James did (and it was weird, no matter what James said), he just couldn't help it.

She had that morose look on her face again, a milder version of what she had that late night of theirs. It was in stark contrast to the rest of her friends who were all laughing at something. It wasn't a good look for her. It was almost wrong to see Evans moping. Anger, frustration, exasperation - those were all acceptable negative emotions for her. It meant she was doing something. Not like this sadness that seemed to make her deflate like a sad balloon. It was just wrong.

He wasn't sure why he was overthinking this so much. It wasn't like he could do anything. Or, wait... could he?

Sirius patted his pockets and then shook his head at his own ridiculousness. He didn't just carry them around during with him - they were up in his trunk.

Darting up there, he quickly found them. He couldn't help but smile when he did so - they were a Muggle pack. Just something else to snub his parents with. Anyway, they were more satisfying to hold, less flimsy. That was probably a metaphor for something but he couldn't be bothered figuring it out. Not when there was a card game to play. Or learn how to play.

He plopped the cards down in front of her, making her startle and look up at him.

"Black?"

"You said you were better at Pontoon than you were at chess."

"Yes?"

There was a very confused look on her face which was much better than the upset one.

"Well, prove it."

"You want to play with me?"

Why did she sound so suspicious? It wasn't like he was going to do anything to her - she was too scary to try and pull one over on and he was unashamed to admit that.

In fact, he should be the one feeling nervous - it wasn't Ike he knew how the infamously volatile Evans was going to react. But he was going to deal with it the way he usually dealt with such things. Confidence and a don't-care attitude.

"Of course, I do," he said in a very blasé tone, fanning the cards. "The question is, do you?"

He hoped she did because he didn't know what else he could do with her to maybe get her to smile. Or at least not look so upset.

She hesitantly reached for the deck of cards. "Do you even know how to play?"

"No," he replied cheerfully. "But you're going to teach me."

"Am I?"

"Well, if you want any sort of challenge, you will."

Lily screwed up her face in thought, nose scrunching up kind of cutely.

"Oh, okay."

"Way to sound enthusiastic, Evans."

That got him a look. He just grinned and response and she rolled her eyes. See? She was already much better.

At least the game was simple, it turned out, and didn't require a lot of thought. Just the ability to count to twenty-one and Lily was right. She was good at it. Infuriatingly so at first. Sirius kept managing to go way over. There's no way there were that many Kings in the deck!

Well, no matter who was winning (Lily) it was a good way to pass time. Didn't take too much concentration (unless you were trying to incinerate Kings, Queens and Jokers with your eyes). Unfortunately, that meant that it was easy enough to talk.

"You never said why you were down that night." Lily said with fake casualness.

Which wasn't very casual at all. Sirius could tell that she had been thinking a lot about it.

"Well, neither did you."

You're avoiding the question."

Sirius froze and looked at her. Very few people called him out like that. They were happy to let it drop because he obviously wasn't interested in the conversation. Or he actually did manage to flip the question over to them and they answered. Either way, he never had to say anything.

"Because I don't want to answer," he managed to reply - truthfully, for a change, instead of making a vague lie.

"Okay."

Sirius stared at her. That was it?

"I'm not taking any more cards," she said. "How about you?"

Still feeling a bit bewildered, Sirius looked down at his. He hadn't been paying attention at all to the cards he had been lofting and here was the proof. A shocking thirty-two. Oops.

"Me neither."

"Show on three?"

"Uh, sure."

"One... Two... three!"

Lily won this round. She had twenty.

"Again?"

Sirius looked at her and saw no curiosity or annoyance in her face. Huh. She really wasn't going to pry. He felt himself relax. That was good. And then determination came over him. He was going to win some for a change.

"Yes. Definitely."

With a grin, she dealt the cards again. Dammit! A King already? That made his total be eighteen? Did he risk it?

So, they played and played. It felt like they played for ages but really, the game was quite quick. James hadn't returned from his detention yet. Sirius was glad because he would be a distraction and his concentration was paying off. There were a lot more tallies next to his name now than Lily's. Ha!

"Last game," she said as a loud noise from the Common Room door indicated that James was back.

"That's not going to make you suddenly in the lead."

"Hmpf."

The cards were dealt again and, sure enough, not long after they both showed they cards. His twenty beat her eighteen. Ha!

"I win again!" Sirius cheered, gathering the cards up.

"I'll say it again. I'm way better at Cluedo." She replied playfully.

Sirius smirked at her, rolling up their tally sheet. He was thinking about getting it framed.

"I can't just take your word for it, Evans. You're going to have to prove it to me."

"Oh, don't worry, I will."

Thursday 17th March 1977

Gryffindor Common Room, 07:30

"Not celebrating this year, McKinnon?" Sirius asked teasingly.

She gave him a confused look. "What are you talking about, Black?"

She knew he didn't normally male sense but that made even less sense than usual.

He practically bounced in front of her and gestured up and down.

"Normally you're all decked put in green."

Marlene frowned at him. "I am dressed in green."

Of course, she was, this was St Patrick's Day, after all. Would she really be wearing any other colour, really? But Sirius was giving her an odd look.

"Um, no you're not."

"Of course, I a-" Marlene replied, looking down at herself and coming to an abrupt stop.

Her clothes that she was wearing were her school uniform. Which, technically, is what she should be wearing but hadn't been when she had left the dorm. There wasn't a scrap of green on her. What was happening?

"Did you do this?" she demanded of her sort-of boyfriend, taking a threatening step forward.

Sirius promptly took a step back and put his hands in front of him. He better not have done this. He knew, hell, everyone knew how seriously she took St Patrick's Day. You just didn't mess with one of the most important holidays of the year.

"No, there's no way I would have."

"Are you sure?"

What? Just because he and James planked everything that could be planked automatically meant that he was responsible for this? Hmpf. Now that was just unfair.

"I swear on the tip of Merlin's pointy hat that I didn't."

That got a snort from her and she shook her head.

"What are you, five?"

"Always at heart, McKinnon," he replied with a smirk.

She ignored him in favour of looking down at herself in dismay.

"Then if not you, who did this to me?"

What McKinnon hadn't seen, but he had, was a very smug looking Lily Evans.

"Nice switching spell, Evans," Sirius complimented with a smirk.

"Thanks, Black."

Marlene punched her in the arm.

"Some friend you are, Lily Evans!"

"Oh, come on," Lily replied, grabbing her arm. "Let's get some caffeine into you."

Sirius chuckled but got out of their way. Even he knew that that couldn't be solved with coffee! She needed to fix her clothes! There was no way McKinnon would be walking outside of this Tower without the proper St Patrick's Day attire on, it just wasn't happening.

Though, apparently it was as Lily was currently frog-marching her towards the Common Room door and Marlene couldn't escape her grip.

"You're being unfair," Marlene complained.

"I am not."

"At least let me put on something green."

"There's no time, come on."

Tuesday 22nd March 1977

Third Floor Corridor, 17:00

"Bad idea! Bad idea!" James said frantically as he took the lead.

Only temporarily as Remus had a longer stride.

He was running so hard that he couldn't even give him the snarky retort of, "You think?"

This had to be one of their worst ideas yet. Actually, their worst. Seriously.

"In here!" Sirius shouted, diving for an open classroom.

They all followed suit, each of them putting at least three locking spells each on the door. The buzzing went right past it.

"Thank, Merlin," Peter heaved a sigh of relief, slipping to the floor.

"Where are they going to go?" James asked worriedly.

"Don't care," Remus grumbled, even though he knew he should.

Bees in the castle were a pretty serious thing, after all. Especially when they were a part of a swarm.

"I didn't think that they would attract bees!" James said.

They had all thought that the castle needed some more signs of Spring in it so they had got the bright idea of replacing the suits of armour with flowers. Giant ones. A tricky bit of Transfiguration but James and Sirius managed it. Peter made sure they actually had some scent and Remus made sure they stayed upright.

All of them had forgotten that the windows were left open. A lot of windows, in fact.

"How much trouble do you think we're in?"

Did it even matter which one of them that came from?

"POTTER! BLACK! LUPIN! PETTIGREW!"

Sunday 27th March 1977

Sixth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 07:00

"I still say it's a crime to wake up this early on a weekend," he heard Sirius grumble.

"Come on, it's for James' birthday."

"I'm awake, aren't I?"

"Shh, you're going to wake him!"

James couldn't help but smile a little. He had actually been awake before them, as usual, but for once hadn't wanted to get up right away. He had wanted to savour his first waking moments as a seventeen-year-old all to himself.