Three bottles of firewhiskey later and everyone was caught up in the trading of tales from Hogwarts, for no matter how many times this seemed to happen between one group and another, they always seemed to do a moment justice.

"So then the door opens and there's McGonagall in her tartan dressing gown, and that wanker over there," a moment is spent to acknowledge the 'grown up' Sirius in the room who looked surprisingly innocent except for the mischievous glint in his eyes, "Just looks right up at her like she's interrupting something, I'm trying to hide behind him, not laugh, and cover myself with my shirt, and he just winks at her and says, hello Minnie how is your evening treating you?"

Tonks' spits out some of her drink laughs, and looks over at Sirius, "You did not?"

He winked and eyed Alice. "Oh yes he did, and we spent two weeks cleaning the transfiguration room and organizing the detention files for her and Filch." She stole a look at Sirius, "Didn't we?"

He smiled and her cheeks when red. "Actually it was three weeks."

Remus walked into the room with a couple of records. "Three weeks for what?"

"Fuck else do you think for Remy, detention." Sirius said lightly smiling at Remus. Remus frowned and eyed his friend warily. "Can't disappoint those females can we?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Thank god you've got Alice so you don't end up in a broom closet every night with some scarlet woman."

Sirius, Tonks, and Alice shared a look and then burst out laughing. While Remus was gone, Tonks had been informed of just how scarlet Alice and Sirius were at Hogwarts right under Remus' nose. Apparently he was still clueless.

"Oh piss off." He said and then sat down next to Tonks, with the records. "Here they are." He said and eyed them tenderly, looked up at Tonks quickly as she surveyed the collection, and then looked back down immediately. "We have here," he looked over at Alice who waited desperately to hear the choices. They had previously kicked Remus out to get Tonks some records after she had listed The Weird Sisters, The Clash, Bruce Springsteen, The Pixies, and Cindy Lauper as her favorite bands. Tonks had asked what they listened to at Hogwarts and they immediately had a tribunal decision that Tonks should borrow some of their records. "The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground, The Buzzcocks – Singles Going Steady, The Who – Who's next, Modern Lovers – Modern Lovers, and Ray Charles- Ray Charles-live. Now The Velvet Underground is from Alice's collection and she used to be a particular fan. The Modern Lovers-"

"That was James all the way." Barked Sirius.

"Thank you Sirius, I was just about to say that."

"Though Tonks, you have to understand the significance of this matter." continued Sirius regardless, "James was a pretty strange fellow, when it came to music. Picture James, walking down the hall, star chaser (though he could play a number of positions), headboy, already to join the Order of the Pheonix as soon as school let out, best mate a guy could ask for, Defense against the Dark arts master, who's prep song for before he would ask Lily out had the lines Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole. That in a nutshell, was James Potter." They all had a laugh.

"You know, I almost forgot he used to do that." Said Alice.

"It goes even further than that."

"What?" she asked, greedy for most likely hysterical information on James.

But Sirius looked over at Remus, who sat upright with the records neatly stacked on his lap, sneaking glances at Tonks, and Tonks doing the same to Remus, neither of them noticing. "Another time."

"Please."

"Another time, right now we've got some records to go over."

"Fine," then she turned to Remus who continued.

"The Who – Who's next. That was a popular record among the group."

"Mostly Remus, James, and Sirius. Though Remus was noted as the big Who fan. Well, James too. It was a very crucial band in their collections."

"Thank you Alice, for the side notes. Now, we have Ray Charles – Ray Charles-live."

This time Tonks interrupted, "I know him, mum has some of his records lying around the house, but they're not hers or dad's."

"Most likely mine from when a lot of us during Hogwarts stayed at her house for about three days."

"They're yours?"

"Yes, I had wondered where those got to, now we know Sirius." Remus turned to Sirius to whom he had made search the whole of the house with him to find them.

"Now we know. You owe me a bottle of butterbeer."

Remus smirked and rolled his eyes. "Fine, I owe you a bottle of butterbeer. But Tonks, if you already have some, I might have to find a replacement-"

"No it's fine, I really liked him. Also this one wasn't in there." She looked up from the record at Remus who just sat there. "I could, well, I could bring you back your records some time, we could all have a listen at them, what do you say?" She looked really excited at the idea, and she looked over at Remus like a kid asking to open their Christmas presents early. "What do you say Remus?"

"That would be great Nymphadora."

"Great."

"Oh, and Remus" said Alice "Who did The Buzzcocks belong to?" she asked coyly.

"The Buzzcocks, hang on. As in the band that had Ever fallen in Love and What do I get?" asked Tonks.

"Yes,"

Remus blushed slightly, but then turned to face Tonks and leaned in a bit. She leaned in too and they had the record between them and were looking over it intently, Alice and Sirius shared a knowing look. "I've been looking for an album for ages. My mates down at the record shop won't let me get it because they don't believe that Cyndi Lauper, The Weird Sisters and them should belong to the same collection."

"That's quite a shame, though they do have other really excellent songs besides those ones."

"How did you get into them?"

Remus looked up and off into a corner trying to remember. "I believe it was just living in London in the late seventies. We had the opportunity to catch a lot of music then, right Sirius."

"Right, but don't make it sound so much like having the flu would you? We didn't catch them, we went to the record store or a concert, or through a friend and heard them."

"Whatever you say Sirius."

"So Remus, what were you like at Hogwarts? We've heard a great deal about everyone else." asked Tonks.

"I mostly kept out of the way, I read a lot, and … tend to get ill quite a bit as well. I was prefect, and most of the time when we pulled pranks my job was to make sure we didn't get caught. At least, as much as we would have."

"Oh Remus you're full of it. Kept out of the way, down deep you were as if not more mischievous than James and Sirius. You also scored higher than about ninety percent of our classon any quiz, and although you never took advantage of this fact, I had about a couple of girls a week come up to me and tell me how hot they thought my brother was and asked if I could get them a date."

"Endearing as that is-"

"Annoying is more like." Muttered Alice

"You're painting a much bolder picture of me than what actually happened."

"You weren't put into Gryffindor for nothing Remus."

"I'm sure even then you were the quiet professor type, even if you were a teenager." Added Tonks, mostly for Remus' benefit.

"Thank you Tonks."

"Oh shit." Tonks looked at the clock.

"What is it?"

"I've got to run. It's past one o' clock and I have to get up at six."

"You best be off, here, I'll help you with the records and you can get your coat at the door."

"Thanks Remus." And with that everybody stood up, and said their goodbyes. "I promise I'll stop by some time later in the week and drop off your records.

Now Tonks was by the door fumbling with her coat. Scrambling to get back home in time to get a decent night's sleep. Remus stood watching and held out the records. "I'll see you later Nymphadora."

She smiled. "It's Tonks, and I'll see you later." And with that she was gone. Though with her went a kind of light from the house, it now seemed it's old gloomy self, and they could notice.

"We're going to go back and finish up the bottle, what do you say Remus?" said Sirius

He stared at the door a minute longer and then said, "Sure, why not." And followed.

"You fancy Tonks don't you Remy." Asked Alice

"I do not." Replied Remus, slightly annoyed at the nickname.

"You do too. Though if you cross a line, I break your knee caps, fair?"

Remus was about to protest that he didn't fancy Tonks, but figured it no use. They were nothing, if not persistent. "Fine, fair."

"Good, now let's finish the bottle up." Said Sirius as he made his way down the hall.

"Come on Remus, let's go. Fun times will be ahead soon enough, now we need to sulk and recall memories. Come on, join us." And she looped her arm with his.

He looked down at her. "It's okay, I'm going to head off to bed. I'm tired. I'll see you two tomorrow for more cleaning." He pulled her closer and kissed her forehead.

"Okay. Always the optimistic though aren't you." She called after him. She walked down the hallway and into the 'living'. Sirius was on the couch with a glass already in his hand. "Hey you."

"Hey." He looked around. "Where's Remus?"

"The old man got tired and wanted some shut eye." She sat down next to him and leaned her head against his shoulder. He pulled her closer. "Sirius?"

"Yes."

"Do you think it's going to be like last time?"

He paused and stared into his drink. "I don't know. It feels like it though."

"Yeah."

He looked down at her and recognized the far off look in her eyes. "But we don't have to worry about it for awhile." She nodded and then smiled wearily at him.

"Sirius, I'm don't think I'm up to going through another bottle. Do you want to just go to sleep?"

"I'm not tired, you?"

"No." then she smiled. "Though I do believe I've never seen your room."

A lightbulb clicked in his head. "I do believe you haven't." He held out his arm to her. "May I walk you there, o scarlet woman?"

She rolled her eyes but smiled and took his arm. "Sure Sirius, sure."