A/N *Loud wail* IT CAN'T BE OVER! Guess what I saw on Friday?

The choir, with their singing toads in hand descended from the front of the hall, the students clapping happily but eager to begin the Halloween feast. Lily was clapping the hardest as Alice sat down beside her, blushing intensely.

"You were great!" Lily exclaimed, giving her friend a tight shoulder hug. Frank, who was at the other side of Alice, was smiling gently. He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the check.

"I screwed up halfway through it though," Alice muttered.

"You did not," Lily argued.

"I did,"

"Oh god!" Remus exclaimed, his head in his hand. "Will you please just accept the compliment?"

Alice and Lily looked over. Alice was a little hurt at this but Lily seemed to understand in an instant when Peter gave her a look. She cleared her throat and nodded.

"Right, yes," She said. "Sorry Remus,"

"Bloody hell," Frank said. "You can't talk to people like that Remus,"

"I know," Remus muttered, as a plate of food appeared in front of them. "I'm sorry, I'm just not feeling that great."

"Maybe you should visit Madame Pomfrey," Alice suggested.

"Perhaps," Remus said. "Tomorrow though, if it persists, besides, I still have that essay to finish."

Lily said nothing, looking down at her food. She shook her head and licked her lips. "Where are James and Sirius?" She asked.

"Why? Worried?" Mary asked, chomping down on a piece of pie.

"Well… No, not really," Lily said. "Aren't you? I mean, Sirius never misses a feast."

Mary shrugged. "He comes and goes. I don't know what to make of him really. Bit of an arsehole, never tells me a bloody thing though,"

"That's Sirius for you," Peter said.

"How can you two stand it?" Alice asked. "I mean, you guys are so nice and loyal, Sirius and James… Well I wouldn't be completely surprised if they end up doing something stupid and landing themselves in a pile of trouble."

"They're good to us," Peter replied simply. "We're social outcasts by default. They don't see us that way,"

"I guess that's a quality to be admired." Frank admitted. "Only, Remus, you don't seem to be an outcast that much…"

Remus was muttering into his food so that only Peter could hear him. "You have no idea."

"Anyway," Peter said, trying to pick up spirits. "Why is everyone so… Unhappy?"

"Sorry about that," Remus said.

"Not your fault," Lily was quick to defend.

Remus said nothing in reply.

"I'm not miserable," Mary said.

"Nor me!" Added the chirpier sound of Marlene McKinnon.

"Or me!" Frank said, throwing a glance to Alice who smiled back at him.

"Good," Peter said.

"Peter! Remus!" James was running up the length of the Great Hall, his robes billowing out behind him. Some of the students looked around, fairly interested, so did a few of the teachers. James leaned down and talked to both of them in whispered tones. "Sirius is a dog."

Remus' eyes widened, as did Peter's. James gave them the order to stay for a little while longer and then make an excuse to leave, before turning around and leaving the Great Hall much to the disappointment of a few students who were hoping for something interesting to happen. Peter and Remus did not wait long enough. Remus stood up, feigning that he was feeling frightfully ill and that he was going to go to the hospital wing and be checked out.

Lily was quick to offer to join him. "Do you want someone to come along?" She asked.

"No," Remus said, quickly, almost barking at her. He stopped and put his hand to his brow, squeezing his eyes slightly. "No, you don't need to see me like this," He hurried off. Peter stopped and waited, pursing his lips.

"Perhaps I should go after him," He said. "And make sure he's okay," He stood up and so did Lily.

"Well maybe I should come too," She suggested.

"Er… no," Peter said. He sighed. "It's not you, Lily, it's just he gets very tense when there's others around him when he just wants to be surrounded by us three (Sirius, James and I), so best not, okay?"

Lily nodded and sat back down again as Peter ran off. He met Remus in the corridor outside the great hall and together they set off up the stairs to the girl's bathroom.

…

"So, you can understand me?" James asked, leaning down.

The black, bear like dog made a yelping noise, moving its head up and down, its ears flapping madly and panting as if it had just run a 100 metre race.

"And you don't want to play fetch?" James asked.

The dog sat down and tilted its head, its mouth closed with an almost pitying expression lingering in his eyes.

James sighed. "Well you can't blame me for not trying." He said.

Remus and Peter burst in and took one look at the dog that sat in front of James. James shot them a look and stood up, hands on hips with a disapproving expression on his face. This confused Remus slightly, usually he was the one disapprovingly looking at his friends. "Took your bloody time though didn't you?" James asked.

"Well you told us to wait." Peter argued, straightening his tie and making sure his robes weren't tangled.

"Not that long," James said.

"Sorry, Lily held me up." Peter replied, closing the door and tucking a piece of blond hair behind his ear.

"Glad it was her and not Snivellus," James muttered as Remus made his way slowly around to the dog.

"Is that really Sirius?" He asked.

"Yep," James said proudly.

"But how?" Remus asked, kneeling down so to look at the dog in the eyes. "You two were showing a lot more progress than him and suddenly this happens?"

The dog seemed to move its eyes as if it was making a sarcastic comment. Remus noticed.

"Well sorry," He said. "But if anyone was going to transform first I thought it was going to be James!"

The dog barked.

"Sh!" James said. "Keep it down otherwise we'll be found out!"

There was a wailing noise and Myrtle appeared beside the sink. "Is that the handsome boy? Sirius?" She wailed.

"Yes," Peter replied.

"What have you done to him?" She almost screamed.

"Turned him into a spider and let this big dog eat him," James said sarcastically. "Shut up Myrtle, we're working it out!"

Myrtle floated straight towards James and aimed a ghostly fist to his head. "Don't say that!"

"Myrtle, whilst we value and love your always persistent and honest loyalty, now is not the best time to be getting girlfriend-y on Sirius," Remus said, looking up.

Myrtle seemed to take this at face value, though she began to sulk a little, sitting on the edge of the basin with her hands clamped around the rim, as if she was scared that she would fall off.

"Can he understand us?" Remus asked.

"Apparently," James shrugged.

Remus held out his hand towards Sirius who looked at it patiently. Then with a slight whine, he put his paw into Remus' hand. Remus smiled.

"You're feet feel weird," He said. "Sorry,"

The Sirius Dog barked, letting his flat tongue roll from his mouth. Remus moved back slightly.

"Tell you something," He said. "Your breath stinks more than the bogged up toilets on the first floor."

Sirius was not happy with that comment.

"Can he change back?" Peter asked.

"Dunno," James said. "Change back before I neuter you."

The Sirius Dog did not look impressed. He got up and walked for a few seconds before the dog disappeared and Sirius got up from the floor.

"Woah!" James said, shielding his eyes.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"Clothes," Remus replied, gathering up a set of robes that had been cast aside. He threw them at Sirius before turning his back. Sirius looked down and yelped in shock. Myrtle let out a satisfied giggle, tilting her head to see, her ghostly glasses falling down her nose. She pushed them back up in order to see. Still sniggering gleefully.

"Shut up Myrtle," Sirius muttered. "Or I'll throw a book at you,"

Myrtle didn't seem to mind.

"Okay," Sirius said. "I'm fairly decent." James, Peter and Remus turned around again as Sirius pulled his hair back from his face. "Why didn't the clothes transform with me?" he asked.

"I guess it's because you have to concentrate on clothes," James said. Myrtle let out another giggle.

"Really?" Sirius asked. "Damn. That'll make the first few times a bit of a problem."

"Can you…" Remus licked his lips and cleared his throat. "Transform back?"

Sirius frowned and began to concentrate. After a moment he sighed and let his face drop. "No… Something's stopping me. Like a mind block."

"You'll get there," James said. "We all will."

Sirius grinned. "Hear that Remus? You won't need to be on your own in a few more months, you'll be stuck with us forever."

"God, I hope not," Remus smiled gently, his gaze caught to the almost full moon that hung outside in a blanket of clouds. His hair stood on end and goosebumps raised over his skin and a shiver passed through him.

…

Sirius tried desperately the next day to become the bear like dog again but he only managed to progress about two thirds. His entire skin was covered in thick black fur and his feet padded. He had no tail to speak of.

"Cheer up, Padfoot," James said nudging him. "You just have to face the truth that you can't do anything right."

Sirius was annoyed at this and turned Snivellus' robes pink to prove a point. This sent James cascading down the stairs trying to hold his sides together. Remus had disappeared around about midday during potions, much Slughorn's disappointment. Snape watched curiously and Lily nudged him back to his work.

"Where's Lupin?" Snape asked cornering Peter, Sirius and James after class.

"Severus, come on," Lily said, trying to pull him away.

"What's it to you?" Sirius asked.

"I think lots of people would want to know where he goes every month!" Snape said threateningly.

"Severus, come on, I've had enough of this," Lily said. "They don't want to hear your theories,"

"Theories?" James asked. "You have theories?" James cleared his throat. "Tell you what Snivellus, why don't you run back to your little death eater friends and leave the big boys alone?"

Snape whipped his wand from his sleeve, James was quicker and there was a loud bang. James looked around and saw that Peter and Sirius with their own wands in hand and fierce expressions on their face. Snape was struggling to his feet, his gangly legs and arms caught in his robes.

"You didn't need to do that," Lily said bending down to help him up.

"Evans, if you don't stop defending him, I'm gonna have to start hexing you too." James sighed.

Lily didn't reply. She made sure Snape was fine before he almost pushed her off. She looked over at James. "Nothing in this world will make me stop defending my friends." She said, taking Snape's arm and marching off. Sirius watched carefully before tucking his wand back into his robes.

"Best we keep an eye on the slimeball," He warned James.

James looked up. "You think?"

"Yeah," Peter agreed. "He seems… More suspicious than ever of us. And not just because he has a bad feeling about whatever new prank Sirius is about to pull."

"You think he might try and figure out Remus' secret?" James asked.

"If Evans' hasn't told him already," Sirius said.

"Nah, Remus said himself that she promised not to. Evans is too loyal to go and do something stupid like that," James said.

"She's not here, she can't hear you being nice about her," Peter pointed out as they rounded the corner before climbing up to the Gryffindor common room to prepare for their astronomy lesson that night.

"Damn," James muttered.

"I thought you were going out with Caitlin," Sirius said.

"Doesn't mean I can't flirt with other girls." James replied simply. "I mean come on, like I'm going to do anything with them."

"I don't know, you'll piss a lot of people off," Sirius said. "Nocte"

The fat lady portrait swung open and the three of them climbed into the common room, setting themselves down to enjoy the time they had before astronomy. Sirius flopped down on his favourite armchair whilst James lounged casually on the couch and Peter sat in front of the fire reading his homework with a slight dent in his forehead. James rubbed his eyes for a minute, taking off his glasses. He then pulled forward a copy of the Daily Prophet to which a first year must have left behind. On the front was a picture of a wizard who was being hunted by the ministry pertaining to information about the torture and murder of several muggles. James stared at the picture for a moment before thumbing through the pages to more cheerful articles. He didn't even bother looking at some of the articles. He stopped at a page and leaned forward.

"Jenn and Torus got married?" He asked Sirius.

Sirius jolted as if waking up from a nap. He rubbed his eyes and pulled the newspaper forward. "Oooh yeah…"

"And you failed to mention this to me why?"

"You're a smart bloke, they've been dating since 4th year," Sirius shrugged. "I thought it would have been obvious. Why?"

"They've just had twin boys." James said.

"And I thought Torus was asexual," Sirius mumbled. "What are their names?"

"Gregory and Finley,"

Sirius shuddered.

"Oh and I'm sure your kids are gonna have better names!" James said.

"I think it's too early to be thinking about kids, James. You're not a thirteen year old girl by any chance?"

"Oh, how ever did you figure out my secret?" James asked.

"It wasn't too difficult. I mean, I know I'm sexy, but you just keep looking. It's either you are a 13 year old girl or are indeed obsessed with my perfect round arse," Sirius shrugged.

"Arrogant tosser," James muttered.

"I know," Sirius said. "But the girls love me for it."

"Girl," Peter corrected. "Only Mary seems to find it attractive. It just annoys everyone else."

"I thought you were supposed to worship the very ground I walk on?" Sirius said.

"No that's Mary, remember? Besides, that was never in the job description." Peter said.

"Job description?" Sirius asked.

"Well… Yes… It's a full time job catering for you two and Remus is plainly exhausted all the time so you know, we take it in turns." Peter said.

James wanted to hug Peter, then realised that he was making fun of him too. Instead he stuck out his tongue, causing his glasses to slip off his nose and land beside Peter. Peter sighed and picked them up, handing them over.

"See?" He said. "Full time job."

James pushed his glasses up his nose.

"It's times like these that I actually miss Remus," Sirius said.

Peter just frowned.