A/N- Back with another chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

"Padfoot… please take care of your guest's needs," muttered Remus in an annoyed voice, thick with sleep.

Sirius groaned and propped himself up by his elbows. Next to him, smelling far too much like Firewhiskey and sounding eerily like McGonagall was his slightly distraught potions partner.

"Alright, alright," he muttered, rubbing his eyes. "I'm up. What is so important that it couldn't wait a few more hours?"

"Why in Merlin's name am I in your bed at 3 in the bloody morning?" she hissed, not wanting to wake up everyone else just yet.

"Because you were sloshed out of your mind and passed out on my bed. And being the decent bloke that I am, I didn't throw you out to be caught by McGonagall or the other prefects," he said, rolling his eyes.

Dany spluttered on her words for a moment before everything came crashing back. The Firewhiskey, the trek to the boys' dorm, and then…

"Oh fuck…"

"Don't beat yourself up about it," said Sirius, nudging her shoulder with his. "None of you got caught. Yes, I say none of you because Evans and Marlene are also asleep in our dorm. Get some sleep or that lovely hangover you've so happily invited will make your life so much worse."

She still looked miserable. In fact, she was quite pale. Sirius sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Go to sleep, Dany," he said, gently. "It's not as bad as you think." He patted her head softly and she turned to look at him with slightly bloodshot eyes. Finally, she nodded her head slowly and hauled herself up to his bed.

It was a while later, when Sirius was almost asleep, that he heard a soft voice from above him.

"No arse-hexing tonight."

He chuckled and rolled over to the other side.

The morning had been interesting. Lily had woken up with a terrible headache, seen James sleeping on the floor next to her, flipped out and given him a rather fetching green moustache. Sirius had burst out laughing, causing Lily to turn on him, but obviously, considering Sirius' grace and Peter's misfortune, the Furnunculus Hex hit the blond boy square in the face. Marlene and Dany had taken this opportunity to hook Lily by her elbows and drag her out faster than you could say 'Marauders'.

"Can you die of embarrassment?"

Lily was speaking from underneath her blanket, her green eyes shining brightly.

"Let's see… heart failure, cancer, apparation accidents, the killing curse…" Dorcas counted things off her fingers. "Nope, don't think you can, Lils."

"Well, I disagree."

"Why do you believe death by embarrassment should be an official category now?" asked Dorcas, trying to hide her amusement.

"Because!"

"Because…?"

"I was in his bed!"

"His bed?"

"Yes!"

"You've got to help me out here, Lils. You need to cut down on pronouns. At least until I understand what the fuck you're talking about."

"Allow me," said Marlene, emerging from the bathroom. "Lily is going barmy because she slept the night in James' bed."

"Woah… How did that happen?" asked Dorcas, grinning at her friend.

"It's not what you think!" exclaimed Lily, jumping up and throwing aside her blanket. "We were sloshed and the boys were nice enough to let us crash in their dorm for the night! They all slept on the floor and gave us their beds! Nothing else happened!"

"Exactly," said Marlene, rolling her eyes. "Thanks for pointing that out, Lils. Nice to hear you think so too."

"Wait, what…" Lily sat down, slightly confused by what had happened. Her friends had baited her into admitting that she was overreacting? They were good.

Sirius was heading down to the Great hall for breakfast when he saw a familiar face approaching him. It was the first year he and James had helped out during the first week of classes. He grinned at the younger boy who looked startled for a moment but then grinned back.

"Found your way around, have you?" asked Sirius, quirking an eyebrow at him.

"Had a bit of help," he said, a grin tugging at his lips.

"Padfoot!" yelled James, running over to them. "Hey! You're the kid we helped out in the first week. How's it going? I don't even know your name."

"Michael," said the boy, his Ravenclaw tie tucked neatly into his robes.

"Well, Mike," said James with a grin. "Even though you're a Ravenclaw, we quite like you."

"Well, James," replied the younger boy. "Even though you've spoken to me twice, I'm glad that you like me."

James looked dumbfounded for a moment before he burst into laughter, Sirius following suit. Michael looked quite delighted to have made them laugh. James ruffled the boy's hair and slung a hand over his shoulder, leading them into the Great Hall.

They passed the Gryffindor girls - Lily, Marlene, Mary, Dorcas and Daniella- James pausing to wave at them while Sirius just smirked in their direction.

"Are you friends with them, then?" asked Michael, his voice a little stiff.

"Who? The girls? Yeah!" said James, enthusiastically. "Why?"

"No reason," he replied, surveying them coolly, before nodding and walking over to the Ravenclaw table.

"That was odd," said Sirius with a shrug. "Wonder what that was about."

"It's probably not important," said James, settling down and piling food onto his plate.

"Potter, can you please stop being a neanderthal for one second," said Lily, annoyed by him as usual. "Professor McGonagall wants to see you before Transfiguration today. Don't forget."

James nodded his head dumbly, a goofy smile taking over his face. Sirius snorted and nudged him in the ribs, causing the bespectacled boy to jump violently and splash milk all over Marlene.

"Oh well done, Potter," said Marlene, looking disgusted. She was never one to take things lying down so no one was surprised when she picked up her glass of pumpkin juice and flung it at James. Unfortunately, Peter took this moment to reach out and grab a piece of toast and ended up getting juiced. Naturally there was more retaliation as he flung some scrambled eggs at Marlene but because of his terrible aim, it landed on Dorcas. Dorcas was not really paying attention and yelped as peppery egg mush hit her on the face, her hands dropping the plate she had been holding up which happened to have some very greasy bacon strips on it. What followed was the plate of bacon dropping into the bowl of milk, causing a tidal wave of sorts moving its way towards Dany who had unsurprisingly sharp reflexes as she jerked to her left to dodge the incoming food missile. To her left was one Sirius Black, and due to her unfortunately limited range of reflexes, she ended up bumping into him. Well not so much bumping into him as crashing into his shoulder and having his hands instinctively wrap around her.

"Is it really so difficult for you to get through a meal without causing utter chaos and world destruction?" scoffed Lily, who had very wisely moved away from the scene and was now sitting next to a chuckling Remus.

James looked gobsmacked, the bowl of milk still in his hands as the entire Hall turned to look at the antics at the Gryffindor table. A few people giggled and quite a few cheered. They were more or less used to something or the other happening where the Marauders were concerned.

"You alright there?"

Dany's head shot up at the sound of Sirius' voice so close to her. There was a reason for that. He was very close to her. So close that she could see the slight blue in his grey eyes and the tiny grain of toast clinging to his upper lip. She stayed transfixed in that state, not sure of what to do. Which was strange because it seemed quite logical to just move out of his hold and sit upright as always. But for some reason, her brain seemed to have gone into sleep mode.

Sirius' mouth turned up slightly as he smirked at her, making heat rush to Dany's face. Still no movement though. The longer she stayed in that position, the worse the situation would get. A bit of Sirius' lustrous black hair fell forward onto his face and without thinking, she reached out and brushed it away. Maybe she was imagining it but it felt like he stiffened slightly at the action, his lips parting slightly.

"How long are you two planning on cuddling?" Marlene's voice pierced through with its hint of suggestiveness.

This seemed to reawaken Dany's brain because she immediately twisted out of Sirius' arms, flushing profusely as the others looked at her in amusement. Obviously no one made fun of Sirius because nothing ever seemed to ruffle or embarrass him. Git.

"Excuse me?" asked Sirius, raising an eyebrow at her. Apparently she had said that last bit out loud.

"Nothing! I-I'm going for Transfiguration!" she said, hurriedly picking up her things and trying to walk as fast as she could without it looking like she was dying to escape.

Marlene looked at Sirius and wiggled her eyebrows but he merely looked after Dany's retreating figure in amusement.

Sirius walked into Transfiguration, looking for his usual seat next to James. His best friend was nowhere to be seen but then he remembered that he had to go and meet McGonagall before class. Peter and Remus were sitting together and Marlene was sitting next to Evans. He sighed and sat down at one of the empty rows in front of the girls. He yawned lightly, wondering when James would arrive. They hadn't pulled a prank in a long time and he was worried that it would ruin their reputation as Hogwarts' greatest pranksters.

Just then, Wilson walked in, looking slightly flustered, presumably because she thought she would be late. He saw her let out a sigh of relief and scan the room for her usual place next to Evans, but seeing as it had been taken by Marlene, he wasn't surprised when a slight frown creased her forehead. Her eyes moved around the class, scanning potential places to seat and Sirius was delighted to see her eyes widen and cheeks flush as her eyes landed on him. She quickly averted her gaze and started moving towards the other end of the class.

"Dany!"

Evans and Marlene had spotted her and were waving her over.

"Where are you going?" asked Evans.

"Oh… Um, I'm just going to sit down next to Frank," she replied, hastily.

"But Frank is sitting at the other end of the class," said Evans with a frown.

"Yes, but saying as Marls has taken my regular seat," said Wilson, trying to divert the topic slightly.

"So?" said Marlene, shrugging. "Just sit beside Sirius."

"N-no!" she answered a bit too hastily, making Marlene and Evans raise their eyebrows at her. "I-I mean, James will probably want to sit there."

"That's okay. Prongs wouldn't mind sitting next to Frank," said Sirius, really enjoying how flustered she was getting. She turned to look at him with a glare. "Unless you have a problem sitting next to me."

That did the trick. He watched her eyes widen a fraction before she set her books down a bit too heavily on the desk next to him.

"Of course not. I was just looking out for James. But since you clearly don't care about your best friend, I guess it doesn't matter," she said, giving him a challenging look.

"I guess I don't," he said.

"Good. He's lucky to have a friend like you."

"Indeed he is."

"Such a fortunate lad."

"I agree."

"Alright."

His smirk increased as she busied herself with her books, the flush not leaving her cheeks.

"Not as lucky as me, though," he whispered, leaning towards her slightly so that only she heard.

Just as he expected, she jerked violently at his proximity and dropped her Transfiguration book on her foot.

"Oi! Dany!" said Marlene. "What's with you today? Have you no control over your limbs?"

"Apparently not," she muttered, sending a dark look in Sirius' direction.

"So what did Minnie want?" asked Peter. They were all sitting in the common room, too lazy to get up and go up to their dorm. Remus was reading a book. James was busily sketching out a new Quidditch play and Sirius was lounging on the sofa with an odd amount of grace.

"Quidditch stuff," said James, not really looking up from his plans.

Peter looked slightly put out, not knowing how to continue the conversation. He went back to his homework and silence prevailed once again. Sirius yawned once again. He seemed to be doing that a lot these days. James was always occupied with Quidditch or staring at Evans, Remus prefered to study most of the time and Peter had never really been the one to take any initiative.

"What are you lads doing for Christmas?" he asked, twirling his wand expertly.

"I have to go back home," said Peter, looking downcast.

"I'm staying here," said Remus, looking up from his book.

"Prongs?" prompted Sirius, nudging his friend with his foot.

"Huh?" he replied, looking up with a lost look. "Oh right. Umm, I'm staying back as well. Quidditch practice and stuff."

"Looks like I'm staying back as well," said Sirius with a grin. "Pete, you sure you can't swing a turnaround?"

"No. Mum's insisting," he grumbled.

"Bugger. Guess we'll have to plan something spectacular for when you get back."

Peter seemed to brighten up at this statement but that was about all the activity that Sirius managed to get out of his friends. James hadn't moved from his plans, Remus had gone back to his book, and Peter was now frowning at his homework, probably because he had messed up something.

Just then, the girls walked in, sitting down a little away from them. Meadows and Evans were clearly talking about homework because Marlene had rolled her eyes and opened a copy of Quidditch Through The Ages. McDonald was writing a letter but their last roommate was nowhere to be seen. Sirius wondered where she was.

Right on cue, the portrait hole opened and Wilson walked in, carrying something in her hands. She was grinning widely and walked over to her friends.

"I got it! Slughorn finally said yes!"

"Brilliant! Let's see it then!" said Evans, sticking out her hand eagerly.

"What did ol' Sluggy give you?" asked Sirius, making the girls turn towards where they were sitting. He smirked slightly as Wilson's cheeks colored again.

"None of your business!" snapped Evans.

"Aw, don't be like that, Evans," said Sirius, grinning at her. She glared at him for a bit and then sat back down. Sirius moved his eyes to his Potions' partner, pleased to see that she was still staring at him with that pleasant pink tinge dusting her cheeks.

"Lils, take that away from Dany before she spasms out of control again," said Marlene from the chair.

Everyone turned to look at her, giving her a questioning look.

"Sirius is looking at her. And since she seems to lose control over her limbs whenever he looks at her, I thought it might be better to get the vial into safety."

There was a loud gasp as Wilson turned towards Marlene and glared at her. Evans was trying very hard to not laugh while Meadows and McDonald had already started chuckling.

"Here you go," said Wilson in a testy voice, handing the vial to Evans and turning to face Marlene. "No more fear of spasms."

Sirius watched in amusement as she stalked up towards the girls' dorm, turning around once to send him a dirty look.

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