5th October1973

Me and James went to get the book on becoming an animagus from the library today. We had planned to get it yesterday, but after we all fell asleep by the fire in the common room, we thought it would be better if we got it when we were more alert.

Before we left Peter wished us luck. "We don't need luck," snorted James, "we have skill."

I laughed and Remus gave a small smile but Peter didn't seem entirely satisfied. With a quick farewell wave, me and James slipped under the invisibility cloak and clambered out of the portrait hole. Quietly we made our way to the library, our only light was that which was given out by the flickering candles on the wall. When we got to the library I scanned the room quickly. As far as I could see it was empty.

"All clear," I whispered.

"No angry librarian," James whispered back sounding half disappointed. (James loved to annoy the strict librarian and actually so did I. I reckon we were the only people in the school that could get away with it as well, as she seemed to have a bit of a soft spot for us and couldn't really stay mad at us for too long.)

Swiftly we made our way through the main area and into the restricted section.

"There it is," James said and pointed to a fairly large and old leather bound book. I reached out my hand and carefully pulled out the book. On the front in big silver letters it said, 'The Essential Guide to the Art of Animagi' and then underneath that in slightly smaller writing it said ' A detailed yet understandable explanation of the process, the theory and the practical by Bertie Montoe.'

A considerable amount of dust had settled on the top of the pages and when I opened it, I saw that the pages were yellowing although the writing remained quite clear.

"That's the same one isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Right, let's go then."

When we got back to the common room, Peter and Remus were still sitting by the fire although the majority of other people had seemed to all ready have gone to bed. In fact the only other two people there were Lily Evans and Alana Tinson. They seemed to be doing homework as they were both holding quills and leaning over long pieces of parchment, although they seemed to be more interested in their conversation than the textbooks in front of them. I flopped down onto the chair next to Remus and James onto the one opposite me, next to Peter.

"Did you get it?" he asked, sounding a lot more excited now that he could see that we'd managed to complete our mission without getting caught. I grinned indicating the book that James was now holding with a smug expression on his face.

"Piece of cake really wasn't it Sirius?"

"Definitely, not challenging at all."

"Let's see it then!" demanded Remus.

"With pleasure," said James as he flipped open the front cover. We all gathered around it eagerly.

"Ugh," I groaned," so much writing!"

"It's all important though, you really can't afford to miss anything out," said Remus.

"I didn't say I wouldn't read it, I just said there was a lot of it!"

Just at that moment there were several quiet thuds and we all looked up to see Lily and Alana had closed their books and were packing up their stuff.

"Hey Evans," said James automatically. I rolled my eyes. Half the time I think he doesn't even think about it, it's just such a habit that he automatically talks to her; never to much success.

She glanced up and she too rolled her eyes. Grinning slightly Peter and Remus turned back to the book but James stayed looking at Lily.

"Need any help?" he asked, indicating the actually rather large pile of parchment and books the two of them were putting away.

"I can manage thanks," Lily replied acidly and out of the corner of my eye I'm sure I saw Alana smile but she quickly looked down as if to hide it and slid another book into her bag.

James just carried on grinning somewhat stupidly.

The two girls seemed to have packed away all their stuff now and started to walk towards the stairs that led towards the girls' dormitory. But as we were watching a quill fell out the bottom of Alana's bag. I looked at her to see if she'd stop but she was still walking. Apparently she hadn't realised. Without really thinking I jumped out of my chair and ran over to pick up the quill.

"Ala- uh Tinson wait!" I called. She turned around surprised. "You dropped this," I said waving the quill.

"Oh - how?" she asked more to herself than me. She looked at her bag trying to find the source of the problem and saw in the bottom corner of bag there was a medium sized hole. She took out her wand, pointed it at the gap and muttered "Reparo!" and stitches immediately jumped across the gap, sealing it.

"Thanks," she said looking back up at me.

"No problem," I replied looking back at her. "She has lovely eyes," I thought, a very clear blue. I was just thinking this when I realised she was holding out her hand, 'does she want me to take it?' I thought confused, but then I realised I was still holding her quill. Hastily I handed it back to her.

"Thanks," she repeated.

"Yeah no problem," I said again. We stood there for just a moment longer before she said, "Well goodnight then."

"Night," I replied. She smiled and turned around to join Lily who had been waiting this whole time at the bottom of the staircase. They walked up the stairs and then disappeared into the girls' dorm.

I too, turned around and with a strangely satisfied feeling made my way back to the other three.

"What was that about?" James asked curiously as I sat back down.

"I was just doing my good deed for the day," I replied.

"Hmm if that's all..."

"And what does that mean?"

"Nothing, nothing..." James trailed off but a smile was playing on his lips.

8th October 1973

I realised that I forgot to mention the result of the first Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. We won! James and Alana scored most of the goals between them ( although Ravenclaw did get some in) and our Seeker, Eveline Fir, caught the snitch just over half an hour in.

We're only about a quarter of the way through 'The Essential Guide to the Art of Animagi'. Remus is insisting that we read it from cover to cover before attempting any of the magic.

"It's just safer," he said firmly.

I will admit though, the book is interesting and that's a pretty decent compliment coming from me. The trouble is finding the time to read it. We usually manage to get in a chapter when the four of us are in the common room, after we've done some homework, but we can only really get it out when it's nearly empty as well. It would look quite suspicious otherwise and I don't think anyone would believe that we were reading just for the sake of it.

James, for some reason, keeps smirking or nudging me whenever Alana is near by. After this had happened for about the billionth time, I decided I'd had enough.

"What are you doing?" I demanded rather loudly causing several people nearby to look round, slightly alarmed.

"How do you mean?" he replied innocently.

"All these funny looks you keep giving me whenever Alana's around!" I said, "and all the nudges! I think I may have developed a bruise because of you."

"Oh wow, sorry mate, I didn't realise you had such sensitive skin!"

Peter snorted from next to James. Lupin was looking down at a book but he still had an amused expression on his face.

"You're changing the subject."

James sighed. "Well isn't it obvious?"

"Well, no."

He sighed again except this time more dramatically. Whatever this was, he was certainly making the most of it. "You fancy Tinson," he declared.

"What?" I spluttered, "what, what do you...?What?"

"You know, Alana Tinson," James said in a voice that suggested he thought this was the most obvious thing in the world, "blonde, pretty, chaser for Gryffindor, friends with -"

"I know who she is!" I interrupted.

"Ah good! Well you see, I think you fancy her."

I just stared at him. I, Sirius Black, was used to being the person that other people fancied but I myself, had never had a crush on anyone.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I responded, "besides, I thought it was you that went chasing after girls not the rest of us."

"Hey, I never said that you were chasing after her or anything! And I only chase after one girl not girls," he corrected.

"Whatever," I replied going back to my abandoned homework.

"I'm right," he carried on in the same confident voice he used when talking about his chances with Lily, "trust me, I'm right."