Hogwarts was glorious at that time of year, as the days slipped from September to October, and the first vestiges of autumn colours could be seen dappled on the trees. It was still warm enough that the grounds were crowded with students, who revelled in the sunny afternoons after the morning frost had been burned away. The Marauders soaked up these days - seventh year brought with it the threat of NEWTS and that wide, open future before them that stood so uncertain. They were keenly aware that they only had so long left at Hogwarts together, and resolved to savour every second.

The first weekend in October arrived, and with it the prospect of a day in Hogsmeade. Sirius was awoken that morning from a deep sleep by a thump across the face with a pillow.

"Oi, Padfoot, get up," James' voice came from above him, and Sirius cracked open his eyes. Light streamed in through the windows, and he was forced to squint to see Remus and Peter dressing across the room, laughing at something he hadn't caught.

"What was that for?" he snarled. "Fuck off."

"Hogsmeade, bud," James said, grinning. "Don't want to be late for breakfast and miss the opportunity to walk down with some pretty company, do we?"

"Fine," Sirius growled, swinging himself up and out of bed. "But you can still fuck off."

He washed and dressed quickly, mentally acknowledging the fact that James was right about being late for breakfast. After throwing on his trademark leather jacket, he checked his appearance in the mirror. Given it was a Saturday, he'd neglected to shave, and ran a hand across his stubble, and then through his hair. It was still short, not yet in the trademark long locks he'd come to sport later in life; unlike James', however, running his fingers through the curls did manage to tame it somewhat. Good enough, he thought.

As they walked to the doorway, Sirius clocked what Remus was wearing, and laughed.

"One day, Moony," he said, throwing an arm around his friend's shoulders, "we'll get you to ditch the sweater vests."

Breakfast, Sirius thought, really did work wonders. He took another bite of his bacon sandwich, and nodded as Remus offered to pour him coffee. They were early to breakfast, and the Great Hall was fairly empty still, with just a light hum of chatter as students felt the last hold of tiredness washed away by coffee and tea. Saturdays like this were some of his favourites, where they forgot for a few moments the expectations of Quidditch, classwork and the future. He'd been looking forward to the Hogsmeade visit for a while, ready to blow off some steam with his friends.

"I need to go to Zonko's," James said, bringing Sirius from his thoughts to the conversation.

"Yeah, me too," Peter replied, pouring himself another glass of juice. "I'm all out of stink bombs."

"Forgot you used the last in Slughorn's class," James chuckled, and Peter grinned back at him. "How about you, Pads?"

"Zonko's, yeah," Sirius replied, "and I want to go to Honeyduke's."

"Obviously," Remus rolled his eyes. "Your sweet tooth is going to rot all your teeth, Padfoot."

"Either that or you're going to end up the size of Hogwarts," Peter added.

Sirius patted his abs under his t-shirt, toned from the endless Quidditch, nights running around as an animagi, and that blessed good luck of a seventeen-year-old metabolism.

"Jealousy isn't a great look, gentlemen, but I know you can't all be blessed with a body like mine," he quipped.

James snorted.

"Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what the problem is," he said.

"I've seen you naked, Prongs, don't even pretend," Sirius retorted.

"Desperate to hear that story," came a voice from behind him, and he swivelled to find himself face-to-face with Marlene, flanked by the other girls, and with an amused look on her face.

"A gentleman never tells, Miss McKinnon," Sirius replied, holding her gaze for just a little too long. As she took a seat at the table, Sirius could have sworn he'd seen a blush rise briefly to her cheeks. McKinnon, embarrassed? Never.

"If it's all the same," Lily said, reaching for a piece of toast, "I'd rather not hear the story."

"Ditto," Mary added.

"Shall we move on?" Remus said smoothly, noting the fierce blush that had appeared on James' face. "We were just saying we wanted to go to Zonko's and Honeyduke's - anywhere you ladies need to be in Hogsmeade today?"

"I need new quills and parchment, desperately," Marlene said. "Aside from that, I'm easy."

"Bet you are," Sirius replied instinctively.

"Yes, thank you, Sirius," Remus continued, sounding like someone's dad. In combination with the sweater vest he was sporting, it was hard for Sirius not to laugh.

"You're such a dick, Black," Marlene replied, rolling her eyes. "Dorcas, did you say you wanted to get a new Transfiguration textbook?"

"Mine is irreparable after the fire incident," Dorcas said morosely. "I knew I should have thought better of being Aoife Finnegan's Transfiguration partner."

"That girl is a menace," James said. "Love her to pieces, obviously, but I don't understand how she's got to seventh year and is still setting everything on fire."

"A mystery for the ages," Sirius added. "If we've only got a few things to get, I suggest we convene in the Three Broomsticks for lunch. Rosmerta owes me a round of drinks, remember."

"I cannot understand how you have Rosmerta wrapped around your finger, she was a seventh year when we joined Hogwarts!" Remus exclaimed.

"What can I say, charm and good looks get you far," Sirius smirked. "I actually ran into her in Diagon Alley in the summer after…" he paused for a moment, suddenly feeling self conscious about revealing to anyone outside the Marauders that he'd run into his parents in Diagon Alley over the summer, gone and got ragingly drunk in the Leaky Cauldron in order to cope with it, and ultimately ended up vomiting in the Potters' front garden. "After going to that gig, Moony," he finished lamely.

Remus and James shared a brief look of understanding.

"Yeah, I remember you saying," Remus nodded. "Surely you owe her a drink, then?

"Nah, she said there's always a free round for her favourites," he winked.

"Please tell me you have not hooked up with Rosmerta," Lily groaned.

"Evans! Can't a guy get on with a girl without any ulterior motives?!"

"First off," Lily replied, counting on her fingers, "don't think we don't all remember the truth-or-dare over the summer where you said you've fancied Rosmerta since you were like, twelve. And second, I think the four of us are the only girls you been friends with who you haven't managed to hook up with. Well…" she grinned, "until you kissed Marlene."

"Okay, okay," Marlene said, rolling her eyes as her friends laughed, "I thought we had tacitly agreed never to talk about that."

"Given you threatened to cut my balls off, McKinnon," Sirius said, suddenly serious, "I'd like it noted for the record that I did not bring it up."

"Consider it noted, Black," she replied.

The walk to Hogsmeade passed quickly, as the eight of them chatted and joked together. Sirius watched, an amused smile on his face, as James and Lily talked, laughing at each other's jokes. Only a year ago they'd barely been able to be in the same room. Lily's years of rejections had, for a while at least, made James bitter about the whole situation, and he'd reacted with his typical hot-headedness to the point where they'd fought like alley cats.

"I take it he's not over her, then?" came a voice to his left, and Sirius looked down to see Marlene in step with him. He made an incredulous face at her.

"Are you joking? Prongs has been sweet on Evans since we were eleven, McKinnon. That's not going away any time soon."

Marlene smiled.

"Yeah, but you never know with boys. Them being friends with each other might mean that he's decided to shag someone else, or something."

"Not fucking likely," Sirius snorted. "For all his flirting, he's as smitten with her as he always was."

"You mean…?" Marlene looked at him with surprise.

"He's never been with anyone else, no," Sirius replied, lowering his voice. "Even when she hated him, making out with a girl was as far as he'd go. Last time I asked about it, he smacked me in the face, so it's a sensitive subject."

"That's sort of sweet, you know."

"Really? Didn't take you for a romantic, McKinnon."

"Oh come on, Black," she said, shoving him with her elbow. "There's a difference between thinking it's quite nice that James isn't fucking everything that moves like you are, and being a hopeless romantic."

"Alright, alright," Sirius replied, pretending to be hurt, "that was very personal. For your information, I don't fuck everything that moves. I'm very discerning in my tastes when it comes to women."

"Really?" Marlene raised an eyebrow.

"Kissed you, didn't I?" he smirked.

"Watch your balls, Black," she retorted, and hurried to catch up with the others. Watching her go, Sirius couldn't help but smile. Catching himself, he noticed again that buzz running from his chest to his stomach. Well, shit. He was starting to realise he might be in deeper than he'd thought when it came to Marlene McKinnon.

"Eight butterbeers! And don't you go getting too rowdy, mind you," Madam Rosmerta said, as she set a tray down on the wooden table.

"You're a darling, Rosmerta," Sirius purred, slipping an arm round her waist for a squeeze.

"And you, Sirius Black, are a flirt," Rosmerta replied, swatting his hand away and walking off to the bar. Sirius grinned after her, before turning back to his friends.

"Well, you certainly didn't disappoint, Pads," James said, handing round the beers to the girls.

"That's what girls tell me, too," Sirius replied, and took a long gulp of the butterbeer as his friends groaned at the joke.

"Speaking of girls," Mary said, resting her own beer back on the table, "a little birdie told me that a certain Emmeline Vance was seen chatting up our boy Lupin in the library."

Remus blushed bright red.

"What?!" James rounded on Remus, a wild smile on his face. "You sly bastard, you never said!"

"She wasn't chatting me up!" Remus protested. "At least, I don't think she was. She wanted some help with her Transfiguration essay, that's all."

"Remus, honey, Emmeline Vance has never needed Transfiguration help in her life, because she's never dropped a single mark in that class," Marlene said, looking at Remus over the top of her glass.

"Well…" Remus looked flustered. "I'm sure it was nothing."

"Want me to ask her for you?" Sirius asked.

"Absolutely not," Remus replied, a little too quickly.

"With your success rate," Lily said, "that'd be a surefire way for her to never want to talk to Remus again."

"Damn rude," Sirius fired back. "I am very successful with the ladies, when I want to be." He gestured to the free butterbeer. "Case in point."

"Oh, yeah," Dorcas said, "like free beer is the same as actually wanting to date someone."

"Of course I'd date someone," Sirius said with a frown. "Just needs to be my perfect woman, that's all."

"Who's your perfect woman, then?" Marlene asked, a little too casually for Sirius' liking.

"That'd be telling, wouldn't it, McKinnon? Anyway, my dating life isn't nearly as interesting as James'." He nudged his best friend.

"What?" James spluttered. "I'm not dating anyone."

"C'mon, Potter, who are you having your wicked way with?" Marlene asked, catching Sirius' eye as she did so. He winked at her in return.

"I'm concentrating on schoolwork, you know," James said awkwardly.

Mary laughed, her brow furrowing.

"Lies, Potter, you've never had to worry about schoolwork in your life. None of you have," she said, gesturing to the Marauders.

"I take my studies very seriously, I'll have you know," Sirius said.

"Black, you got all Exceeds Expectations and Outstandings in your OWLs, and you were drunk for most of them."

"Wrong!" Sirius replied. "I got one Acceptable, same as James."

"Really?" Dorcas asked. "Which one?"

"History of Magic," Sirius grinned in response. "And quite frankly, that's a miracle."

"Same as mine, actually. God, Binns is so boring, isn't he?" James laughed. "Even Moony didn't get an Outstanding in that class."

The conversation turned to schoolwork, with the group bemoaning the amount they had to do now they were seventh years. As Sirius finished his butterbeer, he looked across the table to study Marlene, puzzled by their interactions. He couldn't work her out - she simultaneously seemed to egg him on with his flirting, matching him in badinage, whilst also telling him she'd quite literally cut his balls off for thinking of going anywhere near her again. He also couldn't work out why looking at her now was having that same effect on him - not just lust, something more than that. She was beautiful, of course. Golden blonde hair, which she often wore held back from her face with a hairband or scarf, and those clear blue eyes that could fix him with a stare so fierce he'd be fearful for his life. Creamy complexion, like an English rose, and-

He shook himself from his daydreaming. No one dates someone for their skin, he mused, stop being weird. As James set another tray of butterbeers, Sirius reached for one - of course the same one that Marlene went to take. Their hands met round the tankard, and Sirius felt like he was going to burst. Fumbling, he moved for a different beer.

Fuck. I like her, he thought.

The Marauders and the girls sat around the fire in the common room that evening, commandeering the best sofas as soon as they returned from Hogsmeade. After another few rounds of butterbeers, they were feeling giddy, and skipped dinner in favour of getting started on the mounds and mounds of sweets they'd purchased from Honeyduke's, in between games of Exploding Snap. Peter, of all people, introduced them to a new version of the game he'd learnt from his cousins over the summer, and they spent the next few hours rapidly trying to outwit each other and avoid the fairly inevitable singed fingertips.

Midnight came and went, and finally they parted ways when the embers of the fire began to die down around one o'clock. Climbing the stairs behind James, Sirius felt tiredness deep within his bones - but the good kind of tired. He'd missed Hogwarts more than ever over the summer, and now they were a month back in, he'd relaxed into the routine. While there had always been a place for him at the Potters', and they treated him like a member of the family, the last summer had reminded him that he wasn't going to be a Hogwarts student for much longer, and that played on his mind regularly. It had been a welcome relief to be so carefree.

Ablutions complete, the boys threw themselves into their beds, grateful for the pillowy softness of the mattresses and warm covers. James waved his wand lazily at the lamps around the walls of the room, and it descended into darkness. Sirius burrowed a little further into his soft bed.

"Today was good," Remus said sleepily.

"Yeah, it was nice," James replied, and Sirius could hear him fumbling to put his glasses on his bedside table.

"Mary's hilarious," Sirius added. "I completely underestimated how funny she is."

"Right?" James replied.

"Also, Remus, you snake," Sirius said, yawning, "you should have told us about Vance."

"It's nothing," Remus groaned. "It's not like I can date her anyway."

"Why not?" Peter asked.

"Er, my furry little problem," Remus replied with uncharacteristic harshness.

"Bullshit," James responded firmly. "If you want to date her, you should. She doesn't have to know, for the moment, and if it went somewhere… well, if she wasn't willing to accept you, then she's not worth your time anyway."

"You always do think in very absolute terms, Prongs," Remus said, but his voice had softened a little.

"True Gryffindor, our James," Sirius said.

"What about you, anyway?" Remus directed his attention toward Sirius. "All this chat earlier about your perfect woman. Why did that feel like you were trying to make a point that none of us were getting?"

"You know me, I like to keep everyone on their toes." Sirius rolled over. "It's Prongs who's found his perfect woman, anyway."

"I'm literally not dating anyone, Padfoot, cut it out."

"No," Sirius said, wrapping his blankets closer around him. "But you want to."

"No, I don't," James began, but Sirius cut him off.

"Yes, you do. Don't think we can't see how you feel about Evans, Jem."

"I told you," James said, an air of frustrated sadness about the way he said it, "I'm over it. She's not into me."

"You're a shit liar," Remus said bluntly.

Silence fell around the room for a couple of seconds, and Sirius couldn't work out if it was just because James had fallen asleep mid-conversation, as Peter seemed to have done. Then, just as Sirius was about to say goodnight to Remus, James spoke.

"Fine," he said, "I still like her. But, she doesn't like me, and I'm genuinely fine about that part. I'd rather have her as a friend than not at all."

"I'm not so sure about that one, old pal," Sirius said. "Something tells me Miss Evans isn't so opposed to you after all."

"Seriously, the way you two were flirting on the way to Hogsmeade today was something to behold," Remus chuckled.

"You think there's a chance?" James asked, his voice not its usual confident.

"Yeah, I do," Sirius slurred, barely able to keep his eyes open any longer.

"Good to know."

Just as the Marauders talked together in the boys' dormitory, Marlene, Lily, Dorcas and Mary were gathered together on the latter's bed. Marlene sat behind Lily, braiding her hair into neat French plaits on either side of her head.

"The guys were on good form today," Mary said, finishing the last of her chocolate frog.

"They were, weren't they?" Lily said, as Marlene brushed her hair. "Remus is so sweet - do you think he's really into Emmeline?"

"Looked like it - Mary, pass me a hair band - but I think he's too shy," Marlene explained.

"I think that's a mark of all of them, to be honest," Mary said, handing the hair band over to Marlene. "Remus is just worse at hiding it."

"How do you know so much about Remus, anyway?" Marlene fixed Mary with a piercing look, and she blushed.

"Just a guess, I suppose."

"Mary Allison Macdonald!" Lily exclaimed, jumping slightly and earning herself a swat from Marlene for jogging the braid. "You like him, don't you?"

"I don't know!" Mary replied defensively. "He's nice, that's all. But I'm not sure if I like him like a friend, or if I… like him."

"Story of my life," Marlene muttered.

"What does that mean?" Dorcas asked with a frown.

"Nothing," Marlene replied quickly. "There you go, Lils, I'm done."

"That was definitely not nothing," Dorcas pressed.

"Oh my god," Mary said slowly. "I've just clocked it."

Marlene looked at her, eyes wide and panicky. There was no way she could know, she thought. She hadn't even told Lily, and she was her best friend, about Sirius, let alone Mary or Dorcas.

"Clocked what?" Lily asked, looking confused.

"Fuck, Marlene," Mary said, still looking at her.

"Do you two want to let Lily and I in on the secret, or…?" Dorcas asked.

"It's Sirius, right?" Mary asked, looking right at Marlene, who felt like she wanted to curl up into a ball right there on the spot and die. Mary always had been great at reading people, she thought.

"What?!" Lily and Dorcas said in unison, and Marlene sighed.

"You're jumping the gun a little bit, Mary," she began, but was cut off.

"No, no," Mary said, "it all makes sense. No wonder you were weird about it after you guys kissed. And then today at the Three Broomsticks, when he put his arm round Rosmerta and you looked like you were going to cut someone."

"I did not!" Marlene protested.

"Did too," Mary said nonchalantly. 'So c'mon, McKinnon, spit it out."

"He's a fucking great kisser, I'll give him that," Marlene said, and the girls laughed. "No… it's not like we're going to date or anything like that, but…"

"But what?" Lily asked softly.

"But he got under my skin a little bit, after we kissed," Marlene explained. "Like, it's made me feel weird about him, I guess. But, I'll be fine - it's a phase, trust me. I didn't end things with Gideon Prewett of all people to end up liking Sirius Black."

"You sure?" Lily pressed.

"Certain."