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Sirius had never worked this hard in his entire life. While he didn't study often, he spent a lot of time in studios doing work. He loved the hands-on aspects of his classes. Taking his introductory photography classes only confirmed how much he loved it. People rarely saw him without a camera hung around his neck.

Sirius felt energized by all the new things he was learning. Studio lighting, and darkroom processes were his favourites. In his second semester, he had been required to take a digital editing class, where they learned about Photoshop and Lightroom. For the most part, he was good at doing the basics of Photoshop. He even enjoyed it to an extent. But as they moved further along in the class, he started losing steam. They had to learn how to do frequency separation, a type of photo editing that is typically used for editing skin, which maintains the skin texture. It was time-consuming and Sirius didn't have patients for it. He almost failed the test for that unit because he got bored.

Sirius might have gone overboard. He invited everyone to come for drinks. He had not realized how big the group of people he called friends was becoming. Of course, he invited James and Marlene. Since James was now dating Lily, she got an automatic invite. Remus had quickly become a permanent fixture in Sirius's life. The two hung out every day, so naturally he would be there. He also told Marlene to invite Mary and said she should bring her friend Peter as well. Everyone agreed to come, which thoroughly excited Sirius.

Throughout the school year Sirius had classes with all of his friends, and gotten to know them all one on one. They hung out in little pockets. However, they had never had a night out all together.

Their final exams loomed in the future. It was almost time to prepare for them. The group decided this was the perfect time for a big night out, right before the craziness of exams set in. Sirius had found a small bar called The Yellow Room. He had been told by a classmate that they hardly ever checked IDs.

When the friend group got there, they pushed a set of tables together, so there was enough room for everyone. There was an excited, almost nervous energy among the group. Having not been out all together, they had not fully ironed out the group dynamics. Sirius bounded from seat to seat, talking to each person for a bit.

"Dickhead! Can you stop playing musical chairs?" Marlene said, glaring at him. "I'm afraid to go to the bathroom, for fear I might lose my seat."

"You will lose your chair, for sure!"

"See!" she shouted playfully. "How am I supposed to relax?"

"Sirius maybe just stay still for a minute," James said in a diplomatic tone.

"No."

"Then just don't steal Marlene's chair," James suggested.

"Fine," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. He pushed his chair out and walked away in a huff. There were no new free spots around the table, so he crouched down next to Remus. He had ordered a plate of sweet potato fries, which Remus offered to Sirius. "Oh, I love these," he said, snatching one off the plate.

"Are you having fun?" Remus asked, looking amused.

He nodded his head enthusiastically, leaning onto Remus's leg as they talked. "Are you?"

"Yeah, it's nice to get out of the library."

"You study too much."

"I thought I was supposed to be your tutor. Who wants a tutor who doesn't study enough?" Remus joked.

Sirius wrinkled his nose before continuing. "Did you go see that Willem de Kooning exhibit? I thought of you when I was there."

"I did," Remus chuckled. "I really liked it, actually."

"I thought you would."

"Did you like it?" Remus asked.

"I mean, I guess I appreciated it more than I would have before," Sirius explained. "It's not my thing, though."

"What's your favourite exhibit you've seen?"

Sirius paused for a moment, looking up at the ceiling. Most people didn't take him seriously, which was something he didn't mind. He mostly spent his time joking around with his friends, not talking about the inner workings of his mind. Especially not his opinions on art.

"It wasn't a full exhibit, but I saw one of Jeff Wall's photos," he said, pulling out his phone to Google the picture. Showing Remus the photo of a man with his back to the camera, in a cluttered room, the ceiling covered with lightbulbs. "It's called the Invisible Man. His photos are huge, much bigger than you would expect, and he uses elaborate sets that are more common in film. He views his photographs as cinematography. His work is pretty cool."

"I don't think you need a tutor."

'No," Sirius whined. "I'm hopeless at painting and drawing. I actually think I might fail life drawing."

"I know you aren't failing. I sit next to you." Remus shook his head. "Your drawings are fine. A bit too high contrast, but they are good."

"Is Sirius fishing for compliments?" James said, laughing. "Don't feed his ego or he will become insufferable."

Shooting him a dirty look, he said, "Moony, don't listen to him. My fragile ego needs praise." He turned his back to the table. His arm slipped further onto Remus's leg, as he pretended to pout. "Moony, please."

Remus grinned. "Don't worry, I'll still tell you your drawings are good," he said, in a low voice only Sirius could hear.

"What was that, Moony?" James playfully shouted across the table.

Sirius heard Lily softly say, "leave them."

"I just realized I've never seen your photos before," Remus told to Sirius.

"I've never seen your paintings, either."

"We'll make a trade," Remus promised.

"Deal," Sirius said, grinning. "I can't wait to pick our majors, then I won't have to do life drawing ever again."

"Then we won't have classes together," Remus answered, sounding sad.

"We'll take electives together," Sirius promised. "What classes are you excited to take next year?"

"Any of the art history classes!" Remus asked.

"I can't wait to take a history of photography or film," Sirius told him, drumming his fingers on Remus's leg. Sirius was feeling cramped the way he was sitting, but he wanted to keep talking. "Have you ever watched that video of the train? The first film ever?"

"No, I've never seen it."

"Apparently people got really scared," Sirius told him. "Some say people left the theatre."

"Woah, I'll have to look it up."

Out of the corner of Sirius's eye he saw Marlene stand from her seat, going to the bathroom. "This is my time to shine," Sirius said, a broad grin across his face. He got up and slid into Marlene's chair, winking at Mary and Peter.

Mary shook her head. "Oh, no you don't," she said, pushing on his arm. "Pete, help me."

"I'm not getting involved," he said, biting back a laugh.

Sirius knew he was annoying people, but he didn't care. He had a few drinks and part of him deluded himself into thinking he was being charming. When Marlene got back, she stood over him with her hands on her hips. "Sirius Black," she said, amusement in her tone. "Get out of my seat." He stuck his tongue out in response. She pulled on his ear, raising him up out of the chair.

"Fuck! That hurts! Stop!" Sirius shouted. The entire table was looking at the two, roiling with laughter. Marlene slid back into her seat, looking victorious as Sirius found his old chair. Where he sat and pretended to sulk.

After the musical chairs incident, Sirius calmed down. He stayed in his own chair for the rest of the night. He had a pleasant conversation with Peter, who was sitting across from him. Sirius learned more about what the graphic design program was like. He realized it was an entire wing of the school he had never been to. Peter was one of the quieter members of the group. But once Sirius got him talking, he realized he was really interesting. He rather liked Peter.

Throughout the night Sirius watched Lily and James across the table, and thought they were adorable together. They were leaning in, talking closely. They seemed to not notice a single person around them. James took Lily's hand into his and brushed a kiss across her knuckles. He watched as Lily's eyes lit up, blushing. Sirius felt genuine delight for his friend as he watched them.