Remus found James and Sirius leaning over the table in the common room, whispering between themselves. He sat down beside them, which made them briefly stop and look up, before continuing immediately when they saw it was only him.

"The Fat Friar wanders around there, we can't let him see us," James was saying.

"But that's the only passageway to the kitchens." Remus looked down at the piece of paper the two were studying, and it looked like a route from the common room to the kitchens. It was drawn out in James's scrawly handwriting, but Remus could still see that the route was inefficient.

"Why are you going the long way?" Remus asked.

"What do you mean?" replied James, looking up from the paper.

"Well, there's a passageway that cuts through there, with a small staircase that leads directly to the kitchens. You won't run into anyone." The two boys blinked at him.

"How do you know that?" asked Sirius. Remus knew practically the whole of the castle's layout. He'd been learning it ever since he'd arrived, already knowing several different routes out of the castle, a number of shortcuts, as well as hidden passages that no one went down. But of course, Remus couldn't explain all that to James and Sirius without also needing to reveal the reasons behind it.

"Oh, I guess I just... happened across it," was all he said.

"That's brilliant!" exclaimed James. "You can come with us then, show us the way, and we'll have Peter on lookout." So the three began to make plans together, heads bent low, eventually calling Peter over so he knew what was going on. And it was fun! Exciting. It made them feel like a proper group of friends, all secretive and coordinated with each other.

"Oh wait!" James suddenly interrupted. "I just remembered!" He ran upstairs, leaving the other three to wait for him, bewildered by his rapid departure. He returned a few minutes later, seemingly empty handed, but with a glint in his eye that suggested otherwise.

"What'd you get, Potter?" asked Sirius.

"I'll show you later," he replied with a wink. "When we're out of here."

At eleven o'clock, when the castle was safely asleep, the four boys snuck out of their dormitory in their pyjamas and stopped just before the portrait entrance. James, who despite his pyjamas, still had his school cloak on, pulled out what looked like another cloak from his pocket. It wasn't so much neatly folded as it was a bundle of material, and they couldn't make out its features due to the darkness of the hallway. James unravelled it and held it up so they could get a better look.

"What is it?" whispered Peter.

"An invisibility cloak," James announced, the pride in his voice abundantly clear, and the revelation prompting a murmur of excitement to ripple through the small group.

"Shut up, an actual invisibility cloak!?" cried Sirius.

"Yup."

"How did you get an invisibility cloak?" Remus asked, as disbelieving as the others, knowing full well how rare they were.

"Inherited it. My dad gave it to me before I started school, but I guess I forgot about it."

"You forgot?" said Sirius, barely keeping his voice at whispering level. "How do you forget about an invisibility cloak?"

"Well I haven't needed to use it until now."

"Speaking of which," interrupted Remus, suddenly conscious of where they were and what they were doing. "We need to go."

"Oh right, here—." James threw the cloak over himself and let the others join him underneath, Remus in front, since he knew the route. It was a rather tight fit; Sirius was squeezed right up behind him, holding onto his shoulders so he wouldn't stray away. Remus was trying not to get distracted by the cloak itself. The material was something he'd never felt before. Science must have lied to him; when water became a solid, it didn't become ice, it became this. Material that flowed through his hand like a waterfall. He was almost mesmerised.

"Lead the way, Remus," whispered James from the back, as Sirius nudged him forward.

"Who goes there?" called the Fat Lady when they had opened the portrait, waking her up from her sleep. They said nothing, of course, and since they were invisible, the Fat Lady had no choice but to give up her search, as Remus led the other boys in the direction of the shortcut to the kitchens. Luckily for them, the night was still and silent. They didn't run into anyone, not even Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat— a cat which was fast on its way to becoming Remus's number one enemy when it came to sneaking out of the castle.

Remus knew that the Hogwarts kitchens were run by house elves, and he was naturally confused as to how they were supposed to get past them. Invisibility cloak or not, the house elves would surely notice food disappearing in front of their eyes. As it turned out, however, Remus didn't have to worry. James took the cloak off the four of them once they'd entered the kitchens, and the house elves greeted them as politely as if they were Dumbledore himself.

One house elf, with very large ears, who introduced himself as Rudy, asked if they needed help with anything. James took charge, first instructing Peter to stand outside with the invisibility cloak and alert them if he heard anything. Then James started talking to the elves like they were old friends, joking with them and asking politely for food, and the elves seemed happy to oblige.

Sirius on the other hand, was quiet. He looked a bit shell-shocked, though Remus couldn't work out why. It wasn't as if he'd never seen a house elf before.

"What's wrong?" Remus asked.

"Nothing," Sirius replied, his voice quiet. "I just... I wasn't expecting the house elves to be so nice. Our one at home isn't."

"Well, just because your house elf isn't nice, doesn't mean they all are."

"Yeah, I guess... I guess I never really thought of house elves as being different from each other."

"Oh." Sirius looked down at his feet.

"That's bad, isn't it?" He said.

"It's not great." Sirius nodded and didn't speak again. James returned just then, arms laden with food, being handed more and more as he tried to speak to the others.

"I've got plenty of stuff," he confirmed. "We'll have to each carry some so we don't drop anything, my pockets are already full."

"I'll get Peter," offered Sirius, seemingly glad to get out of there. The food was divided up amongst the four of them, and they were able to slip back underneath the cloak after thanking the house elves and saying goodbye.

The walk back to the common room was just as eventless, and it was funny giving the Fat Lady the password while invisible. They didn't have to be invisible this time; she wasn't much one to tell on students if she didn't feel like it. But James and Sirius saw it as a laugh, so they wasted a few minutes simply messing with her, until they finally decided to pull the cloak off and explain themselves. She ignored them for a solid five minutes as punishment, only letting them through the door after they had all formally apologised to her.

The other boys were waiting for them when they returned, sitting around the beds in their dorm.

"Ta da!" greeted James, with a flourish. "Dinner is served." The others cheered as quietly as they could. James laid out all the food in the middle; cakes, sandwiches, bottled drinks of all kind and plenty of chocolate. The boys wasted no time in tucking in.

Remus was sitting next to Sirius when Tobin came over.

"Jethro and Owain are talking about plants," he explained. "Do you mind?" Remus and Sirius shook their heads.

"Don't like plants then?" Sirius asked, as Tobin sat down next to them.

"Don't see the point of them, really."

"Oxygen?" Remus suggested.

"Yeah? Doesn't mean I have to care about them." Remus offered him a pasty, and he took it gladly.

"So what do you like?" Remus asked, biting into a liquorice wand. Tobin thought about it.

"I like music." Remus lit up at that.

"Who do you like? D'you listen to The Beatles?"

"Of course. I live on earth. I also like Procul Harum, and... oh, definitely Pink Floyd."

"I haven't listened to Pink Floyd." Tobin's eyes widened.

"How have you not listened to Pink Floyd?!"

"My mum doesn't have any of their records."

"Well I'm gonna give you some, because you're missing out." Sirius was listening to their back and forth conversation, but was completely lost by half of what they were saying.

"Who are The Beatles?" he asked, which made Tobin look at him in plain horror.

"Who are The Beatles!?" he began, but Remus quickly interrupted him.

"They're a muggle band," he explained patiently. "I'll show you some of their music if you want." Sirius nodded enthusiastically.

"I'm barely allowed to listen to any music, let alone muggle music."

"No music?!"

"Well, except classical music. By wizards of course. My mum forced me to learn the piano but I hated it. My brother's better at it than I am."

"Well, I wouldn't mind hearing you play," said Remus, wondering if that sounded weird or not, but Sirius just shook his head.

"Nah, I'm crap. Really." The conversation was interrupted at that point by James initiating a game of truth or dare.

"If anyone backs out, they have to eat a Bertie Botts," were the only rules.

The game lasted as long as they could keep their eyes open, and the dares were minimum, like drinking a glass of pumpkin juice mixed in with some milk, ("I might as well just eat a jellybean," said Jethro, who did the dare nonetheless, only managed to drink half, and had to eat a jellybean anyway, which fortunately turned out to be tomato soup flavoured, and so wasn't that bad). The only slightly adventurous dare was when James dared Sirius to cut his own hair short. Sirius protested at first, but he also wasn't one to back down from a dare, so reluctantly he agreed.

Peter found him a pair of scissors, and Sirius held his hair in a bunch, like a ponytail, and with one quick snip, the ponytail was in his hand. The others cheered, James patting him on the back with a grin.

Near the end of the night, when everyone was too tired and too full to move, Remus chose truth as his last turn.

"Tell us a secret," said Sirius lazily, which momentarily took Remus aback. He really had to think about it, as well, since all of his secrets were absolutely off-limits.

"Uh... I was nearly sorted into Ravenclaw?" was all he could think of, to which the others booed.

"That's a boring secret," said James.

"Get better secrets," called Jethro from the other side of the room. Remus had to laugh.

If only they knew.

On the following day, before lessons started, Remus caught up with Sirius while he was still getting dressed.

"Your hair looks good like that," assured Remus, worried that Sirius was self-conscious over it.

"Thanks," Sirius replied. "My parents will be happy at least. They wanted me to have it short. Said I looked too feminine." Remus could sympathise with that in a way.

"You liked it long?" Sirius nodded. "Well, I can neaten it up for you if you like, so it doesn't look like you obviously cut it off with scissors."

"You can do that?"

"Yeah, I've been cutting my own hair for years. I know what I'm doing." Sirius agreed, and twenty minutes before class started, Remus was standing in the bathroom, carefully neatening up Sirius's hair and making it look like a proper haircut.

"What do you think?" Remus asked, when the last strand had been cut away. Sirius looked at himself in the mirror, turning his head this way and that.

"It's great!" He assured. "I look smart. Neat."

"You do!"

"I look like my brother now."

"It'll grow back." If it was anything like Remus's hair, it would be down to his shoulders within a few months.

"Yeah, luckily." The room was quiet as Sirius continued staring at himself. Remus didn't really know what to do, so he stared at the mirror as well, until Sirius snapped out of whatever he was thinking and turned around.

"We should get to class," he said.

"Oh, yeah." Remus cleared up the floor with a wave of his wand, as Sirius went to leave.

"Thanks, by the way." Sirius stood in the doorway of the bathroom, rather awkwardly. Remus nodded in acknowledgement and watched the boy leave the room.

February came and went, with little excitement. Owain and Jethro were becoming rather close, spending time together in the greenhouses for hours on end, and it was making Tobin feel a little left out. As a result, he hung around more with Remus and the others, but all in all, he was still fairly absent. Remus soon fell into the habit of visiting Tobin in the hospital wing, bringing him books and sweets. Sirius tagged along sometimes, and Jethro and Owain were usually there too. James and Peter would follow, if only for something to do, since they hardly knew Tobin themselves, so Madam Pomfrey was soon spending half her life chasing at least two boys out of the infirmary.

"Three at a time!" she'd remind them, to little avail.

One time, it was just Remus, Tobin and Sirius. Tobin was showing them his hand held radio, proudly demonstrating its ability to play muggle music. According to Tobin he'd spent months trying to hack the charm placed around Hogwarts in order to get the muggle device to work, and somehow— with input from both Jethro and Professor Flitwick— it now worked perfectly. Sirius was enthralled by it, listening to all the different channels and fiddling with the dials.

He switched to one channel, and Eleanor Rigby began to play. Remus turned it up slightly— not enough for Madam Pomfrey to have a go at him— and made Sirius listen to it.

"You've really only listened to classical music your whole life?" asked Tobin, once the song had ended and Sirius had expressed his amazement, an amazement too intense to fit a reaction to Eleanor Rigby, which was a great song of course, but Sirius was acting like he'd never even heard music before; which apparently, he hadn't.

"Yeah. My parents refuse to use a radio. Not even wizarding ones. Too similar to the muggle invention."

"They really don't like muggles, do they?" Tobin said, a question rhetorical enough to not warrant a response, but Sirius still looked guilty. He shrugged, not knowing how to respond. He didn't want to say yes, but saying no would just be a lie, so he opted for saying nothing.

Tobin leant Sirius the radio: he could have it for a week ("try not to break it"). Sirius was delighted, and he soon developed a habit of listening to it between classes. He and Remus and James and Peter would be sitting around the oak tree in the grounds, and the still winter air would be broken by the crackling sounds of Sirius switching channels, or some muggle talkshow that Sirius was listening to intently, lying front-side on the grass, his ear pressed against the mesh speaker. James yelled at him a few times, but he didn't listen. Eventually they all got used to it, and even began to enjoy it.

Sirius would ask Remus a barrage of questions about what he'd heard each day.

"What's rugby?" "Who's Terry Wogan?" "Why do Russia and America not like each other?"

Remus tired not to get annoyed. After all, it was good that Sirius was showing an interest, so Remus answered his incessant questions as best he could.

"It's a muggle sport." "He's a radio presenter." "I think there's a war going on."

And Sirius listened to every word he said. Remus couldn't lie: it was a nice feeling.

Remus's chest was starting to become more noticeable. Two sports bras, even three, simply weren't enough anymore. He went to see Madam Pomfrey about it.

"I have two options for you," she explained, the two sitting in her office near the end of the month, a day before the full moon. Remus listened eagerly to the options.

"We can either shrink your chest with magic, every month or so— the shrinking spell can't be permanent since your chest is still growing. It'll make your chest flat but you'd have to take at least an hour out of your day." Remus didn't like the sound of that. He was already skipping more and more of school; as of right now, he was skipping morning break, and would probably miss the beginning of the next lesson. Besides, he wanted something more permanent.

"What's the other option?" He asked.

"A shirt with a binding spell on it." At Remus's perplexed look, she explained further. "Basically, I'd put a variation of the incarcerous spell on an undershirt of some sort— I couldn't directly put it onto your chest, it would be too restrictive and you wouldn't be able to take it off. A shirt will do just fine."

"So I put it on and my chest is flat?" Madam Pomfrey nodded.

"It will compress your chest. Keep it flat under your clothes."

"I want that then." It seemed like a no-brainer, but Madam Pomfrey wasn't finished.

"Hang on, there are a few catches. You can't sleep in it, and I'd rather you didn't do anything particularly active in it. Ideally, you shouldn't wear it for more than eight hours a day, ten maximum."

"Why?"

"It's not good for your ribs or your breathing to be compressed for so long."

"Oh."

"I don't want to worry you of course. As long as you're careful it's perfectly safe and effective." Remus wanted to think about it, but he also wanted to leave there with a flat chest.

"Why don't you try the shirt?" Madam Pomfrey suggested. "Just for a week or so, and see how you get on."

"Well, could I have it now?" he asked, hoping he didn't sound too abrupt.

"If you give me a shirt, and a few minutes, then yes." Remus was allowed some privacy from behind the curtains in one of the hospital beds. He took his sports bras off and gave one of them to Madam Pomfrey to charm.

"I'd also recommend doing stretches whenever you take it off," she continued, handing him back the sports bra five minutes later. It didn't feel much different when he was holding it in his hand, but he couldn't wait to try it on. "And take it off before you transform. That's very important. It can only be cut or ripped off with magic, so Merlin knows what will happen if you transform in it. You'll certainly, at the very least, break your ribs."

"I'll be careful," he replied. "I promise."