Monday 21st May 1973

'Class dismissed. Enjoy your lunch,' Professor Tenebris said. 'Lupin, Black, Potter, and Pettigrew, if you could stay behind for a moment, please.'

James swallowed and glanced at the others. This couldn't be good. When they'd arrived for Defence, Professor Tenebris had glowered at them as they walked in, and she'd ignored them the entire lesson. And not like when they'd stunned her and left her in an alcove under a bodybind. That time, she'd avoided looking at them entirely, but that wasn't the case this time. She looked at them a lot, and her eyes were filled with the promise of grisly death.

'She's so pissed,' Sirius whispered as the rest of the class filed out. 'You think this is about the book?'

'What else could it be about?' James asked. 'We didn't do anything else.'

'It's definitely about the book,' Peter whispered as they watched her stalk across the room to close the door after the final student.

'Yes, it's about the book. Thank you for confirming that it was you four that stole it, Peter.'

'Borrowed,' James said automatically, and immediately regretted it.

'Borrowing requires permission, James, which you did not have,' Professor Tenebris snapped, walking toward them with long strides. She stopped right in front of them and glared. James had never seen her look angry before. It was quite terrifying, and he was unsurprised to hear Peter's panicked voice in his head, prompting him to take a step to the side to shield him.

'I didn't want to believe it. That you of all people would steal from me, but I couldn't think who else could have done it.'

'I'm sorry, Professor,' Remus said. 'It was my idea. I—'

'Yours?' Professor Tenebris asked, her voice breaking a little. 'Really? After everything I've done to help you?'

'We didn't expect you to be upset,' Sirius said, stepping a little in front of Remus, who looked stricken. 'It's just a book.'

'Just a book?' Professor Tenebris snarled, turning on him. 'And what gives you the right to decide how important other people's belongings get to be to them, Sirius?'

'Nothing. I didn't mean it like that.' Sirius' hands were clenched into fists and his posh accent was back in full force, but he stayed between Professor Tenebris and Remus, staring her down without flinching. 'Obviously, it's important to you. We can see that now. But at the time, we thought it was just a book.'

'We honestly thought you'd find it funny. And maybe be a little impressed we got through your defences,' James said.

'Where is it?' she asked, her voice a little less aggressive but still full of tension.

'I have it here,' Peter said shakily, pulling it out of his bag. 'It's not damaged, I swear.'

She took it, checking it over thoroughly—including opening it and flicking through the pages—before returning her attention to them. 'Why did you take it?'

'We need to make a cauldron for the potion Peter's making for his apprenticeship,' James told her. 'We were going to return it when we were done.'

She sighed, her shoulders relaxing a little. 'Do any of you have a blank notebook?'

'Yeah, I do,' Remus said, rooting through his bag and pulling out a blue notebook.

Professor Tenebris took it and walked over to her desk. After placing both books down, she pulled out her wand and tapped each in turn, muttering an incantation. Then she picked the notebook back up and held it out to them. 'Don't ever steal from me again.'

James took it from her, opening the cover to see the contents page from the original book, and when he flicked through, every page was filled with printed words. She'd duplicated the entire text for them. 'We won't. The last thing we wanted to do was upset you. We're really sorry.'

'Yeah,' Remus said. 'I'm sorry, Professor.'

'Me too. Sorry,' Peter said quietly.

'Sirius,' James hissed, nudging him with his elbow.

'What?' James jerked his head at Professor Tenebris meaningfully, and Sirius looked confused for a second before realising what James was getting at. 'Oh, right. Yeah, sorry, Professor.'

'It's partly my own fault,' she said with a sigh. 'I haven't exactly discouraged your rule-breaking, have I?'

'Well, no,' Sirius said. 'You're cool. That's why we like you.'

She smiled at that, making some of the tension ease from James' shoulders. He wasn't used to having people angry at him, and he couldn't say he liked it very much.

'Which is why I didn't. I didn't want to lose your trust for the sake of detention or a lecture about leaving school grounds. So I can't really blame you for thinking I'd approve of this now.'

'We won't hate you if you give us detention for it,' James said. 'I mean, we kind of deserve it.'

'No. That would be a waste of all our time, and we don't have much left,' she said, sighing heavily. 'I believe you won't do it again. Go and have your lunch. I'll see you tomorrow night.'

They all glanced at each other before offering quiet goodbyes and leaving the classroom. Professor Tenebris seemed so sad, and James had never felt so guilty in his life. It was like a sick weight in his chest, heavy and suffocating.

'Well, that was fucking horrible,' he said once they were alone in the corridor.

'Yeah,' Peter agreed, shaking his hands as if he could get rid of the guilt like it was excess water before wrapping his arms around himself. 'I feel awful.'

'Can't say I'm much looking forward to tomorrow night,' Sirius said, pulling his wand out to twirl it between his fingers.

'No,' Remus agreed. 'That's not going to be a fun evening.'

'Maybe she'll have calmed down by then,' Peter said hopefully. 'Or… cheered up? She seemed more sad than angry by the end.'

'Yeah, I noticed that too,' James said. 'I think we made her feel really betrayed.'

'Well, that's shit,' Peter said. 'Betrayal feels horrible. Let's not do this again.'

'Agreed,' Remus said. 'I'm sorry I suggested it.'

'Hey,' Sirius said, putting an arm around Remus' shoulders. 'Don't you go blaming yourself. We all agreed to do it. Well, except Peter. You can blame us, Pete.'

'Thanks, but I did go along with it.'

'Alright, I think that's enough moping,' James said. 'We hurt someone we all care about, so let's do something to make it up to her, yeah?'

'Like what?' Sirius asked. 'Ooh, I could paint her a picture.'

'That would be nice,' Remus said. 'She could take it with her when she leaves.'

James frowned. 'That would just be from Sirius, though. What about the rest of us?'

'You're getting pretty good at Transfiguration,' Remus said. 'Maybe you could make her something, too?'

'Yeah, that's true,' James said, perking up with a grin. 'I could make her something really pretty.'

'I could brew her something,' Peter mused. 'I'm not sure what, though.'

'If we want to give them to her tomorrow night, you won't have time to brew anything too fancy,' James said.

'I can't paint anything by tomorrow night,' Sirius said. 'Not without skipping classes.'

'Why don't you all transfigure something?' Remus suggested. 'You've been working through next year's theory, haven't you? Maybe it's time to put it into practice.'

'Why just us? What are you going to do?' James asked.

Remus grinned. 'I was thinking I could make a Notebook for her. So she can keep in touch with us after she leaves.'

'That's a brilliant idea,' Sirius said, smiling at Remus. 'You should definitely do that. I think I'm going to try to make her a necklace.'

'I'm going to do a bracelet, I think,' Peter said. 'That shouldn't be too difficult.'

'I guess I should do earrings then,' James said. 'Or maybe a ring? Do any of you know if she has her ears pierced?'

'I've never seen her wear earrings,' Sirius said.

'I'll do a ring,' James said. But what sort of ring was the question? Several ideas flit through his mind, but he couldn't decide. It was so hard to choose.

He was no closer to making a decision by the end of Potions, though he hadn't thought about it much because he was intent on learning about the ingredients in the Befuddlement draught. He really wanted to get it right so he could spike his dad's morning tea with it. It was going to be hilarious.

'Can we stop by the library on the way up?' Peter asked as they left the dungeons. 'I've had an idea and I want to see if they have any books about it.'

'Is it for the presents?' James asked. 'Because I still don't know what design to do.'

'Yeah. It's a muggle thing, though. I'm hoping they'll have something about it in the Muggle Studies section.'

Peter refused to tell them anything further until he was sure his idea would be workable, so they followed him to the Muggle Studies part of the library and waited while he searched the shelves. It was only a few minutes before he reached up and pulled one down, flicking through the pages before turning to them with a grin. 'They've got one!'

'Excellent,' James said. 'Will you tell us what it is now?'

'Let's go back to the dorm first.'

Peter hid the title of the book until he'd checked it out and slipped it into his bag, but when they got to the dorm, he finally showed it to them.

Muggles and the Stars.

'Muggles have this thing called astrology,' Peter explained. 'Basically, they think the position of the stars at your time of birth influences your personality, and each month-long period has a different star sign. But they also associate different things with the signs, like gemstones, planets, elements, and flowers. I thought it would be cool to make Professor Tenebris a bracelet using our star sign flowers.'

'Okay,' Sirius said, 'astrology sounds stupid. How can the position of the stars affect your personality? That's ridiculous. But I like the flower idea. What star signs are we?'

'Let's see,' Peter said, opening the book and looking down the contents page. 'Moony, you're a Pisces.'

'What does that mean?' Remus asked.

'You're associated with the water element… Neptune… Colour is turquoise, same as your polyjuice, which is kind of creepy. Oh, your gemstone is the moonstone, that's unfortunate.'

Remus snorted. 'Sounds about right. What's my flower?'

'The water-lily,' Peter said, side-eyeing James.

'What?' James asked. 'You think I'm going to get jealous because Remus' flower is similar to my beloved's name? I'm not that petty.' He was definitely that petty, but he wasn't going to show it. It wasn't fair. Why couldn't he have been born a few weeks earlier?

'What does it say about Moony's personality?' Sirius asked. 'Let's see how wrong it is.'

Peter hummed. 'Let's see. Smart, creative, and deeply intuitive… feel things deeply… have incredibly strong gut reactions… can often judge whether a person or situation is good or bad.' He looked up. 'Sounds like Remus so far.'

'Yeah, that's weirdly accurate,' Sirius said. 'What else?'

'Pisces signs are sensitive, and get along well in small groups of people,' Peter said, glancing up to smirk at Sirius. 'They're rarely lonely when they're by themselves. Love reading. They have a strong sense of right and wrong for themselves, but have a "live and let live" approach when it comes to others, and are accepting and nonjudgmental of all.'

'Freaky,' Sirius said. 'But there's nothing negative there. Anyone who reads that is going to think it applies to them.'

'I'm getting to that,' Peter said. 'Here we go, Pisces' biggest challenges,' he scanned ahead a little and snorted. 'Oh, gods, are you ready for this Remus? Okay, it says, Pisces signs can sometimes spend too much time in their heads, getting overly wrapped up in a problem and assuming there's no solution.'

James and Sirius both laughed.

'They've got you there, Moons,' James said.

'When it comes to asking for help—especially emotional help—Pisces can sometimes wall themselves off, assuming that nobody knows what they're feeling and not even giving anyone a chance to try.'

'Bloody hell,' Sirius said. 'That has to be a fluke.'

'I ask for help,' Remus said. 'Sometimes.'

'Yeah, no you don't,' James said. 'Not until we force you to.'

Remus huffed. 'Is that it? Can we do someone else now?'

'Just a bit more,' Peter said. 'Pisces needs to learn to let down their guard, allow people to love them, and allow for mistakes to be made.'

'True,' James said, nodding. 'Let us love you, Moony.'

'Bugger off,' Remus said, chuckling. 'Do James next, Pete. I want to wipe that smirk off his face.'

'Mean,' James said, laughing. 'But yeah, do me next.'

'Alright,' Peter said. 'Hang on. Okay, it says you're an Aries. Your element is fire, planet Mars, colour red—'

'Nice,' James interrupted.

Peter laughed. 'Gemstone, diamond because you're a rich bastard, and, oh,' Peter lifted his head, meeting James' eyes as he finished, 'your flower is the Tiger Lily.'

'Yes!' James cried, grinning. 'Take that Moony.'

Remus laughed. 'I'm very happy for you, James.'

'Never mind all that. What does it say about his personality?' Sirius asked.

'Let's see… Aries are natural leaders… will never do something just because everyone else is doing it… needs to be 100 per cent committed to a task. Competitive… the best way to motivate them is to turn something into a contest… Loyal and smart… they always have multiple projects on the go… excellent organisational skills… and they won't be satisfied until their lives line up exactly with the dream life they've envisioned.'

'The fuck?' Sirius said. 'Have the muggles found a way to access magic? This is getting creepy. What about the negatives?'

'Often come across as blunt because they value honesty above all else… Sometimes short tempered usually due to impatience with others… Can be impulsive, rushing into action without thinking through the consequences… Their trusting natures frequently lead them into difficulty.'

'That all sounds about right,' Remus said.

'A little too right if you ask me,' Sirius said. 'Do mine, Bubbles. There's no way they can get three of us right.'

'Okay,' Peter said, looking beyond amused by Sirius' incredulity. 'It says you're a Scorpio. Element water, planet Pluto, colour scarlet, gemstone topaz—'

'That's pretty. Like your eyes, Moonbeam.' Sirius grinned at Remus and got an eye roll in reply.

'—and your flowers are Geraniums,' Peter finished.

'Meh. What about my personality?'

'Scorpios are passionate, independent, and unafraid to blaze their own trail, no matter what others think. They make a statement wherever they go. They love debates, aren't afraid of controversy, and won't back down when challenged… Hate people who aren't genuine, and are all about being authentic, even if authentic isn't pretty.'

Sirius scoffed and snatched the book. 'There's no way it says that. You're making it up.' He scanned the page, his frown deepening by the second. 'Fucking hell, listen to this. Scorpios, like the scorpion, put up an outer shell and may seem prickly. But once people get beyond the shell, they find a loyal, loving person whose passion knows no bounds. Scorpio dives into all life has to offer with 110% enthusiasm. A Scorpio will be your most loyal friend, most dedicated employee—and your worst enemy if they want to be.' He shivered. 'I feel like I'm being watched.'

'What's Peter's say?' Remus asked.

Sirius flicked back to the contents page. 'He's a Leo, says his element is fire… planet is the sun—that's not even a planet—colour gold, gemstone carnelian, and flower is marigolds. But let's get to the interesting bit. Leos are dramatic, creative, self-confident, dominant, and extremely difficult to resist.' Sirius looked up. 'Are you sure you were born on the 21st of August?'

Peter laughed. 'Positive.'

'… capable of uniting different groups of people and leading them as one towards a shared cause… don't believe in false modesty and will be the first to praise themselves for a job well done… Leos put themselves first and will turn down a plan that doesn't fit with their agenda or idea of fun. I'm sorry, but this doesn't sound like you at all. I knew it was too good to be true.'

'He was born right at the end of the period, though,' James said. 'What's the next one?'

Sirius turned the page. 'Virgo. Loyal, analytical, kind, hardworking, and practical. Now, this sounds more like our Bubbles. Always pay attention to the smallest details… their deep sense of humanity makes them one of the most careful signs… Their methodical approach to life ensures that nothing is left to chance.' Sirius closed the book and handed it back to Peter. 'Looks like you were born a few days too soon, mate.'

'I don't think that's how it works,' Peter said, laughing.

Sirius hummed. 'Well, you can keep your astrology flowers. It's clearly a load of nonsense. I'm just going to use traditional floriography.'

'I know nothing about flower language, but I don't want to do the same thing as Pete,' James said. 'Would any of you object to giving her a ring with the Marauders' Crest on it? We could make her an honorary Marauder.'

'I'm fine with it. She's done a lot for us,' Sirius said with a shrug. 'But she'll need a Marauder nickname.'

Remus smiled. 'Yeah, I think she'll like that. She definitely needs a nickname, though.'

'Let's think about it while we work on the gifts,' Peter said.

Sirius nodded. 'First, we're going to need some flowers to transfigure.'

Despite being halfway through May, it was chilly on the grounds in the evening, but the swift application of a few warming charms soon solved that problem and they spent a pleasant half an hour on the edge of the Forest, picking flowers. It didn't matter what they were; they were going to transfigure them anyway, so they just picked any and all flowers they came across before returning to their dorm to get to work.

As they approached Professor Tenebris' door the next evening, James was experiencing an overwhelming amount of anxiety, but there was a decent amount of hope laced through it. They had their gifts hidden in their pockets, and they weren't expensive or extravagant—they weren't trying to buy forgiveness—they were thoughtful and full of sentimentality. The best kind of gift. James was sure she was going to love them.

The door was open again, so they walked straight in and found Professor Tenebris waiting for them at the table, already poring over a book.

'Come in and grab a book, boys,' she said without looking up. 'We need to figure out why the spell didn't work before we can fix it.'

'Um, before we start,' James said. 'We… er… we have some things for you. Apology gifts?'

Her head lifted slowly, and she turned in her seat to look at them. 'You bought me presents to say sorry?'

James shook his head. 'We made them, but yeah, to say sorry.'

'You didn't need to do that,' she said. 'I know you're sorry.'

'We wanted to.' James pulled the small wrapped box from his pocket and handed it to her. 'We really didn't mean to upset you.'

Reaching out a hand, Professor Tenebris took the parcel, smiling at James. 'Thank you.' She pulled the paper off and opened the lid. 'Oh. You made this?'

James nodded. He'd made the band from a chain of forget-me-nots, first shrinking them and then transfiguring them into metal, before attaching a leaf-turned metal to it and engraving it with the Marauders' Crest. It had taken hours to get it right, but the finished product was worth every second.

'It's beautiful. Thank you,' she said. 'This is the same picture you have on your necklaces?'

'Yeah, we made you an honorary Marauder,' Sirius said, grinning. 'Your name's Storm because you're scary but you bring good things too. Like storms bring rain.'

'I added a wand to the picture to represent you,' James told her.

Her eyes were a little watery, but she was smiling, and James took that as a good sign as he watched her slip it onto her middle finger.

'I love it. Thank you.'

'You're welcome,' James said, then he nudged Sirius with his elbow.

'Right, my turn,' Sirius said, pulling his own wrapped box from his pocket. 'Here.'

She took it, unwrapping and opening it quickly, and pulled out the chain Sirius had made from his chosen flowers. It really was beautiful, a tangled rope of flowers and leaves, miniaturised and transfigured into shining silver, with a single delicate flower as the pendant, tinted purple. Apparently, Professor Tenebris thought so, too, because she gasped. 'Oh, it's lovely. Thank you, Sirius.'

'The flowers have meanings,' Sirius said. 'I used gardenias, clematis, and marigolds for the chain. They represent trust and protection, perseverance through adversity, and strength, all the things you've taught us. And the purple orchid is for you. It means respect and admiration, which is what you deserve.'

Okay, so she definitely had tears in her eyes now. James averted his eyes, not wanting her to be embarrassed, as she wiped them away.

'I really don't know what to say. It's such a thoughtful gift. I'll treasure it for the rest of my life. Thank you.'

Peter stepped forward then, handing over his present. She took a deep breath before she opened it, seemingly in an attempt to compose herself, but it had little effect, because Peter's bracelet was just as beautiful as Sirius' necklace, though not quite as shiny.

'I used the flowers associated with our muggle star signs,' Peter told her. 'So you'll always remember us after you leave Hogwarts.'

'As if I could ever forget you,' she said, sniffing a little. 'Thank you, Peter. It's stunning. I love it.' She turned to Remus. 'I'm not sure I can cope with any more. What have you made for me? A crown?'

Remus chuckled. 'No, I went a different route. Here,' he passed her the thin package and kept talking as she opened it. 'It's a notebook, but the first page is linked to a page in each of ours, so we can stay in touch after you leave. You can use the rest of the book for whatever.'

Her eyes closed for several seconds, and it looked like she was struggling against some strong emotions, but when she opened them again, she was smiling. 'That's amazing. Thank you, Remus. It'll be nice to be able to hear about what you're all getting up to.'

'You're welcome. We really are sorry for taking your book,' Remus said.

'I know you are. Let's not mention it again, hm?' she said. 'Consider yourselves forgiven.'

They all grinned, pleased their presents had gone down so well, and took their seats around the table, each of them grabbing a book to start researching. The evening passed mostly in silence, with the odd burst of conversation whenever one of them stumbled across something that might be useful, but it was well past curfew again before Professor Tenebris said something that gave them an idea.

'You know? Remus and the wolf reminded me of something when you cast the spell on them, and I've just realised what it is. They acted the same way as some Dementor's kiss victims I saw once at St Mungo's.'

Sirius' eyes widened with horror. 'Are you saying we took their soul?'

'No,' Professor Tenebris said quickly. 'No, not at all. But it's possible the shared soul is causing the problem, in which case we're looking in completely the wrong place. I think it's time to call it a night, though. I'll do some research about souls during the week and we can pick this back up next Tuesday.'

They agreed, and not even reluctantly, making their way towards the door, but before he opened it, James turned back around with a grin. 'Goodnight, Storm.'

Professor Tenebris laughed softly. 'Good night, Sunshine.'

'Can I ask you something?' Remus asked the next evening, joining Sirius on his bed a few minutes after James and Peter left for Quidditch practice.

'Of course. You can always ask me anything, Moonbeam,' Sirius said, closing his journal to look at him. 'What is it?'

Remus fiddled with the hem of his t-shirt, avoiding Sirius' eyes. He'd been wondering about this for a week, and the longer it went on, the more anxious he became about what the answer might be, but he couldn't stand not knowing any longer. 'Is there a reason why you're not waking me up,' and kissing me, 'before you go to shower anymore?'

'Oh,' Sirius said, stiffening beside him, 'that.'

'If it's because of what I did before the moon—' Remus started, but Sirius interrupted him before he could finish the sentence. Which was good, actually, because he wasn't sure how he was going to finish it. It wasn't like he could promise not to behave like that again. He still wasn't sure why he'd behaved like that in the first place.

But it didn't matter because, 'It's not,' Sirius said. 'It's actually nothing to do with you at all. It's…'

Remus waited a few seconds, but when Sirius didn't seem inclined to finish his sentence, he decided a prompt was needed. 'It's what?'

Sirius took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. 'It's my hair.'

That wasn't even on the list of possible reasons Remus was expecting him to give, but maybe it should have been. Sirius had always been weird about his hair. 'What about your hair?'

'There's something wrong with it.'

Remus' eyes flicked up to look at it, but it looked as beautiful as it always did. 'It looks perfect to me,' he said, knowing better than to use the word "fine" when it came to Sirius' hair.

Sirius smiled, but only for a second before dropping his eyes to his hands. 'That's because it's full of Sleekeazy's right now. I've been getting up early to do it before you see me because…'

'Because you think I won't like you with less than perfect hair?' Remus asked, frowning at him. 'You think I'm that shallow?'

'It's not just "less than perfect," Moony. It's horrendous. It's… It's worse than James'.'

Remus raised an eyebrow. 'I find that hard to believe.'

'No, it is! It's like this massive ball of fluff on my head. I look like a bloody puffskein.'

Trying very hard to keep his mouth from twitching at the mental image the description provoked, Remus reached out to cup Sirius' face, tilting his chin so Sirius would meet his eyes. 'I'm not going to stop wanting you, Sirius. Not ever. And definitely not because your hair is a bit of a mess when you wake up in the morning.'

'It's not just—'

'I know. It's horrendous. A giant ball of fluff. You said. I heard you. It doesn't matter,' Remus said before pressing a soft kiss to his lips. 'Let me see it tomorrow? Get it over with? I'm going to wake up before you, eventually.'

'Fine. But you're not allowed to laugh.'

'I wouldn't dream of it.'

As it turned out, that was one promise Remus had great difficulty in keeping, because Sirius, surprisingly, hadn't been exaggerating. He really did look like a puffskein had taken up residence on his head during the night. But kissing definitely helped to keep the laughter at bay, and Remus made sure to give Sirius a thorough demonstration of just how unbothered he was by the issue. It was such a ridiculous thing for Sirius to be upset about, especially when compared to what Remus was dealing with, but he knew how important it was to Sirius, so he tried not to trivialise it in his mind. And if he maybe liked Sirius more this way, a little less perfect, then he kept that to himself. Sirius would not appreciate the sentiment, he was sure.

'Shit. I have to go,' Lily said, dropping the jigsaw piece she'd been examining as she caught sight of the watch on her wrist. 'I was supposed to meet James ten minutes ago.'

'Give lover boy a kiss from me,' Marlene said from her bed, followed by a gleeful cackle at her own wit.

Lily rolled her eyes, climbing to her feet. 'I won't be giving him a kiss from anyone. We're just hanging out. It's not like that.'

'He wants it to be, though,' Marlene said.

'Maybe, but I don't.'

'The fact that you kept the roses begs to differ.'

Lily glanced at the bouquet of glass roses sitting in a vase on her desk as she grabbed her bag from the floor beside it and felt her face heat. She'd told James she'd left them in the classroom at the end of the lesson, but she hadn't. 'They're pretty,' she told Marlene as if she couldn't have easily made some for herself if that were the only reason.

'I don't understand why you're denying it,' Dorcas said. 'He fancies you, and you obviously fancy him. What's the problem?'

With every hour that passed in James' company, Lily was finding it harder and harder to answer that because he wasn't the person she'd thought he was at all. Sure, he could be arrogant sometimes, over-confident, but most of the time, he was genuinely sweet. And he was honest to a fault, as he'd proven the other day. If he didn't think he could keep a promise, he wouldn't make it, and he'd tell you why, too. Then there was the cockiness she'd always seen in him. It disappeared when they were alone together. She'd been expecting brewing with him to be one long argument, both of them trying to lead the project, but it'd been the complete opposite. Right from the start, he'd taken on the role of assistant, asking what she wanted him to do, and checking with her at every step. It was refreshing after brewing with Severus, who was a complete control freak when it came to potions.

'I don't have time for this now. I'm already late,' she said, heading to the door. 'See you later.' And with that, she left before they could tease her anymore. It was embarrassing to have been so wrong about someone, and she cringed when she thought about the long rants she used to go on whenever he did something she found irritating.

The boy in question was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, leaning up against the wall and spinning his wand between his fingers. Yet another thing she'd seen him do before and assumed was showing-off, but now she knew it was due to boredom and not a desire to look cool.

His face broke into a grin when he spotted her, and he tucked the wand into the garish holster at his hip. 'Lily! Hi!'

How did he always manage to sound so delighted to see her? 'Hey. Sorry, I'm late. I lost track of time.'

James shrugged. 'Doesn't matter. You're here now. Pain in the ass that I can't just come up and knock on your door, though.'

'Yeah,' Lily agreed as they walked towards the exit. She could see how that must be annoying for the boys that had friends that were girls. But at the same time, 'It is comforting to know the boys can't get up to our rooms, though.'

'Kind of unfair that you can still get up to ours, though, don't you think?'

Lily pushed on the back of the portrait to open it and stepped through before answering. 'I don't know. Seems like boys are more likely to spy on girls than girls are to spy on boys.'

James raised an eyebrow at her as he reached behind him to push the portrait closed. 'You, of all people, know that's not true.'

'What? You mean because of Sunshine and the..?'

James shook his head. 'Dorcas, a mirror, my dorm. Ringing any bells?'

'Oh, that. Yeah, she was completely out of order. But it's not like they were getting undressed or anything.'

'She didn't know that before she looked, though, did she?'

'Well… no.'

'We're not still mad about it or anything. I'm just saying, girls spy just as much as boys do, and it doesn't matter if they're not intending to see anyone undressing or whatever, they still might, so the staircase rules are stupid and unfair.'

'You may have a point,' Lily said, following him down the corridor. 'Where are we going?'

'Squib Wing,' James said. 'I've been thinking about how we can get in touch with Sunshine. The Marauders have got to be organising an end-of-year party soon, right? We had one last year.'

She nodded. 'Yeah, in the beach room, which we still haven't found.'

'Plenty of time,' James said, waving her off. 'But since we don't have the beach room this year, I'm betting the party will be in the Squib Wing like the Christmas one was.'

'Why not the Great Hall? The teachers knew about the party last year.'

James shrugged. 'More fun when it's secret. And there are only three weeks left of school, so they've got to be thinking about it soon.'

'True,' Lily agreed. 'So we leave him a message asking him to meet?'

'Exactly. Something big that he can't miss.'

'You already have a plan, don't you?'

James grinned at her. 'I always have a plan.'

When they reached the corridor that held the invisible door, Lily waited while James felt along the wall for the handle and then followed him through, closing the door behind her.

'The party will be in the dining hall, so we should do it there,' James said. 'I think it was this way.'

It took a few minutes to reach the ground floor and Lily followed James into the dining hall, which looked completely different to how it had at Christmas. The decorations were all gone, and the room was completely bare except for the raised stage area at one end. 'I wonder what they did with the tables and benches.'

'What do you mean?'

'The squibs must have had tables and something to sit on, and the ones in the Great Hall are huge. Where did they put them?'

James shrugged. 'Who knows? When we figure out who Sunshine is, maybe you can ask him.'

'Yeah, I will. So what's your plan, then?'

'Flagrate, across the entire wall. Make it huge, and set it to reveal itself when someone walks in.'

'It would be better if we could set it to only reveal itself when Sunshine walks in.'

'We'd need a sample of his magic to do that.'

'Yeah, I know. I don't have one.' She chewed her lip, thinking, but nothing came to mind. 'We'll just have to hope no one else comes here.'

'I'm sure it'll be fine,' James said. 'What do you want to put?'

Lily thought about it and then raised her wand, casting the charm.

Sunshine,

I'd like to meet. Send me an owl with a time and place.

Miss Evans.

'That's not a circle,' Remus said. 'It's an oval. A wonky one.'

'Well, you try drawing a perfect circle that's nine feet wide,' Sirius said. 'I'd like to see how you do.'

'I wasn't trying to be mean. I'm just saying, the book said it needs to be a circle, and that is not a circle.'

'He's right,' Peter said, coming to stand beside them as they surveyed Sirius' fourth attempt at drawing a ritual circle on the floor of the cave with his magic. It was glowing with dark blue light and resembled a misshapen egg. 'That's not going to work, and it's the wrong colour, too. The book says it should be pale blue.'

It was early on Saturday morning, and the three of them were supposed to be completing the first step in crafting a cauldron while James waited in the common room for the girls to get up, so he could claim the rest of them were still sleeping and prevent any of them going to their dorm to knock. They weren't doing very well, though. The ritual used to prepare the materials required a lot of space—hence the cave—and absolute precision, which is where they were struggling. They'd thought Sirius' artistic talents would make this part easy, but apparently drawing with a wand was much different to drawing with a quill.

'I'm trying,' Sirius said. 'It's not that easy.'

Remus slid an arm around Sirius' waist and kissed him on the cheek. 'We know you are. I think maybe we just need a different approach.'

'Like what?'

'We're thirteen. We don't have the skill for this yet, but,' he said, a smirk breaking across his face, 'we're smart, and I have an idea. I just need a stick and a piece of string.' He reached up and plucked a single strand of hair from Sirius' head. 'This should do it.'

'Ow!' Sirius said, his hand flying to his head. 'What the fuck, Moony?'

Remus chuckled and pressed a kiss to his lips. 'It's one hair, Twinkles. Don't have a fit.'

'You and Bubbles both have hair, too. Why'd it have to be mine?'

Remus shrugged. 'Yours is longer. Now go find me a stick.'

''M'not a dog,' Sirius grumbled, but he obeyed, leaving via the hidden exit into Hogsmeade.

'You're a brave man, Remus Lupin,' Peter said. 'I can't believe you did that.'

Remus laughed as he waved his wand over the hair, slowly transforming it into a thin strand of string and lengthening it. 'I wouldn't recommend you try it. You might find yourself in the Great Lake.'

Peter hummed in agreement. 'My kisses probably wouldn't have the same effect.'

'There's no probably about it,' Sirius said, walking back in carrying a long, thin stick. 'What do you think, Moons? Is my stick long enough for you?'

'Definitely not. But you're still growing, so there's hope,' Remus said, not moving his eyes from the string he was still working on. When he was done, he looked up to see Sirius gaping at him. 'Oh, you meant that stick. Yes, that's plenty long enough.'

'What has got into you today?' Sirius asked, finally breaking out of his shock. 'Wait. Are you actually James? Did you two switch places?'

'What you can't tell?' Remus asked, taking hold of the stick and using it to pull Sirius closer. 'I kissed you less than two minutes ago, but if you need a bigger sample…'

Peter looked away, reading through the ritual instructions for the millionth time, and didn't turn back until Sirius said, breathlessly, 'Yeah. You're definitely Remus. I guess you've just been spending too much time with me.'

Remus shook his head. 'It could never be enough, never mind too much.'

Clearing his throat, Peter raised his eyebrows at them. 'So, your idea, Moony?'

'Oh right, I… forgot you were here…'

'Yes, I could see that,' Peter said, chuckling.

Remus coughed and let go of Sirius. 'Right, so we need to make a hole in the ground to prop the stick in.'

'Defodio,' Sirius cast, pointing his wand at the ground. 'There you go, Moons. Don't say I never do anything for you.'

'Thank you,' Remus said. 'I appreciate it.' Once the stick was in place, he tied one end of the string to it and the other end to his wand. Then, with the string pulled taut, he walked in a circle, pointing his wand straight down, casting the incantation. 'There, how does that look?'

Peter surveyed it. 'Pretty damn perfect, and it's the right colour, too.'

'The book says to make sure we have everything we need inside the circle before we carry on,' Remus said, removing the stick. 'Bring the table over.'

Grabbing one end each, Peter and Sirius moved the table into the circle, placing it a little off-centre, before laying out everything they would need, four tall and thick white candles, a bowl containing the mica flakes, and the instruction book.

'Okay, what's next?' Sirius asked, grinning.

Even though he knew the answer, Peter checked the book anyway, just to be sure. 'We need to place the candles at the compass points of the circle, and then invoke the elements.'

'Luckily, we have a handy little spell that will tell us which way is north,' Sirius said, placing his wand flat on his hand. 'Point me.' He waited as his wand spun and then pointed. 'North is that way.'

Picking up the candle Sirius had engraved with the rune for endurance, Peter walked over to the point Sirius was indicating and placed it just inside the circle of magic. Then, using its position to determine the right place, he placed the other three candles at the right points—the candle with the rune for permanency to the East, strength to the south, and flexibility to the west—before turning back to Sirius and Remus. 'Now for the tricky part.'

'There's nothing to worry about,' Sirius said, reading him like a book. 'If you do it wrong, we just start again.'

'That's true. Nothing terrible will happen,' Peter said, moving to the centre of the circle and facing the northern candle. He took a deep breath and pointed his wand at it, picturing the words of the incantation in his mind. 'Invocare potentia terrae.'

There were no visible effects from his wand and for half a second he thought he'd failed, but a moment later he knew he hadn't because the candle flickered to life with a bright green flame and the ground beneath their feet shook as a circle of rock grew up six-foot-high around them, shimmering with the blue light of Remus' magic.

'Guess that's why the book said to make sure you have everything you need inside the circle before you start,' Sirius said, staring at it in shock.

Peter ignored him, turning to his right and pointing his wand at the eastern candle. 'Invocare potentia ventum.'

This time, the candle lit itself with a golden yellow flame which didn't so much as waver despite the powerful wind that swept through the circle, swirling around them for several seconds before settling into a more gentle breeze.

Peter swallowed, a little frightened of what would come next as he turned again to face the southern candle, and aimed his wand for the third time. 'Invocare potentia ignis.'

He needn't have worried, though. The flame of the candle was ruby red this time, and when the fire joined them, it roared into being with nine-foot-high flames, but the rock wall protected them from the worst of the heat, and the wind swept around them, keeping the rest at bay as Peter turned for the last time, pointing his wand at the final candle to the west. 'Invocare potentia aqua.'

This candle's wick burned blue, but nothing else seemed to happen, and he stared around, confused, for a moment. Had he screwed it up on the final step? But then the faintest of splashes reached his ears through the gushing of the wind and the roaring of the fire, and he looked down. Water was burbling into the cave from beneath the rock they were standing on and pooling under their feet. After a few more seconds had passed, they were standing in a circular pool, about half an inch deep.

'I can't decide if I'm completely terrified, or thoroughly awed,' Remus said. His voice was raised to be heard over the noise as the fire and the wind fought for dominance, but his tone was conversational and Peter snorted.

'James is going to be so pissed that he missed this,' Sirius yelled, sounding thoroughly exhilarated as his hair whipped around his face.

Peter wished he could respond, but he had one more incantation to cast first, and he pointed his wand at the ceiling above their heads. 'Invocare potentia vitae.'

His words caused the circle to fill with a blinding light and Peter instinctively closed his eyes against it, bringing his wand arm back down to shield them further until it seeped away. When he dropped his arm and cracked his eyes open, the light was gone, but the runes engraved into the four candles were glowing the same colour as their flames and magic thrummed in the air around him, making his skin tingle and his breath shorten. It had worked.

Peter grinned, exhilarated. 'I did it!'

'Yeah, you did,' Sirius said proudly, slapping him on the back. 'This is incredible.'

'It really is. I can't wait to study ritual magic in sixth year,' Remus said, his voice laced with wonder as he gazed around, rubbing his arms. 'But we better get on with the spell. I think the elements are getting restless.'

Glancing around, Peter realised he was right. The water under their feet was swirling more aggressively, and the wind was picking up speed. The fire was the biggest concern, though, and he eyed it nervously. Was it his imagination, or was it getting warmer?

'Alright, help me move the table to the centre,' he said, grabbing one end. Remus moved to the other, and they lifted it, carrying it to the place Peter had been standing before, and Peter shifted the bowl of—strangely undisturbed—mica flakes to the middle of what was now the altar. 'Do you all remember what to do?'

'Yeah,' Remus said, a little breathlessly. His eyes were bright and his mouth was stretched into a wide grin. 'The magic is desperate to be used. It's going to be easy.'

'I know what you mean,' Sirius said, his eyes equally bright and his smile bordering on manic as he reached for Remus' hand. 'It feels brilliant.'

Peter took Remus' other hand and reached for Sirius' across the table, wondering if he looked as crazed as they both did, but he understood what Remus meant. He could feel it too, a kind of restless urgency, laced with desire and aching with willingness. It itched at his skin and tickled the edges of his core, trying to find a way in.

Sirius accepted the offered hand, completing their own circle within the elemental one, and they all focused on the bowl of mica at their centre as they drew on the magic that eagerly awaited their instructions and began the chant.

The mica flakes glowed the same shade of pale blue as the circle of magic as they worked the spell, and the elements grew more energetic, answering their call. The ground shook beneath their feet and the wind swirled around them, making their robes billow and Sirius and Remus' hair dance around their heads. Surrounding them, the flames flickered higher and the water lapping at their feet bubbled.

As they completed the chant for the seventh time, there was another blinding flash of light, followed by three seconds of complete silence before all the noise returned in a rush. They all stared at each other for a beat before Peter's eyes dropped to the bowl of mica. The blue glow had dimmed to nothing, and the flakes looked unchanged by the experience, but hopefully, they were now imbued with magic.

'Well,' Sirius said, dropping his hand and moving closer to Remus, 'that was quite an experience.'

'Yeah,' Remus said, cuddling up to Sirius as his arm slipped around his waist. 'I can't believe we thought transfiguration would work.'

Peter laughed. 'I'm definitely going to treat my cauldron with more respect from now on. Help me move the table out of the way.' Remus moved to assist, and once the space was free, Peter stood in the centre again, facing north once more, and raised his wand to the ceiling. 'Gratias Potentia vitae.'

The magic that gave life to all things left the circle much more sedately than it arrived, coalescing into a white serpent-like cloud and coiling around each of them in turn—leaving a pleasant tingling behind wherever it touched—before shooting up into the air and through the rock of the ceiling, and the runes on the candles went dark. With a quiet exhale to release the tension in his muscles, Peter turned to his left. 'Gratias potentia aqua.'

The water burbled in a way that sounded happy as it swirled around their feet before sinking back into the stone, leaving everything it had come into contact with bone dry, and the blue flame of the candle flickered and died.

As if knowing it was it next, the flames surrounding them burned brighter, casting an orange glow across his skin as Peter turned left again and pointed his wand at the red-flamed candle. 'Gratias potentia ignis.'

Like it was taking a breath, the fire leapt higher, licking the ceiling and sending a burst of heat into the circle before shrinking rapidly to the ground and vanishing without a trace, taking the ruby red flame of the candle with it.

'And goodbye to you, too,' Sirius said.

Peter chuckled but didn't say anything, turning left once more to face the eastern candle. 'Gratias potentia ventum.'

The wind picked up, whipping around them for a moment before everything went still, and a second later, Sirius' hair blew around his face, then Remus', and finally Peter felt the sensation of wind rushing past his head, followed by a whooshing sound before all was still again, and the golden flame flickered out.

'Last one,' Remus murmured as Peter turned north.

'Gratias potentia terrae,' Peter said, aiming his wand at the one remaining lit candle with its eerie green flame and bracing himself. As he'd expected, the ground shook again and the rock walls surrounding them shrank back into the ground. Once the floor had returned to its previous, relatively smooth state, there was a moment of stillness before the rock gave one final rumble and the candle went out.

'Is that it?' Sirius asked.

'Almost,' Remus answered. 'I just need to undraw the circle.'

While Remus did that, Peter poured the mica into a jar to take back to the dorm for the next step, and Sirius decided to make himself useful by gathering the candles which he tucked into his bag.

'Well, I thought that went very well,' Sirius said as they exited the cave. 'And also, it was fucking brilliant.'

Much to James'—extremely vocal—dismay, the second stage of crafting a cauldron was nowhere near as exciting as the first. But, much to Sirius'—equally vocal—delight, the second stage of crafting a cauldron involved far more artistic ability than the first.

As it turned out, transfiguration was involved in the cauldron-making process, just not the way they'd done it. First, they needed to transfigure the material into a liquid, and that was first-year stuff, but still, they delegated the task to the best wizard they had for the job—James—and he sat on his bed with the jar and a jug, slowly working his way through each individual flake.

Once the mica was liquidised, they would need to pour it into a mould, and that's where Sirius' artistic skills were required. He was excited. Unfortunately, Peter wasn't giving him much room to be artistic.

'We don't have enough material for extravagant decoration. It just needs to be a basic cauldron shape,' Peter told him, pointing to the little wolf's ears on the design he'd drawn up. 'These are unnecessary.'

'But they're cute,' Sirius said. 'And the cauldron is for a moonsickness potion.'

'Then draw a moon on it,' Peter said, rolling his eyes.

Sirius had been pouting, but he perked up at that. 'I can draw on it?'

'Sure, engraving is fine, just nothing that's going to waste material.'

Sirius grinned and got to work, first drawing up a sketch, and then using the Gouging charm to shape two blocks of wood to fit together in the right way to form a cauldron when the liquid mica was poured in and transfigured back into a solid. His design was hidden on the inside of the mould, and he refused to allow any of them to see it beforehand.

Peter had the steadiest hands, so the pouring fell to him and he managed to not spill a drop, but still, the liquid fell short of the top of the mould. It was only a tiny bit, but Sirius had to admit, the ears wouldn't have worked out. Once the mould was full, Peter stepped out of the way so Remus could take over. He was the best at charms and found it easiest to learn new spells with only a book for instruction, so the next task fell to him. It was a complicated little charm which would bond the mica molecules together so that when James reverted it to its original state, all the little flakes would remain entwined instead of separating again.

A little crease appeared between Remus' eyebrows when he focused hard, and his mouth formed an almost completely straight line across his face. It always triggered, in Sirius, an urge to leap on him and shower him with kisses. He really didn't know why, and it had gotten him into trouble on more than one occasion because Remus did not appreciate Sirius leaping on him when he was concentrating, but it was really hard to resist.

However, on this occasion, self-control won, and Remus was allowed to complete the spell without being attacked by his amorous boyfriend. He stepped back with no knowledge of his narrow escape to allow James back to the desk to finish the task.

'Reparifarge.' A blue glow emerged from within the wooden block for a moment before dissipating, and James stepped back. 'You want to open it, Bubbles?'

Peter nodded, reaching for the mould, and cracked it open carefully, before plucking out a perfect—and oh so tiny—white cauldron.

'Oh my gods, it's so cute,' Sirius said. 'I knew it was going to be small, but…'

'It's adorable,' James agreed. 'We're going to need a miniature firepit and tiny tools to use it.'

'It's not that small,' Peter said, laughing. 'We should be able to make about three doses at a time in this. And I love the design, Twinkles.'

'Oh, yeah, I forgot about that,' James said. 'What is it?'

Peter turned it around to show them the Marauders' Crest, with the addition of a border made up of their star sign flowers encircling it.

'Pretty,' James said. 'I like it.'

'I'm honestly disappointed,' Remus said, and when Sirius shot him a questioning look, he shrugged. 'I was expecting it to be something rude.'

Sirius laughed. 'It was considered, but I didn't want to tarnish the cauldron. Bubbles is going to make your moonsickness potion in.'

'How considerate of you.' Remus smiled and rewarded his thoughtfulness with a kiss.

The final step in the cauldron-making process was a boring load of smoothing and polishing spells, but they all chipped in and within a few minutes the cauldron was gleaming, as perfect a specimen as you'd find in any shop.

'Well, if nothing else comes from school,' James said. 'I think we could all make a career as cauldron makers.'

'We haven't actually used it yet,' Remus replied. 'We thought the last one was good, too.'

'Good point, and as well made as always, Moony,' James said with a laugh. 'That is going to have to wait, though, because I've got a last-minute Quidditch practice to get to.'

'Another one?' Remus asked, taking a seat on Sirius' bed. 'You've had practice every night this week.'

'It's the final, Moony.' James was rooting through his trunk, pulling out pieces of his quidditch kit and dropping them on the floor next to him, but he spared a second to shoot Remus an exasperated look over his shoulder. 'And we need to beat Ravenclaw by at least two hundred and thirty points if we want to win the cup, so we need to be in top form. Thank Merlin, Hufflepuff were hammered so hard by Slytherin in the last match, or we wouldn't stand a chance.'

'Why are you complaining, anyway, Moons?' Sirius asked, pouting at his boyfriend from across the room. 'You don't want to be alone with me?'

'I wasn't complaining. Just can't understand what there could possibly be left to practise.'

'Everything!' James exclaimed. 'We have to practise everything!'

Remus' eyes widened in alarm. 'Alright, there's no need to yell.'

'Sorry,' James said, lowering his voice and standing up with his kit in his arms and his broom in one hand. 'I'm just so tense right now. Alright, see you guys later. You coming, Bubbles?'

'Hopefully, flying calms his nerves a bit,' Sirius said when the door closed behind James and Peter. 'If he's like this now, he's going to be a complete mess tomorrow.'

'You know James. He'll be fine once he's in the air.'

'Yeah, you're probably right,' Sirius agreed, joining Remus on the bed and pressing a kiss to his smiling mouth. 'So, looks like we have the afternoon to ourselves. What do you want to do with it?'

Remus hummed and kissed him back. 'More of this?'

'You always want to do more of this,' Sirius said, punctuating his words with another kiss before pushing himself upright. It wasn't that Sirius didn't also want to, but it was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, and he was itching to be outside, enjoying it. His body was practically buzzing with energy.

'You don't?'

When Sirius moved his attention from the window and back to his boyfriend, Remus was frowning at him with confusion and more than a little hurt. Whoops. 'Of course I do. Always.' He kissed him again to prove it, soft and sweet, before pulling back with a grin. 'It's just a really nice day. How about a walk around the lake? Do you feel up to it?'

'Yeah, actually.' Remus swung his legs off the bed and stood up, moving towards his trunk. 'The ritual's left me feeling… I don't know. Not tired? Let me just change my shirt and we'll go.'

Sirius shook his head as he watched Remus pull a long-sleeved shirt from his trunk. 'How long has it been since you've felt not tired that you can't think of a word for it?'

Pausing with his hand on the bathroom door, Remus tilted his head in thought. 'I can't remember the last time I didn't feel tired. Not without a potion, anyway. That Invigoration draught Pete gave me was amazing, though. Oh, that's how I feel. Invigorated.'

'Yeah, me too,' Sirius said. 'Maybe we should just start every morning with a little ritual magic. It's so much better than tea.'

'That's not your worst idea,' Remus replied, laughing and pushing the bathroom door open. 'Back in a minute.'

It really was a gorgeous day, and it didn't seem like Remus had been exaggerating when he said he felt invigorated. Sirius had never seen him so full of energy, and it was a delight to witness. There was still pain in the creases of his eyes when he moved, but it didn't appear to be holding him back so Sirius pretended not to see it as they strolled along the bank at a leisurely pace and Remus kept darting off to pick him flowers. When Sirius asked him why he was picking him flowers, Remus told him that his "eyes sparkled with happiness" every time he gave him one, which just made Sirius' cheeks hurt from smiling. How he managed to restrain himself until they reached the other side of the lake and found a secluded spot where he could indulge his desire to kiss Remus stupid, Sirius would never know.

Somewhere around mid-afternoon, they were sitting together on the bank of the lake just talking and watching the water, when Remus stilled, stiffening up for a moment before drawing his knees up and ducking his head behind them.

'Moons? You okay?' Sirius asked, alarmed. He put his hand on Remus' back, stroking up and down gently. He was shaking. 'What's wrong?'

'M'okay,' Remus mumbled. 'Just some pain. I'll be fine in a minute.'

'Is that normal?' Sirius couldn't remember Remus having sudden attacks of severe pain before—and it must be severe if he was reacting to it physically—but maybe he just hadn't been around for it.

'Happens now and then.'

'Alright.' Sirius wasn't sure what to do, but if it was pain, then just holding him should help, right? 'Here, lie down with me.'

Remus co-operated as he manoeuvred them into their usual pre-moon positions, and then hid his face in Sirius' chest. 'Someone will see us,' he muttered after a few seconds of deep breathing.

'No one's eyesight is good enough to see us from across the lake,' Sirius said, running his fingers through Remus' hair. 'And I can't see anyone nearby. We're fine. You feeling better?'

'Yeah. We should head back, though.'

'Give yourself a minute. There's no rush.'

'I'm okay now. It's over.'

'Indulge me? You scared me, Remus. I've never seen you react like that to pain before. Which means it was bad. So I'd feel better if you just rested for a bit before trekking all the way back around the enormous lake.'

'Point taken,' Remus said with a sigh, tipping his head back to look up at him with sad eyes. 'I don't deserve you.'

'I'm afraid you have me anyway,' Sirius said, making his voice sound apologetic. 'But I'll do my best to make it bearable for you.'

Sitting up to glare at him, Remus slapped his chest gently. 'You know I didn't mean it like that,' he said, sounding cross, but the sadness was gone from his eyes, so goal achieved.

Sirius grinned and pulled Remus down to kiss him quickly. 'Well, I can't think how else you could have meant it, Moonbeam, because you are perfect and deserve nothing but happiness and joy.'

'Happiness and joy are the same thing.'

'You're beautiful when you're pedantic.'

Remus shook his head, but he was blushing, so secondary goal achieved. Making Remus blush was always the secondary goal.

'I'm starting to think you might need glasses.'

'I'd look hot as fuck in glasses.'

'You'd look hot as fuck in a bin bag,' Remus said, rolling his eyes.

'What's a bin bag?'

Remus stared at him for a moment before breaking into laughter, which was nice—he was beautiful when he laughed—but it was slightly less enjoyable when it was directed at Sirius, so he narrowed his eyes and glared at Remus until he sobered.

'I'm sorry,' he said, wiping his eyes. 'I just sometimes forget how bloody posh you are. A bin bag is a large black bag that you put in the bin so the rubbish doesn't make it dirty and to make it easy to transport.'

'Oh,' Sirius frowned. 'I'm pretty sure the house-elves just vanish the rubbish. Is it a muggle thing?'

'You know what? I guess it must be. I never even thought about it.'

'So it's not because I'm posh, it's because I'm a pureblood.'

'That's pretty much the same thing,' Remus said, pushing himself up. 'Come on, let's go.'

Sirius stood up and brushed himself off. 'It's not actually. There are plenty of pureblood families that don't have money.'

'I knew that,' Remus said, sounding annoyed with himself. 'That was a really stupid thing to say. There are plenty of posh muggles too, so the two things are not the same. But in my defence, posh muggles probably wouldn't know what a bin bag is, either.'

'Just give it up and admit you were wrong, Moonbeam.'

'Fine, I was wrong. Happy?'

'Ecstatically,' Sirius said, grinning.

Sirius didn't realise at the time quite how much he was exaggerating with that statement, but he didn't have long to wait for the universe to show him—or more precisely, for the Gryffindor quidditch team to show him—because the next day he learned the true meaning of the words ecstatically happy when James, with a little help from the rest of the team, pulled off the most spectacular win against Ravenclaw the school had ever seen. And, no, he hadn't learned his lesson about exaggerating. It was spectacular, though. Their intense practising in the week running up to the match had paid off and the Chasers and Beaters worked together seamlessly, scoring goal after goal whenever they had possession of the Quaffle, and mounting an impenetrable defence whenever the Ravenclaws managed to take it.

Forty minutes into the match, Ravenclaw's last hope lay in their Seeker and a swift catching of the Snitch with Gryffindor sitting pretty on one hundred and twenty points to Ravenclaw's thirty, but unfortunately for them, Gryffindor's seeker reached it first, winning them the match by one hundred and forty points, and earning the team the Quidditch Cup.

'Congratulations!' Sirius screamed, bursting into the changing rooms. 'Oh, my gods! That was the most incredible match I've ever seen!'

'Thanks, mate,' James said, turning towards him (most of the other players were looking at him too, but Sirius didn't care about them). His eyes got stuck somewhere over Sirius' shoulder, though, and he froze. 'No fucking way.'

'What?' Sirius turned to see what James was staring at. It was a painting—people flying on brooms and throwing a quaffle around. Nothing exciting. What was interesting is that it was hanging open. 'No fucking way,' he said, echoing James. 'In here?'

'I never even thought about it being outside of the castle.'

Sirius walked over, pulling the painting open properly and, sure enough, there was the door, carved with the runes that he knew translated to mean you had to tell the door it was your birthday and be telling the truth to open it. By the end of the day, they had posters up in all four common rooms asking for everyone with birthdays in September, October, and November to write their name next to the date to help open the beach room again.

Next year was going to be amazing.

This year, however, was proving to be a series of new—and bizarre—painful realities. First, there were the spots, which continued to appear on his face randomly—thank Merlin for magic—and then there was the… well, the less said about that issue, the better, but now… Sirius lifted his arm and ducked his head again, taking a deep breath through his nose, and yes, the smell was definitely coming from him. What the hell was going on? Blacks didn't have problems with body odour.

His eyes swept around the potions classroom, eventually settling on Snape. He was sitting at the front, head bent over a textbook, scribbling notes onto a sheet of parchment, and he was paying no attention to Sirius at all. But if anyone would have a desire to inflict this kind of misery on Sirius, it was Snivellus Snape, and Sirius wouldn't put it past him to have the ability either. As much as he hated to admit it, the boy was smart.

Was it a potion? No, it couldn't be. Remus had scanned all of their toiletries with the magic detector, and they all still tested their food before eating anything. So all that was left was some kind of curse. But how had he done it? It didn't really matter. There were many ways to break or block curses, and most of them didn't require knowledge of the origin. But Sirius would really like to know. Perhaps a little nighttime excursion to the Slytherin's dungeon was in order.

Sirius leant closer to James. 'Fancy helping me search Snivellus' room tonight?'

'Absolutely,' James replied, not even looking up from his work.

Sirius smiled and turned back to his own notes on the Blood Replenishing potion, and several minutes passed before James nudged him to get his attention.

'What are we searching his room for?'

'I think he's cursed me.'

'Oh. Okay.' James nodded, bending back over his work, and then he straightened, suddenly. 'Cursed you with what?'

'The spots, the… you know.' Sirius waved a vague hand in the general area of his head. 'And now… well. I smell, James.'

'Ah, this again.' James tapped his fingers on the table for a minute and then turned to him, looking determined. 'I don't think it's Snivellus, mate.'

'Who else could it be?'

'No one. I don't think it's anyone. It's just… you know… growing up.'

'Growing up?'

'Yeah,' James said. 'You know? Changes.'

'What in Merlin's name are you talking about?' Sirius hissed.

'Misters Black and Potter,' Professor Slughorn called from the front of the class. 'Please keep the gossiping to your own time. Thank you.'

'Sorry, sir,' Sirius called, and then in an undertone to James. 'We'll talk about this later.' James' response came in the form of a salute.

The opportunity to resume their discussion came later that evening. With the quidditch season over, James no longer had practice on Monday evenings, so Peter was spending the evening with Mary, and Remus off to the library to research warding spells for Peter's experiments in using electricity as a potion ingredient.

'Everything that's happening to you is normal,' James said once they were alone. 'I mean, you're a little behind the rest of us, but the spots, the changes in your hair, the need to shower more, it's all just part of growing up. I guess your parents never bothered to tell you about it, which, you know, I'm not really surprised—'

'They didn't just not bother,' Sirius said, interrupting him. 'They told us the opposite. Those things all happen to everyone else, not to Blacks.'

'That's ridiculous. Your family can't be immune to puberty, Sirius.'

'Not unless…' Sirius trailed off, thinking. He hadn't gone home that year. What if… 'James, what if that's what the potion does?'

'You've lost me. What potion?'

'The one my family makes on the vernal equinox. The one I didn't make this year.'

'Oh.' James frowned, making his "thinking hard" face for several long seconds and Sirius waited, twirling his wand, until James' face cleared. 'No, it can't be. You took the Core Cleanser more than a year ago. There would have been symptoms long before now.'

Sirius' muscles relaxed as a wave of relief flowed through him. 'That's true.'

'And it's just a potion, anyway. To do what you're describing with just a potion, you'd need to take it every day, not just once a year.'

'No, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking.'

James patted his knee. 'It's just puberty, Twinkles. Nothing to be worried about.'

Sirius left the conversation feeling somewhat reassured, but not completely. There was no denying that his symptoms seemed to line up with those of puberty, but it didn't explain why it was happening to him. Or rather, what he was now more concerned about, why it wasn't supposed to be happening to him. Because James was right, taking a potion once a year couldn't do something like that, so what was doing it? And why was it no longer working on him?

The next day didn't allow much room for worrying about it, though. Tuesdays were busy, with Herbology and Transfiguration in the morning, and Charms and History after lunch, followed by their private lesson with Professor Tenebris after dinner—which were less physically draining than they used to be, but far more mentally draining.

She looked excited when they arrived, and Sirius grinned at her. 'Evening, Storm.'

'Come in, come in. Sit down,' she replied, smiling at him but with an air of impatience.

'Alright, we're going.' Sirius took a seat at the table, eyeing the new selection of books in the middle of it as the others joined him. Once everyone was sitting down, Sirius looked at James. 'I think Storm's had an idea,' he said in a comically loud whisper.'

'Whatever gives you that idea?' James asked, matching his tone.

'I think it might be the crazed look in her eyes,' Remus said, joining in.

'Or possibly the way she's glaring at us for mucking about,' Peter added.

'I don't know,' Sirius said. 'It's just a feeling I'm getting.'

'Yes, yes, you're all very amusing,' Professor Tenebris said. 'Now be quiet and listen. I think I know what we need to do.'

'Is it to do with the soul like you thought?' James asked.

She nodded, picking up her quill and drew a large circle in the middle of her sheet of parchment, writing "Remus' soul" inside it before turning it to face them. 'Imagine the soul like a ball. It acts a bit like a bridge and a bit like an anchor.' She drew a line coming out of the top, writing "Remus' mind" above it. 'Without the soul, the consciousness of the person would essentially float away, never to be seen again.' She drew a second line coming out the bottom of the circle and wrote "Remus' body" under it. 'And their body would collapse, becoming unusable, because the soul allows the consciousness of a person to communicate with their body.' She drew another line through the circle, connecting the mind and body lines. 'Does that make sense?'

They all nodded, so she continued, drawing a second line coming out of the top and bottom and writing "Moony's mind" and "Moony's body" before joining them together with a line that passed through the circle.

'I think Lycanthropy essentially grafts a second consciousness and body to the soul. Stronger ones. Remus' magical core suppresses them most of the time, but they take over on a full moon. What we've done with our spell so far is suppress Moony's consciousness,' she crossed out the line representing Moony's mind, 'allowing Remus' to take over, but do you see the problem?'

'There's no connection between Remus' mind and Moony's body,' James said.

'Exactly,' Professor Tenebris said. 'That's the solution. We need to bridge these two connections,' she drew a horizontal line connecting the two vertical ones inside the circle, 'so Remus' mind can send instructions to Moony's body.'

'How are we going to do that?' James asked.

Professor Tenebris picked up the top book from the stack in the middle of the table and passed it to him. 'That's what we need to figure out, Sunshine.'