The next couple of weeks were extremely busy. Everyone from fifth to seventh year was flooded with homework, and that included sixth-years. I began needing to stay up much later at night than I normally did in order to complete all of my homework. I was extremely busy with my workload since I was taking all of the more difficult classes (though some people would've gotten offended if I told them that).

Other than homework and classes, I had Quidditch practice in preparation for Gryffindor's first game of the season. I had convinced James to schedule practice on the day of the second Slug Club meeting of the year. The first meeting, however, I had been forced to go to, only to meet Professor Slughorn's new recruits: two fifth-year Hufflepuffs and another Slytherin to replace his beloved Alecto Carrow, who had just graduated.

Being as busy as I was with homework, Quidditch and some of my extracurriculars (which was mostly reading), I had only a few chances to meet up with Regulus. I found it easier to meet him whenever the Marauders had detention because it was during those times that I knew for a fact they didn't have the Marauder's Map with them and couldn't follow me. Luckily, the four boys got detention quite often.

These days, Regulus was nearly always alone. He hung out with a few of his Slytherin friends which included Severus Snape, but he later confided in me about how much he disliked them. For that reason, he wanted to be able to be around me more often without having to sneak around.

We had discussed telling people about our relationship a few times, but every single time we did, I would put it off and tell him we'd tell everyone later on. I was a procrastinator; that much was obvious. If I was to be completely honest, I was absolutely, positively terrified of everyone finding out about me and Regulus. Everything was so good with the Marauders and I was so afraid of how they would react if they found out. I knew I couldn't avoid telling them forever, because they would start getting suspicious if they didn't know where I was running off to some days; but I wanted to put it off for as long as I could. Regulus agreed to hold off telling them for as long as I wanted and I said I wanted to tell them in approximately two and a half months, just before Christmas.

At the beginning of October was the first trip to Hogsmeade of the year. As usual, on the day of the visit to the village, I was the very first person awake in the entirety of Gryffindor Tower.

When I woke up, Lily, Alice and Marlene were all fast asleep; I could tell by the slow, steady breathing coming from the other three beds in our dormitory. Without having changed, I grabbed a book from my nightstand and made my way down the stairs, entering the empty Gryffindor common room. I hopped onto the couch in my pyjamas and laid down on it, opening my book to read.

For a few minutes, I read silently and no one else came down from any other dormitories, but I was unusually fidgety due to excitement and slight boredom. I found myself wishing the boys would wake up soon and decided to go find them in their dormitory to see if they had woken up yet.

I quietly crept up the stairs just as two seventh-year boys climbed down, casting me confused glances while doing so. Reaching the Marauders' dormitory, I pushed the door open as slowly as I could and stuck my head into the room. I tiptoed inside, trying to keep the floor from creaking too much.

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were all still fast asleep. Peter was snoring once again, Remus's covers had fallen on the floor, James's hair was an absolute mess and Sirius had somehow ended up on the other side of his bed; his feet were on his pillow. The four of them looked quite hilarious. I stared at all of them as if they'd be able to feel my gaze on them and, consequently, wake up...

I let out a slight gasp before clapping a hand over my own mouth. I nearly laughed out loud at the idea I had, and suddenly I was rummaging through James's possessions, most of which were strewn across the floor at the foot of his bed. Wrinkling my nose up in disgust, I pushed aside the clothing and finally came across his Invisibility Cloak.

I laughed silently to myself. Just as I had been about to throw the Cloak over me, one of the boys made a noise and I whipped my head over to see which one of them it was.

Peter's eyes were only opened halfway, but he accepted the fact that I had crept into his dormitory. He lifted a hand in a lazy sign of greeting.

I lifted a finger to my lips, telling him to be quiet. This got his attention since he finally say up in his bed and nodded at me, eyeing James's Invisibility Cloak, which I held in my hands. I threw it around my body, leaving only my head visible.

Without even being able to see where my feet were, I slowly crept towards James's bed. I stumbled only once while Peter gasped, but I quickly shushed him and shot him an exasperated look that told him I was fine.

My face broke into a grin as I knelt down beside James's bed. In his sleep, he let out a light snore and ran his hand through his hair—even while asleep, the boy had the same habits as always.

Suddenly, I let out an extremely loud scream—it wasn't high-pitched, but instead quite deep, sounding more like a roar.

James's eyes shot open and he was soon screaming too as he looked at my floating head. This caused Sirius and Remus to wake up screaming as well. Even Peter, for some reason, let out a startled yell. While they yelled their heads off, I laughed hard.

Once they had gotten over the initial shock, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, panting, got up from their beds and glared at me.

I tried to say something, but all I could do was continue laughing at how scared they had been and at the looks on their faces. I dropped the Cloak from around me, allowing my body to reappear. Then I fell to the floor, unable to suppress my laughter.

"Peter... why... did you... scream?" I panted, clutching my stomach before doubling over again. "You knew I was going to do that—you saw me!"

"I know, I know! I just wasn't expecting it," he mumbled, turning red and hiding behind Remus, who patted him on the head. "You're scary," he added in a small voice.

"HA! I know, it's great! I'm absolutely terrifying," I chuckled, grinning widely. "You should've seen your faces, oh Merlin!"

"OK, Bianca, it really isn't that funny," Sirius huffed, crossing his arms.

"I wasn't even sc—" James started.

I began to argue with him while Peter grabbed the Invisibility Cloak from the floor and hid under it in embarrassment, but we were all interrupted by a knocking on the door.

"What's all that noise?" Lily's voice demanded.

The Marauders and I shared panicked looks as Peter threw the Invisibility Cloak off of himself and handed it over to James.

"Don't come in!" James called abruptly to Lily. "Er... Remus is naked!"

That made Lily go quiet for a moment, but only caused Remus to punch him in the arm and me to give him an exasperated glare.

"Really? Why would you tell her that? I'm in here with you, she's going to think I'm seeing you all naked!" I whispered, waving my arms around.

"What?!" James hissed at us through clenched teeth. "I panicked!"

James shoved the Invisibility Cloak under his bed, then ran forward, tripping over the clothes on the floor. "Padfoot, I can't see... Where are my glasses?"

Sirius picked a pair of glasses off of the nightstand next to his best friend's bed and crammed the glasses onto James's face. The bespectacled boy then surged forward once again to open the door for Lily.

Lily had the most stern expression on her face—a facial expression worthy of Professor McGonagall. The prefect badge was pinned to her shirt even though it was completely unnecessary for her to wear it at this time of morning.

"Yes?" James asked sweetly, allowing the door to open all the way, permitting Lily to enter. "Have you come to our door to join us in Hogsmeade, or simply because you were hoping to see my face?"

"Neither, Potter," she snapped. "The Head Girl simply sent me to see what all this ruckus was. Keep it down, would you? Some people are still trying to sleep."

He sniggered, leaning his arm against the doorframe. "My sincerest apologies Lily-Flower. I'm sure when you came here, you were surely not hoping to see Remus naked and perhaps hoping it would be me instead."

Lily placed a hand on her hip. "You wish," she scoffed. Then she peered into the room and her eyes landed on me. She smirked and said sarcastically to James, "Great excuse, by the way. I'm sure she sees all of you naked."

I turned bright red and smacked myself in the forehead with my hand.

"Well it's true," said Sirius.

"What? No it's not!" I yelled.

"I know," he chortled.

"So what if she does?" James lied, raising his eyebrows in a challenging way. "Some people appreciate the fineness of my body—" He was interrupted by me as I used a spell on him. Suddenly, he was suspended in the air, hanging upside down by his ankle. "Hey! Let me down!"

Lily snorted and attempted to pass it off as a cough. She turned to leave, but stopped and walked back into the room, directing her words at James, who was flailing around wildly, trying to be let down. "Nice outfit, Potter."

James looked at his pyjamas, which were burgundy and had little gold Snitches all over them. When he looked up, she had left. Face flushed as the blood rushed to his head, he called after her, "Y'know, they're actually very good quality and they keep me quite warm during the colder months!"

"Poof, there she goes... running away from James Potter... yet again," I said.

"Shut up, Muzzlemane," he retorted hastily.

"You shut u—wait, what?" I demanded, whirling around to face him.

James swore as Sirius, Remus and Peter stared back at their friend with wide eyes.

I stared at James blankly, blinking at him a few times.

"What did you just call me?" I demanded, rounding on James.

"What? WHAT? I didn't call you anything! Psh... you must be hearing things, Bianca... Oof, I think the mind's going a bit too soon," James said. "Better watch it or you'll be turning into a crazy Divination lady, just like that Trelawney from last year. Hey, Wormtail, mate, let me down please."

Peter picked up his wand and let James down. James fell flat on his face and then began groping for his glasses, which had slipped from his nose while he had been suspended in midair.

I glared at James as he stood up from the floor; then I turned on Sirius. "What did he call me, Sirius?"

"How would I know?" he exclaimed a little too loudly. "You know James... He doesn't know half the things he's saying! The man just says whatever pops into his head and most it of doesn't have any real significance at all."

I growled. "What did he call me, Remus? Peter?" I raised my eyebrows.

Remus and Peter looked at each other.

"Muzzlemane...?" said Peter tentatively.

"Oh, OK, so I wasn't actually hearing wrong," I said, crossing my arms. "What, may I ask, is that? And why did he call me that?"

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter exchanged mischievous grins—the same grins they each had on their faces when they were planning or executing a brilliant prank.

"If we tell you, you'll have to promise not to kill us in any way, shape or form," said James. "That includes physical violence and any type of magic whatsoever."

"Er... OK," I said hesitantly.

"Maybe we shouldn't tell her..." said Sirius.

"Yeah, after that little morning scare, I'm kind of afraid of her," said Peter quietly to the other three boys.

"Oh, for God's sake, if you don't tell me, that'll be when I kill you!"

"Fine," Remus sighed. "We've... sort of been calling you Muzzlemane behind your back... for the past couple of weeks."

"Weeks?" I said, raising my eyebrows even higher.

"Yup?" said Remus.

"Just to let you know, none of us liked any of our nicknames at first," James assured me. "But... what do you think?"