Sirius lay on the bed, staring moodily up at the ceiling.

"You feeling better?" the door had creaked open very slightly and James had stepped through tentatively.

Sirius grunted.

"Really, the way you're acting, you'd rather think taking a bath was some sort of torturous punishment," James chided, closing the door behind him. He jabbed his hands in his pockets and raised an eyebrow. "A bit of a scrub never did anyone wrong - you're not Snivellus after all." The smirk that trembled over James's mouth lingered.

Sirius sat up suddenly. "You've not seriously come in here just to mock me for my - my flea dip, have you?"

James laughed. "Would it honestly surprise you if I had?"

Sirius eyed James in mock judgement before he could hold back no longer and let out a low, barking laugh. "Bugger me, Prongs."

"That's not my job, mate."

Sirius grinned wickedly.

James threw himself onto the bed wrongside up so that his feet rested on the headboard and his gangly figure stretched to the footboard. He folded his arms behind his head.

"Well, get on with it," Sirius demanded.

James said, "I've been thinking about your idea you had at lunch about this whole Veigler situation."

"Hm?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Throwing the mutt a bone, are you?"

"Not at all. I just think you're on to something with the werewolf thing. We know Moldyshorts is keen on building himself an army of them, of any one marginalized, really... Funny seeing as how prejudiced he is that they agree to go along with them..."

"Even faked, hypocritical acceptance is something precious to people who haven't been properly loved before," Sirius interjected.

James's eyes met Sirius's for a long moment, and he hoped that Sirius could see in them the assurance that he, James, properly loved Sirius. Whatever his dad and mum had been to him over the years, whatever the dark wizards had done to him... James hoped Sirius truly, deep-down in the dead of night knew he was loved.

Sirius's eyes closed and he smiled a moment, then opened them with a cockeyed smile that was complimentary to a dampened eye.

Yeah, James thought, he knows.

"My point is that it makes sense, what you said about the werewolves and the connections between Anne, Marjorie and Ned." James paused, chewing on the thought flickering in his mind.

Sirius nodded slowly, understanding. "It makes sense but with Ned gone the continued campaign doesn't. Like why take Marjorie if it wasn't to draw Ned to them?"

"Precisely."

"Who else would react to Marjorie being taken?" Sirius asked. Silence fell over them as they each considered the question.

Lily sat in her seat at Uni, lingering over putting up her quill and parchment as another student spoke with the professor. When the other student had left, Lily slung her bag onto her shoulder and approached the desk slowly. "Professor?"

Her professor, Mr. Laurie, a short, fat man with dark curly hair and perfectly round face, turned about to face her. In his abrupt turn, the magic he'd been conducting to clear off the board backfired and the eraser burst with the chalk dust, spraying it out in a cloud that exploded in his face. He had chalkdust on his glasses and when he took them off, round circles of skin was left exposed. He blew out, expelling dust from his lips.

"Miss Evans?" he asked.

"Oh I'm sorry I startled you!" Lily exclaimed. She waved her wand and produced a handkerchief that she handed to the stout man. "I do beg your pardon."

Professor Laurie took the cloth and wiped his face and glasses quickly - by no means getting all the dust, but enough that it was satisfactory for him to see, and he looked up at Lily. "What can I help you with, Miss Evans?"

"Love-magic," she said. "I desperately want to learn more about it. I just... I wanted to know if you might have anything for me on the topic that I might read?"

He drew a deep breath. "Magique Amore is very powerful, very under utilized, and, quite frankly, despised among many in the wizarding community."

"Despised?" Lily sounded surprised.

"Yes," the professor said. "Many consider it weak because the effects of the magique amore can take many, many years to come to full fruition... and often requires a sacrifice of untold worth from the caster."

"Sacrifice?" Lily furrowed her brow, "But that sounds like dark magic - I mean magic that is powered by love, not --"

"Yes," Professor Laurie nodded, "Yes but all powerful magic requires sacrifice. What differentiates magique amore from the dark arts is that the sacrifice is not given of others... but of the self."

The weight of the words hung between them and Lily felt it in her lungs, as though the words were cast in iron or lead. Professor Laurie's eyebrow rose slyly and a wicked smirk arose on his lips. "Not so keen to learn it now?"

Lily pressed her lips together, "I am." Her voice was full of determination.

Professor Laurie's smirk turned, broadening into a joyful smile, and there was a twinkle to his eyes as he chuckled, "Well then, I have several volumes for you to read." He turned and waved his wand, the chalkboard rolled hurriedly away and he ducked behind where it had been and with a flick of his wrist, his book shelves began to shuffle and rotate, each time displaying wildly different arrays of texts. It took several shelves worth before he paused and stepped closer, rubbing his fat chins with the palm of his non-wand hand, eyeing the spines. "Hmm... yes... and also..."

After several moments of muttering to himself, Professor Laurie turned to Lily with a stack of three very old, leather bound books. They looked as though they'd been bound at the dawn of time, the leather cracking in places and the pages yellowed and uneven along the edge. One book looked as if it may have even been water damaged and never quite repaired.

"You must hand copy these for yourself. Do not miss a single dot or tittle as you transcribe them," he said, putting them into Lily's arms. They weighed a great deal more than she had expected, and she felt her arms nearly give way beneath them. "When you've finished, bring these and your copies back to me. Do not skip. Make no errors." He paused, then turned back to the shelf. "Use this quill." He handed it to her.

"This quill?" Lily took it. It was a beautiful orange-red feather, thickly plumed, long and trailing. Besides it's beautiful appearance, there seemed nothing special about the quill.

Professor Laurie nodded. "And only that quill."

"Alright," Lily answered. "And then what?"

Professor Laurie's eyes were a bit sad, "Well, after that we'll talk more about magique amore's true power... if you still wish to study after what you learn from these."

Lily nodded slowly, "Alright. Thank you, sir."

Professor Laurie watched as she walked to the door.

"Miss Evans?" he called.

"Yes?" She turned to look back.

"When you change your mind... just... bring the books and quill back to me, please," Professor Laurie requested. "I once hand wrote those myself from my source as well, and... well, you'll soon understand how dearly precious they are to me, I expect."

Lily looked at the books and quill cradled in her arms. "I will, Professor. But I won't change my mind, either." She turned and ducked out the door.

Professor Laurie clucked his tongue and shook his head, "Ah but that is precisely what they all say when they first seek out the power of magique amore... yet I've yet to see another pass this first test." With that, he waved his wand and the shelves of books reordered themselves with a great roar of motion.

"My love. My wolf." Sirius slid over the back of the couch and into the cushion besides Remus. Remus hummed acknowledgement but was entrenched in his textbook, which lay sprawled across his lap. "My darling husband." Sirius laid his lead across Remus's book, staring up at him with wide puppy dog eyes.

Remus sighed, "I'm trying to get this lot done, Siri, it's due in the morning. Please just ten minutes more and we can go for a walk and play fetch or something then to get your energy out." He pushed Sirius off his book.

Sirius rolled over and sat up. Remus was already entrenched back into his book. Sirius glanced at James, who hovered in the door way to the kitchen. James shook his head and Sirius rejoined him, both of them ducking into the kitchen.

James said, "Oi, you needy mutt. Let him work for now."

Sirius's mouth twisted with displeasure but he nodded. "Alright." He lit up, "You want to go and take a spinner on the motorbike?"

"I can't, I haven't time," James glanced at his watch. "I'm supposed to meet Lily."

"Cheating on me with your other wife, are you?"

"She isn't my wife - yet," James said with a crooked grin.

"Hot date?"

"Something wedding related, I expect," James replied.

"Oh. So a boring date, then," Sirius said mimicking James's tone. Then he said in a loud, desperate voice, "You've got to get into the excitement of planning this thing, Prongsy! I'm telling you its positively delightful!"

James replied, "I've got enough planning with the house project already. That's rather much, actually. I'm quite alright with Evans doing the rest precisely how she wants it."

Sirius rolled his eyes, "Honestly - men."

James laughed.

"So if you don't want to go, tell her something's come up. Tell her it's a bloody bank holiday."

"She would tear me apart," James said, shaking his head, "No offense but you're not worth incurring the wrath of Lily Evans."

"Alright, well you go, and I'll waste away here with utter boredom."

"I'm sure you'll find something to get into," James chortled.

Sirius grinned, "I usually do."