November 5th, 1976

     "If I happen to get grievously injured because of a troll rampaging through Hogwarts, d'you think I'd get out of end of term exams?" Peter Pettigrew asked, dropping his quill on the parchment in front of him.

     His forehead hit the wooden desk he was sitting at with a thunk.

     Sirius and James snorted in unison. "You're shit out of luck, I think," James said, attempting to be sympathetic. The effect was diminished by his motion of tossing a balled up piece of parchment at Remus, who was bent over his own essay in concentration.

     "Just because you two don't need to study to get O's doesn't mean that the rest of us can skive off our homework," Remus Lupin huffed, pinching the parchment between his index and middle fingers and flicking it off of his lap.

     He was a bit more snappish than usual, but James, Sirius, and Peter all knew why. Sirius flashed Remus a sympathetic smile, face smoothing itself out after a few moments.

     "Lily?" Nikki raised an eyebrow at the other redhead. "Whatever Muggle puzzle you have a stash of, James and Sirius need to be distracted or I swear I will physically throw them out of the Gryffindor tower window."

     "Well then," Sirius grinned innocently. "I see where we stand with you. Honestly, hurts a little."

     Lily Evans let loose a long, drawn-out sigh. "You need to find a better way to occupy yourselves besides crosswords."

     She handed James and Sirius the crossword, duplicating the paper so that they could each work on their own copy.

     "Three..."

     Sirius continued the countdown, "two..."

     "One..."

     "Go!" They exclaimed in unison, flipping the crosswords over and busily beginning to read the clues.

     "You, Lily Evans, are a miracle worker," Nikki laughed softly as she trailed her finger across the page of her Transfiguration textbook, trying to find part of the text to add into her essay.

     Remus added, a melancholic tone that contrasted sharply with the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, "Now if only you could keep them occupied during Potions so there's no more cauldron explosions..."

     The four friends sniggered to themselves, two dark-haired young men not hearing a word due to their laser-sharp focus on the puzzles in front of their faces.

     "...Merlin!" Peter yelped, jumping up from his chair. "We're going to be late for DADA!"

     It was organized chaos. Nikki gathered their books and, with a flick of her wand, sent them floating back to their respective places on the bookshelves of the Hogwarts library.

     Lily collected their rolls of parchment, putting them in her satchel. She'd distribute them to their writers later. For now, though, they would have to haul arse.

     Remus poked James in the side and ruffled Sirius' hair. "We're gonna be late."

     "What's an eight-letter word for an atmospheric pressure unit?" Sirius pondered, scratching between his eyebrows with the end of his quill. "And Moony — I bite. Don't fuck with my hair."

     Remus snapped his teeth dramatically at the retort.

     "We're going to be late if you two arses don't start moving!" Nikki groaned.

     James made a show of counting out the boxes with his finger, mouthing each letter as he counted.

     "No, don't think that fits."

     Lily rolled her eyes. "A millibar. Now let's go!"

     The six Gryffindor sixth years made it to DADA with a minute to spare, huffing and puffing as Nikki pushed flyaway strands of her fiery ginger hair away from her sweaty forehead.

     "See, we made it," Sirius said, half of his hair pulled away from his face and looped into a top knot. His wand held the strands of inky black hair as dark as his last name off of his sharp, angular cheekbones. "Nothing to stress about, you three swots."

     "Boggarts," their professor exclaimed, clapping her hands together. Professor Brennan had light blonde hair that had just begun to grey, and she was always seen in a shade of blue.

     Professor Brennan continued her introduction to boggarts, hair pulled back in a simple ponytail. "Dark, enclosed areas are a boggart's best friend — they're not picky."

     "Sounds like my former mother..." Sirius mumbled under his breath to James. His eyes widened as a traumatizing mental image hit him. "Wait a minute, can someone be part boggart? Because damn I never knew Grandfather Pollux and Grandmother Irma were that kinky..."

     James snickered, muttering back, "Which one of them's the boggart?"

     "James, I really, really don't want to know," Sirius snorted. "But if I had to wager a guess, I'd say Granny Irmy. She's a Crabbe, after all; Merlin knows the whole family aren't the brightest wands on the shelf."

     It was too much for the Potter heir, his face contorting as he attempted to hold back his laughter.

     Remus stepped down onto his foot. Hard.

     "Bloody hell!" James squeaked, eyes watering from the pain of the solidly built six foot two young man coming down solely onto his poor trainer. He swore he could hear bones in his foot cracking.

     "Pay attention and stop talking about the sex lives of the Black family!"

     Nikki covered her mouth with her hand, trying not to laugh. "I'm assuming you never expected to say that sentence, Remus?"

     "Exactly, though I should have known better in hindsight. It's James Fleamont Potter and Sirius Orion Black."

     "Put my initials together and it spells out S.O.B!"

     "Mr. Potter? Mr. Black? Is there anything you'd like to share with the class?" Professor Brennan raised a singular eyebrow.

     James smiled innocently, dialing the charm up to eleven. He shrugged his shoulders, lanky body moving slightly ungracefully in the process. "Just how Sirius' initials are very fitting."

     "S.O.B!" Sirius chirped, a slow smirk stretching across his face. "Describes my life fairly well, actually."

     Peter broke, bursting into laughter even as he attempted to muffle it. Lily shook her head affectionately.

     Hey, she had to look out for the co-founder of the Hogwarts Society for Witches and Wizards with Hair as Beautiful as Life Itself club. It started due to the singular purpose of having a club without James Potter being invited, but they had slowly formed a solid friendship ever since a night in the Gryffindor common room with a letter, a lighter, and the fire in front of them.

     Sure, Lily could have just burned the letter from Petunia by chucking it into the fire, but Sirius had offhandedly said that being able to light it on fire yourself and watch it burn then tossing it into the flames was more satisfying than relying on the fire.

     And he was right.

     In all honesty, she really should have called it, that he would have been right about how to burn things from family members that... aren't the greatest. Walburga Black's Howlers were legendary throughout Hogwarts.

     The professor just shook her head, not wanting to get into the veritable minefield that was Walburga Irma Black.

     "Could anyone tell me what a boggart is?"

     Nikki, Lily, and Remus' hands rose into the air.

     "Swots..." Sirius sing-songed, voice carrying as if a whisper on the wind to his three friends.

     Sirius Black made friends easily. Keeping them, however, was more of the hard part. Especially before he ran away from the Black Family ancestral home the summer prior, the summer in between his fifth and sixth years at Hogwarts.

     He partially understood, though. He didn't want to be associated with Walburga and Orion Black, either.

     But unfortunately, he was tied to them in a way that even disownment couldn't break. After all, being disowned didn't change your... what did Lily call them? Genetics?

     "Ms. Granger?"

     Nikki flashed a teasing, smug smile at Lily and Remus over getting called over them.

     "A boggart is a creature that changes form into the greatest fear of whoever faces it," Nikki answered. "Nobody knows what a boggart looks like in its natural form."

    "10 points to Gryffindor. The charm to repel a boggart is riddikulus. Say it with me, everybody. Riddikulus."

     The sixteen year olds - and some seventeen year olds - repeated the incantation, Sirius pulling his wand out from its spot holding his hair off of his neck.

     "Boggarts are defeated through a combination of the repulsion charm and funny memories. Use laughter to defeat it."

     "Ten galleons says James' boggart is Evans and Snivellus making passionate love," Sirius joked in an undertone to Remus, who merely shuddered at the mental image.

     The line of the sixth year students formed slowly, a straggly line that weaved between the desks.

     Student after student faced their worst fear, banishing it into a humorous form.

     Sirius was the first of the six friends to confront the boggart. He took a long, deep breath, wand held tightly in his hand.

     He stepped forwards.

     With a crack, the boggart seamlessly shifted into three different people, all with the same dark hair and grey eyes.

     "Bloody fuck me," Sirius mumbled to himself, nose wrinkling slightly. 'Now just to wait for the other shoe to drop...'

     The youngest person looked nearly identical to Sirius, except for the slightest differences. Nikki, at first glance, thought it was Sirius.

     Except, he was slightly shorter than the sixth-year Gryffindor. Green and silver striped tie. Head raised tall and proud.

     And... currently getting a snake and skull patterned tattoo on his left forearm from his mother.

     Sirius swore lowly under his breath. He took in a shuddering breath, as much as he tried to hide it.

     Setting his jaw, he raised his chin steadily, defiantly.

     "Riddikulus."

     It was a monotone, a singular word said in as flat of a voice as he could muster.

     He turned on his heel and strode towards the group of students who had already beat their boggarts, leaning against the wall in a feigned devil-may-care attitude. He twirled his wand in between his fingers, spinning it around his knuckles.

     "Dammit Sirius," James frowned, hazel eyes drawn to his brother in all but blood as Peter stepped up to face his boggart. "You can't bottle everything up..."

     "...I'm assuming that was his brother? Or cousin?" Nikki whispered.

     Something wasn't right. James never called Sirius by his name. He was either Padfoot or Pads, except when he needed to be serious.

     Sirius usually joked that he was "always Sirius."

     It was regularly met with loud groans.

     "Regulus," James muttered back, chewing on his lower lip. "Fourth year Slytherin. They say that there's no love-filled relationship between them, but I think it's a load of dragon shit."

     He studied his best friend's posture, careful not to let the elder Black brother notice. "They yell at each other in French. I'm not sure exactly what they're saying, but it doesn't exactly sound like they're fighting."

     Nikki pursed her lips softly. "...Merlin, I really despise the Black family."

     James snorted, throwing his arm around her shoulders casually. His love language was touch, could you blame him? "You're not alone there. Hell, I think everyone but the Black family hates them."

     Remus bit down on his lower lip, worrying it between his teeth as he stepped forward. His back was taut as if he was ready to fight whatever the boggart turned into from the block of cheese it had previously been.

     He had an inkling of what he would see from his boggart, and he really wished he could actually fight it.

     His wand was clenched in his right hand, knuckles stained a bone white from the force in which he was clutching the wooden stick.

     The boggart shifted from the cheddar block into...

     Nikki's eyebrows furrowed.

     'The full moon? Why the bloody hell would Remus Lupin's boggart be the moon?'

     Her eyes widened as the realization hit her with all the force of a rampaging herd of centaurs.

     Remus John Lupin was a werewolf.

     James' arm slowly slipped off her shoulders as he tilted his head at her, one eyebrow raised.

     "Calm yourself, Jamesie, I'm not going to tell," Nikki said in an undertone, grinning slightly at the way the taller young man's face contorted into a grimace at the innocent nickname. "This gives me more book recommendations for him."

     She swore to herself as she realized she was next. Who doesn't want to find out what their greatest fear was?

     Sounds like a joy.

     Nikki rolled her wrist out, wand up and pointed at the boggart carefully.

     She flinched imperceptibly as it turned into the entire Weasley family dead on the floor, eyes glassy and wands mere inches away from their limp hands.

     She inhaled sharply. "Riddikulus!"

     A snap echoed through the room as the boggart transformed into fireworks that came from the pockets of the alive younger Weasley twins.

     Nikki smiled slightly as she headed over to the other side of the classroom.

     "You know Molly Prewett... well, Weasley now?" Sirius asked softly.

     Nikki scrambled for a lie. She couldn't exactly say that she was her daughter who had accidentally time traveled, now could she.

     "I'm one of Arthur Weasley's cousins... a while back there was a Squib," she landed on a sufficient excuse.

     Sirius nodded slowly, eyes fixated on James as the last Marauder took his turn with the boggart.

     Nikki expected the silence from the grey-eyed man. She did not expect him to continue speaking with her while not even looking at her.

     "Prongs wants me to talk about my feelings, yeah?" His voice dripped with sardonic laughter.

     Remus pinched the bridge of his nose. "We're worried about you, Sirius. And Merlin's bloody beard, could you please talk quieter?!"

     Sirius shot Remus a bewildered glance. "I was talking at a normal - oh."

     "...The full moon's tomorrow, isn't it?" Nikki said, as if it wasn't really a big deal.

     Sirius dropped the wand he had been spinning through his fingers, the wood clattering to the floor as his head snapped around to look at her.

     Peter froze, looking wide-eyed at Remus, who merely gave a resigned sigh even as he flinched backwards.

     "I'm not stupid, you know," the ginger-haired young woman stated, tone dry but quiet enough to not be overheard. "I think your Great-Aunt Bogdana has died twice by now - advice, find a different name. That poor imaginary woman, what did she do to you to be named Bogdana?"

     All three of the young men snorted, even though they tried to fight their knee-jerk reaction.

     "...And you're ser-honestly not going to tell anyone?" Remus broached the topic carefully, face pale.

     Nikki nodded. It was a simple response, but it was the truth. "Sworn to secrecy."

     James came up and leaned against the wall next to Sirius, a forced casual air about him. "Sooo, that was something."

     "Be just a tiny bit more obvious that you're talking about Reg...ulus." Sirius hadn't even realized he was going to call his brother by his childhood nickname until he nearly didn't finish his name. "I don't think bloody Voldemort himself understood what you meant."

     "Sirius," James sighed. "You have to-"

     Sirius rolled his eyes. "I don't have to do anything. Hell, he's always been a mummy's boy..."

     Peter shifted from foot to foot, unsure of what to say. James had always been the closest to Sirius, the one who could talk to him about anything without being at risk of getting hexed.

     Sirius put on a facade of being an over-energetic, extroverted young man who gave zero fucks of what anyone else thought about him.

     In the privacy of his own head, he mused that maybe he was overly energetic - with his emotionally charged hand gestures - because the rest of the arseholes he unfortunately was related to were so emotionless. He had to compensate.

     James knew the best and worst parts of Sirius Black; he knew what had occurred to force Sirius' hand the night he ran away from 12 Grimmauld Place.

     Well, he knew most of it.

     Sirius didn't want anyone to worry about him. For eleven years of his life, it had been him and Regulus against the world.

     Sirius and Regulus had each other's backs. They had to, in 12 Grimmauld, otherwise they never would have survived the suffocating pressure of being the perfect pureblood ponces their parents had yearned for them to be.

     James raised an eyebrow, running a hand through his bird's nest of tangled jet black hair. "You really should talk about it to someone. Honestly, Sirius, we all care for you! We love you; you're our brother!"

     "He's right," Peter piped in.

     Remus forced a smile through his aching bones. The full moon was the next night, though he was used to the constant aches and pains that followed him as the moon grew closer and closer to the full.

     "Who should I talk to?" Sirius scoffed, shaking his head. "Mother? I'm not going back to that bloody hellhole even if you paid me all the money in Gringotts."

     "I meant me," James sighed. It was Sirius' defense mechanism, jokes that were slightly too dark to be just a simple jest. "Or Remus. Lily. Peter. Nikki."

     "Lily does partially understand the concept of awful family members," Remus pointed out.

     Lily Evans strode over, fiery red locks pulled up into a messy bun at the top of her head. "What's this about Tuney?"

     "This lot thinks I need to talk about my fucking feelings."

     "Because you do!" James and Peter burst out in unison. Remus winced, rubbing at his overly-sensitive ears, as the bell rang, signaling the end of classes for the week.

     Sirius folded his arms against his chest, pushing himself up from the wall with his shoulder. "I don't need to talk about Regulus being forced into becoming a Death Eater."

     Without another word, Sirius marched out of the classroom, head held high to show no signs of emotion.

     The secondary Black Family Motto (after Toujours Pur, or "Always Pure"): "emotion is weakness."

     James, Lily, Nikki, Remus, and Peter stared at his retreating back.

     "Go after him, Nic," James said gently, hand resting on the ginger's shoulder. "I think you're the only one he'll listen to like this."

     "Me?!" Nikki exclaimed. "I've known him for only two months!"

     James shrugged. "I don't know. There's something about you, though. I can't put my finger on it, but something is drawing you two together."

     "That... was surprisingly eloquent," Lily noted. "And, Nikki dear, you're oblivious if you can't tell that Sirius has a soft spot for you."

     Remus swiftly elbowed James Potter in the stomach before he could give away the Animagi secret with a very 'subtle' "you mean deer" comment.

     Nikki frowned slightly, brown eyes the color of melted chocolate softening sympathetically. "...I'll try to talk to him. But I'm not sure how well it will go. Or if I can even break through to him."

     "Anything you can do is good," Peter advised. "It's Sirius; he's stubborn but loyal to those he calls his own. And you're becoming one of his own."

     "If she isn't already," Remus muttered under his breath to Lily Evans, who hid a grin.

     Nikki began to head off to where her first guess to find Sirius would be, ramming straight into someone's chest.

     "Ow," she mumbled, glancing up at the person she had hit.

     The silver eyes were identical copies of the ones she was looking for, although they were harder, more cautious.

     Ever since birth, Sirius Orion Black had been adventurous, flinging himself headlong into circumstances without thinking about the consequences.

     Regulus Arcturus Black, in contrast, was content to sit back and observe, silent as a mouse. He would rather be inconspicuous, unnoticed, than be the face of his House.

     In the back of his mind, he wasn't sure whether he was referring to his Hogwarts house or his family house.

     "I'm sorry," Nikki said, stepping back slightly to see him without having to crane her neck upwards.

     Regulus Black shook his head. "It wasn't your fault."

     His voice sounded properly aristocratic, words falling from his mouth like a knife gliding through butter.

     "...You're Regulus, right? Regulus Black?"

     Regulus tilted his head to the side, studying her. 'She looked familiar,' the younger Black brother noted, 'almost as if a brief glimpse of a family member long since burned off the Black Family Tapestry.'

     It was denoted by capital letters even in his own thoughts.

     "Yes...?"

     "Would you happen to know where your brother would be if he wanted to be alone?" Nikki asked, taking a shot in the dark.

     "What happened to Sirius?"

     "It's... a long story..." Nikki finished lamely, unsure really of what to say.

     Regulus frowned slightly, finger tapping his chin as he thought. "If I would wager a guess, he'd be in the Astronomy Tower. It will be dark in a half hour or so; as much as he hates to admit it, he likes looking at the stars."

     Nikki smiled slightly. "Thank you, Regulus."

     She headed off for the Astronomy Tower, climbing up the spiral staircase easily. By the time she had reached the top, night had already fallen, faint pinpricks of light shining in the inky black sky.

     "You're bound to be freezing," she noted dryly, sitting next to Sirius on the ledge of the Astronomy Tower.

     Their legs dangled in the air, the ground below them many meters away.

     Sirius snorted. "Not really."

     Being a dog Animagus had its benefits. Even in his human form it was hard for him to get cold.

     Almost out of the blue, he pointed up at the night sky before them. "That constellation there, that's Andromeda."

     Nikki squinted, tracing the stars with the tip of her finger. "What's the story behind it?"

     He snickered. "Really want to know?"

     She nodded.

     "Andromeda was a princess in Ancient Greece," Sirius began, leaning back onto his elbows as he looked up at the sky ahead of him. "Her mother decided to piss off Poseidon by saying that Andromeda was more beautiful than Poseidon's daughters - the Nereids - and then their kingdom started getting destroyed. The Greek gods are extremely proud; never say that you or any of your family members are better than them in any sense."

     His voice recounted the story as if it had been etched into his brain.

     "Her mother was going to sacrifice her own daughter to the sea monster Cetus to save the kingdom, but Perseus - the guy who beheaded Medusa - saved her from Cetus."

     He laughed, a hollow sounding laugh that bore no humor to it at all. "My cousin's name is Andromeda. Seven years older than me."

     Absentmindedly flicking a speck of dust off of his robes and letting it fall to the ground below, Sirius continued, "Ran away with a Muggleborn named Ted Tonks the summer before I started Hogwarts."

     He pulled his wand out of his pocket and mimed blasting something in the air that only he could see.

     "The ink on the marriage certificate probably hadn't dried yet before dear old Auntie Druella had blasted her off the family tree. Or, maybe she had Cissy do it. Sounds like the old hag, anyway."

     "Well, that's just a bit ironic, isn't it?" Nikki said, broaching the topic carefully.

     Sirius shrugged, almost as if he was picturing his mother in his mind and doing the action that would infuriate her the most. "We're named after stars. It was bound to happen someday."

     He turned his head slightly, looking at Nikki. "Do you know where the brightest star in the night sky is?"

     Nikki laughed lightly as she leaned onto her back as well. "Are you expecting me to point at you? Or do you actually want me to find the star?"

     Taking her hand in his, he lifted their intertwined hands to the sky, pointing at the Dog Star.

     "There it is," he said softly, grey eyes clouded by memories of his father and mother forcing him and his younger brother to recite the stars in the constellations. "Canis Major. Brightest star in the night sky. And Orion's bloody hunting dog."

     His face hardened at the mention of his father and the constellation he was named after. "It's ironic, really, that no matter what I do to distinguish myself from the rest of the Blacks, I'm still going to be interconnected with them. It's written in the bloody stars."

     Nikki squeezed his hand gently, glancing out of the corner of her eye to the young man next to her. "Haven't you always thought that Divination was a load of dragon dung? Just because there's a myth about Orion the Hunter and the Canis Major constellations doesn't mean that you're inevitably tied to Orion the person."

     "...James sent you after me, didn't he?" Sirius questioned out of the blue, eyes still focused on the stars that represented his family tree.

     "I mean, he said that when you're in a mood either him or I can talk to you without getting hexed," Nikki admitted carefully. "And he also implied that you have a soft spot for me."

     Sirius dramatically collapsed to the floor of the Astronomy Tower, elbow sliding down to fuel the dramatics. "Betrayal! Betrayal to the highest degree!"

     She snorted. "Seriously, would you like to talk?"

     "I thought we already were," Sirius deflected easily. It was one of the only things he had used after his last summer at 12 Grimmauld Place, his ability to deflect and deny things that got a little too close to the truth for comfort. "And it's Sirius Orion, not Sirius Lee."

     "You're insufferable," she teased, knocking his foot with her own. "I'm trying to be a good friend here."

     Both brushed off the identical twinges of sorrow at the word friend.

     'Fuck it,' Sirius thought to himself, twisting his body so that he was leaning on his side facing Nikki. 'I'm a bloody Gryffindor for a reason.'

     "This is probably the absolute worst time for this, given that you're trying to get me to talk about how I felt seeing my harpy of a mother tie my baby brother to a racist arse," Sirius rambled, trying to think of the right words but coming up utterly blank. "But I like you. And I would really love to go to Hogsmeade with you whatever weekend is next."

     Nikki blinked, not expecting anything to that effect to come out of Sirius' mouth in that moment. Although, maybe it explained why Remus and Lily had cat-that-caught-the-canary grins on their faces as she left to find the other Gryffindor.

     "Sounds like a date," she said cheerfully, turning herself to face him. "Now come on, I'm freezing my arse off here."

     Sirius tilted his head to the side, thinking. "Promise to not freak out?"

     Nikki arched her eyebrow skeptically. "Normally when people tell me not to freak out, it's because I have a valid reason to freak out. But I'll try."

     Sirius pulled his legs up so that they weren't dangling over the ledge of the floor they were sitting on. He smirked roguishly, a mischievous glimmer in his silver eyes.

     "Since you already know about Moony's furry little problem... you should know what my nickname, Padfoot, means," he said, shifting seamlessly into a large black dog.

     Nikki's mouth dropped open.

     The dog - Sirius - pranced playfully around her, giving Nikki the impression that he was pleased with the effect he had had upon her.

     "Merlin's bloody beard," she cursed, "You're an Animagus?! At seventeen?"

     "Fifteen, actually," Sirius casually replied, eyes widened to give the impression of innocence. "Anything for our Moony. Also, it's why I normally am not cold. Something with the transformation and all; Pete's obsessed with cheese. And bread."

     "Mouse or rat," Nikki guessed. "And James is a stag."

     "However did you know?" He joked, continuing, "the constant 'you mean DEER' puns? The antlers for Halloween?"

     She laughed, mostly at the way that James Fleamont Potter was not keeping it a secret at all. Honestly, he probably couldn't keep a secret if his life depended on it.

     "A little of both. Still, though, I'm going to become an icicle if we're out here much longer. I don't have a layer of fur to keep me warm."

     Sirius shrugged off his leather jacket as if it were second nature, carefully wrapping it around Nikki's shoulders.

     "Better?"

     "Are you a secret romantic?" She teased, putting her arms through the sleeves as she spoke. "Because that seemed like something out of Lils or Rem's Muggle romance novels."

     A faint smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. "I learned chivalry from my parents... some of their lessons were fucked up and utter shit, while others were partially useful." He looped his arm around her waist, gently pulling her into him as he spoke. "This was one of the partially useful ones."

     They walked back to the Gryffindor common room together, Sirius' arm remaining draped around her waist.

     "Soooooo?" James drawled out from where he was playing chess with Peter as the two stepped through the portrait hole. "Any melting of the many layers of steel Sirius Black has walled himself in?"

     Sirius flipped James off, rolling his eyes as he responded, "I have not walled myself in steel, as you so kindly put it."

     "And I'll take 'biggest loads of bullshit' for one thousand, Art," Lily snickered to herself, Remus snorting as he overheard her mentioning the host of the American game show Jeopardy!.

     "Who's Art?" Marlene McKinnon, a seventh year Gryffindor who had practically adopted Lily as her younger sister, asked from where she was sprawled upside down on a red velvet plush couch, golden blonde hair spread across the cushion like a halo. "And -"

     She cut off in the middle of her sentence, pointing her finger at Sirius and Nikki as her bright blue eyes widened comically.

     "YOU FINALLY ASKED HER?!"

     The yell prompted a reaction from James, Lily, Remus, and Peter that sounded as loud as a bomb going off in the middle of the common room.

     James reluctantly handed Peter ten galleons.

     "Prongs!" Sirius gasped dramatically. "You bet on me, you foul swine!"

     "I thought you'd kiss her first!" James groaned. "...Wait, did you?"

     Sirius dragged his palm down his face as he groaned, "Why are you my best mate, again?"

     "Because I'm James Fleamont Potter."

     James leapt over the chess board and over-dramatically pinched Sirius' cheeks. "Say that you love me! Come on, say it. I'll simply die if you don't!"

     Sirius huffed lightly, speaking through the hands pinching both of his cheeks. "And you lot say I'm the dramatic one... yes, James, I love you."

     James released Sirius, a smug smile on his face. "There we go! He admits it."

     "But actually," Lily quipped, "did you kiss? Remus and I have a bet on who kisses who."

     "Fuck me, Evans," Sirius groaned, flopping into an empty armchair. "Why do you lot care so much about my love life?"

     "Because you deserve the best," Remus said simply, as if it was common knowledge. "And if we're making bets, it means that we think you've found the best."

     "You deserve the world, Pads," James quietly told his brother in all but blood, "and the rest of the Marauders are dead set on getting you to believe that."

     'Oooh, maybe they could have a "Why Sirius Orion Black the Third Deserves The World" presentation night!' James thought to himself, smiling widely.

     Nikki asked, "Should I question why he looks like he's going mental?"

     "Going mental?" Peter laughed, "It's James Potter; he's always been mental."

     Sirius added, "This look either means I should run away as fast as my legs can take me or we're going to become immortalized in the legends of pranksters at Hogwarts."

     "Occasionally," Remus finished, "it means both. I've learned to tell the difference."

Word Count: 5,307