All the Young Dudes ( Sirius' Perspective )

Seventh Year : Undercover

Friday 9th September 1977

“I swear, Potter,” Sirius said, shaking his head, “You’re worse than a girl.”

They were walking back to Gryffindor Tower from the quidditch pitch, where they’d just spent the afternoon out flying—it was an off day from practice, but James would take any excuse to jump on his broom, and Sirius couldn’t say no to the opportunity to fly a few laps when the pitch was so rarely unoccupied. It had been a lovely afternoon, up until James decided that he needed to expound in great detail upon his plans to take Lily out for their first official date on the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend. By the time they got back to Gryffindor Tower, Sirius was bored nearly to tears.

“Oi!” James shoved him, playfully, “It’s not my fault that I’m a romantic at heart. You might want to give it a try sometime, maybe then your girlfriends would all stop breaking up with you.”

“Low blow, Potter,” Sirius laughed, “And I’ll have you know that I was the one who broke up with Emmeline. Not the other way around, despite what she’d have you believe.”

“Mmm, and how long did it take you to remove the curse that she put on you afterwards? One week…two…?”

“Oh, sod off.”

They stepped through the portrait hole, and were greeted by the sight of Remus, muttering over a table that was completely covered by open textbooks.

“It’s fine. It’ll all be fine once we get the study group up and running again…”

“Talking to yourself, Moony?” James asked, grinning as they approached. Sirius scanned the desk—there were a few additional textbooks hovering above it, held up with levitation charms.

“Merlin’s wrinkly ballsack,” he gaped, shaking his head, “You can’t have this much homework after the first week?!”

“I’m reading around my subject.” Remus huffed, snippily.

Suddenly, a mousy blond head poked out from under the desk.

“Here you are, Remus,” said Christopher, holding up a pencil. Sirius frowned.

“Cheers!” Remus smiled absentmindedly, plucking the pencil from the smaller boy’s fingers and beginning immediately to scribble on his parchment.

“Oh, hello Black,” Christopher said, swallowing and ducking his head when he caught sight of Sirius. Remus paused his writing to glance between the two of them.

“Hello.” Sirius sniffed, dismissively, before turning back to Remus. “Study group, is it?”

“No, just ordinary studying today,” Remus said, looking back at his parchment, “But I was just saying we ought to set up a meeting soon – if people still want to do it.”

“Of course they will!” Christopher gushed, “You got half of us through our OWLs last year.”

Sirius felt a prickling twist of irritation at the soppy, adoring way in which Christopher looked at Remus. Clearly, not all parties involved had received the memo that they were ‘just friends.’

“Yeah,” Sirius said, slowly, “Yeah, I might join this year. What’dyou think, Prongs?”

James had already gotten comfortable on the sofa, where he was lovingly polishing his broom. He looked up upon hearing his name, protesting,