James, Moony, Peter and I had spent almost every day trying to figure out how to become Animagi but had no success. Peter even risked asking McGonagall.
No luck.
Flitwick leaked that there was a book in the library called "Animagi: Who, What and How?." It was in the Restricted Section, of course.
No luck.
James had also unsuccessfully been trying to get Lily to go out with him. He'd asked her out to Hogsmeade at least thirty times before she threatened to curse him into oblivion if he asked again. He'd moped for a whole day before brightening up in the Gryffindor common room.
"Hey! There she is!" Then James paused. "She'll curse me if I talk to her, though. Come with me, Moony?"
"Not a chance," said Remus over the top of his textbook.
"Git," muttered James, stalking away towards Lily.
"You know," snapped Remus, putting his book down and watching James. "Maybe he'd stand a chance if he stopped following her everywhere and asking her out. He can be so stupid sometimes."
"You tell him that, mate," I yawned, stretched, and propped my legs up on the table, knowing it would annoy Remus. "I'm bored. Why are you being so cranky, anyway? Too close to a full moon?"
As he always did when Remus's, um, condition was mentioned , Peter squeaked and jumped a mile, looking around for invisible eavesdroppers. "Oh! Sirius, don't!" he squealed.
Remus rolled his eyes at Peter and glared at me. "Shut up, Sirius, it's nothing to joke about." And then he laughed suddenly and pointed across the common room.
James had pretended to run up to Lily, feigning wheezes, clutching his sides. "Lily," he coughed theatrically. "Your dormitory was on fire!"
Lily looked alarmed and seemed to forget about her vow to curse James. "What? Are you serious?" She yelled.
James straightened. "No, I'm James!" he said, and cracked up. "Get it? I'm not Sirius!"
It took Lily a minute, but when she got it, she looked properly disgusted. "You're very lucky I left my wand in my trunk, Potter, otherwise you'd be vomiting slugs by now," she snapped. "Can you get out of my way now?"
She stalked past James and up the stairs, nose in the air. Moony, Pete, and I staggered up to James, roaring with laughter.
James stared after Lily, shaking his head. "One day she'll go out with me. I will make her go out with me, or die trying."
"Whoa, Potter," I laughed, slinging my arm around his shoulder. "It almost sounds like you're desperate, mate."
James shot me a look. "Can you talk to her for me, Moony?" he asked. "You're friends with her."
Remus sighed and scratched behind his ear. "I already have a couple times, mate," he admitted.
"You have? What'd she say?"
"I---uh," Remus winced. "Well, to be honest, she thinks you might be okay if you deflated your head and stopped stalking her. She can't understand why I'm such good friends with you, and to be frank, mate, she thinks you're quite arrogant."
James scowled. "Whatever," he muttered. "She'll change her mind."
"...sooner or later."
I opened my letter from my owl in the morning, read it, and groaned. No way.
"What happened?" James asked, talking around a spoon of cereal.
