We Very, Truly, Solemnly Swear That We Are Up To No Good

'Eh...You're choking me...'

''S'not my fault you can't fix your own tie.'

'What I don't get is why you're even wearing that thing.'

'Be-because I thought it would be proper. Isn't it, Moony?'

'Umm, yes. You look very, err, grown-up. Only I might not've gone with the bow tie...'

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'Over here, Peter!'

'What do I say?' he whispered. James gave him a small shove.

'Nothing. You just waltz up like you own the place and if she finds that attractive, go with it. If she looks like she thinks you're a lunatic, then you pull it off as a joke. Like you have a sense of humour.'

'O-okay,' Peter stammered. 'Where are you guys gonna be?'

'Where do you think?' Sirius said incredulously.

Peter thought. 'Zonko's?'

'Pssht. We outgrew that stuff ages ago. You know we manufacture our own products now.'

'But you haven't got the money for Honeyduke's,' Peter reasoned.

Sirius raised his eyebrow. 'Point being?'

'N-nothing. See you later.' And he walked off into the horizon of High Street. Something that would've made anyone look cool excepting Pettigrew.

Sirius faked a sniff. 'First date! My little 'Tail's grown up on me! Oh, whatever shall I do, Jamesy?!' He followed it up with a few comedic sobs on James's shoulder.

'You'll get your pansy crying face off of me, is what you'll do!' The two boys were soon rolling around and wrestling on the ground.

Can't we go out in public without appearing like hooligans for once?' Remus pleaded, looking very mature indeed, with his gloved hands resting inside his rumpled trouser pockets. They stopped and briefly considered the question. A few people were staring.

'Hmm. What do you think, Padfoot? Reckon we could give it a try?' Sirius turned to James.

'Oh, c'mon now, Prongs. I need time. Let me think for a sec...hmm...uhh...gosh...err...NOPE!' They both reached out and, careful not to tear his already threadbare jacket, pulled Remus onto the ground with them. Which would've hurt, except for the thirty-three centimetres of snow that acted as cushions. Cold, wet, cushions.

Luckily for them, Moony was a very forgiving person. He only threw fifteen snowballs aimed at their heads instead of the originally planned twenty. And that's each.

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'Hm, hm, hm-hmm-hm! You sure have entertaining friends, Peter.'

And you sure have a funny laugh. 'Yeah, I know.'

Peter and Rebekah were watching three boys scuffle around outside, occasionally throwing great wads of snow at each other. It was quite relaxing. The inside of Madame Puddifoot's (this name always reminded Peter of Sirius) was nice and warm and ice-free. The flavourful aromas from their coffees were soothing and the floating cherubs had stopped dropping red and pink heart-shaped confetti on them ten minutes ago. So far, it was going very, very well.

'Are you ready for the big match?' Rebekah asked excitedly.

Peter seemed confused. 'But Gryffindor isn't playing Slytherin until three weeks from now.' She laughed.

'Not Slytherin, silly. Hufflepuff! It's next Saturday!'

'Oh, oh, right. Yeah. I'm-I'm really looking forward to it.' He wasn't about to say anything out loud, but Hufflepuff wasn't exactly known to be the best Quidditch team around. The players were awfully courteous. Not that that's bad.

Peter checked his wristwatch. Only it wasn't working. Hogsmeade was too far away from Hogwarts for it to function off just the magic in the air.

'Something wrong?' Rebekah asked anxiously.

'Oh, no. I was just wondering how long someone can lie in a metre of snow before they freeze to death.'

She cocked her head to the side. 'What do you mean?'

'Well, it's...' Peter gestured to the winter scene outside the window. There were three dark, sunken-in snow angels, rapidly refilling with humongous snowflakes. Rebekah looked at him until his eyes widened and he flew out the door, knocking over his chair and a Ravenclaw fourth year named Dave in the process.

The Ravenclaw picked himself up and walked over to Rebekah at her table. 'Was this his or yours?' he asked, pointing to a flaky pastry with a red, fruity filling sitting on a plate.

'His,' she mumbled, brushing past and heading outside. He shrugged and stuffed it into his mouth. Struggling a bit, he swallowed.

'He owed me money anyway. Hold on...' Dave spotted a Slytherin trying to slink out of Puddifoot's undetected. 'So does that guy. OI! OI, THEO! GET OVER HERE!'

Once again, two Hogwarts students were flying out the door.

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'AHH! AHH! WHAt the?!'

'JAMES! ARE YOU ALRIGHT? ARE YOU ALIVE?!'

'Okay! Stop yelling! I'm fine...' James panted. Peter was crouching over a deep snow angel and so was his girlfriend. He glanced around. 'What's going on?'

'You must have been so tired from playing that you fell asleep when you lied down,' Rebekah explained.

James stiffened. 'We weren't "playing", thanks very much. It was, erm, training. Snow training.' She only giggled. 'Yeah, well, your socks don't match!' he shouted back.

'Of course they don't,' she replied, looking over a green Chrismas tree pattern on one ankle and a bright orange pumpkin on the other.

Meanwhile, Peter was jerking Sirius back and forth. 'Wake up! Don't die! Get up, now! Please?!' Sirius actually rolled over on his side and pulled up a blanket of ice, yawning.

'Apparently he's going to be okay,' Rebekah stated, bewildered. James glared at her.

'He's got an extremely cold house. And I mean that literally, as well. I've been there.' He kept glaring until he suddenly jumped and started off towards the last remaining snow angel. 'Moony! Come on, Remus. Get up.' He shook a body up out of the hole and gaped when he felt his skin. 'Aww, man. This is bad. WAKE UP! REMUS!' No response.

Peter ran over to their side. 'What's wrong with him?' They already knew though. Full moon was only earlier that week and he could still be suffering from a lowered immune system. He wouldn't be able to fight off the cold as well as they would. And his shabby clothes didn't help matters, either.

'Wha-what's all the fuss abou'?' Sirius asked groggily, stretching his arms out. He rubbed his eyes and dwelled on the strange scene before him. A second later, and he dashed over to the other boys. 'Bloody hell! What's wrong with him?!' James looked him in the eye. 'We've got to get him to the Hospital Wing.'

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One hour later...

'You scared us! We thought you just froze up and died or something!'

'Terribly sorry to disappoint.'

'Don't be like that. We were seriously worried about you.'

'Especially-'

'Don't even try that pun, Black, or I'll strangle you.'

'Hmmph. Like to see you try...'

'ANYWAY, thanks for saving me, I guess,' Remus said awkwardly. 'I just can't seem to stay away from this place, huh?' No one laughed, mainly because it was true.

Rebekah was still with them because she refused to leave until they knew for sure that Remus would be alright. She held something shiny out in her hand. Remus stared at the Muggle-born. 'Take it. It's a rosary. It feels like you should have it.' She dropped it in his palm and began walking out of the infirmary.

As soon as she was around the corner, Remus hurriedly placed it on the desk beside his bed. He hissed in pain as he massaged his hands. 'What is it? Frostbite?' Sirius asked.

Remus frowned. 'No. Silver.'

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'Wow. I didn't even know it could do that. Why didn't you tell us? We could've accidentally poisoned you for your birthday! Or Christmas!'

Remus had to chuckle at the complete sincerity in Padfoot's voice and on his face. 'Well, before, I hadn't told you about me yet. I guess it just slipped my mind when I did tell you.'

Remus was rubbing his newly bandaged hands together. He and Sirius were walking down a corridor to their Care of Magical Creatures class. Peter had dropped it because he was too frightened of most of the actual creatures that appeared in the lesson. (Namely Kneazles.) James had dropped it in favour of a Muggle Studies class.

When Sirius, enraged, found out and questioned him about this, James only said it was 'too hilarious, my friend. You have to try it. I bet you've no clue as to what a pair of rollerskates are. Wouldn't believe the ways Muggles find to harm themselves.' Sirius bought the excuse and asked if rollerskates were fish and why they had to come in twos. Not because he was stupid, but because he had never heard of them in his pure-blood house. Remus, however, knew it was so James could learn a bit more about Lily and perhaps understand her better. Once he was far enough into the course, Remus planned on introducing him to the wonder of music records and gramophones. He got the feeling James would love The Beatles.

Remus held the door open for Sirius and followed him out to an area beside the Dark Forest. There was no telling why there were so many small, twittering blue birds swarming the skies when it was so cold out. The Whomping Willow helpfully Whomped one out of the air, annoyed. The falling feathers all around it make it look mad, if that's possible, Remus thought. Mad. Which reminded him...

'Sirius? What did James say he wanted to meet us about later?'

'Hmm. Don't recall. Sure it'll be interesting though,' he grinned. 'You know James. Probably about the plan.' He then pointed a pink finger ahead. 'What on earth is that? Our lesson? Wish it'd decide whether it's a bird or a horse. It's making my eyes hurt.'

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'Are we ready, men?'

'Yessir, Mr Sir!'

'I said are we ready?!'

'YESSIR, MR SIR!'

'That's better. Now. What's the plan?' James was fairly experienced at giving orders, seeing as he was Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. A Muggle-born once suggested that he make the players do laps around the field to keep them in shape. It didn't work too well. Mainly because they had all owned flying broomsticks.

'SIR! I TOLD YOU FIVE MINUTES AGO, SIR! BUT YOU'RE THE BOSS SO I'LL REPEAT IT FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME AGAIN, SIR!' Sirius shouted in salute. He went on to scream the plan for that night, (which really isn't wise if you want something to stay secret) but Peter wasn't listening. He was staring out into who knows where, his eyes ploughing through anything solid. Remus himself was watching him carefully. He had begun to worry about him lately.

Peter had always been a bit...out of the group, but nowadays he was especially distant. He seemed to have a little more backbone, which was great. Remus supposed it came with having a girlfriend. Having someone to protect. But other times he seemed just plain lonely. Remus tried to remember to include Peter in on more things. This was difficult though, because there wasn't anything that really stood out of Peter; an activity that required his skill or knowledge.

He tried asking him to accompany him to the library to study, but Peter soon became thoroughly bored and blew a fountain pen of Remus's back and forth on the table for the entire session. He knew what Peter really longed to do was get in trouble. And look cool doing it. The way James and Sirius always managed to do. That was why he often could be seen tagging along and cheering them on. Remus thought this made him look like a rather sad caricature of a lost puppy willing to be loyal to any stranger that passed by. Oh, well, he sighed.

'-AND THEN WE SNEAK BACK OUT AND LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER! THE END, SIR!' Sirius finished at the top of his lungs. He let his hand drop.

'Alright. Good enough, I suppose. You two get that?' James looked expectantly at Peter and Remus.

They threw up their arms and lied in unison, 'YES, SIR!'

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