Strip

The six of them were all sitting around at a table in a deserted classroom, playing strip poker. There was a single candle floating above their heads in the middle of the table that they had added for the odd shadows it cast and for effect. James looked up at the his five closest friends, all sitting around the table. Remus, with an extremely tired look on his face, Sirius with that eager, yet otherwise impassive face he always wore when about to be dealt a hand, Venus with her silvery hair, Tarah with her straight black hair, and Lily with her bright red hair and green eyes. James' eyes seemed to linger imperceptibly upon her pale skin for just a moment before turning back to the cards.

"Where's Peter tonight?" asked Lily, though she didn't seem to care all that much.

"Probably filching the kitchens," replied James, not looking up.

"Like usual," put in Sirius.

Nobody said a word for a few moments as James dealt out the cards. Then Venus looked up and put down a card. No communication was necessary, as they all seemed to play this so often. Then she spoke up.

"So, Remus. Where were you yesterday night? We had to get Peter to play in your place."

"Stupid git," muttered James. "Doesn't even know how to play. He looked at his cards the first time and said ‘go fish'."

"We wasted an hour just teaching him how to play." Sirius looked up at everyone and then back at his cards, never revealing his emotions.

"But where were you, Remus? Don't avoid the question," Venus said, staring at him.

"I was sick," he said without missing a beat.

"You must have one terrible immune system, Remus. You're out every month. Unless you're not telling us something." Venus looked him up and down, scrutinizing him. "There is something else, isn't there? You're gone at regular intervals every month. Why don't you just tell us? I wonder if-Oh my God! Remus-," her eyes widened in horror. He looked up at her dawning of realization, paled, and stared down at his lap.

"So you've figured it out," he said quietly.

"Remus? Why didn't you ever tell us? We could have helped you! So you're a little different? So what? You're just like us, aren't you?" Her eyes were bright as she looked at him, though he seemed a bit lost.

"Um...what?"

"You're a girl!"

Remus' head snapped up and he choked; Sirius and James doubled over from laughing.

"That explains your monthly disappearances, though even mine aren't that bad. Oh, Remus. Why didn't you tell us?" she said again. Her face fell; everyone except for Remus knew she had a crush on him. But at the moment, ‘everyone' wasn't there to be looking at her. Every single person was gone from the table except for Venus; they were all rolling around on the ground laughing.

Remus finally stopped laughing long enough to pop up and pant out, "nope, that's not it. Try again next month?" And then he was consumed by laughter again. Venus just sat there for a few moments, waiting for everyone to resume play while all the while concentrating hard on the tabletop. She seemed to be forcing herself not to laugh in the slightest. After a while, she relented and let out the tiniest giggle.

"All right, all right. I was a bit off. I'm sorry. Now hurry up. We come here to play. Not to giggle like schoolchildren." Sirius raised an eyebrow at her as he climbed back into his chair.

"We are schoolchildren."

"You know what I mean, Black." They played in silence for a few moments as one after the other folded. Finally all that were left were James and Lily. They went on betting for a few moments, saying little, before revealing their cards.

"Flush," said James with a small smirk.

"Straight," said Lily with a bigger one. "Take it off."

"What goes?"

Lily looked around at the other girls with a questioning look. "Boxers or briefs? Or should the shirt go?"

"The shirt first," said Tarah. "Then we'll see."

"All right. You heard her. Off comes the shirt." James mock grimaced and got up, taking his shirt off in the process.

"Yeah! Take it off!" called Sirius, half-sarcastic upon seeing the girls' faces. James shot him a look and handed his shirt to Lily, revealing his well formed chest from Quidditch. She looked at his shirt, folded it neatly, and laid it down next to her while James dealt again, grumbling about teenage girls. He looked up and caught Lily's eye and smiled against his will. She smiled back and he gasped and looked quickly back to his cards.

"So...newest gossip," started Tarah. The guys rolled their eyes. She flatly ignored them.

"I heard that Bartemius Crouch has a new girlfriend."

"No way. But I think that Anna MacDonald has a new boyfriend. That Longbottom boy, I think."

"Yeah, right. And James is in love with Lily," said Remus with an innocent look on his face. James looked up.

"No, it's true," said Venus indignantly.

"Oh, I believe you."

"But you just said that...," she trailed off. "OH MY BOB!"

"Oh my Bob?" asked Sirius.

"Shutup. Wait if you believe me and you don't lie then that means," she looked at Lily, "he does too!"

"No he doesn't," replied Lily, almost indignantly.

"Yes, of course. And we have to-"

"You can't!"

"But I have to. You know that I can't keep secrets."

"Please. It was a lie and-"

"No. We could set you-"

"No, we'll do it at our own pace-"

"You'll never do it at this pace-" Lily flushed.

James looked at Remus. "I am going to flat out kill you for that."

"Somebody had to tell her sometime. I was getting sick of averting from it."

Sirius was still watching the girls' conversation with interest.

"So...," he said to the other guys and Tarah. "Does anybody have any idea what they're talking about?"

"Of course," said Tarah matter-of-factly. "It‘s so obvious." And she joined in too.

The guys sat there staring for quite a while, trying to decipher the conversation, and not doing much else. After a while, Lily turned to them and saw their stares.

"What?"

"I thought we were playing poker," answered James.

"We were. And now we're not."

"Oh, come on."

"All right, all right. Don't nag."

"Is it true?" asked Venus when she turned back to the others.

"Is what true?" asked Sirius, who was either not paying attention in the slightest or was still completely lost. Venus rolled her eyes and directed the next question to James.

"So? Is it?"

"Um...hey...would you look at the cards! I fold." He laid down his cards.

"I bet you two will be snogging before we get back to the Common Room," said Tarah, not getting the subtle message to drop it. Both James and Lily glared at her, until she quelled under their gaze of daggers.

Slowly they went around the table and then all that were left were Sirius and Lily. Sirius won soon enough and, as all the guys seemed to ban together, as did the girls, he smiled smugly and said, "a shirt for a shirt, Lily." James reached out and smacked him on the back of his head. Sirius just grinned and nudged James and whispered, "you know you want it." This earned him another smack from James as Lily glared, took off her shirt (yes...she is wearing a bra or something like that), folded it, and handed it over to Sirius.

The next hand was soon dealt, though, at this point, poker didn't seem the real reason they got together every night. James' eyes were fixed on Lily and she kept throwing him shy glances, the girls were teasing Sirius (yes, I imagine him to be incredibly hot...what did you expect? I'm a teenager), and Remus was watching everything like only he, the silent observer, could. It was a bit off-putting at first, but they seemed to drift off into these conversations quite often.

"So Sirius," Venus nagged lightly, "who's the lucky girl this week?" He had quite the rep.

Sirius blushed which made the girls giggle in delight. "Nobody yet. But I am vying for...um...a certain girl's attention."

"A girl's?" asked Lily in mock horror and surprise. Sirius glared.

"Who is she?" asked Tarah very subtly. But Sirius just blushed even darker and shook his head.

From his quiet place off to the side, Remus shook his head in amusement.

"So James," said Lily abruptly, shaking him out of his reverie, "what was that explosion we heard around lunchtime today?"

James blushed ever so slightly. "Heh heh. That came from...um...the Slytherin Common Room. Can't really tell exactly what happened."

"Except that it involved eighteen Dungbombs, twenty-three Fillibuster Fireworks, twelve live frogs-" supplied Sirius.

"And a partridge in a pear tree?" guessed Lily. Everyone stared. "Muggle thing."

"And a very unhappy Slytherin," finished Sirius with a slight grin on his face.

"There ought to be another explosion soon," added James jauntily.

"Right...about...now," said Sirius. James smacked him on the back of the head.

"It won't go off for at least an hour, Sirius. It only happens right when you say it in movies and stories. This is neither. It's called real life."

"It's called get a life," muttered Remus. Then he blushed. "Oops...did that come out? Heh heh. Whoops." Sirius and James glared while everyone else stifled laughs.

They went around the table again, and one after another put their cards down, though it was relatively silent.

Lily shifted uncomfortably in her chair from the silence and because the chair itched. She briefly considered putting on James' shirt that was still next to her, but decided against it. So she tried instead to start conversation. "So...how's the weather supposed to be tomorrow?" Everyone stared at her, mouths open. Then James found his voice.

"Erm...sunny, I think." But he didn't say anything else.

"Why d'you want to know?" asked Sirius uncertainly, for the first time in his life.

"Just making for conversation. But it was in vain, I suppose."

"I said something," said James.

"We're quite aware of that," said Remus.

"Shut-up," replied James.

"But that would be defeating the purpose of making the conversation that Lily tried so valiantly to start."

"Now I agree with him. Stop it, Remus," Lily said in mock-anger. He grinned.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Girls," he said looking pointedly at Remus. Remus glared in return while Lily held a hand over her smile.

"That's you mate," said James. Remus laid down a card.

"I'm out," said Sirius.

"So...," started James in an offhanded way, "I was talking to Professor Dumbledore the other day. Oh, Sirius? He knows about the noodle incident." Sirius blushed. (A/N: Any of you read Calvin and Hobbes?) "He also told me something else. It's that...um...well...Voldemort's after me because it turns out that I'm the heir of Gryffindor." Everyone stared openmouthed at him.

"What are you going to do?" asked Lily weakly.

"Kick his arse," came the reply.

"WHAT?! You can't do that!" yelped Remus.

"Of course I can. You'll help, won't you?" Lily grinned.

"Count me in," she said. It was her turn to be stared at. Then Sirius growled.

"Now I have to too. You and your subtle obligations!" he ground out.

"And I suppose I'm in too," said Remus. "But James? One thing." He reached up and hit James in the back of the head. "You're an idiot."

"And...," said Lily, "you owe me another article of clothing." James frowned.

"Talk about kicking someone's-" started Sirius, but he got no further. James had shoved him so hard that he was sitting on the ground.

A few more rounds went by with very little talk and the dress placements went as follows: James was in his, (yes!) boxers (the scarlet ones with the golden Snitches), Sirius was dressed from the waist down, Remus was fully clad, Lily was missing a shirt, but she had her skirt on, and both Venus and Tarah were missing both shirts and skirts, but they had tights on.

Suddenly Lily let out a giant yawn.

"Doth the princess need her sleep?" asked Sirius. Lily glared.

"It is getting a bit late," said Venus. "I'm for bed too."

"We'll go soon enough," said Sirius. All of a sudden there was a silent explosion and the entire castle shook. Then came the sound wave and it sounded loud enough to have been in the room next to theirs instead of six floors below. It lasted for several minutes before slowly dying down to a faint rumble. "Well there's the explosion," said Sirius, smirking slightly. "Guess we ought to be on our way seeing as Filch always suspects us first."

"Hmmm...I wonder why that could be?" asked Remus. "Oh! I know! Maybe because it always is our fault."

"THE NOODLE INCIDENT WASN'T MY FAULT!" bellowed Sirius.

"All you have is circumstantial evidence."

"I didn't do it!" Sirius ground out between clenched teeth.

"Come on then," said James, "and we won't have to discuss it anymore." He gathered up the clothing and started out the door. Part of their deal was that after their games, everyone had to go back to the Common Room in whatever they were clothed in and get redressed there. The others gathered up what they had and followed. Lily, the most tired, trailed behind, yawning. When she finally made it to the Portrait Hole, she found James standing there, with his pants on now, but still not his shirt. (A/N: Somehow that didn't sound right.)

He was leaning against the wall outside the Portrait of the Fat Lady with his arms crossed as if he had been waiting there for an eternity and could continue waiting, without a care.

"Hullo," he said, very nonchalant.

"Is it true?" she asked.

"Um...yeah. I guess so."

"Same over here."

"There's only one thing left to do," he said.

"What's that?" But she needn't have asked. He stepped towards her and wrapped his arms around her.

They made it in the Common Room sometime later where the rest of the group was sitting on the couch, sprawled out. Venus and Tarah took one look at the two and both held out their hands.

"Ahem...I think you owe us ten Galleons apiece," said Venus. Sirius and Remus, grumbling, reached into their pockets and pulled it out.

"You know what we have to do now?" asked Remus looking at Venus. She smiled. Then they too were...um...together.

Tarah held out her hand. "Ten more, Black." Sirius grumbled.

The two of them watched as the other four made their way up to their (separate) dormitories.

"That leaves just us, doesn't it?" he said softly to Tarah. She reached out and hit him in the back of the head where he was developing a nice bump.

"Don't touch me." Then she laughed and there was...er...a happy ending all around. If you get my drift.