A huge grin is stretched across James' face as they trudge back through the newly fallen snow up to the castle. Their boots sink into particularly fresh places, causing them both to pause while the trapped individual pulls out their foot and shakes some of the cold dewy moisture away like a dog finally free from a bath. His hand is freezing and hers feels cold despite his encompassing grip, but the fifteen-year-old doesn't even consider breaking the contact so they can pull on gloves for the time it'll take for them to get inside the Entrance Hall. Glancing at the brunette walking beside him, he feels his grin trying to tug itself bigger, as if that were even possible.

"Marlene," he says, and she turns away from studying the towering snowman somebody made to look like their headmaster to focus her eyes on him, "you've got snow on your cheek." His spare hand, his gloved hand, reaches up and gently wipes it away, and she smiles.

"Well, your hair looks like it can't decide whether it should be white or black, so that's a little hypocritical of you," the older girl teases. "It's kind of like a bird pooed in your hair and you tried to wipe it out but only made it worse."

He winces at the image; something similar has happened twice recently, and he still feels a bit nervous when he sees birds circling above him, almost as if preparing to aim their putrid ammo. "Too soon, Marlene," he says, even though he still can't stop grinning, as his gloved hand self-consciously follows that reflexive path up to his hair to mess it up and comes away with covered with extra flecks of snow.

"That," she says between chortles of laughter, "did not help at all." She pulls her camera out of her pocket and tugs him closer to her before shuffling them around so they're both in frame with the snowman in the background. "Smile, you doofus. I want to send my parents some photos with their Christmas card, and we can't have you frowning in them, can we?"

"I was!"

Still, he wraps his arms around her and grins up at the device until the series of clicks have died away into the frosty early afternoon air. Once she has taken enough to be sure that one will turn out well, she slips her hand back into his and leads them back along their way.

"I'll develop it first thing tomorrow," she promises. "Do you want a copy?"

"I'd love one, even if my head ends up looking like a litter tray." She rolls her eyes. "What? The birds seem to think it's one."

As they approach the castle doors, he jogs the last few steps to reach them first. Pushing one tall wooden panel open, he holds it as she passes through, the sense of pureblood chivalry so entrenched in him that it seems intolerable to do anything else. She blushes and smiles and he grins back at her until his attention is diverted by the sound of drum-like footsteps and boisterous chatter. "I guess we stayed out later than we thought," he says sheepishly as his mind processes the signs that it's already dinnertime.

"Hogsmeade can be pretty distracting," Marlene agrees. "I really enjoyed today."

"Me, too." He wants to kiss her, is about to kiss her, is planning on pulling her back outside so nobody will see him kiss her and ruin the moment for them, but a playful bark draws his attention back outside. Closing his eyes with a silent sigh, he considers closing the door on his best friend's face. He wonders whether Marlene would mind.

But someone else makes the decision for him; a Hufflepuff girl from Marlene's year squeals and, cooing loudly, runs towards the still-open door – which, in hindsight, he wishes he'd shut just a few moments earlier – to play with the dog. Padfoot pauses to let her fondle his shaggy fur before darting around her and sprinting over to Marlene, who draws her wand as she reels back in fright. "Stay away from me!"

"Marlene?" James asks, darting forward to grab Padfoot by his neck to hold him back. He doesn't know what Marlene's planning on doing with that wand, but he doesn't think his friend would want to find out.

"I'm allergic to dogs," she explains.

The Hufflepuff girl comes back over to help, sitting on her heels in front of Padfoot and petting his face to distract him from the Gryffindor. "We've got him. We'll keep him here while you go in to dinner, then we can take him back outside."

"Thanks, Dorcas." Marlene meets James' eyes and notices that his goofy grin, the one that makes her fondly think of him as a little like a peacock, has gone. Assuming that it's out of fear that this interruption has ruined their date, she smiles broadly and reassures him, "I really did enjoy today, James. I'll talk to you at dinner?" He nods, but the grin doesn't return, not as he looks at her and certainly not as he refocuses his attention on controlling the squirming dog. "Um, do you want me to check if he belongs to anyone in there?"

"I've seen him around before," James says. "He's a stray."

Marlene nods slowly, waiting for him to say something more; when he doesn't, she looks at him again with some confusion, and then swiftly leaves, telling herself that he's just nervous about the dog.

"I know school policy says no dogs, but I wonder whether Dumbledore would let me take him in," she hears Dorcas reply as she slips through the doors into the Great Hall, determined to find her friends so she can tell them everything and work out why it all suddenly derailed. She could've sworn that he was finally going to kiss her, but, as soon as that stupid dog came in, it was like he couldn't care less about her.

No, she thinks to herself. Don't jump ahead of yourself; you know what happens when you assume, and you know that James was happy today. Wrapping her hand around the camera in her coat pocket, she amends, You have proof that James was happy today.

"He appears well fed for a stray, but I'd hate to think of him in that forest by himself, and he seems gentle enough…" Dorcas is continuing as James quickly tries to work out how to get himself and Sirius out of this mess.

"I've already tried," James blurts out, hoping Dorcas won't bother to go to the Headmaster anyway. "He was sympathetic, but the dog's pretty playful, and he doesn't want him ripping the dorms apart." Sirius had done that enough times to their own dormitory in the month since he'd mastered the change, and only some quick spellwork from Remus had kept the house-elves from noticing that something was off. "Hagrid knows about him, though, and he always takes care of him when he comes across him on the grounds – food, water, bath, the whole shebang," he adds.

He's rambling, he knows he is, but it's one of the most important lies he has ever told, and Dorcas seems to be buying it, so he doesn't care. He knows that Hagrid has done that for other domesticated animals before – although Hagrid's perception of 'domesticated' is pretty broad – and is fairly certain the half-giant groundskeeper has come across wild dogs before. "He does it for a lot of forest animals," he adds, just to soften his supposed certainty over the matter. Dorcas seems determined enough to ask Hagrid about it, though, so he supposes he'll have to convince Sirius to let himself be found by the groundskeeper tonight or tomorrow morning so the man will recognise any description she might give.

"Alright," Dorcas says, although she still looks upset at the situation. "I suppose that makes sense." She gives the dog one last back massage before awkwardly finding her way to her feet. "We should get him back outside, then."

"You open the door and I'll herd him out." Nodding, Dorcas makes her way for the doors, leaving James to handle the resisting dog. "Cooperate," he hisses in Padfoot's ear, and the dog grins up at him, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth as if he hasn't a care in the world.

For whatever reason, Padfoot obeys him. He dutifully lopes across the floor and out the castle, stopping only to rub his head affectionately against Dorcas' legs as he passes her. The girl, despite smiling fondly after him, shuts the door before he has the chance to turn around and slip back in.

"I'm going to go wash my hands," she says by way of a goodbye, before trotting off towards the nearest bathroom.

As soon as she's out of sight, James slips out the castle doors and finds himself face-to-face with his best friend, now back in human form and brushing his dishevelled hair out of his eyes.

James looks around to make sure they're alone before fixing the boy with a glare. He would like to think that Sirius has the sense to wait until no one's around to transform back, but it's hard to tell with him. "Sirius."

Sirius just grins back at him, unperturbed by his ire. "I couldn't resist."

"You're going to have to go over to Hagrid's now so he can verify you've been there."

"I will." Sirius starts to make his way around James, but the Chaser steps in front of him to stay his progress. "Not right now," he protests. "There's no way I can stomach whatever he considers to be dog food on an empty stomach; I'll go after dinner. He won't even be there now, anyway; he needs to eat, too, and those rock cakes of his don't count."

"Fine. But you're going there as soon asdinner's over, before Dorcas gets the chance to ask him about you. You're going to have to go again another day, too, probably."

"I know." Sirius hesitates, before saying seriously, "Sorry about Marlene. You know what you have to do, though, right?"

"Yeah," James says, dejectedly. When they swore not to tell anyone about Remus or their transformations, they also promised that they wouldn't marry anyone who didn't know about and accept it all. They all agreed that if any of them were ever to marry, the girl would have to be somebody who was an honorary Marauder, not someone who they had to keep secrets from. To them, that included being able to hang out with them in whatever form they were in at the time. None of them – well, neither Sirius nor James, anyway – could imagine restricting their adventures or freedom in that way. As wonderful as James thinks Marlene is, that would really be going against their fundamental agreements as Marauders. "And I really liked her, too."

"Don't do it yet," Sirius advises. "Wait a bit so it's not coming out of nowhere. Just don't become a sap in the meantime." He nudges past James and flings open the doors with gusto. "Now, I'm hungry, and apparently I need to eat quickly."

A/N: Thank you to Screaming Faeries for your review. I've gone back through to fix up some of the bigger grammar mistakes, but I've left some of the awkward sentences because my writing style has changed enough over the past year that it would seem out of place to rework them the way I would now.