101 Ways to ditch the Date | SIRIUS BLACK

No. 21

James dropped his spoon into his cereal which provoked laughs from both his best mate and crush.

"Nice one, Prongs," Sirius laughed, giving Lily a withering look, "I thought glasses were supposed to help you see better."

James gave him a slight scowl, "They are and they do, I'm just naturally clumsy."

"It's sweet though," Lily said, quickly adding, "In a kind of dumb way... sweet but dumb... not an ideal combination."

"Isn't that the perfect combo though?" James asked, giving her sickly sweet grin, "Sweet yet simple minded."

"Oh, James, I think you are far from simple minded," Lily replied, taking a bite out of her toast, "I think you just don't apply yourself."

"You see, Lily, that's where you're wrong," James replied, "I am the epitome of simple minded, so simple fool, blissfully ignorant from the world."

"I don't believe you for a second, I'll have to ask Sirius in our free - "

"What?" Sirius asked, looking up from his scrambled egg at the mention of his name, "Whatever it was, it was Prongs not me."

"Hey!"

"Whilst I don't doubt that," Lily replied dryly, "I was just saying that James isn't a simple minded fool and that I'd ask you in our free next."

Sirius gave his best friend a grin before speaking, "Prongs is the simplest of all, his brain is basically soup."

With that, he went back to looking at his scrambled eggs, only glancing up when someone walked in, his eyes darting back down once he realised they weren't anyone of interest. If he'd been paying attention, he would have noticed that Lily and James had stopped their flirting, glancing over at Sirius with concerned and amused expressions.

"PADFOOT!" James clapped his hands, snapping Sirius out of his dreamy state, "New that would wake you up."

"Tosser," Sirius scowled, "What did you do that for?"

"You were away with the fairies, Padfoot," James replied, before muttering under his breath, "Bet I know what you were thinking about?"

"Oh and what was that?" Sirius asked, squaring his shoulders on the table in a vaguely intimidating manner which only made James laugh.

"Calm down, Padfoot, just kidding," He said, quickly waving at Remus who was heading towards them, his face pale and peaky with large bags under this eyes.

"Are you okay, Remus?" Lily asked as he sat down. The three boys exchanged a glance; he most certainly wasn't okay but Lily couldn't know. Instead he gave her the lie he repeated so much that it almost seemed true to him.

"Just feeling a bit down, you know how the illness is," He replied, looking down at his plate. Slowly he glanced at Sirius, realising he had an opportunity to deflect the question, "I definitely look better than Ora, she was practically asleep in her breakfast."

Sirius stood up instantly which prompted laughter from the other three. He shut them up with a scowl, hastily saying, "What? She's a friend and I told you that she seemed down the other day... where did you see her, Moony?"

Remus pointed over to the end of the Ravenclaw table where he could clearly make out Emmeline lying next to the blonde, who had her head resting on the table, cradled by her arms. Ignoring James's teasing, he stood up, making his way over. Even though Ora had objected to him sitting at the table before due to house rivalry, this may be the only time he could catch her and he was always one to seize the opportunity.

Although he rejected the claims that he liked Ora, there was definitely something about her that was intriguing and he'd be lying if he said he didn't care for her. It was incredible how fast they're relationship had changed from awkward, flirty glances in the hallways to irritating arch-enemies and now a strange partners-in-crime dynamic. She was more than just a partner in crime though, Sirius would consider her a friend for sure. After all, if she could keep his interest for over a month without making the commitment-phobe want to bolt, she was probably worth keeping around.