Snape found himself looking forward to the evening’s trip out to the valley beyond the Quidditch fields. The girl who was meeting him was irrelevant; the mystery underlying their shared project was the draw. Snape wasn’t being arrogant by fancying himself an intellectual; his excellent grades verified this fact. His classes were rarely a challenge (save for Divination, but that class was a joke which Snape planned not to continue past the end of the current year), and Snape liked little more than a puzzle to challenge his mind.

The girl’s presence he would tolerate. Not that he had a choice, but she did show an unusual aptitude for Herbology that would prove useful. And as of yet, she’d refrained from insulting him and actually had treated him quite respectably, which was a rare experience for him. He did however hope that at some point she would learn to control her insatiable desire to laugh at everything. It was rather unbecoming.

---

Sirius Black rubbed his forehead where a few days ago Snivellus Snape had bestowed upon him an extra eye. Such an insult would not go unpunished. Their rivalry, if it could be called that, had started in their first week at Hogwarts and would likely continue until their last. Usually Sirius got the better of Snape, since Sirius had friends and Snape most certainly did not. But he’d been alone during their last altercation and for once had not emerged the victor. Irrational hatred warps one’s perception, and Sirius had an irrational hatred for Snape which was exacerbated by their recent exchange.

And recently he’d made a disturbing discovery… somehow Snape had gotten himself a GIRLFRIEND! He’d overheard several Slytherin girls talking about Snape and a Hufflepuff girl last Friday afternoon, and then he’d seen for himself Snape watching her in the Great Hall during dinner. Snape had snapped at the girl after dinner, but she seemed not to mind, laughing it off before she left.

Sirius had been watching the girl ever since. Her name was Mariah Grougher, and she was generally well liked according to his Hufflepuff friend Giles. He’d deliberately stood next to her in DADA this morning, hoping to overhear something interesting and get a better idea about what made her tick. She was very friendly, judging from the overzealous thanks she’d bestowed on Remus this morning and how she’d not been mad at the girl who’d unwittingly tormented her. Mariah was not particularly pretty; she had long curly brown hair and brown eyes that were just a little too large for her face. She was tall for a girl and a little heavier than was fashionable. Sirius wouldn’t call her unattractive, but her appearance was certainly unremarkable. He’d never have noticed her had her questionable taste in boyfriends not caught his attention.

But now, it had. The whole idea of Snape with a girlfriend threw his whole equilibrium and sense of rightness out of whack. Especially the idea of him with a LIKEABLE girlfriend.

“Earth to Sirius!” His best friend, James Potter, was waving a hand in front of his face. “Are we on for tonight? Same place?”

Sirius struggled to remember the significance of “tonight”. He obviously didn’t think fast enough because James continued, “It’s MONDAY, James… we have to work on our little ‘project’…” he tilted his head toward Remus, who was sitting crosslegged on the grass reading a book.

Of course. What an idiot. He, James, and Peter Pettigrew had been training themselves to become Animagi for the past two years. They recently moved their Tuesday night session to Monday nights to work around James’ Quidditch schedule. Although they’d made some progress in the training, they still had a long way to go. Normally, Sirius was the one leading the effort, since the whole purpose of the exercise was to be able to keep poor Remus company when he endured his monthly transformation into a werewolf. For some reason though, this evening Sirius found he had better things to do.

“Oh hell, I forgot,” exclaimed Sirius. “I can’t tonight, James. It’s the Herbology project.” Sirius thought fast. “I promised Wesley I would research the symptoms of aragave poisoning before tomorrow’s class. I’m sorry… can we move it to Wednesday, just for this week?”

James narrowed his eyes, “You’re putting SCHOOLWORK ahead of Remus? Are you sure you’re feeling well?” James rested the back of his hand on Sirius’ forehead. “No fever, but maybe you should see Madame Altrix anyway.”

Sirius slapped his hand away with a laugh, “I know, I’m in danger of losing my reputation as a wastrel. But I did promise I would do it, and it wouldn’t be fair to back out on such short notice. Wednesday?”

James pretended to ponder for moment, then smiled and nodded. “Ok, we’ll just practice without you tonight. But just this once! Don’t you become a Ravenclaw on me now!”

“There’s hardly any danger of that, “ chuckled Sirius, relieved he’d gotten out of this evening’s session. He wondered what the Hufflepuff would be doing this evening, and vowed to be watching when she did it.