AN: Okay, first things first, I'm so so sorry for the six month long gap between updates, but I had the most horrible case of writer's block up until about a week ago when a certain character who you might recognize showed up and gave me enough inspiration to struggle past my block. As a thank you for waiting so long, This chapter is only a just shy of 4,000 words, not counting the author's notes and disclaimer. Thanks to those of you who did review, it really helps a girl out to know there are people who want to read what she's writing! Thank you so much, and if everyone else could review as well? Please?

Disclaimer: All of the recognizable elements belong to JK Rowling

Crystal POV

Ever since her spider had returned with news of the Marauders' plans a week ago, Crystal had been on hyper-alert. She had gone to the library and located an old spell in some dusty, out of date, smelly, awful book of cleaning spells and used it to place a charm that was supposed to repel rodents on all of her clothing, that's how paranoid she was being. She had meant to get the Marauders off of her tail by bluffing her way out of the "How do you know where Malfoy is gonna be?" situation, not make it worse! Normally, in a situation like this, she'd be ranting to Alex, her best friend, but she had been in the hospital wing with a cold that pepper-up potions didn't seem to be able to get rid of for the past week. Crystal suspected a prank of some sort.

It was only after she terrified one of the firsties by drawing her wand when they startled her that she realized it was getting out of hand. She was Crystal Violet Rose (yes, all of her names were colors, haha, very funny) and she wasn't one to cower from anyone.

Oh sure, she was no Gryffindor to charge in where angels fear to tread, by her logic, if angels didn't go there, there was probably a reason, but that didn't mean she was a coward either!

It was then that she decided that she was going to take matters into her own hands! She wandered aimlessly around the school, trying to think up a plan.

James's portion of his plan would be easy enough to deal with, maybe leave a false trail... She cared for the boy like a brother(cousin), their mothers had been close, so the two had grown up pretty closely, but he was far too easy to fool. He was far from able to talk his way into figuring out any of the secrets she had. No offense to her childhood friend, but he was far from subtle.

As for Peter tracking her in whatever his Animagus form might be, she still wasn't sure if he was a rat or a mouse, that charm should take care of it.

She wasn't entirely sure how their map worked, all she knew was it gave them a general idea of where people were. Even then, they were extremely cautious with it. It was only a few too many whispers of, "We'll check for Filch on the map," or other such statements within recording distance of one of her spiders, which she did have regularly patrol the corridors outside of the few she sent on specific missions that had clued her in on even that much information. Remus only seemed to be going along with it for the sake of his friends. Seeing as none of her sources were people she wasn't overly concerned on that account, though, she grinned, that could be another way to leave a false trail.

No, the one that worried her was Black.

The rumors about her were over-exaggerated. She had actually had two boyfriends, about average for a sixth year girl. She had just had an abnormal amount of guys ask her out. No one in her right mind would go on that many dates. One guy, his name was Jason, and he was currently a seventh year Hufflepuff, it turned out, was just using her to say he had gone out with "the-prettiest-girl-in-the-whole-bloody-school", which she hotly denied. She would have been fine telling, if he had wanted to date her for her, instead of for bragging rights. The second boy was named Anthony. He was in Slytherin and extremely shy, and didn't think he would be able to handle the gossip of dating both "the-prettiest-girl-in-the-whole-bloody-school", good god she hated that title, and dating a halfblood outside the Slytherin house. His family was not made up of pureblood maniacs, but the rest of the house would be less than pleased. So, for his sake, she had kept that relationship quiet too.

But now, she faced an issue more troublesome than bragging Hufflepuffs or shy Slytherins. Sirius Black, "The Player" himself, was going to be pursuing her. He was the guy that every girl had a crush on, Crystal included. If he had asked her out before this point, she probably would have said yes, but that was just the issue. If he did ask her out now, it was just to figure out her secret. Obviously he had no interest in her, or he would have followed the rest of the school's male population and part of the female population and at least asked her to Hogsmeade at some point!

What she needed, she decided eventually, was a facade. The exact same facade she had used every other time she had gotten an unsolicited request from another guy, or the occasional girl. The cold and careless girl who gave a person chasing her exactly what he/she gave other girls. And Black was a notorious ladies' man. He had dated almost as many girls as people had asked her out. Considering that multiple people had asked her on a date multiple times, that was quite a number. She would just do what she always did. Don't say yes, but don't say no right away, leave it open-ended for a few days and then turn him down flat. Crystal rounded a corner, confidence restored, deciding that she should figure out where she was and get back to the Ravenclaw common room. However, as soon as she did, she wished she had just kept going straight. Speaking of people who asked her out multiple times…

"Crystal! My, my, how wonderful to see you here," Gilderoy said, flashing what she was sure he thought was a charming grin, but in her opinion just looked odd coming from a 14 year old. He was only a fourth year! She was a sixth year!

Crystal smiled tensely back, "Lockhart,"

"Now is that any way to greet a friend?" Lockhart chided with that same creepy smile.

"All due respect Lockhart, but we're not exactly friends," Damn it! she thought to herself. She wasn't usually one to curse but this annoying boy was well worth it. She couldn't even escape back to the Ravenclaw common room because somehow that idiot had managed to make it into the house of the eagles as well.

"No, no, we share something much deeper than that, Crystal," he responded, forcing Crystal to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

"Please, Lockhart, we're not even on a first name basis. Or at least we shouldn't be given that I have never given you permission to use my given name,"

Lockhart flushed briefly, but recovered quickly, "Of course not Miss Rose. My apologies for any forwardness,"

Crystal nodded, hoping that he had finally gotten the message, "Not a problem,"

He smiled hopefully, "Perhaps I could make it up to you with a butterbeer?"

"Umm…" Crystal cast around frantically for an excuse. Alex! Was in the hospital wing… Although she could work with that. "I was actually just going to visit Alex. You know, Alex Macmillan?"

The blond-haired imbecile frowned for a moment before before brightening, "Oh, yes! Her younger brother is a big fan of my charms work,"

"Er, yes… Well, she's in the hospital wing and I was trying to go see her, so if you could just let me past you-,"

She was cut off as she tried to escape past the fourth year with his hand on her arm, she just barely stopped herself from screaming in frustration, "But the hospital wing is on the other side of the castle, and in the other direction, why are you going this way Miss Rose?"

Crystal looked up and sure enough she was going in the exact wrong direction to go "visit Alex in the hospital wing', she had to think fast, and the only story she could think of was a flimsy one. Oh well, it was her best chance, "Oh, I was lost in thought, one of the staircases must have moved without me noticing," she said it with a smile, but inwardly she groaned. Only and idiot could stand on one of the staircases while it moved and not have noticed it, the game was up for sure!

But, to her complete surprise, he merely nodded in understanding, like what she had said made sense! "Ah, yes, I've done the same thing several times myself,"

Well, maybe that made a little bit of sense.

"In fact," he continued, oblivious to the fact that her already low opinion of him had lessened even more, "I could escort you to the hospital wing, perhaps, in order to prevent you from going off course again,"

He smiled again, much more sincerely this time, but she really couldn't put up with him for that long of a walk… "Oh, no, thank you for the offer, but that's really not necessary…"

She was cut off once again, "Oh, no need to be shy, I insist!"

"I'm not shy, I really just don't want to waste your time," she insisted, trying to free her arm from his hand without wrenching it away completely.

"Oh, it's no trouble at all!" he blustered, "Really, I can't think of anything better to do,"

"Oh," came a from behind Crystal, "I can think of a few better things you could do,"

Crystal turned around to see Black lounging on the wall behind her. She may have been panicking at the thought of seeing him just a moment ago, but now her eyes lit up at the sight of him. "Black! What are you doing here?" she asked with relief.

He gave a little lopsided grin that left her heart fluttering. This is why she had always met with the boys in a group, where she could at least pretend to focus on someone else!

"Oh," he drawled casually, "I had just overheard some of the first year girls wondering where Lockhart over here could possibly be, and I thought I'd advise him that he might want to head over to the lake,"

"Really?" the arrogant prat asked, clearly pleased.

Black nodded, causing his long hair to wave, the light coming in through the window making it shine.

Lockhart preened, "Well, I suppose I must go, I'd hate to disappoint them if they couldn't find me. You know," and here he lowered his voice conspiratorially, "They're great fans of mine,"

Crystal nodded, "Of course, I'd hate to keep you from your fans,"

And with one last creepy grin, he had walked off along the corridor.

As soon as he was gone, Crystal sagged against the wall in relief, "Thank you," she said to Black, "I don't know how else I could have gotten rid of him,"

He gave another one of those lopsided smiles and ambled casually until he was leaning against the wall right next to her, close enough to touch if she just reached out her hand. "Eh, it's no problem, Rose. The git could annoy anyone to death with his preening. Besides, I'm always happy to help out a pretty lady," and at this statement he waggled his eyebrows, drawing a laugh out of her.

She grinned before it switched to a rueful smile, "Well, I really should get to the hospital wing and visit Alex. I've been a bit too distracted by the business to really be a good friend lately,"

He gave a dry chuckle back, "Trust me Rose, I know the feeling, I actually need to go visit Remus he's in there now because, well you know why, though we still don't know how,"

She smiled and quickly decided to play it off in a way she hadn't expected them to actually believe, but maybe she could pull it off… "You know James and I were friends growing up, right?"

He blinked at her in shock, "No, actually, he's never mentioned it,"

She laughed a bit wetly, "Yeah that sounds like him. A bit too worried about how he looks in front of his new friends to mention the fact that he was friends with a girl from another house before we came to school. Of course, after that it would have slipped his mind. We had new lives, I had Alex and he had you guys,"

Black nodded seriously, "It does sound like him, doesn't it. But… what does that have to do with how you know?"

She smiled a brightly at him, a bit falsely, she hadn't known he had never mentioned her, "Well, we still talk if we run into each other in the halls for whatever reason. It allowed me to probe him and put together a couple of things, I know how to read him better than he would ever want to admit, or probably even knows. I overheard a few sly remarks from Snape one time, nothing too blatant, just 'Going for a walk in the moonlight, Lupin?' you know, in that slow drawl of his, and stuff along those lines. It seemed to be a banter almost, the two of them were trading remarks. You four aren't exactly careful about addressing each other by your nicknames, I asked James about those and he stumbled over his explanations just a bit too much. It wasn't that much of a stretch to figure out what you guys had done, Padfoot, because I know James, or at least I knew him, for all his arrogance he's extremely selfless, and any friends of his would be the same way. Really, you guys don't need to worry about it. I don't know specifics or anything, I don't plan on sharing, and besides you guys, no one but me knows Jamie well enough to ask him some of things I had to without sounding unbearably nosey,"

He nodded, "Makes sense, but you can't blame us for being worried- wait, Jamie?" he finished with a grin.

"Um… Oops?"

He laughed, "That's, that's, Hey! How come he never lets anyone else call him that?"

She shrugged, "It was a name we called him when he was a little kid. He's probably trying to disassociate himself from it,"

He grinned, "Well now I've got blackmail! Really though, would you mind if I walked with you to the hospital wing, I really should go visit Remus,"

She smiled back and said, "Well if you're going to insist on coming,"

"I am," he interjected.

She glared playfully and said, "You might as well escort me like a proper gentleman,"

He mock bowed and extended his arm, "I would never dream of doing otherwise M'lady,"

She laughed and placed her hand in his arm as the two started walking, but she was surprised when he paused and lifted a tapestry out of the way, "Won't this take us to the Astronomy tower?" she asked.

He smiled mischievously, "Not if we turn left,"

"Left?" She asked confused, "This one only goes right,"

He grinned, "Glad to see we still know some things you don't," and led her though the archway into the passage. When it turned sharply to the right, Black faced to the left and tapped and scratched something she recognized as morse code out:

tap-pause-scratch-tap-pause-scratch-pause-tap-pause-tap-scratch-tap

To her surprise, the whole wall leaned backwards until it formed the beginning of a ramp leaning downwards. He grinned at her and said, "This one's much better for going down than going up," and he held out his hand to her and said, "Grab my hand and we'll jump on three, alright?"

She gaped at him incredulously and raised an eyebrow, "Are you insane?"

"Just a bit. Are you coming or not?" he asked with a lopsided grin that she knew she wouldn't be able to say no to.

She put her hand in his and warned him, "I don't know if I'll be able to make myself jump. There's a reason the hat didn't put me in Gryffindor,"

He nodded at her thoughtfully and perched at the top of the ramp like a muggle child about to go down a slide at the playground. In fact the only difference she could see was that she couldn't tell where the ramp ended, "Come sit in my lap,"

"What?" she screeched.

He winced, "That sounded better in my head, I just meant that I could push off for both of us, and you wouldn't have to force yourself to push off,"

She nodded and perched on top of his legs, "Alright," she nodded again, "I'm ready,"

He wrapped an arm around her from behind and said, "Alright, One, Two, Three!"

-
Sirius POV

He actually hadn't set out to find Crystal, but when he bumped into her, he had leapt at the chance to not only rescue her from Lockhart, but to take her into what was one of his favorite secret passages in the school. When she actually agreed to go down the ramp part with him, he wanted to cheer. When she sat on his lap, he didn't hesitate to wrap an arm around her from behind. Sitting behind her as he was, his nose was pressed into her hair, causing the normal faint smell of strawberries that followed her to intensify. He had to get going, and fast! "Alright, one, Two, THREE!" He pushed forwards, and the two of them went sliding down the tilted floor. She gave a shriek right as they pushed off and he leaned forward to say in her ear, "Don't scream too loud, someone might hear you. Then this secret passage wouldn't be quite so secret anymore," Then the floor was leveling out beneath them, with the angle slowly decreasing until they were just skidding to a stop on a level floor. She hopped up off his lap and he stood up after her.

He walked forward, looking for the red brick on the side of the wall. When he found it, he tapped what Remus claimed spelled out "EXIT" in some muggle code.

"tap-pause-scratch-tap-tap-scratch-pause-tap-tap-pause-scratch"

Once he had done that, he grabbed her hand and pulled her along behind him until they were at a T in the corridor the section of the floor behind them rose up and blocked off the passage they just came through, looking for all the world like any other wall in the school. He grinned at her, "Right will take us to the trick stair outside the Great Hall, Left will take us to the one on the way to the hospital wing,"

Crystal gaped, "What?"

He grinned at her, "You didn't think the founders actually put in steps with no purpose other than to trap unsuspecting firsties, did you?"

She huffed, "That's what everyone thinks, Black it's not just me,"

He looked at her for a moment and said, "Call me Sirius,"

She raised an eyebrow at him, "Why?"

He grinned back as best he could when she arched her eyebrow like that, but it ended up coming out as more of a lopsided half-grin. Again. "I figure if you can call Prongs 'Jamie' You can at least call me Sirius, yeah Rose?"

She tilted her head to the side, forcing her to brush her hair behind her ear and out of her face, "Only if you call me Crystal instead of Rose,"

He grinned at her, "You've got yourself a deal, Crystal!"

She grinned right back, "Alright Sirius, why don't you show me how a trick step is the entrance to a secret passageway,"

"It would be my pleasure," he said grabbing her hand and pulling her along with him, "Just step right this way,"

The two of them walked through the passage until they reached a ladder, "Ladies first," he offered.

She smiled back, "How chivalrous of you," and started up the ladder. He sat back and admired the view for a moment and gave a fleeting wish she had been wearing a skirt instead of trousers before starting up behind her.

When she reached the top of the ladder, she paused, "Alright Sirius, what do I do now?"

He called up, "If you look behind you, there's a ledge underneath the ceiling. Just grab onto it and pull yourself up,"

"There's not exactly a large gap between the ledge and the ceiling," she called down.

He nodded, "It's only just big enough for me to sit, but you're a half-a-head smaller than I am, R-Crystal,"

He could hear take a deep breath, before he saw her reach out behind herself and pull herself up onto the ledge until she was sitting on the edge with her legs dangling over the side and he was able to climb up the rest of the ladder and haul up beside her. He pointed to the ledge behind them that was closer to the ceiling and said, "If you lie on that and sit up, you'll find that you're sticking up out of the trick step,"

She nodded tentatively, "Okay, but what's that button for?" she asked, pointing to the green circle on the wall of the little gap.

He smiled at her, "Only the best part of this whole passage! When it's red, it's not safe to go up, because there's someone at the top that didn't just come out of the passageway. When it's blue, the only people up there have been through the surface of the trick step within the last 5 minutes, when it's green, there's no one up there,"

He smiled at her, "You go first,"

She nodded and lay on the smaller ledge before sitting up. From what he could see, she got out of the step just fine when she stood up all the way, so just her feet and calves were visible, then slipped first one leg then the other completely out of his sight. He glanced at the circle, which had turned blue, before copying her motions and hauling himself out of the staircase. Hen he stood at the top, he found her gaping over the side of the stair way.

"But," she spluttered, "There's nothing under the stairway! We climbed out of nowhere!"

He grinned at her, "It's magic, Crystal"

And she laughed sheepishly, "Of course, it's just," and she shook her head, to overwhelmed to continue.

And he nodded at her and held out a hand, "Shall we go to visit our friends in the hospital wing M'lady?"

She smiled back, "Most certainly, My Good Sir,"

And if he squeezed her hand when she put it in his, she didn't say anything. If she squeezed back, neither did he.

AN: Thanks once again for reading! And please, please review! It really means a lot, and those reviews are one thing that make me sit in front of my computer when I have writer's block and try to write, so please do!