Sirius sat in the great hall, staring at the Slytherin table and chewing his bacon angrily. He was paying little attention to the usual morning commotion, and was thereby ignoring James, which he should have by now realized was probably not a very good idea. For now, though, he didn't care. He was in a bad mood. Exactly, why he was in a bad mood, however, he wasn't exactly sure.

Just as he began to content himself with imaginative ways to mess with Snape, Sirius felt a sudden, unpleasant sensation trickling down the back of his robes. He froze, took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Fuck. Rage flushed through his body and he whipped around, violently pulling his wand out of his robes and spinning around to point it at whoever was the culprit.

It was James, holding a half-filled ladle of porridge. Presumably, the other half of the ladle's contents were currently trickling into Sirius's pants.

"What the fuck did you do that for, James!?" He shoved his wand to the boy's throat, who, much to his annoyance, simply laughed and raised his eyebrows, as if daring Sirius to throw a curse in his direction. Sirius glanced down to see that James had a grip on his own wand. Knowing better than to start a battle with his friend, he settled for glaring at him instead.

"Bee in your bonnet, Padfoot? Where's your head this morning?"

"Fuck you, James," Sirius spat, not in the mood to call him by his nickname (he didn't deserve it). "Vanish it, now." James rolled his eyes, and giving a dramatic sigh of boredom, he vanished the porridge that was now seeping its way slowly into caverns of Sirius's physique that he would rather not describe.

Sirius continued to glare at him for a moment before spinning around and sitting back down, keeping his wand out and in a defensive position in case of possible attack. He massacred another piece of bacon.

"Really, Sirius, what's the matter?" James asked, resuming his own seat and now looking at him with concern.

"I have a fucking prick for a best friend," he snapped, refusing to look away from the table on the other side of the hall, and therefore not seeing that look of hurt that flashed across James' face.

"I was just having a little bit of fun, Padfoot," James whined in return. "You're being so grumpy today." His tone suggested a pouting child. Sirius just glared at his eggs. "What's the matter?"

"I don't know," Sirius answered. It was truthful, mainly. "Just angry today." James bit on his lower lip and Sirius, who had looked up at him, felt a fluttering sensation within his stomach which did nothing to help calm his temper.

"Does someone need a hug?" James asked like a cuddling preschool teacher, and reached toward him with a pout on his face. Before Sirius had a chance to respond, he had wrapped his arms around his entire body in a bear hug, knocking him over and in the processes shoving him into Remus, who only now looked up from the essay he was furiously revising.

"Knock it off," he said with a cry, involuntarily smiling and choking back a laugh. "Stop!" James succeeded in knocking Sirius off the bench entirely, and the scene ended with both of them lying on the floor. Remus gave an irritated grunt, but appeared to be on the verge of laughing himself.

Sirius shoved James off and pulled himself up, using the bench for support. He grabbed a handful of eggs and shoved what he could down the front of his companions shirt.

"Alright, alright, that's enough!" The eggs vanished, as did the toast from James' hand. They looked around in distress to see Remus standing behind them, wand out, hair askew, and essay in hand. "You're going to get points docked." He appeared amused, but didn't drop his authoritative tone. "No more food for you."

"Aww, but Moooonnny," crooned James, "we were just having a bit of fun!" Sirius made a point of wiping the smile from his face. He was in a bad mood, dammit.

"Yes, well, your fun shouldn't cost us the cup." James pouted again.

"Fine. Spoil all the fun." The bell rang and Sirius gathered up his things. He was feeling better, but this was something he was unwilling to admit to. Remus seemed to notice this and flashed him a look. Ignoring this, he sprinted down the hallway in pursuit of James, who seemed to find it necessary to race his way to class. Damned if Sirius was willing to lose.

They reached the door to Transfiguration at precisely the same moment, panting and gasping desperately for air. They entered to a disgruntled looking McGonagall and took their seats quietly. Sirius remembered his bad mood and resumed his scowling.

"Just give it up, Padfoot," Remus sighed as he sat down beside him. Sirius pretended not to know what he'd meant.

"If we're all ready," McGonagall began from the front of the room, "I'd like to begin." She cast a glance in the direction of Remus, Sirius, and James, to assure they were, in fact, sitting quietly. They were. "Today, we are going to learn a new and difficult method of Transfiguration called _"

Sirius stopped listening.

After a brief glance around the room for something interesting to distract him, he looked to his friends on either side of him. Remus was taking furious notes, as per usual, and as this happened to be James' favorite subject, he too appeared to be annoyingly occupied. Sirius rolled his eyes and pulled out a muggle notebook and dipped his quill into his inkpot. He thought for a short moment before setting quill to paper, and began to sketch a few random objects, here and there. A snitch, an orchid (James' favorite flower – only don't ask him how he knew that), a stag, werewolf, and a large, ferocious looking dog. He tapped his wand on the page and set these objects in motion.

He glanced up now and again to assure that McGonagall hadn't caught on to his lack of attention.

Sighing, Sirius stared at his handiwork, flipping back through his journal pages. It wasn't entirely filled with in-class scribbles. The book ranged from diary entries to song lyrics to tic-tac-toe games that he had played in other classes with James. James, of course, had never been allowed access to the rest of the book. And for good reason, he mused to himself upon pondering this fact.

He turned back to the page before and read briefly over his last journal entry. Feeling suddenly sad, he flipped the book closed and rested his chin on the desk. He only did this for a short time, however, and a moment later had flipped the book open again. He dipped the quill into the pot, this time with the intention of writing another entry. He glanced in James' direction first; to be sure the boy really was focused on the lesson and not on whatever might be going on beside him.

He set the tip of the quill onto the page, but did nothing aside from watch the splot of ink bleed into a wider and wider circle, darkly swallowing the blue lines that had been there before. He had plenty to write about, sure, but at this very moment his brain was too fuzzy to make heads or tails of what he was actually thinking – or feeling for that matter. So instead, Sirius settled for dipping his quill and again watching a dark circle materialize on another section of the page. By the time the lesson had finished, the entire sheet was nearly black.

The bell rang, releasing him from his silent prison, and he snapped the book shut, shoved it in his bag, and stood up all in a single, fluid motion. His limbs thanked him for the movement as he stretched and yawned loudly. James took advantage of this vulnerability and slapped him hard on the back. The yawn taken from him, Sirius coughed and scowled.

"Thanks for that, mate. Really."

"Anytime, Padfoot," James replied, saluting him. Sirius sighed. He had the feeling that his was going to be long day.

Just as he was able to get the thought out, Lily Evans happened to saunter by; pulling James from any attention that had previously been on his friend. Sirius' expression darkened. Remus was eying him carefully.

"H-hey Evans!" James sputtered in the red-headed girl's direction. Lily whirled around, dangerously.

"Can I help you with something, Potter?" She seemed, as usual, to be annoyed.

"Nah, Evans. I was just saying hi. But while we're on the subject – " Lily's eyes narrowed.

"Don't finish that, Potter." She told him, not allowing him to finish. "If you'd really like to just say hello, then hello to you too. Anything else and you can bugger off." James saluted her.

"Aye aye captain!" Lily rolled her eyes and walked away, resuming her discussion with her friends.

Sirius stood and watched the scene glumly, and when James rejoined their party, he walked alongside him, silently, regarding the event over and over again in his mind. Remus put a comforting hand on his shoulder and Sirius cast him a strange look. He refused to believe that Moony actually knew what was wrong with him, and if he feigned ignorance enough he may convince Moony that he didn't know as well.

*Later That Evening*

Sirius sighed as he pulled off his robes, relieved to be rid finally of his itchy uniform, and pulled on a plain t-shirt in replacement. He removed his trousers, changed his pants, and pulled on a pair of pajama bottoms. He was more than ready for bed. He glared to himself as he listened to James yammer on about his newest plan on seducing Lily.

"I'm going to ask her to tutor me in charms," he was saying to a rather exasperated Remus who seemed as though he were ready to through his inkwell in the bespectacled boy's direction. "And I'll sit real close. I just got this new cologne." Sirius groaned audibly and flopped back onto his bed.

This, unfortunately, attracted James attention, and he turned to look at him, much to Remus' relief.

"What's up, mate?" Lily didn't like James, that's what was up. He was wasting his time when he should be putting his focus into people who actually liked him – preferably someone who thought the sun shined out his ass, much like Sirius did.

"We've heard it all, Prongs," Sirius settled for saying instead. "It's time for bed now." James glared at him for a moment and then stuck his tongue out at him.

"You're just jealous," he teased. Remus winced on the other side of the room, but James didn't notice. Sirius said nothing in reply, but pulled shut is curtains and extinguished the light with a flick of his wand.

As he listened to James stumble and curse as he tried to make his way back to his bed in darkness, Sirius pulled the covers up over his head. Yes. Yes he was jealous. His thoughts turned to some of his recent diary entries as he closed his eyes against the too-familiar sting of bitter tears.

It was time to write again tomorrow.