Jealously Wears A Green Mask | Jily

6: I Hate Lilies

"We need a costume Remus," Sirius said with derision, "not a reflection of my future."

"Vampires?" offered Peter, not without hope.

"Too common," James groaned, "I need to stand out."

"Werewolves?" the small boy tried again.

"No," Remus didn't need to wait for James or Sirius to reject an idea so poor, "What about professors? Or historic wizarding figures?" he tried instead.

"We lost a hundred points the last time we dressed up as professors," James reminded Remus dully.

"What if", Peter said, sitting up clearly excited about his new idea, " we go as each other?"

"That is a fantastic idea, Wormtail", Sirius replied, "and was also a fantastic idea when I had it in fourth year."

Peter slumped back down again, dejected, "oh yeah... sorry."

"Four houses of Hogwarts?" It was a longshot, but Remus was tired and disgusted with the entire situation.

"Who here volunteers to be Slytherin?" was Sirius's biting response.

"This is hopeless," James flopped onto the pile of clothes that had formed behind him, "we have nothing. There is no four-person costume waiting for us to discover it in this room."

"So, uh, not to tickle the hippogriff in the room but, maybe we should stop looking for group costumes ... "Peter's suggestion trailed off at the furious look on Sirius' face.

"We are Marauders Peter," Sirius barked, "Our group costumes are legendary."

"And expected," Remus shot, seizing on the light at the end of the tunnel that Peter had been so generous to point out, "I thought we were working to be unexpected."

Sirius blinked. He had a deep hatred of doing what was expected of him.

"Remus may have a point," James nodded slowly; "We don't have to do everything together after all."

"I... " Sirius sighed, "am outnumbered and tired. Fair enough. Now I'll just have to have the coolest costume around to show you all up."

"Challenge dealt," Remus acknowledged, digging in the pile of clothes beneath him for his wand, "now I just need to find my blue robes ... "

As is the way of things, in a fraction of the time that it had taken Lily to paint her nails, Remus, James and Peter were done making their costumes. Peter had donned a black jumper, whitened his face with some powder, slicked back his hair and, with James's careful help, elongated his canine teeth for the evening. The accidental bites he had already given his lower lip with his new teeth made for a perfect vampire look. James had simply changed the colors of his quidditch robes for the night, saying plaintively that they made him feel confident and was learning not to mess with a good thing. Privately Remus thought his choice had more to do with recent comments from female students on how nice James's bum looked in his quidditch robes than it had to do with confidence ... though really, he supposed, the two might be one and the same. Remus himself had opted for the classic 'young merlin' look, slapping some silver stars on his threadbare blue robes and transfiguring his quill into a hat to match. Predictably Sirius was dragging his feet.