My family, back when I would consider us one, was never huge on Easter. We would categorize ourselves as Christians, sure, and maybe once a month we'd make an appearance at our local church, but aside from the baskets of store bought candy and chocolate bunnies that awaited Theo and I every Easter Sunday, the holiday didn't have much meaning for my dear brother and I.
This indifference was not the case, however, for James Potter and, consequently, the group of friends he had accumulated over his 18 years of life.
The boy's awakening shrieks echoed in my dreamlike state, the words "Squid" and "Moony" rattling around my subconscious until I was torn from my peaceful sleep.
Through the harsh white light peeking over the horizon, I could make out James's tall, energetic figure, which was bouncing rather annoyingly on the edge of Remus and my bed. He was fully dressed in jeans and a button down shirt, which was quite the improvement from his usual athleticwear, though his hair was still unbearably sticking round in all directions.
I rolled my head to the side to find that Remus had shoved one of the royal green pillows over his face in an attempt to drown out James's cheering.
"Jimmy," I groaned, rubbing my knuckles into my eyes. "What time is it?"
"Already six thirty!" He replied urgently. He concluded his jumping so now he was merely standing over the two of us.
"That's thirty minutes earlier than last year!" Remus cried, his words muffled through the pillow.
"We have a lot to do!" James protested. "Besides, I woke you two lovebirds up last."
He clamored down from our bed and stood beside me. With both hands he pulled away the warmth of the covers, leaving him and me in a standoff, waiting for the other to break.
"Come on, Squid," he said, extending his hand. "It's your first Marauders Easter!"
I glared at him and his hand momentarily, but eventually accepted it and let James hoist me out of bed. I knew he had too much pride to give in, and at this point I was cold and awake anyways.
I walked around the foot of the bed to Remus's side and ripped the pillow from his grasp. He let his hands fall defeatedly to his sides and stared up at me with wide eyes, as if begging for me to spare him.
"If I'm going, you're going," I stated, reaching out my hand the same way James did.
Remus glanced over my shoulder at James, who was now grinning eagerly and bouncing slightly on his toes, and back to me before huffing and taking my hand.
"You owe me," he grumbled, rubbing his eyes.
"I'm sure I'll think of something," I replied with a smile.
"Gross!" Exclaimed James, slamming his hands over his ears as we exited the room.
The three of us descended the large staircase and entered the kitchen where, as promised, all of our friends were already awake and eating breakfast. Though, of the seven of them, only Alice, Peter, and Lily seemed relatively conscious.
The three of them were happily chatting with each other, the remaining teens being too tired to speak, and they all had on outfits of the same style as James. I wondered what time James shook them up.
Remus and I filled our plates and he followed me to a seat beside Marlene, who was still in her pajamas and had her head flat on the table as Dorcas held her, Marlene's, hair out of her oatmeal.
"Morning," I said dryly, plopping into my seat.
"Morning," Dorcas repeated with a yawn, lifting her head off of her other hand briefly to give a small wave. "Did you get a time table?"
"A what?"
"James gives them out every year," answered Remus, who was now poking around at his eggs.
"You mean James scheduled our day?" I asked, glancing down the long dining table at the psycho black-haired boy who seemed to either not hear our conversation, or be completely blocking us out. "Are you serious?"
"No," came a slow and tired voice across from me. "I'm Sirius."
I threw my scone at him.
"He did make a schedule for today, though," said Alice from Sirius's left. She placed her knife down carefully and took a small bite of her toast before dropping her voice to a whisper: "We've learned it's best to just go along with it."
"Easy for you to say," chimed Frank, another seat to the left. "You're quite the early bird."
Frank was fully dressed like James, Alice, Lily, and Peter, but he did not seem nearly as pleased about it. The topmost buttons along his wrinkled shirt were undone, and his hair was slightly disheveled. He also wore a very exhausted expression, and had his head on his hand like Dorcas's.
"Some things are worth waking up for," stated James from the head of the table. Apparently he had, in fact, been listening.
"I'm fucking Jewish," answered Frank below his breath.
"Of course they are," agreed Lily, who was situated beside James and had not heard Frank's comment. "Just maybe not at five in the morning?"
"Well, that's how things go when you're dating me, my dear Lilyflower," cooed James. He picked up Lily's hand and pressed a mushy kiss into her knuckles.
"PDA!" Cried Remus and I simultaneously as Sirius blanched and pushed away his bagel.
"I only kissed her hand!" Argued James.
"Yeah, you want some real PDA?" Asked Lily, her hand moving to James's shoulder threateningly.
"No!" We shouted, all of our grogginess wearing off instantly. Remus covered Peter's eyes.
Our breakfast was cut short, seeing as we had overrun James's allotted time period, and Remus and I, along with the other "late" risers were ordered to change into 'proper Easter attire'.
Following Lily and Alice's 'cute but casual' lead, I pulled on a pink sundress and left my hair down and natural. Remus slipped into jeans and a light blue button down.
"Looking quite dapper, sire," I said with a curtsey and a posh accent as we prepared to leave.
"You as well, madame," Remus replied with a bow and a smile.
The two of us returned downstairs to find our friends situated in the living room, all standing in a semicircle around James, who was now sporting a white and fluffy Easter bunny suit, with a stack of woven baskets in his hands.
Remus and I had to pause at the bottom of the steps to let out our laughter before we joined the group.
"There are 70 eggs hidden around the house," the bunny said officially as he passed the buckets around one by one. "At eight o'clock you'll all meet back here to conclude the hunt, and we shall see who collected the most."
Remus rose his hand.
"Yes, Moony?"
"I just wanted to say how personally egg-cited I am for this year's hunt."
There was a general groan amongst the girls but Peter and Sirius were snickering eagerly. James seemed to miss the joke.
Sirius rose his hand next.
"Question," he said before James could call on him. "Do you expect this to be a lot of egg-cersize? If so, I need to get my hares in check."
"No," answered James thoughtfully. "Most of them are hidden inside, I think you'll be fine."
"Egg-celent," said Peter.
"I have something to say," Marlene said with a sweet smile. "Can you lot 'hoppily' shut the fuck up?"
"That wasn't very funny-bunny," quipped Remus, his face much more straight than it should have been.
"Yeah," nodded Frank. "Someone seems to have their ears in a twist."
"Hoppin' mad, she is," said Peter, a look of horror on his face.
Marlene slammed her forehead repeatedly into Alice's shoulder.
"Well," Sirius intervened, clapping his hands together once. "Let's hop to it, shall we?"
James let out a laugh.
"Get it?" He said excitedly to Lily. "'Hop' to it? Good one, Pads!"
"Thanks, honey bunny."
By the time we exhausted the areas with eggs in plain view, the sun was gleaming high over the trees. The heat was intoxicating and I felt entirely free in my flowing mini dress as Remus and I exited James's house and my bare feet touched the dewy grass.
Remus, however, apparently felt more trapped than I.
"Why are you still following me?" He cried with exasperation.
"We're partners!" I replied with a wide grin, my hand reaching out for his.
"I don't recall Prongs allowing partners," Remus stated, holding his hand out of reach but returning my smile.
"I installed the rule myself," I asserted proudly.
"Oh, did you?"
"Indeed."
"Fine," he caved, intertwining his fingers with mine. "But if I find out that you're only using me to find more eggs-"
"Me?" I gasped, slamming my hand over my chest. "Never!"
Remus laughed and a swift breeze washed through us both, blowing strands of his coffee colored hair off of his forehead and allowing the golden sun to truly illuminate his softened features.
He bent down and quickly kissed my cheek.
"Oh!" He said as he pulled back. "I see one."
"Where?" I asked, whirling around to follow his eye line.
"Can't tell you," he replied teasingly, walking around me and toward one of James's shrubs.
"But we're partners!"
"It's still a competition," he shrugged, plucking a pink and blue striped egg out of the bush. "Which I intend to win."
But, Remus did not get to place the egg in his basket. He was quickly toppled over by Peter, who dove into him out of nowhere, and Sirius scooped up the egg and took off across the lawn.
"Victory is mine!" He cheered, holding the egg high over his head as his long locks of black hair whooshed out of sight.
"That's 28!" Peter called, jumping now to his feet. "Thanks, Moony!"
And Peter took off in a sprint after Sirius, no doubt to steal more eggs from Alice and Frank, who were looking around James's outdoor fireplace.
Laughing, I went over to help Remus off the ground.
"What were you saying about the partners?"
"I hate you," he said, brushing himself off.
"No, you don't," I said with a small laugh. He looked down at me with furrowed brows for a moment before cracking.
"Fine," he said. "I don't."
As it turned out, James was not happy with the pairing of Sirius and Peter, and Remus was elected the winner of the egg hunt. His prizes included an assortment of chocolate as well as simple bragging rights; it was truly surprising that of the two, he enjoyed the winner's title more than the candy.
"Feed it to me," he directed during our outdoor lunch.
We were all spread around James's lawn, each with differing blankets and plates of food. Remus and I were eating sandwiches and various fruits, and Remus seemed to think that being lord of the eggs gave him some sort of superiority over me.
He tipped his head back, closed his eyes, and opened his mouth, waiting for me to drop the grapes in for him.
"You're dreaming," I stated, popping a grape into my mouth instead.
Remus dropped his chin down in mock offense.
"You dare disrespect the king?"
"I dare."
"You shall pay for this, peasant."
"Ooh, I'm scared."
"You should be!"
"What are you gonna do? Cut off my head?"
"I might."
"Do it then."
Remus paused, a large smile working its way across his face. I continued to pull grapes from the bunch in my hand, failing to hold back a smile of my own. Remus tilted his head and squinted slightly.
"Can't," he decided, reaching out and taking a grape from me. "I like your head too much. Wouldn't be right to cut it off."
"You'd better be careful with sentences like that," I said with fake seriousness. "Some people might get the wrong idea."
"People like you?" Remus laughed. I shrugged.
"Yeah, I'm really dirty minded."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Why did you say it like that?"
"Like what?"
"Like I was lying."
"Because you were lying."
"No I wasn't!" I cried. "It's true. I'm totally into, like, sex jokes.. And stuff."
"Oh, sure," Remus nodded. "I believe you."
"You just did it again!"
"Well I'm sorry!" He exclaimed, throwing his hands up exasperatedly. "You're just extremely innocent!"
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Am not!"
"Are t-"
"Oi!" Called James from a blanket off to the side. "What are you two bickering about?"
"Bitch baby here," I said, folding my arms over my chest. "Thinks I'm 'extremely innocent.'"
"And?" Asked Lily from beside him.
"And he's wrong?"
Lily and James both laughed.
"No, he's not," said James.
Remus breathed out a victorious laugh from behind me.
"Yes, he is!"
"Squiddy, I'm sorry, you're very vanilla."
"Oh, who asked you," I sighed, waving my hand at him.
"Don't be mad because I'm right!" James laughed.
"Right about what?" Joined Sirius from the other side of us.
"Nothing!" I said, desperate to close off the conversation.
"Syd thinks she's not innocent," said Lily through a bite of her sandwich.
Sirius burst into a new fit of annoying laughter and Lily, James, and Remus joined in.
"That's the best thing I've ever heard!" Said Sirius. He lifted his hands up and cupped them around his mouth: "Hey Marls!"
The blonde was seated across the lawn with Dorcas, but she spun around at the sound of her name.
"Syd doesn't think she's innocent!" Sirius shouted to her, drawing the attention of the rest of our friends as well.
"Syd?!" Marlene called back.
"Yeah!"
Marlene turned and said something to Dorcas and then the two of them began laughing as well.
"I really don't see why this is so funny," I mumbled.
Remus, who was the only one close enough to hear me, grinned and placed a hand on my knee.
"Aw, it's alright, darling," he said. "I love you, even if you are very plain."
I pushed his hand off of me.
"I hate you," I said.
"No, you don't"
I looked up to meet his crinkled and drowning eyes.
"Fine," I said. "I don't."
______
A/N
ok hi!!! lol sorry that chapters have been rlly unpredictable lately... but if you follow my tiktok you'll be more in the loop🙄🙄
ALSO 200K STFU THANK YOU LOVE YOU
song: la da dee - cody simpson
how it applies: vibes asf