"Come onnnn," I whined. "Everyone else is already down there!"
Remus looked up at me with a large smile. In his arms he was holding James and Lily's new son, Harry, who was finally asleep after hours of crying. Remus was bouncing lightly on his toes and swaying the baby back and forth.
"I've just gotten him to sleep!" He protested. "Why are you trying to steal my moment?"
I laughed slightly and crossed through Lily and James's room, stepping over packed boxes and bags until I reached the crib where Remus and Harry were. I peered over the blanketed baby, his thick black hair already growing over his forehead after just two months, and kissed his small forehead.
"Come on, Uncle Moony," I said, kissing Remus's cheek as well. "You'll have your chance to put him to sleep again."
"That's not true," Remus said, frowning down at the baby. "He hates me."
"Aw, don't worry," I cooed, ruffling Remus's hair. "He loves Aunt Squid. I can teach you all the tricks."
Remus narrowed his eyes at me and reluctantly slipped Harry into his crib. He took my outstretched hand and his frown wiped into a smile.
"Alright," he said. "Let's go."
I threw my hands into the air, his still grasped in one of them, and cheered quietly so as not to wake up Harry. Remus and I stepped back through the empty room and carefully shut the door before walking down to meet our friends in the living room.
"YOU'RE BLOODY WRONG!" Marlene's voice yelled.
"I'M BLOODY NOT!" Retorted James's.
Remus and I looked at each other with wide eyes as we turned around the bottom of the stairs.
"Sure you wouldn't rather go sit with the baby?" Remus asked hopefully. I rolled my eyes.
"Come on, you grandpa," I said. "It's our last night before everyone moves away!"
"Okay, okay," Remus sighed, following me to a seat beside Peter.
"What are they shouting about?" I whispered to the sandy haired boy as I pulled over a bowl of crisps.
"The correct way to play UNO," Pete whispered back, his wide eyes never leaving the arguing pair.
"Squid," James said shortly, turning to face me. "Do you stack the plus two cards? Or play them separate."
I looked around at the expectant and somewhat violent group around me as I processed whether I should answer or not.
"Um, stack them?"
"THANK YOU!" James cried, throwing his hands out and facing Marlene again.
"You stack them?!" Remus asked from beside me.
"You don't?!" I replied.
"SEE!" Interjected Marlene. "IT'S UNFAIR. REMUS GETS IT."
"THAT'S BECAUSE MOONY IS A BITCH BOY!" Said James.
"Bitch baby," I corrected.
"BITCH BABY!" James repeated.
"I don't even know what's happening," Peter mumbled honestly. I laughed a little and reached to pick up a section from the pile of cards on the coffee table we were seated around.
"These are plus twos," I said, pulling out a red and yellow card with the '+2' symbol in the corner.
"And when the player before you puts it down you have to pick up two cards from the deck," Remus explained.
"Yes, thank you mansplainer," I said dryly. Remus put both hands up and moved away as I continued. "But, if you have a plus two, you can put your card down and then the next person has to draw four cards."
"Except those aren't the rules," said Remus.
"Bitch baby, I swear to God."
"Sorry, sorry," Remus laughed, pulling a crisp from the bowl.
"And it just keeps going until someone doesn't have a plus two and then they pick up however many cards had been added up."
"That sounds evil," Peter said.
"IT IS EVIL!" Cried Marlene. "SEE?! PETE AGREES!"
"Well, I never said I agreed."
"HA!"
"I think that way is more fun," Peter shrugged.
"DECIDING VOTE!" James cheered. "PETE IS THE DECIDING VOTE!"
All of a sudden a loud wail could be heard upstairs and Alice and Lily's eyes connected over the table.
"I think that's Nev," Alice said, making a move to push herself up.
"I'll get him!" Remus said, jumping to his feet before Alice could. "This one actually likes me."
"Does he, though?" I asked, Remus narrowed his eyes at me as he walked to the stairs and I stuck my tongue out at him.
"Okay, ready?" Lily asked, shuffling the UNO cards and dealing them around.
"You losers are going down," I grinned.
By the time Remus returned downstairs, James and I were narrowed down to three cards each, Peter had four, Marlene had quit, Frank, Alice, Dorcas, and Lily were well away from winning, and Sirius had obtained half of the deck.
"You winning?" Remus asked, dropping down beside me and kissing my cheek.
"Obviously," I replied as Sirius put down a yellow reverse card and sent it back to me.
"HA!" I cried, slamming down a yellow 2 and staring at James, who had just effectively been skipped.
"PADFOOT!" James yelled. "I THOUGHT WE WERE MATES!"
"I HAVE THE WHOLE FUCKING DECK, PRONGS, WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?!"
"USE A DIFFERENT CARD THAN THAT!"
Lily, who was seated beside Peter, reversed the direction again.
Peter placed down a blue 7, changing the color and flipping impatiently between his final two cards.
"Which one should I use?" I said quietly to Remus, showing him my last two cards.
"That one," Remus replied, pointing to a blue plus two and resting his head on my shoulder. I played the card.
"THAT'S WHAT YOU GET!" James shouted, still upset over Sirius's card betrayal.
"Uno," I said casually.
"YOU WANT ME TO USE A DIFFERENT CARD?!" Sirius cried. "THERE."
He slammed down a blue plus two of his own and James erupted.
"TAKE THAT BACK."
"YOU CAN'T TAKE BACK A CARD ONCE IT'S BEEN PLAYED!" Peter and I yelled together.
My opponent and I then turned to face each other suspiciously, each of us shielding our small decks.
"NOW YOU HAVE TO DRAW FOUR BECAUSE OF YOUR STUPID RULES!" Marlene cried across the table.
"SHUT UP MARLENE," James fired back. "YOU LOST BY DEFAULT."
"LILY LOST BY DEFAULT WHEN SHE MARRIED YOU!"
"TAKE THAT BACK!"
"JIMMY, PICK UP THE DAMN CARDS!"
James's mouth snapped shut and he glared at me across the table before reaching out to draw four cards from the deck.
"I hate this game," he huffed.
The game moved around the circle, switching to green by the time it reached Peter again.
He flipped back and forth nervously between his two cards, looking up at me every few seconds as though my expression would tell him which card would prevent me from winning. I smiled sweetly in response.
Finally, Peter played a green five, keeping the current color. I sighed.
"Fuck," I said, handing my final card to Remus. "I don't have green."
Peter let out a breath of relief and James nodded victoriously.
"Shame," Remus said, shaking his head. "All she had was this wild card."
He threw the rainbow-colored card onto the pile with a grin that matched my own. James's head slammed onto the table and Sirius threw his large deck down beside it. Peter looked utterly depressed.
"Sorry, Petey," I said, ruffling his hair. "I did say that you were going down."
"We're playing again," James declared, picking up the deck and failing miserably at shuffling.
"Nope," said Marlene.
"No chance," agreed Sirius.
"I'm out," Peter added.
"Aw, c'mon," James whined. "You lot are so lame."
"Sorry, darling," Lily smiled, kissing his cheek and pulling the cards from his hands.
"I would've beaten you again, anyways," I teased.
"You don't know that," James said.
"Let's not start this again," Remus intervened, wrapping his arms around my waist and setting his chin on my shoulder.
"Oh, Rem, I meant to ask," Lily began as she tucked the cards into the box. "How's the new job?"
Remus breathed a laugh beside me - the new job was terrible.
"New job?" Marlene asked. "What happened to the Three Broomsticks?"
"No, he stopped working there a while ago," Dorcas said. "You were a cashier, right?"
"Was," Remus said simply. "Then a dishwasher, then a shelf stocker, then I got a desk job at Gringott's with Syd."
"Merlin," said Frank. "That's a lot of jobs."
"What happened?" Alice asked.
"No one wants to hire a werewolf."
It was quiet for a moment.
"Madam Rosmerta actually cared?" Marlene asked doubtfully. Remus shook his head, which was still resting on my shoulder.
"Nah," he said. "But the customers stopped eating the food. Eventually I just offered to leave."
"That's bullshit," James said. Remus shrugged.
"It's whatever."
"It is not whatever," Sirius said angrily. "It's bloody stupid."
"So, you're at Gringott's with Syd now?" Dorcas asked. "That's cute."
Remus shook his head.
"They didn't want me either," he said with a pitiful laugh.
"He works in a library now," I said. "That one off First Street."
"There's a library off First Street?" Marlene asked.
"No one expected you to know that, love," Dorcas said calmly, petting Marlene's hair. Marlene swatted her hands away.
"So, how is it?" Lily asked again. Remus smiled a little.
"It's fine," he said. "I just read all day."
"Why didn't you take that job sooner," Sirius laughed.
"Maybe I should've," Remus scoffed. "Would've saved me a lot of time."
I intertwined my fingers in his under the table and leaned my head carefully against his.
"Does it pay alright?" Lily asked. "I mean, you two are moving into a house tomorrow."
"It's enough," I said. "Besides, the bank pays pretty well considering I have to deal with those goblins all day."
"They're right wankers, those goblins," James nodded. "Lils and I had to deal with this nasty one when trying to set up our vault last month."
"Griphook?" I asked with a dry laugh. "Huge frown, half moon glasses?"
James nodded.
"Syd loves Griphook," Remus said sarcastically.
"Yeah," I nodded. "He's my fave."
"He's the one that switched the ink?" Alice asked amusedly.
"Yes!" I cried in annoyance. "The bastard is policing the brightness of the ink I use on forms that no one even reads!"
"So just switch to the darker ink," Sirius shrugged. I glared at him.
"You fucked up, mate," Remus chuckled.
"Sirius I'm gonna switch out your shampoo with one that smells only a hint stronger, and you have to use the new one."
"Okay," he said simply.
"And they're in the same packaging," I said.
"Okay," he said, this time with less assurance.
"And they come in large boxes with thousands of containers and no labels," I said.
"Why would they ship them in one box?" Sirius asked, beginning to cave into my frustration.
"Because they're idiots," Remus said quietly.
"And you can't tell which is which until you open them, but if you open one and it's the wrong sort, you aren't allowed to put it back."
"Why can't you put it back?" James asked.
"Because they're idiots," said Remus.
"So what do you do with it?" asked Frank.
"Pay for it," I said.
"And if you don't?" Sirius questioned.
"You get fired," I said.
"And if you use it to sign the forms?" Asked James.
"You get fired," I said again.
"That's ridiculous!" Sirius cried. "How can they do that?!"
"Because they're idiots," Remus said again.
"How can they even tell the difference?" Marlene asked. "I mean, if they're really that similar."
"Griphook always knows," I said, shaking my head.
"Always," Remus nodded with his eyes slightly wide.
"Maybe it's good that you got out of there," I said, craning my neck to the side to face Remus. He laughed a little.
"Probably," he nodded. "I might've murdered that goblin bitch if he came over to inspect my parchment again."
Remus lifted up his hand as if he were holding a paper to the light.
"Herm," he said in an imitation of the irritable creature. "Seems dark... Not quite legible." - he ripped the imaginary page in half with a shredding noise. - "Start again."
I rolled my head back and groaned.
"Every time he tells me to 'start again' I die a little on the inside."
"This dude sounds terrible," Frank said.
"Want me to take care of him?" Sirius asked without a shadow of humor. "I have some friends in high places."
"Thanks, Siri," I laughed. "But as long as he keeps paying me I'll use his stupid dark black ink."
"The offer stands as long as you need it," Sirius shrugged.
The ten of us fell quiet for a moment as the conversation died out. Our gazes flickered drowsily across the faces we knew too well and loved too much.
"I can't believe we won't be living together anymore," Lily said quietly. We all mumbled some sort of sad agreement in return and she sighed. "I'm not ready to be an adult."
"You've been an adult since we were eleven," Marlene laughed. "I'm the one who isn't ready."
"We'll be fine," I said. "Apparition does exist, you know."
"Not Syd telling us how magic works," Dorcas laughed. "Babe, you are the most Muggle washed witch I know."
"Well, I've only been a witch for like a year," I said.
"Three," Peter said beside me. I was almost startled to hear his voice.
"Three?" I asked in disbelief. He nodded.
"Our last year at Hogwarts was three years ago?" Alice muttered. Peter nodded again.
"That's mad," James said.
"Yeah," Sirius scoffed. "Now you're all parents and shit."
"Not all," Dorcas and I said together.
A loud cry wafted suddenly down the staircase and Lily groaned.
"It's like he can hear us," she said, pushing herself to her feet.
"I'll come with you," James said, standing as well. "We'd better hurry before he wakes up-"
A second wailing sound joined the first and Frank and Alice pushed themselves up as well.
"That's our cue," Alice smiled. "We'll come back in the morning to bring some boxes to your new houses, yeah?"
"Sounds great," Lily said, pulling the brunette in for a hug.
"We should probably go too," Marlene said as she and Dorcas stood up.
"Thank you for having us," smiled Dorcas, leaning down to hug Remus and I goodbye. "We'll come take some of your things over as well."
Everyone hugged everyone and Alice, Frank, Dorcas, and Marlene left quickly to return home. James and Lily disappeared to help Harry, whose cries instantly subsided, and Sirius went up after them to crash for the night.
"I'm gonna head up, too," Remus yawned. "You coming?"
I looked over to Peter, who still wore the quiet and slightly off put expression that he had picked up once our card game had finished.
"I'll be up in a minute," I smiled. Remus kissed my cheek and I watched him disappear up the stairs as well.
When I turned back to the boy beside me, he was looking intently into his palms.
"You okay, Pete?" I asked.
He bit the inside of his cheek and nodded shortly.
"You lying?"
Peter's eyes rose slowly to meet mine. His were round and a soft, sad blue.
"Still can't sleep," he said quietly with a weak smile. His eyes fell back to his lap. "Guess I missed my chance to come and get you, huh?"
I thought back to the night when he helped me fall asleep and I promised to do the same.
"I should've circled back," I admitted. "Pretty shit of me not to check up on you after that night."
Peter shook his head and looked up again, still with a wavering smile.
"No," he said. "It's alright."
"It's not," I said immediately. "You pushed me, it's only fair that I push you."
"Push me..?"
"Your turn to spill your guts, Petey," I smiled, spinning so that I was fully facing him with my legs crossed in front of me. "Give me all the trauma."
Peter's fragile smile widened ever so slightly and he turned as well.
"I just feel like there's so much pressure," he said. "Everywhere. For everything... It's like... It's like everyone is moving on and going up and I'm just... I'm just stuck."
"Stuck how?" I asked. Peter shrugged.
"I just feel like I haven't moved since Hogwarts. Everyone is getting married and having kids and growing in the Order and I'm just standing by and watching you do it... I miss when we were in school and I was right there with you."
I frowned.
"You are right there with us," I said. "Just because you aren't married with kids doesn't mean we've left you behind. Everyone moves at their own pace, Pete. We all just went much faster than normal."
Peter bit the inside of his cheek again.
"Pete, we need you. We aren't leaving you behind. I promise."
Peter's faded eyes met mine again and his eyebrows furrowed slightly.
"You aren't just saying that because you're supposed to?" He asked.
"No," I laughed. "No, of course not. Peter, you're the only one who looks out for all of us all the time. You know everything and how to fix it all. It must be draining."
He nodded carefully.
"It's okay to look out for yourself, too, you know," I said. "Stop focusing on us so much and worry about the things that are going on with you. It might even take some of the pressure off."
"You think so?"
"Know so."
Peter smiled again, this time a bit stronger, and I threw my arms open.
"We have to hug now," I grinned.
"You hate hugs," Peter replied suspiciously. I rolled my eyes and dragged him in.
"But you don't," I said. Peter laughed and his arms tightened around me.
"Yeah," he said. "I don't."
______
A/N
sad that they're moving out :(
but also cute syd & rem in their own house so yay
song: this side of paradise - coyote theory
how it applies: j like being there for each other idrk i just love the song lol