Remus woke and found himself in a jumbled pie of limbs with Sirius Black, both of them turned back from their canine forms at some point. Sirius lay draped over Remus, his torso flat atop Remus's back, arms wrapped about his til their fingers wove together at the end.
Sirius's chin was tucked over Remus's shoulder and his earlobe was in Sirius's mouth.
"Sirius?"
"Hmm?" Sirius hummed, and bit onto Remus's earlobe slightly.
"Sirius. Why are you biting my ear?"
"Huh?"
"My ear. Why are you biting it?"
Sirius let go. He blinked, waking up a bit. "Sorry. Didn't know I was."
There was a loud sound of a clearing throat behind them and both of them shifted to look.
James and Peter stood at the door of the Howling House, James pointing with his thumb at a large bit of parchment, which Peter was pointing out as though he were a game show hostess displaying a grand prize.
HOWLING HOUSE RULES, the parchment read.
1. No sex in the Howling House.
Remus flushed.
"Well how else is it going to be a howling house the other 350-odd nights a year?" Sirius demanded.
Lily was asleep in front of the hearth, curled up on the floor. She was surrounded by her books, though only a partial sentence had been copied over, and the letters she'd written were jagged and uneven compared to the other pages she had copied so far... and to think they'd taken thrice the effort.
She had spent the entire night trying to get further along in her work, but however hard she tried, she had felt such excruciating pain that she had to stop, to rouse herself from the attempt. She'd felt torn apart, and she remembered having read about a witch who had been executed by being tied to four separate horses and each sent galloping in a different direction... It had felt like all the sinew and muscle had been stretched and the bones only just holding their joint.
She woke now, stirring, hearing the boys voices carrying from the basement. They were talking loudly, laughing; a good sign. She jumped up and gathered the books quickly, slamming closed the covers and hurrying to the stairs. Roger followed her and she ran up to the bedroom and put the books down on the table by the bed.
"Evans! We're back!" James's voice carried through the house.
"Coming!" Lily said, and she threw on clothes, casting her nightgown over the back of the desk chair, and hurrying downstairs.
Remus was already seated, leaning back in the chair closest to the fire. Sirius had caught up the blanket from the floor and flung it about Remus's lap. James was adding wood to the fire, poking at it, and crouched before the hearth.
"Where's Peter?"
"Getting breaky," James answered.
Lily stood staring at Remus. He looked so exhausted. She'd seen of course when he came back, heard the others describe his change - even heard Remus describe it - but she had felt it. Or at least a taste of it. She wasn't so silly as to think she felt the whole of it. Certainly that unbearable pain she couldn't even keep her mind through five minutes of was only the tip of the iceberg compared to the hours of suffering Remus went through every month. For his entire life, too, from such a young age.
"Lily? You alright?" Remus's voice broke into her thoughts.
The irony of him asking her if she was alright!
"Yes, sorry," she said.
James laughed, "Evans, we asked if you had a good night and you sort of -- drifted off."
"Oh, sorry, yes I'm alright. And yes, it was a quiet night. Quiet because you lot weren't there!" She added the last bit on in a teasing tone, hoping it would convince them that she really was okay.
"ARE YOU ACCUSING ME OF BEING LOUD?" Sirius asked. Loudly.
"She would never accuse you of that, mate, who would?" James asked, "Quiet as a church mouse you are."
Sirius smirked at James, who smirked back, and Remus, recognizing the expression on their faces, said, "Evans, step back love."
"What? Wh -- James Charlus Fleamont Potter!" Shw shouted as James lunged at Sirius, and Sirius flung himself down to the floor so fast that James's body couldn't possibly compensate and he flipped over onto the couch in a somersault that sent him clear over the back of it. "Oh my gods!" Lily shouted.
"I'm awlrighhht!" came James's voice muffled from behind the couch, and a moment later his head popped up over, glasses askew, hair all mussed up. "Good ducking, Padfoot."
"Excellent tackling, Prongs. If only you'd landed me, you'd have really taught me a lesson. Reckon that couch has a thing or two to think about." Sirius grinned up from the floor.
"Honestly, are you twelve?" Lily asked, hands on her hip.
"Oh they did far worse at twelve, Evans," Remus said.
James grinned at her. "Yeah, Evans, you remember what we were like at twelve, c'mon."
"Toerags, the both of you," she said accusingly.
Sirius guffawed. "You loved it."
"I barely tolerated it, rather!"
"You got into mischief too, Lily, I remember," Remus said. "Going out to the woods with the rest of us and trying at stunning the Dark Lord and loads of other adventures you tagged along for!"
"Oh you --" Lily pretended at being quiet ruffled and went off to the kitchen to see if Peter needed help.
James laughed and fixed the blanket thrown over the back of the couch, fluffing the cushion he'd crushed, and set about running his hands through his hair to fix it.
"Whipped like an ass at a horse show, huh, Potter?" Sirius teased.
"-- like an ass at a -- Sirius, that doesn't even make any sense?" Remus intoned.
"Hushy, lover, Potty won't figure that out, he's thick, see. Any randomly assembled words will do," Sirius said, waving his palm at Remus to hush.
James said, "No rather that one I would've caught as making no sense, actually."
"See what you've done, Moonpie?"
Remus shook his head.
"You've disrupted the order of the universe. James is no longer thick."
"I'm not?"
"Oh. Looks like the order's back," Remus said.
Sirius laughed.
"Actually, you lot -" and James lowered his voice now, stepping 'round the couch to be closer to them. "I do have something to talk to you about. About --" he paused, held up one finger, and spoke in a louder voice. "Oi, Evans?"
"Yes?" her voice came ringing from the other room.
"Moony's craving a roast. You reckon we can get one for tonight?"
"Why me?" Remus asked, "Why aren't you the one craving it?"
Sirius grinned, "Yes he says he wants some potato jackets too!" He snickered at the look on Remus's face.
"Oh sure!" Lily came 'round the stair well to stand in the living room door, "I'll have to pop over to the grocery. Oh but it was such a cute little grocery! James, it's the one we visited the day we got together isn't it?!"
"Yeah I reckon, only one in Godric's Hollow."
Lily looked pleased and said, "Oh and Peter was just talking about getting snacks for the Howling House. Make a list of what you lot would like and I'll pick it up while I'm gone." She raced up the stairs.
James looked at the other two and smirked, then dove for his wand - which had fallen out of its scabbard and onto the floor when he'd somersaulted over the couch - and magicked a parchment and paper. "Here we have it," he announced, "What do you lot want from the grocery?"
"What's this got to do with what you wanted to talk about?" Remus asked.
"Obviously we're getting rid of the Missus," Sirius said lowly.
"Oh. Right," Remus said, catching on.
"And I call you thick, am-I-right, Prongs?" Sirius said, rolling his eyes.
"What?" James looked up from where he'd started writing stuff down.
"Oi, I'm surrounded," Sirius muttered, shaking his head, then immediately launched himself over the coffee table, "Ooohh - OH! James, put down those biscuits I like."
"Milk-Bone?"
"Shut up, Lover."
Soon they'd made quite a list indeed (and yes, the Milk-Bones were on the list) and Lily and Peter headed off to go and buy groceries while James and Sirius opted to stay and continue nursing the poor, ickle Moony back to health... and the moment the door closed behind them, James turned to the other two.
"Alright, so, Evans's birthday is just 'round the bend and I want to take her on holiday - we haven't done our honeymoon yet and with -- you know, everything that's gone on since the wedding - well, she originally said she would be perfectly happy staying right here for our honeymoon because there wasn't anything she wanted to get away from. But now I reckon we could use one and I really need you lot to help me out with it."
Sirius grinned, "You should go to Costa Rica! And sleep in an orange grove and have loads of dirty nasty sex right under the stars on the beach."
"Just bring a blanket. The sand is murder getting out of... everywhere," Remus intoned.
James made a face, "That's alright, I don't think we'll be doing that."
"It's loads of fun," Sirius said, "I know. We did it. Multiple times." He grinned.
"And I reckon that I'm still picking sand out of... everywhere," Remus muttered.
Sirius waved Remus off. "It's worth it, honestly."
"I was thinking of Paris, actually. We're going to be going to Lyon soon anyway --"
"THIRTY-EIGHT SLEEPS TO FREDDIE!"
"-- and you lot could catch us up there when it's time for the show. Then we have a couple of weeks on our own to have a bit of romance --"
"Se faire baiser," Sirius said in perfect French.
Remus's head nearly popped off it spun 'round to look at Sirius so quickly. "You know FRENCH?"
"Oui," Sirius answered. "Mother made me and -- made us learn French and Latin. I'm fluent in both those - as well as pig latin." Sirius puffed himself right up. "Imyay ayay entlemangay." He snorted. "Well, that actually worked out better than I thought it would. Pig Latin speaks truth."
"You've been hiding that you know fucking French from me for eight years?" Remus demanded.
"Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?" Sirius asked.
"That one I know - thank you Patti Labelle." Remus said. "Also, oui."
Sirius grinned wickedly.
"So what do you lot think?"
"I think vous should definitely coucher avec Lilith ce soir," Sirius said, nodding.
"I mean about Paris!"
"I think you lot should go," Remus offered. "And we'll watch Roger for you while you're gone, of course."
"Bleedin' cat," Sirius said, glancing at Roger, who was scratching on the edge of one of the couches lazily.
"This is lovely, just you and me, going on an outing, isn't it?" Lily said, as she walked side-by-side with Peter down the sidewalk. Her thumbs hooked through the shoulder strap of her purse and Peter walked on the edge of the curb so his left foot trod on the street and his right foot on the curb.
"We never do anything just you and I," Peter agreed, nodding.
Lily said, "You're right, we don't and we ought to change that."
"Yes we ought," Peter agreed.
Lily smiled and watched Peter walk for several beats, thinking how childish and adorable it was, the way he was dawdling along. The word wholesome came to mind.
When they go to the grocery, Peter insisted on pushing the cart, and Lily let him, walking a couple paces ahead as she led the way through the store, pausing here and there to fulfill the requests on the list James, Sirius, and Remus had given her. Peter held up some chocolate bars, "If he didn't put chocolate on the list, then it's because he's so exhausted, but we both know chocolate is very important for Remus!" he said, putting them into the cart. "And me, too. I like chocolate also. Just not as iconically as Remus does!"
Lily laughed and crossed chocolate off the list, for it had not been forgotten, and collected the actual tin of human biscuits that Sirius liked, assuming that the Milk-Bones request was some sort of code. Though she did actually buy a small box of Milk-Bones, too.
They got all the things needed to make a right good roast - all except for one thing, that is.
"Peter, d'you reckon you could pop home with the bags? I have a quick stop I need to make."
"Sure," Peter said. "Where should I tell the lads you've gone? They'll ask, you know."
"Tell them I ran down to another shop and didn't say what one. I'll be home shortly." She waved him off, then hurried down the street. When she was sure he was distracted, she disapparated.
She apparated in Hogsmeade, not too far from the Three Broomsticks, and hurried down the road that ran through the town. It was much colder in Hogsmeade, so she was shivering fairly well by the time she arrived at the little blue house where Professors McGonagall and Urquart lived together - with Dora Potter in the even tinier house in their backyard. She slipped through the fence and 'round to the back and knocked on Dora's door.
The door opened after several beats had passed.
"Lily honey!" Dora greeted her with surprise. Her hair was messier than usual and she hadn't put her face on. "I didn't know you were coming - is James --" she glanced around.
"No, just me," Lily smiled. "I'm sorry to catch you off guard. I was just hoping you might tell me some pointers about making the roast you're so famous for. Remus is craving and James asked for a roast and -- here I am."
"Oh I can whip one right up for you!" Dora said, excitedly, lighting right up,
"Oh Mrs. P, I was rather hoping you could tell me how to do it, so I can make it for him," she said.
"Oh - right of course, what am I thinking?" Dora laughed, shaking her head, "Come in, come in. I'll write it down for you." She opened the door wider, making way to let Lily in.