The fire in the common room grate had been coaxed into a cheerful blaze without incident (mostly due to the fact that Sirius wasn’t allowed near it). True to form, Peter was in an armchair by the fire, snoring softly. The rest were roasting marshmallows (in a manner completely unlike that of roasting a chicken).
"Look what I can do!" said Sirius gleefully, holding his marshmallow in the hottest part of the fire, then pulling out a sugar-flamed miniature torch.
"You can light things on fire?" asked James, sandwiching a chocolate frog between his marshmallow and a graham cracker. "Congrats. Never knew you had it in you."
"Fine then," Sirius replied, somewhat put off that no one else found this as amusing as he did. "Look what else I can do!" Getting a new marshmallow, he tapped it with his wand and murmured an Engorgement Charm. The marshmallow was now roughly the size of his head.
"Um, Sirius?" said Lily as he skewered the massive marshmallow on a poker. "I don’t think that’s a very good idea..."
Remus seconded as Sirius thrust the marshmallow into the fire, "It’s probably going to—"
With a muffled whump, the Engorged marshmallow had erupted, showering everyone with bits of warm goo.
"Explode," he finished weakly.
"I meant to do that," said Sirius unconvincingly.
"Scourgify," Lily muttered, brandishing her wand at the flecks of sugar everywhere.
"You missed a spot," Natalie commented, pointing to a bit on Sirius’s nose.
"Oh, no, I didn’t," Lily replied sweetly. "I left that one for you."
"Lily," said Remus, picking another marshmallow to toast, "weren’t you the one complaining about them making out in a broom closet? And now you’re providing them an excuse to in front of us?"
"Must be the butterbeer," said James.
"Or the chocolate," said Sirius, grinning from Natalie’s efforts at removing the marshmallow (which shall not be described in great length here, as they don’t have words for that sort of thing). "No, wait; Remus ate all the chocolate."
"Did not!" Remus said indignantly.
"Then where did all those empty chocolate frog boxes come from?" James asked.
Everyone (even Natalie, who had concluded her endeavors) looked from the small mountain or rather large hill of boxes to Remus.
"I was hungry," he said, like a dejected toddler.
"Otherwise," commented Lily, "he would have probably tried to eat one of us."
"Craves fresh meat and whatnot," added Natalie. Remus pulled a face and lobbed an empty box at her head.
"And I was just thinking, ‘Gee, he hasn’t gone violent yet!’" James said, rolling his eyes.
"He went violent on me," protested Sirius. "You know, the entire trying-to- kill-me-with-a-large-pillow thing?"
"Well, yeah. But you deserved it. You know how touchy Remmykins gets about his girlfriend," Lily grinned, drawing the word out like a taunt.
"Shut up!" Remus said, blushing as he pelted Lily with several chocolate frog boxes.
"Aw, Moony," said James, "there’s no need to hide it. We’re your friends; we know you lurve her."
"Remus and Miri, sittin’ in a tree, k-i-s-s-..." chanted Sirius as Remus blushed furiously.
"I doubt they’d be sitting in a tree," said Lily thoughtfully. "I think she’s afraid of heights."
"Or at least trees," Natalie amended.
"The point is," Lily continued, "they’d be sitting on a stone wall, like that one time in Hogsmeade.."
"But—how did you—I thought—" Remus spluttered.
"Remus, my boy," said Sirius, clapping a hand on his shoulder, "when you want to snog someone and not be seen, I highly recommend not doing it in public."
"I’ll keep that in mind," Remus said flatly.
"It could have been worse," Natalie said comfortingly. "For instance, instead of spelling ‘kissing’, he could have spelled out—"
"So!" said Lily loudly. "Inconspicuous change of topic!"
"Aww, you’re trying to save Remus from more embarrassment," said James.
"No," Lily replied, "more like trying to save Nat from certain doom. Anyway, back to my change of topic. Where will we all be in ten years?"
"Where did that come from?" Remus inquired, his blush finally receding.
Lily shrugged. "Must be the butterbeer. So, Remus, where will you be in ten years?"
"I know where I’d like to be: normal," he said with a hint of irony in his voice. "I’d be a writer, if I could... But, anyway, I try not to think too much about the distant future," said Remus.
"Aww," said Lily. "Well, in ten years, that would be.." she did some quick mental math. "A hundred and twenty transformations."
"Actually, it would be more than that," added Natalie. "Some years have thirteen full moons."
"Thanks," Remus said flatly. "Because I was completely unaware of that."
"Oh, I’m sorry, Remus," said Lily, suddenly half-knocking him over with an abrupt hug.
"Um. Thanks?" he said when she released him.
"I can see you as a professor," said James, looking Remus over.
"You can take points from Slytherin for no good reason at all!" enthused Sirius.
"Well, technically, I can do that as a Prefect," said Remus.
"Yeah, but you don’t," said Natalie.
"Wait a second! So you’re saying that right now, you could say, ‘Five million points from Slytherin!’ and the hourglass would do it?" said Sirius, his eyes glinting.
"Um, I suppose, but Slytherin doesn’t have five million points," Remus replied.
"So?" countered Sirius. "You could still do it!"
"Moving on," Natalie said. "In ten years, Sirius, I see you in Azkaban."
"What?" said Sirius, looking aghast. "But I never get caught!"
Eating a s’more, Lily said, "One day, Sirius, you will. After setting off the world’s largest dungbomb at the Ministry of Magic."
"Don’t give him ideas," James said.
"Although I’d probably set off the world’s largest dungbomb in Snivellus’s front yard," mused Sirius.
"Natalie, where would you be?" asked Remus.
"I would, of course," said Natalie, "be beautiful."
"That’s not really a ‘where’," said James.
"Well," Natalie amended, "Wherever I’d be, I’d be beautiful."
"That’s my girl," said Sirius, sniffling fake tears.
"Get a room or something," said Lily.
"We already did," said Natalie. "But you didn’t want to hear about the broom closet."
"And I still don’t," Lily hastened to say.
"How about you, Lily? In ten years, what would you be doing?" James inquired.
"Maybe something with the Experimental Charms Committee," Lily said. "Or an Auror, or something with Magical Accidents and Catastrophes." She shrugged. "I don’t know.. James? What about you?"
"World’s best Chaser, I’d wager," Sirius grinned.
"Ah, yes," said Remus, opening another chocolate frog box. "And he’d be on chocolate frog cards, too."
"’James Potter,’" said Natalie, pretending to read off the back of a chocolate frog card, "’is most well-known for his complete inability to have a good hair day.’"
"Every day is a good hair day," replied James, tousling his hair. "But honestly," he said, "in ten years, I see myself married to Lily."
"Aww," Natalie giggled.
Feeling that the conversation had gotten too serious, Lily said lightly, "Funny, as I don’t see myself married to you."
"Huh?" said James, looking rather scandalized.
"Only joking," she grinned, patting him on the head. "Remus, we can take turns watching each other’s kids."
"All righ—Hey!" he said, going pink.
"Miri and Remus would have such cute kids," Natalie said.
"Werewolves can’t have kids," said Remus.
"Pups, then," said Sirius. "But imagine a two-foot-tall Remus running around."
"An ickle ickle Remmykins?" Lily said.
"He’ll teach himself how to read by age two, just so he can run around asking the other kids if they’ve read Hogwarts: A History yet, and then throw a temper tantrum when they haven’t," said James.
Remus rolled his eyes. "But yeah, werewolves can’t have children, because of the Ministry restrictions."
"How do you know this?" inquired Lily. "Did you just ask yourself, one day, ‘I wonder what the Ministry restrictions on werewolf procreation are?’"
"Actually," said Remus, "I decided to read the most boring book I could find. But someone had checked out Sirius’s autobiography, so I read up on the Ministry."
"Well, of course, there’s a two-week long waiting list for my autobiography," Sirius joked.
"And every single name on that list," replied James, "is Natalie A. Blackwood."
"Eh, it’s a fair cop," Natalie shrugged.
The five munched happily on their s’mores. "Should we wake Peter up?" Lily inquired.
"No way!" Sirius said. "I’d lose my bet!"
"I never agreed with it," said James. "And besides, the bet was just that he’d be asleep before four. It’s only three, and he’s been asleep for a while. So even if we were betting, you’d have already won."
"Well, I still say we shouldn’t wake him up," persisted Sirius. "He’d eat all the marshmallows."
"And my chocolate," said Remus.
"Nonsense. If anyone tried to get too close to your chocolate," James said, "you’d probably chew their arm off."
"After all," said Natalie, "you do crave fresh—"
"Can we drop the craving fresh meat thing?" Remus said, exasperated.
"Yeah, guys," said Sirius. "Show some respect for Moony."
"We do respect him," protested Lily.
"And you only respect him because he can take points away from Slytherin, Sirius," Natalie said.
"That’s besides the issue. And you know that’s cool," said Sirius. "Five million points from Slytherin!"
"Now I suddenly understand why Padfoot was never made prefect," Remus said.
"It took you that long to figure it out?" James said.
"You’re supposed to be the ‘intellectual’ one," Sirius said, using air quotes.
"Well, compared to you guys, being ‘the intellectual one’ doesn’t really say all that much," Lily commented.
"That’s mean," James said, fake sniffling. "Lily’s being mean."
"Why do you have to be so mean, Lily?" whined Nat.
"Stop being mean, Lily," Sirius said, his lip trembling.
Remus was about to speak, but Lily interrupted him. "Don’t you dare call me mean! I hugged you!"
"You only hugged me after you reminded me of my monthly misfortunes," Remus said melodramatically.
"Merlin’s beard...," Sirius sighed. "’Monthly misfortunes’? You sound like a girl, Remus."
Natalie said, "No wonder he likes chocolate so much."
"And I’m the mean one?" Lily said, holding back a laugh nonetheless.
"Fine," sniffed Remus. "I’ll just take my chocolate and go read a romance novel in the bath for some ‘me’ time."
"Told you he was a girl," James said.
Sirius wondered with a somewhat hopeful note in his voice, "Wait, would that make Miri a—"
"Silencio!" James said, waving his wand.
"No, it’s more of a jab," said Lily, and nearly poked Sirius in the nose as she did the charm. He opened and closed his mouth several times, and grabbed at his throat, looking surprised.
"So that’s how you do it," Natalie said. "I definitely need to remember that one.."
"Only joking," Sirius said, then confided to Lily, "I didn’t want you to feel bad."
"Lily messed up a Charm?" Remus gasped.
"Oh, shut it," Lily said. "It’s after three in the morning, after all."
"And the Butterbeer," Natalie said. "Don’t forget the Butterbeer."
"Or the sugar," Sirius contributed.
"She’s had a lot of chocolate, too," said Remus.
"But what if the Committee for Experimental Charms wants a late-night silencing Charm, and it’s Lily Potter on the case?" James asked, ignoring the other three.
"’Potter’?" Lily asked, quirking a brow.
"Whups," James said. "Slip of the tongue.."
"It does have a nice ring to it," Remus said ponderously.
"Want to know what else has a nice ring to it?" Lily countered. "Miranda Lupin."
Natalie, sensing another attempt at smothering looming over the horizon, said, "Anyway, silencing Charm in the wee hours of the morning?"
"I’d just make up a new one," Lily said in an overly patient voice. "Hence ‘experimental’."
"She’s got a point there, Prongs," Sirius said. He thought for a moment, then added, "Hey! That was a pun, wasn’t it!"
"I tried to smother him earlier, but, for some reason, you all stopped me," Remus said, rolling his eyes.
"You know," Sirius continued, "she also had a point when she said ‘Miranda Lupin’ had a nice ring to it."
"But.. but.. well, okay, it does, but still!" said Remus.
"Hm. ‘Natalie Black’," James said, grinning at the couple in question.
"It sounds like you’re forgetting half of her surname," Lily said.
"Whoa," Natalie said, her eyes wide. "I never noticed that." Suddenly, she snorted. "’October Pettigrew’," she said to Lily, who also snickered.
"Hold on a minute," said Sirius, shocked. "Who’s this October?"
"Wormtail with a girl? Are you sure October is even a name?" James inquired.
"Maybe it’s a guy.." Sirius said, slightly disturbed.
"No, October’s not a guy," Remus said. "She’s a Slytherin prefect."
"She’s a Metamorphagus," Lily added. "I’d describe her, but she changes her hair all the time, so it would be kind of pointless. The teachers often make her change it back to something somewhat normal, though.."
"For Quidditch, it’s often green and silver," Natalie said.
"Oh, I remember her," James said. "Psycho. Nearly distracted me enough with her ghastly hair to make me lose the last match."
"Not the team, or anything," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "You."
"But of course," said James, innocently. "I’m the only one that matters."
"I thought you said he lost his ego," Nat said to Lily.
"This is James being humble," Remus said.
"Two in one night!" Lily said. "You’re on a roll with the humour."
"Must be the butterbeer," Natalie and Sirius said at the same time, then smiled at each other.
James sniffed, "I didn’t think it was very funny."
Lily patted him on the head. "That’s just because you don’t get it," she said, patronizing him.
"I think it was the chocolate that has suddenly awakened my rapier wit," Remus said.
"No, because then you’d have always been funny. This seems like a one- night thing," said James.
"I’ll have to eat more chocolate frogs, just so I’ll have more empty boxes to throw at you," Remus sighed.
"I’m sure you’d hate to be forced to eat more chocolate," Sirius said.
Lily checked her watch. "The sun’s going to rise soon," she said. "Want to catch our last sunrise at Hogwarts?"
"I suppose we should wake Wormtail up," James said.
"I’ll do it!" Sirius said.
"No fire, this time," Nat cautioned. "I’ll go grab some blankets to sit on.."
"Aw, take all the fun out of it," Sirius sighed, then proceeded to rapidly poke Peter, saying "Poke!" with each time.
Peter jumped up from the armchair with a start. "What the bloody hell?"
"You, ah, fell asleep," Lily said, as she was the only one not laughing too hard to speak.
"Oh.. okay," said Peter, blinking. "Sorry about that."
"Quite all right. You say interesting things in your sleep, you know, about a certain October Nott," James grinned.
"Ew, no," Peter said quickly. "She scares me!"
"Eh, that doesn’t say much," Sirius said.
"True," Peter agreed, nodding his head solemnly. "But the fact remains.."
"The fact remains," Remus added, gathering up the remainder of the chocolate frogs as Natalie returned with a comforter, "that I like chocolate."