It was half three in the morning and Lily Potter lay in bed thinking about cheese and onion crisps. She bit her lip and rolled over, looking at the sleeping form of her husband, whose eyelids fluttered, dreaming. Roger lay curled in a ball on James's chest, one eye open and watching to see what Lily was doing.

"James," she whispered, and again when he didn't respond, "James?" She nudged his shoulder.

"Mm?"

"James."

"What?" James snorted and blinked, struggling to wake up. He squinted through the dark at her as she looked down at him.

"Cheese and onion crisps."

James blinked at her in confusion for a moment. "Is that some sort of crazy new position Padfoot's told you about?"

"No!" Lily shoved his shoulder, laughing. "Crisps, James."

James turned for his glasses from the night stand and spotted the clock as he shoved the frames on. He turned back to look at her. "Evans, it's not even four."

"I'm sorry, it's just - I cannot stop thinking about how brilliant a bag of Walkers would be," she said.

He stared at her for a long moment. "You're joking? At half three?"

Lily bit her lip.

"Where are we gonna get a bag of crisps at this hour?" he asked. "Market's closed."

"Dunno," she replied.

James rubbed his eyes.

"Do you reckon there might a shop in somewhere? Anywhere in England at all? London?"

James mumbled, groggily, "Probably..."

Lily was silently staring at him.

James drew a deep breath, then sat up, twisting up and off the mattress, his shoulders hunched, silhouetted by the moon light coming in the window. Lily squealed with excitement and got up, too. The pair of them dressed and James pulled on his Gryffindor jumper, jotted a note down that he slipped under Dora's door, and they headed down the stairs and out to the Astra.

The car hummed life. James was in the driver's seat. "You know it might take 'til after the baby's born to get to London the way I drive, yeah?" He joked.

"You'll be fine. Less cars at night. And the whole atmosphere is less..."

"Sirius," James supplied. "It's less Sirius."

"I was going to say less chaotic, but yes. Same thing."

It was actually quite a lot easier to drive with Lily in the passenger seat, James had discovered practicing with his wife over the last few weeks. Sirius tended to shout at him to hurry up and make jokes and sometimes James wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic in his instruction or not, but Lily was patient and clear. Not to mention it was nice when she slid across the bench seating and directed his hands on the car instruments. It made his heart go as fast as the car - or faster, even, given how everyone always told him he could use some more speed.

But mostly, it was peaceful being in the car with Lily. His thoughts sort of stilled the way they did when he was on a broom, except she was there, too, and he could steal glances at her smiling when the radio played just the right song and see how the sun played on her face through the windows.

Of course there was no sun just then, being an ungodly hour before dawn, the sky a lavender-blue shade, the night fading but not quite gone.

"You know Evans," James said, as they searched for the blessed shop with its lights on, "Mum warned me about this when we got married."

"What?"

"Cravings," James answered.

Lily laugher, "Oh did she?"

"Apparently she craved chocolate pudding with her crisps," James said.

Lily made a face, "Oh gods just the thought of pudding makes me sick..."

James said quickly, "Then we don't want that. Crisps alone it is, with more crisps on the side."

Although they found an open shop at a petrol station, where James ran in to buy the crisps she was craving, Lily suggested they just keep riding for awhile as she munched. She leaned the seat back a bit and the speakers crackled music as she ran her palms over her belly. James really was driving slowly and overly cautious still, but Lily didn't mind.

She was just happy to have her crisps.

"James?"

"Yes?" His eyes glanced toward her then quickly back to the road. The sun had come up by then, though the roads were still quiet and empty. They were nearly back to Godric's Hollow, having never gone to London but simply driven a loop 'round the countryside roads surrounding the wizarding village.

"Thank you," Lily shook the bag to indicate the half eaten crisps.

James said, "Of course, Evans. That's what I'm here for." He grinned, "I hope you'll consider this and keep me 'round a good long while. Yeah?"

Lily laughed, "Sorry, I married you, I thought I didn't have a choice but to keep you around now?"

"Nah. I take nothing for granted," he replied sincerely. "I'll earn my keep." He winked.

"I love you, James," she said.

"I love you, too, Lily," he answered.

She slid closer and lay her head against his shoulder.

They rolled on back to the Potter Cottage and he drove up the car park and came to the smoothest stop he'd yet done (only a small jerk of the brakes at the end this time). James jumped out and came 'round to open the door and offer Lily his hand as she got out of the car, the bag of crisps in her arms as they went inside.

Sirius was on the couch when they walked in. He turned about, kneeling, and looked over at them. "There you lot are! Where the fuck you been at half four in the bloody morning?"

James was helping Lily with her coat and hanging it up. "Went for a drive, Evans was craving some --"

"CHEESE AND ONION CRISPS??? Gimme!" Sirius saw the bag in Lily's arms and made grabby hands, which made Lily laugh and she handed them over to him. "Oh bloody hell," Sirius shivered with anticipation as he took the bag. "Been craving these - evidently with you, Lilith. Difference is when I told my husband I was he murmured 'piss off Sirius' and rolled over and went back to sleep. He didn't take me for a drive." Sirius rolled his eyes playfully - more teasing Lily and James than angry at his husband - and tore into the bag, cramming a mouthful in.

"Well don't eat all of them!" Lily said, hurrying over and the pair of them sat on the couch, legs up on the table, and passed the bag back and forth.

"You know what would be brilliant with these?" Sirius said, inspecting the next crisp he was going to eat.

"What?" Lily asked.

"A banana milkshake."

"Oooh."

James sighed, putting his coat back on, "Well, at least I know where there's an open shop, and now I can disapparate."

"Thank you darling!!!" Lily said.

"Yes, thank you darling!" Sirius echoed.

The shop keeper looked up when James came in. He watched as James walked to the small display of fruit, selected four bananas, and walked back to the counter, putting them down.

"Wife's pregnant, 'ey?" The shop keeper guessed.

James nodded and put his muggle coins down on the counter. "See you later, mate," he said, resigned to the fact that he'd be seeing quite a bit of the bloke in the coming months.

Gone to Prongsy's - kiss hug and a pinch on the bum!

If there were any question who the note had been from to begin with, there was none after reading the content. Remus shook his head. "Merlin help him," he muttered, picturing Sirius bounding out of the fireplace screaming for cheese and onion crisps.

Remus got up and got dressed and went out to the kitchen, carrying the bag of art supplies he'd purchased for Spencer with him. He put them on the table and set the tea kettle to boil. The post came as he was pouring the tea into one of his own conjured cups, and he paid the bird with an owl nut, then settled down with his tea to go through the post and read the Prophet.

He had an unexpected letter, however, and he plucked it up from the table, looked it over, and opened it.

It was from Harry Underhill.

Good morning, Mr. Lupin,

I hope this letter finds you well.

You might have heard that I've entered my name in for consideration as a nominee for the upcoming election for Minister. I am working hard on organizing my platform and planning my major points, and I have some questions for you regarding some particular legislature I wish to create. It would be most helpful if we might discuss over a cuppa.

Come by my place any time.

H. Underhill

Remus stared at the parchment.

"Well if I hadn't heard it from the papers, I reckon every bloody person in the country - and possibly a few other surrounding ones - likely heard it from Sirius's shouting about it..." Remus muttered, and he folded up the parchment, pushing it aside and unfolding the Prophet to see if there was anything going on he needed to be informed of. But the presses were running pretty much nothing but news of the detective's bid for the nomination for Minister.

He sipped his tea and read the main article, which detailed Underhill's work over the years in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and the Auror Training Center. The article spoke about Underhill's recognized family values, his strong beliefs in equality among magical species, and his prior work on several important cases from Scotland Yard, including prior work with two former muggle Prime Ministers and the Queen herself.

Remus was very impressed with Underhill, actually, having read all the details that were given in the article, and he wondered what on earth the interim Minister would have to even attempt to run against such an impressive resume.

The only thing that troubled Remus on the entire thing was that the article mentioned, almost off-handedly, that the reporter had reached out to several members of the Wizengamot and three out of the four had enthusiastically agreed Underhill would be an excellent candidate. The fourth wizard, it said, was Albus Dumbledore and he had regretfully reclined to give an opinion on Underhill, stating only that he would be interested to see who might run against him in the election.

Remus frowned at the paper, then glanced at the letter Underhill had written to him. Legislature, huh? Remus thought - It clearly had to do something with the werewolves, otherwise Underhill could have simply said what he wanted in the letter itself or consulted someone else - anyone else. But he'd written to Remus.

Remus decided he would give Underhill the benefit of visiting, but would need to consult with Dumbledore before he went too far in assisting the Underhill bid for election. At the very least, he thought, he could use the time talking with Underhill to perhaps attempt to get a bit more information about the case in Blackburn before he attempted to go and challenge Greyback.

Which he still had no idea how to do. Or how to talk to Sirius about it.

He glanced at a full moon cycle calendar they had on the refrigerator. It really wasn't too long before the next moon - and Dumbledore had insisted that things start moving sooner rather than later.

Spencer wandered into the kitchen, his hair a mess of bed head from the pillows he had smushed up to sleep on. He sank into the chair next to Remus and Remus waved his wand for another cup to appear before Spencer, the kettle pouring into the cup. Spencer watched with fascination, then looked at Remus. "Thanks," he said.

Remus waited for Spencer to start sipping his tea, then nodded at the bag of supplies on the table. "You might want to give those a go," he said calmly.

Spencer looked up, saw the sketchbook and supplies, and looked to Remus with incredulity. "You figured it out?" Excitement dripped from his voice.

Remus shrugged, "I guess you'll have to make a drawing and we'll see how well I've done at it, hey?"

Spencer grinned and shook his head, "I knew you were fucking brilliant Rey, but I had no idea --" and he tore into the bag with excitement, running a palm over the first blank page of the book. He was amazed when, at the touch, the page seemed to ripple like water and he looked up, grinning.

Remus smiled, and turned back to the Daily Prophet, where Harry Underhill blinked up at him from a photo on the front page.