"You had ONE JOB, Wormtail!"

"I've said I was sorry."

"Sorry doesn't put food in my mouth without a bloody long walk to get it!"

"Let him be, he didn't do anything wrong."

"Yeah, what Lily's said."

"Oh kiss up to her because she snogs you, why don't you!"

"That's not why!"

"Of course it is! You'd be complaining the same as I am if you weren't guaranteed a good snogging later."

"As if you aren't?"

"Don't look at Remus that way - it isn't as though he's EASY."

"No, but you are."

"Moony, do you hear what they're saying about me?"

"Yeah."

"Aren't you going to do something about it?"

"Like what? ...Agree?"

"Bollocks. I'm not speaking to any of you!"

"Excellent. Now I'll be able to hear myself think for once."

Lily laughed as James smirked in Sirius's general direction.

Sirius stared at James, appalled.

Remus sighed, "Ah... walking in the woods with the Marauders. Never fails to be an exciting experience." He winked at Lily and Lily nodded.

Peter scurried, trying to keep up with the others, Sirius in the lead by several paces as they walked along the path that led from the Shrieking Shack toward Hogsmeade Village. Remus was hefted onto James's back, as his legs were bothering him with the full moon mere hours away.

Sirius complained, "I'm so bloody hungry."

"You ate like three squirrels in the woods last night," James said, "You're not an elephant, or a whale, or a dragon. You're a boy whose all of ten stone, at most. I think you'll survive a couple hours of hunger."

"The question really is," Remus said, "Whether we will all survive his whining about it."

Sirius said, "No, actually, the real question is whether Wormtail will survive having forgotten the food." He glowered pointedly at Peter's back.

Peter squeaked, turning about so he was trotting backwards to look at Sirius. "I said I'm sorry. And anyways, how do you expect a rat to carry all that food all the way across the forest, 'ey? Why don't you bloody carry it once in a while?" He nearly tripped, stumbling until James (and Remus via James's back) caught him and foisted him up again.

Sirius guffawed loudly and ruffled the straw coloured hair a top Peter's head as he steadied. "Aye and getting a tad feisty in your age, aren't ya Wormtail?"

Peter flushed and struggled to flatten his hair from Sirius's admonishments, his fat face screwed up in displeasure, and he hurriedly turned about and scurried a few steps ahead again.

James shared a bemused smirk with Sirius, who shook his head at Peter's retreating back.

Lily said, "Don't worry, Wormy, Sirius is just steaming because you've gone and told him off. Well I say - here, here! It's about time someone puts the dog in his place!"

"The dog!" Sirius cried, "The bloody dog, she calls me." He looked at Remus.

Remus shook his head, "Don't look at me, love, I'm not going to help you at trying to deny that one, either, I'm afraid. And honestly, you call yourself that all the time. I mean -- you are the bloody dog."

"It's the tone with which she said it!" Sirius said dramatically.

"The tone of an angel!" James proclaimed, grinning at Lily, who rolled her eyes and pushed his shoulder.

They were finally cresting the hill, coming down by the Hog's Head tavern, and so James took pause to allow Remus to slide from his back and walk the short distance remaining. Sirius breathed deeply, taking in the scents of dinner cooking just down the way, and grinned as he licked his chops. Lily giggled, thinking Sirius was truly living up to the part of dog in the action of it. The street was quiet and empty, save for the lot of them, as many of the inhabitants of Hogsmeade were afraid to be out in the dark on Full Moon eves. It was said that the spirits of the Shrieking Shack were particularly blood thirsty on such nights, and although many thought it to be perfectly safe in truth, few were willing to risk the chance of it unless absolutely necessary.

This suited the Marauders and Lily quite nicely, though, and they found themselves in a nearly empty bar room. James and Sirius went forward to order plates of food and the others crowded into a table by the hearth to warm up. Lily stared out the window as she waited for Remus to scoot in, taking it slowly for his knees. Suddenly she asked, "How do you lot carry things when you're —" she looked about to be sure no one would over hear her, "— changed?"

Remus finished shifting over and Lily sat beside him, leaving room enough for James. "Its like turning inside out I suppose you might say, everything packs up in the switch."

"But how?"

"I've a whole book on the physics of it, if you're interested," Remus offered. "I looked it up once in interest of where it all goes. Like the fellas' clothes and such. Very interesting read if you're into that lot." He thought of Sirius, who most definitely had not been into it when Remus had been reading it, as evidenced by the way he promptly fell right to sleep during the introductory portion and only woken up later to inquire whether Remus was ready to snog yet.

"I'd love to read it," Lily said, smiling.

"Read what?" James asked, dropping next to Lily, carrying three butterbeers. He slid one across the table to Peter and handing one to Lily.

"Your diary," Sirius injected before Lily could reply. He slid two butterbeer bottles to Remus. Remus caught them then, cringing, used his elbows to hold the table steady as Sirius sprang up onto the table and walked across to squash in between Remus and Peter.

"Really!" cried Lily as the table rocked beneath Sirius's weight.

James flushed as Sirius fwoomped down in his place. "I haven't got a diary."

"Yes you do," Sirius, Peter, and Remus said in unison.

James looked at Lily, "I haven't."

"Dear Diary," Sirius said in a voice mimicking James's, and holding up his hands as though writing in a book with a quill, "I want Evans, why hasn't she noticed me? It's been seven years of longing! Oh the dirty things I want to do with her! Every time I think of her I just want to --"

"Move out of the way! Hurry!" 

Interrupting Sirius was a great commotion that burst through the door like an explosion, sending a warlock whose fingers were nearly clutching the door handle spinning backwards out of the path.

Sirius's eyes grew wide. "Fuck. Teachers.... and DUMBLEDORE!" He hurriedly ducked beneath the table, pulling Remus and Peter with him, a terrific cascade of spilled butterbeer pouring over the top of Peter's head as the pint glass was knocked over in the hurry. James reached for his bag and pulled out the invisibility cloak, flinging it neatly over himself and Lily before the crowd of new arrivals had a chance to spot them.

Professors Tyre, Frek, McGonagall, and Urquart were all there, as well as Ned Veigler, Dumbledore, Mr. and Mrs. Scamander, her sister, and a good deal of other people came pouring into the Hog's Head. There was a surprised yelp and a crash of breaking glass as the lazy looking bar tender dropped a bottle of firewhiskey behind the counter at the sheer quantity of people having entered his usually quite empty establishment. "What's the meaning of all this?" he demanded -- and, not for the first time, Sirius thought that there was something oddly familiar about his voice that he couldn't quite put his finger on...

"Meals, Aberforth," Dumbledore called as he ushered the crowd in and they dispersed to various tables. They looked exhausted and run down as they moved to the tables. There was a funny brush of air against the leg of the first who sat at the table recently vacated by the Marauders, and a scowl as someone found the sticky spill of butterbeer on the seat... 

"I haven't got enough food to feed all these people!" the bartender snapped. "Bring'em to the Three Broomsticks! And the next time you've got a convention you'll be holding give the vendors of Hogsmead a bit of notice to stock up, you pompous old --"

But the Marauders didn't hear how the rest went for they'd used their opportunity to sneak out the door amidst the rush of incoming people, ducking past Queenie whose eyes followed the rushing footsteps in the snow, listening to their panicked worries of being caught and suspended. She smirked and glanced in Dumbledore's direction before deciding to let the kids whose thought she'd overheard just get away with something. She closed the latch on the briefcase and let the door slam shut behind her.

James swooshed the invisibility cloak back off as the lot of them reached the clearing heading back to the Shrieking Shack and they stared back down the lane toward the Hog's Head, the sign rocking gently in the air as smoke rose from the chimney stack in a fresh burst - someone must've set forth more logs on the fire inside.

"Who in the bloody hell were all those people?" James said, gasping and glancing at Lily to make sure she was alright.

Lily dusted something off his shoulder in response.

"Werewolves," Remus said quietly. "I could smell them."

Sirius raised his eyebrows.

They all looked at one another.

Peter stammered, "Well what are all those werewolves doing here?"

"Getting dinner," Sirius said, adding, "Unlike us."

"Oh hush, you big whiny prat," Lily snapped.

Sirius said, "I could nearly taste the chippies!"

James glanced at Remus, who was still staring at the Hogs Head door with wide, distrusting eyes. "Oi, it'll be alright, huh?" he said, putting a quiet hand on Remus's shoulder as Lily, Sirius, and Peter started bickering teasingly behind them. "Dumbledore's got whatever it is under control, I reckon."

"Yeah," Remus said quietly.

"You still look concerned."

"Sure," Remus answered, "I mean... werewolves. Loads of them. Whatever it is, it must concern me, too."

"Not necessarily," James said lamely.

Remus stared a little longer, then turned and said, "We better head back..."

"What about dinner?" Sirius demanded, hearing Remus.

"Someone will just have to make a run back to the castle," Remus replied.

"Well I'm not doing it this time," Peter said stubbornly.