Marauders - Always - Part One

Cheese and Onion Crisps

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."