Trouble (The Marauders Era» Sirius Black Fanfiction) *Editing*

9» Invitations

Chapter Nine

Invitations

<Discretion is the better part of valor>

<<<>>>

     James and Sirius stayed until it was time for Lily to go home that evening. The four said their goodbyes to her, Thea giving her a longer hug than usual.

     "You and Lily should visit us next time," James said. "But, I'm sorry Thea, there are no ponds in Godric's Hollow so you can't go swimming again- ouch!"

     Thea rolled her eyes as Lily punched his shoulder, but she couldn't hold back her grin. They had all agreed not to tell Aunt Ali about what happened at the pond; it would only stress her out.

     They watched as Aunt Ali engulfed Lily in a bear hug and squealed, "Oh I'll miss you so! Here: a going away present!"

     She then thrust a small, bulging paper bag into Lily's arms.

     "Don't open it till you leave! It's a surprise," Ali said, then hurried off to lecture the cab driver about his posture.

     "The surprise is a grapefruit," Thea said. "I got the same thing for Christmas."

     "Grapefruit is my second favorite fruit," she said, then turned to James. "Does Easter break sound good?" He quickly ran a hand through his hair.

     "Erm, what?"

     "For us to visit?"

     "Oh, right," James said. "Yeah, Easter sounds great!"

     "We have plenty of time to plan that out," said Thea, trying to hide her smirk.

     "See you at school then, Evans." James stuck out his hand for a hand shake, but Lily held out her arms for a hug. Then they both tried to correct themselves, and Lily held out her hand to shake and James had his arms out for a hug. With a cheery laugh, Lily dropped her hand and wrapped her arms around James' neck in a hug. Then, to everyone's surprise, she pulled away slightly and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. James froze, his face blushing red and his eyes wide. Lily said goodbye to Sirius, who was almost as shocked as James, got in her cab and left. Aunt Ali rushed back inside, shrieking about how she needed to color code the toilet paper.

     "Looks like it's your move, Potter," Thea laughed. At the sound of his name, he unfroze, a goofy smile spreading across his face. He leapt into the air triumphantly. His celebration didn't stop until he jumped on Sirius' back, who rolled his eyes and shoved him into the ground.

     James spent the remainder of that day with a smug grin plastered on his face, even during supper when Aunt Ali wouldn't stop trying to count how many pieces of carrots there were in the chicken pot pie. James finally stopped smirking when Sirius threw a snowball at his face.

     "What was that for?" James said, rubbing the snow off his face.

     "It's called a snowball fight, you starry-eyed buffoon!" Sirius said, making another snowball.  What followed was a very intense three-way snowball fight, their trash-talking becoming more and more obscene. It wasn't until Aunt Ali yelled at them to stop being so profane that Thea realized her neighbors were watching. She gave a small wave to the little old man next door, who scowled and tried to lecture them about their rambunctious behavior.