The Other War // James Potter & Lily Evans

beetles or beatles?;

To be brutally honest, James had forgotten the fact that it was Halloween. It took him a whole five minutes to work out why the ghosts were unusually cheery and why the castle was decorated with carved pumpkins. It was oddly warm in the castle, despite it being the end of October.

"Say, Mooney," James began, draping an arm across Remus's shoulders. "You don't know of any... I don't know... Halloween parties scheduled for tonight, do you?"

Remus grinned wickedly and counted on his fingers. "Well in know that there's Halloween dinner in the hall for everyone... I'm pretty sure the Slytherins have something going on in the dungeons-probably a blood sacrificial ritual, I don't know. The Hufflepuffs are in for the night, but what's the bet that that they won't be sneaking into the kitchen all night, eh? Ravenclaws... Got nothing. Gryffindors? I think one or two of the third years organised something to be held in the common room for all the Gryffindors. You could go if you wanted. I mean, you're Gryffindor. But if you do, you need to give me the password to your common room because I'm not going."

"I think I know who that third year was," James muttered. "Alright, well if you're not going, I won't either. Oh, and, dinner tonight. Do we have to dress up again?

"Yeah, just like last year." Peter said.

"What are we going as?" Remus queried.

"The Beatles!" Sirius exclaimed excitedly. "There are four of us. I'll be Paul, Remus, you can be-"

"Padfoot, I get the whole Halloween thing, but I'm not going as a six legged insect." Peter interrupted. "Plus, beetles freak me out."

"There's a specific beetle named Paul?" James added onto Peter's comment.

"No, you spastics." Sirius scoffed. "The Beatles. B-E-A-T-L-E-S not B-E-E-T-L-E-S. They're only the best and most brilliant muggle band in the history of most brilliant muggle bands."

"That spelling makes my head hurt." Remus observed. Sirius flicked his hair in Remus's face.

"I think," Peter said slowly from behind them. "Well, I don't know but I heard that the Quidditch pitch would be empty tonight. We could spend Halloween down there."

"Or down by the lake, that'd be pretty sparse too." Sirius added.

"Only because no one else is stupid enough to be down by the bloody lake at the end of October." Remus interjected. Sirius only shrugged and flashed a Cheshire Cat grin in Remus's direction. Remus sighed.

"It's an idea," James began slowly. "We could go down there and set off fireworks or something."

"Like they wouldn't notice fireworks madly blowing up in the Quidditch pitch from the castle." Peter pointed out. "Perhaps something else. Something that doesn't scream 'WE'RE BREAKING EVERY RULE!'"

"Bonfire?" James suggested.

"Smoke." Remus objected.

"Quidditch?"

"At night?" Peter squeaked. "Zero visibility? No thanks."

"Skinny dipping in the Black Lake?" Sirius sang.

"Yeah, just so we can freeze our balls off and spend Halloween with the giant squid, sure thing Padfoot."

-

The decorations that'd been strung up in the great hall almost covered the entirety of each wall, almost drowning out the enchanted ceiling. James let out a low whistle as the four of them took their seats at the table. The tables were rather bare, no food lay on the, which, since James didn't know what time it was, meant that they were either really early or really late for lunch. James's stomach grumbled in protest of the empty tables and Lily cast him an amused glance over her shoulder.