A/N: This is my third Marauder fic, all part of the same series! Thanks to everyone for their crazy enthusiasm! Enjoy!
Prologue – An Unpleasant Surprise
Lily Potter peeled off her sweaty denim shorts, revealing her simple bikini. Closing her eyes, she dove into the pool, the clear blue water engulfing her luxuriously. Swimming the pool's length, she climbed out at the other end and returned to her chaise lounge, drying her hair and picking up her book again. Here in Phoenix, Arizona, most people only stayed in the water long enough to cool off before returning to their tanning beds. While Lily loved to swim and didn't tan, thanks to her long, red hair, her book was to interesting to put down, and the sun's rays were enticing, calling out to her. Wizards can't get melanoma, they said. Fall asleep and let me have my way with your skin. With a small smile, she put on her sunglasses and closed her eyes behind them, basking in the sun like a cat.
James Potter, her new husband, broke the water's surface and climbed out, smiling at the sight of his wife asleep in the sun. After a week and a half of marriage, he still couldn't believe that she given him her heart and taken his forever, promising to treasure it as much as her own. A chuckle escaped his lips as he remembered the old days of their friendship, and the even older days of their enmity. All that seemed like a blip on the map of their past, and their future spread before him like those scary four-lane highways that crisscrossed over Phoenix. James was looking forward to every minute of it, as long as Lily was by his side. She smiled as she curled her legs to her in her sleep, and James saw a shadow of a handsome man with long, black hair standing over her sleeping form and smiling wickedly. Shit, James thought, surreptitiously performing the Bubble-Head Charm and sinking to the pool floor, thinking that Lily couldn't kill him if she couldn't find him.
Lily was dreaming that she was performing with the Beatles. She was screaming "Carry That Weight" at the top of her lungs when Sirius Black appeared in the front row, jumping up and down and waving his arms. "Lily! Ev-Potter! Lilyflower!" Suddenly, he threw a bucket of water onto her face and she woke, spluttering.
Sirius Black was standing over her, flicking drops of water in her face. "Sirius!" Lily screeched, enraged. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Underwater, James cringed, listening to her tirade. Maybe I'll just stay down here for awhile…he thought, looking around the bottom of the pool. She's going to nail Sirius' fun bags to the wall.