AN: This is for beeabeeon49 's 77 Chapter Challenge. I'm doing drabbles (or probably more precisely, a series of one-shots) of the time in between the Marauders' and Lily's graduation and that dreaded Halloween night.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the world in which he belongs.

1: Gold

Lily lay on her bed, with Marlene next to her. They both had their left hands raised above them, the dim light reflecting off the gold bands on their fingers as they compared and admired them.

"Dear Lord, give me strength," a voice interrupted and they twisted to see Meg rolling her eyes at them from her own bed.

"What?" Marlene asked.

"Please tell me you aren't lying there looking at your engagement rings?"

"So what if we are?" Lily asked defensively.

Meg got saved the trouble of replying as James ran into the tent screaming "The match starts soon, we need to go!"

Lily laughed as her fiancé pulled her up off the bed by her already outstretched arm, gave her a quick kiss and ran back out of the tent, dragging her behind him. Meg and Marlene followed them out where they met their friends.

Sirius Black draped a large England flag around Meg's shoulders as Remus Lupin handed out programmes that he had bought for them all. Remus' girlfriend, Jessie Harris shared out some bottles of water while Steven McKinnon gave Marlene a long kiss that made everyone else turn away, even if coming to the Quidditch World Cup had turned into a quintuple date in the end. James was happy to finally go off towards the stadium, telling Peter Pettigrew and Diddy Prewett to stop reminiscing on Hogwarts Quidditch matches now that they'd all graduated and the World cup was going to be a much better standard.

"Besides, some of us don't have such happy memories of Hogwarts Quidditch seeing as how we never won the Championship," Stevie added with a joking grin, indicating him and Jessie who had both been Ravenclaws whilst all the others were Gryffindors and had won for all six years that James, Sirius and Marlene had been on the House team, an impressive feat considering that few teams would let in three second-years at the same time.

The match was one of the semi-finals of the Quidditch World cup – the one with England playing in. The Marauders had originally looked into the Final, but it started the day of a full moon so that was out of the question. They'd been quite lucky that England had got through this far, as they hadn't been playing brilliantly in the past few years, and now they just had to hope that they did well enough to beat the Portuguese.

They stood amidst the rest of the English crowds, every so often greeting somebody they knew from Hogwarts as they tried to battle their way to somewhere with a decent view. When they managed that, they could see adverts in French flashing across a large screen. Sirius spent a while moaning that he didn't speak French until Marlene eventually started translating to shut him up.

"See, isn't this better than staring at that ring of yours?" Meg asked Lily as the commentator introduced the players.

"It's a beautiful ring. Shut up, Lita," James said, standing behind Lily and wrapping his arms around her.

"Of course you think it is. You paid what, six thousand galleons for it?"

"Hey, Padfoot, can't you keep your girlfriend under control?" James called over to Sirius who laughed.

"Course not, Prongs. You should know by now that it's always the girls who have control in the relationship."

"Et maintenant," the commentator announced. "Le Souafle est jeté, et le joue commence!"

"You what?" Sirius asked.

"Bloody hell, Sirius, how many Quidditch matches have you seen? They all start the same. You know, with the Quaffle being thrown up. Just watch! You hardly need the commentary," Meg told him, leaning over the barrier in the stands to watch the English Captain speed down the pitch, the Quaffle under his arm.

The game was probably the best that James had ever seen. It was his third ever international game but the first with England playing and he couldn't help but get excited every time anything happened. He kept an ear out for any mention of the Vif d'or from the commentator as he watched brutal Bludger attacks, spectacular goals and even more spectacular saves. The Seekers occasionally chased each other across the pitch but Lily, searching through her omnioculars, hadn't been able to see the Snitch any of those times and James strongly suspected feints.

Despite James' excitement, the English crowd were very disheartened to be eighty points behind the Portuguese. Marlene had taken to bad-mouthing all of the players on the pitch, other than Bagman who was admittedly playing a gold-standard game of Quidditch. Of course, the fact that she was a Wimbourne Wasps fan had nothing to do with this favouritism.

One of the English Chasers was just taking a penalty following a cobbing from an opponent when once again the Seekers pulled forwards on their brooms from opposite sides of the pitch, heading straight towards each other.

"What are they doing?" Peter asked. "They're going to crash."

"No," Lily shook her head, excited. "It's the real thing this time. They've seen the Snitch."

Sure enough the commentator announced: "Les attrapeurs voient le Vif d'or! D'Ouro du Portugal est plus proche, mais Kennedy d'Angleterre le chasse vite. Ils se rapprochent... Et Kennedy a réduit l'écart! Qui l'attrapera? D'Ouro esquive un Cognard de Bagman. Kennedy attrape le Vif d'or! L'Angleterre victoire : cent, quatre-vingt-dix points de cent, vingt points. L'Angleterre sont en finale de la Coupe du Monde!"

"WE WON!" the crowd were screaming all around. The four Marauders were having a group hug whilst Lily and Diddy shrieked with each other, Meg and Jessie waved their flags high, joining in with the chants of the crowd and Marlene jumped onto Stevie's back, him grabbing onto the barrier to stop them both tumbling over.

Back at the camp, red and white fireworks lit up the sky. The ten sat outside their tent with a fire crackling away and James' Snitch flying around the group, to occasionally be grabbed out of the air by one of them.

"That's it," Sirius said. "Tomorrow we go home and then we have to start real life. Everyone looking forward to it?"

"Don't be a spoil-sport," Meg said, burying her head into his chest and closing her eyes. "I still feel like we'll be going back to Hogwarts in a month's time."

"I wish," Remus replied. He'd wanted the job of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher but Dumbledore had told him to leave it a few years.

"You don't really want that job, Moony," James said, playing with the ring on his fiancé's finger. "It's cursed."

"Right so in the meantime I get to sit around doing nothing while you all get jobs?"

"Why can't you get a job?" Stevie asked in confusion, being the only one there ignorant of Remus' problem. "It's not like teaching's the only thing out there that you could do."

"You won't be doing nothing," Jessie hastened to assure Remus. "You'll be working for the Order of the Phoenix."

"And what then? What about after the war?"

"You go back to Dumbledore," Peter shrugged as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

Remus sighed and lay his head back on the grass. There was a long silence as everyone watched him, which was only broken when Lily shot out her hand, grabbing the Snitch and causing James to yelp in surprise.

"Good catch," he said.

She smiled back. "You've got to catch it when you can." She flickered her eyes back to Remus and leant over, handing him the small golden ball. "Don't let the opportunity pass you by because you're too busy planning ahead."

AN: In case you didn't get it the French was basically: 'And now the Quaffle is thrown and the game commences.' and then later: 'The Seekers see the Snitch. D'Ouro of Portugal is closer but Kennedy of England is quick on his tail. They get closer... and Kennedy closes the gap! Who will catch it? D'Ouro dodges a Bludger from Bagman. Kennedy catches the Snitch. England win 190-120. England are in the final of the World Cup.'