I. Parlor Magic on the Pitch
"Do you have a light, mate?" Sirius asked.
James was such a showoff. He reached for a rock off the ground, showed it to Sirius, and neatly transfigured it into a matchbook. "Step one," he said as he ripped a match from the book. "Step two" was even better. James pulled a stunt Sirius had only heard of: he struck the match with his teeth, leaned forward, and touched the flame to Sirius' fag as Sirius took some spotty drags, encumbered by chuckles.
"Brilliant. Is there a step three?" Sirius gibed. He was kidding, but he should've known better. This was James Potter, after all.
James only smiled, and with a flick of his tongue, swallowed the match. Such a bloody showoff. Sirius blew the smoke through his nose, leaned forward, and kissed him.
II. Her Breakfast
Lily's poor James didn't seem to grasp the idea of prenatal cravings. He understood that they were impulsive, but to him, impulsive necessitated over the top. So if she asked for poached eggs, thirty minutes and eight soiled dishes later, he'd introduce poached eggs with tabasco sauce a la mode.
"For God's sake, James!" sighed Lily, face-to-face with something that looked like jaundice manifest and reeked of burnt eggs. "I'm not going to touch that ridiculous rubbish, so you can stop making it!"
"You don't have to touch it," James said. "Just eat it. Please?" With irresistible saucer eyes, he held up a fork-full. Just the scent of that thing made her cringe. Lily stalled, hoping her water might suddenly break. When it didn't, she ate the abomination anyway.
"Only because you've asked so nicely."
III. If Only
Sometimes Remus catches Sirius at his little games.
"Say, Harry," Sirius asks slyly over Harry's shoulder as he rounds off the last inch of a Herbology paper. "What d'you reckon is the quickest way to uproot a mandrake?"
"I dunno. Can't stand the things. Why?" Harry smiles, looking the part but not fitting the bill.
He laughs it off. "Oh, nevermind. Bad joke, anyway. Keep at it, then."
James knew the punchline to every one of Sirius' jokes, Remus recalls. Somehow the jokes were funnier to them when they both already knew the ending. It was a thing between them. Never having heard wizard jokes until school, Remus was left in the dust, and their sheer novelty was funny to him in its own right. So there were the three of them, the isosceles trinity, all giggling over breakfast to set the day off straight.
Sirius stares at Harry for a brief moment. Remus sees the "if only" written in his eyes, his stance, his mouth, his brow. Remus is so used to it now, it doesn't even phase him.
When Sirius first kissed Remus, there was still a possibility. When James ran away with Lily, there was still a chance. But James is dead now and all Sirius knows of him is a second-best friend and a Lily-eyed son.
And when Remus starts to begrudge Harry for all the desperate looks Sirius casts his way, he can't help but crave the one thing that would set the world right side up again.
If only, Remus thinks, If only he were James.