Title: Amber Leaves

Characters: James Potter & Sirius Black

Summary: when Sirius receives a letter, it makes no sense. Until Remus notices that there is a hidden message inside it. The marauders have ninety-six hours to discover what it means - and what they have to do from there. AU.

Notes: I really hope that people like this, as I'm placing this into the 100k word challenge and I'd love to get as many people reading this as possible! Updates will hopefully be longer than a thousand words each chapter, and I'm hoping to update weekly, possible even every Tuesday and Thursday. Don't hesitate to review! Mint~

Saturday - Noon

Ninety-six hours remaining

"Eew! James get that thing out of here!" Lily Potter let out a shrill shriek from where she was standing in the front room with her husband James. Lily was standing on the table, her son Harry sleeping peacefully in her arms, watching As James walked nearer to what was causing her distress.

It was a mouse - a mouse that had caught its legs in one of the mousetraps placed around the room. The poor creature was struggling against the metal, though its efforts were for nothing.

"It's hardly going to hurt you Lils," James commented cheerfully as he looked down at the tiny, brown mouse. Miniature drops of blood leaked out of its leg, and it seemed that Lily had seen the blood. Her face, after all was as pale as a ghost, and so James decided to take action.

"James," Lily started, her voice trembling, "I don't like this, I don't like this one bit..."

James sprung into action then, thought Lily wasn't quite sure whether she was going to like what he was about to do. James paid Lily's feelings about the mouse no mind however, and with quick reflexes, he grabbed hold of the side of another mouse trap, dropping it on top of the mouse.

Snap...

Lily let out a gasp, her eyes widening as James turned around to look at her. She seemed to look slightly green, and she stared at her husband with a look of disbelief and disgust.

"You were supposed to throw it out in the garden or something, not kill it!" She cried, as James turned back to look at the mouse trap covering the now motionless mouse.

Slowly James lifted the first mouse trap up off the ground, looking in between it at where the mouse was,

"Why would I touch it?" He asked, as he placed it back on the ground, "it could have been full of disease! It still could be! Germs Lily, kill people, and I'm certain I don't want to die!"

Lily paled even more, turning her head to the fireplace, that glowed green from the floo. Sirius Black, one of James' best friends from their time at Hogwarts, school of wizardry and witchcraft stepped outside of the fireplace.

Sirius was in short terms - handsome. He had long, black hair that fell just below his ears in waves, and his silver-grey eyes made many girls swoon when he arrived anywhere.

"Uh..." Was all that Sirius could say, before Lily handed him Harry and rushed out of the room - she was holding a hand over her mouth, as if to symbolise she was going to throw up, and Sirius watched her worriedly.

Lily and Sirius hadn't gotten along very well until the day of Lily and James' wedding, when Sirius had demanded that Lily promise never to hurt James. Lily had promised, and since then, the two of them had found a common ground where they could be civil, (sometimes friendly) with one another.

"Hey Prongs," Sirius spoke, as he looked over at his bespectacled friend with a warm smile - the two were like brothers, "what's with the wife?"

James looked up from where he was on his knees by the mouse, and he looked at Sirius with a grin.

"Oh, I think she's not totally subdued with the idea of mice." James chuckled, as he stood up to embrace Sirius.

"Mice?"

James smiled again, as he nodded, bending down to kiss his son on the forehead. Sirius shrugged at this, before asking,

"So... What've you been up to then prongs?"

James grinned, as he motioned for Sirius to follow him over to the corner of the room. The floor was slightly red from blood beneath the mouse traps, and Sirius bent down to look at the mouse trap in more detail.

"You've been killing mice?" He asked when he turned back to James, "by dropping the trap on their heads?"

James shrugged slightly, and our of the corner of their eyes, they noticed Lily walk back to the door of the sitting room, her face ashen,

Sirius bent down again, acting as of he hasn't seen Lily, and after a few second of examining the mouse, exclaimed,

"Wow, it's like a mouse sandwich with ketchup!"

Lily left the room in a flurry, and when the two men heard the bathroom door slam shut, they turned to each other with smirks on their faces.

Once the mouse was thrown over the garden wall and into the neighbour's garden, and the floor cleaned with a simple spell, Lily made the two men each some lunch, and put Harry upstairs in his cot. Sirius who had squirmed when James opened the mouse trap, convinced James to get rid of any of the other mouse traps in the house, before they both tucked into their lunch.

Lily quickly finished off her cup of tea, and said goodbye to both of the men, before apparating away. She was spending the day with her friends Marlene McKinnon, and Alice Longbottom, out in diagon alley, leaving James to whatever he had planned for the day,

"When are Moony and Wormtail getting here?" Sirius asked as he swallowed down part of his chicken sandwich.

"Moony's coming around for one O'clock I think, and Wormy's not coming over today I'm afraid. Doris, you know his mother, well she's ill, so he's taking care of her today."

Sirius frowned, but shrugged it off after a few seconds,

"Let's hope Moony's happy today, eh? It's always fun when he's being wild and unpredictable,"

James smiled, as he bit into his other sandwich, but otherwise, didn't say a word.

"Say prongs," Sirius asked once he had finished his sandwich, taking a sip of his lemonade, "where did you get this meat from? It's nice,"

James grinned,

"Well we caught several other mice this morning,"