Lily wakes up when her side of the bed tips due to her husband standing up. Bleary eyed, Lily blindly reaches for him.

"James?" She croaks her throat dry from sleep.

"Yeah, love?" His deep voice sounds from across the room.

"C'mere" He laughs, walks over to her side of the bed and squats, so he is at eye-level. She glances at the clock: 1:30 a.m.; they've only been asleep for three and half hours! "Where are you going at this hour?" Well, that's what she tried to say, it came out more like "Wherr you gonn ah dis ar?" James chuckles and answers her softly, somehow understanding his wife.

"Last minute Auror business, Sirius and I have been called in. Nothing to worry about. Go back to sleep, love." He murmurs this last part in her ear, kissing her lightly on the forehead. She gladly sinks back into the warmth of her bed.

Around 3 in the morning, Lily wakes up to the loud cries of her almost-one-year-old son. She mumbles for James to get him, but when he doesn't respond she cracks open one eye. She panics; where is he?! Oh right, James left on Auror stuff. Lily sighs and gets up to quiet the screaming baby.

"Hullo Harry, what do you need, sweetie?" She greets him tiredly and wipes away his tears. She rocks him back and forth, trying to get him back to sleep. After a while, he begins snoozing again, this time in his mother's arms. Lily stands there for several moments more, just to make sure, then places him back into his crib. "Love you, baby, and sleep soundly" She kisses his forehead. This act reminds her once again of James leaving. She goes over the conversation in her head; she doesn't remember much, the sleepy brain does that to you, just something about him going on Auror business. Last minute Auror business? Yeah, him and Sirius were partners, but if they were called in "last minute", shouldn't she be called in as well? Moody doesn't call in just one pair, ever! He's much too paranoid for that. Lily slaps her forehead, of course, that little piece of dragon dung! Why did she always believe that prat?!

He lied to her! But, what about? What would James lie to her about? She ignores her immediate jealous tendencies and focuses on their latest conversations; he may have given her a tip accidently.

"Good bye Sirius, it's been nice seeing you off-duty, but little Harry needs to go to bed and you're much too loud too stay after." Lily shoos him out of her living room into the small entry hall. Just as she's leaving the hall, she sees Sirius slip James a small piece of parchment, which he puts in his pocket.

"See you then, Padfoot" Sirius nods and heads out of the door and they hear the telltale 'pop' of Apparation.

Lily finds the pants James was wearing yesterday and digs into the pockets, relieved that the slip of paper is still there. It's an address with 'backroom' written under it in Sirius's handwriting. Yes! She memorizes it and, focusing as hard as she can, and Apparates. She lands on the front step of a quill shop. What? She shakes off her confusion and enters it cautiously.

"We're closed" An elderly man calls out. Why is he even still here? It's 3:30 in the morning!

"Where's the backroom?" Lily asks calmly. He narrows his bagged eyes at her.

"Why?" She hears a crash from the other room followed by hooted laughter. Now she knows where the backroom is.

"Thank you, but I think I can find it on my own." Lily chirps

"Hey little missy, that room is private!" The old man grabs her wrist.

"I happen to be James's wife, so if you'd release me" She growls, her eyes flashing. He does as she says his eyes wide. Lily storms into the backroom. The three boys don't notice her for a moment, but then Sirius looks up.

"Shit" James and Remus follow his gaze.

"Shit" Remus repeats. James gets up from what looks to be an Exploding Snap game.

"Lily, I can explain-"

"You won't live to see tomorrow's sunrise, so get explaining" She crosses her arms across her chest. Remus and Sirius stay back, fearing the rage radiating off of Lily. James opens and closes his mouth, looking like a fish out of water; if she wasn't so mad at him, she would laugh at how ridiculous he looks. "Spit it out"

"Well – erm – Sirius"

"Hey, don't pin this on me!" Sirius protests from his place across the room.

"Fine, we all planned this. Well, you remember the annual Exploding Snap Tournament?" Lily nods curtly "Well, we haven't really had time recently, but we wanted to do it this month, so-"

"What's with all the secrecy?"

"Well… we didn't exactly know how you and Marlene would take it… so"

"So you didn't tell us?" Lily asks tiredly, to which the boys all nod. "Merlin, I hate you lot"

"There's love behind every 'I hate you'" Sirius smirks

"Maybe so, but I still hate you. You are all idiots. Remus, I thought better of you! You let me down! I expect this kind of thing from those two." Lily hikes her thumb in their direction. "But, let's be serious-"

"I don't know if I'm comfortable with that." Sirius asserts

"Once again, I hate you." This makes Sirius grin. "You guys could've gotten hurt! You know how it is now! Death Eaters everywhere! For all you know the elderly man at the desk could be one! This is not exactly the best time to sneak around at night. We aren't at Hogwarts anymore! McGonagall's not going to give you all detention! Instead you could get killed! Do you know what it would have done to me if you'd been killed, James? To our family?!" James closes the distance between them. Sirius and Remus have the decency to hang their heads.

"I know, I'm sorry, Lily. It won't happen again. I promise. I love you." He kisses her lightly on the lips. He wipes away the tears she didn't realize she'd been crying.

"I love you too." She sniffles "I – just, couldn't you have done this at one of our houses?"

"We didn't want to wake you, Harry or Marlene."

"What about Remus's?" The boys all fidget uncomfortably.

"I stay at Sirius's now. My place was… infiltrated a couple days ago." None of them will meet her eyes.

"And nobody told me?" Her voice is shrill. "Anything else you'd like to tell me?" She turns on her husband. He looks her dead in the eye and says

"I'm cheating on you with Benjy Fenwick." This gets the desired effect and Lily laughs. Her anger slowly fades away.

"You're all still idiots." She sighs

"But you love us" Sirius puts in cheerfully

"Somehow, c'mon, James, we're going home." James pouts but complies anyway.