Disclaimer: I do not own the HP characters, or Iris Hewson and Alex Stark. James, Lily, Sirius and Remus belong to J.K. Rowling, and Iris and Alex belong to Sherry, a.k.a. XSiriusIsTheBestX. This oneshot is for her, because her stories rock! Those of you who haven't read them yet, should read them now. Yes, they're just that good.

Hope you all enjoy. Review as well. Even constructive criticism is appreciated.

StarzXAndXMoon

If there was such thing as an early-life crisis, then perhaps, this would be it.

"I have no freaking idea WHAT TO DO!" James Potter was yelling at the top of his lungs. He was pacing around the room, back and forth in the same path. The witnesses to this break-down were rolling their eyer nonchalantly.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, James!" His two best friends Sirius Black and Remus Lupin groaned simultaneously. Remus spoke first "Why are you making such a big deal out of this? We all know what we're doing and what we're getting."

"But the party is in tomorrow! And I still haven't gotten Lily anything!" James cried again. He continually said to himself "What do I do? What do I do?"

Remus sighed and shook his head in irritation. Sirius was amazingly calm. Then he did something that Remus thought was so predictable, it was unpredictable. Sirius left the room, which actually went unnoticed by James.

'Well, this is a surprise.' Remus thought as he looked at the doorway where his friend has just exited. Just moments later Sirius returned with a magazine. He approached James (who STILL hadn't noticed him exit and then re-enter the room), rolled up the magazine in his hand, and smacked him hard with it. The fact that he had been a beater in their old House Quiddicth team made the smack all the harder.

"OW!" James yelled in pain. Remus doubled over in laughter. This was exactly something that he would expect Sirius to do to James. Even Sirius was laughing. When James turned around and saw the culprit, he scowled at Sirius's laughing face and whacked him on the head without any help from a magazine whatsoever.

"OW!" It was Sirius's turn to yell. Remus only laughed harder. "What was that for?"

"Well why did you hit me? Was there any need to hit me?"

"Well you would not stop over-reacting James Potter!"

"My God, Sirius Black! I didn't know you knew a big word like 'over-reacting'."

"Here we go again, the same old argument!"

"Would you just stop, both of you?" Remus cried out, hoping to end the banter.

"Stay out of this!" James and Sirius cried out simultaneously. They looked at Remus briefly as they said it and then turned to face each other and continue to argue. Remus sighed in defeat, and began to focus his thoughts on the coming days.

He looked around at the party favors the three men had collected over the last week. Of course they had to hide what they were doing from their respective partners. It was a surprise after all. This was a special party for them to celebrate the fact that Lily Evans Potter, Iris Hewson Black and Alexandra Stark, were all pregnant and just to show how special they were to the men.

It was James's idea to throw a party, and Remus's idea to throw a surprise party for the girls being pregnant. What was Sirius's idea, you ask? Why it was to have the party at his and Iris's house, AND to bake a colossal cake. And to have sweets, crisps, chocolate, chicken, fish, meatballs, spaghetti, turkey, Shepard's Pie, and several other dishes that Remus lost count of. Leave it to Sirius to decide what everyone would eat; even if it made an entire army sick. And speaking of cake…

"Guys!" James and Sirius stopped yelling and looked at Remus, who stared back with steely eyes.

"Do we all remember why we're here?" He asked slowly. When James and Sirius looked at him blankly, he sighed in exasperation.

"We're here to bake the cake." He said simply.

"OH!" James and Sirius cried out in realization. Remus sighed again at their stupidity.

"Good, let's get started then."

Now baking a cake is rather simple. A simple chocolate fudge cake with icing and a nice little message was all they needed to do. But of course, these are the Marauders we're talking about; and with them, NOTHING is ever simple.

They had fresh ingredients, the kitchen was abnormally clean, they had the cookbook out (on the page with the recipe for chocolate cake), and they were all ready to bake. But 30 minutes later, the kitchen (and the Marauders) was covered in baking batter- why there was even batter dripping from the ceiling, all the ingredients were wasted and somehow, James's glasses got broken and was covered in chocolate icing, Sirius's hair smelt like raw eggs and was completely covered in flour, so he almost looked like an elderly man, and the cookbook and Remus's behind were burnt.

"We all better start writing our wills." Sirius said somberly.

"Why?" James asked as he wiped his glasses.

Sirius looked at James, "Do I really need to answer that question?"

Suddenly the men heard a door being unlocked. They looked at each other in fear and started scrambling around, desperately searching for their wands. Somehow in all that baking chaos, their wands had disappeared. But the floor was so slippery due to the batter that they kept on tripping and it was somewhat difficult to get back up. Pretty soon they were all on the floor in a tangle of limbs, bodies sprawled out everywhere.

Before they could even attempt to untangle themselves, they could hear someone sing U2's 'Angel of Harlem'. Mrs. Iris Black was home.

Iris had a rather pleasant day; she didn't need to work that much and had gotten a half-day at work, she had delivered triplets (lately she was doing a lot of pregnancy-related work), then she went out and strolled down Diagon Alley with Lily and Alex, and overall her mood was a good one.

She had not expected to smell something burning upon walking by the kitchen. She had not expected to find her kitchen looked as though a giant batter bomb had exploded. She had also not expected to see her husband and their friends on the floor. She had not expected to see Sirius with white hair. And she had not expected to get a rather embarrassing view of Remus's underwear.

For those of you who know Iris, she has an incredible temper, a temper which could rival even the late Voldemort's. Her temper would sometimes increase tenfold when she had her mood swings. So it was a surprise when she didn't start blowing her top off yet; although it wasn't a surprise to see the bewildered expression. And then there was the wide-eyed, thin-lipped look that Iris had so perfectly mastered; it was her angry look.

She looked down at them, who had the guts to look back, through batter-covered faces. And boy was she mad. Looking at the three former pranksters, she couldn't help but laugh at them. She started laughing so hard she had to hold on to the counter for support. That is, until her hand was covered in uncooked batter. She stopped laughing at stared at her hand, and then glared at the men, who were still on the floor in a mess. She wiped her hair on the counter.

"You do realize that I'm not cleaning this mess up, right?"

"BUT WHY?" Sirius whined, sounding like a young wizard being made to clean his room without magic.

"Ah! Padfoot, we're right here!" James said, bringing out a hand to unblock the ear that Sirius shouted into.

"Because," Iris started and the men instantly shut up "I didn't start this mess, did I?" She looked around the kitchen once more. "What exactly happened here? What were you three trying to make?" The men looked at each other sheepishly (as best as they could). Finally Remus spoke, "We were trying to bake a cake."

Iris's eyes widened as she looked around again, "For what, a wedding?" she cried incredulously.

"No, just for us." James lied.

"And as a result, you completely ruined the kitchen."

"Yeah, pretty much." Sirius replied.

Iris shrugged. "Well, like I said; I'm not cleaning this up." And with that, she left the room. The men were about to untangle themselves (again), when Iris reentered the room, with cleaning supplies that muggles used and set them down.

"Oh, and almost forgot," She went over to the sticky counter and picked up three straight, thin objects, completely covered in batter. It took Sirius, James and Remus a moment to realize that Iris had just found their wands for them.

"You won't be using these. You'll be cleaning up the kitchen, muggle-style." She grinned, chocolate eyes twinkling almost insanely as she cleaned the wands with her own.

"IRIS!" The Marauders moaned altogether. "Have some mercy, Ire." James pleaded.

"No way Prongs. You and the other thick-heads messed up the kitchen in the first place. It's only fair that you clean up after yourselves."

"But it'll take us all day!" Remus argued.

"That's the point." Iris countered. With a wave of her own wand, she summoned a duffel bag.

"Where are you going?" Sirius frowned.

"If you need me with anything not related to this kitchen-mess you lot made, I'll be staying over at Lily's." Iris dismissed, and she Apparated off, with her bag and their wands.

Sirius, James and Remus stared at where Iris had previously stood (they were all standing up by now), and then looked at each and the kitchen.

"I am NEVER trusting you to make the batter ever again, James." Remus said.

"Shall we order one then?" Sirius asked.

"That's the smartest thing you've said all day Padfoot." James agreed.

"Well, let's stop blabbering and clean up this mess." Remus ordered.

"Couldn't have agreed more, Moony." Sirius said.

"You better fix your pants, mate." James said to Remus.

Godric's Hollow was a peaceful neighborhood. It was the perfect neighborhood to raise a family, Lily thought cheerfully. She was strolling down the nearby park just a few blocks down where she and James lived and contently watching the colorful leaves fall to the ground. The winter air had a slightly damp smell, but it was mostly cloaked by a warm and inviting smell of treacle tart. Her mouth watered just thinking about the treacle tart. She was spending too much with Sirius.

Lily placed a hand on her baby bump; it was starting to show. It has been a blissful five months (minus the morning sickness and the angry mood swings, they were tiring). She got misty-eyed just looking at baby clothes, as she would imagine moments when she would dress up her own baby with the cutest little clothes.

She couldn't help but wonder just what the sex of the baby was. James and Sirius thought it would be a boy. Iris and Remus thought it would be a girl. Alex didn't say. She said that no matter the gender of the baby, it would still be loved by everyone. Lily smiled at Alex's words, but couldn't help but feel that James and Sirius might be right (for once).

She felt like the life growing in her was a little boy. A little James clone of sorts.

"Lily!"

The mother-to-be turned around to the direction, and found Iris (another mother-to-be) walking up to her. For some strange reason, she was carrying a large duffel bag with her.

"Iris!" Lily called out. Running up to her best friend, they embraced each other. When they released each other Lily spoke. "Why are you carrying a bag with you? Sirius hasn't kicked you out has he?"

"Nope," Iris grinned "Don't forget, I'm the one that does the kicking out."

Lily laughed, "But seriously, what's with the bag?"

"I was hoping I could stay with you overnight?" Iris requested, with a pleading look. Lily was rather surprised by this request.

"Yes you can, but what's wrong at your place?"

"I have my git of a husband and his gits of friends to blame." Iris replied.

"Oi, watch it. That's Remus you're talking about there." Lily mocked. Iris rolled her chocolate brown eyes, but smiled nonetheless. "What did they do?"

"Ugh, don't get me started. They completely ruined the kitchen!" The Healer threw up her hands in frustration and dropped her bag as a result, which landed with a big 'thud'. Iris bent down and picked it up again.

"What did they do?" Lily asked as they started walking towards the Potter residence.

"Hey, that's getting me started right there, Lils. I'll explain later."

And so the two pregnant women walked over to Lily and James's house, where they saw someone waiting for them; upon closer inspection, it was Alex Stark, their new friend and Remus's girlfriend was standing outside their house and waving at them. Lily and Iris quickened their pace over to the brunette, who greeted them with a smile.

"I just arrived and I noticed no one was around, so I thought I'd wait a bit, until either you or James showed up. You won't believe the weird looks I got from the neighbours." Alex explained with a laugh. "I think they thought I was trying to rob your house or something."

"Oh dear. Alex I'm so sorry." Lily apologized. Alex shook her head and said it was fine. The brunette then noticed Iris's bag. "Um, Iris?"

"Yes?" said woman replied.

"What's with the bag?"

"Oh, this!" Iris started. They had entered Lily's house and were making themselves comfortable as Iris out her trunk aside. "Well, the gits were doing something stupid and they ruined my kitchen." She pouted, arms crossed.

"Do tell." Alex said.

And so Iris began retelling of what she encountered upon returning to her house. Both Lily and Alex laughed out loud upon hearing that Remus burnt himself while baking.

"Should I be worried that you could see my boyfriend's ass?" Alex joked.

"I should be worried. There are certain things people should not see. And that is their friend's silly underwear." Iris shuddered at the memory. "I might need therapy."

All three women laughed at their partners' antics. Yes, their boyfriend/husbands were idiots. But, they were their idiots.

After what felt like a millennium, the Marauders had finally been able to clean up the kitchen (no thanks to Iris, though). They were exhausted, sweaty, hungry, thirsty, and in Remus still had a burn in his pants.

They flooed James's house, where they were able to get Iris to come over and see the clean kitchen for herself. After much examination of every nook and cranny of the kitchen, Iris nodded her approval, but she would still be staying over at Lily's, she said. The Marauders did not protest. In return, James offered to stay over at their house. This was good; at least they had time to prepare for the party. Of course, they had to find a way to not let the women get here before the party started.

James was walking down Diagon Alley that evening, just as some of the stores were about to close. He was still looking for a present for Lily, but so far his luck was running short. He then passed by a store where there was something that was on display that warmed James's heart. He smiled at the feeling and entered the store.

The day had arrived. The Hewson-Black residence was ready for a party of six, the food was all prepared (fortunately, they ordered the food, and the store-bought cake managed to survive this long in one piece.). Of course, three members of that party had no clue whatsoever.

"What do you reckon those boys are up to?" Iris asked while reading Witch Weekly. She had not yet gone home, and James, it seemed was in no hurry to come back either.

"I don't know." Lily said, flipping a pancake on the pan. Both women were craving chocolate chip pancakes even though it was only three in the afternoon, so Lily decided to make some. Though she wished James was here to make them; he made the best ones. "They've been acting really weird lately."

"Yeah," Iris looked up from her magazine. "Like there's something they're hiding."

"You think they're hiding something?" Lily asked.

"Yes, I'm sure of it." Iris concluded. Lily shook her head and sighed as she continued flipping pancakes.

The fireplace suddenly crackled up, although this went unnoticed by the two wives. It was only when James's voice was heard, that the two reacted.

"Hello? Any fat ladies in the house?"

Iris jumped and screamed in fright, thus the chair which she had previously sat on fell to the ground. Lily yelled and failed to catch the pancake that she accidentally flipped. Both women stomped over to the fireplace, where they could see James's face in the fireplace, looking amused and VERY sheepish.

"You gave us a bloody heart attack Potter!" Iris was the first to yell.

"Oh dear…Sirius, your wife wants to kill me!" James yelled, his head turning to the side, as though Sirius was right next to him. Lily sighed in exasperation.

"James, what is the meaning of this? You scared us to death!" Lily scolded, ready to kill him whenever he chose to come back.

"Well, something MIGHT have happened-" James started, but Iris interrupted him.

"What did you three do this time?" Iris scowled, looking at James with a blazing look in her eyes. James - or James's head – cowered at the sight. It didn't help that Lily had the exact same expression. They both feared that there may have been a repeat of yesterday's kitchen fiasco.

"Well, actually…-"

"You know what, it doesn't matter. We'll be there." Iris said with a sort of finality to it. With that, she stormed off. Lily looked on at her, and then at James, and then she said wryly, "See you soon love." And she walked off. James sighed, and exited the fireplace. James looked up at Sirius, who had been standing behind James, and smiled at him.

"Well, they're on their way." He said.

"Blimey mate, you had to call them fat to get their attention?" Sirius smirked. James shrugged.

"The point is they're on their way. And Remus is coming over with Alex. They should be here any moment now."

Sure enough, Iris, Lily, Remus and Alex were all on their way to Sirius's and Iris's house. The four bumped into each other on their way, and that was when Remus made a rather lame excuse and ran ahead of them into the house.

"Okay, something is going on. Remus has been kind of jumpy today. In fact he's been really antsy lately." Alex said.

"Yeah? Well, James told us that there was something going on at home." Iris confirmed.

"Well, nothing else to do but to confront them." Lily said, and the three women walked towards the house. Lily opened the door and cautiously walked in, Iris and Alex following.

"James?" Lily called out.

"Sirius?" Iris shouted.

"Remus?" Alex cried.

The women approached the dining room, and then…

"SURPRISE!"

James, Remus and Sirius were standing there, amidst an entire table of food, gifts and balloons and streamers and other party favours. The three women were in shock. There was a banner hanging from the wall that said Congrats, you're pregnant in flashing colors. There was even an animation of a lioness with her cub, and an eagle with its chicks.

"You…three…did all this?" Alex said in a whisper.

"Yes." Remus said.

"We've been preparing for the party for the last few days." James explained. "It's our own way of congratulating the three of you for being pregnant."

"That would explain the mess we made in the kitchen yesterday." Sirius chuckled. "We were trying to bake a cake for the party, but well, you all know that turned out."

For a moment, all three were quiet. Lily broke the silent tension by walking up to James and giving him a loving kiss, which he happily returned. She mumbled a 'thank you' when they broke apart.

Alex then ran up to Remus and hugged him tightly. Remus nearly fell back from the force, but he was able to regain his momentum, and hugged her back.

Iris walked up to Sirius calmly, love very clear in her eyes. Sirius held out his arms to hug her. His hands immediately flew up to his head when Iris whacked him there.

"OW! IRIS!" Sirius moaned. The other couples looked at the two of them, who did not mask their surprise and/or amusement.

"Sirius!" Iris mimicked. She immediately frowned. "You fucking ruined my kitchen!"

Sirius looked insulted. "I'd like to point out that I wasn't alone in that endeavour. I wasn't the one who burnt my ass, either."

"Thanks, Sirius." Remus muttered sarcastically, looking annoyed.

"But my kitchen was still ruined. It doesn't matter that Remus got his ass burnt. By the way, you are buying a new cookbook. That was a wedding gift." Iris continued.

"Iris!" Sirius cried, grabbing a hold of Iris's shoulders to stop her. It worked; she was looking at him. "I'm really sorry we ruined your kitchen, but please forget about that, and let's enjoy this party. We all love you and that's why we're having this party," He said this to the three women who all smiled, except for Iris, who looked a little apprehensive. Grey eyes smoldered at chocolate brown ones, "Iris, in 7½ months, you and I are going to get the most beautiful gift in the world, and it's because of you."

A tear escaped the Healer's eyes as she smiled at her husband. She looked around at the party. "I'm assuming that you were in charge of the food then." She joked, but she had every good reason to joke, mainly because the dining table was straining under the weight of all the food present. There was enough food there to put the Hogwarts house elves to shame.

"Guilty as charged." Sirius smirked, happy to see the change in Iris's mood.

"You didn't cook all this, I hope." Iris said with a hint of humour. Sirius didn't take too kindly to that though.

"IRIS!" Sirius moaned.

"SIRIUS!" Iris mimicked him again. The friends laughed at the couple's silliness.

And so, the party began, with laughter and merriment. Everybody was smiling and having a wonderful time. James, Sirius and Remus smiled at the happy expressions on their lovers' faces. They would never admit it, but this was the best thing they had ever done. Even better than some of their best pranks that they played at Hogwarts.

It was nighttime, and everybody was settling in for the night. Alex and Remus were walking back home. The night was surprisingly chilly, but that didn't deter them from the serene walk together.

"Thank you so much Remus." Alex said, yet again. She must have thanked them at least a hundred times. Remus found this rather endearing, but James and Sirius were sick of it by the 50th 'thank you'.

"It's not much, Alex." Remus replied.

"Are you kidding me? No one has ever thrown a surprise party, for anything!" She said, all excited.

Remus smiled and held her closer. They remained silent for a few moments, when Alex broke the silence with an exclamation, "Hey look, it's snowing."

Remus looked up. True to her word, it was indeed snowing. Remus smiled and turned to face Alex with a very serious expression on his face.

"Alex…Oh Alex. I don't know where to start. People say I'm the sensitive one, but I don't know what to say right now." Remus rambled.

"What are you talking about, Rem?" Alex asked concernedly.

Remus gulped and took a deep breath. He fished around in his jacket pocket. He finally found what he was looking for and brought it out. It was a small velvet case. He knelt down, holding the box.

One could imagine Alex's surprise when she saw what Remus was up to, and she could pretty much guess what he was about to say. He opened the case to reveal a rather large diamond centered at the middle of an extravagant silver ring. On both sides of the diamond were two smaller amethysts that twinkled under the moonlight. The ring was studded with even smaller diamonds and amethysts. It was beautiful to say the least.

"Alexandra Stark, I love you. I love you so much I would be willing to do ANYTHING for you, just to see you smile and your eyes sparkle with joy and love. Will you marry me?"

Alex was stunned for what seemed like ages. Remus confessed to loving her, and was asking her to marry him. She hadn't even considered marriage (EVER) until that moment, when Remus was down at one knee, holding the ring with his hands, with a look that held many emotions; pleading, anxiety, fear, but mostly love. It was something in that look that told her that he would never let her go, until her dying day. She bent down until she was at Remus's level and smiled the biggest smile he had ever seen on her.

"Yes." She said, her voice cloaked with emotion.

Remus smiled a toothy grin and slid the ring into her right ring-finger. Holding her hand, he kissed her gently, with every ounce of love and passion he had in him. She kissed him back just as intensely, as the gentle snow fell down on them. For the both of them, this moment was the sweetest thing that could happen to them.

"Where are you taking me, Sirius?" an irate Iris asked. She had been blindfolded and was now going SOMEWHERE, with Sirius's help.

"You'll see." He replied.

"I wish I could." Iris mumbled. Sirius chuckled behind her. He finally led her to a stop. Iris was flailing her arms around, hoping to touch something in front of her, to no avail. Sirius turned on the lights.

"Okay, I'm taking off the blindfold now." Sirius whispered. He removed the black blindfold from Iris's eyes. Iris had to adjust her eyes for a moment, but what she saw surprised her.

They were in the baby's room, which had been repainted a lighter shade of purple (at Sirius's whining). But what really caught her by surprise was the amount of toys that were cluttering the room. A cute baby's cradle was in the middle and there was a hanging mobile of fairies and stars and moons above it. The rocking chair at one corner of the room somehow tied up the entire room together.

Once again, Iris was looking around in awe at what Sirius had done. She moved up to one of the piles of stuffed toys and picked up one of them, which was –although not really a surprise- a black dog with its velvet tongue sticking out.

"Sirius," She said softly, holding the toy in her hands and looking at him, "Sirius, our daughter's not even born and you're already spoiling her."

"Hey, I'm the dad. That's my job." Sirius joked, though there was an undertone to seriousness to it.

Iris looked around with a smile, but it soon faded into a sad expression. Sirius frowned in worry.

"What's wrong love?" Sirius asked.

"What if I'm not a good mother?" She asked softly, more to herself than Sirius. Sirius walked up to her and crushed her into a warm hug. Iris could feel another tear spill down her cheek. Sirius looked at her and wiped away the tear.

"What makes you say that?" Sirius asked. "You'll be a wonderful mother."

"But I don't know the first thing about raising children. And my mother died when I was so young. I don't have anything valuable that I can pass on to our child."

"Yes you do. Iris, you're of the smartest, passionate persons I know. You could even teach her U2, if you want."

Iris let out a watery chuckle. As if by instinct, she squeezed the stuffed dog in her hands.

"I don't know if I'm even prepared for fatherhood, and I probably wouldn't have been, if I didn't have you in my life Iris. I love you. And I love the little girl who's growing in you."

"Reah." Iris corrected.

"Yeah, Reah." Sirius nodded and kissed his wife's forehead.

Lily was exhausted from today's party. Even though she absolutely enjoyed herself and loved the men for throwing her, Iris and Alex the party, she couldn't wait to sink into bed and fall asleep.

But just as she entered the room, she saw a peculiar thing on her pillow. It was a small bag. Lily reached out for it and took out its contents. Lily's heart soared at the very sight of it. It was a stripy green and blue baby pajamas. It was the cutest little thing she had ever seen. It was just like the ones she had seen at the store the other day. She could already feel the tears quickly approaching.

"You like them?"

Lily turned around to see James by the door. She rushed up to him and hugged him tightly, baby clothing in hand. She couldn't stop herself from crying into his shoulders.

James was worried and proceeded to apologize, but Lily stopped him.

"This is the sweetest thing, James! Our baby is going to wear this every day the moment he's born."

"Um, Lils? If we do that, then he'll smell absolutely filthy and no one will go near him." James said bluntly. This was responded by a strong slap at his shoulder.

"OW!" James yelled in pain. Rubbing his bruised shoulder, he said, "Did you take lessons from Iris or something?"

"You just had to ruin the moment." Lily pouted, crossing her arms. James smiled slightly and kissed her softly. Even after so many years, his gentle kisses made Lily weak in the knees.

"Turn it around." James said, pointing at the suit.

Confused, Lily obeyed and what immediately caught her eye were the two golden letters on the back (or the front) of the suit.

"James? What do these letters stand for?"

James pulled her into a hug and kissed her temple softly.

"Harry Potter."