"Look, I don't see why we have to do this tonight. They haven't even played yet."

"Moony, you know as well as I that they are going to win tomorrow, and by getting this out of the way now, we will have more time to set up while everyone dances joyously around James and his quidditch-minions. This is his last quidditch cup. It has to be special."

"All right. Fine. But why now? Why five o'clock in the evening when we will undoubtedly be recognized as Hogwarts students who have come into town at a time that is not designated for students. Not to mention that the proprietors of Honeydukes will undoubtedly notice when we pop up behind their counter."

"Moony, they won't see us. I snitched Prongs' invisibility cloak. They will be none the wiser until we can appear before them in an acceptable fashion. And as to why now, Prongs is on a date and he won't notice we are gone."

"I would hardly call a head students meeting a date, Sirius."

"You wouldn't? They always come back from them looking so lovey-dovey I could just vomit. I am sure that James feels her up under the desk. Shhh. I'm going to check to make sure that no one is up there." There was a pause. "Come on."

The three of them climbed up into the cellar of Honeydukes. Quick as a flash, Sirius threw James' invisibility cloak under all of them.

"Bend your knees, Sirius, you are too tall."

"Budge over, Wormtail, you don't need that much of the cloak. You're short."

"Shh."

They heard voices upstairs. Then, the manager came down.

"Anything down there, Oswald?" came a voice, that sounded horrifyingly familiar.

"No. I must have misheard, Professor."

"While you are down there, would you mind fetching me up some Lemon Drops? I've run out." It was Dumbledore.

"Not at all Professor," said Oswald genially. He began shifting crates.

Sirius gestured wildly towards the staircase, obviously wanting to head upstairs. Remus mouthed are you mental? at him, and made to turn back. They both turned to Peter. He was the deciding vote. Peter took a step towards Sirius, mouthing at Remus we are here, aren't we?

As quickly and as quietly as they could, they climbed the stairs and slid into the store. There was Dumbledore, leaning over the counter, looking right through them. He was the only one in the shop and he looked pensive. He was not smiling, and his eyes were not twinkling. He did not move as they skirted him and made towards the door. They would wait beside it for him to leave, then follow him out, wait until he was safely out of sight and take the cloak off.

"Here we are, Professor, that will be 15 knuts a tin" said Oswald.

"Thank you. It is good of you to go down and look," Professor Dumbledore said. He picked up several tins and placed them in his robes. He then took out a coin purse and paid Oswald. "Goodnight, Oswald. Give my regards to Genevieve."

"I will, Professor," said Oswald, smiling.

Dumbledore moved towards the door, opened it, and moved through it. The boys, invisible, followed him. He moved up the high street and turned a corner, and was gone.

"He's not going straight to school," whispered Remus.

"No, he's not," Sirius was calculating, "He looks like he's going to the Hog's Head. Listen, maybe we should split up. Remus, you go to the Three Broomsticks and pick up butterbeer and, if Rosmerta'll sell a bottle, firewhisky. We obviously can't go to the Hog's Head because we would run into Dumbledore there, so…Don't look at me like that. It's for the seventeens and older. Not for firsties or anything. We'll make sure of that." Remus was looking almost as severe as Lily or Professor McGonagall.

"You'd better be sure," he said darkly, slipping out of the cloak. "Of course I am the one buying alcohol while our dear headmaster is wandering the town," he added, grumbling.

"Come on, Remus. It'll be Ok. He won't go into the Three Broomsticks. And we drank before we were seventeen."

"Yes, but we got it on our own. I refuse to give underage kids—"

"All right. All right. I get it. Anyway, I'll go to Dervish and Banges, and Pete, you go back into Honeydukes and pick out the appropriate sweets. We'll meet in Honeydukes in twenty minutes, all right?"

"Should we have a signal, in case Dumbledore runs into one of us?" asked Peter.

"Nah. We don't want to give the others away. I don't think he'll find us. He looked so concentrated in there that I doubt he would notice if Voldemort were dancing a jig, naked, in front of him."

The boys went their separate ways. Peter stepped back into the empty candy store.

"Hullo, Oz," he called.

"Hello there Peter. You shouldn't be in town tonight, should you?" asked Oswald, coming through a door in the back of the shop. He looked worn.

"Preparing for the quidditch game tomorrow."

"Isn't that a bit presumptuous? What if Ravenclaw wins?"

"They'd have to win by a margin of four hundred points," Peter said, remembering what Sirius had told him when he had used that very argument against going before the game.

"I suppose with James as a Chaser, it isn't likely that that will happen, is it?"

"Not too, no…" grinned Peter.

"He really is talented. Could play for England. Although he can be a bit…"

"Violent?"

"I was going to say aggressive. But the damage he does during a game is nothing a skilled healer can't take care of."

"And it's not like he means it. He just gets a bit…"

"Caught up. I know. And he most certainly isn't the first chaser to break a girl's nose with the quaffle, that's for sure. Happens all the time."

"She flew into it."

"True…So. What'll it be? Obviously Chocolate Frogs, Every Flavor Beans, Drewble's Best, Sugar Quills, Pumpkin Fudge, Toffees and the like. I know what Sirius always wants. Anything new?" Oswald was already moving around the store.

"I'll get back to you on that," smiled Peter happily.

He began to wander while Oswald began filling bags with the correct proportions of the aforementioned candies. He loved this store. There was nothing like it in the world. His mum never let him eat candy at home. He had no idea why, although he always suspected it was because she didn't want him to get as fat as his dad. But away from her prying eyes, away from her high-pitched, nasal cajoling, standing in the middle of the king of all candy shops, he felt happy.

He remembered first coming here in his second year. He didn't know how on earth James and Sirius had discovered this passage, but they had. They had returned to the common room, bright-eyed and laden with sweets, which they had eaten all night in their dormitory, to full of sugar to fall asleep. (The next day had been hellish.) When he and Remus had joined them the next time they had visited, he had hardly been able to move because he didn't know where to start. By the time he did, the others were almost ready to go, so he only got a box of chocolates—which had been the best he had ever eaten.

His eyes fell on the Honey Dukes. They were a Honeydukes specialty: solidified honey balls, and in no way gooey. James adored them. He always bought them. Sirius hated them and so never bought them for quidditch parties, though.

"Hey Oz," called Peter.

"Yes, Peter?"

"Can we get some Honey Dukes as well?"

"Of course."

The door opened, and Peter whirled around. Remus entered. He had nothing in his hands and was moving quite slowly.

"Did you not get any?" asked Peter, quietly.

"I shrunk it. It's in here," he whispered, motioning towards his pocket.

"Do you want me to take any?"

"Yes please. It's quite heavy." Remus began moving some of the tiny bottles into Peter's pockets.

"And did you get any…"

"I got two bottles. That should be enough."

"Sirius won't think so."

"Sirius is an alcoholic. Or at least well on his way to becoming one."

"True."

The door opened again. "Ready?" asked Sirius, jovially. He was laden with bags. "Where's the butterbeer?" he asked Remus.

"In my pockets."

"Good thinking."

"Yeah."

"I should do mine, so we aren't too over laden with the candies."

"Here we go, gents," said Oswald, placing four large bags, filled to the brim with candy, on the counter top. "Seven galleons, nine sickles."

"That's more than usual. Did you get something else, Pete?"

"Yeah. I got more chocolate frogs. We never have enough," Peter lied. He didn't know why he lied, but he did.

"Good thinking." Sirius paid. He and Peter and Remus did what they always did when the shop was empty. They looked around. They always found new things.

When Oswald moved into the back of the shop, they swiftly went down to the cellar and through the trap door.

*

Of course Gryffindor won. By four hundred seventy points. It was the best game that they had ever played. James didn't commit a single foul.

The celebration was more energetic than usual, possibly because the seventeens and older had alcohol. Remus was very careful not to let it fall into the hands of younger students.

Sirius flirted with a fifth-year chaser. Remus was chattering with Mary Macdonald and Alice Hellinsky. James was either kissing Lily or whispering sweet nothings in her ear, with his arm around her shoulder. Peter was talking to Michael O'Shea, his co-head of the Gobstones Club. They were preparing a tournament next week.

He felt a tap on his shoulder.

He turned. It was James.

"You got the Honey Dukes?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks."

"Any time."