November 12th, 1974
Remus Lupin was in his room getting ready for his first date. James had been the one who set Remus and the girl – Alaina, a fourth year Hufflepuff – up, so, instead of sneaking down to stock up on butterbeer and firewhiskey, he had volunteered to help Remus get ready.
Remus was happier than he'd admit to have James help him because, even though he was utterly obsessed with Lily, James had been on quite a few dates with other girls. James had a certain charm about him – so did Sirius – which girls ate up. Remus did not. Remus wore baggy, torn up jumpers when he wasn't in his robes, his sandy blonde hair was well groomed and only went down to the middle of his ears, the paleness of his skin made his scars stand out, and he was thin and lanky with only a small amount of muscle definition. He wasn't shy, but he didn't go out of his way to talk to girls, preferring books and his fellow marauders to them.
James and Sirius, on the other hand, both had jet black hair – James's stuck out all in random places in a mischievous way while Sirius's was shoulder length, slick and straight as a result of obsessing over it for years – and their eyes had a certain glint to them that screamed danger. Not danger in a sense of killing or hurting, but danger in a sense of recklessness. Girls loved how crazy they were, how they didn't care about consequence. Both boys were more muscular than Remus – James from his years of Quidditch and Sirius from helping James train. Their clothing choices were nicer than Remus's too. Aside from his robes, James wore collared shirts, old Quidditch jerseys, and had a small collection of plain jumpers that were much nicer than Remus's. Sirius wore a lot of black. A lot. Girls thought it was edgy – Remus thought it was ironic considering his family's name.
James had a lot of advice for Remus. A lot. He explained to him why complimenting was necessary, he ruffled his hair up, he even gave Remus a midnight blue collared shirt and pair of khakis to wear, telling him that Alaina would love it. Remus just smiled nervously, not sure why he couldn't wear one of own – less worn – jumpers.
"Okay, so give me the step by step on how tonight's gonna work," James looked at Remus expectantly, they'd gone through this dozens of times.
"Well," Remus started, more confident than last time, "I'm going to meet her outside the Hogwarts basement, then we'll go out to the lake for a picnic."
"And?" James leaned closely towards Remus, eager to hear what was next.
"And what?" Remus asked, they hadn't gotten much farther than the basics before.
"Well then you're going to bring out some candles, you're going to talk to her for a little – well I suggest you just listen to her talk more than you talk yourself – and then you're going to kiss her!" James exclaimed, as if it were obvious.
"K-kiss her?" Remus stuttered. He'd never kissed a girl before. He hadn't even wanted to.
"Bloody Hell Moony!" James put a hand on his forehead dramatically, "are you even a boy?" Peter had been the one who began to call him Moony during their third year, it caught on quick.
"Shut up, James," Remus grumbled, getting to his feet.
"Oi! Don't forget the flowers!" James yelled, turning an old quill into a bouquet of roses and handed it to Remus while Remus simultaneously gave him the finger and ran out of the room.
Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black made their way to Hogsmeade using the witch statue they had discovered the previous year. They discarded of the invisibility cloak at the start of the tunnel, and walked into the darkness.
"Lumos" Sirius muttered so that the light revealed their path. They walked in silence for a few minutes, neither having much to say to the other.
It wasn't that they didn't like each other or anything, Peter knew, but they tended to fall into a comfortable silence whenever they were alone. Both enjoyed the quiet, but rarely got it when they were with James and Remus.
"James is pretty invested in this date," Peter piped up in an effort to start some small talk.
"Yeah," Sirius agreed, "you'd think it was his first date, not Moony's," he laughed.
"I bet he'll be spying on them, making sure Remus doesn't screw up," Sirius laughed again.
"I hope so. Remus'll probably start talking about his latest History of Magic essay or even worse, his favorite muggle classic," this time Peter laughed.
"He'll be fine," Peter said, his tone changing, "he's a charming bloke sometimes."
"You're right," Sirius agreed, "That girl is pretty lucky to be his first date."
Before Peter could say anything else about their little boy growing up, they reached the end of the tunnel and Sirius turned his attention to opening the trap door.
"Alright Peter, let's do this."
James Potter was probably more excited about Remus's date than Remus was, but he couldn't help it. Remus was a weirdly attractive guy and quite a few girls were interested, but he never seemed to notice it. His scars gave him a slight edge that sparked curiosity in many girls, but he was also incredibly smart – always reading or working on homework or explaining exactly why James and Sirius's latest plan was too stupid to work. James smiled as he watched his friend go then plopped down on his bed to wait for Sirius and Peter.
It took exactly 7 minutes for Sirius and Peter to come back with a twelve pack of firewhiskey, a six pack of butterbeer, galleons worth of treats, and James's invisibility cloak.
"I'll take that," James walked towards Peter, taking his invisibility cloak and a bottle of firewhiskey, then scurrying out of the room before Peter and Sirius asked any questions.
He had taken four swigs of firewhiskey before he had reached the common room; before he saw the red haired, freckled girl sitting on the couch. Her hands were covered in ink and her nose was scrunched up like it always was when she was concentrating, "Hey Evans," James jumped to the other side of the couch.
Lily didn't look up. "Potter," she said, sounding more distracted than usual. James looked over at the Transfiguration homework she was working on. The Transfiguration homework that she had barely written two inches on.
"You'd think," James laid his head against the back of the couch and threw his legs onto the table, "that someone as smart as you wouldn't be struggling that much with a simple transfiguration essay."
"Oh like you could do better," he flinched. She knew transfiguration was his favorite subject – and the only class he ever did homework for. James didn't say anything. He ran up to his room, grabbed his two foot long essay, came back down, and threw it on the table.
"Here," he pushed it towards her, "don't want your streak of perfect grades to falter after only four years."
Lily smiled gratefully at him as he exited through the portrait hole, smirking.
In all honesty, James had wanted to stay there and watch her write, but he made his way to the lake, putting his invisibility cloak on as soon as he got outside.
At the lake, he saw Remus laying on his side talking to that Hufflepuff girl – James didn't remember her name, but she was cute. And had asked about Remus a few times during Herbology. The girl was sitting on the blanket beside him, laughing at something the werewolf had said, James smiled, sitting down in the grass about twenty feet away from them and taking another swig of firewhiskey.
It had been three hours since James left and Sirius Black sat in his room with Peter Pettigrew, completely wasted. He was on his sixth firewhiskey when Peter told him that he was tired and wanted to call it a night. Sirius watched as the boy got stumbled into bed, then he grabbed the last three firewhiskies and walked down to the common room. It was almost completely empty, the only other person there being Lily Evans who was sitting in the exact spot she had been when he had come back from Hogsmeade.
"You look terrible, Black," Lily voice was full of concern as she looked up from her essay.
"You don't look too hot yourself, Evans," Sirius noticed that words had begun to slur. Lily smiled at him. The two had never been close, but they didn't hate each other. Sometimes he'd even hang out with her and Remus – they had become quite close lately, discussing homework and muggle books – but they'd never been alone, "Seriously though," he leaned forward, looking into her green eyes, there were dark shadows under them, "you need to stop putting so much pressure on yourself. You look like complete shit."
"Sirius," Sirius could not remember a single time that she had ever called him by his first name, "I'm fine. I'm always fine."
"Lily," Sirius drew out her name, "You, young lady. You need to go to sleep."
"You need to go to sleep," she spoke sternly, "I need to finish this essay for Slughorn."
"And I need to wait for Remus to get back," Lily had a look of pity in her eyes.
"He's not your responsibility. He'll be fine. And who knows, he might not even come back to the common room tonight."
Sirius felt himself shake, "I hope he isn't fine. I hope he has a real crappy time and if he doesn't come back within the hour, I will find him and bring him back." Lily gaped at him.
"Excuse you?" her previously pitied tone turned murderous, "Just because you haven't had a date in three days does not justify you not wanting one of your best friends to have a good time. Bloody hell, Sirius, don't be such a child."
"But he's not supposed to be dating anyone. He's Remus, he's supposed to only think about school and books and chocolate and tea and James and Peter and me," Sirius finished weakly and Lily groaned.
"If you have a crush on him why don't you just tell him?"
Sirius stared at her in horror, "Excuse you?" he asked, still shaking as he stood up. He wasn't up for long though, he was too off balance, and Lily pulled him back down before he fell, "I am a very straight man. And Remus Lupin also happens to be a very straight man. Besides, even if I happened to be a little gay, he's not even my type. He's too much of a nerd, like you."
"Whatever you say, Sirius," Lily smirked, "I'm going to bed." Before she made it up the stairs she turned, "by the way, I really like your jumper. Black and holey with grey elbow patches?" she laughed, turning back up the stairs.
And so, Sirius sat alone with his firewhiskey and waited twenty-seven minutes until Remus returned, looking very pink in the face. He looked out of place in James's blue colored shirt.
"You're wearing my jumper," Remus pointed out when he saw Sirius sitting on the couch.
"You're wearing James's shirt," Sirius stated, trying to stand up. Remus caught him.
"That's because I had a date," Remus raised his eyebrow, pulling Sirius's arm around him in order to steady him.
"Well, it's a comfortable jumper," Sirius slurred, leaning into his friend. He smelled like chocolate and perfume. Alaina's perfume.
"Keep it then," Remus muttered, lifting his friend up the stairs, "Come on, let's get you to bed."
