'Isn't it a bit early?' 'I should've come in the afternoon. I'm almost sure, none of them had left their beds by now.' 'It's so cold!'
Remus's thoughts had kept him busy throughout the journey from his home to James's. Earlier today, he decided to pay his friends a surprise visit, so he set out as soon as daybreak. Impromptu plans were never his forte, that's why the moment he set off to James's house, he had been on a constant debate with himself on the surety of his plan. Right now he was walking through James's neighborhood. He had this neighborhood's paths memorized by heart. Every summer or any other holidays, he had visited this place for nth time. It was like his second home. Remus glanced his surroundings as he made his way up to the Potter Mansion: the snow covering the path, trees and houses, were still fresh, like someone had laid it recently. Even though the day had started, far less people were outside, let alone walking on the pedestrian in the outskirts of London. His eyes automatically went to his watch: '8 o'clock, huh… I guess this is the limit for my dillydallying. Why in the name of Merlin, had I left so early?!'
Immediately his thoughts went to Artemis. The thought of being able to see her after so long (It's only been over a week) quickened his pace. In less than five minutes, he was at their doorstep. He knocked twice and waited patiently. Suddenly a loud thump reached his ear and even before he could muster a reaction to it, the door flew open.
"Moony! It's so good to see you!"
"Me too, Prongs! You are awake! And here I was thinking, I am far too early to visit." Remus said with a big smile on his face.
"Oh, you are, you are!" James replied shaking his head.
They both hugged and were still exchanging greetings when a wave of cold breeze rattled them to the core.
"Merlin, its cold… let's get you inside." James said as he put his arm around Remus and brought him inside. Once inside, Remus shed his travel coat and boots at the stand and entered the kitchen. Mrs. Potter welcomed him like a second son and served him a hot tea.
"So… where is everybody? I'm really surprised you are up and about at this hour." Remus said, blowing off on his hot tea. James, sitting on his left side, copied his action. "You know how they are…. Such lazy gits. Me, on the other hand –"
"You are their leader in terms of laziness. It's really a mystery how and why you are awake so early today…" Mrs. Potter prompted from the other side of the kitchen as she tossed pieces of bacon in the fryer.
"…I saw you coming from my window when I woke up to pee earlier." James admitted in a small voice. Laughter burst out from Remus's mouth, nearly choking on his tea. "Hahaha… I was lucky then… and you made it sound so superior." He said, wiping off his laughter tear. In the corner, Mrs. Potter was laughing silently, too.
"Hey, did I heard Moony's…" Sirius called lazily as he entered the kitchen, yawning wildly. "Moony! You really are here! and here I thought, I had started hearing voices again. How are you mate? Hah… you must be nuts to travel so early?" He bro-hugged Remus and took a seat across him.
"Ah… forgive me that I'm so dumb, traveling in this cold, just to meet my friends…" Remus said with a deadpanned face. "… seriously, what a friend gotta do to get some appreciation here!"

"Good mornin' Mrs. Potter." Artemis greeted as she entered the kitchen. "May I help you with anything?" Still in her pajamas, she reached up to the kitchen counter and pour herself a cup of coffee. Remus eyes traced her morning face as she yawned, scratched her nose absentmindedly while stirring up her coffee. 'Damn, she is cute when she does that!' This whole time she didn't even noticed there was one extra person sitting at the dining table.
"Thank you for the offer dear, but why don't you go and enjoy your morning coffee with your friends?"
"Hmm? What?" she looked at her blankly but when realizing what she was suggesting, she turned around to face the rest of the kitchen. Her eyes went wide with surprise. "Remus!" He was a little taken aback when she rush up to give him a big hug. "How..? When? You are so early or did I slept all day?!"
"Why would you believe that?"
"…because… it's not even 9 o'clock… and it's cold. Who travels so early when it's this cold!?"
"That's what I said!"
"Stop it Padfoot. That's not what you said. You called Moony nuts!"
"But he is! If you wanted to come here, didn't it occurred to you to use the floo network? There was no need for you to be outside… unless you wanted to freeze your balls."
"Mind your language, boys!"

Artemis P.O.V.

I could feel the warmth of the sun on my bare skin even with the cold air blowing past me. The rustling sound of the wind made me feel like I had wings. I closed my eyes, wanting to capture the feeling, in my long term memory as I decelerated. I never would have thought flying would feel like this.
"Stop showing off!" Sirius called, somewhere from below. I smirked at his comment as I took another turn on James's old broomstick that he let me borrow.
"I'm not! This is my first time riding a broomstick. At least let me savor it while it lasts." I complained and stuck out my tongue.
"Look Padfoot, what you have done. She is even behaving like you." James tried to comment, at the top of his voice, even when he was on the other side of the make-shift quidditch pitch, at the backyard of the mansion.
"Oh, Come on… you can't compare me to him. My head can never get as big as his." I replied to James as I turned toward him and hovered somewhere in front of him. I tried to stifle my laugh but the silent laughter of Remus made it hard to do that.
"Hey! I'm right here!" Sirius pouted as he too joined us, making an expression that made us laugh more.
"Arty, you are becoming mean." Sirius huffed.
"Like I said… behaving just like you!" we all laughed harder when Sirius gave up on us.
Since, Remus had come to visit, it was mandatory for the marauders to do a friendly quidditch match. And also, in James's case to show his new broom. So, the game started, I was teamed up with Sirius, and Remus with James, since, James and Sirius were good Quidditch players, we had to balance the team. For some reason, James insisted being on the team with Remus.
"So, the rule is simple. We have one hoop each –" Sirius motioned toward the temporary hoops we erected, consisting of some resourceful use of old enlarged versions of stick nets, " –We have two chasers in each team, whoever scores 10 goals first, wins the game. Any questions?"
"Yes." I asked, pointing out James, "Why James is looking so stupidly smug? He surely did something, that we don't know of." Everybody turned to look at him. He indeed had a smug look on him.
"Nothing. I'm just happy, for my friends,… and holidays!" James chirped. "…anyway, let's start the game!"
The game was awful. For me. I mean, I knew I'm not good at catching balls but what I experienced from the game was downright offensive to any and every player of the world. I single handedly missed four possible chances to score and pass the ball. I was actually surprised why anybody hadn't said anything.
"That's it! I'm not playing anymore." I finally declared as I dropped another passing ball. I slowly descended the ground and sat down right in the middle of the make-shift pitch. The other three soon followed me. Without even giving them a chance to reply, I said again, "How can you still let me play? I literally haven't done anything. I mean, a six year old child could play better than me." "I feel so stupid…" I mumbled.
"Arty… It's just a game. Why are you being so competitive?" Sirius said as he sat down beside me.
"Because… I wanted to play…good. It looked so…free, fantastic, by a spectator's point of view. I wanted to be that." I finished, quietly.
This time James replied to me. "Hey… this is your first time. Don't be so strict on yourself. It's just the matter of practice."
"Yeah… don't worry. Even these two idiots had hard time when they first started." Remus said, trying to cheer me up. "For now, just concentrate on having a good time." A smile spread on my face on hearing this. I stood up, taking the extended hand from Remus. "Aww… look at you. Making up crap to cheer me up." I gently patted him on his cheek. Remus's face turned red when Artemis did that. Luckily, nobody paid attention to it. "I know these two can never be bad in quidditch. But that surely cheered me up." "Now, let's go and complete that game with my god awful talent!" I cheered on as I picked up my borrowed broomstick.

The game resumed. James-Remus pair had scored seven goals by now whereas Sirius-Artemis had only scored four. The game was heavily one sided by the means of pure talent and pure clumsiness. At one time, Artemis even got rammed into Remus just because she was looking at the ball and not her surroundings. Soon, they were called by Mrs. Potter for lunch. By that time, they were so hungry that they didn't even bother to complete the game. Planning to resume it some other time, they returned back to the house.

"We had a lot of fun today… It's a shame it went by so fast." Artemis said, lying on James's bed. A good, delicious lunch had made them relaxed in many ways, which resulted in a sudden urge to do nothing. Hence, they all camped in James's room, some playing exploding snap, and some just lying on the bed. Remus and Sirius, who were playing exploding snap, agreed to what Artemis said. "Is it necessary to return today itself? Why don't you spend the night here and return tomorrow?"
Hearing the request of spending the night from Artemis, made Remus's heart flutter. However he replied, "My father will be returning home today. I have to be there."
"It's alright for now, but you have to stay for sleepover during New Year's. You know, with the Party and all…" James said, over some letter he was writing, by the window.
At that moment, the cards exploded, marking the end of the play. "Yeah, sure." Remus replied, wafting off the smoke from his face.
'This is it. This is the perfect chance to ask Artemis out. This time I'll surely do it!' thought Remus. A smile spread over his face, thinking about the decision he finally had made.