Author's Note: I hate tension headaches. I hate them more when they transform into migraines put me down for the count. Doesn't happen often (this was my first since early June), but even still. Mucked up my plans as well, not to mention kept me away from this story. Rawr.

I got a fun request from istolethecookie, that is actually something that I've been contemplating about. So, my dear Cookie Thief, your fabulous request will happen. I'm just not sure WHEN. Maybe next chapter, or maybe much later... who knows? ;] Won't be this one, seeing how this one is about what the girls are up to on the Full Moon.

Chapter 21: The Full Moon Rises
Tuesday, September 27, 1977

"About time those two leave for some alone time," I mumbled to James at lunch. "Marlene has been moping about all day."

"I noticed," he whispered back.

As soon as we were done with Charms, Remus and Marlene vanished. We couldn't blame them. Remus was leaving at five. The guys leave as soon as they finish eating dinner.

"You'd think we'd be doing the same thing. We aren't going to get to see each other tonight, either," James said with a wink.

"I don't have an alarm on my dorm room," I said to him with a smirk.

"You guys are giving away way too much information," Sirius said with a shudder.

I threw a fig biscuit at him.

"Oy! That's a waste of a perfectly good biscuit!" Dorcas exclaimed as she watched the dessert fly through the air from her usual next to me. "Use the crackers, instead." With that she started pelting Sirius with oyster crackers.

"What the fuck, Dorcas?" Sirius exclaimed. Dorcas laughed and ceased her example of a proper food attack.

"So why aren't you guys going to be around tonight?" Emmeline asked.

"Marauder tradition. The rest of the information is top-secret," Peter answered.

"If we tell you, we'd have to kill you," James added with a smirk.

"Hey, it's excuse for us all to have a slumber party," I said. "I'll multiply my pillows."

"Again?" James asked through a laugh.

"They're nice," I retorted. "Four wasn't enough."

"You have eight now. How do you fit in that bed?" James said back.

"Have you seen me compared to that bed? There's room," I assured him. "And it's good practice for the 'Geminio' charm."

"Of course you use school as an excuse," Dorcas said with a shake of her head.

They all laughed at me while I sat there saying, "What?"

[EV] - So when should we all meet?

[LE] - Just come up after dinner. Bring your homework.

[DM] - Seriously, Lils? Seriously?

[LE] - Part of the deal since we do have classes tomorrow.

[DM] - You are a serious party pooper.

[LE] - I am not!

[MM] - No, that's Mims. Divination in itself is a party pooper.

[DM] - Yeah, I'll give you that.

[MM] - I hate doing crystal balls. They make me dizzy because everything is so skewed.

[DM] - All I see in this thing is a zit on my nose forming.

[LE] - Lovely, Dorcas. I'd fix it if Mims wasn't so uptight about us about having out wands out in class.

[DM] - As soon as class is done, then.

[LE] - Deal. Oy, Marlene? Do you still have that camera?

[MM] - Of course. What would I have done with it?

[LE] - Bring it tonight?

[MM] - Plan to! And a bunch of the photos I've taken already. I have them in a nice album and I want you all to see! It's all sorted by year.

[DM] - Oh! I see something in the crystal ball!

[LE] - Dorcas Meadowes, you're pulling my leg.

[DM] - I'm not! I see something!

[MM] - What do you see, all-knowing one?

[DM] - I see five girls taking a trip down memory lane that they will regret ever doing.

[MM] - Dorcas!

[LE] - That was lame, Dorcas. And Marlene? You didn't have to hit her.

[MM] - It wasn't hard.

[DM] - Abusive there, Miss McKinnon. And it's true. We were awkward when we were little.

[MM] - The photos are cute. Suck it up.

[DM] - Wait, I think I see something else. It looks like an old crone... with a kerchief...

[LE] - That's Mims behind you.

[DM] - Shit.

"Marles, you'll see him in the morning," I told her. I moved to Remus's usual spot at dinner so I could put my arm around her. She was really down.

"I know, just feels different this time," she whispered to me. We were still keeping things on the down-low with Dorcas and Emmeline.

"I'm glad he went to the Hospital Wing. He's been looking rough for days, now," Dorcas stated.

"Yeah, Pomfrey will fix him right up," I told Marlene, keeping our cover that Remus was just coming down with something.

"Tonight will be awesome," Alice said. "We'll get you chipper in no time. Remus will be fine." She joined us for dinner this night since we were all going to my room straight from dinner.

"You're right," Marlene said, smiling. "Tonight will be awesome. Great distraction."

"Well, we must be off," James said, standing, Sirius and Peter following suit.

"Aw, is it already six?" I said, giving James a pouty face. Playing this up is fun.

"Yes. I'll see you in the morning in Defense," he assured me, laughing a little at my over-acting and rubbing my back.

"I'll grab you guys some muffins from breakfast, if you want," I told him, looking up at him.

"James, if I kiss your girlfriend, will you kill me?" Sirius said, eyeing me.

"Before your lips even meet," he said smugly. He leaned down and kissed me. Just to irritate Sirius, I deepened it.

Dorcas spat milk on the table, Marlene snorted, Emmeline gawked, and Alice blushed. Peter laughed and Sirius groaned.

"Well, that was unexpected," James said when I broke it. "Can I have a replay?"

He leaned in for another when Sirius spoke. "Yeah, we get the point. You're going to miss your girl. Save it for some other time because we have to go."

"Your friend is such a scruffy buzzkill," I told James as he walked away.

"I'M NOT SCRUFFY!" Sirius yelled over his shoulder at us.

The other girls looked at me quizzically. "Long story," I told them. That satisfied them. "To the dorms?"

"To the dorms!" they all chorused in reply.

We were able to knock the homework out right away, since I got a little done before rounds. So we were able to go right into girls' night after about two and a half hours of study time. I multiplied my mattress and pillows and put them on the floor of my room so we could all lay together. We had sweets and popcorn in the middle from the kitchens. Standard slumber party fare.

"So how are things with Frank?" I asked Alice. "It's been a while since we have been able to hang out!"

"Things are fabulous. I seriously think he's who I am suppose to be with for the rest of my life. He's actually spending Christmas with my family," she answered, a dreamy, far-off look in her eye. Same look she always has when she's talking about her boyfriend.

"Oh, really?" Dorcas said. "Lily is spending Christmas with James and his family."

Alice turned to me. "Wow, progressing fast?"

"He asked on our first date. And it isn't like it would just be me and James. Sirius lives with him, remember?"

"Hit him with a snowball for me," Dorcas said, tossing popcorn in her mouth.

"You can hit him yourself. You're all coming to my place for New Year's, remember? Alice! You and Frank can come, too, if you'd like!"

"Thanks, but I'll have to decline," she said. "Promised Mum that Frank and I will be spending it at my house."

"Sounds like my holiday," I laughed. "That was my parents' condition. I can spend Christmas at the Potter's if we spend New Year's at my place."

"That's exactly what my parents said!" We had a good laugh.

"Hey, Marlene? Where's that photo album?" Emmeline asked.

"Oh, why did you have bring that up?" Dorcas whined. "I thought we were going to get out of it."

"Not going to happen," Marlene said with a smile, pulling the giant photo album out from under her pillow. "I have six years worth of Hogwarts memories in here. And I started seventh year."

She opened it to the first page and we all gathered around her. Alice and Dorcas were laying on our stomachs on either side of her, while Emmeline and I sat on Emmeline and Dorcas's backs, since we were the smallest. It was our standard positions for viewing a single book, and has been for six years.

"Oh, Merlin, was I really that short?" Emmeline asked, looking at the first photo. It was the five of us in the dorm room after the welcome feast. Marlene, Dorcas, and Alice were in the back, while Emmeline and I stood in front of them, all of us smiling, waving, and pointing to the Gryffindor decor around the room. We barely stood to their shoulders.

"Em, my love, we're still that short," I told her. We all laughed as we flipped through the book.

All of the photos were moving, which is something that never gets old to a Muggle-born like me. Dad would love to see this. "Marles, bring this over on New Year's. Dad loves this stuff," I told her.

"Will do!" she said, turning to a page from second year. "Ah! This is my favorite photo of me and Remus!"

Staring back at us was a laughing twelve-year-old Marlene, her long blonde hair in two long plaits, reaching past her waist. Well, they would be passing her waist if they were hanging down on her side. Remus had a plait in each hand, waving them around and out to the side. On the same page was a photo of me sitting with Severus, both of us smiling. The page was labeled, "Me and Lily with our childhood friends." My sigh did not go unnoticed.

"You miss his friendship, don't you?" Emmeline asked. All I could do in reply was nod.

We kept flipping through the book, find photos of all the Marauders, the five of us, and Frank Longbottom. We were all of the Gryffindors of our year, so we got lucky. Usually there's one or two people in each year that you swear was only sorted into your house to make your life miserable, but we didn't have that.

Well, I did with Sirius and James, but things changed.

We had reached sixth year's section when Dorcas stopped Marlene's flipping. "I never noticed it before, Lils, but summer treated you nicely."

"What?" I asked, gasping. I looked at the photo. "I don't look different, except my hair is longer now."

"Lils, look at you. You've slimmed up more, you're distributed better, and you're more relaxed. I'm glad you finally said yes to James because you would be killing him," she said.

"Speaking of James," Marlene said, flipping to the next page. "Summer did him well, too."

I looked at the photo of James from last year. When Marlene was right, she was right. Over the summer James became more tone, got taller, and grew into his features. "I'm not complaining," I said, grinning. "Matter of fact, they all benefitted from summer holiday."

"I'll say!" Emmeline said. We all laughed and Marlene flipped to the current school year's section. There wasn't much, but it was still fun. There was a photo of me and James showing off our Head badges, photos of the girls in the dorm, study sessions.

"When did you take that?" I asked her. It was a photo of me and James asleep on the couch in the Head Common Room. Every once and a while I would stir a little, and then James would smile and pull me closer. The caption, written in Marlene's curvy script, was "James and Lily: About bloody time!"

"I came in because I forgot a textbook of mine, and I happened to have the camera around my neck still. It was the same night Dorcas creamed Sirius in Wizard Chess," she said, pointing to a photo on the next page of Dorcas laughing while Sirius looked at the board confused about the outcome to the game.

I just stared at the photo of the two of us, and I couldn't help but noticed that it wasn't awkward or anything. It looked natural. Like we were dating for years, not weeks. I felt the smile spread over my face.

"What's the smile for?" Emmeline asked. The girls below us couldn't see me too well.

"Nothing. I think I just realized something."

"What's that?" Marlene asked.

"I think I just saw a photo of my future."

Author's Note Part 2: I am SO TIRED but I had to get this out for you because I said I would do a late-night update. It's 12:30am EST. It counts. Don't know when the next update will happen, though. I'll try to make it soon. And yes, I got sappy at the end. I do that.