I know I've been slow to update lately, and I'm SO sorry. I've actually had this chapter AND the next one written for some time now, but I keep forgetting to put them on FFN. Since the next one's already written, though, It'll be on here much faster than this one...

Chapter 24 -- Then, Everyone Screamed Bloody-Freakin' Homicide.

Lily waited for what seemed like forever after she got off the plane, waiting in the customs line at the airport. She hadn't moved up in the line in the longest time and she was so tired , even though she was sitting on top of her blue striped luggage. As if the flight wasn't long enough.

Finally, she got to the front of the line and, surprisingly enough, got through relatively quickly. Wearily, she looked around the public part of the airport. It was small, with only one terminal, a place that sold gum, a café, and a bunch of randomly placed benches. The only thing that was even remotely interesting was the tall windows, outside of which Lily could see peaceful, bright blue sky. She sighed and rubbed her neck idly as she walked.

"LILY!" someone screamed in her ear. Lily yelped as warm hands covered her eyes. "Guess who?"

Instead of answering, Lily leaned heavily against the person behind her, sending them both toppling to the ground. Once they had both stopped laughing, Lily sat up and turned around. "Hi!"

Adriyana grinned. "Get the hell off me, Lils," she said fondly.

Lily stood up, and Adriyana jumped to her feet as well. "I could kiss you for saving me, Agie. I don't think I said one nice word to Petunia all month. She just…brings out the worst in me, it's awful."

Adriyana frowned sympathetically. "I take it she hasn't improved since I met her?" Lily shook her head. "Poor you, that sucks. But let's not talk about that, you've probably had enough. Come on, I'll show you where we're staying." She picked up Lily's bag and they walked out of the airport, and as soon as they pushed open the doors, heavy, humid air swirled around Lily. She made a face and looked at Adriyana, who didn't seem to be bothered by it much.

"Damn, it's hot out here," Lily commented. "And how do we get to your…er…where do we sleep?"

"It's by the shore…owned by a hotel company, but it's a bunch of tiny little individual houses? I don't remember what it's called."

"That sounds like a condo, Agie," Lily deadpanned.

"Yeah, that's it. And we're walking. It's only about a mile, and I don't like driving if I can help it."

"Why, because someone might find out you don't have a licence?"

"Exactly."

"As if they can't tell by the way you drive. Did you learn which one's the brake pedal and which is the gas, yet?"

"Almost…er, I mean, haven't you had enough of sitting by now?"

Lily nodded, dropping her bag and using both hands to fan herself.

"Come on, Lils. It's not that hot!"

Lily scoffed. "How do you figure?" Finally taking a closer look at her friend, Lily instantly noticed why Adriyana wasn't that bothered by the weather. Her hair was damp, so she'd probably just been in the ocean, and she'd pulled it into a bun. She was wearing only a thin, white cotton dress over top of her bathing suit. Lily, on the other hand, was wearing "airplane attire," i.e., her favourite pair of comfortable, well-worn jeans and a black shirt that became burning hot in an unbelievably short amount of time.

Lily's attention faded in and out as Adriyana told her about what drinks were the best at the outdoor bar at the hotel near the condo. "You have to be twenty-one to get alcohol, isn't that weird? Did you know non-alcoholic drinks are called 'virgin' drinks? Isn't that bizarre?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Is the water nice?"

Adriyana nodded, and kept rambling on, before abruptly turning away from the main road and following a path mostly covered by thick, shady trees.

Lily sighed with relief as the heavy green leaves blocked the sun beating down on them, but couldn't help asking: "Agie, what the hell is this?"

"Shortcut," Adriyana muttered vaguely. Lily wasn't very consoled by that, but a few minutes later, a wider path crossed directly on top of theirs, and Adriyana turned onto it abruptly. As the leaves became more sparse, the backs of tiny, cream-coloured houses began appearing on the side of the path, facing out to what Lily assumed was the beach.

Adriyana stopped in front of one of the houses, pulling a rusting key out of her bun. "This is it," she said unnecessarily. She pushed on the door and it swung forward. "Come on in, I'll help you unpack your stuff."

Even as James left the stadium and he, his dad, and the rest of the Marauders were heading back to their tent, his ears were still ringing from the thrilling end to the Quidditch Cup, where England's Seeker had grabbed the Snitch from right under the Irish Seeker's foot and everyone had screamed bloody-freakin' homicide. He had to strain his abused ears to hear the snippets of conversation going on around him:

"—Did you see that last goal? Bloody amazing, even though they lost—"

"—Think I won the office pool, I said two hours and fifteen, it was only about twenty longer than that, no one else was even close—"

"—Knew we'd win, Ireland didn't stand a chance!—"

"—Almost fell off his broom three times, didn't he? Barely caught himself on that last one—"

James' dad ducked under the flap of their tent, followed by the other boys with James bringing up the rear. The heavy canvas cut out all the noises outside the tent, so he had to listen to what Sirius and Peter were talking about instead.

"—Can't BELIEVE Snivelly was sitting right below our balcony!" Sirius said loudly, flopping backwards onto the couch.

"I can't believe you dropped your ice cream on his head," James burst into laughter.

"Cracking shot that was, Padfoot," Peter added.

Sirius grinned with pride. "Now we'll be able to tell if he actually washes his hair, eh? I bet ten Galleons they'll still be ice cream in it when we get back to school."

James looked to the right, because Remus had been too silent. "Isn't summer great, Moony? We can't get in trouble for our pranks at all!"

Remus sighed. "We can, though. Amber told Adriyana and Lily about Mrs. Fischbaum. I got a letter from them just this morning. They're not happy, to say the least."

"About what?" James asked. "How could they possibly have a problem with that?"

"Here, I'll get it." Remus pulled his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at the table. "Accio letter. " A piece of parchment flew into his hand, and he tossed it into James' lap.

"You've been writing to Agie?" Sirius asked.

"Huh? Oh, of course I haven't, I barely know her, Padfoot. No, Lily wrote it, but Adriyana must have been yelling in the background, I think. Why don't you just read it, Prongs?"

James nodded and adjusted his glasses as Sirius leaned over his shoulder.

Remus, and whoever might steal this letter when they realize it's from me (Potter),

Are you really torturing a MUGGLE?? It's the first summer you're allowed to do magic, I bet that was one of the first things you did, as well. You're supposed to be mature now! Remus, your mum's a Muggle, right? Doesn't she get jumpy when your dad does magic? And she knows about us! It has to be about thirty times worse for this poor woman. I don't care how much you guys hate her, it's still illegal. The Statue of Secrecy is the FIRST thing a wizard ever learns. Even you idiots should know that. Especially you, Remus, I'm shocked about this.

Oh, and Agie's mad too, but she's not good at being angry in a letter, because her hand gets all shaky. She told me to write that Sirius better write her soon and he'd better start grovelling. She also says that she's going to train the giant squid to squirt ink at you four because you made me mad again, and I'd just barely recovered from spending half the summer with my sister.

-Lily

James swallowed loudly and adjusted his glasses again. "I didn't even think about it that way, but I guess --Padfoot, would you STOP breathing in my ear? You know I hate that!— they're right. It's not as bad as Lily says, though, I mean, we're not hurting her at all."

Sirius nodded. "True, but we're better off letting them think we feel sorry. I've got an idea, but we'll have to wait to send them a letter until we get back to your house, Prongs."

James shrugged. "Sure. It's harder to care about what Lily says when I won't be seeing her for another four weeks."

Sirius nodded in agreement. "And Agie'll forget about it by then. Come on, every other sane person here is out there celebrating!" he pointed to the door of the tent. "What are we doing? We are here, listening to bloody Evans again, when we are supposed to be having a vacation from her."

They left the tent and James couldn't help but laugh at the spectacle outside. People were drinking and dancing and it looked like a blast. The Potter's tent was very close to the separation of the English supporters and the Irish supporters, and every once in a while someone on the other side would peek out of their shamrock-coated tent and glare angrily at the people partying, as if the look alone would stop everyone.

"You'd think they wouldn't want to stick around after losing…" Remus mused. "Can't they just apparate? They're close enough."

The other three shrugged. "Hey!" Peter exclaimed, "Since we can't prank Prongs' neighbour anymore, we should at least do something while we're still around wizards and we can't get in trouble for it…right?"

Sirius nodded. "Definitely."

James shrugged. "There's probably Security Spells around here, we can get in deep shit if something goes wrong and they need to Priori Icantatem everyone."

"I've got an idea!" Peter ducked back into the tent, some crashing was heard. He emerged again moments later, holding some egg cartons. "We egg their tents. Muggle-style. No wands needed. And we can't hurt anyone!"

"Unless someone's allergic to eggshell and a bit falls in their eye and it swells up and they go blind!" James yelled.

Sirius took one of the cartons, pulled out an egg, and stuffed it in James' mouth. "Shut up now, Prongs."

James huffed angrily around his egg.

Peter picked up an egg and threw it at one of the tents experimentally. It sailed through the air, but landed a few meters short of its target with a squishy SPLAT on the ground.

"Watch the master at work, Wormtail." Sirius took out another egg and lazily hurled it at the tent, hitting it square in the middle. The tent lit up with what could only be a burst of wand light from inside. The flap facing them opened, and someone's wand poked out. The next thing James knew, sticky brown mud-like goo was flying out of the wand towards Sirius.

Before Sirius could step away, a great amount of the stuff splashed across his chest, which was already bare except for the paint he and James and put on to show team spirit.

"Okay, so maybe they're in a bad mood," Remus suggested, as the wand light in the tent went out. "Padfoot, go take a shower, that's really gross."

Sirius looked down at himself, and a huge glob of mud fell off his nose and landed on his shoe with a gooey PLOP noise. It made James laugh so hard he forgot the egg was still in his mouth and he bit down.

Amber,

The Quidditch cup was great, we won, but I'll bet you've already heard that. James didn't realize the paint he bought for him and Sirius wasn't supposed to be used on their skin (Which they covered themselves in, the gits), so now the paint won't come off and I think Sirius is going to kill James soon, so I'd better get back to them.

You haven't written me a letter in a while, is everything all right? How's your summer going?

-Remus

"Agie."

"Hggg…"

"Agie!!"

"Sleepin'. Go 'way."

"AGIE!! Wake the hell up. Isn't that James' owl knocking on the condo?"

Adriyana looked up from her towel, and saw James' owl trying to get through their window. "Yeah!" She jumped up excitedly.

"We're mad at them, you idiot. Remember? Don't be excited."

"So negative, Lily. Maybe we won't be mad at them anymore after we read it. I'd like to get lunch, too, so we should go back there, anyway."

Lily conceded and followed Adriyana, who jogged up to James' owl. "Watch it! The Muggles will see you!" she whispered to the owl harshly, pushing the door open. "Come in, before they see!" The owl seemed to understand her and followed both of them inside.

Adriyana poured some dry cereal onto a plate and pushed it towards the owl, then untied the note from its leg and plopped down on the couch next to Lily to read it.

Agie and Evans,

We'd never really thought of it that way, but you're probably right. We're not doing anything to Mrs. F anymore, as you can see from the picture we sent you.

Adriyana picked up the picture that had fallen face down in her lap and turned it over. It was a Muggle picture, so it didn't move. She smiled and handed it to Lily. "That's sweet of them, isn't it?" Adriyana asked. It was a picture of James, Sirius, and some wrinkly old lady (Mrs. Fischbaum, they guessed). All three were smiling at the camera, though James and Sirius' smiles were rather forced.

Lily smiled and nodded. "As long as they say they're stopping. Is that the only part that has to do with me?" Adriyana's eyes scanned the rest of the letter and she nodded. "Want me to go make sandwiches?" Adriyana nodded again, and Lily headed to the kitchen.

The Quidditch Cup was fantastic, have you read the article in the Prophet yet? I'm sorry you couldn't come, we would've had a great time, I think. Except for the paint Prongs bought for us to paint the flag on out chests with. He clearly does not know Muggle paint, because the one he got us is HOUSE PAINT, and it still hasn't come off. That's what the second picture is, by the way.

Adriyana shook the envelope, and another picture fell out. She laughed out loud, and pocketed it before Lily could see, but missed it a second later and pulled it out for a better look, just to be sure she saw what she thought she saw. This one was moving, and was a picture of Sirius by the lake behind James' house, lying out on a rock without his shirt on, his torso tinted pale blue and red. He waved brightly at Adriyana, and she giggled, but couldn't help but wonder aloud, "Who took this picture?"

"What's that, Agie?" Lily asked, peeking out from the kitchen.

"Nothing!" Adriyana shoved the picture back into the pocket of her shorts and turned her attention back to the letter.

I miss you a lot, Agie. Really. I didn't think it would be this hard to be away from you all summer. I never thought there'd be a girl that important to me.

…What's this, now? I went to the loo, and someone wrote some mushy crap about you while I was gone. I should find out who it was and strangle them.

I still can't wait to see you again. About three more weeks left until seventh, I don't think I'll see you before then, right? I looked into it, and there's no way Prongs and I can come visit, as much as I want to. Molly and Arthur Weasley need someone to stick around who can watch Bill and Charlie for them when Molly goes into labour, Or something stupid like that that Prongs' mum made us promise to do. It should be your job, apparently, but since you're gone, we have to do it. Can you believe that? Prongs and I are going to take care of young children! Hope he doesn't drop one on its head or anything, eh?

I really do miss you a lot, though.

-Sirius

Amber,

How come you aren't writing me back?

-Remus

Remus,

Sorry, no time. Very busy. See you in a few weeks!

Love,

Amber

Sirius,

Babysitting? You and James? Lily spit out her lemonade when I told her. Better you than me, though. Have you met Bill and Charlie? Barking mad, both of them. I'd advise that you keep Charlie away from the broom shed, and don't do anything impressionable in front of Bill. Make sure you pay attention to them, Sirius, they're six and four. Please, PLEASE, don't do anything stupid.

I miss you a lot, too. It's been too long.

Love,

Agie

"Boys! Boys!" Mrs. Potter knocked on the door to James' room. "I just got a Floo call from Arthur Weasley, Molly's in labour and they need you over there to watch the kids! Come on!" James and Sirius came out the doorway and she pushed both of them from behind until they were in front of the fireplace. "Go!"

James went first, grabbing a handful of powder from the pot on the mantle and yelling, "The Burrow!" before disappearing in toe emerald-green flames.

He shot out the other end, and was met by a frantic Arthur Weasley. "Oh, thank Merlin you're here! Just…they already ate, but they might want a snack, so…that pantry," He blurted. James nodded slowly, raising one eyebrow. "And Charlie goes to bed in an hour, Bill in two. I'll come back later to check on you or something, maybe." Arthur grabbed the Floo pot and stood aside as Sirius shot out of his fireplace and landed on the floor. "I'd better be going, see you soon, boys!" he waved to Bill and Charlie and disappeared with a yell of, "St. Mungos!"

Bill cocked his head and looked at James and Sirius. "Who're you?"

"We're supposed to watch you. Just for a little while," James said, sitting on the couch next to Bill.

"Where Agigie?" Charlie asked.

'who?' James mouthed.

Sirius shrugged. 'Agie,'he mouthed back. "She's on vacation. We're her friends, though."

"Yeah. So, what're you doing?" James leaned over and looked at Charlie's lap. "Oh! A colouring book. You're missing the lines a lot, though? Want me to help?"

"NO!" Charlie pushed James' hand away viciously. "Mine!"

"Okay, okay!" James exclaimed. "Calm down!"

Sirius sighed. This was going to be a long night.

"PRONGS!" Sirius ran into the kitchen, where James was with Bill, and looked around frantically. "Where is Charlie?"

"What are you talking about? He's on the couch with his colouring book, right—" James pointed at the empty couch. "Ah, hell."

"Well, we have to find him!" Sirius crouched down next to Bill. "Do you know where your brother could be."

Bill just shrugged and threw his hands in the air. "Nope."

"Maybe he's—" A loud crash from upstairs stopped James' sentence. "HOLY FUCK!"

"Fuck!" Bill crowed happily.

"No, don't say that!" Sirius begged, as James ran in the direction of the noise.

"Why? S'not hurting anyone. Fuck fuck fuckitty fuck! See?" he said.

Sirius put his hands on his had, grabbed two handfuls of his hair, and pulled. "How does Agie do this?" he muttered, letting go of his own hair in favour of Bill's arm as he pulled the young boy off to help James find Charlie.

Agie,

We just got them to sleep. Took FOREVER, that. James keeps telling me to write more quietly so we don't wake them. You were right about Charlie and the broom shed, we locked it, but he somehow got in and rode his dad's broom right through a window. Don't worry, he's fine, he had a cut but we healed it. Prongs taught Bill some fantastic new vocabulary, I wonder what his parents will say when they when they find out.

I guess I'm free to visit you know, but there's really no point, with just six days left until school, and three until you come back.

See you at Kings Cross, okay?

-Sirius

A/N-Okay, there's the second half! The next chapter will start off as their 7th year begins, so no more of the summer parts. I was nervous about what I was going to do for 7th year (I had NO idea!) but I've been brainstorming during Spanish class and I think I've got some good ones. Now I've got the ideas, and I just need the inspiration.

Also, in case you don't know, there's a small RPG loosely based on this story. Kind of. Same characters, but not much else is the same. Anyway, if you're bored, or if you want to make me happy, you should go join. There hasn't been a lot of activity since our Sirius and Alice left (both slots are still open, by the way. Hint, hint.), and we're looking for any new people who'd like to join! You can be any character on the list, or you can make up your own! I promise it'll be fun!

It's at http://storyofthemwpp(dot)proboards50(dot)com, in case you're interested.

Send me a review, won't you? Until next time!