"No James! there's no way I'm putting on another Taylor Swift song!" Lily protested, swatting James's hand away from the CD player.
"Yeah mate there are only so many times a person can listen to You Belong with me without going insane. " Remus agreed. James let out a dramatic gasp, falling back onto his seat theatrically.
"There can never be too much Taylor! Honestly - you two are heathens." James huffed.

Remus scoffed and looked over to Lily (who was in the passenger's seat) and the two shared a knowing look.
"You would think that you two would have the common courtesy to let me choose the music after you so viciously dumped me to sit in the back seat," James whined, leaning forward to stick his head between the two in the front.
"James, for the last time, We played rock paper scissors and I won, fair and square!" Lily said.

"How come you beat me every time? You must have been cheating!" James pouted childishly.
"James, you played paper - every. single . time." Remus groaned, eyes fixed on the road in front of him.
"It's a good, solid move!" James argued and Lily rolled her eyes before turning and pushing James back into the backseat.
"Yeah, but not if it's your only move, you knob." Lily shook her head in disbelief and James leant back, crossing his arms in defiance. James had decided to position himself in the middle seat, figuring it was the optimal seat for annoyance. Turns out he was right.

Lily sighed and leant forward, tuning into the radio to fill the silence of the car. Remus was lost in his own thoughts - and his endless worries about Sirius. The two were soon taken out of their silent brooding when James decided to ask the world's most annoying question.

"Are we there yet?" James asked in a sing-songy tone. Remus and Lily immediately groaned, more than fed up with the question.
"I don't know James, does this look like London to you?" Lily asked, her voice venomous, pointing around to the Scottish countryside that surrounded them.
"James, you don't need to ask that question every ten feckin' minutes!" A clearly grumpy Remus added.
"Just checkin.." James said, sitting back smugly in his seat. Clearly proud of himself for managing to get under their skin so effectively.

"James, do you actually have any sort of clue where Sirius is going to be?" Lily asked, scrambling about in her satchel for a notepad and pen, already planning for when the trio arrives in London.
"I have a few guesses, our flat maybe - well I hope he's there.." James says, scratching his neck nervously and Lily nodded, scribbling down a brief note before pausing and turning to James.
"Wait, what do you mean by hopefully?" Lily asked cautiously, not wanting to overstep.

James sighed and tugged a hand through his chaotic hair, looking into Lily's eyes with true sincerity.
"Well god forbid if he goes to his parents- I don't even want to think about what they'd do to him.." James almost shivered, and Lily's eyes hadn't left him, mildly astonished by his ability to change his mood from comedic and playful to sombre and sincere so quickly.
Lily smiled reassuringly, suddenly feeling the urge to reach out, and grab his hand, but she dismissed the thought faster than she had time to think about what it could've meant.

Remus peered at the two from his rearview mirror, smiling a coy smile and flicking the Taylor Swift C.D. back on.
He could have sworn that James's entire face lit up, the once saddened look being completely washed over with a look of pure unadulterated glee.
"Hell yes! I love you Moony!" James said, leaning forward in his seat and planting a wet kiss on Remus's cheek.
"Moony?" Remus asked, wiping his slobbery cheek and laughing.
"If Sirius can call you Moony, then so can I," James said, pausing in the middle of his sentence to sing the rest of the verse.

Lily met Remus's eyes, her teasing expression telling him that they were both definitely discussing this when they got home. Remus just blushed and rolled his eyes, muttering a low, "Jesus Christ."

Remus let out a drowsy sigh as he looked to his left at the sleeping Lily - who was curled up tightly in the passenger seat. He had been driving for five hours, and the trio had only just arrived in England. Remus also wasn't a fan of driving in the dark, always cautious of falling asleep at the wheel.
He looked at the Inn in front of them and he hoped that there would be enough rooms - but he doubted that a random Inn in Newcastle would be fully booked up. He caught a glimpse of James in the backseat, who was also in a deep sleep, and an occasional snort or mumble would escape his mouth every so often.
Remus decided that he didn't want to leave it too late, so he rubbed his eyes one last time and shook Lily's leg.

"Lily, Lils… wake up," Remus whispered softly, watching as Lily's green eyes slowly opened and her mouth widened in a hearty yawn. "R we in landen?" she mumbled, sounding more Scottish than ever.
"No, we're in England though, just outside of Newcastle." He smiled, turning to look at James, who was still snoring away in the backseat. Remus reached out, about to tap James's leg to wake him when Lily grabbed his arm - a mischievous look on her face.
"No, wait - I have a brilliant idea." Lily grinned, pulling her eyeliner out of her pocket.

Ten minutes later and the trio walked through the doors of the Inn, with Remus and Lily looking especially smug. James - who was none the wiser - was dorning the spectacular artwork of Remus Lupin, with a particularly detailed cock and balls drawn all over his forehead with Lily's waterproof eyeliner.

As the three walked to the front desk, Remus noticed the receptionist's eyes widening as she looked at the drawing on James' forehead, and Remus had to make a hefty effort not to laugh as he caught Lily's eyes.
James - who was still unaware of the tragic mess on his forehead - sauntered up to the front desk and flashed the woman a flirty smile.
"Hello love, do you have any rooms available?" The receptionist just stared at him, her eyes darting from James to Lily and Remus (who were both on the brink of laughter.)
The woman seemed to have clocked what was going on as she looked at James with a smile.

"Yes sir we do, how many would ya like?" The woman asked, barely containing her laughter as she looked down at her computer. James gave her a puzzled look, which unfortunately made the dick drawing look shrivelled - not helping the woman's case of trying to contain her laughter.
"Um, just one will do… a double with a single maybe?" James asked, clearly confused as to what the woman was finding so funny. The woman let out a snort and she looked down at her computer. James turned around to Lily and Remus raising a brow as if to ask what the hell is going on?

Remus and Lily just shrugged, trying their hardest not to laugh at the distorted balls on James's face.
"Yeah me and Remus will share the double if you take the cot," Lily said, unable to contain the smile on her face when she spoke. James nodded but flashed Lily a weird look.
"Room 105, just down the hall." The woman snorted again, handing James the keys to the room.
"Thank you…" James said suspiciously, grabbing the keys and walking down the hallway to the room.

Lily and Remus followed diligently, sharing a look as they watched James struggle with the door key. "Do you want any help?" Lily asked, a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter.
"No, No I've got it," James said, finally turning the key and collapsing into the room with a grunt.
They followed James into the room, putting their bags on the double bed as James leapt onto his cot, almost collapsing the weak frame.
"That receptionist was acting so odd… don't you think?" James asked the two, now standing back up to face them. Lily snorted again, immediately bringing her hand to her face to cover it. "I don't think so.." Remus said, tapping his chin comedically.

James rolled his eyes and pushed past the two. "And so are you two! Well, whatever I need a piss." James huffed, walking into the bathroom and pulling the door shut dramatically.
Lily and Remus instantly burst into laughter and James let out a shriek from the bathroom.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!"
Remus let out a fresh cackle at James's reaction. "Do ya think he saw it?" Remus laughed and Lily nodded, unable to speak through her wheezes.
Remus's suspicions were confirmed when James came storming through, a very smudged dick and balls on his forehead.

"You two are DICKS" James screamed, his face red as Lily and Remus knelt over with laughter.

"Respectfully James, you're technically the dick in this situation." Lily laughed, her face flushed from all the laughter.
"Yeah mate, you've even got the mark to prove it!" Remus added, leaning forward to poke the dick on James's head.
"No wonder that lass was giggling at me! I had a bloody cock and balls on my forehead! oh god ." James groaned,, sitting down on the bed and covering his face with shame.

"Paybacks a bitch Prongs," Remus said, sitting beside James and clapping him on the back.
" Prongs ?" James asked, looking up at Remus with wide eyes.
"If Sirius can call you Prongs, then so can I." Remus mimicked James from earlier - and James leant forward and hugged him aggressively.

Remus took another desperate drag of his cigarette, needing to feel any sort of warmth that it could give to him. He was dog tired after a stressful afternoon of driving. He was grateful that Lily had offered to drive tomorrow, as he could feel the pains in his knees from being cramped up in the car. He walked around the small garden of the Inn, admiring the pretty fairy lights that were lining the patio.

He took out the scribbled piece of paper that he kept in his pocket. On it was the numbers of anyone who he deemed worth phoning, and he set his eyes on Effie & Monty's home number - knowing they would want to know where they were and that they were still alive. He hoped that the couple were still awake, even though it was nearing midnight.

He took one last puff of his cigarette before stomping it out on the ground and heading back into the warmth of the Inn.
He approached the tired-looking receptionist with what he hoped was a friendly smile.
"Hiya, I was wonderin'' if you had a payphone?" Remus asked, bringing the woman's attention from her game of solitaire on her computer.
"We do but I'm sorry to say that it's brokin' lovey,' '' Her geordie accent sympathised, and Remus sighed in disappointment but smiled at the girl weakly. "It's ok, thanks though."
He was about to walk away when the girl beckoned him closer - a gap-toothed grin dorning her face.

"I'm no supposed to do this like, but you lot made my night, oh god the drawing on your friends face-" She let out a laugh and Remus chuckled back - liking the good-natured receptionist. "It was gold! Pure gold! But you didn't hear this from me like, but there's a landline in the staff room that you can use."
Remus smiled widely as the girl winked sneakily at him.
"Thank you so much…" Remus asked her name, not seeing a name tag.
"Alice - Alice Fortescue." Alice smiled. "Well thank you Alice - you are an angel." Remus complemented.

"So I've been telt." Alice winked, shooeing him off to the staff room with her hands. Remus smiled but walked off - turning the door handle and entering the dinky staffroom. It was sparse with only a small table and chairs, filled with a microwave and coffee machine that looked like they hadn't worked since the '80s. He quickly spotted the phone, a blue landline that was hanging on the wall.

He grimaced at the phone, but he punched the numbers of the Potters landline in, listening to the crackling ring of the phone. To his surprise, it was picked up on the third ring by Effie.
"Hello, Potters residence." The voice of Effie called, sounding oddly robotic through the phone.
"Hey, Eff, it's Remus," Remus said loudly, in case the phone didn't pick him up.
"Oh thank the lord , Monty! It's Remus on the phone!" Effie called. Remus chuckled lovingly as he heard Monty scream back. "Oh, so it's lord Monty now? Hey, I have zero complaints." Monty jokes and Remus could hear the audible sigh from Effie as she picked the phone back up.

"So, where are yous at now? In a hotel, I hope! I don't want you driving groggy Lupin." Effie mothered, her lecturing tone perfected from years of being a mother.
"We're in an Inn, just outside of Newcastle," Remus answered diligently
"Good good, thanks for calling pet - Monty and I have been worried sick ! - Haven't we Monty?" Effie asked, and Remus heard the newspapers that Monty was no doubt holding crumpled. "Yes, worried sick Remus," Monty added, only slightly sarcastically.

"Well Effie no fear, we've only drawn dicks on James's face once ." Remus sniggered, thinking about the smeared dick drawing on the youngest Potter's head.
"Only once ? I'm disappointed Remus, I expected more from you!" Effie laughed heartily. Remus heard the grumbles of Monty from the background
"Don't encourage him Eff, or Jamies gonna come home with a whole array of penis tattoos."

Remus laughed with the couple, always loving their easy-going humour and nature - once again making him pang for his own parents.
"I better let you two go, it's past midnight," Remus said, shifting from foot to foot on the dirty carpet.
"Oh of course Rem, long day of travel tomorrow! We'll let you go, but phone us when you can and when you find Sirius." Effie said, brought back into mother mode.
"Of course, James and Lily send their love," Remus added, even though they had no clue who he was phoning.
"How are they? James said they had a tiff but wouldn't say what happened." Effie added, clearly searching for gossip.

"Yeah, they're fine - I think they're just ignoring it mainly," Remus said, wanting to get off of the phone so that he could sleep.
"Ahhh young love, anyways darling - we'll leave ya to sleep, love ya!"
"Love ya Effie, bye Monty," Remus says, and he hears the laughter before Effie hangs up - leaving Remus to put the phone back on the receiver.
He exited the staffroom, thanking Alice on his way past - she was packing up to go home, and she threw him a toothy grin.

Remus felt drained, but his brain was still buzzing with worry for Sirius, who he hoped was tucked up in his flat. He pulled the door open to their room, expecting to see James and Lily fast asleep, what he certainly didn't expect to see was the two - standing in the middle of the room, snogging the life out of one another.

The three hadn't spoken since the previous night, since Remus had caught Lily and James snogging the souls out of one another.
They were currently back in Remus's beat-up car, with Lily at the wheel and Remus in the passenger seat, only speaking when supplying directions from the map.
Lily and James hadn't made eye contact since the night prior, so the air in the car was unbearably thick, with only the radio to fill the stiff silence.
Remus had made several attempts to speak to Lily, but she just dismissed Remus - waving him away or refusing to speak about what happened.

They had been on the road for half an hour, after a silent breakfast at the Inn, the three-headed out bright and early - preparing themselves for the five-hour drive to London.
Lily was overly focused on the road, her eyes refusing to stray away from it for even a second. James was also silent, sitting in the backseat behind Remus, he had barely said two words all morning.
Remus just wanted to scream, desperately wanting to know what the hell happened in that hotel room while he was away.

He was desperate, and the tension in the small car was insufferable, so when he saw a yellow mini on the road next to him, he got an idea. He leant forward to Lily - and nipped her lightly on the arm, exclaiming, "Mini mini nip nip, cannae nip back!"
Lily burst out laughing, smiling and swatting Remus away playfully.
"You're an arse Lupin."
James smiled as well, leaning forward to Remus's seat and hitting him on the arm, yelling,
"Yellow car!"

Remus laughed but held his arm, whining, "You cannae hit me after I've nipped her!"
"So I can! You nipped her for the mini but you didn't hit her for it being yellow!" James argued back, and Remus just rolled his eyes and scoffed,
"Bollocks! Nip counts for both!"
This launched Remus and James into an in-depth argument about the rules of ' yellow car' and 'mini mini nip nip.'

Lily just scoffed and rolled her eyes, secretly grateful that the three were talking about something.

"Is that all?" The cashier asked whilst raising a questioning brow at Remus and his purchases, which were a family bag size of Skittles - a bottle of blue WKD and a Kinder Bueno.
"No, could I get a pack of 10 sterling as well? If you dinnae mind" Remus asked, pointing to the cigarettes over the counter. The teen nodded again, chewing loudly on her bubblegum as she reached over for the cigarettes.
"How bout now?" The girl asked, her york accent sounding oddly comical.
"That's all," Remus said with an awkward smile - cursing Lily and James for giving him such a weird list of stuff to buy from the petrol station.

The girl nodded and started ringing him up, stuffing the goods in a plastic bag reluctantly.
"That'll be £16.59," The girl said, handing Remus the flimsy bag. Remus nodded and handed her James's £20 note that he had given him in the car. "Ta, have a nice day." She said, her voice sounding painfully monotone.
"You too," Remus said, exiting the shop and grimacing out of embarrassment. He opened the passenger door to his car and hopped in.
"You two are prats! That lass at the counter gave me the weirdest look imaginable." Remus said and James laughed from the backseat and leaned forward to grab at the bag, and Remus noticed that Lily was gone from the driver's seat.

"Did you get my WKD ? James asked, raking through the bag. "Aye, and your Bueno ... Wait, where's Lily?" Remus asked, grabbing his cigs from the bag.
"She went to the bog. Man, that girl pees a lot - is she tryin' to mark her territory all over England?" James said, laughing at his own joke.

"Speaking of territory… what the fuck happened last night?"
James stopped his raking, pausing and furrowing his brows at Remus. "You better ask her that… To be honest I'm not really sure." James said, his eyes falling as he popped open the bottle of WKD , taking an unhealthy gulp of the alcohol.

"Fucks sake Prongs, bit early in the morning for getting pished isn't it?" Remus asked, taking one of his cigarettes out of the pack and sticking it behind his ear.
"Hmm, when in England Moony, when in England…" James said, leaning forward and stealing a cig out of the box.
"Oi, those are mine!" Remus protested, closing the box defensively.
"I paid for them, didn't I?" James smirked, opening his door to light it outside.

Remus was about to call him a prat when Lily opened the drivers' door, plonking herself down at the wheel. "Jesus, I dinnae ken if it's just England, but all the toilets here are absolutely grim," Lily said, wiping her wet hands on her shirt (That she had stolen from Remus.)
"Maybe it's just you Evans," James said, earning a severe death stare from Lily.
"Anyways - we should make it to London for around three if we don't make any pit stops, so if any of you need a wee, do it now," Lily said sternly, sounding oddly like Effie Potter.

"No Mum, we don't need a wee, now get drivin' or we're never getting to London," Remus said, leaning back in his seat sassily.

The three let out a collective cheer as they passed the threshold into London, after a long three hour trip in the car, with Lily staying true to her word and not stopping, the three were forever grateful to see the bustling streets of London.
"Right Prongsie, you better get in the passenger's seat, we'll make our way to your flat first," Remus said, turning to the back seat, seeing a worried James potter, he just nodded silently, getting out of the back when Lily stopped the car on a curb.

"Do you'll think he'll be there?" Lily asked, looking worriedly into the paling face of James.
"I bloody hope so," James said, buckling himself into the front seat.

The trio spent the next half an hour navigating London, only getting stuck in traffic twice - and making several wrong turns. "That's it! There it is! The beautiful bugger." James said excitedly, pointing to a rather posh looking London flat.
Remus and Lily both gaped at the beautiful looking flat, both underestimating how fancy it would really be.
"Fucking hell James! That must cost more than our cafe and flat put together!" Lily gasped, pulling into a parking space reserved for the flat.

James ignored the two's stares of bewilderment as he pointed to a motorbike - Sirius's motorbike. "Holy shit look, There's his bike!"
They all immediately hopped out of the car and sighed in relief. "Do you have a key to the flat?" Lily asked, looking from the bike to James.
James nodded, fishing his keys from his back pocket and extracting what was apparently the key to their flat.
"Yeah, now come on - hopefully, he's just in there," James said, instinctively grabbing Lily's hand and leading her up to the flat. Remus smiled knowingly but followed. The flat was truly fancy, a ground floor front door flat - so they only had to climb a few stairs.

James wrestled with the front door but opened it, stepping into the flat.
"Sirius? Siriussss? It's James!" James yelled, looking around the flat frantically.
Remus walked through the flat, seeing that all the mail had been picked up and opened.
"Prongs, look - he's definitely been here," Remus said, showing James an opened piece of mail that was dated yesterday.

James looked at the post, nodding before turning around and heading up the stairs of the flat, of course, they have stairs in their flat Remus thought, sharing a look with Lily - who was clearly having the same thought.
Remus was about to open his mouth, eager to talk about what happened last night with Lily, but he was interrupted by James yelling from upstairs.
"Guys! You're gonna want to read this!" He called.

Remus and Lily instantly turned, running up the stairs and heading into a room that was obviously Sirius's. James looked pale as he handed Remus a newspaper.
"Found this on his bed." He muttered, and Lily read it over Remus's shoulder.
"It's dated yesterday.." Lily whispered, and Remus turned it over, seeing the front cover and understanding why James was so worried.

BREAKING NEWS:
Black Inc family heir found dead.

Regulus Arcturus Black, the only son of Walburga and Orion Black, owners of Black industries and oil, found dead in his apartment just last night. The cause of death is rumoured to be suicide, but the family refuse to comment.
His funeral will be held on the 11th, in The Church of England - London. The Black family have asked for privacy in their time of grieving.

"The eleventh? That's today!" Lily gasped.
" Only son?" Remus muttered, reading and rereading the article several times.
"That's where he is - Sirius, I just know he's gone, crazy bastard," James said, sighing and rubbing the bridge of his nose.
Remus dropped the paper and nodded, knowing that James was right.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go get him!" Lily said, but James shook his head.
"Lily- you don't understand the Blacks - they're mental and dangerous, you can't just walk in-" James began.
"Well, I'm mental too! And we've not driven for 10 hours for nothing!" Lily said, looking fierce with determination.

Remus nodded and stepped forward, the same determination on his face.
"You think the Blacks are dangerous Jamesy? Just wait until you see an angry Scotsman." Remus said. Lily nodded and linked arms with Remus, "And paired with an angry Scotswoman, they'll be shitting bricks. "

James looked up, smiling up at the two - all fear gone, instead replaced with the same determination.
"Okay then, let's go get our boy."
Lily smiled and linked her other arm with James's and the three-headed out of the flat, and back into Remus's shitty car - ready to find a certain disinherited Black.