Sirius stood outside the door and held his little 'surprise' behind his back. He struggled to remain emotionless as he waited for Cota to answer the door. Now, he had to admit the trick he was planning was mean. He also knew he should not do it to the young hero... but... he HAD to. Otherwise, the holiday was a waste. He had been planning this all year and was ready to stoop a bit lower to Snivelus's level in order to complete it.

"Trick or treat" Sirius greeted, the malice evident in his voice. He held out a bag as if begging for candy like a normal trick of treater.

"If those are my only options, Trick" Cota whipped out a can of string confetti from behind his back and sprayed it in Sirius' face. Sirius was too shocked to move at this time. Cota let out a victorious cheer.

"J-James, your squire is mistreating the guests!" Sirius growled, seeing Kira and thinking that lunging for Cota's throat would scare her.

Kira skipped over, Sirius decided not to waste the prank... she'll get over it, and if she's James's daughter she needed to be able to take a joke.

"Trick or treat?" Sirius greeted, smiling. Cota's eyes widen and his jaw dropped. Sirius knew damn well that Lily made Kira promise no tricks today.

"Treat" Kira stated, grabbing candy from the bag and claiming it as her own.

"Wha?" Sirius started.

"And trick!" James announced launching out a foambomb. (Smoke bomb that encases the victim in foam so they cannot move) "Bwahahahahahahaha!!"

"Na fuhy Janes" Sirius's muffled voice said through the foam. Kira giggled and Cota backed her out of the room before Sirius could get out to extract his revenge. The revenge of the mighty foam man.

"Mahahahahaha!" James laughed.

"Enuf Janes! Let knee out!" Sirius demanded. James smashed the solution on the floor, letting the cloud of fog rise up and de-foamafy Sirius. Who thanked him by lunging for his throat. James continued to laugh during the attack as Sirius yelled 'I should kill you for that!'

"Then kill me already," James said, still laughing.

"I should! I should!" Sirius yelled back. "I'm not going to, but I should!" He rolled off James and they both sat on the porch silently untill-

"Bring it on, Padfoot" James grinned, turning his head to look at Sirius and raise his eyebrows.

"...Gnarr!" Sirius lunged at James, who instinctively leaned forward, curling his spine, and put his arms up. Having the effect of when Sirius hit him, they both rolled backwards and James ended up on top of Sirius.

"Pinned ya" James stated, proudly.

"Get off!" Sirius growled, pushing James backwards in order to pin him. James repeated the move and once again ended up on top of Sirius.

"Huhahahahahah!" James laughed.

"You asked for it Prongs" Sirius lunged, sideways this time and ended up on top of James. "What now Jamesy boy" Sirius taunted.

James kicked out his legs and tried to throw Sirius off, but knew very well that when Sirius let himself get caught up in a fight there was no way to beat him. However, he also knew that no matter how crazy his friend got he would never hurt him, no matter what. James kicked out again and Sirius laughed evilly, grabbed his arms by the wrists, and crossed them over his chest, making it so James could not move. James tried to squirm to the side, but couldn't with his hands held so tightly.

"Erugh!" James grunted as he put all his strength into knocking Sirius off him. Sirius leaned back to taunt, a careless move, especially for Sirius. James took the opertunity to bring his legs up and wrap them around Sirius's chest. Sirius's mocking sneer faded as he realized his mistake and was pulled backwards. James flipped around and jumped to his feet the moment he was free.

"Poor doggy" James stated.

"Shut up, Bambi" Sirius laughed, climbing to his feet. "I don't remember you pulling a stunt like that since third year"

James shrugged. "It was an epiphany, I had to" He stated, looking out into space.

"Epiphany this!" Sirius lunged forward and tackled James, football style.

"Ooff!" James let out all the air in his lungs as he hit the ground. Sirius grabbed his arms and held his knees over James's chest. James tried to push him and Sirius pressed his knees into James chest. "Ah!" James cried, he had been through that move in a real fight before. If he kept fighting Sirius would just gradually apply more pressure untill he gave up.

"What's the matter Jamie?" Sirius ridiculed.

"James, dear, will you come here for a minute?" Lily called. Sirius released James, who stood up with as much dignity as he could. Sirius started laughing and Lily walked out.

"What are you laughing at?" Lily asked Sirius.

"Oh, nothing, nothing, James is my favorite deer" He answered innocently.

James shot him an evil glance. "Shut up, snuffles" He grumbled, following Lily into the house. Cota heard the name and was greatly confused as he followed James inside. Snuffles was the name of Sirius' dog. Wasn't it???

"Mwahahahahaha!" Sirius laughed, then he looked to the side and saw Kira. She was skipping merrily towards the stables. Sirius saw no adult around so he decided he had to pose as one. He trotted after her and saw what she was so happy about. "He got you a pony?...Unicorn"

Kira nodded and burst into giggles of rapture. Sirius raised an eyebrow and Kira hugged the pony's head. "...cool" The pony whinnied and Sirius stopped. "That's not a unicorn"

"How do you know?" Kira asked, she thought the costume looked quite convincing.

"Because Remus once tried to ea- I mean, it's illegal to have them," Sirius stated. Kira blinked, and then went back to petting her pony.

"Daddy says I have to get up early everyday and clean out her stall" She stated. "And I hafta brush her everyday and he's gonna help me train her, though I been trying and she has good manors, and I hafta make sure there is fresh straw for her to lay on and hay for her to eat" She continued.

Sirius just nodded and said. "Really, you don't say, uh hu, wow"

"But I also have to make her eat oats and vitamins, but not the ones in the kitchen, and I get to feed her a carrot everyday 'cus it's good for her eyes. Mommy made her a tail wrap so her tail will stay nice and pretty, but she doesn't have to wear it all the time and mommy bought special shampoo, she says she likes having a horse around that she's allowed to groom without getting strange looks. Daddy said he'd take me riding today, we are supposed to go everyday and I'm supposed to walk her in the morning for exercise. She's got shoes too, but not sneakers. They're special pony shoes" She lifted the horse's foot to prove this and Sirius was greatly reminded of a my little pony.

"What do you do to care for the horn?" Sirius asked.

"... I dunno, Remus put it on her" Kira stated. "Oh! And when we train her I can give her horse cookies, or these little mint things, or a sugar cube, or these oats that are sand colored that Daddy says tastes like candy, but I still don't want to try any because I like oatmeal with gummy bears, these don't have any, so I don't want any. And Daddy won't eat them either 'cus he is always full when we are in here, but Cota did after I asked him a lot, then he said he felt sick..."

Sirius smiled. He hated the times they were in. He hated it because he was beginning to doubt Remus's faith. Remus wasn't around very much and Sirius knew he'd be the perfect choice as a spy for Voldemort. Wouldn't he? You wouldn't want to choose the best friend, that'd be too much betrayal to count on and best friends can sense if something is wrong. Wouldn't want the weakest in the group, what would he know. You'd want the middle man. Voldemort always seemed to be right on top of their plans, somebody was leaking info.

Regulus had joined, though that didn't surprise Sirius. Though it worried him that Regulus might begin to tell his lord about his older brother's best friend, James Potter. Then what? They'd come after him and he was terrified he'd tell those monsters where James and Lily's house was. Yet, here was Kira. He had heard all about Voldemort's plan to create another weapon like Kira. So why wasn't she afraid? Kira brushed her pony and smiled. Then James walked into the barn and unlocked a storage barn next to the stall. He looked over at Sirius and smiled.

"If you want to come riding I can call for Yuki" James stated.

"Why bother, you have another horse here" Sirius nodded his head towards Pat, who looked about ready to scream if somebody did not pet him soon.

"...Well, I suppose you could... but then if you made Cota mad he'd make that sound and the ride would be over" James stated as Kira pulled a blanket out of the shed and laid it on her pony. It was a lighter color then the other two blankets and lilac, so Sirius knew it had to be hers.

"So instead of doing a mass prank, or any of our usual holiday fun... you're going riding" Sirius questioned. Though his mind was drifting over to what sound Cota made and why it had anything in do with riding Patrick.

"Don't look so shocked about it." He casually covered Kira's ears. "We do something insane almost everyday"

"Yes, but it's our holiday" Sirius stated, hosting up the saddle that Kira was trying to carry.

"You can come too; besides, Cota is taking Kira trick or treating, where do you think I'm going to be?"

"I can only hope you're going to say out with me"

"Yep, Kira wanted to go with Cota. So I'm going out with you"

"Aw, James you know I love ya, but I don't swing that way" Sirius answered.

James shot him a look and continued to prepare Gyriph for the ride. They set out with James and Sirius in the lead and Kira following right behind. They were just going to walk around the field, but it was Kira's first time at ridding the pony by herself. Mind you, James held the lead in his hand, it was the first time she'd ridden without it being in a tinny circle with James walking next to her. She was determined not to do anything wrong, James's warning of 'take care and be responsible with the pony or she's gone,' had sunken in. Sirius sighed deeply and looked over at James. He was extremely bored with the slow pace at which they were traveling.

"Quiet, Snuffles. You need to learn how to ride properly just as much as she does" James hissed.

"I'm bored, it's been five minutes and we've gone about a foot, my horse it not walking, it's slithering!" Sirius hissed back.

James rolled his eyes, he loved to walk the pony around, it made Kira smile and laugh. But he knew she'd want to ride it on her own someday, and he was trying to teach her responsibility. So she had to learn to ride without him holding her. The pony was moving extremely slowly, this annoyed Sirius, but please James as it meant the pony liked Kira and knew she could fall. Animals can sense a lot about a person, the pony seemed quite sure that Kira truly loved her and was willing to take care of her untill the day she died. Kira was holding the reigns loosely as James had shown her. A horse sensed it's rider's mood, if you gripped really tight and panicked, so would the horse. If you grip too loosely the horse feels you're not working. An intelligent horse feels its rider must not relax too much during the ride, they are not carnival rides. They are living creatures. You have to respect them.

Sirius looked back at her and sighed again, bored. "I could carry the horse faster then this" He mumbled.

"Relax and enjoy the one thing in life that you don't rush" James smiled, patting Gyriph gently.

"I need more of a rush then THIS!" Sirius growled. James looked to out of the corner of his eye and smirked at Yuki. He casually tapped the reins and Gyriph whinnied. At the moment Yuki jumped forward, lowering its head, and began kicking and thrashing in a circle. Not enough to throw Sirius, just enough to make him have to hold on tight and his world to blur in a whirl of speed. James stopped Gyriph, as was customary to do when someone else's horse was going hay wire. You stop so you can help and make sure the horse will not trample them if the fall off. If they fall then you're there to lead the horse away, and you can also help them if they ask for it.

Kira had also stopped, pulling back on the reigns gently and commanding 'whoa.'

"At ease" James said. Yuki stopped bucking and James saw that Sirius's face was green. He tried very hard not to smile and Sirius flopped forward in the saddle and moaned that he'd never complain about horse speed again. James nodded and Cota trotted over, he was warming up Pat, who had already began to warm up by pacing in the stall and walking in a circle while Cota was trying to brush him and then put on the blanked and saddle. Pat was holding its head very high and proudly, happy for finally being out. Cota made him side step over to James, while keeping up the pace. Pat completed the task and tossed his head, waiting for a reward. Cota rubbed Pat's neck, thus pleasing the horse. He turned Pat around and made him walk backwards. Cota's biggest challenge was that his horse had much more energy them most.

Such a lively horse had to spend it's energy up just as other horses do, the problem was that energetic horses were harder to control and always wanting to go one step farther. For example, a lively horse that was not as well handled at Pat would be harder to stop. You could pull back on the reigns and put every ounce of weight you had in the stirrups, but the horse would find other ways to move, such as sideways or at an angle. It would always want to run and probably would buck off the rider so it could. However, Cota was able to keep him in check, though it was tiring. Gyriph snorted at Pat as if to say 'behave!' Pat shuffled his feet rapidly and Kira laughed as it seemed the horse was river dancing.

"Knock it off" Cota said, his voice containing its usual lightness.

James smiled at Pat stopped. "I thought you were just going to lunge him?"

Cota sighed. "I was, but he wanted out and I figured it best for him"

James nodded his approval, it was important to show the horse who was boss, but keep its well-being as your first priority. A brief discussion decided that Sirius and Cota would head to the field across the lake and exercise the horses, while James and Kira continued to circle the yard. James would have much rather bought her a toy broom, but she needed something to love, that was what was important. He smiled as they walked along and admired the decorations people had put up. James took a deep breath and looked back at the house. The Order members would be arriving in an hour or so. He had been terrified to have kids in a world where Voldemort was at large. His biggest fear was leaving them behind. Yet, with Kira, he felt better. Harry and Kira would be together if anything ever happened to him and Lily. They'd be fine if they were together.