Even after everything had been disposed of there was still a really quite unpleasant odour pervading the room. And Harry was still crying.

"What is that smell?" James asked, giving Harry an investigatory sniff. "It's coming from your side of the room." He directed at Sirius.

Sirius waltzed over to James, stinking of cologne but nothing more offensive.

"Still coming from over there." James clarified. "What do you think, Sirius?"

Sirius walked over to Remus and gave an exaggerated sniff.

"Merlin Moony, if I was Padfoot I'd have fainted."

James came over, also wrinkling his nose.

"When'd you last wash?"

Remus had been preparing to be monstrously offended, until he realised he actually had to consider his answer.

"A week, maybe." he answered sheepishly.

It was then that James and Sirius first noticed the state of their friend.

His jumper was playing host to various stains, egg and tomato being the most prominent. His hair, always slightly unruly, had evolved into a near biblical mess and also had food in it.

"You need a shower." James stated, sounding uncannily like Lily.

-

They had been right. Remus was trying not to be too vocal, Sirius' teasing would be lengthy and cruel, but he was simply unable to suppress the pleasure he felt from the hot water. He had been utterly horrified by the colour of the water that swirled down the drain, which was probably best described as beige.

Using the shower gel resulted in only a faint stinging from his wounds as the full moon had been 18 days ago and they had mostly healed, although a couple of scrapes on his left arm were still throbbing a bit. He should probably get out and go and help the boys downstairs. Maybe a few more minutes.

The reason he hadn't washed in so long was a combination of him forgetting and the hot water system breaking 4 days ago. Every morning he would remember he needed to go into town to find something to fix it, and every evening he'd realise he hadn't done so. It wasn't even like he was busy- the last time he'd been called up for Order business was May.

Reflecting on how he really did have to fix that tank, he ran his hand absentmindedly through his hair. At least he tried to. It wasn't happening.

Matted. That was the only word for it. How on earth had he managed that?

"Presumably by not owning a hairbrush." He thought out loud. Which he didn't, nor shampoo or conditioner. That was probably the problem.

All of the hair care products were packaged in pink bottles with giant pictures of flowers. Definitely Lily's stuff then. A further search revealed that James' signature casual look really was natural; the only manly item there was was the shower gel. It would have been the height of disrespect to use his friend's dead wife's toiletries, and he had been in the shower now for a really quite long time, so he reluctantly turned the water off and stepped out.

-

The scent hit him the moment the steam cleared. Smoke!

He ran downstairs and threw open the kitchen door. A faint trail of smoke was drifting out of the oven. Remus retrieved some charcoal lumps which presumably used to be food, and disposed of them.

The smoke had by now reached the alarm which sent James and Sirius flying into the kitchen, with Harry still crying.

"How has he not stopped?" Remus asked, gesturing to Harry incredulously, as he used a silencing charm on the frantic alarm.

"He's hungry." James explained.

"Were you cooking earlier Prongs?"

"The roast!"

Remus gestured helplessly to the bin.

Harry was placed in his high chair, where he finally quietened down, evidently under the impression that he was finally about to be fed. James made him up some baby food while Sirius tried, unsuccessfully, to get all the pieces of burnt chicken out of the oven fan. Remus made everyone cheese sandwiches, which they ate together in the lounge, Harry sleeping peacefully in his Moses basket in the corner.

-

It was probably about 5 minutes later that Sirius started laughing. He was almost cut off by a sharp dig to the ribs and hiss of "Pads!" from Remus but he just couldn't hold it together.

"What's so funny?" James asked, sounded genuinely curious, much to Remus' surprise.

"When I went to get Moony, he thought I was a death eater," Sirius gasped. "And his first defence was to throw a can of spaghetti hoops at me." James was chuckling now. "And the best thing was- he missed!"

James roared with laughter, and even Remus managed a small smile.

"I'll admit it wasn't the best strategy." He said with a grin.

"Although," James added after a minute, "imagine if it actually had been a death eater and you didn't miss. And there's Voldemort, standing in your living room, covered in tomato sauce!"

All three of them were shrieking by now, astonishingly not waking the sleeping baby.

They calmed down after a while, and the room was silent. Remus noticed worriedly that James was beginning to look increasingly solemn.

Sirius obviously perceived this too because he soon whispered, "Guys,we need to talk about the elephant in the room." Remus started making frantic abort signals with his hands, but Sirius carried on. "Or the birds nest!"

"I must admit," James said, his good humour thankfully restored, "You have got quite the afro going on there Moony."

"I know." Remus replied, reaching up to touch his hair and feeling a bit shocked when he found it much further away from his head than he had thought it would be. "I think it's gone a bit past the point of no return."

"I could have a go at it for you." Sirius offered.

"No thanks!" Remus replied quickly, backing away.

"Believe it or not, he's actually quite good." James said, surprisingly. "When he lived at mine he had more products than my mum."

"Hmm." Was Remus' unconvinced reply.

-

There was an unspoken agreement that James would not want to sleep in his and Lily's bed. They decided to sleep in the lounge with Harry. Remus and James curled up on the sofa, while Sirius was banished to the armchair. (He was a cuddler).

Just as they were dozing off, Remus whispered into the darkness, "I'm sorry Prongs." Even though he didn't mention it, all of them knew he was talking about Lily.

"Me too." Came Sirius' voice, out of the darkness.