Remus woke unusually early the next morning. Well, he woke up very early most mornings but usually he'd just immediately fall asleep again. Today was different because he actually felt awake. He glanced over at Sirius, who was clearly deeply asleep. The clock on the wall read 7 o'clock. Remus was seized by a sudden desire to just do something so he crept out of their room, which was admittedly an unnecessary measure as Sirius had slept through Harry discovering cymbals.

Once downstairs, he decided to go to the magical bakery in the centre of the village to get some fresh bread.

-

Remus was walking down Godric's Hollow and feeling really quite wholesome with the bag of fresh bread in his hand, when he heard a sound that filled him with dread. As far as his werewolf senses were concerned, the one he found the hardest to live with was his truly ridiculous hearing. His sense of smell was certainly inconvenient but mostly it just meant he felt hungry whenever anyone on the road was cooking something nice. But his hearing kept him awake at night and meant he found any sort of crowd just unbearable. And now he could hear the particular sound which made him feel literally ill- chainsaws.

It was probably coming from the next street, but that didn't stop the rising nausea caused by that excruciating, grating noise. He could feel his heartbeat pounding behind his eyes as he bolted for the house.

Once he had shut the door, the noise was only slightly muffled. When he was younger, he had hid in the airing cupboard but that would definitely raise questions now he was 21. He finally decided on the lounge, where there would probably be telly and/or Sirius noise, both of which were pretty distracting.

Unfortunately, only James and Harry were in the lounge, but that gave Remus an idea. Trying not to wince as he spoke he asked "Why don't we all go on a day out today?"

"I thought it was meant to rain." James said distractedly, as he stacked up Harry's blocks.

"I don't think so." Remus said brightly, despite the solid grey sky outside. "What about the beach?"

"Babies and beaches don't mix. We tried it once and he ate the sand and drank the sea."

At this point Sirius entered, so Remus immediately redirected his efforts.

"Don't you think it would be nice if we took Harry somewhere?"

"I suppose." Sirius said, looking fairly dazed as he always did before 9 o'clock. "Looks a bit damp though."

It had now actually started raining, not particularly torrentially but still very definitely. However, Remus had one more trick up his sleeve- nostalgia.

"I remember when I was really young and my parents would bundle me up in a big raincoat and boots and a waterproof spell and I'd splash in puddles."

Remus watched with satisfaction as James was won over. He reckoned it was the word "bundle" that'd done it and "splash" couldn't have hurt.

"That sounds really fun, doesn't it Harry?" James said to the baby.

There was no response but James had already left the room and dived into the cupboard under the stairs.

"It's so wet though." Sirius whined, dodging umbrellas and a pair of binoculars as he went to stand behind his excited friend.

"That's the charm of it!" James cried, and finally thrust a tiny blue raincoat and some bright red boots into the hall.

"You could be Padfoot." Remus suggested. "Aren't dogs supposed to have water-repellent coats?" He was really very surprised that James had embraced the "walk in the rain" idea with such enthusiasm. In fact on any other day, he would have been even more against the idea than Sirius.

"Come on Harry, let's put on your wellingtons."

Remus managed to smother his laugh but he couldn't resist saying "Could you be any more middle class James?"

Sirius too was finding James' patter amusing. "Next you'll be buttoning up Jasper the labradoodle's coat."

"Oh be quiet you two."

-

1 hour later Remus was regretting the choice of outing. In hindsight, he could have escaped the tree surgeons and nausea just as easily in a cosy cafe.

"If you think about it," he yelled through the wind, "this is really Padfoot's fault."

"No, you are not getting away with this Mr "let's go on a walk even though the heavens have opened"." Sirius called back.

Really though, it had definitely been Sirius' fault. While Remus had been searching for his least patched coat, Sirius had decided that they would go for their walk in an uncharted area of the map. By the time he came back downstairs, James was excitedly throwing around the word "adventure" while Sirius looked smugly on.

Hence their current situation: lost and cold.

In theory, wizards could never get lost. Were they to find themselves in an unfamiliar location, they could easily apparate to somewhere they knew. However, they had travelled to this remote forest by car, because if they had apparated they would have run the risk of appearing in the middle of a family's picnic. This turned out to be an unnecessary precaution as they were, quite literally, the only people for miles around. And now they couldn't just go back home because they would lose James' car.

"At least Harry's enjoying himself." James said, trying to sound positive.

"Well Padfoot isn't." Sirius complained.

"Why don't you transform?" Remus suggested. "Dogs can swim in lakes in December."

"If I was Padfoot, my hands and sleeves would get covered in mud."

"Yes but at least you would stop whining."

"Fine."

With a quick burst of magic Sirius popped into Padfoot.

"You didn't even check that no one was looking." Remus hissed.

"I'm fairly certain that we are the sole people in this entire park." James reassured him.

There was another reason why they had to find the car- it had actually been Lily's. She had got it from her parents for her 18th birthday. Personally, Sirius thought that the Ford could be considered bad luck since all bar none of its previous owners had perished although apparently, according to Remus, pointing this out to James would be considered "insensitive".

"Guys look!" James suddenly cried, "I think I recognise that tree!"

"And so it's official that we're going round in circles." Remus grumbled.