Saturday 17th March 1979

Marauder Flat, 10:00

Normally Remus would not be the first person in the flat to make his way to the kitchen. No, that dubious honour went to James who still got up at unreasonable hours despite it being a weekend. But today he was, mainly because James was currently dealing with an ink incident. As in, he had spilt a whole bottle of blue ink over himself while he was in his underwear. Why he was writing something while in his underwear, Remus didn't know. What he did know was that James had ink on him from his chin to his toes. He didn't know what the landlord was going to say about the multitude of blue toe prints on the floor. Hopefully they would be able to get rid of them before he noticed.

Anyway, the reason why it was a point of note that he was the first one in the kitchen, in any of the main shared spaces in the flat really, was that he was the one that had to answer the door when someone knocked on it.

It really wasn't a good idea for him to interact with people before he was somewhat caffeinated but you couldn't have everything in life.

"Hi, Remus!" Marlene chirped, barging into the flat as soon as he opened the door.

"Hey, Marlene," he greeted. "Sirius should be out in a second."

He returned to the counter and took a big gulp of his coffee and happily let the caffeine hit him. Ah. That was good. It was then he realised what exactly Marlene was wearing.

"Marlene, no."

"I'm thinking more Marlene yes," Marlene said, twirling around.

Remus sighed and rolled his eyes. Why was Marlene like this?

"Is Marlene here?" Sirius shouted from his bedroom. "Did you ask her the security question?"

Ah, yes. The new Ministry guidelines. You were supposed to set up security questions with your friends and family to ensure that they weren't Death Eaters trying to get you.

"I did! Though, we definitely didn't need it today."

"I'm definitely me!" Marlene added happily.

"What do you me-?" Sirius asked, coming out of his room. "Oh."

He got his first glimpse of his girlfriend this fine morning and it was... a lot, for lack of a better word.

You see, it was the seventeenth of March. Which meant that it was St Patrick's Day. Marlene's favourite day of the whole year and it definitely showed.

From the green robes to the green dungarees and the white and green stripey t-shirt, she was definitely very green. Even her trainers had been dyed green. Again. And were those shamrocks drawn on them in green ink? Yes. Yes, they were.

"Yes, she is definitely Marlene." Sirius said, giving her am appreciative up and down look.

Marlene preened under his attention. Remus tolled his eyes as they leaned in for a kiss.

"I think Moony is feeling left out," Sirius said slyly.

Before he could even do anything about it, Sirius and Marlene had darted over to him and pressed a kiss on each of his cheeks.

"Geroff," he said, shoving them away as je felt his cheeks redden "Idiots."

They were all idiots.

"A kiss from a leprechaun is good luck," Marlene informed him.

"You're not a leprechaun," Remus retorted. "Though you are small enough to be one."

That got him a well-earned shove. Huh. Marlene had definitely gotten stronger after all this Auror Training. Who would have thought?

James chose this moment to walk out of the bathroom; his hair still wet and bare chested. Marlene wolf-whistled.

"Nice chest, Potter."

"Not as nice as mine!" Sirius tried to say confidently but it came out as a whine.

"Oh, hi, Marlene," James greeted, vigorously towel drying his hair and nearly losing his glasses in the process. Remus noticed that there was still a faint stain of blue on his chest. "You all ready? Nice green outfit, by the way."

"Thank you," she replied proudly, thrusting her chest out. "And yes, we're all ready except for you. I expect more from you, James."

James rolled his eyes. "I had an incident with some ink.

"You mean the ink you didn't get off?" Marlene asked, pointing to his chest.

James looked down and frowned. "Dammit. I scrubbed so hard I think that I got rid of several layers of skin."

The very red skin on his chest attested to that.

"Go on, get ready. No one will see it," Marlene urged, ready to get going.

James chuckled as she shoved him towards his bedroom.

"Alight, alright. I'll get ready. Maybe not like you though."

"Thank Merlin today is a Saturday and you aren't going to work." Remus said, shaking his head.

"She'd have to wear her Trainee Robes," James said. "She couldn't do this."

"I so could!" Marlene said indignantly. "I will always celebrate St Patrick's Day properly."

Remus certainly didn't doubt that. She'd done it all through school despite loss of points and that one-time detention. He certainly wouldn't put it past her to do it even when she became an Auror. Though, what would happen to her in that situation he didn't know.

"I even have green underwear," she said with a grin making Remus cough uncomfortably.

"Oh?" Sirius gave her a waggle of his eyebrows. "I'm going to have to check that."

"Yes please."

"Not now," James said. "Please, we're about to go out."

"We can be quick!"

"Not too quick," Marlene corrected her boyfriend.

"Of course not," Sirius quickly amended and they both exchanged smirks.

Remus just looked up to the ceiling and prayed for patience.

"No." James said firmly, a faint blush creeping up his cheeks. "We said we were going out."

"It's not my fault neither of you are getting any," Sirius complained.

Wednesday 21st March 1979

Diggle's House, 20:30

It was pretty amazing that even as adults that they still all knew when Dumbledore wanted to get their attention and they all fell silent.

"I assume you have now all received the latest of the Ministry guidelines?" Dumbledore, there was no way that her was ever going to be able to call him Albus, asked?

There were nods and general voiced confirmations from anyone. It was a very long list on what to look put for and who to report such incidents to. There was some poor sap in the Ministry who was going to have to deal with all those and James was very glad that it wasn't him.

"What are the chances that this will do any good?" Emmeline asked sceptically. "Always good to have CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody shouted, making everyone but the Aurors in attendance jump- they were used to his outburst by now. Mostly.

"I know that, Moody," she said tartly. "But if a Death Eater has gone through all sorts of trouble to impersonate you then surely, they'd get the answers to the security questions as well? The Ministry sent these recommendations out to everyone and they are public."

"And we know that there are almost definitely Death Eaters in the Ministry," Frank said with a frown but voiced it as a question.

Yeah, that little fact had just been sprung on them in the last meeting and none of them were pleased with it. Though it wasn't exactly surprising. Of course, Voldemort had his spies. And they were almost certainly used to influence policies and such. It would almost be stupid of him not to. Not that James was advocating Voldemort doing that or anything. No.

Moody didn't have any sort of answer to this, if his furrowed brows meant anything.

"You just have to have-"

"Constant vigilance," James and Sirius chorused.

Sunday 25th March 1979

Hogsmeade, 11:00

"We're here!" Sirius announced, waving both hands in the air.

"And ready to have fun!" James added.

Tonks wasn't sure whether she should grin, be embarrassed or be annoyed by them.

Remus and Severus were rolling their eyes at their antics as Peter laughed. Tonks beamed, happy to see them. Today was going to be so much fun. She really had missed them. More than she thought she ever would. Like, they were in different years and in different Houses. Technically, they shouldn't have been friends never mind close like this but, hey, she definitely wasn't complaining.

"Isn't Lily coming?" Chryssie asked, looking around and not seeing her sister. "She said she would."

"And I'm here," Lily said from behind her, making them jump.

"Lily!" Chryssie dove at her older sister, holding her tight.

Tonks didn't see what happened next as she was suddenly engulfed in a big from Sirius.

"Noce to see you, Dora. It's been weird not seeing you every day."

"Took you long enough to figure that out," she grumbled but she hugged him back.

Hey, she had missed him too but that still didn't let him off the hook for not visiting!

"We've been so busy and knackered after each day," he told her. "We're literally just beginning to feel human after training now. It's rough."

"You've got that to look forward to next year," James said with mock enthusiasm.

"Does it really make you feel that tired?" Dora couldn't help but ask uncertainly.

"Yes," Sirius said bluntly.

Oh. Well, that wasn't good.

"But it's worth it," Marlene added. "You learn and do so much."

"Yeah, it's pretty great," Sirius agreed.

Ow Dora didn't know what to think but she did know that she didn't want to not be an Auror. It was all just starting to feel a bit more real to her and what Sirius said made her feel a bit nervous.

"There's a lot more Professors about," James noticed, looking around.

"Huh?" Tonks said, looking around as well. "Oh yeah. Yeah, they do that now. It's been like that all year."

"Seriously?"

"No, that's him," Dora said, pointing at her cousin.

"Oh, ha, ha, ha. Is this joke never going to get old?" Sirius complained.

"Not if you keep getting annoyed by it," Severus replied with a grin.

Tonks nodded her agreement. It wouldn't be as fun if he didn't react to it but thankfully Sirius had yet to figure that out.

"But yes," Tonks said, getting back to the topic on hand. "It's been like that all year. It's for our protection."

"To stop something happening like last year happen again," Chryssie added.

"Ah."

It was weird that that attack had happened a year ago. Nothing of the sort had happened since, of course but still. It didn't hurt to be safe. Even if it did mean more adults than usual patrolling the streets.

"Well, that's no fun," Sirius said with a pout.

"They're here for everyone's safety," Remus scolded.

"Hey, is that Diggle?" Peter said, pointing across to the Post Office where a man was standing.

"Who's Diggle?" Tonks asked, looking over in interest. "That's a funny name."

"Says the person who's called Nymphadora," Remus teased her but not before giving Peter a pointed look.

What was that all about? Not that she dwelled too much on it because there more important things to focus on.

"I told you not to call me that!"

Why did her mother call her something so awful? Seriously, she was never going to go by her proper name. Ever.

"It is your name."

"Not if I have anything to do with it."

No one was ever, ever going to call her by it in her presence. They just weren't.

"Oh, scary," he teased.

"I should be!" She said mock indignantly. "I'm going to be an Auror, you know!"

"You got all your applications sorted?" Sirius asked eagerly.

"All the ones they've sent me so far anyway.

That got her high fives from everyone, which felt kind of good.

"There's a lot more to come," James said knowingly.

Tonks scrunched up her nose in disgust at that which made everyone laugh.

"We all had to do it," Marlene said, indicating to herself, Sirius and James. "Part of the job."

"Which I don't even have yet!"

More laughter and Tonks felt a warm feeling blossom up inside her. She had missed this crazy crew. She really had. Everything just felt kind of right with them here.

She went to give Sirius a playful shove but of course her inane clumsiness had to come into play and all she managed to do was unbalance herself. Remus seized her by the arm before she got a mouthful of dirt.

"Woah, are you okay?" He asked, pulling her back to her feet.

His hand slid down her arm and their hands touched and Tonks snatched hers back, blushing heavily.

His hands were so big and warm. And yes, those were weird things to think of but she couldn't help it. It was either that or think about how much she wanted to hold his hand properly. Which she did very much want to, by the way.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she somehow managed to get out and then pointedly didn't look at him. "So, Zonko's first?"

That would be a good distraction.

Thursday 29th March 1979

Gordon's Garage, London, 18:00

"Is anyone else nervous?" Remus asked out loud.

"Sirius said it was going to be fun." James told him.

"Which is exactly why I'm nervous."

It was quite logical to have this feeling, Remus thought. Especially when you had the experience he had with Sirius' antics. Which he had a lot of. Actually, he was surprised that James wasn't involved in this as well but apparently, he was as in the dark as he and Peter were.

All he knew that they had been led out of Diagon Alley and into Muggle London. Which was no problem at all but he didn't think that Sirius knew his way around it. Apparently, je did because he was very confidently leading them around. Too confidently, really because Remus found himself pulling his friend back when the lights for cars were green. Sirius hadn't learned the trick that he could only cross roads when the man was green.

Excluding that, they soon got to their destination. A garage. Remus got a feeling of dread in his stomach.

Sirius said a cheerfully hello to who he guessed was the owner and led them around the back.

"Ta da!" Sirius said.

They all looked to where he was gesturing.

"Sirius Black what on earth is that?"

"Hey, that rhymes!" Said James.

Remus gave him a look. Now was not the time for this.

"That is a motorcycle," Sirius replied, a look of utter glee on his face.

"And why are you showing us this?"

Remus felt like he knew the answer (unfortunately) but Sirius was going to have to confirm this one before Remus felt like he could jump down his throat.

"Because it's mine."

His fingers immediately went to the bridge of his nose as he pinched it. Pinched it hard or else he was going to say something that he would probably regret. Sirius had a motorcycle. A motorcycle.

"You have a motorcycle."

It wasn't a question.

"Yes."

He looked so proud of himself. Why would you be proud of having a motorcycle?

"Do you even know how to operate a motorcycle?"

"Yes!" Sirius sounded a bit insulted at that. "A friend has been giving me some pointers. He's going to give me lessons."

"And what friend is this?"

Remus needed to know who was stupid enough to teach Sirius this. Didn't they know how reckless he was?

"Oh, you wouldn't know him. He went to this magazine shop I used to escape to when I was living with my parents," Sirius said dismissively.

Remus raised an eyebrow at that. That was the first time in a while that Sirius had even mentioned his parents. Huh.

"I even asked Mr Evans about them," he said, proud of himself for doing so much research."

James squinted at him. "Does Lily's dad even know anything about motorcycles?"

"More than I thought he would," Sirius admitted.

"Huh. Cool. Maybe I should read up on them."

"I've been telling you that for years."

"Please don't." Remus said.

He didn't need two of them obsessed with it.

Sirius just grinned at him. "Of course, I still need to make a few changes so it does what I want it to do..."

And there was the feeling of dread coming back at full force.

"And what exactly does that mean, Sirius?"

"We-ell."

Monday 2nd April 1979

Cokeworth, Manchester, 19:30

"So, explain again how this is going to go?"

Lily sighed but she couldn't help but smile. James was so earnestly interested in this that it was definitely adorable. But he had asked five times already. It had to sink in at some point.

"Right, we're going to walk over and buy our tickets at the counter," Lily began and James nodded. Good. "We tell them what film we're going to see and then they'll tell us what screen it's going to be on."

"Yes. That makes sense. It's like going to the theatre."

Lily blinked at him and then remembered that yes, the Potters were the type of people who went to the theatre regularly.

"Yes. I think."

She hadn't exactly been to the theatre unless it was for a pantomime.

"The screen shows the film. Kind of like a bigger version of a television," she continued."

"You can get these in smaller versions?" James asked in amazement.

"James, you've seen the one in my house."

"I have?"

"In the living room, in the corner?"

James' brow furrowed as he thought.

"That small box in the corner with a shiny, black front?"

"That black front is a screen where you watch things. Just like what you see in the cinema only... more, I suppose."

There was probably a better way to explain that. But back to the cinema explanation. They could go over TVs later.

"Cinemas only show films. And you can only see one film on one screen. On the TV you can watch the news, TV shows, films like you would in the cinema and other things."

"Hold up," James said, now looking confused. "Watch the news? You can't watch the news. Those are articles in newspapers!"

Lily shook her head. Sometimes she thought she was used to how behind the times the Wizarding World was and then things like this came up and she was surprised all over again. Electricity really was sometimes more magical that actual magic.

She gave him a quick rundown of the televised news, which he still looked confused about but they had to move on so they would actually see the film instead of talk about it.

"These shows are pre-recorded and projected on these massive screens that we watch them on." She finished her rather convoluted explanation of what your standard film was.

She had almost definitely overcomplicated it. Why was it so hard to explain without sounding crazy? James was silent for a moment as he processed this.

"And all this runs on electricity like lights and stuff?"

"Yes."

"That is so cool."

Friday 6th April 1979

Ministry Offices, 17:00

Peter sighed as he packed up for the day. Another day done and all that. He felt like he shouldn't be so relieved. Other people actually liked their jobs but here he was.

"Want to go out for drinks?" Merton asked, tapping his wand on his cabinet so it locked.

An important part of their day. The only important part of their day. Personal information and all that.

Peter thought about the rest of his evening. There was nothing planned, he didn't think. He knew that Remus was working the closing shift and James and Sirius were planning on taking Lily and Marlene out for dates. Different ones. They weren't doing a double date or anything. Which would leave him alone in the fact and that didn't sound fun at all.

"Sure."

"Great. Leaky Cauldron good?"

"When is it not?"

And was there really anywhere else to drink in Diagon Alley? Peter didn't know. Nowhere affordable anyway.

It was a small group of them that made their way over there. They were a small office. You didn't need many people to do their job.

It was kind of nice to just hang out with people and just talk without anything chaotic happening. He loved James, Sirius and Remus, he did, but they could be a bit much sometimes. A bit chaotic. And sometimes he didn't want chaotic. So normal was nice.

They talked about work, how boring it was, how their supervisor was a grumpy sod. Then they quickly moved onto Quidditch fixtures with brief arguments about who supported which teams. Peter staunchly defending the Tornados, of course.

All in all, Peter felt like it was a good night. A fun one. He hadn't realised quite how friendly everyone in his office was.

Wednesday 11th April 1979

Library, 16:00

Chryssie was interrupted from her studying by a very loud 'THUNK' and her table shaking. A lot. This was because a terrifyingly large stack of parchment was dumped in front of her.

"Um, hi," she said to her friend, who was panting heavily.

Tonks gave her a little wave as she tried to get her breath back. Did she run with all that or something?

"My wrists are all stiff from carrying all that up," she complained.

"Why didn't you just levitate them over?" Chryssie asked. "You should have enough control and focus now to do that to a stack."

When they were younger, they would have had to have enough focus to levitate each bit of parchment in the stack simultaneously but now that they were past their magical maturity, they had the control to be able to treat a stack as one object.

"I'm still not good at going around corners or through tight spaces," Tonks admitted. "I crashed papers into another student the last time and I don't want to lose any of these sheets this time. They're too important."

Chryssie looked at the top of the pile. Ah. Auror Application documents.

"More of these?" She asked in amazement. "Didn't you just send a whole bunch of paperwork off?"

"This is the next stage," Tonks answered.

Just how many stages were involved in this process? Chryssie had thought that she had had a lot of forms to fill out just to apply to become a Healer but those were nothing on this. She was pretty sure that their year didn't produce this much parchment.

"And why didn't you just do it in your Dorm? Surely it's going to have to return to there?"

Something was bound to happen if she carted it around more than necessary. It was just far too open to accidents and the like.

"I'm hoping to get it all done here and go straight to the Owlery."

Chryssie gave the stack a sceptical look. That was a lot of parchment. An awful lot.

"Those poor owls," she said instead.

"Oh, I don't have to send back everything," Tonks explained. "Most of this is stuff to be read. Only a few actual forms to fill out this time."

Chryssie really didn't know why there had to be so much paperwork for becoming an Auror. It just seemed ridiculous and it was the only career that asked for it.

"So, you decided to do it in here?"

"It's the only place that's quiet enough. I don't want to screw any bit of this up."