Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Beta: Cookies and Cream1234567

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"Ready Prongs?"

"Ready Padfoot."

"One…two…three…GO!" Sirius shouted, simultaneously pushing off the ground with his feet and hopping atop the shopping cart. James wasn't far behind him.

The squealing of the carts was horrible, but the chilled air in the store that rushed past them as they slid down the aisle made up for it. Sirius had to admit they were both naturals. Of course he was ahead of James by a long shot. Granted, he might have greased his wheels, but they had never really defined any rules. It was quite exhilarating. The only problem? There was a very pregnant, very emotional, Lily standing at the end of the row.

"What are you two doing?"

Suddenly James' cart swerved, likely from the fear of his wife that Sirius found hilarious. Sadly, however, this fear affected Sirius seeing as it was his cart that got swerved into causing them both to crash to the ground and land right at Lily's feet. The two glanced up only to find that Lily had walked away shaking her head, obviously not wanting to deal with them. They jumped up, scooping all their muggle goodies into their arms, and dashed after her, careful not to drop anything.

"Got your ice cream, Lils?" James asked once they caught up. She nodded stiffly. "Hey," he spoke softly. "I'm sorry we were goofing off. It was just that, those carts were just sitting there! Right in front of the isle! We figured one little ride down the aisle wouldn't hurt and-"

She cut him off.

"It's okay James. I'm just…stressed is all. How about this," her shoulders instantly relaxed as if she were giving in. "I'll pull your all-nighter with you guys and I'll even try to have fun and stay awake and everything. You just have to promise that as soon as the sun comes up I can sleep, okay?"

"Lily, you don't have to do it," he started.

"No, it's fine, I want to. I think I need to have a little fun, if only to loosen me up."

"Are you sure? We can always put a charm on your door so you can sleep without getting woken up by us."

"James," she turned on him. "I want to, really."

"If you're sure…"

"I am. Now let's go find Sirius," she declared spinning on her heels and striding off with purpose. James glanced around, having not noticed that his friend was missing in the first place. With a shrug he went after Lily, glad she was willing to take a break and enjoy herself for once.

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"Cherry…lime...cherry limeade? Eww, that one sounds gross. Grape…orange…strawberry. You know, I've never really gotten the difference between cherry and strawberry flavored things. Ooo! Pineapple." Sirius figured he had struck the jackpot with that one.

He had been quite impressed with the large collection of sodas that the muggle grocery store held and couldn't help but walk down the aisle to examine them. They stretched across the entire length and he was set on finding the perfect one for their party.

You see, that was what he had taken to calling it, their party. He was going to be sure it was wonderful just like the ones the Marauders would throw at Hogwarts; lots of food and music and a secret stash of alcohol. Lily wouldn't have to know about that last one he decided.

In order for the drink to be perfect, it needed to have lots of sugar, the most sugar of all of them he was thinking. He'd narrowed them all down to a specific brand that seemed rather brilliant and was left with choosing which flavor. He had never really tried muggle soda really. What he did know was that when muggles said something tasted like grape, it usually tasted like radioactive slime. He had learned that from the cold medicine supplied to him by Lily the last time he had a stuffed nose. For this very reason he had to be very careful with his selection.

He glanced over the bottle of pineapple soda one last time, taking in the high sugar label on the back of the bottle, and strutted down the aisle. He was quite pleased with his find and thought that James would be proud of him. Sadly, he didn't know where James was, but he figured that wouldn't be too much of a problem. The store couldn't be that big.

From what Sirius remembered, Lily had found them on the jams and jelly isle and he had moved approximately six feet before wandering off and discovering the treasure trove that was the soda isle. Six feet wasn't all that much. Retracing his steps Sirius successfully found, not the isle, but more food for their party. At least there was that.

After peering down several isles for his best friend and his best friend's pregnant wife Sirius decided that he was lost. He was lost because sitting in front of him were apples and oranges and he didn't recall ever walking past those with James when they had arrived. They had been looking for the good stuff after all.

Wrapping his arms around himself to ward off the chill of the fruit section, Sirius glanced around for something that looked familiar. With no luck he continued to wander, picking up a different bag of food that looked good here and there. With ever squeak of a shopping cart his head whipped around, hoping to spot the Potters, but usually it was some middle-aged man looking for something his wife had forgotten to buy for dinner. The floor caused a lot of squeaks, but it was never them.

"Prrroooonnngggsss," he whispered as if James would be able to hear him. "I'm lost in a muggle grocery sttttooorreee. Where aarrreeee you?"

An older women carting around a large bag of cat litter gave him a dirty look. He smiled charmingly back and heard her mutter something about 'children these days.' It was quite insulting really, seeing as he was an adult. Then again, most adults didn't get lost in stores. At that moment Sirius decided he wasn't really lost, he was just exploring just like at Hogwarts. What did he do while exploring at Hogwarts? Map it. There was an idea. He could draw a map of the grocery store and surely he'd be able to find his way out.

He looked to his left and saw convenient notebooks and packages of pens looking all shiny and new. Lily could pay for them once he found her. He grabbed a shiny red book with lined paper and ripped open a package of glitter pens, simply for the novelty of having a gold pen to go with his red notebook. He carefully drew two lines going down the middle of his paper to represent the isle he was standing in. Down the middle of his drawn isle he scrawled a careless 'CRAFTS'. Content with his work he moved to the next isle, drew another line a few centimeters from the crafts isle and labeled it 'CLEANING STUFF'. He was making progress already.

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"Goodness, only Sirius would get lost in a place like this," Lily said shaking her head as James peered down yet another isle.

"No sign of him here…just a lady with a bag of cat food that's bigger than she is," he sighed.

"Maybe she's seen him," Lily considered, brows furrowed. She walked towards the lady confidently, trying to appear warm and friendly at the same time. She liked to think that she had always been good with the elderly.

"Excuse me, mam?" she tapped the women on the shoulder. She turned around.

"Ever heard of personal space, young lady?" she snapped. Lily winced.

"I'm sorry, I'm just…we're just," she corrected as James came up behind her. "Looking for our friend."

"Well he's not over here so you better look elsewhere," the woman was about to return to her examining of the peanut butters until her eyes fell on Lily's stomach. Her deposition instantly changed. "My goodness! How far along are you deary?"

"He's due in June, late June," Lily supplied, trying to sound sweet. She had finally found a way to get to the women. She grabbed James' hand and intertwined it with her own.

"He? So it's a boy. What's his name?" she cooed.

"Harry, Harry James Potter."

"Are you James," she asked, turning to Lily's husband. He nodded proudly. "Is this your first?"

"Yes. We're very excited. It's taking a toll on me though; I haven't quite stopped working yet and have been awfully tired. As soon as we can find our friend I can go home and get some sleep," she crossed her fingers behind her back, not liking the little white lie she was telling the women. They had to find Sirius though, he couldn't handle muggles.

"Oh of course! Your friend! We want to get you home. What does he look like?"

"Probably very confused, yet fascinated at the same time," James put in. Lily pinched his arm and gave him a look. He just grinned.

"Well," Lily started. "He's about this tall," she rose up on her tiptoes, moving her hand a bit above James' head.

"He is not taller than me!" James argued.

"I'm sorry sweetie, but he is," she kissed him on the cheek and returned to her feet. "He is our age, black hair that should have been cut months ago. It's really healthy though, he probably takes care of it better than I do mine," she twirled a strand of her red hair around the tip of her finger.

"You know he's not gonna cut it, Lils. Apparently Marlene thinks it's charming."

"Charming my," Lily started but this time it was her that had to get pinched. "Anyway," she resumed. "He has grey eyes too that are kind of silvery, and he always looks like he's going to get into some kind of trouble. Just like him," Lily said pointing up to her husband. She turned back to the lady and saw recognition in her eyes.

"Oh yes, I saw him. Shouting something about…a deer? Or antlers or something. No offense or anything, but maybe you should have him see a doctor. He was talking to himself as if it were natural."

"I'm sure," James laughed.

"Can you tell us where you saw him?" Lily asked, sure that it was Sirius.

"He was by the crafts isle," the women nodded. Lily thanked her and the two rushed off. "Congratulations!" the lady called after them.

Lily rounded a corner that was in the general direction of the craft isle and stopped in her tracks when she saw what was in front of her. It was Sirius sitting in front of one of the freezers. He had quite the array of objects surrounding him. Snacks of all kinds were on either side and a bag of chips was open on his lap. He seemed to have some sort of tarp around his shoulders and a red notebook with scribbled lines and labels of gold in it was at his feet.

James bumped into Lily as she stopped, placing a hand on the small of her back in apology.

"Sorry, Lils."

"Hello Sirius," she smirked at the figure sitting on the ground. He looked up, suddenly relieved. Sirius jumped up, food flying everywhere.

"Oh my goodness, Sunshine! PRONGS! YOU FOUND ME! Not that I was lost I just…"

"Yeah, we get it," James grinned. "You're quite the survivalist aren't you, Padfoot? What's this," he asked picking up that notebook.

"A map, handy I know. This way no one will ever have to suffer the same fate I did," he proudly stated. "I was thinking of giving it to the manager, having them put copies at the end of every isle."

"That's brilliant and all, Sirius, but how about we go home now?" Lily asked. She pulled something from her cart, "I got snicker doodles!"

"You're amazing Sunshine!" he grinned, stooped down to scoop up all his food, and the three headed towards the checkout. Sirius was just glad that he hadn't been stuck there overnight. It would have been like a scene straight out of a horror movie. "This pineapple soda better have been worth it."

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Another late chapter, sorry guys. My family took an impromptu trip to our cabin this weekend. All these instances of me being late have made me come to a decision. Instead of me posting (Or trying to post) every Saturday I'm going to post once between Sunday and Saturday of each week. The chapters won't necessarily be seven days apart, but they will be every week if that makes any sense. For example, I post today but the next one might not be until Thursday or even Friday of next week. Even though it's more than seven days away I'll still be posting once for this week and once for next week. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I found it very fun to write. If you have any questions about this new schedule just ask in the reviews! Thanks.

-Sweets5236