Two of the marauders lay draped over Remus's sofa, feigning exhaustion after putting the last bag of groceries in Remus's overflowing kitchen.
"What time is it?" Remus asked, prodding James with his toe. James pretended to be asleep. Remus grabbed his arm and twisted his wrist around to see his watch.
"It's late. You guys should go."
Sirius moaned and took another swig from his butter beer. "Too… tired!"
"No you aren't! Get up!" No one moved. Exasperated, Remus picked up a large bag of dirty robes. "If you don't get your lazy butts off my couch right now, I won't do your laundry while you're gone!"
"Alright, alright!" James exclaimed, pulling himself to his feet. "Jeez! Chill, we're going!"
Remus tossed the sack of dirty clothes at Sirius who still hadn't moved. "You know, I have the strangest feeling that you want us to leave!" Sirius said as he slowly pushed the laundry bag away.
"Yeah!" James put in, "It sounds like he wants to send us to our deaths!"
"I don't, I just don't want it to be my fault that you're late."
"It won't be. Remember? Everything's always our fault."
"Yes, but you were doing my shopping."
"Aha!" James exclaimed knowledgably, "That reminds me! Sirius?" Sirius nodded and stood.
"Ahem! Now, Mr. Moony, I want you to listen very carefully," Sirius said sternly, pointing an accusing finger at Remus in a very intimidating way, "When we come back there should be absolutely no food left in this apartment. Is that clear?"
Remus rolled his eyes. "You bought me enough to last a week!"
"Well, we might be gone for a week!" James exclaimed.
"No you won't. You're just searching an ex-death eater's house to make sure there's nothing dangerous left over. Stop being so dramatic."
"Remus," Sirius said solemnly, "We might die."
"No you won't! This isn't a dangerous mission. If it were, Dumbledore wouldn't have sent you to deal with it."
"Hey, are you trying to say something?"
"Maybe I am!" Remus teased.
"Ah, he's just jealous that it's us going and not him, Padfoot!"
"Look, I already have my orders from Dumbledore and they're a lot more important than searching some dead guy's house!" Remus countered.
"He might not be dead! We'll have to do some serious sleuthing to find out what happened after this acclaimed death eater decided to stop working for Voldemort!"
"Oh, well than, good luck with your sleuthing."
"Thanks," James said.
"We'll need it," Sirius put in darkly. Remus rolled his eyes again.
"We've told Peter to check in on you!" James said, "Make sure you're eating and all!"
"I was serious about it all being gone when we come back!"
"But, Sirius, you bought me dog food. And I don't even have a dog!"
Sirius shrugged, "Good protein!"
"I don't care! I'm not eating dog food!" Remus exclaimed as Sirius slung his back pack over his shoulder and pulled on his coat.
"It really doesn't taste that bad!" Sirius said as he and James started for the door.
"How would you know?" Remus cried, disgusted, as he followed them to the door.
Sirius reeled around to face Remus, his hands against the door frame. "Um, duh, I am a dog!"
"Um, gross," Remus said, as the door closed in his face and he was left alone in his apartment.
All of the marauders knew how dangerous working with the order was. No one ever mentioned it; it was just something that was there, like being illegal animagis. Remus spent his time working with werewolves, convincing them not to join Voldemort and educating people about werewolves. It was long, difficult and dangerous work and it very rarely paid off.
Although they joked about it lightly, inspecting a rumored death eater's home was no laughing matter. No one knew what might be waiting for the Order members who went to survey the scene. For all they knew, James and Sirius could be walking straight into a trap.
If you thought about things like that, though, you'd only end up going crazy with worry.
A/N: Yes, I know, once again it's very short. But at least I updated surprisingly quickly, right? lol, well thank you for reading and for the reviews!