Saturday 6th June 1981

London, 09:00

Remus and Dora walked into the apartment and Remus had to stop himself from stepping back in disgust as they did so. Dora gave him an odd look, which made him give her one in return. What? Couldn't she smell that? She had to be able to. It was absolutely horrible. Actually, it was one of the worst smells he had ever smelled and he had spent his teenage years sharing a dorm with James, Sirius and Peter. Did you know just how bad the shared space of four teenage boys smelled? It was bad. No matter how fresh everything was you could never quite get rid of the smell of feet. It was like it had seeped into the carpet and walls.

But enough reminiscing. Even that cheesy foot smell was not as bad as what he was currently smelling and that was a fact. Even though Remus had never thought that something could beat that.

But Dora wasn't reacting to it at all. Which was just downright weird. Was there something wrong with her nose? There had to be.

"Can't you smell that?" He hissed, eyeing the landlady who was a few feet in front of them, babbling about the window frames, of all things.

Dora sniffed and frowned. "Smell what? It's a bit musty but surely it just needs a good airing out? Wait, what are you smelling?"

Remus just shook his head but didn't say anything. He didn't want to say anything with the landlady so close to them. Dora narrowed his eyes at him but he shook his head again. She was about to say something when the landlady dragged them towards one of the bedrooms, saying something about a dip in the floor and how it wasn't really a problem. Fantastic.

The rest of the rooms, not that there were many, went along the same lines. Which between those problems and the smell, well, this was not exactly a positive first viewing, was it?

"What were all those faces about?" Dora asked as they were finally left alone in the kitchen.

Where, ironically the smell was at its worst. And this time, Dora actually had a reaction to it. She actually did a double take when they walked over the threshold, her face paling slightly.

"What is that smell?" She gasped out after gagging slightly.

"Mould and urine." He replied without any hesitation.

It had taken him two rooms to figure out exactly what the awful mixture of smell was but he had finally figured it out. And he kind of wished that he hadn't.

Dora recoiled in horror and her face took on a greenish tinge. A literal greenish tinge. They had found out when she was pregnant with Teddy that her abilities went a bit haywire when she was physically sock and literally changed the colour of her skin so that it took on a greyish-green hue.

They didn't even get a chance to discuss all of the problems when they were interrupted by the far too bubbly landlady.

"So," she said hopefully as they backed away (far away) from the kitchen and returned to the front door. "What do you think?"

They looked at each other incredulously. Did the woman really think that they were going to give this place a positive review? Did she really think that they were going to take it? No, thank you. Not in a million years. Ever, ever, ever.

"I, um," Remus coughed when he realised that the woman was looking at them expectantly. "I don't think we'll be taking it."

The woman's face fell.

"Sorry," Dora supplied. "It, just, well, it isn't us."

He almost snorted at that. That was one way of putting it.

Godric's Hollow, 17:00

"Bub!" Harry demanded crossly. "Bub!"

"No bubbles, Harry," Lily said absentmindedly as she turned a page in a book.

It was a really interesting book, kt had all sorts of charms in it which Lily was itching to try out. Unfortunately, some would have to wait until she had a safe and warded room to work in. Away from dangerously nosy husbands and a wandering toddle.

"Bub!" Harry insisted, tugging at her.

Lily sighed and closed her book; she wasn't going to get anything done if Harry was going to be like this this afternoon.

"Mama said no more bubbles," she said firmly.

That's all they had done this morning. And while Harry's reactions to bubbles would never get old that didn't mean she wanted to be constantly producing them.

Which is what she had put him down in a corner of the living room, surrounded him with the sofa cushions and had put a few of his toys in with the makeshift play pen. That way he could play safely without her having to constantly watch him and she could do something for herself even when she was in the same room as him. But apparently that wasn't going to happen today. She hadn't known that Harry knew how to chamber over the cushions.

When he realised that no bubbles were forthcoming Harry sat back of the floor and started to wail. James came rushing in just as Lily picked him up and started to rock him.

"What's going on? What's happening?" He asked frantically.

"It's fine, James," she said, rubbing Harry's back. "Harry is just mad at me."

"But he's crying."

Lily rolled her eyes. "James, he's a baby. He can't exactly shout at me when he's angry. Babies cry when they can't deal with things. Anger, pain, sadness tiredness. You know this."

James calmed down slightly when he realised that she was right. He still looked worried though.

"Why is he mad at you?"

"Because I wouldn't make the bubbles for him again," she said with an eye roll.

He frowned as he looked between her and her book.

"But you were reading!" And then he looked across the room. "And he was playing with his blocks!"

Blocks that were strewn all across the floor as a result of Harry's efforts. Him playing with them really just meant that ne chucked them around. Hey, whatever kept him occupied. It wasn't like ne could damage anything with them, there were cushioning charms built into them. Quite the clever idea, if Lily thought about it. Wizarding baby toys were quite interesting even if they did have almost ide tidal muggle counterparts.

Lily nodded. "He was but apparently he wanted the bubbles again."

"After this morning?" He asked incredulously. "You'd think that he would be all bubbled out."

"You would, wouldn't you? Apparently not. But I certainly am."

Why was he so fascinated with bubbles anyway? It wasn't like he could do much with them anyway, not like his actual toys!

"I'll do them for a bit with him," James offered like the lifesaver he was.

"Daddy can make bubbles for you," she said, putting excitement in her voice for Harry.

But their son wasn't having it and he pouted.

"Bub!" He proclaimed, using both hands to hit Lily on the arm.

"Hey," James said, gently grabbing his tiny hands. "We don't hit. No hitting."

But Harry wasn't in any mood to listen and tugged his hands free.

"Bub!" He shouted.

Monday 8th June 1981

Marauders Flat, 07:00

"We really need to take some time off together," Marlene said as she brushed her hair that morning.

She was actually doing it in front of her mirror, for a change, instead of when on the move - doing it while getting her shoes on, soothing Cassie, shovelling breakfast into her mouth. They had both actually manged to roll out of bed before their alarm this morning and Cassie had been strangely cooperative. She was now placed back in her crib where she was distracting herself throwing her toys out of it and shrieking with laughter. Had Marlene dumped every single cushion and toy in there with her in an effort to distract her enough that their peaceful and non-stressful morning could continue? Maybe.

"Hmm?" Sirius asked, briefly looking up from tying his shoes.

They had long since learned their lesson and they bother never brushed their hair at the same time. One, they only had one large mirror and squabbling over it to fox their respective hairs was really not a fun way to start the morning. And two, if they did it together Marlene just got annoyed at Sirius for taking so long.

"We should take some time off together," Marlene repeated. "Maybe take a long weekend or something?"

They hadn't even had a complete weekend together in months. One of them always seemed to be working at least one of the days.

"What would you want to do?" Sirius asked, standing up. "Or would you just want to ne lazy?"

She tilted her head forward to make sure there were no bits sticking up. The only problem with keeping your hair in a bob (even if it was a longish one) was that sometimes your hair liked to pretend that it could defy gravity. But not so this morning. It looked like her brush actually did its job properly.

Satisfied that everything looked well, Marlene reached for her robes and turned to Sirius. "We could go see my parents. We haven't seen them in a while."

"That would be fun," he agreed.

Marlene loved the fact that Sirius got on with her parents and it wasn't like a stereotypical in-law relationship. She had heard horror stories from the guys at work where none of them seemed to get on with their in-laws at all. Actually, referring to them as Auguries, of all things.

Suddenly there was a squeal from Cassie making them both turn around quickly. And what they saw at the same time made their mouths drop open.

She had originally been ensconced in her cot, in an effort to make her have a nap. Evidentially, that wasn't working because she was very obviously not tired. And apparently a not tired Cassie Black meant that she got into mischief.

And what sort of mischief could an almost one year old get up to in her cot? Well, she could try and climb out of it. Yes, you heard write. Cassie had managed to pull herself onto the railing of her cot with one foot dangling on either side of it. It was a very unstable position which made her wobble rather alarmingly.

"Oh, how clever you are!" Sirius cooed, picking Cassie up and swinging her around.

Which had the added benefit of making sure that she did not fall down and hurt herself. Instead, she shrieked in glee, giggling her head off.

"She is not clever," Marlene told him. "She's a daredevil."

"Which makes her clever."

"No, it makes her you."

"Exactly. Clever."

Tuesday 9th June 1981

Madam Malkin's, 15:30

"Can you stop causing a draft?" Elsie said irritably. "Either come in or stay out."

Kingsley hovered for another few seconds, making Elsie giving him a thoroughly annoyed look. So, without thinking, he let the door swing shut with him firmly on the inside. He almost immediately regretted it. Yes, he had been the one to come in here but he had no clue what to say. What was he even supposed to say?

Did he want to say something? Yes. No. Oh, he didn't know. He had come in so maybe it was a, yes?

"If you're not buying anything you can just go right back out," she told him stiffly, still not looking at him. "I have actual customers to attend to."

She did look like she was busy, carefully inspecting this massive book that was on the counter in front of her but Kingsley knew that she was just pretending to read. And, he pointedly looked around him, there were no other customers in the shop. Or should that be no customers I stead of no other? Because he wasn't really a customer, was he?

"I wanted to talk to you," he managed to get out.

"I have nothing to say to you," she said with a sniff.

Kingsley had to admit, that hurt him. It really did. Since when did Elsie Malkin have nothing to say? It was unnatural.

"Okay."

That actually made her look at him, albeit with a confused look on her face.

What? It wasn't like he could force her to talk to him. He couldn't just interrogate her like he would a criminal because, well, she wasn't one, was she? In fact, she was kind of making him feel like he was one. But if she didn't want to say anything, she didn't want to say anything.

"I'll just, I'll just go then."

Kingsley had known that this was going a bad idea and this whole interaction was proof of that. It was never going to be the same between them and Frank anymore, was kt? Because he just knew that of Frank had tried this, he would get the same reaction. Possibly even a worse one because Frank was more likely to argue than he was in these sorts of situations.

So, on that note, he turned around and pushed open the door so he could leave. This time he didn't do any sort of lingering in the doorway and went straight outside. There was a weird sort of noise from behind him as the door shut but Kingsley didn't think anything of it. A pile of material had probably fallen from a shelf or something. Nothing for him to concern himself with.

Wednesday 10th June 1981

Godric's Hollow, 22:00

Lily leaned back on her pillows that night and let out an enormous sigh.

"What's up?" James asked, looking up from buttoning his pyjama top.

It was his red set, with the black piping that je always grumbled about not being gold. Once a Gryffindor, always a Gryffindor.

"Am I a bad mother?" She asked, not taking her gaze away from the ceiling.

James climbed into bed next to her and frowned. "What? No, of course not. Why would you think such a thing?"

She rolled over on her side so that she was facing him.

"Do you know why I'm so glad to go to bed tonight."

James waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Oh, I might have an idea."

Lily couldn't help but laugh at that, despite what she was thinking.

"I'm being serious, James."

"Funny, you don't look a thing like him."

A pillow to his face was what he got for that smart remark. But he got what he wanted; Lily suspected. She felt a bit less tense. He always did things like that. Goofed around to either annoy her out of whatever mood she was in or to make her feel more relaxed. And, annoyingly, it had a high success rate.

"Okay, okay," James said with a laugh. "I'm sorry." Lily gave him another pummel with her pillow just to make sure.

"I am! Why are you so happy to go to bed tonight?"

"I just... I just..." words were suddenly failing her now that she had a chance to speak.

The guilt started setting in and she shook her head. "Never mind."

James got this serious look on his face.

"Come on, ease tell me."

He was so sweet and earnest looking that she couldn't help but burst into tears. James immediately put his arms around her, holding her close.

"Hey, hey. Whatever it is, it can't be that bad. It's just bed."

Lily almost laughed at that. If only he knew.

"It's not that," she choked out.

"Then what is it."

She pulled away from him, feeling like she was unworthy of being able to touch him because of what she was about to admit.

"I'm glad to finally get away from Harry," she said quietly.

It somehow sounded even more awful when she said kt out loud. Like it was a real thing instead of just this thought whispering in the back of her mind. Saying it out loud made it seem more real.

James tilted his head to one side in confusion.

"What was that?"

Lily let out a sob. She didn't think she could say that again. It was just so awful.

"Lily, I didn't hear you," James said urgently. "What did you say?"

Today just hadn't been a great day, okay? It really hadn't. Nothing, nothing had gone right. And the worst thing was that it wasn't even Harry's fault. Well, most of kt wasn't. She had got up late and yes, you could still get up late when you were in hiding and had nothing to do all day. They liked to keep some sort of a routine so that when all of this was over going back to a normal life was a little bit easier. So, she ignored her alarm, got up all groggy and annoyed with herself. Harry was fussy all morning and made such a mess when she gave him some bananas and yogurt. Even got some on the cat and she had no clue whether yogurt was poisonous for cats so she had to go and bathe it. Which it did not like. She had had to heal so many scrapes on her arms and she still suspected that she missed some. The day just got worse from there and she didn't even want to think of it right now. James had spent the day organising the attic, like they had originally planned and she had t wanted to involve him in all these stupid little things. But when you added them all up, they weren't so little.

She relayed all of this to James, intersped with choking sobs. She was a horrible mother. A no good, awful mother. What mother actually wanted to be away from their child? A horrible one, that's what.

"Why haven't you said anything, Lily?"

He looked hurt at this and instantly she felt bad. Or rather, worse.

"It's not like we can do anything, James!"

And, yes, she sounded more than a little bit hysterical but she couldn't help it.