Tuesday 14th July 1981

Diagon Alley, 10:00

Kingsley swore loudly as he grappled with the Death Eater only for the man to squirm out of his grasp. Kingsley wasn't having it. He wasn't going to let this one go. But the guy was slippery, like he'd coated himself in butter because Kingsley could not get a firm grip on him for all his twisting and turning.

"Someone knock him out!" He roared in frustration.

What was everyone doing, just staring at him making a spectacle of himself? This wasn't some sort of free show, this was serious!

"I don't want to hit you!" Sirius shouted back.

Kingsley swore loudly, both at the realisation that Sirius was right and because the Death Eater was now falling his arms about and Kingsley got a fist in his face because of it. Ouch. That hurt.

Dazed, his grip loosened slightly, enough for him to nearly lose the guy as he tried to get away. But, despite seeing stars, Kingsley wasn't having that and redoubled his efforts to keep a hold of him. Even if it meant wrapping his whole body around him. Unfortunately, the Death Eater - he still wasn't sure who it was behind the mask that was surprisingly still on his face - also had a good bit of fight left in him.

Kingsley had just leaned away as much as he dared to avoid a chokehold when the guy collapsed in his arms, the sudden dead weight nearly making him fall to the ground himself.

"Got him," Sirius said in an amused voice.

"You couldn't have done that sooner?"

"There was the slight problem of your big head being in the way."

"I don't have a big head. Yours is bigger than mine."

Sirius threw his head back and snorted. "My head is perfect, thank you very much."

Kingsley chuckled and rubbed at his cheek, wincing at the throbbing pain that that action made blossom across his face. Ouch. It felt an awful lot worse now that he wasn't completely consumed with trying to subdue someone. At least it wasn't for naught because they actually caught the guy!

"Hey, no cuts this time!" Sirius said cheerfully after inspecting his head. "You've just got some scrapes and a load of dirt on you."

"So, I just need to get cleaned up?"

"Looks like it."

"You, on the other hand," Marlene said, giving Sirius a light shove. "Need that cut on your arm healed."

Kingsley gave Sirius a double take and realised that Sirius' sleeve was pushed up and there was blood dripping down his arm. Since when did that happen and how did he not realise that his partner was injured?

"I'm fine." Sirius tried to wave her away but, of course, it didn't work.

"You're bleeding."

"But it's not gushing."

She rolled her eyes at her and beckoned at her partner. "Ferguson! Hold my stupid boyfriend so I can heal him, would you."

"Will do!" The red-headed man said far too cheerfully.

"Oh, no you won't," Sirius said, holding his hand up and then he sighed. "Fine. I'll let you heal my arm."

Marlene gave him a critical sort of look before deciding that he was telling the truth. A quick wave of her wand and he was all healed. Kingsley always found that watching cuts heal was fascinating. It was like the skin grew towards each other on either side and the fused together. It was cool.

"Right, let's get back and deal with this arsehole," Sirius said, pulling up their deadweight of a Death Eater by the neck of his robes.

Surprisingly, it didn't take long for them to sort the Death Eater out. He confessed freely without them having to interrogate him that much. It was like he was proud of the fact that he had been caught. Whatever, Kingsley had long since given up on trying to understand Death Eaters. It just gave him a headache. At least this way they actually got a bit of free time before they had to work on their next case. They'd actually been told to take a shower and write up their reports before getting more work so they must have looked bad.

So, they had showered (and Merlin, was there a lot of dirt on him. It had taken ages for the water to run clear off him) and technically they should be writing up their incident reports but that wasn't happening. Who willingly did paperwork? Not any of them. Then again, the three of them had the worst attention spans. Now they were all back at their desks, well, in Sirius and Kingsley's cubicle, and were inspecting the damage done to everyone. He had definitely come off the worse.

"Yep, that is definitely a nasty tear," Sirius observed.

Not that that was particularly useful. It was extremely obvious, after all. Yes, the was a massive tear in his Auror robes down his right arm. How her managed that he wasn't sure but it was quite an impressive one considering that others already fraying. There was also some other years and tiny little tips which he assumed was from getting dragged along the ground. It wasn't like the ground was shiny smooth did anything.

"I can see that."

"No need to be snarky."

"The Department is going to be snarky about getting you a new set," Marlene interrupted before the two men could start to argue.

"Surely they couldn't expect you do fix that," Sirius said indignantly gesturing up and down at Kingsley.

Kingsley was now sticking his arm through the massive tear. He could probably for four arms in it.

"You never know when it comes to the budget," Marlene said knowingly.

It turned out that the Department would not be issuing a new set. Not until he had tried to get them repaired first, anyway. If they proved to be irreparable and he had a note from an appropriate seamstress that they were, then he'd get a new set. Until then, they'd only fork out the money for aforementioned repairs. Bunch of knut-pinchers.

"What's the best place for repairs?" He asked with a sigh when he returned to his cubicle - Sirius and Marlene were still there.

It felt odd to be hanging around the office without his robes on. He'd actually been informed by the higher ups that he should not wear torn up robes in the office. Apparently, it gave a bad impression. Whatever. Either way, kt felt odd to be sitting around in his shirt sleeves.

"Madame Malkins, I think," Marlene said after thinking. "Isn't it, Sirius?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I think they give Aurors a discount for repairs. Bring your ID."

"You have got to be kidding me?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "You have a problem with Madam Malkins?"

Kingsley immediately clamped his mouth shut and shook his head. Sirius didn't know the whole saga about the Malkins and him and Frank and he really would appreciate it that it would remain that way.

"No. No problem."

It didn't look like Sirius believed him. But that didn't matter because he wasn't going to get an explanation because it was none of his business. Kingsley gave Sirius a glare and thankfully he wasn't his normal nosey self and actually went back to doing his reports! Something that probably should be questioned but Kingsley didn't care if it meant that he wasn't questioned.

Which he wasn't so both of them got caught up with their paperwork. Sirius even slipped put to get a bunch of his signed, something he rarely did which drove Moody and other Senior Aurors insane because they had to hand his work back at him for him to go get the signatures. But that was Sirius for you.

Kingsley sighed heavily. He really didn't want to go to Madam Malkins. Maybe he could make one of the trainees do it for him?

Friday 17th July 1981

Godric's Hollow, 15:30

Harry lunged for him and James thought that he wanted to be held only for his son to all but dive into his pocket.

Harry nearly manged to pull his wand out before James realised what he was doing.

"Do you want to see some magic?" He chuckled, carefully pulling Harry away.

"Bubbas," Harry informed him, looking thoroughly annoyed that he had been thwarted.

"Bubbles?" James repeated in amusement.

Harry still had this obsession over them. Which was adorable, don't get him wrong, but it also led to things like this where he tried to make the bubbles himself. James was just happy that Harry was unaware of the existence of washing up liquid. Once he figured that out, they were all in trouble.

"Bubbas?" Cassie repeated hopefully. "Pop pop?"

Sirius had brought her over, apparently, she was extremely energetic today and he was hoping that playing with Harry would tire her out. Which sounded like an excellent idea to James because Harry was the same.

"Bubs!" Harry said more urgently, looking all around him as if bubbles would just magically appear.

Which, in his defence, was what normally happened.

"They're coming, they're coming," James assured him.

"Why bubbles?" Sirius asked with a chuckle.

James shrugged. "I don't know but he-"

"Ick!"

That was Harry's way of saying quick.

"Bubbas!" Cassie demanded.

Yeah, they weren't going to be able to do anything until they fulfilled these demands. Tiny little bossy things.

"I bet I can make more bubbles than you!" James challenged Sirius.

Which, of course, Sirius couldn't back down from.

In hindsight that might not have been the best of ideas, though Cassie and Harry would say otherwise. The room was filled with bubbles, literally filled, pretty quickly. That wasn't an exaggeration, every surface was covered in them and you couldn't walk around them if you wanted to move anywhere. You just had to walk through them. Cassie and Harry were delighted. Even if they did discover that they didn't like the taste of them.

They had a great time running back and forth through then and only had to stop because James and Sirius picked them up after they slipped and fell one too many times.

"What's going on?" Lily asked rubbing at her eyes.

She had taken the opportunity to grab a quick nap. She was coming to the end of her pregnancy and everything seemed to ache and take so much effort. But now she was awake and feeling a bit better, though their baby wouldn't stop kicking. Particularly in the bladder region.

"Are there such things as bubble machines?" James asked with a chuckle, bouncing Harry on his lap.

"I thought that was you?" Lily teased, taking in the scene in front of her and waving bubbles away from her face.

"Oh, ha, ha."

The Leaky Cauldron, 19:00

Peter sighed happily as he took another swig of his beer. His feet dangled slightly on the bar stool but he didn't really care about that. Why should he case about such an inconsequential thing when everything else was going so well?

There was a nice, cold pint in front of him that tasted amazing, Merton really did have great tastes when it came to these new beers, and it had been recently priced too. Nearly everyone from the office head managed to come out and they basically had the bar to themselves because people didn't really go out anymore.

This was nice. It was almost normal, this sort of thing. Of course, it wasn't completely normal because he was with work friends instead of the Marauders but this was a step in the right direction. He was just hanging out and then were joking around and playing card games. Okay, he had lost a few galleons because he was crap at cards but it was all in good fun. And the winnings were used to buy more alcohol anyway. So, no one really did lose.

"Another pint?" Merton asked.

Peter shook his head and held up the pint he was currently on.

"Not even halfway through this one."

"Ah, going slow tonight?"

"Something like that."

More like he still couldn't just down beers like that. He just ended up choking and that would be embarrassing. So, slow and steady it was. Which, admittedly, was a good thing because he never got as drunk as quickly as some people. He didn't particularly like looking like an idiot.

Which Merton seemed to be on the way to. How many pints had he had exactly? Peter just knew that he was going to have to help him home. There was no way that he was going to be able to apparate in that state.

He really was a good friend.

Saturday 18th July 1981

Auror Office, 15:00

"Go and take a walk," Moody ordered, pointing his finger down the corridor.

Sirius gave him a displeased look though he felt like it wasn't as effective as he could have been considering how dishevelled he felt. And if he felt dishevelled, he probably looked even worse. He didn't even want to look down at himself.

"Where?" He grumbled, glaring at the older man who was bothered by it at all.

"Outside, inside, I don't care. Just walk it off."

Sirius stood and glared at the man but he just glared right back. And, unlike Moody, Sirius found that he couldn't hold his glare so sighed loudly and turned in his heels to stomp away. He felt like he needed a good stomp.

The good thing about stomping instead of walking normally meant that people got out of your way pretty quickly. Good. Because he didn't want to talk to anyone. Or even be around them.

"Make sure you lose the attitude as well Moody called after him only for Sirius to flash two fingers at him.

That earned him a stinging hex to the shoulder which he barely reacted to. Come on, really? A basic stinging hex? He'd got a lot worse when he was a lot younger for Merlin's sake. A stinging hex. Honestly. Like that was going to get his attention.

Ignoring that, Sirius loudly stomped down the corridor Michael to the annoyance of everyone who were in their cubicles. Not that he cared. They could grumble and complain all they wanted. If he wanted to stomp, he was going to stomp. There was nothing that they could do about it. And, funnily enough, they didn't. Except for a few odd looks and some people sticking their head out of their cubicles to swear at him, everyone kind of just left him alone. Which was awesome and meant that he could stomp more. Which is what he did.

Did you know just how satisfying it was to March up and down and just stomp as much as you like? Because it was. Oh, it felt really good. Especially when you were all pissed off and basically everyone.

So, what that the interrogation got a little loud? He'd been in the room when Moody bellowed at a suspect before. Who cared if he got a bit vicious and unprofessional with his questions? Surely none of that mattered, it wasn't like he was actually hurting the guy or anything. And the suspect wasn't really a suspect because suspect meant that you weren't completely sure that that person had done the crime. But they knew that this person didn't the crime, they just needed the person to admit it.

Which shouldn't be hard bit apparently it was and he had been getting fed up with it. Hence the whole getting banished from the room. Urgh, whatever.

Stomp, stomp, stomp.

That felt so good. And was actually working. He was still annoyed but that was it. Annoyed. Not angry. Well, not as angry. Huh. Pretty cool.

Sirius looked around him and frowned. Um, since when did he walk into muggle London? He didn't even remember going outside! Had he really walked that much? It hadn't felt like it. But he didn't even recognise where he was so he had definitely walked a fair distance. Merlin, he must have worked himself up into a literal blind rage. No wonder Moody told him to walk it off. He probably would have taken someone's head off if they even breathed at him funny.

He actually still felt a bit angry. Not a rage anymore, he was more in control now but definitely still angry. He couldn't help it. The man, no, the miserable creature, they had caught had been a Death Eater recruiter. One of the bigger ones. And, well, he had been so proud of that. Proud of the fact that he'd persuaded dozens of young people to serve such a horrific cause.

Honestly, he still didn't understand why some humans could be so vile and disgusting. Didn't they have any sort of conscious at all?