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Sunday, November 5, 1978.
“This was such a bad idea.”
“Excuse you. Whose brilliant idea was this?”
“I thought it would be a nice date night for James and I. I didn’t think he would invite the lot of you because, and unfortunately I quote ‘muggles set off fireworks and eat loads of food while celebrating Fawkes? I’ve got to tell Padfoot about this. Muggles are nutters!’. Why am I marrying him?”
“Because if you don’t, Sirius will, and that would just be awkward for the dynamics of our group.”
“And not because you have a thing for Sirius.”
Remus choked on his cider.
“I’m sorry, were you trying to hide that? Rather shite job at that.”
“Lily!”
“Oh don’t worry, Sirius has absolutely no idea.”
Remus wasn’t able to say anything else, as the remaining three Marauders bounced up to the massive bonfire. Normally, it wouldn’t have been so concerning, but someone gave them sparklers.
“Moony!” Sirius jumped on the unfortunate werewolf.
Fortunately, his cider was empty already, and the sparkler miraculously died the second Sirius made his leap.
With an extra dash of luck, the chair he’d been sitting in also held up.
“Wotcher Padfoot.” Remus kept his gaze steadily on the friend currently sitting in his lap. He absolutely refused to make eye contact with Lily.
He could already sense her smirk.
“Moony, did you see the sparklers? Some random muggle gave them to us, then helped us light it the muggle way. It was very exciting.”
“Padfoot basically had his tongue lolling out of his mouth he was so excited.”
“He also thought the muggle used magic to light the sparkles at first, nearly blew our completely inconspicuous cover.”
“Bugger off, Prongs. He’s lying Moony.”
“I should hope so. I’d hate to have to obligate some poor muggle’s mind already. We’ve only been out of school for a few months.”
“Padfoot! I found another muggle with sparklers.”
“Good job, Wormtail! Moony, you’ve got to try this.”
“Well I—”
No one got to find out Remus’s ‘legitimate’ excuse, as Sirius leapt up and pulled the werewolf up all in the same motion.
Fifteen minutes and about three dozen sparklers later, the Marauders plus Lily collapsed in a pile of laughter.
Sirius laid his head on Remus’s stomach.
Remus did his best to ignore this.
He caught Lily’s eye though and was then unable to fully ignore it.
“Hey Moony, why are we celebrating Fawkes exactly? I mean, sure, he’s a brilliant phoenix, but I’ve never actually seen him do anything warranting an amazing day like today.”
“Pads, it’s not a day to celebrate Fawkes the phoenix, it’s to celebrate Guy Fawkes. He conspired to blow up the House of Parliament in London in 1605, I think.”
“You’re so smart, Moony, where’d you learn all those random facts?”
“I like to read.”
“Oh, fireworks! Come on Wormtail, let’s go help them.”
“Oh no.” Lily tried to grab onto James, but it was too late, and three of the most obviously mischievous Marauders ran off to do heavens knows what with fireworks.
*Ten minutes later*
“Really, Padfoot, I’ve known for years you were overly fond of playing with fire, but I never predicted this.”
“Well, you were always shite at Divination. The muggle’s not-so-magical lighter wouldn’t work, so I helped him out.”
“Sirius, you know that muggle things don’t always react well to magic.” Lily wrapped his hand in gauze. There were too many muggles around to heal the minor burns.
“I thought that was a one time minor fluke, you know pumpkins aren’t the most cooperative vegetable.”
“I’ll drink to that.”
“Cheers, Wormy.”
Remus rubbed his temples.
“Oi, Moony.”
Here it comes.
“Kiss it better.”
“No.”
“I’m telling you, werewolf kisses really do the trick. I’d never lie to you, Moony.”
“No.”
“Moooooooonnnnnnnyyyyyyy.”