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December 15, 1978
7:04 a.m.
Lily spent the night sprawled out across the fill width of the queen sized bed she and James shared. While it was incredibly luxurious, she knew why her fiancé was absent, and therefore couldn’t wait for him to return.
She probably slept a grand total of four hours that night.
The familiar whoosh of someone Flooing in put a relieved smile upon her face.
“Oi, shove over would you?” James demanded quietly, prodding her foot.
Lily returned to her side of the bed.
“You’re freezing!” she gasped.
James grunted tiredly and flung the covers over his head. He’d forgotten to take off his glasses, Lily noticed with an exasperated smile.
9:01 a.m.
The bedroom door creaked open. It was rather obnoxious.
Lily reached towards her nightstand, where her wand was, but a soft whine made her pause. She sighed as she sat up.
“Is Remus okay?”
The large black dog nodded, his normally perked ears drooping slightly. He looked between her and the bed.
“Ugh, come on up. Make sure you step on James along your way.”
Snuffles did as he commanded, earning a grunt and a few choice swear words from James. The dog settled in between the two.
“Rough moon?”
The dog whined pitifully and put his head down on James’s pillow.
“Why are you here and not at home, fussing over Remus as usual?” she asked after a few minutes, absentmindedly scratching Snuffles behind the ear.
“I need your help with something,” Sirius said after transforming back.
Lily immediately removed her hand and mentally scolded herself for falling for his doggy charms again.
“And what would that be?”
“I need your help shopping for Remus’s present. Normally, I’d ask him to take me to the muggle shopping mall, but obviously I can’t shop for him while he’s hovering over me, waiting for me to screw up in one way or another. He’s at home sleeping now anyways, and with any luck, I’ll be home again before he wakes up.”
“Black—”
“I solemnly swear, I will be the perfect shopper.”
“Fine.”
“I—Wait, what?” Sirius sat up. “Are you serious?”
“No, you’re Sirius,” James growled, narrowed eyes poking out from his blanket cocoon. “Now, take my fiancée, and get off my bed so I can sleep.”
“Think I could call up Wormtail and get him to watch over Moony while we shop?”
“James, head over to Black’s flat and look after your friend.”
“But Lily—”
“No buts.”
“Liiiiiiillllllllyyyyyyyy.”
10:49 a.m.
“Black, I thought you said you would be the perfect shopper.”
“Well, I can’t very well get him just the book he wanted, now can I?”
“… You’re not buying… that… are you?”
“Well I was, but if you’re going to just stand there and be all judgemental, then I guess I won’t!”
“He doesn’t need a knife set that can cut through anything!”
11:09 a.m.
“Evans, I’m so sorry—”
“Save it, Black, just… don’t touch anything this time!”
11:34 a.m.
“What about this?”
“… A kettle? Do you need a new kettle?”
“Well, Moony loves his tea, and the old one is a bit shoddy. Plus, the spout is retractible, so I can charm it to whistle his favourite song without tainting the water!”
“All right then, are we finish—wait, Black, bloody hell, get back here!”
11:40 a.m.
“Look at these slippers! I can definitely see him in these. They’ll match his favourite pyjama pants. Evans, why the face?”
“Oh, sorry, it’s just a touch alarming to have you be helpful for once.”
12:01 p.m.
“You are not buying that.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not going to dignify that with an answer.”
“Honestly, how hard to wrap do you think this would be?”
“We’re leaving.”
“Lunch? The food court is quite lovely here.”
“… Fine, but after that we’re leaving.”
12:46 p.m.
Lily watched Sirius finish off his pizza with a flourish. She had no idea why Remus was so attracted to him.
“All right, you’re fed, Remus’ll probably be up soon, and you’ve got a fair amount of presents for him. Can we leave now?”
Sirius looked down at his purchases with a frown.
“I don’t know,” he finally said with a huge sigh. “It just doesn’t seem like enough.”
“You know how much he hates it when you lot spend money on him. It’s not like he can reciprocate.”
“I know, I know, I’ve heard the speech hundreds of times. I can almost recite it better than he can. I’m just trying to pay him back though.”
It was Lily’s turn to frown.
“Pay him back? What do you mean?”
Sirius rubbed his face, looking around at the fairly crowded food court from the booth Lily had snagged for them.
“You remember back in Sixth Year, well, I’m sure James told you about the stupid ‘prank’ I tried to pull on Snivellus.”
“I remember.”
“I nearly lost him that night—Remus, not Snivellus of course—in more ways than one. I mean, yeah, James is my brother. Peter’s Peter, but Remus is…” Sirius opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to search for the right word. He gave up trying to find it. “He gave me his friendship again, and I didn’t deserve it in the least. I’ll never be able to repay him for that.”
The honest and genuine sincerity in his voice actually made Lily’s throat close up. Her eyes were suddenly wet.
“… Evans, are you crying?”
“What? No, never. An eyelash fell in my eye.”
“Er—oka—”
“And I bit my tongue, and my cheek. And knocked my knee against the table.”
“You aren’t eating anyth—”
“I’m a day away from bleeding, and you spring all this emotional shite on me, and expect me not to cry? Sod off Black!”
Lily picked up her purse and stormed out of the food court, blowing her nose into a serviette. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her jumper.
“Oi! Evans! I thought we were leaving.”
“Oh no, you can’t tell me about your deep emotional connection with Remus and just leave it at that. We are getting him the best sodding presents in all of bloody England!”
Lily, in a brief moment of insanity, linked arms with Sirius, ignoring the glares the pair were getting for Lily’s mouth.
One hour later, Sirius did find Remus “the best sodding presents in all of bloody England”.
He grinned from ear to ear the whole way home.
“Thanks for helping me today, Lily.”
“You’re welcome, Sirius. But if you tell anyone I cried, I’ll hex you to bark every time someone says ‘Padfoot’.”
“Fair enough, Evans, fair enough.”