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December 17, 1978
“Moony!” There was a crash at the front door as Sirius tried to put the key in. “Ouch, bugger. Moony!”
Remus would have put his knitting down much quicker had there been panic in his voice, but there was only the childlike excitement that probably meant nothing bad happened.
“Where’s the fire?”
Sirius slid into the living room, still clad in his winter coat, hat, and scarf—he was finally being reasonable about the weather.
“How’d you find out about that?”
“Never mind, forget I asked, I don’t want to know.”
“Get up! We’ve got to head over to Prongs’s right away.” Sirius gently, but swiftly put away all the knitting essentials, and pulled Remus up from the safety of his sofa.
“I’m going to regret asking this, but why do we need to go over to Prongs’s?”
“Well, Evans and I took Prongs to the muggle shopping mall—”
Remus winced. “Remind me to bake her a cake. And buy her flowers. And whisky.”
“Oi! We weren’t that bad. Anyways, we passed this muggle theatre on the way back home, and Evans starts going off about how much she wanted to see this play, ballet, musical thing called the Nut Catcher, or something like that.”
“The Nutcracker?”
“That’s the one! Apparently one of the characters a rat, so naturally, Prongs and I are like, ‘Oh, that’s ridiculous. Wormtail would get a kick out of that’, which led to us buying tickets for tonights performance.”
“That’s actually… normal… well, almost normal.”
“Evans said something about a ‘black-tie’, she says that means we have to dress to the nines.”
Ah yes, there’s the catch.
“Padfoot, I don’t own anything nice.”
“No worries, Evans said to Floo over to her place, she’ll fix you up with one of Prongs’s suits, he’s closer to your height and what have you.”
“And what are you going to do?”
Sirius gave him a look. “Moony, I’m Sirius Black. Of course I have a suit.”
*One hour later*
“Lily.”
“Yes Remus?”
“Why’d you put Sirius in a suit?”
“You’re welcome.”
Lily put the finishing charms on the suit Remus was borrowing.
“I feel like a penguin.”
“An incredibly sexy penguin.”
“Oi! Who are you calling sexy?” James barged into the bedroom, tie still undone and hair just as wild as usual, in spite of Lily’s vicious attempts at taming it.
“Me, obviously.”
“Merlin’s beard, she’s right.”
“Who’s right?” Peter poked his head in. He looked rather dapper in his suit, newly charmed by Sirius.
“Lily.”
“Evans? What’d she say?” Sirius sauntered into the room, suit on, hair tied back in a low ponytail. He stopped exactly two and a half steps into the room and stared at Remus.
“That Moony’s sexy.”
“Actually I believe I said a sexy penguin, but close enough.” Lily smirked knowingly.
“Well that goes without saying.”
Remus fought hard to keep himself from blushing. He made a move to run a hand through his hair, but Lily smacked his hand.
“I spent long enough trying to make James look presentable, at least your hair listens, now don’t touch!” She turned to everyone else. “There are too many people in my room, everyone out! We’re leaving in five minutes.”
*Forty-five minutes later*
Remus sat in between Sirius and a random muggle woman who kept glancing over at their group like they were the slush on her fancy heels.
Lily sat on the opposite end of Remus, the remaining Marauders locked in between them.
“Black, if you do anything to embarrass me this evening—”
“Bugger off, Evans, I’ll be the perfect gentleman. I even held the door open for Moony, did I?”
“It’s true, he did.”
“Shh,” Peter hissed. “It’s starting.”
“Oh! I’ve heard this song before!” Sirius whispered loudly to Remus, leaning in very close.
“SHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
*Act 1*
“Merlin’s beard, did you see that?!”
“I did indeed, Padfoot.”
“How do they do that? Think I could do that?”
“Years of practice, and no, please never try it.”
“Did anyone bring snacks?”
“No.”
“But Moony, you always have snacks! I’m hungry.”
“Fine, here’s some chocolate, now be quiet. The woman next to me is going to kill you.”
“Ta, Moony.”
…
“Did you see that? Good job small child—what’s her name again?”
“Clara.”
“Threw her slipper right at the rat bastard—er—no offence Wormtail.”
Peter sniffed a bit.
*Intermission*
“Where’s the food!”
“What food?”
“There should always be food at an event like this.”
Lily produced candy from her purse, if only to shut up the group of man-children she brought with her.
*Act 2*
“No, those women can’t be human. I don’t care what you say. Part veela? Part something. The lads too.”
“They’re entirely human, Pads.”
“Look at that bloke a few rows down, is he asleep?”
“I believe so.”
“How can he sleep through this? It’s brilliant!”
*End of Act 2*
Remus blinked away the tears that had formed. Something about the end of the play always got to him. No, it was the moon, definitely the moon. That’s what he’d tell his mates.
He turned to the Marauders.
“… Are you crying?”
A chorus of three shaky ‘No’s followed.
“The poor rat,” Peter’s bottom lip quivered.
“You still going on about that?” James tried to jab. The effect was ruined by the tears streaming down his face. “Bloody—I hate crying. My glasses never clear up.”
Sirius quietly stared at the curtains on stage.
“How was that?”
“The end. I was fine up until that last song. Are you sure they’re human?” Sirius’s voice cracked a bit. He wiped his nose on the cuff of his sleeve.
“Positive. Tissue?”
“Ta Moony.”