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"We're not having a party next year," Sirius announces as he stomps through the Gryffindor common room, kicking an empty cup out of his way.
"It's cute that you think that," you say as you lean against the back of one of the couches, watching James collect cups and garbage that had been strewn around the room. "How did you three get stuck with clean up, anyway?"
"It's our punishment," James says sullenly. "MacGonagall seems to think it's all our fault that the party got like this."
"Well," you say pointedly as you pick up an empty cup from the couch, tossing it into Remus's waiting hand. "I'm not sure you can blame her for being unbiased and honest for once."
"And what about you?" Sirius demands, his hands on his hips as he effectively abandons his task of cleaning up. "Shouldn't you be down in the snake pit cleaning up after your own big night?"
"What?" you laugh. "Slughorn making his prized best student clean up firewhiskey stains and scrub couches? That's funny, baby, really."
"How unbiased and honest," Remus retorts dryly, but his hand smooths between your shoulder blades when he passes and he shoots you a gentle little smile.
"Yes, I thought so," you say kindly as Sirius huffs.
"What are you doing here, then?" James asks, a teasing little tilt to his voice. "Have you come to brag and lounge about while we work, hm?"
"No," you say pointedly. "I'll help if you want."
"No, it's not your mess to clean up," James drops what he's doing to usher you onto one of the clean couches. "Sit down, lovely."
"You're giving me whiplash here, Jamie," you laugh as you let him coddle you, sitting you down and pressing a kiss to the top of your head.
"You didn't really come here just to help us clean the common room, did you?" Sirius asks as he looks at you peculiarly. You shrug a bit, your shoulders coming up to your ears.
"Is that so odd?" you ask.
"No, dove," Remus says kindly. "But it's really not your job. It's our mess to clean up - literally."
"I don't mind," you insist gently, prompting one of Remus's sickeningly fond looks and a kiss pressed to your cheek. "I just came to spend some time with you."
"Didn't get enough of us last night, hm?" Sirius asks coyly, and you roll your eyes fondly despite the heat that you feel rise to your cheeks.
"Shut up," you quip.
"I didn't mean that part of the night," he counters, a wolfish sort of grin spreading across his face. "But I'm glad you enjoyed that, too."
"I'm going to leave if you're not nice to me," you threaten, but it's a weak threat at best - especially when Remus finds himself sitting next to you on the couch. There's very little resistance from you, then, when he tucks you against his side and coaxes you to relax against him, murmuring a please don't go anywhere, my love.
It's quiet like this - just the four of you in the vast, echoing common room, and it's enough of a rarity that you take a bit more notice of it than you usually would as you curl up against Remus's side.
What a difference, you think sort of faintly as whisps of last night's party roll through your memory. How odd it is to be in the silence that it's left behind.
"You're not really thinking of leaving, are you?" James asks in that kicked-puppy way of his as he perches on the arm of the couch next to you, and you startle as it pulls you out of wherever you'd drifted off to.
"Seriously, babe, I was only joking," Sirius adds as he sits down on the coffee table in front of you, his elbows on his knees and a concerned sort of tilt to his mouth. "We love to have you here - always."
"No, I - I know," you hold your hands up in a placating sort of gesture. "I know, it's ok."
"Where'd you go, then, babylove?" James asks, and his voice is so tender that your head swims just a bit.
"Nowhere," you insist. "We're all right here." But maybe, you think as James frowns down at you and anchors a hand on the back of your neck - maybe you're trying to convince yourself more than them.
"I'm not going to leave," you tack on, but you're not sure it really has the effect you're looking for. Sirius leans further in from his spot perched on the coffee table as if he can sniff out whatever has you acting so odd, and it alarms you so quickly that Remus places a firm hand on his knee.
He doesn't say anything, though - none of them do, content to let the silence hang until you can find your own way to them. James fidgets impatiently, his thumb rubbing soothing circles where his hand stays on the back of your neck, and you suspect the action is to level himself out just as much as it's for you.
"I just had too much fun last night, that's all," you say eventually, and it's a weak sort of excuse, a thin wall to build up. "I'm - I don't know. I feel weird, I guess."
"You feeling sick?" Remus murmurs, his voice a sympathetic coo as he sweeps his knuckles over your cheek in a tentative, searching sort of motion.
"Something like that," you agree - because you wouldn't lie, not really, but there's a sort of bubble here that you don't want to burst.
"Mhm," Remus hums in that way he always does when he's caught you. James's thumb stops moving on your neck, and Sirius straightens up where he sits - and you press your lips together as you suddenly do start to feel unwell.
"Well," Remus says kindly - that undercurrent of worry always there. "Why don't you stay here a bit, then, hm? Relax a bit while we finish cleaning up. That way you can… let us know if you need anything."
You've never been so grateful, you think, for a love this gentle - for a door held so wide open. Remus presses a long kiss to your hair as you nod, and it's sturdy and steady in a way that rights the world just a bit more.
"You let us know, yea?" James agrees as his hand moves across your shoulders, holding you against him in a half-hug.
"I will," you agree - because it's so easy to lay everything bare with a love like this.
"You'd better," Sirius insists, but it's a threat that falls flat under his hands, kind and gentle as they smooth over your thighs while he leans forward to kiss you softly. "You've gotta, baby." he breathes against your lips - and although you know he's trying to get you to crack, it very nearly works.
But a well-placed pillow flies over your head into his face and James shouts something about Sirius leaving all the work to him and Remus, and he has no choice but to leave you with one final squeeze of your thighs in his hands.
You let him - because he's just right there, really. Always, you find as you settle into the couch, curling your feet up under you while you watch them clean. There's a stuttering bit of panic that sits in your chest with everything movement that the boys make, cleaning and sorting things until any trace of last night's party has been scrubbed from sight.
It's over, you think sort of flatly, and you wonder if you'll ever get it back. You wonder, as panic climbs up your spine and begins to wrap around you, if you really held onto it well enough - if you did right by your happiness, if you -
"Next year," James announces as he straightens and rolls his shoulders out, broad and straining under his shirt, "we're doing that thing that Marlene did out at the lake party - with the jack-o'-lanterns."
"Yes!" Sirius all but shouts, snapping his fingers as he remembers the pumpkins that their friend had enchanted to whizz around and snap at people. "I can't believe she thought of it before us."
"You ought to practice before next year, then," Remus chimes in. "Otherwise they're liable to bite someone's hand off."
"Would that be so bad?" James grins in that mischievous way that always fizzles through him when there's fun to be had. He looks young, you think - happy and carefree in that way that always looks so comfortable on him.
"Well," Sirius chimes in, a wolfish sort of grin on his face. "Depends on who they bite."
Remus seems to take some kind of problem with that, then, and he and Sirius get into one of their bickering matches - all fake frowns and coy teasing. James drops his part of the cleaning to come back to the couch and squat down next to you.
"How are we doing?" he murmurs as he all but hangs off of you, wrapping his arms around you firmly.
"Are you really going to enchant a bunch of jack-o-lanterns to bite people next year?" you ask him lightly, and he beams at the mirth in your voice.
"Maybe," he hedges. "Why, want to help?"
"Oh, I don't know," you shrug, glancing over the couch to where Sirius has tugged Remus close by the collar of his shirt so that he can kiss him soundly.
James snorts out a laugh at the sight and you look back to him, an entertained sort of giggle leaving you before you can stop it.
What a life, you think, that you've built for yourself. What a love that you've planted in it.
"You don't know?" James prompts, that teasing tilt still heard in his voice.
"Not sure," you shrug. "I have my own party next year to plan."