moony ~ remus lupin

Chapter Ten • The Party

"Are you going to go?" Remus asked, looking very concerned. Lily and James were really the only ones that knew much about her family life. Even though she and Remus had been close for a while now she still hadn't mentioned the subject that much.

Part of Claire believed that Sirius and Remus were only concerned because Lily and James were. "I think I need some time to think it over," Claire said in response. "We'll respect your choice no matter what though," Lily said, pulling her into a side hug. James looked worrisome as Claire processed her dad's invitation.

"I don't want to dampen the spirits though. After all, we have a party to go to tonight," Claire said, trying to lighten the mood. "Yeah, we don't want to be downers like that Nick Hall git," Sirius joked as James burst into laughter. Something about Nick just always being on their minds was truly hilarious.

"And who may I ask is Nick?" Lily wondered as James and Sirius laughed their asses off. "I'll explain upstairs," Claire smiled, leading Lily up to her bedroom. The girls laughed and talked
for quite a while. It was mostly about Nicholas and how annoying he had gotten.

Lily found this really funny actually. She would fall back on the bed, laughing really hard whenever Claire would tell her something funny. It was nice to have a girl to talk to again, but it's not that Claire felt she couldn't talk to Remus, James, or even Sirius for that matter. Talking to Lily was just different.

The sunlight was peaking through the window in Claire's room, shining right where they were sitting. Sometimes Claire would look out the window to see a family of birds sitting on it. Something about just being at James's house was just very pleasing, and Claire could tell that Lily was enjoying it too.

After about an hour of talking the time away, the girls heard a knock on their door. "Come in," they said, turning to face it. Right then, the door swung open, nearly breaking off of its hinges. It was very aggressive actually, but then again they were in a house with a bunch of teenage guys.

At the door, Remus, James, and Sirius all stood, wearing the suits they had bought the day before. Lily's jaw dropped, not knowing they had bought new outfits. James and Sirius stood with their arms out as if to say what do you think? Claire smiled widely at them, almost wanting to laugh because the boys wearing muggle suits was a very new and intriguing sight.

"So? What do you think?" James asked, putting his arms down and walking over to the side of the bed. Remus and Sirius followed, waiting for an answer. "It's... it's amazing guys," Claire said as Lily stood up in front of James. She walked over to him and started to fix his tie as he blushed. "You all look very handsome," She said, straightening James's blazer.

"I'm flattered," Sirius said, tossing his long hair behind his shoulder. That didn't do much though. His hair wasn't quite long enough to actually be held back by his shoulder but of course, Sirius Black was a drama queen.

~

The rest of the day was pretty normal for the friends. They played games, muggle and not, made cookies with Mrs. Potter, and just hung out for a few hours. The only thing that was slightly off was that Nick hadn't dropped off his gift for Claire that day.

Claire and Remus were sitting at the piano playing a soft duet as the others talked away on the couch next to them. Remus would turn to Claire and just watch her as she focused on the keys, hitting every note. "Okay, but Professor McGonagall loves me!" Sirius would say. Claire and Remus weren't really listening to their conversation but they just assumed that Lily was right if they started arguing. Lily was always right.

Right then, they all heard a knock on the door. Claire and Remus stopped playing for a second and turned to face the door as James got up to answer it. Mrs. Potter had removed the charm when a little boy had come up to their door asking for help to find his parents and they didn't hear him knocking.