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The basket was making him a bit nervous. It was one of the wicker kind, with a loop handle. Though Peter was holding it by the bottom, which only made the mystery contents all the more unappealing for Remus. Perhaps it was just his anxiety again, but the grin on Sirius's face matched the one he wore on prank days, and Remus hadn't been told of any prank.
Sydney picked up his hand under the table and Remus felt his shoulders loosen. She smiled to herself and took one last bite of her noodle soup before pushing the bowl forward a bit and turning her attention to Peter and Sirius.
"Delivery!" sang Sirius. He dropped his books flat on the table in his signature dramatic fashion.
Peter tossed aside the cloth atop his basket, reached his hand inside, and pulled out... an egg. He handed the first to Lily.
"What are we to do with it?" she asked, turning it suspiciously in her hands.
"Protect it," answered Peter. He handed Sydney an egg and then Remus. "Keep it alive."
"Raise it as your own!" declared Sirius. He offered Remus a marker, but at Remus's hesitation the pen fell to Sydney.
"We did this back home," she said. She uncapped the marker with her teeth and drew a smiley face on her egg.
"We'll I'm sure that was a rootin' tootin' time!" James said in a practiced attempt at an American accent. "Did'ja grow 'em on yer ol' freedom farms?"
"Peter, are their extra eggs?"
Peter checked his basket and nodded. Sydney smiled sweetly, tossed her egg a bit, stood to her feet, reached across the table, and smashed it in James's hair. Peter passed her a new egg.
"What if we break it?" Dorcas asked.
"You lose," said Sirius. "Obviously."
Marlene promptly splat her egg flat on the table. "I lose." She turned to Dorcas, "Wanna find a broom closet?"
Dorcas smashed her egg beside Marlene's. "I lose too," she said. "I think the one beside that classroom the Christianity Club uses is open."
"You're tarnishing God's good name!" Sirius called after them.
"We're witches, idiot!" replied Marlene. "None of us believes in God!"
"I could believe in God if I wanted to," Sirius huffed, dropping into the spot beside Lily. She pet him on the head.
Remus examined the egg in his hands. He didn't really understand the point of this — he assumed it was some sort of Muggle Studies assignment that Peter and Sirius were bringing to the group. They tended to do that. — but for them it was a grade. Remus had no incentive to protect an egg.
"What are you gonna name yours?" Sydney looked up to Remus with a smile. She had already painted another smiley face on her new egg.
