Cherry Flavoured

A Little Death (to brighten up our lives)

for context: james and lily are no longer together, but live together in hiding to comparent harry!! lily realised she is a lesbian and james fully supports her, they're besties!!

Halloween was James Potter's absolute favourite holiday. There was nothing he loved more than dressing himself and his friends up in ridiculous matching costumes. Halloween of 1981 came fast, so much so that he was completely unprepared as the mother-hen of the quartet of misfits that called themselves the Marauders. However, in his defence, he was in hiding from Voldemort, but to James, that was absolutely no excuse. He realised his slip the night of the 30th, and promptly floo called Sirius, where they both had a screaming match (though relatively toned down to their standards) about what the fuck they were going to do, coming to the conclusion that Sirius was to run down to the nearest costume shop in the morning and grab the first costume for four that he could find.

This was a mistake.

Sirius burst through the James' doorway at 10am on the dot on the morning of October 31st, one arm carrying a large bag, the other dragging a pitiful looking Remus, whose face did not inspire confidence in James, specifically when you compared that to the shit-eating grin Sirius wore. James sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"I don't even think I want to know," he muttered, looking warily between the couple.
"You don't," Remus mouthed slowly, shaking his head, looking utterly horrified.
"Oh but you do, James! I think this will be our best yet!" Sirius exclaimed, shoving the bag into James' arms with a little too much enthusiasm.

James opened the bag, and glanced down into a mixture of green, red, yellow and purple. His eyes snapped up to meet Sirius', widened so much so that Remus would have laughed if he did not look the same way.
"Little Harry is going to have a field day." He sighed, pulling out the Po costume and walking away without a single word, leaving a much too proud Sirius and a defeated looking Remus standing alone in his entryway.

When James returned downstairs, he walked into the living room to find Sirius in his Laa-Laa outfit and Remus in his Dipsy outfit, casually sitting on the sofa with Lily, having a quiet cup of tea whilst Harry slept in Lily's arms. It seems Remus had recovered from his embarrassment quickly, and there was no doubt in James' mind that Sirius had seduced him into acceptance, however when the three heads turned towards James, his face began to match his outfit, burning as Lily held back her laugh.
"Pads, I hate you. So much. You are hereby banned from ever picking our outfits again."
Sirius snorted loudly, jostling Harry from his nap. The one-year-old looked up, seeing his father completely red and dressed as a teletubbie, and let out a rather loud 'Dada red! Dada look stupid!', to which James just sighed and plopped himself down next to Lily.

Hours passed and the group did many halloween activities with Harry. They'd carved around 8 pumpkins between them, Sirius 'pulling artistic skill out of his arse', to quote an angry Remus who had just cut too far along and completely ruined the carving that he'd dedicated an hour too. They were all concentrating on icing some ghost shaped biscuits when Sirius spoke over the 'Spooky Tunes' show on the radio.

"Where's Wormy?"

And that was the golden question, wasn't it? Or it must've been, since as soon as his mouth closed again, four people tumbled through the fireplace, causing a loud bang and a chorus of 'ouch' and 'fuck you' which lead the group of five into the living room, finding Regulus Black, Barty Crouch Jr and Pandora and Evan Rosier stood wiping soot from their clothes.
"What the fu-"
"Oh, shut up, Sirius!"
"Excuse me, but I think it was a valid statement, Reggie!"
"What have I said about calling me that, you fucki-"
"Language!", interjected James, moving to stand between the two groups, "There is a child right there!"
On cue, Harry smiled and waved at the group, then noting Sirius' stance he glared at the newcomers.
"What the fu-"
"Harry!", the group admonished, while the newcomers looked stunned, with the exception of Barty who (badly) tried to cover up his amusement with a cough, earning a death glare from James and a slap upside the head from Evan.