Camping

Chapter Five

Shortly after Lily had accepted his invitation to live together, the others arrived back at the clearing. Remus poked his head into the tent and looked pointedly at James, who grinned broadly and gave him a thumbs up.

Lily laughed. "You really did have all of this worked out."

"'Course we did!" Sirius said, entering the tent behind Remus. "We didn't want to burst in on anything inappropriate." He winked at Lily, and she blushed remembering a very awkward evening a few months before the school year ended.

She glared at him and said, "I thought we agreed never to talk about that again!"

"In his defense," Peter said, plopping down in the chair opposite Lily and James, "His made a general comment, you see. You're the one who applied it to a specific situation."

"Oh, bugger off, Peter." Lily said, waving a hand at him dismissively. "We all know that's what he was thinking."

Sirius shrugged, and then nodded to the key lying on the coffee table. "So? Any news you feel like you need to enlighten us with?"

"Yes! Will we be throwing you a housewarming party?" Remus asked.

"I agreed to move in with James, if you must know," Lily said, even though she suspected that they already knew, considering they had staged the whole weekend to get her to agree without her even knowing. Well, for the most part, anyway. "And, by the way, Sirius. A housewarming party does not involve burning down the house."

Sirius looked slightly crestfallen as he said, "Are you sure? I thought I read somewhere that it was customary for the best mate of the man to light fire to the house."

"Oh yeah," Remus said, nodding his head and playing along. "I read that too. It's good luck, you know."

Lily threw him a look, but refused to acknowledge them any further. James, on the other hand, laughed along with them and said, "What magazine did you read it? Dastardly Deeds weekly?"

"Dastardly Deeds?" Peter asked. "That sounds like McGonagall."

James shrugged. "It probably was."

Sirius, who had been busy rummaging around in his bag, let out a triumphant "Yes!" which drew everyone's attention to him.

"What on earth?" Lily muttered as she watched him pull a bottle of whiskey, five shot glasses, and what appeared to be a very battered goblet.

"That's what he likes to call the holy grail. It's for the winner." Peter explained.

"Right," Sirius said, motioning to the table and pulling out his deck of cards. "We need to celebrate!"

After explaining for the third time in the same day that there were absolutely, positively, under no circumstances, fish involved in any way in the game Go Fish, Lily was suddenly thankful for the liquor Sirius had so kindly provided. She had a feeling she was going to need it.

It had taken several practice rounds for the boys to catch onto the general gist of the game, which concerned her as it was a child's game. "Now, Lily," James had asked. "Say that I have a kind of hearts. Do I say, 'give me all you kings' and then everyone who has a king hands it over?"

Lily sighed, exasperated. It was probably the sixth time she had explained it. She was about to say yes to get him to just shut up and play the game, but Remus, always the voice of reason, took over.

"No, James. You have to ask a specific person, and only that person can give it to you."

"And if they don't have it, I have to go fish for fake, nonexistent fish?" James asked, looking around for clarification.

"Exactly!" Sirius said, "But don't forget. If you have to go fish and you don't get your card, you have to drink."

"Right," Peter said, nodding his head. "I think we're ready. Shall we do one to start it off?"

"Brilliant idea, Peter!" James said, filling his shot glass and passing the bottle of to Lily.

It was either going to be a very good night, or very bad, she thought as she downed her first shot of the night.

"Moony," Sirius said, pointing to his friend across the table. "Give me your damn fours!"

Remus, swaying slightly in his seat after having just recently doing a shot, squinted at his cards. Sirius, incredibly impatient when sober, sighed loudly and said, "I think I feel my hangover coming on."

"Calm down, you arse," Remus said, still studying his cards. "If the bloody things would stop moving, I'd tell if you I had it." A moment later, Remus pulled a card from his hand and tossed it as Sirius. "Happy now?"

Sirius examined the card before pulling three others out of his hand. "I've got a…what have a got, Lily?"

"A book,"

"How on earth do you make a book out of cards. It's dreadfully boring. It says the same thing over and over!" Sirius said, laying his cards down on the table.

Lily rolled her eyes and said, "It's still your turn."

"Fine then, miss know it all. Give me your eights," Sirius demanded.

Lily examined the cards in her hand for a moment and then smiled sweetly at him. "Go Fish, Sirius Black."

He reached into the messy pile of cards in the center of the table and pulled one out. He did not even try to hide his excitement when he showed Lily his card. "You there!" he said, pointing at her the way he had at Remus moments before. "You do a shot!"

James passed the bottle to Lily and she dutifully filled her glass. "Cheers!" she said before she threw back her head and downed the liquid. It was becoming easier and easier to do, which worried her greatly.

Sirius' luck ended, though, and soon he was doing shots very frequently, catching up to the rest of them. The game was nearly finished, and the bottle nearly empty when James slapped the table fiercely and said, "You're all cheaters, you know that? All of you." He glared around the table and then asked Lily, "Have you got a queen with puppy feet?"

Lily burst out laughing and nearly choked on the whiskey she was swallowing. Placing her shot glass down on the table she said, "You're going to accuse me of cheating before you even ask if I've got a card? Rubbish!" she exclaimed, giggling madly.

Remus stroked his chin thoughtfully and said, "I may be mistake, Mr. Prongs, but I do believe those puppy feet you speak of are called spades."

"Puppy feet? I have puppy feet!" Sirius said, attempting to get his foot up on the table top.

"Ugh, Padfood. Get your stinking puppy foot out of my face. It smells like rotting puppies." Peter said, swatting half heartedly at his friends offensive foot.

"Rotting puppies? That's an image I could have done without," James said, wrinkling his nose. "Do a shot!" he said, passing the nearly empty bottle.

"You're all wrong!" Lily said, throwing her hands in the air. "The rotting puppies are not spades, they're clubs!"

"Are you sure? I thought they were spades."

Lily nodded knowingly. "Trust me, I'm a Muggle."

"You're not a muggle, you dolt," Peter said, not even wincing as he swallowed. "If you were a muggle, you would know that you're wrong."

"I don't think I follow that logic, Petey, and I don't think that I care that much," Sirius said picking up his cards. "Oh!" he said suddenly, "I have a queen of puppy feet! Here you go, mate. She's all yours."

"I don't think it was your turn," Remus said, hiccupping slightly.

"Moony, Moony, Moony." Sirius said in a sign song voice. "Little do ye know, gentle Moony. It's always my turn!"

Lily snickered and then picked up the cards which she had abandoned in her quest to prove that she knew best. "Why do you talk like you're a thousand years old?"

"He's an old soul," James said knowingly. Lily threw a card at him, and he defended his outburst by saying, "Well, he's the only person I know outside of a nursing home who likes butterscotch!"

"That's because he thinks he'll get drunk!" Remus said, snorting with laughter.

"Why would they call it butterscotch if wouldn't make you drunk? It's made of scotch!" Sirius said pounding the table each time he said scotch, as if that was helping him get his point across.

Lily smiled contentedly. "I feel like I'm quite pissed, you know."

Remus burst into laughter and rested his head on the table, while Lily stood up. "I'm going to go change. Don't you dare think of walking in, Sirius Black. I'll hex you into next month," she warned as she stumbled towards the bedroom, the card game completely forgotten.

As she shut the door she could hear Sirius asking, "What's the date? How soon is next month?" A moment later, she heard a scuffle through the door, what could only have been James attacking his friend. She smiled to herself as she changed into a pair of pajama pants.

When she opened the door, she couldn't help but laugh at the sight that was before her. Peter sat with his head resting on the table much the way Remus had been when she left. Sirius and Remus were shoving each other on the couch, and she could have sworn she heard Sirius say, "Stay on your own cushion, you bloody beast!" James was sitting on the arm chair taking it all in with a large grin on his face.

Lily sat down on the floor, leaning back on the arm chair, next to James' legs. Suddenly, he stood up and jumped onto the chair. "I need to make an announcement!" he said loudly, standing up so that he towered over everyone else. "Shut it, Black. I need to talk."

Sirius obliged his friend, but only for a second. Lily noticed that Remus was slowly inching his finger over to touch the cushion that Sirius was occupying. She shook her head, thinking that was the type of thing she did with her sister when she was ten years old.

"Out with it, already," Sirius said, slightly annoyed.

"Why do you always have to talk when you're pissed?" Remus asked. "It's like you think you're the bloody minister of magic, making speeches all over hell and back."

Ignoring his friends' comments, James continued on. "I, James Potter, am in love with all of you!"

Lily put a hand over her mouth to try and control her laughter. She had quite a lot to drink, but she wasn't sure she was drunk enough to declare her love to an entire room of people.

"You, there, with your head down. You are a great friend. And you snore like a hippogriff." James said, pointing to Peter who sat with his head still on the table, unaware of James' declaration of love for him.

"And you! Sirius Black! You are my best mate. Remus. Remus. Remus. You are too smart for me. Too smart. But I do. I. Love. You."

Remus bowed jokingly from his seat on the couch. Clearly, it wasn't the first time that he had heard this particular speech.

"And you!" he said, pointing to Lily. She grinned up at him from her seat on the floor, only a little afraid of what he might say. Before he finished speaking, though, he jumped down from his perch on top of the cushion and stood in front of her. "You're pretty," he said, batting his eyelashes at her.

She laughed, "Thank you, James. You're pretty too,"

Lily was the first to wake the next morning, and when she walked out into the living area, she instantly regretted her decision to wake up. The sunlight that streamed in through the window by the kitchen sink awakened a sharp pain in her brain that morphed into a dull throb that she knew would stay with her all day.

She looked around at the living room, not fully remembering the events of the night. As she examined the mess they left behind, though, the memories came flooding back to her. The table was still set with the shot glasses and Sirius' holy grail, which hadn't been used since the game was abandoned. The cards were still strewn on the table, some of them on the floor underneath as well. There were candy wrappers littering the coffee table, and the cushions from the couch were missing.

Lily vaguely remembered Sirius and Remus fighting over the couch like five year olds. Remus had taken a cushion, placed it over Sirius' legs when he laid down to claim the entire piece of furniture for himself, and then sat on it, refusing to move until Sirius had managed to shake him to the floor. In the end, she had taken the cushions away from them, but she wasn't sure where exactly she had put them.

Peter had remained passed out at the table until James took pity on him and moved him to his sleeping bag.

Deciding that coffee was the most important thing, she set about making some, wishing that the sun would go behind a cloud until she was more fully awake. She was just sitting down when the bedroom door opened. She turned to see Remus emerge looking like a train had run him over. She was sure that she didn't look much better.

She nodded at him, and then gestured to the pot of coffee. He shook his head and then sat down across from her. Neither spoke for several minutes.

Lily was staring listlessly at the mess of cards that littered the top the table when Remus finally spoke. "I hate Sirius."

Startled by his sudden outburst, Lily snapped back to attention and saw that Remus was sitting with his head resting on his arms. She was about to second his declaration, but James walked out of the bedroom, groaning and rubbing his face as though he was wiping away the sleep.

"Morning," he muttered, sitting down with another groan. Lily gave him a small smile and then offered him her coffee. He turned her down with a lazy flick of his wrist and then nodded towards Remus. "Is he still alive?"

"He hates Sirius," Lily offered helpfully. "And, I can't say that I blame him."

James nodded. "It happens."

The three sat silently for a few more minutes before Lily decided she was awake enough to finally do something useful. "I think we should start cleaning up. I've got to be home by three and it's already eleven." She looked at James pointedly, but he decided to ignore it.

"I'm going to kill him," Remus muttered, picking his head back up. His face was paler than usual and his hair stood at strange angles, making him look like a mad scientist.

Lily smiled sympathetically and said, "It's alright. We can get you some hangover potion soon enough." Ignoring the dull ache in her own head, she stood up and took another good look around the devastated tent with her hands on her hips and her lips pursed.

"James, darling, will you grab the trash can for me?" Lily asked, already heading toward the coffee table that was littered with candy wrappers.

As Remus slowly moved back towards the bedroom, James followed Lily around the living room with the garbage can while she threw handfuls of wrappers, paper plates and plastic cups into it.

"I'm having a vision of the future," He said jokingly.

"Oh?" Lily asked, raising an amused eyebrow. "And what do you see?"

"I see you dragging me around cleaning our flat."

"Our flat," Lily said, trying it out for the first time, a large smile taking over her face.

"That's right, Love." James said, sitting the can down and closing the distance between him and Lily.

Lily smiled and laced her arms around his neck. "Just so you know, James. I won't be cleaning up after you in our flat."

James chuckled lightly and kissed her forehead. "You say that now. You have no idea how much filth I'm capable of living with. You'll break way before me."

Wrinkling her nose in disgust, Lily pushed him away and said, "You're a hog, Potter. If you're trying to talk me out of living with you, I feel like I should tell you that it's working."

"Isn't this darling," Lily rolled her eyes and turned to see Sirius leaning in the doorway between the bedroom and the living area still dressed in his rumpled clothes from the day before. He smirked and then stretched before moving fully into the room. "I suppose I'll have to leave to knock when I come visit, right Prongs?" He winked at Lily and she just rolled her eyes at him again, wondering how he was so chipper after all he had to drink last night.

He looked at the cushion-less couch for a moment with a puzzled look and then realization seemed to dawn on him and he turned back towards Lily, who had resumed cleaning up the living room. "Do you remember where you put the cushions?"

"That's kind of funny," Lily said, tucking some of her hair behind her ear and chuckling. "I was hoping that we would find them while we were cleaning up."

"Right," Sirius said, looking around. "We thought we'd find that pole, too." He nodded to the stick that Lily had been sent into the woods to find to replace a missing pole that the boys had lost on a similar camping trip a few years before.

"I think," James said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "that the moral of this story is that we should not get drunk while using this tent."

"Here, here," Sirius said, sitting down on the couch despite its lack of cushions.

After finally managing to wake Remus and Peter, Lily was able to goad the boys into gathering their things together and setting the clearing back to the state it was in when they arrived. While Sirius and James took down the tent, Remus, Lily, and Peter began apparating things back to the Potter's house.

Having slept through most of the morning and waking to a huge mess, Lily was anxious to get home. She had promised her sister that she would, without a doubt, be home by three to talk about wedding things. Apparating back to the nearly empty clearing, she checked her watch. It was two thirty, and she was a mess.

"James," she called, walking towards where James, Sirius, and now Peter were standing around staring at the tent looking perplexed. "Are you nearly finished? We have to leave! I'm going to be late."

James waved her off and then said, "I think we've done something wrong…It doesn't fit in the bag anymore."

Lily pursed her lips in frustration as she watched the three boys standing over the mess on the ground. "You have to roll it, not fold it."

"Huh," Sirius said, scratching his head. "That does sound about right, actually…"

Within five minutes, the tent was finally packed away in the bag and the last of their garbage was picked up off of the ground. With a final look around, the five apparated back to Potter house. Watching the clock anxiously, Lily saw she had fifteen minutes before she would be late meeting her sister.

When it was only James and Lily remaining, he put his arms around her and said, "I'll see you at home, Miss Evans?"

Lily smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. "I have to tell my parents, first, you know. I can't just run away from home!"

"That's a shame…"

"Cheer up," Lily said looking up at him. "The good news is that I've still got five minutes to get home before my sister has my head. See you tomorrow?"

With that, Lily threw a pinch of floo powder into the fireplace and shouted her address. She closed her eyes as the complex web of fireplaces spun past her and she felt the uncomfortable tug as she was directed into her mother's sitting room fireplace. She rolled out onto the familiar carpet. She looked up into the angry face of her sister and smiled weakly, dusting herself off.

"Have a good weekend?" She asked pleasantly, pulling herself up.

Petunia gave a stiff nod and then returned the question. "Yes," Lily smiled, "I had a great weekend. Shall we get started?"

And with that, she went on with her regular life, her weekend camping trip behind her.

A/N: Hello all! I just wanted to apologize and claim temporary insanity/laziness for even thinking of stopping the story last chapter. Now, though, we've reached the end of the line for Camping. The good news? I'm going to write a sequel. It's going to be called Moving, and it will follow Lily through convincing her parents that it's a good idea to move in with James, order meetings, and we will find out what is happening with information that Peter gathered from the Death Eater meeting. Of course, Lily will be moving, if she can find the time, that is ;)

Thanks to everyone who reviewed/alerted/favorited. You're all too kind :) I'm glad that you all enjoyed Camping!