in life there are lions

“Alright.” Fabian clapped his hands together and surveyed the back patio of the Three Broomsticks with an ambitious gleam in his eye. “Where d’you reckon we should start?”

Sirius looked at him, head cocked to the side, expression very readable: duh. “At the bar, clearly.”

“No,” he said, suddenly wondering if he should be. “How can you be? There’s about a hundred machines and they’re all giving away money if you pick the right one. S’exciting.”

“Don’t seem to be giving it away much to you,” Sirius said pointedly. “Have you lost more than you’ve made?”

“Or maybe that’s contributing to my bone cracking. Have you considered that one, you prick?”

“In that case, sounds to me like you’ve got an entirely different problem to consider.”

“I’ll just go one more round,” Peter waved the words off and placed his hand on the slot machine’s lever. “Might as well bring it down to an even number, right? ‘Sides, I’m due for a hit.”

“You’re not fucking bored yet?”

“I’m having plenty of sex, thank you very much. Eat some more of this if you’re going to start spewing shite.”

“Not enough if your bones are already creaking, mate.” Sirius gave James a very serious look, lifting both his eyebrows up and folding his arms across his chest.

Andromeda can’t help but to laugh with her cousin. She had Sirius had never quite fit in with the rest of their family and now they were all the family they had left. “If I honestly thought I could get away with having pink hair I would do it… maybe Nymphadora will decide it’s a hair colour she would like to try out and she can don pink hair for the both of us.” She laughs before running a hand through her hair. “How have you been darling? I feel like it’s been ages since I’ve seen you.”

Sirius grinned at the mention of Nymphadora, envisioning her with bright pink hair. “I’m sure it’s only a matter of time, but speaking of which, count yourself lucky your mother isn’t going to see that. I can’t imagine her being too pleased with a pink haired granddaughter.” He shifted in his seat, turning his body to face her better. He couldn’t remember the last time they had met up. They shouldn’t leave it so long. “Same old,” he told her, “taking some time to work out what I want to do. Thank you Alphard.” He grinned, thinking about how much it would have pissed off his own mother when she found out Alphard had left all his money to Sirius. “Still not sure what that might be. Feel too young to have to choose. Seems like a lot of years to be stuck doing the same thing if I settled on one thing now.” It wasn’t that he didn’t want to work, but nothing at all struck him as the right thing for him. Besides, not working meant he was free to give more time to the Order and surely that was a bigger priority at the moment. “How are you? And Ted and Nymphadora?”

“I’m calling us ancient. Practically headed to our graves already. I can’t even imagine being in another seven hour Quidditch match. My bones just audibly screamed at me.”

“Try having more sex.”

“Me? Show off?” James ruffled his hair and smiled. “We were definitely something then, I dunno if I’d call it better. I’d probably just call it more energized.”

“Are you calling me old, mate?”

“Oh.”

Peter sat in silence for a considerable moment, until the burning pink he felt creep up his ears dissipated. “I’m still not going to try it for less than two.”

“Alright, two,” he agreed, mostly to detract from the burning cheeks it had been impossible not to notice. “Daylight fucking robbery. Might be nice, we don’t know.”

“Moony is to thank for most things if we’re being honest. I mean, Merlin, where would we be without something as essential as our alter egos? You might have never learned to sit.”

“And you might have never learnt to stop showing off every five minutes. I think we were better back then,” he grinned.

“You know I couldn’t have said no. I’ve never been able to say no.”

“It’s why I’m surprised we’re both still alive.”

“That sounds like your fucking problem.”

“That’s stupid. Where am I going to find another half galleon? I’ll have to cut another in half to make a whole one with the first half, and then I’m right back where I started with still a half galleon unmatched.”

“Fucking merlin. There are seventeen sickles in a galleon, yeah? So if I give you nine you’ll have- well, a little over half a galleon but hopefully you get the point now, yeah? Cut another in half. Fucking hell.”

“No Sirius I wouldn’t try it even for a galleon. I learned long ago when you were about this high,” Andromeda motions towards her knees, “Not to trust anything you bring to me to drink. You turned my hair pink for a week and mother had been so cross with me for an entire year after- said I’d ruined her glorious family portraits.” Andromeda rolls her eyes, a laugh on her lips as she spoke. Honestly Sirius had probably saved her all those years ago.

Sirius laughed at the memory. It was one that had always stuck in his head; Andromeda’s mother angry was a hard image to forget. “You suited it,” he protested before adding teasingly, “you don’t look half as good with your hair like that as you do when it’s pink.”

“You’re the bleeding idiot that talked us into this. Here, you need to eat more of it I had a bigger bite.”

“Fuck off, you egged me on. Could’ve said no.”

“What the fuck did I just put in my mouth?”

“That’s disgusting.”

James slowly started to smile, unable to keep his face serious for that long of a time when in the presence of his best friend. He would never be able to pinpoint when exactly he decided that he couldn’t live without Sirius, but he knew it was early on in his Hogwarts career. Maybe it had been a smile, maybe it had been the way their minds seemed to balance one anothers out. They were soulmates just as easily as he and Lily. There was no living without them.

“Are we going to eat this shite, or not?”

“Yeah. Fuck. Yeah. If you get sick I’m denying all part of this to Evans.” He pushed the plate towards James, nodding slightly. “Beauty before age and all that shit.”

“Are you jealous that I’m not spending enough time with you?”

“You don’t have to poison me, Padfoot. I’d gladly spend twenty minutes with you. Tops.”

“I think fifteen will be more than enough” - he made a show of looking at his watch - “because we’re only three minutes in now and I’m already remembering what a wanker you are.”