Next Game!

Lily smacked the box down on the small table, startling all those seated around it as the dust flew everywhere. Through the coughs, complains of premature boredom and others attempting to read what was written on the box, Lily quickly went to sit down next to James on the love seat, leaning in as he whispered something to her.

"I still want friends after this," he said half seriously.

"So do I," Lily challenged back. "One prank and you are sleeping on the couch tonight."

James frowned. "Why is it that the girls are always able to make that threat, whereas guys never get the chance?"

Lily just smiled at him evilly before sitting back up. James glanced over the rest of the table, appraising everyone's reactions to the game she had chosen.

The four marauders, it seemed, had already come to the same conclusion, though they were going about different ways of expressing it. Remus seemed the most normal, looking over the box curiously and reading the instructions written on the top. Peter had a raised a doubtful eyebrow as he kept glancing between James and Sirius, trying to decide whose opinion he should copy. Sirius, perhaps the least apt at hiding his feelings, was opening trying to muffle his laughter as he glanced doubtfully at the game.

Looking towards the other occupants, James found some of the same reactions. Alice and Frank, ever the newlyweds, were conversing quietly with one another, no doubt trying to figure out a way to get out of their agreement of being there. Chloe and Sofia both had on nervous smiles of acceptance, knowing Lily well enough that she'd probably feel betrayed if they weren't excited about the game. Riley, typically the best friend, was glaring at Sirius for his reaction while at the same time trying to get Peter to stop gawking about.

Shaking his head in exasperation, and wondering how Lily had ever talked him into this, James looked to Lily as she cleared her throat, getting everyone's attention.

"Okay, so you all remember what I told you right? No magic."

Sirius flopped his head dramatically onto the table, letting out a whine as he pouted. Lily, used to his antics, continued. She pulled open the box and laid the board out for everyone to see, carefully putting the pieces down and then taking out the small box of cards and setting them near the board. Remus cleared his throat nervously and Lily turned to look up at him.

"Um, Lils, not to be rude or anything, but what the heck is this game?"

Sirius snorted. Lily glared at him.

"It's called Pictionary," she stated.

"Well obviously, flower, but what are we supposed to do?"

Lily cheeks flamed up at James using her nickname in front of all their friends, but she managed to control herself in time. James just smiled cheekily and looked at her with false, rapt attention.

"Well, you take a card from here," she pulled a card out of the small bow, glancing at it briefly, "Then, depending on which number you throw with the dice-"

"Wait? Dice? What are those?" Sirius put in, looking doubtful that any such object actually existed. Lily snatched a small cube from the box, holding it out for people to see. Everyone leaned in, looking doubtful. It was white, except for little black dots on each side.

"Lily, those have dots on them," Sirius stated, speaking as if Lily didn't realize this herself. "They're not numbers."

Lily looked over to James again, but he just raised an eyebrow at her, reminding her that she was the muggle expert and she had organized this in the first place. Turning back to Sirius, she started calmly, "But the dots add up to a number. See? It goes from one to six." She turned the cube over and over, showing those around her the different numbers of dots. Peter looked rather interested, Remus seemed to have caught on already, but Sirius was still frowning.

"So you throw these things? At each other?" He asked.

Lily rolled her eyes. "No, you just toss them like this." She dropped the cube onto the board and it bounced once, rolling a bit before landing with four dots showing on the top. "See? My number would be four."

"But you dropped them," Chloe added, obviously as confused as Sirius. Being pureblood and being from a highly aristocratic family, Chloe knew less about the muggle world than muggles knew about the magical world.

"Yeah, and what about all those other dots on the side that are showing?" Sofia argued. James glanced over to see Sirius very smug about not being the only one who didn't understand.

"No, you just count the ones on the top," Lily emphasized. "And you can drop them or throw them, it doesn't matter. But they have to end up on the board."

Everyone seemed to accept her reasoning, so she continued. "Now, the number you threw is the number you look at on the card." She held the card up for them to see. "One through six. So then you find your number and there's a word by it. The point of this game is to get the other people to say the word without you telling them what it is."

Before everyone could throw more questions at her, Lily got up, walking over to where she had a small blackboard set up on a stand in front of the fireplace. She picked up a piece of chalk and turned to the questioning eyes. "You have to draw it."

----

"That's impossible," James argued, looking at his card. "How in the world are you supposed to draw this?"

Lily smiled wistfully at how cute her husband looked as he pouted up to the blackboard. Picking up the chalk, James looked back at them with a calculating expression.

"So I can draw anything, right?" He asked.

"James, let's try to keep it G rated," Lily told him smoothly.

"I dunno, Chloe's description of 'nighttime' was rather graphic," Frank argued.

Chloe only smirked and leaned back into Sirius' arms.

James, who had been standing up at the blackboard trying to think of something, finally picked up the card and started drawing.

"A line!"

"No, a bed!"

"A boat! It's a sailing boat!"

"A desk? The big one in Dumbledore's office!"

"This is a muggle game Frank!"

"Oh I know! It's the Tajma Hall!"

"What the heck? It looks nothing like the Tajma Hall!"

"It almost looks like your house Lily."

"James, is that line supposed to be crooked?"

"Oh, I've got it! A forest!"

"Please, be serious, guys, I'm not that bad of a drawer!"

"What's the category again?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you: Emotion."

"Right, well that would have helped..."

"Happy!"

"Sad!"

"Scared!"

"Excited!"

"You'll never get anywhere by just randomly guessing..."

James finally threw down the chalk. "It's 'frustration'! Okay? Don't I look frustrated too you?" he pointed to the drawing on the board which looked more like a tree with a house on top than a person who looked frustrated.

"Spankin' great job, mate!" Sirius chimed out. "You definitely look frustrated!"

Chloe smacked him upside the head while everyone chuckled and James went back to sit down by Lily, feeling rather dejected. She pouted at him, putting her arm dramatically around him. "Poor baby," Lily cooed. "Shall we play a new game now?"

"YES!" Everyone buy Lily chimed out.

----

"Wait, wait, wait, wait..." Sirius leaned forward quickly, holding out his hands and ignoring the daggers that Lily's eyes were shooting out. "I'm not allowed to put down 'Firebolt', but you get to put down 'Unicorn'? As far as I'm concerned those are both magical words."

James snickered and Lily elbowed him before she continued. "Unicorn is in the muggle dictionary, Sirius." She shoved the large book into his hands. "Look for yourself."

As Sirius flipped through the book, James leaned forward and looked at his remaining letters. "All I have are a bunch of vowels," he wined.

"Oh, here, trade with me, James," Remus said quickly. "I've got about five m's that I have to use."

"Remus!" Lily warned, looking up just in time to catch the dictionary that Sirius had chucked back at her. She smiled sweetly at him. "Anything interesting Sirius?"

"Thank bloody Merlin I'm not a muggle," was all he said in reply.

"There," James said proudly, setting down the word. Everyone leaned forward to look.

"Iberia?" Sofia read. "Is that in the dictionary?"

"Well at least we know that Prongsie paid attention in Geography class," Sirius teased.

"Hey, at least I laid a word down, and," he said quickly, shushing Lily's remark, "it is in the dictionary, flower."

Lily blushed again and leaned back in a huff while James counted his points. "Oh, my, look at that beautiful triple-word box," he said triumphantly.

"I think James' head is getting too big for this game," Riley said dryly.

"You're just saying that because I'm winning, it's your turn and you don't have anything to put down," James said smugly, adding up his points. "Sweet Scrabble, I do believe I've just passed the 600 point mark."

"Who would have though that James of all people would win at an intellectual game," Remus wondered aloud.

"Hey!"

"Next game!" Lily said quickly.

----

"James, James, check this out."

James looked over to where Sirius was pointing. He held the box cover in his hands and was having a hard time not laughing his head off.

"See this kid here?" he pointed. "He's head's up here and then his feet are down here," he started giggling. "He's all being decapitated by the chute!"

James and Sirius both went into a loud burst of laughter while Riley and Sofia glared at them. Lily was doing her best to ignore them.

"Oh a child's game!" James said between laughs, which only made them laugh harder.

"Tsk, tsk!" Sirius mimicked.

Frank reached up and rubbed his forehead. "Is it possible, just tell me, is it possible to get that very large chute that I just landed on?"

"Frank, it's a game sweetheart," Alice said comfortingly.

"Ah, James, I just figured out the reason why you and Sirius can't play," Remus said smugly, pulling James and Sirius out of their laughter, swiping at their watering eyes. Remus smirked and pointed to the bottom corner of the box. "It's for ages 3-6."

Peter and Remus started laughing, along with Lily and Chloe.

"Well, at least you have an excuse for why you were still on the bottom row, James," Lily said cheekily.

"Wahoo!"

Everyone turned to see Frank on his feet, doing a victory dance.

"He just got up two rows," Alice said in resignation, glancing uncertainly at her husband.

"Well, we're all entitled to our victories," Sirius tried to say seriously, but failed miserably.

"Next game!" This time it was James who said it.

----

"You want me to what?"

Lily rolled her eyes for what was probably the fiftieth time that night.

"James, he said 'right hand on blue'. Do it."

James looked uncertainly down at the Twister pad below him. "Um, no offence Sofia, but I am sort of married to Lily..."

"James! It's a bloody game, just do it!" Sirius shouted out. He was obviously having the most trouble maintaining his position as his right leg and left leg were on opposite sides of the pad and his arms were crisscrossed on each other.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, James," Chloe called out. "Everyone knows you and Lily are married, just do it!"

After a swift kick in the behind from a disgruntled Lily, who too was having trouble holding her position, James took a deep breath and stuck his hand underneath Sofia's stomach, reaching across to the blue dots.

"Oh my, James," Sofia mocked. "Feel like a scarlet woman now?"

"Hardly," James said dryly. "And Sofia, dearest, try not to become too addicted to how good I smell right now."

Sofia pulled a face and turned away as much as possible without falling.

"Peter! Hurry!" Remus called out, being stuck between Lily and Sirius who were both dangerously close to tipping over. Peter, who was the caller this round quickly snapped into action and spun the spinner. Alice and Frank had both left right before the game started, making up several excuses that they were sure were even more ridiculous than the current game that everyone was playing. Lily doubted they would be able to fit on the Twister pad anyway. It was crowded enough as it was.

"Left foot to blue," Peter called out.

Several groans rose up and there were a few moments of tens silence as everyone tried to move their left feet. Unfortunately, to do this, it meant that Sirius would have to go above or before Remus, who was in no position to do either, and Sofia would have to reach around James which was easier said than done.

The mumbles rose up again and with it came Remus and James' sounds of protest as their "personal bubble" (as they had come to call it) started to be violated.

"Sirius, wait, don't-"

Remus never finished as Sirius' foot connected with his face, causing both of them to loose their balance and tumble down. With them came Chloe and Lily who started arguing about whose fault it was.

Through their argument, James and Sofia were still doing quite well, along with Riley who seemed more comfortable than any of them and gazed on with a satisfied smirk.

But one wrong move on James' left foot caught her off guard, sweeping her right arm out from underneath her and she landed smack on her face, bringing James and Sofia down with her.

Through the cries of outrage and trying to decide who had won, Peter called out above them all.

"Next game!"

----

"Alright!" Lily threw down the very dusty box, glaring at them each in turn. Sirius, James, Remus, Riley and Chloe were the only ones left. Excuses had gone all round until Peter and Sofia had both insisted they needed a good night's rest and had left in a hurry (opposite directions. Sofia was currently attached to Remus and Peter was desperately trying to get the courage to ask out their old schoolmate Thelma Ritort). "This is all I've got left people."

"No, way, Lily, We are NOT playing this game-" James started once he saw the cover, but Lily cut him off.

"YES, we ARE, James," she said quickly. "As I recall we still have fifteen minutes left till this party's over, and this is an excellent game to pass the short amount of time."

She sat down and began to pull things out of the box. "We won't even use the board. We'll just use the cards."

Sirius cranked his head around to read the title of the game. "Moods? Merlin, these muggles are downright clever with naming their games aren't they?"

Lily answered by shoving a card in his hand. "You can go first. Roll the dice."

Sirius, looking doubtful, threw the dice down. "Right," Lily said quickly, "now say the phrase on your card in the mood you rolled."

"Like acting?" Sirius said doubtfully looking at his card.

"Yeah, like acting. Go on, we're supposed to guess which mood you're in."

Sirius gives them all a doubting look before puffing his chest out importantly and bellowing "I AM A PRETTY LITTLE GIRL!"

Everyone stared at him, shell-shocked for a moment before bursting out into giggles.

"What?" Sirius said in confusion. "It said, 'triumphantly' and that was what I was supposed to say right? Right guys?"

No one answered him, but Lily nodded through her giggles and picked up the next card, handing it to James. "Your turn next."

James, wiping his tears away from laughing so hard, looked at his card curiously. He raised a disbelieving eyebrow, but picked up the dice and rolled. Then his face split into a grin and he looked over at Lily who frowned. "No funny stuff, James," she warned.

But James, not heading her warning, scooted right close up to her and looked into her eyes in all seriousness. Everyone around the room had gone perfectly silent and was watching the married couple with slight grins on their faces.

James lowered his voice and octave and spoke just above a whisper in a sexy voice. "After midnight my bedroom is free."

Lily blushed beat red as everyone else started to laugh and James gave her a wink.

"Right," Lily said in a shaky voice, wondering vaguely if James knew she wanted nothing other than to take him up on the offer, "party's over."

----

"Well, that went well," James called to Lily as she stepped back into the bedroom, drying her hair with a towel and walking over to her vanity. He finished putting new covers on the pillows and looked over in surprise when she didn't answer. She was sitting down, looking at her mirror and touching her face with a vauge expression on.

"Lily?" he said with worry. He walked over behind her and leaned down, putting his arms around her neck, kissing her cheek. "You alright?"

She smiled softly, still looking into the mirror. "Yes, yes, I'm just fine..."

James, not buying it, came around and squatted next to her chair, looking at her curiously. "What's wrong, flower? Did I do something wrong tonight? I enjoyed it, really I did-"

He was cut off by her leaning down and kissing him. Hard.

When she pulled back he had a surprised look in his face and she was smiling radiantly. "No, you were an angel, James Potter. An absolute dream."

James grinned and relaxed a bit, standing up and pulling her with him.

They looked into each other's eyes for a moment before James pulled her into another kiss, this one lasting longer than they previous one.

They pulled away, resting their foreheads against one another and smiling.

"After midnight, my bedroom is free," James whispered in the same sexy voice he had used during the game and Lily felt her heart speed up. She grinned wider.

"Well this is my bedroom too, and if you think you can keep me out till midnight, you've got another thing coming."

"What was that all about sleeping on the cou-"

She silenced him with a long kiss and neither of them said much more for the rest of the night.