Pafoo, Pongs, Moni and Womtal

Chapter One - Of Bugs and Bushes

Harry's hand flailed out and crashed down on the unsuspecting beetle. James, who had currently been crouched down near his son, trying to persuade him to get on a broomstick with him, got a mouthful of bug entrails as the decapitated remains flew into the air.

James shot Harry a hurt look as he spit into the grass.

"Hey, I'm not the one who wouldn't let you get that toy broomstick. That was your mother. Mother." James accented the last word carefully but was only rewarded by another of Harry's flailing hands smashing back into his nose.

He reeled back, clutching his slightly bruised nose and frowning at his one year old son.

"Did Sirius teach you that?"

"Heard that one, Prongs, and I'm deeply crushed."

James turned quickly to see his best friend, Sirius Black walking into the backyard of the Potter's home at Godric's Hollow. Instantly his face fell into a challenging grimace.

"Crushed because he didn't hit me harder, or crushed because I thought of you first?"

Sirius only smiled wider and set down the package that he had been carrying on the decorated table that was nearby.

"You're early," James noticed suddenly, checking his watch to make sure he hadn't lost track of time. "No one was planning on coming till six."

Sirius merely shrugged and plopped down on the grass next to them. "Hey Harry," he said, reaching over to ruffle his godson's mop of black hair. For a one year old it was already very thick. Lily took credit for the thickness of it, but blamed the messiness on James.

"Pafoo..." Harry giggled happily. James had drilled Harry since he was born about the Marauder's names. Lily and James almost had a heart attack when Harry's first word had been "Padfoot" instead of "Prongs".

Sirius grinned wider as he continued, "I came by to see if you guys needed any help." He put his hand in front of Harry's exploring arms and was rewarded with Harry's two small hands clutching onto his fingers. Sirius smiled mischievously and glanced back up at James who cleared his throat and started talking.

"It's a nice thought, but Lily won't even let me help. She stuck me with babysitting duty. She's convinced I would slip something into everyone's drinks or something."

Sirius put on an innocent expression. "What in the world would make her think that?"

James put his hands up in a mock surrender, "I've been the embodiment of maturity since Harry was born."

"Mature...yes, mature...that word sounds...vaguely familiar..." Sirius glanced down at Harry who was looking up at him with wide eyes, and gave him a small wink.

"Need I remind you that you are supposed to be mature as well," James said in a slightly warning tone. "It took me long enough to convince Lily that you were responsible enough to be a godfather. Don't throw my arguments back at me."

Sirius raised an interested eyebrow. "What's this, James? Sleep on the couch again last night?"

James reached out to Harry (who was currently eating a handful of grass) and started wiping off his mouth. "No, close to it though." He sighed. "I was trying to convince Lily that Harry was old enough to get one of those toy broomsticks from Diagon Alley."

"Prongs, he's a baby!"

James scowled at him. "Since when did that ever stop you before?"

"Hey, watch it," Sirius accused him, "Dora was three and I put a perfectly acceptable protection charm around her, alright?"

"Didn't stop her from falling off, though, did it?" James eyes lit up and he finally let go of Harry again. The toddler giggled loudly and both of them looked over to see that he was reaching his arms up to Lily as she walked towards them from the house.

"There's my, big boy," Lily said sweetly as she bended down to pick Harry up. "What have you and daddy been up too?" Sirius coughed and she looked up. "And Sirius..." She paused and frowned as she looked at his face. "What!? James what is this on his face? Was he eating grass!?"

James tensed as she pulled out her wand and cleaned Harry's face. She then turned to the both of them and scowled.

"Grass is good for him, Lily," Sirius said casually. "I ate tons of it as a kid."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Somehow that doesn't surprise me nor does is comfort me at all..." she cut off as she started cleaning Harry's hands. "Eugh! James what is this? A bug? Did he eat a bug!?"

James gave a dramatic sigh and flopped onto his back.

"Honestly! I leave you three alone for 10 minutes and you've already corrupted my son into your Marauder ways."

"You're right, Lily. Eating bugs is one of the steps of becoming a marauder," Sirius said sarcastically.

"Yeah, I had to eat tons," James added loudly, "A whole bucketful."

"Of course, Peter wouldn't do it so instead we made him-"

"Oh, hush, both of you! Why don't you make yourselves useful and start setting up the chairs." She motioned to the stack of folding chairs that James and Sirius had recently retrieved from the attic. Then, throwing them one last exasperated look and a slight smile, she took Harry back into the house. They heard her muttering as she left.

"Don't know what they were thinking...on his birthday...guess I can't expect them to be mature for too long..."

Once she got inside, both of them let out a few chuckles they had been holding in and lay for a few moments on the green July grass.

"Well," James finally said, clutching his stomach. "Remembering those bugs kinda makes me sick to my stomach...I can't believe we actually did eat them."

"Whose idea was it anyway?" Sirius 'muffled voice asked. He seemed to be covering his mouth with his hands.

"I think it was ours..." James admitted.

"Oh...right..."

--*--

It took the pair of them just a little under 15 minutes to set up all the chairs around the backyard. It would have been shorter but Sirius had made it a game (as always) and kept making all the chairs that James had set up invisible. James worked for 5 minutes on one spot before he realized what was happening and promptly chased Sirius around the yard until he had him tackled in a batch of bushes near the forest. Leaving him there, James finished the rest himself.

Surveying his handiwork, James heard Sirius finally climbing out of the bush, complaining about a "ticked off stag".

Chuckling, James headed inside to check on Lily and Harry. He wasn't sure whether he wanted his son to be annoying Lily or whether he wanted his son to be an angel for Lily.

He decided either would be fine.

Stepping into the coolness of the house, he at once heard a variety of voice coming from the kitchen. Lily's was most definitely among them. Curious, he pushed open the kitchen door to see Lily, Alice Longbottom and Nikkie Ralston (Sirius' current love interest) all gathered around the double layer cake that was being decorated magically. Harry was situated in his high chair, a half eaten cracker mashed in one of his hands and the rest of his snack smeared out in front of him.

"I thought this party didn't start for another hour?" James said suddenly, causing all three women to jump and turn at him, scowling. James merely flashed them a smile and walked closer towards them. He wrapped an arm around Lily, who was rolling her eyes at his swaggering state. "How come none of my friends get to come early?" He pouted to her.

Lily just rolled her eyes again. "James, even if I instructed your friends not to come until six, they would still turn up-"

As if on cue, the front door opened and Remus Lupin's voice carried into the kitchen.

"James? Lily? Just thought I'd come by to see-"

Remus turned the corner into the kitchen and stopped dead at seeing the three women gazing at him, trying hard to hold in their laughs. James, however shot him a dirty look and pulled away from his wife.

"Can't I be right once?" James wined, making his way back out of the kitchen, clipping Remus on the shoulder as he left. Remus, who hadn't moved for a full 15 seconds, was brought out of his daze and, shooting a bewildered look back at the girls, followed James into the backyard.

As they both went out of sight, a trail of girlish laughter followed them out of the house.

"Bad timing?" Remus said nervously as they stepped into the sunlight.

"Not really," James admitted. "Well, yeah, but I should have expected it." He smirked over at Remus. "Lily's had the one up on me for days and I was just trying to get even." He shrugged nonchalantly. "But, another opportunity will come up soon." He motioned with his head towards the bushes behind him that Remus had noticed seemed to be twitching. "Sirius is here."

Remus gave and understanding "Oh" and followed James over to the shuddering bushes.

"Has anyone ever told you that you stink at Stealth and Secrecy?" Remus said loudly to the bush, causing it to shudder and exclaim loudly in a few curse words Remus had never heard.

"Bloody..." A crawling Sirius Black came out of the bush, rubbing his forehead where a trickle of blood ran down it. "Did anyone ever tell you, Moony, that you stink at being polite?"

Remus merely smiled as James started laughing next to him. "I don't recall that being a test for Aurors?"

"Sure," James said, wiping the tears out of his eyes, "There's no way Padfoot would have passed if it had been!"

Sirius shot his best friend a hurt look and finally clambered to his feet, brushing the remains of the bush off of himself. "What time is it?" he asked.

"Only 5:10," James replied, looking at his watch.

"Getting anxious?" Remus asked with a smile.

"What?" Both Sirius and James said at the same time.

"I only get to see my Godson turn one once, okay?"

"And I only get to see my son turn one once."

That comment drew stares from both of James' friends.

"What?" he shrugged

"Does that mean you and Lily aren't going to have any more kids?" Remus said skeptically.

James bit his bottom lip as he thought. "We haven't talked about it, but I'm not sure I want to deal with any more. I mean, Lily goes crazy with just one crawling all over the house. And, remember what she said in the hospital?"

"Prongs, all women scream at their husbands during delivery, it's a well known fact."

"Sirius, she blamed it on me!"

Sirius finally smirked. "You mean you're not claiming responsibility?"

James blushed slightly and punched Sirius lightly in the arm. "Shut it you."

"It's probably something you're going to have to talk to Lily about sooner or later, James," Remus said calmly, trying to keep out of the line of fire.

James brushed them both off hurridly. "Just not on his birthday, okay? Let Harry be an only child for just a while longer."