Sirius Black wasted no time in visiting James and Lily after Remus fell into a peaceful sleep as the wolfsbane kicked in. After gently brushing the curls off Remus's forehead and putting the bottles of potion safely away in their bedroom, Sirius shouted a "see ya in a bit" to Peter Pettigrew and hurried to the Potters by floo network.

James and Dora were on the couch working on how to knit sleeves for the jumper they were making Remus for Christmas, drinking tea out of a lovely set that Sirius recognized as Dora's brown-gold floral pattern. James was biting his tongue, concentrating on the skill he was learning, when Sirius came into the room in a puff of smoke. He nearly stabbed himself with the needle trying to hide the jumper in case Remus followed, and when he didn't, James shook his head at Sirius, "You really ought to announce yourself, Padfoot."

"Alright - how's this: NOW PRESENTING THE MOST GORGEOUS MEMBER OF YOUR CLOSEST FRIENDS GROUP... THE ONE YOU ALL WISH TO SHAG --" he paused slightly seeing Dora, but then shrugged and plowed on, "-- PLEASE GIVE A WARM ROUND OF APPLAUSE AND WELCOME TO YOUR LIVING ROOM... THE ONE, THE ONLY... SIRIUS BLACK!!!" He made noises imitating a largely cheering crowd and then responded as though to adoring fans, "Thank you! Thank you! I love you all; you're all so beautiful!"

James rolled his eyes as Dora laughed brightly as she got up and went to the kitchen to refresh her tea.

Lily came bounding down the stairs then, her hair bouncing. "I knew I heard Sirius!"

"Everyone from here to India heard Sirius," James said.

"Ask and you shall receive, Prongs," Sirius said, grinning, hugging Lily as she came over, freshly showered, her hair still wet and everything. She kissed Sirius's cheek and he made a face. "You changed your soap."

"I didn't," she said. "But I also didn't condition."

"Must be it," Sirius decided, "I have an announce--"

James cut him off, laughing, "Why do you know my wife's soap?"

"Hello? Dog?" Sirius rolled his eyes, then shrugged and said, "I have a major announcement to make!"

"A major announcement?" Lily asked, "What is it?"

Sirius checked that Dora was distracted in the next room, and lowered his tone (just in case). "Tomorrow is full moon," Sirius said. "And I've got Remus's wolfsbane potion - thank you for getting me in touch with Slughorn again for it, Lilith, he's pulled through despite my doubts."

"Ohhh excellent!" Lily grinned, "I'm so happy he was able to give you some of the potion!"

Sirius hadn't told her that Horace Slughorn had charged a premium fee. He had a feeling she'd scold him for paying the high sum and then go and kill Slughorn for charging it, and honestly Sirius didn't care if it had cost twice the amount he'd paid - for what he was about to say, he would have paid out the entire vault for a single dose:

"Having the wolfsbane means the wolf is tame, it means Remus keeps his mind. It means we don't even have to go out of doors."

James grinned.

Lily's eyes widened, "No?"

"No. He's as tame as a lapdog with it because the wolf doesn't even take over. He's our Remus, as harmless as Snuffles!"

Lily hesitated as James jumped up with a whooping cry of excitement. "Wait! Wait. Does this mean - do I - may I meet the werewolf?"

James and Sirius looked at one another. Then a grin slowly spread over Sirius's face. "I have a fucking brilliant idea."

"Let's hear it," James said.

The next evening, Remus was packing his ruck sack to go to the Howling House - the replica Shrieking Shack which they'd created in the Potter's basement. Sirius came bounding into the bedroom, magicked up a chair and gently pushed Remus into it, and danced from the dresser drawer Remus had opened to the rucksack and back again, completing Remus's packing for him. "Why do you need so many socks, Moon-Moon?"

"My feet get cold," Remus answered, "I'd rather have too many than not enough."

"What if you had a nice warm fire to sit by? Perhaps you could make do with the socks already on your body."

"Yes but we can't have a fire in the Howling House."

Sirius shrugged, but he put all the socks back in the drawer. 

"Oh please, that's not the order they go in!" Remus groaned, seeing Sirius drop them into the drawer. "That one's a warm color, it goes in the other drawer."

"There's more than one drawer for socks now?"

Remus nodded anxiously.

"Your sock organizing gets abysmally more specific every time we discuss it," Sirius said, but he pulled open the second drawer and stared down at the color-arranged socks that were even organized by shade so that the two drawers together created a chromatic harmony - aside from the ones Sirius had chucked in haphazardly, that is. "Merlin's tit, Moony."

"It's very satisfying when they're all organized proper."

"Uh-huh." Sirius jammed the socks in as close to proper as he could make do and Remus seemed appeased, though Sirius was certain the moment he was left alone to do it that they'd all be fixed anyway.

"Why are you putting back my socks anyway?"

"Because this moontide we're having a fire." 

"Oh?"

"Yes indeed," said Sirius, "We sure are." He grinned, then reached into the closet, rooted about for a moment, then turned back to Remus, "In fact, here. Put this on." It was the old sweater that James had given Remus for Christmas years ago, which was knitted with a faire isle design featuring werewolves, moons, and pawprints. "You won't even need a rucksack."

"I won't?"

"Nope."

"What about food?"

"You'll see." 

Sirius tossed the sweater to Remus and Remus raised an eyebrow as he pulled it on. "Very mysterious."

"Isn't it?" Sirius grinned wildly.

Remus shook his hair out of the neck of the sweater and then his head popped out and Sirius helped tug the hem down as Remus stood up and leaned against his wand-cane. Sirius stared up at Remus, their eyes meeting and Remus marveled once again at how much better he was feeling than he had just the day before, how much better he felt than he ever usually did at this point in the moon cycle - only hours before the moon rise - and all because of Sirius. However he'd done it. Which Remus still didn't know. He opened his mouth to thank Sirius again, but Sirius beat him to speaking.

"C'mon, Moony. They're expecting us."

"They?"

"Yes, James and Lily." Sirius pulled Remus along into the hallway, shouting over his shoulder, "PETER! C'MON! WE'RE LEAVING!"

"COMING!" Peter came running down the hallway, carrying his rucksack.

"How come Peter's bringing a rucksack but I'm not?"

"Supplies," Sirius answered as they all stepped into the living room. Sirius was practically dancing. "Accio leather jacket!" he flicked his wrist, then held out his arms and the jacket flew across the room and onto his arm. He shrugged the second side on, as Remus gave him an impressed nod of the head and Sirius winked at his husband.

Peter scrambled for the floo powder and quickly doled some out to Remus and Sirius each and tossed his own into the hearth. "The Potters!" he said clearly, and he leaped through. 

Sirius turned to Remus. "Do you hear that?" 

"Hear what?" Remus cocked his head, listening.

Sirius put a hand to his ear as though listening closely, a smirk trembling on his lips. 

"I don't hear a thing," Remus said.

Sirius stamped his foot in a beat and sang out, "Bomp-bomp, ba-bomp-ba-bada-bomp-bomp... I see a good moon rising..."

Remus laughed.

"I see good times on the way..."

Remus's eyes narrowed. "You're singing it wrong."

Sirius's grin spread even wider, "I see chocolate cakes and bacon... I see good times tonight..."

"What?"

"The Potter Cottage!" Sirius shouted, tossing the floo powder. "In you go, Moony." Remus started forward into the hearth as Sirius continued on singing, "Come around tonight... well it's the time of your life -- there's... a good moon on the rise."

Remus came through in the Potter living room with James there to catch him come through, his friend's strong arms supporting him and putting him upright. "Whoopsie-daisy, Rey," James sing-songed. He was wearing a bright yellow party hat with red dots and a tinsel pom-pom on top, the little elastic band holding it on strapped under his chin. 

"What's --"

Lily was wearing a party cone-hat, too - hers was purple with orange dots - and she and Peter were each blowing on party blowers that tooted loudly and Remus laughed, "What are you lot on about?"

The hearth flashed behind him as James helped Remus move out of the way and into the comfiest chair in the living room, and through the floo came Sirius, still singing, "I hear party-horns a blowin'! I know the wolf is comin' soon! I smell a roast is in the oven - I hear the laugh of Peter, James and Lilith..." 

Remus was laughing and looking around at them, "Really you lot, what are you up to?"

"Happy Moontide!" James said, and he leaned forward and plopped a cone hat on Remus's curls - blue with green dots. Behind him, Peter and Sirius were each strapping on a hat, too - Peter's orange and yellow and Sirius's pink and purple, and Sirius had pulled his kazoo out of his jacket pocket and was shredding it, playing the Bad Moon Rising tune in a rather erratic way as he danced about the living room merrily. "We're celebrating you tonight, Remus!"

"Celebrating me?"

"Yes!" Lily said. "We have all your favorites. Roast, and I left a part very rare, and we have chocolate cake and I've made you iced aconite tea and --"

"Ovaltine and Mum's butterbeer cookies," Sirius interjected.

"And Forbidden Fudge Chocolate bars for s'mores!" Peter shouted.

"And a whole bowl of purple pastilles," James added, waving his palm at the bowl.

Remus laughed, "You separated out a whole bowl full of just the purple pastilles?"

"James volunteered for that job so he could eat all the red ones," Lily said.

"And there's a bag of yellow and orange in the kitchen. We put the green in the bin because nobody deserves that sort of hate crime," James said, shaking his head.

Remus's eyes sparkled, "But what about going out to the shack? It'll start getting dark soon and it takes time to get out to the --"

"You're on the wolfsbane, Moony!" Sirius interrupted. "You don't have to be put into seclusion this month, remember?"

Remus stared up at Sirius. "What?"

"We don't have to go out there and turn into our animalagus forms to be with you," James said.

"Animagi," Peter said.

"And I get to be here, too!" Lily cried excitedly.

Remus blinked around at them, stunned, his jaw dropped just a wee bit and his breath was trembly. 

"Surprise!" James said, grinning. He took the blower from Lily's mouth and blew on it so the little paper bit unrolled and quivered just an inch from the end of Remus's nose before it rolled back up with a pop.

Remus's nostrils were flared with emotion. "I don't have to be locked away?"

"You don't have to be locked away," Peter confirmed.

Remus looked at Lily, "And - and you - you're not scared to see the - to see - to see me - like - like that?"

Lily shook her head. "I can't wait to scratch your ears."

"I'm not even afraid!" Peter intoned.

Remus laughed heartily and the laughter was so deep it hurt his belly and then it was so long that it turned into tears of joy and a funny feeling like relief flooded through his whole body and he started sobbing. Lily sat down on the arm of the chair and hugged Remus about his shoulders and he grabbed onto her arm, tears pouring over his cheeks as he stared 'round at them. "I've never been loose in a full moon."

"Tonight you will," James said.

"What if it doesn't work?"

"It will," Sirius said.

It was a true party. Sirius had created a list of all the best full moon wolfish songs he had - from Bad Moon Rising to Werewolves of London and many others he'd managed to find - and there was a good deal of dancing. James made up a dance move he called the Werewolf which was comprised of an electric slide with a clap-clap and a howl at the moon, which had him and Sirius slide-clap-clap-AROOOOOOOO-ing for a good deal of the night. They had howling contests with a bag of animal crackers with nothing but wolves in it so that they sat about howling and Remus judged which one gave the most impressive howl - it was Peter, he decided, who beamed proudly and Sirius said clapped enthusiastically for him.

They ate the roast that Lily had made as sandwiches, dipping them in au jus, while Remus ate his extra rare chunk with his fingers, the way he liked to best at moontide. 

They made s'mores and told stories, memories and mythologies that brought a nostalgia to the evening and had them all laughing and throwing purple pastilles at one another as they reminisced. 

Sirius re-enacted the time when he had sung the Rocky Horror Picture Show and fallen through the wall, which he did by flipping himself over the back of the couch and Lily shrieked, afraid he might've hurt himself, but Sirius laughed at her for worrying and them him and James both proceeded to do chase one another around the living room, running over the sofa and jumping around as Lily, Peter, and Remus laughed and cowered down. "You're both mad!" Lily cried at them. 

And when it was time - the light outside dying at last - Lily put a whole pile of blankets down on the floor before the hearth so Remus had a whole nest of warmth and they got him settled and Lily sat with Remus's head in her lap, brushing his hair off his forehead as Sirius transformed into his dog form. James sat on the coffee table next to them and Peter, in his rat form, sat on James's shoulder, squeaking and eating a pastille.

"Thanks you guys," Remus said. He was still shivering - the wolfsbane didn't get rid of the chill in his spine. "I love you lot."

"We love you too, so much, Remus," Lily said gently, and Snuffles pushed his nose under Remus's arm so that he laughed and hugged the dog.

Then the transformation began.