Of course there were no hard feelings for any of the dunks into the Lake, neither the Marauders nor the DWO were really upset at one another and James was eager to train with Oliver still, promising to come back again for the Gryffindor team's next match, which was to be against Slytherin. The Gryffindors rushed off to the common room upstairs in the tower to celebrate their victory and James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Lily went with Minerva McGonagall for the walk from the castle to Hogsmeade.

"Och yer mum will be right glad to see you," Professor McGonagall told James and Sirius as they walked along the path, cutting around the edge of the forest to the gates that marked the edge of the grounds of Hogwarts. "She's done nothin' but talk of your visiting us today, been countin' down as excited as could be. I know Elphie is right pleased, too. It'll be a night, for sure!" 

Sirius said, "And what about you, Minnie? Are you excited we're visiting?"

Minerva's lips twitched.

"Oi, guys, Min's excited we're here!" Sirius announced, walking backwards in front of her, grinning, his eyes bright.

"We're excited to be visiting you, too, Minnie," James said and he chucked his arm about her shoulders - Sirius quickly scrambling to follow suit on the other side.

"Aye well, you both best be on your GOOD behavior - and that means you, Mr. Black, above all!"

"When am I ever not on my goodest behavior, Min?" Sirius drawled. "Honestly, woman, I don't know what you're alluding to!"

"Umm-hm," Minnie grunted in a distinctly Scottish way.

Minerva McGonagall and Elphinstone Urquart had made dinner - a roast and mash with peas - and Dora Potter had made cookies that were still warm by the time they ate them. Sirius reckoned that his stomach was about as full as it could be expected to get, given the size of him, and raved for an hour on the good taste of his dinner.

When dinner was over, Peter, Sirius, and James volunteered to do the dishes while Elphinstone and Remus sank into a rather deep discussion about lengths of essays and how lengths variations could affect a student's work. It seemed Elphinstone, who had once been the head of the Department of Education at the Ministry, had been just waiting for someone to talk nerdy about teaching administration topics with him, and Remus's enthusiasm sparred him on for well over an hour while McGonagall and Lily discussed other elements of teaching. Lily was surprised to learn that McGonagall had gotten into teaching quite by accident, and she eagerly listened as Minnie recounted the story of how it had happened.

James and Sirius meanwhile caught up with Dora Potter as they worked together to wash the dishes and Peter used magic to dry and put them away. Dora sat in the kitchen, chatting with the boys as they worked, feeling so proud and perfectly happy to sit back and watch as the boys were gentlemen who did the proper and polite task of cleaning things up after being invited for a meal. She couldn't help but think to herself that she'd raised her boys right.

It was evening before they knew it and when Elphinstone looked at the clock, he jump started, "Oh dear!" he cried, "Nearly about to miss the Muppets, we are! Dora! Min! The show's 'bout to start!"

"The Muppets?" Remus asked, confused. "What is that?" 

"Haven't you heard of the Muppets?!" Elphinstone exclaimed in surprise, "Why I thought everyone watched the Muppets these days!" 

"What are they?" Remus asked.

"They're monster puppets," Dora explained very patiently. "Muppets."

"That's very clever," James laughed.

Elphinstone had leaped up from his place at the dining table where he and Remus had been sitting and gone into the living room, followed by Minnie, who waved her wand and a small telly appeared on a table before a collection of chairs and couches. James recognized it as the telly his father used to watch muggle news on and that they'd caught many an episode of Doctor Who together with as a family. 

Remus looked at Lily, who was just as stunned that their intellectual conversations were being interrupted for... monster puppets on muggle TV? Funny enough, they weren't the only ones with their doubts. Even Sirius was questioning what was happening as the three adults moved with excitement like they were little kids...

"A puppet show?" Sirius's eye brows slanted with a sort of judgemental attitude, "Sounds like kid stuff..." 

"Kid stuff!" Elphinstone snorted, shaking his head. "Just you wait and see - you'll be hooked the same as we are! Dora come help with the telly clicky. I'll never get the hang of this thing!" 

Dora took the remote control from Elphinstone, clicking a few things and finally making the picture on the muggle telly show up. Dora patted the seats on the couch on either side of her as she sank down into it and James and Sirius bounded over to sit each under one of her arms. Lily sat on James's other side and Remus settled into a high-backed chair. Peter lay on his belly on the floor, arms propping his chin up, and Elphinstone sat on the arm of the chair that Minnie had taken.

The show started with a funny looking orange muppet with noodly looking hair knocking on a door and seeing a man standing wearing a funny coat all covered with puppet arms waving about. "Spike Milligan?" said the orange muppet.

"Yes?" asked the man he'd called Milligan.

"Thirty seconds to curtain, Mr. Milligan."

"Hmm... well - thirty seconds to the curtain... it's five and eleven to the floor, I'll take the curtain!" Milligan said. The arms all over him were waving about like crazy.

Peter was giggling already.

"Say, what's that you're wearing?" asked the orange muppet, watching the arms flap and wave about.

"My family crest!" said Milligan.

"Well what's that?" the orange muppet asked.

"A coat of arms!" answered Milligan. 

Peter, James, and Elphinstone Urquart all cracked up at this. 

And all of a sudden the screen broke to a bright logo that read "THE MUPPET SHOW" and a flippy-flappy, bright green frog was on the screen.

"Oh he's funny, look at those arms," Lily laughed, her eyes bright.

"That's Kermit," explained Dora.

n a funny voice he shouted, "IT'S THE MUPPET SHOW WITH OUR VERY SPECIAL GUEST STAR, MR. SPIKE MILLIGAN! YAAAYYYY!!!"

"What the actual fuck are we watching?" Sirius asked.

"Shhhh!" McGonagall snapped.

Music started playing - trumpets and horns and kazoos and the like - and there were dancing creatures - chickens and bears and things that weren't even recognizable for their shapes.

"It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights, its times to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight!"

Remus's mouth was open in an expression of disbelief at what he was seeing, and James was laughing as Dora bopped side to side to the music, making Sirius and James both dance in place with her as she clapped her hands to the tune. Elphinstone sang along and Remus's eyes turned to look at him in surprise as the crazy old man knew every line...

"It's time to put on make up, it's time to dress up nice! It's time to raise the curtains on the Muppet Show tonight!"

By the time the theme song had ended and a bear with a bow tie and a cowboy hat had come on to tell jokes, they were all hooked - even Remus kept laughing and muttering, "Alright, that was clever," now and then throughout the forty minutes that proceeded. By the time it was over, Sirius was declaring undying love for Fozzie Bear, saying how he was certain he'd once seen that very bow tie at Madam Malkin's shop and he wanted to go and purchase it just so he could make "wocka wocka" jokes at Bilius Weasley while they were degnoming the gardens.

"Blimey - Dad would've loved that!" James commented when it was over, looking at Dora, "Wouldn't Dad have loved that?"

"He would have," Dora agreed, smiling, "I think of him a lot when we watch the Muppets."

"We've got to watch it every time it's on forever," Sirius declared loudly. "You idiots took our telly so we'll have to come over your house," he added, looking at James and Lily.

"We'll have popcorn ready," Lily laughed.

"Oh no not popcorn," Peter lamented, remembering the time the Marauders had filled the entirety of Gryffindor common room with popping kernels.

McGonagall laughed at Peter's wary expression. "Just ye be mindful not to put any duplication charms on the kernels this time!"

Sirius guffawed, "That was one of the best pranks we ever pulled." He paused, then, "What else has the DWO done besides throwing us in the lake? They even close to comparing to us, Minnie?" he asked.

McGonagall shook her head, "Och - the DWO... They're a handful, those boys! Positively turning the castle upside down!"

"But not ACTUALLY turning it upside down, yeah?" Sirius pressed, "I mean - we actually turned it upside down once, but it's just figurative with them, yeah?"

"Oh I remember when you did that," Lily muttered, "That was horrible! I thought I was going to fall up if i moved at all.... Right terrifying!" 

Elphinstone Urquart said, "How the bloody hell did you lot do that?"

"Remus is the brains of the operation," Sirius said, "I just make shhh--stuff up, but he makes it really happen."

Remus flushed.

"Hey I'm brains, too, sometimes, you know," James said.

Sirius snort-laughed so hard it hurt and he had to pause to catch his breath, shaking his head, "No, no thick as porridge Potter you aren't."

"Sure I do," James argued. "How about that time we turned the whole school blue, whose idea was that?"

"UM... Mine?" Sirius said.

"No I think if you think back you'll find it was mine, actually," James said.

"No," Sirius said, shaking his head, "I'm thinking back as we speak and it was most definitely me."

"Surely not."

"It was."

"Was not."

"Was."

"Not-not-not."

"Alright, enough of this," Dora said, "Both of you are little masterminds and you're so ickle good at what you do you widdle sweethearts." She pulled both their faces in so their cheeks were touching her cheeks and made kissy noises and Lily snickered as Remus smirked and Peter laughed outright. 

"Blimey, mum, getofferme," James whined, wriggling away.

"Aw you don't appreciate your mum, Jamsey?" Dora asked, still in the baby voice.

"I appreciate you mum," Sirius said, and he squeezed her into a hug.

They chatted and laughed a bit longer, eating Dora's cookies and sipping a relaxing tea blend that Professor Sprout had mixed from the Herbology gardens at Hogwarts and tasted strong but in a good way, giving them all happy feelings that warmed them to their cores. 

When it was time to go, James pulled Dora into a very tight hug and whispered in her ear, "I appreciate you mum. You know I do, yeah?"

"I know you do, honey," she whispered back. 

"Okay, good," James answered, and he held her tight for a moment or two longer.

They made plans to return and have dinner together again after the next quidditch match - and Lily invited the lot of them to come down to Godric's Hollow for dinner sometime, too. "I can't promise that it'll be as tasty or entertaining as our visit here has been..." Lily said, "But you'll get to see the beautiful house James made for me!"

They left the little cottage in Hogsmeade and walked all five in a row down the little street, Lily's fingers laced through James. Sirius was loudly singing, "It's time to light the lights... it's time to get things started..." And they made their way along, discussing the muppets themselves, and Sirius hooted over the coat of arms joke again, shaking his head, "What brilliance... pure brilliance... I reckon it's my favorite thing I've ever seen on a telly."

"I agree," James said, "Which says quite a lot..."

"Even over Doctor What?" Sirius asked.

"Doctor Who." James corrected him.

"Doctor Why."

"What?"

"No Who."

They'd come up the path to the Shrieking Shack and Remus stood at the fence, staring at it for sometime while Peter, James, and Sirius continued to be a load of silliness.  Lily stepped over to where Remus stood. "You alright, honey?" she asked.

Remus nodded. "Yes, I'm alright."

Lily looked at the shack, too. "It's OK to miss it."

"I rather think that I always will in someway," Remus admitted. He looked over at her, "I said it to the lads the other night when we were out by the full moon, but I need to say it to you, too..." He paused and smiled. "I'm very thankful for you, keeping me sane all these years. You and the lads are the reason I don't just chuck in and give up."

Lily reached up and tucked a bit of the loose hair behind Remus's ear softly, smiling at him. "I'm very glad that you never chucked in, Remus."