It was their final Hogwarts Halloween, which meant their first last Hogsmeade trip, which meant Lily and James's first official date, and for them that meant rumors.

Yet, for now, the girls were in Lily's head dorm trying to pick out her outfit while she sat watching her friends scramble around the room like headless chickens.

"Y'know my outfit really isn't that big of a deal, right?" Lily asked matter-a-factly.

"Of course it is! It's a date!" Marlene looked like she had just heard something far worse come out of Lily's mouth.

"A date with James for crying out loud! He doesn't care what I wear and neither do I!" Lily said getting up off of her bed, walking over to her dresser, and pulling out a few choice items, only after shooing her friends away to where she had been previously been seated.

Lily first held up a pair of black wide-legged jeans and after three nods of approval, she placed them on the floor. Then, she took a thick, royal blue belt in one hand and a black long sleeve v-neck shirt in the other. Marlene, Mary, and Alice quickly approved the outfit, and just as she was about to step in the shower, they spoke up again.

"What will you do about shoes?" Alice asked, genuinely curious.

"For a special occasion, such as this, I will wear the brand-new, white gogo boots that Henry and my mum sent in the mail the other day!" Lily squealed a bit along with the other girls in excitement.

The white leather gogo boots reached just above her ankle, as they were the newest model, coming out after the more traditional upper calf length gogo boot. The girls' eyes had all widened in excitement when Lily opened the box last week at breakfast.

"And while I'm in the shower you can set up the beauty salon since you guys like to play dress-up so much."

On the other hand, James was not nearly as confident as Lily was about their upcoming date. Whether that was under Sirius's influence or his own, no one would be able to tell and Remus was having a hard time not knocking the two of them out.

"What if she figures out that she actually hates me?" James practically bellowed.

"I'm sure she'd already have figured that out, mate," Sirius said in response, earning a hit on the back of his head from Remus.

"She won't hate you unless you give her a reason to. So, if you're thinking logically-"

"There's his problem, Moony, Prongs doesn't think logically," Sirius spoke again picking at the black nail polish that Marlene had painted there.

"If you're thinking logically," Remus continued with a glare at Sirius, "then all you have to do is not give her a reason to hate you."

"But, what if I royally screw it all up?" James asked with actual fear in his eyes.

"Which is a real possi-"

"Screw off, Sirius! Your best mate is having a crisis here and you're not even trying to help! You're not even being funny anymore! Just downright cruel!" Remus said losing his patience and temper.

"Fine, I'll leave then," Sirius said grabbing his leather jacket off his bed, Remus sighed defeatedly.

"James, go take a shower, Pete, help him not self-destruct," Remus said picking himself up off his own bed.

"Where are you going?" Peter asked.

"I'm going to go get Sirius before he royally screws something up and apologize. I might not be back for a while," he said, walking out the door.

...

Lily stepped out of the steaming bathroom with the previously mentioned outfit on, minus the gogo boots, and a towel wrapped around her hair.

A smile was on her face as the sunshine seeped through her bedroom window and everything was perfectly normal for the four seventh-years. There were no feuds between them, no upcoming exams wracking their thoughts. It was just a perfect Halloween.

"Alright, what look are you carrying out today?" Lily asked sitting at the vanity chair, which also doubled as her desk chair.

"I'm thinking just some light concealer. You seem to be really glowy and confident on your own and I wouldn't want to mess that up," Marlene said with an airy-tone.

"I'm just going to do two braided space buns. Simple yet effective," Mary spoke from behind Lily having already started to section her hair.

There was a loud knock at the door that almost sounded angry that greatly contrasted the atmosphere the girls had surrounded themself in. Alice got up and answered the door, only to see a sad Sirius standing there. The four girls' eyes immediately widened.

"What happened, Sirius?" Marlene asked as Alice guided him to a seat on Lily's bed.

"I was being a proper shithead and Remus called me out on it, but he was rather harsh and-" Lily cut him off wanting to understand the full story.

"What were you being a proper shithead about?" She asked with an eyebrow raised.

Mary continued to braid her hair while listening, but seeing as he was upset and was her boyfriend, Marlene had ceased all attention on Lily's makeup.

"Sirius," Marlene warned because he had better say the truth.

"James was fretting about your date and I was saying pessimist shit rather than being supportive and apparently I went a little too overboard," Sirius spoke quiet yet precisely, and Marlene promptly whacked him on the back of his head.

"Sirius, did you really think it was such a great idea to be so pessimistic on a day that James has been waiting for perhaps since third-year?" Lily blushed at Marlene's question.

"No, no it wasn't," Sirius said facepalming.

Remus started slow clapping because the girls had probably saved him a lot of lost brain cells and time, time he would rather spend doing other, more productive things.

"I owe an apology to you. I'm sorry for being so harsh to you, Sirius, but can you please just watch your words next time?" Remus said.

Before Sirius could even accept the apology, Alice shooed them both out the door.

"Lily has a date to get ready for. Go help your own best mate!" She said before closing the door right in front of them.

"Wow, not even a pleasant good-bye," Sirius said sarcastically, Remus then snorted.

...

Hogsmeade was canceled for some bullshitted reason that Doodledorf called "weather." The Marauders all knew that it wasn't for the weather as it had been a sunny day with a few gusts of wind here and there.

Lily was upset because even though she and James were dating and part of her liked the idea of sneaking around with him while no one else knew, the other part wanted everyone else to know because she wanted to give all of the Potter-Black Fan Club smug looks. It was petty of her, that she knew, but she really could not help herself.

James abruptly got up from his seat next to her in the Great Hall, of which the ceiling had been changed to show more dismal weather ever since the Hogsmeade trip had been canceled, and he was about to stand up on the Gryffindor table when Lily gave him a warning look.

"Don't do anything stupid," she said with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm only going to deal with the rumors preemptively," he winked and stood up on top of the table.

Lily and James had decided together that they had not cared whether people knew about their relationship or not because people would always talk. Yet, Sirius had offered to hex them all so that their tongues were stuck to the rooves of their mouths, but Lily had strongly advised against that action.

People started to realize that the head boy was standing on the table. Minnie had even made a move to get him off the table, but Doodledorf had expressed that he wanted to see where the boy would take his awaited speech.

His friends had mixed reactions, however the most embarrassed was probably Lily as she had finally worked out what he meant by "going to deal with the rumors preemptively." In his defense, it was not that bad of an idea because their relationship was bound to get out eventually.

"Hello everyone," James started out with a smirk down at Lily, who had begun to die of laughter. "I would like to address something that you may not think that important, but since our canceled Hogsmeade trip, I thought I could brighten things up with some - er - good news."

The entire Great Hall waited with bated breath as they had all watched Lily and James's relationship blossom before their eyes. Some had their suspicions and others could simply care less, but it certainly was a win for the Gryffindor house.

"I am dating Lily Evans and no, I did not give her a love potion."

There were equal whoops of cheer and disgust as students exchanged galleons from bets that had been made long ago. Some students were still skeptical and one Hufflepuff even shouted at James to give them proof.

"You want proof? Here's your bloody proof!" He yelled back kissing Lily in front of everyone, which caused more whoops with wolf whistles thrown in by a certain Sirius Black.

"Git," Lily said with a smile as they ran out of the Great Hall together, happiness radiating off of her every step.

...

A Gryffindor tradition since before the Marauders had even entered the school and had all gotten sorted into Gryffindor, was the Halloween party in the common room that any and every student in Hogwarts was invited to.

It had taken a while for the group to decide on their respective costumes until they had finally chosen something that made sense and wasn't something along the lines of a hippogriff, which was suggested many times by two particular people.

Lily and James quickly slid into their costumes after running from the Great Hall, so that they would not miss the beginning of the party, while the rest of their group had gotten ready within their dorms. By the time Lily and James actually arrived in the common room, the three other Marauders had already gotten back from their trips to the Kitchens and The Three Broomsticks.

I was working in the lab, late one night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight

Monster Mash blared throughout the room as James pulled Lily behind him, trying to make their way through the crowd of dancing people, which resulted in a few stepped on toes and elbows to their ribs, but other than that, the two had made it over to their friends.

"Watch out! It's the two other police officers!" Sirius said in his own criminal getup.

They had decided to split the group into prefects and non-prefects, ultimately choosing to make the prefects police officers and the non-prefects criminals.

Before Lily could even laugh at Sirius's enthusiasm, Marlene had pulled her along with Alice onto the dance floor to dance to the end of the Monster Mash.

Then you can mash, you can monster mash
The monster mash and do my graveyard smash

Euphoric feelings hung like the half-assed Halloween decorations Remus and Sirius had made despite the obvious disappointment of not being able to go to Hogsmeade. Everything was fine and for the first time in a long, long time, Lily forgot about everything around her and just let go.

She would be able to sort her home life out. She would be able to study for the Charms quiz. She would be able to live a long and healthy life with James by her side. But, for now, all she was worried about was what song was going to play next.

...

Author's Note:

If you didn't know already, the song was Monster Mash, although it would be kind of depressing if you didn't know that because

A) I wrote the song name in there twice!!!

B) It would mean you didn't know the song Monster Mash, which would be a complete tragedy.

I really did not like this chapter all that much, but I was stuck at one thousand words for a while, so I didn't end up scratching it for fear I would not be able to update in time.

We've still got a while before anything major happens in the plot, so enjoy some fluff and filler chapters. I figured it was the least I could do.

Lmao anyways thanks for reading
-teddy⏳