Remus's eyes were blinded by the bright sun flowing into the dorm room. The gentle snoring from Sirius's bed and the lack of snoring for peters suggested that he and James had gone to quidditch practice.
“RISE AND SHINE MOONY” sang Sirius opening the curtains causing even more sun in Remus's eyes.
“Five more minutes” groaned the brunette rolling over to block the aggressive beams.
“Remus it's 10:30” Sirius moaned dramatically crossing his arms. Remus begrudgingly got out of bed to get ready in the bathroom.
with a freshly washed face, brushed hair, and minty breath Remus tiredly pulled his nightshirt off displaying his scarred chest. The door behind him opened with a loud bang.
“Any of you lot up for a picnic” Remus jumped, quickly shoving a tee-shirt on before turning around.
“Could you not have knocked lily?” Remus grumbled somewhat irritated at the loss of privacy.
“Ignore him he just woke up and gets grumpy if he hasn't eaten for more than two hours” Sirius smirked, Remus whacked him on the back
“Anyway, James and peter won't be back till this afternoon but dear Remus and I would love to go” the ravenette smiled mischievously aware of Remus’ plans to do excess studying all day.
“But I was gonna-”
“GREAT MARY MARLENE AND I WILL SEE YOU OUTSIDE THE GREAT HALL IN 20” lily ran off before Remus could refuse the picnic offering.
“I hate you two so much” Remus rolled his eyes smiling.
“Make sure you bring the record player down”
Remus let out a satisfied smile as he watched Sirius try to haul the record player down the 20 odd flights of stairs between the entrance and Gryffindor tower, after a couple of minutes Remus felt a wave of empathy and enchanted the muggle contraption to float next to the other boys head, enchanting the records he was holding to do the same.
“Come on Sirius your a 6th year and didn't think of levitating the darn thing, it was only the first thing we learned in school” Remus laughed. Sirius pretended to scowl the whole way down.
“TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH” Mary yelled across the Hogwarts entryway.
“Someone forgot that he could levitate stuff instead of carrying it around everywhere” Remus replied rolling his eyes
“Well Someone else insisted that I needed to bring the record player” Sirius poked his tongue out.
“Well, I'm insisting that we get a move on before the lemonade we got goes cold” Marlene sighed gesturing to the basket levitating at her waist.
“Where the hell did you get lemonade” Sirius gawked.
“The kitchens?” Mary rolled her eyes
“Duh”
“No, I mean how did you, oh never mind it doesn't matter I wanna go eat,” Remus said walking out towards the lake, getting about 30 meters down the hill before stopping.
“Where exactly did you wanna have the picnic” lily just smiled.
“Somewhere really fucking cool”.
The ‘really fucking cool” spot lily had in mind turned out to be quite a trek.
Remus and Sirius complained the whole way while Mary and Marlene laughed at their suffering and annoyance at being left in the dark. Throw in Lily’s “oh don't worry your gonna love it” or her “I promise you it's gonna be worth the walk” every couple of trips made Remus incredibly excited when lily finally stopped at the edge of the lake.
“Oh my god please tell me it's over, we made it, YES” Sirius pumped his fist into the air and flopped down onto the soft grass below.
“Oh no not here,” lily said barely containing her excitement.
“It's over there” she pointed towards one of the smaller islands completely covered in spring green trees and colorful flowers. Sirius laughed,
“How the hell are we supposed to get over there?”. Lily just rolled her eyes. She knelt down and pulled a tree work nestled deep into the mud of the river bank. The ground below the 5 teenagers slowly opened up revealing a passageway leading to the island.
“Lily” Remus started
“You are so fucking cool”
“Awhh don't worry I know” she sarcastically bragged.
The tunnel was sweet-smelling and mossy, dotted with glowworms displaying a cool blue luminescent light perfectly clashing against the moss and various cave flowers. Remus picked up a rather large coral-colored flower, the bulbous flora inclined before puffing out a lemony scent. Mary laughed at Remus's stunned face picking a flower herself to spray over her clothing.
“Do you think these are all magical?” Sirius gushed leaning forward to inspect a patch of moss covered with what looked like glittery lilacs.
“Most of them seem to be” Marlene speculated, she was the only one who had taken NEWT herbology. the blond picked up a small chunk of moss to examine closer,
“I don't think the moss does anything cool though” she concluded somewhat disappointingly.
Lily set down a rosy picnic rug onto the island grass and started to unpack the picnic basket while Sirius set up the record player.
“Did you bring abba?” mary asked enthusiastically. Remus silently dug through his
Bag producing a record of arrival that andromeda had gifted Sirius. She squealed, grabbing the record and excitedly putting it on the now spinning record player. Lily laid out an assortment of sandwiches and a pitcher of lemonade on the rug, sitting back to admire the island's magical beauty, the island was a lot more discreet about its magic than the cave had been but looking closely, the grass seemed a little too green, the daisies a little too pungent, and the daffodils a little too fluffy. The group was covered by a canopy of evergreen willow trees that from afar looked perfectly normal however up close had a shimmery blue shine to them.
“We HAVE to come back here” Sirius noted.
“Obviously” Marlene laughed.
“You really think lily’s gonna stumble upon a sanctuary like this once and then never come back of course were gonna come back here” Mary added
Lily laughed taking a sip of lemonade.
“Shame I only found it yesterday would've been really cool if I had found it in the first year so we would have 7 whole years of enjoyment”.
“I say we make do with the year and I bit we have to enjoy and then end of next year we can tell some first years to keep a tradition alive” Remus mused
“Only the most courageous and deserving I hope,” Sirius said in a high and mighty noble house of black voice
“Why of course Sirius dear” Marlene responded matching the boy's flamboyant tone,
“Very very well McKinnon” Sirius replied not wanting to be outdone.
“Chocolate anyone” Remus chimed in making a great show of trying to diffuse the faux tension.
“Oh, why of course dear Remus” Mary picked up a square from Remus’ hand popping it into her mouth.
With that lily burst into a fit of giggles clenching her stomach so as to not throw up.
“You're all too much I swear” she exclaimed in between laughs.
“And don't you love us for it” Sirius winked at the redhead.
“Quite” she responded in a haughty voice not quite managing to master Sirius's own. With her meager attempt, the rest of the group exploded into fits of laughter. Continued the laugh and joke the whole afternoon watching the sunset over the lake before finally packing up. The five waved goodbye to Lily’s island all agreeing that they needed to return soon, and all agreeing to brag to James, Dorcas, and Pete all through dinner about their afternoon adventures.