"I'll do the talking this time," Lily said to James with a very serious voice. "Don't say anything."

"But I just-"

"You got us all kicked out, James," Alice deadpanned, and Frank nodded. "You can't just walk up to the movie screen and start yelling at it. You're not special, James."

Ana snorted, but coughed to cover it up when James glared at her.

Standing right outside the theatre door, the group seemed to look relatively normal. Except for Ivy and Sage's odd choices of a Scottish kilt... and ponchos.

When they walked into the theatre, Lily gave James one long look before talking to the person at the ticket stand.

"Hi, we'd like 10 tickets to The Aristocats," Lily said politely.

"That'd be £28," said the person at the stand blandly.

Lily reached into her purse and placed the amount of money needed onto the counter.

"And 3 large popcorns," Ana said from the back of their cluster.

"3 large popcorns would be £12," said the theatre staff. "Anything else I can get you today?"

"Butterbe-" James was about to say, when Lily kicked his shin subtly. 

"The butter pumps are over there," the theatre staff said, stifling a yawn. They slid 10 red tickets onto the countertop. "Here are your tickets, and what is your name?"

"Lily," she said, taking the tickets, and tucking them into her purse. 

"Alright," the staff said, pushing into a couple of numbers at their register. "You're good to go. Tell them for your name in the back, and your popcorn should be ready. Enjoy the movie!"

"Thank you," Lily said politely, strutting over to the concession stand in the back. 

The group stayed huddled next to the ticket stand while Lily collected their huge buckets of popcorn.

Marlene rushed to her side to hold one of them.

"I didn't think they'd be this large!" Ana said, eyes widening, also rushing to their aid. She threw a piece of popcorn in her mouth. "Mm. They're pretty good. Let's get a pump of butter."

James, Ivy, and Sage, the only purebloods there (apart from Alice, who had already learnt all this from Lily and Marlene), were awestruck. "You put butter on that?"

Sirius, Remus, and Peter exchanged a glance, and shook their heads.

"No," said Peter.

"They drink butter like shots," Remus said.

"Butter whiskey is the best," Sirius said, smacking his lips.

"No," Alice said loudly. "We're not doing this. Peter, Sirius, Remus, stop teasing them. James, Ivy, Sage, butter just makes the popcorn taste better. And yes, popcorn is just corn thrown into the microwave for 20 minutes."

~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~

After the movie, they all walked home under the blazing sun.

"That was so good," James said excitedly.

"Can we go again?" Ivy asked.

"Please?" Sage pleaded.

"Calm down," Marlene chuckled. "Those things cost money. You can't just get free admission."

"Can we watch the previews for free?" James asked.

"No, James," Lily said with a grin. "The previews aren't even apart of the movie- why'd you like them so much?"

"Because they were so cool!" said James.

"Previews are pretty good," Remus and Ana chorused. Then they turned to each other and high-fived mid strut.

The rest of the walk back to James' house, the group stayed pretty quiet. Until finally, Frank spoke up.

"Do you guys ever wonder if the You-Know-Who situation will ever end?"

Another moment of silence. "I hope," Sirius said.

"Hope isn't a thing a lot of people have anymore," Peter said sadly.

"I agree," said Ana. "So far, it's only been people we've only heard of. Not anyone we know personally. What if something like that happened to any of us?"

Now they were silent for the entire trip back.

Frank glanced down towards Alice, who was standing next to him, when in turn, she was looking up at him.

They shared a nervous glance and clutched each other's hands tightly.

Even Ivy and Sage, the least serious of the group, exchanged a sad look with one another. 

None of them might ever even get hurt by Voldemort, or killed!

But they all knew that their hopes weren't reaching very far.

Hope you guys enjoyed the- um- moderately happy chapter!

Thanks for reading!

- Jui W.