For Quidditch League, round 4. The Keepers had to start and end their fic with the same word, and it had to be a preposition.

Muggle!AU of Lily and James' death.

In the house were three people: A messy-haired man with round glasses, a woman with fiery hair and a bright gaze, and a baby with his mother's eyes. All three of these people were alive.

A few hours later, only one was left.

Under the cape was a man. His skin was white as chalk, and under the streetlights, his dark eyes appeared almost red. He, too, was alive.

A few hours later, this was not quite true.

On the roof were two men. One had shaggy, black hair and wore a smirk; the other had light brown hair and doleful eyes. And by the end of the night, neither had died.

"Are you sure we should be up here, Sirius?" the brown-haired man asked nervously. The other rolled his eyes.

"How many times do I have to tell you? No one cares, Remus."

"Your mother might, if she gets home."

Sirius laughed coldly. "I don't think my mother is capable of care, Remus. If anything, she'll hope I fall off the roof to my death. But let's remain optimistic, shall we? She isn't going to be home until tomorrow night, so until then, we have it all to ourselves."

"And Lily and James," Remus added. "And Peter, if he can get off work in time."

"I said we're remaining optimistic. Meaning that something will interfere in our friends' lives so that, I repeat, we will have the whole house to ourselves. Now come on, are we going to have a romantic, late-night, rooftop picnic or not?"

"Alright, alright," he amended, reaching into the bag of food and pulling something out at random. "Er... lollipop?"

Sirius smirked. "Not my favourite use of the tongue at the moment."

"Sirius- oh!" he mumbled as Sirius pounced on him, quick as a fox. He pinned him to the top of the roof and Remus allowed himself a small sigh as Sirius leaned down and kissed him on the neck.

"C'mon, Remus," Sirius murmured, his voice nearly a growl, tilting Remus' head up so he could kiss him. Remus kissed him back, his whole body on edge, and allowed them to topple forward, one on top of the other, until Sirius let out a screech.

"Edge of the roof," he gasped. "Shit, that was close." A brief silence ensued, and Remus felt his cheeks grow warm.

"How 'bout that picnic?" he said quickly, this time making sure to extract a sandwich from the bag.

"Yeah. Right." Sirius nodded, lazily making his way back up the roof, when a loud sound from beneath them nearly caused him to lose his footing. "HOLY-"

"Just the doorbell, Sirius," Remus laughed. "It's Halloween, remember?"

"Well, kid's out of luck," he said. "HEY, KID! I HEARD THREE HOUSES DOWN THEY HAVE THE BIG CHOCOLATE BARS." The poor child looked up in fear, and, unable to find the source of the voice, immediately bolted down the street. "Well, my work here is done."

"Mmhm," Remus mumbled through a mouthful of sandwich, staring at it intently.

"Hey, are you... Oh my god, Remus Lupin, are you eating your sandwich into the shape of a pumpkin?"

Remus looked up, stricken, like a deer in headlights. "I-I suppose it's possible?"

Sirius laughed, shaking his head. "Happy Halloween, Remus."

"We should totally take Harry out trick-or-treating, Lils. I could use your makeup and dress him up like a zombie, it would be creepy as-"

"James, no." Her voice made it clear that this was not the first time they had had this conversation. "He's hardly a year old, what would he get out of it?"

"Lots of chocolate he could give to Daddy?"

"For goodness sake, James, drive to the store and buy yourself some chocolate. You don't have to drag the baby into it. And besides," she added, lowering her voice, "I heard there was a suspicious looking man on the loose. There were some pretty frightening reports about him. I'd feel much better if we were all inside, safe."

Now James looked more concerned, and reached for his wife's hand. "Do you know what he looks like?"

"Pale skin, dark eyes...Well, he's wearing a black cape-"

"Well, that certainly narrows it down on Halloween, doesn't it?"

Lily shook her head at him, but she was smiling as she leaned over to kiss his cheek. At that moment, two things happened: the doorbell rang and Harry burst into tears.

"I've got Harry, can you get the door?" Lily sounded slightly frazzled as she rushed over to pick up the tearful baby, but she smiled at him all the same as she rocked him back and forth.

"Happy Hallo-" The door slammed shut and Lily was just able to see a pale, thin man with narrow fingers reaching into his pocket. "Lily! It's him!"

She started rushing toward the door, but James must have heard her, because he raced toward his wife and gasped, "Take Harry and run." Steady footsteps entered the house. "I can-" BANG. Thud. Lily felt her heart stop. The footsteps grew nearer. Desperate, she practically threw Harry into his cot as she flung out her arms to shield him. BANG. Thud. BANG. Lily hit the ground, and in the instant after, a third bullet was shot. But the moment it should have hit Harry, something happened. It was impossible to know what, exactly, but the cloaked man crumpled to the ground, and Harry continued to flail around, unharmed.

"Mum-muh?"

"Lovely night for a picnic," Remus remarked, lying on his back.

"Yeah." Sirius fumbled for Remus' hand.

"Thank god Lily and James didn't show up like they threatened," Remus laughed. "I wouldn't have wanted-"

He broke off as Sirius sat up abruptly, jerking his hand away from Remus'.

"I- sorry, did I say-" Remus flushed, clearly embarrassed, but Sirius was too preoccupied to notice.

"Something's wrong."

"You mean-"

"With James and Lily. Just trust me. Get down. We have to go."

Remus lay in place for a moment, clearly confused, but Sirius yanked him up urgently.

"Now."

They reached the Potters' house mere minutes later, and Sirius leapt out of the car before it was fully stopped. He raced toward the door, and when he reached it, he heard a child's sobbing inside. Lifting a fist, he started banging on the door. Remus joined him moments later.

"JAMES!" Sirius screamed. "JAMES? LILY? LET ME IN!" Remus, his face full of worry, gently rubbed Sirius' back as he continued to scream and bang on the door.

Needless to say, no one let him in.