A/N: For Round 3 of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, submitted by Beater 1 of the Appleby Arrows. Prompts: (word) hardened and (poem) A Lament by Oscar Wilde.

O well for him who lives at ease
With garnered gold in wide domain,
Nor heeds the splashing of the rain,
The crashing down of forest trees. -
O well for him who ne'er hath known
The travail of the hungry years,
A father grey with grief and tears,
A mother weeping all alone. -
But well for him whose feet hath trod
The weary road of toil and strife,
Yet from the sorrows of his life
Builds ladders to be nearer God.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the skin on my back.

It never cease to amaze Lily Evans Potter how little Wizards and Witches knew about the world, whether it be Muggle or nature related. And in that situation, it was because of the latter.

"James, Sirius, how in the world have you gone twenty years without knowing what a volcano was!" She exclaimed, surprised as she put her Muggle newspaper down on the counter.

The boys in question were in the kitchen with Lily. James was attempting to make coffee and Sirius was sitting on top of the counter, so close to the stove (the idiot) and he didn't even notice that his jeans were starting to blacken. That was probably because James and Sirius were too busy looking at Lily with blank stares on their face and a shrug on their shoulders.

"Why would we? It's not as if they're vulcans in England!" Sirius said.

Lily rolled her eyes, "Honestly," she started, "They're called volcanos, not vulcans. And anyway, just because there's none in England, doesn't mean there's not in other countries near us. Actually, I'm fairly sure that Italy and Switzerland have at least one..."

"Lils, where exactly are you going with this?" James, Lily's husband, asked. Lily huffed and grabbed the newspaper off of the counter, practically shoving it into his face.

"Mt. St. Helen's has erupted! It hasn't even shown much activity within the last century, let alone erupt! This is big for scientists! Now they have advanced enough technology for the first time to actually study the volcano. It's rather incredible, actually. If only you two were able to get your head's out of your butts, then maybe you'd understand what I'm saying." Lily finished, feeling flushed, considering she had used huge arm gestures to explain.

"Isn't your mother's name Helen?" Sirius asked about a minute after Lily was done. Turning red, Lily didn't even get the chance to tell Sirius off for his ignorance, when another voice chimed in.

"Why yes it is. Please give her my regards, Lily," Remus Lupin said as he stepped out of the blazing green fire. He scourgified himself and then took a seat on the stool next to Lily, raising an eyebrow. "Hello all. May I inquire why we are talking about Lily's mum?" he asked.

Lily rolled her eyes, again. "These dwindles don't know what a volcano is. What do they teach Wizards, Remus?" she asked, knowing that Remus, being a half-blood, received Muggle Primary school education. Although, even if he hadn't, he would probably still know what a volcano was. It was Remus for Merlin's sake.

Remus let out a soft laugh and shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted, "But the fact that they have the galls to think us beneath them? It's ridiculous." Lily nodded in agreement, and James and Sirius sported slightly amused and slightly offended looks on their faces.

"Well Moony, can't say I agree with you on that! But to change the subject without anyone noticing, where's Wormtail?" Sirius asked, jumping off of the counter/stove area.

"Peter said that he might be a littl- SIRIUS YOU'RE ON FIRE!" Lily, just as surprised with her own outburst as the others were, closed her gaping mouth and reached for her wand. "Aguamenti," she said, but instead of hitting Sirius on his aflame buttocks, she hit him in his face.

Barely noticing that his head was drenched in water, Sirius was struggling big time trying to pat down the flames on his butt. "Ow, ow, ow! Get it off! GET IT OFF!" He cried whilst running around the kitchen.

"Padfoot, I think you mean put it out," James, who was no help at all, told him.

Lily tried again, making sure that she was aiming her wand at his butt with cries of "Hold still, hold still!" coming out of her mouth. "Aguamenti." Her wand shot out another line of water, which did hit it's target. Now that the fire was out, Sirius made a move to take off his pants. The act left him standing in Lily and James's kitchen, pant less, showing his cauldron cake covered boxers.

"You know," Remus started thoughtfully, putting a hand to his chin, "That's sort of what a volcano's like. When it begins, anyways. I'm pretty sure the ash rising up from it rains down and whatever it lands on, it catches it on fire."

"Well," Lily countered, "There's a lot more to a volcano exploding, but yeah, that's what happens if you get hit by the falling ash. For example, when the lava starts to cool off, it hardens, and leaves behind a beautiful, obsidian rock."

Both Sirius and James grimaced at each other, and raised their eyebrows. "Er, sounds painful and deadly," James said, he walked over to be behind Lily and put his arms around stomach, leaning his chin on her shoulder.

"It's a good thing we don't live near any volcanos, that would not be good for the baby."

"Woohoo! Get it Prongs!"

"Baby! Why didn't you guys tell us earlier?!"

"JAMES!" Lily turned around and slapped him lightly on his chest. "You weren't supposed to tell them yet!" she said in a hash whisper. James shrugged, "I couldn't way any longer, Lils, sorry." Lily, in response, rolled her eyes for the third time that day.

"Have you guys thought of any names yet?" Remus asked while giving a congratulatory hug to Lily.

"I think you should name it Joking," Sirius, not seriously, said.

"Pigs will fly before I name my child Joking," Lily, quite seriously, replied.

Although Sirius and James were confused by the Muggle expression, Remus spoke up. "Actually, with the levitation spell pigs can fly. Good old magic, right there," the smart aleck said.

Lily groaned and put a hand to her head, massaging her temple. The three idiots were not attempting to stifle their laughters either, which made it worse. Then they suddenly went silent, the only sound was the pitter patter of the rain starting to come down. It was England, after all.

"Helen," James suddenly said.

"Helen?" Three voices asked him.

James continued, "If it's a girl, we should name her Helen, after your mother." He clapped his hands together as if it was the most obvious thing.

"And what if it's a boy?" Remus asked. James and Lily looked thoughtful, until Lily spoke up.

"Charles, after your dad-"

"No. Definitely not Charles," James interrupted, not noticing the face Lily was making at him. Sirius and Remus, however, were laughing very hard.

"What? Why not?" she asked. James shook his head at her and was rubbing his eyes. "I am not going to have kids call him Chuck, or Chucky, or whatever weird nicknames-" Lily scoffed at this "-they come up with. Just no."

"Coming from the boy whose nickname is Prongs, and calls his friends Moony, Wormtail, and Padfoot," Lily said, the boys waved their hands dismissively at her.

"May I remind you that I am not a boy, and I just don't think we need another Charles Harry Potter in the family," James added.

Lily squeaked and broke out into a huge smile, "Harry! No, James, we have to name him Harry! Oh, what if we have twins, one boy and one girl? We could name them Harry and Helen, oh how adorable!"

James titled his head and nodded, pretending to be in deep thought. "Yes, I actually like the name Harry very much. If it ends up being a boy, and we still like the name in six months, let's name him that." Lily smiled warmly at him and moved to cuddle up to his side.

"Imagine what Helen would say when she found out she was named after my mother and a volcano," Lily said.

"Let's just hope she never finds out," James replied, putting his arm around Lily. Sirius loudly sighed and Remus jokingly cooed at the cute couple.

"Lily, Prongs, Moony," Sirius began, a couple minutes later.

"Yes?"

"Can we go visit Helen?" He finished.

"Helen as in person, or as in volcano?" James asked.

"Both. Maybe at the same time, who knows what could happen in the company of the Marauders, plus Lily, plus Lily's mum, plus a vulcan."

"It's a volcano, Sirius."

The four friends spent the rest of the night enjoying each other's company, and creating memories that, unfortunately, only half of them would have for about a year and a half.

While in family and friends in Britain were laughing about what was going on in Washington, halfway across the world there were people struggling to get to safety. They had no time for laughing, as they were mourning everything they lost in the ashes, flames, and lava- their treasures and their loved ones.