Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, favorite, or followed "The Trial of Peter Pettigrew"! This story is going to be a bit different than my other two stories. This will be more like a series of one-shots instead of continuous chapters. These one-shots will cover the time in between the fall of Voldemort and Harry's time at Hogwarts. Thanks for reading!

I own nothing.

Chapter 1: The Morning After

The first thing that James noticed when he woke up was his pounding head. Nausea hit him as he rolled over and buried his face in the pillow. He realized then that his head wasn't the only part of his body that hurt; in fact, there were parts of his body that hurt that he hadn't expected to.

He suddenly regretted going out to the Muggle pub the night before with his friends. He hadn't had that much to drink in a very long time. It was Sirius' fault, really. Sirius had always been the drinker of the Marauders. And he had been the one to suggest going to the pub in the first place.

James wasn't quite sure what all they had done the night before. He remembered toasting his and Lily's new house. And Sirius' new girlfriend. And Remus' new job. And after he announced that Lily was pregnant again, they had toasted that. But about halfway through their night at the pub, James' memory became incredibly hazy.

He got out of his bed, hoping to go downstairs to get a hangover potion when he noticed the white bandage taped to a certain part of his body. And he froze.

He had never wanted a tattoo. He had gone with Sirius and Remus when they had gotten tattoos the summer after their seventh year, and it had not looked pleasant to him. In fact, it had looked incredibly painful. But he recognized the white bandage on his body as being the same as the ones that had covered his friends' tattoos. And a feeling of dread filled him.

No. I didn't get a drunken tattoo. I couldn't have. Surely I didn't.

But he realized that the area underneath the bandage was sore, and he knew that he had.

Crap! Lily's going to kill me. I'm supposed to be a responsible adult with a baby and another on the way. I'm not supposed to be getting drunken tattoos!

James ran his hands through his hair. Quickly he put on his clothes and shoes from the night before and ran down the stairs. He had to see Sirius. Maybe he could offer some insight into what had happened the night before.

He had expected to find Sirius at his own home, but instead, he found him passed out on his living room floor. It wasn't the first time that Sirius had stayed over at the Potters' house after a night of drinking. James didn't see Remus, but judging by the pillow and blanket on the couch, he guessed that the werewolf had spent the night as well.

James snorted before going over to his best friend's side. He shook his shoulder and called his name, but past experience had taught him that this rarely worked. So, taking his wand out of his pocket (he was quite surprised that it was still there), he took a step back and shot a stream of water at his friend.

Sirius jumped awake and cursed. "What the h-"

"Good morning to you too, sunshine," James said, smirking.

"You'd better have a real good reason for waking me up, Prongs." Sirius sent his death glare at him, but James just rolled his eyes.

"I do have a good reason, actually," he said. "I was hoping you could clarify for me what exactly happened last night."

Sirius pulled himself onto the couch and sat, his forehead crinkled in thought. "Nope. Don't think I can help you out there, Prongsie. Why?"

James cleared his throat before checking to make sure the door to the room was closed. Then, not meeting his friend's eye, he showed him the bandage.

Sirius immediately burst out laughing. He clutched his stomach, and even though James was rather annoyed at the moment and his head still pounded from the hangover, he chuckled.

"What do you want to bet you have a new one too?" James asked, and Sirius sobered. He moved his clothes around. James started laughing when an identical white bandage was visible. It was in the same spot as his own bandage, and he knew that they had gotten the same tattoo.

"I know we're brothers and all that, Prongs, mate, but I'm not really one for matching tattoos," Sirius joked.

The door to the room opened and James started, afraid that it was his wife. H didn't want to see her until he had a very good explanation as to why he'd gotten a tattoo, and he didn't think that "Sorry, darling, but I was very drunk" was going to cut it.

But it wasn't Lily; it was Remus. Who stood just inside the door, smirking.

"I see you found your souvenirs from last night," Remus said with a glint of humor in his eyes.

"Let me guess, you didn't get one?" Sirius asked.

Remus laughed. "No. Definitely not. Unlike you two, I was relatively sober last night, and I refrained from getting a tattoo matching yours."

James didn't think it was as funny as Remus seemed to. "If you were relatively sober, then why in Merlin's name did you not stop us from doing this?" He gestured towards the bandage.

Remus scowled at him. "I did try, but you punched me."

James' eyes opened wide. He could see now that Remus was sporting a black eye, and guilt shot through him. He opened his mouth to apologize, but Remus waved his hand to stop him.

"At least you didn't puke on me, like some people." This time the scowl was shot at Sirius, who simply smiled.

Remus shook his head. James sank down onto the couch, and Remus sat down on Sirius' other side.

"Moony?"

"Yeah, Prongs?"

"What's the tattoo of?" James was almost afraid to know the answer. He hoped that he had been the one to choose the tattoo. Even drunk, he was confident in his ability to choose something fairly reasonable. However, if Sirius had chosen the tattoo, it was probably something either incredibly stupid or highly inappropriate. The tattoos that Sirius had gotten in the past were fine, but they had been chosen when Sirius had been completely sober. James was worried about what was now on his body.

Remus laughed. "You mean you haven't looked at them yet?"

James shook his head while Sirius answered. "I just woke up. Well, Prongs just woke me up, specifically. That's why I'm covered in water. He thought it'd be a good idea to spray water at me." Sirius scowled.

"Well, you won't wake up any other way. Besides, aren't you a wizard? There's this little thing called 'a drying charm' that you could use."

"Oh yeah," Sirius said, pulling out his wand and drying himself.

James rolled his eyes. "Anyway… the tattoos, Moony?"

"They're of our prints," Remus said. He continued when he saw the confused looks on Sirius' and James' faces. "I mean, Moony's, Padfoot's, and Prongs' prints."

James' mouth dropped open. His first tattoo and he got hoof and paw prints?
"Is it a Muggle tattoo or magical?" Sirius asked.

"Magical."

"So… let me get this straight. Prongs and I got matching tattoos… of our prints running around on our…" Sirius trailed off before he suddenly stood.

"Padfoot, what are you doing?" James asked. He was growing increasingly concerned as Sirius began to remove clothing.

"I don't believe Moony. We wouldn't be that stupid. But the only way to find out for sure is to look." Sirius paused before removing the bandage. "Here goes nothing."

James stared at his friend's body. With dread, he saw that Remus had not been lying. Three sets of hoof and paw prints were chasing each other across Sirius'…

"Prongs?"

"Yeah, Pads… Um, Moony was telling the truth. We really were that stupid."

James looked over to Remus, who was trying (and failing) to contain his laughter. Suddenly, the werewolf snorted and soon all of the Marauders were laughing.

"Sirius! What are you doing?!" The laughter ended abruptly at the sound of Lily's voice. She was standing in the doorway, staring at Sirius. Her face was rapidly turning as red as her hair.

"Morning, Evans!" Sirius exclaimed, never one to be embarrassed.

Lily quickly diverted her attention to James. "What is going on here?"
James swallowed hard. He wasn't prepared to face his wife. "N-nothing, love. Just- well-"

Lily narrowed her eyes suspiciously before moving to join James on the couch. When she saw what James had been looking at seconds before, she burst out laughing.

"You… you can't be serious?! You got a tattoo of your animal prints… on your bum?!" Lily was clutching her side in laughter, and James nervously chuckled along with her.

Anytime now, she'll realize that I have one too. Anytime. In 3… 2… 1…

Right on cue, Lily stopped laughing and turned to stare at James. "Please, please tell me that this wasn't something that you and Sirius did together. Please, James?"
James shrugged sheepishly, and Lily's mouth dropped opened.

"We were drunk?" James said, wishing that he had something better to say.

"Is it the exact same tattoo? In the same place?" Lily asked.

James could feel his cheeks reddening. While Sirius could stand in front of his best friend's wife with his pants around his ankles and not blush, James had a lower tolerance for embarrassment.

"Um..."

"Yes, it is," Remus piped up.

"And what about you?" Lily asked, turning on Remus.

He chuckled. "I don't have one, Lils. I was more sober than they were. And before you ask, I did try to stop them. But then James punched me and I decided to sit back and let them do what they wanted."

"And laugh at them the next morning?" Lily asked, her eyebrow raised.

Remus smirked. "Exactly."

James saw the telltale twitch of her mouth before Lily started laughing again.

"Are you angry?" James asked cautiously.

She shook her head. "No. I guess I'm not. There's nothing we can do about it now, anyway."

James kissed her on the cheek. "Thanks, love. And I promise that I will never be so stupid ever again."

Lily cupped James' face with her hands. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Potter."

James didn't really appreciate the way his friends laughed at that. He rolled his eyes as Lily started walking towards the door.

"I came to tell you that breakfast is ready. James? Can you get Harry?"

"Of course."

"And Sirius?"

"Yes?"

"Pull up your pants, please."

Sirius laughed and obeyed. Once he was fully clothed, he sank back down onto the couch. "That's wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

James rolled his eyes but had to agree with his friend.