Nodding in agreement with Harry's appraisal, he felt the tension of the past few days starting to ebb. There was just something carefree about the place, it just smacked of summer. Of long days, warm nights, and no responsibilities apart from trying to keep track of your mates.
"I think Sirius found it, summer after sixth year," he answered while trying to recall that hazy morning in greater detail. Or had it been afternoon? "Either way, we sort of just stumbled in from the beach, and this was the only place where you didn't have to have shoes. We were starving, things smelled good- and no matter where else we tried later, this place was always the best. Rosa, the woman who used to run the place? If you turned up often enough, she'd insist you were family."
The whole initiation be tequila probably had something to do with it. A lazy smile settled on his mouth as he kicked a foot into the empty nearby chair.
"Your mum wasn't quite so keen on uh... the sorts of parties they used to throw here," he chuckled. In the back of his mind he wondered if they still had those sorts of parties about. Not that she or Remus would want to go, but the idea was still nice; like the idea that some things could endure, stay the same, and keep on as they always had. "We brought her here a couple of times, but after a while travling around just for kicks got to be a bit too risky."
"Right." he nodded after taking another bite. "So exactly what sort of parties do they throw then?" he raised an eyebrow, hoping and praying the answer wasn't something that would disgust him to his core, something he didn't want to think about his Father and Godfather being involved in. Taking another gulp of beer, he sat back and rested, having had his fill for the moment of food. "So how is Mum anyway? She hasn't been around much."
A smirk played at his lips. "It was not disco," he said, if a bit defensively. More pleasantly he continued. "I mean, there were light shows and stuff, but very different music. Drum and bass, lots of synthetic stuff. Lots of, you know, bouncing around, dancing till the sun came up with a couple hundred people. It was brilliant... you could just kind of disappear into the mob of it for a while. Sure, sometimes there were, uh, a sort chemical enhancement, but raves? It was all about the music, it was brand new then. And Lil, she liked a quieter scene than that."
Probably best to leave the whole drug business a bit vague. It wasn't like that was the point of the parties, anyway, just an occasional icing on the cake. But man. The music? Before Ibiza there was really nothing like it. From what he understood there was still plenty of it around. In fact, there was more of it now, and in much greater variety. Half the things in his clever muggle music box were examples of such new freedoms. Lily was happier in a pub that hosted a proper Irish band. When Harry mentioned Lily, James took another bite, mulling over exactly how to respond. "She's good," he decided. "A lot of adjusting, you know? She's working a lot - too much, if you asked me. But it's easier to be busy, I guess. You ever pop in to see her at work?"
He couldn't help but quirk his eyebrow at his Dad's mention of chemical enhancement... not that he was particularly judgmental about things like that... in fact, he often fancied that he might have tried it himself had the environment been more right, and had he not been elbow deep in Death Eaters. He just didn't quite know what to say... so he chose to say nothing, instead simply sipping at his beer.
"Well," he said after a momentary pause, "I stopped in to see her once, but she was busy... not sure she even saw me, really." he shrugged. "Why's she been working so hard anyway? You lot aren't strapped for money, are you? Because I have plenty... and it's yours, really. I'd share..."