Chapter 19: Birthday Plans
It was still dark when James, Remus, Peter and Frank rose from their blankets and silently surrounded Sirius, who was still sleeping peacefully. The boys stood around the edges of the four-poster, grinning at each other mischievously. Then, at a nod from Remus, James shouted, “Now!” and all four jumped on top of Sirius’s sleeping form in one huge bundle.
Sirius yelped as he woke with a start, taking in the situation at once. “Guys! Gerroff!” he pleaded, kicking wildly at them. James, who was closest to Sirius’s head, jumped up and down on his chest proclaiming “Happy Birthday, mate! You didn’t expect any less of us did you?” at which point Remus and Frank grabbed hold of Sirius’s feet and hoisted him backwards so that James fell on top of his head and all five boys screamed with hysterical laughter.
It was Sirius’s eighteenth birthday, and one week away from the Easter holidays. The ‘Birthday Bundle’ had been a tradition of the Marauders’ dormitory ever since First Year, in which the other four boys would select a time somewhere between midnight and sunrise when they would wake the birthday boy with a bang and not desist until either the victim had screamed “Surrender!” or the alarm had gone for breakfast. Since the first was deemed unacceptable past the age of fourteen, it had become natural to turn up in the Great Hall on the morning of your birthday looking as though you had endured a rather nasty punch up the night before.
Sirius’s birthday was no exception.
“Oh my goodness!” Yves exclaimed, when the boys joined them at the table for breakfast. “What on earth-“
“Birthday Bundle,” Lily explained, raising her eyes in exasperation. “Happy Birthday, Sirius.” She smiled warmly at him and made room for James to sit next to her.
“Thanks, Lily,” Sirius replied, reaching with a shaky hand for the largest plate of sausages he could see. “I’m starving now…” He poured half the dish’s contents onto his own plate and began ravenously tearing chunks off the sausages with his teeth.
“Easy, Padfoot.” Remus said.
“I deserve a good meal after the work-out you guys just gave me!”
“So guys,” James said, leaning in, “are you up for the usual tonight?”
Sirius swallowed his mouthful and nodded enthusiastically while Remus and Peter added their assent.
Lily didn’t like the sound of whatever James was talking about. It sounded far too much like typical Marauder behaviour. “What’s the usual?” she asked cautiously.
James tapped his nose mysteriously and continued eating his breakfast with a mischievous smile on his face. Lily gave him a sidelong glance and then gave it up as a boy thing.
“So,” James said, once the conversation had settled again. “Sirius’s birthday is quite a cause for celebration. We didn’t expect him to reach the ripe old age of eighteen, you know. I think he deserves a special day, don’t you Ellie?”
Ellie choked on her cornflakes and Yves thumped her on the back reassuringly. To her credit, Ellie recovered well. She raised her eyebrows in polite confusion at James’s direct question before responding with, “Of course. Eighteen’s a big one. I can’t wait until my eighteenth.”
Lily kicked James hard in his shin under the table, not caring if it was obvious to all that she had done it.
“Ow “ Lily!”
Sirius looked from James to Ellie to Lily with pure confusion on his face. “What the-“
“Happy birthday Sirius!” Several girls had wandered over from the Hufflepuff table to make it known that they had remembered Sirius’s birthday. They elbowed each other in competition to be the one nearest him.
Sirius smiled. “Thanks, girls.” He turned back to the table. “So, what-“
“Here Sirius,” one of the girls said, tapping him on the shoulder. He raised his eyes and turned back to face them with a false smile on his face. “I’ve made you a card!” The girl thrust a pink envelope into his face and the group left, some of them giggling, one of them complaining with “You never told me you were going to make him a card!”
Sirius tossed the envelope carelessly onto the table in front of him with a sigh.
“Aren’t you going to open that?” James asked, suppressing a laugh. “She must have put a lot of effort into it.”
“Shut up,” Sirius said.
“Oh give it here!” Ellie cried out, grabbing the envelope and tearing it open. The card was also pink, with huge letters on the front that read “HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIRIUS”. As they looked at it, the letters changed to read “For he’s a Jolly, Jolly Good Fellow!”
James roared with laughter. “Apparently you’re too good for just one ‘jolly’, Padfoot. I’d see that as a compliment if I were you.”
Ellie opened the card and pink sparks were emitted from within that bounced all along the surface of the Gryffindor table, annoying several breakfasters. “What does it say?” Lily asked curiously.
Ellie cleared her throat and put on her best impression of the giggling girls who had just approached Sirius.
“Dear Sirius,
Happy Birthday! You are such a special guy that you deserve everything you wish for on this special, special day. I hope you like the card. It’s a special one just for you.
Have a great day. I hope it’s special!
Hugs and lots of kisses,
Dianne xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx”
Ellie read out each and every ‘x’ to the crowd of laughing onlookers, at which point Sirius grabbed the card from within her grasp and shoved it into his bag. “That’s enough of that,” he growled.
James was holding his stomach in an attempt to stop laughing so much. Tears poured down his cheeks. “She’s a ‘special’ one, she is.”
Sirius had to smile at that. “Yeah, alright,” he said, finding the humour in the situation. He opened his bag and pulled out the card. “Hey Ellie, do that impression again, it was pretty good, you know.”
The look on Ellie’s face at being complimented by Sirius sent James into louder fits of laughter, and so caused Lily to thump him over the head.
***
Later that day as Lily and Yves were returning from the library, they caught the Marauders in a huddle in the far corner of the common room. As they approached Lily heard Remus say, “Nah, too risky that way. We may as well do what we’re used to.”
“What’s too risky?” Lily asked.
The boys all swivelled to face her with the guilty looks of someone who has been caught out.
“Nothing,” they said simultaneously.
Yves smiled. “You know, any lie would have been more convincing than that one. You’re clearly up to something. But seeing as we lowly girls are not worth you divulging your secret to, Lily and I will go and sit over there and talk about boring girl things.”
“Such as?” Sirius asked.
“Such as pillow fights and how we love to walk around our dormitory in our underwear.” She grabbed Lily by the wrist and swung her round just in time to see the boys’ interested faces before retreating to the opposite side of the common room and taking a seat on one of the sofas.
Peter turned to face the others. “Is that really what girls talk about?” he asked.
“Of course, Wormtail. Why else would they exist other than to live out our fantasies?” This from Sirius, who patted Peter on the back whilst giving well-known look to the other boys that was a mixture of exasperation and wonder at the levels of Peter’s gullibility.
“Anyway,” Remus said. “Back to tonight. I think we should use the one-eyed witch. We’ve always said we wouldn’t go into Hogsmeade via the Shrieking Shack. It’ll arouse suspicion.”
“I suppose. It’s just easier, that’s all. It’s a route I prefer,” Sirius said.
“Hey guys, would it be completely unacceptable if I took Lily with us?” James asked cautiously. No girl had ever gone on a late night Hogsmeade visit with them.
“Lily?”
“No way!”
“Boys night out, remember?”
James sighed. “Ok, ok. I was just wondering. I’ve been with Lily for over four months now, but the end of the year is approaching fast and you guys know how long it took me to actually get her. I just want to spend as much time as I can with her.”
“You’re turning into a sop, you know, Prongs,” Sirius said. “But I suppose Lily’s cool enough. As long as she keeps up and doesn’t tell a soul, then it’s ok with me.”
“But-“ Peter began protesting.
“It’s my birthday and I say Lily can come!”
“Lily can come where?” Lily had approached behind them again, and, as before, had taken them by surprise.
“Would you stop creeping up on us like that?” James protested, pulling Lily onto his lap.
“Lily can come where?” she repeated.
“Oh, well, we’re going out tonight, you know, for Padfoot’s birthday.”
“Out? Out where?”
James smiled sheepishly. “To Hogsmeade.”
“Hogsmeade? At night?”
“Yeah, we do all the time. And we never miss a chance to go on one of our birthdays. Do you want to come with us?”
Lily looked like she had a million questions and opinions on the matter of their late night rule breaking, but thought the better of it. She smiled. “Sure. Why not?”
“You don’t mind?” Remus asked. “We’ve been doing this for years. And you’re Head Girl…” He was treading carefully, testing to see whether Lily would dob them in to Dumbledore.
“Yes I am, and I also know you guys too well to know that it doesn’t matter what or who I am, that you will continue being bad boys for the rest of your lives.” She stuck her tongue out affectionately at Remus.
“Wow,” Sirius said, clearly impressed. “You know, Prongs, she’s a smart one. I’d keep hold of her if I were you.”
In response, James put his arms around Lily and pulled her further onto his lap. “I’ve got a pretty good hold,” he said, smiling. “So what time shall we go then?”
“How about ten-ish?” Sirius suggested. “It gives us time to have a good night and not feel the effects too badly tomorrow!”
“Sure, ten o’clock it is,” Remus agreed. “And while we’re on the topic of tomorrow, I’ve got an essay to finish for Almony that’s due in first lesson. And I want to get ahead on McGonagall’s as well, seeing as it’s the full moon this weekend.”
“Good idea,” Sirius said, standing up. “If you’re going to the library I might just join you.”
“Me too,” Peter said. “See you, guys.” The three of them walked towards the portrait hole together.
Lily smiled. “That just leaves the two of us, I guess…” she said suggestively, before swivelling around in James’s lap and leaning in for a kiss.
Love Conquers by dumbly_dorr
Chapter Notes: A little shorter than I would have liked but I didn't want to milk it, as the real action of this part of the story happens in the next chapter... Anyway, tell me what you think!