Midday Surprise

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters who belong to the talented JK Rowling, just my own idea for the story.

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Lily Evans gleefully bounded down the sidewalk, dodging the occasional person walking along at a normal pace. She had a huge grin on her unusually beautiful face, and her auburn hair flowed prettily down her back as she kept up her speed. Lily knew that she was receiving more than a few weird glances, but she was too caught up in her own thoughts to care or even pay attention.

She was on her way to her boyfriend's apartment, which he conveniently shared with his three best friends, Sirius, Remus, and Peter. She easily could have just Apparated there, which she learned a few years ago while still in school, but decided that she needed to release some pent up energy. After all, she had amazing news to tell the boys and she was almost as nervous as she was excited.

Finally reaching their building, she quickly sprinted up the flight of stairs that would bring her to their door. Stopping once she reached it, she leaned against the doorframe for a few seconds to catch her breath and regain some composure. After a few seconds she straightened and knocked on the door briskly while running a quick hand through her hair. She heard the scrape of a chair on the floor followed by some muffled mumbling and footsteps. The door creaked open and Lily was greeted by the sight of her lovable boyfriend James. As he saw her, a surprised, wide grin spread over his face and he held out his arms for her.

"Lily, I wasn't expecting you to come over today. I thought you had to work?" Lily fairly flew into the room and into the arms that were held out for her, knocking James backwards a bit, making him chuckle. "Yes, well, I'm very glad to see you too, hon!"

Lily laughed and pecked his lips quickly, replying, "Sorry, I didn't mean to drop in like this unexpectedly, but I had my lunch break from work and needed to tell you and the guys something." Because of her growing excitement, this came out kind of rushed, and James raised a puzzled eyebrow.

"Your lunch hour? Is everything okay, Lil?" he asked with concern tainting his voice as he looked down into her pretty face.

"Oh, yeah-everything's great! I just have an-ah-announcement for you guys," Lily answered happily as she stepped out of his arms and walked further into the room where the three other boys, who all had the day off like James, sat around a circular table playing cards. When they say her they all smiled and waved, murmuring hellos and "hey Lilys" when she went over to give them all a kiss on the cheek. After all, they had all come a long way since they had been in school together.

She turned back around and saw James standing behind her, still smiling at her with a puzzled look on his face. She smiled back and moved to him, affectionately brushing a lock of hair out of his eyes and grabbing his hand.

"James, I'm fine, I promise. Now go sit back down and I'll explain why I'm here."

"Lily, darling, you don't need a reason to be here, you know we love you," Sirius remarked from the table with a wink as James sat down. The other boys murmured their agreements and Lily smiled her thanks. They were all now looking at her, so she knew she had their attention.

"Right. Ok, so I hope I'm not making a big deal out of nothing, but here goes." The boys nodded their heads, encouraging her to go on, and a few curious glances were exchanged between them.

"As you all obviously know, the four of you have birthdays coming up, and I know it's a bit soon, especially since they are spread out, but I had begun looking for possible gifts. Now to be honest, I hadn't really the slightest clue what I was going to get each of you, so I thought about it pretty often."

"Today though," she continued with a twinkle in her eye, "today a great opportunity came up offered by the big boss of our department and as soon as I heard about it I jumped on the chance. And I know that I should wait to give you these, but since your birthdays are a bit spread apart and because I can't keep it to myself any longer, I will give each of you your presents now!"

With that said, she glanced at the boys who were staring at her weirdly, and she realized she must have rushed that a bit. Opps, she thought with a mental laugh at the odd expressions on their faces.

"So without further ado, I present you four with your gifts." And with giddiness at her good fortune, she reached into her robe pocket and pulled out four long, thin strips of paper.

"Four tickets for the Quidditch Cup game, England vs. Bulgaria, skybox seats!" she announced happily, feeling accomplished. She then realized that the room was dead silent and four sets of eyes were locked on her, jaws dropped. She was suddenly swamped with nervousness. O God, she thought with a trickle of dread, what did I do?

Timidly she voiced aloud, "Did I get the wrong team? You've got to be kidding me!" There was five more seconds of silence where the boys just looked at each other, then the room exploded with sound. The boys leaped up from their chairs with whoops and yells, then ran over to Lily and engulfed her with hugs and kisses.

"Lily you are amazing!"

"How did you do it?"

"You're my hero!"

"Of course you got the right team!"

Questions and comments were bombarding her and finally Remus yelled, "Guys! Give the girl some breathing room!"

They all backed up immediately with mile wide grins except for James who had picked Lily up and was twirling her in circles. He set her back down in a dramatic dip and laid such a kiss on her she could feel it down to her toes. Breaking it off, he pulled her back up, brushed her stray hair behind her ear and said with absolute sincerity, "Thank you, Lily-you have no idea what this means to the four of us!"

She was then passed around to the remaining three, all of them laughing and smiling the whole time. Finally, when they all calmed down, James asked with awe in his voice, "Lily dear, how did you manage it? We've been trying for a long time to get tickets!" A thought occurred to him then and with a slight frown said, "Weren't they expensive?"

Lily sighed and answered, "Well, I probably shouldn't tell you guys this since they were gifts, but surprisingly-no. You see, this morning at work the big boss came into the office and asked anyone if they were interested in four tickets to the cup. As soon as I heard that I was up like a shot before anyone else actually registered what he said," Lily recalled with a short laugh.

"But he brought me to his desk and I checked the teams and whatnot, then he asked me why I wanted them so badly. So I told him that my boyfriend and his three best friends were maniacs about Quidditch and their birthdays were coming up-the boys all smiled guiltily- He then proceeded, to my utmost surprise, to tell me that that was the nicest thing he had heard all month so he cut the price in half and told me to enjoy! So after staring at him for a few seconds with my jaw hanging open, I payed for them and now here the four of you are with them."

The boys all looked at her with gratitude until James spoke up and said, "But Lily, now you won't be able to go!"

The other three nodded their agreement. Lily, however, was fine with this and reassured them, "Don't worry, now you can have a boy's day out and not have to worry about a tagalong girl."

"But Lily," Sirius said with a horrified face, "you are most certainly not a tagalong!" Again, the others vigorously nodded their agreement.

Lily laughed at the expressions on their faces. "Okay, okay, but still, you guys go have fun with just the four of you and tell me how it is, alright?" They all agreed and James grabbed her hand and squeezed it in thanks. But as she glanced down at their joined hands, she did a double take when she spotted her watch.

"Ohhh God- I've got to get back to work," she rushed out, "I'll see you later!"

"Thanks again Lily!" they all chorused with waves goodbye. She smiled prettily at them.

"Don't mention it!" Then, while deciding this time she would definitely need to apparate, James grabbed her around the waist and kissed her gently but lovingly, running a hand up into her hair to cup the back of her head. Just before she could relax with the kiss though, they pulled back and he smiled down at her with adoration and said quietly, "Hope you didn't think you'd get away without a kiss."

She breathed in his familiar scent as he nuzzled her neck, but when she opened her eyes she spotted her wrist watch for the second time on the arm she had hooked around James's neck.

"Oh no-sorry hon, I've got to get going! My boss is gonna hurt me." And with one last quick kiss and a farewell to the others, Lily Evans left four friends in their apartment staring after her with smiles on their faces and Quidditch tickets clasped tightly in their hands.

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A/N: Thank you for taking the time to read this, and if you would be so kind as to drop a review I would be happy to hear your opinion!