"It's a ridiculous idea Sirius. The Order is a serious operation, not a place of fun and games," Mad-Eye said, putting an end to their discussion.
"I think it's a great idea," Tonks added, knowing that if anyone could turn Mad Eye's view, it was her, as his old student.
"What's a great idea?" Fred and George said, entering the kitchen ahead of the other Weasleys.
There was silence, and then Mad Eye said, "Nothing-"
"Remus' birthday is coming up, right?" Sirius began, ignoring Mad Eye. The twins nodded. They could see a sparkle in Sirius' eyes that they knew very well; they saw it between each other often enough. It meant mischief.
"So, we were all-"
"Not all of us," Mad Eye interjected.
Rolling his eyes, Sirius went on, "Most of us," he said with a pointed look at Mad Eye, "Thought it would be great to pull a few pranks on him, through the day," Sirius finished, looking proud.
The twins, however, looked confused. "This is Remus, we're talking about, yeah?" Fred said, and Sirius nodded. Much to Tonks' amusement, the twins went on, alternate;
"This is Remus-"
"The bookworm-"
"The quiet-"
"Calm-"
"Sophisticated-"
"Well behaved-"
"Person?" They finished together.
Sirius smirked, and nodded, "The very same."
"But then, isn't this the kind of thing we'd do for you, Sirius, not him?" Ginny said, entering the kitchen.
"It would sound like it, I understand that, it's just that," Sirius' face grew a little sadder, "It was something James and I used to do, when he thought we'd forgotten..."
The kitchen grew quiet once again, in James' memory.
"Then that's first on our agenda," Mad Eye announced, Sirius turned to look at him, his face still dark.
"What?" Sirius asked him.
"Make him think we've forgotten," Mad Eye went on.
Sirius' face began to light up again, "We can do it?" He asked, looking thoroughly excited again, as though he was seven years old, asking his miserable Grandfather if he can have a water fight.
Mad Eye nodded. The twins turned to each other, wide grins lit up their faces.
"Accio Paper," They said simultaneously, as sheets of paper flew from their room down the stairs and onto the paper.
"We need some ideas, then," Sirius said, pacing along the length of the table. As the scribe, Tonks sat with a quill in hand, ready.
"Hold on though," Ginny said. Once everyone's attention was turned to her, she said, "Where are we going to store this paper?"
"Charm it," Hermione announced straight away, "Make it look as though it's something else, pages of a book or-"
"A cookery book, dear?" Molly said, standing up from her chair as Hermione nodded, "I have an idea of what I could do too..." Molly continued.
After their argument, Sirius hadn't expected her to role with the idea, but now he was interested as to what she had to say.
"We know he's fond of his chocolate, how about I use it in my cooking? I could then make a cake, I suppose, for when he realises we haven't forgotten..." She trailed off, looking for people's reactions.
Fred and George went over to her, putting their arms around her, "We can happily declare, our Mother is on her way to becoming a prankster, much like her favourite sons," They said, grinning broadly at Ron. Not to be outdone, everyone then began saying their ideas.
"Would it be too mean to convince him the Ministry need to borrow him as a sort of Guard-Wolf ?" Kingsley said.
Hermione did think it was mean, Sirius, however, thought it was wise, "It will give us time to prepare our other things, here," he explained, to which she nodded, still unsure.
Just then, they heard the front door shut. They all fell silent, expecting to see Remus walk through the door, questioning what they were up to. Instead, it was;
"Snivellus," Sirius said with disgust.
"I was under the impression there was a meeting today?" he began, but then caught sight of the twins, Ginny, Ron, Hermione and Harry, "But unless children have been allowed in, I appear to be mistaken," he said, finally taking his glare from Harry.
"We were thinking of a way to prank Remus," Mad Eye announced, looking at Sirius disgusted expression.
"We can't trust him," Sirius said, with a brief look at Severus, "He'll blow the entire operation."
Ignoring this, Severus said, "And what ideas have you had?"
There was a light silence, as the twins cast each other surprised glances, wondering if they would be throwing their arms around their Potions master and congratulating him as they had their mother.
"I'm going to use up his chocolate supply," Molly announced. Severus nodded.
"And I shall convince him the Ministry need a guard wolf," Kingsley said. At this, Severus' frozen mask broke, and he let out a small chuckle.
"I'm in," he said, before fixing a smug look at Sirius. "I'll tell him there was something wrong with the Wolfsbane last month. Tell him he needs to come up to the school to get it sorted before the month is out," he said.
Refusing to accept the idea as a good one, Sirius ignored Severus' idea, and watched with annoyance as Tonks wrote it down along with the others.
"Perhaps, I should schedule a meeting on his birthday?" Mad Eye suggested, Tonks nodded, keeping up well.
"But then, if you scheduled it at a certain time, I could have, like, asked him out or something," Tonks said, avoiding people's gazes, "And then get annoyed when he can't come, because of your meeting?"
Sirius beamed, forgetting his earlier annoyance at Severus, who was now sitting in one of the twin's vacated seats.
"Don't go mad, mum," George said, casting her a wary glance,
"But George and I considered swapping Remus' wand for one of our fake ones?" Fred finished.
"Brilliant!" Sirius exclaimed, watching Tonks scribble down the idea.
"Could someone convince him there's a Grindylow in the bath?" Ginny said randomly, "I could then ask him for help on some Defence work, whilst you got it ready," she finished, having thought out her idea well.
"Charlie could do it, when he gets here. He is, after all, working with Dragons. A Grindylow won't be a difficult task?" Arthur said, hesitating with his own idea.
Molly nodded at the idea, "Have you thought about what you're going to do, dear?" she asked him.
A pink colour began to coat his ears, as was normal for an embarrassed Weasley, "I could declare happy birthday as he walks past," he began, trying to word his idea properly, "And he'd think it was meant for him, but in fact, I could take Arnold from my pocket, and say he was one month old," Arthur said.
"Arnold?" Ginny asked him, Arthur nodded.
"My rubber duck," he replied. Harry and Hermione, being raised by muggles, found the idea wonderful, and so the others went along with it.
"Harry has an idea," Ron said, looking at his friend beside him.
"It was Ron's idea-"
"Was not-"
"Spit it out, one of you," Molly said with a sigh, seeing Severus' annoyed expression slowly slip back into place at the two of them.
Harry began, "We could come up with some kind of tapping language, or something, and laugh as though it means something, with various pointed looks at him or something, until he gets annoyed-"
"-And retires to the study," Hermione finished, "Then I could have removed his favourite books from there," she added, smirking at the other's surprised faces.
"We'll make a rebel out of you yet, Hermione," Fred said, grinning.
"What are you going to do, Sirius?" Harry asked him.
"I'm stuck between making hints about, like, 'what day is it today' kind of thing, or telling him a story with an exceptionally pointless ending," he replied, looking thoughtful.
"Sounds good," Tonks said, writing it down.
"Who else will be here?" Sirius said, turning back to look at Mad Eye.
"Bill may be here," Molly answered instead, Sirius nodded, "Dumbledore?" he asked.
"I do not think the Headmaster would want to participate in such foolish games, Black," Severus said from opposite him.
"Are my ears burning?" Albus said, entering the kitchen. Sirius offered a brief smug look to rival that of Severus earlier. Everyone turned to look at Sirius, as though expecting him to explain it all again.
"...And those are our ideas so far," Sirius finished, taking a gulp from his freshly made Butterbeer.
"It sounds quite the scandal," Albus said with a small chuckle, "I shall be happy to do my part. Allow me to think for the time being, of an idea, if you will."
"He won't know what's hit him," Fred and George said.
"Who won't know what's hit them?" Remus said, emerging from the dark hallway. Silence fell across the room, broken by Hermione, the only one, bar Severus, that appeared not to have been surprised at Remus' presence.
"Discussing Fred and George's latest prank to pull on Professor..." she trailed off, as she was going to say 'Snape', but remembered his presence.
"The new Defence teacher, she's coming from the Ministry," Albus said, composing his expression.
"She is?" Remus said, going for a seat, not seeing anything as unusual. Albus nodded, "I couldn't find anyone for the job this year..."
"You should have gone back, Remus," Sirius said, because he knew how much it wound Remus up, despite him not showing it all the time.
As it was, his lips tightened slightly, "It isn't a good idea, Sirius. You know that already," he finished with a sigh.
"Well, it's been great to see you all, Mr Weasley and Mr Weasley, I hope you do not cause too much trouble for anyone," Albus finished with a wink to Sirius.
As they watched him leave, Molly began to head for the fridge, "Drink, Remus?" she asked him.
"That'll be great, Molly, thank you," he said before turning to look back at the others. "So," he began, "What's going down this week?" he asked, a bit of hopefulness dwelling upon his face.
"Nothing. Nothing at all," Severus replied.
Seeing Remus' face fall, the others realised how fun their idea was going to be.