Disclaimer – No, I don't own it. I never have and I never will. So I'm possibly illegally playing with someone else's characters while writing CIG, when really I should be revising for my History Mock exam. Ah well, it's a funny old world.
Chapter 9: Birthday Presents
The days were slipping swiftly through October, getting shorter and darker and colder, while Lily changed from wearing thicker and thicker tights to trousers, and was now even letting James stay in the room while she changed, as long as she was sure he was looking the other way. Before long, it was getting dark before Lily had a chance to walk Ben a second time, and the shops were advertising their fireworks to excited schoolchildren who were busy making straw dummies again.
It was November the fifth, and Lily was having the yearly fireworks party, this year inviting round Sarah to make up for the time that they had tried to have alone. It was just getting to half past seven, and so had been dark for a couple of hours, and Lily was worried. Sarah hadn't arrived yet, and she was sure she'd said she'd be there from half-five to half-six. Lily went to check on all the fireworks again, rather than think about what could possibly have happened to Sarah. Her mother was looking out from the kitchen at the back garden.
Suddenly, Lily heard a crack behind her. She whirled around, her wand out, praying that it was Sarah. She wasn't usually so paranoid, but these were dangerous times, and Sarah was very late. It was also unlike her to Apparate so loudly.
'Sarah!' Lily let out a sigh of relief, but… Sarah was crying. No. She had been crying.
'Sarah! What's the matter?' Sarah wordlessly handed her a piece of parchment. On the top was Suzie's handwriting, followed by a handwriting Lily didn't know.
Sarah, Lily – I know you're meeting up. I just got this from Eleanor Smith, you remember, my friend in first year? I thought you should see this.
Suzie,
I don't really know what to say – we haven't been friends, really, since first year, when, truth be told, I behaved abominably towards you. This isn't me trying to repair our friendship – it's been too long, and we have different friends now. I just thought that I would tell you the news, and hopefully, sometime, you might have a chance to write back to me.
Do you remember, in fifth and sixth year, Sirius Black (he's going out with one of your friends – you might remember this, you might not) had a girlfriend – Ravenclaw, curly brown hair, tall, big brown eyes, a lovely smile, and a really memorable laugh. She didn't laugh often, but when she did, you remembered it. To be frank, it sounded like a duck having a fit. Amelia Woodbridge. She was my best friend.
Well, I have just received an owl from her current boyfriend – one of the Prewett brothers, Fabian, saying that she… Oh, Suzie, this is hard to write, the writing suddenly became a lot shakier, and Lily realised that some of the blots that had been hard to make out in the dark were, in fact, where tears had fallen on the parchment, the owl said that she, and her family – both her parents, and her lovely little sister Emma – she was only two, and the sweetest thing. She used to call me Beleanor and squeal at me until I spun her round in the air; they, all of them, have been killed. The Dark Mark was over their house, and the ink changed colour, the person writing it had paused between the two words, and the ink had dried, becoming darker she was Muggleborn. I never thought it was important. She was just her, not Muggleborn or pureblood, or anything. And now she's gone. Suzie, I wanted you to know, and I thought you should,
With love,
Eleanor Smith
'Lily,' said Sarah quietly, muffled by her tears, 'I'm scared. Really, I am.'
Lily looked up at Sarah, who looked completely awful. It was a painful mixture of shock and tears. Lily hugged her friend, and suddenly understood what Sarah was saying. The life they had been living – staying with their parents, going to work every day, just as they had always planned, working through all the troubles in their relationships, all of this, it wasn't real. It was just a front. To themselves and the world. They had always known that the grown-ups were fighting, were working, were doing what had to be done, and they, as children, were untouchable. Were safe at Hogwarts. But they were no longer children. They were the adults now. They were the ones who had to work. They were the ones who had to fight and die, do what had to be done, and face loss in the war they had suddenly been flung into.
Lily remembered Amelia. She had been a lovely girl and she couldn't believe that she was dead. She certainly remembered her laugh, and it just seemed surreal that someone their age, less involved than they were, could be dead. Could be gone, so quickly. Just like that, here today, gone tomorrow. She had faced Voldemort once, and it had seemed, looking back, almost like a game. Some bizarre arcade game, where defeating the baddie was what you had to do, but you could still walk away unscathed if you didn't. But, she suddenly realised, that was not what it was like at all. If you didn't defeat the baddie, he could, would have no qualms about, and therefore undoubtedly would kill you. So much had happened since she had left Hogwarts, and she suddenly longed for it again – the simpler time, when only Transfiguration homework was a matter of life and death, and all of life's problems could be solved with a Butterbeer and a chocolate frog. She could hear Sarah still sniffling on her shoulder, and patted her on the back, and broke away.
'Come on, Sarah, let's get inside. We can watch the fireworks later, how about that?'
Sarah nodded weakly, and Lily knew that she too would soon become a watery, crying wreck, but as long as she had the strength to take Sarah inside and give her a mug of tea before collapsing, she didn't care.
The eighteenth of November dawned cold, crisp and clear, and Lily knew immediately when she got out of bed that she would have no Muggleborn children to see today, and she could spend the day walking Ben, playing with Janie, suddenly there was a pop, and, of course, talking to James.
Lily turned to him, a smile on her face. 'What have you got Suzie for her…?' She screamed. It wasn't James.
She ran back to the bed and got her wand.
'Woah, woah,' said the figure in her bedroom, raising his hands in a submissive gesture. 'Don't you recognise me?'
Lily let out a sigh of relief and felt like she was going to cry. It was Sirius.
'What are you doing in my bedroom, first thing in the morning? James I tolerate, but not you. Out. Out!'
Sirius, showing more stupidity and sticking-power than Lily thought it was possible, even from him, didn't move.
'Don't you want to know why I'm here?'
Of course, Lily reflected, he could just be playing to her curiosity, knowing that she wouldn't curse him while he was explaining why he had found it necessary to appear in her bedroom stupidly early in the morning.
'Alright then,' she grumbled, 'out with it.'
'Well,' he said, coming to sit beside her on the bed and taking on a conspiratorial air, 'it's to do with Suzie's birthday party this evening…'
Peter was very nervous. Tonight, important things were going to happen. It was Suzie's birthday party, but it was more than that. He had been planning it for so long, making sure that it was perfect, and it could be the start of a new life for him. He just had to make sure Suzie didn't find out yet…
He shook his head, as if to clear it of the thoughts, and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him, so as not to wake Suzie up.
A few minutes later, Suzie woke up to not finding Peter next to her. This was unusual, but not alarming. He had certainly been there when she had fallen asleep, but he was demonstrably not here now. She sighed, and rolled over. It was her birthday today, and she intended to thoroughly enjoy it. This would start, she decided sleepily, with a lie-in.
Sarah was sitting in the window of her bedroom, watching the sun come up. The only good thing about winter – she was occasionally awake for it. She reached over to the table and picked up her birthday gift for Suzie. She was pleased that she'd thought of it; it was a photo she'd found of Suzie and her after the disco. Suzie had her fingers up behind Sarah's head, and Sarah kept turning to see this, at which point Suzie would look innocent and make a what-me? face. She'd found a silver frame to put it in, and she knew it would be perfect. She put it down, picked up her hair brush, and turned her gaze back to the window.
Remus knew what was going on at Suzie's party, and as he watched Sarah brush her hair, humming, as she did every morning, 'Oh What a Beautiful Morning', he felt at peace with the world, just hoping that it would succeed. He had clubbed together with Sirius and James for the birthday present, and they had got her a soft toy pumpkin. James had found it somewhere and couldn't remember exactly where, and it had a rather sweet face, and it was a nice gift, really. He just hoped that Suzie would like it, though it did seem rather her kind of thing.
James appeared in his girlfriend's room to find her talking animatedly to his best friend, still in her pyjamas. Many people would have found this a cause for alarm, or even jealousy, but James merely locked him in the bathroom, and proceeded to thoroughly kiss Lily senseless.
In the London flat, Caroline was asleep, but if she had been awake, she would have been cheerful. However, she was not, and so she was demonstrably not wondering where Sirius was until he Apparated back into the room, having finally realised that James was not going to let him out any time soon, as the plunger noises from the next room would testify.
Everyone else arrived at Suzie's house at six o'clock, grinned at the thoroughly pumpkin-themed food, and hugged, kissed the cheek of, or shook the hand of their hostess and host. Before long, they were all sitting down, having caught up on chat, and were munching on a cake with probably very low nutritional value, but none of them cared. There was a distinct lull in the conversation.
'I know,' said Lily brightly, 'it's time for presents!'
Everyone seemed to perk up a little, apart from Peter, who looked distinctly ill. James gave him a fleeting, bracing smile.
'What have you got, Sarah?' asked Lily cheerfully.
Suzie smiled as Sarah handed her the beautifully wrapped package. She tore into the paper, much to Lily's frustration, who was a saver, and grinned.
'Oh, Sarah!' she said, holding the photo-frame in one hand and Hugging her friend with the other arm, 'this is lovely. Oh, look at us!'
Everyone crowded round the photo to see the subjects, who smiled and waved up at them.
'Ooh, Sarah,' said Caroline seriously, 'I think that was when you had that really bad zit. You can see it, just there.'
She pointed, and everyone laughed, apart from Sarah herself, who smiled despite herself, and shoved her friend.
'So, Caroline,' said Suzie, once again holding court, 'what's that I see in your bag?'
Caroline looked down at her bag, where her present was plainly peeking out. 'A tissue? D'you want one, Suzie?'
Lily rolled her eyes. 'Just give her the damn present, Caroline.'
Caroline grinned, took the package out of her bag, and handed it to Suzie. Again, she tore into the paper, and squealed.
'Oh, Caroline! This is lovely!' Caroline had really done rather well this year. She had bought her friend a miniature pumpkin plant, and you could just see a pumpkin on the verge of orange – it was about the size of Suzie's thumb. 'That is truly gorgeous, Caroline, where on earth did you get the idea?'
Caroline shrugged, and smiled, accepted a hug from Suzie and was about to sit down, when she suddenly said, 'If you'll excuse me, Suzie, I need the loo.' Suzie nodded, and then Remus turned to her.
'We thought you'd like this. It's from me, James and Sirius.'
He passed her the bundle of wrapping paper, and Sirius slipped unobtrusively from the room, after Caroline. After opening it, Suzie squealed again.
'Aaaw! Oh, guys, that's… adorable! You…' she showed them all. 'That is really lovely. I don't know where you guys think of these things, really, I don't.'
Remus grinned as she hugged them all, and said, 'I'm sorry, Suzie, but I rather need the loo too. First on the left, right?'
Suzie nodded, and Lily passed her her present.
'Hmm. It's from Lily. It feels very… solid, and blocky. I wonder. Could it possibly be a book?'
Lily scowled exaggeratedly. Sarah laughed.
'Oh, Suzie, you know she hates suspense being ruined. Just open it.'
Suzie grinned again, and tore into the paper again, making Lily wince, and grinned.
'Only you, Lily. Only you.'
Lily had bought her two books – the first, a book of Pumpkin recipes, the second, a fluffy Mills and Boon style romance.
'I thought the girl looked a bit like you, Suzie. Oh, Sarah!'
Sarah grimaced. 'I'm sorry. Lily, could you take me?' Sarah was sporting a spectacular nosebleed. Lily nodded vigorously, and escorted her friend out of the room. James looked around at the almost-empty party room, and smiled.
'Well, there seems to be rather a party in the loo, and I'm bursting. Do you mind if I…?'
Suzie shook her head, now looking distinctly puzzled.
As soon as James had closed the door behind him, Peter, who had been turning greener and greener, turned to Suzie.
'I suppose it's my turn for presents now?'
Suzie looked at him a little oddly. 'Aren't you going to wait until the others…?'
He shook his head at her unfinished question. 'Never mind them. This'll be alright. Suzie, you remember last year I gave you that jewellery?'
Suzie nodded, and touched her throat; she was wearing it all.
He nodded in reply, and moved in front of her. 'Well, this year,' he said, kneeling down on one knee, 'I thought I'd give you a ring to match the rest of it.'
He took a box out of his pocket and opened it to show her. Inside was a beautiful white-gold ring, with a single sapphire set into it.
'Oh, Peter,' she breathed, everything else forgotten, 'it's beautiful!'
'That'll do for a yes,' he grinned, and slid it onto her finger.
'As will 'I thought I'd give you a matching ring' will do for 'will you marry me', eh?' said Suzie, smiling like a Cheshire cat who's got the cream.
'Oh shh,' he said, bent in, and kissed her.
Well, I had this partially written before the exams, and wrote the rest of it on a cold Saturday evening when I probably should have been doing Biology revision. I would like to get the Christmas chapter up before Christmas, which I should be able to do if I get a wiggle on (strangely, the more busy I should be, with exams and revision and all, the more free time I have, during study leave), and so, well, don't expect the next chapter up too soon, but soon enough – I'll probably have some free time the week after mocks, at least.
Review replies:
Prongs76 – I'm glad you liked the chapter. I hope that now we've got away from Lily and Sex, and to Suzie and Lurve. Which is how the world should be, in my personal opinion. We see here how Lily takes the advice, and personally, I think anyone who manages to get Lily to let anyone see her with her skirt off deserves a medal, so, a round of applause to Suzie!
Moony07 – Yep, mock exams suck. See, they're all scary and stuff, but they're not quite real, so you aren't sure what to think, and plus, you get two seconds revision time. Less, if you're like me and spend it all writing fanfiction.
Review Topic: Physics – We had our exam in that today. Can anyone out there explain properly why seismic S waves and seismic P waves show how the earth is made out of layers? Please?
Larka :)
