Chapter 20: Twin-time

A/N: Here's a birthday chapter! Enjoy and review please!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, we don't own Harry Potter.

When Kacey woke up the next morning, she stared at the ceiling for a moment before sitting straight up in bed with a big grin on her face. Looking around the room, her eyes narrowed suspiciously when she saw that she and a sleeping Sarah were the only ones in the room. She quickly moved across the room to Sarah's bed and shook her.

"Sarah, Sarah, wake up! Don't you realize what today is?"

Sarah groaned. "Kacey, what do you want?"

"I want you to get up," Kacey insisted, pulling Sarah's comforter off of her.

With a heavy sigh, Sarah sat up and wiped her eyes. "What is so important?"

"Everyone's gone except for us!"

"So?"

"Don't you think they could be planning something?"

Sarah sighed again. "And you couldn't have let me sleep for another hour before you tried to figure it out?"

Kacey rolled her eyes. "Since when have I ever been the type to wait?"

Sarah got to her feet. "Fine. Let's go investigate. But if there's nothing going on, I'm going to be so mad at you."

Kacey shrugged. "It's happened before."

They went to the door of the room and glanced at each other before slowly opening it. There was silence. "Kacey, I swear…" Sarah muttered, leaving the sentence open-ended.

Kacey just rolled her eyes and took Sarah's hand, dragging her out of the room and around the corner.

"SURPRISE!" All of the other time travelers and the Marauders were standing around the coffee table in the Common Room, grinning.

Confetti cannons went off and showered the twins in confetti. Sarah and Kacey started laughing, Sarah a bit reluctantly.

"Happy Birthday, you two!" Lily said excitedly, clapping her hands. "Come here, we have your favorite for breakfast: chocolate chip waffles and eggs Benedict! You can open your presents later."

Jose pulled Kacey down next to him and kissed her. "Happy birthday, honey bear," he said with a wide grin.

Draco walked over to Sarah and took her hand, leaning down to kiss it before using it to pull her closer and kiss her on the mouth. "Happy birthday, my lovely fiance of one day."

Sarah laughed and threw an arm around his neck, kissing him again before leading him to a chair so they could sit and eat.

"How long have you guys been planning this?" Kacey asked after they had all eaten in silence for a few minutes.

James shrugged. "A week or so. It wasn't that tough, we have most of the supplies on hand, the house elves in our pockets, and easy access to Hogsmeade, and in conjunction with that, the ability to Apparate anywhere. We went out in pairs to get certain things we needed and were mostly ready two nights ago."

Kacey narrowed her eyes. "You used the house elves?" she asked.

James sighed and rolled his eyes. "Look. They love doing what they do, they love taking care of us wizards, and the elves we used were mine, so I can tell you for a fact that they're treated well, they get time to rest, and they got a treat of their own out of this. We can't just go to the Hogwarts house elves for every birthday that we have every year. We'd most definitely get caught, and it's a golden Marauder rule: when possible, when there is another option after one seems too risky, do whatever you can not to get caught."

Lily rolled her eyes and tugged on James' earlobe. "My innocent boyfriend," she said wryly.

James grinned and turned his head to plant a smacking kiss on her cheek. "But you love me anyway," he exclaimed.

Lily sighed and put an arm around his neck, kissing the top of his head. "Only Merlin knows why," she muttered.

When everyone finished eating breakfast, Kacey clapped her hands and looked at the piles of presents on the coffee table. "Well, can we open presents now?"

Lily laughed. "Whenever you guys are ready."

Kacey grinned. "We're ready. We're so ready. Right, Sarah?"

Sarah laughed and moved so she was sitting on the floor in front of Draco's chair. "We're ready, Kacey."

"I have graciously volunteered to hand out the presents," Sirius said as he stood up with a flourish. "I think we'll start with what you gave to each other."

He picked up two small boxes and handed them to their rightful recipients.

Kacey and Sarah looked at each other and grinned. "Ready?" Sarah asked.

Kacey nodded. "One…two…three!" With laughs, they both tore into the wrapping paper at the same time and seconds later, popped open the jewelry boxes they both received. "Oh, Sarah, I love it!" Kacey beamed at her sister and looked back down at the bracelet in the box. It was a thick bangle bracelet and she slowly pulled it out of the box. Her eyes widened when she saw the words engraved in the side. "Sarah and Kacey: we'll always be sisters no matter what our last names are," she read quietly. "Come here, you!" she said, reaching over and hugging her sister. "I love it."

Sarah grinned and looked down into her box. "I love mine, too." She slowly lifted up one of the earrings that was inside and grinned. It was a big emerald studded hoop. The girls all laughed, knowing about her obsession with earrings.

"I sort of guessed that Draco was going to propose, and I thought it could be your something new, for your wedding," Kacey said with an excited grin—weddings excited her more than anything else. Well, babies might have excited her more, but we'll leave that up to interpretation.

Sarah beamed back. "I absolutely would love them to be my something new."

Jose leaned forward and tapped Kacey on the shoulder. "I'd like to go next, if nobody minds." Everyone shook their heads and he leaned forward, handed Kacey a small box, and carefully pried a large square flat package from the pile of presents to hand to Sarah.

Kacey gave him a peculiar look. "You do realize that her present is about twenty times bigger than mine, right?" she asked, amused.

"That's right," Jose nodded. Then he winked. "I think yours will mean more in the long run, though."

Kacey rolled her eyes and pulled the ribbon off the box, slowly sliding the lid off. When she saw what was inside, she gasped. "Oh, Jose…I absolutely love it." He had gotten her a gold heart necklace studded with rubies.

Jose leaned over as she pulled it out of the box. "Open it up," he said. "It's a locket."

Carefully, Kacey opened the locket and beamed when she saw the picture of her and Jose inside. Glowing, she leaned her head back and kissed him. "I love it. Will you put it on me?"

Jose nodded and she lifted up her hair so he could do the clasp, then kissed the back of her neck before he leaned back up. "I'm glad you like it."

Sarah waited until he sat up again before reaching for the packaging on her present. Slowly, she pulled the strips of wrapping paper away to reveal a painting of a dark green dragon entwined with a rose. She drew in her breath and stared at it for a moment, then looked up at Jose with a shocked look. "How did you find this?" she asked, amazed. "I absolutely love it. Oh, it's perfect!" she said with a smile.

Draco leaned down a little and reached out a hand to brush along the paint strokes. "That is some pretty amazing work…" Draco said quietly. "Who painted this?" He looked at Jose.

"Lorenzo Zamurrad," Jose answered.

Draco nodded. "I've heard of him. He's very up and coming, but by his work I'd say he's coming on strong."

Sarah got to her feet to put the painting someplace safe and kiss Jose on the cheek. "Thank you," she said. "I love it; it's prefect."

Jose winked. "Exactly what I thought when I saw it."

Draco chuckled and leaned over to the table, picking up a thick envelope and a box. He handed the envelope to Kacey and the box to Sarah. "Happy birthday, love," he smiled, kissing her forehead.

Sarah grinned and quickly opened the box, gasping. Inside was a silver dragon pendant with a few well-placed emeralds in it. "Oh, Draco. I absolutely love it!" she exclaimed. "It's beautiful! Please help me put it on!" Draco chuckled and helped his fiancé put on her new necklace. When she dropped her hair again, she turned around and kissed him with a passion. "Thank you," she said with a shy smile when she pulled away. Her cheeks went red at the whistles from James, Sirius, and Remus and she mock-glared at them. "Shut up," she muttered.

Draco laughed. "I'm glad you like it."

Kacey grinned at her sister and Draco. "Can I open mine now?" She asked, with bright eyes.

Draco chuckled. "Yeah."

Quickly, Kacey opened the envelope and pulled out the paper that was inside. On top was a letter, and she started to read, gasping in shock when she was halfway through. "Oh my god. Oh my god, Draco. What did you-?" she broke off and looked at the next sheet. Her eyes widened so much it was comical and Sirius chuckled. She moved to the last thing in the envelope—what looked like a small catalogue and sucked in her breath. "Draco…they're beautiful…"

"There are a bunch of samples of her work in the catalogue," Draco said quietly, clearing his throat. "You can base the design off one in there or start from scratch. I assure you, she's very good. Only the best for my soon-to-be sister-in-law."

Sarah turned and glanced at Draco, then leaned towards Kacey. "Kacey, what did he get you?"

Kacey was blinking, still slightly in shock, but she looked up when she heard her name. "Four hundred Galleons towards a wedding dress designed by Pixie Palani," she said slowly. "That's so generous, Draco. I..I don't know what to say…thank you so much."

Sarah's eyes widened. "Wow," she said in shock. Then she narrowed her eyes slightly. "Draco…how did you get designs from her? We're in the past."

Draco grinned and winked. "I pretended to be my father and made sure there were no ending dates on the credit. She looks very young, but she's actually quite old. She designed my mother's wedding dress and with a few quick spells, I was able to change some of the old designs to some of her new ones. My mother gets the catalogue every month."

Kacey beamed at him and got to her feet, throwing her arms around his neck. "Thank you so much," she said. "That was too generous, but thank you."

Draco just shook his head and made clear that it wasn't a big deal, but no one missed the blush that appeared on his cheeks. Sarah giggled at him and leaned over to kiss his cheek.

Sirius grabbed two identical rectangular shaped packages next, and handed one to each of the twins. "From Harry," he proclaimed.

"It's not much," Harry said, "but I wanted you to have something for when you moved in together. Think of it as an early wedding shower present. And I'll get you another when you actually have a shower."

Kacey and Sarah grinned at him and opened the packages at the same time, grinning when they saw the sheet sets. Harry had given Sarah a green set, and Kacey a red set.

They thanked him, and Sarah said, "You know, with this green color scheme, people are going to start thinking I'm a Slytherin."

Kacey laughed. "You're marrying one, so you better get used to it," she said, "and, I know you told me that you were nearly sorted into Slytherin."

Sarah shrugged. "That is true. What's next?"

Sirius carried two more identical packages to Kacey and Sarah. These looked very similar to the painting Jose had gotten Sarah, and Ginny gave a little wave before they opened them.

"Those are from me," she said with an excited grin.

When they opened the packages, they discovered identical paintings of Kacey, Sarah, Hermione, and Ginny. The twins both gasped.

"Oh, Ginny, this is amazing!" Kacey said, astonished.

"Yes, Ginny, these are awesome. Mine's definitely getting hung up when we move in together, Draco," Sarah said.

Draco chuckled. "If someone had told me five years ago that I would have a picture of Granger and the Weaslette on my wall, I probably would have sent them to St. Mungo's."

Ginny grinned. "But you love us now, so it's all good," she said sweetly.

Draco laughed and Jose huffed from his spot next to Kacey. "You just had to one-up me, didn't you?" he said to Ginny with a slight grin. "I find a wonderful painting for Sarah and you go ahead and get two paintings, one for each of them." He shook his head exasperatedly, and the group laughed.

Sirius handed out the next presents, which were smaller packages, and from Ron, who shrugged when they grinned at him. "It's not much, but I figured they went with your personalities, so you'll find something to wear with them."

They ripped open the paper to reveal brightly colored knee socks and both promptly burst out laughing.

"They're perfect!" Sarah said with a grin, ripping open the package and putting on a pair of socks, mismatching them. Everyone laughed.

"Sarah, you do realize they have matches, right?" James asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sarah looked affronted. "Of course I do, I just figured I'd mix it up a little first."

Kacey grinned at her sister and then Ron. "They're great!" she said, opening the package as well. She, however, put on a matching pair to chuckles from the group.

The next packages were a little heavier than the few before them and they were from Hermione.

"Three guesses what those are!" Ron said with a grin.

"Oh, oh I know!" Harry exclaimed. "They're books!"

Hermione scoffed and her cheeks went red. "Shut up!" she said indignantly.

Ron threw an arm around her. "We're just kidding with you, love. You know we love you."

Harry kissed the top of Hermione's head. "Yeah, 'Mione, you know we love you."

Kacey and Sarah grinned at the Golden Trio and turned to their presents. They both tore off the paper to reveal sets of two books. One was a book on everything to know about planning weddings, both Muggle and wizard, and the other was a cookbook. They both thanked Hermione after she had been teased more about buying them books.

Sirius handed over two identical envelopes next, from Kathy and Joe. With smiles, both opened the envelopes, and both twins mouths dropped open when they pulled out the paper inside.

"Oh my god, what did you get?" they said in unison, showing each other the checks before looking up at their parents. "Thank you so much!" They also said at the same time.

Everyone laughed at their continued speech in unison. Both girls got up and took turns hugging their parents. "That was overly generous of you," Kacey said.

"Thank you so much, you didn't have to do that," Sarah said with a grateful smile.

Kathy shrugged. "It was our pleasure. We're going to be paying for your weddings anyways, we thought we might as well help our future selves out," she said with a grin.

The twins both laughed and thanked them again.

"What did they give you?" Jose asked.

"Money towards the weddings," Sarah said, showing Draco the check. His eyes widened slightly when he saw that it was 200 Galleons, but he nodded his thanks to Sarah's parents.

Kacey showed Jose as well, who also thanked Joe and Kathy.

Sirius grabbed two large boxes from the floor and passed them over to the twins next.

Kacey looked at the label and then looked up with a grin. "James, what did you get us?" she asked amusedly.

James shrugged, working his innocent look as best as he could.

Sarah and Kacey laughed and opened the boxes to reveal a ton of Zonko's products—probably fifty Galleons worth. They both started laughing immediately, and then looked at each other with wide grins.

"Uh oh," Jose said. "I don't like the looks of those smiles."

Kacey sighed and looked at him with mild disappointment. "Oh, babe, you don't think we'd pull a prank on you, do you?"

Jose laughed. "I wouldn't put it past you, honey," he said, and the rest laughed.

Draco leaned down to whisper in Sarah's ear, "You're not going to prank me, are you?"

Sarah grinned and turned her head to kiss him lightly. "Only if you deserve it," she said nonchalantly.

He grinned down at her. "Well, then I guess I should make sure to stay on your good side," he laughed.

Sirius raised his eyebrows at Kacey and Sarah. "Do you really think you'll be able to use those products as effectively as the Marauders?"

Kacey looked affronted. "Was that a challenge, Mr. Black?"

Sirius narrowed his eyes, but before he could open his mouth to answer, Sarah smiled cat-like. "Challenge accepted," she said with a smirk rivaling her fiancés.

"Sirius!" James exclaimed. "We don't actually know their pranking history! Why would you do that?" He faked desperation.

Jose laughed. "Good luck, Marauders, or at least Sirius. You're going to need it."

Sirius sighed and picked up two more identical packages. "From Lilyflower," he said as he handed them over with a flourish.

"Are those books?' James asked his girlfriend, grinning down at her.

Lily sighed. "You'll have to wait and see," she said airily.

Sarah and Kacey ripped open the wrapping paper, and they both grinned when they realized they were holding scrapbooks. Both immediately opened them and flipped through a few pages before looking up. "Lily, these are so cool," Sarah said.

"What's in them?" Ron asked.

"They're scrapbooks of our time in the past with a ton of pictures inside," Kacey answered. " Lily, these mean so much, thank you."

"Yes, thank you so much," Sarah smiled.

Sirius picked up two gift bags and held them impatiently in front of the twins. "Alright, Lilyflower gave you pictures. My turn. Well, mine and Celeste's, that is. Open them slowly."

Sarah and Kacey both took the bags, glancing at each other and then back at the presents warily. It was Kacey who moved first and pulled out the top sheet of tissue paper. She gasped and looked up at Sirius with narrowed eyes. "Seriously?!" she exclaimed.

"What did he do?" Sarah demanded, taking out the top sheet of tissue paper. When she looked in the bag, her mouth dropped open and her face went red. "Sirius!" She cried, "What—why-?" She couldn't finish a sentence.

"What did they get you?" Draco asked, leaning over to grab the bag.

Sarah held it away from him, blushing. "Nothing," she said quickly.

Kacey, on the other hand, handed the bag to Jose with a sly smile. He peeked in the bag and his eyes widened. "Well," he said casually, "That might be more of a gift for me than her." Kacey hit his arm.

"Jose!"

Draco held out his hand to Sarah for the bag and she handed it over, cheeks still red. He looked inside, face unreadable, and then looked up at Sirius, raising an eyebrow. "Care to tell me how, exactly, you acquired the sizes for this?" He asked silkily.

Sirius smirked. "Celeste got them. And don't pretend you don't appreciate it. The color was picked out just for you," he said with a wink.

"I'd guessed that," Draco said dryly, handing the bag back to Sarah and leaning over to whisper, "You hold onto that, love."

Sarah's cheeks reddened even more and Sirius wolf-whistled. " Jose, Draco, no thanks needed. I know our present is much appreciated."

Draco said nothing, but his lips quirked, and Jose grinned, leaning over to kiss Kacey's forehead and hand the bag back to her. "Surprise me," he said to her quietly, and she giggled, her cheeks going a little pink.

Sarah cleared her throat, trying to avoid the eyes of everyone else. "Let's move on, Sirius. Thank you to you and Celeste, although if you plan to gift something like that again, I'd prefer you not do in front of fifteen other people," she said with a slight laugh.

There were some chuckles as Sirius handed over the next couple of gift bags. "Sweetheart, I wouldn't be Sirius Black if I catered to your sensitivities," he said with a grin.

"Alright, Black, she's not your sweetheart," Draco said mildly.

Sarah reached up to squeeze Draco's hand, and then grinned at Kacey before they started opening their present.

"Those are from Remus and Katie," Sirius said.

Both girls grinned as they pulled out packages of Honeydukes chocolate, and a book each. Sarah held a book on dragons, and Kacey a book on Puerto Rico.

"Chocolate is always appreciated, Remus and Katie," Sarah said with a grin. "And this book looks really interesting."

Kacey nodded in agreement to the statement about chocolate, and flipped through her book. "This is cool," she said, "Now I'll know more about Puerto Rico when we go to visit Jose's family." Jose grinned and leaned over to kiss Kacey's forehead.

"I can't wait for you to meet them as my fiance."

Sirius held up the last two envelopes that were on the table. "These are from Peter, who had to go home because his mother isn't doing well."

The girls took them and opened the cards, smiling at the happy birthday wishes from Peter, while wondering if his mother really was sick. They were sure the same thing was running through Harry's head. When they looked up to see Ginny reach over to grab Harry's hand and squeeze it, they knew it was probably on Ginny, Hermione, and Ron's minds as well. The twins exchanged looks before smiling around at everyone.

"Thank you all so much for our presents. You've all made this day really special." Sarah said.

"Yes, everything was wonderful: breakfast, presents, and spending this time with all of you," Kacey said.

"Alright!" James grinned after everyone said 'you're welcome' one more time. "Bopsy!"

A little elf appeared in their midst with a clean, white tea towel around it's waist, and a little red tea cozy on its head. "Master James, what can Bopsy do to help?" The little elf said with a smile, bouncing so that it's bat-like ears flapped.

"Bopsy, could you and Mipsy bring me the special concoction you put together for me this morning?" James asked slyly.

The elf nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, sir, Mr. James! Bopsy will be back soon!" With a POP, it disappeared. Five seconds later, it reappeared with another little elf, this one wearing a flowered tea towel like a toga, and a gold bow in between its ears. They were carrying a large chocolate cake between them lit up with a ton of candles.

Upon the elves reappearance, the group around the twins started singing a raucous rendition of 'happy birthday.' Draco smirked and shook his head at them all, not used to these types of birthday celebrations, but he leaned down and sang the song in Sarah's ear anyway.

When the group ended the song, with quite a few opera-like endings—courtesy of the Marauders and Jose—Sarah and Kacey glanced at each other before leaning forward and blowing out the candles. They all went out for a moment, but everyone jumped when suddenly a mini-fireworks display went off over the cake.

Kacey's mouth dropped open. "What kind of candles are these?" She asked incredulously.

"They're from Zonko's," James said. "Give them a minute and they'll be done." He turned to his elves. "Thank you Bopsy and Mipsy. You can have the rest of the afternoon off," he said with a smile.

The elves nodded enthusiastically once more, and then disappeared.

Sarah and Kacey took turns cutting the cake and they all dug in when the pieces were distributed. All of it was gone by the time the party broke up, which was several hours later, and everyone went back to their respective common rooms.