Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay. Writer's block. One of those "I know where I'm going, now how do I get there?" things. And Pottermore. Oh, Pottermore... I just spent 85 minutes brewing a potion, only to add one extra mistletoe berry. Buhbye potion. Fhumena... Oh, I'm LumosPhoenix190 on there, and I'm a proud member of Hufflepuff House. Add me if you like, just let me know here who you are. Haven't gotten your email, yet? Send me your name and I'll go ahead and add you so you have a request waiting for you.

To add, I figured I'd mention that there were a lot of airborne pillows in the Head's Common Room during the planning meeting in Chapter 23. There's four small throw pillows on the couch. They just get thrown back and forth. :]

Finally, WeasleySeeker's request for more Emmeline and Sirius started last chapter. I'll do my best, there.

Chapter 25: Spilling Beans
Sunday, October 23, 1977

I felt the warm sun wash over my face, and James's arm around me. I was laying on his bare chest, listening to his gentle heartbeat and breaths. Taking a peak at the alarm, I noticed the time was eight-thirty-seven.

Now this is how you're suppose to wake up on a weekend.

Not a crazed, pre-birthday girl pouncing on you.

I felt him stir under me. "Better morning than yesterday, huh?" I asked him.

"Much," he replied with a sigh.

"Lets get ready for breakfast. I'm starved and we have a long day ahead of us," I said, sitting up and stretching my arms. He took this opportunity to wrap his arms around my waist and pull me back down neck to him.

"Not yet," he said, kissing my neck.

"As much as I want to say, 'This is okay, we have time,' we don't. Promised Dorcas we'd be at breakfast around nine. Do you want them all to come looking for us, again?"

It only took a split second of thought for James to release me. I leapt from the bed and headed to the door. "Shower and meet me in the common room at nine and put the cloak somewhere I can find it easily," I told him over my shoulder, blowing him a kiss.

I went to my room and quickly showered, pulling on jeans and a purple jumper. I grabbed my suede jacket to leave in easy access in the common room. I needed to be ready to leave as soon as possible after breakfast. Tapping the pendant with my wand, I sent a simple message to the girls.

Who's ready for a

BIRTHDAY BREAKFAST?

-L

"We're as ready as you are!" I heard from downstairs. I should have known.

"Hey, Dorcas!" I hollered back. "All assembled down there?"

"Everyone ready and accounted for, minus one," she replied.

"Who?" I asked entering.

"Your boyfriend," she said, pointing to the stairs to our rooms.

"I warned him," I said, shaking my head. "He's all yours." I motioned to the stairs and everyone headed up. As Marlene passed I grabbed her arm. "Oh, no you don't! I need to give you a hug, birthday girl!"

She squealed as I hugged her. "I know! Eighteen! And Remus is taking me on a birthday picnic!" I could see the excitement sparkle in her eyes.

"Well, at least the nerves from Friday are staying away," I joked.

"Yeah, I don't know what came over me. You saw me yesterday and I was fine."

We then were distracted by a groan from the stairs. "He locked us out!" Sirius called down the stairs. "We tried unlocking it, but he added extra charms!"

"Smart boy, he remembered what I taught him," I said to Marlene, quietly. She laughed. I turned to the stairs and said loudly, "Then do what I do."

"What's that?" Dorcas called back.

"I'm not going to snog him!" Sirius hollered after.

I rolled my eyes. "No! Knock and ask nicely, you wanker!" I saw Marlene cover her mouth next to me, her eyes giving her laughter away.

"That only works for you," Peter yelled back.

"Lazy gits," I mumbled, and Marlene laughed more.

"Maybe you should go liberate him," she suggested.

"Yeah, I should," I sighed. I walked over to the stairway and went up two steps. "Back downstairs now, or I'm hexing you," I hollered at them, holding up my wand. I got a chorus of groans in return. "Oh, please, you're like a bunch of children," I told them as they sulked downstairs. "I'll go get him."

I walked up to James's room and gave a slight knock on the door. "Is it safe?" I heard him ask. I couldn't help but giggle quietly. I knew he was ready, but they are quite forceful.

"It's safe, come on," I told him. He came out and we walked downstairs together, my wand still out. When we got to the common room they were all by the portrait hole.

"Well?" Marlene asked. "I have about fifteen birthday waffles waiting for me downstairs!"

"Hey! Don't eat too much that you can't eat lunch later!" Remus exclaimed, looking a little hurt.

With a laugh we headed to the Great Hall for "birthday waffles."

After breakfast, Dorcas told Marlene that it would be best to do the Runes homework before she went to lunch with Remus so they went straight to the library. Emmeline and I already did it, so we went back to the Head Common Room. Sirius and Peter went straight to the kitchens to start making plans and taking orders for snacks and a cake.

When we were in the common room, I excused myself to James's room to find the cloak. When I returned to the common room, Emmeline was sitting on the couch, waiting patiently.

"Hey, Em? Before we head out, I need to say something important," I told her, sitting on the other side of the couch, the cloak folded in my lap.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, looking concerned.

"Everything's fine!" I assured her. "This is just a big deal, and I promised I'd run you through the 'say something and the boys will hex you' spiel."

She laughed. "All right, then. No pressure."

"The way we're getting into Hogsmeade is a secret passage. No one can know about it, it's strictly 'need-to-know' basis."

"You mean it's more of a 'if-the-Marauders-feel-you-need-to-know' basis?" she said with a giggle.

"Exactly! And we're going to and from said passage with this," I said pointing at the cloak. "This is an heirloom of James's family, a father-to-son thing. He trusts you, and we know Sirius does, too. Remus is more understanding about everything and Peter does whatever they say. So you can't tell Dorcas or Marlene. Again, need-to-know."

She nodded, so I stood and put on the cloak. When I was properly covered, I watched Emmeline's eyes widen. "James has an invisibility cloak?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Yeah, yeah, it's awesome," I said, passively, folding up the cloak and tucking it under my arm. "We can gush later. We have stuff to buy in Hogsmeade!" I said, grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her to the portrait hole.

I kept dragging her until I found the corridor with the familiar statue of the one-eyed crone.

"Ugly statue," she said with a giggle.

"That's exactly what I said when I saw it the first time," I told her with a grin, before pulling her behind a nearby tapestry. "Stay close, we may have to shuffle a little," I told her, pulling the cloak over our shoulders. "And this doesn't make us sound-proof, so stay quiet."

We made it to the statue swiftly and silently. When I was convinced the coast was completely clear, I tapped the hump of the statue and whispered "Dissendium," opening the passage. Emmeline gasped, but luckily there was no one there. I gave her a nudge to go in the passage and she did without question. I followed and folded up the cloak.

After we lit our wands with "Lumos," I turned to Emmeline. "You're too trusting," I said with a snicker. "You didn't think twice before jumping into a dark passage."

"It's just you, Lils," she replied, her eye roll illuminated by her wandlight. "Where does this come out?" she asked after we traveled about ten feet.

"Honeydukes cellar. We'll have to be sneaky and use the cloak again." I had a hard time suppressing my laughter. The look on her face was that of pure glee. She turned to me when she heard my snickers. "What?"

"You're so giddy about breaking these rules. I think Sirius is rubbing off on you," I said, grinning.

She couldn't hide her blush from the wandlight. "I could say the same about you and James."

"No argument, there," I said with a shrug. "There's the ladder to the cellar. I'll go up first." I kept the cloak tucked tightly under my arm and put my wand in my teeth so I could climb up. I open the hatch a crack and looked, and seeing the coast was clear, I open the hatch completely and climbed out. I signaled to Emmeline and she followed quickly, closing the hatch behind her. I covered us both with the cloak, extinguished our wands, and quickly ran up and out of Honeydukes. In the nearest alley I pulled the cloak off and did the same Shrinking Charm that James did on our date so I could shove the cloak in my pocket.

"So what's the plan with Marlene? Who's distracting her?" Emmeline asked as we entered back onto High Street.

"Let me think. As you know, Dorcas has her now with Runes homework, and then they're going to get her ready for the picnic. Then Remus said he's going to distract her until around two, when James will take her for a hour to work on Transfiguration. Then you all will go do a few Quidditch Drills until five while Peter and I decorate my common room. Then you all shower and I'll join you guys in your dorm to have some girl time until dinner. The boys will finish decorating in this timeframe. Then dinner, then we party."

"If Marlene isn't dead by then," Emmeline added to my drawn-out explanation. "She's going to wonder why we're working her silly on her birthday."

"Remus told me he's going to make sure that the picnic is relaxing," I told her. "So she doesn't catch on. Thankfully Robertson decided to not hold Dueling Club tonight. He figured we'd use the time to study since Hogsmeade was yesterday."

"Yeah, we're going to study all right. Birthday cake and sweets. To Honeydukes?"

We went to Honeydukes and grabbed a lot of sweets for the party, mostly made up of Chocoballs (Marlene's favorite). Then we went to Spintwitches and bought about a half-dozen practice Snitches to fly around the room. Zonkos lead us to party poppers and other fun things to have around the room. Final stop before lunch was a trip to Dogweed and Deathcap for some flowers. Then lunch at the Three Broomsticks.

While we were sipping at our Butterbeers and waiting for Madame Rosmerta to bring us our Shepherd's Pies when I decided to attack what James and I were wondering. I knew he would be doing the same when they were finishing the decor.

"So, you and Sirius, huh?" I asked her, raising my eyebrow and taking a swig of Butterbeer.

"I was wondering when you'd be asking that," she said with a sigh. "All right, what do you want to know?"

This is going to be easier than I thought. "Everything?" I said with a laugh. "I've been noticing little things here and there. You stroking his hair in the common room, his calling you 'my girl,' the fabulous example of snogging in the alleyway yesterday, and I can go on, you know. And by the way, James and I don't even snog like that in public."

She sighed and blushed a little before answering, playing with the tight curls of her hair. "Well, that's just in. I have no idea. I really care about him, and he's a blast to be around. But I don't know if he returns any feelings. He tends to snog and run, you know? I did tell you that he isn't boyfriend material."

"I was talking to James after our 'lets match Remus and Marlene' session in the Room of Requirement and he mentioned it. He said that Sirius never talks to him about his 'flings.' Like you said, snog-and-go. But he actually came to talk to James about what happened between you two."

"Really?" she asked, her cheeks growing even darker and her thick mass of curls partially hiding it.

"Yeah. I think he cares about you, Em. I think he was worried that he was going to ruin the friendship or something."

"So what do you think?"

"Well," I said, waiting for Madame Rosmerta to leave the table after delivering our pies. "Why not try and pursue something? Or at least tell him where you stand. Has there been any other rendezvous I should know about?"

"None that you should know about," she replied into her Shepherd's Pie.

"Then there has been! Spill."

"Just a few snogging sessions here and there is all. Empty classrooms, broom cupboards, the norm."

"Sirius doesn't do repeat snogging sessions unless there is something there. Or there is someone in between. But we see him nearly constantly and I know we'd find out if he was. He's not, so it's just you right now. That says a lot for Sirius."

"I guess you're right, but I still don't know what to do. I'll just let things take its course."

"Well, don't go shagging him unless you have an idea of what's going to happen from here," I told her, taking a big bite of pie.

Mmmm, Madame Rosmerta makes the best Shepherd's Pie. Just don't tell my mum that.

"You said that so casually I feel like I should be nervous," she said through a giggle. "We're about done, so we should take the loot back to the castle. It's getting close to one-thirty and it takes about a half-hour to get back to the castle."

I nodded and we went back to the alley. After shrinking the packages down to make the trip easier, I enlarged the cloak and we made our way back to the castle.

Emmeline and I collapsed on the sofa in my common room at around ten-past-two.

"That was close," she gasped.

I nodded. "Too close," I replied, still trying to catch my breath. When we returned to the castle and came through the statue, we agreed that one of us should stay with the packages under the cloak. We chose Emmeline since she was the shorter of the two of us, even if it was only three inches. We had to pass the library on the way and we happened to run into James and Marlene. Marlene tried to convince me to come along, and I had to make up some excuse as to why I couldn't come. Eventually she bought the "I will take away all her help because of how much I need" excuse.

Then it got worse and she stepped on the cloak, making Emmeline incapable of movement for fear of being exposed.

Needless to say, it was stressful and we both realized now that I should have done it since I'm taller, thus less drag.

"Lets get as much of this done before three as we can," I told her, getting up from the couch. Peter isn't going to be much help."

She nodded and we started transforming the room into the perfect party session. When we were closing in on the home stretch Sirius and Peter came in with all the food and the cake.

This is going to be the perfect eighteenth birthday party for Marlene.

Author's Note Part 2: Sorry about the wait... on top of everyone I listed in my first set of author's note I've been dealing with other things, too (I'm 26, so I have an apartment to keep up and jobs to look for). Really sorry about it, and I know this is a short chapter, but I wanted to get SOMETHING up for you. Birthday party in the next chapter!