I cannot believe I actually got this chapter out on time (for where I am)- my mum, brother and myself were all ill on Saturday, and so I had to rush this, but it I still still a pretty fun chapter if I say so myself.

For disclaimers see early chapters.

Enjoy!

Chapter 37- Celebrations

'We're going to look amazing.' Sirius admired himself in the mirror, his face gaunt and pale, a bright red trickle of (fake) blood dripping from his mouth. A dull makeup made it appear that he had deep shadows under his eyes, but his striking grey eyes stood out even more, and twinkled too. His wavy hair was slicked back(courtesy of Sleekeazy's Hair Solution), glinting in the light, looking as elegant as ever. His clothes were pristine and smart, a robe of midnight backed with claret. He opened his mouth in a grin, revealing a menacing lot of pointy teeth. Aristocratic but still deadly: Dracula. Sirius turned to face Remus.

'Looks like we're not that bad at makeup! I mean considering it's our first attempt, and we're 12!'

Remus emerged from the bathroom, almost proving the point. His face to, was rather pale, and he had painted shadows index his eyes. Deep red scars screamed on his face, along with a few more purulent scars for the past, all fake of course. Remus thought, for once, he looked worse than the day after the full moon. While it wasn't as accurate as Sirius' was, Remus was proud of his look. He also sported a plain, Frankenstein's monster outfit, to complete the look.

Peter finished changing, and turned around, putting an ugly face to match with the dull, grey skins Sirius and Remus provided for him, he snarled at them, and brandished a cane, waving it wildly, all while cackling madly. The suit he was wearing was large and didn't fit well- without a doubt he made an excellent Mr. Hyde. James, who had entered the bathroom right after Remus had left it, slammed the door open, and strutted out. Failing to hide his grin. He was wearing a pair of odd and magnificent robes. Extravagant, elegant, and perhaps a bit extra... it was bronze and violet, with stitches coloured in gold and silver. A similar wizard's hat rested on his head, and a fake wig and beard adorned his face, giving him the appearance of someone who somewhat resembled Dumbledore. He held his hands up regally, letting the wide loops of the sleeves drape down.

'Dear Peter,' he began in a regal voice, 'how nice it is that you mother has the same taste in clothes as good old Professor Dumbledore!'

'Shut up!' Peter mumbled. 'It was ages ago when she bought it, it was liked then.'

'What, like in the Middle Ages?!' Sirius exclaimed.

'Boys!' Remus shouted over them. 'Sorry to disrupt the argument over Peter's mother's taste in clothes, but we should probably go and surprise them before teachers come looking for us and surprise up. You know the Halloween feast this year has a set time!'

'Thank Merlin for our Remus! Of course we have to go! Sirius: get the broomstick. Let's go!'

Meanwhile, the four's absence was mainly unnoticed- however the first year girls did wonder where their fellow Gryffindors were. They were just discussing the very topic, when the doors of the Great Hall were flung open.

'MWA HA HA HA HA!' Sirius flew into the Hall, zipping around the area, laughing loudly, his cloak flying out behind him. His grin exposed his sharp, glinting teeth. A moan came from the entrance, with some more cackling, as Remus and Peter entered. Remus had his head tilted, and was groaning, attempting to hide a massive smile. Peter didn't have to, as he limped into the Hall, waving around his cane, a hideous laugh escaping from his mouth, which he twisted as much as possible to look unusual. They made their way to their spot, everyone following them, or Sirius, still zipping around, when suddenly the Hall was filled with another voice.

'HAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPY HAAAAAAAALLOOOOOOOWWWWEENNNNNN!' James sang at the top of his voice. His face was strained from the full effort he put into the notes, echoing around the Hall. Laughter filled the place as everyone realised James was dressed up as the Headmaster, many noticed Dumbledore himself was chucking too. Suddenly the four of them broke into song. They had spent a whole night awake just to write their little song, and practiced it whenever they could. It was scratchy, three of them having only taken lessons recently (Sirius was naturally good at most of this stuff), but still rather enjoyable. They beamed as they belted out words on Ghouls and ghosts, on banshees and bats, on monsters and murders. Everyone (or rather Hufflepuffs, Gryffindors and some Ravenclaws) began clapping along to their rhythm. They only had two verses, and when they were done, there was a huge cheer from three tables, some booing from the emerald-clad students, a friendly applause from Dumbledore, Slughorn, and a few other teachers, with the expected exception of Professor Farley, on the verge of having smoke coming out of his ears.

'What a performance! I do like your interpretation of various Gothic monsters. I'm quite a fan of them myself. Obviously this doesn't apply to Mr. Potter, but I do like your interpretation of myself, though I'm not half of a good singer as you! Of course, several rules broken, however since it's Halloween, I guess we can let it pass. Mr. Pettigrew, Mr. Potter, Mr. Lupin, and Mr. Potter, I recommend you take a seat now.'

'Certainly.' James replied in his regal voice again.' Sirius flew down, but before sitting down, he stood tall, and faced the Slytherins, his eyes quickly falling to his three cousins who shared his name.

'And Sir, you don't have to call me Mr. Potter. I'm a Black. Although, let's just say I'm a lot more muggle-loving, a lot more Gryffindor-y, and infinitely more better-looking than them.' He announced loudly, looking specifically at Bellatrix, the most pedantic of them. She turned around and spat on the floor, a lot of the other Slytherins giving cold gazes, raised eyebrows and wrinkled noses. Sirius provided them with a sarcastic smile before sitting down. James started clapping, breaking the proceeding silence. Remus and Peter joined in. And soon enough, majority of the Hall were clapping at Sirius' little announcement, to which he blushed and giggled; He honestly hadn't expected such a reaction.

'Thank you for that announcement, Mr. Black.' Dumbledore calmly shouted. 'And now, after all the exciting distractions, I think it is time to carry on with our feast!' After a resounding cheer, tables were soon clear of its food, students stuffing themselves to the brim with treats and goodies, enjoying a lovely Halloween day.

Despite Halloween being over, the four were still overly-hyper. The Third Of November was that Friday, and was therefore fast approaching. And what was special about the 3rd of November?

'I'M GOING TO BE 13 BOYS! I'M GOING TO BE A MAN IN TWO DAYS! YOU LITTLE ONES NEED TO WAIT FOR MARCH AND MAY! I MEAN, I'M GOING TO BE OLDER THAN REMUS, SO THAT MEANS I'LL FINALLY BE WISER THAN REMUS!'

Remus mumbled something under his breath that was certain to be about how wise Sirius was. However Sirius' yelling drowned it out completely, and Remus resorted to shaking his head, as Sirius childishly ran around the room, screeching about becoming a 'man.'

The teachers had a little discussion in the staff room on the night of the second.

'Tomorrow.' McGonagall said gravely, 'Is Sirius... Black's Birthday. I have him tomorrow, who else does?' McGonagall's eyes closed once she heard Slughorn's reply. Oh great. Sirius Black's Birthday + Potions will likely end in mayhem.

'Sonorus.'

'Ding-'

'BOYS! IT'S PAST MIDNIGHT SO I'M FINALLY 13! SIRIUS BLACK IS 13 YEARS OLD!' There was a weak cheering from James and a snort from Peter.

'Well, you aren't truly thirteen until it reaches the exact time in which you were actually born.' Remus softly stated. Sirius merely glared at him, before standing on his bed and yelling:

'BOYS! IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, SO I DEMAND A MANLY PILLOW FIGHT!' He chucked his pillow and James, and thus began a pillow fight at midnight. Though it was only a minute later that a tired prefect burst through the door, their curly hair pointing in all directions (still no match for James) and told them to shut up, before getting hit in the face with a fluffy pink pillow, belonging to Peter, thank to James' great aim of an excellent chaser.

McGonagall glared at the four boys as they strolled through her door, but Sirius and James took one look at the board, and their eyes widened, Sirius yelling...

'GODRIC GRYFFINDOR! ARE WE ACTUALLY GOING TO BE TURNING CATS INTO VASES?!'

McGonagall nodded, evidently confused.

'WICKED! CATS' ARE SO ANNOYING! I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO ANNOY THEM BACK... Oh, Sorry Professor McGonagall, I'm definitely a dog person.' And without further disruptions, Sirius plopped himself down, excitement and anticipation filling his bright eyes. McGonagall gave a sigh, and she began bringing in the cats.

Sirius and James were ecstatic by the time the lesson had finished, however despite potions following, the four were still happy, confirming McGonagall's suspicions that there was some planned mischief. She had some hopes that Remus would somewhat keep the mischief to a minimum, having no idea that Remus was the one who planned the chaos that was about to take place.

'So, I'm afraid that the practical I organised had to be cancelled today.' Announced Slughorn genially, 'So I though we could recap potions theories!' Sirius dropped his book in shock where it landed in what sounded suspiciously like fireworks.

'No...practical?' Sirius muttered. James bit back a smile.

'Oh. What a shame.' So the lesson went on boringly, and Sirius acted distraught- dramatic as usual. After Sirius whined for the thousandth time, James stood and looked at the teacher.

'Professor Sluggy-Slughorn! What would happen to the third year potions if the crushed bicorn powder was changed for fermented erumpent horn powder?' Slughorn's face paled.

'Eh? Well, it'd be a potion ready to explode at the slightest touch of a spectral scale or from a juxtapoze seed.'

'What? Like this?' Peter asked, pulling out a shiny blue spectral scale. Everyone's eyes widened simultaneously, as Peter pretended to fall, and the scale when flying over to the side, and landed with a neat plop into one of the cauldrons. The only This heard was a 'HA!' from the Birthday lad, before the contents of the cauldron expelled outwards. The rich, indigo shimmering liquid lost all its beauty and elegance as it ferociously attacked the room with no mercy, charging in all directions. It fought well against the boring lesson that is potions, providing immense pleasure when one blob decided to fight against Martha Greengrass' well tamed mane of sandy hair. Her screeches joined that of the other Slytherins, and unfortunately one or two Gryffindors caught in the action (most had been pulled to a sheltered corner by Remus and James). Sirius had tears rolling down his cheeks when some of the solution ended up on Lestrange's robes, and he let out a scream more high-pitched and louder than any of the others. Nott joined in on the singing, with his low, tuneless shouting, and Chalnark began dancing around, for the violet solution proved to be rather sticky.

Slughorn ran out the room, and near immediately returned with a coupe of professors at hand. Professor Flitwick, Galloway, Millan and two unknown ones rushed in-almost as if they were on standby waiting for such an event to happen. Soon, some charms and magic stopped the exploding potion, and dried off the students. There was an array of scarlet faces- representing the various scales of embarrassing actions that took place in the mayhem. Peakes had a light tings of red on his cheeks- he had been protecting Pritchard, purely out of his gentlemanly instincts ( he claimed). Lestrange and Snape meanwhile, were around about a crimson- it was rather embarrassing to be caught screeching by six professors. McKinnons however, wasn't red due to embarrassment, but rather since she had thoroughly enjoyed it, and was now more of the shimmering purple than her normal self. Her beam made the Slytherins even more annoyed, much to Sirius' satisfaction.

Lunch rolled around, and Remus explained to Sirius what happened behind the scenes of the spectacular show- a bit of sneaking around from Peter had lead him to find out that the third-years were just before them, and were making calming solutions.

' Then I did a whole bunch of research,' He explained,' and then found out that conveniently, all it took was replacing the bicorn powder with fermented erumpet horn powder to turn it into a weak explosive. So since the two looked similar, I took some detention time to quickly switch the labels, and then, ta-da! It was there ready for the third years to make.'

'We suspected Slughorn would cancel the practical, so we made sure this was set up. I nicked some spectral scales earlier, so all it took was a 'trip' from me, and then chaos broke lose- though you obviously got to see that bit.' Peter continued and finished. Sirius grinned.

'Thanks! You lot are siriusly the best!'

'Just you wait...' James ominously whispered, the effect ruined by his twinkling eyes, his elated expression. 'You're only half way through your birthday.'

Pretty much all mischief there!

Hope you liked it!