Author's Note: Okay, uh, I am seriously running out of stuff to say for the author notes. So.. uh… enjoy?

James Potter

Sirius Black

"The party is for Severus Snape," she says.

All my friends start protesting at once, but the gears in my head start working.

Obviously, I do love Lily, and I would do anything for her. Except, throwing a party for my enemy was not supposed to be the package deal. However, doing this could possibly make Lily like me…

But then again, HE'S MY ENEMY!

Finally, I got a brilliant idea. This way I can help Lily, but I also get something out of it!

"You owe us eight favors," I said calmly.

All my friends gape at me in a mix of surprise and joy. Lily starts blinking, and I can tell she's surprised by what she just heard.

"What?" she says, obviously hoping that whatever I said wasn't true. Either way, I knew she would say yes. She needed the party, and she needed someone to help her. She was going to agree to this deal no matter what.

"Eight favors," I repeated, a little slower this time.

"E- eight? Why eight?" I knew this question was coming. Even my friends stared at us in awe, which only fueled me even more. I smirk at Lily.

"One for us hating Snape, and the other for us having to do this on such short notice. Two per person, and that makes eight," I reply matter - of - factly.

I can feel everyone's faces on me, but I continue to smirk at Lily. My friends knew me better than anyone, and they also knew I was definitely not joking. Lily starts contemplating this, but I stand there like there's not a care in the world.

To be quite frank, there isn't. It's a win - win for me. If she says no, then I can watch Severus get heartbroken that Lily didn't throw him a party. They could even fight! Now that's a good deal. If she says yes, then I get two favors from her, which could even mean her helping with pranks.

"Fine, let's do this," she says finally.

I smile. Just like I expected.

"So, what do you need help with?"

Lily rolls her eyes and says "I was thinking we put the Slytherin's main colors everywhere. You know, green and silver. Then, we can order a cake from Hogsmeade… but we need someone to secretly order a cake under a fake name."

"I can do that," Padfoot and I say at the same time.

"No, I'll do it!" we say at the same time, again.

"No-" we start at the same time, again, but Lily interrupts.

"You guys can both do it! James, you create the order as an adult and create a fake name. Sirius, you can help him with the disguises and whatnot. Happy?"

Moony smirks a little at us, and I can tell that he's pleased that Lily has the power to make us stop fighting. I roll my eyes back at him, as does Padfoot.

"Then, we need to find some party decorations. It's-"

"Won't the Room of Requirement have party decorations?" I interrupt.

Lily tilts her head. "Yes, I suppose it will. Now, we just need a caterer."

"That won't be a problem, I can convince the house elves to create some food. Then, I'll bring it up to the Room of Requirement," Peter says.

"Okay, that's perfect, but what about Remus and I?" Lily asks.

"Uh.." I start, not able to think of anything.

"Music!" Sirius says immediately.

Lily's eyes bright up. "I know the perfect DJ!" she says, but then she frowns, "Except, she probably wouldn't want to help…"

"I'm sure she will, just try once," I say consolingly.

"I'll be the manager," says Moony, "I'll go to the Room of Requirement and make any additional changes with my wand, and I'll make sure everything's ready by 7:30."

Lily nods. "Thank you so much, guys," and she actually hugs me. I blush, and Padfoot winks at me. Then, he does a kissy face, and I roll my eyes.

"Okay, Padfoot, let's get to work," I say.

"Nah… too dull," I tell Sirius. We're in our room, and we're trying to sort through multiple disguises that I have stashed in my suitcase.

"Ah! Here's one!" Sirius says, and hands me a long robe, a wig, and glasses.

I stare at it, and finally say, "Okay, fine, but I need something I can stand on. This robe is way too long."

Sirius mutters a few words under his breath and transfigures my Potions textbook into stilts.

"Hey!" I protest.

"I'll fix it later, but just put it on for now."

And so I do. I take off my robe, revealing a pink shirt and short trousers. I ignore Sirius's reaction to my "muggle clothing" and continue to put on my robe. Then, I carefully walk on the stilts, put the wig on, and put on the glasses.

"Epic," Sirius breathes as he looks up at me. I smile, and then I start walking out of the Gryffindor common room. Sirius walks alongside me, holding our map.

"A few more feet, and then left," he says, and I do so. I reached a statue that looked like a one - eyed witch.

"Dissendium," I mutter, and hump on the statue reveals a small slide. I look around at Sirius, and he nods. Then, Sirius gives me a couple galleons.

"For the cake," he says and I nod slightly. I clutch the galleons in my pocket and I go down.

All the way down.

I land in Honeydukes, just like I was supposed to. My wig accidentally fell off during the passage, so I quickly shove it back on. When I find the coast clear, I hop out of the slide and into Honeydukes.

It's crowded as usual, so it was easy to blend in. I stare at all the delicious candy that's put on display, but I (somehow) restrain myself from buying it. Instead, I steer myself to the checkout.

"What can I help you with today, sir?" says the kind lady in the checkout.

"I-" I say in my normal voice, but then I correct myself and make it more gruff.

"I need a birthday cake," I say.

The lady smiles. "Which one would you like, sir? There's a special Slytherin cake that we have made recently, if you would like to try it."

"I would like the Slytherin cake," I say.

She smiles. "Coming right up! Wait, sir, would you like me to put a name on it?"

"Yes," I reply, "It's for my, uh, son." I cringe a little at the word son.

"Okay, sir, but what's his name?"

"Severus."

"Severus.. I think I've heard that name before…" she says thoughtfully.

"Uh, maybe that's a different Severus. We're new to Britain," I say.

"Oh, interesting! From where?"

"From, uh, France."

"Interesting. Anyway, let me just put this order in." The lady walks to the back, and I can hear some talking. Then, she comes back up.

"That's seven galleons, please."

I reach into my pocket and pull out a bunch of galleons. I carefully count seven galleons and hand it to her, leaving me four galleons. I put it to use.

"What can I buy with four galleons?" I ask.

"You can buy two whole packs of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans," she says politely.

I hand her the galleons and she hands me two packs. I start to open the pack, but think better of it.

The lady takes her wand, and then she mutters some sort of spell.

"Name, sir?" she says.

"Uh, Dean."

She nods, and then my "name" is plastered on my arm, along with "Order 564834".

Then, she says "I'll call you up when it's ready," and then I go to sit down on the chairs that are put out, munching on the beans.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

D- did James just agree to throwing a birthday bash for Snivellus Snape?!

WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM!?

Lily just agreed… I just agreed…. Why… what… WHAT IS HAPPENING?! IS THIS A DREAM?!

No, no it's not.

I realize this when I pinch myself a good five times on my wrist. OW.

James sits down again, satisfied, but us Marauders are having none of it. We each grab James by the shirt; Remus and Peter grab him by the sleeves, and I grab him by the collar.

We pull him over to the stairway, and glare at him. James blinks at us nonchalantly.

"What?" he asks. Remus rolls his eyes and cuffs him over the head.

"Why would you say yes to planning a party for Severus Snape!?" Remus growls angrily and James sighs.

"Really, Moony! Aren't you the responsible one? Let's get over these prejudices for once! Um… maybe not.. but I can try to be nicer to Snape, right?"

"NOT BY PLANNING A BIRTHDAY BASH!" I hiss angrily.

James responds by rolling his eyes and responding breezily, "It's not a bash, Sirius, it's a party. We don't even have to attend, okay?"

"And we won't," Peter states, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. We all nod our heads.

James sighs and rocks back on his heels. He says nothing for a while, and we all continue glaring at him.

Finally, he says, "Look, I got you each two favors from Lily Evans. I know you think it isn't worth it, but it really is."

He gives us a look, with a hint of pleading in his eyes.

"I know you guys can do it. Plus, you already agreed. You can't exactly back out, now can you? I swear, these eight favors are going to help us, we just have to use them wisely. Please."

With one last glance at us, his gaze lingering on me, he turns around and leaves, his hands in his pockets.

Well, I suppose we're doing this.

"Banners go over there!" calls out Remus and I groan.

James and I had gotten back from Hogsmeade a short while earlier after getting the cake and some butterbeer, and now we were setting up decorations. Moony has made us change the placement for the banners five times already, and I have had enough!

"You've made us change the placement five times already! Enough already! Choose one place!" I screamed angrily. First of all, I have to do this stupid party for Severus Snape. Second of all, Remus is making me change the placement of everything every five seconds! Third, I'm losing my dang best friend to LILY EVANS! Did I forget to mention that she hates him!? ARGH!

"Lower your tone, Padfoot! And don't yell at me! I'm the manager!" What fucking reason does he have to be angry?

"No. Choose a placement or else."

"No. Stick with my rules or else."

Usually, Remus is a smart bloke. He understands not to mess with James or I because we are powerful wizards. ESPECIALLY WHEN WE'RE ANGRY.

Today, however, he seems to be plotting his death sentence.

"Moony," I say quietly, "choose," I step closer to him.

"A."

One more step.

"Place-"

My voice comes out as a dangerously quiet whisper.

"-ment."

Remus glares at me, "Padfoot," he says, just as quiet.

"I."

One step towards me.

"Will."

Another step.

"NOT."

Now we are standing nose to nose, glaring at each other. We are both fingering our wands.

"ENOUGH!" a loud voice barks and Moony and I jump, turning to face Prongs glaring at us.

"Stop fighting! What has gotten into you two?"

Peter seems to agree, but he simply crosses his arms, observing the damage.

"HE STARTED IT!" Remus and I shout at the same time and we both turn to glare at each other. Before we can say anything else, James has whipped out his wand and shot a spell at us.

We land on the ground next to the wall with a loud thud.

James steps closer to us, fire in his eyes. He steps closer and closer and finally, kneels down to look me in the eye.

"ENOUGH."

He turns and stares at Remus.

"You're the mature one, Remus! Stop acting childish!"

He sighs and shakes his head, his eyes closed.

"The banners will go over there," he points to the space between two silver and green Slytherin banners.

"You," he glares at me, "will go and help Peter. You," now he looks at Remus, "are going to come with me."

He gets up and walks over to the food table.

Remus and I both look at each other, half glaring, half confused, and we both do as James asks.

I go over to Peter and ask him what he's doing.

"I'm setting up the banners."

"More banners!?"

"Stop complaining, Sirius!"

"Ugh."

"We have to hang this one where James said."

Peter and I head over to hang the banners. Since I'm taller, I stand on the stool and hang it, while Peter passes me more and more.

"Done!" I declare happily while Peter beams and nods.

James comes over, and I can see that he's less stressed out now. I wonder if it's because Remus talked to him…

"Nice job, Wormtail!"

"Oi! What about me?" I ask in mock offense, and James laughs and gives me a one-armed side hug.

"You too, Paddy, you too."

We all laugh, and I can feel the tension slipping out the room.

"Okay, Remus! You and Sirius can go back to the dorm, Wormy and I will clean up here a little bit," James flashes me a smile.

Guess he's really spreading the love today.

"Okay, come on Moony. I am so glad I don't have to work anymore," I shudder dramatically and Remus rolls his eyes, although I can see a small smile lighting up his tired face.

We both head out of the room as Peter and James start cleaning up.

"What did you talk to James about?" I ask Remus and he tilts his head to the side.

"What makes you think that I talked to him?"

"I don't know… it's just what you do!"

Remus laughs and I smile at him.

"Actually, I didn't talk to him. He talked to me."

"What about?"

Remus doesn't reply and I understand.

James doesn't seem like it, but he is the mother hen of the Marauders. He always makes sure Remus eats after a full moon, he makes sure that Peter never feels stupid, and he makes sure that I am okay after a particularly hard detention or after a particularly harsh dinner with my family.

Yes, James is the true mother hen of the group.

James talks to me about a lot of things, and most of the time, I don't like sharing them. I can understand that Remus doesn't want to share either.

"I wonder what he's talking about to Peter right now…" I voice out loud and Remus gives me a quizzical look.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he has talked to you already, hasn't he? I suspect he's going to be talking to me afterwards, so most likely, he's going to be talking to Peter as well. Plus, there is no way that Peter and James are cleaning up in silence."

Remus ponders this for a minute, before saying thoughtfully, "You're right…"

"Obviously. I'm always right," I boast jokingly and Remus rolls his eyes.
"Hey, what's with all the 'rolling of the eyes'?" I ask and Remus shrugs.

"I don't know…"

I gasp comically, "The great Remus Lupin not knowing his intentions? It's unbelievable! Somebody call a camera crew folks, this is a miracle!"

Remus smacks me over the head and we both laugh our way back to the common room.