Disclaimer: all recognisable characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and I intend to make no money from them. Anything you don't recognise, including the plots, belongs to me, Emilily.
Chapter 7: Peter's Birthday
It was Peter's birthday in mid-November, and they had planned a surprise party for him in their dorm that night. Lily had taken to sleeping in the boy's room quite often now; returning late from one of their Quidditch raids, she would just climb into whomever's bed happened to be nearest, and nobody who knew about it batted an eyelid anymore. So they pretended to forget about Peter's birthday, and with guilty pleasure they watched as he got more and more miserable all day, not even perking up during History of Magic, his favourite lesson. James, as he was the one Peter liked best, was assigned to distract him that evening while the others crept down to the 'library' to get what they needed.
It was gone nine o'clock, and as little second years, they definitely weren't supposed to be out of the Common Room this late, so they were trying to be extremely quiet. It wasn't working.
"OW! Lily, you stepped on my foot!"
"Sorry, Re, but there's not much space behind this statue."
"Shush! We'll get caught!" Sirius always seemed to have a natural talent for this kind of thing. He could move absolutely silently when he wanted to (but that usually required too much effort) and could hear a teacher a mile off (or so he boasted).
"Shush my arse, you're-" Remus began.
"Shush!" said Sirius, a bit more insistently.
Despite numerous moments like this, they made it to the kitchens undetected. Slipping inside, they were recognised immediately and the elves began loading them up with all their favourites, including a stoppered pitcher of pumpkin juice. "Thanks, this is absolutely wonderful!" Sirius gushed, knowing exactly how to please them, as he did with everyone.
They crept back outside, laden down with food, and began their way back to the tower as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, as they reached the other side of the great hall, they ran into a group of Slytherins, including Sirius' favourite cousin, Snape.
Both boys stiffened immediately. Snape was still sore about Gryffindor winning the Quidditch, and Sirius, of course, still wanted revenge over last year's 'incidents'.
"Well, if it isn't Evans and co.?" Snape said, ignoring Sirius.
"Well if it isn't the great big prat?" Sirius jeered.
"Stepping in to defend your girlfriend, Black? No, wait, Potter's your girl, isn't he?"
Sirius growled at him. "Leave James out of this, Snape, or are you just too scared to insult me directly?" Remus started off-loading what he was carrying onto Lily, so that he could step in between the two boys if things got nasty.
"You're just as stupid as all your Gryffindor friends, Black. I've always said that Gryffindor should stand for stupidity, but the there would be even less reason to want to be in it, wouldn't there?"
All Sirius' food went flying as he hurled himself at Snape; luckily he had not been carrying the pumpkin juice. Remus grabbed him before he could do any major damage, though, and said very clearly, "Remember why we're here, Siri?"
Sirius let go of Snape with a snarl and picked up what he had dropped, then he, Lily and Remus walked away. As he left, Sirius paused to make a very rude gesture towards Snape, who replied "Piss off, Black."
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"Where have you been?" James asked irritably when Remus poked his head around the dormitory door. "Come in, quick, Peter's not here!"
"I had a little chat with Sevvy, that's why we were so long," Sirius said, following Remus in.
"Chat, my arse," snorted Lily. "Now, hurry up. Do you think we should get all the other second years?"
"What, the girls?" Sirius asked in shock.
"Frank, yes; girls, no," James said firmly.
"They're really not that bad," Lily said persuasively, "and if you don't like them you never have to talk to them again."
"Ok, then, but it's your fault if this goes wrong," Sirius said.
"Cool!" Lily started jumping up and down. "I'll go and get them all then!" she cried, bouncing out of the room.
"I have a bad feeling about this," kicking any mess, including discarded underwear, under the beds.
"OW!" Remus yelped, as a 'Happy Birthday' banner felon top of him. "But Lily's right, you two, what can happen that's that bad?" he said more calmly.
"Everything," James and Sirius muttered glumly.
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When Lily reached the Common Room, she could see no sign of the girls from her room, but she could see Frank, who was talking to one of his third year friends. "Frankie," she called as she danced over to him, "you're wanted upstairs!" he gave her a very funny look, so she whispered in her ear, "Peter's surprise party!" Realization dawned on Frank's face. "Oh, see you tomorrow, Dan," he said to his friend. This time it was Frank's friend's turn to give Frank a funny look, before Frank headed towards the dormitory stairs. Now for the girls, Lily thought, with just a trace of apprehension.
She continued to dance up the stairs to her own, seldom visited, dormitory. She pushed open the door. "The wanderer returns," Andrea said snidely as she walked in. since Lily had finally met the girls properly at the beginning of term, Andrea had been nothing but rude to Lily, who couldn't think of any reason at al for this. I'm not going to let it get to me tonight, Lily thought stubbornly. So she laughed. "Not for long, I'm afraid! You see, it's Peter's birthday today, and we're having a surprise party for him now and you're all invited!" Lily said with the air of someone giving a huge present, and it obviously annoyed Andrea greatly.
"Why would we want to go to your party?" Andy said coldly.
"Well, you don't have to come if you don't want to, but-" Lily began.
"I think it's a great idea!" Vicky cut in firmly.
"Me too," Tabitha said, so softly that Lily could barely hear her.
"What about you, Zoe?" Lily asked.
"I suppose I could come," Zoe replied, smiling.
"Come on, then, or we wont get there in time!" Lily exclaimed, excited by the success of her plan.
The little line of girls followed her down to Common Room, and then, as discreetly as possible, they slipped up the boy's staircase. Lily then knocked on the door, and there were some frantic scufflings from inside the room, before Sirius' rather strained whisper called "Come in." Lily pushed open the door to reveal a room that was completely dark.
"SUR-" everyone in the room yelled, breaking off when they saw who it was.
"You great twats," Lily giggled, "it's only me!"
"We can see that now, moron," James snapped.
"Not my fault you're stupid," Lily teased. "Where is Pete, anyway?" Three more curious faces turned towards James.
"He went to the library to find you. I told him to come straight back if you weren't there!" James said defensively.
"Well you'd better go and find him, hadn't you?" Lily said.
James scowled and walked out of the room, angry at being left out again, and Lily began introducing the girls to the boys. Unsurprisingly, as the boys were always in trouble in lessons, the girls already knew who they were.
"Nice to meet you all," Remus said courteously, glancing at Sirius, whose face looked thunderous. "But hadn't we better hide now? We don't want to give it away again."
"It was rather obvious what you were doing, wasn't it, Vicky?" Lily asked, grinning.
"What? Oh, yeah…" Vicky mumbled vaguely. She had not taken her eyes off Remus since she had come into the room, and it was making Remus very uncomfortable. Sirius and Lily exchanged knowing glances.
With a little flick of his wand, Sirius suddenly extinguished all the lights in the room. Everybody immediately began milling about, bumping into each other, and there was a loud thud as someone fell over.
"Sirius Black, put the lights back on!" Andrea yelled indignantly. All Sirius did was laugh manically, thoroughly enjoying the mayhem he had caused.
"Oh, for God's sake, are you all wizards or not?" Lily snapped. With a flash of light, the candles were relit. The scene was revealed: Sirius, sat in the middle of his bed, chest heaving with laughter, Remus holding on to Tabitha, who looked dazed, Vicky blinking owlishly in the light, Zoe standing stock still, exactly where she had been, and Lily with her hands on her hips, laughing at Andrea, who was sprawled on the floor where she had fallen.
"Everybody get into position. Then I'll turn the lights off," Lily ordered. They all scrambled into place and the room went black, not a moment too soon, for they suddenly heard loud arguing voices coming up the stairs.
"You could have told me they wouldn't be there, James."
"How was I to know? Stop whining, Pete."
The room held its breath with expectation. The door creaked open, and Peter suddenly came into view as James pushed him from behind.
"SURPRISE!" they yelled, and Tabby could have sworn the floor shook.
Peter stepped backwards in shock, tripped over Sirius' discarded shoes and fell flat onto his bottom.
"How did those get there?" Sirius asked innocently.
"Happy Birthday!" everyone else cried.
The party had begun.
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It was not a success. The girls got bored too quickly, and when they suggested that everybody played 'spin-the-pumpkin-juice-pitcher', they got rather offended because the boys (and Lily) looked utterly revolted and refused. Their food ran out quickly, thanks to the boys (and Lily) eating it at top speed, so consequently Zoe, Tabitha, Andrea and Vicky left about an hour later, Vicky giving them an apologetic smile as she left.
"Vicky has a crush on you, Re!" Lily said as soon as the voices had faded.
"She didn't stop staring at you all night!" Sirius added wickedly.
"It did make for boring company, though," mused James. "What with her mooning over Remus, Zoe and Tabitha not saying hardly a word, and Andrea glaring at Lily the whole time, they were very boring."
"Never mind, it was worth a try," Sirius said. "Now for pressies!"
"For me?" Peter asked tremulously.
"No, for Lily, you prat!" Sirius said affectionately.
Frank felt unwanted now that the girls were gone. He often did. It was hard, sharing a room with the four very best of friends, especially since Lily seemed to be in the dorm more and more now. "I think I'll go to bed," he said abruptly.
"Night, Frank."
"Sleep tight!"
"Bite the bed bugs when they bite!" was Sirius' typical nighttime offering.
"And you," Frank replied, proved right in his suspicions by the fact that they hadn't asked him to stay. As he climbed into bed, he could see the five gather on Remus' bed and pull the curtains tight around him.
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"Me first! Me first!" Sirius said, bouncing up and down. He presented Peter with a big box of sweets. "Watch out, there are some odd ones in there!" he added. Peter looked at the box apprehensively. Remus then presented him with two books: one called 'Homework Help for the Helpless Wizard', and the other 'Fifty Fun Curses to Make Your Friends Mad'. "Thanks!" Peter grinned gratefully. James then gave him a pair of socks, which flashed ridiculous colours. "They're mood socks!" he claimed triumphantly. "So we'll know when to stay away from you!"
"I think you'd have been better giving them to moody little Siri!" Remus said snidely.
"Shut up," Sirius snapped, unable to think of a good reply.
"Now for mine! Look!" Lily cried, holding out a large, red teddy bear. The boys gaped at her. "Listen, my mum got them. There's one for each of us, mine's called Kit Kat! Peter's is Snickers!"
"Cool!" Peter said, reaching out his arms for his new friend.
"And I charmed them with a never-ending cheering charm by the way."
Sirius pouted. "I want mine."
"You can't have him."
"Why not?"
"'Cos it's not your birthday."
"You mean I have to wait 'til June?" Sirius wailed.
"Don't worry, Siri, we'll find them," James soothed. Secretly, he wanted his teddy too. He hadn't had a teddy since David had declared he was too old for teddies and taken away Brutus when he was eight.
"No, you wont, I have them hidden." Having caused a lot of annoyance, Lily put her head down and went to sleep. After James had whispered, "We'll find them," to Sirius, the boys did the same.