Sirius Black had never enjoyed birthdays the way other children do. As far back as he could remember his birthday gifts had just been reminders of how much of a disappointment he was to his blood-crazed family. Sirius had never held with the belief that his pure blood made him better than other people, as his family had tried to impress on him.
One year his parents had given him an enormous silver plaque that was just an engraved copy of the Black family tree painted on the wall of the den. Another time he received a book that traced the bloodlines of all the prominent pure-blood wizard families back to the time of the Greek Empire, it also listed the accomplishments of these wizards, focusing particularly on Salazar Slytherin.
This year was going to be different, though; for the first time in his life, Sirius had friends who accepted him for who he was. He awoke early on the morning of his twelfth birthday to find two presents on the foot of his bed. One was from his cousin Andromeda and the other was from his parents (he wasn't sure if he even wanted to know what it was).
Sirius jumped out of bed, flung open the curtains over the window, and crowed like a rooster. A pillow hit him in the back of the head and when he turned around he saw the curtains around Remus's bed shut. Sirius grinned; Remus was never much of a morning person. There were groans of protest from Peter and James's beds, while Frank Longbottom continued to sleep.
"Rise and shine, Moony! No sleeping in today!"
Sirius laughed as he caught a muffled "Shut up, jackass." from under the pile of blankets that was his friend.
James's laughed joined in as the messy-haired boy finished tying back his curtains. Peter was still struggling with his.
"Happy birthday, Sir." he said, rolling out of bed and reaching under his mattress. He pulled out a sloppily wrapped gift and handed it to Sirius.
"Come on Remy, you can't sleep in on Siri's birthday."
There was another sleepy grumble but the curtains drew back to reveal a head of tousled honey-brown hair and a drowsy smile.
"Happy birthday, mate." Remus said as he searched one-handedly under his bed without sitting up.
When all three of his friends were awake, Sirius sat down and began opening his gifts. He started with the one from Andromeda; a lovely scarlet cloak with a golden Gryffindor lion embroidered on the back. The note read:
Just don't give it to your mum to wash, I made that mistake and never got my cloak back! Hope you have a wonderful day. Love always, Andromeda.
Next he grabbed the box from James. It was a huge package of Filibuster's new and Improved Fireworks that lasted for hours after going off, and the story of Godric Gryffindor. Sirius looked gratefully at his best friend. He had told James about the kind of gifts he got from his parents, and this was James's way of reminding him that no matter how badly his parents wanted him to be a Slytherin, Sirius had been put in Gryffindor for a reason.
Next came Remus's present, which was a large box much neater than James's. Sirius ripped through the paper to find a box that said 'Sony Record Player' above a picture of something Sirius had never seen before. He looked at Remus, puzzled.
"What is it?"
"It's a record player; it's a Muggle device that plays music."
Sirius opened the box, and stared expectantly at the record player, but nothing happened. Remus and Peter laughed, and Peter handed his own gift to a very confused Sirius. It was a couple of Beatles records with all of Sirius's favorite Muggle songs on them.
"It was Peter's idea; he remembered how much you liked his music." Remus informed Sirius.
Peter showed them how to put the record on and the voices of the Fab Four filled the room, eliciting sleepy protests from Frank Longbottom.
"Sorry, Frank." Sirius called, but he made no move to turn down the volume. Frank muttered something about insane dorm mates who got up at unnatural hours of the morning.
The Marauders just laughed. Sirius sobered slightly.
"Thanks guys, this is the best birthday I've ever had."
The other boys smiled and James reached over to ruffle Sirius's hair.
"You got one more present, Siri." James reminded him.
"Oh yeah, that one's from my parents so I apologize in advance if it's something about purebloods being superior to the rest of the world."
He opened the present and, not surprisingly, a book dropped out entitled Pureblood Pride: A Guide to the Most Powerful Wizard Families. Sirius just rolled his eyes and threw it in the fire. The other part of the gift, however, was something that no twelve year old boy would turn his nose up at: a pair of dragonhide boots. They were designer boots, made of the skin of an extremely rare Norwegian Ridgeback. They were midnight black with silver eyelets and dark green lapels.
"Slytherin colors, of course." Sirius muttered as he waved his wand over them and turned the green to black.
"I cannot believe you're complaining about a brand new pair of dragonhide boots!" James cried. "That's blasphemy."
Remus chuckled. "Yeah, Siri, I thought you said you're parents gave you horrible presents."
"Normally they do, but I think I know why I got these. Malfloy got a really nice pair of Hebridean Blacks for Christmas, so my dad felt like he had to show Darryl Malfloy up."
The other boys just rolled their eyes and James muttered something about 'egomaniacal purebloods.'
"What do you boys say we go get some food and head over to Hogsmeade for the day? History of Magic and Care of Magical Creatures isn't exactly my idea of a fun birthday." Sirius proposed.
"I wanna hit the showers first." Remus said as he rolled out of bed.
"Oh good, I wasn't going to say anything, Remy, but you stink." James quipped.
Remus whacked him on the back of the head as he walked past. Five minutes later, showered and dressed, the Marauders headed to the Great Hall with Sirius proudly showing off his new boots. James fell in line behind Sirius as they descended the stairs to the common room and pointed his wand at his friend's back. He muttered something under his breath, causing scarlet and gold ribbons to bloom from the end of his wand and form words on the back of Sirius's robes. There was a big red balloon with a gold 12 inside and the words 'Birthday Boy' written above it in alternating letters.
They entered the Great Hall a few minutes later, and when the other students saw Sirius's robes they burst out laughing. Sirius looked slightly confused, but he followed the gazes of his classmates and realized what they were looking at. He craned his neck around until he could see the message, and grinned at James who started singing "Happy Birthday." The rest of the Hall, minus the Slytherins joined in, and even Professor Dumbledore took part.
When the singing ended, Sirius stood up on the table and bowed, obviously loving the attention. Dumbledore started clapping.
"A very happy birthday to you, Mr. Black." he smiled.
"Thanks, Professor!" Sirius called happily.
The Marauders sat down and began heaping their plates with food, and eventually the other students lost interest and turned back to their own breakfasts. Sirius had his mouth full of food, discussing where he wanted to go first when they got to Hogsmeade, when to his mild surprise, Krissy sat down next to him. He swallowed his rather large mouthful and was about to ask her what was up, when she suddenly leaned over and kissed him. She jumped up, blushing furiously, and hurried over to join the other girls. They whispered and giggled together while the Marauders stared open-mouthed at a very red-faced Sirius.
Sirius forgot about his food for probably the first time all year, and kept repeating things like "She kissed me… just came over and kissed me…" and glancing over at the girls, who left hurriedly.
By the time the other three boys had finished eating and left the Great Hall, the normal, cocky Sirius was back and they had to spend the rest of the walk to Hogsmeade listening to him brag.
"Did you boys see that? Women can't keep their hands off me!" he smirked.
Remus snorted and James hit him on the back of the head, but Peter was still staring in awe.
"Pete, close your mouth before you catch a fly." James teased him.
"Oh, he's just amazed at how smooth I am with women." Sirius kidded.
Peter blushed and clamped his mouth shut just as they arrived at the mirror covering the passage to Hogsmeade. Fifteen minutes later they were sipping butterbeers in the Three Broomsticks and chatting with the beautiful waitress.
"So boys, ditching school again, or did you have another Quidditch match?" Madam Rosemerta asked playfully.
"It's Siri's birthday, so we wanted to come celebrate." James told her.
She smiled, revealing perfectly white teeth. "Well happy birthday, Sirius. I need to go help some of the other customers, but you should go next door and check out the chocolate cake." She headed back toward the bar, but stopped half way there and turned back to the Marauders. "By the way, I love your robes!" she winked at them, turned on her sparkling green heels and was gone.
James laughed and clapped Sirius on the back. "I gotta agree with her there, mate."
"Prat"
They started elbowing each other playfully and were about to start a full-blown wrestling match in the middle of the Three Broomsticks, when Sirius caught sight of Peter across the table. He was slightly red in the face and still staring at Madam Rosemerta as she walked between the tables carrying drinks to her customers.
"I think Pete's a little warm." he said, looking at the other two boys with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
"I think he's enjoying the view." Remus agreed, glancing over at Madam Rosemerta's short skirt.
"I think he liked the front view better." James added, referring to the cleavage-revealing top she had on.
Peter blushed even harder. "Don't know what you guys are talking about." he muttered.
The other three laughed heartily at their friend's discomfort.
"I think our little boy's growing up." Sirius said, trying to sound like an over-emotional mother and sounding more like a boy with a head cold.
James sniffed loudly, but his eyes were glittering devilishly. "I think it's time we told him about the birds and the bees."
The smallest Marauder looked at him, horrified, obviously thinking James would launch into an explanation of sex right then and there, which he probably would have if Sirius and Remus hadn't dissolved into helpless laughter. James was unable to keep a straight face and soon all three of them were leaning on the table for support as they laughed until tears ran down their faces and Peter blushed an even darker red.
Peter's embarrassment did have one positive side effect, though; Sirius was so busy teasing his friend that he forgot to boast about being kissed by one of the prettiest first years in the school.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
When they returned to Gryffindor Tower that night, the Marauders found all of the first year girls whispering in a corner of the common room. As soon as the boys walked in, they stopped talking and just stared. Krissy kept looking over at Sirius, blushing, and looking away.
Remus nudged Sirius, "Hey man, you better go talk to her. You can't expect her to make all the moves."
"This from the guy who won't even admit that he has a thing for Lindy Moline." Sirius retorted, but he knew Remus was right.
"Come on Sir, I thought you were a ladies' man." James ribbed him.
Sirius laughed nervously before getting up and walking over to where the girls were sitting. He said something to Krissy and offered his hand to help her up. She took it and they climbed through the picture hole together. The rest of the girls came over and sat down with the other three Marauders.
"How cute is that?" Jenna Thompson, a black-haired girl cooed.
"I knew it would happen eventually." Alice Collins smirked. "In fact, Lily, you owe me five Sickles."
"You bet on whether or not Sirius and Krissy would go out?" James laughed, "I can't believe you took that bet, Evans."
Lily glared at James as she dug in her pockets for the money. "I thought Krissy had better tastes than that." she answered coolly.
"Better than dating the most popular boy in school? Are you daft?" Jenna sounded shocked.
"Excuse me, ladies, but Krissy's dating Sirius, not me." James reminded them.
Everyone chuckled and rolled their eyes tolerantly, except for Lily who looked truly annoyed.
"You are the most arrogant, pig-headed little boy I have ever met!" she exploded. "You think just because you can perform a few spells before the rest of the class that you should be allowed to ditch whenever you want and pull all your stupid pranks."
"I don't expect any special treatment, and trust me, I don't get it. I get detentions just like the rest of you, I just happen to think having fun is worth it." James replied angrily.
Lily's nostrils flared as her eyes narrowed in a glare that reminded James a little of Professor McGonagall. She seemed to be about to say something, but decided against it and ran up the stairs to the girls' dorm.
"What's her problem?" James asked, trying to sound casual, but the good mood of earlier was gone. Gradually the rest of the girls departed and James, Remus and Peter were left alone in their corner.
A couple hours later Krissy and Sirius came back, hand in hand. When she saw that her friends weren't there, she whispered something to Sirius, hugged him, and walked up the stairs to her dorm. Sirius motioned to the Marauders to follow him up the other staircase. They entered their dorm to find Frank Longbottom sitting on his bed doing homework.
"Oh, hey Frank."
Frank looked up into the faces of his four crazy roommates. "You guys want some privacy?" he asked.
"Come on, man, do you really think we'd run you out of your own dorm?" James teased.
"No, you just wake me up at ungodly hours of the morning." he quipped. Frank was even less of a morning person than Remus.
"Yeah, sorry about that, mate." Sirius apologized.
"No worries. By the way happy birthday. Did you guys have fun ditching?"
"Of course, anything's more fun than History of Magic."
"That's true. So what were you guys whispering about just now?"
"Sirius just asked Krissy out." James supplied.
"I see, I was wondering how long it would take. I heard about that kiss this morning at the breakfast table."
"So I guess the whole school knows by now." Sirius laughed.
"Well gossip does get around this school pretty quick, and the Great Hall is a pretty public place."
Sirius shrugged, "That was just a little peck. We went up to the Astronomy Tower for…"
"Sirius!" Remus cut him off. "Do you think Krissy wants to go bragging about what you two have been doing for a couple of hours?"
"Oh come on, Moony, she's doing the same thing with the girls right now."
James laughed. "With Krissy, you're probably right."
They spent a few more minutes discussing girls, but soon they were too confused so they switched gears to talk about something that was easier to understand. Eventually they started talking about their favorite Quidditch teams and about what positions they would play if they made the House team.