Too Late.
By Rose Williams.
Rated G.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all associated stuff were created by JK Rowling and belong to her and others. This is fan fiction and does not intend any breach of copyright.
Originally written for the 30 Minute fic 'someone forgets something important' challenge. And I decided to try my hand at fluff.
… … …
Four o'clock in the morning was a quiet time in the seventh year boys' dormitory of Gryffindor Tower. Either the five boys who lived there were asleep, as now, or the four who made noise were on the grounds somewhere, and unrecognisable.
This morning, the end of the first week of classes and the morning when sensible students were going to sleep in because they didn't have homework yet, one boy let out a strangled scream and leapt out of bed.
"Oi, Prongs," a sleepy voice called from one bed.
But his friend had already pulled the door open and was bolting down the stairs. Sirius swore loud enough to wake Peter who sat up blearily.
"Breakfast already," he asked.
"Wake Moony. Prongs has gone mad," Sirius said and left the room as well.
Peter shook Remus awake and told Atticus not to worry and go back to the sleep. Atticus had gotten use to his year-mates' antics very early in first year and rolled over. Remus and Peter stumbled into the Common Room to find James trying desperately to throw Sirius off.
"Gerroff," James insisted.
Sirius just held on calmly. Remus and Peter watched, amused, but not unannoyed at being dragged out of bed.
"Lily," James shouted, in the vague direction of the girls' dormitory stairs.
"What the hell?" Remus said, as James yelled again.
The sound echoed through the empty Common Room. Remus crossed the distance to take James's other arm as he struggled towards the staircase. James was stronger than Remus, and the Remus had to dig his heels into the carpet.
"What's wrong, James," he asked.
James was staring wide eyed at the doorway.
"Today's Friday," he said.
"Actually, Saturday," Peter said.
James tugged tighter. "It was her birthday on Tuesday," he said. "Third of September," he said. "Ever year."
"Most people have their birthday every year, Prongs," Sirius said.
James didn't seem to be mollified by the comment.
"I forgot," he moaned. "And I blame you, by the way," he said.
He pulled the arm Remus still clung to so he could point it at Sirius.
"If it weren't for your 'last first week back prank on Snape,' I wouldn't have had detention, and I would have been able to do something."
"No one really has birthdays during the year, James," Remus said. Hoping his real name would give his friend some thinking space. "You can give her something for Christmas."
"It's too long away," James said. "And isn't it special that I remembered that it was her birthday."
"I don't think it's special that it took you three days, four days to remember that you forgot and had to wake her up in the middle of the night to acknowledge it," Remus said.
James stopped struggling for a moment.
"That sentence was too long for this time of the morning, Moony," Sirius told him.
Remus shrugged.
"And you won't be able to get up the stairs, anyway, remember," he insisted.
But the desperate light in James's eyes hadn't died. He shivered and abruptly turned into a stag. He was stronger that way, and the charm on the girls' stair wouldn't recognise him.
Remus grabbed one side of his antlers, and Sirius the other. Peter fell in to rat form and scurried on the floor in front of James, who tossed his head. It was ingrained in him not to step on the rat and he couldn't move very far.
"How do you explain how you got up there," Remus whispered furiously at the animal now pawing at the carpet.
The stag dropped its head dissolutely. James reappeared, Remus and Sirius holding clumps of his hair.
"Sleep," Remus said. "You can tell her happy birthday in the morning."
James nodded. Sirius dragged him up the stairs. Peter scrabbled onto the hem on Remus's pyjamas to catch a lift up the stairs.
James was oddly quiet the following morning, once they finally awoke properly. He ate breakfast without teasing Peter about the way he spread jam on his toast, something he'd done everyday for the last six years.
"She's just over there," Sirius said, nodding down the table. "You go up to her and say 'sorry I missed your birthday on Tuesday, I hope you had a good day.'"
"What if she says no?" James said.
"She says no every time you talk to her," Remus reminded him. "It would probably go better if you didn't keep asking her out."
"But I want to go out with her," James said.
"You could be more subtle about it," Remus suggested.
He spent the morning with his friends, studiously ignoring their pointed looks. He ate lunch like a condemned man, and Sirius clapped him heartily on the shoulder before the three of them left for the Common Room and he called after Lily.
Lily turned to face him suspiciously. When she saw that he was on his own, her eyes narrowed further. She turned carefully to take in the whole corridor.
"Where's your posse?" she demanded.
"They're my friends, and they have abandoned me to my fate," he said, solemnly.
"Some friends," Lily said, still obviously unsure about what was going on.
"I do all right," James said. "I just wanted to say sorry for forgetting your birthday. I was going to do something nice for you."
"Thanks," Lily said, actually smiling.
James almost melted. She hadn't smiled at him before, not in that relaxed, happy, not about to do something unpleasant way.
"I didn't do anything, though," he protested.
Lily shrugged. "You probably couldn't have done anything I really liked," she said. "So the thought is enough. You can't screw up that way," she said.
"Okay," James said. "Ah, how do you know I would have screwed it up?"
"Well, you don't know very much about me…" Lily said.
"So we should spend more time together," James said.
Lily's eyes narrowed at him again.
"So that I can get you an appropriate Christmas present," he said. "Because it's proper that I get you a Christmas present, if only because you're Head Girl, and I'm Head Boy, and we should be on speaking terms for the sake of the school."
Lily didn't look any less suspicious at the end of the speech than she had at the start. But there was a faint sense of laughter around her eyes. James relaxed slightly.
"Okay," she said.