Chapter Twelve: Lily's party

The weekend after the First Quidditch Match Party was Lily's surprise party. James had managed to keep it a secret, despite lots of the excitable first and second years getting, well, excited about the second big party of the term. Remus had attempted to have a quiet word with James, telling him maybe he should tone it down a bit, seeing as there were going to be eleven and twelve year olds present. As usual, James had shouted him down (not literally); he was so intent on showing Lily a good time and how much he cared for her that he was letting nothing stand in his way. Sirius, who still sported pink hair because every time he attempted to return it to brown, either James or Remus (or Billy Budweiser) would immediately take it upon themselves to change it back, much to their amusement, had sided with James on this nonetheless, always being one for a good party.

"Moony," James told Remus seriously, "I know you're the most responsible of us, and I also know you're right about the younger ones – so I'm appointing you responsible for them, and that means getting them to go to bed at a reasonable time, okay?"

Ignoring Remus' stunned silence, James moved right on to something else that needed to be done for the party that evening, leaving Sirius to comfort his friend.

"Bad luck, mate," he said, trying not to laugh at Remus' mouth hanging open. "That's gonna be one hell of a job, especially trying to control that little brat Paul Helter." The brat in question was currently chasing some of his first year classmates around the common room, oblivious, or maybe not, to the girls' extreme irritation.

"Do not let him near the Butterbeer, let alone the Firewhiskey," Sirius advised. "He's not nicknamed Helter Skelter for nothing." He slapped Remus on the shoulder and made to walk away, but Moony grabbed his arm.

"He can't do that to me," he gasped, finding his voice at last.

Sirius laughed. "I would agree," he said, "because he can't boss us around, but the fact is, you're a prefect, so it's your responsibility, anyway. You've done it to yourself, mate." As Remus opened his mouth but could find no argument, he carried on, "Don't worry, I'll help you get the scamps in order."

"Oh, please," Remus dismissed this offer of help. "Padfoot, you'll be gone within half an hour of this party – either on Firewhiskey or with some girl upstairs."

Sirius looked mildly affronted, then grinned and accepted the accusation. "Yeah," he admitted, and, walking away from a still unhappy Remus, muttered to himself, "What a comedy."

The common room was decorated, the food and drinks were laid out on trestle tables specially conjured for the occasion, the whole tower had been magically sound-proofed by James and Sirius so that anyone outside wouldn't be able to hear what was going on inside, any valuables had been stored away safely; now all they needed was Lily. All the Gryffindors except Lily, Sarah and Adriana were waiting in the darkened common room for the three girls to come back from the library. Lily, being the academic type, hadn't been difficult to persuade to spend the day working in there, while everyone else helped with preparations.

Now, at nine, her two friends were supposed to be bringing her back, and everyone, especially James, hoped she would be both surprised and delighted with what she found. The Marauders and Bethan crouched behind the sofa nearest to the door; they were the first to hear Sarah say the password ("Cripes, mate!"), and Bethan whispered, "Here she comes!" Sirius put a hand over her mouth, as the portrait swung open and the three figures clambered in.

"Oh, why is it so dark?" Lily asked in puzzlement. A couple of younger students giggled, to James' annoyance, but at the next moment the cue went, the lights came on and the whole common room leapt up shouting, "SURPRISE!" at the top of their lungs.

Lily screamed in genuine shock and stepped back, crushing Adriana's toes and tripping over. Everyone hesitated, wondering if she was alright and whether she'd be angry, but she got to her feet straight away, laughing her head off. All the Gryffindors joined in, and James felt most relieved of all.

They all rushed over to hug her and wish her happy birthday; the Marauders gave her the birthday bounces and finally James asked her, "Were you surprised?"

"Only the most fucking surprised I've ever been!" she replied, surprising him in turn with the obscenity, which he had rarely, if ever, heard her use. "Did you do all this?" she asked, smiling at him.

"Yeah, I – I thought you'd like it," he replied, feeling glad, but quite weak-kneed with the reception he'd received. "You really like it?" he needed some assurance. "I wanted to get into your good books for once."

"And your pants," Sirius said into her ear as he brought them both Butterbeers.

"Get lost, Padfoot!" James said lightly, taking the drink.

"Oh, that's nice!" Sirius pretended to be hurt. "After all the help I gave you organising the party, now you're brushing me aside just to talk to the girl you've been in love with six years." He beamed happily at the two, apparently unaware, with a bottle of Firewhiskey already in his hand, of the sudden embarrassment he had brought to the conversation.

"Sirius, don't you have some girls to talk to?" James prompted his best friend.

"That I do," Sirius grinned devilishly, "That I do. Catch ya later." He turned abruptly in the general direction of any girls and sauntered off, leaving the couple to try and shake off the awkward air.

Lily soon gave up, saying, "Well, thanks, James, I really appreciate it. And I'm surprised you had the brains to organise something like this," She smiled and quickly headed off in the same direction as Sirius, to join her friends.

James gazed after her, his head on one side and a grin on his face. "She loves me!" he sighed, oblivious to Remus' desperate nearby attempts to stop Helter Skelter getting to the alcohol.

The party continued well into the night, and luckily the soundproofing charm lasted that long, too. By one o'clock Sirius had disappeared upstairs with a couple of seventh year girls, as Remus had predicted; Peter was doing well with Adriana; James was pursuing Lily unrelentingly, and she was being equally unrelenting to his advances; and Remus himself had given up trying to keep the younger ones away from the Butterbeer and Firewhiskey, and had become involved, though he was not sure how it had started, in a drinking competition with Paul Helter. He was slightly disturbed to find that he was losing, and had to be held upright in his chair by lots of little first year hands.

The next morning the place was a wreck, and so were many of the students. Drink had been spilt and food had been trodden into the thick red carpets, furniture was turned over, and people were crashed out on the floor and on the stairs leading to the dormitories.

In the sixth year boys' room, things were not much better. The four Marauders had managed to find their beds, and had fallen asleep on them with bottles still in their hands, and, in Sirius' case, a girl on either side of him. All was peaceful. Until Peeves the poltergeist entered through a wall, and, seeing the carnage, got annoyed that he hadn't been involved and decided to annoy everyone else by screaming at the top of his lungs, "WAKEY WAKEY!! RISE AND SHINE!" and zooming around the room and up and down the stairs pelting anyone he saw with leftover food.

Up in the bedroom Sirius sat bolt upright, knocking one of his girls onto the floor. The empty Firewhiskey bottle dangling from Remus' hand fell to the floorboards with a smash. Peter jerked awake, hitting his head on his bedpost where he had been lying with his head hanging over the side of his mattress. James simply fell off his bed, landing next to Sirius' girlfriend with a dull thud and a dull 'ow'.

Pandemonium ensued down in the common room. The two seventh-year girls realised they'd been had by the promiscuous Sirius Black and ran down the stairs and up to their own room, dodging the many hung-over people racing around, dozily trying to hit Peeves with spells and trying to get him out. The Marauders went back to sleep until dinnertime, James simply nodding back off on the hard floorboards, half under his bed, and Sirius not even noticing that he was now alone.