Chapter Nineteen

Happy Birthday, Jamie Darling

It takes a long time to grow young

~Pablo Picasso

After having made the promise that they would only try and track down the Slytherins, figure out what they were up to, for a little over a week, James attacked the problem with a newfound vigor. He was sure that they were just on the verge, moments away from finding a Slytherin, following them into their secret meeting, and discovering all of the deep dark secrets held within. He pulled his friends, some more reluctantly than others, all over Hogwarts castle, trying to find the secret hiding place for the Slytherin meetings. They followed those they thought could be in on the whole thing but, nine times out of ten the Slytherins they were following went somewhere innocuous, like the library, the Great hall, or down to Quidditch practice.

In essence, they were getting absolutely nowhere. The only possible benefit that could be considered was that their efforts were insuring that James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus knew every nook, cranny, hidden passageway, and secret area of the castle. At some point, Remus had started copying down all the information, making a map of Hogwarts to help them keep all their newfound information straight and easily accessible.

But that was the only good thing that came from the days of searching and they were rapidly running out of them before they hit the deadline.

On the morning of March 27, James bolted awake and jumped out of bed. It was still early in the morning; he had nearly an hour before breakfast was even served. James always woke early on his birthday, excited about what the day would bring, and this birthday, his twelfth, was no different than any other. This would be the day when something would happen that would change his fortunes and turn the whole reconnaissance mission on its head.

He quietly, yet quickly, clambered out of bed. Stacked in a neat pile atop his large streamer trunk he kept at the foot of his bed were several gifts. James figured that the Hogwarts house elves must have collected them from the owl post as they'd been delivered and then brought them into his dorm room that night as he slept. There were gifts from his parents, from family friends, and even three gifts, one each, from his friends.

Eagerly, James began ripping into the colourful paper, desperate to find out what was contained within. He got several books, on topics from Quidditch to helpful jinxes, from family friends. His mother sent him some new clothes and a large package of homemade treats and goodies. His father sent him a new, top of the line broom servicing kit. Finally, his friends had ordered several small magical pranking objects from Zonko's. All in all, it was a good haul and James was extremely pleased with the lot.

He was in the middle of storing his new presents in his trunk when the three other inhabitants of the dorm room awoke. James opened a bag of his mother's gooey chocolate chip cookies and shared them with his friends.

"Happy birthday!" Sirius shouted, jumping around the room and waving his hands around like a crazy person. James latched his arm around his friend's shoulder, halting his harried progress around the room.

"Thanks, mate. How about we go get some breakfast. My mum mentioned something about a cake and it'll probably come in the post today." James then dragged Sirius out of the room and down the stairs. Remus and Peter followed quickly after them.

"Just give it one more try!" James pleaded with Sirius and Remus as the foursome made their way back to Gryffindor common room. It had been quite a day, and James was riding high on the wave of good fortune. He'd excelled in all his classes; even mastering the transfiguration spell he'd been struggling to get for weeks. He'd found a sickle someone had dropped on his way to Herbology that afternoon. Now, the stairs they'd been trying to climb moved halfway through their ascent, ending up in the direction of the Slytherin common room instead of Gryffindor.

"We haven't gotten anywhere, and it's been months! One more night isn't going to help us!" Sirius groaned, frustrated. James wasn't sure if the frustration was directed directly at him, at the situation, or at a combination of the two.

"It won't hurt us," James reasoned. He made his tone sound as sad and forlorn as possible and levelled his friends with the saddest expression he could muster. Sirius seemed to soften slightly at James' expression. It was now time to strike.

"Plus" James spoke, trying to keep the sense of accomplishment out of his voice, "today is my birthday and a good friend would do whatever their friend wanted when it was their birthday. I just have this feeling that something good will happen today. My birthdays are always good days where the best things happen to me. I've already mastered that transfiguration spell I've been struggling with. I think the same energy or whatever will transfer to this whole thing with trying to follow the Slytherins. I can just feel it." James finished his speech, hoping he'd been using his most convincing tone, and stared Sirius down. If James could convince Sirius to go along, then Peter would definitely join in. Even if Remus were opposed, the three of them would be enough to surveil and track.

"Fine!" Sirius finally relented, "one more time, but unless something changes this will be the last time. We really need to move on from this, though, James. We're basically running around in circles. Let's just get back at the Slytherins directly, proof or no proof."

James nodded, acknowledging Sirius words and concerns. However, only a second later, he turned down the hallway and whooped in victory. He leaped into the air and thrust his fist towards the ceiling as the sound escaped his mouth. Sirius chuckled at his friend's display of emotion, and quickly moved to catch up with James. Peter followed almost directly on Sirius' heel and, after a few seconds, and quite a bit of mumbling and groaning, Remus joined in.

When the quartet arrived at the corridor outside the Slytherin common room, they quickly found a spot to hide in their secret passageway covered with a tapestry. None of the Slytherins had discovered them there yet, so they continued returning. Other hiding spots of theirs had been found out and now, whenever suspicious Slytherins walked passed them, like the suit of armour the beaters had spotted them behind, the Slytherins would carefully and thoroughly search the area for any trace of the Gryffindors. The area behind the tapestry was still a safe place for their observations.

However, almost as soon as the tapestry stopped moving, initially being swayed as the boys walked in behind it, an arm reached from around the tapestry. The large stocky body of the Slytherin Quidditch Captain and Seeker Alectus Warrington then quickly followed the arm. He had a gleeful, almost psychotic-looking, smile on his face as he looked down on the petrified first years.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Four extremely annoying, terribly nosey first years who just can't seem to leave well enough alone. I heard you've been cleared of the broom tampering's. Why would you want to put yourselves out there to have the suspicions reignited? After all, the insinuation of the four of you hanging around the victimized Slytherins after being cleared, could be that you now think yourselves invincible and are coming back to re-victimize us." Warrington stared each of them down as he threatened them. James, his hackles raised at the threat, stared right back.

"We know it was you, Warrington. And we're going to find the evidence to prove it, so watch your backs!" James then turned on his heel and marched off down the passageway, upset that things had gone awry once again. His perfect birthday record had been shattered in the quickest of moments.

Suddenly, something smacked him in the back of his head. A warmth began to spread, and James quickly clued into what had happened. As James had left, Warrington, in a truly cowardly act, had sent some sort of jinx at James. The messy haired boy turned around and, in the same fluid motion, drew his wand. He was all ready to duel it out with Warrington, but what he saw at the entrance to the passageway stopped him for a moment.

Warrington was no longer alone. In the seconds that James had been walking away nearly every member of the Slytherin Quidditch team had joined their captain. James may have been able to hold his own against Warrington by himself, but he stood next to no chance against Warrington and a half a dozen or so Slytherins.

"Too much of a coward to fight us on your own?" Sirius taunted, though James could see a slight hesitation on his friend's face. Instead of responding, the gathered Slytherins simply began casting curses at the four first years. In the small area, most of the curses hit their targets. Luckily, they were relatively harmless, like jelly leg jinxes and bat bogey hexes. James, however, didn't want to sit around and wait until the older boys began casting more menacing curses.

"Run!" he shouted at his friends, drawing his wand, ready to defend their retreat. Sirius, not heeding his friend's plea, stood beside James with his wand drawn. The two first years began battling with the Slytherins, all the while slowly making their way back up the pathway towards the second exit. When the four of them reached the wider hallway, they took off and kept running until they were just outside the Gryffindor common room. James, concerned about what curses and dark magic the older Slytherins might know, had run flat out the entire time. Once he arrived outside the Gryffindor common room he doubled over in exhaustion.

"Uh, James," the apprehensive, and slightly winded, voice of Remus spoke from behind the bent over boy. After a few seconds, in which he attempted to catch his breath, James stood. He only saw Remus and Peter, but heard heavy breathing from behind him, indicating that they'd all made it out.

"What, Remus?" James asked, a little annoyed that Remus would take this moment for an I-told-you-so. The other boy wouldn't look him in the eye though, instead focusing on his hairline.

"Your hair is, uh, red. Kinda looks like your head is on fire," Remus spoke, pointing to the top of James' head. The messy haired boy quickly took off again, this time looking for a bathroom instead of an escape route. James found one a few meters down the hallway and entered it, hoping Remus had been playing some very poor tasting joke.

He walked up to the mirror and yelled out in frustration. His hair was, indeed, bright red. Warrington's curse, the one that had hit James in the back of the head while he had been walking away, had transfigured his hair red. And worst of all, James wouldn't learn human transfiguration for another several years. His hair would be stuck this ridiculous shade until either the curse wore off or someone took pity on him and transfigured his hair back to normal. With the current state of the public opinion in regard to him so low, James wasn't banking on any pity.

James let out a second frustrated sigh and, just as he did so, Sirius rushed into the bathroom alongside James. The dark haired boy was in even worse shape than James. One curse that had hit him had enlarged his ears and nose.

'Worst birthday ever,' James thought as he and his best friend took in the state of each other.

"No, James. We're done," Sirius spoke, sounding exhausted. He was leaning against his bedpost, his head hung low, so his long hair fell in front of his face. Despite his relatively calm stance, the repeated clenching and unclenching of his fists made his agitation clear. Remus and Peter were sitting on one bed, part of the disagreement but trying their best to remain out of it. James was anxiously pacing the floor of the dorm room.

"There's still a few days until April first. There's still time for us to find something or for something helpful to happen. We can't give up now!" At the end of his sentence, James turned to face Sirius, hoping to change his best friend's mind.

"James," Remus piped up. He hadn't wanted to be a part of the argument, but seeing his friend spin in circles, Remus felt he needed to inject some logic into the situation. "They jinxed your hair red! I still haven't figured out a way to turn it back, and we don't know how long the spell will last. Going back up against the Slytherin will only end badly."

"It's not that bad. In fact, I think I look quite dashing." James responded. He stopped his pacing to turn and look at himself in the mirror. He hoped that by cracking a joke he could lighten the mood some. This was the first real argument he and Sirius ever had, and he was quickly coming to dislike the whole thing. He wanted to end it. He wanted to stop arguing and focus on something else.

At James' comment, Sirius' shoulders slumped, and he exhaled deeply. It was evident that James' comment had disarmed him a little; he had ceased clenching his fists. Some of the anger and tension in the room dissipated. James breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm just- I'm just tired of being the victim, James," Sirius spoke, "I don't want to be the target, I want to be the one targeting. I want to get back to pranking. We've already spent far too long on this. It's time for us to move on," Sirius looked at his friend imploringly. James wanted to agree with his friend, but he also wanted answers. It was a difficult choice to make especially when he felt so close to a resolution with the broom tampering, and so he lapsed into quiet, not contemplation really, more like agonizing choice-making.

Silence quickly filled the room. James stood rooted in place, in the middle of the dorm room, staring down at his feet. Sirius was still leaning against his bed. Peter and Remus remained seated on the bed. All three of them, concern and questioning clearly on their faces, stared at James.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

The sound echoed throughout the nearly silent room. All four boys' heads snapped towards one of the large windows that ringed the room. Sitting on the sill, tapping gently on the window, was regal looking owl. Clenched in its claws was a neatly wrapped package. James instantly recognized the owl and quickly moved to open the glass. The owl then hopped inside and deposited the package on James' bed.

"Another present?" Peter asked, breaking the silence. The group had gone from staring at James to staring at the owl without saying a single word. James moved towards his bed, quickly gaining excitement.

"Yeah. From my dad. I don't know why he waited and didn't send it with the others. Also, he already got me a gift. Maybe he forgot he sent me something already…" James' musings died off as he began to rip into the package. A piece of parchment fell to the floor as James reached into the package and pulled out an old cloak.

"No way!" James exclaimed, his voice barely more than a whisper. He held the cloak up, examining it as it unfolded. Remus grabbed the parchment and began to read it.

Dearest James,

I know I already got you a gift, but I don't really consider this one a gift. It had been passed from father to son for generations. So, this isn't so much me giving you a birthday gift as me presenting you with something that is already yours.

Use it wisely and try to stay out of trouble.

Love you,

Dad

Remus looked up from the letter.

"Your family passes along a cloak?" he asked, obviously believing it to be some weird pureblood ritual and glad that his family didn't partake in such strange things. James just looked up at his friends, a smug expression on his face. He then wrapped the cloak around his shoulders.

"It's so much more than simply just a cloak. This is the answer to all of our problems," the floating head of James spoke.