This chapter, to be completely and totally honest, is pure filler. Well, minus that one scene which was partially part of the plot, partially to appease all of you and my own natural curiosity. But, anyway, the main reason for that is because the next chapter will actually have some plot to it instead of just the romance stuff. I love the romance, and it's easy to write, but I really need to concentrate on the plot at some point. So, in other words, enjoy the fluff now because there won't be any in the next chapter. I don't think. Unless it attacks me and revolts and turns itself into something else entirely. And, in advance, I'm sorry the ending's pathetic.

Chapter 16- Early Mistletoe and Surprise Parties
"Guess what," Ryan announced.

Morgan opened her mouth to ask what, but she was cut off. "Don't get her to answer that question unless you want to be here for the next couple of hours," James warned.

"I will not keep her here for a couple of hours," Ryan retorted, grinning. "Only for the next half hour or so. I'm excited. I'm not really sure why, though. I don't have a reason to be. Just… Are you planning anything?"

"Don't answer that," Lily said to James mock-seriously. "She will pull the answers out of you before you can even stop to think."

He grinned. "Can't tell you, Rye. It's a secret."

"Then you are planning something!" Ryan said joyfully.

"No, love," Remus corrected her easily. "He said that it was a secret. He could just be saying that to distract you from the fact that there really is not secret to be kept a secret."

She eyed him carefully, seeming to consider what he had said. Then she turned to each of the other Marauders, measuring them carefully as well. After about a minute, she turned back to Remus with a grin. "Nope, there really is a secret. I can tell. You and James are the only two with strong enough mind barriers, so I could see straight into Sirius and Peter. Of course, that's only because you're so used to it by now and James cheats, but that's really beside the point, isn't it?"

"You're going to ruin the surprise if you start reading our minds," Peter said, looking slightly put out over what she had said about the mind barriers.

"Oh, I wasn't looking for what the surprise was. That would take all the fun out of it! I just wanted to make sure that you actually were planning something."

"Wheat, who do you think we are?" Sirius asked, pretending to be offended. "We're the Marauders. Of course we're planning something behind your back."

"Good," Ryan said, satisfied. "See, boys? That wasn't so difficult, was it?"

"She'll be asking about it by tomorrow," James muttered darkly to Sirius.

She grinned. "I love being a Lady Marauder. The benefits are fantastic. Freedom to prank, adoration of everyone in the school, and on top of that, you get wonderful birthday parties thrown by your entire house." She kissed Remus on the cheek cheerfully before standing up with a grin. "C'mon, Lily and Alice. We've got Arithmancy."

"This is your fault for telling her you were planning something," Lily informed James accusingly as she and Alice stood up. "She won't be quiet for the rest of the class period."

He shrugged, grinning. "Blame Sirius and Pete. I had nothing to do with it."

"Yeah, of course you didn't." Without another word, the three girls headed to class.

Morgan waited until they were out of hearing range to ask, "So what exactly are you three planning anyway?"

"Nothing," James said innocently. "We aren't planning anything."

"At least nothing on her birthday," Sirius piped up, grinning.

"On her birthday, we'll probably just sneak into Hogsmeade or something," Remus said, answering her question directly. "But next weekend…"

"Next weekend we're going to have to kick everyone out of the common room for a couple of hours," James said. "Especially her. Damn, I wish we could manage a surprise party for her once."

"I wish we could surprise her with anything," Peter said.

Morgan grinned. "You four spoil her. All of the time. Your parties for each other are never nearly as big as the parties you throw for her. Just because she's a girl."

"Nope, has nothing to do with the fact that she's a girl," Sirius argued, shaking his head. "Just because she's a bird—"

"Literally," Peter threw in.

"Yes, thank you, Wormtail. Just because she's literally a bird doesn't mean we're extra nice to her. We treat her like the rest of us. Except Moony. We just have more fun throwing her parties."

"Her birthday comes first, so we just throw her bigger parties," James said easily. "Besides, we're trying to make up for those first four years when she didn't get any party at all."

"She's our mascot," Remus said simply. The other three nodded in agreement.

Morgan shook her head, still grinning. "Yup. You spoil her."

&-&-&-&-&-&-&

So maybe we do spoil our little Firebird. So maybe we do have a tendency to treat her better than we treat each other. We all have ourselves convinced that she needs us to protect her, to take care of her, but she could kick our arses before we could blink. We treat her like our baby sister, but she's really stronger than all of us.

When you stop and think about it, we really do try to baby her far too much. Me especially, I think, a lot more than Sirius or even Remus ever has.

I should know better than all of them, I guess. But that doesn't stop me from worrying about her. She practically is my little sister (or big sister, technically, but we'll ignore the technicality for now). She hates it when I do that, get overly protective over her, but it's not like I can really help it. We grew up together. There are pictures floating around my house that have us in diapers together. Her mum and my mum were best friends.

There's a reason behind that, I think, her mum and my mum being best friend. They gave us a lot of freedom growing up, but they both always knew what we were doing or thinking or going (her mum being a Phoenix, my mum being an Extended Legilimens). It's gotten annoying as we've gotten older because it makes it bloody impossible to lie to my mum, but that's really beside the point.

I think they knew what was going to happen when Rye and I were born. We weren't born at the same time, obviously (her birthday is in November and mine's in January), but we were born close enough together that, by the time we were two, there was hardly a moment when the two of us weren't together. The way Padfoot and I are now is the way Rye and I were back then. Never one without the other.

I think my mum and Rye's mum almost knew what was going to happen before it happened. I remember Mum walking around the house for weeks, looking depressed but trying to hide it whenever we were around. We knew, of course, Ryan better than any of us. But that didn't keep her from trying to hide it from us. To be honest, I really don't know what was wrong with her mum. I think it might have been a Muggle disease, one that they didn't realize she had until it was too late to stop it.

And then Mr. Miller decided to pick up and move away. Mum had a few choice words for Terrence Miller at that point, but there was really nothing she could do about it. She just preached to him every time she saw him that he couldn't run away from his problems. The real issue was that he was taking away the daughter she never had.

But we put up with it, me and Rye, because we knew without a doubt that he would let her come back to Hogwarts for school. So we dealt with it for the next three years, dealt with only seeing each other about three times in those three years and trying to write letters when we could, knowing that he would let her go to Hogwarts with the rest of us.

But… then he didn't. That fall, when Sirius, Remus, and I were starting at Hogwarts, Ryan was stuck at Agrippa Academy of Ancient Magics in Florence.

Which, of course, led to the Agreement. I think the only reason he dad gave into the Agreement was because he knew that she was being completely serious when she said that she was going to run away to England if he didn't let her go home more often. The Agreement (it's actually a paper that Ryan wrote up and made her dad sign) basically ensured that every year, regardless of where they were or what shit her dad was in, they would come to my house for Christmas. It might just be Christmas Day, it might be for two weeks, but Christmas was a guarantee. And she also got a couple of weeks out of the summer to come over, if they were lucky. Somehow she never ended up over at my house when the other Marauders were over. It wasn't on purpose, it just happened that way. So when she came back, they almost didn't recognize her.

We are the beginning of the Marauders, me and Rye, and a lot of people question whether or not she should even be considered a Marauder.

Which brings me to another point.

We Marauders are special. No, I don't mean special in the way that Sirius would say we are special, like we deserve a lot of credit because we are who we are. I mean special in a way that nothing can compare to us. Damn, that came out wrong too. Okay, we're special because none of us are completely normal. Not mentally. Magically.

You already know we're Animagi. But that was something we learned, something we taught ourselves. There are other things that we could never teach ourselves, things that come with blood and family and magical luck.

You know that Remus is a werewolf (I didn't say they were good, I just said that we have them). He was bitten when he was about, er… five, I s'pose. Old enough that he hung out with us, but young enough for us to only question why our best friend wasn't around without really trying to come up with the true reason. I'm not really sure how he hid it from us growing up, except for the fact that Padfoot and I are, according to Ryan, pathetically unobservant.

Ryan is a Phoenix. Not literally, but you get the idea. She has all the powers that a Phoenix has (minus the healing powers, because she refuses to cry just to fix the scratch on someone's leg). She's modest as hell about her singing, but she's really good. She can read minds if she really wants to, and she has flashes of the future more often than she would ever admit. She was born being able to turn into a Phoenix, but every three months she's weak and sick for two weeks. It kills her, even if she should be used to it by now. There are probably other things she can do, but I don't know what they are off the top of my head.

I'm a Sensor. And yes, that is exactly what it sounds like. I can pick up on really strong emotions from people. They're weak, but I can still pick up on the really strong feelings. Exam week is hell and Valentine's Day makes me gag, but that's really the only time that my powers are really a problem. They're not strong enough for them to be a problem any other time.

Sirius isn't really magically powerful, but his magic can be traced back be one of the first families to attend Hogwarts. Nothing too special there, I don't suppose, unless you just really like history. Or you're a pureblood maniac that thinks that blood makes you more important.

Peter grew up with Muggles. Yeah, I s'pose that's not all that special, but when the rest of us grew up completely in the wizarding world, there are a couple of things he just seems to have missed out on sometimes. He's half and half, but his dad (the wizard) left sometime after he was born. I guess this is really more his story to tell you, but I just needed to make that point.

So we're special. Different. Odd. Whatever word you want to use for it. Everyone overlooks it because we're, well, us. That's jut the way it is.

Oh, and for the record… She'll fall in love with me soon enough. And I don't give a damn if I sound cocky when I say that. It'll happen soon enough.

-Prongs

&-&-&-&-&-&-&

"Did you get it?"

"Of course I got it!" Remus shot James a look until he finally caved. "Okay, no. I didn't get it. But I was planning on going to get it right now. Where's Padfoot?"

"Dunno," Remus said, shrugging.

"Wherever he is, he's got the map," Peter added. "It's bloody hard to know where Rye is if we don't have the map."

"I'll look for him when I go to the kitchens," James said. "I think she said she was going to go flying for a bit. She knows to stay away for a little while. I'm going to go get the stuff, I'll be back in a bit." He headed to the portrait hole and hopped out only to almost collide with two people.

"In a hurry to get somewhere, James?" Lily teased.

"I'm supposed to get food," he said easily. He stopped and grinned at Alice and Lily. "And I really think that you two should help me out. I mean, she's your friend too, right?"

"I think you're crazy," Alice said, laughing. "You Marauders planned this mess, you can get things from the kitchen and bring them up here."

James turned his grin to Lily. "Please, Lily? What do you say to giving a poor bloke a hand?"

Lily laughed too, shaking her head. "You're lucky that I need to look for Morgan anyway. Yeah, I can help you out. Are you sure you don't want to come, Alice?"

"I think I'm going to help out the other Remus and Peter," she replied, smiling. "You two kids have fun." She climbed through the portrait hole, leaving Lily and James by themselves for the time being.

James grinned. "Onward, m'lady?"

Lily shoved his shoulder. "Shut up, prat. Let's go get that food from the kitchens."

&-&-&-&-&-&-&

"And how do you know that they're together and headed this way?" Morgan asked for what felt like the thousandth time. Well, she couldn't help being curious. It was a natural feeling, especially when the most insufferable of the Marauders was involved (well, at the moment he was the most insufferable; it changed depending on her mood).

"Because I just bloody know, alright, Watson?" Sirius replied for the thousandth time. Morgan knew without a doubt that Sirius didn't like her much if any better than she liked him. But this was for Lily and James, and if it meant that she had to spend her free time with Black to get the two of them together, then so be it.

"Where did you get that anyway?" Morgan asked curiously, nodding to the mistletoe in Sirius' hand. Magical mistletoe, to be exact. They were only a week from the beginning of December, which meant that the castle's official decorations hadn't been put up yet, but the students were beginning to feel that it was time to take a month long break from schoolwork. It wasn't like he could have just kidnapped the mistletoe from some other area of the school.

Sirius shrugged. "We've got a stash in a box somewhere. Just had to summon the box and get one of the little buggers out. Speaking of little buggers… stay here for a second." He slipped out of their hiding place behind one of the random wall curtains that decorated the walls of the school before she could argue with him. She rolled her eyes, but he was back before she could really complain.

"Did you put it up?" she asked.

He snorted. "What do you think I went out there for?"

"I meant did you put it up correctly," she clarified.

"'Course I did," Sirius said. "You have no faith in my abilities. I am seriously and mortally offended. Not seriously, mind you—"

"Black," she cut in, "just shut up. I don't want to listen to your corny jokes right now."

"You know, most girls laugh at my corny jokes."

"Yeah, well, most girls are too dazzled by your hair to realize how corny your corny jokes are. Now hush, I think I hear them coming." Sure enough, a few seconds later, Lily and James' cheerful voices carried down the corridor. Morgan held her breath, waiting for the moment when the two of them would realize they were stuck. It would happen eventually on its own, she knew, the two of them getting together. Or going together, as the case may be. She just thought that mistletoe might… help them along a little bit.

Except… they didn't stop. They just kept walking on down the corridor long after they should have been stopped by the mistletoe. Morgan waited until they were out of hearing range before rounding on Sirius. "I thought you said you put it out there!"

"I did!" he exclaimed defensively. "Must've just been a defective one or something."

"Did you stun it or freeze it so that it wouldn't run off?" Magical mistletoe had a nasty habit of finding couples at random and moving around to do so.

"No, because then the spell won't work," Sirius said easily. "I just figured since it automatically finds couples anyway, it really wouldn't be an issue."

Morgan froze as the realization hit her. She looked up just to clarify what she already knew. "Sirius Black, you are one of the biggest twits I have ever met."

Sirius followed her gaze upwards before looking back to her with an easygoing shrug. "Oops."

"You. Stupid. Idiot," Morgan hissed. She really wanted to strangle him for being so stupid. Of course, if she really wanted to take a walk down memory lane, she knew that he was a good snog from past experience. But that was back when she was fifteen and in love with all the Marauders at some point or another, and really, who wanted to remember that at a time like this?

"Sorry," he said easily. "So I just kiss you now, right?"

"Make it fast, Black," she said darkly.

&-&-&-&-&-&-&

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RYAN!!" the entire Gryffindor house yelled cheerfully. Ryan grinned widely at everyone standing before her. The boys really did spoil the crap out of her, even if they would never admit to it. But, hell, even for all their over protectiveness and spoiling, she loved them to death. And all of the girls too, who did not hesitate to run up and engulf her in a hug.

"Happy birthday!"

"Were you surprised?"

"'Course she wasn't surprised! She's never surprised!"

Ryan laughed, hugging them back even as everyone else in the room started partying and dancing to the loud music. "Thanks, guys."

"Oh, we didn't do anything," Alice admitted. "It was all the boys. But I suppose you knew that already, didn't you?"

"Shh, don't tell her that!" Morgan exclaimed, pretending to look shocked. "We might have been able to convince her that we planned it and the guys just did all the lifting work."

Lily shook her hand, laughing as she turned to Ryan. "Happy birthday, Ryan."

Ryan grinned and turned to where the boys were obviously waiting for her to get finished with the girls. They looked at each other, smirking slightly. They nodded before practically jumping her and engulfing her in a hug. "Happy birthday, Ryan!" they chorused cheerfully.

"Thanks, guys," she said, her voice slightly muffled due to the multiple males hugging her tightly. "But… could you let go? I can't breathe."

"No," Sirius said cheerfully. "This is the only time of year that I can get away with hugging you for a long time and not get yelled out, Fireball. I think I'll stay like this."

"Alright, Padfoot," Remus said, grabbing Ryan in mock protectiveness. "Let go of my girlfriend."

All of them laughed as everyone except for Remus let go of her. Ryan gave him an extra squeeze, which he returned, before kissing him quickly on the cheek. "You guys are amazing. You really didn't have to do this."

"Ah, but spoiling the hell out of each other just doesn't have the same effect," James teased.

"And you said that you didn't spoil me," Ryan teased back.

"We try to avoid it, but on occasion, we just can't help doing it," James replied just as teasingly.

Ryan laughed before grabbing Remus' hand. "Come on. If I'm the birthday girl, I get to decide whether you spend time with me or the boys. C'mon, dance with me."

Remus shrugged helplessly as the other boys snickered and made helpful comments like, "Oh, oh! Save a dance for me too, Moony," and "Wrapped around her finger, aren't you, Moony?" and "Looks like we've lost him to the dark side, mates." Ryan and Remus ignored them easily as they walked over to the makeshift dance floor.

"Oh, lay off," Morgan said. "They're cute."

"Eh, they don't care," Sirius said easily, waving it off.

No one, except for maybe Sirius, missed the mild glare Morgan sent in his direction. And all of them realized that there had to be a story behind it.

&-&-&-&-&-&-&

"So where's my birthday present?" Ryan teased as the two of them swayed to the music in the middle of the huge crowd.

"It's not really your birthday until Tuesday," Remus said, grinning.

She mock pouted. "That's not fair. You can't throw a party for your girlfriend and then just not get her a present."

"I got you a present, you'll just get it on your real birthday," he replied good-naturedly.

She sighed before grinning and reaching up to kiss him on the cheek. "You four are amazing for planning all of this. You know that, right? I know you do it every year, but still." She smirked slightly. "And I especially appreciate all the effort you guys put into trying to keep the whole thing a secret from me when you know that I already know about it."

He laughed. "Well, we have to at least make an attempt, don't we?"

She laughed too. "It's the thought that counts."