Chapter 22

James woke up on December 28 to a weight on him he couldn't remember falling asleep with. He opened his hazel eyes to find sparkling emerald ones staring back. Lily was lying on top of him, waiting for him to wake. She was smiling at him with excitement.

"Hey," he murmured, hoping not to sound too confused.

"Hi." She said simply, offering no explanation, and James was surprised when she kissed him. "Happy Birthday James." She whispered after giving him his 'Birthday Kiss'.

"Mmm…" he said after his 'Birthday Kiss' "It sure is." Lily grinned after, no not the 'Birthday kiss' what make you think that? No, after she rolled off of him. "Aww, That's it? No more kisses?" He whined, sitting up, showing himself and his new Quidditch boxers.

"No but we'll finish later. Right now, you have to get dressed!"

"Why?"

"You have a date!"

James's eyebrows knitted together in confusion, "With you?"

Lily shook her head, "Sirius."

His eyes widened in horror as he yelled. "AAHHH!"

"What? What's the matter?" Lily asked, alarmed, thinking something was horribly wrong.

"I don't want to date Sirius, are you crazy?"

Lily almost laughed. "Just get dressed." Then added "And don't call me crazy," When she was at the door.

After throwing on an England Quidditch t-shirt and jeans, Lily kissed him goodbye, and he and Sirius took the knight bus (A/N: I don't know if it's just in the night but oh well) into Diagon Alley.

"Okay so…where are we going first?" James asked, rubbing his hands together. Sirius grinned wickedly.

"Into the Leaky Cauldron my dear Prongs, to have some firewhiskey."

"Not that it doesn't sound fun to me but Lily would kill me and-,"

"You're not married…" tempted Sirius.

"Yet." James smirked. "AND, I'm not officially 18 so-,"

"You look older then you really are. Oh come on James, it's your birthday. Please!"

James sighed heavily, "Alright…alright…"

"Hah! Yes!" Sirius beamed triumphantly, and they walked in to the pub.

"Sirius, that's enough now, its 4:30, we don't want you drunk when we get back."

Sirius's eyes widened, thinking James may have found out.

"Cough- um-why don't we want me drunk?"

"'Cause Lily will never let you take me somewhere again. Besides, Lily and Rose would kill you." James answered casually and matter-of-factly.

" I'll be an American and say 'True that'." Sirius joked, though, secretly, relieved that he was clueless, like he usually was. What? It wasn't his fault, all the time. No one tells him anything. Okay so he lies too but he was pretty! "Now, off to the Quidditch store."

"What? Really? Why?" James asked, curiously, but excitedly.

"Well, I did get you something but you can pick out something else, anything you want."

"Really?"

" 'O course!"

"Can I hug you?" James asked, grinning.

Sirius laughed and hugged James in a very 'manly' way.

"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Yelled James, running into the store with Sirius following, knowing they had about 3 hours to kill.

"Sirius, really, I have a broom, you didn't have to buy this for me." James insisted when they exited the shop.

"That's the forth time. Prongs, I told you, it's FINE. Anyway that broom is wicked, I don't mind spending a trillion galleons on it… I approve."

James grinned, "Okay then…Wow. The Silver Bullet. Thanks so much Padfoot." James said, truthfully.

Sirius grinned, "I'm an amazing friend." He stated arrogantly.

James knew he said it for himself and his ego but looked at him with bright eyes and said, "I know you are…"

"Up to no good?" Sirius asked, smirking, holding out his hand.

James clasped it firmly, "Mischief Managed." He smiled. His happiness soon faded when he stared over Sirius's shoulder. "Padfoot? Is that…Mr. Evans?" he asked.

Sirius turned and looked shocked. "It is."

Mr. Evans was in Diagon Alley, a heavily wizard populated area (actually, muggles couldn't get in…wait, what?) with a young brunette.

"That's not Mrs. Evans." Sirius stated dumbly. James rolled his eyes.

"What doesn't make sense is, the only way he can be here is if…She's a witch." James said, understanding.

"Maybe it's Lily!" Sirius added.

" No, she's got brown hair," James said, referring to the woman.

"What? Lily has red hair!" Sirius argued.

"Oh my God. Just…forget it."

Sirius was confused but, like James advised, forgot it, realizing Lily was doing last minute things for James's surprise party. The party! Didn't he have to do something for it? Like…oh yeah, the napkins. Oh wait, it's all good, he picked them up yesterday. No, there was definitely something else. He had James!

Oh crap.

It was already 7:00, everyone was arriving now and by the time they get on the knight bus, even with its speed, it will take a while.

Sirius turned to tell James Lily was expecting them home when he wasn't there. He was walking toward Mr. Evans and the building he was currently in.

"Whoa whoa whoa, I don't think we should get involved." Sirius advised, grabbing the back of James's t-shirt.

"Are you kidding? Mr. Evans…Mr. Evans, Lily's father, just entered a pub with a young woman who is not his wife-,"

"And not old either," Added Sirius, thinking he was helping.

"Padfoot, if she's young, she can't possibly be old."

Sirius gasped, "Hey, you're right! Well, anyway, we have to go. We're on the schedule of the almighty flower remember?"

James stared at the door for a little while longer, then reluctantly left with Sirius to get to the main road.

"Don't tell Lily about what we've seen, okay?" James told Sirius in a warning tone.

"Aye aye Mon Quidditch Captain!" Sirius saluted in a fake accent.

"Good. Okay let's go."

Sirius and James rang the doorbell and Clara opened the door.

"Hey Sirius. Happy Birthday James."

"Thanks." She gave him a hug and they walked into the house, which was completely empty besides Mrs. Evans reading to Arielle.

"Oh hello James. Happy Birthday!"

"Thank you Mrs.-uh-Rose." She chuckled and smiled. "Sorry…"

"That's perfectly fine dear."

"Jay Jay! Happy Birthday! I made you a card!" Arielle ran up and gave him a card that said:

Hapi Brthdae James!

Love, me!

In orange crayon.

"Thanks Ella." James smiled,

"Welcome…Aunt Lily was gonna help but she was too-,"

"Uh-Sick!" added Clara, "Yeah… she was too sick, she wasn't feeling very well."

James looked really concerned and worried.

"What? Sick? Oh no. I knew I shouldn't have left her. Where is she?"

"Easy lover boy. She's in the basement." Clara told him.

James grabbed Sirius and they went down, leaving a satisfied Clara, a smirking Rose and a giggling Arielle.

James walked down the steps to a pitch-black basement with Sirius behind him. It was completely silent until-

"BBBBBUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRPPPPP!"

"Peter!"

The lights flickered on and the beaming faces of Hogwarts' Seventh years appeared and yelled,

"SURPRISE! Happy Birthday James!"

James just stood there like an idiot with his jaw dropped. He saw things coming. Always. But this…nope, t'was not seen. The only person who could outsmart him sometimes was-

"Happy Birthday James."

"I love you." James responded automatically. Everyone was listening. Lily smiled,

"I love yo-," James had grabbed her head and pulled her into an earth-shattering kiss. She hadn't gotten to finish was she was saying and that made her mad but James soon redeemed himself. Everyone in the basement whistled, whooped, cheered, clapped screamed- Basically anything you could think of in that category.

A/N: Sorry I was going to write more but I decided to give you this…more of the party is in the next chapter…please review. Thanks for not hunting me down because it took so long.