"All set," Beth told Lily, hauling her backpack by one strap. They left their room to go to the library so Lily could study and Beth could work on her lesson plans for the week. As they crossed the Common Room, Beth looked towards the boys' dorm hopefully, but there was no sign of Sirius.
Lily bit her lip. "They were up late last night," she told Beth trying not to sound disingenuous. "Probably a prank or a late night game of Poker."
"Oh," Beth said, mildly disappointed and annoyed with herself for feeling that way. "There was a full moon last night and I wanted to take a walk with Sirius. I couldn't find him. I should have guessed the Marauders were together." Beth mentally kicked herself. It was the first weekend night they hadn't spent together since they'd started dating, but she shouldn't expect to have him to herself so much.
"You didn't walk outside by yourself, did you?" Lily hoped she sounded normal, but worry sharpened her voice. Of course Beth wouldn't know what it meant if she saw a dog, a stag and a rat heading towards the Whomping Willow, but it would be better if she did not spot them.
"No," Beth replied. "It's not dangerous on Hogwarts grounds though, is it?"
"It could be," Lily said honestly. When Beth looked surprised, she elaborated. "I mean, not usually. But things have become a bit strained this year with the war. It's best not to wander around outside at night alone. Some arsehole Slytherin might think it's a good time to pull a prank on you. And Sirius would retaliate big time."
"I hadn't thought of that," Beth looked concerned. Lily was relieved but felt a sliver of guilt at not being able to tell the entire truth. It was not her secret to tell, she reminded herself.
They found a quiet back table in the library and started working. After a couple of hours, Beth had finished mapping out discussion points and assignments for her first and third year Muggle studies classes. She pulled a stack of assignments recently turned in and started reading them, making comments at the bottom of each essay. Lily was engrossed in her potions homework and had not made a sound aside from the turning of pages in her book and the scratch of her quill on parchment.
Marlene slid in to the chair across from Lily, who jumped, her concentration broken. "Isn't it James' birthday in a couple of days, Lily?" Marlene asked.
"Yes," Lily tucked her hair behind her ears and grinned at Marlene. "He's trying to act blasé, but I can tell he's excited."
Beth nodded. "He keeps trying to pump me for information on what Lily's up to."
"So what's the plan?" Marlene smiled. "Should we wake him up at the crack of dawn and make him do stuff? We can start by having him streak through the Great Hall at breakfast."
"No!" Lily glared at Marlene. "It's his birthday. He should have fun, not be harassed."
"Apparently you haven't seen what he does to his Quidditch players on their birthdays," Marlene groused.
"I'll leave the torture bits to you and the team," Lily said. "Beth and I have been working on a scavenger hunt for him."
Marlene's eyes lit up. "Tell me more," she grinned.
"I'll start him off by giving him a clue for his first class at breakfast," Lily said. "He has to figure out the clue to find a present in that classroom. The presents are all small Quidditch related things and each one will have another clue for the present hidden in his next class. At the end, he'll have to put all the clues together to figure out where his last present is."
Marlene leaned towards Lily. "Where will that be?"
"In the Quidditch changing room," Lily said, her cheeks becoming pink.
"Lily, you dirty dog," Marlene pursued her lips. "You'll be waiting there for him to play out some risqué Quidditch fantasy, eh?"
Lily turned beet red and Beth laughed. "Yes, that's part of the gift." Lily started rubbing a spot on her sleeve, unable to meet Marlene or Beth's eyes. "But don't tell anyone else!" Lily blurted looking up with her eyes flashing. "Beth and Sirius are going to guard the door."
"What's the other part of the gift?" Marlene was still grinning at Lily's embarrassed expression.
"Tickets for the Quidditch World cup!" Lily could not have been more excited than if she cared about Quidditch as much as James.
"What?" Marlene's reaction was as stunned as Lily had hoped for. "Lily, that match has been sold out for months!"
"I know," Lily said ecstatic. "They had a competition for the chance to buy tickets for the last thousand seats. Good seats, right in the middle of the pitch. Judges picked what they thought were the best essays. James wrote one but it wasn't chosen."
Marlene leaned back, a smile of utter satisfaction on her lips. "You wrote one too, didn't you? Yours was one of the ones picked."
"Yep," Lily said. She was glowing. "I think mine was one of the ones chosen because it was all about how amazing my boyfriend is and how I wanted the tickets just for him."
Beth nodded. "They love the altruistic ones."
"Shit, Lily, this is genius." Marlene shook her head in amazement. "James is going to have the best birthday ever."
Lily nodded. "It's been so hard not to tell him. When I got the news that my essay was picked, I had to hide from James for a few hours until I could calm down."
"I asked Sirius to keep him busy," Beth said. "Sirius asked James to help him pick out my Valentine's Day gift and so they went to Hogsmeade. James never suspected Lily was avoiding him." Over their Valentine's Day dessert, Sirius had Beth in stitches when he described how he and James had seen the earrings he'd ultimately chosen first but he had made James look at every pair in the store to give Lily more time, much to James' frustration.
A teasing expression came over Marlene's face. "So tell me about James' Quidditch fantasy. Does it involve wearing Quidditch pads?"
"Sometimes it worries me what the team talks about after practice," Lily muttered. "I think there should be a limit on how much you share."
Marlene raised an eyebrow, waiting. Beth bit her lip, avoiding Lily's eyes.
"If you must know, yes, I'll be wearing Quidditch pads." Lily said grudgingly. Beth was pretty sure only Marlene could have coaxed this out of her. Marlene took such a relish hearing about romantic plans (bonus if they were salacious) that Lily couldn't resist.
"And?" Marlene's mouth was twitching. Beth coughed unable to keep the laughter in.
"And some lingerie in Gryffindor colors," Lily admitted. "They don't sell lacy negligees in those colors. I had to find a special charms spell to change one I bought in London."
"This is going to be a great week for our practices," Marlene crowed, her delight so palpable it caused Lily to grin. "James will be so happy, he'll probably let us skip drills."
"Tell the team we'll be meeting after dinner in the Common Room for James' birthday cake," Lily said and then turned a stern eye on Marlene. "Don't taunt James about the lingerie bit. That's private."
Marlene gasped in fake outrage. "Why are you warning me and not Beth?"
"Do I even need to answer that?" Lily shook her head. "Discretion is not your strong suit, Marlene."
"Fine," Marlene huffed. "I'm not happy you're taking away my leverage against my team captain. Sometimes he gets brutal at practices you know."
"You'll live," Lily waved away Marlene's disappointment.
"Why are you having Beth and Sirius guard the door of the Quidditch changing room?" Marlene asked. "Can't you just use a locking spell?"
"Apparently, that hasn't worked in the past," Lily said. "James told me someone who needed privacy recently used a locking spell but a Ravenclaw girl came by who had forgotten her scarf and banged on the door when she couldn't get in."
"Huh," Marlene pretended not to notice Beth was industriously searching her backpack for something, the flap hiding her face from Lily. Marlene managed not to smile at Beth's discomfort but inwardly she was singing. At just the right moment, Sirius was going to hear about this.
"Have you written all the clues for the gifts already?" Marlene asked.
"All but one," Lily said. "Do you want to help?"
"Sure," Marlene said.
"This will be for the first present," Lily explained. "The clues are going to become progressively harder, so this one should be easy for him to guess. It's a broom waxing kit and it will be in Beth's pocket in Arithmancy class. I'm going to charm it to make it small so it will fit easily."
"It could start with: I'm somewhere your best mate always wants to get." Marlene suggested. "Because we know Sirius likes to slip his hand in Beth's pocket." She rolled her eyes at Beth who blushed.
"If you don't find me soon, I'm afraid I'll get wet," Lily added, "since Beth swims so much."
"Those two sentences together could be considered, um, lewd, if you didn't consider it having to do with me swimming." Beth pointed out.
"Shit," Marlene laughed. "Scratch that, she's right."
After a few more minutes of work laced with joking, they came up with a more suitable clue.
Where I reside seems to rarely stay still
It's warm and cozy which is really quite brill
But I was given no choice
Forced to hear your best mate's voice
So rescue me from this place that's never seen a quill
"Not our best," Beth pronounced, "but he'll figure it out quickly."
"James loves puzzles." Marlene nodded. "He'll have a blast working these out."
"I'm hungry," Beth said. "Anyone else ready for lunch?"
"I am," Lily said and Marlene nodded.
None of the Marauders showed up during lunch and Beth resigned herself to a boring afternoon finishing her homework for the week as she knew Lily wanted to research to figure out some more possible combinations for the Sanare potion. Fortunately, Marlene refused to allow them to return to the library after lunch. "It's Saturday," she protested. "You have the rest of the weekend to hole up in that sodding library. Let's go to Hogsmeade."
"I'm game," Beth grinned.
"Okay," Lily actually didn't need much persuading. She was feeling a little restless after not seeing James the previous night and all morning on a Saturday, and time would go by faster in Hogsmeade.
They dropped off Beth's backpack and Lily's books in their dorm room and set out. It was raining and the girls huddled under a large umbrella Beth had brought. "It rains a lot where I come from too," Beth said.
They visited Honeydukes first, where Beth bought her favorite chocolates to get her through the next few weeks and picked out a mixture of candy for Sirius. She was grateful how many dollars her uncle had converted to galleons so she had plenty of spending money. Next they went to Zonko's so Lily could find a few joke gifts for James.
"My mum's birthday is next month," Marlene said as they talked about where to go next. "Can you two help me pick something out? She loves to read and she needs a new scarf."
They found a beautiful blue scarf easily. Marlene smiled as it was wrapped by the clerk. "It matches my mum's eyes. I think she'll love it."
Lily was perusing the aisle with Quidditch books at the bookstore when she heard a couple wizards the next aisle over. "There's your future sister-in-law," one wizard said mockingly.
"Sod off," Lily recognized Regulus Black's angry voice. Lily's stomach dropped. They must have spotted Beth. She moved a little closer so she could hear them better.
"It's a shame she's a muggle. I wouldn't kick her out of bed," the first wizard said.
"Stay away from her," Reg said shortly. "She's just a muggle. Well-suited for my blood traitor brother."
"Yeah," the unknown wizard laughed. "I won't touch her. But your mum's not going to like it when you tell her."
The two wizards moved away and Lily frowned. Should she tell Sirius? They hadn't sounded threatening, but she knew from James that Sirius was worried about his family's reaction to Beth.
An hour later, Marlene had purchased some books for her mum and Beth had picked out her first wizard fiction book. "Sirius is going to laugh at this," she showed the book gleefully to Lily and Marlene as they walked out of the bookstore. "The hero is a Quidditch star with a 'devilishly handsome smile'."
Marlene snickered and Lily grinned. "Do you want to stop at the Three Broomsticks or go back to Hogwarts?" Lily asked the other two.
"We might as well go back," Marlene said. "We've been here for a few hours and if I know your boyfriends, they'll be traipsing out here soon to find both of you."
The rain had stopped as they started back towards the castle. About halfway back they saw James and Sirius walking towards them. Sirius hurried up to Beth and swung her around in a tight hug when he reached her.
"Have you been playing Quidditch or something?" she asked him curiously. "You're breathing hard." James kissed Lily and was peering in her bag as she showed him what she had bought for him from Zonko's and Marlene was happily teasing James about his hair which was sticking straight up on one side.
"No." Sirius didn't want to tell Beth he'd been uneasy when he woke up and couldn't find her on the Marauder's Map anywhere in the castle. He had dragged James out of bed and they had made their way towards Hogsmeade quickly, not slowing down until they spotted the three girls in the distance. Ever since their run-in with Reg, Sirius felt a little on edge about Beth. It seemed stupid now that he was with her. "I guess I'm not in very good shape," he told Beth.
"Yeah, right," Beth snorted and eyed him skeptically, but let it drop. She handed him the bag of candy she had bought. "I got this for you."
Sirius hadn't eaten since the previous day and he stuffed several chocolate covered almond clusters in his mouth. "Thanks babe," he mumbled mouth full.
"You don't have to inhale it," Beth laughed at him, patting his cheek full of food. "You might actually get to taste it if you chew your food instead of swallowing it whole."
Sirius slung his arm over her shoulder and started back towards the castle. "Did you miss me?" he asked after a few minutes when his mouth was finally empty.
"Yes. It seemed quiet in the Common Room without any of the Marauders around last night." Beth eyed him curiously. "Where were you?"
"Boys night out," Sirius replied. "I'm sworn to secrecy."
"Ah," Beth nodded. "I read for a few hours, and then Lily and I worked on James' birthday." She abruptly stopped aware James was in hearing distance. She glanced over her shoulder but James was busy arguing with Lily and Marlene about whether Lily should give him a hint about his birthday present.
Sirius kissed Beth's cheek. "I missed you too," his voice was low in her ear.
Beth smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder as they made their way into the castle.
The next day, Lily related the conversation she had overheard to Sirius and James when they were waiting for Beth to go to breakfast. Sirius frowned but said nothing when she had finished.
"It didn't seem worrisome to me," Lily told Sirius. "But I thought you'd want to know."
"Who are you afraid of?" James asked Sirius. "You don't think Reg would hurt Beth, do you?"
"No," Sirius considered. "No one in my immediate family would. My cousin Narcissa wouldn't bother, she's too self-involved to care about anyone besides her husband Lucius. Andromeda is great, she's not like the rest of them. It's my cousin Bellatrix who worries me. She's demented."
They heard Beth on the stairs and Lily quickly changed the topic. "How do you want to spend your last day as a seventeen year old, James?" she teased.
James' face perked up. "You mean I get a pre-birthday special day?"
Lily laughed. "That can be arranged." Beth arrived and carefully stepped over James' feet so she could sit next to Sirius.
"Can I open a birthday present early?" James asked slyly. He raised his eyebrows at Lily, a mute appeal on his face.
"Not from me," Lily shook her head. "Mine have a special order." James looked both disappointed and intrigued.
"How fucking old are you, Prongs?" Sirius scoffed. "You can't wait one more day?" James threw a pillow at Sirius.
"You can open mine if you want," Beth offered. Sirius frowned at her for being a pushover and Beth grinned back at him saucily.
"I'm not as weak as Beth. You're not getting mine early," Sirius grumbled. "You should count yourself lucky if you get it on time tomorrow."
James ignored Sirius. "If that's alright with you, Beth, I'd like that."
Beth got up and hurried back up the stairs to her room. She came back swiftly, handing James a flat package wrapped in gold paper. James ripped it open with relish. It was a framed, close-up black and white photo of Lily and James smiling at each other tenderly, their eyes luminous and their happiness obvious. James stared at it without speaking.
"I know it's just a muggle picture," Beth twisted her hands nervously as she stood next to the couch. "It doesn't move or anything."
James turned and looked at her, a huge smile splitting his face. "Just a muggle picture? Are you kidding me? It's perfect. You've captured Lily and how I feel about her." He stood up and hugged Beth. "Thank you, Beth. I love it."
Lily looked at the picture carefully. "It's absolutely beautiful, Beth," she said, her eyes shining. "When did you take it? We didn't pose for this."
"Last month when the four of us were outside while I shot the pictures of the sun starting to set over the Great Lake, I took some candid photos of you two and also of Sirius. I was using my telephoto lens so I was a good distance from you when I shot it." Beth said. "That's why I sent the film to your parents to have processed, Lily. I thought some of the pictures I had taken might be good."
"The lighting is really brill," Sirius said inspecting the picture. "It's so flattering even James looks good."
"The hour before sunset is called the magic hour in photography," Beth explained. "The sunlight is more diffuse and warm because it travels through more of the atmosphere."
Once James had headed up the stairs to put the picture on his bedside table, Lily spoke quietly to Beth. "I know it's James' gift, but I –"
"I had two enlargements printed. Your copy is on your bed," Beth interrupted. Lily beamed and hugged her.
Sirius pulled Beth close to his side after James returned and they walked towards the Great Hall together. "Lily's worked so hard on James' surprises. I hope he has the perfect birthday," she said softly to Sirius, her eyes on James and Lily walking down the marble staircase in front of them.
"You're a very special person. You know that?" Sirius was looking at her oddly and Beth stumbled on a step. Sirius' other arm shot out and wrapped around her stomach, steadying her.
"Um, thanks," Beth squirmed slightly, blushing. Sirius laughed and kissed her forehead.
"Don't worry," Sirius said. "Even if Lily gave James a flobberworm as his gift, he'd be thrilled because it was from her. He'll love this birthday."
Sirius was right. The next night, James told Lily it was his best birthday ever. To Lily's surprise, he treasured her essay more than the Quidditch World Cup tickets.