The month after Lily's birthday passed in a blur of classes and homework there was barely any time that was spent when someone wasn't studying. Lily and Remus who had both taken the most advanced classes were having the worst time trying to keep up with all the homework that they were receiving. After Arthimacy which was Lily and Remus's last class for the day the walked back together to Gryffindor tower.

"Has James mentioned anything about what he wants for his birthday to you?" Remus asked Lily.

Lily looked blankly back at him. "I don't even know when his birthday is," she replied quietly.

"It's the 27th of March, and I have know idea on what to get him."

"Neither do I, does that make us bad friends?" Lily questioned.

Remus looked at her with an appalled look on his face, "It doesn't matter to James, he's not the type of guy to get upset about a birthday present."

"There's a Hogsmead weekend coming up. Do you want to come with me? Not as a date, more like a friendly 'buying James his birthday present' gathering."

"Yeah, of course, I'll meet you at the lake," Remus replied before they each went up the stair cases to their dormitories.

Remus walked into his dormitory and dumped his bag onto his bed, he reached inside and got out his Arthimacy textbook and started to study for an upcoming test. James and Sirius walked in and started discussing the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend.

"So Moony, what should we do at Hogsmeade this weekend," Sirius asked.

"I can't go with you guys, I'm going with Lily," Remus replied absentmindedly.

"WHAT?" James shouted turning to face Remus, "Are you going on a date with her, Traitor!"

"Well if you'd let me explain I would be able to tell you that I am not going on a date I am merely going with Lily as friends, James." Remus replied looking James squarely in the eye.

"OK, that's fine, but if I find out it was a date, then prepare to die."

"Yes because you would really kill me and risk going to Azkaban and then never see Lily again." Remus stated.

James thought for a moment. "OK I won't kill you because I don't particularly want to go to Azkaban but I will inflict a lot of bodily harm upon you, if I find out it was a date."

"Protective, isn't he and she isn't even his girlfriend. He has it bad for her." Sirius commented.

--

Lily and Remus strolled along the path towards Hogsmeade. They were both deep in thought.

"Lily, I was thinking, do you want to buy a present for James together?"

"Sure, but I still don't know what to get him."

"I was thinking maybe something to do with Quidditch and some lollies." Remus suggested.

"Yeah, that should be OK." Lily agreed as they reached Hogsmead and stepped into Honeydukes. They selected some of almost every type of sweet and came out with the biggest bag of lollies that either of them had ever seen. They crossed the street to the Quidditch store and as they stepped inside they were greeted with the sight of racks and racks piled high with Quidditch supplies. They wandered around the store and finally settled on getting him a new Quaffle and his own actual Snitch so that he didn't have to keep stealing them.

--

James awoke on the morning of his birthday and found that none of his friends were in the dorm. Figuring that they were probably going to do the whole 'Breakfast in the common room thing' James got dressed and went into the common room. The common room was completely covered with decorations. Streamers and balloons were hung from the roof and the floor was covered in confetti. In the corner was a table which was absolutely covered in presents. Lounging on the couches was Sirius, Remus, Peter, Mary and Lily.

"James! Happy Birthday!" Lily shouted, running and giving James a friendly hug. Sirius got up from the couch and pointed at James,

"Open your presents now! Or I will!" Sirius yelled with a smile on his face. "Oh come on Peter's about to wet himself with anticipation." Peter blushed in response.

"Okay, Okay Padfoot." James replied walking over to the table that contained the presents. He levitated the presents over to the couch with his wand and then sat down on the couch next to Lily.

"Open mine first!" Sirius cried. James promptly reached into the pile and pulled out the present that was messily wrapped with flashing wrapping paper. He tore off the wrapping paper and was amazed at the presents he had received. It was an enchanted stag figurine, the stag was basically real apart for the fact that it was only the size of James's head. James opened Remus and Lily's joint present next. His face lit up as he saw the vast amount of candy that he had received. As he opened the other parcel from them his face lit up with joy at the fact that he actually owned his own snitch and had a brand new Quaffle for Quidditch practice. James opened Peter's present next. Peter had thoughtfully given him a new Gryffindor tie seeing has James had actually shredded his last tie trying to impress Lily a month ago.Mary had given him some Quidditch gloves as she was keeper on the Griffindor team, and knew all about James' love for the sport.

"Wow, thanks guys, but we better go, otherwise we'll be late for Defence Against the Dark Arts," said James.

--

The day passed quite uneventfully (apart from an extremely hungry plant trying to eat him in Herbology) and by the end of the day James was quite exhausted with the amount of people that kept asking how hie birthday was. James thought that if you're walking around with your friends looking very happy it's quite obvious how you are feeling. James was in his dormitory doing homework when Lily came in.

"Hi, James," Lily said sitting down in the overstuffed arm chair next to James' bed.

"Hey," James replied not looking up from his homework.

"James..."

"Yes." He replied completely absorbed in his homework.

"I was wondering if you were going to go eat dinner?" Lily asked.

"What? What's the time? 6:30! I'm half an hour late! Do you think there will still be food left?" James panicked.

"Of course, if you hurry." Lily replied. James jumped up, practiclly threw his homework on the ground and raced out of the dormitory. "Boys and Food, nothing can stand in the way." Lily muttered as she followed James to the Great Hall.

--

Lily left dinner early along with Mary saying that they wanted to get some homework done, they were actually leaving to go get the common room ready for James' surprise party. Sirius, Remus, ans Peter were to keep James occupied for at least half an hour. Lily and Mary ran up to the common room and using their wands started re-arranging the furniture. Everything was to go against the walls and a massive table was placed near the portraite hole and covered in foods and drinks. In the corner Lily had charmed a muggle CD player to play music and Mary had changed the floor into a flashing dance floor, a disco ball was hung from the roof and flashing rainbow lights were charmed to float around. By the time Mary and Lily finished they were exhausted. They both fell onto the couches and Lily got out the magical mirror that she had borrowed from James.

"Sirius," Lily said looking into the mirror.

"Yes, my dear Lily." Sirius replied appearing in the mirror.

"Idiot." Lily muttered. "The room's ready."

"Can I have a look?" Sirius asked. Lily tilted the mirror so that Sirius could see the room. "Good job, we'll be there in five minutes." Sirius replied and cut the connection.

"They'll be here in 5!" Lily shouted, her stomach felt like it had butterflies in it and she was actually nervous.

"OK!" Mary shouted back. They both positioned themselves in front of the potrait hole holding massive party poppers. The potraite hole opened and James walked in, Lily and Mary both jumped out and their party poppers exploded showering James in confetti.

"Surprise!" Mary and Lily yelled along with Sirius, Remus and Peter who had come in after James.

"Wow! This is awesome!" James cried, looking around the room.

"I know Prongsie, and it was all my idea," boasted Sirius before he was smacked on the head by Remus. "Well lets crank up the music and start partying!" Sirius shouted, bounding over to the CD player adn switching it on, at once hip hop music filled the room. James handed out butterbeer bottles to the six friends and before they could actually do anything other Gryffindors came out of their dormitories to see what was going on and joined in the fun.

--

About 1 hour into the party Mary and Sirius were both completely drunk. They had both had at least three bottles of firewhiskey from Sirius' secret stash and were chatting each other up.

"You know Sirius, you are just sooooo hot," Mary slurred.

"You're right, I think I am sooooo hot. You're not so bad yourself." Sirius replied. "You're so much better than my other girlfriends they are so dumb, and you're much better looking and you are so much nicer, don't tell them I said that will you."

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, it can be our little secret," said Mary.

"You know Mary I really want to kiss you,"

"I want to kiss you too," Mary replied. Sirius leant towards Mary, their heads got closer, as soon as their lips touched they started passionately making out.

-

"James, James!" Lily shouted scanning the sea of faces.

"Yes?" Came a voice from behind Lily. She spun around so fast that she lost her footing and crashed into James and fell into his arms. Lily awkwardly step backwards and blushed.

"Sorry, i didn't mean to -"

"- Fall into my arms, don't worry about it, if you ever want to fall into my arms then be my guest." James said. Lily laughed and said,

"Sirius and Mary are in the corner making out. I think they're drunk."

"Yes, I think that might be the case. Probably from Sirius' secret stash of firewhisky."

"Before they do something they regret should we seperate them and lock them in their dorms?" Lily suggested.

"Brilliant idea! Let's catch them unaware," James and Lily both got out their wands and snuck up on Mary and Sirius.

"Levicorpus!" they shouted together and Sirius and Mary were both hoisted into the air by their ankles. Lily flashed James a grin and started to tug an upside down Mary to her dormitory. Once Lily and Mary reached their dormitory Mary realeased Mary and she crashed onto the bed.

"Ow," Mary whined, "That hurt!"

"Serves you right, you shouldn't have gotten drunk. Go to bed now or you'll have an even worse hangover in the morning." Lily conjured a bucket and transfigured a goblet of water into a hangover potion. After making sure that Mary was asleep she went back downstairs. There was hardly anyone left, everyone except for Peter and Remus had gone to bed.

"Do you guys want some help in cleaning up?" Lily asked.

"Definately," Peter replied. Lily said a few simple cleaning charms and all the rubbish and decorations vanished. Another wave of her wand transported all the food and drink to the kitchens and one last wave caused all the furniture to return to their usual spots.

"Goodnight Guys," Lily said

"See you tomorrow," Remus replied whilst Peter nodded.

Lily smiled. The party had been extremely successful. For James and Mary (she'd been crushing on Sirius for years). As she trudged up to bed, she realised how much James enjoying his party meant to her. It was alot more than she'd expect.