Chapter 85: The Twins
"I can't believe my birthday is tomorrow!!" Sirius said excitedly. It was just another hectic school week for most students, flooded with revisions as the exams were nearing and school holidays following up.
"You don't have to do this every year, do you??" James asked exasperatedly.
"It's my big day tomorrow!!"
"It's only your seventeenth birthday." Remus said, laughing. "Not like twenty first or something."
"Besides you might not be born on the eighth, since your parentage aren't the same with Stefanie." Peter said as a matter-of-fact.
"Wormtail, you don't have to spoil my day by saying that. I've been celebrating my birthday on the seventh May every year and it shall remain that way."
"Wormtail, just let him be his crazy self." James teased. "I tried stopping him back then and it got worst, so I decided to let him do whatever with himself."
"When did you ever stop him??"
"When we were ten."
"That was like so long ago."
"Not that long, Moony, I remembered it as vividly as though it had happened last week." James said in pretended horror at the memory. "It's not an everyday event to be hung upside-down in your garden wearing only your pajamas."
"How come you never mentioned about it??"
"Because it was nothing worth mentioning??"
"Oh Prongs, it was a memorable birthday week."
"For you perhaps."
"He announced his birthday to the whole neighborhood??"
"Something like that."
"What do you mean??"
"He seemed like he was so afraid that I would forget like that. So for the entire week, he woke up before the sun rises and flew over to my room and bugged me till I wake up."
"Doesn't sound that bad."
"It wouldn't be that bad if he didn't try hanging me at the branch of our highest tree in his attempt to wake me up to accompany him for his week-long celebration."
"Then you said you stopped him??"
"I stopped him that year. Previously he used to bug me in my room, pouring water and pushing me onto the floor. Because back then we didn't have our own wands to perform any magic. So for two weeks before his birthday, I asked Fion to charm my room away from intruders and asked her to teach me the reverse charm."
"I knew he would do something like that. So I asked my dad about a few charms, borrowed my mum's wand that morning to do all the necessary stuffs. Well, of course my ingenious prank worked and even exceeded my own expectations."
"I don't think you really borrowed the wand, am I right??"
"You mean dear old Prongsie here were so frightened until he pee-ed on his pants and it dripped, well, you know."
"I didn't wet my pants. That's for sure." James defended. "I made him get me back onto the ground safely."
"With terms and conditions of course." Sirius laughed at the near decade old memory. "And Prongs, I borrowed the wand, well, without permission."
"Tell me what did you get for me!!" Stefanie exclaimed. Sirius had practically announced about his mini birthday celebration in Gryffindor common room on the evening the next day and of course, like every year, the twins celebrate with their fellow Gryffindors together.
"That would so spoil the surprise." Lily's eye twinkled and the three sixth-years exchanged a wink.
"Oh, c'mon." Stefanie pleaded. "Our dorm is only this size, where else can you hide??"
"Go ahead and search, by all means." Samantha said and the three girls started laughing.
"Hey!! What's so funny??"
"Nothing, continue your hunt." Joey said, trying hard not to laugh. Stefanie was now digging Joey's trunk, looking for any suspicious present-look-alike item.
"Hmm.." Stefanie had turned to flip Samantha's trunk.
"Do you really think we will keep your present in our trunk??" Lily informed Stefanie.
"Well.."
"Wait till you see it tomorrow then."
"Aww.."
"Happy birthday to Sirius!! Happy birthday to Stefanie!! Happy birthday to the twins!! Happy birthday to you!!" The Slytherins had stood up the moment Sirius and Stefanie entered the Great Hall for breakfast and started singing as both of them headed towards the Gryffindor table.
"Thank you so much!!" Sirius waved around the Great Hall, bowing, while the Slytherins were cheering and applauding, with a look of horror on their faces. The rest of the students were cheering for Sirius, and at the same time laughing at Slytherins.
"One more time!!" Lucius Malfoy called from the Slytherin table with strange enthusiasm. He had a horror-struck expression on his face, but his actions and words did not seemed to obey his conscious mind.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SIRIUS!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO STEFANIE!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE TWINS!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!" The Slytherins sang with even more zest, danced along to their rhythmic tune around the Slytherin table.
"Do you guys like it??" Severus Snape called out with excitement. He was trying hard to stop himself from doing all those singing and dancing for Sirius and Stefanie, along with the rest of the Slytherins, but to no avail.
"WE LOVEEED IT!!" Sirius shouted across the Great Hall. It was one of the rare mornings whereby the student population was so awake for breakfast.
"LET'S SING ONE MORE TIME!!" Lucius shouted eagerly towards his fellow Slytherins, signaling one, two, three and they started singing once more.
This time the Slytherins were more zealous as they started doing tabletop dancing and singing, cheering loudly. The funniest thing was their expressions had totally betrayed their fanatic actions for Sirius.
"I can't believe you guys did that." Stefanie said in between laughter.
"You've got to believe this." James said, laughing at the Slytherin leader in this morning singing.
"Looks are indeed deceiving." Remus commented.
"How could you guys come up with something so brilliant when I'm not involved??" Sirius said in a pretended hurting voice.
"Padfoot, just for your information, we always come up with something more brilliant when you're not participating."
"I thought I was the mastermind of all these ingenious pranks."
"You're wrong again, this is a birthday prank."
"Don't tell me that's the birthday present you guys are giving me!!"
"Yup, you got that."
"Nooo!!" Sirius groaned. The rest of the seven sixth-year Gryffindor laughed at Sirius' reaction. The singing had died down greatly to a faint birthday hum in the Great Hall while everyone continued eating their breakfast and enjoying the Marauder's prank.
"I wonder what did you guys do to the Slytherins." Stefanie asked Lily as the duo was heading towards the toilet together during after lunch. "They're like singing the Birthday song whenever I get too close to them."
"Well, we used charms and potions and of course, a stroke of brilliance to make this whole thing work." Lily laughed at the time when the six of them were trying to make the potion a week ago.
"Tell me about it." Stefanie pleaded and tugged Lily's hand.
"When we get back to the dorm, let me in to the cubicle, pleasey please."
"Promise to tell-"
"Happy birthday to you!! Happy birthday to you!! Happy birthday to Stefanie!! Happy birthday to you." Three third-year Slytherins who just stepped into the girls' toilet started singing harmoniously in front of Stefanie.
"Lily!!"
"I know. I heard that."
"Potter!! That's such a despicable act you had done." Lucius said maliciously at James.
"What act??" James looked at him in pretended innocence.
"You jolly well know what I'm referring to."
"Well, do explain to me."
"You loathsome Marauders-"
"Prongs, I've been looking everywh-"
"Happy birthday to you!! Happy birthday to you!! Happy birthday to Sirius!! Happy birthday to you!!" Lucius and Severus with his little gang of Slytherins started singing together as Sirius approached nearer to them.
"Thank you so much!!" Sirius said, laughing a little.
"One more time!!" Lucius said readily, contradicting his horrified expression. The other three Slytherins started clapping and jumping around while starting to sing the birthday song again.
"Let's get moving because they're not going to walk in that state." James told Sirius and both guys went off in the opposite direction while the Slytherins' singing died down.
"Let's get the party rolling!!" James, who was being the emcee for Sirius and Stefanie's mini party, announced.
"YEAH!!" Sirius cheered, with a whole lot of Gryffindors supporting cheers.
The candlelights dimmed and the song The Call started to blast from somewhere in the common room. The once cozy common room had again been switched to a partying ground with a dance floor in the middle and all the couches moved to the sides.
"Just like another common room party." Lily spoke a little louder than usual to James who just joined the group.
"It's like another of the twin's party." James agreed, pointing towards Sirius and Stefanie who were having all the attention from their admirers. Sirius was surrounded by a group of younger students who were much shorter than his 1.8metre build, while Stefanie was talking animatedly with a group of fourth and fifth-years girls.
"Sirius' charm has definitely increased since last year." Lily joked.
"Yeah, looks like he is starting to attract younger guys as well."
"Well, I don't think he will slant in anyway."
"I agree. He absolutely adores girls."
"I can see that in his eyes." Sirius' eyes were twinkling with delight as the younger students he was talking to were all laughing at something he said.
"Let's go and join the rest." James suggested.
"Eh, the rest seems to be kinda divided." Lily turned to her left where Sirius was still talking, while on her extreme right was Stefanie and Remus along with some younger students, Samantha and Joey were dancing with some guys from the seventh year, even Peter was on the dance floor with a third-year.
"I get your point." James laughed a little. "I think we can go get a drink or something."
"Hey James." A feminine voice called out from somewhere. "Hi Lily."
"Oh, hi." James greeted the girls who just joined them. "What's up??"
"Hi Gracie." Lily replied politely. "Well, you guys enjoy yourself, excuse me." She turned and headed towards Stefanie and Remus who were still chatting with some younger students.
"Erm, wa-"
"May I have the honor to dance with you??" Gracie asked, a little shyly. Her friends were all getting giggly behind her.
"Erm, I'm going to join my friends." James rejected courteously. "Another time perhaps. So sorry."
"Never mind then." Gracie turned and left quickly.
"This is a nice song, shall we dance??" Stefanie asked Remus. The song, Together In Electric Dreams, boomed and drove the party to a full swing.
"Sure." Remus agreed eagerly.
"Sorry, please excuse us."
"It's ok." The couple excused themselves from the group and headed towards the dance floor.
"Finally decided to get your butt up to dance??" Lily walked towards them.
"Hey, where's James??"
"His admirer swept him off his feet??" Lily said jokingly.
"You're kidding, right??"
"Of course she's kidding, I'm right here." James said as he joined the group.
"Where's Gracie??"
"No idea."
"How can you reject a girl who ask you for a dance??"
"I don't feel like dancing with her."
"You're such in insensitive jerk, ya know??"
"Who cares??"
"Oh, fine."
"Hey, let's not waste time talking and get 'our butts moving'."
"That's my phrase."
"It was rephrased."
"Usually that's how we do it."
"But how would you know where the Slythrin tower is??"
"We explored Hogwarts and know every nook and corner of it." Sirius boasted. "By heart."
"That's so cool."
"Well, we've our means to move around."
"But the prefects and professors?? Don't they catch you guys or something??"
"Who say we never got caught?? We have the longest list of detentions in the whole history of Hogwarts."
"Wow. That's so brave."
"Detentions could be fun, especially if we do it together."
"What's your most exciting detention."
"Well-" Sirius thought for a while. "I must say it's those toilet cleaning detentions." The group of students laughed.
"Why??"
"Because we play water bomb as we clean the toilets. We can even shower during those toilet-cleaning session."
"That's like so cool."
"The most boring is the cleaning the trophy room. Usually if we're giving a choice, we always request to wash toilet."
"But there are just so limited toilets to wash."
"Well, we can always dirty it first, then when detention comes, we request to wash that toilet."
"That's so intelligent of you Marauders."
"Of course, that's why we are the Marauders."
"Can I be part of your team too??"
"There will only be four Marauders in the history of Hogwarts and that's the four of us."
"We can do something like what you guys do too."
"That would be so unoriginal."
"That's why."
"Well, we are the one and only Marauders."
"There could be jokester or entertainers too."
"But nothing beats the Marauders."
"Yeah man!!"
"So can I excuse myself??"
"One more question, please."
"Ok, shoot."
"How did Peter Pettigrew join the Marauders??" A second-year student asked curiously.