A/N: Thank to everyone who reviewed/Faved/Alerted, you guys put a smile on my face =D This chapter's for you (a happy one may I add). I was going to do a bit more and lead it into James birthday, but I couldn't wait to upload so that'll have to wait.

Keep up the love ^_^


Chapter 21

Birthdays, Marauders Style (Part One)

The rest of the month passed rather uninterestingly. February dissolved into March quickly with the sun warming up the grounds even more after the bitter winter weather. It was on the sunny early morning of March tenth that Remus Lupin was awoken by the cheerful singing of his three best friends.

"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Remus! Happy birthday to you!"

They'd barely finished their song when the poor sleepy Gryffindor was piled upon by three fluffy pillows and three large boys all yelling "BIRTHDAY BEATS!"

"Ow! Guys! Guys! Get off me!" Remus panted, trying to wriggle free from under his friends only to receive a face full of pillow from Sirius.

"Sorry Remy!" The long haired boy laughed loudly, helping the younger boy to his feet. Sirius was bouncing up and down with excitement "Come on Remy! We've got you presents!"

He practically leaped over to his bed and pulled out a big box wrapped up poorly and thrust it into Remus' arms with a massive grin plastered across his face.

"Thanks guys!" The scarred boy said, feeling more happy than he'd ever felt since he began Hogwarts. "Basic Hexes for the Busy and Vexed" He read aloud off the front cover of the book he'd just unwrapped. "Thanks Sirius!"

Sirius' grin grew as he skipped over and threw his arms around the boy in a tight bear hug.

"My turn!" Peter called loudly, pushing Sirius from the birthday boy and handing over his present

"Thanks Pete" The pale boy smiled, unwrapping a brand new copy of Hogwarts, A History

"Well, I just thought, you keep checking it out of the library. You should have your own copy" The smallest boy mumbled, blushing.

Now, the three boys on their feet had turned around looking expectedly at the messy haired youth who had sat back down on his bed with a slightly guilty look on his face.

"James?" Sirius demanded, his eyes narrowed "Where is your present to Remus?"

"Erm well, I haven't got one-" He began awkwardly.

"What!"

"Hang on Siri! I haven't finished" James was now having trouble keeping the grin off his face "I have a surprise. And found it out ages ago but wanted to keep it a surprise until now because it was a great idea for a birthday present to Remus-"

"You're rambling James" The birthday boy pointed out.

"Yeah, well, it's pretty special and I don't know who else knows about it so I was going to give it a big introduction but I guess I'll just show you" He jumped off his bed and headed towards the door, unable to contain his excitement "Come on! Follow me!"

"Wait! James!" Remus called as the bespectacled boy ran from the room "We're still in our pyjamas!"

Laughing, the four boys got changed at lightening speed. It was only when he was pulling his socks on that Remus noticed something missing.

"Hey guys, where's Travis?"

The other boys exchanged smirks.

"He's got himself a girlfriend" Sirius said "Some Ravenclaw girl. He got up extra early this morning so he could meet up with her"

"Oh really?" Remus asked as they set off following James "Who?"

"Erm, we never actually found out her name" Sirius smirked "We were too busy teasing him"

The four boys walked together down the deserted Hogwarts corridors. Most of the school, third years and above, had gone out to Hogsmeade for the day leaving the castle free for the first and second years to wander. Together they walked down four floors and many, many corridors with James leading, bouncing along with excitement. They passed by the charms class room, down another corridor then, without warning the others, James stopped.

"OOF!"

In a matter of seconds, James was flat on the floor after being walked into by Sirius, who, in turn, had been tripped over his friends' fallen body and landed painfully across him. Not seeing the event unfold, both Remus and Peter had continued walking only to fall on top of the two on the floor. The pile of boys groaned loudly in pain, attempting to push one another out of the way. Eventually, after much effort, they scrabbled to their feet.

"Was that your big surprise James?" Sirius said irritably, smoothing out the t-shirt he'd thrown on.

"No" The raven haired boy retorted "I was about to explain my surprise before you walked into me!"

"Yeah, well, you should've warned us before you suddenly stopped!" The tallest of the group snapped.

"Guys!" Remus interrupted quickly "The surprise?"

"Oh yeah" James withdrew his wand from his sleeve and walked over to a status of a witch with one eye.

"Jamesie, your taste in women has deteriorated somewhat" Sirius smirked.

"Shut up Siri! My surprise isn't the statue itself, it's inside the statue!"

"Excuse me?" Sirius, Remus and Peter said together.

James sighed "Just watch" He tapped the witches back once with his wand "Dissendium"

His friends watched in surprise as the stone opened up before them to reveal a long, dark passageway.

"This passageway" James said importantly "Leads right into the basement of Honeydukes Sweet Shop. I thought, as a bunch of Hogwarts students are out of the castle today anyway, nobody would notice if we sneaked out there ourselves. When we're there, Remus can pick out all the sweets he wants and I'll buy them, as a birthday gift!" He grinned triumphantly.

"This is AMAZING!" Sirius burst out, diving upon his friend in another bear hug. Unfortunately, he had dived a bit too roughly, sending both himself and James shooting down the slope to the narrow passage below. Both boys got to their feet once again only to be knocked over for the third time by Remus and Peter, who had decided to follow their friends down.

"WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING!" Sirius cried, only with a hint of humour in his voice.

"Come on" James said, ignoring the long haired "We're here now, lets go!"

He lit his wand, copied by the others, and began the long walk off to Honeydukes. The passage was muddy and mossy with a damp smell to it. The short walls and low ceiling would occasionally have lumps of earth sticking out causing Sirius, the tallest, to bump his head every so often.

"How did you find this James?" Remus asked from the back of the group after a long while of silence.

"I followed Dumbledore" James called back "He came down here to get some more Sherbet Lemons after I came out of detention one day and I wanted to know what he was up to. He told me not to maraud around here after nightfall again, but he never said anything about day time"

"That's sneaky James" Sirius said, sounding proud.

"Maraud? What does that mean?" asked Peter.

"It basically means to plunder or raid" Replied Remus "And someone who raids and stuff is called a marauder"

"A Marauder eh?" Sirius stopped. Peter and Remus only just managed to stop themselves from walking into him "That's a pretty cool name. Hey, we could be the Marauders! That sounds cool doesn't it? It could be, like, our group name!"

"If we say yes will you keep walking? James has gone on ahead" Peter giggled.

"Alright" Sirius said, his tone sounding sulky. He sped up to catch up with the bespectacled boy "Hey James! Don't you think 'The Marauders' would be a cool name for us?"

"Yeah!" James responded enthusiastically "That's amazing. We can have our own little group name for when we pull pranks and no-one will know it's us!"

By now the four 'marauders' had walked the length of the passage and had reached the stairs to the trap door. Lead by James, they walked up until they saw the small beam of light indicating the gap in the floor boards above their heads. James propped it open with his finger, peaking through the small gap to check that the cost was clear, and then pushed it fully open.

"We're here!" He said with pride, pulling himself up through the small hole and waiting for the others.

"Wow" Sirius said in awe "I thought you were kidding mate, but we're really in Honeydukes"

"Yeah!" James exclaimed as Peter hauled himself up and closed the trap door behind him "Now come on!"

The Gryffindors made their way up into a bright room full of shelves upon shelves of different types of sweets. They stared around in amazement at all the sweets surrounding them from Blood-flavoured lollipops to Toothflossing Stringmints, Crystallised Pineapple to Pepper Imps. After overcoming their awe, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were shoving their way thought the crowds to get their hands on as many sweets as possible.

80)

"This was the best idea ever!" Sirius said thickly though a mouthful of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum. It had been a good twenty minutes since they had entered the large sweet shop and the boys were now stuffing their faces outside in Hogsmeade village.

"Das cuz I sam grey" James grinned, his mouth stuffed with Chocoballs.

"You're grey?" Peter laughed, popping a Fudge Fly into his mouth.

James swallowed "No, I am GREAT!" He unwrapped a Liquorice Wand and thrust it high in the air in a toast. "To Remus Lupin, a great friend. Happy birthday!"

"Happy birthday!" Chorused Peter and Sirius, following James' actions and making the pale boy blush.

"And to the four Marauders!" Sirius added, flinging his wand higher, causing the sweet to droop over his finger "The greatest prankster Hogwarts will ever see!"

"The four Marauders!" sang Remus, Peter and James before devouring their takings.