Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter or Harry Potter related copyrights.
Just as Lily had advised, no one ever mentioned the events of that full moon to Remus. Although Sirius was sore for a few days after the incident, he never let on while Remus was around and, although he wanted to keep the scar on his side because it looked cool, it wasn't hard to convince him to use the last of Lily's scar vanishing lotion to save Remus' feelings.
So the rest of January passed uneventfully and James' birthday, February 14, approached. Every year since their second year the Marauders threw a huge party in the Gryffindor common room. It was always very successful and lots of fun; there was a lot of food, butterbeer, music and of course, the biggest cake anyone had seen. Also, usually, the Marauders tried to make it a surprise party for James, but he always found out about it ahead of time. It was just impossible for an entire house to keep a secret.
What was different about this year was that no one had even mentioned James' birthday or party to him or even within his earshot. He knew that everyone knew when his birthday was and that there would be a party, so he found it odd that they managed to keep it under wraps so well this year.
The day before his birthday he set out to get someone to crack, just for the satisfaction of it.
"So Wormtail, what did you get me for my birthday?" James asked his friend casually.
Peter looked confused for a second and then replied, "You know me Prongs; I'm such a procrastinator. I would never buy you a present this far in advance."
Now it was James' turn to look baffled. "My birthday is tomorrow."
"What?! Got to go Prongs; see you later!" said Peter as he quickly left couch he had been sitting on and fled to the dormitory.
James wasn't too upset by Peter's revelation; he thought that maybe Sirius and Remus hadn't filled Peter in. He had been the one who had cracked back in their third and fourth years. So James brushed it off and moved onto Sirius, who was slightly better at keeping secrets.
"So, Padfoot, mate, chocolate or vanilla this year?"
"Chocolate what?" asked Sirius with a clueless look on his face.
"Cake of course," replied James. "Last year it was chocolate but the year before that it was vanilla. So I'm not sure what it's going to be this year and I just wanted a bit of advance notice."
"Why are we having cake? Not that I mind of course," said Sirius still looking perplexed.
"It's my birthday tomorrow," said James with a downtrodden expression.
"Merlin! Is that tomorrow? Ah, I got to go mate, see you later," said Sirius as he made a hasty exit.
James still didn't allow himself to get too upset. Remus had probably planned the whole party himself; after all, Sirius had blown the surprise in fifth year. So James decided to go right to the source. Remus was a tough nut to crack, but luckily James knew he would crack under pressure after a while.
"So Moony, should I stay out of the common room after classes tomorrow?" asked James hopefully.
Remus sighed. "Is Sirius planning on setting off a whole bag dungbombs again? I haven't heard anything about it, but I wouldn't put it past him."
"No, Padfoot ran out of dungbombs last week," stated James.
"Oh, so I can't think of any reason why you shouldn't go into the common room tomorrow," said Remus calmly.
"No reason at all?" asked James desperately searching Remus' face for any trace of a lie. There wasn't one.
"Nope. I can't think of anything, but let me know if I shouldn't go into the common room, okay?"
"Sure Moony," said James downheartedly.
"Something wrong Prongs?"
James decided to be honest. "No one seems to have remembered that it's my birthday tomorrow."
Remus looked startled for a second and then relaxed. "Don't worry I remembered; I bought your present months ago. However, I couldn't decide between two things so I'll let you pick and then I'll wrap the gift you pick, "365 Fun Ways to Study for your N.E.W.T.s" or "A Beginner's Guide to Magical Origami.""
"You got me two books?" he asked in disbelief.
"No I got you one book. After you pick one I'm going to keep the other for myself," said Remus, seemingly unaware of James' disappointment. "Do you want to see the covers to help you pick one?"
"Nah," said James. "Just surprise me. I'll be happy with either one."
"Okay, well I have to be going, see you later," said Remus as he left the dormitory.
James sank onto his bed in disappointment. He couldn't believe that they were not throwing him a party during their last year at Hogwarts. Then he stood back up. He would ask the house elves! They would tell him if they were baking his birthday cake! That was how he had found out in second year.
"Hello Mr. James Potter sir!" squeaked the house elves as James stepped into the kitchens.
"What can Dippy do for Mr. Potter?" asked one house elf.
James squatted down so he was on the same level as the elf. "Can you tell me what flavour my birthday cake is?"
"What cake sir? Dippy doesn't understand," said the house elf with its big innocent eyes.
"You mean you aren't baking me a birthday cake? You guys bake one for me every year!" said James loudly.
"Does Mr. Potter want Dippy to bake Mr. Potter a birthday cake? Dippy would be happy to do that for Mr. Potter."
"No Dippy, I don't want you to bake me anything," said James glumly.
"Okay Mr. Potter. Can Dippy get you anything else?"
"No, I'm just gonna go."
It was finally starting to dawn on James that maybe his friends really had forgotten his birthday. But he quickly dismissed that negative thought and went to go find Lily. He knew that she could keep a secret better than most people, but he also knew exactly how he might persuade her.
"Hey Lily," James whispered in her ear as she sat at her desk in the Head's common room doing some reading.
"Hold on a sec," said Lily as she continued scanning her textbook, seemingly totally unaffected by his sexy tone.
James straightened up, just a bit put out and stretched. When she still was not finished reading, he started looking around. Then he saw a certain painting on the corner of her desk. He snatched it and looked at it for a minute. Then he chuckled loudly. Lily shushed him.
A minute later, Lily was finished and she turned in her seat to look at James. "What's so funny?"
James turned the painting of the two of them in the rain to face her. "What is this?"
"My sister Daisy painted it and gave it to me for Christmas," said Lily as she reached for it to pull it away from him.
"Oh and who put this idea into her innocent little head?" asked James tauntingly as he pulled it just out of her reach.
"She got it all on her own. She said that when she thought about us, that image popped into her imagination," said Lily as she again lunged for the picture.
James smirked as he deftly caught Lily with one arm and pulled her to his chest and held the painting out of her reach with the other. He looked down at her and said huskily, "Make sure you leave an opening in your schedule the next time it rains. I have a few things in mind that I doubt your sweet little sister has imagined."
"She's not so sweet you know," said Lily as she put her arms around James' neck. "She can be a brat when she wants to be."
"I hope that it runs in the family," whispered James as he placed the painting on Lily's desk and wrapped his arms around her waist.
Oh the things Lily did to him when she kissed him like that… she could even make him forget that he wanted to convince her to tell him about his party… for a while at least.
"Can I ask you something?" asked James as he leaned his forehead against Lily's. Both of them were breathing heavily and James could feel Lily's rapid heartbeat against his ribcage.
"Anything," breathed Lily.
"Is anyone throwing me a birthday party tomorrow?"
"I don't think so," said Lily. "Everyone's just been so busy this year no one had any time to plan it. We all knew that you'd understand."
"Oh. Yeah sure."
"Besides, it's Valentine's Day and I think everyone has dates and plans. Well except us of course," Lily pointed out.
"What? Why?"
"Didn't I tell you? McGonagall wants us to patrol for an extra couple of hours tomorrow since no one really pays attention to the rules on Valentine's day. She's hoping that maybe we can control the hormone crazy couples at least a little bit. We're going to start right after dinner instead of at eight," Lily told him.
"Oh, yeah, okay," said James pretending not to be hurt that obviously no one cared enough to celebrate his birthday.
Lily noticed the disappointment on James' face, but she pretended not to see it. "I knew you wouldn't mind. Valentine's day is overrated anyways."
"Of course, right," said James nodding as he loosened his grip on Lily and moved away from her. "I've got to go. I'll see you later."
"Bye James," said Lily, looking a little confused.
--
"Hurry up Prongs! We're going to be late!" shouted Sirius as he hopped around the dormitory on one foot trying to get his trousers on and brush his hair at the same time.
"We missed breakfast," moaned Peter as he struggled with his tie.
"If we're lucky we'll make it to defense and not get detention for the third time this week," said Remus as he crawled around looking for his other shoe.
"Those two detentions were worth it!" Sirius shouted from the bathroom. "The look on McGonagall's face was priceless!"
"I can understand why she was surprised," said Remus as he tied his newly-found shoe. "You had better get up Prongs; we're not waiting for you because we all have better things to do than spend the rest of our seventh year in detention. What was I saying? Oh yeah, I doubt she's ever seen pancakes break into song before."
"I doubt she's seen bacon oink and attack Slytherins before either," said Sirius with a chuckle. "Seriously Prongs, get your arse out of bed; you're going to be late."
James groaned. Not a single "Happy Birthday!" or even the customary bucket of ice water being pored on his head. He had reminded them the day before that it was his birthday and they still didn't remember.
Very slowly he got out of bed and got ready for the day. By the time he had showered and dressed and gathered his school stuff the first class was over, so he just morosely made his way to the next one.
Throughout the whole day James was glum and dragged his feet. Not one person in the entire school wished him a happy birthday; every other year he had well-wishers around every corner bombarding him with gifts, cards and nice sentiments. This year, nothing. Everyone seemed far too preoccupied with celebrating Valentine's Day, except of course, his girlfriend.
As he sat down next to her at lunch, she looked at him and said, "You look a bit flushed; are you feeling alright?"
"Fine," muttered James as he reached for a sandwich. Lily was his last hope; he thought that surely she would remember.
"Well then, happy Valentine's day," she said as she kissed his cheek.
"Yeah, you too," he responded dully.
Then Lily turned and started chatting happily to Marlene and Alice. On his other side, the other Marauders were arguing about Quidditch. No one was paying any attention to him.
"What is wrong with you people?!" shouted James when he couldn't take it anymore.
"You're the one shouting in the middle of lunch," Marlene pointed out.
"Yeah, we should be asking what is wrong with you," added Sirius.
"What's wrong with me?" asked James rhetorically. "It's my birthday and no one cares!"
"If I'm not mistaken, you're turning eighteen today, not eight," said Lily. "Don't you think you've outgrown the big ceremony and all that?"
"Yeah Prongs, remember last year we all said that turning seventeen was the last birthday worth celebrating? After that it doesn't mean anything; you're no closer to being able to do anything except retire," said Sirius.
"I still want a big party and cake and everyone to pay attention to me!" said James with a pout. "It's my birthday!"
"If it'll make you feel better, your mother sent you a package that arrived in this morning's post. It's in our study, so you can go open it after lunch since you have a free period," said Lily. "Now Alice, like I was telling you…"
James groaned and left the table, unable to stand being ignored any longer.
After his free period, James had transfiguration with Remus, Sirius, Lily, and Alice. By the time he got to the classroom he was three minutes late and Sirius and Remus and Remus and Lily were sitting together, so he had to take a seat at the front by himself. Even if there was a free seat next to one of them he probably wouldn't have taken it because he was still peeved that no one was celebrating his birthday.
"That will be a detention for lateness Mr. Potter," said Professor McGonagall as he opened up his book. "Please stay after class to serve it."
"But Professor," he whined. "It's my birthday."
"That's no excuse for lateness," she snapped.
James slumped in his seat as she continued her lesson.
Around halfway through the double period, Lily and Sirius unknowingly raised their hands at the same time.
McGonagall called on Lily first, "Yes Miss Evans?"
"May I go to the bathroom please?"
"Me too!" called Sirius.
"You can't both go at the same time," stated McGonagall.
"Why not? We aren't going to the same place," said Lily innocently.
"And it's not as if I'm James and Lily and I are just going to run to our private study and skip class to snog for the rest of the afternoon," Sirius commented.
McGonagall just sighed tiredly and said, "Okay, both of you just go."
Three minutes later one of the students suddenly threw up all over their desk. This of course started a chain reaction. Within seconds half of the class was losing their lunches.
After a few minutes Professor McGonagall had finally organized the healthy people to escort the sick people to the Hospital Wing. The only one left without a partner was James.
"Can I just start my detention now?" asked James hopefully. The sooner he got out of there, the sooner he could go to bed and forget the whole day and its numerous disappointments.
"No!" snapped the teacher irritably. "I planned out a lesson for today and so help me Merlin I will teach it! So pay attention!"
"Yes m'am," muttered James under his breath.
Three hours later, Professor McGonagall finally let James out of detention, which had been writing lines. He trudged through the halls, too preoccupied with his brooding thoughts to notice that although it was nearing dinner time the hallways were completely empty.
As he neared the common room, James suddenly had a thought. What if the Marauders had finally managed to throw him a surprise party? James mentally chided himself; they had almost gotten him! With a renewed spring in his step, James hurried to the common room.
As he went through the portrait hole he yelled, "You can't surprise me! I knew about this the whole time! I was just playing…"
Then he noticed that something was amiss; there weren't any people, decorations, drinks, music, or food. It could be said that the common room looked just like it usually did.
James again felt crushing disappointment. He slumped up to his dorm and flung his school bag on the floor and loosened his tie. James was about to just curl up on his bed when his stomach began to growl. He decided that he might as well go down to dinner; he would grab something quickly and bring it back up to his dorm so he could wallow.
On his way, James decided to stop by the Heads' study. He thought that Lily might have forgotten to go down to dinner and maybe he could walk down with her. Even though he was miffed at her for forgetting his birthday, he didn't want to be alone anymore.
When he didn't find her in the Heads' study, James checked the library. Once he didn't find her there either James decided to head to dinner without her. As James approached the Great Hall, he found an oddity; the doors were closed.
Without a second thought, James pushed the doors open and got the surprise of a lifetime.
As he opened the doors, every house elf, ghost, teacher, staff member and student of Hogwarts shouted at the top of their voice, "Surprise! Happy Birthday James!"
James just stood there facing his friends, enemies, acquaintances and teachers. In the front of the crowd were his best mates, Sirius, Remus and Peter and they were laughing at his shocked expression. They rushed over to him and pulled him into the Great Hall and embrace of the student body. Finally, James got all the attention he had been craving.
For a half hour he chatted with everyone who wanted to wish him a happy birthday. He was only allowed to give it a rest when it was announced that dinner was about to be served. People started to filter to the seven-person tables that had been set up for the occasion. As the crowd thinned, James started looking for his friends.
As he scanned the room, James caught sight of Lily. She was leaning up against the far wall, talking and laughing with Sirius. James walked over to the two of them and said, "Now what?"
"Now we eat!" said Sirius dramatically. "Come on, there's a seat reserved for you over here."
In the middle of the Great Hall was a table where Remus, Alice, Peter and Marlene were already sitting. Sirius quickly sat down in one of the available seats; James sat to his right and Lily sat on James' other side.
Soon after everyone was seated dinner appeared on the table. It was, of course, a meal filled with James' favourite dishes, roast beef, mashed pumpkin, peanut butter and fluff sandwiches, salad, green been casserole, bread and butter, spaghetti, chips, and chicken noodle soup. James grinned as he saw his favorite foods appear in the dishes and then quickly dug in before Sirius ate everything.
After the main course there was the birthday cake. Everyone's eyes went wide as they saw it appear on the table where James was sitting. It might have been because the bottom layer took up the entire table and then there were four layers above that.
"Good luck blowing those candles out Potter!" yelled someone in the crowd.
There were in fact, not eighteen candles on the cake but one hundred eighteen.
"I think he's gonna need a bit of help!" shouted Sirius. "Come on everybody!"
Everyone gathered around the base of the cake while James stood on a chair to blow out the eighteen candles on the top layer. With the help of the students, all the candles were soon blown out. Then the cake disappeared as everyone clapped and moments later pieces of cake appeared on the tables. All of the guests settled back into the chairs and dug in.
"Yes chocolate!" said Remus as he ate his slice with enthusiasm.
"Chocolate?" asked Sirius. "We had chocolate last year, so I told the house elves to make vanilla this year."
"Change of plans, they, uh, ran out of vanilla, so I uh made an executive decision and told them to just make chocolate instead," said Remus in between bites.
"You just like chocolate better," said Peter.
"Maybe. You gonna eat that?" he asked Marlene after he had wolfed down his piece.
"Yeah, I love cake!" said Marlene as she pulled her plate a bit farther away from Remus.
"Better hurry Marlene; Remus looks hungry," said Peter laughing.
Soon everyone had finished their cake and music started. Many people grabbed their valentines and rushed onto the dance floor. The Marauders were no exception to this; James grabbed Lily's hand and they ran to go dance, Remus politely asked Alice to dance and she accepted, a nice Hufflepuff agreed to dance with Peter, even though he had two left feet, and Sirius asked Marlene to dance.
"So McKinnon, fancy a dance?" he asked as his friends left the table.
"Yeah, but not with you Black," said Marlene testily.
Sirius was a bit taken aback. "Why not? I'm a nice guy."
"I'm not looking for a one week relationship here. I don't take being dumped very well," said Marlene tiredly.
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh. Bye Black," said Marlene sadly as she stood up.
"Wait Marlene," said Sirius as he caught her wrist.
"What?"
"I think maybe, I might, you know, uhh," he stuttered. Then he glanced over at James and Lily on the dance floor. James was twirling Lily around and they were both laughing. Sirius collected himself and continued, "I think I may want something like James and Lily have. I don't want to be the guy you think I am, the guy I was, any more. Will you go out with me?"
Marlene pursed her lips and looked at his face. "Okay, Bla…"
"Sirius," he told her.
She smiled, "Sirius."
"Would you like to dance with me?"
"Sure," she said grinning, as she let him lead her onto the dance floor.
"Would you look at that," said James as he watched Sirius and Marlene dance. "That's quite unexpected."
Lily looked behind her and scoffed, "Sirius and Marlene? Alice and I have seen this one coming for months."
"How?" asked James as he spun Lily out and then pulled her back.
"It was obvious, at least to us anyways. Sirius stares at Marlene in class all the time, and he always tries to sit next to her at dinner. He also looked murderous when Gary asked Marlene to Hogsmeade last month," Lily informed her dance partner. "Oh and Marlene told me that she has had a huge crush on Sirius since October."
"But she never even calls him by his first name," argued James.
"My point exactly," said Lily with a smirk.
"I don't get it."
"I didn't always call you by your first name either," Lily pointed out coyly.
"You mean all those times you called me 'Potter' you really actually liked me?" asked James.
"Not all the times; I'd say the first three hundred times I really did despise you."
"And after that?"
"It was a term of endearment," said Lily as she settled her head on James' shoulder when a slow song came on.
"Could have fooled me," James said into her ear.
"I did fool you," Lily said as she tilted her head upwards.
"But not for long," and with that James kissed her gently and slowly.
--
"You know," began Sirius some time later as he and James got some punch. "This was all Lily's idea. We were just going to throw you another party in the common room, one you'd find out about some way, but she decided that you deserved to really be surprised. So she talked to Dumbledore and got him to let her throw you a school-wide party in the Great Hall and she even had a school-wide meeting while you were at Quidditch practice. No one spoiled the surprise this year because she threatened to find reasons to throw anyone who did into detention for the rest of the year. She owled your mother and found out your favorite foods; she enlisted the help of the house elves and she even got McGonagall to excuse us all out of Transfiguration this afternoon so we could decorate. Of course, Remus, Peter and I helped, but the credit really should go to her."
"Hold my drink, will you?" asked James as he put his cup into Sirius' hand and walked away.
He found Lily talking excitedly with Alice and Marlene.
"Lily," he said as he spun her away from her friends. "I love you."
Then he kissed her with a fiery passion. She broke off the embrace and breathed, "I love you too Potter."
He grinned as he captured her lips once more.
Alice and Marlene kindly took their conversation elsewhere.