Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 34 Happy Birthday, Lily

Lily woke up even earlier than normal on Monday, January 30th. Why, why did her eighteenth birthday have to fall on a Monday of all days? She knew that in the Wizarding World it was her seventeenth birthday, the previous year, that mattered but in the Muggle World it was eighteen that was the milestone.

Feeling put out about the whole thing Lily got up, collected her things and headed off to the Prefects bathroom thinking that if her birthday had to be on a Monday she would at least enjoy a relaxing bath before the day started.

Lily returned to her dorm forty-five minutes later to find her friends getting ready.

"Happy Birthday, Lily!" Katie exclaimed as Lily entered the dormitory.

"Happy Birthday," the other girls echoed.

"Thanks," Lily said smiling.

"So do you have any exciting plans?" Marlene asked.

"Class and homework," Lily answered with a sigh. "Such a thrilling birthday."

"At least they'll be presents," Mary said.

"True," Lily said. Presents would at least brighten her Monday a bit.

"Speaking of presents," Katie said pulling something out from under her bed. "We got you this."

Katie handed her a package wrapped in shiny gold paper.

Lily tried to open it carefully without ripping the paper.

"Oh, come now, just rip it," Mary said cheekily.

"But the wrapping is so pretty," Lily retorted.

"Oh, just rip it," Katie agreed.

Finally, Lily gave up and tore the paper. She opened the box and found an assortment of Honeydukes sweets.

"Thanks, girls," she said grinning.

"Your welcome."

"Alright, let's go to breakfast, I'm starving," Marlene said.

The girls grabbed their bags and headed down to the common room.

Lily was almost to the portrait hole when she felt two hands grab her from behind.

"Morning, birthday girl," James said pulling her into a backwards hug and kissing the top of her head.

"Morning, James," Lily said grinning.

She turned around so she could kiss him good morning properly.

"How does it feel to be another year older?" James asked grinning.

"Yeah, how does it feel to be dating a younger man?" Sirius asked grinning.

James slapped him in the head.

"Shut it, Padfoot."

"Are you ever going to explain where you came up with those ridiculous nicknames?" Lily asked wrapping her arms around James neck and smiling at him. She had been trying to get him to explain for months.

"What fun is life without a little mystery, love?" James asked grinning back.

"But it's my birthday," Lily said still smiling sweetly.

"I already got you a present," James replied kissing her nose. "Now shall we go to breakfast?"

Lily sighed.

"Yeah, I'm starving," she replied grabbing James' hand.

James reached over suddenly and grabbed her bag pulling it over her head.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked curiously.

"Carrying your bag," James replied. "You already have to go to class on your birthday, you shouldn't have to carry your own bag."

"And they say chivalry is dead," Katie said grinning.

Lily rolled her eyes good naturedly but did not protest. It was rather sweet even if she was perfectly capable of carrying her own bag. She followed James and her bag out the portrait hole and down to the great hall.

As the Lily was about to tuck in to her cereal the sound of rushing wings filled the hall. Lily looked up as hundreds of owls flew in through the upper windows. One landed in front of Lily with a package. She relieved the owl of its burden at once. She could tell from the wrapping that it was from her parents. The owl hooted once and flew off.

She opened it carefully and found a lovely silver necklace, with an Irish knot, inside. She removed it from the box at once and put in on at once.

Suddenly a second owl appeared at her side. This one had a note attached to his leg. She removed it and was surprised when it did not immediately fly off. Perhaps it was tired she thought as she opened the letter.

Lily,

Happy Birthday, love! I hope you are having a lovely morning and that you like my present. He will need a name.

James

Lily looked over at James who was watching her expectantly.

"A name?" she asked confused. "Who is he and why does he need a name?"

James pointed at the owl. Lily's eyes widened in surprise as she comprehended what James was implying.

"You got me an owl?"

"Yeah," James said looking slightly unsure of her reaction.

Lily looked back at the owl. He was a beautiful Bard Owl.

"I, you shouldn't have, thank you," Lily said all of this very fast.

James smiled. "Now you won't have to borrow a school owl all the time and you'll be able to send letters when you aren't at school," he explained.

Lily smiled and leaned over to give him a kiss. "Thank you."

"Anything for you, love," James replied grinning.

"Um, what do I do with him right now?" Lily asked unsure.

James shrugged, "Send him off to the Owlery I guess."

"Does he know where the Owlery is?" Lily asked.

The owl hooted dolefully, nipped at Lily in an affectionate way, and then spread his wings and took off.

"I guess so…"said James.

The remainder of Lily's morning was rather uneventful. James insisted on carrying her bag for her the whole time, walking her to Ancient Runes and then meeting her after to walk to Transfiguration. After lunch Lily headed to the library to start on her homework during her free period.

As she walked down the corridor she suddenly found her path blocked.

"What do you want, Severus?" she asked wearily her eyes glancing around for any of his Slytherin companions.

"I just wanted to wish you happy birthday," he said not looking at her eyes.

"Oh, thanks," she replied.

She tried to go around him but he moved to keep blocking her path.

"Severus, I really need to get to the library. I have a mountain of homework and I would really like to relax a little bit this evening," she said sounding slightly annoyed.

"I just, what do you see in him anyway?" Snape suddenly blurted out. "I just don't understand how you can stand to be with that arrogant, self-righteous, prat. He's just using you!"

"He's not like that," Lily snapped. "He's sweet and kind and thoughtful. We aren't fifteen anymore. He's grown up. Which is more than can be said for some people," she added under her breath.

"Oh come on, Lily," Snape said agitated now. "He's just out to prove he can have whoever he wants. Eventually he'll get bored and move on the next girl. How can you not see him for what he is?"

"Severus, get out of my way or so help me I will hex you," Lily said, now positively furious, and pulling out her wand.

"Lily," Snape started but Lily cut him off.

"No," she all but shouted. "You listen. You have no right to talk to me that way or to talk about James that way. I know he was a jerk to you but he has grown up. And you know what else? For all your talk about how awful he is he's not nearly as bad as you! Look at the people you hang out with. Look what they aspire to be. They're evil. And you choose to be one of them."

"I."

But she cut him off again. "Don't even try and deny it. You can't go around with people like that and then claim to care about me. You hate people like me. James may be a bit arrogant at times but at least he is a good person. To. The. Core. He cares about me. He hates the dark arts. He doesn't care that I'm muggle born and neither do his friends."

"Lily," Snape tried again.

"No, Severus. Go, just, go. I don't want to talk to you. Just leave me alone," Lily glared, raising her wand threateningly.

Snape glared back at her and stormed off.

Lily sighed. How could he be so hateful? How could he not see how he had chosen the wrong side? She had tried; there was nothing more she could do. She could feel her eyes burning but she wiped them with her sleeve. She was not going to cry now. It was her birthday. She was going to go to the library and get some of her work done. She wasn't going to spend the whole evening of her birthday working and she wasn't going to waste any more tears on Severus Snape. Why did he have to do that on her birthday? It just went further to prove that he didn't care about her as much as he claimed. If he did he wouldn't have gone out of his way to upset her on her birthday.

She found a secluded table in the library and forced herself to focus on her homework.

Lily headed off to her last class of the day, Charms, having made a good dent in her work but still not completely recovered from her encounter with Snape.

"Lily, are you okay?" James asked, looking concerned, as she slid into the seat next to him.

"I'm fine," she answered to quickly, not meeting his gaze.

"Lily," James said in a tone that clearly said he didn't believe her.

"I ran into Snape earlier," she admitted. She figured it was probably better to just get it over with. At least here he couldn't do anything. Flitwick wouldn't tolerate it and he knew it.

"And," James pressed.

"He wished me happy birthday."

"And?"

"And he said that you were just using me and that you would ditch me as soon as the newness wore off," she said this very quickly staring down as she rummaged through her bag for her Transfiguration book.

"What?!" James practically shouted.

"James, keep your voice down," Lily implored.

"Sorry," he said in a whisper. "Lily," he continued quietly. "That is not true. I would never do that. I…"

"I know," she said finally looking up and meeting his eyes. "I told him that. He's just being, I don't know, Severus I guess."

"Yeah," James said looking upset.

"Leave him alone, James," Lily said warningly. "Hexing him won't solve anything and will probably just make things worse."

"Probably," James said though he did not meet Lily's eyes.

"James, promise me you'll leave him alone," Lily said reaching out and putting her hand on his chin. She turned his head so he was looking at her again. "Promise, me. It's my birthday wish."

"Alright, for you. If you insist," James said though Lily could tell from the look in his eyes that agreeing to her demand was the last thing he wanted to do.

As they were leaving the Great Hall after dinner James paused when they got to the entryway.

"Lily," James said. "I have to go with Sirius, Remus, and Peter for a little bit. We won't be long. Will you be in the library or the Common Room?"

"I was going to go back the Common Room. I got a lot of my homework done over my break. I was just going to go over my Transfiguration notes and put the finishing touches on my Potion's Essay. Why?" she added suspiciously.

"James, you promised," she added giving him a threatening look.

"I solemnly swear this has nothing to do with that," James said grinning.

"James," Lily said seriously.

"Really, love," James said sincerely. "It has nothing to do with that. I will even tell you about it later. But right now I need to go." He gave her a quick kiss and then headed off with his friends.

Lily, Katie, and Marlene headed back to the Common Room.

"What were you threatening James about?" Katie asked curiously.

"Severus," Lily said with a sigh. "He cornered me earlier and tried to tell me that James was only interested in me as a notch in his belt. That he'd ditch me once he got bored."

"He said that in front of James?" Katie asked shocked. "And Snape's still alive?"

"James wasn't there," Lily said. "I was on my way to the Library while James was in class. Severus cornered me on the way there."

"So how does James know?" Marlene asked.

"I told him," Lily replied with a sigh. "Apparently I still looked upset when I got to Transfiguration and I could tell he wasn't going to give up until he found out why."

"You told him?" Katie asked shocked. "And you just let him out of your sight? Are you crazy?"

"He promised to leave him alone," Lily sighed. "I really hope he was telling the truth that whatever he's up to has nothing to do with it."

"I wouldn't worry," Marlene said.

"Why do you know what they're up to?" Lily asked.

"Possibly," Marlene replied. "But I'm not one hundred percent sure so I'm not sharing. But it has nothing to do with Snape."

Lily sighed and gave the password, "Snitch," to the Fat Lady.

Lily finished up her last paragraph on her essay on Felix Felicis and then began reviewing her Transfiguration notes. After about an hour the portrait hole opened up and out of the corner of her eye Lily saw Sirius enter followed by Remus, Peter, and last of all James. James passed something to Remus as he climbed through the portrait hole.

Lily put down her notes and tried to see what they had. James and Sirius, however, were blocking whatever it was from view.

"Hey, Lily," James said grinning.

"Where have you been?" she asked suspiciously.

"Not hexing people who may or may not deserve it, don't worry," James replied smoothly.

Lily raised an eyebrow.

"Come on, Lily. I told you I'd leave him alone and I did," James said giving her a look that said he was clearly unhappy about it.

"Where have you been then?" Lily pressed.

James grinned and turned to retrieve the thing from Remus.

"Happy birthday," the four boys, Marlene, Mary, and Katie chorused.

James held out a small chocolate birthday cake with Happy Birthday, Lily written on it.

Lily smiled widely.

"Where did you get it?" she asked amazed.

"It pays to be friends with the House Elves," James replied.

Sirius pulled out his wand and magicked some plates and forks onto the table.

Lily smiled at James as he sat down next to her.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

"You're welcome, love," James smiled back.

Lily leaned over and kissed him. James reached over attempted to tangle his hand in her hair and deepen their kiss but Lily pulled back and swatted at him playfully.

"James," she scolded him quietly, "We are in the Common Room."

"Yeah, some of us want to keep our cake down," Sirius added cheekily.

"Oh, shut it, Sirius," James and Lily said in unison.

James and Lily both looked at each other and the group burst out laughing.

"So, did you come up with a name for your owl yet?" James asked.

"No, I haven't really had time to think about it," Lily answered. "I need to come up with one soon though I suppose."

She took a bite of her cake. It was delicious.

"What about Merlin?" Mary suggested.

Lily laughed.

"What?" Mary asked.

"Sorry," Lily said. "It's just that's the name of James owl."

"Oh, well that wouldn't work then. It would get confusing," Mary replied.

"What about Newt," Sirius suggested.

"What?" Lily asked.

"Newt," Sirius repeated. "Like Newt Scamander."

"The guy who wrote Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them?" Lily asked.

"Yeah," Sirius said.

"Sirius has a strange obsession with that book," James said. "I don't really understand it."

"Magical creatures are interesting," Sirius said with a shrug. "You should have taken care of Magical Creatures."

"You are an odd one, Sirius," Marlene said.

"Newt," Lily said again. "Is it weird that I kind of like it? Even if it is a weird name for an owl."

"He's your owl. Name him whatever you like," James replied.

"Newt it is then," Lily decided.

Sirius grinned.

"Don't let it go to your head, Padfoot," James said.