A/N: We normally upload a chapter once a week but we both have a lot of deadlines coming up followed by exams so for the next two or three months we'll only be uploading every other week :)
Chapter 17 - Birthdays
As had happened far too often for James' liking, he was woken up on the morning of his 17th birthday by a large black dog jumping onto his bed and licking his face.
"I thought adulthood was meant to come with some sort of dignity," James grumbled, wiping the saliva off himself with the back of his hand then reaching for his glasses.
"Nope, just more responsibility and the pressure to have a stable career," Remus replied cheerfully.
"Neither of which we're any good at," Peter added.
"On the plus side, now we can all legally drink! Happy birthday, Prongs." Sirius plonked a poorly wrapped, bottle-shaped present on James' bed and he tore off the wrapping paper to find a very fancy-looking bottle of mead. "It's from all of us - present number one of two."
He examined the bottle and whistled. "Thanks guys."
"I just had a strange premonition of you growing up to become Professor Slughorn," Sirius said.
Remus smiled. "Good job you dropped potions then, James."
"Well you know, if I had to have one thing in common with him, an appreciation for a good bottle of mead is not the worst. Please tell me the second present is alcohol too?"
"As soon as we get to the Three Broomsticks, the first round of firewhiskey is on me," Sirius replied. "But there's this, too."
He lobbed a round parcel at James, wrapped in about three layers of spellotape so James had to actually tap it with his wand to get it open. "A quaffle?"
"Turn it over," Remus encouraged.
James did, and his eyes widened. "A quaffle signed by Chavelle Arbelo Cartaya?!"
"It was in Quality Quidditch supplies over summer," Peter said. "We couldn't let anyone else get their hands on it, could we?"
"We nearly gave it to you for Christmas but it seemed more fitting for us to all be together," Remus said, smiling.
"This is officially the greatest present of all time," James announced, jumping off his bed and reverently putting the quaffle down on his bedside table.
"And the greatest birthday of all time once we've got you drunk enough," Sirius grinned. "Now hurry up, just because it's your 17th doesn't mean McGonagall won't be pissed if we're not ready to leave at 11 with everyone else."
"Who's ready to get drunk by midday?" Sirius said loudly, returning from the Three Broomsticks' bar after charming his way into a discount on the excessive amount of firewhiskey he'd just bought. He put the tray of drinks down in the middle of the large booth where the twelve of them - mostly consisting of the Quidditch team and a few friends Mary and Lily had brought along – had squeezed in.
James laughed and grabbed a drink, downing it in one. He was handed another before anyone else had even finished their first. "Here, Remus, you'd better be getting drunk too – this is your birthday celebration as well."
"Yeah, you deserve it after having to go to lessons on your actual birthday!" Peter said. "It's annoying that we can't just go to Hogsmeade whenever we like."
Remus laughed. "Can you imagine telling McGonagall that we'd missed transfiguration to go get drunk on my birthday?"
"She would not be impressed," Mary agreed. "She'd probably convince Rosmerta to never serve you drinks again."
"Well now that James is old enough to take his apparition test the world is our oyster, we can go and terrorise bars all around the country!" Sirius grinned at Remus, who looked worried at the prospect.
"If you splinch yourself while trying to apparate when you're hammered I won't be the one sitting in St. Mungo's with you for three hours."
Lily laughed at that very real possibility and leant across the table from where she was sitting between Mary and Dorcas. "Remus, I know it's a bit late, but I have a birthday present for you." She smiled and extracted herself from the table. "I left it in my bag, in the cloakroom – come on."
Remus followed her out of the room, with James squinting at their backs suspiciously. "So what is it?" he said as the door closed behind them.
"I charmed it myself," she said, smiling nervously and handing him a small wrapped box. "I was thinking of a way to help ever since you told me about your lycanthropy – that's why it's late."
He opened it up and peered curiously at a small contraption made of what at first looked like different sized marbles, but when he picked it up he realised it was a model of the solar system, with eight planets orbiting the sun and lots of tiny moons circling the planets.
"You need to tap it with your wand," Lily added. She was watching his confused expression warily.
He prodded the sun with his wand. Immediately, it flew upwards and expanded until it was a metre wide, with each and every planet and moon rising up to hover around it. It wasn't until the sun began to give off warm orange light that Remus began to realise why Lily had made this for him. The earth was about the size of a quaffle and next to it was the moon, roughly snitch-sized, but only a small section of it was lit up. A crescent moon, just like it would be that night.
"Oh," he said softly. "Wow. Thanks, Lily."
"It was quite fun to make really," she smiled. "I'm just glad you like it. I didn't want to overstep or anything."
"You didn't," Remus assured her.
"Great," Lily said, flicking her own wand so that the model shrunk back down to a reasonable size. "Come on then, I'll get us both a glass of wine."
Remus tucked the gift carefully into his pocket and they went back out into the pub where everyone was talking animatedly at the table. Lily noticed that a few of the other patrons were giving the group dirty looks as they loudly laughed and talked over each other, but she didn't want to tell them to be quiet when everyone was clearly having a good time.
"What did you give him?" James asked Lily as Remus slid back into his seat.
"A handjob in the back," she replied dryly.
James grinned. "You got something for me as well then?"
Lily raised her eyebrows. "Sure, I'll get you a drink. I'm getting one for Remus anyway so come pick something."
Sirius elbowed him in the ribs and winked, which Lily pretended not to see. They went over to Rosmerta together and Lily asked for elf-made wine for her and Remus.
"What do you want?" she asked James, who thought she had never asked him that question in a tone that wasn't full of annoyance.
"A beer, please," he replied, trying to casually lean on the bar and managing to put his elbow in a small puddle of a spilled drink. "Is this a peace drink? Are we friends now?" he asked as he was handed his beer.
Lily rolled her eyes. "I suppose," she said, "it would have been impressive if you'd have kept being an idiot for 6 entire years."
"True," James agreed, casting a look back at his table of friends. "Sirius and Mary seem to have got past the awkwardness," he commented.
"Yes," Lily agreed. "It was getting a bit painful when I was put in a group with them in Potions."
"Never would have thought we'd all get along so well," James laughed. "Nothing like a celebration of my new found maturity to bring everyone together."
"Maturity is a bit of a stretch," Lily said, "but you're getting there."
"James," Sirius said, while supporting the bodyweight of said friend on one shoulder as they made their way back from Hogsmeade. For the first time ever, he was in the position of being the least drunk of the four of them and he was not particularly enjoying the experience. "How are we supposed to think of decent April fools pranks when you're in this state?"
"I am the prank master," James said with a flourish that nearly knocked them both over. "Do not doubt my pranking… prankiness."
"He has a point," Remus agreed, appearing on Sirius' other side. "He is good at the pranking. Ha, remember that time when – hahaha." Remus broke off into somewhat hysterical drunken laughter, holding his stomach as he staggered along the path behind them. They must be the last students left in the village, and were in danger of being late back to the castle.
"I remember that!" James shouted, "see Pads, Remus knows how it is."
"I don't think," Peter put in, from somewhere behind Sirius – he was a little inebriated himself, and wasn't sure exactly where any of them were – "that either of you know anything."
"Quite right," Sirius agreed. "Now, James. One foot in front of the other – there you go – we'll be back in no time."
McGonagall was enjoying a steaming cup of coffee – her first of the day in fact, since it was the weekend and she didn't have to put up with any teenagers. She was on her way to Dumbledore's office for a nice chat about the latest edition of Witch Weekly when she had the misfortune of walking through the entrance hall just as four notorious Gryffindors stumbled through the front doors.
"Professor!" James said enthusiastically, detaching himself from Sirius and Peter and staggering over to her. "It's my birthday, you know!" he announced, with a grand gesture that knocked McGonagall's coffee right out of her hand and onto the floor.
She looked at him with undisguised exasperation. "Sometimes I wish we didn't allow trips to Hogsmeade," she sighed.
James, a horrified expression on his face, began drunkenly trying to perform a reparo spell to fix the broken mug.
Thinking it was about time to intervene, Remus stepped forward, "Now, now, Professor," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She was quite surprised to notice how much taller than her he had grown. "It was really quite sensible of us to get extremely – er – hammered today. We could have snuck out on my birthday, you see, but we decided to be responsible students – as usual – and not turn up to your lesson with massive hangovers."
"Very considerate of you, Mr Lupin." She waved her wand at the mug James still hadn't managed to repair and it flew into her hand in one piece, though sadly it was now empty. She was beginning to think her next drink ought to be something a little stronger. "Now I have somewhere very important to be so I'll leave the four of you to find your way to the common room by yourselves. Please try to remember that it's on the seventh floor."
"Very good, Professor!" Sirius said, more loudly than was strictly necessary. "Have a nice evening. I'll escort my fellow drunken idiots back to the Gryff – Gryffin – to the common room."
"I wish you luck," McGonagall said, starting to walk away before they could say anything else. "Happy birthday, Mr Potter."