Birthdays and Fist-Fights
January turns to February turns to March which means two of the Marauders birthdays. To Remus it means his friends torturing him in the great hall at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Remus has never liked having attention thrust upon him. He always gets uncomfortable when too many people are watching him. Remus’ definition of ‘too many’ is anything more than eight. He likes just hanging out with his friends, he likes reading, and he likes being left alone. He does not like being serenaded with happy birthday by the whole of Hogwarts (excluding the Slytherins, of course).
Which is what is happening now. It is seven o’ clock in the bloody morning and somehow Sirius, (surprisingly) Regulus, James, Peter, Lily, Mary, Marlene, and Dorcas have rallied the students in the great hall into singing happy birthday to Remus.
Remus has his head in his hands, trying to shrink himself into the ground, pondering whether it would be wise to charm the ground into turning to quicksand by the fifth rendition.
“Please stop.” Remus groans into his hands.
“Haaaappyyyyyy birrrthhhhdayyy dearrrr Reeeeemuuuussssss,” Sirius crows. Remus almost bursts into tears out of embarrassment.
“Happyyy birthdaaaaayyyy toooooo youuuuuuuu!” The whole hall finishes and Remus sighs in relief.
“Thank God.” Remus mumbles into his hands. The tips of his ears are red, along with his face. The flush going all the way down under his collar. He hates being the centre of attention.
“Oh, please. You love it, Remus.” Lily chides.
“I really don’t.” Remus counters.
“You love us, really.” Sirius interjects. And, well, Remus can’t argue with that. So, he just huffs.
“Ha! You do love us!” Marlene exclaims gleefully.
“You admit it at last.” Peter squeaks.
“The breakthrough of the century!” Mary announces. Sirius, James, Marlene, and Dorcas all laugh. Remus, Lily and Regulus all exchange looks. Lily looking amused, Regulus confused, and Remus unimpressed.
“Don’t look so grumpy.” Sirius admonishes, pinching Remus’ cheek, to which Remus just lets him. He has resigned himself to the torture. “You still have your whole day ahead of you!”
Remus rolls his eyes, pushing Sirius away, since he hasn’t stopped pinching Remus’ cheek. “I’ll be grumpy when I want to be.” Remus grumbles, taking a piece of bacon off his absolutely loaded plate.
The rest of the day isn’t bad. It’s actually pretty good so far. That is until he sees Snivillus.
“Going for a little stroll, Loopy?” Severus taunts. Remus rolls his eyes. He’s alone since the others made him leave. They thought they were being discrete (they weren’t).
“What do you want, Snape?” Remus asks exasperatedly.
“Oh, nothing, nothing.” Severus says feigning being casual.
“Okay, so then can you leave me be?” Remus inquires pointedly.
“Hmm, I don’t know.”
Remus scoffs and pushes past him, hoping that that encounter won’t ruin his day. But Remus is now in a sour mood. He makes his way to the library and he hears footsteps behind him, Snivillus, probably.
“That obsessed with me, are you, Snivillus?” Remus turns around a so sharply that Snape doesn’t have time to react. He just walks right into Remus’ chest. He falls right on his greasy arse. Remus rolls his eyes and walks away, yet again.
By the time he is in the library Remus is in a slightly better mood. Snape hadn’t followed him to the library, at least.
After a while Sirius had come down to tell him that he was allowed time come back up to the dorm. Sirius was very excited. He was rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet while waiting for Remus to gather his things.
They trudge their way up to Gryffindor tower and up to the boys dorm. When Sirius opens the door to the dorm Remus gets ambushed by the girls and the Marauders (which now includes Regulus, Sirius had insisted) with cries of “happy birthday, Remus!”
Remus is ushered into the room by everyone and is presented with a little indoor picnic. They had all of Remus’ favourites. They even got him a cake.
They spend the rest of the night eating and talking. Mary telling the most obscure gossip she found out about in the last week. Sirius, being Sirius, is completely enraptured in this. He is eating it up with a spoon.
Remus just watches his friends.
He never thought he would have any friends at school. But now, he is in his second year at
Hogwarts with eight amazing friends.
Oh, how the times change.
~*~
The next birthday is James’. The twenty-seventh. It is also a big affair.
James is having the time of his life. Breakfast in the Great Hall is spent by Sirius, Remus, Regulus, Mary, Marlene, Lily, Peter, and Dorcas have all getting the most part of the great to sing to him. Serenading James with Happy birthday.
Right now, James is in Potions with the rest of the Marauders. They are doing practical work. James is working with Marlene, because Slughorn had to assign partners due to James and Sirius’ shenanigans.
Sirius is working with Mary and Remus is working with Lily (which James is only a little jealous of).
Everything is going well, very well in fact. That is until there is a commotion. Remus has quite literally thrown himself across the table at Snape. He lands a punch. A pretty good one where James is concerned, even if he has no idea what a good punch really does. He gets another one in but then is dragged off Snape by Sirius. Remus is breathing heavily and glaring absolute daggers at Snape.
“Now what is all of this?!” Slughorn calls over the yelling. His usually cheery voice taken over by a stern tone.
“He just attacked me!” Snape exclaims.
“That is not true-!” Remus starts.
“That is enough!” Slughorn yells. Remus continues glaring at Severus. If looks could kill Snivillus would be smeared across the whole classroom. “Mr. Lupin, I would have expected better from you, seeing as you have some of the best grades in this class.”
Remus rolls his eyes, looking scandalized. “Why don’t you tell that to Snivillus.” Remus growls.
“Mr. Lupin!” Slughorn looks shocked. Remus scoffs. James and Sirius exchange looks of awe and concern.
“Detention!” Slughorn informs him. “For a week, and fifteen points from Gryffindor!”
“Professor, that’s not fair!” Sirius exclaims.
“Ah! That is enough! Unless you want detention as well, Mr. Black.” Slughorn says.
“Snape started it!” Sirius tells him.
“Detention for you as well, Mr. Black.” Slughorn informs him. Sirius scoffs.
After class the Marauders walk out of the classroom and all turn to Remus. “What was that, mate?” James asks. He’s concerned. Remus never talks back to teachers, nor does he just start random fights.
“He said some things.” Remus mumbles.
“Well that was bloody cool!” Sirius exclaims.
“You’ve got to show me how to punch like that, Moony”
“But that was quite reckless, Remus.” Peter squeaks. Remus just hums. They go on about their day as normal, but James feels something bubbling under Remus’ skin. Something angry. Snape must have said something bad, James thinks.
That night is fun. They do the same thing they did for Remus’ birthday. The girls and the Marauders in the boys dorm, celebrating another rotation around the sun.
“Remus, what was that in Potions?” Mary asks.
“What happened in Potions?” Regulus asks.
“Remus punched Snape. It was so cool.” Sirius says, bumping Remus’ shoulder with his own.
”Did he deserve it?” Regulus arches a brow.
“Oh yeah. The wanker deserved it.” Remus informs him.
“Good on you, then.” Regulus praises. “The git should be put in his place.”
“Thanks.” Remus replies.
“So… why did you do it?” Mary asks. Marlene nods, equally as curious.
“He just said some stuff. Didn’t quite fancy hearing it anymore.” Remus says.
“So you resort to punching him?” Dorcas asks.
“I’ve always wanted to do it.” Remus explains. Sirius snorts.
James looks at Lily who is shaking her head. James doesn’t understand why Lily is still friends with Snape. He’s horribly annoying in James’ opinion. He also is just horribly bigoted.
James doesn’t understand girls.