FIRST YEAR - Happy Birthday Sirius
Sunday morning Sirius had told the others that Remus was in the infirmary but otherwise no one talked about it. Remus’ regular visits to the hospital wing had not gone unnoticed by his dorm mates but they never talked about it.
Peter figured that he would tell them if it was anything serious or if he wanted anyone to know, he could understand wanting some privacy around people like James and Sirius who were always looking into everyone’s business.
James focused on showing Remus they were the kinds of friends that wouldn’t judge him and that he could trust them, and proved it by being patient and like Peter, planned to wait until Remus was ready to talk about whatever it was.
Sirius however was far too curious. He was worried about Remus and wanted to protect the boy. Sirius didn’t grow up being loved by many people, and in turn never learned how to love anybody. But he was growing to care for his dorm mates, James who often woke him up at the crack of dawn, Peter who sometimes caught himself speaking without thinking, and Remus who would stay up late and focus so hard on school work that he thought grades were a higher priority than his own health.
That thought was what had Sirius sneaking away from the party preparation the morning of the 31st.
On his walk through the castle Sirius overheard some third years discussing their astronomy homework, they mentioned that the 2nd of November was going to be a full moon. Sirius didn’t pay much attention to this. Across the castle however, Remus lay frustrated with anything concerning the moon.
'It’s still two days away', He yelled at himself.
Remus evaded Sirius and was released from the infirmary just after lunch, he then spent the afternoon in the common room while Sirius tried to look for him everywhere else.
The Halloween party was the first party Remus and his friends would throw for the year and that alone seemed to make them all want to make an impression.
When Remus entered through the portrait, James who’d been hanging from the chandelier as he tried to untangle the red streamers he’d tried and failed to put up, almost fell upon seeing his friend return. He was so excited that he did the fastest thing he could in order to get down, one of Lily’s friends Mary McDonald, who had loved the idea of throwing a party and was therefore holding one side of the ladder let out a gasp as James dropped down in front of her.
“Alright.” James smiled laying on the charm as best he could.
Marlene McKinnon another one of Lily’s friends who was holding the other side of the ladder giggled into her shoulder before looking over to where Lily was studying at one of the tables and the three girls let out matching laughs. James rolled his eyes; he didn’t find anything funny but played of the rejection with an airy laugh all the same.
“Remus.” He cheered turning away from the girls to get a better look at the boy who’d spent the night in a hospital bed.
Like Lily, her friends seemed immune to James.
Marlene was a tall blond whose smile had boys lining up to kiss her toes, even James who rarely took notice of any girl but Lily could agree that Marlene was attractive, she held her head high and seemed to bathe in attention much like him, she however also seemed not to care about the boys who at age 11 found her mischievous smile and dirty humour addictive.
Mary, with her dark complex and simple smile was one of those people who thrived with life’s simplest pleasure. At first glance two girls with such spirited personalities wouldn’t have seemed to be the kinds of people Lily; a girl with her nose always in a books studying, would be friends, but along with Dorcas, an introvert that had bolted to her room the second the party began, the four complimented each other amazingly. Lily when not worried about a test or homework sheet was able to be herself with no exceptions around them, her confidence in herself lead her be protective over her dorm mates.
As James admired the way Lily acted around her friends compared to the closed off version she was around Snape, where she tried to hide anything that could highlight her muggle roots, he put Remus quickly to work, moving furniture to the edge of the room and charming the lights to flashing in time with the music playing from Sirius’ record player.
One of the nights of truth between Sirius and James which had since moved from the bathroom floor to the safety of James’ bed spelled so that nobody heard what they said, Sirius had explained that he received all his muggle stuff and otherwise contraband items from his uncle Alfred that lived in Ireland. He was one of the few family members Sirius talked about without hatred in his tone. Rather, for Uncle it was admiration and wishful thinking.
As the party got underway and the crowd in the common room began to grow, James felt right at home amongst the of strangers. He danced his way from group to group meeting new people whose names he had forgot by the time he moved to a new group. He overhead stories of Hogwarts from older students and even some anecdotes from first years still getting to know the castle, some stories of childhoods with other wizards and then comparisons between the muggle born students.
As the night continued, students from the other houses began to pop in, though you wouldn’t have noticed as most students were dressed in casual clothing, aside from the possible colour similarities, there was no house hierarchy or expectation. The party was open to anyone but the Slytherins. James thought it only made sense not to let them in, in case they caused harm. Whether spiking the punch as a joke or practicing dark spells, James didn’t want to risk the dangers to invite them.
James loved strangers he knew nothing about, but Slytherins, he seemed to know too much about them, without having met many in person. If he thought about it, he’d realize that he was judging the house on stereotypes and that he shouldn’t judge a quarter of the school body because the few Slytherin’s he spoke too had been rude, but James hated thinking too hard about things that weren’t easily defined as black and white.
Remus was the first to bed followed by many first years and some other students who had an early class on the Monday. Peter wasn’t far behind.
James only started to get tired around midnight when the common room only consisted of the last few sixth years lazily spread on every spare surface, some asleep while other's hada drink James assumed was alcoholic in their hand.
James didn’t go to bed as the party came to a clear ending however, because across the room Sirius was stood on a table in front of the fire place belting the words of Starman by David Bowie into his wand which had originally had a voice enhancer spell but had long since been silenced. Sirius’ voice, having been used to scream just to be heard all night also had no volume to it, he sang the words as loud as he could, but even in the almost silent room it came out barely more than a whisper.
With James close enough that Sirius could reach out and grab his shoulder, Sirius’ smiled a genuine smile that warmed James’ heart.
“Thanks mate,” Sirius said slipping not very gracefully from the table until they were almost eyes level, Sirius had a few centimeters on James, but through the year James had already caught up in height significantly.
“Best Halloween ever.” James had kept a close eye on Sirius all night and was positive he hadn’t drunk any alcohol, so correctly assumed Sirius was acting slightly delirious because he was tired.
“Just Halloween?” James nudged, as the two began in the direction of the stairway.
“Best birthday too.” Sirius’ smile hadn’t left his face but it wavered slightly as his eyes gazed over, and a memory played over in his head. A smiling little boy looking up to him like he’d hung the stars. 'Well, almost.' Sirius caught himself thinking before he crushed it, “Absolute best birthday ever.” He repeated for James who saw his smile fault but took the words as meaning that he had planned a successful party.