The inevitables

“I don’t care what plans you have James Potter, we’re celebrating his birthday too!” Lily roared at James. I didn’t think she was that worked up about this, but part of me wondered if she just liked fighting with James. It was the four of us against James and Sirius and luckily for us, Mary seemed to be breaking Sirius’s outer shell.

“You guys can join us later but-“ James tried to keep things civil.

“No way James… James.. what’s his middle name!?” Lily directed everything she got onto me. I was so scared I didn’t even hesitate.

“Fleamont.” I didn’t dare blink once.

“Hazel!” My brother yelled, Mary and Marlene snickered. Sirius was suppressing a smile aswell.

“What?! It’s our dads name! There’s nothing bad about it!” I told my brother, so many things were happening.

“Says the girl with a good middle name!” James frowned. I did have a great middle name: Euphemia, my mothers name. It was family tradition for the eldest children to share their parents names. I didn’t know why James was embarrassed by Fleamont. Yes, it’s a unique name but it’s a family name. Besides his bests friends name was Sirius, everyone had unique names!

“Thank you Hazel.” Lily nodded towards me, she looked proud of herself. Like she was proud of the knowledge she just learned. “James Fleamont Potter, you will allow us to share Remus’s birthday with you!” Lily stared James down, James stared back. The two of them spoke nothing but just looked into each other’s eyes waiting for the other to break.

“F.. fine..” James finally broke and Lily smiled from ear to ear.

“Mate? What are you doing?” Sirius shook James.

“Yay!” Lily cheered.

“You try arguing with them!” James looked back at us and hid behind Sirius who rolled his eyes playfully and stepped up. Mary stepped so close until they were face to face. Mary tilted her head like a puppy dog and gave him a look that said try it.

“… party starts at midnight, we’ll let you know if there’s anything you can bring.” Sirius folded and the two boys left before they could give us anything else.

****

We waited outside the boys dormitory for James to open the door when they were ready. We waited forever in the dark trying to be quiet for the other years.

“So we can go to their dorm but they can’t get to ours?” Marlene asked.

“Yes, it’s in Hogwarts: A History.” I told my friends, Marlene lit up at that information.

“Do you think there’s like.. time limits on when we’re allowed in here.” Mary asked, I wondered where her mind was going.

“I’m not sure.” I said, totally honest. Luckily James opened the door so we didn’t have to hear what Mary was planning.

“Welcome lady’s.” James smiled like a true gentleman. Remus eyed us like he was unsure of our presence or maybe he was just surprised we all wanted to celebrate.

James and Sirius began to lay out so much sweets and food I was lost on where they got that. It looked like they robbed every kid at Hogwarts. My parents love Remus, but they couldn’t even send over that much sweets. I’m not even sure how Peter carried all the food from the kitchen. Sirius became to lay out pillows and blankets for us to sit on.

“Lupin,” he approached the man of honor, “Welcome to your midnight feast!”

“Happy birthday, Remus!” My friends and I said at once. Sirius went to start his record player, I looked at Mary who blushed. The only boy who knew about the radio was Remus, only because he was clever enough to find out on his own. We hadn’t told anyone about the Telly, although I’ve only watched a few movies with my friends while they’ve watched much more.

“Sit next to me, Sirius,” Mary said as soon as she noticed Sirius was leaving the record player. Marlene looked at Mary like she just murdered a puppy. I also noticed Lily sat closer to Remus than anyone else. I just sat next to my brother to avoid any drama.

“Open this first!” Sirius handed Remus a package before sitting next to Mary. Mary smiled wide and had to refrain from giggling.

“You didn’t have to get me anything.” Remus, of course proclaimed. He didn’t seem to understand we knew we didn’t have to, we wanted to. Remus opened the gift to find a poster of people wearing very interesting clothing. I’ve never seen a wizard sport whatever the attire was called so I assumed it was a muggle.

“A poster?” Lily seemed not to understand the concept either. Or maybe she didn’t get why Sirius would give that to Remus. Both thoughts were ones I shared and found valid.

“I got Andromeda to send it to me at Christmas,” Sirius bounced up and down, “But I enchanted it to move myself!”

“Wow!” Remus looked amazed and he wasn’t one to fake emotions. “Thanks! It’s amazing.”

Mary and Marlene had gotten him mostly sweets and things the house elves made. They really only knew him for a few months so I wasn’t surprised. When it was my turn to give Remus his gift, I was a little nervous. I watched him undo all my perfect wrapping. My gift was more educational than fun. I wasn’t sure if he would like it.

He opened the box to see all of the newspaper clippings I could find. I looked throughout the entire library and asked my parents for help.

“How-?” Remus asked, James leaned in to see exactly what the gift was.

“No way.” James breathed.

“What? What is it?” Marlene asked.

“It’s articles about my father.” Remus gasped.

“It’s not much, I couldn’t find a lot. Some of the articles barely mention him too..” I started to explain the gift but Remus cut me off.

“Thank you.” He smiled so sincerely. I thought if this idea the day we were in the library and he practically jumped at the chance to see his dads name on a trophy. I figured he needed a chance to learn about where he came from.

“Ok my turn!” Lily handed her gift to Remus, I silently thanked her. I didn’t need the attention. Lily had given Remus a potions book. Everyone in the room looked at the book and Lily weirdly.

“Can’t keep giving Severus a reason to lord it over you.” She said without hesitation.

“Please do not mention Snivellus’s name on this most sacred occasion.” James pretended he had just heard every curse word known to man. Lily let this one slide and I wondered if it had anything to do with her birthday party. We still hasn’t spoke about what happened, I had no idea if she talked to him again.

“My present is coming later… once we’ve all stuffed ourselves to bursting.” James smirked mischievously. Times like these I wished I could read his mind.

“Oh Merlin, Potter,” Marlene grinned, “What have you got planned?” Marlene had never been interested in guys but now she started acting like Mary. No, I pushed that thought out of my head. There was no way Marlene liked James. That would be weird.

We spent the midnight hours just talking and playing games. We hadn’t really spent time all together. My friends used to avoid the boys like the plague. The only reason I was friends with them was because of James. Because we share the same birthday, name, and have very similar faces.

“Starting to see why Remus’s been abandoning us for you lot.” James laughed about an hour into the party. I nudged him in the ribs.

“Yeah, you’re not bad, for girls,” Sirius winked at Mary, who looked like she was ten minutes away from snogging him right here right now. I imagined Sirius and Mary as a couple. Somehow it made no sense but also perfect sense.

“Yeah, it’s got nothing to do with me wanting to get my homework done.” Remus shrugged like we would never know the real answer. I hoped he didn’t just spend time with us for homework.

“Oh, how times have changed,” Sirius sighed as if thinking of a memory.

“You’ll all be laughing on the other sides of your faces when Remus beats you all in our exams.” Lily stressed. I didn’t know why she had to be above the boys, but whenever we were together, she had to be above the boys.

“Pah!” James stretched and almost hit me in the face, “Exams! We marauders have higher concerns. My dear Mr Black, Mr Pettigrew,” he waltzed to the dorm room, “Shall we?”

“By George!” Sirius shot up, “Is it time?!”
James closed his eyes and nodded,
“Indeed it is.”

“Then make haste!” Peter cried, joining his friends at the window. Lily looked at me hoping I could tell her his plans. When I gave her the same worried look, her face dropped and she’s looked like she was about to leave.

“Come on! You’ll want to see!” Peter called us over. Lily helped me stand up and we locked arms and ventured to the window.

“If we die..” she whispered to me, I just shook my head. My brother may be crazy but he’s not a murderer.

James turned around to showcase rocket looking dynamite: fireworks. I knew exactly where he got them. In our storage closet at home, my father kept flares and fireworks and other explosives.

“Are those…” Marlene spoke first, “Not Dr Filibuster’s?!”

James smiled like he was about to commit arson.

“Oh no!” Lily worried, “We’re not supposed to! You’ll wake up the whole castle!”

“Get lost if you don’t like it, Evans,” Sirius snapped, he looked at James like I bloody told you so. “You promised not to spoil anything.”

“Remus,” Lily held onto me tighter and whipped around to Remus, “Tell them, they’ll
listen to you!”

“No they won’t,” Remus gave a short laugh, “Anyway, I want to see! I’ve never seem wizard fireworks.”

“You’re in for a treat!” Sirius winked.

“How many do you need?!” Mary looked in awe. Maybe her and Sirius were good for each other.

“Thirteen, obviously.”

“You’re all going to get in so much trouble…”

“Oh, stop being such a goody goody, Lil!” Marlene grabbed onto Lily who finally let go of me. Her nails left marks on my arm.

“You really think this is a good idea?!” Lily turned to me.

“James is well experienced in fireworks.” I shrugged. James smiled at me. The choice between Lily and James was lost in me. I never knew who to side with.

“We won’t let any of you girls get in trouble.” James promised while he almost dropped one of the fireworks. “Don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried.” Lily folded her arms and gave him a stern look. “I just think you’re all being—”

“Ooops!”

*BANG*

“Peter!” I had no idea who screamed this but that didn’t matter. Without anyone saying a word, we all ran to the window and watched the firework drop to the ground while exploding.

“Sorry…” Peter quivered. If we needed anything to prove Lily right that we would wake the school, this would be how.

“No, great work – now we’ve started we may as well continue, eh?” Sirius shrugged it all off in a laugh. I understood Sirius’s thought process: they only had a limited amount of time before someone came to stop them. Keep going while you can.

One by one, the three boys lit the explosives and we watched them soar through the sky. Each firework exploded at least five times. They swiveled and spun and looped and did everything normal fireworks did. I realized that maybe muggle fireworks weren’t as extreme when Mary released a “woah..”. I looked over to see all my friends in absolute awe.

At the end of the palooza the fireworks spelled out “HAPPY BIRTHDAY REMU”. I heard Marlene snicker then she tried to cover her mouth. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Knew it had too many letters.” Sirius sighed. It sounded like this was a topic of a previous argument.

All around us, we heard people start moving around. I looked at Lily and she gave me the I told you so. Look.

“Them bloody Marauders are at it again.” A voice from above came. It seemed that Gryffindor boys were not fans to waking up in the middle of the night. In a matter of seconds Mcgonagals voice was on the other end of the door.

“Potter! Black! Don’t think I don’t know you’re behind this, OPEN THIS DOOR!” She screeched. I knew she wasn’t talking about me when she said Potter, but it was still scary.

“Oh shit!” James grimaced, “Better get under the beds, ladies…” Lily looked horrified but it really was the only way. I silently thanked James for never taking down the silencing charm then I grabbed Lily and slid under James bed.

“Ew!” Lily protested. Mcgonagal was let in and immediately started yelling at the boys. They were given detention and letters would be written to their parents. I knew my parents really wouldn’t care, my dad would probably have a laugh about the whole thing. My mum would sternly tell him not to do it again since it was rude to the other boys in the dormitories but nothing else. I was a little worried about what Mrs. Black would do.

Once Mcgonagal left, we were sent back to our dorm. I wasn’t at all tired but I knew I had to sleep a little bit.

“I think Sirius wants to hang around me more.” Mary smiled as she fell onto her bed.

“I think you’re delirious.” Marlene said then received a pillow smack to the face.