Happy Belated Birthday Amy @cocopuffer123 

Lily caught Sirius's arm by the elbow in the hallway outside the Gryffindor common room one evening, pulling him back from the flow of students pouring in after dinner. She did it so quickly that the other Marauders didn't even notice him gone at first (it took Remus realizing that it had gotten noticably quieter before they looked about for their notoriously noisy friend). He nearly tripped over the stone steps as Lily pulled him a couple up the curling staircase that led up to the very tip top of Gryffindor tower. She leaned back to peek out into the corridor to be sure the other Marauders had gone on into the common room, then spun to face him.

"James's birthday is in two days," she informed him.

Sirius was rubbing his elbow as though she'd had some sort of vice grip upon him (she hadn't) and acting quite put off. He eyed her. "No kidding? I didn't know," his voice was gooey with sarcasm.

"So, what are we doing for it?" she asked.

"We?" Sirius asked pointedly, raising an eyebrow. "What are we doing for it? You and I we or me and the Marauders we?"

"All of us, we."

Sirius sat himself down on the stairs and sprawled out his arms regally behind him, leaning back, a grin playing on his face as he gained the upper ground. "I didn't know you wanted to do anything for it."

"Of course I do," Lily said.

"Why?" Sirius asked.

Lily flushed.

He was smirking.

"Stop that," Lily said, burning hotter by the moment, "You know perfectly well why." She shifted her weight foot to foot when he continued to stare at her with his stupid smirking grin. "Stop it Sirius." 

Sirius cleared his throat, deciding to let it go -- for now -- and said, "Well, what did you have in mind for us to do? Clearly you've some sort of idea if you've been thinking on it enough to stop me in the bleedin' hall like this."

Lily said, "I don't know. I just... I want to see James being happy again so that he and I can... can have a talk."

Sirius raised his eyebrow, "Have a talk, you say?"

"Yes."

"Is that anything at all like... like having a snog?"

"Shut it," Lily said and she gripped her wand. But Sirius only laughed. "No, it is not at all like having a snog, you filthy thing. Everything's about snogging and sex to you."

"Not everything."

"Name one thing!"

"Anything female!" Sirius replied, "I've snogged my last of the females. I wasn't very impressed. No offense to Marlene McKinnon, of course, I'm sure she's spiffing to the right guy. I'm just not that guy."

Lily rolled her eyes. "You're an idiot."

Sirius said, "Well, why would you want to hang out with an idiot on an adventure! I reckon this conversations rather a circular thing," he said, waving his finger about in the air. "Either I'm an idiot or else I'm the only one who can help you with... whatever it is you have to ask me."

Lily pursed her lips.

"Which is it love?"

"Fine, you'renotanidiot," she said all in a great gust of breath, and before Sirius could make her say it slower (the smirk on his face made her think he might suggest something of the sort), she said, "Does he want anything? You know, like... a present? Has he mentioned anything?"

Sirius shook his head slowly.

"Alright," Lily said, "I'll have to get creative with it, then. I'll figure it out." 

Sirius stood up and smiled, tip-toeing his fingers over her shoulders as he walked behind her, "I'm sure he'll love whatever you get him, Evans. It's nothing to trouble your pretty little mind over." He blew her a kiss, then jumped down the couple steps into the corridor, tipped an imaginary cap, took a bow, and disappeared 'round the corner.

Lily stood staring after him for a couple moments, her arms crossed, before finally she let out a sigh and went after him.

He'd left the portrait hole ajar for her.

She agonized all night over owl-order catalogs, frustrated that nothing seemed to be popping off the page as the perfect gift, and fretting that anything she got for him might be just tossed aside anyway. She counted and recounted her sickles and knuts, until, at very last, she found the perfect gift in one of the books and she filled out the order form. The next morning, she walked quickly to the Owlry before anyone else was up, clutching her order form, and tied it to an owl's leg. "It's very important," she told the owl, "It's for James Potter's birthday, so please make sure they rush ship it back with you, alright? Fly fast, okay, I'm a bit late placing the order as his birthday's tomorrow."

The owl hooted and Lily watched as it flew over the trees, past the thestrals that were playing about in the canopy once more.

At breakfast on 29 March, James took a double helping of bacon. "I deserve it, after all," he told everyone around him, "Seeing as it's my birthday."

"You always take a double helping of bacon," Sirius accused in a bored tone, "Bloody hell's your birthday got to do with it?"

"Those days, I'm just celebrating my unbirthday," James replied. "It's a more solemn event. Somber reminders of a time before I came into being. Bacon is needed to cheer me up."

"But if it's our lives that would've been impacted by you not being there," Remus argued for the sake of arguing, "Shouldn't it be us that needs the cheering up? And therefore us who gets the bacon?"

James shook his head, "The bacon is your offering to me, to thank me for coming at all." They all laughed, but Peter quietly handed James an extra piece of his bacon and they shared a smile, understanding what the gesture meant.

Lily arrived to the table and set herself beside Remus, across from James. She gathered her food from the table and started eating, quietly listening as James and the other Marauders talked. She could feel her palms pooling with nervousness, just looking at him and knowing what she had planned. He looked older, she thought, and even though it was just in her head, she couldn't help but speculate at how much he'd grown since she'd first met him. Sure, there were a lot of things still the same - his hair was just as unruly now in sixth year as it had ever been in first, and his uniform may even have been more disheveled than it was then, if that was possible. His tie was certainly looser and his features more pronounced. His nose was more pronounced now that his cheeks had carved themselves out of the baby fat, and gone were the freckles that had dotted his nose, replaced by a very fine, barely noticeable stubble that now dotted his chin.

"What?"

James's voice broke through her thoughts and she realized he was looking at her, his mouth slightly open, a bite of toast held a loft in his hand. He'd caught her staring.

"Do I have something on my face?" he asked with concern.

Lily took the out. "Yes, just... here." And she used her own hand to wipe away an imaginary object on her own face to indicate to him where he needed to clean. There wasn't anything at all, of course, so when he swept his jumper sleeve over his face roughly and turned his head that direction, it was clean. "You got it," she assured him.

"Alright then," James replied, and he turned back to his breakfast.

Lily looked down at her plate, while James waved a slice of bacon about as he talked to Peter and Remus. But Sirius stared at Lily and she could feel his eyes on her and tried to stay cool, but  it was making her very nervous the way he was grinning over at her and she cleared her throat and looked at him squarely, thinking that might stop him from doing it. But of course it didn't - very little ever deterred Sirius Black, after all. Instead, he started to pull faces at her, crossing his eyes and snickering.

Remus finally noticed it and turned to Sirius, "What are you doing?"

"Not a thing, Moonshine," Sirius replied and pecked Remus on the cheek quickly before abandoning the habit of teasing Lily and getting back to his eggs and toast.

Remus glanced from Sirius to Lily in confusion as she turned back to her breakfast with an equal amount of enthusiasm.

"Potter."

They all looked up at the sound of Professor McGonagall's voice.

"Minnieeeeeee!" drawled Sirius, "How've ya been?"

"Just the same as I've been since you saw me in the hallway, Mr. Black," McGonagall replied, having already been through a Sirius Black morning greeting. She turned to James, "Your mother and father are here, in Professor Dumbledore's office, and have requested to see you."

Sirius beamed, "Hey, here comes James's watch!" 

James grinned, "Yeah, I'd guess so." He got up and dusted toast and bacon crumbs from his uniform jumper. McGonagall watched as they fell to the stone floor and wood bench. "I'll see you lot after."

"Hope it's a spiffing one!" Sirius called as McGonagall led James away.

Remus waved with his fork.

When McGonagall and James had disappeared through the doors of the Great Hall, Peter took the rest of James's bacon onto his own plate. "What? He's not here to finish it. It'd be a waste," he said when Remus and Sirius both raised their eyebrows.

Sirius announced, "So when he gets back, I think that's when we'll go."

"Yeah, gives us more time if we leave now!" Remus agreed eagerly. It was so very rare they went out when he wasn't scheduled to turn wolf that the idea of it excited him - even if he didn't get to turn into an animal like they did. "So you should go and get bundled up, Remus," Sirius said, then, "And you, Evans."

Lily looked up. "Me?"

"Yes, you."

Lily glanced down the table to be sure Frank and Ali and the others were preoccupied, then inched closer so that her whole right side pressed against Remus's left, bending down and hissing, "What am I getting bundled up for?"

"For the marauding," Sirius replied, "Blimey, do make an effort to keep up."

"I'm... I'm going with you?"

"You wanted to see James happy, yeah?"

She nodded.

"Well then. There you have it." He stood up and grabbed one last piece of toast to eat while he walked, biting it between his teeth while he shrugged his bag about his shoulders. Remus got up, too, and even Pete, though he quickly wrapped the bacon up and stuffed it in his own bag as he did. "It gets cold out there, so loads of layers, Lillith Judy Evans." And he ducked away from the table, followed by the other Marauders.

Lily ate quickly, practically shoveling her food into her mouth before she raced to Gryffindor tower to change and pack.

"You really think it's a good idea to bring her along?" Peter asked when they were up in the dormitory. Remus was tugging on several layers of thick jumpers, one over the other. Peter was putting chocolate and licorice wands into his rucksack, looking rather despondent, having to pack extra of each thing. "If Lily's coming along, why can't Wendy?"

"Because Wendy's not a Marauder and Lily is," Sirius replied simply.

"Since when is Lily a Marauder?" Peter demanded as Remus's head popped out of his third jumper.

"Since I said so," Sirius answered. "Besides," he added, "You lot ought to get used to her tagging around at thing, I've a feeling she's going to be a good deal more pretty soon." And he turned to grab his leather jacket from the hook he'd hung it on, taking out his wand from the knot of hair he'd tucked it into on his head, and shrinking a couple items that he'd laid on the desk down so that they'd all fit in his pockets. 

Remus ran a hand over his hair, straightening it out after all the jumpers had flattened it down. "You think so?" he asked, interested. "Did something happen?"

"Not yet," Sirius answered, "But she says she wants to have a talk with him."

Peter looked from one to the other, "What?"

"Nothing, Pete," Sirius answered, not wanting to explain everything to Peter. 

Peter scowled, but he didn't press, he just turned about and started digging into his nightstand drawer 'til he'd come up with his bag of crystals and tarot cards, which was the latest thing they were learning about in Divination - the reading of cards. 

Sirius spotted them as he was talking under his breath to Remus about Lily stopping him in the corridor, and he said quickly, "Oy - what're you bringing that for? It's homework."

"It isn't!" Peter argued. "I enjoy it."

"You can enjoy homework," Remus said.

"You can," answered Sirius and Peter in unison. Then Sirius added, "Really, Peter, leave the school work behind. This is about James coming of age, not getting your assignments done!"

Peter said, "It isn't for an assignment, I told you. I enjoy looking at my cards and crystals. And anyway, the crystals could use a good charging and if I leave them out on the porch at the Shrieking Shack, they'll get some needed time in the moonlight."

"You're supposed to do that on a full moon," Remus said gently.

Peter said, "I just want to bring them, alright, what's it matter to you lot if I do? They'll be in my bag! I'm the only one that's got to carry them!"

"Fine," Sirius replied, rolling his eyes, as Remus gave him The Look.

Peter hastily pushed the cards and crystals into his rucksack.

Sirius turned and opened James's trunk and started packing up some things for James as well, a couple jumpers and his thick coat, two extra pairs of socks and a pair of gloves. 

After a moment, Peter spoke up, "Divination is a perfectly acceptable subject to be interested in."

"Of course it is, Peter," Remus said reassuringly.

Peter added, "And I'm good at it."

Sirius was putting things in James's rucksack roughly, keeping his eyes very determinedly off Peter. 

"If any of you lot had listened to me months ago, none of what happened to James would've happened at all. It could've all been prevented," Peter said sourly. "So... so in a way, it's all your fault it happened."

Remus closed his eyes, knowing the explosive reaction that was about to come.

Sirius chucked James's rucksack to the ground and turned on Peter, "What did you just say?" he asked, drawing his wand so quickly that it was pressed to Peter's throat before either Peter nor Remus had time to react. His fingers wound thickly in Peter's shirt front, holding him near.

Peter let out a squeal, "Let go."

"What did you bloody say to me?" Sirius repeated.

"Sirius," Remus said firmly, "Put him down."

Sirius glowered at Peter.

"I'm being an idiot, ignore me," Peter begged, kicking to no avail. "I didn't mean it."

Sirius dropped Peter, who stumbled back a couple steps against the side of the bed, trembling a little, his lower lip quivering. "I - I'm sorry," he stammered.

Sirius shook his head. "You can stay here, if you think I'm such a terrible bleedin' person that I allow my best mate to be tortured like that."

"I didn't say that exactly, I just said --"

"Iknow what you said," Sirius answered, "And it's bloody bullshit. Come on, Rey." He slammed out the door.

Remus looked at Peter with a touch of pity, then followed after Sirius without saying another word.

Peter stood, shaken, for a couple moments before finally letting out the nervous exhale he'd been holding without even realizing it, and set himself down on the bed to catch his breath.

"Was that really necessary?" Remus asked as he and Sirius went down the stairs.

Sirius ignored him.

"We really need to try at being nicer to Peter," Remus suggested. "He went through a lot, too, in Havmork, it isn't only James, you know."

Sirius stopped at the bottom of the stairs and rounded on Remus, "But what he just said - that it's my fault..."

"He didn't mean it."

Sirius stared into Remus's eyes.

"He didn't," Remus said firmly.

"Didn't mean what?" Lily's voice broke in from behind Sirius.

"Hey Lily," Remus said, eyes not breaking from Sirius's.

Sirius turned about, "Evans. Hullo."

Lily looked suspicious. "Where's Peter?"

"He isn't coming," Sirius answered, and when Remus started to protest, he held up his hand, "And that's final."