The Marauders: Year Seven Part Two

Doe a Deer

Lily Evans's birthday was the only thing that James Potter had thought about for a week.

"Gods!" Sirius had groaned when James had brought it up for about the twelve-hundredth time while they were sitting about the hospital wing with Remus the days leading up to it, "WE KNOW, EVANS IS TURNING EIGHTEEN, WE KNOW!"

James hadn't been deterred by Sirius's bore with the topic, however. He'd kept on talking and planning, special ordering all the dozens of balloons from Zonko's. And the evening of the 29 January he had kept the other lads up from bed, insisting that they help him in using their wands to fill the balloons.

"I wish I could spend the entire day with her for it," James had complained while they sat about filling the balloons with helium from their wand tips.

"Why don't you?" Sirius asked.

"Tomorrow's Monday, you dolt," James replied. "Classes?"

"Skive them off!" Sirius replied, as though the answer was obvious.

James shook his head, "You know Evans, she'd never skive off a class! Particularly not Slughorn's."

"Bugger Slughorn!" Sirius answered. "He'd never give Lillith a detention anyway."

"I don't think it's the detention she'd be worried about," James said, "More like her perfect attendance."

Remus nodded, "Yeah, Lily's not like you delinquints. Unless class is cancelled, she'll be there."

Sirius had grinned, "So we'll get Sluggy to cancel, then."

Remus rolled his eyes, "What're you going to do? Just walk down and rap on his door and ask him to cancel off the class, then?"

Sirius shook his head, "Moony, Moony, Moony... Darling... You know better than that."

And so it was that Remus and Sirius had gone on down to the dungeons to set the spell on the Potions classroom door while Peter and James went to enlist the assistance of a House Elf in getting the balloons and packages into Lily Evans's dormitory room. (There'd been an incident in which the quantities of balloons had proved to be too much for the tiny body of the elf, and he'd floated up to the ceiling. They'd had to magic weights onto his ankles to keep him grounded.)

"You're sure whatever you've done will make him cancel class, then?" James asked when Sirius and Remus had returned, as they watched the poor house elf trying to make it up the steps to the girls' dormitories with the balloons, packages, and ankle weights.

"Positive," Sirius promised. He shot a spell at the elf's rear end that floated him right to the top of the stairs with a squeak that had nearly made him drop the packages. "It'll take Sluggy hours to figure out what Moony's done. It's fucking brilliant - he's a genius, my Moonpie is... He's set a charm on the door so that it randomizes where passing through lets you out. One time it let me out in the Library, and the next the corridor by Minnie's office, and the next out by the Ravenclaw common room! But not even once did it open into the Potions classroom." He snickered evilly.

"It's a simple spell, really, but it'll keep him busy enough," Remus said, blushing.

"Good one, Rey," James had said, grinning, and Peter had nodded enthusiastically.

All of these preparations had led up to the morning of 30 January, when Lily Evans had come downstairs, excited by her gifts, to discover that the Marauders had gotten her the day off. "So what do you lot have in mind to pass the time?" Lily asked.

James grinned, "Only the best day ever, Evans. Obviously!"

So they had trooped out of the castle doors and onto the grounds, where snow had fallen and together the five of them had worked on making snowmen - something that James remembered Lily having told him she loved doing. They had a bit of a competition at who could make the best one, and James had created a likeness of Dumbledore that so resembled the Headmaster that it could easily have been mistaken for him if they'd wingardium-leviosa'd it about the castle, if only it wouldn't start melting, that is. Sirius had spent an inordinate amount of time making his snowman to e anatomically correct, and Remus had flushed very red and aimed his wand to blast the offending appendage away. "Looks like Michaelangelo's David now," Lily had laughed.

When they'd finished with their snowmen, a snowball fight broke out between them - except Remus, who sat on the stairs watching them pelting each other and running about. James dove into the snowbankings multiple times, rolling about and snow spraying about the air as he magicked the balls to smack Sirius in the back of the neck, where it slid down his back and made him shriek loudly, like a little girl. James's nose and cheeks were bright pink by the time Sirius cast a blano flaggelum and waved the little white banner about, declaring James to have won the battle.

Their next adventure had involved sneaking through the tunnel beneath the Whomping Willow and setting a fire in the fireplace in the Shrieking Shack, where they sat about, roasting marshmallows on sticks Sirius fetched from the woods. They laughed and talked, played charades and listened to music on Sirius's record player, which he'd shrunk and brought along, switching out records on the turn table to give them an excellent variety of tunes. Sirius sung along with most of them, and Lily called him a jukebox, and then had to explain to him what a jukebox was, to which Sirius had eagerly said he wanted one and she'd had to explain they were something one only saw in muggle diners.

When the marshmallows were gone, Sirius disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a big cake they'd had one of the house elves at Hogwarts create - chocolate with strawberry cake inside, eighteen candles that sparked and fizzed different colored stars as the lot of them sang her happy birthday at the top of their lungs, clapping enthusiastically as she closed her eyes to make a wish before blowing out the candles all in one go.

"You'll get your wish now, Evans!" Sirius shouted.

Lily smiled, sincerely hoping that he was right...

Next, Peter had pulled out the gift he, Sirius, and Remus had gotten her from the catalog and Lily unwrapped the beautiful blue paper it came in. James stuck the ribbon from on top onto his own head and Lily had laughed, "Are you my present?"

"I'm already yours," James replied.

Lily let out a gasp of appreciation when she found the lovely music box they'd gotten her. She opened it up and inside was a spot for jewelry to be kept safe, including a little area where she could organize rings and earrings, as well as a tray for necklaces. She smiled and wound the crank, and the tinkling sound of Favourite Things from the Sound of Music started to play and Lily watched as a little ballerina spun before a tiny mirror. "I love it," she said, looking at Peter, Sirius, and Remus with the biggest smile upon her face. "It's beautiful."

"And here is something for you to put into it," James said, pulling a little package from his pocket.

Lily's eyes went wide, "But you already gave me presents!"

"This one's from all of us," he said.

Lily unwrapped the little package to find a charm bracelet from which hung five little charms - a lily flower, a dog paw, a little mouse, a wolf, and a stag. Tears came to her eyes, "You guys..."

"It's our family," Remus explained - whose idea the charms had been.

Peter grinned, proud of the gift, "And we chose gold because that's what your heart is made of!" It had been Peter who had insisted on the gold over the silver.

Lily's cheeks turned red and she hugged them each in turn, planting kisses on their foreheads. "You lot are the bloody sweetest things that ever did live."

James held out his hand, "Here, I'll help you put it on." She handed him the bracelet then held out her wrist and James attached it carefully and spun it so the charms showed and the clasp was hidden. She smiled, jangling it about and admiring it.

"Now we're always with you, even when we aren't," Sirius said.

They all went upstairs then, where they ate the cake and popcorn that Peter made and watched The Sound of Music on the telly screen. Sirius would randomly be singing "Doe a Deer a female deer... REYYYYY MY FIANCEEEEEE..." every chance he got for the rest of the night. And when the sun went down, they went outside and Sirius set off some filibusters just for Lily Evans from the edge of the lake, just as they'd done at New Years, and they watched the colors reflect off the black surface of the water.

It really was the best day, Lily thought, and she'd remember it always.

And not just because of the fact that it was the last day before everything happened.