Eunoia | Sirius Black

|59|

Haslemere, Surrey, 1978
November 2nd, cosy

Sirius didn't go to the Ministry for a week but Moody was insistent the week after. October went by with me stressing over his safe return and him being way too busy with his missions.

A part of me suspected he intentionally asked for extra duties but then I shook the idea off because there was nothing wrong between us. We communicate.

On the night before his 18th birthday, I found myself struggling with his birthday present.

It was too damn heavy and I couldn't call James or Remus because of their late-night work and I doubted Peter would be of any help.

Lily had sent me a patronus informing me of their arrival for Sirius' surprise birthday party exactly at midnight. It was 10 P.M. right now.

At 11, I finally reach home.

Sirius is napping in the living room with his Auror clothes still on. I assumed he reached home just a while before. His missions were getting consistently longer and more exhausting.

I was thinking of tricking Moody into giving us both a break and then we could go on another trip of ours like the Norway one.

My entire body goes red at the reminder of that vacation. I want something like that again. This man can make me feel alive in ways I hadn't even imagined.

Remus arrives first, then Peter. Peter brings a Tupperware of marijuana cookies and Remus face palms the moment he smells it.

Alice and Frank arrive next and then Marlene and Dorcas who look worriedly excited about the cookies. Then come Fabian and Gideon Prewett and at last James and Lily.

The latter are glowing so undoubtedly that the entire group silently cheers at once so as to not wake Sirius up. Lily blushes deeply while James looks smug.

And then, to give us all a heart-attack-worthy shock, Lily shows us her left hand which has a big fat diamond on it.

Marlene screeches, breaking the silence and Sirius jolts up like a whiplash with wide eyes. Noticing us all, he groans, "Who died?"

"LILY'S GETTING MARRIED!" Marlene screams, jumping into the redhead's arms.

I laugh and Sirius frowns for a moment before it sinks in. He looks at James and his eyes nearly water. Nearly.

"You're getting married?"

"We grew up so fast, didn't we, Pads?" James smiles.

This does Sirius and he jumps into James' arms eerily similar to Marlene. James laughs and pats his brother on the back.

We all congratulate before realising why we got here at the same time. Sirius frowns at the sudden silence before shrieking when we collectively yelled "HAPPY BIRTHDAY PADFOOT!"

Sirius purses his lips and awkwardly waves to us all. "Thank you?"

Remus rolls his eyes and Marlene jumps on the couch after stealing Peter's cookies. "Let's get high."

Lily shakes her head at once, "I'll be the designated apparator so, no."

"Me neither," Remus says. "I'll probably have to apparate Wormy home, too."

"I'd love to get high!" Fabian announced at the same time Gideon said it.

"No, you don't get to get high -" they said in unison.

"I DON'T WANT TO BE THE DESIGNATED -" they began collectively again.

"I'll drop you both, too." Remus sighed.