the cadence of part time poets

Chapter 53: People's Parties

On the dry and dusty road,
The nights we spend apart alone;
I need to get back home to cool, cool rain,
I can't sleep, and I lay, and I think;
The night is hot and black as ink,
Woo, oh God, I need a drink of cool, cool, rain... 

- "Love Reign O'er Me" The Who, 1973

March 1977

Remus knew his friends meant well, but his birthday had never really been of much interest to him. In fact, he loathed it. The whole thing made his stomach twist with uneasy memories and having to pretend that he was having an even-moderately good time was exhausting. The year before the girls had all but tricked him into having a party, but even then it was more about James and Lily getting over their spat. And seeing as how the pair were only more in love than ever, a sudden break up seemed unlikely.

Stubbornly, Remus had already flat-out refused to let Sirius use his birthday as an excuse to throw a party in the common room, which he acquiesced to—bitterly—perhaps only because James' seventeenth was a few weeks away and on a weekend anyway. It was a small mercy, and afterwards even the girls gave up pestering him. Suddenly all talk of his birthday became null. Remus could hardly believe it—they were actually listening to him.

Ha, complete bullshit. Sure, Remus didn't want to hear about any chatter over his birthday, so what did his namby, over-achieving friends do? They planned a surprise party of course.

Now, with surprise parties, the 'surprise' bit tended to be crucial; but none of his friends were known for being particularly proficient at lying, and they all talked too much anyway. The real shock came when Lily was the first one to give up the ghost. Her agenda had mysteriously disappeared (it turned up later in James' bag) and she was scrambling to remember her meticulously planned school week on a piece of scrap paper.

"When did we say we were going to compare history essays again?" She asked, her face flushed with worry.

"Wednesday night?" Remus supplied.

"Uh-uh, I've prefect stuff!"

"Thursday?"

"No, that's the night of your party!"

Lily had immediately shot upright and Remus sighed, already tired. "Party?"

"Oh, don't tell anyone I told you!" She moaned. "It was supposed to be a surprise."

"I thought we agreed no parties."

"It's just a small one! We were gonna do it in your guys' room. We have to do something, Remus, it's your birthday!"

He was irritated, but Lily just batted those big green eyes of hers and he caved. "Fine, but I'm not going to pretend to be surprised or anything."

Lily had to accept that, but her accidental confession got the gears turning in his head. If it was that easy to get Lily Evans to fess up, how would his other friends fare?

Peter and Lottie were easy of course. Neither of the twins could keep a secret to save their life, but James had been slightly tougher. He'd finally broken when Remus turned the tables, making it sound as though he was sad his friends were willing to forget his birthday all together.

"Yeah, I dunno. I guess I'm just a little bummed, but my birthday is on a Thursday and we're all so busy, so I get it."

"No, Moony!" James tried. "I swear we haven't forgotten!"

"Oh I know, it's just..." he sighed, "but it's okay, we'll do something real grand for your birthday."

"We're doing something for yours too!"