𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐎𝐑𝐀 | 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬

✧ chapter 37 ✧

1977

"What do you want to do for your birthday?" Remus asked Aurora one afternoon as they lounged on a couch together in the common room.

"I haven't really thought about it," replied Aurora, "the twentieth is still a week away. I have plenty of time. Besides, I was thinking of having a party on the twenty second anyway seeing as it's a Friday so we won't have classes the next day."

Remus stiffened as she spoke, remembering that the twenty second was the full moon.

"Why not on the Saturday?" He asked, trying to keep his voice level as he spoke.

"I intend on going hard, I'm going to need two full days to recover." Aurora laughed, rolling over to face Remus.

"I've just remembered I have an ancient runes essay I have to do." Remus stated, moving to get up off the couch. He was struggling to hide the panic in his voice now and almost tripped over his own feet in his haste to get upstairs to the safety of his dorm.

Once inside the dorm, he allowed the panic to finally set in.

"What's wrong, Moony?" James asked, emerging from the bathroom to find his friend hyperventilating as he paced back and forth.

"Rory's birthday," Remus managed to get out, making James laugh.

"Are you nervous about what to give her? Hardly anything to get your knickers in a twist over, is it?" James asked, moving to sit on his own bed.

"She wants to have her party on the twenty second." Remus stammered, the gravity of the situation still not quite registering with James.

"What's wrong with Moony?" Peter asked, as he and Sirius entered the dorm, noticing a very distressed Remus straight away.

"He doesn't know what to get Rory for her birthday." James snorted, flipping through a quidditch magazine.

"Twenty second. Just over a week from now. Twenty second of April." Remus was now so wound up he could only get out monosyllabic words and broken sentences.

"Wait," Sirius held up a hand to stop James and Peter's laughter at what they thought was an overreaction to a minor issue, "a week and a bit from now? The twenty second of April?" Sirius asked, Remus nodding silently, all the colour drained from his face.

"The full moon." Peter whispered, realisation hitting them all.

"Shit." Remus whimpered, sinking to the ground as tears welled up in his eyes. How was he going to explain missing his own girlfriend's birthday party?

All the boys remained silent, attempting to come up with a plan to save their friend. After ten minutes of silence, James spoke up.

"I think I have an idea lads, but it will not be easy to pull off. Listen up, gents..."

✧✧✧

The twentieth of April arrived sooner than anyone was expecting, and the Marauders were growing more and more anxious about their plan for Friday. They had all subtly tried to change Aurora's mind about the date of the party to no avail, so the plan was definitely going to happen.

"Happy birthday!" Lily, Mary and Marlene all practically screamed, waking Aurora up with a start.

"Merlin, you lot scared me half to death." Aurora exclaimed, taking a moment to allow her eyes to adjust to the sunlight pouring in through her newly opened curtains.

"We couldn't wait for you to wake up! We were far too excited!" Lily beamed, practically bouncing up and down.

The other girls nodded enthusiastically in agreement, Mary stepping forward and presenting Aurora with a cake. It was apparent that the three of them had all been up for a couple of hours at least and made a stop off at the kitchens to make a birthday cake for Aurora, with the help of the house elves. The words 'happy birthday Rory' were written across the top of the cake, each word matching the other three girls handwriting.