The Marauders and the Year it All Began

Chapter Seven: Evans

With less than a week left until Lily's birthday, James was in overdrive. Everything was mostly planned in advance for the day with the only downside being, that James had not spoken to Lily since he snapped at her.

"Listen, mate, she's avoiding me." James whisper-shouted.

"You're being overdramatic," Remus reasoned looking up to make sure no one was listening.

"You're being overdramatic," James said in a mocking voice, then continued in his excited whispers, "Yesterday, I waved and shouted her name and she turned to look at a tree. A TREE" his voice raised.

"Something you would like to share with the class, Mister Potter?" With those words, James and Remus snapped their heads forward to face Professor Binns.

"Uh, no sir," James said sheepishly, gaining an eye roll from Lily and a snort from Sirius sitting across the room.

"Then I suggest you stop talking." Turning back to the board and squinting through the deceased professor, James could tell that he was supposed to be learning about Emeric the Evil, but even after a warning from his professor, he could not bring himself to care about anything other than Miss Evans' birthday.

After a few moments, Remus saw fit to pick up the conversation again. "I still think you're being rather dramatic, but I'm sure she'll forgive you eventually, don't you have something planned for her birthday?"

"That I do, Moony. By the way, I was wondering if I could get your insight on Evans so the present goes well."

"Whatever James, we'll talk after class." And sure enough, when the bell rang James caught up with Remus in the hallway, looping an arm around the other boy's shoulders, leading him down a different corridor.

"James, where the hell are we going?" Remus' exasperated voice showed that he was clearly not putting up with any schemes.

"Ah, it's a surprise, don't ruin the fun." Eventually, they approached an empty classroom and turned in revealing Sirius and a skittish Peter sitting at a table in the room.

"Nice of you two to finally show up," Sirius said, "We've been waiting for ages."

"Class got out like 5 minutes ago" James laughed.

"Why are we here again?" Peter piped in.

"As you both know, Lily's birthday is in a few days."

"On Sunday" Remus added.

"Right, Sunday. Which means we need to get everything to complete her present."

"We don't have to do anything, this sounds like your problem" Remus laughed.

"You guys at least need to help," James insisted.

"What do you need us to do," Sirius asked.

"Well, I need to sneak out to Hogsmeade." From his bag, James produced several pieces of parchment filled with notes and random scribbles. "I need flowers and some candy of course."

"Remus, what's her favourite candy?"

"Liquorice Wands"

"Perfect, I'll sneak into Honeydukes cellar through the passageway and get the necessities tomorrow around lunchtime and be back before evening break."

"You better take the invisibility cloak" Sirius proposed.

"And get her a card" Remus noted.

"It sounds like a plan" The devilish glint in James' eye made it clear that there would be no changing his mind.