Let's Try Again

Chapter 12 : The Rest of 1996

Kamakura, Japan - July 31, 1996

Hadrian was extremely excited and nervous. Today was his sixth birthday, and he thought he might finally be able to have a proper birthday, like the ones Dudley had had, but he was also worried that his family would forget.

He was laying in his usual position, sandwiched between his parents. Ever since they had come to Japan Hadrian had been trying to seem more grown-up and staying in his bed during the night. So far he hadn't managed to go a full night, usually ending up slipping into bed with his fathers around 2 or 3 in the morning. Last night he hadn't even tried to stay in his bed. He was just too on edge.

Looking around he noticed that both his fathers were still asleep. That was odd for him because his papa was almost always up before him and his dad. If papa wasn't up yet it meant that it had to be extremely early.

Severus had started getting used to being able to sleep in and now got up around 9 am. But that was early to Hadrian and James, who normally slept until almost noon. Like the others, Sirius liked to sleep in, but Remus normally was up and researching by 7 am. Hadrian was starting to agree with his uncle Sirius, morning people were evil, especially when they woke him up.

Hadrian cuddled back under the blankets. He loved being able to do that. He was just starting to doze again when the room was stormed.

Remus had woken up at his usual time. They all knew that Hadrian had never had a proper birthday so they decided to make sure he had one. Hadrian had been nervous and twitchy all day yesterday. Remus had convinced the other adults not to let on that anything was going on.

They had taken turns going out to get Hadrian any last-minute presents they thought he might need, they had had almost all of his presents before they even left Britain. Remus had personally picked out a cake. In traditional Remus style, it was a nice fudge cake, covered in smooth buttercream and raspberries. They had already figured out that of all the fruit they had had Hadrian try, he loved raspberries the most.

He had managed to get Sirius up early enough to help him get everything ready. Both Remus and Sirius had agreed to let Sev and James sleep in and do all the preparations for the party themselves.

Sirius had grumbled a lot until Remus had reminded him that it was for Hadrian, then he stopped. Remus had smiled at that. There was no denying that Sirius was less than sane, and many would find him intimidating at times, but he adored his godson. Remus had compared him to a puppy following the boy around and Sirius had been pleased with the comparison.

By 8:30 everything was set. Going to the door where they knew the other three would be. Pushing the door open they came into the room. Remus was carrying the first two presents they had gotten for Hadrian, he knew that Sirius was going to change into Padfoot, and that was exactly what he did.

They clearly hadn't thought things through. Almost as soon as they had slammed into the room James had pushed Hadrian behind him and both he and Severus were up and shooting spells at them. Remus dove out of the room and Sirius ended up in his Padfoot form under the bed.

Remus was extremely glad that he had chosen to bring presents rather than the cake. There was just no justification for destroying a perfectly good chocolate cake. He peaked into the room when he heard Hadrian start to giggle.

"Really?" Remus demanded as he stepped cautiously back into the room with his hands on his hips. "We talked about this last night before you went to bed. You knew that we would be coming in to wake you all up for Hadrian's birthday."

Padfoot just whined from under the bed. Even he wasn't crazy enough to come out and face down James and Severus, just in case they didn't like being woken up any more than he did.