Pafoo, Pongs, Moni and Womtal

Chapter 2 - Of Pranks and Prophecies

"James! The dream team is complete!"

Lily's voice carried into the backyard where James, Sirius and Remus were hanging the last of the decorations on the trees. She was able to startle James enough to make him topple over on the chair he was standing on.

Peter Pettigrew walked into the backyard with a grin on his face, a large package in his hands wrapped in bright blue paper with snitches fluttering on it. Setting it on the table with the growing pile of gifts, he raised a questioning eyebrow towards James who was getting to his feet, rubbing his rear with a grimace.

"Ever heard of magic, guys?" Peter said half seriously.

Sirius threw a roll of streamers in Peter's face in response and he didn't duck in time to miss them.

"Lily wanted us to do it the muggle way," Remus added, pinning up his last balloon and climbing down from his stepstool.

"But, of course, she gets to decorate the cake with magic," James finished with annoyance, finally getting to his feet.

Peter frowned and glanced at the decorations they had done. It was quite obvious that they had been done without magic. James and Sirius couldn't hanging a poster without magic, much less decorate for a birthday party. Remus was a little better, but only because all he had to do was stick up balloons. "You guys need serious help..."

Sirius flicked out his wand fast and waved it over the decorations, causing them all to fix their crooked state and be more or less presentable. "See," he said smugly, "Sirius help."

James gave Sirius a type of horrified look. "Do you even have any idea how old that joke is?"

Sirius seemed to consider this, but before he could reply, the door near them burst open and a half dozen chattering women came out.

Lily, Nikkie and Alice were now accompanied by Dorcas Meadows, another one of Lily's old school friends, Tammy Hall, Lily's childhood muggle friend and (to the boy's horror) their old professor, Minerva McGonagall.

Of course, all James noticed was that they were all oooing and awing over the small jumble of arms and legs that was squeezing to get out of Lily's arms as hard as he could.

"Lily!" James said in exasperation, rushing forward and pulling Harry into him. Harry, seeing that he was getting away from the women, immediately clung to James as he backed away with his son in his arms. "You're subjecting Harry to...to girl stuff!" James said it like it was the most unpardonable sin in the world.

His friends seemed to agree with him though, for all of them rushed forward at once, guarding Harry from the reach of the girls. Lily crossed her arms in exasperation. "James, we've been through this. I am not going to let my son become one of your Marauders!"

"And I'm not going to let my son be subjected to your beauty tips or Saturday makeovers!" James argued.

Lily grinned and shook her head motioning her friends to follow her as she walked over to the nearest table. James glared as she walked away and they all heard her telling her friends, "I mean, honestly! I think he ate a bug this morning! Is that worse than a little make-up or something?"

James' eyes went wide and he held Harry out in front of him in horror. All the Marauders gasped as they saw blush, eye shadow and even lipstick remains on Harry's face.

"OH MY GOSH!!!" James went frantic. "LILY!!!"

--*--

Luckily the incident passed quickly and Harry was completely make-up free in a few quick swipes of James wand. Thereafter though, James did not let his son out of his sight.

Six o'clock came and went without much incident, rather than about a dozen more people showing up for the party, Sirius managing to hex James 5 more times and the cake being completely destroyed by Harry and Neville and then fixed by a very disgruntled Lily who blamed James for their son's behavior.

Neville had arrived with his dad, Frank Longbottom, right at six, goaded into the event by Alice who reminded him of the nice present the Potters had given Neville for his birthday just a few days ago. Frank personally thought James and his friends were quite reckless, but in the end had agreed to come.

Dumbledore also showed up, pleasant as always to all the guests, but bearing the latest news about Voldemort which he pulled aside James and Frank to discuss for a few moments before the meal started.

"I believe the Fidelius charm is your best move at the moment," Dumbledore said in a hushed voice as he, James and Frank quietly talked in James' study. "I've been studying up on it and I believe I can accomplish it by the middle of September."

James frowned in concern and saw the same expression on Frank's face. "Will that be soon enough?" he said with worry.

Dumbledore looked at both of them sympathetically. "It is all I can offer at the moment, James, until we know how much of the prophecy Voldemort has heard..." he trailed off and held his hands up in resignation. "The only advice I can give you is to carefully be thinking about a Secret Keeper." He stopped for emphasis. "This person will hold your family's life in their hands. It will probably be the most important decision you will ever make."

The three were silent for a moment as the news seemed to sink in.

"Have both of you told your wives yet?"

Both James and Frank had been told about the prophesy from Dumbledore over a year ago, but neither had wanted to tell their wives, frankly because the burden of such knowledge was not something you would subject to someone you loved. Dumbledore, however, had finally convinced them to tell Lily and Alice, though neither had agreed without hesitation.

"I told Alice last night," Frank admitted with some reluctance. "She didn't take it too well though. I think the only reason she's here today is because she doesn't believe it. Or, more likely that she doesn't want to believe it."

"I still haven't gotten the guts to tell Lily," James hung his head in shame and sat down on the nearest chair. "I just don't know how I can burden her with something like that."

"I would suggest that you don't tell her today, James," Dumbledore said in all seriousness. "As it is Harry's birthday, there is no reason to spoil the day for her. But, you must tell her soon."

James nodded in reluctance and the three of them went out of the room, doing their best to get on with their lives.

Sirius' Aunt Andromeda came just as they were sitting down to the meal, 10 year old Nymphadora trailing behind her. Andromeda apologized profusely for her tardiness and regretted that her husband Ted couldn't be there. (He was busy working on fixing the bookshelf that Dora had tripped into and accidentally destroyed with magic).

Lily pulled off the dinner magnificently (only one or two problems with James and Sirius). Seemed James managed to spike some of the drinks anyway, resulting in

A slightly intoxicated Nikkie announcing to the entire table that Sirius was the love of her life and she proceeded to lean over and kiss him quite forcefully.

"She doesn't hold her drinks very well," a very embarrassed Sirius explained as the dinner was being cleaned up and Nikkie was getting a sobering charm from Lily.

"Don't tell me you didn't enjoy it, Padfoot," James said with a grin.

Sirius shook his head in exasperation and the four marauders continued planning out the evening. Their idea had been to lull Lily into a false sense of security and then pull off a prank at the end. Or course, Lily would know something was up if nothing was going wrong, so they had slipped in a few dung bombs, a couple packs of firewhiskey in the drinks and a disappearing charm on McGonagall's glasses.

All in all, things had gone rather well, but the biggest step was still to come. James was feeling tense about tricking Lily, especially after what Dumbledore had told him in the study. None of his friends knew why he was slightly less peppy than usual. He hadn't even the heart to tell them. So he managed to put on a happy face and get his mind off the prophesy for the time being.

By the end of the night, he was happy that he had.

The dishes got cleared, the food got put away, and the presents were about to be opened.

"Enter phase B," Sirius whispered to James with glee.