another birthday

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MARCH 27th 1977

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Cat, Sirius, Remus, and Peter yelled in unison. They had crowded around James' bed while he was fast asleep. Remus snuck Cat into the dorm room a little while after James had fallen asleep. They cast a silencing spell around the four of them so their commotion wouldn't wake James up. Peter snuck to the kitchens to get food, Sirius was finishing up a sign he made, and Cat and Remus put presents around the bed.

Now, Sirius and Remus held up a sign at the foot of James' bed and Cat held a cake while Peter stood there, smiling. James was blindly searching his bedside table for his glasses. "What the bloody hell," he muttered. When he turned back around with his glasses on and the four were finally in focus, his confused face broke into a large, infectious smile. "What's all this about?"

"Well if you read the sign," Cat said, stepping out of the way of the sign. "It's your birthday."

"Well come on then," Peter said, taking the cake out of Cat's hands. "Let's eat it. It's not decoration." Peter sat the cake on James' bed while Remus dug a few forks out of his bag. Cat sat next to James by his pillows, Remus and Sirius took up the foot of the bed and Peter kneeled on a pillow on the ground.

"Present time, Prongsy," Sirius said in a sing-song voice after the cake was all eaten. He fished up a few boxes from the floor. "Here open mine first." Sirius pushed a skinny square box in James' arms. James unwrapped the gift to find four records.

"Thanks, Padfoot," James said, inspecting the gift. "But I don't have a record player."

"I do, so you can play the records on mine," Sirius told him.

"So it's technically a gift for you?" Remus raised an eyebrow.

"Well, technically it's James'. Anyways, open mine," Cat said. She handed James a long, perfectly wrapped gift.

He ripped back the paper, seeing a broom. "You didn't!" James exclaimed with the same infectious smile on his face as before. "This had to be loads of money."

"It wasn't too much," Cat told him. "I figured you'd want a new broom for the next quidditch season. Remus said you've had yours since second year."

"Thank you!" James said. He gave Cat a kiss, before pulling her into a hug. "I'll use it for the quidditch match today." James opened more presents from Remus, Peter, and his parents, then they fell asleep, sprawled across James' bed.

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When Cat woke up, she was cuddled up into James' chest, who was awake and reading a Quidditch magazine. "You never stop thinking about quidditch, do you?" Cat asked, leaning up to look at the page.

"What's the point?" he asked, smiling down at her. "It's the single best thing in the world."

"Oi, get up you lovebirds," Remus declared, walking into the room, followed closely by Sirius.

"You've got a Quidditch match to get to," Sirius told them.

"I still can't believe you quit," James muttered under his breath.

"How lucky are you," Peter said to James. James looked up from his trunk, confused.

"You get to spend your birthday doing the single best thing in the world," Cat said, slipping out of the room, heading for her dorm.

"Oh there you are," Marlene said as she opened the door right as Cat was going to open it.

"We were starting to think you left us for that scrawny boyfriend of yours," Rachel said, from where she was sitting on Lily's bed while Lily braided her hair.

"He's not scrawny, have you seen the size of his arms?" Marlene said.

"Not sure he's your type, Marls," Cat said, taking her Quidditch robes out of her trunk.

Marlene waved her off and said. "I've got a girlfriend, remember? Potter is nowhere near my type."

"What were you doing in the boys' dorm all night?" Rachel asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Celebrating James' birthday with the four of them. Then Peter brought up how James gets to spend his birthday doing 'the single best thing in the world'" Cat said, mocking James.

"And what is that? Y-" Marlene started before getting cut off by Lily.

"Anyways, you two need to be down at the pitch any minute, right?" Lily asked, swiftly changing the subject. Cat laughed them off before disappearing into the bathroom to change into her robes.

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As Marlene and Cat entered the changing room, the boys were finishing off singing Happy Birthday to James. "You two just missed the best performance I've seen," Frank Longbottom said, walking up to him.

"Oh, I bet it was," Marlene said before walking off to join them.

"I heard you got Potter his new broom," Frank said.

"Yeah. I mean as much money as his family has, I can't believe he has stuck with his old one since second year."

"He liked to say it was lucky, I guess not anymore," Frank told her. "I wish I had someone to buy me a brand new broom."

"You know what I heard?" Frank looked back to Cat. "Alice Fortesque has fancied you quite a bit since last year."

Franks face lit up, "Did you really hear that? She does?"

"You'd have to be pretty blind not to see that," Cat said.

"Blimey," Frank muttered as James walked up to them.

"There you are," James said to Cat, leaning down to kiss her cheek. "What're you two talking about?"

"Alice Fortesque," Cat told him.

"Did you know she fancied me?" Frank asked James.

"No, does she? If she does, she's not really showing it."

"Boys are oblivious," Cat rolled her eyes.

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"AND POTTER SLIPS ANOTHER ONE PAST RAVENCLAW KEEPER, ANTHONY HIGGS, MAKING THE SCORE 170-90 GRYFFINDOR. HE SURE SEEMS TO BE SPEEDING FASTER THAN NORMAL. WORD IS HE GOT THE NEWEST BROOM FOR HIS BIRTHDAY. WHAT A LUCKY BLOKE H- sorry professor," the commentator was yelling across the pitch.

Cat was well under the other players, looking for the snitch. The Ravenclaw seeker, Ragen Johnson was high above the players. "OUCH, THAT HAD TO HURT," the commentator announced. "AND THERE SHE GOES." Cat looked up to see that Marlene had been hit by a bludger and was falling out of the sky. Forgetting about the game, Cat raced towards Marlene and grabbed her arm before she hit the ground.

"You alright?" Cat asked, setting Marlene down on the ground next to her broom.

"Yeah, I'll be good. Just give me a few minutes." Marlene set herself on her broom, hovering a few feet above the ground to recover.

"WHILE GRYFFINDOR SEEKER, CATRIONA MCGONAGALL, TENDS TO HER FALLEN TEAMMATE, JOHNSON SEEMS TO HAVE SPOTTED THE SNITCH." The commentator's voice pulled Cat back to the game. Ragen was soaring through the air, towards the opposite side they were both on. Cat followed her eye line before flying that way. Ragen was a little ahead of Cat, but the snitch was level with Cat.

Once she got near the snitch, Cat leaned far forward on her broom. Ragen was right above her, leaning just as far. On an impulse decision, Cat jumped off her broom for the snitch. She hit the ground with a roll and landed on her back. "DESPITE THE HEAD START, JOHNSON COULDN'T BEAT MCGONAGALL TO THE SNITCH. GRYFFINDOR WINS 340-100!"

The first to land beside her was Sirius, who reached a hand down to help her up. "Brilliant catch, Cat."

The second to land was James, enveloping Cat in a hug. "What a great birthday gift," he said to her over the cheers that came with the rest of the team and eventually the rest of Gryffindor house.

"Better than the broom?" Cat asked. James laughed and started walking away with the crowd. Cat went to follow, but at the first step, searing pain shot up her foot. "Are you coming?" James turned around to ask, noticing Cat was not by his side.

"I can't walk," Cat said.

"Do you need help?"

"Yeah." James came over and hoisted Cat onto his back. "James, I meant to let me lean on you. Not you carry me, I'm a big girl."

"A big girl who can't walk, deal with it."

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When Cat and James got back to the common room from Madam Pomfreys, Sirius, Remus, and Peter had a full party going. Complete with music, alcohol - wizard and muggle - and people from every house. The Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams hadn't even bothered to change out of their robes. "What the bloody hell?" James asked as soon as they stepped into the music. "It's barely 5 pm."

"Did you really expect anything less from Sirius?" Cat looked over and asked him.

James laughed and said, "I'm going to find him. I'll be right back," and he was off. Cat looked around at the party and wondered how the three got so many people here so fast and early.

"Catriona?" someone asked. Cat turned and saw Ragen Johnson and one of her friends who was also on the Quidditch team walking towards her.

"You can call me Cat," she said.

"I just wanted to tell you how amazing that catch was. I was very impressed you had the guts to jump off your broom from that high up," she complimented.

"I didn't even notice how high up we were," Cat laughed.

"It was great. We should practice together sometime," the other girl said. "I'm Meg by the way."

"Making new friends now, are you?" Marlene asked, jokingly, as she walked up.

"You're welcome to join. You were great out there today, too," Ragen said.

"I am so sorry for hitting you so hard with that Bludger. I'd never do that on purpose," Meg apologized.

"No worries."

"Well, we'll see you two around." The two Ravenclaws disappeared into the party crowd.

"They are a whole lot friendlier than the Slytherin's," Marlene commented.

Cat nodded and asked, "Where's Lily?"

"Dancing. With Rachel." Cat raised her eyebrows, looking at Lily and Rachel dancing. "Where's your date?"

"Trying to find his boyfriend," Cat joked.

"Which one?" Marlene asked.

"Good question." The two girls walked towards the drink table.

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[finally another chapter lol. again im sorry for the super long wait]

[thanks for reading and dont forget to vote]