fatal love

Chapter 18

The March full moon passed as normal, and soon James' birthday was coming up.

"Hey, James, you want anything in particular for your birthday?" Remus asked as the four of them walked to Potions.

"Not anything you could buy, Moony," James replied airily.

Remus stopped, looking crestfallen. "I... I know I don't have that much money, but-"

"What? No!" James said hurriedly. "I didn't mean it like that! I just meant, nothing anyone could buy."

"What are you talking about, Potter?" Sirius asked, standing slightly in front of Remus.

"April Fool's is only four days after my birthday, and I think we should do another prank, a big one, like when we did the staircases!"

"Oh," Remus said, continuing up the corridor, "you want to do a birthday-slash-April Fool's prank. I don't think they exist, James."

"I'm inventing them," James declared, looking unconcerned.

"Well, I'm in," said Sirius, "we didn't do anything for Halloween this year, and we can't go through all of Second Year without making our mark."

"Me too!" said Pete, "last year was so fun, everyone thought it was hilarious!"

"What about you, Moony?" James asked.

Remus smirked. "Obviously I'll do it."

"That's settled then," grinned James. "Meeting in the dorm tonight, lads. Birthday slash April Fool's Prank Planning Meeting!"

They all sat in the dorm that evening, trying to come up with a good idea.

"Well, this is our birthday present to James," Sirius said, "so it needs to have an essence of James in it."

Remus snorted. "I'd rather not have anything to do with James' essence, thanks."

Sirius blushed a little, and James gasped in mock-hurt.

"Moony, are you saying I'm not good enough for you? After all we've been through!"

"You're not really my type, James, sorry."

"Alright, alright, let's get back on track," Sirius said quickly. "What I meant, was, we need it to be about James, in some way. So when I say James, what do you all think of?"

"Glasses?" Peter offered. "Messy hair?"

"Quidditch, I guess?"

"Really, that's all you can think of?" James asked. "Glasses, messy hair and plays Quidditch?"

"Well, I'm trying to think of stuff the whole school knows you for," defended Remus.

"Hang on, the glasses could work," Sirius said, an idea forming in his head. "We could use the Gemino Charm, create enough copies for everyone in the school to wear!"

"And you think the whole school would just wear James' glasses for the day?" Remus asked sarcastically.

"No," he replied, "but you're really good at Sticking Charms, so if we cast that on the bridge of the glasses, we only need people to have put them on, and then they can't take them off!"

"It could work," James said thoughtfully, "but how would we get them to everyone, and get people to put them on. As soon as one person does, no one else will."

The room was silent for a minute, as they pondered the problem.

"We need to get the House Elves on board," Peter said suddenly. "They can go into all the dorms. If we can convince them to put them on everybody while people are asleep, then they'll wake up already wearing them."