The next week went by without any remarkable events, and I was relieved to say that Marlene and Sirius weren't big on public displays of affection.

Whereas I saw them together very often, I'd never seen them kiss. They were only spending a lot of time with each other, smiling and sometimes holding hands.

When it came to Sirius and Marlene being together, I was glad to be a Ravenclaw.

According to what Peter had told me once in Charms, when I'd gotten assigned to help him, the two weren't too bothered by eye witnesses when they were kissing inside the Gryffindor common room.

I'd felt a painful tug in my stomach, but put on an amused smile.

The train of uneventful days was broken, though, when my birthday came up. I think I was the last one to turn 17 years old, because I'd been sent to school very early.

Still, that Wednesday morning, I was woken up by Aleya, Lina and Valerie simultaneously screaming 'Happy Birthday' at the top of their lungs, and jumping on my bed to hug me.

For the first time in weeks, I didn't have to fake my smile. "Thank you, girls!"

"Oh, you're welcome," Aleya beamed and pulled out a little envelope from what seemed to be out of nowhere. "Open up!"

I curiously did as I was told, taking my wand from my bedside table to cut the envelope tidily.

I pulled out the paper - yes, paper- and read over it. My smile widened at the sweet gesture.

"We're going to spend loads of quality time together! Those are ten movie tickets, and I'll join you for each and every single one, whether I like the movie or not."

I leaned forward and brought her into a hug. I remembered telling her how my father always occupied the television, so I'd never gotten to see something I liked. And I'd never wanted to ask my mum for money for movie tickets, so Aleya's present, as simple as it was, was really thoughtful and I loved it.

Valerie proudly presented us her newest piece of art; a drawing of all of us in our Ravenclaw uniforms, standing in front of Rowena Ravenclaw's statue. We were eleven years old in that painting (ten years old in my case), all very proud and happy to be Ravenclaw's newest addition. It was a really beautiful painting, and for the first time (or at least as far as I knew), Valerie had dared to bewitch the painting, so that we were all moving, jumping up and down and waving excitedly.

"Oh, Val, it's beautiful," I whispered in awe.

She smiled at me. "I'm glad you like it."

When I carefully set the painting down next to my bed, Lina handed me her presents.

Inside were books. One about very advanced charms that we probably wouldn't cover at school, and a fictional muggle book.

I was really interested in that Charms book, but didn't have the heart to tell her that I already owned a copy of the muggle book. I didn't mind having it twice though; one here and one at home, and since Lina was a Pureblood, she'd really stepped out of her comfort zone, which I knew to appreciate.

I brought them all into hugs again. I was really moved by how much effort they had actually put into making my birthday a nice day.

I opened my mother's and sister's letters that I'd received over night (and almost cried at their sweet words, and the fact that I was now officially off age) and opened a large parcel from them, full of sweets, fluffy socks, pretty clothes and a photo album of our family, which I decided to look at after class.

In front of the Great Hall, I was stopped by Julia, Miriam and Beatrice, who hugged and congratulated me as well.

And inside the Great Hall, the marauders were already standing in front of the Ravenclaw table, ignoring the odd glances thrown at them.

Peter noticed me first and waved at me, catching the other boys' attention.

Remus hugged me first, then James, then Peter and finally Sirius. Since I was so happy that they had thought of me, I even managed to ignore the ache in my chest when Sirius beamed at me, just like how he'd always done before everything had changed for me. I just melted into his embrace and pretended that everything was perfect. And for this little moment, it actually was.

"We've prepared a little something for you," Sirius whispered in my ear before he let go and leaned back. "Meet us in that secret room after class, alright?"

I instantly thought of how all of us had become friends because of that room, so my smile widened even more.

Wow, it was crazy how happy one could be.

I nodded excitedly. "Got it. See you then."

~~~~~~

When I set foot into the little room, I was greeted by loud bangs on my left and right, followed by confetti shooting out of James' and Sirius' wands. I shrieked in surprise and flinched, before joining in the boys' laughter after my heart rate had calmed down a little.

Sirius pocketed his wand again and laid his arm around me, directing me to the little table, where the Marauder's Map and a small distorted chocolate cake stood, decorated with a blue seventeen.

With a smile, Remus took the map and gestured me to sit down.

James took the seat next to me. "Sirius told us that your favourite cake was chocolate flavoured, and the house elves helped us a little bit."

My cheeks almost hurt from smiling so broadly. "Thank you all so much! That's so nice of you!"

"You're very welcome," Remus assured. "Besides, I won't miss an opportunity to eat cake."

I let out short laugh. Really, I hadn't expected anything, and how much effort they had actually put into this day almost made me spill happy tears - I managed to control myself, though.

"You're the best."

"We know," Sirius said, sitting down on my other side.

After we'd stuffed ourselves with the very delicious cake, the marauders cracking up a lot of jokes while we were at it, they all pulled out little boxes wrapped in present paper.

"You got me presents, too?" I asked in disbelief, blushing a little bit. They were too much, honestly.

"Of course," Peter smiled and pushed his parcel over to me. Inside was a game of Exploding Snaps.

"You know, we still have to play it as a five, remember?"

I grinned and nodded my head. "I do remember. We can do it later, if you've got time?"

All of the boys nodded Peter's face lit up even more. "Sure!"

"My turn!" James said grinning mischievously, handing me his present.

I eyed it suspiciously. "Can I open this without fearing that it'll bite or scare me or something?"

James snickered. "I considered it, but no, this won't blow up in your face."

With one hesitant look at the Potter boy, I opened the box. Just like he'd said, it didn't jump at me or something.

But he still held his image, because inside were countless Zonko's articles, from dung bombs to little fireworks.

James grinned at my confused face. "I know that you've never pranked anyone before, but I still thought it would be fun if you had stuff for it, just in case. You can save it for after school, too, if someone gets on your bad side in a few years."

"Okay," I nodded with a small smile. "I'll keep it in mind."

Since Sirius wanted to give his present last, Remus handed me a year long stock of chocolate frogs and ordinary chocolate bars. "It always comes in handy," He explained with a little smile, and I nodded my head in agreement.

"One can never go wrong with a bit of chocolate, you're right. Thanks, Remus."

"Now," Sirius made me turn around to look at him. A little gift wrapped in blue present paper was in front of him.

"I know you've dropped out of Astronomy, but since that subject is still kind of our thing, I thought it was a nice idea."

Curious, I opened the present.

I didn't know what it was at first.

It looked like a hand sized see-through plate with a blue tinge and several white dots on it.

Even though I didn't know what it was, it was beautiful.

"It shows you the night sky," Sirius explained, smiling at my confused expression. "It shows you the stars in the exact same constellation they are in right now, at the place where you are. So even if the sky is cloudy and you can't watch the stars in the sky, you can see them live in this astroplate."

I turned away from it to look into Sirius' eyes. "That's amazing, thank you!"

He waved his hand dismissively, though I didn't miss the proud glint in his eyes. "It's nothing."

"It's so nerdy," James broke me out of my trance. "Sirius, your obsession with Astronomy is really something else."

Sirius rolled his eyes and leaned past me to shove James' head away. "Oh, shut it, Prongs."

"It's okay, lads," Remus spoke loudly, a happy grin on his face. "Shut up. We're playing Exploding Snap now."

It was the funniest round of that game I'd ever played, and when the evening came to an end, my stomach was aching from all my laughter.

Needless to say, despite my doubts I'd had around a week ago, this was the best birthday ever.