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James woke Regulus up at 5:17 am on July 31, 1985. He gently pushed Regulus urging him to wake up; Regulus mumbled something, still half asleep, while James just leaned over and kissed his forehead.
“Love, we’ve gotta get up.” James said next to his ear.
Regulus lazily swatted him away, and turned over away from him.
“He’s going to wake up soon..” James told him. Making Regulus sit up quickly.
“Oh shit, I forgot,” He said, quickly standing up and walking towards the door, “Hurry up James! He’s going to wake up soon!”
James chuckled under his breath, and stood up, following Regulus out of their room. By the time he finally exited the room and walked towards the kitchen, Regulus had already brought the cake out and was rummaging through a drawer trying to find something.
“Candles.. candles.. where did I put the fucking candles.” He was muttering under his breath.
“Second drawer. Way back behind the spoons.” James whispered, as to not wake him up.
“Thank you!” Regulus sighed, relieved as he opened the drawer and took out the 5 red and yellow candles. “..really James?”
“He’s going to be a Griffindor! Might as well get him used to the colors now.” James said with a smile.
“We don’t know that he could be in Slytherin. There’s still hope for him”
“What do you mean ‘still hope for him’!” James laughed.
“Shhh you’ll wake him up! When are Lily and Mary getting here”
“Lily just texted me, they’re outside” James said, taking out his phone.
“Okay. I’ll get the door.” said Regulus as he walked towards the door.
He opened it to find Lily and Mary talking under their breaths. A gift bag in Mary’s hand, and a Walmart bag on the other. Lily was holding balloons and coffee for all four of them.
“Oh my god hi! Is he awake yet?” Mary whispered excitedly at Regulus
“Not yet, but soon. Come in” he said, stepping aside.
After he greeted Lily and got a cheek kiss from both of them, they all joined James in the kitchen. They thanked them for the coffee, and then the four of them started taking out the birthday decorations from the Walmart bag and started decorating the house with streamers and balloons. By the time they finished it was 5:42 am, James grabbed the cake, and Mary held the gift bag. They all quietly walked over to Harry’s room, and stopped at the door. Regulus added the candles to the cake, as Lily lit them up. They opened Harry’s door and started singing.
“Haaappy biiirthday to youuuuu…” they all sang in unison, as Harry’s still sleepy eyes opened. He was awake in seconds smiling widely, as he rubbed his eye with one hand, waking himself up. He sat up on his little red race car bed, as his dads and mums entered his room. Lily and Mary sat on the side of his bed, as Regulus and James turned on the light and walked over to him. They finished singing and all took turns hugging him.
“Happy birthday Haz!” James said, kissing his son on the forehead.
“Blow out the candles, love, '' Lily said excitedly as Mary held the cake in front of him. Harry did so, still smiling from ear to ear.
They gave Harry his gift, which turned out to be two picture books that Regulus and Lily picked out a few weeks back, and a set of little race cars that James picked out from a muggle shop, that Mary added a spell to so they could be controlled by a little practice wand that was also in the bag,
Sirius and Remus arrived a few hours later, along with Dorcas and Marlene, all with gifts for Harry, to set up for the birthday party they were holding later in the afternoon.
4 o’clock hit, and all of Harry’s friends started showing up. Molly and Arthur were the first ones, along with all their kids; since their second to youngest, Ron, befriended Harry a few months back at the preschool they were going to. Next showed up Andromeda and Ted with their daughter Nymphadora and their nephew Draco, and right behind them were the Longbottoms and the Grangers. Evan and Barty showed up later on in the day.
Outside the older kids were playing a game of quidditch, while the younger were playing with Padfoot, and Harry’s new muggle bike with training wheels, given to him by Sirius “to train him for his future motorbike!”.
Inside the adults were sipping on their ButterBeer and FireWhiskey. Arthur seemed to be deep in conversation with Mr. Granger about vacuum cleaners (which James and Regulus only knew of because of Lily and Mary’s infinite patience with their absence of knowledge over most muggle things).
“He’s growing up so fast.” James said as he approached Regulus, who was deep in conversation with Remus and Lily about the most recent book they were reading in their book club (The picture of Doran Gray??)
Regulus excused himself, to which Remus and Lily barely paid any attention because they had gotten into a new argument about a character from the book.
“...Sybil's death was so important to his story…” Lily was telling Remus, but James was too out of reach to hear what Remus was responding with.
“I know!” Regulus told James when they were back in the kitchen refilling the snack trays, “he's already five! I swear he was born like a month ago!”
“It feels like it.” James laughed
“Why is he so mature already! The other day we started arguing about the nutritional value of cereal, for Christ sake!” Regulus exclaimed exasperated, “And he won,” he said throwing his hands up, “granted, he just read what was on the box. But still!”
“Well he gets that from you, love.”
“No. I blame Lily, always arguing.”
“Oi! Am not” Lily's voice was heard as she walked over.
“You're literally arguing about not arguing, love.” Mary, who was right behind her, told her with a fond smile.
Harry’s parents laughed and looked out the window to find their son on Padfoots back, Padfoot who was holding.. Was that a book? In his mouth; running from a very angry Remus Lupin who was yelling at his boyfriend to give his book back, his shouts were drowned out by a delighted scream from Harry who was having the time of his life.
James kissed Regulus quickly, before running outside and helping Remus catch his best friend and his son.
Lily and Regulus resumed their conversation as Mary kissed Lily on the cheek and went outside to talk to Marlene and Dorcas.
Around 8:30 most of the kids were either asleep, or moments away from crying, so they started leaving. Regulus and James said goodbye to everyone, except Lily and Mary, who were waiting to tuck Harry into bed before heading back home, which was only two houses away. Lily and Mary were getting Harry changed and getting his teeth brushed while Regulus and James cleaned up (Which was honestly just a quick spell, but they liked doing some of the cleaning muggle style) so as James was cleaning dishes, Regulus was fixing all the cushions on the couch and throwing the trash away.
Regulus finished and walked up behind James and put his arms around his husband, resting his chin on James’ shoulder.
“Another year of keeping that little monster alive.” He mumbled against his partner's shoulder.
“A whole other year. And a great job were doing, at that”
Regulus hummed in agreement.
“Sirius used to smuggle me a cupcake or a cookie on my birthday,” Regulus said, remembering one of the few good moments of his childhood, “I'm glad we can give Haz a real birthday.”
“And we will every year, he won't have to grow up like you, or Sirius did.”
“Hmm. good” he mumbled, and kissed his husband's cheek.
James finished the dishes and they walked over to Harry’s room, to find Harry tucked in and Lily reading him a bedtime story, as Mary lay next to him. His dads walked in just as Lily was finishing the story, they wished him goodnight and kissed his forehead, and left his room. Lily and Mary hugged them and promised to come back the next day when James’ parents came to the house for lunch to celebrate Harry. After Lily and Mary left, James and Regulus got in their bed. Regulus read for a bit, while James fiddled with his Snitch.
“Another year.” Regulus said after putting his book down and turning the light off.
“Another year.” James agreed
“I love you”
“I love you too”