Happy birthday!

[shimotsuki]

Here's wishing the very happiest of birthdays to gilpin25! I hope you've been having a lovely day, and that there was chocolate involved (or something just as nice).

There's a certain Discworld drabble sitting around half written, but it hardly seems fair to use that as a birthday post when it's really from something else. (Besides which, it's stuck...) So maybe we can drop in at Grimmauld Place for a moment instead?

Surprise
A throat cleared, echoing faintly in the dusty silence of the Black family library. Sirius looked up from his battered copy of The Secret Magical Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

"Erm. Wotcher." Tonks stood in the doorway—grinning at him, and then at Remus, who was sitting in the armchair closest to the fire, balancing a thick and dusty tome on his knee. "I've only got a few minutes before I have to be at work, but today's your birthday, isn't it, Remus?"

Remus's eyebrows climbed to his fringe. "Someone's been spilling my secrets, I see." He shot a glance at Sirius.

Sirius sent back only the sweetest and most innocent of smiles.

Tonks crossed the room, catching the toe of her boot once on what appeared to be nothing more than a wrinkle in the carpet. "Well, then. Happy birthday." She reached into a pocket and pulled out a small box wrapped in bright orange paper covered with flying hippogriffs, beating their tiny wings in unison.

Remus looked from her bright, bright eyes to the gaudy orange box in her hand.

"Go on," she said, bouncing a little. "It's not a Weasley Wheeze—although I can't say I wasn't sorely tempted."

Sirius snorted. "That's good, because I think I have the market cornered on birthday pranks."

"What?" Remus looked over at him, distracted. "You haven't pranked me once today."

"That you know of," Sirius smirked. "But do go on, Moony. Enjoy a guaranteed prank-free gift while you have the opportunity."

Remus took the box, pulled the paper off—tidily, of course—and opened the lid. He laughed once in surprise, looking up at Tonks. She grinned back, transparently pleased with herself.

"What is it?" Sirius craned his neck.

"The new historical novel about the wizarding side of the Wars of the Roses that I was telling you I'd heard about." Remus lifted the book out of the box and set it on top of the one he'd been reading. "One pot's worth of premium Orange Pekoe from Terwilliger's in Diagon Alley." The tea joined the book. "And one Caramel Pumpkin Toffee from Honeydukes."

"In other words," put in Tonks, "the ingredients for one perfect evening."

Sirius started to make a joke about how it couldn't be a perfect evening if there was nothing to get drunk on. But he stopped short when he realised that he'd lost his audience entirely.

With a professional thoroughness that would have done old Sherlock Holmes proud, he examined the soft smile lighting up Moony's whole face, and the delicate flush warming Tonks's cheeks as she grinned back. And the way the two of them clearly saw nothing in the room but each other.

Well.

This was a most interesting development.

.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Very cute. I love it! Write more soon. And yeah, for once I'm the first person to comment!

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks! I'm glad you liked it; it was fun to write.

[sspring92.livejournal.com]

I think it's wonderful when one of our little R/T community has a b-day! Because we all get to share in the presents!

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean! :)

[duck-or-rabbit.livejournal.com]

LOL, Sirius was so wonderfully pesky here, and that he had the decency to not ruin Remus' birthday by telling him when he'd been pranked showed Sirius' good manners. ;)

This moment was much too short. Everything here was harmonized - the prose, the imagery, the dialogue - that it didn't feel as if I read anything but rather I was there watching. I loved this:

Remus took the box, pulled the paper off—tidily, of course—and opened the lid. He laughed once in surprise, looking up at Tonks

I heard that laugh.

Thank you for gilpin25's gift!

EDIT: the usual; code.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

it didn't feel as if I read anything but rather I was there watching

Oh, thank you! That's very high praise!

I imagine Sirius thinks Remus will run across his carefully set up pranks sometime in the course of the day, lol. There's no need to tip his hand yet. ;)

[gilpin25.livejournal.com]

I did read it at breakfast, and I enjoyed it then as much as I've just enjoyed re-reading it now. (And I would have reviewed it then except we whizzed off to spend the day in Warwick, the scene of many important moments in the Wars of the Roses, lol.)

You've made me wish I had a copy of The Secret Magical Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - easy to imagine Sirius admiring him! - and I'd love to know what the wizarding world was up to during the Wars of the Roses as it's one of my favourite periods of history. Most of all, I love how the three of them react to each other in this - how Tonks is all 'bright' and 'bouncing', how Remus literally lights up when he smiles at her, and how Sirius notes, deduces and solves the mystery before him in a manner Sherlock would be proud of.

Thank you so much. I lit up myself when I saw this.:D

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you so much -- if this gave you a bit of a smile on your birthday-weekend, then the mission has been accomplished.

I actually know very, very little about the Wars of the Roses -- can't even remember which side was red and which was white -- but I do know that York, Pennsylvania is not too far from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and I've always wondered which was founded first and who decided to score a point with the other one. ;)

[hrymfaxe.livejournal.com]

What a lovely story, and how great it is to see it from Sirius' pov. :D I love that he has told Tonks about Remus' birthday and that he has left pranks just waiting for Remus to innocently fall over them. And how he realises that they aren't noticing him anymore and only have eyes for each other. And I can just hear the gears turning in his head with this new development! LOL. Remus is in for it now.

Thank you for sharing Gilpin's present with us all.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks for the kind words!

I think the Marauders must have had a tradition of birthday pranks going back to their Hogwarts days...

And Remus is definitely in for it now -- he just hasn't figured it out yet. ;) The way he just easily accepts the gift this time is actually meant to be a contrast with an OotP Christmas fic I wrote once, where he doesn't want anyone to give him anything and Tonks has to pound him into submission, lol.

(We're all doing really well from Gilpin's birthday, aren't we! I can't wait to read/see more of the Tater/Godricgal/Hrymfaxe masterpiece.)

[moon-reader.livejournal.com]

Aww! This perfectly represented the Remus, Tonks and Sirius trio in a few paragraphs. I love your Pranking!Sirius (and want to know what he's going to do to Remus later in the day) and how he is still respectful enough to not be a complete git and interrupt Tonks and Remus.... Lovely work.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm happy to hear you enjoyed this.

I haven't asked Sirius what pranks he's planned; thought it might be safer not to know. ;)