....JAMES POTTER'S BIRTHDAY was eligible to be marked down as a national holiday at this point. Even though Jackie hadn't become friends with the Marauders until this year, she could remember every single one of James' birthday celebrations since her first year at Hogwarts.

Sirius had always been the main mastermind behind it all, bringing Remus and Peter along for the mischief. But now that he had a whole band of Slytherins at his disposal, he was determined to make James' final birthday at school a feature page in Hogwarts: A History.

Jackie wasn't exactly all too happy about this but she couldn't deny them their fun. And couldn't deny them when they asked for her help either. And so she sat down at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall while she waited for Sirius and all his helpers to show up.

She looked down the table and caught the eye of Regulus, slightly obscured by the blonde hair of Lucius Malfoy. Even though he had returned to associating with her, he was still slightly off. He didn't sit with them at meals anymore and he couldn't even bear to be in the same room as Benny for some reason.

As for Lucius Malfoy, Jackie was biding her time with him. But there would come a time when her growing vat of secret information on him would prove useful.

There was sudden loud BANG! from the Gryffindor table and Jackie knew that James' birthday prank had begun.

Lizzie and Benny slid into the seats across from her hurriedly, their hair a mess and wide grins on their face, a sight that made Jackie's heart swell.

"Did it work?" Jackie asked them eagerly.

"Watch and see." Benny replied.

Just then, every owl that had been situated in the owlery came soaring into the Great Hall. Held in every bird's beak was a bright red Howler. The duplication spells were where Jackie came in and she was glad to see that they had worked.

Jackie turned in her seat to face the Gryffindor table as the owls dropped dozens of Howlers in a massive pile at the table where James was seated.

Just as Jackie had spelled them too, each Howler erupted in a deafening roar of birthday greetings to James Potter.

The sound of McGonagalls scoldings and students laughter could barely be heard over the jumbled shrieks of "Happy Birthday Prongsie!!" from the Howlers.

James instead of burying his head in his hands in embarrassment, simply cracked a cocky grin and could be heard requesting eighteen 'birthday kisses' from Lily Evans.

Sirius, Remus and Peter slipped inside the Great Hall then, having been the ones to release the owls this morning. They were met at the door by Professor McGonagall who was sporting a burgeoning smile that she was trying desperately to turn into a scowl.

"Horrible boys." She muttered and yet she left them off with only ten points taken from each boy and a few stern words.

Peter and Remus headed straight for the Gryffindor table to offer James their birthday greetings but Sirius made a detour to the Slytherin table first.

He leaned easily on the table and surveyed the four girls sitting there. "Thanks for all your help ladies. Great trick with the owl treats Delia." He complimented, giving them the Marauder stamp of approval.

He knelt close to Jackie and plucked a stray owl feather from her hair, a wide grin displayed on his face. "Impressive spellwork with the howlers, miss prim and proper." He teased easily.

Jackie raised an eyebrow and scoffed at the unusually genuine compliment. "You smell like bird." She taunted, poking him gently on the shoulder.

"Stop sniffing me then." Sirius accused, obviously trying to get a rise out of her. "Weirdo." He called her, with a grin.

"I wasn't!-" Jackie began before catching the look of mischief displayed on his face. "James says you're the next contender for eighteen birthday kisses if Lily refuses. Better toddle along." She lied, encouraging him to go back to his own table.

This was Sirius' turn to develop a look of disgust before realizing that she was joking. "Touché Harmon." He told her, a bemused look on his face, before getting up and leaving for his own table.

Jackie turned back to her breakfast and began spooning sugar into her tea, not even taking notice of all the other girls blatant stares at her.

After a few stretched moments of silence she looked up and her gaze was met with three other sets of eyes.

"What?!" She asked in bewilderment.

"Oh Jackie, you are in trouble." Benny told her, letting out a low whistle.

———————————

Regulus was sitting alone in the library, at the table right at the back. He had long ago marked it as Jackie's table and tried not to let the thought of her distract him too much while he studied there.

The library was the only recluse he got from Malfoy and the others and their incessant spew of praise for the Dark Lord. And so for that reason he came here often and hoped that he would be given peace and quiet while he was there.

This peace and quiet was soon interrupted with something much more sought after.

Jackie Harmon popped her head around the stacks and a bright grin appeared on her face when she found Regulus sitting at her table. His heart gave a little leap of joy of the sight of her blinding smile.

"There you are!" She greeted. "I've been looking for you everywhere."

"You have?" He asked, an eyebrow raising quizzically at this statement.

"Mhm." She answered, coming out from behind the bookshelf and standing in front of him. "Are you busy?"

He took in the sight of her, his eyes sliding down her form without making any effort to hide the fact that he was doing so. She looked messy and he loved that. Her school skirt was rumpled and she had one of Benny's too-big Quidditch jumpers pulled haphazardly over her white uniform shirt, a glimpse of the collar peeking out and 'SHEPHERD.' plastered loudly across the front of the garment in green writing.

Well I'm not now, he thought.

"No. I'm not busy." He replied, shoving his long to-do list under his Charms book so she wouldn't spot it.

With that, she began helping him clear his books from the table, quickly but yet taking care when handling his books because she knew how much he hated damaged pages.

"Perfect." She told him. "We're going to a birthday party." She placed her hands on her hips in that no-nonsense way of hers and he knew that he wasn't going to get out of this.

"Potter's?" He asked, almost rhetorically because who else's birthday could it be when James Potter had requested the spotlight for that day?

"Don't give me that look." She chastised, taking his arm and pulling him up from the table.

"I wasn't aware I had a that look." He replied, a smirk twisting his expression pleasantly.

Jackie was very obviously already a little bit tipsy in anticipation of the party. She moved freely and was more affectionate than usual when she had begun celebrating early with Cordelia's stash of muggle alcohol. So when she wound her arm across his back, he slung his arm over her shoulder, because tipsy Jackie would most definitely take offense to her affections not being reciprocated.

"You do have a look." She told in a hushed whisper, as if it was a big secret. "It's like the look Figgy used to give when I got caught with my hand in the biscuit jar before dinner."

"Figgy?" He queried.

"House Elf." She mumbled, pulling him out the library door and down the corridors. "She's a darling. I think she likes you more than I do."

So Jackie was definitely drunk. Because sober Jackie would never tell him about how much her house elf liked him. Or how she much liked him. He drew in a sharp little breath at that revelation and mentally tucked it away for later.

"Do you normally tell your house elves all about me?" He asked, his smirk widening at the thought of it.

"Hey, no elves plural. Figgy is one of a kind." She scolded playfully, leaning her head on his shoulder as they walked. "Plus we're besties. It's a known rule that besties gossip."

By now they had made it to the blank wall on the left corridor of the seventh floor. The Room of Requirement Sirius had called it last time they had been here.

"Don't let Benny hear you calling a house elf your best friend." He told her, as if it was a ridiculous idea.

His thoughts turned to Kreacher, his own house elf who he would consider a best friend and he thought that maybe him and Jackie were more alike than he had previously thought.

Jackie crossed the space in front of the wall three times and the door to the room appeared out of thin air. Upon the smaller girl clinging to his side again, he opened the door to an intense roar of festivities.

He pressed Jackie closer to him as they stepped in the crowded room, packed with members of all four houses, in varying quantities. He was shocked by the image of a second year boy stumbling past him, Butterbeer in hand and came to the conclusion that this was not an invite-only party.

James Potter and Sirius could be easily seen standing on a large table, swinging back and forth clumsily as they sung some sort of off-tune pub song.

The noisiest racket was coming from the record player that Lupin had brought and obviously cast an amplifying charm on to make it so loud. He was playing some sort of muggle music on the thing and shooting murderous looks at anyone who dared approach him to try requesting another song.

"Are you going to dance with me then?" Jackie rose to her tiptoes so she could yell the request in his ear loud enough for him to hear over the noise.

"Am I allowed to say no?" He asked, shooting her an exasperated look. Regulus Black was not a dancer.

She shook her head resolutely in response and took him by the hand, dragging him onto the rather unappealing-looking dance floor, packed full of jumping bodies.

They found Elizabeth and Benny there, dancing close together in a way that looked strangely intimate for such good friends.
Regulus could scarcely meet Benny's eye when he was standing opposite her from the guilt coursing through his veins at the event that he had allowed to happen just a week before.

He was glad for the interruption of Jackie, who grabbed his hands and pulled him closer to her, dancing wildly without a care in the world. His own movements were slower, less fluid. Merlin, he needed a drink.

He liked her best like this. Unrestrained and free, not caring how she looked to anyone. He wished he could give her a world where she didn't have to restrain herself ever again.

Elizabeth pressed a bottle of Butterbeer into his hand with a smile. "Loosen up Reg." She shouted. "It's good to have you back." She told him, tugging an untamed grin onto his face.

He would have preferred something stronger but he knocked the liquid back anyways, delighting in the small twinge of dutch courage it gave him.

Jackie reached up to wrap her arms around his neck loosely, jostling him with her movements. "This is so much fun!" She exclaimed, flashing him her brightest smile. "All I need are you and my girls. Just perfect!" She told him, her words beginning to become jumbled from whatever liquid poison the glass in her hand held.

Regulus knew that she wouldn't remember saying any of this in the morning but he allowed himself to rejoice in that statement for a moment. She told him that she needed him. And drunk words were sober thoughts after all.

"Me too." He told her quietly. She probably didn't even hear it.

Jackie reached up and pressed a sweet kiss on his cheek before Lily Evans arrived and she was dragged further into the crowd by the redhead.

Regulus watched her go before he maneuvered himself away from the crowd and towards the edge of the room, in search of the drink's table.

He poured himself a glass of whatever concoction Potter and his mates had mustered up in a big glass bowl and stood by the wall, watching half of Hogwarts celebrate James' birthday.

"Hi." Came a voice that he would know anywhere. Regulus' head snapped to the side as he watched Sirius Black approach him.

His brother approached him like one might act around a wild animal. Timid and cautious in case the animal decided to attack.

But Regulus decided to take the offense rather than the defense for this one. "Hello." He replied, briskly.

"Good party, eh?" Sirius asked, leaned against the wall beside Regulus.

"Potter's definitely got an impressive fan club." Regulus shot back, trying to keep his expression passive and open.

The two boys spotted Jackie in the crowd at the same time. She was talking to Remus and Lizzie expressively, her hands moving rapidly to prove whatever point she was trying to make.

"She's great, isn't she?" Sirius commented, referring to Jackie and finally breaking the silence between the two brothers.

"I didn't think you cared too much about how great she is as long as she has a pulse point." Regulus pointed out.

And it was true. Sirius didn't know her like he did. Sirius had made it very clear that he only was interested in her because he enjoyed the rivalry with his brother.

"It's not like that now." Sirius told him and Regulus swore he felt his heart stutter. "At the start I was...stupid. But it's different now." He explained.

"How so?" Regulus asked, steeling his expression to look like he didn't really care much. But he did care.

"At the start it was just a bit of fun to annoy her, get her riled up." Sirius explained. "But it's not fun to have her hate me anymore. I wish she treated me like she treats you."

This was an odd thing to hear. His older brother having a civil conversation with him at all was strange already but Sirius had never once acted like his brother had possessed a quality that he sought after. And this admittance sounded suspiciously like it.

"She doesn't hate you." Regulus told him rather begrudgingly. "She doesn't have it in her to hate anyone."

Sirius looked like he was considering this for a second before he spoke again. "I'm not going to give up on trying to win her over anytime soon." He confessed and Regulus tried to convince himself that there wasn't a sense of regret in his voice.

"Well neither am I." Regulus told him.

"Then I suppose the power's in her hands."

"I suppose so."

——————————

Jackie awoke the next morning with a pounding headache and a dry mouth as penance for her enjoyment the night before.

She sat upright on the hard old sofa that she had been laid on, probably around the time that her memory of the night had completed cut out. She rubbed her eyes and looked at her surroundings, which were surprisingly still the Room of Requirement.

She looked at the few bodies strewn across the floor and hunched in armchairs, all still blissfully asleep. Regulus was seated in a burgundy armchair just to her right, his nose scrunched up as he slept.

Benny and Lizzie were on the wooden floor which was certain to take a toll on their backs later on, their forms close together and facing each other, as if they had fallen asleep talking. Jackie was happy that the chemistry she had noticed over the years between them was finally beginning to blossom.

Cordelia was nowhere to be found and Jackie hoped that she had been sensible enough to make her way back to the dorm room before surrendering to sleep.

She flicked her line of vision to the corner of the room where Lily Evans was situated, flask in hand and an amused smile on her face.

"Mornin' party animal." Lily greeted, pouring Jackie a mug of tea from her flask and setting it down on the coffee table in front of them.

"When did I fall asleep here?" Jackie asked, her voice still a little raspy from all the yelling she had done last night.

"I think somewhere between the time that you decided to give us all your rendition of 'Rebel, Rebel' and the time that you tried to arm wrestle a third year Hufflepuff for the last Butterbeer." Lily teased, sitting down beside the girl.

"Have you come to gloat or actually be nice to me?" Jackie asked, groaning internally at the actions of her intoxicated self.

"Mostly gloat." The redhead told her with a nod.

Jackie watched the movement of the girl beside her. She seemed agitated and restless and she fidgeted in her seat relentlessly. Jackie knew enough of her mannerisms by now to know that she had something to tell her.

"Come on then." Jackie prompted. "You can't sit still so what have you come to tell me?"

Lily looked shocked for a minute at the other girl's apt assumption of what was bothering her. Thinking back to the night before, her face flushed almost the same shade as her hair.

"I kissed James Potter last night." Lily blurted out, before putting her head in her hands as if she had just confessed to some horrific crime.

Jackie burst out into a fit of giggles at how worried Lily was over that and tried desperately to quiet down so as to not wake up anyone else.

"Is that all?" Jackie asked, her eyes still twinkling with mirth.

"Is that all?!" Lily repeated incredulously, staring up at her. "What am I supposed to do now?"

"Kiss him again." Jackie answered easily.

"What?! No I can't do that." Lily shook her head.

Jackie held her mug of tea between her hands, warming them up and questioned her again. "Why not? Was he a bad kisser?"

Lily blushed bright red again at that, obviously recalling the memory of the night before. "Not exactly, no."

"Well then what's the harm?" Jackie reasoned. "Look, I know Potter has a massive ego but he has a massive heart to match it. I think you'd regret it if you didn't give it a go."

"You think so?" Lily questioned dubiously and her question was met with an immediate nod from Jackie.

"Thanks for that, Jackie." Lily said genuinely. "Better get up and ready for breakfast."

Jackie wanted to hibernate for an eternity at the thought of breakfast on her nauseous stomach. Lily, ever the sensible one, turned and got up, heading to leave for breakfast herself.

Before she could turn the handle of the door, she turned back and looked at Jackie again.
"You and Regulus slept holding hands last night. It was cute in a ridiculously chick-flick kind of way." She told her, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah?" Jackie replied, furrowing her eyebrows at the thought. She couldn't remember doing that but she peeked over at Regulus and sure enough, his arm was strung over the edge of the chair as if he had been holding her hand.

"Yeah." Lily cemented eagerly.

Lily stood still at the door, as if she was contemplating her next words. "If we're giving relationship advice," She began, looking at Jackie intently. "Regulus seems like a genuinely great bloke. I love Sirius but I don't think that he could make you happy Jac."

Jackie looked caught off guard and tried to blunder out a "Thats not-" before she was interrupted again.

"I know. Just have a think about it okay?" Lily told her.

"Okay." was the only soft reply that she could muster.

Lily was long gone before Jackie could find the words to explain herself.

( hi!! chapter twenty-nine!! more of a filler chapter really but james potter's birthday needed a moment of reverence i think. also lily is very much a reg & jackie shipper and i love that for her.
thats all for now, until next chapter!<33 )