Once upon a time, in a castle shielded from muggles by magic, a girl named Anastasia was sleeping, dreaming peacefull dreams. Even though all her roommates were already up, they did not wake her. They all knew what mood she'd be in if they woke her early on a saturday. Even though this day should be an exception. They walked out quietly, flinching a little when she turned in her bed, but sighing in relief when she just slept on. Little did they know that her peace would be disturbed very soon.
At the same time, somewhere in the castle, two boys were scheming, for they wanted to surprise their best friend. Even though they had to share her, they did not care. She'd make her choice sooner or later. And the fact that they were almost identical didn't help much. Their names were Fred and George, and they were known as trouble makers. But today, they wouldn't make trouble. Today they were going to spoil their best friend, Anastasia, who was probably still sleeping. It was saturday after all. They knew she wouldn't be happy if they woke her, even if it was her birthday. She'd probably sulk because she thought everyone had forgot, but that just added up to the surprise.
They had something very special planned...
With a groan, Anastasia turned around in her bed, and ended up on the floor. Oh, how she missed her kingsized bed. In that one she could atleast turn, without falling out, as every morning. Great way to start the day, she thought sullenly. She dragged herself to the bathroom, taking a nice, long shower. When she was completely dry, she shrugged into her favourite black jeans throwing her red Weasley sweater (it sparkled) over her head. She forced her dirtyblonde hair into a braid. After accepting her look of the day with a small look in the mirror, she nodded to herself and made her way to the Gryffindor commom room... to find it empty. She stared at the clock and cursed under her breath. She was going to miss breakfast. She sprinted towards the portrait hole, and in her haste, almost fell, face first, out of it. After scrambling to her feet again, she started running towards the great hall, as if her life depended on it. Arriving there, she saw that most people were already standing up to leave. She scanned the table for her best friends, but couldn't find them. That's odd, she thought to herself, they usually always wait. Instead, she slouched down next to their younger and only sister. She beamed, and handed her a package, wrapped in geen paper. Ugh green!
"happy b-day, sister-in-law-to-be!" she gushed.
"Please spare me that, if they keep bickering over me, I might end up with Malfoy." she gagged when she said his name, and so did her neighbour.
"Seen them anywhere around?" she asked than, unable to keep her curiosity bottled.
"Yes, but I will not tell you where and when, or where they are headed." she crossed her arms, as if to make her point even clearer than it already was.
"C'mon Ginny, it's my birthday." Anastacia tried. But Ginny wouldn't give in.
"Which reminds me," she pointed at the gift, "OPEN IT!" she ordered. Muttering curse words under her breath, she violently ripped of the wrappings, and open the little black box inside it. She stared in awe at the necklace inside it, subconsiously feeling a smile spread on her face and turned to Ginny, tearstruck. She simply smiled back and held her own part of the necklace up. It was a quaffle, divided in two, that said friends 4 life.
"Aw, Ginny!" she gushed, grabbing the redhead in for a beartight hug.
"Can't breathe Ana!" she muttered. Ana released her, still staring at Ginny with tears in her eyes. A drawling voice decided to ruin their fun then.
"Ew, PDA!" Malfoy said, staring at them him his usual Malfoy-ish smirk.
"Get lost ferret." ginny glared at him. Even though Malfoy wasn't scared of anything, he backstepped a bit when Ginny glared. She had to admit it, it was pretty scary.
"Get lost yourself." he muttered back, but turned around himself and walked away.
"Sooo, up for some Hogsmeade fun?" Ginny asked, smiling again.
"Duh!"
The trip to hogsmeade was fun. They ran into the golden trio, who bought her tons of presents and bought both her and Ginny icecream. Thanks to the money she recieved from her family, she was able to buy a sparkling red dress, one she had wanted to buy a long time ago. Ginny grinned at her and they ended up in fits of laughter when Ginny's reaction to the dress was "Sparklesome!". They made their way back to the castle when it got colder. Still smiling, she entered the commom room and, for the first time that day, she had to admit, she though of her two other best friends. She looked around the room, but again, found them nowhere.
"Hey, wear your dress for dinner!" Ginny ordered, pulling her up the staircase. Just when they rounded the corner, she saw the portrait swing open . She looked up, hoping to see the twins enter, but was quickly dissapointed when she saw it wasn't them. She felt hurt,because they forgot her birthday, the most important day of the year. She felt her mood make a sudden drop, and started sulking when Ginny forced her into her new dress. They made their way downstairs again, and started of towards the great hall. Arriving there, Anastasia recieved another surprise, but not one she expected. Kay, the only friendly Slytherin ever known in history (A/N me^^) made her way towards the girls, holding a red gift in her hands. Ana beamed, but she started frowing as soon as she unpacked the gift. It was a sparkling scarf, a green one. She hated green. Kay chuckled, and turned the scarf red with a flick of her wand. Ana started smiling again, but her 'friend' was already walking to her table.
"You're welcome." she called over her shoulder.
"Thanks." Ana replied quickly, noticing the death glares Kay was recieving from her housemates. She stuck out her tongue, and plopped herself down next to Malfoy, who carelessly swung an arm around her waist.
"Ew, PDA." Ginny wailed, smiring when Malfoy gave her a glare.
"Honestly, what does she see in that git?" Ginny exclaimed loudly, so everyone could hear. Anastasia giggled, and watched as Kay tried to hold back gigles herself. They sat themselves down at their table and Ana noticed at once it was partly empty. Where is everybody, she wondered. Jsut then, Ginny pulled out her DA galleon. She stared at it for a second.
"Emergency meeting in the room of requirement, you coming." she asked, sounding very serious.
"But I'm hungry!" even before finishing her sentence, Ginny was pulling her out of the great hall.
She shot a look at the Slytherin table, wanting to signal Kay they'd meet up later, but she was nowhere to be seen. They went to the seventh floor, and passed the wall 3 times when suddenly a door appeared. Anastasia grabbed the handle and stepped in
"Now what's so important to pull us away from our dinner." She stepped further in the room and then... BOOM!
Out of nowhere, almost half of the school population where standing infront of her. She then noticed they were singing a song, and after another second, she faintly recognized it as 'happy birthday to you'. She kept staring, in shock, to all the people. Even after they grew quiet. They stared right back. "I think she's going to faint." she heard Ron Weasley say quietly.
"Of course she's not." Ginny said, snapping her fingers three times in front of her face. She shook her head, as if waking up from an epiphany, and watched as two snickering redheads moved into her view.
"YOU TWO!" she screamed, before hurling herself into their direction. She jumped into their arms, tears overflowing her eyes by the time she arrived there.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she gushed. She immediatly felt guilty for wanting to hex them for forgetting her birthday. They smiled widely.
"You're welcome." they answered together.
They went into fullblown party mode after that. There was food for an entire army, and when it started to run out, groups of 2 or 3 would make their way to the kitchen and bring back loads of food. She had never felt happier in her entire life. She was even more pleased when she saw Kay talking to Harry and Hermione, Ron glaring at them from a distance. But eventhough she noticed all these thing, her attention was divided. Fred and George were talking to her happily, saying how difficult it had been to plan al this. Even Kay had helped. She, being the artist she is, decorated the room, and was the 'dj' of the evening. George quickly explained that that meant she was in charge of the msuic. She glanced over to where Kay was standing alone, in a secluded corner, trying to enjoy her sigarette. She might 've been a prueblood, but smoking was a mugglehabit she just couldn't live without. She winked when she caught her staring and rolled her eyes when Fred and George glared at her. Anastasia knew Kay was only here because the twins knew they were, kind of, good friends. And that Kay wasn't the average Slytherin. She ditched the boys at Lee Jordan, making her way over to the lonely girl (eventhough she would never admit it, it was there in her eyes).
"Having fun?" she snickered when the girl jumped, not having seen her coming.
"Suure, surrounded by people who are so baised they all hate me." she muttered. Anastasia hated it when she went all Slytheriny on her.
"Hey, I don't hate you, and neither do Harry and Ginny and Hermione." she retorded. Kay lifted an eyebrow.
"They're only nice to me because of you, y'know. They'd love to hex me into oblivion." she smirked at her own words.
"That's not true, I happen to have started liking you." Ginny said from behind her.
"You're nice, for a Slytherin. Maybe you were sorted into the wrong house." she went after watching Kay snort.
"Yeah, Ginny's right." Harry said. Ana watched as he slid his arms around Ginny's waist.
"Maybe you should find yourself a decent boyfriend, that would help." George threw into the conversation. Ana turned around and smiled at him
"Hey, no picking on my boyfriend," Kay started, but Ana finished for her.
"Yeah yeah, cuz he's a gentleman for you, but not to us." she giggled.
"He just has an aversion to Gryffindors." she started again, but this time Ginny interfered.
"And Hufflepuffs, an Ravenclaws." she said, noting the obvious. Kay rolled her eyes, and lit another sigarette.
"You should all be glad that I am atleast friendly, else I would've brought Draco." she huffed. Ana and Ginny gagged at the sound of his name. Kay glared, but laughed along with the rest anyway.
"You'd rather I date Blaise then?" she said, cutting off Ginny's laughter. She smiled contently and turned her head towards the music installation.
"Don't touch, I said!" she snapped at a couple Ravenclaws eying the equipment. She stalkedaway then, protecting her live savings. Harry and Ginny walked away as wel, leaving Anastasia and George in the dark secluded corner. Kay put on a slow song, and Ana watched as couples started dancing on the floor. She also watched Fred escort Malfoy in, steering him to Kay direction. She smiled and walked over to him. They quickly joined the other couples on the dancefloor, staring into eachother's eyes in a very gooey, un-malfoy like way. She nudged him after asecond, and he frowned. But after an angry look from her, he made his way to her, towing Kay. He sighed.
"Happy birthday Anastasia." he stared into Kay's eyes for approval, but she cocked her head to the side, which made him sigh even harder.
"And thank you for letting me in- I mean inviting me." he said after Kay elbowed him.
'Tahnk you, and you're welcome." she held out her hand, and surprisingly he shook it. They turned away and started dancing again.
"Sooo, wanna dance." George asked casually, holding out his hand. Ana beamed and took it. They started dancing another slow song, staring into each other's eyes. She could feel it then, the fluttering in her stomach. She never noticed, but it was stronger with George. She sighed quietly, breaking eyecontact and stared towards where Fred was dancing with Angelina. Time to make up your mind, she thought.
"George, can we talk?" she asked quietly.
"Sure, back in the corner?" he asked, noticing the serious edge in her voice.
"Yeah, come on." she grabbed his hand and dragged him to the corner, allowing him to cut of all her escape routes. She wasn't good with serious conversations, and ended up running away most of the time. But she went for it, head first.
"I've made up my mind." she said, confident.
"Oh," he said, and she watched a sad look cross over his face, "Well I'm sure you and Fred will get along fine. I mean,you already are, but you know. Not that you wouldn't look good together, I mean you will but..." She stopped his ranting by putting her hands on his cheeks, forcing him to look at her.
"Please let me finish." she pleaded, watching as he nodded.
"I choose you." she said, hearing the finality in her voice. His eyes widened in surprise, and he started inclining his head towards her, eyes already closed, until she heard a voice say: "what?"
She looked up guiltily into Fred's eyes.
"I'm sorry, I..." she didn't know what to say. Fred just stared.
"Hallway, both of you." he said finally. They followed him quietly.
"Explain." he demanded.
"Well, I just... noticed that what I feel for both of you is stronger with George." she whispered, scared for the words that would break up their friendship.
"And I think you weren't really a match for me, we are better of as friends. We would just fight all the time, and our friendship wouldn't survive. Please, understand." she pleaded, not wanting to lose her best friend, her brother.
"I.. I guess you're right." he said, stunning her.
"Really, or is that justan excuse to cover uo you fancy Angelina." she said, smiling.
"What?" he spluttered. "I don't... what are you... you are... What?" she giggled
"Aww, Freddie's in LUV!" George beamed, grinning widely at his brother.
"whatever. Let's go back inside, it's your party after all." he grimaced, and passed them 3 times, revealing the door.
"Coming in a minute." she called to him. Once he left, she turned her attention to George, staring at his face, inviting him with his eyes. He inclined his head again, and slipped his hands around her waist. She threw her arms around his neck, tired of his lazyness and pulled him forward. And then, their lips touched. She felt the herd of butterflies go crazy inside her stomach and smiled. George felt her smile, and deepened the kiss, which grew mre passionate with the second. But then, out of nowhere, a voice made them jump.
"Well well, out after curfew are we. Busted i'd say. My office please." professor Snape said menacingly. She frowned, and started following the professor, feeling George weave his fingers through hers. Even though she knew she'd probably have detention until she finished Hogwarts, she couldn't care less. She stared at George and smiled. She had the best birthday ever, and no one was taking this moment away from her. She ended up with a boyfriend, and probably helped her best friend get one as well. She didn't care about professor Snape at all.
She was finally happy, and had a bucketload of perfect memories to go with that feeling. She only listened halfly to Snape's lecture, but only caught the part where he said they wouldn't get punished. She smiled, and raised her eyebrows in surprise when he smiled back. They were dismissed, and on their way back to the party, George whispered something in her ear.
"I love you." she had her answer ready.
"I love you too"