The next morning came slowly, but that was mostly because Arthur had a hard time to fall asleep in in the evening. However when he woke up in the morning everything felt surprisingly normal. In one sense it was – even if Arthur's birthday was on ST. George's Day it was rare for more than one of his older brothers to be free from work, and their family never really paid a lot attention to birthdays in general. The only special about the day would be that Arthur didn't have any classes with his tutors today and maybe also receive a few birthday presents. If Arthur was lucky at least Dylan and Scott would be home in time for dinner, but he knew both Patrick and William were most likely busy with work right now.
Speaking of Patrick, would Arthur be allowed to open the gift he received now? Probably, but Arthur decided it was best to wait until he had gone down to see who was going to be home with him today. Soon enough he was therefore dressed and began to make his way down to the kitchen with a smile on his normally grumpy face, onty to be met by the normal burnt odor of Scott's failed attempt at making an edible breakfast.
"There ye' are, I just wondered when ye' would decide to wake up," Scott teased with a smile and put down a plate with what once might have been egg and bacon in front of Arthur.
Meanwhile Arthur had sat down at the right side of the table, closest to the window, so he would be able to face Scott while said man finished the breakfast.
"It's not that late," Arthur huffed and took a look at the clock on the wall. It was only 8:30 AM.
"If ye' say so," Scott answered with a smirk, then turned off the stove before he came back to the table and sat down with his own plate of food on the opposite side of Arthur while he himself began to sip his cup of tea.
"I got today off from work, so if ye' want to we can explore the forest around the house once I've taken care of the dishes," Scott suggested.
"Dylan will be back as soon as he has taken care of the rampaging dragon, so we can expect him to be back in time for lunch."
Arthur almost choked on his tea. "A d-dragon? Is he going to be alright?"
"Of course he is," Scott replied nonchalantly. "He will take care of it by himself this time, so no one else will be there to screw it up."
Scott's answer didn't exactly reassure him – who in their right mind would take on a dragon alone!? To think Arthur thought Dylan was the sanest of his brothers...
That clearly wasn't the case. However Scott didn't seem very concerned, so hopefully it meant Dylan knew what he was doing.
Dylan worked with magical creatures for a living after all, so everything would hopefully turn out just fine. Hopefully.
Arthur was just about to ask Scott what exactly Dylan was going to do about the dragon, but an owl took that moment to crash into the kitchen window with a loud bang. Luckily enough the glass didn't break, but both Scott and Arthur jumped up in surprise. The second Scott hurriedly opened the window Arthur also helped the still dazed owl inside, who Arthur also noticed held a thick yellowish envelope in her neb. Scott was quick to clear away the breakfast from the table and to find some owl candy for the owl while they let her rest on the table. Meanwhile Arthur stared in shock at the thick, yellowish envelope made of parchment which the owl still held. Really, the owl couldn't be taller than eight inches (ca 20 cm) - the letter looked almost comically large for the small owl. It was a miracle it was even able to deliver it in the first place.
"What are ye' waiting for? Grab the letter, it's addressed to ye'," Scott commented with a smirk and Arthur quickly, but gently, took away the letter from the owl.
"I forgot how creepy they could be though," Scott commented with a grimace as he walked around to the other side of the table and read over Arthur's shoulder.
The address on the letter apparently knew Arthur would be in the kitchen. Oh, the joys of magic.
However at the moment Arthur took no notice of Scott's muttering and instead eagerly began to open his letter at the same time as the owl finally began to come around again. She hooted happily from where she still stood on the table, probably waiting for an answer to return with. At the moment Arthur decided to ignore her in favour of reading his letter though, and when Arthur was done he could almost not stay still in eagerness.
"I'm going to Hogwarts," he said with a grin of happiness towards Scott. "I'm going to Hogwarts to learn magic!"
"Not until ye' have answered them and finished to eat yer breakfast," Scott reminded Arthur with a chuckle.
"Oh right!" Arthur exclaimed, then ran out from the kitchen and continued up the stairs to his room before Scott had the time to say anything else.
He was soon back in the kitchen though, this time with parchment and a normal ballpoint with black ink in his hands.
"How should I answer?" Arthur asked Scott nervously as soon as he had laid down everything on the table.
"Just write ye' accept the offer," Scott answered with a shrug and continued to watch in amusement while his youngest brother tried to formulate a reply.
It took a while to write what Arthur passed as an acceptable answer, although it would probably have gone faster if Scott hadn't begun to teas Arthur about his handwriting or if the owl didn't become impatient and began to fly around and hoot in frustration. In the end Arthur yelled at the owl to shut up, which resulted in a pecked finger and a laughing Scott. At least the owl fell silent afterwards, so Arthur still considered it worth it. Arthur almost wrote his answer longer than the owl in revenge, but stopped himself in time since he didn't want the owl to drop his answer somewhere just because it was too heavy to carry. When the owl finally was sent off with Arthur's answer the breakfast was already cold, so Scott unceremoniously threw away what was left into the trash bin. Arthur would have complained about how it was a waste of food, if it wasn't for the fact Arthur wasn't sure he could count their breakfast as food in the first place. Therefore he didn't say anything.
When the dishes were taken care of Arthur immediately wanted to go to the Diagon Alley to buy what he needed for Hogwarts, but Scott said no.
According to Scott there was no point to go and buy everything now when they still had months before the term would begin on the first of September.
"Besides, we decided to explore the forest around the house today, didn't we?" Scott reminded Arthur.
Despite the fact Arthur dearly wanted to go to Diagon Alley he agreed with Scott and grudgingly left the letter on the table to put on his jacket and shoes. It drizzled outside, but they knew the trees in the thick forest would protect them from the light rain and therefore didn't bother to bring an umbrella. Once outside they then slowly walked into the thick forest which surrounded their house. Since they only moved here three days ago Arthur hadn't had the time to explore yet, so he now took the chance to fully look around at everything around him.
Their house was made of white marble and looked very out of place in the thick forest. The buds on the trees around them had begun to grow, but not yet fully bloomed, so most of the trees still looked very brown and made a strong contrast against the white marble of the house. Arthur also noticed there was no obvious path which led... Well, anywhere to or from the house. The house just seemed to stand there with perhaps 25 meters of grass in each direction from the house before the first trees showed the line where the forest began. How did his brothers move everything from their old house? Did they use magic? They must have, Arthur realised, because there was no other way they could have moved all the furniture and everything else without even a road to the house. Arthur now regretted his choice to stay at Dylan's apartment in Cardiff while his brothers took care of the move – it would have been fun to see his brothers use magic. By the time Dylan had apparated to pick him up again and take him to their new home it had already been late, so Arthur hadn't thought much about it then, and the next days had rained so much he hadn't been able to go outside to notice how remote the house was placed.
It was odd really, now when he let himself think about it. Sometimes when Arthur was nearby people he could feel how strong magic they had, if they even had any in the first place, and he knew all of his brothers had an incredible amount of magic. Yet for as long as he could remember Arthur and his brothers always more or less lived their lives like muggles, with only the occasional use of magic to apparate somewhere or to perhaps repair something broken – and apparently to make sure moving only took few hours instead of days. Arthur knew this was unusual for people with magic in general, especially for a pure-blooded family like theirs.
"What are ye' daydreaming about?"
"Huh?" was Arthur's very intelligent reply as he snapped out from his thoughts to look at Scott.
"Ye' didn't even react when I just told ye' about the unicorn herd which is supposed to live in this forest, so what are ye' thinking about?" Scott asked again, looking amused.
Arthur flushed red in embarrassment as he realized how deep into the forest they already were and briefly wondered for how long he had been lost in his thoughts.
"W-well, nothing really! I just realized you, Dylan and William must have used magic when we moved to our new house since there is no road through the forest."
Scott nodded in acknowledgement. "Aye, it would have taken too long otherwise."
"So why did we move to a house in the middle of a forest anyway?"
"Because someone began to have more magical accidents lately," Scott teased.
"It's not like I do it on purpose," Arthur replied with a huff as he turned even redder.
Only a few weeks ago William was forced to use a memory charm on Arthur's (muggle) tutor in math when Arthur accidentally levitated a pile of books into the air, and three days later Scott was forced to do the same to Arthur's tutor in Gaelic when she realised Arthur had fallen asleep at the desk while his pen continued to write down notes by itself. Arthur was lucky one of his brothers had been at home at the time, because both of the tutors had begun to panic a "little" over the magic...
"I know ye' don't," Scott chuckled again in answer to Arthur's comment.
"This is just to be on the safe side until Hogwarts has done their job and taught ye' how to control yer magic."
Another hour of walking later it eventually stopped to rain while they continued to explore the forest, and they found both many magical and non-magical creatures. Arthur even saw a centaur between the trees once, but when he tried to go closer Scott had led him in a different direction.
"Centaurs are better to leave alone when it's possible," Scott had muttered nervously to him as the only explanation when they were further away.
They didn't stop exploring until hours later when Arthur's stomach loudly declared it was time for lunch, and despite Arthur's protests Scott apparated them back to the edge of the forest with a laugh. They were lucky, because when they opened the front door to the house they could smell the wonderful scent of un-burnt food and since all of the Kirkland-brothers deep down knew Dylan was the only one of them who was a decent cook among them... Well, both Scott and Arthur therefore already knew who was in the kitchen before they even entered it. Soon enough they had taken off their shoes, hanged off their jackets and joined Dylan in the kitchen.
"About time," Dylan commented without turning around from the stove when they entered the kitchen. "I almost began to think you two got lost on the path of life."
Scott snorted in amusement and Arthur got the feeling Dylan just had made a reference to something.
"Set the table, the food is almost ready."
"What's for lunch?" Scott asked and walked over to the cupboard with the plates.
"Leek soup accompanied with fresh dragon-baked bread."
Arthur could feel his eyes widen. "You baked bread in the fire of a dragon!?"
"Of course, it makes the best bread after all," Dylan replied as if it wasn't crazy at all, nor downright idiotic.
"Besides, that dragon owned me a favour after all the trouble she put me through this morning."
Arthur wisely decided to not make any further comments and went to help Scott set the table instead.
To think he once had considered Dylan the sanest of his brothers too... On the other hand Scott seemed to believe this was completely normal and continued the discussion.
"What kind of dragon was it? The MacFusty usually keep a good eye on the Hebridean Black, but it's unusual for a Common Welsh Green dragon to go on a rampage."
"Not if an idiotic wizard tries to steal the egg of a female," Dylan replied bitterly.
Both Scott and Arthur audibly winced at the information. No wonder the dragon had gone on a rampage.
"What happened to the thief?" Arthur questioned, not sure if he wanted to know the answer or not.
"Survived long enough for the people from the ministry to show up, but was burnt to ashes before we could save him. It took ages to calm down Beca."
"Wait, who is Beca?" Arthur couldn't help but to ask.
"The dragon of course," Dylan replied as if it was obvious and then declared the soup was done.
"Were ye' not supposed to take care of the dragon alone this time?"
Dylan sent Scott a grumpy glare while they all sat down at the table, Arthur using the same chair he sat in at breakfast while Scott sat to his left and Dylan sat down on the opposite side of Scott.
"I was supposed to, yes. At least that was what Fudge promised me the last time the people from the ministry messed up," he answered bitterly before he turned to face Arthur.
"Promise me you NEVER attempt to stun an enraged dragon with a stunning spell. Either run the fuck away in the opposite direction and let an expert take care of the dragon, or become an expert yourself so you know what to do."
"Eh, sure," Arthur replied, not sure what else to answer.
"Oh, and happy birthday by the way."
The sudden change of topic caught Arthur by surprise, but he still somehow managed to stutter out a thanks and caught the present Dylan suddenly lightly threw over the table in Arthur's direction.
"Open it after we have eaten."
With that said Arthur most likely set a new world record in eating soup quickly, because not even five minutes later he had already eaten all his soup, put his plate and spoon into the dishwasher and sat down on his chair again.
"May I open it now?"
"Sure," Dylan answered and finished his soup at the same time as Scott did.
If Arthur wasn't so eager to open his present he might have been a little more wary of the smirks both Dylan and Scott now had on their faces, but Arthur didn't notice it and made a quick affair of the dark blue paper wrapped around his present and saw his new red...
"... Collar?" Arthur asked in disbelief and slight disappointment.
By now he also noticed how his brothers' smirks only continued to widen. Was this some sort of prank?
"Go up to your room and see your real present," Scott grinned.
"Don't forget to bring the collar with you," Dylan added.
Still a little wary what his brothers could be up to Arthur rose from his chair and walked out from the kitchen, but looked back at his brothers from time to time as if to ask them if they were sure about this. They didn't give away anything else though, and just silently grinned while they followed Arthur up the stairs to his room.
The door was closed. It shouldn't be a big deal, but Arthur was sure he left it open in his haste to retrieve the parchment and pen earlier this morning when he was about to answer his letter from Hogwarts. This meant someone else had been inside his room since then, and since he and Scott had been outside since breakfast it meant this person was Dylan.
"Dylan, if there is a prank inside my room I will make sure you're the first one I kill," Arthur threatened before he took a deep breath and opened his door.
"No faith in us at all," was the last thing Arthur heard before his brain toned out the rest of what Scott said at the sight which met his eyes.
Because there, at the foot of his bed in a small basket, was an adorable tiny and sleeping kitten with orange and white fur.
Arthur stumbled forward into his room in disbelief and continued forward until he was close enough to the basket to kneel down in front of it.
"Her name is Cassie and she turns 15 weeks old today," Arthur vaguely heard Scott proclaim proudly.
"She is a half-breed between Scottish Fold Shorthair and a Kneazle, so she will be a good and very intelligent companion for you."
Cassie woke up when Arthur knelt down in front of her basket and now sleepily meowed towards him. Slowly, to not scare her, Arthur moved his hand closer to Cassie so she could sniff his hand.
"Is she mine?" Arthur breathed out in awe just as Cassie began to purr against his hand.
"Yes," Dylan replied gently with a smile, who seemed to understand Arthur's need to confirm it to be true. "She is yours."
Arthur decided this was the best birthday he ever had.
o.o.o.(End of chapter 03).o.o.o
Author Note:
Hello again! You might wonder about the fast upload of chapters right now, and that's okay. You see, I already have 8 chapters uploaded on Deviantart, and I'm currently writing chapter 9, so until I've uploaded all of the chapters I already have uploaded on DA it will seem like I'm very quick with updates. However please be warned: I seriously suck at being quick to update my fanfictions, and those from DA probably already know this.
Normally it's more like I update slowly but surely. x) You guys don't have to worry about that just yet though!
This is only chapter 03, so we still have 5 more chapters before you can begin to complain about how slow I update. xD
I hope all of you enjoyed this chapter, and thank you so much for reading! /Jezzica
(PS). Thank you so much for the reviews TheNameYouForgot! I still have the 24-hours rule on my account,
so I can't answer your reviews yet (if FF even allows you to answer reviews, I don't know), but I'm happy you seem to like this fanfiction! So thank you!
