Chapter 7 – Birthday Presents
14th May 1974
Vega had snuck into the boy's dorm room and noticed everyone was still asleep apart from Remus. She put down the present she was holding and put a finger up to her lips letting Remus know to stay quiet. Vega continued sneaking up to her brother's bed. She then proceeded to jump up on his bed.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" she yelled causing the rest of the boys to wake up
"What is going on?" came from three separate boys while Castor glared at his sister.
"V I am really starting to hate this tradition, it is even worse knowing I can't get up your staircase" Castor sat up.
"Oh well" Vega got off the bed and grabbed the present and handing it to Castor.
"Happy Birthday Cas" was yelled from the rest of the boys while they all pulled out their own presents for him. Cas proceeded to open his presents. He received a Quidditch book and an IOU for game tickets from his sister. Pranking items from both James and Sirius. Defensive spell book from Remus and Peter had given him sweets.
"Thanks guys this amazing. V does this mean you'll actually come to a game with me and dad this summer?" Castor Eye his sister cautiously.
"Of course I will silly. I have no problem watching Quidditch, I just preferred being at the beach with the girls in previous summers. This is normally when I would ask how you would like to spend your birthday but since we have classes and exams creeping up on us I won't this year" Remus, James and Sirius all had the same confused look on their faces while they watched the twins.
"What?" the twins said together.
"Well we have been trying to say happy birthday to V but you two wouldn't shut up but then when Cas didn't say anything to V we got really confused." Peter nodded with agreement.
"Oh well that would be because my birthday is actually tomorrow. Yes we are twins, but we technically have two different birthdays. Cas was born at 11:45pm while I was born at 12:08am the next day. Growing up it was easier; we didn't have to share the day. We were able to have the attention on us for a day without having the share it."
"Well that sounds fair, look V do you mind leaving so we can get ready for the day. We'll meet you in the common room and well head down to breakfast?" Vega just shrugged before getting up and leaving. When they all finally met up in the common room they started heading towards the great hall.
"Guys I'll meet you in there I have to make a trip to the kitchens" Sirius didn't wait for a reply before walking off.
While they were all having breakfast all the owls flew into the hall signalling mail. There was a snowy white owl hovering around the Gryffindor table before landing in front of the twins. It stuck its leg out towards Castor.
"I'm going to assume it is from you and it is mostly from mum and dad" Vega tried to get her brothers attention. Castor took the note from the owl and Vega fed him some bacon before it took off.
Castor,
First off we wanted to say happy birthday. We are so proud of you for everything you have done this year with settling in. Even though you have received too many detentions for our liking there is nothing we can do about it, both you and your sister have always been that way. We would have sent you your birthday present but we didn't want you to lose it. We have bought you 7 tickets to the Puddlemore United game against the Chudley Cannons in July. You might be a bit confused as to why we said 7 tickets. But it is another reason we are writing to you.
We hope that tomorrow you can keep your sisters anger under control when she realizes we haven't mentioned anything about a present. You see we wanted it to be a surprise. We have organised for Jessica Bishop to visit us for the summer.
We want to thank you for letting us know how upset your sister has been without Jessica and we hope this visit will be able to lift her mood. So please Castor look after your sister tomorrow.
Love,
Mum and Dad xo
Castor looked up from the letter and grinned at Vega
"What did mum and dad end up getting you?" Vega just kept eating breakfast. Sirius finally came back and sat down next to Vega, attempting to steal her bacon.
"They said something about tickets to the Puddlemore United game against Chudley Cannons, oh and they also bought enough tickets for you all to come as well." Castor looked at everyone; the boys were all grinning while Vega mumbled something along the lines of great spending the day with boys.
All throughout classes Vega decided to sit with Lily instead of the boys.
"Not that it bothers me, but why are you sitting here? Normally you sit with the boys?" Vega just shrugged.
"Sometimes I miss being around other girls." Lily just nodded and when back to focusing on her work. Every now and then the girls would talk about various things.
When it came time for dinner Vega sat beside her brother with Lily on her other side, but overall she ignored all the boys and just spent the whole time giggling about something with Lily.
"Alright I give in what do you two find so funny?" Sirius sounded a little annoying.
Before one of the girls could answer Castor jumped in first.
"I am warning you now, don't ask, you don't want to know. I made that mistake once and they told me. I was almost sick" Castor looked a little pale at remember that awful day.
"Oh Cas stop being a baby, but if you really want to know. We are talking about boys." Vega just went back to her conversation with Lily.
Once dinner had finished and dessert arrived in the middle of them was a chocolate cake saying 'Happy Birthday Castor'. Castor looked a little shocked as he tried to work out how they managed this.
"It pays to be nice to house elves in the kitchen" Peter answered while grabbing a piece of cake.
They all enjoyed the cake before heading up the common room for the night. The next morning the boys were seen pacing at the bottom of the girls staircase.
"Evans, Where is she?" James asked Lily when she appeared on the staircase.
"She is still in bed. I don't know why she doesn't want to come out." Lily shrugged looking towards Castor.
"I do. Can you please tell her that I have her most favourite thing in the world done here? It will get her out of bed and get ready for classes." Lily nodded and headed back up the stairs.
"Do you really have that?" Peter looked towards Castor.
"No I don't, it is actually a person. I'm assuming she is missing Jess, which is also why she spent the day with Lily yesterday. I'll explain another time though. But for now I'm assuming these presents will help her mood." Castor grabbed the two boxes from the table.
When Vega finally arrived downstairs she looked miserable.
"Happy Birthday V." Everyone said together, including Lily.
Everyone handed their presents over. Overall she received some books from Remus and James. Sweets from both Castor and Peter, but Castor had gotten her, her favourite. Lily had gotten her perfume. Sirius had gotten her pranking related books. But it was Castor's second present that she loved. It was a photo album containing photos of all their Salem friends. It looked as though Vega might cry but she stopped the tears from falling.
"Thank you all. This means a lot" She hugged them all individually before heading down to breakfast.
The same snowy white owl found them at breakfast having a letter for Vega from her parents
Vega,
As we told your brother yesterday we are incredibly proud of the way you both have made an effort to fit in at Hogwarts. Even though we aren't happy with the detentions we won't be complaining this year.
We also wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday. We hope you have the best day.
We will see you at the end of term.
Love,
Mum and Dad xo
"WHAT THE HELL!" Vega yelled earning some strange looks from the people surrounding the group.
"What did mum and dad say V?" Castor knew she was going to react like this, he just wished he didn't have to deal with it.
"Just that they were proud and that I should have a good day. No present no nothing mention of a present of the sort! This is bull!" Vega got up and stormed off leaving the boys plus Lily sitting there shocked.
"Alright listen up while she is gone I can explain. Yesterday in the letter mum and dad told me what they were planning for her present. I have owled them a couple of times letting them know that V has been struggling to make girl friends." Lily glared at him "Yes Lily I know your there and that you two are friends but here me out. There was this one girl Jess that we grew up with. The street that we lived in also contained the rest of the 12 families, Vega and I were the youngest along with Jess, she was only a couple of months older than us. The rest of the children were either years older or younger than us. So at all the family parties it was always just the three of us. I know how she feels always hanging out with boys I was the same when it was always girls. The point is as well, that this is the first birthday she has spent without Jess. I'm not struggling as much as V because I didn't make many guy friends until we started at Salem and they are nowhere near as good of friends as you all are" The boys all grinned.
"So mum organised for Jess to visit us over the summer but it is a surprise. There is also a ticket for her to come to the Quidditch match as well. We just have to keep her out of the loop for the next month and her anger under control. Once school is over she'll take her anger out on mum and dad. Lily I was also hopping you could convince her to spend time with you and the rest of the girls? But please not Snivellus" Lily glared at Castor but agreed none the less.
Vega spent more time with Lily over the next week compared the rest of the boys. It wasn't until one night when she was in the common room study that they all came up to her with wide eyes and sad faces that she realised they wanted something.
"What do you want?" Vega didn't look up for her charms book.
"Well we were hoping you could help us with astronomy so we can all pass the exam next week." Castor went over and sat next to his sister. Vega didn't answer she just kept reading her book. Eventually the boys couldn't take the silence anymore.
"Please, please, please" they all began saying together while on their knees begging.
"Alright fine. But can we sneak up to the astronomy tower. It will be easier to explain everything up there" The boys all had triumph smiles on their faces before allowing Vega to lead the way. They then proceeded to spend most of the night in the astronomy tower where Vega pointed out all the main points they should remember for their exam.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been setting alerts, reading and posting reviews it all means a lot to me!
