CHAPTER TEN – BEST BIRTHDAY GIFT
Days passed and I saw myself boarding the train to go home for the winter break. It was snowing outside already and I grinned. I love snow!
I was in a compartment with Katrina, Desiree, Maxine, Hugo and Andrew. Nathaniel was in a compartment with the other Ravenclaw first years after having a bit of an squabble with Maxine. Honestly, for the past weeks, those two were always bickering. It's quite irritating. Actually, it was really irritating! Even Des was annoyed with his brother and relieved of not having those two in the same compartment as she was.
Things were a little less awkward with Andrew and my first year friends now. For the pass days, while Nate and Max were arguing, the others talked to Andrew tentatively and he answered back with the same politeness. Sometimes, I wonder how difficult it could be to have some annoying and immature bunch of first years for company, especially since there's no denying that Andrew's mature for his age, especially because he's a boy.
Max and Des were playing chess while Hugo watches them. They won't let him join because he'll just win over them. Even Rose can't beat his little brother, or even the adults (my dad included). There's only one person I've known who can beat him - his dad, Uncle Ron. He got his talent from him but can't match the experience his dad has from being an adult.
Meanwhile, Kat and I are talking about Christmas (which both of us were really excited about than the rest of us) while Andrew listens tentatively out of the corner of his ear while reading (as usual). Kat kept squealing like an annoying girly kid - which she probably was. I was a bit annoyed at first because I can't stomach over girlishness. I don't know why but I'm as simple as can be. I just can't hel
Kat told me that they would be spending they're Christmas at France, which she was so excited about for some reason. I don't really get it. I've been to France before when visiting with my Aunt Fleur's old house and family. It's really beautiful but what made me dislike it was Gabrielle's (Aunt Fleur's sister) daughter Sabrina. She's a nightmare! She's the same age as Al and she's batting her eyelashes whenever Al was around. Honestly, my veela cousins weren't that irritating! Luckily, Al turns a blind eye towards her (like dad was to mum before his sixth year).
I told Kat in return about our plans in celebrating. As usual, we celebrate Christmas Eve (and my birthday) at our house. It's mainly because of my birthday, actually. Then at Christmas morning, we'll go to The Burrow to have fun with the rest of our family.
The old witch with the trolley passed by and we bought some sweets while waiting for the rest of the ride.
After a few minutes of eating, Hugo asked, "Hey Lils, can I have some licorice wand?" I rolled my eyes at him. He's already eaten a lot of sweets and his tummy was still craving for more.
"Hugo, you've eaten a lot already! You're stomach's going to explode!" I exclaimed dramatically and all of us except him laughed. He glared at me and I laughed even harder before tossing him the candy. He smiled after that and nibbled it happily.
I continued eating my chocolate frog and pocketed the card – her Aunt Hermione. I'll add them later to my collections which will reach thousands already by this time.
"Have you done your Christmas list already?" I asked Kat.
"Nope. I haven't figured what to give you guys yet," she replied.
"Want to join me to Diagon Alley. I haven't gotten to buy you guys, too, yet." This time, Des and Max were paying attention to our conversation, too, abandoning poor Hugo who struck up a conversation with Andrew – the only other boy in the compartment who's not interested in shopping.
"I say we go to Diagon Alley together!" Maxine said happily. Kat and I nodded but Des looked worried.
"I can't go there. My parents still aren't happy about me and my brother not being sorted into Slytherin. They won't allow me, for sure," Des mumbled. I hissed angrily, as did the other two girls. "I honestly don't want to come home for Christmas, you know." Kat patted her back tenderly and rubbed soothing circles at it.
"Don't worry, we'll right to you," Kat reassured.
"You can stay over us if you'd like," I added.
"You can come over at my house and spend Christmas the muggle style if you'd want to," Max said with a smile.
"Actually," Des said, smiling. "I really want you're suggestion, Max! It'll bite my dad's head off!" she joked and the four of us laughed.
"I'd really want to get out of the stupid mansion, you know!" Des whined after we finished laughing.
"You live in a mansion?" Max asked with wide eyes, surprised. Des nodded while Max looked at Kat and I as if we should've been shocked, too."And you two?" she asked the two of us. I looked at Kat to indicate that she answer first.
"Well, sort of," she said awkwardly. "My dad came from a pureblood family so he inherited an estate or something. But we live in a large cottage near Leaky Cauldron because it's more convenient," she explained and looked at me, gesturing that it's my turn.
"Well, my dad inherited a mansion from his father who came from some sort of old wizard family, but we only visit it for vacations. Actually, if I'm right, my granddad Potter only lived there until he came of age. You know, seventeen for wizards. And then he lived in Godric's Hollow with my grandma and my dad when he was a baby. My dad was the next in line so he inherited it."
Max's eyes widened, if possible, even more. "Wow," she breathed.
"Well, actually," Des said, a bit irritated, "old wizard family manors are a bit ridiculous! Well, not that ridiculous but they're ridiculously large! I mean, there are only five of us in the family but the numbers of rooms are like in muggle hotels!"
"Yeah," Kat and I said at the same time.
"You know about muggle hotels?" Max asked uncertainly to Des.
"Of course I do. I sometimes borrow Andrew's Muggle Studies book for bedtime," she said in a lighter mood, grinning. Honestly, what was with her and the mood swings? At the mention of his name, Hugo and Andrew turned around from their conversation to look at us.
"Did you call me?" Andrew asked, looking at us with a very ridiculous confused expression on his face. The four of us laughed while Hugo was looking at us as if we'd gone mental.
Max shook his head and Des said, "I was just telling them that I was borrowing your Muggle Studies book for reading and you turned around with a funny expression on your face.
"Oh, I see so you kiddos are making fun of me now," he said, raising his eyebrows.
"Yes we are, Fergie," I teased, looking up at him and beaming.
"Why am I Fergie?" he asked uncertainly.
"Honestly, I thought you were smart!" I pretended to sigh exasperatedly and said, "It's short for 'Ferguson' because it's too long, you know, because it has three syllables. That's why you're Fergie!" We all laughed and even Andrew was smiling a little.
"But why not call me my first name?" Andrew asked, raising one eyebrow.
I match his blond eyebrow with raising my auburn one and said, "I can call you whatever I like. What? Do you prefer Blondie Andy?" At this, we all renewed another round of chuckles.
"Alright, Lilsies, I'd rather you not address me with any name at all." He sighed. Kids really live with having a good laugh, but could really be annoying. He returned to reading his book and soon, I fell asleep.
It seemed like I've been sleeping forever until I felt a tap on my shoulder and opened my eyes to see a blurry Andrew waking me up saying, "Lils, we're here now. I rubbed my eyes and see clearer. The others were also starting to wake up and I found myself hugging Des, Kat and Max goodbye and turned to throw myself at a bewildered Andrew, catching him by surprise.
"Come on!" I exclaimed and ran on the train to the platform. I saw my mum and dad talking to Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione and I ran into my parents and threw myself at them. "Mummy! Daddy! I missed you!"
"We missed you, too, Flower. Now where are your brothers?" mum asked.
I shrugged. I haven't seen them since I got in the train. I looked around and saw the Longbottoms talking to Maxine's parents. I waved at my two friends before turning my head to look for my brothers. I spotted the twins with they're brother and parents. Mr. Zabini was expressionless but was looking at his two youngest children with a look of disappointment and a bit of anger. I caught Des and Nate's eye and gave them a small, encouraging smile before returning to my search. I was shocked by the next thing I've seen. Draco Malfoy and a blonde woman that was surely his wife were talking with a woman with chocolate brown hair and look a lot like Mrs. Malfoy. Her one hand was on Andrew's shoulder so that's probably his mother. Andrew was chatting animatedly to Scorpius Malfoy. Andrew and Scorpius were talking with identical smiles on their lips and looking so much like brothers. I've never seen Scorpius Malfoy's expression this unguarded before. After all, his friends weren't there. His eyes have more light and his shoulders were more relax.
Andrew saw me looking and smiled. I waved and returned his smile at him before I turned to look at Malfoy. I turned to look at him with questioning, hazel eyes and he just raised his eyebrows, looking a bit skeptical. They were ushered by their parents away. I turned around and joined my parents who are already with my brothers.
At that moment, I knew that there was something different about Scorpius Malfoy.
I woke up early at my birthday, Christmas Eve, to find a pile of gifts at the foot of my bed. I stretched slightly and turned to look at the clock on my bedside table. It's seven thirty in the morning (too early for my liking) and I usually don't open my birthday presents until Christmas so I started to get back to sleep, only to be rudely awaken by a gray owl tapping on my window. I sighed and got out of my bed and opened the window for it.
The owl isn't familiar. It dropped to my bed a small, rectangular parcel wrapped in red and silver ribbon with a letter attached to it. I saw the familiar elegant script of Andrew and opened it excitedly while the owl flew out of my window. The letter said:
Dear Lils,
Happy Birthday! Oh Merlin, you're already twelve! And it's Christmas tomorrow! How's you're holiday? Mine is great. I get to spend some time with my cousin... you know... Scorpius. I know that you've seen me talking to him at King's Cross Station with my mum, aunt and uncle. So Scorpius and I are stuck here at Malfoy Manor and he's currently sleeping next door while I'm writing this letter. I already told him that I'm friends with you and he said he already knows. Was it that obvious? I guess so, because apparently I'm the only tall one talking with your bunch of kids. He doesn't complain, though, which is what I'm happy about. Anyway, Scor said that he's other cousin (second cousin, actually) is going for a brief visit early this morning so I'm going to wake Scorpius now after I finish writing.
I hope you'll like my gift for your birthday and Christmas. It's not much, but I hope you'll like it.
Happy Birthday and Happy Christmas.
Love,
Andrew
P.S. Can you teach me how to play guitar sometime? (Kidding!)
I smiled as I finished letter. So Malfoy has no problem with that. That's odd. I put the letter on my desk and began shaking the his present. I was light and a bit noisy. I decided to open it instead of tomorrow. I carefully remove the ribbon and tore the wrappings and open a box with a swan-feather quill with a tip of a pencil and can be sharpened. I smiled at it and saw another present inside which made me smile even further. There was a guitar pick at the bottom of the parcel and a note which says It change into different colors every hour. I hope you like it. Don't lose it. I look at it closely and it was my favorite color of green with a white lily in the small center and my name on it.
It was a really thoughtful gift. I ran out of bed and get my guitar out of its case. It has been long since I played it. I played one of my favorite country song 'Passenger Seat.' I used Andrew's gift and sang quietly along the song. I am a fair singer - quite good and not so bad. Halfway through the chorus, my bedroom doors creaked open and I saw my mum and dad enter and smiled at them. I stopped playing, put my things down and turned to hug my parents.
"Mummy! Daddy!"
"Happy Birthday Flower!" my dad said happily.
"Why so cheerful today?" mum asked.
I rolled my eyes. "It's my birthday mum," I reminded her sarcastically. They both laughed and look at my bed.
"Why are there wrappers there? Isn't it your tradition to open gifts at Christmas?" dad asked. " And why suddenly play music?" Again, I rolled my eyes.
I ignored the first question and squealed, "Because I haven't used it forever!" Dad started to laugh and mum rolled her eyes at the both of us the same way I roll mine. I have her hazel eyes.
"Breakfast now," she said and kissed me on the top of my head before leading us down to the kitchen.
Mum settled down the plates and food using her wand. I piled my plate with toast and ham and helped myself to pumpkin juice. A few minutes later, we heard a yell and Al swore loudly, "JAMES, YOU BLOODY PRAT!" Seconds later, we heard the footsteps of those two (Al was probably chasing James) and they made their way downstairs. Al looked tired and fuming while James looked simply happy and pulled me into a bone crushing hug.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILS!" James squealed.
"C-cant b-breathe!" I gasped and he let go of me with a huge grin on his face. I scowled at him and said, "Why do you seem much more excited than me for my birthday?"
He laughed and said, "Because you're my baby sister!"
Al snorted and rolled his eyes while James turned to look at him with narrowed eyes. Al beamed and said, "You're excited because of the food! Or rather because of the cake!" With that, all of us laughed, even James.
"Don't tell me you don't like cakes, Al," James retorted after the laughter died out.
" Merlin, James! Of course I do. No sane person doesn't like cakes!"
"Where's Teddy?" I asked before James could retort and continue bickering. I noticed my dad tense slightly, scratching his nose. "Dad? Something wrong?" I asked worriedly. Dad was scratching his nose while looking at mum. They were silently communicating using their eyes, which I see them do all the time. I sighed. "What is it?"
"Well," dad began uncomfortably, "Hevisitedhiscousin," he said in one breath that it turned out incoherent.
"What?"
He took a deep breath and said, "He went to visit his cousin." I grimaced. I didn't know Teddy had a cousin.
"Who?" Al, James and I asked at the same time.
"Scorpius Malfoy," mum breathed. The three of us gasped. How many people I know are related to him. First, Andrew. Now, Teddy. So Teddy was the cousin he referred at the letter I thought. What kind of surprise is that for my birthday? I am perfectly sure that my face look more stunned than a person hit by a Stunning Spell.
"Is it just me, or did you really say what I thought you said?" James said, looking at mum. She sighed and nodded.
"Yes. His related to the Malfoys."
"How?" I asked, still a bit baffled by this piece of news.
"Their grandmothers are sisters and Teddy's mum and Scorpius' dad are cousins so they're second cousins," mum explained.
"Why didn't you tell us before?" Al asked.
"Because," dad said, his voiced higher than usual, "you wouldn't take it good. Now let's just celebrate our little girl's birthday." He got the effect he needed to divert our attention because of my outburst. As always.
"Dad!" I complained. "I'm not little! Why does everyone says that?" I folded my arms across my chest while my family chuckled at me.
"Oh, but you are Lils!" Al chuckled.
"Ugh! You're so mean!"
"Okay, shut up now you two," mum scolded the guffawing James and Al. They shut up at once because of mum's stern look. "Rose and Hugo will come over later with Ron and Hermione. The kids will spend the night here and then will go to The Burrow tomorrow morning for Christmas."
"Yay!" Al and I said happily. We've always been closer to them than to our other cousins - Al and Rose and Hugo and me. James has always been closer to Louis and Fred but he can't shut up as long as there are people to talk to.
I, mum and dad continued our food while my brothers started piling their plates.
About ten in the morning, Rose, Hugo and their parents arrived at our house. They joined their gifts on the pile under the Christmas Tree (because they know about my stupid tradition) and after short greetings, we went outside to have a snowball fight. It was a fight between everyone. I can aim good and have only missed hitting them a few times. I've only been hit a few times because I'm the smallest and I can dodge fast. After the snowball fight, we went back inside the house to shower and change. When we're all comfortably dressed, we ate lunch.
After lunch, we did what we wanted. I decided to reply to the birthday cards from my friends while the boys played Exploding Snap. Rose predictably reads a book. I sent the letters to Desiree, Nathaniel and Max with Adryll while I used Amber for sending my replies to Katrina and Andrew. I used the two owls to make it faster so that they can come back earlier before they freeze outside. I haven't mentioned in the letter to Andrew about Teddy. I'll talk to Teddy first about it. When I'm done, I pushed Rosie out of her book and began chatting with her about school and I mentioned about Teddy being cousins with Malfoy. She was surprised, but she said that Malfoy wasn't nasty enough, although she mentioned how irritating he is for beating her in exams sometimes. That's so Rose-like, doesn't want to be beaten in tests.
Teddy and Victoire went home around dinner. The three of us Potter children look pointedly at Teddy and his hair and face suddenly became red and his height slowly decreased.
"Teddy," I said, "why do you look scared and elfish?"
"And redhead," James added.
"Don't forget, red faced," Al added again.
"Well, d-dad alr-ready told y-you about... y-you know," he stammered, which caused as all laughing.
"Yeah, we know. Don't worry about it," I reassured.
"Did he tell you I won on him in a duel?" Al asked brightly, grinning. This caused raised eyebrows from our parents so he added, "It's the dueling club, mum! Dad! Not dueling in the corridors, you know."
"Stop bragging Al," I advised. "Just shut up. Don't embarrass Teddy's cousin."
"Yeah, Al. That was ages ago," Rose added. He shrugged.
"Let's just start eating. I'm hungry already," Ron said, which earned him a dirty look from his wife. "What?"
"RONALD! ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS FOOD!" Hermione said exasperatedly.
"Yes Ron, will you shut up first and wait!" mum added. "You haven't changed since I can remember!" Uncle Ron flushed tomato red, his ear even redder than his hair.
"Oh, shut up, Ginny!"
The adult siblings started bickering as if they were back to being kids until, finally, Aunt Hermione cut in and served dinner. They sang 'Happy Birthday' and started eating the array of delicious foods cooked by mum with the help of Aunt Hermione. After dinner, our aunt and uncle went home while Rose and Hugo will sleep over the house. They will sleep at the spare bedrooms on the third floor. The masters bedroom, which was also in the third floor, wasn't used unless if there are many visitors. My parents used Sirius Black's old room as a reminder and honor of my dad's godfather.
We were all urged by mum to sleep early that night so that we won't be hard to wake up early tomorrow. I went up to my bed early without complaining because of the desire to wake up early tomorrow. Christmas happens to be the one day that I wanted to be a morning person. No one can blame a little girl for wanting to open their gifts, and I doubt that it will change even if I've gotten older. It's always fun, and tomorrow, I'm sure to open more gifts than my brothers because of the joint of my Christmas and Christmas Eve birthday presents. I changed into one of my favorite pajamas that night, the one with a picture of unicorns.
I was about about to go up to my bed when I heard a knock and James suddenly went inside my room with a broad grin in his face. "Happy Birthday Lils," he said. "I'd like to give you my gift personally, since I don't want to bother wrapping it." I rolled my eyes. Trust James to not being capable of wrapping.
"What is it?" I asked.
He held up a piece of parchment and my eyes widened. He grinned and gave it to me. "Is this the-?"
"Yes, it is the Marauder's Map. I figured I'd give it now to you, for your birthday and Christmas." He shrugged.
I hugged him and caught him by surprise. He stumbles a bit but catches me. "Thanks James! This is the best gift ever!" We both laughed and bade each other good night before he went back to his room.
I smiled and lied down on my bed and succumbing into a dreamy sleep, thinking about Dumbledore dressed as Santa Claus and going down the chimney, putting enormous gifts underneath our tall Christmas tree.
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