Chapter Fourteen

The 10th Anniversary

Mia was woken up on the morning of her birthday to Lily jumping on her legs.

"Lily, get off," she moaned, still half asleep. Lily duly 'got off'...and then jumped on again. "What are you doing?" Mia demanded.

"I have to jump on you fourteen times – once for every year you have," Lily explained – if you could call it an explanation.

"No you don't," Mia said firmly, as Lily jumped on her for a third time.

"Yes I do," Lily insisted. "Four – it's a family tradition. James – five - started it."

"Your parents must love that," Alice yawned, sitting up in bed.

"Well, it's a family tradition you can confine to your immediate family," Mia said, pushing Lily onto the floor.

Due to Lily's early awakening, the third year girls were some of the first in the Great Hall for breakfast. They hadn't long sat down when Emma, Matilda, JJ and Archie came in, all soaking wet.

"It's raining," Matilda said, wholly unnecessarily, as the three Gryffindor first years sat down.

"Wow, Matilda, I never would've guessed," Lily said sarcastically.

"What were you even doing outside?" Mia asked.

"Walking," JJ said.

"We were going to take Archie's book out, but he wouldn't let us in the rain," Matilda explained. "So we just went for a walk. Archie says maybe we can write our own book, because that one's really old, and Archie reckons maybe some of the creatures in the grounds are different now, and-"

At this point, Mia tuned out. It was a skill what was necessary to acquire when you were around Matilda for any length of time.

"Happy birthday, Mia," Emma said shyly.

"Thanks," Mia grinned.

"I got you a present," Emma said, handing her a small rectangular parcel, wrapped in yesterday's Daily Prophet. "I didn't have any wrapping paper," she said sheepishly.

Mia opened the parcel to find her a red picture frame, decorated with gold gems. "Wow, Emma, did you make this?" Mia asked.

Emma nodded, blushing. "I asked my mum to send some of my craft stuff from home."

"Thank you," Mia grinned, as the rest of the school started arriving for breakfast.

Mia's first lesson on her birthday was Modern History of Magic. The third years were spending all this term studying Wizarding Britain since 1998 – the end of the Second War. Today, they were working on a project about the tenth anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, in May 2008, by which point all but a handful of the class had been born.

"Everyone get into groups of no less than three, no more than five," Professor Nilsson said. Predictably, Lily, Mia, Hugo and Louis made a four. Then Professor Nilsson spent the first ten minutes of the lesson explaining what he wanted them to do. "Project hand in is two weeks today," he finished up. "There are records in the library which you can access, as well as writing to people to ask for personal accounts."

"My dad can tell us everything," Lily grinned.

"There's a whole lot of information to help you on this roll of parchment," Professor Nilsson said, handing each group a neatly bound scroll. "You have the rest of the lesson to plan what you're going to do and who's doing what. Then for the rest of the Modern History lessons this week and next, you don't need to come to the lesson – you can just get on with your project. If you need me, you'll find me in the library in those lessons."

"Alright," Lily said, as the group turned to each other.

"I have – ahem – a book I could access," Louis said, lowering his voice.

"What, about the 10th Anniversary?" Hugo asked.

Louis nodded. "All the Anniversaries-" he lowered his voice even more "-there are Ravenclaw records."

"What, in the Ravenclaw library?" Lily asked.

"Shut up," Louis hissed. "Non-Ravenclaw's aren't supposed to know about it – don't go shouting about it."

"Sorry," Lily sighed, rolling her eyes. "So you'll look at it, make some notes?"

"Uh-huh," Louis nodded.

Mia unrolled the scroll that Professor Nilsson had given them.

"There are the names of the Head Boy and Head Girl from that year on here," she said. "D'you think they'd tell us what they said in their tributes if we wrote and asked them?"

"I guess it'd be worth asking," Louis shrugged. "They could only say no."

"I think we should do a bit on what's changed, and what's stayed the same, in the Wizarding World between 1998 and 2008," Hugo said. "You know, like a fact file, with two columns, one for '98 and one for '08."

"That can be your job, then," Louis grinned.

"Alright," Hugo shrugged. "And Mia, I guess you better write the letters to... Daisy Zeller and James Paige."

"I wouldn't know what to write," Mia protested. "It's a bit weird to just write to someone you've never met and ask them for something – it would feel a bit cheeky."

"Lily can help you, then," Louis said. "She's good at cheeky."

"Hey!" Lily scowled at her cousin. "You're mean... but I guess I can help."

"So, we've all got stuff to do... like as homework," Hugo said. "And the next lesson we can meet in the library, and see what we've all found out."

The Gryffindors' next lesson was Defence Against the Dark Arts. Lily, Mia and Hugo said goodbye to Louis at the end of the corridor, as he was heading out to the grounds and Herbology. In Defence Against the Dark Arts, Mia sat down next to Cassie, as her friend smiled,

"Happy Birthday, Mia."

"Thank you," Mia smiled back.

"Have you had a good day so far?" Cassie asked.

"Yeah, pretty good," Mia nodded.

After that, the day seemed to fly by, with Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures and Potions rushing past, and almost before she knew it, Mia's birthday was almost over, and she and the rest of the gang were sat in the Inter-House Common Room, passing around hunks of birthday cake, which Mac had provided.

"I propose that if it's someone's birthday, no one should do any homework," Mac yawned, stretching out in an armchair and winking at Zoe, who giggled.

"But it's always someone's birthday somewhere," Alexander pointed out.

"I meant in the gang," Mac told him.

"Well, that's still an awful lot of birthdays," Alexander reasoned, not wanting to be defeated. "Thirteen..ish – depending on who you count."

"Who are you counting to make thirteen?" Mac demanded.

"Me, Kieran, Hugo, Lily, Mia, Rachel, Alice, Frankie, Zoe, Cassie, you, Louis... and Ailie." He grinned at his younger sister, a second year who tended to hang out with the gang.

"Me and Frankie have the same birthday," Alice reminded him. "We're twins, duh!"

"Yeah, and several people have birthdays in the holidays," Mac pointed out. "Me, for one. Therefore, my point stands."

"Well, I for one aren't going to be doing any homework tonight," Lily sighed. "I'm all homeworked out."

"How can you be?" Mia demanded. "You didn't do any yesterday either. You know we should probably write those letters – get them off first thing."

"What letters?" Kieran asked.

"Not telling," Mia smirked – she wasn't about to let another group get hold of her idea about writing to the Head Boy and Head Girl from the 10th Anniversary year.

"I suppose we'd better," Lily sighed. "Alright, come on then, Mia."
Lily and Mia left the gang, and found themselves a quiet corner where they could write their letters in peace. They worked together, to decide on the content and wording, each writing one letter and then signing both.

"Think we'll get any replies?" Lily asked, as they addressed the envelopes and stowed them away in Mia's bag.

"Maybe," Mia shrugged. "But it's worth a try." She looked at her watch. "It's twenty past eight – we ought to be heading up to Gryffindor tower."

She and Lily headed over to rejoin the gang, most of whom were preparing to go back to their own House Common Rooms.

"Ailie, you're a second year," Lily said.

"I know..." Ailie said, confused.

"So you should've been back in Gryffindor tower twenty minutes ago," Lily pointed out.

"Damn – I forgot," Ailie said.

"If we all just walk in a big group, then if we run into a teacher, no one will notice you," Alexander suggested.

Everyone fell in with Alexander's suggestion, and, bidding goodbye to Louis, Mac, Zoe and Cassie, the Gryffindors proceeded up to their tower without mishap. They even passed Professors Cooke and Reuben on the fifth floor, but they didn't seem to notice Ailie – only ushered the third years to hurry up because curfew was approaching.

The next morning at breakfast, Louis came and joined Lily, Mia and Hugo at the Gryffindor table.

"I've been reading the Ravenclaw records," he said in a hushed voice. "There's loads of stuff in there – someone even bothered to describe the Minister's dress robes."

Lily giggled. "Well, Mia and I sent Venus and Felix off with the letters first thing."

They all looked at Hugo. "I haven't done much yet," he said "-I was busy with my Muggle Studies homework. But I did make a list of the things I think we need in the fact-file."

He pulled a scrap of parchment out of his pocket, not unlike one on which Al kept a tally of all Rose and Scorp's break-ups and make-ups, upon which he'd written: 'Minister for Magic, Head Boy/Head Girl, Hogwarts teachers, typical wage for Ministry worker'.

"There probably ought to be more, but I couldn't think of any," Hugo said. "I also think we should have the number of people who attended each Victory Day, but I've got no idea where I'd find that."
"Ravenclaw library," Louis hissed. "I'll find it for you."

"How old is this library of yours?" Lily demanded.

Louis shrugged. "The Hogwarts records go back steadily to about the 1760's – they're a bit sporadic before then. But some of the other books are quite a lot order."

"Snog alert," Hugo sighed, rolling his eyes. Lily, Mia and Louis, who were all sat opposite him, turned around to look. Sure enough, Mac and Zoe were sat at the neighbouring Hufflepuff table, kissing.

"Seriously?" Louis said. "What is it with him and my ex-girlfriends? First Dove, and now Zoe..."

"Who d'you reckon Mac wants to date next?" Lily giggled. "You need to find out, and date her first."

"Hmm..." was all that Louis would say.