A couple of days later, Sebastian and Henry both woke up in their dormitories. Both were excited as this morning was not only a Saturday, where they could lounge about all day, but it was also their twelfth birthday.
Henry stretched loudly and jumped out of bed to get ready for the day. After washing his face and brushing his teeth, he put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt of the Muggle band Muse and a large gray hoody over the top. He looked over to Jakob's bed and realised that he wasn't there. Henry shrugged and made his way downstairs to the common room.
He scanned the room quickly and saw them. The blonde haired Annie and then the light brown haired Jakob were sat by the fire chatting. Neither of them had seen Henry make his way down the stairs so he quietly sneaked over to them and screamed, "Boo!"
Annie shrieked loudly and Jakob literally jumped off the sofa. Henry cracked up laughing at his best friends.
"Don't you dare do that again, Henry Arthur Granger!" Annie yelled and punched him on his arm. "I don't care if it's your birthday."
Henry continued to laugh and Annie couldn't help join in, especially when they realised that Jakob had had a drink in his hand. He now looked like he'd peed himself.
"Thanks for that, mate," Jakob laughed, "nothing like starting the day with a heart attack!"
The three continued to laugh until Annie decided it was time for her and Jakob to pass over their presents shouting, "Happy birthday, Hen!"
"Oh guys, you shouldn't have," Henry told them and blushed when he saw they handed over their presents. He unwrapped Annie's present first. She had given him a new quill and a small bottle of mood control ink. The ink came with a little piece of parchment that told you what each colour meant: red for anger or passion; yellow for mixed feelings; green for healing or change; blue for relaxing; black for negative emotions and white for confusion or boredom.
"Just be sure not to use it in Professor Binn's lessons," Annie instructed him, "You'd write in white and it wouldn't come up on the parchment!" All three of them started laughing again and started discussing what colours each lesson would get.
Jakob then coughed and handed Henry his present. It was a multi box of several different types or sweets: Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Fizzing Whizbees, liquorish wands, chocolate frogs and many others. Along with these there was a huge slab of Honeydukes best chocolate.
"We'll all be having two feasts today," Henry joked and thanked his friends. The three then made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast after Henry quickly ran to put his presents away.
oOoOo
Down in the Slytherin house Sebastian was doing the same. He woke up early because he was far too excited to stay in bed. He made his way to the bathroom and washed his face and brushed his teeth.
Once back in the in the actual dormitory, he got dressed in a pair of jeans and a simple black jumper. He bushed his straight hair and dived onto Alfie's bed to wake him up and causing him to groan loudly. Luckily for both boys, the other Slytherin boys had already gone for breakfast.
"What on earth are you doing?" Alfie complained as he sat up.
"Have you forgotten?" Sebastian asked his best friend in Slytherin.
Alfie quickly wracked his brain and suddenly cried, "Happy birthday! Of course I didn't forget. Here." Alfie threw a small box towards Sebastian. "You don't have the best memory, so I wrote to my mum and asked her to buy this for you."
Sebastian ripped off the wrapping paper and opened the box. Inside it was a transparent ball the size of his fist. A Remembrall.
"Cheers, Alf," Sebastian grinned as he high fived him.
"I thought you'd like it," Alfie shrugged. "Now, we need to go to the common room before Peaches has chance to freak out." Sebastian nodded and after Alfie jumped out of bed himself and got dress, the two made their way to the common room.
Peaches was chatting to a couple of second year Slytherins when they walked in. She beamed when she saw her two best friends walk into the common room and pointed her friends out to the second years to indicate she was going over there.
"Happy birthday, Seb!" She cried and threw her arms around him. "I got you something." She giggled as she passed over a medium sized parcel.
Sebastian liked Peaches but she got on his nerves sometimes; she was girly and rather full of herself and she fawned over everything Alfie did. But when she let her walls down, she was actually a lovely girl that was rather intelligent. He didn't expect her to get him a present but when he opened the present he threw his arms around her. It was a Wizarding chess set. He'd wanted one for years but his mother said it was barbaric, so he could only play it when he was at Uncle Ron's or Uncle Harry's.
"Thank you, I've been wanting this for ages!" Sebastian cried and smiled at his best friends.
After quickly running back to the first year dormitory, he put his presents in his trunk and walked up to breakfast with them.
oOoOo
Just as Henry was about to walk into the Great Hall, he was tapped on the shoulder. He turned around and saw his brother and hugged him as they both shouted, "Happy birthday, Twin!" They both smiled at each other and promised to meet later in their father's office to meet him and their mum.
The twins and their friends then made their way to the separate tables of Gryffindor and Slytherin just as the post arrived. Both twins expected a couple of cards but didn't expect the boxes that came with them. Around five different owls landed in front of each of them.
Henry was relieved to see that Selena was back to health and was carrying a card in her mouth. That was the first one he opened.
Dear Henry Snape
Happy birthday, Sweetheart! I'll give you and Seb your presents when I see you later.
Lots of love,
Mum
"I'm finally a Snape!" Henry cheered happily and then went to open the other presents from the other owls.
He received a total of 10 cards from numerous people other than his mother. They were from: Uncle Arthur and Auntie Molly; Uncle Bill, Auntie Fleur and their daughters, Victoire and Bronte; Uncle Charlie; Uncle Percy, Auntie Penelope and their children, Percy Junior and Molly; Uncle Fred, Auntie Angelina and their daughter, Emma; Uncle George, Auntie Katie and their son Benjamin; Uncle Ron, Auntie Luna and their children Rose and Leon; Uncle Harry, Auntie Ginny and their children, James and Lily; Uncle Remus, Auntie Tonks and their children, Teddy and Rebecca (Henry blushed slightly seeing Rebecca's name) and finally, one from Hagrid.
There were also two parcels sent with the cards. One parcel was full of new merchandise from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. There were many perks to having the mischievous twins as uncles. The other parcel contained a tin of homemade toffee and a Gryffindor scarf with the initials HAS on it. This indicated that his mother had informed his Auntie Molly about changing his name.
Henry then looked over to Sebastian and saw that he was holding up a Slytherin scarf with the initials SMS them. By the box next to him, it appeared that Sebastian had also been sent the same merchandise from their uncles. Next to that box was a similar tin to Henry's, however, Henry knew it was fudge, simply because of Sebastian's preference to fudge.
Sebastian then looked over to Henry. The twins smiled at each other and nodded.
"I'll see you later guys," Henry told Jakob and Annie.
"Do you want us to take your things back up to the Gryffindor common room?" Annie asked.
"No, it's okay, I'll take them later," Henry replied, "'bye."
Henry then put his scarf around his neck, placed his cards inside the box of Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes. "Wingardium Leviosa," Henry chanted and waved his wand in a 'swish and flick' movement and the box of WWW merchandise and the tin of toffee floated out in front of him. He then made his way towards the doors and met up with Sebastian who hadn't thought to use magic on his gifts. Instead he had the scarf around his next, the cards in his mouth, the box in one hand and the tin in the other.
Henry shook his head at his brother. Sebastian then put the cards in the box and did the same thing as Henry, muttering, "Wingardium Leviosa," towards the box and tin. Henry had to do his best not to laugh so instead he just said, "Let's go!"
oOoOo
When the twins were sat in their father's living quarters with a drink, they heard the sound of the Floo and moments later Hermione walked into the room.
"Happy birthday, babies!" She cried and ran over to them to pull them in to hug.
"Can't...breathe," Sebastian managed to utter and Hermione pulled back and beamed.
"Sorry," she replied and laughed as she sat next to them.
Severus then pulled out two cards attached to a parcel from a draw nearby. He passed the read one to Henry and the green one to Sebastian saying, "Happy birthday, sons," as he did so.
The twins beamed and then opened the cards.
Dear (which ever twin it was),
Happy birthday, son. Have an amazing day. I hope you use your present as it may come in useful in the future.
Lots of love,
Dad
They then ripped the paper off of the presents and realised it was a book. Henry's was red and gold with a lion roaring on the front. Sebastian's was green and silver with a snake hissing.
Henry's eyes brightened as he saw it. He opened the buckle on the front eagerly and started flicking through the pages.
"It's blank," he said and looked slightly disheartened.
"They're your own private journals. The pages are for you to fill with your time here at Hogwarts," Severus informed them.
"It's great, thanks Dad," Henry replied and hugged his dad.
"You can draw in them if you prefer," Severus added to Sebastian who looked more disheartened than Henry. However, when he heard that, be beamed.
Hermione then brought out four presents from her pocket; she tapped them with her wand to enlarge them again. There were two packages that looked exactly the same, minus the different coloured wrappings. The other two were extremely different. The one in red looked extremely heavy and had different sized rectangular things in. The green one was very large but thin compared to the size.
Henry opened the heavy package first to find 5 different books. One had a personal note in the front that fell out when he started to flick through the pages.
Dear Henry,
This book is the secrets behind Hogwarts that not many people know including my time at Hogwarts with your mum and Uncle Ron. I know you love reading so I thought I'd write it all down for you. Don't forget to pass all of the secrets to Sebastian too. Also, don't tell Auntie Ginny that I did this, she won't be too pleased.
Love,
Uncle Harry
The other four books were information books: one had information about the four founders of Hogwarts; another had information on the different types of animals, Muggle and Wizarding alike; the third was a book on what happened to wizards who mispronounced spells and the last was a book that had hints and tips behind potions and spells.
Sebastian opened the large present first too. It was a huge case of different paints and bushes and pots to mix different colours. There were also different stencils to use.
"Thank you, Mum," the boys said simultaneously.
They then opened the other present together and realised it was a mirror.
"Thanks, Mum, but we're not girls," Henry muttered confused.
"I know, these are two way mirrors, well three way in your case. I have my own here," Hermione told them as she pulled out a similar looking mirror from her pocket. "All you have to do is either say 'mum' or each other's names and they'll appear, if we're free anyway. It is an easier way to communicate. You can still write letters but if it is a quick thing you need to tell me, or important, then you can use these."
Sebastian then looked into his mirror and said, "Henry," and Henry felt his mirror buzz slightly. He looked into it and saw Sebastian's face.
"Cool," they both muttered. "Thank you!"
oOoOo
Later that night after Severus, Sebastian and Henry had enjoyed the feast, Henry was in the Gryffindor dormitory with the curtains closed around his four poster bed and pulled out his mirror and called, "Sebastian," quietly to not wake Jakob or any other the other Gryffindor boys.
Within seconds Sebastian was there and Henry whispered, "Thanks for being the best brother ever and sorry for not getting you a present."
"It's okay," Sebastian whispered back, "you forgave me, that's the best present ever."
Henry smiled and muttered, "thank you," before they both yawned and said goodnight, promising to spend tomorrow together doing their homework.