Roger's birthday fell upon a Friday this year, coincidentally the day before Valentine's Day, and as such, Roger had a huge request that he made every year (once we had figured out we could get away with it) and that request was simple: Skip all of your classes. Thankfully for me, I was only missing two classes, whereas Roger was missing along the lines of three or four. Harrison was missing three, and I awoke just around lunch time to shower, brush my teeth and attack Roger who was still asleep.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up!" I yelled, jumping up and down on his bed. Roger groaned, before opening his eyes and wincing as I yelled, "Happy birthday!"

Harrison soon joined into the loud singing of happy birthday to Roger, who tried in vain to get us to 'shut up'.

"Okay fine, I'll get up!" Roger groaned in defeat, "But only if it is present time."

"Naturally want to open all of your gifts first," Harrison grumbled as Roger began ripping open all of the wrappings. He had gotten quite a bit of things, since his siblings and parents had sent him each a gift and card, along with a card from Flitwick, both of my parents (my mum sent him more film for a camera because she wanted tons more pictures), and Harrison had gotten him new shin guards…to go perfectly with the Appleby practice gloves I got him.

We all darted down to the Great Hall for lunch and soon after we sat down, Wood joined us, "Why weren't you guys in Charms?"

"Roger's birthday," Harrison and I explained in unison, which earned a giggle from us, "We always skip," We both continued.

"Oh," Wood murmured, "Happy birthday, Roger."

"Thanks, man," Roger muttered, "Um, we're having a bit of a get together in our common room tonight if you want to come, we'll let you in."

"Or we won't," Harrison added, "But we probably will."

"Either way, us Ravenclaws know how to have a good time, so you should come," I informed and Wood nodded, mumbling something about swinging by and needing to go to class.

"Chess?" Roger asked me and I nodded as the two of us left Harrison to go tend to getting the rest of the things necessary for the party tonight. The chess match began in the common room and by the time the night had rolled around and the 'guests' for the party were arriving, we were still entranced with our game. A few people, Harrison included, stared at our board as Roger had his eyes transfixed on the board itself as I mirrored the glances, or kept my eyes shut projecting the next moves. Finally, he moved his queen…as a sacrifice to draw out my queen. I grit my teeth before moving my bishop.

"How long has this been going on?" Wood's voice broke me out of my trance.

"When did you get here?" I inquired suddenly, "I didn't even notice you walk in."

"Cho and Cedric let me in about an hour ago," he informed me, "Are you about done here?"

"Um," I bit my lip turning back to the match, seeing that Roger hadn't made a move against any of the pieces I had placed in order to encase his king, "Promote my pawn to rook, and checkmate."

"You've got to be kidding me," Roger seethed, "How did I not see that?"

"Losing your touch with age?" I suggested before hugging him tightly, "Happy birthday, let's party?"

"Indeed." I peeled off as he went straight for the fire whiskey…naturally. If I had learned anything from my friends since attending Hogwarts is that the likelihood of us all becoming alcoholics seems pretty high at this point. I could only chuckle as he immediately returned shoving a cup full of fire whiskey in my hand, "Cheers," Before we both downed the glasses as fast as we could. The burning in my throat was evident and I welcomed it, knowing that that would be the least of my problems in the morning.

I turned to Wood, "Sorry, that'll probably happen quite a bit tonight. Roger doesn't like getting drunk alone, and by alone, I mean it's his birthday and apparently I'm supposed to get royally drunk for his birthday present."

"Royally drunk?" he questioned and I nodded.

"So I apologize for anything I may say, do, or otherwise cause in advance. It'll start getting dicey around ten tonight, I'm assuming," I murmured as another drink was placed into my hand, "Bottoms up."

"For some odd reason I don't feel like this is very responsible."

"Yeah, coming from the person who got really upset when he got completely hammered at a party and couldn't stop raving about how some girl would pay him no notice. Seriously, have you seen you? Just man up and go for it," I stated, not really thinking what I was saying, "I mean, woops. This stuff is potent. Hit a lot faster than I was expecting."

"What do you mean raving about some girl?" he asked, his face going incredibly pale before he himself began sucking down his own drink.

"Um, I don't really remember. I just remember you getting mad the second I said to move on from her 'cause she's not worth it," I shrugged before plopping down on the floor, and Wood stared at me quizzically, "Sorry, I just felt the need to sit on the floor."

"Has anyone ever told you that you were strange?"

"Quite a lot, actually," I sighed, "I'm beginning to believe them."

"Well even if you are strange, I still enjoy your company."

"Well, that's good I guess," I paused as someone brought me another drink, and I drank it just as fast, "Because I enjoy your company too."

Xxxxxxxxxx

Several hours later and my mind was whirling, trying to keep up with everything. My current state of intoxication however only allowed for my mental voice to be semi-sane. I vaguely remembered Wood and I finishing a bottle of fire whiskey ourselves even after drinking more than plenty. My throat and stomach burned, my vision was spotty, there was a constant ringing sound in my ears, and to top it all off, I was trying to convince Wood that I could most definitely outrun him in a race.

"No you can't," he explained, his words slurring together and it was a wonder how I even managed to understand them.

"Yes I can!" I whined, before jumping to my feet as the ground below me seemed to be quaking as I could not keep my balance very well, "I'll even race you right now!"

"No you won't!" he stood up as well, swaying even more than I was which only made me burst into giggles.

"I will!" I said through stifled giggles, "I'll race you to the top of the tower!"

"You're on!" he proclaimed before saying, "Ready, set, go!"

We both dashed past numerous people and for us both running into the railing and wall as we tried to sprint up the stairs, I'd say we were fairly matched until Wood tripped on one of the steps and fell over, to which I naturally slumped over in laughter, earning some strange looks from the third years (since we had reached their section of the tower) who had left their rooms to see what was going on.

"You fell!" I pointed out, as I burst into laughter once more. My sides were incredibly sore from laughing, which made things even more uncomfortable in my stupor. I finally forced my body to slide down the steps to the first landing where my room would be and Wood followed sloppily.

Someone hurried and gave us pretty full glasses of something or other and I inched my way slowly to Roger and Harrison's room, carefully not trying to spill the glass as many of the others in our group of friends followed, all pretty intoxicated themselves. Cho suddenly proclaimed, "We should play some kind of drinking game!"

"Lemme put on my pajamas first!" I murmured, before stumbling into my own room and throwing on a pair of shorts rather clumsily, leaving my t-shirt on as I staggered my way back to Roger's bed, "So what are we playing?"

"How about 'I Have Never'?" Addison suggested, and the groups cheers were more than enough to instigate the game.