Chapter thirty five, and Amelia's 16th! (Her birthday is August 3rd, since I don't mention it explicitly here.)
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Amelia overslept the following morning, only to be awoken by a swift pillow to the face. Grumbling, she attempted to swat the pillow away, to no avail. Popping her eyes open, she sat up, cussing and swatting.
"Merlin, you're not a morning person, are you?" chuckled the culprit, George, who stood over her with his weapon of choice - the pillow.
"Not at all," she replied, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "Is there a reason you've woken me up at this god-awful time?"
"It's almost 9 o'clock," George informed her.
"Yeah?" she shot. "What's so important?"
"Mum's nearly done with breakfast, that's all," he said. "Ginny and Hermione tried waking you up, but they couldn't. I was just about to dump cold water on you."
"I'm glad you didn't," she said, shoving her blankets out of the way so she could get up. "Well, I'm gonna get dressed now, so unless you wanna watch, get out."
"Well, I wouldn't mind….," George drawled playfully.
"Get out, Weasley!" Amelia laughed, launching a pillow at his face, until he finally stumbled out of the room laughing and shut the door behind him.
Just to be safe, she locked the door behind her, before proceeding to get dressed in her usual jeans and t-shirt ensemble. Today's t-shirt: The Weird Sisters. She figured she'd at least try to relate.
She glanced at herself in the mirror, attempting to fix her hair. She'd started regretting that she cut it, considering it was even more unruly this way, even if it was so much easier to comb and maintain.
A loud hoot woke her from her mirror daze, and upon turning around, she saw Ramses pecking a pile of new letters frantically, clearly wanting her to read them.
"Settle down, I'll read them," she said, attempting to calm the bird as she picked up the mail.
Upon opening and reading them, she realized they were a bunch of birthday cards. Phoebe, Herb, Leanne, Heidi, and Mr. and Mrs. Diggory had all been kind enough to send her cards and well wishes. She paused, staring at them. She realized she'd forgotten her own birthday. She was 16 - just a year away from being legal in the wizarding world.
She set the letters back on her bed, making a mental note to reply with thank yous as soon as possible. With that, she made her way out of her makeshift bedroom, and down the stairs, past all the house elf heads that hung eerily on the wall. They really did creep her out.
Amelia was so busy staring at the disturbing collection of heads on the wall, she nearly walked into whoever was close enough to the stairs.
"Er, sorry," she mumbled.
Of course. Just her luck. It was Fred. George was by his side, and judging by the look on his face, he knew whatever was coming wasn't exactly going to be pretty.
"No, I should've paid more attention," he responded with an edge. She couldn't tell if he was kidding or not.
Taking a breath, she decided she'd just have to do it again - say what was on her mind, which she was becoming more and more accustomed to doing.
"Look, Fred, I'm sorry you're upset with me," she said. She somehow mustered the guts to look at him when she spoke. "I'm sorry. I am. But you shouldn't be, because it wasn't like we were….serious, or anything. We had a couple months of fun. Leave it at that. There are plenty of other girls out there, right? You can do better than me."
He only stared at her, shaking his head. Unsure of what to say, Amelia decided to leave it at that, as awkward as it may be.
Just as she turned, Fred told her, "Happy birthday."
She halted, but without facing him, replied, "Thank you."
There was a pop! kind of noise, and Amelia correctly assumed he'd Apparated out. Another pop! and George was right in front of her, nearly causing her to pee her pants.
"Don't make that a habit," she muttered, clutching her chest.
George, however, didn't seem phased by her request, he only asked, "It's your birthday?"
"Yeah," she confirmed with a shrug.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he inquired.
Again, she shrugged. "Not a big deal. Don't do anything, please - remember all the stuff I've done to the Slytherins."
"You're such a party pooper," George whined, holding the door to one of the sitting rooms open for her.
As soon as he'd done so, Amelia was nearly knocked over by someone attacking her with a hug. It was someone short, with a wild head of hair, who smelled like the forest and rain….Phoebe?!
"Happy birthday, 'Melia!" Phoebe exploded, upon releasing her friend.
"Phoebe!" Amelia exclaimed. "I thought you weren't coming?"
"I wanted it to be a surprise," she then shrugged, losing the excitement as she faded back to normal, airy-fairy Phoebe.
She then pulled a small box from behind her back, that was wrapped in four leaf clover print paper, and thrust it towards Amelia.
"Phoebe, you really didn't have to….," Amelia told her friend.
"I know I didn't have to, I wanted to," Phoebe smiled in return. "Open it."
Meekly, Amelia unwrapped the paper, to reveal a small, black, cardboard jewelry box. She peeked up at Phoebe for some sort of hint of what was inside of the box, but Phoebe didn't give anything away. She simply watched, waiting for a reaction.
Opening the box revealed what appeared to be an old pocket watch, gold, slightly tarnished, but elaborately engraved with a floral pattern. Amelia took it out, carefully slow, and pressed the button to release the clasp. Instead of seeing the regular face of a watch as she expected, she saw what looked more like a compass than it did a watch. There was one, large, gleaming golden hand in the center, and the background color was a soft turquoise color. As soon as Amelia opened it, the hand retracted into itself, leaving a golden moon in the center of the watch, amongst the turqouise.
Seeing that Amelia looked a bit confused, Phoebe explained, "It's a compass. A Heart Compass. The arrow comes out when you need it, and it points you where you need to go. The background color reflects your mood. Turquoise, that's just average, y'know, like a baseline. The arrow isn't out because there isn't anywhere else you really need to be right now. Here."
Phoebe then took the liberty of clipping the device to the same chain Amelia wore her locket on, and Amelia could've teared up. Now that she knew what it was, she thought it was just brilliant, and completely sweet of Phoebe to get her such a present.
"Thanks, Pheebs," Amelia said. "Really, thank you."
"My pleasure," Phoebe winked. Tugging a chord on her neck, she revealed one nearly identical to Amelia's, except hers was silver. "We can be twins now."
"Except that you two look nothing alike," George said, re-entering the conversation. "Amelia's all lanky and blonde, and you're….you."
Phoebe, of course, didn't look phased, but Amelia did. In defense of her friend, she asked, "Are you calling her fat or something, George?"
"Not at all," George replied with a wink, as Phoebe's attention was diverted, as she bent to see Crookshanks. Seeing she was out of earshot, George leaned in, telling Amelia, "I was going to say curvy, but I restrained myself."
"Is that hard for you?" Amelia chuckled.
Phoebe was in her own world now, cuddling and coddling Crookshanks, who didn't look so amused, but tolerated it.
"Extremely," George nodded, glancing down at the wild-haired Irish girl. Within the blink of an eye, he Apparated away, and then back, with a drink in his hand which he sipped, as he told her, "You were hard on Fred earlier. I didn't know you had that much 'umph in you, being a Hufflepuff and all."
"I only told him the truth, George," Amelia defended, leaning against the wall. She felt her cheeks get hot again. "Besides, it wouldn't be fair to him if I didn't. There's too much going on with me right now for me to have the time to be a good….y'know."
"Girlfriend?" George supplied. She nodded vaguely, not exactly liking the word. Shrugging, he added, "I guess I understand. I just hope he'll get over it….can I ask, though, is it mainly because of Cedric?"
Amelia felt a knot in her throat and her chest tighten around her heart. She didn't reply, not at first anyway.
"Well, kind of," she admitted finally. "It's long and complicated."
"And I've got a brain and time," he replied with a smirk.
"Really? I wouldn't have guessed," came Ginny's voice, as she poked her head through the door with a smile. "Anyway, breakfast is ready. Oh, and hello, Phoebe."
"Hi," Phoebe replied airily, as she rose to her feet, Crookshanks in her arms.
The three left the little sitting room and headed for the kitchen, where Fred, Lupin, Sirius, Ginny, Ron and Hermione were all assembled, beginning to eat, as Mrs. Weasley continued to bumble around the kitchen. A round of happy birthdays were said to Amelia, which she thanked everyone for, and quietly took her seat between George and Phoebe and across from Hermione.
"Is this Amelia?" came a new, jovial female voice. "Finally, a fellow Hufflepuff!"
Amelia's head turned, to see that a young woman with a bright face and even brighter pink hair was the one speaking, as she carried a plate of toast to the table. Clumsily, she tripped, nearly dropping all the toast, though Lupin went to her aid, and after thanking him, she successfully delivered the toast to the table.
"Amelia, this is Tonks," Lupin introduced. "Nymphadora Tonks, but remember never to use her first name - you might not live to tell the tale."
"Nice to meet you," Amelia said, as she shook hands with Tonks.
"Pleasure, and happy birthday," Tonks replied with a warm, spunky kind of grin.
"Oh, Tonks, this is Phoebe," George then introduced. "Hufflepuff as well."
"I love your hair," Phoebe said, as she and Tonks shook hands. "I wish my parents would let me get away with something like that, it's quite the look. They don't even like my hair now. Been begging me to cut it for months. Well….first they want me to get the twigs and such out, but I quite like them in my hair."
Tonks chuckled, amused, as most people were while interacting with Phoebe, before everyone settled down and had breakfast.
"Where's Harry?" Phoebe inquired after a pause in the conversation.
Amelia hadn't even noticed he was gone.
"He's at the Ministry, at his hearing," Hermione answered, looking a bit worried. "They're debating whether or not to expel him and snap his wand."
"No!" Amelia exclaimed, in shock. "What happened? What'd he do?"
"Cast a Patronus Charm out of school," Ron said, mouth full of oatmeal. "Dementors were chasing him, and nearly sucked his Muggle cousin's soul out right in front of him."
"Dementors?" Amelia repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Doesn't he live with Muggles? In a Muggle area?"
"Yes," Hermione nodded. "That's what makes it so strange - but, with Harry, not unbelievable."
"Stranger things have happened," Phoebe stated, adding sugar to her tea.
"Morning, all," greeted Zinnia, as she entered the kitchen. Pressing a kiss to the top of Amelia's head, she said, "And a very happy birthday to you, darling."
"Thanks, gran," Amelia replied.
Like Phoebe had, Zinnia slipped her a small gift box.
"Gran," Amelia said. "I didn't want anything….I appreciate it, but you didn't…."
"I wanted to," Zinnia said, just as Phoebe had.
Finally accepting the gift, Amelia opened it, revealing a compact mirror.
"It's a two-way mirror," Zinnia informed her granddaughter. "So whenever you need me, you can get to me."
"Thanks, gran," Amelia said, hugging her grandmother. "It's brilliant."
Amelia's sixteenth birthday ended up being one of the most proper ones she'd had thus far, but her heart still felt heavy, knowing there was one person who wasn't there with her.