This is a birthday fic for Pinkpuffs. Happy Birthday!

The Forgotten Birthday

Hermione couldn't believe it. It was a week from her birthday and still, no one had said anything. No, "Wow Hermione, you're turning sixteen," or "Someone's going to be a big girl." Her mum and dad usually sent her a card around this time because they never knew how long the owl would take to get here, and they didn't want it to be too late. Looks like they forgot too. Harry and Ron weren't even sneaking out late at night or making excuses to go to the "library." In fact, they seemed to be with her every minute of the day. Even Ginny, Parvati, and Lavender lingered around her or were within her sight. There was no way they could be planning a surprise party. So she ruled that out. Maybe they just forgot. Her birthday was on September 19th, a little less than three weeks into the school year. It was about the same time as Quidditch tryouts; everyone would be caught up in the whirlwind of practicing for the tryouts and laying bets on who would make it into the team. Why would anyone notice Hermione's birthday? Well, if they weren't going to remember, she could at least do her best to remind them.

Monday-Lunch

Hermione took her customary seat opposite Harry and Ron. The boys were talking about Quidditch tryouts and perfecting their Wonsky Feints. Hermione shook her head silently at the boys and pulled out her battered copy of The Craziest Cases that Went to Court. She doubted that the two of them even noticed she was sitting across from them.

"Hey Hermione, whatcha reading?" Ron asked. So they had noticed her.

"It's a book about the craziest cases that went to court Ron. It's in the titles," she said, underlining the title. "There was this one woman that spilt hot coffee on herself and then filed a lawsuit against the store because the cup didn't say that the drink was hot. And there was another one about a woman that cut up her dead aunt's finger and stuck it in her salad just so that she could sue the company and get money. She got caught though."

"Muggles do things like that?" Ron asked curiously.

"Of course Ron, it's all about getting money. But it's not only muggles, wizards do it, too. Why do you think half the people in Voldemort's original army joined? It was 'cause he bribed them," Hermione explained to him. Sometimes she really missed talking to someone who would intellectually be one step ahead of her.

"Did you want to go into law before Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I used to watch all those judge shows on the telly and imagine myself in the long black robe with a mallet closing cases and yelling at people and accusing them of lying to me and all that stuff," she sighed, "But now…well you never know where we'll go."

"Yeah," Harry said, slipping into his own world of regrets.

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I definitely don't wanna be late to Umbridge's class," Ron said. "And Harry, I know what she says is not true, but you need to keep quiet."

Harry nodded stiffly before they headed out.

Tuesday-After classes

Hermione walked into the common room after a long day of classes. The teachers had decided to pile on homework for them this year. It was the way the older children would describe high school to her. You go to one class and the teacher gives you a project and a test. Then you go to your next class and the teacher gives you homework and a test, not caring what your previous teacher had given you. By the end of the week, you have a test almost every day that week and about twenty projects to pull an all-nighter for. She could see herself losing sleep this year already. If her estimation was accurate, she would get about four hours of sleep or less per night.

She took a seat near the fireplace and began on the mountain of homework that towered before her.

"Hermione." Someone was tapping her shoulder.

Arg! She had homework to do; what the hell were they doing?

"Yes," she replied without looking up.

"Hermione, do you think you could help me out with potions?"

Hermione looked up to see Ginny Weasley standing above her. 'Tutor Ginny in potions,' she processed the words slowly; that meant more work. But she couldn't say no to Ginny. She would never forgive herself if Ginny failed.

"Sure thing, you wanna bring your stuff over here?"

Ginny nodded and ran to get her stuff. The two of them sat for nearly an hour and focused strictly on potions.

Hermione suddenly remembered her decision that morning to remind people that her birthday was on Sunday.

"Hey Ginny, whatcha doing this weekend?" she asked, slowly giving her a sidelong look so that she could note down her reaction.

"I've got a study session with Colin; we're going to prep for next week's Charms exam. Then I've gotta practice for Quidditch tryouts, and then Luna and I are planning to sneak out to Hogsmead so that we can restock our Butterbeer supply," Ginny said. "So, overall, it's a pretty busy day. Why'd you ask?"

Hermione's face fell, "Well it was my birthday and…"

"Oh Hermione, I'm so sorry," she said. If this was Ginny acting, then it was pretty convincing, "I totally forgot. You're turning sixteen, right?" Hermione nodded. "Isn't that the 'coming of age' for muggles?"

"Well…one of them. We have a series of 'coming of age' ages. Sixteen is for being able to drive. At eighteen you get about all your other rights, and when you're twenty-one, you can finally drink."

"Wow, but I'm really sorry Hermione. You know I'd love to go with you, but we've had these plans set up for a while now," she said, genuinely looking sorry.

"That's ok, I understand that it's short notice," Hermione replied. They both sat in silence for a moment before Hermione's need to break it overwhelmed her. "So…is there anything else you need for potions? I think we got everything."

"Yeah, thanks," Ginny said before gathering her belongings and leaving Hermione to work her way through the rest of her homework before she fell asleep.

Wednesday-Before Classes

Hermione walked up to the owlery to send her parents her monthly report on school. Even though school had barely started, she still had a significantly large letter complaining about Umbridge and her crazy teaching methods.

She wondered, once again, if everyone was trying to surprise her for her birthday or if they just forgot like Ginny had. Maybe now that she had told Ginny, she would take it into her hands to tell the rest of the tower…or not; she could just as easily forget. It wasn't too hard with all the homework to forget simple everyday things…like birthdays.

She finally reached the tower only to find that Malfoy was there cooing at the owls and smoothing their feathers.

"Did you miss me?" he said. Hermione watched through a crack in the door as the owl nuzzled his finger. "I brought something for you." Malfoy opened his hand to reveal what she guessed were the owl's favorite snacks since it seemed to be attacking his hand for them. Malfoy simply brought his hand over the owls head and stroked it.

Hermione couldn't help it - Malfoy was supposed to be mean, not cuddly with his pet owl – so she let out a giggle. She saw his face immediately contort back into a stone wall. Rather than allowing him to walk out and catch her, she decided to walk in; it looked less silly.

"So Malfoy," she said teasingly; she had no idea what had come over her, "do you do that with all animals or is it only your stuck-up owl?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about Granger," he said with a straight face.

"Oh you know, cuddling, talking in that baby-voice."

"You know what Mudblood? You shouldn't be talking about things you don't understand," he glared at her as he, finally, began tying his letter onto the owl's leg.

Hermione turned to her owl to do the same but couldn't resist retaliating to his insult, "What Malfoy, don't have any friends so you have to come here and bribe animals to listen to you?"

Draco paled noticeably, "I wouldn't be talking Granger. Your friends don't even remember your birthday. They wouldn't have remembered unless you hadn't told Weasley."

"Well, at least I have friends to forget my birthday," she said before allowing her owl to fly through the window and stalking out the door.

She looked at her watch; it was way too late for breakfast, and Malfoy had kept her there for a good hour longer than she had planned. She finally decided to run down to the kitchens and grab something to eat before class.

Before long, she noticed that the halls were awfully silent. She was in a main hallway, and there was no one in either direction as far as she could see. She hadn't spent that long in the owlery, had she? How long had she watched Malfoy cuddle with his pet owl? A giggle erupted from her mouth, filling the empty hallway at the thought. She looked in both directions again, no one. She doubted there was anyone in the halls at all except…Malfoy. He was probably still in the owlery cooing to his owl, or walking around the halls, except….

"Malfoy," she demanded, pushing back the images of Malfoy and his bird, "are you stalking me?"

"Of course not," he replied in his sophisticated manner. "Malfoys don't stalk people; we are too important for such dirty work. We have other people to do such menial tasks for us."

"Fine," she said, "then what are you doing?"

"I was just making my way down from the owlery so that I could get my stuff and go to class. Thanks to you, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be late."

"Thanks to me?!" she asked, astonished, "You were the one cuddling with your owl for like half an hour and who know how much longer."

"I wasn't cuddling!" he cried indignantly. "Malfoys don't cuddle."

"Then what would you define as cuddling?" Hermione smirked. Try and get out of this one, Malfoy.

"Cuddling is what you do with your cat," he replied.

"And how is that any different from what you were doing?" she queried.

"What I was doing was more along the lines of petting."

"If you say so," she said disbelievingly before letting out a giggle.

"What are you laughing at Granger?" he demanded.

"Malfoy…cooing…is cuddling…preening," she managed to get out between giggles.

Malfoy couldn't help it, he laughed. "Wow, I would have never seen uptight Granger giggling."

"Well," she said pulling herself together, "I thought you never laughed."

"You know, Granger, you're not all that bad when you're not lecturing," Malfoy said. "I may not mind spending a day with you."

"You know Malfoy," she sighed, thinking about her birthday again, "I may have to take you up on that." She indicated that she was going in the opposite direction before they split up.

Thursday

Thursday was a better day. She managed to remind Lavender, Parvati, and a couple others that it was soon to be her birthday. They replied with sounds of "OH! That's right," and, "Why didn't you say something sooner?" Some others had even gone far enough to ask, "So…what are your parents getting you?" Hermione, who remembered the annual card that had yet to reach her, simply blushed and replied that she didn't know.

Luna Lovegood had even pulled her aside and given her a radish to prevent knarlsplurks from attacking her. They supposedly attacked people on their birthdays.

After that, Lavender came back to sit with her and discuss all the specifics of her 'birthday party.'

"Oh and Hermione, you must have a green dress," she cooed, "It would look heavenly on you. Yes, a dark green dress, it would contrast perfectly with your skin. The dark colors are best, but green would work perfectly especially with your hair."

"That's wonderful, Lavender, but I don't own such a dress," Hermione replied politely.

"Don't have such a dress?" she said shocked, "You must borrow mine. And I have the perfect earrings and shoes to go with it."

Hermione sat silently, thinking that it would be unsanitary to wear someone else's earrings, especially if Lavender lent them out to everyone like this. And she really wasn't interested in wearing her shoes either. It was almost certain that they would be at least two sizes too big; Hermione had tiny feet.

Lavender rattled on for another hour or two about party games, decorations, her theme, who the DJ should be (Hermione didn't even dance), and the gifts she should expect from people.

"If it's worth less than £50, then they are definitely not your friend."

Hermione thought that was crap. Who judged their friends depending on how much they spent on your present? Not that it mattered; she wasn't going to have a party anyways. She had been dreaming that maybe her friends were doing something for her, but of course they weren't. She'd just have to ask them to watch movies with her or do something herself. They didn't even remember what they'd talked about the previous day; how could she expect them to remember her birthday?

Friday

The big discussion was on Friday after classes. Hermione was walking both Harry and Ron back to the common room after their Quidditch practice. They were talking about Quidditch, as usual, and Hermione was listening carefully, for once, so that she could pick up when there was a lull in the conversation.

"Hey Hermione," Ron asked, "Do you know when the next Hogsmeade trip is?"

"No," she replied, confused. He had brought it up completely randomly. "Why?"

"No reason."

"Come on Ron," she cajoled, "How come?"

"I think," Harry whispered into her ear, "it's for a girl."

"No, it isn't!" Ron protested.

"'I think the lad doth protest too much,'" Hermione quoted.

The three of them laughed before a silence set in. Hermione took this as a chance to jump in.

"So…you guys do remember that my birthday is this Sunday, right?"

"Um…" both of them shifted uncomfortably on their feet.

"Well then, I'm guessing you didn't," Hermione said rather bitterly.

"I'm sorry, Hermione," Ron said, "We would love to spend time with you, but with tryouts coming up so soon, we really do need to spend as much time as possible practicing."

Hermione was clearly hurt. They would rather spend time with a broom than with her.

"It's not that we…" Harry tried to explain.

"That what? I'm turning sixteen, and you can't even take two hours out of your day to come and watch a movie or something with me?" Hermione half yelled at them.

"I'll tell you what," Harry said, trying to compromise. "We'll go down to the pitch for Quidditch practice, and then we'll go up to the room of requirement and watch old moves and pig out."

Hermione grinned, "Sounds like a plan. I'll meet you there at…what time?"

"How 'bout…two?" Ron asked.

Hermione replied in the affirmative before she went to the library, leaving the boys to go shower and clean up.

Sunday-2:00pm

Hermione was walking up to the Room of Requirement when she found Harry standing outside.

"Hey Harry," she greeted, "did you wait for me?"

"Huh?" he looked up as though he didn't know she was standing there. "Oh…yeah. Ron's already inside, I was wondering where you were."

Hermione accepted his explanation without question. She was ecstatic, she was finally sixteen. If she had been thinking normally instead of being high on happiness, the level of awkwardness wouldn't have escaped her notice.

The two of them walked into a dark room that felt much larger than she had expected. She could feel the warmth in the room that could only emanate from a large amount of bodies.

"Surprise!" everyone shouted.

Hermione could have sworn that she almost swooned. Everyone was there. Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and even Malfoy had shown up.

"Oh my god!" she squealed. "Oh my god!" She ran up to Harry and Ron and embraced them together. "You guys are the greatest! I cannot believe you did this for me! I didn't even notice how weird it was that everyone was busy. I cannot believe you kept it under wraps. How on earth did you do this? When did you plan?"

"Well…" Harry said, "we pulled a couple all-nighters, and we had a lot of extra Quidditch practices."

"Yeah," Seamus chimed in, "a lot of extra Quidditch practices. I thought you would notice that we were gone almost every night. I kept telling them they should figure out different excuses every time instead of relying on the same one over and over again."

"We figured you were too busy with school to notice," Ron said.

"This is so sweet, you guys," she squealed again. "I still can't believe that you went through all this trouble for me."

"Of course Hermione, anything for you." Harry and Ron hugged her again before everyone else started pushing their way in for hugs and birthday wishes.

"Happy Birthday, Hermione!" Ginny said, pushing her way through the crowd. "I'm so sorry I had to put you down before we could surprise you."

"That's all right," she replied, "Did you get the Butterbeer?"

"Are you kidding," Ginny smiled, "how could we not? Hey, can we get a Butterbeer for the birthday girl?" she yelled over everyone else.

After Hermione made her way around saying hi to everyone, she walked over to Malfoy who was still standing in the corner of a room, smirking.

His was the only attire that matched Hermione's own school uniform; everyone else had dressed up, making her feel out of place.

"Hey Malfoy," she said.

"Happy Birthday, Granger," he replied shifting in his shoes.

"You know Hermione," Harry said, walking up, "we really must thank Malfoy. He kept you away from the Great Hall so that we could get the invitations out."

"Is that what you were doing?!" she asked, turning to him.

"Yep," he smirked, "although you catching me in the owlery was not part of the plan."

"Why Malfoy?" Ron asked, "What were you doing?"

"You know Malfoy, I think I'll save you the embarrassment," she managed to get out before cracking up.

The day passed with all of them having a great time. And at the end of the day, when everyone was tired, Hermione walked back to the Common Room with her best friends, realizing, yet again, how much they meant to her. Because one day, her parents wouldn't be there for her, and she knew that she could always count on her friends, including Malfoy to an extent, to be her crutches.

--For Pinkpuffs from Draco'z Devil wishing her a very Happy Birthday. Only the BEST for the greatest friend ever!