Disclaimer:
I don't own Harry Potter or anything from his world. Ophelia is mine, but anyone, including JK Rowling may feel free to use her character.
A/N: I Want to thank my wonderful beta in advance. I will never be as good as Snapeseraphin is, but well, I can live with that ;-)
The Birthday
Where was she? Just a minute ago she still was in her room!
Peter Bramble looked at the chair were his daughter sat only minutes ago. And there was that wretched cat again! Maria found the cat in Ophelia room a couple of years ago, and everytime she threw the cat out, Pheli managed to get outside to go and look for it. Once, when she was only six, she went out in her pajamas and on her bare feet in the snow. They found her after 15 minutes, her feet were almost blue and she could only say 'Kitty, kitty'. That was when they surrendered, the cat could stay. They didn't see it much, they sometimes wondered what the cat ate, since they didn't feed it, and Maria once even said the cat used magic to get his food, but she wasn't serious… How could she be?
He sighed. Magic had once been part of his life, but when he married Maria his family had to ban him. Not that they could do anything with him before his marriage…
He was a Squib, that's as good as a muggle. Maybe even worse, since muggles didn't even know of the wizarding world.
From baby on he watched if Ophelia showed any signs of magic, but she never did. Ophelia with her beautiful green eyes and black hair. Even the white stripe in her hair should have been a sign of magical abilities, but now with her eleventh Birthday coming up she hadn't shown anything, and maybe that was best for everyone, since he never told Maria where he actually came from…
He shuddered and turned around to go to the dining room were dinner was ready.
Ophelia showed up minutes later and sat down at the table.
"Honey, where were you?" -"Where I was daddy?" She asked, looking slightly irritated "I was up in my room, I was snoozing on the bed" Peter look bewildered "I was just there, I didn't see you!" -'Well, I'm not invisible you know, maybe you should try some glasses" Ophelia was now visibly irritated. They had this discussion a couple of times a month, she wondered how it was possible he couldn't see her… "I don't need glasses! You weren't there!" –"But daddy!" -"STOP IT!"
Maria had just walked into the developing fight. "Why are you two always fighting? Just leave it alone" Maria muttered something to herself about fathers, daughters and their stubbornness. "Now come and eat'
They sat and ate for a while and started chatting about school when suddenly the conversation got an irritable tinge to it again. "Well Pheli, where are you planning to go after the summer?" Peter asked. "Daddy, I've told you at least 25 times, I don't know! I just don't want to go to the same school as my classmates. I want to go
somewhere where people won't say anything about my hair" Ophelia said, sounding somewhat sad. "Unless I van finally dye my hair? Mommy?"
-"Honey, we talked about that, not untill you're sixteen!" Maria said "But now we have to decide for a school. Two weeks after you got eleven your new school has to be notified. You know that!" -"Yeah mom, I know" She sighed "Let's go over the schools tonight then, okay?"
Ophelia woke up with a strange feeling. Why was she so happy? Then it dawned on her, it was her birthday!
It was a Saturday so they would come and wake her up very soon now, and have a big breakfast together. She would get presents, the mail would arrive with nice birthday cards from her family and, best of all, this afternoon they would go shopping for new school things! She always liked shopping and ever since they had decided she would go to her mothers old school she wanted to get it over with. So this afternoon they would buy the uniform, the books and all she would need.
While she was thinking the sun started to come up and she heard her parents getting up. They tiptoed past her bedroom door and she heard the stairs creaking. They were going to make breakfast for her, and her mother would suddenly come up with a cake topped with whipped cream and Ophelia would have to blow out the candles. She liked birthdays, but she could never get used to getting all the attention. She liked it most when her relatives were all sitting in the living room and she could silently enjoy their conversations. Before that she would have to endure several ants and uncles from her mothers side who would keep saying she was such a big girl now and how may hearts she would break. She had never met any family from her fathers side. He never said anything about them, but she knew they were still alive because she once heard her parents arguing about them. Her mother was saying something about grandparents who had a right to know ther
granddaughter. But when they saw her they immediately stopped, so she didn't know why she actually never met them. Aah, there they were. She heard the stairs creaking again. Now she would have to pretend to be sleeping, or else they would be disappointed and would think they had awoken her. So she turned over
and closed her eyes.
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Ophelia, happy birthday to you!"
Ophelia turned to her parents and looked sleepily at them. " What time is it mum? Do we have to go yet?" –" No dear" her mother said " We'll go in about two hours, first we'll have breakfast together and unwrap your presents!" Ophelia quickly dressed and went down the stairs. She opened the door… And she couldn't believe her eyes! "Wow! Mum, Dad! What a beautiful owl!"
Her parents who were coming behind her looked at each other with surprise. "Which owl, dear?" her mother said, while Ophelia ran into the living room. Her father suddenly looked a bit pale.
When she reached the table she expected the owl to be scared, but it just looked at her, picked up an envelope and seemed to be handing it over to her. Ophelia took the envelope and looked at it. It seemed to be made of parchment and there was no address, just "Miss Ophelia Bramble" written with a fountain pen or something like that. The envelope was sealed with a crest and Ophelia read the text aloud:
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus"
CRASH
Ophelia whirled around and saw her father scrambling up again. "Daddy? What's wrong?" –"Peter? What happened? Why do you look so scared?" Maria said. Peter blinked a few times, he opened his mouth a few times, but closed it again. After a minute he gestured at the envelope and Ophelia gave it to him.He sat down and stared at it for a while. Then he started to speak
