Chapter Nine
Happy Birthday!

"Happy birthday to me… happy birthday to me." Rachael was sitting out in the courtyard behind the orphanage on one of the wooden benches. It was a bright sunny day, the last day of August. The sky was a clear blue, with white puffy clouds drifting lazily overhead. Every now and then a crow or sparrow would fly over head, and perch itself onto a tree branch. The courtyard was a peaceful place to be. It was small, but full of green grass with a circular walkway around and on the walkway were dozens of benches for everyone to sit on. In the centre of the yard was a giant oak tree, which, at the moment, was occupied with a group of five year olds as they played their childish games.

"Happy birthday to Rachael, happy birthday to me." She sighed and looked around. Another birthday had nearly passed, completely forgotten. Not that it surprised her. No one at the orphanage knew it was her birthday, except for the staff, but they didn't count. They didn't even like her very much. Not one kid there knew it was her birthday. She hadn't gotten so much as a, "so today's your birthday?" in three years. She wondered if her dad or Remus even remembered today was her birthday. Wait, they would have to because, after all, it was Remus's birthday too.

She got up, deciding to just head indoors. She walked unfocusedly in through the double doors and walked right into Kathleen McDonald.

"Oops," Rachael said, stepping back. "Sorry."

"It's alright," Kathleen answered, smiling pleasantly. "Actually, I was coming to look for you."

Rachael stared up at her, dumbfounded. True that Kathleen and her friends were nice to Rachael, they never really made an effort to talk to her. This was new. "Why?"

"You'll see, follow me." She led Rachael through the back door of the orphanage, up a short corridor, through the door that leads to the hall going to either the kitchens or the common room. They went through the left door, into the common room and what Rachael saw nearly made her faint with shock and surprise.

The entire common room was decked out in birthday decorations. Balloons of all colours were hovering in the air, there were streamers roped around the banisters, confetti was on the floor, glittering in the light. There was a red banner hung suspending from the ceiling and in golden letters were the words Happy 11th Birthday Rachael! Sitting on one of the couches were Greg Lawrence, Brittany Becker and Adam Finch. They were all smiling, pleased with Rachael's reaction. It was a birthday party... for her. She couldn't believe it; it had been so long since she had one. Besides, she had become so used to people neglecting her birthday.

She had such a wonderful time; she couldn't even remember having so much fun. Though she wasn't with anyone her own age, or her family, she couldn't help but just have a good time. They goofed around, played all these weird games where they had to act out something, charades basically, but they were allowed to talk. Rachael had to act like Freddy Kruger, so she ran up to her dormitory, stole into Becky's draw and took a whole bunch of her fake nails, taped them together into five long sticks and taped the bottom one to her fingers and used them as claws.

The only time they were interrupted was when Becky came in, crying hysterically that her fake nails were missing. Rachael quickly hid them under the couch while she and the others tried hard not to laugh, but to look as confused as possible. When Becky tore out of the room and began to rip apart the rest of the building, they all burst out laughing. Rachael ducked under the couch to retrieve the nails and put the on again and began sneaking behind Becky (who was looking through the utility closet, for some strange reason) and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Where did you find them!" she shrieked.

"Under the couch," Rachael said in her most innocent voice. "Looks like one of the little kids got to them." And she casually walked away.

The party only ended because they had an earlier curfew, as classes would be starting up soon and Rachael had to catch the eleven o'clock train the next day. She sat on her bed, pulling on her socks that night; she wasn't ready to go to bed, so she figured she'd just check her trunk to see if she had everything she needed. She had Emerald out of her cage and was letting her stretch her wings because she would be shut up in that cage for a long time the following day. The dormitory door opened and Becky walked in. She looked up at the owl and scowled in disgust.

"Why is that thing out?" she snarled.

"Because I want her out, and it's not a thing, it's a she," Rachael grumbled.

Emerald swooped around Becky's head and she shrieked. The dormitory door opened again and Ms. Marshall came thundering in. She looked from Rachael to Becky with Emerald still circling around her head.

"Rachael Lupin!" Ms. Marshall boomed. "Put the owl in its cage if you can't control it." She bustled out of the room, slamming the door loudly.

Rachael groaned and coaxed her owl to come over. "Come on, Emerald. Are you inspecting the mean and nasty Becky?" Becky scowled as Emerald fluttered to Rachael and perched itself on her wrist. "Don't worry, she doesn't have fleas, she is the flea. Oh, what's that? She reminds you of an owl pellet... me too. Bet she is one, small and smelly and brown and... Hey! We can cut her in half to see inside her. Bet it's all black, black heart, black lungs, black kidneys, black everything."

"Do you know how ridiculous you look talking to an owl?" Becky mocked.

"No, but I know how ridiculous you look."

"Lupin, you're asking for it!"

"I like asking for it. Now, I'll be out of your smelly hair in about an hour. I have everything I need? Yes I do. Good night!"