21
17th Year of Birth
This year, the first Hogsmeade visit happened to fall on Doe's birthday. November 18th. It seemed nice to her, she would be able to go into the village and do something fun.
She was still sleeping when she felt someone sit on her legs.
She pulled one of her pillows over her head, just as she heard Lily chant " Happy Birthday Doe!"
" Five more minutes" she complained.
" Nope, wake up, We have celebrating to do" Lily said jumping up and down on her legs.
She pulled the pillow off of my bed and got up. Lily, Marlene and Mary were all sitting the edge of Lily's bed holding a present.
" Guys, you didn't have too" Doe told them.
Marlene rolled her eyes, " We wanted too"
" You only turn seventeen once" Mary said handing her a gift, it was a set of the most beautiful quills Doe had ever seen.
" Thank you so much, Mary" She told her pulling her into hug.
" Me next" Lily said impatiently.
Lily had gotten her an embossed copy of the 'Auror's guide' and Marlene had gotten her a leather bound journal with my name written in scarlet lettering.
" Thank you all so much" Doe said as she got dressed.
She had only been up for five minutes and she was already having fantastic birthday.
They all went downstairs and headed to the Great Hall. Most of the school was already up as they usually were on Hogsmeade visits.
They were serving pancakes today, Doe smiled happily as she placed a few fresh strawberries on top of hers.
" So what do you want to do today?" Lily asked brightly.
" I'm craving butterbeer, so the three broomsticks?" Doe asked.
" Sure" Lily nodded eagerly.
" Happy Birthday" someone whispered in her ear and kissed the top of her head.
She looked up to Remus sit down besides her.
" Hi" she said happily.
James, Sirius and Peter sat down on either side of the table beside him, looking pleased.
" Happy Birthday, Dork" Sirius said chipperly.
" Yes, Happy Birthday Doe" James and Peter echoed.
" Thank you, guys" she told them.
They finished breakfast and Doe walked out with Remus realizing the everyone else had disappeared.
" Where did they all go?" she asked looking behind her.
Remus shrugged, " They probably just went ahead to Hogsmeade"
She stared back puzzled again and then followed Remus out into the gate to leave Hogwarts.
" But first" Remus said, " I have a present for you"
" I don't need anything" Doe told him. She felt spoiled as it was already, she didn't need anything else
" But I want too" Remus said taking out a long box, " it's my right as a boyfriend"
He handed it to her and she opened it, gingerly. Inside resting on a velvet pillow was a thin gold necklace with a white teardrop shaped pearl at the end. She was speechless.
" Do you like it?" Remus asked.
" It's beautiful" she told him, picking it up to look closer at it.
" It was my grandmother's" Remus told her.
" Can you help me put it on?" she asked handing him the necklace. He nodded. She turned so that her back was to him. He gently moved her hair to her shoulder and placed the necklace around her neck. She touched it lightly.
" I love it so much" she told him.
Remus smiled, " I'm glad".
She leaned up to kiss him, and he stopped her pulling her into an empty area of the corridor.
To her surprise he held her there, his hands on her waist, kissing her with more enthusiasm than she had expected. They didn't often kiss like this, they were never alone enough. Remus held her closer to him and one of his hands knotted itself in her hair.
Doe grinned widely at him, when they broke apart, his face was slightly pink.
" So shall we go?" he asked taking her hand.
She took it, " You've been holding out on me" she told him.
He rolled his eyes slightly as they walked outside towards the entrance to Hogsmeade. It was a very cold day. A frigid wind kept blowing her hair back. She shivered slightly.
" Are you cold?" Remus asked, he shrugged off the jacket he was wearing and placed it over her shoulders.
" I don't want you to be cold" she told him as they began down the familiar path to Hogsmeade.
" Doe, I'm fine. Toasty warm" he said pulling at the sleeve of the sweater he was wearing.
She wrapped her arm around his waist leaned against him slightly.
" I wonder where everyone else got to" she said searching the streets of the village as they entered the village.
" I don't know, but I'm sure we'll find them" Remus said as they approached The three broomsticks. Remus opened the door for her and they went in.
She stopped in the doorway, a smile spread across her face. One of the booths had been taken over. There were scarlet and gold balloons tied to the top of it, and James, and Lily were trying to hang a banner that read ' HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOE'.
" Your side is too low, James!" Lily hissed trying to fix it, " bring it up higher!"
" Um guys, " Marlene said with slight laughter, " Look up".
Lily and James both turned around wide eyed.
" Happy birthday" James said weakly, just as Lily said " oh no we didn't finish yet!"
" Moony, you were supposed to distract her for longer" Sirius said coming over and putting a small cake on the table.
" You guys!" Doe cried looking at the whole set-up.
" You're legal now" Sirius said pulling her into a hug.
" I can't believe you all did this" she said sitting down at the table with them all.
" It was our pleasure" Lily said happily.
" You knew where they were the whole time" Doe said shoving Remus playfully.
He smiled, " I was supposed to keep you occupied"
" Well you didn't do it very long" Peter said.
" She has a short attention span" Remus said defensively, " it's very tricky"
She smiled widely, taking a sip of butterbeer.
About an hour, they were all full of butterbeer and birthday cake, walking around Hogsmeade.
It was turning out to be the perfect day. They walked over to the a large tree just past Zonko's joke shop, and sat down.
" I say," Sirius started, " to commemorate our dear Doe's day of birth, we all share our favorite memory of her".
Doe groaned loudly, " Must we?"
" Ooohhh" Marlene said sitting up, " I've got a good one"
" Don't do it, Marlene" Doe said eyeing her with a venomous look.
Marlene just smiled, " So this one time, Doe and Lily are over the summer and Doe gets this really stupid idea that we should go to a muggle park near my house, but it was closed when we got there, so we had to hop this giant metal gate, and Lily and I get over it fine, but when Doe is climbing it, her shorts get caught on the fence and she's just hanging there, and she couldn't get down, so she climbed out of them"
Everyone roared into a fit of laughter.
" Stop it" she said turning red, " That's quite a traumatic memory still".
Remus put his fist over his mouth to stop from laughing and ran one of his hands up my arm to comfort me.
" My favorite has to be when she hit Sirius" James said with a wide grin.
" Which time?" Peter asked.
" Good point, Wormtail" Sirius said, " Doe can be quite the bully"
" Me?" Doe demanded, " you called me Dorky for 10 years!"
Sirius grinned, " So much hostility in such a tiny girl".
" My favorite," Mary said, " Is the time that she fell asleep in the library and Madam Pince told her she spends too much time there"
" Oh, Ha ha. Doe reads too much. Never heard that one before" Doe said rolling her eyes with a smile.
" No, I still think the best one yet, was first year when she challenged Bellatrix to that duel and she won" Lily said.
" What can I say?" she said smiling brightly, " I hated her".
" Well I can't choose, there's far too many" Sirius said.
" Mine I will not even consider saying in front of James and Sirius" Remus said wrapping his arm around her. She smiled at him.
They stayed in Hogsmeade until it was almost time for dinner, and only went back to the castle to have eat.
They spent the rest of the night in the common room, playing a few very heated games of Wizards Chess, until they all became too exhausted to continue.
Doe let out a large yawn.
" You're exhausted," Lily pointed out.
She nodded, " I am actually, I've had quite the full day"
" Come on guys, let's go to bed" Mary said.
Doe squeezed Remus' hand and got up following Mary.
" Happy Birthday" Remus called as she walked away.
" Did you have a good birthday?" Lily asked as they climbed up to the sixth floor dormitory.
" The best" Doe assured her.