Chapter 12: Birthday Surprises

Hey guys!

As always, I want to thank everyone who follows, favorites, and reviews. I've been having kind of a tough time lately, and you guys never fail to brighten my day. I want to say an extra-special thank-you to CrowningAster, who took the time to review all of my chapters and gave me some really great advice. She has an amazing Fred/OC fic called Resurgence, so I definitely recommend that you check that out.

I hope you guys like this chapter!

"'Lyssa!"

I shrieked and tried to scramble out of bed as Megan jumped on me. I only succeeded in landing in the floor with the sheets tangled around me.

"Happy birthday!" Megan sang, hopping up and doing a little dance. "Open your presents!"

"I just woke up, Megan," I grumbled, disentangling myself from the sheets. "Give me a minute."

I glanced around the dorm. "Where is everyone?"

"They're probably out getting everything read...I mean, they're at breakfast." I shook my head in amusement. I hoped she never had a secret of real importance to keep.

"Here!" she said, thrusting a brightly wrapped package into my arms. "This one's from me."

She'd gotten me a bottle of vanilla perfume, but I barely had time to thank her before she took it from me and handed me another present. We carried on like that for what seemed like ages, until finally, there was only one left. It was completely different than the others, wrapped in plain brown paper. There was no note. I tore the paper away and gasped.

In my hand was a journal. The same journal I'd wanted to buy the day before. Its cover was made of leather, with a tree painted on the front. The tree had been what had drawn me to this journal in the first place. It must have been charmed, because the leaves, tinted silver and gold, seemed to sway slightly, as though from an invisible breeze. It was beautiful.

"What's that?" Megan inquired, peering over my shoulder. She inhaled sharply. "Oh, 'Lyssa. Who sent you that? It's gorgeous!"

"I...don't know," I said, looking at the paper again. "Whoever it was, they forgot to write a note."

"Or maybe they didn't forget," she breathed. Suddenly, she gave a little squeal...directly into my ear. I jumped, moving away from her quickly.

"What was that for?" I demanded.

She shook her head, beaming and clapping her hands. "Maybe you've got a secret admirer!"

I started to protest, but it was too late. Megan was a romantic, and she was now firmly convinced that someone in this school was hopelessly in love with me.

"I mean, who else would send you something like that? Only someone who had been paying attention would know that you wanted it. Besides, if it was a friend, they'd have written a note, right? So you must have an admirer!"

She rambled on like that all the way down to breakfast. She even followed me to sit at the Gryffindor table. Elena grinned at us and slid further up the bench to make room.

"Happy birthday, 'Lyssa!" she exclaimed, hugging me. "Did you like that set of books I got you?

"They look really interesting," I nodded, then gestured to Megan. "If this one would remember to breathe, I would have had time to crack the first one open this morning. Where're Fred and George?"

As if my words had conjured them up, the twins sat down across from us, identical grins on their faces. They then proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday," loudly and slightly off-key, drawing the attention of everyone in the hall. I buried my face in my hands, feeling my cheeks grow hot. When they finished, Dumbledore led the applause. I refused to look up for five minutes, and then it was only because George asked me what I'd gotten for my birthday. I ran down the list of my presents for him, making sure to thank him for the box of Sugar Quills.

"Oh," I added, pulling my journal out of my bag. "I got this, too." I looked at he and Elena. "Did either of you get me this?"

They both shook their heads. I sighed and set it on the table, absently tracing the trunk of the tree. Megan had been bouncing in her seat, but now she exploded.

"I think Alyssa's got an admirer!" she announced.

"Megan!" I hissed, but she just beamed.

"What makes you think that?" Fred asked, frowning.

She proceeded to give him all the "evidence" in one breath. It was a romantic sort of gift, it was something I'd really wanted... I glanced at Elena, hoping to find sympathy, but she seemed genuinely intrigued as to what Megan was saying. I rolled my eyes.

"Someone must like her," Megan said, finally done prattling. "Oh, and I'm Megan Mitchell, by the way, in case you didn't know."

I couldn't help chuckling at the blank looks on Fred and George's faces. They looked like she'd clubbed them over the heads with their Beaters' bats. Then again, I must've looked that way the first time she explained it to me.

"She reads too many romance novels," I explained.

"You don't have any idea who sent you the journal?" Fred asked.

I shrugged. "Not yet, really. But whoever it was, it was nice of them."

He nodded, glanced briefly at the journal, and went back to his food. Boys...

"Alyssa?"

I glanced up from my book to find Hermione Granger standing over me. I smiled.

"Hi, Hermione. What can I do for you?"

"Do you mind if I sit with you?"

"Of course you can," I nodded, moving some of my books to make room for her. "What are you working on today?"

"I want to get through my Charms and Ancient Runes homework tonight," she sighed, setting a stack of books on the table with a thump.

I peered at her closely. She looked nearly as tired and worn out as Professor Lupin. She had the same shadows under her eyes, and her eyes looked fragile, as though she was ready to cry.

"Is everything all right?" I asked carefully.

She bit her lip and nodded slowly. I raised an eyebrow.

"You can talk to me, Hermione. Whatever it is, it can't be that bad."

"I..."she hesitated. "Oh, all right. It sounds silly, to say it out loud, but...well, Ron's rat died."

I nodded. "George told me about that. Is that what's bothering you?"

"Kind of. Ron's convinced himself that my cat ate his rat. He can't prove that Crookshanks did it, but now he's expecting me to apologize for it!"

I frowned. Personally, I thought that Ron was probably right. Somehow, though, that didn't feel like the right thing to say to Hermione.

"I'm sure he's just upset," I said instead. "He'll come around eventually. But is that's all that's wrong? You look exhausted, Hermione. How many classes are you actually taking?"

"Twelve," she admitted. "All of them."

My jaw dropped. "Twelve? How on earth are you managing that?"

"Oh...just good time management, I suppose. By the way, it's your birthday today, isn't it?"

I rolled my eyes inwardly at her hasty subject change, but decided against pressing her. "It is, yeah. How'd you know?"

"Well, the whole school sort of knows after Fred and George sang 'Happy Birthday' in the middle of the Great Hall."

"Ah, right," I grimaced. "I was trying to repress that memory. Thanks for bringing it back up."

"Sorry," she chuckled. "So, it's your birthday. Why are you hiding in here?"

"A couple of my friends are throwing me a party," I explained. "Even though I practically begged them not to. So I'm trying to avoid my common room for as long as I possibly can. If I'm lucky, it'll nearly be over by the time I get there."

"I thought I heard someone talking about a party when I went to the toilet between classes."

I sighed. "Was it a blonde Ravenclaw girl?"

"I think so," Hermione said. "She was singing."

"That'd be Megan," I grinned, albeit exasperatedly. "She's...something else."

Hermione laughed. "Well, I hope you get out of the party."

"Thanks," I chuckled. "So do I. Maybe I'll be able to stay he-"

"Summers!"

I groaned as Fred Weasley strode into the library, beaming at Madam Pince. She shot him a withering look, but that didn't seem to faze him as he made his way over to my table. He slid into the chair next to me, propping his chin up on his hand.

"Hello," he said, grinning crookedly.

I sighed and leaned back in my chair. "What do you want?"

"Well, I was invited to a certain someone's birthday party, but then I found out she wasn't coming!"

I crossed my arms. "And your point is?"

"Well," he said, mimicking my posture. "It's hardly a birthday party if the birthday girl isn't there, is it?"

Hermione, who had been watching us in silence, suddenly passed a hand over her mouth.

"What is it?" I asked, noticing the smile playing along her lips.

"It's nothing," she said hastily, clasping her hands in her lap. "Nothing."

I raised an eyebrow, but didn't have time to question her further because Fred had seized my wrist and pulled me to my feet.

"What're you doing?" I demanded, trying to pull away.

"I told you, the birthday girl has to attend her party."

"I have to get my bag!" I protested.

Fred huffed, but released me long enough for me to gather up my possessions.

"Bye, Hermione," I sighed.

"Bye," she chuckled. "Have fun."

With that, Fred dragged me out of the library. Madam Pince shot daggers at us as we left.

"I don't want to go to the party," I said, inwardly wincing at the whine in my voice.

"It'll be fun," he said dismissively. "George and I will be there. What more could you possibly ask for?"

"Speaking of George, where is he?" I asked.

"He went ahead to the party with Elena, I think."

I nodded, unable to suppress a smile. "They're cute, aren't they?"

Fred wrinkled his nose. "I'm way cuter than George."

"I meant that they're cute together," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Sure you did. By the way, how do you get into your common room?"

"Like I'd tell you," I snorted. "We'll see if you can figure it out for yourself when we get there."

He pouted, but didn't say anything else until we reached the door to the common room. I reached up to knock. Fred jumped back as the eagle's mouth open and the familiar musical voice poured out.

"Can a Dementor die?" it asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Fred demanded, looking at me expectantly.

I shrugged, leaning back against the wall. "You tell me. You have to answer the question to get in."

"You guys don't just have a password?"

"Nope. And if you don't answer, we're not going inside."

He stuck his tongue out at me and glared at the eagle knocker.

"All right...can a Dementor die? Well, it's alive, isn't it? If it's alive, it can die."

My jaw dropped as the voice said, "Nicely put," and the door swung open. Fred smirked at me.

"Close your mouth, Princess. You'll catch flies."

I snapped my mouth closed and shook my head, pushing past him to enter the common room. I barely had time to register the fact that I was pretty sure I didn't know half of the people there before Megan accosted me.

"'Lyssa!" she all but shrieked. "What are you wearing?"

I glanced down at myself. As it wasn't a school day, I was wearing a sweatshirt that I was pretty sure had been Dora's at one point or another. It had The Weird Sisters' logo across it. Besides that, I was wearing jeans and trainers, which I deemed to be perfectly appropriate for what I'd been doing. Apparently, Megan thought different, as she grabbed my hand and pulled me up the stairs to the dormitory.

"I look fine!" I protested as she shoved a dress at me.

"And now you'll look better than fine!"

I rolled my eyes, but at this point, it was just easier to go along with it. So I got changed, even putting on the heels she tossed me. However, I drew a line when she tried to fix my hair. She'd wanted to straighten it, which I knew could potentially take hours, as my hair was curly and Megan wouldn't be satisfied until it was perfectly straight.

She was trying to talk me into it when the door opened. We both jumped, but it was only Elena.

"Sorry," she chuckled. "I should've knocked."

Megan waved her apology away. "Now that you're here, can you please tell her to fix her hair?"

"Tell her she can't straighten it tonight," I said.

Elena sighed and muttered something about not remembering signing up to be a mother. In the end, we convinced Megan to leave my hair alone. But they made me shake it loose from the plait I'd tamed it into. I didn't bother arguing as they played around with my makeup; it would've just wasted my breath anyway. Finally, I was deemed finished and Elena led me over to the mirror in Megan's corner of the room while Megan herself went back down to the party.

"You look beautiful, 'Lyssa," she said, smiling and squeezing my shoulders.

I did feel nice. The navy blue dress floated just above my knees, layers of chiffon in the skirt making me feel a bit like a ballerina. My hair hung loose in long ringlets, apparently deciding to behave itself for the moment. I didn't look as tired as I knew I usually did, and I couldn't help a smile as I moved so that my skirt flared out slightly. Elena laughed.

"Thank you," I grinned. "You look pretty fantastic yourself."

Her black hair was in a French braid and her dress was a vivid red. Very Gryffindor, I noted. But then, I couldn't really saying anything, seeing as how my dress was blue.

We headed back down to the common room. Elena led me over to the sofa where Fred and George were sitting with Lee Jordan. They were snickering about something, but fell quiet as we walked up.

"Well, don't you clean up nice?" George teased, grinning broadly at me. "Don't you think so, Freddie?"

Fred didn't say anything. His ears had gone red again, and he seemed to be avoiding his brother's gaze.

"Hey, Elena," Lee said suddenly. "Do you want to dance?"

She nodded, smiling hesitantly, and they disappeared. George, I noticed, looked a bit miffed about this. I took Lee's empty place on the sofa next to him.

"I think I'm supposed to make sure you're having a good time," I said quietly. "But I'm not the hostess, and you look like you just swallowed a lemon."

George scowled at me. "Fred, ask Alyssa to dance."

Fred stared between us confusedly, but shrugged. "Summers, do you want to-"

"Nope."

He sighed. "Fine, then. I'll find someone else. Oi! Angelina!"

I watched as he got up and strode across the room to where a tall dark-skinned girl was standing. She grinned as he said something and they melted into the crowd of dancing students.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"You know who she is," George chuckled. "Angelina Johnson. She's one of our Chasers."

"Oh, right," I remembered. "Is she his...girlfriend?"

He smirked. "Why? Jealous?"

I scoffed. "Please. I'm more likely to pity her."

George elbowed me in the ribs before answering. "They're not dating, exactly. I don't know what to call it, honestly."

"Ah. And what should I call you and Elena?"

George Weasley could act cool all he liked, but bring Elena Michaels into the picture and suddenly he was blushing like the massive dork he secretly was. He muttered something under his breath that I didn't quite catch, and went even redder.

"You know," I said. "I'm happy to say that I know Elena better than a lot of people. I think...I think that if you got up the nerve to ask her out, you'd have a pretty good chance of hearing a yes."

His eyes widened. "You think so?"

I laughed. "Well, I can't speak for her. The only way to know for sure is to ask her yourself."

He nodded, more to himself than to me. We lapsed into silence, until I sighed and stood up.

"So, are you going to ask me to dance or what?"

He stared at me for a long moment, then burst out laughing, attracting the wary glances of others nearby.

"I think you just asked me," he grinned, getting to his feet and teasingly offering me his arm, which I knocked aside.

"Don't get any ideas," I warned, leading the way across the room.

I could hear him continuing to laugh as he followed me.

The party had begun to die down, although I could still hear a few people down in the common room. When it had started getting too loud for my taste, I'd retreated upstairs to the dormitory. As nice as it felt to dress up, I was more than happy to get into my pyjamas and start on the books Elena had gotten me. I'd been eventually joined by my roommates, who were talking excitedly about which guys had talked to them, and what had been said, and who asked them to dance. I had just successfully tuned them out when Megan suddenly cried out that she must've left her earrings downstairs, and could someone please go get them? All the other girls turned to look at me. I huffed in exasperation, but climbed off of my bed and grabbed the sweatshirt I'd been wearing earlier to put on over my tank top.

"Sure, make the birthday girl go get it," I grumbled, pulling the sweatshirt over my head and heading for the stairs.

The common room was emptier than I'd thought it would be. Only a handful of people remained, and most of them were getting ready to leave. I sighed, glancing around for where Megan could have possibly left her earrings.

"Why would she even take them off?" I muttered to myself as I walked over to the coffee table in front of the sofa where I'd sat earlier.

"You know, they say talking to yourself is the first sign of madness," said a voice behind me, causing me to jump about a foot in the air.

Fred Weasley was standing there, that stupid smirk on his face.

"You idiot," I said, releasing a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "Why're you still here?"

"Relax, I was just leaving," he said. "I found these, though."

He held out his hand. Two silver earrings rested on his palm. I sighed in relief.

"Those are Megan's," I said, taking them from him. "I got sent down here to look for them."

"Mm. In that case, shouldn't you thank me for saving you a lot of trouble?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's likely," I said, rolling my eyes and withdrawing my hands into the long sleeves of my shirt.

"You look...different," he observed.

I raised an eyebrow. "You didn't think I was going to sleep wearing that dress and all that makeup, did you? You don't have to tell me I look gross or anything, I'm already aware of it."

"You don't look gross."

I froze. For a second, I wasn't sure that the words had come from him. But there was no one else within earshot.

"Thanks...I think," I said. "I...should probably get back upstairs now. Before they come looking for me."

Fred nodded. I slipped past him, heading for the stairs.

"Hey, Summers?"

I stopped on the bottom step and glanced back. "Yeah?"

"...Happy Birthday."

I felt my cheeks growing warm, much to my horror.

"Thanks," I said, turning away from him quickly. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."