Raised with Magic

Chapter: Sixth Birthday

Dear Jared,

I got the present you sent me and loved them! Charlie told me all about the benefits of dragon hide gloves apposed to normal ones. I'm guessing you knew what my biggest present was this year. I admit that I am anxious to read up on dragon hide properties now. To be honest I have been a bit more than on edge over the past few days. It was painfully obvious that Mum and Mrs. Weasley were conspiring for my birthday party. I was a bit confused about how I felt about that, I appreciated it and was excited, but I kind of dreaded it too.

You understand though, my birthdays have always been a bit odd. They also have never been a single event. Mother would always go overboard and throw a giant party where I knew absolutely no one. Daddy would always do something with me the next day. I always preferred Daddy's celebration because it was just us. No people I didn't know or even like. No frilly pink dresses and no pretending I had mediocre intelligence.

This year was different, it was an odd mix of the two types I was used to. It was Mother's size but Daddy's brand.

The day before Mum brought Luna and I to Diagon ally. We had ice cream, ran some errands and it was all really normal. At least that was how Mum wanted the outing to be. I knew that the goal of the trip was to get dresses. The female parent always gets a certain look in her eye when dressing her kids in fancy clothes is the goal. I was right, exactly halfway through the outing we ended up getting the dresses.

I like my dress, I know, surprising. It's the sundress type that Luna has made me so fond of. My dress is a light green and Luna's is a bright nearly shinning yellow. Luna and I are very closely the same size, she younger than me but I am small even for my age. This means we get to share clothing and Luna does have an impressive collection of sundresses.

Fred and George came over to the house early on my Birthday and Mum 'mysteriously' disappeared after a birthday breakfast. The twins were around to keep me occupied and to make sure I didn't find out about the party. They made no attempt to do so, they knew I knew already. They had also snuck me their present for me and it was the first one I had received, and easily a favorite. My present was a silver necklace with an unique charm. It appeared to be a Celtic knot, but they explained they designed it themselves as a symbol of our friendship. Both of them had the same symbol imprinted on leather bands on their wrists. We promised to wear them always.

The twins and Luna were a poor distraction for what was coming but we had fun nonetheless. At lunch they brought me over to the Weasley's back yard that was decked out in a Gryffindor colored birthday party. All of the Weasley's were there and Uncle Albus even let Charlie and Bill come with Aunt Minerva and Hagrid as supervision. He wasn't able to come, though, he was stuck in another stuffy meeting.

I had a great time and wizards have really cool birthday games! It was a blast! Even the adults played the games with us and Mrs. Weasley seriously outdid herself with the food.

Mum, Dad and Luna got me my own broom! It's new, but an older model so I can learn with it not being dangerous. I only kind of know how to ride so I am glad that the broom isn't anything too fast. The Weasley's had gotten me a Wizarding board game that had kept Luna, Ron, the twins and I occupied for a very long time. Bill and Charlie had gotten me some candies from honey dukes.

I got books from the Hogwarts staff which I am really excited about because they are the first Wizarding books that were actually chosen for me. Uncle Albus sent me a cool set which had Hogwarts: A History and biographies of each of the founders. Aunt Minerva gave me Practical uses of Transfiguration by Maggie Munch and Hagrid got me Majestic Unicorns by Tyler Pett.

I was really surprised that Professor Snape had sent me something but, I recognized it for what it was, his apology. I was very excited about it and surprised he had remembered. I had mentioned I wanted to learn sign language once only in passing. Professor Snape had sent a three book series on how to teach yourself by Barbra Wolf.

I thanked everyone a lot for my gifts because they really didn't have to. The only thing that had really mattered was how clear it was that I finally have people who love me for me.

Love, Hermione.

I finished my letter and the thank you notes to both Uncle Albus and Professor Snape. The thank you note to aunt Maggie and Uncle Ed was added into the envelope I had folded the letter to Jared into. Aunt Maggie and gotten me a Beach Barbie. I don't know what to do with it. I had spent a long time on writing and it was pretty late, Luna was asleep already. When I went downstairs Dad was sitting in a big plushy chair reading the evening paper.

"Hey there, Hermione. What are you doing up?"

"I just finished some letters, I don't think I will be able to sleep yet." I confessed, my mind was to wired. Dad opened his arms and I climbed into his lap to read the paper with him. The garmlobs are flying east this time of year…

"Hermione wake up already!" Luna ordered throwing a pair of jeans and a tee shirt that had a moving dragon on it at me. I was disoriented, I didn't remember falling asleep. Or even making my way to my room.

"Luna!" I growled, she laughed at me, I hate waking up.

"Come on, Hermione. We need to train you!" Sometimes I think Luna likes the fact Mum lets her kidnap me to train more than I do. And I know that she likes the idea of me having wandless magic a lot more then I do. I would be perfectly fine, prefer even, being a normal witch.

Her idea today was diving. My challenge was to create a barrier that could both hold air in and stay solid against water if I went underwater.

The first step was meditation. I attempted to hold up a barrier with my eyes closed and my mind focused. At odd intervals, Luna would splash water at me. It took hours of sporadic results before I could consistently block all of her splashing.

We agreed that I wouldn't try to submerge until tomorrow. My attempts took a lot out of me and like I do after most of my training I went upstairs to read. My body may be tired but my mind was awake and I was looking forward to reading the set Professor Snape had gifted me.