Raynie came twirling into the Great Hall. As she sat down next to Katie the twins saw she was not wearing her uniform under her robes.
"Nice threads, what's the occasion." Fred asked, he couldn't be mad at Raynie, at least not with her right there.
"It's my Birthday" Raynie said, "I turn twelve today."
"It's your Birthday?" Katie exclaimed, "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Subject never came up." Raynie replied helping herself to some bacon.
"Well you should have said something," Katie pouted, "I would have gotten you something."
"Fine, come here." Raynie pulled Katie close and held a camera up over her head, "Smile!" There was a flash and Raynie had her wand out.
"What are you doing?" George asked.
"Just a little trick Charlie taught me," She said before waving her wand over her camera, "Revilato."
Smoke flew out of the end of her wand and arranged itself as Katie and Raynie had been from the cameras angle. Then she blew the smoke away.
"Nifty," Cedric said behind her. Raynie turned and smiled, the twins glared as soon as her back was turned. Seeing their looks Katie kicked the boys from under the table.
"What are you doing here?" Raynie asked, plainly happy to see him.
"Well I would usually ask you the same question, and…" he said trailing off, "to give you this."
Cedric pulled a box out from behind his back. Raynie squealed and took it. Then she began to tear apart the clumsily wrapped present. Inside was a bottle of Alchaberry's color changing nail polish.
"Thank you," Raynie said, "but how did you know?"
"I got the info from the sorce." He said, "I wrote your mother." He then sat down beside her. Raynie leaned over and hugged Cedric around the middle before proceeding to paint her nails.
The twins looked at each other. They had to top this. There was no way this pretty-boy was going to walk in and take their Raynie away from them. After nodding to one another they looked down the table at Charlie, they were going to need re-enforcements.
She got the noted during dinner, telling here to met the twins in one of the corridors.
Mumbleing to herself, Raynie made her way up to the meeting point where she saw no one. I'll wait five minutes she thought only five, and if they aren't here by then I'll leave. I have a tutoring session today with Adrian Pucey and I can't miss it again.
But that five minutes never came. The Next thing Raynie knew she was surrounded by blackness and being thrown over someone's sholder.
"Put me down George," She said as she struggled to get out of what seemed to be a sack.
"I'm not George, I'm Fred," her captor claimed.
"Don't like to me," Raynie said, "George is always the one who carries me, and when you both do, he carries my legs."
"How do you know we didn't switch?" he asked.
"Because I can't tell you apart yet so you don't feel the need to switch because you think I think you do that already." Raynie said in a matter-of-fact way. And from the mumbling that followed she knew she was right, but she could not enjoy her victory because the realized that the only way she was getting out of the sack was she was set free. Upset by this idea she crossed her arms and began to pout.
"Has she figured it out?" Fred asked as the pair approached.
"No, but she is beginning to tell us apart," George said.
"We'll fix that later, now let's get her in here." Fred said followed by a shuffle of footsteps. Raynie was thrown into a plush armchair and the sac was removed from her body, she opened her eyes and gasped.
There was a cake, sitting on a table. The only light in the room came from the twelve small candles on that cake. People stood around it, boys and girls of different ages and houses.
There was Katie, the Twins, Lee Jordan, Oliver Wood and Charlie from Gryffindor, Cho Chang, Lexi Raguious Burns, and Roger Davies from Ravenclaw, Tonks, Scott Brice and Cedric from Hufflepuff, along with Adrian Pucey and Kristen Cane from Slytherin.
"Happy Birthday Raynie!" They coursed smiling widely as they spoke.
"Why didn't you tell us? We would have gotten you something." "I feel so bad that I didn't know." "Your gift is in the male, I ordered it the second I heard." "Are you sure you're twelve? It's just that you're so short."
Each sentence overlapped the other so Raynie could barely understand them. And inside Raynie felt all warm and fuzzy.
"Guess what," Kristen said, "It's time for the birthday spankings!" Most of the kids looked puzzled but several grabbed Raynie. They knew the tradition just as much as Raynie did.
"Raynie gets a smack on the arse for every year of life" Kristen continued, "Plus an extra one so she might keep growing." The rest of the kids began to grin in understanding as Raynie struggled against her captors.
"Come one guys," Raynie said.
"Who's going to do it?" Cho asked.
"Please!" Raynie was pleading now.
"One of the Seventh years," Scott said, "They're the biggest."
"Aw Come on!"
"Charlie!" Adrian said
"Yeah, Charlie," the others agreed.
"Charlie! You're a perfect" Raynie said as she was dragged over to him and thrown over his knee, "You shouldn't be doing this."
"No, I shouldn't" Charlie said looking at her softly and Raynie let out a sigh of relief and relaxed, "But it's tradition."
He smacked Raynie hard on the rear and she yelped in pain. Charlie was grinning evilly. The other students counted each time his hand hit her butt, each more painful than the last.
"And one to grow on!" the chanted before Charlie hit her for the thirteenth and last time. Raynie's captors released her and she slid off Charlie and onto the ground, fiercely rubbing her rear.
"Ow," she said, everybody laughed and she looked up. Then her eyes grew wide, "We need to get to bed NOW!"
Looking at the time Charlie spoke first, "I was not here," and slipped out the door. The other students followed suit, in pairs or groups of three. Much to Cedric's dismay, Raynie insisted she was the last one to leave then she shoved him out the door with Tonks and Scott. After closing the door for the next group she saw that only Fred and George were left.
"You two are going to pay for this," she said gesturing towards her butt. Then the boys pulled a box out from behind their back. It wasn't particularly large, but indicating all the same.
"Happy Birthday," they said holding it out to her. She slowly removed the lid to find a pair of glasses.
"Just put them on," Fred said before she could, "Then say somebody's name, someone far away."
Raynie put on the glasses and said one name, "Kylee." Then she could no longer see the twins. Instead she was looking at a group of kids sitting in a common room with purple chairs. All their attention was directed to a girl with chocolate-brown skin. She was smiling as she told a story, and by the hand gestures it was about the time Raynie got herself stuck in an igloo. Raynie removed the glasses. Kylee was gone, but the twins were there.
"Charlie did the magic," George said, "but we came up with the idea."
"We're sorry, it won't happen again." Fred continued, "Forgetting I mean. The slapping on the arse was quite funny and I think we should do it every year."
Raynie grinned and punched Fred in the arm, "You're forgiven. Now let's get out of here before Filtch finds us."
The twins told her about a few secret passages to take to avoid Flitch that would lead her safely to a place near her common room. Then they parted ways, not to see each other till morning.