Devon, James, Hugo, Gary, Todd, Miles, Albus, Fred, Gordon, Pamela, Rose, Roxanne, Rachel, Ainsley, Courtney, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily were all really looking forward to Hogwarts Easter in 2021. They all agreed to wear their Circle of Eighteen shirts on Easter after Lily suggested it the night before Easter.
There would be no generic Easter Egg hunt in 2021.
Instead, Professor McGonagall had asked the Hogwarts Planning Club to devise a more creative way for the Hogwarts students to get their candy on Easter. McGonagall also asked the Hogwarts Planning Club to come up with some unique fun activities for Hogwarts Easter 2021.
James, however, had asked Devon, Hugo. Albus, Fred, Roxanne, and Lily to plan Easter himself so that everyone expect himself could be surprised. Devon, Hugo, Albus, Fred, Roxanne, and Lily all quickly agreed to this because they knew how bold James was and wanted to be surprised by what James came up with. James had submitted his plans for Easter 2021 to McGonagall, who had approved them and kept them quiet.
So, On Sunday, April 4th, 2021 at 11 A.M. Hogwarts time, Devon, James, Hugo, Gary, Todd, Miles, Albus, Fred, Gordon, Pamela, Rose, Roxanne, Rachel, Ainsley, Courtney, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily all walked down to the Quidditch Pitch with only James knowing what was up.
As they began their walk down to the Quidditch Pitch, James said warmly, "Ainsley, I have a surprise for you. I had an idea for a way to pay tribute to you on your last Easter as a Hogwarts student in a warm, fun, and happy way. "
"I appreciate the thought, James, " said Ainsley sincerely, "I look forward to seeing what this surprise is."
As the Circle of Eighteen approached the Quidditch pitch, their eyes took in a wonderful scene.
The grass of the Quidditch pitch was not its usual green, but yellow. Yellow had always been Ainsley's favorite color and the yellow hue the Quidditch pitch was now displaying was the enact same shade of yellow as Ainsley's favorite polo shirt.
"Merlin's beard, it is perfect!" cooed Ainsley, "We're going to celebrate Easter on a yellow Quidditch pitch! How splendid!"
"I bewitched the grass of the pitch to be your favorite shade of yellow today, Ainsley, " said James brightly, "I wanted to pay tribute to you in a way that would just really make you happy on Easter."
"You succeeded, James, " said Ainsley cheerfully, " I'm just so pleased to be able to spend Easter on a yellow Quidditch pitch. What a distinct setting to have for Easter. I couldn't be happier with it."
James smiled at Ainsley; glad he had come through for her.
"The yellow Quidditch pitch is super neat, " grinned Gordon, "Yellow is actually my second favorite color behind silver. But it's not just that I like yellow. I don't know how to explain it but there's something inherently neat about seeing a yellow Quidditch pitch."
"There's always a certain coolness factor is seeing anything be a different color than it normally is, " piped up Samantha.
"Exactly, " agreed Lily, "It's fantastic that James created us a setting for us that is both a happy tribute to Ainsley while simultaneously giving us a neat setting for Easter. James threw an eighty yard touchdown pass with this idea. One for one, baby bro!"
"I knew you'd all enjoy that, " beamed James, "But now we will turn the focus to our actual Easter activities."
Devon, Hugo, Gary, Todd, Miles, Albus, Fred, Gordon, Pamela, Rose, Roxanne, Rachel, Ainsley, Courtney, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily all looked at James with looks of excitement on their faces. They KNEW James had come up with something good and bold. Now, they knew they were about to find out it what.
"Be quiet, listen, and look down at the ground, " said James urgently.
The Circle of Eighteen quickly shut up and looked down at the ground. They sensed something was about to happen at any nanosecond and they weren't about to miss it.
A nanosecond later, throughout the entire Quidditch pitch, circular holes started to form and open in the grass. The members of the Circle of Eighteen all oohed and awed as they watched the holes form in the grass. These holes took about a minute and a nanosecond to form and then something started to rise up out of them.
This something proved to be white model rockets, one for every person currently present on the pitch. These model rockets mimicked rocket noise but at a much lower volume than the real thing.
These model rockets slowly but surely lifted skyward.
Devon, James, Hugo, Gary, Todd, Miles, Albus, Fred, Gordon, Pamela, Rose, Roxanne, Rachel, Ainsley, Courtney, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily looked on admiringly at the way James had apparently bewitched the model rockets to rise. But they knew better than to talk. Somehow, someway, they all knew a BIG something was going to happen once the model rockets got high enough.
Indeed, once the model rockets hit the sky, they transformed into model suns.
These model suns glowed brighter and brighter before suddenly exploding. From the remnants of these model suns, a pile of Easter candy fell from the sky and landed at a person's feet in such a manner that everybody got his or her own pile.
James had selected the items for these piles to include two types of candy: typical Easter fare and Ainsley's favorite candies.
There were Lindt's chocolate bunnies and hard candy shelled eggs with chocolate centers in classic Easter pastel colors such as yellow, pink, light green, light orange, and sky blue along with marshmallow peeps chicks and Jelly Belly jellybeans as was typical for Easter. There were also bags of tropical Skittles, tropical Starburst, coconut M&Ms, and banana Laffy Taffy, these being Ainsley's favorites. Of course, with James being the one who picked the candies, Old Faithful Bars were also included.
Before they got to work on the candy, they had to discuss what they had just seen.
"Wow! That was really impressive magic!" complimented Lily.
"It got off to a nice start with the holes forming in the grass, " said Albus adoringly, "Just watching the holes form was a wonder to behold."
"It startled me a bit, but in a good way, when those model rockets came out of the holes, " said Devon admiringly.
"The anticipation in the air as the model rockets rose skyward was palpable, " said Hugo brightly.
"The transformation of the model rockets into model suns is one of the coolest and most brilliant bits of Transfiguration I've ever seen, " said Fred excitedly.
"And the explosions came at the right time, " said Samantha glowingly, "Not so soon you might miss them, not so late you might have lost attention. "
"James is the GOAT of holiday planning, " cooed Roxanne.
"I'm so glad none of us knew in advance though, " said Courtney briskly, "The element of surprise made this show what it was."
"Totally agree with that, " said Stephanie crisply, " I don't think any of us could've guessed what was coming."
"So much better than last year's generic Easter egg hunt, " added Rose.
"Yes, " agreed Lily, "That's why the Hogwarts Planning Club does all these different holiday things. To keep it fun and fresh. James truly put on a spectacle for us here today."
"The timing on everything had to be exact, " realized Gordon, "What an accomplishment!"
At that instant, a bell rang indicating it was time for lunch,
"Pay attention!" said James suddenly in a sharp voice.
No sooner were the words out of James's mouth when a litter of robotic cats were suddenly chasing their way through the Quidditch pitch. These robotic cats looked like real domestic shorthair housecats and came in various colors: white, black, gray, orange, and calico. These robotic cats purred and meowed as they sped across the Quidditch pitch. Eventually, each robotic cat reached a person. When this happened, empty Easter baskets suddenly fell from the sky directly into everyone's hands. The robotic cats then used their paws to pick all of the candy up off the ground and into the Easter baskets. Once this task was completed, the robotic cats called in a deep voice, "We're yours to keep!" and turned without warning into stuffed cats.
"I know Ainsley loves animals and that cats are her favorite animals, so I incorporated cats into the day's activities!" explained James eagerly.
"This is a really nice celebration of Ainsley you've weaved into Easter, James, " said Lily glowingly, "What a sweet celebration of a wonderful person!"
"I'm incredibly grateful for the fact that James wanted to dedicate this Easter to me, " said Ainsley warmly, "But I'm glad he went the happy route and didn't make it too emotional."
"I just wanted you to have a fun and happy day, Ainsley, " said James cheerfully, "I chose things I know are up your alley."
"Being able to keep these stuffed cats is nice, " cooed Ainsley.
"Can we show these stuffed cats off at Smeltings?" asked Todd, "We wouldn't say anything about them other than that they are stuffed animals that are stuffed cats."
"Yes, you can, " said James cheerfully, "All magic died from them as soon as they turned from robotic cats to stuffed cats."
"That'll be nice, " said Gary happily, "It's another trinket we can all keep and enjoy."
"Having the robotic cats put our candy in our Easter baskets was especially cool!" said Miles contentedly, "Well done, James."
"Now, " said James eagerly, "Let's dig into some of that candy."
"We don't need to eat it all today, " said Lily wisely, "Especially with our Easter lunch coming up. I say we pick one Easter themed candy and one Ainsley favored candy and save the rest."
"Agreed, " chorused Devon, James, Hugo, Gary, Todd, Miles, Albus, Fred, Gordon, Pamela, Rose, Roxanne, Rachel, Ainsley, Courtney, Stephanie, and Samantha.
"Let's let Devon pick the Easter candy and Ainsley pick the Ainsley candy, " suggested Lily.
"That makes sense, " agreed James as everybody nodded his or her head in agreement.
" I choose the Lindt's chocolate bunnies, " said Devon, picking his Lindt's chocolate bunny out of his basket, opening it, and then taking his first bite.
James, Hugo, Gary, Todd, Miles, Albus, Fred, Gordon, Pamela, Rose, Roxanne, Rachel, Ainsley, Courtney, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily all followed suit in that order. and they spend a few minutes savoring the delicious milk chocolate.
When the Lindt's chocolate bunnies were gone, Ainsley said decisively, "Let's have the banana Laffy Taffys today. Eating the banana Laffy Taffys today plays right into the yellow theme of the day."
The Circle of Eighteen all grinned at this. Devon quickly found his banana Laffy Taffy, ripped it open, and took his first bite.
"Mmmm, " said Devon in a satisfied voice, "I don't consume banana flavored candy more than once every fifth blue moon, but man was that good!"
James, Hugo, Gary, Todd, Miles, Albus, Fred, Gordon, Pamela, Rose, Roxanne, Rachel, Ainsley, Courtney, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily then all dug into their banana Laffy Taffys in that order.
The members of the Circle of Eighteen all felt their mouths watering as the ate the banana Laffy Taffys and when they gone, Ainsley looked at Devon and said, "You should try banana flavored candies more often."
Her tone was teasing, but Devon seemed to take it as a serious suggestion and said, "I will."
"I was just teasing, Devon, " acknowledged Ainsley, "I know banana isn't really your thing."
"I did legitimately like the banana Laffy Taffy though, " said Devon matter of factly.
At that instant, a bell rang that indicated it was time for lunch and the Circle of Eighteen headed into the Great Hall for a fabulous Easter feast of ham, mashed potatoes, carrots, dinner rolls, and Coca Cola Classic.
Typical of a lot of Hogwarts feasts, the Easter fare, especially the ham. was so good that it led to slow and quiet eating so that everyone could savor it to the fullest. After the feast was over though, they remained in their seats. Devon, James, Hugo, Gary, Todd, Miles, Albus, Fred, Gordon, Pamela, Rose, Roxanne, Rachel, Ainsley, Courtney, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily all just sat in the Great Hall talking and chatting about whatever subject might come up.
Finally, Ainsley spoke up and said, "You all remember that I promised that I would make us friendship bracelets? They are ready! "
Ainsley proceeded to dig her left hand into her left hand pocket. When it came back out, a small yellow bag was in Ainsley's hands.
"I have eighteen friendship bracelets in the bag, " said Ainsley warmly, "I'm going to perform a spell so that every member of the Circle of Eighteen has his or her friendship bracelet land on his or her left wrist at literally the exact same nanosecond."
Ainsley dug her right hand into her right hand pocket and retrieved her wand. She made a few movements with her wand and next thing they knew, every member of the Circle of Eighteen felt his or her friendship bracelet land on his or her left wrist.
Looking down at the friendship bracelets, Devon, James, Hugo, Gary, Todd, Miles, Albus, Fred, Gordon, Pamela, Rose, Roxanne, Rachel, Ainsley, Courtney, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily all saw that the friendship bracelets mostly consisted of four shades of yellow. At the top of the pattern was a very light shade of yellow. The row below featured a somewhat darker but still fairly light shade of yellow. The third row's shade of yellow was noticeably darker with the row that being the deepest and darkest hue of yellow. This pattern repeated itself throughout the friendship bracelets. And where the time would be displayed on watch, Ainsley had included a red circle with a red number 18 in the middle, the logo of the Circle of Eighteen. These friendship bracelets were hard.
Every member of the Circle of Eighteen looked down at his or her friendship bracelet with pure joy in his or her heart. No matter where they all went or what they all did, they were forever a part of each other. The Circle of Eighteen's forever bond was perfectly represented by these friendship bracelets.
"Wow, Ainsley, said Lily glowingly, "How did you make them?"
"I made them out of clay and then heated and hardened them, " answered Ainsley.
"So, " said Ainsley warmly, "If you agree that we are forever bonded as part of each other's very souls, raise your left arm!"
Devon, James, Hugo, Gary, Todd, Miles, Albus, Fred, Gordon, Pamela, Rose, Roxanne, Rachel, Ainsley, Courtney, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily all raised their left arms immediately. There was a loud bang as a stream of the four shades of yellow and the logo of the Circle of Eighteen shot out of Ainsley's wand and went skyward. A voice shouted as loudly as was safe for human ears "THE CIRCLE OF EIGHTEEN FOREVER ONE!"
On this Easter, The Circle of Eighteen was forever bonded, knowing in their deepest hearts of hearts that they were forever one.