Rewrite V1 - Chapter 22 - 'A Birthday Party With Friends'

Stats as of last chapter:

Aubrey Hawthorne

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Level 19

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Age - 12

Race - Human

Sex - Female

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SP - 6,160

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Str - 32

Agi - 51

Dex - 38

Con - 40

Int - 50

Wis - 44

Luc - 38 (66)

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Skill Points - 20

Stat Points - 65
Perk Points - 2

I’m admittedly subdued for the remainder of our visit, and I’m grateful for the distraction I know the rest of the day will be from my troubling thoughts. I invited all my friends on the first day I got back from Hogwarts the moment Mum told me I could have a party for my birthday, so everything is entirely prepared! I know Cedric can’t come as he’s holidaying in Germany for the next two weeks, but he’s sent me a present that’s waiting with his owl at the living room window when we get home. I run over and let her in.

“Thank you,” I say, giving her a chest rub once I’ve gotten her burden free.

Girly shrieks from her place on the back of a dining room chair, bobbing angrily at Poppy.

“Don’t you start,” I roll my eyes.

“Don’t be mean,” Jasmine coos, going to calm the bird down. “She’s only mad at you because you insult her.”

“I insult her because she bites me,” I retort.

We’ve had this argument before, so Mum interrupts before it can continue. “Okay, let's get ready, people are going to start arriving soon!”

I jump into action, knowing my siblings are going to disappear and leave us with the cleaning up. I float my gifts up to my room and switch my dress for the new one Mum got me, a purple number with a blue sash around the waist. It’s a little more mature than some of my other clothes, but still completely decent for my age. I wouldn’t be surprised if crushes at school start to be aimed at me if I wear cute outfits like this more often! After a quick clean up of my teeth and hair, I help Mum pick up the living room and dining area in time for my friends.

Just as I’m telling Tala to be nice to Girly and not try to ‘play’ with her - I’m sure she hates the owl as much as me, and I’d really rather not have an embarrassing bloody mess on my birthday - Alicia steps out of the Floo.

“Hey Alicia!” I say, going for a hug. She accepts it with an excited squeak. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been great! I’ve been playing so much Quidditch!” She grins, taking the seat at the sofa when I offer it to her. She’s in black Muggle jeans, a cream t-shirt that’s stretching around her growing chest, and small black heels, paired with a black handbag. It’s a bit kiddish, but shows her maturing tastes well.

I roll my eyes at her. “I’m sure you have! I doubt you’re able to live without flying now.”

She snorts a laugh. “You’re not wrong, but you’re not that right either,” she teases.

Mum walks in, stopping my retort in its tracks. “Hello Alicia! I was just going to pop to Sarah’s house and collect her.”

I grin. “Excellent! I’ll get the drinks.”

Mum goes through the Floo quickly so as to not clog it up, leaving me and Alicia alone. I ask her about her summer so far while I grab the drinks from the kitchen manually, then settle in the living room together. Just as we sit, the fire flashes and Heather steps out.

“Hi!” She shouts, rushing to throw her arms around me. I jump up and wrap her in a hug. “I’m so excited, thank you for inviting me! Here, I got a present for you!”

“Thank you for coming!” I take the present from her and put it on the coffee table with Alicia’s.

The same thing happens when Angelina comes through, then when Mum and Sarah arrive, and Adrian and Cho. Muirin isn’t able to come, which is no surprise to me, and Adrian arrives with far fewer hugs, meaning our party is complete!

“What’s the plan then?” Adrian asks, sitting back in the armchair and petting Tala’s fluffy chin with one finger.

“We’re going to play a few games, and then we leave for the restaurant in two hours,” I tell him. “I was thinking I’d teach you how to play some Muggle card games.”

He raises an unimpressed eyebrow. “Muggle card games?”

“Trust me,” I grin, going to the kitchen table. “Come sit around and I’ll teach you.” From the centre of the table, I grab a pack of Muggle cards and shuffle them. Sarah, ever the sweetheart, brings the tray of drinks over. “Okay, so here’s what to do. We’re going to play poker, which is a type of card game, specifically Texas Hold’em. There are other types, but this is the most popular and the one my Muggle grandfather taught me.”

I have to spend twenty minutes explaining the complicated game to them before they start to get to grips with it. Mum comes to check on us once and seems concerned, but I make sure to say we’re just using fake chips with no money on them, and she doesn’t worry any more.

Not to say I don’t plan on gambling a little in the future when my Skill at the game and my Luck is higher, but this is fine for a children's party.

With how hesitant some of my friends are at the start and the allowances we have to make for mistakes as they are learning, it takes us an hour and a half hours for just one game. In the end, Adrian is the winner with a final hand of four jacks, a testament to his Luck Statistic! Not just that, but he’s so thrilled with his winnings that I think I’ve convinced him that this Muggle game is okay, even if he’s still wary of other card games.

We go to the bathroom each and collect our things, during which the Floo goes downstairs. Worried one of my friends has to go home early, I finish up in the bathroom and double check the fit of my thigh holster before running down to the living room.

I freeze in the doorway. “Papa.” I sense Angelina’s and Cho’s eyes on me from the kitchen door where they were getting a last minute drink of water.

“Happy birthday, Aub,” he smiles. “Am I in time for the restaurant?”

“Yes,” I nod. I consider calling him out on what I learnt from Grandfather this morning before holding myself back. It would be rude to bring that up in front of my friends. It would make them feel incredibly awkward. “Thank you for my presents, I appreciate the chance to learn the family magic.”

He smiles. “You deserve it, honey, you’re a good girl.”

I nod and pull on my mask of happiness. Families go through tough times, and apparently my family is going through one of them now. I’ll talk to Mum tomorrow and leave it for now.

“Come out to the garden!” Mum calls. She has Adam and Jasmine with her, who’ve been hiding upstairs on Mum’s orders to give me time with my friends alone. Alicia and Angelina go to Jasmine in a flash and offer to hold her hand, causing her to be suddenly shy. “Come on, the portkey goes any moment! Oh, Mark, thank goodness.”

I grab Sarah’s hand. “Hold onto the stick.”

“What? Why?” She asks in bewilderment as the rest of us do it without question.

I don’t have time to explain, just grasp her around the waist and hold our bodies close as the magic grasps us by the navel and yanks us away.

The magic is ten times more unpleasant when holding onto a passenger, trying to pull her away from me. I don’t know how I keep a hold of her, but when it comes to the end we fall to a heap on the ground, her atop me.

“Oh god,” she groans.

“Off,” I beg, crushed under her weight.

I hear Dad laugh. “Oopsy, girls, let me help.”

Some magic picks up Sarah, and then Adrian is next to me offering his hand. I take him despite still being winded and force my body to comply, completely embarrassed to be on the dirty street in my dress. I hope I didn’t show my underwear to my friends and, even worse, the street!

“Are you okay?” Sarah asks, looking pale.

“Yes,” I say, running my hands over my back to brush any debris off. Thankfully, being so warm and dry currently, everything on me just falls off. “Are you okay? I’m sorry, I should’ve explained what portkeying is.”

She shakes her head. “Is that how all magic people travel?”

“I hated it my first time too,” Angelina helps, handing Sarah her bag back. “It’s okay, when you’re an adult you can learn to Apparate and that’s not nearly as bad!”

“Alright, as long as you’re both okay, let’s get going,” Mum pushes.

Sensing we’re about to be late for our reservation, I take Sarah by the end to lend her my support and nod. “Let’s go!”

The street we’re on is in London, a small area far from Diagon Alley. It’s a normal Muggle commercial Muggle street, with a hole in the wall alley going between two buildings split into multiple businesses that are magically owned. On the bottom floor of the left building, there’s a clothing shop, on the first floor another clothes shop, and on the third floor a cafe. For the right building, there’s a tiny boutique shoe shop next to an equally small bakery that Muggles apparently sometimes still manage to find their way into by following the smells. The second floor has a restaurant and the third is a childcare centre.

Because Magical Britain is so strapped for space, it’s not uncommon for spectacularly expensive restaurants to be next to mainstream clothes shops - after all, getting a building at all is ridiculously difficult in the first place.

We go up a rickety metal staircase to a ragged, spray painted metal door, which is the entrance to the restaurant I’ve been to only a handful of times before. My father opens it, and suddenly we’re in a whole other place. Marble floors, high ceilings, gentle orchestra music, giant glittering chandeliers and servers in suits recommending wine that most family’s couldn’t afford with a year's savings.

It’s a luxury I’d have never bothered with in my last life, but I enjoy the treat in this one.

“Welcome to The Silver Balcony, sirs, madams,” the host greets us pleasantly. “Do you have a reservation?”

“Hawthorne,” Dad says with the simple ease of someone growing up with great money. In fact, he’s wearing his work cloak, a white shirt and black trousers, nothing particularly fancy at all. Mum is in a very beautiful green dress and matching robes, and my friends are all dressed up nicely. Of course, with us being children, we don’t have to be as fancy, especially at lunch. It’s not expected for us to be as formal.

The host takes us to a long table reserved with balloons and golden plates. My seat is in the centre with a high back, allowing me to be in the very centre of the attention. Mum and Dad stay at one end with the kids, and Angelina and Alicia follow to be with adorable little Jasmine, while the rest of my friends surround me.

“This is a nice place,” Sarah gapes, looking around at the floating wine glasses waiting to be plucked from the air. “I should have worn something prettier.”

I roll my eyes. “Don’t be silly, you look great!” I tell her. “Don’t worry about it, it's only lunch anyway. What do you want to eat?”

Our menus appear before us seconds later, one sided card with just a handful of incredible options. It’s written in purely French, so I have to help my friends, of which Adrian knows a small amount but isn’t as fluent as I am, to decide. As we’re only having a main and dessert, I choose the roasted guinea fowl with creamy polenta and tomato as it’s something I haven’t had before, which Cho, Jasmine and Heather also choose, while Alicia, Adam, Adrian and my Dad get the pork rillettes with sweet and sour vegetables. That leaves Mum, Sarah and Angelina with the third and last option of calamari sautéed in parsley and dried ink risotto.

It’s further out than I expected of Sarah, but I suspect she chose it as she understood what risotto was and went with that.

I’m the one to order as, despite Dad being the Head of my family, it’s my birthday and allowing the birthday child to order is a thing often done in Wizarding meal celebrations to show how the child is maturing and help them learn responsibility - not that responsibility has ever been an issue with me of course, but it’s not often I get to do the ordering anyhow. With our meals I also order the drinks of primarily a very fancy brand of butterbeers, lemonade for Angelina who doesn’t like butterbeer as much, and orange juice for Adam who just wants that. We already have water for the table.

“Sarah,” I whisper, indicating to put her cloth napkin on her lap.

She hastily copies. “This is really a lot.”

Sensing her anxiety, I smile. “It’s alright, don’t worry. You get used to it after the first few times.”

“I’ve never been anywhere like this.”

“Sit back,” Adrian tells her, sitting exactly the way he’s probably been tutored since he was a toddler. I’d been taught just once in an intense drill by Dad and Grandmother at age four and, being who I am, remembered a lot from that first time, but I’d had to watch and help my siblings learn. They had taken far longer and Adam especially still messed up as he’s too impatient. As it is, I can see him from the corner of my eye slouching. “Places like this expect perfect manners.”

“I have good manners,” she defends herself quickly. “But this is really weird.”

“We’ll teach you!” I grin. “Sit with your shoulders a little further back, and push yourself back on the chair a bit. This isn’t Hogwarts with just that little bench, we should use the whole chair.”

She does as she’s told, and Heather, Cho and Angelina copy. Though Angelina and Cho are both from well off families, they’re not nearly at the same level as the Hawthorne’s. Heather family is even lower on the scale as every one of her great-grandparents were Muggles, so she only has a few generations of being Magical, so doesn’t know these skills the way she should. This will be a great exercise, and perhaps show Adam how important it is for everyone to do.

“When they bring our drinks in a few moments, they’re going to come to us from the right,” I tell her. “The waiter will walk with them floating on his other side, and as he passes your right side, the drink will float over. Don’t try to take it from midair, just act like it isn’t happening.”

“And try not to talk with gestures,” Adrian rolls his eyes. “There’s no need for that.”

I nod. “If you think you’re going to start, just hold your hands in your lap to stop yourself.”

“Okay, I can do that,” she breathes, holding her hands.

My other friends are doing the same, though Alicia looks more comfortable than the others. Whether she’s had this training or she’s just confident regardless, I’m not sure. “Your food will be served from the right, and it’s the same as when the drinks come. Just let it put itself in front of you and you’ll be fine.”

“But what if I drop food or something?” Sarah asks.

“Then leave it. The staff will probably clean it before we’re even finished eating.”

“How?”

“With magic, of course,” I remind her. She nods. “If you get food on your face, then you dab at it, don’t wipe. If it’s really bad, then go to the bathroom and clean up.”

“And don’t put elbows on the table!” Jasmine calls down the table, only to get reprimanded by Mum for raising her voice.

Me and my friend giggle. “She’s right about that,” I grin. “The biggest things you should remember is to not put your elbows on the table and to wait until everyone has their plates before you pick up your cutlery.”

“There’s a lot of knives and forks,” Heather mutters, looking unsure. “Do people really eat with all these?”

“We’ll stick with the basics today, so you just need to focus on these ones,” I say, pointing to the correct cutlery. “I don’t want to confuse you with it all.”

“I think not eating with your mouth open is more important,” Adrian sneers, not at any of us but just in general. “Egh, my father took me to a meal last week to visit some of his business partners and they all brought their sons. Goyle was there and my god, his son’s giant! He ate with his mouth open and shouted, took food right from his fathers plate - it was disgusting.”

I find my lips curling into a sneer also. “That’s awful.”

“He’s coming to Hogwarts this September too,” he sighs. “His fathers confident he’ll be in Slytherin, which is a shame. I really don’t want to hear the way he eats for the next six years.”

“Let’s not think about it,” I suggest. “I don’t want to think about it. Anyway, that’s the most important manners you need to know. I’ll show you how to hold your knife when we get our food.”

The waiter comes around with the drinks then, which we thank him for, before getting back to our conversations. Alicia and Angelina question Jasmine on her schoolwork and get told all about what it’s like to go to school as a Muggle, and the rest of us talk about our summers and holidays. I tell them I’ll be going to Greece in a week for my summer holiday, and they tell me about theirs. Sarah is going away in the last week of summer to a caravan place with her cousins, Adrian has a few short trips ahead which are around his fathers business meals he has to attend, and the others have their plans also.

We talk right up to lunch being served to us, steaming hot and delicious looking.

“You know,” Angelina says, once I've shown the girls how to hold their knives and forks, “Harry Potter’s coming to school this year.”

Everyone gets instantly excited, except me. I just roll my eyes. “It’s not going to be that big of a deal.”

“It is, though!” Sarah grins. “He’s the saviour of the Wizarding World, Aubrey, you know that!”

“Yes, but whatever he or anyone else did is lost to time now. Even if he did do something, it was probably-”

Heather cuts me off. “Don’t be a downer, Aub, he’s going to be really cool, and he defeated You-Know-Who because he’s really powerful, everyone knows that.”

I only get slightly affronted by being cut off, filling my silence with taking a bite of my guinea fowl.

Cho backs Heather up. “Apparently he’s really handsome,” she grins.

“Do you think he’ll be in Ravenclaw?” Heather gasps.

“No way!” Alicia rebutts. “He’s the saviour, he’s going to be in Gryffindor!”

Cho deflates as she agrees but Sarah and Heather try to argue that he would have to be smart to defeat You-Know-Who, which begins an entire debate. I stay quiet, not wanting to ruin their delusion with my overly logical perspective, though I do get a quiet laugh out of Adrian casually making great points for someone so ‘powerful’ and ‘intelligent’ being in Slytherin. It certainly winds up Alicia.

As we finish, I show pointedly put my cutlery on my plate so the others know what to do, before sitting back. Having heard enough about the boy-wonder, I decide to go to the bathroom.

“Excuse me, I need to use the restroom,” I say at a respectable volume and stand. Angelina and Cho copy, though they don’t put their napkins onto their chairs the way they should, and we go to the bathroom together.

After using the toilets, we wash our hands where Angelina suddenly speaks up. “Hey, Aubrey?”

“Hm?”

“Are you okay? You looked sort of upset with your Dad before we left,” she says softly.

How to explain? I take a breath and figure we’re close enough I can say a little about the situation to her. It would be nice to have an outside perspective anyway. “You know how Dad chose Adam to be the Expected Heir and everything? And I didn’t like it?”

She and Cho nod.

“Well, he’s been really busy all summer working and training Adam, which is fine and all. But I saw my Hawthorne grandparents this morning, and it turns out he’s been telling them that I’m avoiding him and that I’m being really rude, which isn’t true, and he’s been spending loads of time at my grandparents house when he’s told us he’s at work.”

Their mouths open in shock. “What?” They both whisper.

“Yeah. So I don’t know what's happening, but I have to tell my Mum now.”

“You do!” Cho explaims quietly. “What if he’s, like… cheating on your Mum or something?”

I shake my head quickly. “There’s no way he’d do that.”

Angelina bites her lip. “It kind of sounds bad though. Why would he be avoiding home and you?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. I suspect he hasn’t been reading my letters either, but I don’t know for sure because he’s so busy we’ve barely spoken since I got home. So… I don’t know.”

Angelina pulls me into a hug. “It’s okay, Aubrey, I promise.”

I hold her back. “Are you okay?”

She snuffs suddenly and I realise she’s holding back tears. “It’s just, my parents nearly broke up when I was a kid, and it wasn’t good. They’re happy now but I was really scared they were going to hate each other forever,” she admits. I empathise with her greatly, it must be horrible to grow up with such uncertainty surrounding your parents. “I really hope your parents are okay.”

“My parents are fine,” I firmly tell her. “Something’s up, but it’s probably just stress. I’ll tell Mum tomorrow and maybe she’ll know. Like, maybe they were just telling us he’s at work because he’s studying for a promotion test or something?”

She nods and wipes her eyes. “Oh, god, I’m sorry. Is my makeup okay?”

Me and Cho help her clean up, though unfortunately she didn’t bring her back to the bathroom so we can’t reapply any product to the smudged areas. Her skin is so flawless I don’t think it matters, but being the self-conscious thirteen year old she is, she doesn’t think so.

We spend a rude amount of time away from the table, but I suppose as the birthday girl I’m allowed to do what I want, so I’m not told off when we get back. Not long after, as there’s a heated discussion about who might be taken for the House Quidditch teams this coming year, I hear a low commotion behind me. Seconds later, my friends in front of me brighten and stop their conversation, right on cue for a waitress levitating a massive birthday cake to come into view.

“Happy birthday to you,” she begins to sing, and my friends join.

I blush deep red, baring noticing as the table clears itself of plates and the cake sets itself in front of me. I have to stand to reach the top of the tiers, and even then I’m barely able to reach on my tiptoes to blow the candles out at the top. Cameras flash and I’m called to make my wish.

‘I wish,’ I think to myself, ‘that this year is even better than the last.’

I get clapped, and cake knives come down to cut the cake and pass slim, pathetically small slices out. I can see most of my friends are disappointed with the fact until the waiter comes over and asks for our dessert choices. This cheers them all up.

I get the iced hazelnut soufflé and plum petit financier, which is utterly divine. After finishing up our food and drinks, we’re served cups of tea, after which it’s time to leave. I see Sarah, Heather and Cho all watching me for how I stand. I don’t push my chair in, as the magic does that for me, but Heather and Cho attempt to anyway, almost getting knocked over when their chairs shake them off.

We went back to my house by portkey. We have an hour of talking and playing magical, lighthearted card games before my friends go back home through the Floo - all except Sarah.

“I’m so excited for this!” She grins. “What does your room look like?”

“Come on, I’ll show you!” I grin, just as excited for my first sleepover.

The two of us have an amazing evening and late night chatting about magic and fancy dinners and balls I attended as a child, and about her horse. She promises me to ask her parents about me coming for a sleepover as an early birthday party also.

“I’m not sure if the others would want to come though,” she frets.

I shake my head from my bed - she’s on a duplicate mattress on the floor and I’m in my bed, the butterflies above me tiredly opening and closing their wings as they settle on the ceiling to sleep. “Everyone will enjoy seeing your house, I’m sure they will.”

“Yeah, but… I’m not really the same as everyone else, like Heather and Cho.” This has obviously been troubling her. “Even Marietta-” a Half-blood and friend of ours “-doesn’t understand what it’s like to grow up Muggle. I don’t think any of the other Muggleborns will be able to come anyway because none of us live nearby.”

I nod though she can’t see me in the dark. “I’m sorry, Sarah, I wish I could do something. But I’m sure all our friends that can come will really like your house and meeting your horse and stuff, even if it’s a bit different to how they grew up.”

There’s rustling as she turns over. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“Of course.”

She’s quiet for a time. “I really like Heather, I do, but sometimes I think she doesn’t really understand me. She says and does little things that make me think she doesn’t like Muggle things, or thinks I’m silly for forgetting things can be done with magic. I know she doesn’t do it on purpose and she’s a good friend, but she just doesn’t understand like you do.”

Because she’s a child that’s grown up with no outside perspective, I know, and I see exactly what Sarah’s saying. I’ve been trying to carefully and subtly change her behaviour since we became friends but the small, offhand things she does is harder to call into question without starting an argument. Perhaps I’ve been going about it too slowly as it’s evidently hurting Sarah. “I know what you mean,” I tell her.

“She’s still my friend though,” she’s quick to follow up, “and I don’t want her to know I said that. I think she’s really nice, I just think she doesn’t know. Like how Nick didn’t know about that really bad word until the older kids told him.”

Ah yes, the time the eleven year olds overheard a racial slur and thought it was a fun new swear to throw at each other. That had been an interesting day. “I know, I’ve tried to tell her a few times but I didn’t want to argue with her about it.”

“I know, I saw.”

That’s interesting, as I didn’t think she had. “Do you want me to push her to stop more?”

“No, it’s okay. I don’t really mind, I just don’t think she gets it like you. That’s why you’re my bestest friend, even though she’s my best friend.”

I smile. “You’re my bestest friend too.”

We chatter about everything and nothing until we fall asleep. Come morning, we’re both tired but happy to be together, going down for breakfast. Sarah is enraptured by watching Mum prepare breakfast for us with flicks of her wand and little manual things she doesn’t have to do but always has as a Muggleborn. It’s only with Sarah now I realise how very privileged I’ve been in this life. I have everything, from a clear perspective of the world and good cultural understanding, all the foods of the world, loving parents even if they do make mistakes - and Tala, who is thoroughly upset that someone new was in my bedroom last night. I’m pretty sure she kept guard over me all night, silly Kneazle.

After breakfast, Sarah has to go early because her parents want her back by ten and we’ve slept in. With my friends now gone, I’m allowed to open my presents which they got me!

They’re still on the coffee table where I left them, and both my siblings come to watch me. Mum hands me a notebook and self-inking quill to write who got me what for thank you notes, and I’m allowed to begin.

From Cedric I have two books, The Beginners Guide to Alchemy and How to Spell Your Enemies Green!. The enemies book is a gag gift, though Mum still takes it to flick through, and the one on Alchemy is so sweet as it’s clear he thought hard about what I would like! It’ll be nice to leave summer with a whole new Skill unlocked!

Alicia, Heather and Cho all got me sweets and other treats I enjoy, while Sarah got me a big Muggle stationary set with a protractor included. Honestly, I won’t be able to use a lot of it, but see why she got it! It’s all for maths and shapes which I spend long times drawing with in our dorm, and it comes with a calligraphy set that would be amazing if it weren’t for the fact the material it’s made from would melt when used as a magical syphon. Nonetheless, I really appreciate her thoughtfulness.

Angelina’s gift is a gift card for a bookshop I owl order from at Hogwarts, while Adrian’s is, it seems, a year’s supply of top-quality coffee. I admit I occasionally have a cup of it at school when it’s cold out, though equally as much as I do tea and hot chocolate. I just find the caffeine in it hits harder than that in tea, and it helps me get as much as I want. I suppose I’ll be drinking a fair bit more now! I can tell it’s from one of the more expensive coffee shops, and I recognize the bag as the one they use for their ‘special order types’. He probably meant it as a gag gift as all our mutual friends hate coffee and he enjoys the way they tease me when I drink it. Pressed in besides the subscription slip and first bag, there’s a book titled Secretive Spells, Wards and Enchantments.

I recognise this as a novice level, very expensive book from Flourish and Blotts. “Oh, amazing!”

Mum sees it and closes the book Cedric got me. “Do all your friends read this sort of material?”

I grin at her sweetly. “Mama, that book is just a joke, and this one is a beginners book, not anything crazy, I swear. Here, you can read it first if you want!”

She tuts and hands Cedrics book back to me. “It’s okay, I trust you. Just be careful, okay? I know you say you are, I just want you to continue to be. I love you.”

“I love you too, Mama.”

“Aubrey, you dropped something,” Jasmine says, pointing.

As she said, I dropped a small pouch from Adrian’s gift, which I opened to find a snugly fit bottle of coffee creamer from the same brand which claims to leave the breath of the drinker smelling like freshly brushed teeth after consuming. I’m impressed he thought of all this for just a joke!

Seeing me yawn, Mum sends me upstairs to put my things away and tidy up the things me and Sarah got out last night for my sleepover. A simple wave of my wand has the lot in place, leaving me alone for the first time in over twenty-four hours.

I barely even know what to do. In fact, with what’s on my mind I sort of hate it.

I go to the top of the stairs and call down, “Mama! Can you come here?”

I hear some shuffling and go back to my room to wait for her. Dad’s at work already, of course, but I don’t want Adam or Jasmine overhearing this.

She comes to my room and seems unsure what I want when it’s clean. Perhaps she thought I wanted help. “What is it?”

“I need to talk to you about something important.”

She goes from serious to solemn and sits at the end of my bed. “What is it?”

I pull my chair and sit across from her as if I’m the parents. “It’s about Dad.”

She frowns. “What about him?”

“I spoke to Grandfather yesterday and I found some things out.” I relay the conversation to her, leaving out any personal suspicions or thoughts I have about it, including my thoughts on my letters. It may be ridiculous or childish, but I’d rather pretend he was reading them. “I wanted to make sure you knew.”

By now she looks upset but strong. “Thank you for telling me, honey. Leave it with me and I’ll talk to him, okay? Just know that we love you and you’re a good girl for sharing.”

For how much I felt as if I was telling her bad news, her words comforted me massively. “Thank you, Mama. I love you too.”

We hug and she tells me to enjoy a calm day and that if I want to read my new books then she’ll bring my lunch to me. It’s clear that my friends and I are correct about something going on in my parents’ lives, but that just isn’t for me to deal with. Every person's relationship is their own, as my many years of life have shown me that even if I often wish differently, I must respect that, child of theirs or not.

As a distraction from that, I close my bedroom door for the first time in the day since the start of summer and review my Relationship Level’s with my friends.

Sarah Owens - +7

Cedric Diggory - +6

Adrian Pucey - +6

Cho Chang - +5

Heather Bond - +5

Angelina Johnson - +5

Alicia Spinnet - +5

It’s nice to see my friendships going up! With lots to do to keep my head from thinking too hard, I begin to study my new books.