The story of Evangeline Cole ©

-Chapter Seven- A Belated Birthday

Angel woke up on her bedroom floor near the window. She could not remember why she was lying on the floor or why she felt cold all over. She stood up and got into her bed, Snuggle clawed his way up on her duvet and started licking Angel's cheek. Starting to warm up under her duvet and patchwork blanket; she spotted the chocolates that she had brought up from yesterday and quickly ate them. Normally Angel would never even consider eating sweets as breakfast but her stomach was gurgling in hunger so she gave in.

She looked at the clock and saw that it was seven am exactly. Getting washed and dressed in record time; Angel went downstairs to see her aunt looking quite stressed.

"Is everything okay Aunt Bella?" She asked. Bella jumped when she heard Angel's voice, she hadn't even heard the girl come down the stairs.

"No." Bella answered honestly. "I'm furious with Mundungus Fletcher! I cannot believe he abandoned his post and Harry ended up getting attacked by Dementors! Thank Merlin that he knew how to do a patronus charm!"

Angel looked at her aunt frightened. "Is Harry okay?"

"I assume so. He fought them off of both him and his cousin. Although he's not meant to do magic unless at Hogwarts, he's underage! Oh I could bloody murder that swine Mundungus!" Bella fumed.

"Um, Aunt Bella, What is a Dementor?" Angel asked. She really had no idea what it was but she did know that a patronus charm was a high level of skill in charms from all of her studying. Whatever Harry had to fight off was obviously dangerous.

"Oh I am sorry Angel. I forget that you don't know all the details yet. Dementors are foul creatures that protect the wizard prison; that's called Azkaban by the way. Anyway, they feed on people's happiness and make everything cold and dark. Ugh, it made my skin crawl yesterday; felt like my heart was a block of ice! I saw Harry fighting them off and he saved his cousin from getting kissed by one of the dementors." Bella noticed Angel's confused face and continued to explain. "A dementor's kiss means that they suck the very soul from your body; leaving just a shell of that person behind."

"What do they look like?" Angel asked in a frightened voice. What her aunt described to her sounded like her dream from last night; 'there was no way that it wasn't really a dream, was there?' she thought.

"They look like black hooded figures, scary looking." Bella shuddered. She didn't notice Angel's face pale with recognition that what she thought was a dream was in face real. Angel excused herself from the kitchen, taking a bowl of cereal with her back up to her room.
Once back in the calming lilac room Angel began to panic. Those vile floating figures chasing Harry and Dudley were soul sucking creatures, what where they doing in Little Whinging? Angel laid on her bed; she felt clammy and slightly sick. She climbed back into her duvet shivering. After ten minutes, she had fallen asleep.
Bella came upstairs half an hour later to find Angel asleep but developing a fever. Her hands were cold but her forehead was very hot. She took the girl's temperature; it was a little too high and went downstairs to put some soup on for her niece to recover with.

It was four days in total that Angel spent in bed with a fever and on the last day she felt better almost as quickly as she had fallen ill. She looked at the calendar and realised that she had missed her own birthday. Not that it mattered to her. She hated celebrating birthdays as it meant that the attention was brought to her, she preferred to be a little more in the background than centre of attention. Almost as if Bella could hear her thoughts, the elderly woman entered her bedroom.

"I'm glad you are feeling better, you have a lot more colour in your cheeks now. You missed your birthday I'm afraid. Your father called. He hoped that you would get well soon. He also sent you a card and a gift. It's on the table there. You had a few other cards too, I've added mine to the pile. I'm just going to go feed the cats, Snuggle has stayed by your side the whole time you were asleep so I'm sure he'll make a fuss of you when he wakes up." Bella said whilst pointing at the lightly snoring ball of fluff next to Angel's shoulder. One of his ears twitched as he heard his name.

While Bella shuffled downstairs opening tins of cat food for her numerous cats, Angel leaned over and took the small pile of cards and gifts from the table and slowly opened them. The first card was from her Dad. As she opened the card a very loud chorus of 'Happy Birthday to you' began to play. The noise made Angel jump. She looked down to see if it had woken Snuggle. He opened one eye, exhaled and then went back to snoozing. Angel giggled quietly and opened the card at an angle so that it wouldn't make a noise. She read the message inside and then placed the card on her table. Her next card was from Aunt Bella, the front was a picture of a cat grinning. Angel laughed at the card; it was very fitting for a woman she had thought of as a crazy cat lady. Two more envelopes were left. One was a card from her old next door neighbour, Mrs Williams; the sweet elderly woman who used to teach her had given her a book voucher inside the card. Angel smiled at the thought of the woman who had taught her so much by tutoring her every day since she was four. She was going to miss her. The last envelope had a piece of parchment inside. Angel smiled as she recognised the slightly messy handwriting from his previous note earlier that week; Harry had remembered her birthday;

Angel,
Sorry I couldn't say it in person but Happy Birthday! I left my Aunt and Uncle's house a few days ago. I expect your Aunt told you about the Dementor attack, I'm okay. I'm now at Sirius' house. I told you about him, don't know if you remember. He says hello. I doubt I'll see you now until Hogwarts so I will see you at King's Cross, I'll save you a seat on the train!
From
Harry x

Angel smiled at the birthday message form her first friend. She was glad he was okay after the horrible event that happened to him and his cousin involving those spooky looking things. She involuntarily shuddered, making Snuggle wake up again. He blinked at her once and then climbed up to her to give her a quick lick on her cheek before scampering off to get food.

Angel had decided that she had enough of being in bed for the last few days so moved to the bathroom to have a bath. After emerging from the room significantly cleaner and feeling fresh she chose a rose-pink summer dress to wear as it was still warm outside. As she looked back onto the bed she noticed that she had neglected the gift from her father. She ripped the little box open in excitement; she may not enjoy birthdays but she could not think of a single person on earth who didn't enjoy getting presents! As the last layer of paper was hastily thrown to the ground she opened the leather box that was inside to reveal a necklace, it was white gold. On the chain was a star shaped pendant with pale green peridot stones dotted in the middle. She put the gift from her father on her neck and then went downstairs to help her aunt with making lunch.

After a very English lunch of cucumber sandwiches and green tea; Bella insisted she ate more greens to help her immune system; Angel picked up Snuggle for a quick cuddle and then decided to go outside for a walk. She went to tell her aunt, who frowned;

"If you must go out I would really prefer it if you took your wand and mobile phone. That way if there are any problems again you can call me straight away." Bella croaked; she did not want Angel to come to any harm, she was very fond of the pretty girl.

"Okay Auntie." She smiled, putting both objects into her pocket.

Angel walked to the door and put some white lace ballet pumps on her feet and then blew a kiss to her aunt as she exited the house. After standing for a minute soaking in the sunshine, Angel started walking to the park again. Half way there she could feel eyes watching her. She turned around.

"Oh. It's you." She said, a little surprised.

I didn't mean to leave it as a cliffhanger but it fits better this way with the next chaper, which will be uploaded as soon as I finish it. Let me know what you think. Any guesses on who was following her?