I wake up on the morning of my birthday and sigh. Tonight is going to be long, stressful and embarrassing. I'm very glad that Georgiana's parents are letting her stay the night, so at least I'll get sympathy from somewhere.
Because nothing is happening until the evening, including most of my family getting out of bed (oh, that's the best part, they all came a day early to 'help' with the preparations. Yay.) I spend most of the morning sleeping in and the rest of the day finishing off homework.
When the sun starts to set, my family begins to rise and come down stairs for their breakfast.
"Don't even talk to me until I've had my cup of blood," one of my uncles always says. He thinks it's funny because humans say that about coffee. Hilarious, right?
Because I'm seventeen, tonight I have to be a 'natural beauty' which you think would save me from the torture of my aunts, right? Wrong! They simply use makeup to cover up any flaws and then brush, comb, straighten, curl and whatever else they can do to my hair before shoving me into the dress my mother had made especially for tonight. I can't deny that it's beautiful. It's a dark, silky purple with delicate gold detailing around the waist and sleeves. It has an open neckline and a soft, lacy back panel. After my aunts are done cooing over me, we go downstairs to wait for my friends. And while we're waiting I make sure everyone is reminded to act human.
Angelina arrives first.
"Wow, your place is huge," she says, coming into the foyer and peeling off layers, "I'm glad I can apparate, it is freezing out there."
I made Mum and Dad light fires in all the fire places, which is probably the first time that's happened in centuries. Alicia and Georgiana arrive at the same time, both aghast at the size of my house.
"We're just waiting for the boys, then," I sigh, "you'll have to meet my family. I can only apologize."
"Everyone has weird families," Angelina says lightly.
"You have no idea..."
The bell rings and I open the door to Fred and George.
"How's your dad?" I ask, hugging them both.
"He's fine," George says, "he's home now, so, yeah."
"I'm glad to hear it," I say earnestly, "come through."
I hold my breath as we walk into the next room. I feel like I'm leading five lambs to slaughter. However, my family don't freeze and stare at them like prey as I anticipated. My parents come over and introduce themselves, then we sit down to dinner. Dinner is blood free and everyone behaves themselves perfectly, other than one of the little ones asking for some blood.
"Did she say blood?" Angelina asks.
"Bread," one of my cousins says quickly, "she's having trouble with the 'r' sounds."
Thankfully Angelina doesn't question this frankly fairly transparent explanation.
"Cake time!" my little cousin Sofia yells as our dinner is cleared away. Mum and Dad bring out the cake, a huge golden thing with little sugared violets over it.
"Remember, if the knife comes out, you have to kiss the nearest boy!" Georgiana says. George immediately puts an arm around my waist.
"Not getting out of it this year," he grins. I cut into the cake and, of course, it comes out dirty. Does it ever come out clean?
"Just a peck," I whisper. George laughs.
"Nope," he says. He kisses me hard and I can hear one of my uncles whooping. I pull away, blushing and start handing the cake out. Mum and Dad come up and take their pieces and we go through our sharing tradition.
After cake we have some dancing. Not the cool kind of dancing. Waltzing. George seems happy with this and a couple of my cousins ask the girls to dance, including Vasily.
After a couple of dances my father cuts in, then I have to dance with all the other males in the room, including the tiny baby Giovanni.
"The kids are doing well for being up so late," Alicia comments as we take a break and sit together off to the side.
"Mm, they had late naps," I say. Mum comes over to us and smiles.
"Alicia's mother is here," she says.
"We should probably get back too," George says. We all stand up and I walk them to the door.
"Thanks for coming," I say, giving them all a hug. We see them off, then Georgiana turns to me with a grin.
"And now the real fun begins."
"Yep," I sigh. When we return to the ball room the whole family is waiting. The Count has even come in from wherever he was hiding.
"Come on, then," Mum says quietly.
In complete silence, the Count leads us all up to the roof of the highest tower. It's a squeeze to fit everyone up here, but we manage. Dad hands him the goblet of blood.
"Tonight we celebrate the seventeenth night of Aurelia Dunmore," the Count drones, "we gather here to watch her take her first steps from child to woman."
He dips one finger into the blood and draws a set of symbols over my forehead and on each of my cheeks. The blood is weirdly sticky and lukewarm.
The Count hands me the goblet and I glance at Georgiana. I wish I'd told her to look away during this bit. I tip the goblet up and drain the blood from it. As part of the tradition, I have to let it cover my lips and drip down my chin. Gross, right?
"And now," the count says, helping me step up onto the ledge of the roof, "Aurelia will take her first step into adulthood. Those of us who are able, will then join her."
I look down and swallow hard. The ground is a long way away. My animagi lessons with McGonagall have been going well, but what if this is the time I can't do it. I close my eyes and step off the roof. I feel myself falling, but shrinking. I swing my arms and feel the falling falter. I swing them again and again and slowly rise. Above me my family are all turning into bats, the adults anyway, swarming into the sky. The surround me, which is actually really scary and disorientating, and we do a lap of the castle before returning to the rooftop and human form.
"Well done," Dad says. I can't help feeling a little proud under all the relief. Georgiana smiles and gives me a thumbs up.
The festivities wrap up around sunrise when my family finally goes to bed. After I have a bath, Georgiana and I go to bed too.
"I hope that wasn't too weird," I ask her as we snuggle into bed.
"A little, but I'm too impressed that you can turn into a bat to be bothered," she laughs, "and finally we can all apparate!"
"Once I pass the test."
"You will."
We both yawn and roll over.
"Goodnight."
"Morning, you mean."
"Mm, goodmorning."
"Goodmorning."
YOU ARE READING
Ravenclaw's Shadow
FanfictionAurelia Dunmore is in her fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Other than being a bit of a loner, she's always been like any of the other girls. Except for one thing: She's a vampire.
