An American At Hogwarts: Book Three

Chapter Twenty-Two

A/N: Spoilers for Return of the Jedi? The movie came out in 1983, so I feel like I don't have to put a spoiler warning for it anymore, but... just in case. It's pretty minor, anyway.

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"HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXA!"

I woke up to utter chaos the next morning, shocked out of sleep by my friends screaming and jumping up and down on my bed. I laughed and grabbed the pillow from under my head to smack Angelina before she, Alicia, and Myrah collapsed on my bed.

"How'd you get up here?" I asked, looking to Myrah with a grin. She just shrugged.

"Gryffindors and Slytherins have a few things in common, and one is that we don't care much for rules. Especially when they get in the way of surprising our friends."

"The boys wanted to come and help us wake you up, but we don't have a way to get them up the stairs without your Mystic Arts magic," said Alicia.

"Yeah, we figured asking you to make a portal for them might ruin the surprise," joked Angelina.

"Mm, just maybe." I smiled at my three wonderful friends, then sighed. "Alright, as much as I love hanging out up here with you guys, I'm hungry. Let's get the boys and go down to breakfast."

After getting dressed, the four of us headed down to the Common Room, where Fred, George, and Lee were waiting. A few people gave Myrah strange looks, but whenever they did, the twins and I got in front of Myrah to glare at them and they backed off.

We met Jackson, Adrian, and Cedric outside the Great Hall, and I smiled as I hugged my boyfriend and he gave me a kiss.

"Happy birthday," he muttered into my hair as he hugged me.

"And happy anniversary," I said, looking up at him with a wink as we broke apart. "We've got twice as much to celebrate today."

Cedric just smiled.

"Alright, enough of this. Let's go to breakfast, I'm hungry," said Jackson, nodding his head towards the Hall. I rolled my eyes but smiled anyway as the ten of us headed inside.

Unfortunately for me, my birthday was on a Friday this year, which meant we still had classes all day after breakfast. Still, it could've been worse. If I'd had to sit through class with Umbridge on my birthday, I think I honestly would've lost my mind.

My Gryffindor friends and I laughed and talked all through breakfast, until we were interrupted by a flurry of flapping wings and owl screeches. Right on cue, I saw Jimmy swooping through the crowd as he headed straight for me with a bright red letter in his beak.

A few of the first years around the Hall looked nervous, but pretty much everyone else looked almost as excited as I did.

Jimmy landed in front of me, and I only paused to give him a pat on the head and a bit of my breakfast before opening the letter.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXA!" came the screaming voices of all my family members at once. Anyone in the Hall who hadn't known about my Howler was certainly aware of it now.

"WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH SWEETHEART!" chorused my dad and mom.

"YOU'RE EIGHTEEN!" cheered Harley, Wanda, and Pietro.

"TIME TO GO TO BARS IN EUROPE AND CANADA!" added Harley. The beat of silence and then scoff from Harley told me both my parents had wasted no time glaring at him.