Leah was with Hermione at Hogsmeade again. It was February 7th and 6 days later it would be her birthday.
"Oh this is so exciting!" Hermione exclaimed while taking another bite from her pumpkin pastie. "What's so exciting about a birthday?" Leah asked, she reached into the bag of sweets that they had bought at Honeydukes and pulled out her favorite, a cauldron cake.
"Oh Leah, don't act like your not excited! It's your 17th birthday! Which means you'll be an adult wizard. You get the Trace charm lifted from you and so you get to use magic outside of school." Hermione explained. Leah's mood didn't change.
"Okay what's wrong?" Hermione asked placing her hands on her hips. "Nothing." Leah said, "I'm not daft Leah. There's obviously something wrong if your not excited for your own birthday." Hermione said concern written all over her face.
"Okay, I just wanted my family to celebrate it with me too." Leah's expression was soft, "Most of my family was killed, and my sister may be too busy with work." her eyes were locked on her feet but then Hermione put a hand on her shoulder.
"Leah, don't you see? You're with family all the time." Leah looked confused "What I mean is that.... we are you're family. Me. Ron, Ginny, everyone. Except for Harry it would be sort of weird dating your 'brother'." she put air quotes around brother, Leah blushed a dark red.
"On the topic of that.... what happened at the Burrow? Did you tell him yet?" Hermione whispered excitedly. "No..." "Why not? What happened?" Hermione had her hands on her hips again. "Ron happened." Hermione made a frustrated face. "Overprotective git."
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"Leah's birthday is coming up." Ron said to Harry as he dismounted his broom. The Gryffindor Quidditch Team had a practice that morning. "Yeah I know." Harry said. "Well what are you going to get her?" Harry ran a hand through his hair.
"I asked her this morning....."
*before breakfast*
"Hey Leah!" she turned to face Harry. "Oh hi what's up?" she asked "Oh I just wanted to ask you if you would like anything for your birthday." Harry rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh...." Leah's face had turned pink. "You don't have to give me anything really......"
*end flashback*
"...... And that's what happened." Harry finished explaining. "Really? That's not fair." Harry looked at Ron questioningly. "How is that not fair? She said the same to you."
"Well, Hermione said that I have to get her a present." Ron defended "That's because you didn't give her one last year." Harry said. "Well, in my defense......"
"Hey guys what are you talking about?" Leah asked, both boys jumped and Ron looked around to see where Leah came from. "Bloody hell Leah don't scare us like tha!." Ron said inhaling and exhaling with a hand on his chest. "Yeah! Did you apparate here?" Harry asked.
"No, although the instructor at the lessons did say I did very well." Leah smiled at the two of them.
Finally Harry, Ron and Leah exited the pitch only to see Hermione waving at them. "Good morning Leah, Good morning Harry..." she then glanced over at Ron. "Ronald." Hermione acknowledged. "Morning." Ron said with the same frustrated attitude.
There was silenced as they stood there. "How about we all get some break...." Leah was interrupted by a group of giggling girls, they pushed someone to the front of the pack and that someone was named Romilda Vane.
"Hi Harry." she greeted batting her eyelashes. "Oh hi...." Harry said plainly, Romilda giggled somemore and so did the girls behind her. "Would you like to come eat breakfast with us?" she asked with the sweetest voice she could muster. "Actually I'm going right now with my friends." Harry said.
"You don't have to eat with them. You eat with them everyday! C'mon Harry it'll be fun." "Probably not the kind of fun he likes." Ron commented, Leah was trying not to laugh and even though Hermione was angry with him she was too. "No thanks I think I'll stick with my usual routine." Harry turned to the three of them.
"Let's go guys I'm starving." he said obviously wanting to get to the Great Hall now. "Yeah before all the food's gone." Leah added and Ron walked ahead in a rush.
Once the four of them were in the Great Hall they sat down at the now crowded Gryffindor table. "Well that was awkward." Hermione huffed as she sat down beside Leah. The doors opened and Leah turned her head only to see the group of girls enter the Great Hall.
"Oh no they're back." Harry said as they passed by him to get a seat at a safe distance from Harry. "Oh look at the bunch." Ron muttered. "Romilda's fallen for Harry. Next thing you know she's going to start sending you sweets and love letters, like Nigel when he had a crush on Leah." Leah glared at him.
"Hey don't talk about Nigel like that! He was only a second year then." Leah defended. "Plus, Nigel wouldn't go that far to start sneaking love potions into sweets that he would send with love letters." Hermione stated, and Leah nodded in agreement.
Ron laughed "She can't be that desperate!" Harry turned to the front. "I'm not too sure." everyone looked to the front to see Romilda making googley eyes at Harry sighing now and then. Ron started guffawing, tears of mirth welling up in his eyes.
"She's gone mad for you!" Ron wiped some tears from his eyes. "She even started a little fan club in your honor." After a few seconds Ron calmed down. "Why is she trying so hard though?" Harry asked dumbfounded.
"She probably thinks that she stands no chance against Leah. She's wants to win your affection." Hermione said like it was the most casual thing to say. At the time that she said that Leah and Harry started to blush feverishly.
"But we're not...... We're just..... I errr.." Harry stammered, he looked as if he was hung upside down and all the blood rushed up to his head. They heard the clock chime and students started getting up to go to class. "Come on Leah we've got Arithmancy." Hermione said getting up. "Right Arithmancy." then the two of them left.
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Finally the day had come, Leah's seventeenth birthday. Last night she was staying awake until 12 a.m. but sadly that didn't work and she fell asleep.
Leah looked up at her clock her eyes still heavy. "8:30." Leah said getting up and stretching. Leah walked into the bathroom and washed up before breakfast. When she went back into the dormitory she saw that there wasn't anybody there.
She got dressed and made her way down to the Hall. She had noticed on her way down however that her friends weren't anywhere. Finally once she got there, she opened the huge oak doors. When she entered she felt two people attack her with hugs.
"SURPRISE!!!!!!!!" the two screamed and she heard some other people say it too. "Hermione, Ginny, you guys are like the best friends ever but I think I'd like to live on my 17th birthday." Leah managed to choke out from Ginny and Hermione's lung crushing hug.
"Sorry." the two of them said with innocent smiles on their faces. Ginny and Hermione led Leah to the Gryffindor table where the sixth years from Dumbledore's Army were. She had opened up more in fifth year and most of the people she opened up to were from Dumbledore's Army.
"Happy Birthday Leah." Neville greeted and Leah smiled at him. "Thanks Neville." she continued walking to her seat. "Happy Birthday." Dean and Seamus had popped in front of her. "Thanks guys." she giggled. In under a few minutes she probably got a greeting from most of Dumbledore's Army. "Oi! Green!" she heard a pair say. Leah turned around to see the twins standing right in front of her.
"Fred, George!!!!!" she yelled with shock and hugged them both. "You guys didn't have to come here for me!!!" she said "The thing is we didn't have to come." George recited with a smile on his face. "We wanted to come." Fred finished with an identical smile.
When she let go she walked over to Ron. "Happy Birthday!" he said using jazz hands for emphasize. "Thanks Ron." she giggled. They had a short hug and then Ron went back to his seat. "Hi." she looked up to see Harry standing in front of her rubbing his neck.
"Hi." Leah repeated, there was silence. "Happy Birthday." he greeted "Thanks." she said and hugged him. It seemed as though they had stayed like that for a few minutes but in real time it was only a few seconds.
Once Harry let go he handed Leah an envelope that was sealed with aa wax Gryffindor Crest. "Here..." Leah took it with a confused look on her face. "What is it?" she asked. "Err, you'll find out once you read it." Leah nodded "But you have to read it aalone while there's nobody around. Not even Hermione can see." Leah nodded again putting the envelope in her back pocket.
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That evening Leah, Hermione, and Ginny were opening presents in the girls' dormitory. "Who's that one from?" Hermione asked. "Fred and George." Leah answered. "It has all sorts of defence objects in it like Decoy Detonators and Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder. They also put some Skiving Snackboxes in there." Leah sorted her presents. "You got a lot of cards." Ginny noticed pointing to the massive pile on Leah's side table.
"Yeah most people probably didn't know what to get me so they just gave me cards." Leah balanced another card on the stack. "It's getting late. We should turn in." Hermione said stretching. "Yeah," Leah balanced yet another card on the stack and stood. However when she reached halfway across the room Ginny's pigmypuff, Arnold, bounced on the stack of envelopes on Leah's bedside table.
"That's going to be a pain in the arse to clean up." Leah sighed and went over to start on the envelopes that scattered on the floor. She lazily picked all of them up and shoved them in her side table drawer. Then she joined Ginny and Hermione in the bathroom to wash up for bed.
One thing that Leah didn't realize was that one of the envelopes fell underneath Leah's red and gold bed. An envelope that said From: Harry on the front
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I'm so so so so so so sorry thata I have been neglecting you guys for the past four weeks! I haven't uploaded a chapter since Christmas and I am truly very sorry please forgive me!!!!!!
I will try to get back to uploading regularly. Once again I'm sorry. I was on vacation and there was barely any wifi..... and well I think you get the point. I'm really sorry.
See you next chapter and Happy Belated New Year everyone!!