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Milo was quite pleased with a number of gifts and cards he was receiving throughout the day, confused but pleased. It was nice to hold so many birthday cards as the number was usually so low and the number of gifts seemed to be the truly puzzling part. Throughout the day, whether he was walking in the corridor or actually in class, one of the little winged-dwarfs would come in and bring him a gift, all of them from his secret admirer, leaving him overwhelmed. He couldn't imagine how much money was spent on all the little trinkets and as much as he wanted to thank the person and assure them that one gift was enough, he was unable to do so. No one came forward to claim that they were the secret admirer.
Even Harry had one, one that wrote him a very lovely tune that the delivering dwarf sang after cornering Harry in the corridor.
His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,
His hair is as dark as a blackboard.
I wish he was mine, he's really divine,
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord.
It seemed the Potter boys were destined to be quite popular that day as everyone seemed to be curious as to who the secret admirer was, including Heidi, Max, and Katie. Throughout the day whenever Milo received a new gift one of the girls was around, looking incredibly puzzled. Milo was just trying to focus on Professor Kettleburn's lesson when another dwarf came in carrying a paper heart for Milo.
At that point, Milo was cringing, he didn't want any more gifts, in fact, he was still trying to figure out how he was supposed to get the massive pile back to the Common Room and dorms? At first, it was flattering, now it was just becoming incredibly creepy. At first, he thought maybe it was the Weasley twins playing a prank on him, but when he brought it up to the boys, they cursed themselves for not coming up with the idea.
He thought it was Max, Heidi, and Katie but they swore it wasn't them either, leaving Milo running out of ideas of who it would be. It definitely was a secret admirer and they probably planned on keeping it that way. If anything, Milo wished it was Cedric in the beginning, hoping that the boy was reconsidering his thoughts and wanting to send something to Milo. But that didn't seem to be the case at all, Cedric didn't even wish Milo a happy birthday when they passed each other in the corridors.
Needless to say, Milo didn't think Cedric was going to be the secret admirer that Valentine's Day or any other day for that matter. When the class let out, Milo decided to let his classmates just dig into the sweets because he honestly didn't plan on eating all of it by himself, unless he wanted to go to Madam Pomfrey and get his stomach pumped for a sugar overdose. He grabbed a few of the trinkets before making his way to sit outside in the corridor, hoping that he would receive nothing more.
"You're certainly quite popular today, aren't you, Milo?"
Looking up, he saw Neville walking along with another boy by his side who appeared to be younger. It was nice to see Neville helping out another student, slowly working up his own strength to help others and himself.
"I suppose I am," Milo said, " do you two want any chocolate?"
Neville readily took a couple of pieces but the other boy declined politely. "No thank you, my grandparents sent me loads of chocolate earlier. Thought they were being funny signing it as my secret admirer, they always do that. I don't know if it's supposed to make me feel good about myself or not."
Milo smiled at the younger boy, he had darker hair paired with a light pair of blue eyes that almost appeared to be the colour of stone. A small grin on his face as he held his hand out to introduce himself.
"My name's Silas," he said, "Neville's told me about you, you're brothers with Harry. I'm in Gryffindor with him, sorted just this year."
"Oh, that's right, I remember!" Milo said, "Silas Hayes and Colin Creevey, I remember being sorted into Gryffindor..."
At the mention of the other first year boy, the corridor fell silent and Milo felt like kicking himself. There had been no more attacks since Justin and Sir Nicholas, but Milo decided to be brilliant and bring it up. The other two boys exchanged glances before Neville cleared his throat. "Well, we're heading back to the Gryffindor tower, Seamus and Dean are waiting on us. But Happy Birthday, Milo, I hope the rest of it is great."
"Thank you, Neville," Milo said happily, glad the awkward tension was cut short before the two boys left him alone again. Milo shoved as much of Valentine's Day nonsense into his bag before abandoning the rest in the window seat.
Slowly, he made his way back towards the Hufflepuff Common Room but as he reached the barrels, he was stopped by a familiar face that made him smile again.
"Happy Birthday, Mr Potter, Bitsy made you some lemon tarts," the little house-elf approached Milo with her little hands holding up the treats for him. Milo lowered himself to the ground, taking them gently before giving Bitsy a hug.
"Thank you so much, Bitsy."
"Mr Potter also got a letter, Bitsy was told to give it to Mr Potter."
She held out another envelope and already Milo was dreading another secret admirer note. But as he opened it, he saw that it was from Elspeth and Remus. He sighed in relief as he read it over.
Happy Birthday, Milo and a Happy Valentine's day!
Hope you enjoyed all the gifts we sent to you to make up for the years, I thought it would be funny to add from your secret admirer.
"Really?!"Milo laughed to himself with a shake of his head, relieved that the secret admirer turned out to be a prank pulled on him from Elspeth. At the bottom of the letter, Milo read Remus' apology, telling him that he only took part in selecting the chocolate. The rest of it had solely been Elspeth's doing. Milo wasn't upset, just thankful that it was all over so that he could relax before dinner time. He would be able to tell Max, Heidi, and Katie who the real secret admirer was, putting it all to rest.
However, as he entered the common room to head to the dorm and see what Paden was up to, he caught sight of Cedric sitting in one of the armchairs. Milo decided that if he just gracefully tiptoed to the dorms that he could go unnoticed. For the most part, it seemed to be working, until he made it about halfway and Cedric called out to him.
"Did you have a happy birthday?"
There wasn't anything happy about the way he said it, leaving Milo standing quietly in place behind one of the sofas.
"Um...yeah, I did. Thanks for asking," Milo said after a few moments of passing silence. Cedric kept his back turned to him, leaving Milo to wait a little longer before he decided to stick to his original plan of heading towards the dorms again. However, as soon as he took the first step in the opposite direction, Cedric stood up from his armchair.
"Your secret admirer certainly had a lot to give you today, didn't they?"
Milo was sensing a bit of hostility on Cedric's end, perhaps some bitterness and maybe a hint of jealousy, he wasn't sure. It didn't matter though, he didn't understand why Cedric was anywhere near upset with him seeing as Milo hadn't done anything but be respectful and kind towards him. If anything, Milo felt as though perhaps he should have been the one upset with Cedric, considering practically everyone else in the castle had wished him a happy birthday.
He was preparing to tell Cedric that there was nothing to be upset about, considering it was just a load of gifts from his godparents, but Cedric didn't give him that chance as he stalked over towards Milo. Immediately, Milo felt intimidated, taking a couple of steps back as Cedric stood taller than him.
"Did you figure out who it was?" Cedric asked as the two were nearly standing toe to toe. Milo was secretly wishing at some point that someone would enter the common room so he could use the distraction as an escape, but it appeared he wouldn't have such luck. The two were alone and Milo didn't know what else to do but answer.
"Y-y-yes, it was-"
"Well, I hope you two are very happy," Cedric told him, trying to mask the hurt he was feeling. But it wasn't fair that he was treating Milo like that, he wouldn't even let Milo answer fully before making him feel terrible about. There wasn't even a real secret admirer but already it had caused even more problems between the two. Cedric was jealous but at the same time, didn't want to act on his feelings and Milo was just stuck with all of it and not a damn clue as to how to handle it all.
Cedric moved past him and went to head to the dorms himself but Milo decided to try one last thing, by being honest with him.
"I wish it were you," he called over his shoulder and just like that Cedric came to a full stop before turning back to him.
"What did you say?"
"I said I wish it were you," Milo repeated, "I wish you had been my secret admirer, in fact, I was hoping throughout the day that it was you. I know what you said and I've been respectful of that, haven't I? But it doesn't make it any easier on me when you just flat-out ignore me, Cedric. It's not fair, I don't believe any of this is wrong, but because you do, I'm the one who has to pretend like everything is fine. But it isn't and you know that because even Heidi and Max know something is wrong within our group."
He kicked his foot against the carpeting in frustration. "You can't just tell me one thing and then act like this, I do everything I can to please people, but I am really only one person and I have my own feelings too. I didn't even want a stupid secret admirer, I just wanted to celebrate my birthday with the people I care about the most. But one of the people I care about the most won't even say Happy Birthday to me. But don't worry, Cedric, I'll just keep going along and pretending that everything is alright for everyone else's sake but my own."
Milo was twirling his hair so hard that it was bound to leave him with a patch of missing hair if he didn't stop anytime soon. But he was angry, confused, frustrated, and everything in between. It was not the ending to his birthday that he wanted. Everything had started off so wonderfully and slowly it just went to shit. He appreciated the effort from Elspeth and Remus, but it only seemed to cause Milo more problems, even though it certainly wasn't their fault. It wasn't their intention to cause unnecessary drama between Cedric and Milo.
Suddenly, Milo felt a hand touch the side of his face, guiding him to look up and meet Cedric's gaze. The pain in Cedric's eyes matched the pain that Milo was internalising in that very moment. Cedric's other hand placed something into Milo's and before Milo could look down, he was met with a quick but soft and gentle kiss on the lips.
"Happy Birthday, Milo." Cedric moved away from him and headed to the dorms, leaving Milo to look down and see the birthday card in his hand. Decorated over the front were drawings of billywigs, bowtruckles, and everything else that Milo had expressed interest in over the years. What was Cedric trying to do to him?