Those Left Behind

Thirty-Two

Over a month had passed since Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and Hogwarts had reopened their doors, and several weeks since Olivia had officially become a Weasley. Along with October's arrival, came the day of Olivia's twentieth birthday. 

The morning of October 13th, she woke up early, before either Beau or George had the chance to stir. She quickly crawled out of bed, and tip-toed across the room, grabbing her robe along the way. After stopping in front of the large glass doors and opening them as quietly as she could, she walked out onto the balcony.

The brisk autumn air hit her, causing her to shiver and tightly pull her robe around herself. She approached the railing slowly, catching sight of the rising sun in the distance. As she stared at the small ball of light on the horizon, she zoned out, her mind wandering to all of her past birthdays.

Growing up in foster care, meant that her birthdays were treated no differently than any other day. She was lucky if someone cared enough to remember it, let alone celebrate it. Therefore, her first birthday spent with the Weasleys was one that she would cherish forever. Tears came to her eyes as she remembered the day of her eighteenth birthday.

"Happy Birthday Dear Olivia! Greenwood! Liv!", a chorus of voices sang to Olivia as she sat in front of a glowing birthday cake. She laughed as everyone addressed her by different names, causing the words of the song to jumble together until it sounded like complete nonsense.

As the song came to an end, she leaned forward, blowing out the eighteen candles atop the homemade cake, that Molly had decorated herself. George sat on her right, while Fred sat on her left, Arthur and Molly sat at the far end of the table clapping happily. Although the party was small in size, Olivia had never felt more cherished than she did at that moment.

"Oh, I almost forgot! The others sent you a little something from Hogwarts!", Molly blurted out, jumping to her feet. She ran to the stack of letters on the counter and returned with an envelope that was unmistakably a varation of howler. Instead of the standard red envelope that most howlers arrived in, it was yellow and covered in pictures of balloons.

Molly placed it in Olivia's hand and it burst open, sending a spray of confetti into the air. Olivia gasped as the muti-coloured confetti rained down on her and the table in front of her. George grinned, placing a hand on her thigh as the howler began to speak.

"Olivia! We're sorry that we couldn't be there, but we all wanted to wish you a very-", Hermione's voice boomed out of the envelope, but was quickly drowned out by several other excited voices, simultaneously wishing her a happy birthday. She focused hard, trying to pick out the individual voices, but there were too many, leaving her to believe that a large percentage of the school had taken part.

"Well, wasn't that lovely? I had no clue they were planning something so... extravagant.", Molly chuckled, sweeping the confetti off of the table and into the palm of her hand, before carrying it promptly to the waste basket.

"I'm not surprised. After all, Liv deserves to feel special.", George whispered, leaning over to kiss Olivia on her flushed cheek. Fred turned his nose up in disgust at the display of affection and reached over to grab a fistful of birthday cake, shoving it into his mouth, much like a wild animal that hadn't eaten in days.

"Fredrick Gideon Weasley!", Molly scolded her son, slapping him hard in the back of his head as he unapologetically licked the icing off of his lips. Olivia and George looked at eachother and began to laugh, while Arthur watched from his seat at the end of the table with his mouth agape.

"Where are my manners? Greenwood, would you care for a slice? It's delicious.", Fred insisted with a mocking tone of innocence. Olivia raised her eyebrow inquisitively as he scooped another piece of cake into his hand and held it out towards her.