Courage

-8-

Book: Courage
Chapter 8
Word Count: 1993

Christmas was coming. On the morning of December 11th, Layla woke in a very cheerful mood and looked out the dorm window to find the grounds covered in several feet of snow.

"Hermione!" Layla jumped onto Hermione's bed, shaking the girl awake. "Hermione, wake up! It's my birthday! I'm twelve, Hermione! I'm finally twelve!"

"I'm awake, I'm awake," sighed Hermione groggily. "Happy birthday, Layla! I got my mum and dad to send me your birthday presents that I told them I wanted to get you, but I wrapped it myself."

Jumping off her bed, Hermione opened her trunk and pulled out a large wrapped box. Grinning from ear to ear, Layla opened the box to see a bunch of smaller gifts.

There was a beaded bracelet with each letter of her name written in each bead, there was a pink muggle Polaroid camera that Hermione had promised to show Layla how to use, there was a purple journal with the word 'L' on the front, there was a muggle fountain pen attached to the journal, too, there was a gold necklace with her name on it, and lastly, there was a book set of the Percy Jackson books.

"What's Percy Jackson?" asked Layla, putting on the beaded bracelet as she stared at the book set, handing Hermione the necklace to help her put on.

"It's a muggle set, but I think you will love them," replied Hermione, fastening the necklace around Layla's neck. Layla grinned and hugged Hermione tightly.

The two headed down to breakfast together. The whole way there, Layla was wished a happy birthday from many different people.

Sitting down at the table, grabbing breakfast, presents were shoved in front of her. She got a bunch of chocolate frogs from Ron, ten galleons from Harry since he had no way of getting her a gift since the Dursleys certainly weren't going to buy anything at his request, a Gryffindor ring from Seamus, a light red lip gloss from Parvati, just a birthday card from Lavender, a Gryffindor scarf from Dean, and a potted plant from Neville.

The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky soared through to deliver mail. A package was dropped in front of Layla with a birthday card. She grabbed the birthday card, reading it silently.

Layla,
Happy 12th birthday, honey.
Have an amazing day and I will see you next week for your Christmas holidays.
With a great deal of love,
Dad

Layla smiled, putting down the birthday card from Remus and opening the package. A pack of white chocolate exploding bon bons, as usual, and a photo frame of Layla and her dad that was taken when she was 7. Remus had used his wand to take the photo. Her smile widened. She was going to place the photo right at the front of her bedside table.

The rest of her birthday was nice and easy, getting happy birthday wishes from all of her teachers, apart from Snape, of course. That was until a small slip of paper landed on Layla's desk during potions. She looked down at it.

Lupin,
It's your birthday, right?
For somebody who does absolutely nothing with their life, you sure are looking fat.
Don't forget to make a birthday wish, you need all the help you can get.
- Draco Malfoy

Layla rolled her eyes. She couldn't tell if Draco was just making sarcastic jokes or if he was being genuinely serious. She turned to see Draco smirking at her, so she balled up the piece of paper and threw it at his head. It was Layla's turn to smirk when she watched it hit Draco square in the face, causing him to glare at her.

Apart from that, her birthday went alright.

The next day came around quickly, but no one could wait for the holidays to start. While the Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them and they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons.