An American Fangirl at Hogwarts《1》of the ☆Ink and Pixels☆ series Harry Potter

Chapter 12: "Make a wish"

When Madison walked into the Great Hall, she saw her parents owl waiting with a small parcel and letter. She wasn't sure why her parents had sent a parcel, it wasn't any special occasion and she couldn't think of anything she might have forgotten at home, but nonetheless she opened them.

Dear Madison,

Happy birthday. Well Happy Belated Birthday. We didn't forget, but yesterday there was a storm here and we couldn't send the owl out. It's better late than never.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Madison was speechless. She had no idea what to think. It wasn't her birthday. Her birthday wasn't for- wait a minute.

"Cedric?" Madison said, getting the boy's attention. The boy's head snapped up and he looked at her, mid chew. She took his questioning eyes as an invitation to continue, "What's today's date?" she asked.

He scrunched his eyebrows in thought before saying in response, "October 23rd, why?"

"Um- I just forgot something." Cedric assessed her. He noticed the dark circles under her eyes and the puffiness surrounding them. He noticed her face had more red splotches than usual and she smiled less.

"Was it important?" he asked carefully, concern painted his face.

"Not really," Madison lied. Cedric didn't seem to believe her and she didn't want for him to start asking questions. "Listen," she began hurriedly, gathering her things sloppily and tucking the parcel under her arm, "I'm going to go to the my dorm for a little while before we go practice. We meet around one? Yeah? Okay cool bye" And before he could say anything in objection, Madison was halfway across the Great Hall.

Unbeknownst to her, the letter from her parents had slid onto the floor in her rush. A few minutes after she left, Cedric began to walk out of the Great Hall and the small letter had caught his attention. He plucked the letter from its place on the floor. He unfolded the paper and scanned the paper, his eyes darting back and forth as he read each line. Mere moments after he read the letter, a the lightbulb in his head began to glow brighter than the sun and he set off quickly to carry out his plan, nothing able to stop him.

****

Madison walked towards the Hufflepuff common room with the unopened parcel tucked under her arm and a weight on her mind. She didn't understand why and how she forgot her own birthday. As a little girl she used to countdown the days a month prior and she would attack her parents as soon as the clock struck midnight making sure they knew it was her special day.

She was fifteen now. She had aged and she didn't even know until the day had already passed. Madison wasn't sure how she felt about her forgetting her own birthday, but she could tell that she wasn't happy about it. Her special day had passed and she wasn't quite sure what to do except to open this gift and just try to keep herself afloat for next year.

Once inside the common room, she smiled and nodded courteously to a few students. She made her way to the fourth year girls dorm room and entered quietly in case someone was napping, but she found the room was empty.

Madison closed the door behind her and set the gift on her bed. She kicked her shoes off and pulled her legs onto her bed and sat Indian style. Fastidiously, she removed the wrapping and attempted to use her nail to cut the tape on the box, but failed miserably. Instead she pulled and pried at the flaps of the box pathetically and rather awkwardly until the tape tore in mercy.