*Flashback*
"What do you mean, your birthday is tomorrow?" Fred exclaims one morning over breakfast, drawing the attention of several other students around us. He turns to Lee accusatorily. "You're saying we've been friends with you for six years, and you've been lying about your birthday?"
George was complaining about how with everything going on with Sirius Black before the summer last year, we didn't celebrate Lee and I's birthday. I thought this was odd because our birthday isn't in the summer, and Fred and George found this even more odd because according to Lee his birthday was August 15th.
"Don't get me wrong, I love big parties," Lee says, chewing his eggs, "and attention. But when Vee left for Ilvermorny she mentioned how much she hated celebrating without me, so I decided not to have big parties or celebrations until she was back. Pretty soon, that meant that Vee became the only person—besides our grandmother—that knew when my birthday was, so I started celebrating my half birthday instead, which is August 15th."
"Why didn't you say anything last year when we got you both that record player?" George exclaims.
"Both?" I repeat, raising a brow at Lee.
He looks sheepish. "Eventually it became too weird to explain, so when the twins got the record player for us... well—I kept it for myself."
I fling some of my eggs across the table, hitting Lee in the face. "You dick!"
"Wait, if your half-birthday is August 15th, then that means..." George trails off. "Your birthday is Valentine's Day?"
I nod. "Good maths," I tell him, to which he grins.
We celebrate our birthday in style—we have a party in the common room after curfew and Filch is on the prowl that night. As a solution, Julian finds some Muggle Walkmans in the Hufflepuff cupboards and we all put on headphones, charming the tapes to play the same songs at the same time. We have a silent disco, everyone jumping and dancing around to the music in our heads. I ask for no presents (I'm not one of those people that asks for nothing and then gets mad when I don't get anything) and instead all my friends bake Lee and I a gigantic cake—with the help of Nimmy, no doubt—which we cut together, laughing.
Fred and George's birthday roll around on April Fools' Day, so Lee and I play a few small pranks on them—including charming a Howler to scream-yell happy birthday to them all day—before making them a huge cake in return and playing a game of Quidditch on the field with all of our friends.
It was magical.
I miss it now.
Inhale. Exhale.
"Vee, are you listening?"
Inhale.
"Venus? Guys, she's completely fazed out..."
Exhale.
"Aphrodite?"
Fred's voice is so gentle and calm that it cuts through the calamity happening around us. My eyes snap open to look at him. The third task starts in half an hour. We're standing in the Champion's tent, and this time they've allowed a few people in at a time to talk to us—Ron and Hermione talk to Harry, Hermione giving him strict instructions while Ron eats the chocolate at the table. Fred, Lee, and Allie have come in to say goodbye to me; we were only allowed three and I figured these are the people that will calm me down the most. George and Angie gave me great pep talks this afternoon, but now as dusk falls I'm not feeling so sure about things.
YOU ARE READING
chaos ~ fred weasley
Fanfiction"What are you doing?" "What does it look like?" "It looks like you're putting eggplants in a pile outside my room." "That's exactly what I'm doing." ~ Venus Jordan hasn't been to school with her twin, Lee, in years - and Ilvermorny just isn't a...
