| Jarvey
Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Oceanic Flight 815
Posts: 558
| 
Hey! Hope you all enjoy!:sam:
Chapter 24
In the months that followed we did not make any progress, not that we tried. We all made up excuses to ourselves and to each other like, “Too much homework” or “Gotta study for the finals”, or (this one came from Charlie) “I need to shine my dragon pin.” But none of that stuff was really stopping us. I mean, we were first years. We didn’t have too much homework. And the finals were months away. And Charlie didn’t need that much time to shine his dragon pin, no matter how important it is.
But I think the biggest reason we were stalling so much was the final question that was unanswered: Who would have to go?
But on April 16, that idea swept out of all of our heads, for it was my birthday; my 23rd to be exact.
Now, let me tell you something about Hobbit birthdays. You might find this weird, but instead of getting presents, we give presents. I think it teaches the young Hobbits the beauty of giving at a joyous time as to make it fun.
So, the first birthday present I had ever gotten came from none other than Mrs. Weasley. Before I could find Tonks, Charlie, and Jen in the Great Hall that morning, Bill came upon me.
“Happy birthday Bandy.” He grinned at me while handing me a brown package. “From my mum. She said you might find a hard time find the correct size.”
Confused, I opened the package. I mean, it was pretty difficult for me to find anything in the right size.
And to my surprise and delight, I discovered a pair of hand-knitted socks. They were green and yellow, otherwise known as the best colors in the universe. “Thanks Bill.”
He smiled. “No problem.” He then turned to walk away.
“Wait,” I said to him, quickly taking out a piece of parchment and a quill from my bag.
“What?” he asked.
I quickly wrote it down and handed it to Bill. He examined the paper. “Lembas bread?” he questioned me.
“It’s a good recipe; passed down for generations. I’d think your mum would enjoy making it.”
He smiled. “I’ll be happy to give it to her.” He put the piece of parchment in his pocket. “Again, happy birthday Bandy!”
“Thanks Bill,” I hollered back as he walked back to the Gryffindor table, and I walked towards the Hufflepuff.
It was a Tuesday. I unfortunately had classes, but that was alright. That meant I had time to think about things. After Professor Snape muttered to us all with an evil look, “I suppose you’re dismissed. Don’t forget your essay on moonstones due tomorrow!”, I rolled my eyes at the thought of doing homework on my birthday (I had spent all of last night working on it) and ran out of the classroom, grabbing the gifts for my closest friends.
We had decided to make a mini-party at the library since that was the only place we could really all meet together.
Jen was a genius at baking, and she made a small cake that we could all eat. Best of all, she had discovered a charm that could make the cake invisible, so it would be quite difficult for Madam Pince to catch us eating in the library.
As Jen brought the invisible cake, I could see 12 unlit candles floating on top of what seemed to be thin air. “I thought it would be a kind of obvious if the candles were lit that we had food in here. And by the time Madam Pince comes around, we’ll have the candles by the side of it.”
She set it down on the study table in the corner of the library. “It looks great,” Charlie complimented. He always seemed to be trying to get into her good books these days.
Jen rolled her eyes. “You can’t even see the cake! It’s invisible.”
Charlie’s ears then went red and he began muttering something about thinking that it’ll taste good.
After I pretended to blow out the candles, Tonks just had to ask, “So, what’s it like to be 12.”
I shrugged. You know how your dad will always lie about his age no matter what? Well, I had been doing that all year, and I was getting pretty tired of it. I just had to tell them the truth. “Well, actually, I felt twelve 11 years ago. I just turned twenty-three.” Before they could exclaim their shock I quickly explained, “Hobbits grow half as fast as humans. When I’m 33, it will be as if I’m 18. So I suppose they thought it would be best to put me in late.”
There was dead silence amongst us, until Charlie began to laugh. Soon they all joined in.
“Is there anything you didn’t inherit from Hobbits?” questioned Charlie through chuckles.
I began to laugh too. “Well, I’m tall for my age, and I have don’t have the pointed ears.” I motioned to one of my rounded-human-like ears. This made them laugh even harder.
Finally, when we realized we were getting a good stare-down from the librarian across the room, we grew quiet. Tonks began cutting the cake, and I gave out my gifts to my friends. “You didn’t have to get us anything,” Jen told me with a smile.
“I had to. Its Hobbit tradition,” I replied through mouthfuls of cake.
“You and your Flobbits.” Charlie shook his head sarcastically as he said it. He had finally figured out the name, but now he was just doing that to annoy me. It was working.
Jen opened hers first. I had gone tearing through dozens of catalogues but I had found it. It was a necklace of silver with a shooting star. She smiled with such happiness; I could’ve thought she had just gotten the deed to the universe.
Tonks was thrilled to find a wolf plush toy underneath her wrapping paper. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “How’d you know wolves were my favorite animals?”
I shrugged. I had seen the dozens of doodles she did on her History of Magic notes of the creatures, even though I personally detested them (you could blame the old tales for that).
I decided the best thing to give Charlie was something that had to do with dragons. He got a nice sweatshirt with a blue dragon on it breathing fire. He quickly put it on and examined himself. It fit perfectly.
After many words of thanks, Tonks told me, “Now it’s your turn.” So I got handed a gift from each of my friends. Charlie had gotten me a new schoolbag. It was a magic one with different compartments and would never run out of space. I could fit the entire library in there.
My gift from Jen was a book. Not just any book though. This was the Lord of the Rings trilogy all in one volume, and there were dozens of pictures added in, magically moving! I hugged her after that gift.
Finally came Tonks’ gift. She grinned as I opened it. There, inside it, was a copy of the Ring of Power, with a chain included. I stared at it, entranced. “I got it from a Muggle catalogue. Took me forever to find. Now we could be twins.” She held out the Ring of Galadriel.
As if on cue, Tong-mu came running over to us, panting.
“What’s wrong Tong-mu?” I asked curiously. I was really the only who really knew him, so I thought it’d be best if I asked.
“Did you hear?” Tong-mu asked.
We all shook our heads. If we had to ask what was wrong, of course we hadn’t heard, I couldn’t help thinking.
“Someone has been taken by dementors. They went into the Forbidden Forest.”
As Tong-mu ran away, we knew that our happy hold-off was over. We knew that it was our faults a student was taken, and we had to get him (or her) back. That only left us with one option; we had to go into the Forbidden Forest. |