I walked out of the bathroom to see that Fred was still fast asleep, his legs and arms entangled with pillows and blankets. I snuck up behind him, placing my hand on his shoulder and squeezing gently. I bent over to his face, and placed soft kisses on his cheekbone. His eyes fluttered a bit and he groaned.
"Happy Birthday love" I whispered in his ear.
His eyelids fluttered open, revealing his brown irises, looking like pools of honey under the rays of the sun.
Suddenly, George barged into the room, a conical party hat on his head.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY FREDDIE!" He yelled, pulling the blankets off of Fred.
"How I love sharing a birthday with my little brother" Fred rolled his eyes before wishing George.
"Little? I'm younger than you by twelve minutes, that barely counts for anything!" said George.
"Happy Birthday George" I smiled, walking over to him and giving him a hug.
"This isn't fair! Why does George get a hug before I do?" Fred frowned, sitting up on the bed.
"If you'd get off that bloody bed maybe you'll get a hug too" I replied.
"Yea but it's so nice and warm in here.." Fred said, pulling the blanket up to him neck, looking like a little kid. I shook my head and smiled at him. George walked over to him and placed a pink party hat on his head.
"Who could ever guess that you're twenty years old?" I laughed, watching the two fully grown men wearing pink party hats with shiny golden stars on them.
"Oh you're never too old for party hats" George said, conjuring another one and placing it on top of my head.
When we went downstairs, everyone else was wearing party hats too, and some weren't looking very pleased about it. Dean, Hermione, Bill, Emma and Luna didn't mind it but Harry, Ron and Fleur looked very out of place. Harry sat awkwardly on the table, his black hair a mess underneath the party hat.
"I've attended twenty of their birthdays, they've never had one without a party hat" Bill rolled his eyes.
"Yea but it looks ridiculous" Ron said, fiddling with his hat.
"I think it looks great Ron" Hermione said quietly to him at which he blushed slightly, looking down at the table.
Fleur laid out breakfast on the table, a rather extravagant feast.
"All of this looks excellent Fleur, thank you" George grinned, his eyes widening at the food in front of him. Fred had already started stuffing his mouth. I chuckled at their childish behaviour.
"Don't thank me, it's your birthday! And I had help from Emma" Fleur said, placing a pot of coffee in front of me. I had grown to love coffee a few months ago and I drank it almost every morning.
I poured some for myself and the aroma began to fill my nostrils, but something was different this time. It smelled like dirt and made my insides churn. Suddenly I felt a wave of nausea wash over me.
"I-I'll be right back"
I ran up to the nearest bathroom and emptied the contents of my stomach into the toilet. I realised that it must have been food poisoning, the popcorn at that cinema hall had tasted a bit odd. After rinsing my mouth and cleaning up, I made my way back to the table.
"Everything alright?" asked Hermione.
"Yep" I nodded. I had lost my appetite and decided to skip breakfast.
Once everyone was done eating, I drew all their attention towards me.
"So, since most of us can't go out anywhere, I've decided to host..a Quidditch match!" everyone's eyes immediately lit up.
"A Quidditch Match?" cried Fred.
"Here?" exclaimed George.
"Yes, Bill and Fleur brought some broomsticks and the Quidditch balls and beater clubs a few days ago. If you go outside, you'll see a makeshift Quidditch pitch which Emma helped me assemble last night"
Fred and George ran outside like overjoyed children who had just discovered that it was raining chocolate from the sky. Two long poles with a large hoop on the end stood opposite each other. Using magic chalk, I had drawn lines for the boundaries.
"This is fantastic!" Fred said, not looking away from the pitch.
"And now, for the teams" I said, pulling out a piece of parchment from my pocket.
"On team one, Harry as seeker, Fleur and Luna are chasers, Fred for beater and Dean for keeper. On team two, Bill as seeker, me and Hermione as chasers, George for beater, Ron for keeper. Emma will be the referee because she's afraid of heights" I said and everyone assembled to their teams, grabbing a broom each and mounting it.
"I can't play Quidditch, I'm horrible at it" said Hermione, trying to keep steady on the broom.
"Doesn't matter 'Mione, I've got your back" Ron said, before taking off to the hoop.
When I took off with the broom, I felt elated. I hadn't flown in a very long time.
Emma stood in the middle of the pitch and released the snitch. Then came the bludgers.
"Better watch out Malvolio" Fred called out from the other end.
"I was about to say the same thing to you" I said before grabbing the Quaffle as soon as Emma let it out of the box.
A bludger came flying towards me and George hit it away.
"Thanks George" I said, flying fast towards the hoop. I threw the Quaffle towards it but Dean caught it and threw it to Fleur who started speeding up towards the other end of the pitch.
"Hermione! Block her!" I cried. Hermione nervously brought her broom in front of Fleur but she swerved, escaping her almost immediately. George directed a bludger towards her but she missed that too and managed to get the Quaffle in, almost missing Ron's head.
"Ron!" I yelled.
"Sorry!" he yelled back.
This time, I had the lead again and caught the Quaffle. I managed to score twice more, keeping us ahead.
At one point, Hermione did a funny roll on her broom and almost fell over causing Fred to burst into laughter. This distraction made him miss the bludger that was headed towards Luna. The Quaffle immediately dropped from her hands as the bludger bashed into her broom and I caught it, scoring again.
"I didn't know you were such a great chaser" George marvelled.
"She really is isn't she?" said Fred looking at me in awe before flying off to hit a bludger that was going a bit out of control.
Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my forehead and a dull ache began to radiate from the bridge of my nose. I felt a wave of dizziness and began to lose control of the broom.
"Alice are you okay?" Harry asked, looking at me from above.
I didn't reply and tried to shake the headache away but it returned with greater force.
"I-I don't know"
"You look ill, go down for a bit, we can switch up the teams" Harry said.
I nodded meekly and lowered on to the ground, feeling very dizzy. I sat on the sand, hugging my knees to my chest and pressing my head down on to my kneecaps.
Fleur took my place as chaser and sent Hermione to her team. Fred shot a worried glance at me but I motioned him to continue playing.
Soon the match was over, and my team won.
"That was amazing!" said George.
"We would have won if we had better chasers" grumbled Fred.
"Hey!" said Hermione.
"Thanks Emma and Alice, for all of this" Ron grinned, looking refreshed from the game.
"Al are you okay?" Fred squatted down in front of me, his face red and beads of sweat glistening on his forehead.
"Yea, I've just been a bit ill, and I was sick in the morning. I think it's that popcorn from the cinema hall" I said, welcoming the cool breeze that suddenly blew by, easing my headache a bit.
"I'll stay out with her, you guys can head back" said Fred, sitting next to me on the sand.
"I can't thank you enough, this is the best gift I could ever ask for" Fred said, resting his head on my shoulder.
"It was the least I could do, I feel horrible for keeping you in hiding like this on your birthday"
"Don't be silly, I wouldn't have it any other way" said Fred.
"Isn't flying rejuvenating?" said Fred after a few moments, gazing at his broomstick.
"It really is, I love flying" I agreed.
"I know. I saw you flying in the Quidditch Pitch back at Hogwarts four years ago on your birthday. Remember that?"
"'Course I do. You gave me your grey t-shirt there" I said, smiling back at the memory.
"A rather pitiful gift now that I think about it" said Fred.
"It was the best gift I ever received" I said truthfully.
We stayed in silence for a bit, enjoying each other's company. My headache subsided with the help of the cool ocean breeze.
"Fred?"
"Hmm?" the top of his head nuzzled deeper into the side of my neck and his hair tickled my jaw.
"What do you think is going to happen? Hermione, Harry and Ron are definitely planning something. What's going to happen when they're gone? And this war, when is it going to end?" I asked.
"I honestly don't know. The war was announced in June 1996. It's April 1998 now, I doubt it's going to end anytime soon" Fred sighed, drawing patterns on my upper arm with his calloused fingers.
"Well, let's not let that ruin this perfect day" I said, getting up and holding my hand out for Fred.
We walked back to Shell Cottage, hand in hand. Everyone stood around a lovely cake that Fleur had baked for the twins. After cutting it and giving Fred and George a cake facial, we sat around the small pile of presents in the living room.
"We couldn't really go anywhere to buy any good presents so all of this is homemade" said Bill.
"That's alright, we'll accept the lack of presents this year" said George ripping open his first present while Fred unwrapped mine.
I had knitted a tiny, grey pouch for him using threads from the same t-shirt he had gifted me. The t-shirt was definitely much smaller now because of all the threads I had removed from it but it fit me perfectly well. Fred opened the pouch and pulled out a small note that I had written for him. When he read it, his eyes widened slightly and a dark blush formed on his cheeks.
'I'm wearing that black lacy thing you like ;)' was what the note said, knowing the effect it would have on him.
He pocketed the note and made direct eye contact with me, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Erm, thanks for the pouch it's lovely" Fred said quickly, obviously having other thoughts on his mind.
The rest of the day was rather pleasant and needless to say, after Fred had read and re-read my note, the night back in our bedroom was even better.
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