Isn't He Lovely • A Fred Weasley Story

p r o f e s s o r h a w t h o r n

I wake up the following Sunday morning with a little smile– waking up on my birthday has always had that effect on me. September 2nd... I've reached nineteen.

Hermione greets me with an excited shake of my shoulders in bed, getting an early laugh out of me. We get dressed at our own pace, since there are no classes today, and head downstairs to the common room.

"Hey! There's the birthday girl," Ron calls from the couch. Harry is seated beside him with his arm slung around Ginny.

"Morning, guys," I greet them all with a smile. Hermione and I walk over to the couch and settle down on the carpet. 

"How are you feeling, big nineteen-year-old?" says Harry. 

I grin, shrugging. "Just the same, I suppose. A little disappointed that our boys aren't here." 

"Hey!" Ron says with a hurt look on his face. 

"The other boys," I laugh, nudging his leg with my foot. 

"I know, it seems rather strange, doesn't it?" Ginny says. "Feels like our group has a big chunk taken out of it."

"Well, best not to wallow," Hermione chirps, clapping her hands together. "Especially when we've got a birthday on our hands!"

The five of us talk for a while and they encourage me to open up my gifts. After they've run and grabbed them, I excitedly open each one, thanking them a million times and repeating that they're too thoughtful to think of me.

After that, we decide to head down to breakfast in the Great Hall, the five of us joking around through the corridors as we make our way past the other chatting students. It feels good to be back, even when I'm missing Fred already.

We slip into seats at the Gryffindor table and begin to serve ourselves some cereal and toast, talking about the start of classes tomorrow and such when suddenly, a handsome barn owl soars above us into the hall.

It flutters right over our little group and drops a small box directly in front of me, my eyes going wide with surprise.

"Who's owl is that?" I ask out of curiosity, looking up to see the owl launch right out of the Hall.

"Oh, looks like Ozwald," Ron replies in between bites of cereal. "That's Fred and George's owl. They got one for business purposes, but now it looks like girlfriend purposes has been added to the list." 

I giggle and look down at the box before me. Gently pushing my plate aside to make room for the sudden gift, I eye the outer appearance. It's wrapped in maroon red paper with a white ribbon curled on the top.

I carefully unwrap the box and lift the lid, peering inside. Sitting there in the midst of some tissue paper is a beautiful black notebook, a gold design on the front with a small ribbon tucked in the pages.

"Oh, wow!" I run my fingers over the cover.

"What a lovely notebook," Hermione comments, peering over at the gift. "Is there a note?"

I look inside the box and see a small piece of folded parchment inside. I reach in and lift it out, opening it and reading the neat, small print:

For the beautiful birthday girl...

To help maintain your academic perfection. Not like you need any help, but this here has a bit of magic to it...

I've already written something in. Missing you already.

A disgusting amount of love, Freddie

I smile warmly, chewing my lip before setting the note down and peering once more at the notebook. I open the cover and find a small message inside, inscribed on the back of the cover.