one sickle ~ f.w.

chapter 30

it's ron's birthday tomorrow, so me, george, fred, lee, hermione and harry are surprising him with a small-ish get-together in the common room. we originally wanted to do hogsmeade, but since first-years aren't allowed we couldn't. apart from ourselves, we've invited a few of his friends from gryffindor - finnigan, thomas and a couple others.

things are going really well with fred. it's our one-month anniversary soon so we're gonna do something special for that, we're not sure what though.

apart from those things, nothing particularly interesting is happening this month - and the next official quidditch game isn't until june. maybe something strange and unexpected will happen soon and that will make up for it.

***

"shhh, he's coming!" hermione whisper-shouts, as ron sluggishly walks down the stairs.

"harry? hermione?" he calls out. they don't answer.

when he gets to the bottom of the stairs, we all jump out from our hiding places. "surprise!"

"i- bloody hell!" he's shocked, which is what we were hoping for.

"happy birthday ron," harry smiles.

"woah." he looks around the room, noticing the decorations we put up for him. "this is wicked, thank you."

"of course! do you wanna open presents now?" i ask.

"yes!" he dashes towards the sofas around the fireplace, where we put his presents.

the rest of us follow him, some going to sit on the sofas and chairs and some going to sit on the floor. i sit next to fred on the main sofa.

first, he opens a package from mrs weasley, his mum. she made him a sweater, even though she did the same for christmas. i'm sure he didn't mind though.

next, he opens the present from george and fred - a new quill and a chocolate frog from honeydukes. i think he's most excited about this one. his quill broke a few weeks ago, so he's been borrowing other people's and just using whatever he could since then. as for the chocolate frog, everyone knows they're his favourite.

he goes through the rest of the presents pretty quickly. i got him a packet of every flavoured beans from honeydukes - i was going to get a chocolate frog but fred and george beat me to it.

"what do you wanna do now?" hermione asks ron.

"i'm not sure - what's the time?"

"10:45," i say.

"we could have a friendly quidditch match until lunch? unless you and the twins wanted to go to hogsmeade instead."

"oh no it's okay," i smile, "we won't be going to hogsmeade today. quidditch sounds like a great idea!"

"i'm up for it. anyone else?" fred asks the group.

everyone either smiles, nods or says something like "that's a good idea" , "yeah" , or "i'd love to" in response - except hermione, who says she probably won't be able to do it because she's never played quidditch before.

"i haven't really played quidditch before either," lee says, "so i can sit with you in the stands if you want."

"really?" hermione asks.

"yeah, of course. i'm just the commentator, not the player." he admits.

"are you sure?"

"of course!" lee smiles. "y/n hasn't played quidditch before either, has she?"

"not really, i'd be happy to join you two."

"thank you," hermione grins.

"no problem." i say. "how are seamus and dean at quidditch?"

"i'm alright actually - maybe not the quidditch, but i've been flying for years." seamus tells us.

"great. dean?"

"yeah, i'm alright too. i've been practicing on my own quite a lot recently, so i think it would be good for me to do an actual game."

"so you're up for it?"

"absolutely." he smiles.

"should we go now?" george asks.

"yeah, let's go."

***

fred, george, seamus, dean, ron, harry and i excitedly walk out onto the pitch to start the game. lee and hermione are in the stands, sharing our excitement. fred, seamus and ron are playing against george, dean and harry. fred and george didn't want to be on different teams, but we thought it would be unfair on the others because they're younger and have less experience than the twins. it took a while, but they agreed eventually.

we decided that i would be refereeing a few minutes ago. i originally thought that we wouldn't need a referee, because it was just a friendly match so there wouldn't be much aggression. the twins and seamus agreed with me, but the others were saying that we shouldn't take a risk.

as we get to the centre of the pitch and the players take their positions, hermione and lee cheer for them and shout things like "good luck!" and "you'll do great!". i say the same to them as i stand in the middle of the circle, looking up at them. we're only using a quaffle and a snitch for this game - we couldn't really do anything else since there's only three players on each team.

"remember - no tackling, shoving or anything else that could get someone hurt." i remind them, before releasing the quaffle into the air, shortly followed by the snitch which goes up on its own.

george gets the quaffle first, while harry and fred look for the snitch and ron and seamus go in front of the goalposts to defend.

george beats the ball as far as he can, aiming towards dean so he can try to score a goal. dean successfully catches the ball, grabbing it and taking it into his arms. concentrating, he throws it towards the goalpost and gets it in, earning a cheer from the rest of his team.

the rest of the game goes smoothly, and ron's team ends up winning.

"that was a great game!" i say to the players as lee, hermione and i join them after the game.

"yeah, all of you did really well." lee compliments.

"thanks," ron smiles.

"we need to get back into normal clothes now," george reminds us.

"right, you can do that then, and then we can all meet in the great hall for lunch."

"sounds good."

***

hey besties !

thank you so so much for 5200+ reads <3

i'm sorry this chapter is so bad LMAOAOA
i can't tell if it's too short or too long bye

also changed the cover
i like it, i feel like it's much better than the old one tbh

hope you're all doing okay :)

stay safe and have a good day <3

-dasha