metanoia

Chapter Forty-five

"Happy birthday!"

Amos turned from his breakfast to find two of his best friends behind him, holding gifts, "I thought we agreed that we weren't going to celebrate."

"With everything that's going on right now. Between You-Know-Who and the baby, celebrating your birthday is exactly what we should be doing," Alex explained, seating herself in the open space on his left.

Nicholas nodded in agreement with the Gryffindor, placing his gift to his best friend in front his breakfast plate, "She's exactly right. It's not everyday you turn 18, which is why we got you this little guy."

Before Amos could object to their gift, the gift bag tipped over and out crawled a tiny little creature. The small animal resembled a hedgehog, with little black eyes and short brown quills. The animal scurried out of the bag and began to sniff Amos' hand.

"What is he?"

Alex chuckled, picking up the creature and placing it in her friend's hand, "Well, actually she's a she. And she is a knarl. Which is basically the Wizarding World's equivalent to a hedgehog."

"I love hedgehogs," Amos cooed, scratching between the knarl's ears.

Nicholas laughed, clapping the Hufflepuff on the shoulder as they arose from the Hufflepuff table and towards their Charms class, "We know mate, that's why we got her for you. What are you going to name her, Digs?"

"I'll get back to you, I want to get to know her first before I name her," explained the bronze haired friend of the trio, placing his new pet on his shoulder as they walked the corridors of Hogwarts toward Professor Flitwick's classroom.

When entering the Charms classroom, Alex finds her other group of friends already seated in the same area of the room they sat the year before. Leaving her a seat between James and Remus.

Sirius sees the blonde enter the room, smiling brightly as he waves and beckons her to join their laughing group, "Lex, hey. We saved you a seat."

Alex hesitated, looking between her companions and her friends. Though she wanted to seat herself with her friends in the back of the class, she wanted to spend the day with Amos, celebrating his birthday before he has to fully step into his role as a father in a few weeks when his son is born.

"Actually, I'm going to sit with Nick and Digs today," Alex told them apologetically, following her friends to the three open seats in the front of the classroom.

"You know you don't have to sit with us, right? You can go sit with your friends," Amos assured the blonde, noticing that she was looking over her shoulder.

Alex shook her head, giving the birthday boy a big smile as she stole the knarl off his shoulder and began to softly scratch it's head, "I am sitting with my friends. I don't have to spend every waking moment with them. And besides, it's your birthday and it's my job as one of your best friends to make sure you have a great birthday."

"Well, you've already made it a great one. I don't think you guys could make this day any better."

Nicholas rolled his eyes at the Hufflepuff, pulling daisies out of his pocket and began feeding it to the knarl, "Oh how you doubt us. And I'd like to offer the name Daisy for our little prickly friend here."

"Because she eats daisies? How creative," the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor mused together, giggling at their synchronization.

"Shut up."

Professor Flitwick walked into the classroom, struggling to silence the classroom full of about twenty seventh years for their N.E.W.T level Charms class, "Quiet everybody. Quiet. Thank you, thank you. Welcome everyone to your  last first Charms class at Hogwarts. So, I figured we could do something a little uplifting. Today we'll be learning the spell Ascendio."