ethereal | tom riddle.

midnight wishes

"I'm so tired." Eliza spoke, covering her mouth as she yawned.

"I'd be shocked if you weren't." Theodore said, reading the morning newspaper. "You know, after all that screaming." He looked up with a knowing smirk. Eliza's eyes went wide as Rosier choked on his tea mid-laugh.

"Hogwarts walls are way too thin." Orion commented, looking up at her as he drank his tea innocently. She covered her face in embarrassment.

"It's okay, we hear Theo and Brax all the time. I can drown out all the moans now." Rosier reassured, patting her back as Theo put down the news paper to glare at him. "Very girlish screams. It's like being neighbours with witches who don't know the Silencio charm."

"I swear to Salazar, Rosier. You don't get to comment. There's nothing to silence with you and your girlfriend." Theo said, reaching across the table to smack his head.

*

Eliza stood in front of her mirror, patting down her hair as the clock edged a few minutes away from midnight. She went to her bed, reading her book as she waited with a smile playing on her face.

The door opened with a swing moments later, revealing Abraxas, Tom, Theodore, Rosier, Orion and Zabini standing in the doorway, all making their way through her doorway.

Theodore held a cake in his hands, decorated messily with dark green and black, reading 'Happy Birthday Favourite'. There was what she deciphered all of them as badly drawn stick figures- her standing in the centre with the others lined up on either side.

Theodore had even taken the effort to make the platinum hair for Abraxas, the dark skin for Zabini and the blond hair for Eliza. He had even tried showing who's who with the rest of them by squiggly or curly hair. He had made Orion's hair shoulder level as it was, and his own self with a smile and floppy hair. Tom had a little frowny face which she doubted he would've been very happy to see, and round curls for his hair.

"Happy birthday!" They all wished at once as Theodore placed the cake on the bed in front of her.

"I made it myself." Theodore beamed.

"It looks like a two year old's scribbles." Rosier scoffed.

"That's sounds about accurate." Zabini nodded, patting Theodore's back.

"Hey, you didn't contribute anything so stop working your mouth now, Zabini." Theo rolled his eyes, going over like an excited kid to make Eliza guess who everyone on the cake was. She grinned like a little kid as she cut the cake, loving to see how much effort Theodore had put in.

"Oh, our girl is eighteen." Theodore smiled, little tears in his eyes as he smiled at her.

"We can finally go drinking with her." Zabini said, also smiling with tears in his eyes.

"Legally." Rosier added.

"I just find it very hurtful how she didn't even bother acting surprised." Brax joked, shaking his head.

"It gets difficult to be surprised when the same thing happens every year, Brax. I might as well look pretty if all of you get to look cleaned up." Eliza replied, grinning at him.

"Remember the first year?" Abraxas gasped for air as he laughed, his eyes tearing up slightly as he remembered how messed up her hair had been, and how sleepy and tired she looked with her night gown while the rest of them had been perfectly proper.

They did this every year- the cake at midnight. "Abraxas, please. Do not bring that up. It's like you want me to cry."

After posing for Polaroids with the cake, they spent the night talking about how much had changed since the last time they did this. At the end of the night, Eliza had cried at least thrice by the end of that night about it being the last time they would ever do that at Hogwarts.

They reassured her that they would go to her house and wake her up in the middle of the night on every birthday of hers. She smiled at that thought, thinking about everything that would be different by the next time they did this.

In two months, their school days would be over. In two months, would be no more Hogwarts for them.

*
a/n: Tom singing happy birthday is sending me like imagine this butch at a birthday party bye 💀