𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐃 | harry potter

⏤ 17. sweet seventeen

For numerous days, as long as Asteria could remember, a new sense of calm had taken over her. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt like that.

Not that she hadn't had any stress over the last few days.. or more than a month, if she were to be honest; but thankfully, she had recalled the strategy she had used back in the second-half of fifth year that kept her distracted for good.

So, as she immersed herself in Quidditch discussions and practice, research on a wide range of topics she was concerned with, and of course, having her personal training sessions in the Room of Requirements.. she couldn't register how quickly the days went by. Because one day she woke up with the preparation of playing a Quidditch match, and there was a heap of birthday gifts on the study table of her dorm.

And because she'd been a bit too busy with her own schedule, it took her a good minute to realise it was also her birthday.

She skimmed her eyes over them, even spotted a rather beautiful cake with a handwritten note (which she had to squint hard to recognise that it was from Dobby and Ziggy). A quiet chuckle left her lips.

She was seventeen now. An adult.

She didn't feel any different though. Like she had expected to.. a long time ago.

When she was around twelve or thirteen, when she was still new to the magical world, she'd thought by seventeen, she would've figured her life out. That she would've grown an entirely new brain, which would've helped her see the world with a different perspective as well as understand it.

That by seventeen.. she'd be at a new stage. At the official beginning of her life.

But there she was.. feeling no different than she did a day ago, or even a month ago.

Well.. one more spin around the Sun wouldn't change much, I guess..

I can do magic outside school now though!

"Ria.." The whisper made her turn, and she saw a pair of grey eyes peeking from a small opening through Cassandra's portrait.

"Oh, Ria~" Amelia sang again, and she rolled her eyes playfully.

"Cassandra.."

The Seer let her portrait swing open with a smile, and outside stood the entirety of her Quidditch team, with Daphne, who held a chocolate cake with a single lit candle perched at its centre. "Happy Birthday!"

She grinned, shaking her head as they chanted the words again and again, binding them in some melody and making a song of their own that ended when Ria blew on the candle. When their applause and wishes quieted down a little, she cut the cake and fed them all a piece first out of her own fondness.

"Thank you. Thank you very much—" She said sincerely, looking around at all of them. "But you didn't need to do all that.."

"Pfft— please! You're seventeen now, come on!"