Wanna Be Saved

- TWENTY THREE -

Chapter Twenty Three
Birthday Babes

Bronwyn hadn't expected much upon waking on the day of her sixteenth birthday. Sixteen was rather a filler year to young magi folk. A year until they made it to seventeen where in the eyes of the law they would be seen as an adult, where there was no longer restrictions on their abilities to do perform magic. In some other magical families there might have been traditions of which to follow upon turning sixteen, Bronwyn had heard rumours of this being a thing for other members of the sacred 28 families. But this wasn't the case for the Weasley family, a stretch of resources had meant even if there was at one point a  tradition for the children upon their sixteenth then it couldn't be followed with the current generation. And as the six of seven children there was no chance this could be changed. 

Yet walking down the stairs to a common room where her two older brothers stood banner misspelt behind them and an abundance of string for her to greet upon waking, this was new. But this was something she couldn't find herself hating. Despite not being overly fond of the attention, Bronwyn couldn't hate the fact that this was occurring. Part of her believed that Fred and George had been put up to this show, something to make her embarrassed and a little bit shy, but another much larger part knew her brothers had done this on their own validation. Overdramatic loveable fools.

"Happy birthday Won-Won!" George would cheer as he was the first to make his way over to his sister. George was quick to pick Bronwyn up and spin her, as her mind focused way too much on the new nickname he had given her. 

"What the hell George?" Bronwyn laughed as she spoke unable to even attempt to be serious about the disgusting way he had decided to shorten her name. 

"Our little Won-Won not enjoying herself?" A sarcastic voice tuned in from behind her and Bronwyn knew the second she was down the eldest twin would do the exact same. Something she was proven to be correct about seconds later. 

"You two are horrible." Her voice seemed brighter, lighter than either of her elder brothers had heard in a while. They were unsure what had triggered this change, whether Bronwyn was pulling herself out of the murky waters they had all seen her swimming into for any specific reason or not, but it didn't matter. 

It would seem that neither the student body nor the staff would say anything when the entire Weasley family took to missing the days worth of lessons. Fred and George Weasley were considered a waste of teaching resources to most of the staff, having decided that academics were not their thing they would learn on their own time. They were only at school because it was a legal requirement. Bronwyn was still quite far behind in her academics, one day wasn't going to magically put her back on track. Ginevra Weasley had a habit of skipping classes often enough that the teachers wouldn't take much notice of her being there or not. What a harsh fall from grace the once incredibly respected family had taken. Perhaps people would be more concerned if some of the older Weasley children had skipped classes, but in retrospect this was unlikely. The only truly studious member of the family had been Percy. Bill and Charlie had thrived in their specific classes but not much else. Thank Merlin that there was no intent to have parent teacher conferences, Molly Weasley might just keel over with embarrassment after listening to what her children were really getting up to, or not. 

And that evening as her friends and family sat around the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room, Bronwyn was truly able to see what she had. Ginny was sat furthest from the fire, cradling a bottle of alcohol she was definitely not supposed to be drinking at 14, curled into her boyfriend of the month. A rebellious stance the younger girl had taken on to desperately try to get Harry to notice her. The current flavour of the month for the girl being Dean Thomas, who Bronwyn thought was using her sister in the same way she was using him. Only Dean was trying to get the attention of Seamus Finnegan rather than Harry Potter, but it would be more interesting if they were both after the same rather bland teenaged boy. Seamus and Neville had joined the group after being invited to stay by the birthday girl herself. Seamus had a wicked sense of humour and Neville's strange stories of his childhood with his grandmother was just as interesting as anything else said by the rest of the group if not better. 

Lavender and Parvati were present in body, in spirit they were so drunk that neither girl could actually maintain any presence in the social aspect. George had given the two girls a rather strong blend of alcohol, something he knew his sisters could manage but it would turn out the two other 5th years were not experienced with. He had initially panicked a little knowing that if this got back to their head of house that it would be him taking the fall, Fred wouldn't save his younger brother in this instant. Lavender had brought with her into the common room her record player which had been charmed by her dad to work whilst they were at Hogwarts. And as it rang out the rather dull tones of Oasis Bronwyn could only sway along. George had forgone bringing along his girlfriend to this gathering, who apparently at this moment was not Katie Bell like Bronwyn had thought so she really had no clue who the boy was dating, actually if she was being honest she would be less surprised if George was dating Lee Jordan than if he was with anyone else. George had after all promised that if there was a Weasley wedding anytime soon that Lee would be his date. Something that Bronwyn knew would not be taken lightly. 

George sat to her right, and on her left was Fred. The one it had turned out had planned the entire day's worth of activities. Though he had given no explanation as to why he had done so, it wasn't like any of the siblings expected that they would be separated indefinitely after the twins finished school in a couple of months. But there was a reason behind it, there always was even if Fred never shared it with anyone including his twin. Fred had been responsible in sourcing the alcohol and then turning a blind eye to what everyone was consuming. He had the final member of the little group which had gathered subtly curled into him. Hermione completed the circle the group had created, she had directed most of the evening, taking the plan laid out by Fred and turning it into a reality. 

"You know he called it off with Angelina a few weeks back." George whispered to Bronwyn who turned dramatically to look at her brother.

"He did not?" Her whisper of surprise wasn't much of a whisper, and it was clear that Fred could hear the pair when he managed to elbow Bronwyn in the side. 

"Did too." George didn't even bother whispering his response this time. 

"Gotta be shitting me. Hurt her Fredrick and I'll rain hell." Bronwyn concluded, sure she wasn't 100% sold on Fred and Hermione but she could see the pair being really good for one another. Her voice was not loud enough that the entire group could hear them but she knew that Fred had heard. If his sigh was anything to go by. 

The clock in the common room reached 11:27pm and everyone in the group seemed to pause the small conversations they were having between themselves. 

"Happy Birthday Bronwyn."