Little Brave Hearts || Neville Longbottom

CHAPTER TWELVE

Back when she was still an ordinary girl, her birthday was the day when she could decide not to attend her class for the day to celebrate with her parents. Though it was not a grand celebration, she had always anticipated having the whole day with her mum and dad. However, she could not possibly do that while she was at Hogwarts.

Though excited, she felt like something was missing without her mother snatching her blanket off of her and her dad dramatically pointing out that she was getting older.

As she went down to the common rooms, she was sure that she would be the first one to wake up, but to her surprise, Neville was already there, sitting on the sofa.

"Hey," she greeted as she walked towards him.

The boy flinched before standing up to meet Maykha, his hands behind his back and his eyes looking away. Bringing his hands forward, he revealed a bunch of flowers.

"Happy Birthday," Neville shyly said as he looked down on his feet.

"Neville," she gasped, reaching out the flowers from his hands. It was the first time that someone had gifted her flowers, and they brought a wide smile to the girl's face. "What are these called?"

"Chrysanthemum," he said, still looking down, "I saw them growing outside the greenhouse, and I picked some for you."

"I really love it, thank you so much!" she jumped and hugged Neville tightly. It was just a few moments ago that she was feeling down because of the absence of her parents, but having someone else to celebrate her birthday with did not sound bad now that she had finally gotten herself friends.

"Hey, are you not guys too young to be snogging?"

Both of their attentions went to Ron, yawning as he got down from their dorms, followed by Harry, who looked as if he had a serious case of constipation. Maykha figured that it was her friend's automatic response for being nervous as it was the day of his first quidditch match.

"Good morning to you too, Ronald," Maykha said, letting go of Neville and rolling her eyes, "and no, we were not snogging, you nasty little git. He gave me flowers for my birthday, and I was simply thanking him."

Ron was about to say something before he stopped with wide eyes, covering his mouth, realizing that it was his friend's birthday, "Oh right, Happy Birthday."

He was about to approach and hug Maykha, but she playfully dodged him to go straight to Harry.

"Hey, nervous?"

"Yeah, a bit," Harry nodded, "Happy Birthday, by the way. I wish I could be more enthusiastic today, but the match is not doing me any good."

Maykha just laughed and hit his back strongly, making him almost stumble on his feet, "If you really want to make me happy, then you better win this match!"

When Hermione arrived, all of them decided to have their breakfast in the Great Hall, where her owl delivered her mail.

Felix dropped two boxes and a letter for Maykha, which she assumed were from her parents.

Her mum and dad greeted her a happy birthday while feeling sad about her being so far away from them for the first time. She opened one of the boxes, which was filled with her favourite muggle candies and snacks that she missed. The foods in the Great Hall were nice and delicious, but her mouth would crave the familiar tastes of the foods she often ate growing up.

Immediately seeing her all-time favourite orange chocolate, Maykha grinned as she grabbed one of the three her parents sent her.

"What's that?" Neville asked, eyeing the chocolate in her hands.