bright | g. weasley

Four.

Days and weeks flew by and before anyone could realize, the end of September was upon Hogwarts. And just as the beginning of fall had started, so did Brigid's teenage years. On the thirtieth of September, Brigid turned thirteen.

Brigid was startled awake early that morning by Angelina and Alicia, who practically dragged her downstairs to the Common Room to meet with her other friends, most of them being on the House Quidditch team. They had all gotten together to give Brigid a gift and a small cake, which Fred and George had requested secretly from the house elves in the kitchens.

After a quick and quiet birthday celebration with her teammates, everyone separated and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"It sucks that my birthday's on a Monday," Brigid groaned as she stirred sugar and cinnamon into her porridge.

"Lucky it's not on a Saturday or Wood would be murdering you with early morning practice," said Fred, who proceeded to shove a large slice of bacon in his mouth.

Brigid made a face. "Man, I love that guy, but his practices are gonna kill me one day, I swear it."

"Only got another month before the season picks up," said Wood cheerily from behind them. "You should be grateful we got a Seeker."

"Oh, Wood," Brigid mumbled, rubbing her freckly face. 

"Just remember, my goal isn't to murder anyone, it's to win the Quidditch Cup." He gave her a pat on the back, his lips curled into a slight smirk. His teammates constantly gave him grief for all his hard, early morning practices, but he knew if he didn't push them to do their best, they'd be the most mediocre team at Hogwarts, perhaps in the whole of the Wizarding World. If Oliver Wood had one passion in life, it was Quidditch. He'd be damned if he let anyone get in the way of his dream of winning the Quidditch Cup, which they hadn't won since before Charlie Weasley left Hogwarts. 

"Which might involve getting dirty and bloody in the process," George added.

"You'll live." Wood left his younger teammates and walked further down the table before taking a seat near Percy, who was poring over this morning's edition of the Daily Prophet.

Lee soon joined the trio and wished Brigid a happy birthday. When the mail arrived, a tawny owl, Perdy, dropped a package down right into Brigid's hands.

"Oh, it's from Mam," Brigid announced excitedly. The first thing Brigid took from the neatly wrapped package was a birthday card, which she read with a smile and then set to the side. She then removed a bright purple book with an intricate golden border around the cover and shimmery green text in the center. "Oh my god."

"What is that?" asked George, shoving his face in front of Brigid to take a look.

"What's... Zauberkunst?" asked Fred as he butted his way in to see. 

"It's German. It literally translates to charm art," she explained. "I've been looking for this everywhere. This book is full of advanced charms. We're not allowed to study from it in class, but no one said I couldn't study from it outside of class."

"Where'd your mum find that?"

"I have no idea, but I'll have to thank her a million times over, won't I?"

"Well, I know one thing's for sure," said George as Brigid thumbed through the pages, taking in each complicated spell featured in the book. "All our plans are looking very bright."

The three shared smirks and Lee stared all of them down with a scared look.

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