Meant To Be

A Keeper And A Birthday

I woke up in the Hufflepuff Common Room, seeing Charles sitting in a different place than usual.

"Charlie, why are you sitting there?" I asked.

He pointed to the people around me in all the other available seats. Marc, Daniel, Penny, and Sebastian all fell asleep in the Common Room instead of leaving to go to their own dorms last night.

I had to resist the urge to laugh at how Marc was hanging with the top half of his body hanging off the couch, no doubt about to fall, the other three were a little more graceful in their sleep. Penny was curled up in the armchair holding her book like a teddy bear, Daniel was sitting on the same sofa Marc was laying on, obviously completely oblivious to his cousin's soon to be disaster, and Sebastian was also sleeping in a sitting position and it occurred to me that I was in fact, using his lap as a pillow last night.

"Breakfast is in a few minutes, they're announcing the new Keeper today so I'd hate for you to miss food and information," Charles informed.

"Thanks Charlie," I said before getting up and beginning to wake up the rest of the group.

After I woke up the first three I was a little leery about waking up Marc because I didn't want him to get hurt, but before I could do anything Daniel just pushed him off the couch, letting him hit the floor with a loud thud.

A groan of pain came from the floor. "Thanks for that Daniel."

"Anytime."

<><><>

I sat at the Hufflepuff table surrounded by my non-Hufflepuff friends, awaiting the results of the tryouts.

"All right, everyone ready?" Alec, our Quidditch captain, asked.

"As we'll ever be," Someone called out.

Alec opened up his piece of parchment then cleared his throat. "The team has decided that our new Hufflepuff Keeper will be...Avery Harper!"

The entire table applauded as Marc grabbed my shoulders and shook me, obviously excited for me.

"Alright calm down Marc," Penny said, moving him out of the way then hugging me from behind. "I'm so proud of you Avery!"

"You guys do realize that I'm a part of the opposing team right?" I asked.

"We know, we just don't care," Daniel pointed out. "Besides, our teams have been looking for a real challenge for once so we might as well cheer once we get one."

Penny left to go argue with Marc about something, leaving me stuck between Daniel and Sebastian.

"Do you think you're ready for your first match soon?" Sebastian questioned. "It's coming up you know."

Marc appeared out of nowhere. "You want to know what has come up today?"

We all awaited an answer, not saying anything.

"It's Penny's birthday today!" He shouted, waving his hands in the air.

I looked to Daniel. "Do I even want to know how he knows these things?"

"I remember birthdays and certain dates really well, for example I know that Luke's birthday is the eighth of October."

"I don't even know who that is," I said.

He shrugged. "Don't worry, I don't know either."

"That's-that's horrible Marc."

"Anyway, back to what I was saying," He continued. "We must gift her."

I thought for a second. "Well it's a good thing I already bought a gift for her birthday, although I didn't know when it was I still had one."

It was true, I did buy her a gift. It was the sequel to the book that I had got her for Christmas. A very unoriginal gift, but one she would like nonetheless.

<><><>

After classes were over Marc insisted on having a little birthday party in the Hufflepuff Common Room before everyone came back to go to bed, and because it was for a good reason I couldn't say no.

So here we were, sitting in the Common Room in our seats from the previous night, eating a cake that I had gotten and watching Penny open up her presents that were either bought before today or hastily gotten from seemingly nowhere.

"I still don't know why you guys insisted on getting me something other than the one thing I always have with me," Penny said, referring to her books, she always had one with her.

"It's because Avery got you a book so Marc and Daniel decided to be different," Sebastian told her, holding Ollie as he did.

"Well thank you Avery and Sebastian for the books, Daniel for the blanket, and Marc for the bracelets."

"You're welcome," We all replied in unison, like we were talking to a teacher.

"Alright well if this is all over, we should probably all go to out dorms now," Penny announced getting up, being followed by Marc and Daniel.

"You coming Sebastian?" Marc asked.

"Later," He looked down at the kitten in his arms. "He just fell asleep."

I smiled. "I can take him so you can go to your dormitory before curfew."

He smirked "Trying to get rid of me so soon?"

"Trying to make sure you don't get in trouble for staying at a birthday party too long," I said, gently taking Ollie from him.

He stood up and kissed me on the side of the head. "Goodnight Avery."

"Goodnight Sebastian."