Cursed With Curious Minds | Hp Next Generation

8 - An Immaculate Cake

A few weeks passed since Delilah had dropped the bomb on Astrid about liking James. The warm September air began to turn colder, as the leaves fell off the trees in early October. Astrid looked out of the window in her dorm to see that all the leaves on the Whomping Willow had fallen off overnight.

"Happy birthday Astrid." Delilah said, in her sleepy state as she woke up to see Astrid peering out the window.

Astrid smiled. She was 17 today – finally allowed to do magic outside of Hogwarts.

"You can now legally drink." Delilah said. Of course that was her first thought.

"Not in the muggle world." Astrid added.

"Eh. Muggle alcohol's not as good anyway."

"Oh and you'd know?"

"Yeah, course I would."

Astrid had never had muggle alcohol before – her parents wouldn't let her go near it until she was 18. However, being at Hogwarts meant she could try as many wizarding drinks as she pleased without their knowledge.

Astrid and Delilah waited for the other three in their dorm to wake up before going to breakfast – with it being Astrid's birthday, they'd all agreed to eat together to celebrate.

"You're so lucky, with the first Hogsmeade trip falling so close to your birthday!" Abi complained, eating her toast. The first Hogsmeade trip of the year had been arranged for Saturday 3rd October – one day after Astrid's birthday.

"Oh yeah, speaking of Hogsmeade – you'll have to wait until tomorrow for your presents." Delilah said.

Astrid looked perplexed.

"All in good time." Delilah said.

"Hey Happy Birthday, Astrid!" Damian said, as he walked past the girls.

"Yeah, and get fucking smashed at the leaky cauldron tomorrow for us all, considering you're allowed to now." Ted added.

Astrid laughed.

"It's a promise!" She called back.

Jasmine rolled her eyes and brought up a wrapped gift from beneath the table. "Well, here's our present to you."

"It's from all three of us." Emmeline added, before Astrid could open it.

"Thank you so much." She said.

"You haven't even opened it yet!" Abi said. "Thank us after."

So Astrid did as she was told, and tore open the packaging. It was a book – 'The Stars and Their Magical Properties'.

"Look inside," Jasmine said.

Astrid lifted up the cover, and before she even got a chance to read what was on the page, a star chart was projected into the air in front of her.

"Woah," Astrid exclaimed. She reached out to touch the projected stars, but her hand passed straight through it and the stars shimmered a bit. "This is so cool."

"Not only that," Emmeline began, "But the pages inside have loads of information about astronomy that's outside of the NEWT curriculum."

"We thought seeing 3D projections of the stars would be much more useful than looking down at a bunch of dots on parchment." Abi added.

Astrid was beaming. "Thank you so much, I love it."

Astrid continued flipping through the pages continually for the rest of breakfast, marvelling at each and every one.