Birthday for Two PV Group Finished

Pajama Boots

Present 1 Present 2

Wearing his pajama and holding two obscured objects. The third year was probably more excited than ever, as he made his way towards the Great Lake, where he could already see Willow. From the distance he could see her spread out some blankets on the ground like she had done, when the two of them were having a picnic. Not wanting her to do everything by herself, the third year quickened his pace to reach the girl, who pulled him into a big hug as soon as he was in her reach, which made him laugh lightly as he returned the hug.

She instantly gave him a task, which made him happy as he had no idea how it worked. She had told him about the plans to make a campfire and Alan had heard about them in stories before, but he never actually made one himself so he was looking forward to it! "I, c-can do that! A-Also... Happy Birthday, Willow!", he cheered, offering her a cheeky grin. The wishes were spoken flawlessly without a stutter, as if he had practiced in front of a mirror to say these words to her, which admittedly he did; not in front of a mirror, but he practiced the pronunciation until he had been happy with it.

When he had gotten his present from her, his eyes widened as he thanked her. He would then open it slowly, but with an excited gleam in his eyes as he found a bracelet hidden in the package. He held it up into the dimming light of the evening sun, admiring its beauty. "I l-love it, thanks", he whispered as he slipped the bracelet onto his right wrist. But even then he raised his arm to admire the bracelet that wrapped snugly around his wrist and remembered his own presents.

"Ah-! I g-got something f-for you too!", he explained and assumed it would be best to give her the matching gift first. So with an important face, that screamed mischief and excitement, he handed her a small draw string sachet in which she would find a bracelet. Not only was it in the colors of a soft yellow and red, but it oddly reminded of candy in the way the color had been picked. Of course it was a quite simple bracelet and nowhere near perfect, but she would be able to tell that Alan must have spent a lot of time making it. Reaching into the chest pocket of his pajama, he revealed a matching bracelet that soon joined the green and teal colored one that Willow had given him. "I h-hope you like it!", he told her and with a bright smile, he held up the second gift that was wrapped in wrapping paper filled with images of little animals with party hats and other small icons. Alan had asked his parents to get him this gift and had it delivered by owl with this paper, so the wrapping was actually well made and a small card was tucked into the ribbon, which, when unfolded, would read with a messy flower doodle at the side of it, like when Willow had signed her name on the invites...

"Happy Birthday, Willow"

Alan was waiting for her to open this one as well, because if she did it would reveal a pair of pink fluffy earmuffs that would keep her warm and probably would look cute. His mother had helped him choose this one, because he had no idea what a girl would like to wear and he hoped that his mom had a similar taste that Willow had.

Interacting with @Alan Vanes

A blush furiously spread over her face, with all the excitement of setting up for the party the first words out of her mouth weren't happy birthday, when they definitely should've been. "Happy birthday Alan! I can already feel that it's going to be amazing." Her heart could almost overflow as Alan handed her the tiny satchet that fit her aesthetic perfectly, he really had her figured out. As she delicately reached inside and closed her fingers around the bracelet, tears already threatened to burst out. It was a friendship bracelet. The work and care put into it was obvious, and the color combination suited them perfectly, their house colors of course, but the tones had a softness that they had for each other.

The dam in her eyes broke when Alan pulled out a matching one. Sure, she had a matching one with Flash but she gave it to him. No one had ever given her a bracelet and also had the matching set. She quickly slipped it on her wrist, having it proudly lay next to her one with Flash, and now the two she shared with Alan. "Alan, no one... no one has ever made me matching bracelets. Thank you. I'm going to cherish this more than you know." She had a determined look behind her eyes, friendship bracelets were serious promises in her life. Her surprise only grew when Alan pulled out a second gift, suddenly she felt bad as she had only given him one. There was no use living in feeling bad, and she quickly pushed the thoughts out of her head.

Delicate fingers ripped open the wrapping paper to reveal a pair of fuzzy earmuffs. They made her heart absolutely explode, he really knew her and her aesthetic well in every piece of the gifts he had given her. It made her feel seen and known in a way that was appearing in her life more often as she surrounded herself with more kind and beautiful people. She put them on her head, then realized it was a tad bit hard to wear them the the buns she had currently, and resolved to wearing them around her neck for now. "Thank you Alan! I'm going to keep the card right next to my hammock in my dorm as well. Ah, I really appreciate all of this thank you." She hugged him once more before turning back to the campfire.

There was still a bit of set-up to be done including setting the bonfire ablaze and setting out the food. "I can work on the fire if you'd like to get started on setting out the food and everything. They're all on various platters so they can come out of the basket and be set out on the blanket." She was sure people would start arriving soon so she quickly got to work arranging fire starter and the logs in a methodical manner that seemed routine to anyone watching, skilled hands working quickly. Soon enough the fire slowly grew, providing a beacon to their arriving guests.

The third year was happy to hear the words being spoken to him; a happy birthday from her to him and happy it would be, he was sure of that. The two of them surrounded by people they liked, he was looking forward to this!

He watched her take the bracelet from the sachet and a hopeful look appeared on his face as he watched her put it on. But suddenly tears began to well up in her eyes and it confused the Gryffindor immensely for a moment. Had he done something wrong? Picked a wrong color, perhaps? But as soon as she spoke up, all his worries would melt away and his smile warmed up even more, if it was even possible at this point. "I w-would feel honored", he told her honestly and watched as she ripped the paper of the next present.

He watched with glee as she put equipped herself with the earmuffs, making it visible that she liked the present he had gotten for her and it was the best compliment he could have gotten. "Y-You're welcome, Willow, I'm g-glad you like it", he said warmly, as he returned the hug, squeezing back a bit. This was already a great start for their party, now they would only have to wait and do the last preperations.

"S-Sure, I can do th-the food! I l-look forward to s-see what cake F-Flash is gonna bring!", he mentioned as he walked to the the place they had chosen for displaying the various food items on yet another blanket, and some plates made of paper so that they would only need to throw them away, once they were used. Alan stared at the baskets and knelt down to careful get the food out of the basket and arrange it onto the blanket. They already had various options. If one would later look at the variety of food and dishes they would see hand pies with various flavors hidden inside, as well as some quiche, blueberry muffins and various cookies and pastries. Obviously this had been planned by kids, as the amount of sugar and carbs was immense in each of the food items. In a small bread basket they had homemade bread - already cut into hand-sized slices - that had been sent by Willow's mother and various dips in small containers. Be it guacamole, herbed butter or quark based dips all of it was there. In two more boxes one could find various options of cut cheese and grape skewers and in the other container that Alan found in the basket were various options of meats and sausages. Alan took of the lid of the dips, cheese and meats and placed them back in the basket. Staring at his work and the big amount of food, Alan was proud but he also doubted they would be able to eat it all.

Now Open for those who got an Invitation
@Flash Holmwood | @Ruka Tân | @Jake Morris | @Santario Martin | @Scott Alexander | @Aaron Jones | @Lydia Cooper | @Opeila Seilun | @Mildred Wilson

At this point in time, as Scott seemed only to grow taller by the minute, if an item of clothing seemed to fit perfectly: then it probably wasn't his. That's just the way things were, he told himself, as he pulled at his too-short pyjama pant leg a fourth time with his other foot, on his way out of the castle. Surely these had fit before he left for school? He had to pretend like they did, anyway, in order to avoid any more sighs from his mother regarding how often she had to buy new ones.

Besides, they were still comfortable. Shiny, royally blue, and ridiculous-looking, yes... but comfortable.

Though both style and sizes put aside: they were definitely not warm enough to be worn outside in April. To be sure, Scott had felt quite distrustful of that addition in the invitation. A pyjama party, he was on board with. He had even been to one his first year, and had a blast! And party by the lake? He also felt that sounded both fun and exciting... But combine the two? Scott supposed giving his party-throwing friend the benefit of the doubt was worth it, though not without sceptically wrapping a cloak around his shoulders before leaving his dorm room.

Making his way over the grounds, Scott could immediately see where his friend's birthday party was to take place. There'd namely been started a small fire right by the lake, and he could see it even from a great distance. Shuddering, Scott figured he'd have to let go of his mild fear of the element in order to conquer his much greater disdain for the cold.

As he got closer, Scott began to also see the silhouettes of the two kids of the hour. Scott had never met or spoken to this Willow with whom Alan apparently shared birthdays, but upon realising she was wearing what could only be described as a pink bunny costume Scott concluded that she was no more intimidating than her third-year friend.

"Happy birthday! Both of you!"

Scott waved and called out to them when he got close enough for the two to hear. They'd placed out blankets on the ground, four of them, in a kind of circle around the starting fire... Scott was happy to admit it all looked very impressive, but didn't try at all to hide how his pace was so clearly redirected towards the table with food once he spotted it.

"One's fourteen, and the other's... twelve? Both grand ages to be! The generations are coming together. Well. Not generations..." He proclaimed in passing, taking to stand next to Alan where he, very conveniently, was setting up the many different dishes... But to be polite Scott kept his back to the alluring table, and looked over to where the girl had been working on the fire before he arrived. She was a host, too, Scott reminded himself. And a hostess, even, which was even more important! How many times hadn't his mother told him about the correct ways of greeting the hostess? Sure, Scott was aware that Hogwarts didn't share many of the rules and norms that he had been taught over and over- but parts of it all stuck with him anyway. The innate need to appear as polite as possible.

He supposed that called for her to get her present first.

"Willow!" Scott exclaimed, beginning to rummage through the pockets of his robes quite clumsily as he walked closer to her. "I don't really know you, and you don't really know me, but... Well, Alan likes you. So that's a strong vote in your favour!" He laughed, and stalling for more time he added: "All I really know, though, is that you fly. That you like to fly." Before his fingers brushed against a box.

Pulling it out of his pocket and presenting it to her with a very small bow of the head, he laughed yet again. "Happy birthday, and thank you for the invite."

The box was small and made out of a shiny grey material. When she opened it, she'd find a broom compass in brass from Quality Quidditch Supplies. If it was one thing Scott didn't have any trouble at all coming across, then it was broom gadgets... If only Alan had any interest in such things, that would've made his second gift a lot more impressive:

Turning around (after politely smiling to Willow once more) Scott reached into his robe and threw a quite obvious bag of candy, fast, in Alan's direction. "Happy birthday. Catch."

No more words were needed between the two of them. He'd made himself deserving of those pies now.

Interacting with @Willow Anderson , @Alan Vanes , @Scott Alexander
Open to interactions

When Lydia had gotten the owl with the invite to Willow's and Alan's birthday party at the beginning of the week, she had smiled brightly for the first time in a while. She was really happy that they had decided to invite her and, even though she didn't know Alan that well, she still appreciated the gesture and was determined to find a present that he might have liked. She already knew what she was going to get for Willow from the start, and after asking around a little bit, she had found a good present for Alan as well. The only problem was that she would have needed to send an owl to her mother and ask her to send those gifts back at Hogwarts. Not really willing to risk the presents not arriving in time, she had reluctantly owned her mom, trying to pretend as if nothing had happened, and when the very same day of the party the gifts arrived, together with a letter from her mother, Lydia felt immediately less anxious as she put away the unopened letter into one of her pockets, not even bothering to read it.

In the afternoon,  once she was done with her homework, she created two birthday cards, one for Willow and one for Alan, and attached the to the gifts; when they would have opened them, Willow would have found a variety of charms (from letters to shapes and little words like "best friends" or "smile") and beads for her friendship bracelet making, together with some metallic and glittered embroidered floss, while Alan would find a photographic book about exotic animals around the world. After that, Lydia finished getting ready, wearing one of her favourite pyjamas, a white fluffy cardigan and a pair of black vans, and then made her way towards the Great Lake.

As she was making her way towards the party, the presents carefully placed inside two coloured bags, Lydia couldn't help but think about the last time that she had gone to the lake, when the whole mess in her head had started, and about how much nicer the weather was this time. She quickly shook her head, trying to out aside all the negative thoughts, and instead tried to think about how nice the pyjama party will be, and how fun they will all have.

When she finally reached the little campfire, she happily noticed that she wasn't late this time, and that aside from Willow and Alan, only another guest had arrived. "Willow, Alan, Happy Birthday!" she said cheerfully to them, her usual smile on her face. "Thank you so much for inviting me! These are for you," she then added and handed them their respective presents; she really hoped they would have liked them, she really had tried her best.

Lydia then walked around the little set up her friends had made, and she couldn't help but stare in awe at what they had done; it looked so cute and cozy, with all the blankets around the fire, and the food looked delicious. She took off her cardigan and carefully placed in on the blanket that was closer to the firewood and the lake, since she didn't feel that cold, before she made her way towards the other guy that had arrived before her. She had never met him before, but he looked friendly, so she didn't feel too anxious when she introduced herself. 

"Hi, I'm Lydia!" she said once she was close enough, her face lighted up by a warm smile.

Interacting with| @Willow Anderson | @Alan Vanes  | @Scott Alexander | @Lydia Cooper

Interaction with: @Alan Vanes @Willow Anderson
Mentioning: @Lark Flaer (permission to lightly god mod interaction)

Open to Interaction

Strawberry Chiffon Cake

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Willow's Gift:

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Alan's Gift:

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Flash's pyjamas:

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Flash's clothes underneath:

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Interacting with @Scott Alexander @Santario Martin @Lydia Cooper @Flash Holmwood @Alan Vanes

The fire was burning bright and warm when the first person arrived, and Willow was warming her hands up by it. Her head turned around as she heard a greeting in a voice unfamiliar to her, it must be someone Alan invited. She quickly stood up to greet him properly, as much as she wanted to stay by the warm fire. The boy absolutely towered over her. Why were all the boys so freakishly tall at this school? One of the only boys that were her height was Ruka, and she really hoped he would show even if the last time they had met she had been painfully awkward.

A bright smile lit across her face as Scott said she already had points in her favor due to Alan. They were quite a good pair, weren't they? She couldn't help but be a little surprised that the other boy had gotten her something. She really hadn't expected any gifts, as she never really had a birthday with others in the first place. She slowly opened it to reveal a broom compass and her heart was alighted. "I'm the first-string keeper for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, so I absolutely love flying. Thank you so much!" Normally she would hug people in a situation like this, but not knowing the skyscraper of a boy she figured she should hold off.

Before she could fully return to the fire she spotted another person approaching in the distance, one of her friends that she invited. She waved at the girl, as if making sure she knew that she was heading in the right direction. "Lydia! I'm so glad you could make it." This was definitely someone she felt comfortable pulling into a hug. She took her respective bad off of Lydia's hands and opened it up first looking at the card and smiling warmly at Lydia. There would be so many cards on display near her bed in Plant Palace and it filled her with joy. When she saw the friendship bracelet making materials she was filled with excitement. She had actually never had metallic or glitter floss so the new possibilities were endless. "Lydia, I absolutely love it! We'll have to make bracelets with this thread together at some point. It's absolutely gorgeous." She turned to watch Lydia walk and introduce herself to the skyscraper, she started to move to put the gifts she had received in the gift area when another person showed up. A hostess' job was never done, she supposed.

She didn't recognize the girl approaching, so she assumed it was someone that Alan had invited again. Her warm smile stayed firm upon her face, filled with too much joy to let it falter. Once Santario was done speaking she approached to officially introduce herself. "It's lovely to meet you Santario! I'm Willow. As far as the gifts they are going on the same blanket table area type thing as the food with Alan is!" She really needed to go put the stuff together, but once again another guest approached and she quickly recognize them as Flash. She ran to close the distance between them pulling him into a hug. Which was awkward considering how much stuff he was carrying.

Willow walked by his side to the food and present table, the urge to eat the cake now was almost to strong to ignore but she had to restrain herself. Flash had truly outdone himself. "Thank you Flash! The cake looks amazing, I knew you'd pick out the perfect one." She gratefully unloaded the broom compass and bag of friendship bracelet goodies onto Flash, they weren't heavy at all but it was nice to not have her hands full anymore. She watched as Alan unwrapped his gift from Flash, loving the aesthetic of the worn books wrapped in twine. Flash was incredibly thoughtful with his gifts, as thought that was not a surprise to her with the kind of person he was.

Delicately, she took the white wooden box out of Flash's hands. Her mouth dropped open when he said it was one-of-a-kind. He always knew the ways to make her feel incredibly special. A small gasp escaped her lips as her eyes landed on the beautiful, what she assumed to be, some type of hair thing. She didn't exactly know what it was but she could figure it out later. She took it out of the box and slid it as an accessory to one of her buns. The yellow flower just the right shade to still pop within her dirty blonde hair. "Flash, I love it. It's absolutely perfect, thank you." She pulled him into another hug, this one quick as she was growing hungry and wanted to grab one of the hand pies her mother had made. Willow grabbed Flash's hand and pulled him to the part of the table with all the pies. "Even though you'll be able to test these fresh this summer, you should definitely still try one now! They're mystery flavored. You have to guess!" She grabbed one from the savory pile, hoping that it would be something like the curry one that Alan had at their picnic.

interacts with @Willow Anderson, @Scott Alexander, @Lydia Cooper, @Santario Martin & @Flash Holmwood

Once the freshly turned fourteen Gryffindor was done with displaying the options of food, he stood back up and smiled. A glance at the crackers, dips and bread, cheese and meat options made him think about Flash and how the Slytherin had requested something that would not be too sweet. He was glad that Willow and him could arrange something and hoped it was something to the other boy's liking!

"Happy birthday! Both of you!"

The familiar voice made Alan snap out of his thoughts about the food and whether their guests would be happy with the variety and turned around to find the source of the voice. It could be no other than Scott and he turned out to be right! He was glad to see the Gryffindor here, not having seen him in a while. Well they shared a dorm, so of course they saw and have talked to each other, but it has been long for them to actually spend some time together without it just being brief and casual interactions. Scott was right, being fourteen felt oddly special. He already imagined how it would sound! Then again it might be idiotic to go around saying something like 'Hi, I'm Alan and I am fourteen!'. This memory brought him back to when he met George Henry in the pet store. The Hufflepuff had been quite proud about his age then and it still made Alan smile to remember how lofty the other boy had told him how old he was.

Alan watched as Scott went to greet Willow first and took the time to glance a last time at the arrangement of snacks to see whether the job he did was fine like this, but he soon found that he had nothing to complain about and hoped that the guests would be happy with those arrangements as well. It was by far not done in a special way, so arrangement was probably not even the correct word. He had not really taken into account to place the snacks that belonged together in close proximity to each other and instead had placed the items of food and the jugs of pumpkin juice wherever they had fit onto the blanket instead.

Without second thoughts the Gryffindor stepped away from the blanket, so that arriving guests would be able to see the different food choices in an instant. The fire had been started successfully and Alan could not help but be amazed by Willow once more, for starting a fire without the use of magic. Alan would instantly react, when Scott threw something into his direction, catching the bag of candy with ease as a big grin appeared on his face. "Th-Thanks! Glad y-you could m-make it!", he chirped in excitement, smiling at the boy who was dressed in fancy blue pajamas that seemed a couple of sizes too small. Then again the other lion grew so much taller since Alan last saw him and he could not help but envy his height a little. Shaking his head he watched Scott walk past him in order to get some treats from the food blanket.

It did not take a long time and a girl arrived that he vaguely remembered from the marzipan decoration errand. She had been talking with Willow a lot there, so he was not surprised to see her at the birthday. She was actually part of the reason he found out that Willow actually was a Quidditch player, because she had mentioned it while they were doing the errand. The girl soon spoke up, wishing them a happy birthday, which made Alan smile warmly back at her. Willow told her that she was glad that Lydia had been able to make it to the party and Alan nodded in agreement to that. "I-It's nice t-to see you again", he offered kindly, his eyes widening to see that she not only handed Willow a colorful little bag, but one for him as well. A smile hushed over his face, as he wondered what would be hidden inside the bag. He wanted to take a peek right away, but knew that this would have been impolite of him. Therefore he searched eye contact with the girl and thanked her for the present, before he pushed the opening of the bag apart as well as he could with only one hand and took out what was hidden inside of the bag.

Once he had been able to retrieve what had been concealed by the bag, his eyes widened. It was a book and his first instinct was to wonder and frown about its use, but it looked extremely colorful and on the cover there was a bird that caught his interest within the quarter of a second, making his chin drop as he stared at the bird in awe. It was a kind of bird he has never seen before and not really learned about before either. How was this possible? He knew all kinds of magical creatures! This bird was so full with colors. A huge beak, too big for it, making the rest of the body the bird had look weirdly small in comparison. The beak had a red tip that bled into different shades of yellow, green and even blues as it got closer to the birds head. But it would not stop there, the bird itself seemed surreal; mostly black except for its area around the eyes and the stomach which were also in shades greens, blues and yellow. Black beady eyes seemed to stare right back at him. Once Alan had been able to pull his attention away from the photograph of the bird and saw the title, his eyes widened. These were Muggle animals? Of course he knew that there were not only magical creatures out there, but he had never really thought that Muggles had animals who looked so magnificent! He wanted to flip through the pages right away, hoping to find many more photographs and eager to find out the name of the creature that graced the books cover, but forced himself to pull away his attention from it, stuffing the book back into the bag; out of sight, out of mind. At least for now.

As soon as he caught sight of Santario he felt the urge to go to her instantly. He had not been sure whether she would go, because she had been quite busy and distant ever since winter. He remembered her owl and pain squeezed his chest as he made his way over to greet his friend. She was holding a shiny red box, medium sized decorated with a golden ribbon. The Gryffindor colors made him smile as he finally got closer to her. She seemed tired and he wondered whether she got enough sleep lately. Was this the correct time to ask? Surely not, not in front of a bunch of students the girl probably did not know, but Alan would have to ask her about it. He did not want to miss such a detail again, like he had failed to do with Ruka who must have had troubles sleeping for weeks, if what Jack had said was the truth. Speaking of Ruka, he wondered whether the second year would make his arrival soon, hoping that he would because Alan wanted him there. After all Ruka was one of his friends, wasn't he?

"H-Hi San! Y-Yeah, you can j-just put it with the f-food!", he let her know, smiling warmly at her. He had no idea who that Aaron was, but he remembered that Willow had listed him as one of the students she wanted to invite. Alan was looking forward to meeting him, hoping that he might get along with the student as well. He wondered what Santario got him, but it smelled like something edible; fresh and sweet baked goods if the scent did not fool him. "Th-thank you so much f-for the presence a-and for coming h-here", he said, returning her smile and feeling simply happy. It was as if her arrival had lifted a heavy weight from his shoulders, making him glad that she cared enough to go to his birthday party. He had missed her, having enjoyed the conversations the two of them had shared in autumn. He wondered how she had been, ever since the winter holidays and wondered if maybe they could catch a second of their own to catch up, because the owl he had received during winter break had truly worried the third year. But for now he did not want to destroy the pleasant mood by addressing such a dark topic, just hoping that she was okay.

Another familiar face made an appearance, but before he could react in any way, he watched as Willow clumsily ran past him carrying the gifts she had gotten so far. One which appeared to be a broom compass that she had gotten from Scott, clearly an amazing gift for someone who liked to fly as much as Willow did. And something else that he had no idea about; he had been too enchanted by the photo book of exotic animals, to focus in any way on the gifts that Willow had gotten from Lydia.

Flash was wearing his pajama, but clearly was wearing normal clothes beneath. Alan assumed that he did it simply because it was way too cold to wear that kind of pajama without normal clothing beneath; at least outside in late winter. "Flash! Hi!", he greeted as he walked over to him, smile brightening. He was glad that Flash finally arrived. He had met Flash so many times during the previous month, befriending the Slytherin; it would have felt just odd, if he was not present at his and Willow's birthday and the Gryffindor wondered if it would have been enjoyable in the first place. He watched as Flash placed a delicious looking cake on the round table with the food, that had a blanket draped over it to fit the picnic aesthetic of their birthday party. A picnic campfire aesthetic maybe?

Alan gladly let him take the two presents he was carrying in his arms. The bag that hid the book of the exotic creatures and the bag of candy that Scott got for him. "Th-Thanks", he said happy that he had his hands free again. But before there was any more interaction, Flash handed him a bundle of three books that were bound together with twine. The covers of the books were quite uneventful and uni-colored in shades of teal, royal blue and a chocolate brown. He held the bundle of books in his hand, staring at them and blinking in confusion. Books... huh? He wondered wha Flash would get him books, but they did not appeared to be bought. They look old, as if they had been read many times. What would they be about, he wondered.

As if he was reading his thoughts, Flash began to explain his choice and Alan looked at Flash, curious about his reason. "M-Mystery novels?", he asked in confusion. What would they be about? Curiously he turned the stack of books in his hands to glance at what the spines of the books read. He did not know the author and the titles sounded unfamiliar as well. Swamp Wizard was the book that caught his sight the most, always glancing back at the title of the teal-colored cover of the book. It also seemed to be the first one in the stack. Weren't books supposed to be educational? What was all of this about? But something about the things he said caught his attention.

"Y-You brought th-them from home?", he asked curiously. It was probably the first time the Slytherin had mentioned his home to Alan, but that was not what he wanted to dwell on. It was the fact that Flash gave him books that he had brought from home to Hogwarts, books the other kid liked. He wondered whether he had brought more or if those were the only books he brought. Alan was also curious what kind of books the other kid liked, clearly they were mystery books since the other kid already revealed that to him, but he wondered what it was what the kid liked about these books specifically. He also said that he was sure that Alan would enjoy reading them, which made Alan even more curious. He did not like to read, but those seemed like books of a special kind, books made for.... the joy of reading he supposed?

Alan remembered the home library his parents had back at home and how it was filled with books which's main goal was to teach and lecture and transfer knowledge. He was sure those were the only kind of books he would be able to find there. Was that different for Flash? If Flash wanted him to read them he would, even though he was suspicious about actually doing so. "D-Do you n-need them back, when I a-am done reading?", he wondered. Those books seemed special to Flash, after all he had brought them all the way back from home to Hogwarts. Alan had actually no idea where the other student lived, he never bothered to ask, it just never came up to be a topic of one of their conversations. The only thing he knew about Flash's background is that he was raised being lectured in similar etiquette like Alan was and that both of their families had no troubles when it came to the question of money.

He watched as his focus shifted to Willow, to give her her present and he watched on in excitement as she revealed what he got for her. It made his eyes widen in awe yet again as he glanced at the delicate hair fork in Willow's hands. It was absolutely beautiful and seemed to be very well made. He had no idea how much work it must have took the artist to design and create this precious object, but he could already tell that it was perfect for Willow and that she would treasure it dearly. And he knew he was right as soon as Willow pulled the much taller Slytherin into another hug, making Alan grin amused at the sight in front of him.

He watched on as Willow introduced him to the food table and the mystery hand pies that could be found on them. He absolutely adored those and was glad that Willow had been able to convince her mother of making them again for their birthday. She watched as Willow grabbed one of the savory ones, whereas Alan reached out to grab one of the hand pies that were on the pile labeled with the word 'sweet' in elegant hand lettering. "Y-Yeah, you sh-should try them, Flash. Th-They are a-amazing!", he added, agreeing with Willow that he would definitely have to try them. He assumed that Flash would pick the savory version of the hand pies, since he did not like sweet foods as much, even requested there to be foods that were not sweet. Alan hoped they were to his tastes.

Alan took a bite of the hand pie he had picked from the plate, his mouth being filled with the tastes of citrus, honey and raspberry. He must have been quite lucky this time as all of the three flavors were quite an easy guess to make. He at least hoped he got all of them this time, but was quite sure. But he could not know whether Willow's mother hid another ingredient in the filling of the cake, like she had done last time by adding the curry into the filling that just reminded him of shepherds pie. Admittedly the shepherd pie flavor had an unknown twist, but he could have never guessed it to be curry spice! "I th-think mine is raspberry, h-honey and s-some kind of citrus fruit, b-but I can't tell wh-which one", he told Willow, before glancing back at his hand pie. It could be any kind of citrus fruit, really. He probably would not have been able the difference on whether it was orange, lemon or maybe even some complete different citrus fruit; were there more? He had no clue. "I th-think the r-results are st-still in the basket", he muttered thoughtfully, not remembering having taken them outside of the baskets. So he just gestured towards the basket in which the mystery pies had been in, which stood in closest reach of Willow.