25 Days Late PV, Owl to Add Closed

Somehow Eris had ended up with an invite to a birthday party for Rosie Parker. Somehow the two had become friends, after Anatole and Eris had found Rosie crying in the hallways. Eris hadn't been able to make Rosie feel better, but Anatole had. Either way, Rosie had seemed to think it was kind of Eris to talk to her. She had then talked to Eris in the hallways, and for some reason the two had become friends.

Rosie was the sweetest girl Eris had ever met in her short life. She was the opposite of Eris, and most of the people in the school. Sweet and kind, but never weak. There was a special power in kindness, and Eris wished she was able to be kind like that. But that was a hufflepuff only trait, and Rosie seemed to be one of the biggest hufflepuffs ever.

Eris had stopped having birthday parties after she turned 9. It had been a disaster, involving a burning cake and a screaming father. The two years after that, Eris's mum had been too busy with other things to do anything. Screaming, crying, wailing about her long lost family and their untold evils. Then before Eris could turn 11, she got kicked out. So that birthday was spent alone.

But Eris wasn't going to let her own horrible experiences ruin a party for Rosie, who deserved all the happiness in the word. Eris hadn't been able to buy anything, being, you now, stuck at the castle. She didn't dare sneak out, not wanting to get busted by any of the professors. She was already fired from being a prefect, and feared any future repercussions for rule breaking. With friends she would rule break, but alone, she was too scared. Talk about being a lousy gryffindor.

Not being able to find anything to give the girl, Eris had asked for the help of one of the older children, and crafted a makeshift necklace. It had taken about two minutes for the seventh year to make it, but it had taken Eris hours to find wrapping paper. In the end there was none, and she had wrapped her gift in parchment paper, with the words "to rosie" written on them, in messy handwriting.

Eris had showed up early to the Astronomy Tower, present in hand. She waved at Anatole, grateful he had somehow invited her. Eris didn't know Anatole very well, but she really liked him. He was, like the rest of the Gryfffindor boys, full of anger issues. But that wasn't entirely weird. He also seemed to have a thing for princesses, from the letter Eris had stolen. She thought that was cool, and someday wanted to play castle with him. Although, it was likely he would never agree. They were 11 now, and had to be mature.

And Rosie was 12! That was crazy. Anatole was setting up tables, and happily, Eris set down her gift on one of them. Smiling broadly, Eris gestured to Anatole. "Hey Anatole, thanks for the invite!"

In all honesty, Rosie found it weird. Anatole had come up to her in the corridors and excitedly told her to meet him in the Astronomy tower. But.. Why? Was he planning some sort of betrayal where he pushes her off the tower for some sort of superiority? Or a confession of... Cooties? Rosie shuddered at the thought. Love was so complicated and gross, she could feel her stomach churn every time she saw her parents kiss. It was so odd, but sometimes romance stories would make her wish she had that, even at such a young age.

But not with Anatole. Pfft. That was weird.

Anyway, she made her way up the tower slowly, a little suspicious that it was so quiet. Anatole seemed excited, so it couldn't be that bad, right? She trusted him with her life. As Rosie finally made her way up the stairs, she saw Anatole, then Eris, then a table, and space made. At first, she was confused. But then her eyes widened as she pieced everything together.

April 2nd. Rosie's birthday. And this was her party.

Rosie was silent for a good minute, utterly shocked. Why? She had barely even mentioned her birthday. Anatole did all of this? For her? Even Eris came! She felt the corners of her mouth turn up into a smile, and she was so surprised and happy that her eyes started watering. "Holy.." She muttered. Rosie's head slightly turned to Anatole, who was still preparing everything, then to Eris, who stood and was talking to him. Rosie didn't even know how to react. Nobody had done this for her before.

They cared that much?

Rosie opened and closed her mouth a few times before croaking out a tiny whimper, wiping her eyes quickly. "Anatole this is.." She mumbled, looking around the tower. "Wow."

This was supposed to be a stress-free moment, a time to relax and just take a load off. It was...well, twenty-five days after his best friend's birthday, why not enjoy it? It seemed easy enough...

With little warning, a knock came on the door. Anatole jumped, almost dropping the shred of paper he had in his hand. He didn't expect someone to arrive so soon. "Hey Anatole, thanks for the invite!"

The redhead bounded into the room, adding a bit more contrast to a blue-skied day. She was surprisingly happy about the invitation, considering Anatole hadn't seen her much since the corridor incident. Maybe today would be the day he asked about those "cooties". "Agh! Hey there, Eris! Happy you could make it!" It wasn't like she had anything else to do today, did she? "Mind helping me a bit? I've got just a few more sheets of paper to hang..." He threw his scarf over his shoulder, eyeing his cloak warily. "She'll be here before you know it!"

With another knock, Anatole tripped, falling off the table. The door opened to his best friend's dark hair and surprised expression. "Holy...Anatole...this is...wow."

His flustered eyes looked back up at her, his hair disheveled and his mouth letting out a loose laugh. "Happy late birthday?"

A small shriek almost escaped Rhea's lips when she realized what time it was. She jumped up and ran as fast as she could back to her dorm room. How could she have lost track of time so much?! There was no way the party hadn't started already; she hoped Anatole wouldn't be too angry she was this late. Then again, she would be only a few minutes late... A few minutes late seemed like an eternity to the young redhead, who had grown used to being as punctual as possible. 

The party she was going to had come as quite a surprise to Rhea. She didn't really know how she had gotten invited in the first place - the details had skipped her mind, but all she knew was that a few of her friends - acquaintances? - were going to be there. Eris was going to be there, that was for sure. 

Rhea had briefly met Rosie at the dancing classes that had been hosted, where the Hufflepuff girl had claimed to know how to dance. That in itself had boosted Rhea's impression of the brunette, and it played a part in Rhea's deciding to come to this little gathering that was hosted by Anatole. She'd met the fellow Gryffindor during the dancing lessons as well, but had gotten to know them better during their production of Sergei and the Beast. Rhea was excited to attend this party, and wanted to make sure her gift was perfect for the occasion. Rosie, the Hufflepuff girl, seemed like a sweet enough girl. That much Rhea had found out during their brief introduction to each other. The world sure did need more people like Rosie...

Rushing as fast as she could to the dresser next to her desk, Rhea brushed all the unneeded papers to the side and picked out the sheets of parchment she was looking for. Thanking the gods that she had already prepared Rosie's gift, Rhea simply had to tape all the pieces of parchment together and run out to the Astronomy Tower. She didn't know if any of them would get in trouble, but figured that she could just say that she, as a prefect, allowed them to come out here. Besides, it was a girl's birthday party. They would understand, right?

Making her way up to the Astronomy Tower, Rhea entered with a small flourish, breathless. She saw Anatole, Eris, and... Rosie. Bloody hell, was Rhea really that late? She walked up to the table that had been set up and put her gift on the table, all the while apologizing for being late.

"Bloody hell, I'm so sorry I was late, I lost track of time..." Rhea explained, then hugged Rosie. "Happy Birthday!"

Noise was tuned out for a moment while Rosie put everything together. It all made sense. She rubbed her eyes and slapped her cheeks back into reality. There was a party. There were tables. Her eyes fell on Anatole when he said something.

The boy was nervous and seemed a bit flustered. He must have been tumbling around before she got there. "Happy late birthday?" He croaked out, smiling nervously.

Rosie was in a state of shock again before she finally snapped out of it and broke into a grin. She giggled and ran to Anatole, helping him stand up and checking if he was okay before throwing her arms around him, a giggle slipping past her lips. "Wow.." Rosie whispered, pulling back and letting go of Anatole again, looking around the room. "This is so cool, Anatole!" She spotted Eris and waved to her. "Hi Eris!" Rosie called, smiling. Her cheeks had flushed red and her hair fell into her face as she walked around the room.

Rosie let out a squeak when she felt new arms wrapped around her. She turned and was faced with Rhea.

"Bloody hell, I'm so sorry I was late, I lost track of time... Happy Birthday!" The red head groaned, hugging Rosie lightly.

Rosie giggled and hugged her back, pulling back after a moment and looking back towards her best friend. "I didn't think you remembered, or even knew.." She muttered. "You didn't need to stress yourself out for me." Rosie motioned to Anatole's nervous stance and fidgeting.

If anyone were to ask how Max had found out about the party, he would enigmatically respond with 'I have my ways.' It would intimate that he had some sort of vast secret underground network he was being fed information from, and people would think twice about messing with him. An arrogant pure-blood who somehow knew all the goings on in the school would also catch the interest of people he wanted to know - people who wanted in on the network for their own nefarious purposes. And it sounded really freaking cool.

But, truthfully, he'd found a sheet of paper on the floor in the boy's dorm. It was blank but there were clear indents from where something had been written, so in his excitement that he might've found a secret code, he'd found a pencil to lightly scribble over it to see what had been written. Not something nearly as amazing a secret code, unfortunately. It was an invitation to some birthday party in the Astronomy Tower that he'd almost crumpled up and threw away because he didn't care. Until he caught the name of the person it was being hosted for - it was none other than the infamous Rosie Parker, silly little Hufflepuff girl that kept getting under his skin.

Like everything seemed to be nowadays, it became a large debate in his head over whether or not to go. He didn't want to be seen anywhere near the party unless he was going to crash it, yet he also couldn't help the nagging voice in his head that told him he should be guilty. He'd threatened one of her friends instead of her, done what his father had taught him. He should be proud. He shouldn't feel like he owed her an apology that he couldn't give. It made no sense for who he was supposed to be as a person, and if he didn't get rid of this feeling soon then it might start surfacing on his exterior. He couldn't have that.

The one best, sure-fire way to stop feeling guilt was to make it up to someone. He wasn't dumb enough to think he could make it up to her with a simple apology, nor would he want to. No, his way of doing something to make himself feel less guilty (because this was all about his own selfish reasons, he didn't care about anything other than getting rid of this) would be the simplest thing possible. A birthday gift. The more sickly sweet the better.

It took a few owls to people and a lot of lying to get it, however he was satisfied when the end result was carefully deposited on his table by a light-flying owl. He put it in his trunk and forgot about it until the day of the party, during which time he spent the afternoon painstakingly wrapping it in old copies of the GryffPost. Tucking it under his arm, he marched to the Astronomy Tower with a confidence he certainly didn't feel.

There were already voices coming from the Tower when he arrived, and he stopped a few steps from the top with a feeling almost like panic in his chest. No one could know. His hands tightened on the present and, after a moment, he decided to set it down on the top step as quietly as he could. Hopefully no one would kick it over and break it by accident, though since he'd already done his part by getting it, he shouldn't worry. Tucking his hands in his pockets and rocking on his feet with one final glance at the door, he turned on his heel to proceed back down to where he'd come from. Maybe an anonymous blown-glass badger with flecks of gold wouldn't do much for her, but for him it helped a little.