No more Birthdays, Please! Solo Finished

Ruka didn't usually receive owls.

Since he didn't have anybody left in the Muggle World and didn't really have friends who would send him letters at school either, he usually barely even looked up when the owls brought mail to their owners at the breakfast table.

This time, however, what he thought to be a school owl had landed right by his pumpkin juice filled goblet, a white envelope attached to its leg which it stretched out while curiously pecking at the plate of bacon Ruka had prepared himself upon arrival in the Great Hall.

Bacon had been the only thing he'd really felt like eating that morning, but after watching the owl devouring a large piece of it in one swallow he was probably just going to go for some scrambled eggs after all. 

After having untied the envelope from the owl's leg, the large feathered animal seemed to make a point of putting its beak right into his pumpkin juice before finally taking its leave. Despite it being a Saturday which Ruka had been determined to spend taking care of himself and getting some homework done, he had to admit that the arrival of this letter had already ruined his breakfast.

It may have been petty, but after that he hadn't exactly felt like he wanted to open the cursed envelope anymore. What if it contained more animals ready to eat his food and leave feathers in his drink? Some kind of prank maybe, like the one he and Jack had tried to pull on Flash and Slug Boy? No, he wasn't going to risk his day getting even worse because of a lousy little envelope, so for the rest of the day he just carried it around in the pocket of his cloak, trying his best to keep his mind off of it.

It wasn't until the late afternoon, when he'd decided to visit the squid and take a little walk by the lake, that he was reminded of the letter still resting in his pocket, so as he trudged across the Grounds with no particular goal in mind, he reached for the envelope, carefully pulling it out and lifting it up to inspect it a little more closely. 

The envelope was white all over, nothing special or suspicious about it, and in the middle of the front was his name written in delicate, black lettering, a handwriting he couldn't recognise. 

Deciding that there was no point in procrastinating opening this letter anymore - the day was basically almost over anyway - he finally used his left pinky finger to tear the top of the envelope open. 
Inside there didn't seem to be much, only a single sheet of paper, not even folded in the middle.

Sighing to himself, Ruka pulled the card out of its paper prison, eyes closed for a moment just in case this was some kind of prank and the card would be spraying him with some kind of smelly fluids in a second.

The spray attack never came, so Ruka dared to open his eyes again, lips parting as he took one look at this mess.

Ruka hadn't actually needed the words "Birthday Invitation" on the card to recognise what it was supposed to be; The balloons and drawing of a present and a cake were really enough indication. There was a bonfire and marshmallows, and random little flowers all over the card. Half of everything was coloured in a painful shade of pink that made Ruka cringe at the sight of it. 

On the top left was a relatively well drawn and easy to recognise lion next to the balloon with the number 14 inside it, while next to the yellow ballon with the 12 insider there was something that was supposed to be a badger, apparently, but really more resembled a naked mole rat instead.

Underneath the drawing of the cake were the names of the culprits of this absolute disaster and Ruka groaned inwardly.

Alan and Willow.

For a second he wanted to stuff the card back into its envelope - where it really should have just stayed from the start - and pretend like he had never gotten it, but the more sensitive part of him sighed in defeat. He wasn't exactly close with Willow, but at least she didn't seem to be wanting to punch her anymore, and Alan was... Well, Alan. 
The other Gryffindor boy had really tried to be good company to Ruka, even tried to to make him eat sometimes during the time Jack had been avoiding him, and Ruka really didn't want to be the person to ignore a birthday invite from someone who had put so much effort into trying to be a good friend.

After all, he had gone to Opeila's birthday - however messy that had turned out to be - when his relationship to the Slytherin girl was much less close than the one he had to Alan. 

"Fine," he muttered to himself as he slid the card back into the envelope and stored it safely in the pocket of his cloak once more. 

People really needed to stop inviting him to birthdays; He had no money for presents and absolutely no talent for arts and crafts so what exactly was he supposed to give either Alan or Willow? He didn't even know much about either of them!

With a slightly frustrated sigh he turned back towards the castle.

Going for an afternoon walk would be postponed for another day.

Now he was going to have to brainstorm birthday present ideas so he had at least something to bring.