Flowers Galore
When Lyall got back from work that day, he and Remus stood outside the cottage with their wands.
Blue streams of light came flying out of Lyall’s wand, and gold out of Remus’.
They were forming a bubble of light around the cottage which was like a sort of cage of blue and gold strings of light twisted together, Remus and Lyall’s magic bonding together protecting the house.
Beth stood by the door to the house in her dressing gown watching in fascination as the cage grew around the house.
“Ok sweetheart,” said Remus putting his wand back away as they finished.
“Get to bed.”
“But!”
“No we had a deal Cariad,” said Lyall, “you could stay up until we had put up the wards, but then you have to go to bed, you’ve got a big day tomorrow.”
“But I’m not tired!” moaned Beth.
“Girls of nearly thirteen need to get their sleep sweetheart,” chuckled Remus.
“Oh alright fine,” muttered Beth trudging up to bed.
Remus shook his head slightly as Beth headed up to bed.
Remus went up to her room fifteen minutes later and made sure she was actually asleep.
“Gwen,” said Remus softly, “don’t let her out until tomorrow morning ok?”
“Meow!” said Guinevere nodding.
“Ok,” said Remus, “she’s asleep.”
“Time to turn this house into a thirteen-year old’s dream,” said Lyall.
“What time have we got until?”
“The kids get here at a quarter to six,” said Remus, “which gives us eight hours.”
“Time to divide and conquer,” nodded Lyall.
“Dobby, you go get started on the cake,” said Lyall, “do we want to start wrapping or flowers first?”
“Wrapping,” nodded Remus.
Remus and Lyall sat down in the sitting room with several rolls of pastel coloured wrapping paper and tissue paper, and then wrapped several dozen presents.
Lyall then went through to the kitchen with Dobby to get started on the party food, mini pizzas, mini hamburgers, finger sandwiches, crudites.
Although Dobby had already made a cake, Beth had a very sweet tooth, so they didn’t stop there. There were at least five cartons of never melt ice cream from Florian and Fortescue’s, huge bowls of muggle sweets, homemade shortbread biscuits and chocolate chip cookies.
Remus meanwhile started to tackle the flowers. He went outside with a lantern and picked at least a dozen large baskets full of wildflowers, sweetpeas, buttercups, daffodils and snowdrops.
He started off by making a flower crown for Beth’s hair, it was kind of a tradition for Beth to have a wildflower birthday crown. The crown was made out of yellow flowers which was Beth’s favourite colour and went wonderfully with her hair.
Then he strung together the rest of the flowers and hung them around the room and in the garden.
The most difficult job was trying to hang flower garlands over her bedroom door without waking her up.
As she was sleeping there was a steady stream of presents and cards arriving from the rest of Beth’s friends and family up and down the country including Beth’s Hogwarts letter.
At half past five, then the Macmillan’s arrived with Justin, Ernie and Hermione.
“Sorry if we’re a bit early Remus,” said Mrs Macmillan, “but I had to collect Hermione and Justin, but I still need to be back home for if Tim needs me.”
“It’s alright Tricia,” chuckled Remus as the three children came in and put their presents with the others.
“I come back for them at ten, o’clock right?”
“Yes,” nodded Lyall.
Not long after that Neville arrived with Zach, and then Artie and Hannah, and finally Susan.
“Why are there so many flowers?” asked Zach sneering slightly at the flower garlands hung throughout the sitting room.
“Because it’s a thirteen-year-old girl’s birthday party Smith,” said Justin.
“Ok,” whispered Lyall, “you lot hide, Remus, you go wake up Beth.”
Remus nodded and headed upstairs.
“Good morning Beth,” said Remus gently sitting down on her bed.
“It’s too early,” she grumbled pulling her duvet on further over her head.
“I guess your birthday breakfast will just have to wait then won’t it,” shrugged Remus.
“Oh Merlin!” she exclaimed, “it’s my birthday!”
She leaped out of bed and pulled on an oversized jumper over her pyjamas.
The jumper was the one that James had given Remus back when they were in school together. It still smelt of chocolate from Remus and tobacco from Sirius’s cigarettes.
She skipped downstairs and into the kitchen, but the lights weren’t on and it was empty.
Beth looked slightly confused but wandered through to the sitting room.
“Grandpa!” she called.
“Dobby?”
She turned the light on and took a deep breath in awe.
The room was full of wildflower garlands strung throughout the room.
“Happy Birthday!” screamed all her friends jumping out from hiding behind sofa’s or doors.
“What are all you guys doing here?” she stammered.
“And at six o’clock in the morning!”
“Oh, I don’t know,” muttered Zach, “maybe it’s because we’re your best friends?”
“Happy birthday Cariad,” said Lyall putting the flower crown in her hair, “every birthday princess needs a birthday crown!”
“Thanks Grandpa,” said Beth giving him a hug.
“The question is though do you kids want breakfast or presents first?”
“It’s six o’clock in the morning,” said Neville, “we need food!”
“Fair point Nev,” said Remus chuckling slightly.
Remus, Lyall and Dobby carried in plates loaded with pancakes which were swimming in maple syrup.
After they had all eaten their pancakes, then they cleared away the plates.
“Ok maybe we should do this one first,” said Remus passing her a parcel which also had her Hogwarts letter on top.
She opened her letter and saw that she needed, A Monster Book of Monsters, Numerology and Grammatica, and the Standard Book of Spell’s Grade Three.
There was a second piece of parchment under this which had her Hogsmeade permission form.
Remus looked at Lyall slightly nervously as she looked at the permission form.
“I’m afraid I’ve got some news for you Beth,” said Remus biting his lip slightly, “do you want the good or the bad first?”
“Well I presume that one of the things is that you’re not going to sign this form?” asked Beth.
“I’m afraid so, it’s safer for you to be in school.”
“Sirius?” asked Beth.
Remus nodded.
“There is good news though,” said Lyall, “your new defence teacher is in this very room.”
“What?” said Neville.
“That is so cool Mr Lupin!” exclaimed Hannah.
“No, it’s Remus not me,” chuckled Lyall.
“It’s part of Dumbledore’s new security measures,” said Remus, “that way I can make sure Beth is safe at school.”
“There’s also the fact that you’ll be a ten times better teacher than that buffoon Lockhart,” chortled Justin.
“Well done Remus,” said Beth giving him a hug, “you’ll be great!”
Beth started to take the card off the parcel that had come with the Hogwarts letter.
There was a card with a cat that looked like Guinevere on the front
“Dear Beth, Happy Birthday, Hagrid.”
She opened the parcel and her hand was nearly bit off as a book jumped out and started rampaging around the room.
“Jesus Fucking Christ!” exclaimed Ernie, as it snapped at his feet.
“What the hell is that thing!” shouted Artie.
Remus sprung on the book and tried to rugby tackle it.
“The Monster Book of Monsters,” he grunted as he struggled to get it under control.
Guinevere walked over to him and stroked the book curiously.
The book stopped struggling and fell open.
“Clever girl Gwen,” said Remus stroking her between the ears.
“You’re supposed to stroke them?” asked Zach as he passed Beth the book.
“But it’s a monster!” stammered Hannah, “it’s in the name.”
“You’re not supposed to stroke monsters,” muttered Neville.
“Please remember who sent me this book,” said Beth.
“Fair point,” nodded Ernie.
“Ok,” said Lyall passing her a large box, “this one next.”
“Woah, this is heavy,” grunted Beth as she was passed the box.
“It’s from the Weasley’s,” said Remus, “it took ten owls to deliver it!”
She took the brown paper off the top of the box and opened the box.
“Dear Beth, Happy Birthday! Sorry we can’t be there to celebrate with you today, hope you have a wonderful day, The Weasleys.”
There was about five or six cards throughout the box from all her friends and presents from everyone.
On top of the box was a light blue hand knitted jumper with a navy B.
Beth beamed slightly as she put the jumper to the side.
Fred and George had sent her a sneakoscope, to ‘warn her when You Know Who was going to attack again.’
She knew they meant that as a joke, but it could actually be quite useful.
Ron had sent her a book on Egyptian snakes, because she was a parslemouth.
Ginny had made Beth a friendship bracelet in black and yellow for their house colours.
The reason the box was so heavy was because of Percy’s present.
He had sent her a set of dictionaries on History of Magic that he had bought her in a secondhand book shop. There were five huge books.
“These are amazing!” exclaimed Beth as she flicked through the books, “it’s got all the dates for every single event in magical history. And this is just the first book!”
The others had all the notable people from magical people alphabetically.
“You’re weird you know that?” asked Zach.
“I’m not weird, I’m passionate,” Beth pointed out, “and our new Head Boy is encouraging me.”
Zach and Hannah choked slightly.
“They’ve made that pompous ministry loving idiot Head Boy?” stammered Artie.
“Firstly, Percy has seen the light when it comes to the ministry,” said Beth, “and secondly, yes they have, and I think he’s going to do a wonderful job.”
“Fair enough,” chuckled Justin.
“Right who’s going next?”
“Me!” shouted Hannah throwing her fist in the hair.
“Ok Hannah, knock yourself out,” chuckled Lyall.
Hannah beamed as she passed Beth a present.
“My Mum says a thirteen-year-old should have perfume,” said Hannah, “and I know you love wildflowers, so it we picked one that smelt of daisies.”
“Thanks Hannah,” beamed Beth as she sniffed the perfume.
Ernie, Artie and Justin had gotten Beth the largest collection of muggle sweets Beth had ever seen, the box was almost as big as the one from the Weasley’s.
Zach and Neville had been very busy and passed her a large book.
On the first page were a dozen or so pictures of Beth with her parents from when she was a baby, some of the photos included Neville and his parents as well.
“Gran found loads of old photos and we thought you’d like them,” said Neville.
The rest of the photos were of Beth and her friends over the last two years, there was even a picture of Beth and Susan jumping up and down a few months ago when Susan had gotten out of the Hospital Wing.
There was several empty pages at the back waiting to be filled.
“Thanks guys,” said Beth, “it’s perfect.”
Hermione then gave her a book on medieval witch hunts in France that she had just picked up on holiday for her.
Then it was Susan’s turn.
“You probably know what’s in the top one,” chuckled Susan as she passed her two parcels.
The top parcel contained two small books with Beth’s illustrated history notes.
“Thanks Sus,” beamed Beth.
She then opened the next parcel which felt like a book.
“You do not know how difficult this was to do behind your back,” said Susan laughing.
Beth looked slightly confused as she opened the parcel but then she saw the cover.
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Beth Potter
Susan bit her lip slightly as Beth carefully opened the book to the title page and saw an illustration of Beth March playing with a family of kittens.
She flicked through the rest of the book and saw that all the illustrations she had drawn were spread throughout the book.
“How did you do this?” muttered Beth.
“Well,” said Susan, “you gave me a copy of Little Women for Christmas, so I already had the book.”
“As for the drawings,” said Susan giggling slightly, “I got Remus to copy them for me when you were asleep one time.”
“Susan” said Beth pulling her in for a hug, “you are the best girlfriend in the world!”
“I thought I was the best girlfriend in the world,” said Hannah looking over at Neville.
“Everyone in this world has a different perfect girlfriend or boyfriend,” explained Remus, “you just have to find them.”
“Dobby has a gift!” said Dobby proudly.
Dobby passed her a badly wrapped present which contained two socks, one was yellow with black badgers and the other was light blue with pink flowers.
“Dobby bought the wool with his wages, he made them himself.”
“They’re wonderful Dobby,” beamed Beth, “thank you.”
Beth pulled on the socks and admired them.
“Ok!” said Lyall, “me next!”
“This,” said Lyall passing her the biggest box from under the tree, “was in the Potter Vault of all places, and we were thinking they’d burned in the fire.”
“What the hell is in here?” asked Beth looking at the box nearly the same size as her.
“Open these first,” said Lyall passing her another box.
“It’s heavy,” she chuckled.
“It’s also fragile,” said Lyall, “so please so careful.”
Beth pulled the paper off and found a leather box, when she lifted of the lid, she found an old record player.
“Lily loved music,” said Remus smiling, “it was the thing she used to miss most when she was at school. So your grandparents gave her a portable record player when she was thirteen, it doesn’t need electricity, they bought it in Diagon Alley.”
“Wow,” said Beth lifting the needle and looking at the old record player.
“And this,” said Lyall indicating the larger box, “is your parents record collection.”
She went through the box and found nearly a hundred records, there was The Beatles, ABBA, some of the earlier Queen albums, The Seekers, Roy Orbison, Cliff Richard, Elvis Presley, Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons, The Beachboys, and goodness knows what else.
“I think there’s some of your grandparents’ old records in there too, there might even be some Vera Lyn if you dig deep enough.”
“Quick question?” asked Beth as she looked at a collection of four or five albums, “who are Monty Python?”
“I was waiting for that question!” beamed Lyall, “Monty Python are a comedy group, Hope Remus and I used to watch them every week, and Remus took those albums with him to school, James used to love them.”
“Can we listen to them?” asked Neville.
“We can do better than that,” said Remus laughing, “we can watch them.”
Remus passed her another large box as Susan carefully put the records back away.
There was a box with just under a dozen video tapes
“The Life of Brian,” said Beth reading the titles, “and The Quest for The Holy Grail.”
“Those are the films,” explained Remus, “probably best to watch those first.”
“Monty Python’s Flying Circus?” said Ernie in a tone of utter confusion.
“No,” said Lyall shaking his head, “you’re saying it wrong!”
“It’s,” said Remus holding his breath and looking to Lyall.
“Monty Pythons Flying Circus!” said Lyall triumphantly.
“If these guys are so important to you two, and Dad used to like them, why am I only just being informed of their existence?”
“You were too young before,” said Remus.
“Far too young!” agreed Lyall.
“But now you’re thirteen you’re more than old enough.”
“Can we watch some?” asked Artie looking at one of the boxes.
“Of course,” beamed Remus, “but theres still a few more parcels to open.”
Remus gave Beth the usual books, this year the sequel to Little Women which was a two part book called Jo’s Boys and Little Men, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and A Tale of Two Cities.
“The Dickens is a bit long, but I think you’ll like it, give you a nice challenge.”
Remus passed her the last present which was a small box.
She opened it and found a silver charm bracelet with three small flower charms.
“We all know you like flowers,” said Remus as he did up the bracelet around her wrist, “but these flowers are very significant.”
“This one,” he said pointing towards a small blue charm, “is a Lupin, because of you being part of our family.”
“This one,” said Remus pointing towards a deep purple flower, “is aconite or wolfsbane.”
“I don’t need to explain that one,” he chuckled.
“And this last one is Delphinium,” the charm had a white flower.
“It’s your birth flower,” he explained, “and because its white it means you’re a happy person.”
Beth looked at the three intricate charms on the bracelet.
“It’s perfect!” said Beth giving him a hug, “thanks!”
“Ok,” said Lyall as he cleared away the wrapping paper, “Monty Python!”
The kids all settled themselves onto the sofas, Susan and Beth snuggled together in a large armchair and Lyall set up The Holy Grail.
“Why are they using coconuts?” asked Beth.
“Because they couldn’t afford horses,” chuckled Lyall.
“Why do all the castles look the same?” asked Ernie halfway into the film.
“It’s the same castle,” laughed Remus, “they only got permission to use the one, so they just kept reusing it.”
Then they watched Life of Brian.
Once they had finished that it was one o’clock in the afternoon, and Remus, Lyall and Dobby brought through all the food and paper plates and put the food on a big table in the middle of the sitting room.
“So what do you guys want to watch next?” asked Remus as they helped themselves to food.
“Are you guys Pythoned out, or do you want to watch some Flying Circus?” asked Lyall.
“Not that they aren’t brilliant,” said Justin, “but they are a bit intense.”
“I love them,” said Beth, “but I really want to watch some musicals, maybe even some Disney!”
“How about Grease,” said Remus pulling out the tape, “its got really good music.”
They ended up watching Grease, followed by The Lion King.
“You guys ready for dinner?” asked Remus beaming.
“How much sugar is that!” stammered Zach as they brought out the cake, biscuits, ice cream and other assorted sweets.
“There is no such thing as too much sugar!” said Remus and Beth simultaneously.
“Yest more proof, that Lily and James made the perfect choice when picking your godfather,” chuckled Remus.
Beth nodded as she filled her bowl with cake, salted caramel ice cream, and chocolate chip cookies.
“I think we’ve got time left for two more films,” said Lyall looking at his watch, it was already six o’clock.
“Could we watch West Side Story,” asked Beth.
It was one of the longest films she had, and she had been wanting to watch it for ages.
“Do you think you can cope?” asked Remus getting out the tape.
“Why couldn’t we cope?” asked Zach.
“It’s just a musical version of Romeo and Juliet,” shrugged Justin, “we can cope.”
“Ok,” said Remus putting the tape in.
Beth snuggled back into the armchair with Susan with a huge bowl of sweets.
They all settled cheerfully in front of the television, but by the end of the film three hours later over half of them were in tears.
“Oh my god,” sobbed Hannah as Neville put his arm around her, “that is the saddest thing I’ve ever seen!”
Beth was sobbing into Susan completely ignoring the sweets.
“Never leave me like Sus,” cried Beth, “I couldn’t go on without you.”
Not long after that, the parents started to arrive to take the kids home.
“Bed Cariad,” said Lyall picking her up gently and carrying her upstairs.
Lyall tucked her into bed carefully and kissed her on the head.
“Goodnight little one,” whispered Remus before going to bed himself.