Being Different

Anne woke up early as usual. She checked her clock and it said it was only five o’clock. Another year has gone she thought as she brushed the sleep out of her eyes. She was surprised that her brother hadn’t come in to wake her up yet. Albeit it was early, but Harry was usually bouncing up and down on her bed to wake her up by now on her birthday.

Anne heard movement in the corridor, she opened the door and found her brother who was wide awake and was coming to try and wake her up. “I’m already awake Harry!” she whispered so as not to wake up Uncle Remus or Uncle Sirius.

Harry came rushing into Anne’s room. “Happy Birthday Sis!” Harry said when he got into Anne’s room.

Harry and Anne were having to wait till their party later to open most of their presents, but they always exchanged presents which each other first thing in the morning and then talked to Sirius and Remus woke up. It was a birthday tradition they had started when they were six.

Anne had got Harry a copy of the first Swallows and Amazons book. She knew Percy had enjoyed it when he was younger, and she thought Harry might like it because it was an adventure book. As she knew that Harry was not the biggest fan of books, she also gave him several large Honeydukes chocolate bars in his favorite flavor salted caramel.

Harry had decided to get Anne a book. But which one? She already had so many, he wanted to make sure it was something she would enjoy but that she didn’t already have. He talked about this with Remus and Remus told him that a large number of spells were derived from Latin, maybe he could Anne a Latin book? Harry handed Anne her present, she unwrapped it and found two books Reading Latin Text and Vocabulary and also Reading Latin Grammar and Exercises.

“Oh, Harry! Thank you!” she said gasped as she started flicking through her new textbooks. Of course! Thought Harry, how had it not occurred to him before that the perfect present to get his sister was a textbook!

“Oh look! There’s a section in the back for conversational Latin! How wonderful!” said Anne as she looked at the back “Gratias Tibi ago!”

“what?” asked Harry confused.

“It means thank you Harry!” she laughed.

“oh, well you’re welcome” Harry blushed, he was glad he had made his sister so happy!

At just gone six o’clock Sirius poked his head around the door “And a very Happy Birthday to my favorite twins!” he greeted beaming, “well come on you two your birthday breakfast is one the table!”

Harry and Anne scrambled off the bed where they had been reading their new books. Sirius and Harry raced each other downstairs whilst Anne followed them at a more dignified pace.

Remus was busy making pancakes at the stove. “Salue Remus!” Anne called.

“Salue Anne, quid agis?” Remus replied.

“Bonum!” she answered.

“Moony?” Sirius looked at his friend in confusion. “What in Merlin’s name is going on?”

“Anne is learning Latin and we were greeting each other!” Remus announced proudly.

Anne looked at the table, there were pancakes at three of the places and Anne’s had a small plate of pancakes as well as her usual bowl of fruit. Anne sat down and took a closer look at her fruit, her bowl full of strawberries had been cut into tiny little flowers! She smiled; they had made a special breakfast of pancakes but had made her fruit as well just in case she missed it.

The Neville Longbottom arrived by flu powder at four o’clock and then Mr. Lovegood
dropped off Luna before going back to his house. Fred, George, Ginny, and Ron all arrived as well. Percy had been invited but he felt as if he was too grown-up for an eleven-year-olds birthday party! Harry and Anne were going to have their first proper sleepover, they had had Ron and Luna over for the night sometimes but this was a proper sleepover, they were going to have sleeping bags, the boys were also planning to try and stay up all night without sleeping!

Remus and Sirius had got a projector and a few muggle films for the children to watch that they had set up in the sitting room. They first watched a James Bond film which Fred and George had wanted to watch.

Sirius and Remus were busy preparing pizzas as the film was on and the pizzas were ready by half five and the kids ate as they watched the film. Some of the children stared at the way that Anne was eating her pizza, but Luna thought that this was an excellent way to eat pizza and copied her scraping the toppings off her pizza and eating it with a fork.

After the first film, it was time for presents. Neville had got Anne a nice new quill ‘I knew you liked to read and things” Neville said nervously.

“It’s wonderful Neville! Thank you!” she replied earnestly.

The Weasleys gave Anne a set of Malory Towers books “you’ve kind of got Dad obsessed with those Enid Blyton muggle books” Fred admitted.

“We know you’re reading age is beyond these but they’re about boarding school, we thought you might like them!” Ginny explained.

“Thank you they’re wonderful!” she exclaimed, “I can’t wait to read them!”

The Lovegood’s had given Anne a leather book with her name on it. “You have such a wonderful imagination! I and Daddy thought it might be a good idea for you to write some of your ideas down! Or you could just use it as a diary if you prefer,” Luna told her.

“It’s beautiful!” Anne exclaimed.

“It’s enchanted so that only the person who writes it can see what it says. If anyone tries to read, they’ll just think its blank!”

“Wow! This is amazing Luna” Anne said enthusiastically. Luna beamed at how much her friend loved her present.

They were just about to start opening the presents from Remus and Sirius when Fred and George handed Harry one more present. As they did so they looked over at Remus and Sirius curiously, about to find out whether their suspicions were true.

Harry opened the parcel to find a piece of blank parchment, which Sirius and Remus were staring at in shock. “It’s just a piece of parchment” protested Harry thinking this was another prank from Fred and George.

“Where did you two find that map?” asked Sirius.

“What map?” asked Harry confused.

“I knew it!” Fred screamed.

“You two created the Marauders Map!” screamed George pointing at Remus and Sirius.

“How did you find that map?” asked Sirius again.

“We found it in Filch’s office in a drawer marked ‘confiscated and highly dangerous’”

“and how did you know we made it?” asked Remus interested.

“Sirius keeps calling you Moony!” Fred and George pointed out in unison.

“We thought Harry should have it, seeing as if our theory is correct, we believe Harry’s dad was one of the other Marauders,” explained Fred, Remus, and Sirius nodded.

“What map!” shouted Harry getting slightly frustrated.

“It’s a map of Hogwarts, it shows you where everyone is” Sirius explained. “We’ll show you how to work it later.”

They now moved onto the big presents. Hope had made the children another two quilts to take to school with them, this time they were double bed-sized quilts though. Harry’s quilt was in Gryffindor colors and different shades of red and gold. Anne’s quilt was in the Ravenclaw house colors of blue and bronze, there were at least ten different shades of blue in her quilt!

Sirius had got Harry a new broomstick, “A Nimbus 2000” exclaimed Harry and the Weasleys. “Thanks, Sirius! It's great,” Harry told his godfather.

Sirius handed Anne a small parcel. “It’s hardly a broomstick but I thought this might come in handy, if you need help or if you just need to talk to me and Remus.” Anne opened the box to find a pair of mirrors. “They’re communication mirrors, you keep one we keep the other and we can talk through them,” Sirius explained.

“Thank you, Sirius, they’re great,” she told her uncle.

Remus had got both Harry and Anne school trunks. “These trunks are very special,” Remus explained, “they will only open at your touch.”

“Wow thanks, Uncle Remus” the twins exclaimed.

“They’re also a lot bigger than they should be inside,” Remus continued. “That means Anne that you shouldn’t have to pick and choose which books you want to take with you!” Remus pointed out.

“Gratias Tibi ago!” Anne laughed.

“You are very welcome!” Remus told Anne.

Anne had also got several new books. They were going to Flourish and Blotts in a few days and one of Sirius’ gifts was a Carte Blanche when they went to the bookstore. This meant that Anne was going to be able to buy as many books as she liked without having to spend a knut of her pocket money!

Remus had got Anne a copy of Little Women and the Collected Works of Jane Austen and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Anne already had already read a few of the Austen books, but having them in one book meant she would have to pack fewer books. There was one more parcel which Remus handed Anne nervously worried that she wouldn’t like it. It contained two books The Iliad and The Odyssey.

“I wasn’t sure if you would like them or not. I don’t have much of an interest in the Classical World, I only really know a bit of conversational Latin. The assistant in the bookshop said that they were a good introduction to Classical literature. They are quite advanced so if you don’t like them…” Remus was interrupted as Anne enveloped him in a huge hug.

“I’m sure I’ll love them! Thank you again, Uncle Remus!”

After the wrapping paper had been cleared away, then the snacks appeared. There were crisps and sweets and chocolate and popcorn. Luna and Anne got snuggled in together under Anne’s brand-new quilt whilst Remus put The Princess Bride on the projector. Sirius and Remus joined them for this film and everyone thought it was a wonderful film! After the second film, the girls started to fall asleep, the boys and Ginny, however, stayed up all night playing Truth or Dare and eating Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, they even told a few ghost stories.

It was one of the best birthdays that Anne had ever remembered having! She had had such a nice time with Luna and the rest of her friends. She even had a magic trunk so she didn’t need to worry about people interfering with her things at school! And she hadn’t even been to Flourish and Blott’s yet!