Alice walked around nervously at the place where she and Lexi were holding the party for Paetyn. There were blankets on the ground,  a cake decorated for him by Annette, balloons hanging magically in the air, streamers covering the trees, and party hats on each guest. Alice paced nervously, fixing certain things neurotically, shifting a streamer two inches to the left, then shifting it back two inches to the right.

"I just can't wait for everyone to get here. This is going to be so great, I just need the guests!" Alice took out a paper from her pocket. She began to check things off the paper. "Decorations are fine. Cake is made, party hats, all we need are guests!" She said, folding the paper and putting it back in her pocket.

Dessa skipped down the hill, clutching a package behind her back, giggling a little just with the anticipation of seeing Harper's face when he opened it. She spotted Alice, standing amongst a sea of party decorations and turning slowly, a paper in her hands.

"Hi, Alice!"  she bellowed, waving, as she neared the party location.

"What!" Lexi yelled to Dessa as she popped out from behind a tree, the end of a streamer in her hands. "You aren't gonna say hi to me too?"

She smiled, excited to be celebrating a birthday, they were always fun and Lexi hoped Paetyn would enjoy the party. "Alice, relax will ya? We're all set, trust me, I remembered everything... hopefully." She grinned at her friend, "This is gonna be great!"

They had a blanket designated for gifts, Lexi's was there already, a bright yellow box wrapped with thick black ribbon. Perfect for a Puffle, as she so fondly called them. Inside was a box of chocolate frogs and one of those quills that changed ink color as it wrote.

Curled up in bed, Ethan read the Potions prompt for the third time, trying to resist the urge to put the feathery end of his quill in his mouth. He'd already failed twice this week.

Describe, in substantial detail, the three most dangerous errors that can be made in the preparation of a Sleeping Draught, and the resulting side effects:

So far, he had nothing. There was something about insomnia, he remembered that from class, but Professor Vaillancort had done nothing but talk this morning, so it all had gone in one ear and out the other. When they were actually brewing the potions, he was awesome at remembering details like this, but he hadn't been especially good at paying attention to a lecture in primary, and coming to Hogwarts hadn't changed that much.

Ethan decided it was best to quit while he was ahead and rolled off the bed, stuffing the parchment and quill inside his schoolbag. Shoving his feet into a pair of grey trainers--part absent-mindedness and part instinctual disdain for Hogwarts's uniform policy--he drifted out of his dormitory and through the common room, exiting into the hallway just beyond.

He considered dropping by the kitchen for a snack (the only thing the other Hufflepuffs had taught him faster than the pear trick was the rhythm to get into the common room), but decided against it. He'd been in there once, and honestly, the house elves sort of creeped him out. No, a bit of exploration was more his suit. He'd heard the Ravenclaw common room was in one of the west towers, and since the hat had thought about sticking him there it might be fun to see what sort of digs they had. It beat sitting in his room all day missing his family.

Reaching the stairs, Ethan headed up to the Entrance Hall and stopped, studying the stairs intently. Better to go straight up the main stairs, or try and find a side stair? Given that he didn't have a clue where to start, he supposed it didn't matter--but nonetheless, it was worth stopping for a second to consider it. If he was going to have a solo adventure like this, he was going to do it right.

Paetyn had awoken early on a beautiful birthday morning. The little elvsies had outdone themselves and parcels of presents covered his trunk and the foot of his bed. He wasn’t expecting much, since he was a muggleborn and wasn’t exactly sure how his parents would get his gifts to him anyway, but there were packages galore on his bed. He scrambled through the gifts, putting the cards aside for later. He picked up the first one, from his mum and dad and shook it really hard. Hopefully there wasn’t anything fragile in the colorfully wrapped package.

He tried to be really careful to not wake up his roommates, but in his excitement he was sure he let out a squeal of glee… or two. That added with the sounds of ripping paper couldn’t have made Paetyn’s roommates very happy with him, but he really couldn’t care less. He was one whole year older now, and they’d just have to forgive him. Pulling open the box, Paetyn was rather surprised to see that his gifts were of the magical variety… a chess set and a bag of marbles sat staring at him (the chess pieces obviously not very happy with their shaken state).

He knew that the gifts were magical because the little chess people were untangling themselves and brushing themselves off. The marbles were sitting atop a book: Gobstones: A Beginner’s Guide. Gobstones didn’t sound like any normal marble game that he’d ever played. The thought behind the gift touched Paetyn more than the gift itself. His parents didn’t exactly embrace the magical side of his life, so he was quite shocked that they had ventured to Diagon Alley, presumably alone, to purchase him gifts.

He tore through the other wrappings, sweets from his Auntie, a ten pound note from Uncle Alfred. There was one box left, unmarked, and Paetyn wasn’t sure if he should open it or not. Hogwarts seemed to be full of pranksters, and the box could contain anything. Curiosity overriding his leeriness, he ripped off the paper to find a comically long gray strap on beard. The note inside said simply Happy Birthday, old man. He saw no harm in putting it on, just for giggles, but when he tugged to pull it off, the thing stuck fast, and it kinda hurt.

Oh no! The beard was enchanted, and it wouldn’t come off, no matter how hard he tugged. He struggled out of the bed, tripping on the beard that dragged the ground. The first year reached into his trunk and pulled out a pair of scissors and sheared the beard as short as possible. It was a choppy job, but at least he wasn’t tripping on it anymore. He didn’t want his roommates to see him all bearded up, so he grabbed some robes and ran from the room. He’d take a quick shower and seek out an older student to let him borrow a razor. By the time he had gotten to the showers, his beard had completely grown back. There would be no point in finding a razor; the enchantment would have to wear off on its own.

He completely skipped classes that day, willing to take the detentions he would surely receive as long as no one had to see him. That afternoon, he remembered that he was supposed to meet some of his friends by the lake, and instead of sticking them up; he figured it was best just to get it over with. On his way out, he saw his roommate, Ethan, and walked over, grabbing him by the arm. “Come on,” he said, spitting hair from his mouth, “If I’ve got to be seen with a beard, you’re going to be seen with a guy with a beard.” He said, tugging on him, trying to pull him toward the lake.

Ethan's thoughts were abruptly cut off by a sharp tug on his arm, and he started walking briskly out of the castle before he even had a chance to look and see who it was. Not that he recognized the person, of course, who appeared to be a tall dwarf with a beard as long as Gandalf's.

“Come on, if I’ve got to be seen with a beard, you’re going to be seen with a guy with a beard.”

The voice changed everything, and Ethan looked at his impromptu companion with new eyes. Not a tall bearded dwarf, but the regular-sized kid Paetyr, his dormmate. Probably the closest thing he had to a friend, so far.

"Geez, Paetyr, what's with the beard? Lose a bet or something?" It was magical of course; Paetyr had about as much chance of growing a beard overnight as the cell phone he'd stupidly brought with had of turning on, much less getting a signal.

They were already outside, moving toward the lake, as Ethan withdrew his arm from Paetyr's grasp. He kept walking with him nonetheless. He was sort of curious about the beard, and Paetyr wasn't a bad guy. If he kept distancing himself from everyone in the castle, it was going to get harder to convince himself that it was just self-preservation and not just nervous shyness. So a trip out to the lake with an almost-friend might be just as good as finding the Ravenclaw common room.

"So what's the occasion of our afternoon walk?" he asked, as a group of other first-years came into view up ahead. "Going to try and convince the merpeople in the lake that you're Dumbledore, back from the grave?"

Annette's cake was one of the best she had ever made, she liked to work with her hands, but baking wasn't really her thing, even though she was fairly good at it.


It was a very nice day, perfect for a birthday picnic. Annette wanted to climb the tree they were all under, but that would get pine needles everywhere. She played with a balloon instead, digging through her bag she found a permanent marker and wrote 'Happy Birthday' on all of the green ones, 'Age Level up achieved' on the yellow and drew happy faces on the others.

Nette could see two critters in black and gold, one was Ethan, she could tell, and the other was, Santa? Nette squinted, trying to figure out who was sporting the whiskers. Then, it popped, it was Paetyn.

Anni instantly threw her hand over her mouth to suppress a guffaw of laughter. "Pae? What was your birthday wish? For puberty to come early?" She finally squeaked an ear-to-ear grin smacked onto her face.