Sunuva Beach, a popular summer resort for the more affluent wizards and witches. White sand beaches, water charmed to a comfortable temperature, and mild weather charms to create the ideal sea breeze.

---

Madeleine Eloise Sophia Whitman was not known for her patience. The previous night, Maddie may have gotten a grand total of two hours of sleep, though one would never be able to tell based on her current ecstatic state. She was one who would say "Eleven and three-quarters" when asked her age, as she willed time to progress at a faster pace in hopes of catching up to her brother Theo in age. Though she realized that wasn't feasible. However, for almost seven months, she would only be five years younger than her most beloved relative. Which the newly 12-year-old girl felt made them practically peers. Just peers where one sometimes chaperoned parties between the other and her friends.

Today will be the best day ever, she assured herself, and gripped her older brother's hand as they walked to their spot on the sprawling beach front; the warm sand infiltrated her flip flops and tickled the bottoms of her feet. Despite her growth spurt, she barely reached Theo's shoulder, and she looked up to her brother (both literally and figuratively) with a broad grin. The summer sun shone brightly on them, reflecting off of their golden hair - Theo's burnished gold curls, and her own white gold braid tied with a blue ribbon.

"Theo, I love you," she stated warmly, before putting on a more stern expression. "But please don't hurt any frogs that Linus may or may not bring along. He is my best friend, and there is to be no fighting today. I wrote him and told him to also be on his best behaviour."

She disliked that two of her favourite people didn't get along with each other, but Maddie supposed it couldn't be helped as they had drastically different personalities. However, if both of them loved her as much as she believed, she hoped that they would at least manage a cool civility. Which 'cool civility' was one of Theo's specialties.

Laying out her large Point Me (the greatest band in the entire world) towel, she kicked off her flip flops and smoothed out her blue sundress before flopping down excitedly, making her previous action rather moot.

"Can you believe I'm twelve?!" She asked enthusiastically, for what must have been the umpteenth time. "I'm practically an adult now. Only five more years..." The last part was almost a wistful sigh. If only she could skip these filler years. Maybe even graduate from a training bra. "Theo, everyone will be here soon, right? I want to show everyone my new dress."

By 'everyone', Maddie meant 'a certain someone', but she wasn't sure why she suddenly thought that, and shook the memory of the day where she saw how she and her friends would look years later from her head before it could fully form.

Linus had been looking forward to Maddie's birthday all week,  in his boney little arms was a rather large box with quidditch-themed wrapping paper. Wrapping paper that had started out blank, but Linus had drawn and painted himself. His mother had charmed the broomsticks, the quaffles, and the bludgers to fly about-- some hitting the cartoony players in the faces in a very similar likeness to a certain Quidditch cup match.

"Happy birthday Maddie!" Linus exclaimed, waving the box around. His mother, Audrey, followed behind him-- giving the Whitman siblings a polite smile. She was here mostly to make sure Linus behaved himself, and also so that she could take Linus home if he was being too much of a bother. Plus, Sunuva Beach was a lovely place, and she did want to start working on a tan-- nothing too dark, just enough to have some color.

"See, I was here first. I am the best friend, aren't I?" The lion said proudly, handing Maddie's gift off to her, not sure where she would have wanted it placed.  "Who else is coming?" He thought Keegan had mentioned being invited, but Linus didn't know if he had RSVPed or not. He also hoped that Sal would show up. Linus already missed all of his favorite classmates and was looking forward to seeing them again.

With a certain kind of gentleness usually afforded to words and potion ingredients, Theo held Maddie’s hand as he escorted to her party. The sand was a pale shell white, fine as sugar and free of debris, that the spray kicked up in their wake was nearly mist—and but another detail in the Slytherin’s calculations.

Although there was the slightly unfortunate matter of the name (–something that, even now, still drove the young man to a very human wince–), it was easily overlooked in favor of the resort’s other charms, which were ample, more than adequate to host Maddie’s party; while the beach was clean– the water temperate, the location classy enough to satisfy Theo’s anyone’s sense of sophistication –it also had one very real advantage: sentiment. Once the eldest Whitman child could be trusted to behave himself, both children were brought to the resort for a rare family outing. In time, it became a trend.

(Of course, neither parent could be found with either child for long, or even all that often; coincidentally a friend or two would be found staying at the resort as well, and, well. They simply had to catch up. But the siblings made do, under the watchful eye of a governess or house elf. It wasn’t all that different from their home life, in that respect.)

Theo was not a sentimentalist—not, at least, by conventional standards. But Maddie was, to an extent that both amused and mystified even her brother, and although her memories of the place, he figured, couldn’t possibly be the same as his (he did, in fact, enjoy himself at times), he had ensured that at least some of them had been pleasant. Even if the other guests and staff had proven to be less than stellar company, it had been easy enough to procure some kind of entertainment, even by a boy who was seven, eight, nine.

And when the trips grew more and more infrequent, until they had become a thing of the past… Theo thought. Idly, without intention, an idea had formed: returning to the beach. Not for himself of course, but for her. She would like it, he knew; there were better resorts, but childhood so often cast an attractive shadow.

And so it was with that knowledge – and the last four weeks of planning, organizing, and perfecting until he had a guarantee of success – that Theo smiled down at her, amusement, tolerance and mock-injury lending a warm cast to his expression. Him, on anything less than his best behavior? Surely not.

“Your warning would be put to better use in his direction,” Theo told her, lifting his gaze to watch a pair of figures approach—Linus, and a woman who could only be his mother, Audrey. The incoming second year was already bounding forward, ahead of her in his enthusiasm.

Returning Audrey’s polite smile with one of his own, Theo returned his attention onto Maddie once more, setting his hand on her shoulder. Now that Linus had arrived...

As the boy neared, Theo leaned in. “If you need anything, let Ardent know,” he murmured, and dropping his hand, gave Maddie one last smile before heading for the water. Ardent– the oldest of the Whitman house elves –was nowhere to be seen, but that was only to be expected, a mark of a proper elf. He was nearby, and would come when either Whitman called.

When Theo's gaze lifted, Maddie rolled over and saw that Linus and his mum were walking towards them. She hopped up excitedly, and waved exuberantly towards her friend. Her brother's hand on her shoulder made her smile warmly at him, and she placed her hand on top of his. The 12-year-old hoped that he wouldn't find her birthday unbearably boring, as usually her birthdays were celebrated with Alex. Maddie hoped that Alex was having a good time so far, and eagerly awaited for her return to them.

“If you need anything, let Ardent know."

The house elf had been one of Maddie's constant companions before she went to Hogwarts, and she loved him dearly  for how patient and kind he had been, even when the girl had roped him into her various shenanigans. She seemed to have a vague recollection that he wasn't as attentive when she was younger, but a few years ago he became practically attached at her hip. It had been right after she fell out of the tree, from which she still had a scar on her hip. Despite being visible while wearing her swimsuit, she felt that the jagged mark gave her a tough look, and wore it with pride. Though her mother had protested her choice of swimsuit because she thought that the scar was ugly.

She gave Theo a grin as he headed towards the water, before turning and running the rest of the way to Linus and tackled hugged him tightly, beaming broadly.

"You are my best friend. Now and forever," Maddie stated sincerely and happily accepted the gift - thanking both Linus and his mum, and placed it on her towel. "And it's wonderful to see you, Ms. Hughes!" The girl smiled towards Audrey.

"I invited Sal and Keegan, and I am hoping that they will be able to show up. A lot of people went on the trip, but my birthdays usually are just Alex, Theo, and me, so we're already up one!" She remarked pleasantly. She was keeping her fingers crossed for her two other friends to make it soon, though.

A sly smirk touched her lips, and she kicked her flip flops off. "Race you to the water! Last one there is a blast-ended skrewt's blasted end!" Maddie slipped her blue sundress off, wearing her swimsuit underneath and hurried across the sand giggling the entire way to the water.