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chapter twelve

"ALL HALLOW'S EVE"

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     Emilia loved many things. Her friends. Her rabbit. Croissants. She was very aware that when she loved something, she loved it like there was a fire in her veins urging and encouraging the feeling. That was why she still felt somewhat loyal to her family.

     It made sense, too, with whatever happened with the fire a fortnight ago. It was yet to occur again, and what her friends suggested it had started to rattle around in her skull. What they were saying felt like it could be real, but every time she admitted that to herself, she felt intense guilt. She felt like she was betraying her family, saying that.

     She was a Salvatore. Not technically one of the UK's Sacred Twenty-Eight, since her grandparents only moved to the island in 1925, but still classed as one of South America's Sacred families. Her grandad Rupert had been a student at Castelobruxo, the wizarding school based in Brazil, and her grandmother Marisol. Compared to the other pureblood families, the Salvatores had barely been in the UK.

     They were already making their mark in the country, though, don't get her wrong on that. Rupert had become very quickly known for his affiliation with Grindelwald. Marisol became the wizard version of Cruella de Vil until her budding fashion house closed because of her death in 1951.

     And then, there was Capulet and Marie. Capulet, apparently, excelled in school and easily landed a job at the Ministry, where he met Donna. Marie, on the other hand, was smart but didn't get a good job, since it was Rupert's doing that got Capulet the job in the first place, and at the time, Marie was determined she'd only marry for love. We know how that ended.

     At the end of the day, though, she had the Salvatore blood. She also had whatever the fuck her father's family was, but she chose to only count the Salvatore blood in her. If her father had wanted her to identify with his family, then he should've stayed long enough for her to remember him. But he didn't. Her family were the Salvatores and that was it.

     Another thing, however, that she loved was her birthday. She couldn't help it. The day brought excitement and happiness and cake! And, since it was on Halloween, the hall was always decorated nicely and an assortment of sweets sat on each table. What was not to love?

     Halloween 1977 took place on a Monday, which wasn't the best, but Emilia didn't mind. Two of her classes that day were with Slytherin, and she had a free period last. Her group of friends always made a massive deal out of birthdays, including the other three singing happy birthday at the top of their lungs every mealtime. The reason for that was because it embarrassed whoever was the birthday girl — also since they almost always ate in the hall (for all of their birthdays, it was too cold to eat outside) the amount of happy birthdays said increased considerably.

     But, to be fair, that might've also been to do with the massive badge they'd get the birthday girl. Which, on the thirty-first of October 1977, had already been pinned to Emilia's jumper by half-seven.

     Emilia had snuck into Slytherin the night before and used to spare bed in her friends' dorm room. The girl said she left to help her family out, but it was suspected she had gone to join Voldemort. But, the bed had belonged to someone before her, and someone before her, and the sheets were still being cleaned at the same rate as the beds in use, so Emilia didn't mind.

     She liked it, really. She got to talk to her friends right until they went to bed, which wasn't normally the case. On a normal day, Emilia would have to sit in a room with four girls that despised her until they'd finally switch the light off. But, because it was her birthday eve, she got to stay with her friends.

     She was woken up by Melanie, who had jumped onto her bed and shouted, "YOU'RE SEVENTEEN!"

     Behind her, Carmilla threw a pillow at Melanie's face, which bounced off her back and landed on the floor. Dinah had laughed and gotten to her feet, grabbing a gold gift bag as Melanie let go of Emilia to sit at the foot of the bed.

     Carmilla sat beside Melanie as Dinah handed Emilia the gift bag. The three girls were grinning at her, and in any other situation, the three mischievous looks would've felt very intimidating. Well. As intimidating as they could be, what with the sleeping mask sitting lopsided on Melanie's head, the fluffy dressing gown over Carmilla's pyjamas, and the Disney Princess t-shirt Dinah was wearing.

     "We put some money in to get something bigger," said Dinah. Emilia pulled out three envelopes with cards inside, all with varying messages including "happy birthday", some declaration of love, and some reference to some inside joke. At the bottom was a box wrapped in gold paper, the same as the bag.

     The three girls opposite her looked incredibly excited. Emilia was trying her best to feel less surprised by the fact that her best friends actually like her. Ever since they pointed out that she always looked confused by their affection, she wanted to change it. It was silly of her, and she knew it. She knew that her best friends loved her. And she thought that it mustn't be nice for them, either, if they're getting frowned at every time they're nice to someone they've been best friends with for six years.

     Emilia opened the present. Underneath the wrapping paper sat a black box, and inside the black box sat a gold necklace with a little amber gemstone.

     "The amber turns negative energy into good," said Dinah.

     Her three best friends looked at her. Emilia stared at the necklace. It was gorgeous and perfect, and she loved it. It took her a minute to properly comprehend that this was hers and it was gifted because she meant something to three people, but once that kicked in, she felt every ounce of love towards the three searing through her veins. She jumped forwards, the necklace protected in her hand as she hugged the three of them.

     "You like it, then?"

     "I love it! I love you!"

     Emilia had a massive smile on her face. She moved backwards, and Dinah stood up, perching on the side of the bed next to Emilia and hugging her. She helped Emilia put the necklace on, and got back to her feet.

     "I say we get to breakfast early so we don't get shouted at for picking and choosing from the tables," said Dinah. "Or maybe we won't. We've got the birthday girl, they can't fight the birthday girl."

     Melanie nodded. "And if they do, they'll be missing a chunk of hair like our dear friend Mia Anderson..."

     Carmilla laughed. She had gotten to her feet and was moving to get her toothbrush and toothpaste. "I get the black eyes — but, shit, you pulled her hair out?"

     "Mia tried to defend one of the others — Lottie Dion? — whilst Dinah punched her, so I grabbed her by the hair, and long story short, she now lacks a very large chunk of hair and her hairline is super fucked-up and it's her own fault."

     Dinah rolled her eyes. "I could've handled her."

     "I'm not going to stand there and do nothing if she tries to go after you," said Melanie. Carmilla and Emilia shared a look, and sniggered, departing the room to go and brush their teeth.

     Emilia was brushing her teeth when Carmilla, her toothbrush hanging from her mouth, asked, "You definitely like the necklace, then?"

     There was a muffled mm-hmm and a nod from Emilia. She looked in the mirror. The necklace looked nice with her hair.

    A couple minutes passed. Both had brushed their teeth and washed their faces, and they started walking back to the dorm room. Carmilla grinned, putting an arm around Emilia and saying, "How'd you fancy getting some muggle chocolate from Muggle Studies at lunch?"

     "We're not stealing," said Emilia. "I'm an adult now! They won't be nice because I'm a child, they'll send me to Azkaban!"

     Carmilla laughed. "I didn't mean stealing!" she said. "The teacher likes me because I'm muggleborn. And I've gotten Jonathan to send some muggle sweets to impress the teacher. And some for me to eat, but also to impress the teacher."

     "He knows—?"

     "He knows I'm at a boarding school," said Carmilla. "But he gives the letters and stuff to my mum, who sends it through the family owl."

     Emilia sighed sweetly. "Bless Little Philip."

     Little Philip was the owl owned by Carmilla and her family. Emilia couldn't remember why, but amongst the four girls, there was a shared infatuation towards the small owl.

     They got back to the dorm room, and began getting ready for the school day. Emilia had been sitting on her temporary bed when Dinah sat next to her, handing her a massive badge to put on her uniform. Dinah had grinned at her, and Emilia smiled back, giving in and pinning the badge onto her jumper. It was nearing obnoxiously large, but that was a part of the tradition. To embarrass the birthday girl with a massive badge and singing happy birthday as loudly as possible every time they were in the hall.

     The glittery 17 continued to spin around on the lemon-coloured badge throughout the day. At one point, Emilia thought she'd get it confiscated (apparently, they're inappropriate?) but she hid it when she passed Professor McGonagall. Everything was going great. She felt extremely and incredibly happy. Nothing could go wrong, absolutely nothing; not when her heart was swelling with happiness and her cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

     She was about to walk into the hall for dinner when someone behind her wrapped their arms around her. Emilia almost screamed, but when she heard Sirius ask, "Guess who?" she sighed instead.

     "Anyone but Sirius?" Emilia laughed and turned around, where he was rolling his eyes. "I'm kidding. I recognised your voice."

     "Or were you telling the truth, and you're making that last part up to be nice?" said Sirius. Emilia rolled her eyes, and he grinned at her, putting an arm back around her. "I know you're kidding. Happy birthday, though!"

     "I'm an adult!" she said. "I can perform magic outside of school! I can Apparate! I'm more likely to go to Azkaban!"

     "Fun!"

     "Yeah!"

     Emilia was still smiling. To be fair, she'd been wearing a smile since she had woken up — apart from when she was brushing her teeth. That paused the smiling for a couple minutes.

     "I would've gotten you a present," he said. "It's just I only found out a couple days—" Sirius was cut off by Emilia, who had wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly.

     "Don't worry about it!" she said. She pulled away to look at him. Her arms were sitting on his shoulders. She could feel his hands on her back. "I don't need presents. If I need something, I can get my godfather to buy it, you know? It means a lot more that I've got friends and people that like me."

     "Well, I do like you," said Sirius.

     Emilia smirked. "Although, if you want to surprise me with presents, I'm not saying that you shouldn't."

     Sirius rolled his eyes but was still smiling softly. "I'll keep that in mind."

     She looked at him. He looked at her. Slowly, but surely, they moved closer together, until both seemed to be fed up of the waiting.

     And they kissed.

    (And they kissed again.)

    (And they kissed again, until Emilia realised where they were and how many people had seen her making out with Sirius.)

***

     Admittedly, dinner had been dictated by the conversation of fucking hell Emilia's just snogged someone! She had rushed over to her friends and blurted it out. Melanie had said how proud she was of her.

     After, the four ended up taking over a couple sofas in the Hufflepuff common room. Emilia let Ripper out of his hutch and was holding onto him carefully whilst the four spoke and joked and celebrated her seventeenth birthday.

     The boys that tended to control the common room's gramophone had been allowing Emilia to pick some of the songs, but she wasn't sure if this was because it was her birthday or because Melanie talked them into it.

     Still, Suffragette City was playing at a volume suitable for Ripper, since Emilia was still overly paranoid he was going to die of fear. Melanie, ever the animal-lover, had started to hold and play with Ripper as Dinah sat on the arm of the sofa, next to where Emilia was.

     "Em," she said. "I need you speak to you. In private."

     "Oh, don't lean on me, man, 'cause you can't afford the ticket—"

     Frowning, Emilia nodded. She could see Dinah's hands were shaking. She could feel her stomach sink. She didn't like to see her best friend like this.

     "Hey man, I can't take you this time, no way—"

     They stood in the corridor leading down to the girls' dorms. Dinah looked at Emilia, her face paler than usual and her eyes glassy.

     "Hey man, I can't take you this time, no way, hey man, droogie don't crash here—"

     "I don't want to say this on your birthday, but it'll be published tomorrow morning..."

     "There's only room for one and here she comes, here she comes—"

     "Di, what's wrong?"

     "A Suffragette City, a Suffragette City, I'm back on Suffragette City—"

     "It was my dad that killed your grandad. He's already on his way to Azkaban."

     "Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am!"

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END OF PART ONE

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sO

i hope you enjoyed!!!! part one is over!!!!!! onto part two!!!!!! ahhhh!!!

let me know what you thought! :)

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