Lizzie's POV:

I woke up from my short and restless sleep to the sight of a blonde headed angel leaning over my bed.

"Good morning, love," he smiled down at me, his new scar pulled taut on his cheek.

"Morning," I yawned, stretching before sitting up and pulling my hair up into a sloppy bun. I ran my fingers under my my eyes and felt the gentle tendrils of tiredness trying to pull be back to sleep. "What time is it?" I looked out the window to see that the murky lake water was dark, indicating that it was still before sunrise, and the rest of my dormmates were still asleep.

"Probably around 6:15," he whispered, following my sight-line out the window.

"6:15?" I asked in awe. "Why'd you wake me up so early?" I generally get grumpy when I'm woken up early, and I could really use the sleep to try and make up for all the sleep I had missed.

"For the record," Draco began, running a hand through his white-blonde hair, "I didn't wake you up, you woke up all by yourself-"

"Your presence woke me," I frowned.

"My presence woke you," he scoffed.

"Yes," I countered grumpily.

"Anyway, I came in here because I have a surprise for you."

"A surprise?" I asked cautiously, my interest piqued.

"I do, so throw on your robes and let's go. I want to get done before class starts." He stood up and smirked at me.

"Alright," I agreed, getting out of bed and dressing quickly.

I loved surprises. For Christmas when I was younger, I would never go sneaking around my house trying to find the gifts like Gray did. I wanted to be surprised come the time to open them.

Once I had my robes on, Draco and I left the common room, which was still empty due to the time. He led me through the maze of corridors to a large portrait of a bowl of fruit.

"Here we are," he said, facing the painting. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at Draco in question.

"Uh, where exactly is 'here'?" I asked.

"You'll see," he smirked once again. I huffed and watched impatiently as Draco reached forward and quickly rubbed the pear with his finger. It squirmed, making me jerk in surprise, and then it laughed. The bloody pear, which didn't even have a mouth, bloody laughed. Once it was finished with it's laughing fit, it transformed into a green doorknob. With a sideways smirk at me, Draco turned the doorknob and pulled the portrait like it was a door. It opened easily and, immediately, the sound of pots banging and small squeaky voices rushed at me.

As we walked through the doorway, an enormous, high-ceilinged room, just as large as the Great Hall with brass pots and pans heaped around the walls and a great brick fireplace at the opposite end, came into view.

"Is this..." I trailed off, my eyes still furrowed.

"Welcome to the Hogwarts kitchens," Draco announced, arms spread out as small creatures ran about, preparing toast, eggs, bacon, and other such breakfast foods.

"House elves?"

"Who did you think made our food?" Draco asked, turning to me.

"I guess I never really thought of it," I replied, watching one particular elf with a purple hat on her head levitate a dozen eggs through the air. She did this bit of wandlessly magic so effortlessly that my already furrowed eyebrows, furrow even more.

"Well, I suppose you're wondering what your surprise is?"

"I am," I answered.

"If you'll follow me this way, mademoiselle." He then made a show of escorting me towards a small circular table in the corner, and none of the house elves gave us more than a glance.

"Merci," I thanked him for pulling my chair out for me.

"Vous êtes les bienvenus." He winked at me as he took a seat across from me. He then held up his hands and clapped quickly. I had to suppress a laugh at this. A second later, two house elves came over holding trays with large silver covers. The smaller of the two placed one of the trays in front of me and bowed before hurrying back to her work.

"What is this?" I asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"This is your surprise," he replied, removing the covers with a flourish. In front of me, there was a plate of waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, a bowl of pineapple beside it.

"Breakfast?" I asked.

"Indeed." He picked up a cloth napkin and folded it across his lap with a smile.

"Alright..." I laughed, doing the same with my napkin. Picking up my fork, I gave Draco an odd look.

"Do you know why?" He cut off a very small portion of his waffle and dipped it into the whipped cream before placing it into his mouth.

"I can't say that I do," I said, stabbing a slice of pineapple.

"Seriously?" He looked at me, agape. I shook my head with an aura of amusement. "Lizzie, it's your birthday!"

I almost choked on my pineapple and looked back to Draco, who was looking back at me in surprise. "Are you sure? What is today?"

"May 19th," he answered easily.

"Merlin, you're right."

"Well, happy birthday," he smiled.

"Thank you." I smiled in return. I had been seventeen for almost 7 hours and had no idea. I probably wouldn't have ever realized had Draco not said something.

"You honestly forgot your own birthday?"

With a guilty look, I said, "I have more pressing matters on my life."

"Touche, mademoiselle."

"So what's with all the French, monsieur?" I asked, placing a chunk of waffle in my mouth. For once this year, I was actually feeling a solid appetite. I felt as if I could finish this whole waffle and the pineapple that came along with it.

"Bien, ma belle petite amie, le français est la langue de l'amour." He gave me a wink.

"The language of love," I mused. "Je vous remercie pour ce merveilleux petit déjeuner." I thanked him for the wonderful breakfast, which made him start.

"Since when do you know French?"

"I've been doing a bit of reading."

"C'est tres chaud," he smirked.

"Merci," I replied with a dip of my head.

-----

Throughout the day, I received a total of three birthday wishes. One from Draco, one from Grayson, and one very brief one from Hermione. The fact that she even knew my birthday and had remembered it touched me.

Grayson had sent me Newt Scamander's book titled, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and a short letter.

Liz,

How's Hogwarts these days? I do miss my days on the quidditch field, and, tell me, is McGonagall still teaching? The old hag always seemed to have it out for me...

I saw this book quite a while ago and I immediately thought of you. You were always reading those books about sappy love stories or journeys around the world when we were growing up, and I was always telling you that you wouldn't learn anything from them. You always replied with the same thing. 'There's more than one way to go about getting intelligence, Gray.' So, here I am, giving you a book that will actually help you get through life and might interest you some at the same time.

Happy birthday, Squirt. Hope seventeen treats you well.

Love,

Gray

(PS - I know this was a textbook for first year, but, come on, we both know you didn't actually read it. You should give it a go this time. It's genuinely a good book.)

I sent him a quick reply thanking him and telling him that I hoped he was okay.

I found myself waiting for my mum's letter before I caught myself and realized that she couldn't send me anything. She had been kidnapped. My heart broke in that moment and I broke down crying on my bed with the curtains shut tightly and warded thoroughly. I missed her loads.

When I had dried my tears and made sure that my face wasn't too red and splotchy in the toilet mirror, I made my way to the library with my arms wrapped tightly around Grayson's gift. My feet seemed to stick to the stones as I walked.

I hated to admit it to myself, but it had been a while since I had thought about my missing mother. I had been so preoccupied with the Vanishing Cabinet to get her back, that I had almost forgotten about her. Because of this, I wanted to throw myself off the top of the astronomy tower.

When I arrived in the library, I hurried to the furthest, back corner and sat myself down. Even though I was only days away from murder, I told myself that I deserved some time to myself on my birthday, so I began to read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Grayson was right when he had said we both knew I hadn't read the book in first year, and, coincidentally, somewhere along the way from then to now, I had lost it.

I read for what seemed like hours, becoming absorbed into the world of mystical beasts and when the sunlight that had been creeping across my page ever so slowly disappeared and cast the words into shadow, I closed the book and stood, vowing that I would find time to finish the it soon.

Little did I know, that that would be the last time I read that book for a very long time.