Two weeks had almost passed - two weeks during which Catherine spent a good amount of time under the sharp supervision of the school librarian Madame Pince. These two weeks saw the girl carrying around countless old books, dusted them, filled in old registers, and rearranged volumes in every section of the Library, constantly thinking about how much she hated both Severus Snape and Carter Thorne. On top of everything, Remus was sick again and Sirius and James, even though great company, made working impossible.
The last day of Catherine's detention started with the Enchanted Ceiling of the Great Hall being filled with dark, grey clouds. She was sipping her orange juice, thinking gloomily about the upcoming cold and drenched morning to be spent outside during Herbology when the post arrived. Hundreds of owls flew in and started landing among the students. To Catherine's surprise, Orion dropped an envelope in her lap and proudly hooted, comfortably nested between a milk jug and a platter of scrambled eggs. The young witch fed him a piece of bacon and gently caressed his beautiful feathers.
'I wonder who that is from.' – she thought with curiosity. Her mother had warned her that they would not send her mail to avoid any interception of the messages. She knew that if there was anything really important, Greg would pass the message. Therefore, Orion was only used for occasional mail orders, and it was a mystery where from he got that letter in the first place.
Catherine took the envelope, which was decorated with painted red roses, and opened it. Inside, she found a sheet of beautiful silk-like paper. At the top of it was a coat of arms representing a white shield engulfed by red roses. Below the shield, golden letters formed the words Éternelles Beauté et Élégance.
'Eternal Beauty and Elegance,' – the girl thought and smiled, recognising the motto of the Plantier family. Her eyes quickly scanned the few lines written in calligraphic handwriting.
Chère Marguerite,
Joyeux anniversaire! Ma belle fleur a un an de plus et s'épanouit de plus en plus magnifiquement. Je t'aime tellement!
Avec tout mon amour,
Papy
PS: Tu as une chouette très persévérante. [1]
Catherine froze. Was it her birthday today? She had completely forgotten, especially because it had never been a very important day to her. Growing up, she didn't have any friends, so it was only her family celebrating, and it was not that special - probably because she felt more and more frustrated with every passing year. The only good memories she had from her birthdays were the times her grandfather came to visit from France. She had always been his favourite, and it gave her a dark satisfaction that someone liked her better than Greg.
The witch smiled and fed Orion another piece of bacon. 'He must have known and went all the way to Grandpa in order to get me something for my birthday.' – she thought and took her school bag, carefully placing the letter between the pages of her Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1.
The Herbology class was as bad as Catherine had imagined, and when she went to lunch, her shoes were full of water. She ate quickly and hurried to the Gryffindor Tower to change before the afternoon classes. Taking a shortcut, she moved an old tapestry of a Common Welsh Green Dragon sleeping on top of a hill and ended up in a rather deserted corridor on the fourth floor. The echo of her steps made her heart clinch with unease. Something was wrong, but she couldn't quite figure it out.
"Soporivita!" – she heard before the corridor went dark before her eyes, and she lost consciousness.
***
Catherine opened her eyes and stared in confusion at the dark, unfamiliar ceiling. She tried to get up, but her body felt heavy and exhausted.
"Hey, don't move! Madame Pomfrey said it would take you at least 12 hours to recover from the hex." – Catherine heard Lily's voice from beside her bed.
"What happened? Is it night already? And what are you doing here?"- Catherine asked in one breath.
"Um, you didn't attend the Charms class, so we alerted Professor Flitwick, and started looking for you." – Lily said quietly – "Eventually, we found you unconscious on the fourth floor. It looked like someone had hexed you because we also found you clutching your wand under the robes, and all your school stuff was on the ground. It's past 10 already, and I snuck in here when Madame Pomfrey went to the greenhouse for some herbs."
Catherine looked at Lily in disbelief.
"You snuck in here after curfew?" – she asked in astonishment.
"You don't need to sound so surprised." – said Lily, frowning. – "I couldn't just leave you alone on your birthday, could I?"
"How do you know it's my birthday?" – asked Catherine, surprised.
"While I was collecting your books from the ground, the letter from your grandfather fell from in between the pages of your Charms textbook. I studied some French in the Muggle school I went to. But why does he call you Marguerite?" – asked the red-haired girl.
"His family is kind of obsessed with flowers, so he was very displeased with my mom naming me Catherine. Therefore, they compromised and added a middle name." – explained Catherine.
"Then your middle name is Marguerite?" – inquired Lily.
"No, it's Margaret, but Grandpa likes to 'French' it up" – giggled the black-haired girl in the bed. – "That's nothing; he still can't forgive my grandmother for naming my mother without asking him first."
Lily laughed too and put her hand inside her robes. She took out a single red rose and handed it to Catherine.
"Then, happy birthday, Daisy! I'm sorry I was so cold after the issue with the explosive elixir. It was indeed nothing compared to what happened to you now, and I promise I'm not going to allow something like this to affect our friendship again. Can you forgive me?"
Catherine took the rose and smiled at Lily.
"It's okay; I might have also overreacted a bit, but it's hard to do the right thing when being angry. I missed you, Lily! Oh, and thank you for the rose; they are my favourite."
Lily blushed and took the empty vase from the nightstand.
"I'm going to get some water to put the flower in." – she said and swiftly left the room.
"She must have stolen it from the greenhouse." – thought Catherine in amusement – "She keeps surprising me."
At this moment, Lily returned with the vase, and she was just about to place it back on the nightstand when a sudden noise made both girls jump.
"The fuck, Sirius, why didn't you stop when I told you to? Madame Pomfrey's gonna hear us." – whispered James as three figures appeared from behind the portrait of Damocles Belby.
"Obviously, because I didn't see you standing there for no reason, James!" – snapped Sirius, trying to strengthen a package he was carrying.
"Oh, Flame! You're awake!" – said James in surprise, noticing the two girls staring at them – "Happy birthday!"
"Happy birthday, Catherine!"- smiled Remus whose voice was a little hoarse.
"Remus!" – exclaimed Catherine – "Have you recovered already?"
"Yeah, yeah, he's all fine now." – intervened Sirius – "I have good and bad news, Flame. Which one do you want to hear first?"
"Um, the good one?" – said Catherine cautiously.
"We found where the kitchens are." – he grinned, getting a big cake out of the package that he had been carrying – "The bad news is that they didn't have the éclair cake you like, so this is chocolate, but we do have candles! Happy birthday, Flame!"
"Thanks!" – said Catherine, blushing – "But how did all of you find I had a birthday today?"
"Evans told us." – answered James, adjusting the candles on the cake.
"I thought it was only right if your friends are with you today." – said Lily, looking at the floor.
"Thanks!" - mumbled Catherine, sitting up in her bed.
"That's enough melodramatics for one day!" – said Sirius and waved his wand – "Incendio!"
The stream of fire, though a tad too strong, lit the candles on the cake, and Catherine was able to see the smiling faces of the Gryffindors around her bed.
"Make a wish before you blow them out!"- warned Remus.
"I wish I never, ever hurt any of you!" – thought Catherine and blew out the candles.
[1] Dear Margaret, happy birthday! My beautiful flower is one year older and blooming more and more beautifully. I love you so much! Grandpa
PS: You have one very persistent owl