“Right, so you launched a pillow at my head because you started talking while I had headphones on. The headphones should have been a dead give away that I wasn’t listening.” Fabian handed the pillow back over to him and picked his headphones off the desk where they fell. “Compliments-you have my attention now.”

Everett smirked and leaned in closer across the table. “Attention is all I ever wanted.” To be honest he had rambled on a bit how Berkley MacBeth had refused to even come to visit or invite him over. God, she was making him whiny. Or worse, was he always whiny? 

“Gah! Yes! No? What? What was that about?”

She knew she was being a brat as he’d said, she didn’t care. It was his family drama that was being pushed on her too if what he said was true, she felt she had a right to brat around a bit because she had no choice in the matter. “We have the whole year to speak about this. We have time.” She finished off the rest of her drink and stepped up closer to kiss his cheek. “Enjoy the evening Everett.”

“Oh-ho-ho you call that bad flirting? Are you ready to be even more distracted?” Charlie rubbed his hands together while he tried to think of some of his most ridiculous pickup lines. “It’s handy that I have my library card because I’m totally checking you out. Get it? Because we’re in the library.”

Everett raised an eyebrow dubiously. “Hilarious.” With that, he closed his books and started packing up. “Has that ever worked for you?” Everett hadn’t finished anything he wanted to before the weekend but then again he had all weekend to finish it. “I’m gonna go flying. Good luck with that, Charlie.” He said nodding towards the flirting. “Maybe you should try your pickup line.”

“Don’t even get me started, Everett. If this is a prank and you somehow know where my stuff is I will hex you so hard your grandchildren will feel it.” 

Everett held up his hands in surrender. “Whoa there, no need to bring them into this. What makes you think this was a prank? Do you have something important in there?”

“Oh God, I could use more than just a slice.” She said as she slid a plate of chocolate cake in front of her. Ursa has always had a bit of a sweet tooth frosting being one of her stress relievers. Without even reaching for the fork, she swiped her finger through the frosting and straight into her mouth where she licked it clean. “You are so lucky it’s your birthday.”

Everett smirked his fork halfway to his lips before waving it like a wand at her. “Yes definitely, we’re all very lucky it’s my birthday.” He finally took that bite and went in for more. “My mother would bite my head off if I ate my cake like that.”

Dona tried staying calm by breathing in her nose and out of her mouth, but the breath out from behind pursed lips sounded more like an exasperated sigh. Really, it was embarrassing how little English people knew about early American history. Especially considering they were the ones who’d ruined so many things. She raised her brows and gave a nod to accept his apology. Dona cocked her head as he moved on to what he wanted to do when he left school. “Wow. I didn’t think there’d be a huge market for winged horses,” Dona admitted, putting the paper down. “Is there a huge market? What kinda wix buy them?” She asked, genuinely curious.

Berkley wasn’t expecting any owls but let the owl into her kitchen and held out her hand for the note in its talons. The wanker actually had the audacity to nip at her fingertips. “Are you telling me, it’s not mine?” She crossed her arms over her chest and waited till the owl let her take it. At first glance, Berkley assumed she let just any old owl into her flat. It was just scrap paper, the owl was probably just looking for treats. She tossed it onto the table and went to grab treats for the owl and that was when she saw the note from Everett. That name! With jerky movements, Berkley sat at the kitchen table and wrote back.

Danveirs,

I know very little about you. Happy Birthday, I always hated having a birthday around the holiday season. Enjoy your birthday.

Berkley Macbeth

P.S. Quit calling me Wifey.

P.S.S Your birthday is literally a month before mine. 

At dinner, his owl flew down and gobbled up some of his lamb stew picking out the meat nearly swallowing it whole. “Oi, she lives in London. You worked up an appetite. Was she mean to you and not give you treats?” His owl still hadn’t given him his letter. It didn’t truly matter, he wouldn’t send his owl off and have Berkley leave her outside overnight. He spoiled her like that.

He finally wrangled the letter off of her and started to draft his own reply. He’d send it out early tomorrow morning.

You could get to know me if we had some kind of communication. These letters are a start if you can give me more than one sentence. Those cellphones Muggles use are nice too, I’ve left mine in the bottom of my trunk but I can always see if it can work around the castle. 

Not that you asked but my birthday was pretty good. It sucks that it was a Monday and I had classes but my mother sent me a few things and I ate a lot of my favorite foods. The elves made me a birthday cake which was delicious but I kinda wish I could have spent more of it with friends and not having to go to classes. I could have gotten drunk and someone nice might actually bring me home and well, you know.

To be frank, I intend to marry you. That means you are Wifey so it’s good to know your birthday-thanks for that but there’s more I should know. What’s your family like? Do you like Quidditch? I don’t remember you playing for Slytherin. What’s life like outside the castle? This is starting to sound cheesy. What’s stopping you from getting to know me? 

Everett Danveirs

Your future Husband.

Hubby :D

She could see the mischevious twinkle in his eyes as he tried to rile her up with that stupid name again. Maybe if she would just quit reacting to it he’d let it drop. She really didn’t get it, she had four older siblings two of whom were married though only one had any children. “I live with Fiona Imperia and we wouldn’t be going anywhere together even if I didn’t live with her.” She said with conviction as she downed the rest of her drink. She settled in as her cup automatically refilled only to feel the need to throw it back in his face but she refrained showing more restraint than she felt. “What are you going on about? Faking it? I don’t know about you, but my father expects me to actually marry my husband. Something I plan to throw off its course regardless of what you’re trying to pull with this fake it till we make it hippogriff shit.” Sure she’d skimmed through their contract as well but she’d really like maybe Quella to look it over again. 

“This event isn’t about us Everett. I have no plans to marry you, not even fake marry to you. This Jasper you mention, who you say will make things worse doesn’t scare me. You can relax, enjoy the gala Danveirs.” With that, she stood to leave him at the table. 

"Berkley, wait.” He stood with her and stepped into her path. “Jasper is my father, well- not exactly. He’s my mum's ex-husband, but he’s not my father. And I know I’ve been making him seem like he wants something nefarious but that’s not exactly it. He just wants a little more control over our lives again, maybe some revenge. I don’t know exactly, but I do know that he’s not gonna let it just drop.” This was probably his last chance to get her to listen to him tonight. “Just consider it. I can tell we’re done here but I’m not gonna stop just because you’re being a brat.” He raised an eyebrow in a challenge before stepping out of her way.

Did she want a slice of cake? Tami had a sweet tooth, when cake was on the line there was no real question, she dropped into the seat opposite and grinned. “Are the Slytherin colours green and silver?” Grabbing a plate, she held it out towards him, it seemed only fair that because it was his cake he got to cut and share it out. “It’s your birthday, right? Only you could advertise it so obviously by displaying your cake to the entire school.”

Everett smirked dropping his fork to cut her a piece. He only planned to have the one piece himself, if he’d planned to save any of it he probably would have cut it smaller. He was selfish like that, but he knew he’d be going home soon enough and his mom doted on him when he came home for the holidays. He handed back her plate as he answered her. “It’s my birthday. The elves made the cake for me. I thought it was very nice of them since it is my last birthday at Hogwarts.”

“Oh, it won’t be on Christmas. It’ll be just before we break off. I’m going home for Christmas too,” Dona reassured him. “I thought it could be our year. Hufflepuffs have way too many Christmas traditions already.” She said, waving her hand dismissively. Really, Hufflepuff was a pro-Christmas house. She was sure some of them (herself included) would celebrate all year if they were given the opportunity.

Dona was starting to get tired of Everett being ignorant, so she gave a sigh and picked up the Prophet, starting to flick through the pages just to keep herself busy and not getting worked up. “White Americans barged their way onto Native American land, yes. And my ancestors were forced to come along, in chains.” Dona put it as politely as she could manage, though even just the discussion of it had her pursing her lips, fingers tightening on the page. She tried thinking kindly about Everett- the idea that maybe, he was just ignorant of the situation because British people didn’t have to learn it in school or in their homes. But it was hard. And Dona didn’t think it was her job to teach him. She flicked her gaze up from the newspaper, giving another sigh when the conversation, thankfully, seemed to move on. “Do you have any plans, though? Any ideas where you want to end up or what you want to do?”

Soledad had seen the cake and she made her way over the table to see if she could ask for some. She was drawn to food like a moth to a flame. “Yes please.” Sol happily grabbed a slice for herself. “Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!” She happily put a big bite in her mouth and made an appreciative noise along with a thumbs up.

Everett chuckled and pushed around his food with a smirk. “Thank you, Love. I asked for some fire whiskey with dinner but they said it wasn’t allowed.” He rolled his eyes because he was well over the legal age but he was still in school. “I’m a little surprised they got my favorite down. I figured they’d do that half-vanilla-half-chocolate-to-share kinda cake.”

Wifey,

It’s my birthday, are you gonna wish me a happy birthday?? 

E. Danveirs