[Toft home] You know what they say about the young (Abby!)

She was finally a teenager. Her friends could no longer use the 'you're a kid and I'm not' argument against her. That crazy last year was now officially over, put behind her, fading into mere memories. The witch had grown in character a lot in that year, though. The Slytherin couldn't wait to celebrate with her family and her best friend, Abby. The fourth of August began as every fourth of August had, Annika and Brietta being woken up by their parents singing 'happy birthday' to them along with a very wonderful, very grand breakfast in bed. There were eggs, sausages, bacon, hash browns, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, baked beans and toast for the two girls to share between them and oh! What a feast it was!

Then Brietta would open her cards, followed by presents from Anna and vice versa, followed by gifts from their parents and any other friends or family members who had actually remembered. When Brietta opened her presents this year, she was expecting... well, she wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it felt like something had changed. In fact, it felt like a lot of things had changed. Probably because they have, she mused sadly. Still, as she put the cards on the twins' bedroom mantelpiece, it seemed like things were potentially returning to normal. She smiled as she skimmed through her sister's heartwarming message to her in her card before putting on the middle of the mantelpiece alongside her own card to Anna. Sitting on the bed next to her sister, Brietta carefully unwrapped her twin's gift to her and gasped in delight, hugging her sister at what she saw. It was a beautiful green feather quill with glistening silver metal and a gold nib. As she picked it up out of its packaging, the Toft noticed that it was specifically designed for left-handed people, a detail the former Ombrelune appreciated very much.

She watched eagerly as Annika opened her own gift, which was a few tightly wrapped magical cooking books such as 'Enchantment in Baking' and 'Cooking the Muggle Way', knowing Anna would enjoy them. Granted they weren't as personal as Anna's gift to her, but considering Annika didn't have any injuries that would warrant such necessities, Brietta was more than happy and even more so when Anna's reaction to her gift was very to her own. More presents were opened and the English witch enjoyed the attention she always got on the special day. But, there was one thing that she was really looking forward to more than anything and it was something that wasn't a normal birthday tradition... though she soon hoped it would be.

Today, the Toft twins were going to be celebrating with their very best friend, @Abby Lawson! The former Beauxbatons student wasn't sure what they were all going to be doing together, but Brietta really didn't care as long as she got to spend the day with her sister and the Hufflepuff. Brietta definitely wanted to make up for the lost time that she didn't have with Abby due to the dome. The scheming witch was definitely planning on monopolising Abby's time, she hoped Annika wouldn't mind just this once.

Knowing her friend would be arriving very soon, Brietta motioned to her sister to help her put her new hair clips in (since holding her hair back and sliding the clip in with the same hand was proving to be difficult), eager to show off her new hair colour which her mother had magically dyed for her. The blonder shade suited Brietta, and though Anna had anturally copied her, Brietta felt more unique in a way. She couldn't wait to show Abby for the first time! At this, the doorbell rang and the Slytherin grinned in delight at Annika before they both clomped their way down the manor house stairs in a flurry of excitement. Smoothing out her dress before opening the door, the usually austere girl was brightly smiling ear to ear (as best as her scarring would allow her) before squealing out an enthusiastic "Hi Abby!" before given the older girl a tight (though one-armed) hug.

Abby bit her lip nervously as she turned to face the impressive manor house in front of her, waving to her dad as he disappeared with a pop. It had been the first time in quite a while that the blonde-haired witch had Apparated alongside one of her parents and her stomach was feeling a bit queasy from the after effects of the jerky, squeezing motion. She didn't really enjoy traveling that way, even if it was convenient and highly favoured by many other wizards and witches, much preferring to use the still jarring but slightly less scary Floo Network or ride a good, ole broomstick, which was a new-found love of the timid Hufflepuff's. She would have highly enjoyed flying to her current location, in fact, but it would have taken an unreasonable amount of time to get there, according to her father, so she'd reluctantly agreed to Apparating there with him instead.

The home she was currently standing in front of belonged to none other than her two very best friends, Annika and Brietta Toft. Abby had been invited to visit them at their house for the first time that day as it was the twin's 13th birthday, and she was both very excited and very nervous to be there and be able to celebrate their special day with them, in person. The teenager hadn't had many outings since the start of her second year at Hogwarts, so she was feeling particularly anxious about the occasion and hoped it all went okay and she and the Tofts were all able to have a good and fun time. She was also feeling a bit weird about the fact that her cat, Casper, wasn't with her, having grown so used to him constantly being at her side everywhere she went since she'd gotten him nearly a year ago. She knew Annika and Brietta each had their own cat as well though, so perhaps they'd distract her enough throughout the day to keep her from missing Casper too much?

Taking in a deep, steadying breath, Abby approached the intimidating house, ringing the doorbell with a slightly shaking hand. She only had to wait a moment though, before the front door was opened with an enthusiastic tug, saving the small girl from worrying any further. She was instantly put at ease by the sight of Brietta, happy to see her friend looking so well, at least at first glance, and secretly pleased with how excited she seemed to be to see her. A bit surprised by the hug she was swiftly given, it took a moment for the young witch to return it, squeezing the Slytherin as tightly and eagerly as she could after her initial unintended hesitation. "H-hi Brietta! Hi Annika!" She tilted her head to nervously smile at the other Toft twin, only noticing then that they'd appeared to have both dyed their hair to be a matching, slightly blonder shade of red. It looked quite pretty on them. "I, uh, like your hair. Did you dye it yourselves?"

Picking at the seam of the flowery summer dress she'd chosen to wear that morning specially for the occasion, Abby slowly held up the two parcels she'd carefully been carrying in her hands up until that point. "These are both for you, by the way. I wrote your names on them, so you can tell whose is whose. My, um, mum made the cookies, but I made the cards myself." The young Hufflepuff had spent hours the week before diligently putting together their birthday cards and writing a unique, personal poem in each of them, one for Brietta and one for Annika. She'd enjoyed taking the time to physically create something special though, and hoped they liked them. "I know it's not much, but I wanted to make you both something. H-happy Birthday, by the way!"

The Toft let out a small smile as her friend squeezed her tightly, the often cold witch appreciating the display of affection. Brietta quickly let go, however, and soon took a step back into the house in order to give Abby some space. The Slytherin grinned happily as the Hufflepuff soon noticed their change in hair colour, Brietta was very happy that Abby had noticed. The Toft tossed her hair behind her with pride as she exclaimed, "thank you! Mother did it for us." The English girl kept it there. There was no need to tell Abby why they had their hair dyed and even if she asked, Brietta certainly wasn't going to tell her. No one needed to know that.

Brietta's eyes glinted in the sunlight with a curious look as her best friend held up two parcels for herself and Anna. Annika snatched her's right away with a rushed thank you and, disapproving of her sister's manners, Brietta shot her twin a dirty look before gingerly taking her own parcel, graciously bowing her head in gratitude. "Thank you Abby,"  she began politely, "thank your mother too!" Bri added, with a smile. The Toft loved cookies, but her mother didn't always approve of her method of eating them (shovelling them in her face), so she decided to hide them in her room where they could not be easily found. "You didn't have to bring us anything," the former Ombrelune muttered, conscious that Abby seemed to believe her offerings were meagre. "Just having you for the day is a gift enough," she smiled, "though we do love cookies, so I'm sure we won't complain," she teased, ending in a light laugh.

Using her foot to pull back the door wider, the Toft gestured with her head to motion to the older witch to come inside, confirming her actions as she said, "come inside, make yourself at home, Abby!" While she waited for the blonde witch to make good of her offer, the Slytherin looked around the hallway, wondering where she put the tray was that her father had charmed for her, so that she could carry more things than she could with only one arm. Not seeing it in her immediate view, Brietta whistled loudly to get the tray to come to her, as she held out the parcel expectantly, the corner of her mouth twitching as she saw it hover into view. Placing her gift onto it, Brietta waited for her sister to do the same (knowing she'd take advantage of it) before nodding her head in the direction of the stairs, and stating "our room, please," and then watched it float away.

Turning back to their guest of honour, the Toft witches both beamed happily at Abby, and Brietta loudly exclaimed, "I am so happy you are here!" The English girl looked at her friend quizzically, noting that she had not come to the door with parents and a question formulated in her mind that she needed to the answer to. "How did you get here?" Brietta asked, before blurting out a few questions such as, "did you come alone? Did it take long?" She raised her eyebrow, just as she realised she'd been a terrible host and her eyes widened a little. "Do you want anything to eat? Are you thirsty?" The English girl was determined to make her best friend as welcome in her home as humanly possible, after all, the Toft witches very rarely received any visitors.

Abby returned Brietta's grin with a large smile of her own, happy to see how her question had perked the red-haired girl up. She nodded at her friend's response, realizing then that it made more sense that their mother had done it for them. It would have probably been a hard spell for a third year to cast, along with them being underage and unable to perform magic outside of school. She did wonder why Mrs. Toft had agreed to dye her daughters' hair however, especially as the young Hufflepuff had always thought they had lovely hair, even before they'd lightened the colour of it. She felt it would be rude to ask them why they'd decided to change the hue of their reddish locks though, so she just bit her lip and adjusted the small parcels that she was carrying in her arms to a more comfortable position instead.

The 13-year-old smirked happily at the reaction the two Tofts had to her offered gifts, biting her lip even harder to stifle a giggle. She muttered a shy "You're welcome" and agreed to pass on the thanks to her mother as well. "She'll be pleased you enjoyed your homemade presents. She likes baking things for people." Abby's eyes widened slightly in surprise at Brietta's next statement. "O-of course I did! It's your birthday a-and you're my best friends! I... I wanted to give you something." The small blonde practically whispered the last part, bowing her head bashfully, knowing she'd probably put more effort into the Slytherin twins' gifts than most witches and wizards around her age would have. She liked making the people she cared about feel special though, and she'd gone through so much with the two sisters over the course of their first two years at Hogwarts that Abby had really just wanted a way to tell them how much they meant to her and that she truly valued their friendship, even with all the highs and lows they'd had together. "Oh! Um..." Realizing she'd overreacted a bit, Abby blushed and wrung her hands together in embarrassment. "Thank you. I-I'm happy I could come too." She looked back up at her too best friends, giving them a small but warm smile. "I love cookies as well, and my mum's are my favourite, so I'm sure you'll really like them. Or at least I hope you do." The young Hufflepuff laughed with Brietta, starting to feel more comfortable again.

Abby nodded at Brietta's invitation to come into their house, quickly taking a few big steps into their entrance way. She was surprisingly eager to see the inside of where the Tofts lived, curious about how their house differed from her own. Distracted by the intrigue of her new surroundings, the blonde-haired witch jumped slightly a few moments later at the sound of a loud, unexpected whistle, turning abruptly to see where the high-pitched noise had come from. Abby was rather shocked to see that it had been Brietta who had whistled, not realizing her best friend could make such a sound, even without part of her mouth being, unfortunately, permanently disfigured. Abby's eyebrows raised in awe as a silver tray whizzed into view within seconds, amazed and impressed as she watched Annika and Brietta place their presents on it and then give the inanimate object instructions to take the two parcels up to their room. Wow! That's so cool! She, of course, also lived in a magical household, but her parents didn't tend to do much magic in front of her. Her mother did all her baking and cooking by hand, even using a normal, muggle oven, and her father wasn't generally one to rely on spells either, only making an exception when his wife tasked him with doing the dishes.

Grinning once again at Brietta's uncharacteristic show of enthusiasm, the 13-year-old cheerfully clasped her hands together in front of her. "Well, thank you for inviting me!" Briefly noticing the Slytherin girl's change of expression before she began asking her a stream of questions, Abby took in a deep breath in preparation for attempting to answer all of them as best she could. "Well, my dad let me do a Side-Along Apparition with him, though it wasn't very pleasant. Have either of you done one yet? He Apparated away again right before I knocked on your door. He'll be back to take me home again later. Oh, no! Thanks, but I'm not really hungry or thirsty. I had something to eat before I came. Do you guys usually have a special birthday meal though? Does your mum make you a cake?" The small blonde wouldn't refuse anything actually offered to her, but she didn't want to impose on her best friends, especially as it was their birthday, after all.

Brietta smiled at her friend sweetly. Abby's mother seemed like a very nice lady and the Slytherin hoped that one day she'd get to meet the woman. Annika liked to bake for others (as well as herself too), something which her sister commented on, leaving Brietta to nod in agreement. "Thanks Abby," the Toft replied warmly, her eyebrows furrowing momentarily as the perceptive witch noticed the Hufflepuff seemed almost... anxious or nervous about something. Abby seemed to be naturally more like that than she had previously remembered her, but Brietta realised that the events of the previous year had changed everyone more than they'd care to admit. She wouldn't press the blonde witch in front of her though, no matter how much she wanted to, because she wanted her guest to be as comfortable as possible. "We really appreciate it!" Their Hufflepuff friend expressed her belief that they'd enjoy the cookies and Annika snorted in amusement. The former Ombrelune smiled at her sister, mildly entertained. Abby was right, they would definitely enjoy the cookies. "In that case, I'm sure we'll definitely like them," she replied to her friend with a hidden smirk. Brietta felt that she probably shouldn't mention that the Toft twins could eat their way through cookies that been burnt to a crisp and still enjoy them.

The newly self-conscious witch was satisfied with Abby's heartfelt exclamation that she was happy to be invited, glad that the older witch did not just feel obligated to come. Brietta was beaming as a result. Ugh. The Slytherin witch's face contorted in disgust at the very mention of apparition. She never wanted to try that. Ever. She'd much prefer the floo network, even if it did involve fire which was now terrifying. Annika, however, quickly piped up with an enthusiastic 'I have! It's great!' and Brietta turned to look at her twin quizzically, not remembering a time when that would have ever happened. Of course, the logical reason was that it occurred during the months that the two girls were apart. "And, I have not." Brietta tacked on the end after her sister, just to clarify the information.

Oh good. The Toft's shoulders sagged as she sighed, grateful that she wouldn't have to cater for a hungry guest. Brietta didn't think she could take seeing anymore food for a while, her stomach was still more than comfortably full from their breakfast. "We've already had our special birthday meal," the Slytherin explained, patting her stomach before adding, "oh, yes! She does make us a cake but we always have that after dinner in the evening." The 13-year-old shiftily glanced in her sister's direction, who promptly winked at her, confirming that they were thinking along similar lines, which made Brietta smile slightly. "If you want to, you can totally stay for that! We'd love to share it with someone for once," the Slytherin witch offered, a hopeful tone conveying how much they'd enjoy sharing their cake.

"Oh," the former Beauxbatons student exclaimed, as if she'd forgotten something of supreme importance. "You've never seen the house, have you?" The question was seemingly rhetorical, because Brietta did not give her friend time to answer before she took Abby's hand and cried, "We'll give you a tour! Come on!" She was sure that Abby was probably curious as to what their house looked like, because Brietta had definitely been curious as to what Abby's looked like before. She also hoped that somewhere along the tour she'd find her cat, Pippin, or at least Annika's cat, since she was a little over-protective towards their feline companions and Brietta hadn't yet had a glance of the cats since they first woke up.

“Oh, really? I didn’t know that. I love baking too. Or I did… before, you know, the start of school last year.” Abby gave Annika a bit of a sheepish smile. The small girl found it rather embarrassing that after almost a year since the terrible fire had occurred in the Hufflepuff and Slytherin Common Rooms, she still couldn’t fully stand to be near even perfectly harmless sources of it, like the oven in her kitchen at home. She used to always look forward to the afternoons she got to bake with her mum, but now the most she comfortably felt doing was taste testing any of the finished goodies her mother made, after they were done baking and the oven had long since been turned off. The 13-year-old hoped she’d be able to get more involved again, with the whole of the baking process, in the near future. Coming out of her troubled thoughts, Abby looked back up at Annika as she snickered loudly. What was so funny? Had she missed something? Trying to not appear as though she didn’t fully understand what had gone on the few seconds beforehand, the blonde-haired witch just nodded in Brietta’s direction, grinning slightly amusedly. “I’d be a bit surprised if you didn’t, to be honest.”

Abby was slightly surprised by Annika’s quick and chipper reply. “You love it? Really? How many times have you actually done it? Don’t you hate the feeling of it though?” The small girl practically shuddered just thinking about the almost-claustrophobic sensation Apparition always caused her to feel. She wasn’t looking forward to having to experience it again later that day. Brietta appeared to feel very differently from her twin, however. She had a very disgusted look on her face as she answered Abby’s question. The 13-year-old was slightly curious why the one Toft hadn’t also used Apparition. Was it just because she, obviously, didn’t like it the idea of traveling that way?

Abby nodded with a slight smile on her face. Mrs. Toft’s cooking sounded just as good as her own mother’s. Eyes widening in shock, the blonde-haired witch was rather taken aback by Brietta’s unexpected invitation. “Ummm… maybe? I’ll have to ask my dad.” Biting her lip, Abby looked down at her feet, knowing seeing the twins expectant faces would just make her feel more nervous. Of course, she genuinely loved the idea of staying at her best friend’s house for dinner, but the thought of it still made her anxious, having never properly met their parents’ or spent much time with them outside of Hogwarts. The small girl knew her dad would say yes to her staying though, and even encourage her to, knowing it would be fun and good for her to socialize and be out of her comfort zone that much longer.

Brietta didn’t give Abby much time to stew on her conflicted feelings however, as next second she was exclaiming that the 13-year-old was getting a house tour and grabbing her hand to pull her along behind her. Smirking slightly despite her earlier reservations and anxious thoughts, the blonde-haired witch readily allowed herself to be tugged forwards by the Slytherin. She had been eager to see the Toft’s house, after all, and this might allow her to catch a glimpse of their somewhat elusive cats too.