multiversallogs | Two years in a row now, someone I loved died on my birthday

Who: Steph and friends!
What: A birthday party
Where: A restaurant in... let's go with Howl Barrow? It's not really important.
When: Sukkadi night
Notes: HI. If we haven't pre-discussed this and you're unsure whether your character would be invited, hit me up and I will tell you. On the off-chance your character would like to bring a friend/SO, we can work something out. But yes, come here, tag around and feel free to talk to everyone. Have fun or Steph will make sad faces. P.S. She's wearing this because I wanted an excuse to use it.
Warnings: None for now

Birthdays are weird. They've never been a big deal for Steph. Her parents never cared, she rarely had friends close enough to make a big deal out of it, and she didn't even tell Tim for a long time (she's pretty sure he actually found out by snooping). Last year it was a quiet affair, just dinner with her mom and a few small gifts. Things had been too awkward with Tim to do anything together, and Cass was - busy with something that Steph can't remember now. Baedal makes it even weirder, for starters she'd forgotten it was her birthday for a good two weeks and then she hadn't been sure exactly how to go about recognizing it, considering the fact it wasn't the actual date of her birthday here. On the other hand, she feels like she has more friends here than she has back home, so she takes Angela's suggestion about a party to heart.

After much deliberation, Steph decides to rent out part of a restaurant for her partying needs. Babs had offered her house, but Steph feels like the population of Baedal, her included, has imposed on Babs enough already. So a restaurant it is - one that Angela helped her choose, pay for and organize, which Steph is extremely grateful for. As a result of Angela's help, said restaurant ends up being a little eclectic, hole-in-the-wall place with a restaurant/bar downstairs and the private room upstairs, serving platters of food that Steph isn't entirely sure she recognizes. There's odd pieces of art on the walls, the chairs, small sofas and tables don't actually seem to match each other, but the whole thing seems to fit a general theme and Steph likes it, so that's good enough for her. She'd entrusted music to the venue, not really having the resources at the moment to put music onto one of those fancy crystals; it's been good so far though, a little on the instrumental side, but Steph doesn't mind that. There's a small bar up here, too, with Steph choosing the package that gets them free beer and house wines - if anyone wants anything stronger or fancier than that, it's up to them to pay (Steph isn't made of money, alright).

She's kind of nervous about it, this is the first party she's ever thrown for herself and she just wants everyone to have a nice time. When she'd invited everyone - either by private CiD message or in person - she'd told them that presents weren't necessary, that it was just a small get together to help her celebrate the technical passing of a year. She really just wants everyone to have a good time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Cheater," It makes Steph wish magic was a skill she could learn; it would be handy to know, and not just for transfiguring heels into flats.

She raises an eyebrow, noting that smile but makes an effort to keep a straight face, "You know, I'm almost a hundred percent sure I told you not to bring a present." Hermione you are terrible at following instructions.

"Well, I am one hundred percent sure that I brought one anyway and as it so happens I started on it before you even said anything about your birthday, so you can't complain. You don't even have to think of it as a birthday present at all, just a present which happens to ready for your birthday."

She's elbow deep in her clutch; it's a slightly alarming picture. The package she closes her fingers around isn't without protection, of course; the bottle inside it is charmed to hell and back to stop it breaking, and surrounded by bubblewrap to boot because Hermione habitually takes all precautions possible. She pulls it out; it's wrapped in purple. And inside box, bubblewrap and bottle is something she's been working on since the second day home after the sky opened; aimless, at first, something to do with her head and hands, until she decided she could do worse than saying thank you to Steph- and protecting her in the same fell swoop. Felix Felicis.

She holds it out. "It's lucky," she says, not quite able to keep the secret quiet but holding off on explaining any more until Steph unwraps it.

"Mm, that sounds like a very well thought out excuse," Not that she doesn't believe Hermione, but that's not a reason to stop pouting about being given a gift. Steph likes gifts, to be fair, she's just never quite sure how to deal with them.

Well, she knows how to unwrap them at least. She takes the package and carefully unwraps it; Steph is the sort of person who pulls off the tape one piece at a time, rather than ripping the wrapping open. Once she has the bottle out, she holds it up to the light to get a proper look at it.

"What does 'it's lucky' mean?" She's already making a few guesses in her head, and she's fairly certain it's some sort of potion.

Hermione barely conceals an excited smile as she eagerly watches Steph unwrap it, eyes glinting; she's proud of this one, clearly.

"It means that that is one day's worth of perfect luck," she says. And a beat, before she adds conditions and qualifications, as Hermione always must; "Though it's banned in sporting competitions and tests and the like, though I don't think that's really what you're likely to put it to use with. And of course it's very dangerous and actually arguably addictive in large doses, but I didn't make large doses so that's fine. Basically, you just...down it. And nothing goes wrong. It works in smaller bits, too- you can drink a tiny bit for a few hour's worth of luck, for instance- academic opinions are rather divided as to whether being lucky will extend to coincidentally having drunk exactly enough of the potion to get past anything you may need to be lucky to get past, but- well. It ought to work nicely for you."

Her eyes widen as she listens to the explanation for what the potion does and, well - "That's so cool."

Careful of the bottle, and of Hermione's glass of wine, she pulls her into another hug, because seriously, best present ever, "Thank you!" After a second she steps back and inspects the bottle again.

"I'll probably end up taking it in smaller doses," Because otherwise she wouldn't be able to pick the right day to use it, but this way she can take a little bit before she heads out on missions that will be especially dangerous.

Hermione actually laughs at Steph pronouncing it cool, into Steph's shoulder; "It sort of is, isn't it?" she says, with what could be called a giggle. She's relaxed tonight, glad to see people alive and having fun instead of caught up in rebuilding and mourning. And as for the gift- it's nice to achieve an aim rather than be constantly in the process of working towards it. It's small- well, it feels small to her, she may actually be understating how difficult a potion it is but it's still just a potion and in comparison to everything else she wants to do it's small- but it's something concrete, done and appreciated.

And Steph's beaming, so that's good. Hermione's beaming right back at her.

"That's the most efficient way," she agrees enthusiastically. "Well, I'm glad you like it- I'm not usually particularly good at presents, I tend to just buy people books or stationery and I've realised it's only me who thinks new envelopes are exciting, so- hence, potions." She's even relaxed enough to make jokes at her own expense, apparently.

"This is definitely better than envelopes, but I'll remember what you like when your birthday comes around," When is Hermione's birthday? Steph makes a note to ask, right now she's busy carefully repacking the bottle, so that it doesn't get damaged. Admittedly, Steph will probably not get her envelopes, but will more likely try to find some sort of useful weapon for Hermione to have (that's what true friendship is, exchanging potions and weapons).

"I will admit to having no idea how potions work, but I hope this wasn't too much trouble," It'd have to be, something so powerful, but she can still hope.

"Actually, I really enjoyed making it," Hermione enthuses. "It was something to do, and I'd never tried it before- not that you should worry, because I've done all the necessary tests ad it's completely fine. It was an interesting project, honestly."

And she now knows she can do it, which could undoubtedly come in handy with any future dangerous escapades, though finding the time will be difficult; the library had been shut down for a while following the catastrophe, so she'd had a little more time to watch over a potion. Still, it's a useful skill to have.

Incidentally, this is why Hermione, despite her not inconsiderable ambition and ability to be occasionally shockingly devious, is not a Slytherin; while pondering uses, it didn't even to her that she could sell it.

"Are there some really lucky guinea pigs running around somewhere, now?" Not that she knows if that's how one tests a potion, but she figures Hermione will get the joke anyway.

Steph is still kind of grinning like a fool, imagining the uses for this, "Am I allowed to share it?" Because, well - Kate. And everyone else Steph cares about, but she figures she should ask permission.

"It's a more chemical test, actually, you just-" No. She presses her lips together and looks embarrassed, fighting the urge to share how interesting the process is.

...To her.

"--Yes. Yes, of course, it's yours to do what you want with."

Oh, Hermione. Steph pats her shoulder, "One day I'll come over and you can explain it all to me." Isn't she a good friend? She also does find potions interesting, so there's that.

"Good. Then you're not allowed to complain if I ever decide you need some," There's an unspoken part about how they're going to get up to dangerous things together, but now isn't the time for discussing anti-militia business.

Two years in a row now, someone I loved died on my birthday

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