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A surreal castle painted with hues of purple and gray lied in front of me as I steadied myself to cross the bridge that lay in between. It was a light brown wooden bridge that swayed left and right over the castle’s moat, a moat that was filled with lava. When I squinted, I could make out the faint image of my grandmother, who I admit blended quite well with the castle.
I would’ve used my broom to get to the other side in a situation like this, but the problem was that I didn’t have my broom with me or even any potions I could use for some reason. So instead, I took a deep breath and took the first step on the bridge, and upon contact the wood below broke apart and made me fall. Somewhere in the distance, as I gripped onto the bridge and pulled myself back up, I could hear my grandmother: “Witch! Witch! Come on, get up!”
“Th-That’s what I’m trying to do, grandma!” I shouted back. “But it’s hard when this stupid bridge isn’t even stable enough to support the tiniest weight! Couldn’t you have made a better bridge for me to walk across?”
Eventually, I got up and started running along the bridge to make it to the other side as fast as I could, with my grandma still yelling at me to get up even though I already did. Jeez, I don’t remember my grandma being so... off. What was up with her?
“Hey, grandma,” I shouted. “Are you okay? I’m already up, so why are you still saying I’m not?”
“Come on, Witch! Get up and open your eyes! ROOOAAARRR!”
...Okay, yeah. That definitely isn’t how she talks.
I opened my eyes and saw Draco bouncing on my bed with more energy than I thought was possible. To be honest, I was a little bummed out that who was in my dream wasn’t actually my grandma, but at least Draco being here clarifies things a bit more.
“Come on, come on! Today’s a special day for ya, so ya gotta get up! Come on, Witch!” Draco exclaimed as she started pulling the bedsheets off of me. “Here, I’ll help pull ya out o’ bed. Take my hand and -”
“GET OFF OF ME!” I shouted and pushed Draco off my bed. “What makes you think you can waltz in here and wake me up anyways?! Is it really that important for you to wake me up so early in the morning like this?” Seriously, why did Draco think this day was so important?
Draco took a few steps backwards and giggled nervously. She started pacing around my room, taking a few glances out the window as I got myself up from the bed. “Well, haven’t ya looked at the calendar recently?”
“What do you mean?”
“No, like... You know what day today is, right?”
“What? ‘Barge Into Witch’s House and Annoy the Heck Out of Her Day’ or something?”
Draco roared while she rushed out of the room and came back with a paper with the words “October 1st” written on it. “Don’t ya get it?” she cried, waving the paper in front of my face as if I couldn’t see it already.
“Get what? I already know it’s October 1st, so what difference does that make?”
Draco waved her hands around and smiled. “IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY! Seriously, how’d ya not notice that?”
Oh my... Just when I thought she couldn’t get any dumber.
I snatched the paper from Draco’s hands and ripped it apart. Tossing the remains in the garbage bin, I asked her, “Since when did you think my birthday was on the first?”
“Since, uh...” Draco put a finger to her mouth in thought as she continued pacing around the room. “Since... When Arle told me a few days ago. She said your birthday was on the first of this month!”
“The thirty-first, you dummy! And even so, I’m sure you’ve known me long enough to know that the first of October is most definitely not when my birthday is!”
Draco shuffled through so many expressions of surprise you’d think she was going through the 7 Stages of Grief or something. “Seriously?!” she cried. “Man, I thought for sure Arle said your birthday was on the first! Guess I didn’t hear the ‘thirty’ part. ...Jeez, and I even brought a whole band over here to celebrate!”
...Band? As in a musical band?!
The instant sound of a screeching flute was all it took to confirm said “band”, along with a yellow-haired elf – the one who played the flute – and two other kids I didn’t recognize that suddenly walked in. One of them was a girl who had a flower on her head while the other was a werewolf who had the dumbest smile I’ve ever seen plastered onto his face. And they all marched straight into my room as if I didn’t mind in the slightest!
The boy with the flute screeched out a few notes before saying, “Hey, so the dragon lady over there told us it was your birthday, so uh... Happy birthday from The Panotty Band! Yeah!” He continued playing his flute while the other kids danced around each other in circles and played on little toy drums they brought along with them.
I sneaked a menacing glare towards Draco before shouting to the kids, “Get out of my house, you brats! What makes you think you can just barge in like this anyways?!”
“Uh, what Witch meant to say was...” Draco stepped in and knelt down to talk to the little kids. “I made a tiny little mistake ‘n thought Witch’s birthday was on the first when it’s actually on the thirty-first of this month. So, uh... Ya guys are free to leave.”
The elf kid whined. “Oh, come on! Don’t tell me we have to do all of this again!”
Behind him, the werewolf kid asked, “Are we still getting paid for this?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m still payin’ ya!” Draco pulled out her wallet and gave each of the kids five pieces of gold. “Look, ya guys did a great job ‘n all, but I don’t think Witch is in the mood right now.”
The elf kid grumbled and told his friends to follow him out the house, with the werewolf kid carefully counting his money as they walked out. When I was able to confirm they were completely gone, I slammed the door shut and said to Draco, “Even if it were my birthday, did you really think I’d want a whole band of kids following me around all day, dancing around and creating horrible noise they called ‘music’?”
But... Then again, I really couldn’t be terribly mad at Draco. I mean, I did have to admit it was nice for her to set up something special like this for me, even if she thought that a whole parade of kids was what I wanted for a birthday present. It was better than receiving nothing, I suppose. ...Although, and I told Draco this once I got her attention again, I would have preferred to get even the tiniest heads-up before she decided to let three kids invite themselves into my house.
After explaining how she got those kids to agree to playing a song for me, Draco took her leave, leaving me alone in the solitude I was used to. I decided to get some breakfast since I was already wide awake at this point, especially with the new thought that loomed around in my head:
Is Draco going to have those kids barge into my house and make "music" again for my birthday? ...Or is my birthday something she’s going to count down to, which would have the kids come into my house EVERY DAY up until my birthday?!
Upon that thought, I started to shake in fear as I headed towards my kitchen.
This month... was going to be one of the longest months I’ve ever had to endure...