Chapter 26

Alex sat up and rubbed her eyes. It was dark around her as she tried to focus her vision. She looked over and became instantly confused.

She was back at her Aunt and Uncle's.

Her eyes were wide as she jumped out of bed and ran to the calendar. There was a circle on the open day of July 31st. Turning to the clock she noticed it read 3:00 A.M.

"Alex what are you doing?" Harry's sleepy groan came from his bed.

She backed against the wall, frightened. "Harry. What's going on?"

"What do you mean what's going on, it's 3 in the morning." He mumbled into his pillow.

Alex looked around again. She pinched herself to make sure it was real. When she flinched at the self inflicted pain she sat back down on her bed.

"You ok?" Harry asked after awhile.

Alex looked over at him. "I-I don't know. I think I just had a nightmare."

Harry rolled over. "Probably. You were tossing and turning a lot."

"Was I?" She asked in a daze.

"Go back to bed Alex. We're going to need energy in the morning if we're to celebrate our birthday here and not at the Weasley's."

Alex nodded. "Right. Our birthday."

Harry propped himself up on an elbow and tried to squint his eyes to see her. "You sure you're ok?"

Alex laid back down on her pillow. "Yea. Fine. Just a bad dream."

Alex woke up as the sunlight poured into the room. She sat up quickly and ran her hands over her body and into her hair. She was really here!

Jumping out of bed she shook Harry awake. "Harry I'm home!"

Harry grabbed his glasses and put them on sleepily. "You're a loony."

"I can't explain it Harry, I had the most intense dream I've ever had in my life it was like I was there!"

Harry sat up and stretched. "Stop eating so much before you go to bed, you have weird dreams when you do that."

"I'm telling you Harry it didn't feel like a dream at all!"

Harry shrugged and turned as a tapping came on the window.

"Look presents!" He said excitedly.

As Harry grabbed the first present he shoved a box towards Alex.

She opened it and found a book she had been wanting, it was from Hermione. As the present opening progressed she felt the air tensing around her. She looked at her wall clock, it was nearly noon. She stared at the book in her hand. This was the book, she remembered. The card would appear in the book. She shook her head, it had to be a dream, she reassured herself.

She opened the book again and checked every page.

"What?" He asked through a mouth full of chocolate frogs.

Alex looked at the book again. "Nothing." She said. "There's nothing here."

"No card?" He asked.

Alex smiled and shook her head. "No." Alex pressed the book to her chest.

Harry shrugged as Alex sighed in relief. Opening the book again to begin reading it she jumped.

There on the top page of the book she noticed the title of the first chapter.

The Mysterious Birthday Card.

Running her fingers over the picture she felt her heart clench, there next to the title was a small pink birthday card.

"Harry." She whispered.

"Hmmm?" He said, not looking up from his present pile.

She looked over to him and smiled. "It's going to be a good year this year."

Harry looked at her strangely. "You're acting funny, are you sure you're alright?"

Alex nodded. "I'm absolutely wonderful." She shut the book and smiled. "We're going to have a new student this year." She said looking at Harry.

"And how would you know that?" Harry asked disbelieving.

Alex shrugged as she grinned wickedly. "I have this…feeling."

-End-