You Only Turn Twelve Once. (FoY)

[hannah]

Number Four Old London Drive was where a very excited now twelve year old girl was waiting in her bed, waiting for the clock to tick over to a reasonable time to get out of her bed and go annoy her Mum that it was that day and that she had promised. Being born on Christmas Day was great, Hannah thought, you got double the presents and double the celebration. Which meant a huge pink, fairy birthday cake and plenty of food to celebrate the day with.

However, being born on Christmas Day had dealt Hannah with a few problems. One, that she couldn't really celebrate her birthday with her friends and two, that she had to wait a couple of days afterwards for her actual present her Mum had said she going to give her. A day out with just her and her dad at the Yule and the promise that Hannah could have anything she asked for.

Glancing at the clock, Hannah saw that it read six am. Still a bit too early, but she couldn't really wait anymore, not if she wanted to reach her friends in time and she still needed to ask her parents if that was okay. Putting on a pair of fluffy pink slippers and a pink fairy gown, Hannah made her way to her parent's room, knocking on the door loudly. "Come in" Elisabeth's voice resonated from within the bedroom. The pink clad girl pushed the door open and hurried inside, glad to see that both her parents were dressed.

"Mum, can I bring my friends along? Dad said yes all ready" Hannah told her Mum. It wasn't a lie, Henry Astley really did say yes, but was concerned that all three of Hannah's friend were boys and he had wondered why Hannah didn't have any girlfriends. The first year replied back with that girls really couldn't be trusted and the boys were great friends to her. Though, Hannah was unsure if the boys would come or not, but she hoped they did.

"Of course, darling. It's your special day, you can invite whoever you want to invite, just as long as it's not too many people" Elisabeth said, giving her daughter a smile. "Thanks Mum" Hannah replied, giving her Mother a huge hug, and a smile in return. "I'll just go and owl them now" Hannah said, letting go of her Mum, running out of the room and back to her own.

"Sooty, come here" Hannah said, calling her black owl over to her, tying three, nearly identical letters to her foot. Inside the envelopes, the letter with each name being singular on it said, To, Ryan, Jeremy and Braxton, you are invited to spend the day celebrating me turning twelve. A whole day has been organized to spend it at the Yule, under the eye of my Mum and Dad, though we are able to do whatever we want. The day is to begin at 10am sharp, finishing whenever we want it to be finished, but before 10pm. Please reply to this invitation a.s.a.p. You will need to come straight to my place if you decided to come, and I hope you do. Hannah

"I want these letters to get to them quickly, 'kay?" Hannah told her owl. Sooty gave her beak a nod, the bird flapping her wings and she was off to deliver the letters. Now all Hannah had to do was wait. Patience wasn't one of her strong points.

(Ryan, Braxton and Jeremy)

[Jeremy Taylor]

Jeremy had been in the middle of breakfast when the owl dropped the letter in his cereal. Sarah screeched as if this were a hillarious joke, but Jeremy just scowled, thinking about his ruined meal instead of who would be writing him.

"What's that?" his father asked, looking around the London Times at the mess on the table. Before Jeremy could answer back, his mother scooped the note up and opened it.

"It's mine," Jeremy grumbled but his mother ignored him.

"It's an invitation to a party," she announced, a little surprise in her voice and she looked over at her husband to see the same expression on his face. Jeremy had claimed to have friends but this was actual proof.

"A birthday..." Jeremy's mother continued, turning back to the note and fretting over that bit. No matter. The boy was invited and she would do what she could to make sure he went and, by Merlin's beard, had a good time. "Okay then, finish your breakfast, quick shower and put on some nice clothes. Something warm because you're going to the Festival by the sounds of it. Yes, behind your ears and yes clean underwear. Scoot and I'll go pop downtown ot pick up a present for her, okay?"

"Her?" Jeremy answered, scowling even harder. There was only one girl who talked to him besides Ari and Allegra. "It's Hannah, huh? I don't want to go to a stupid girl party!"

His mother was obviously not listening and as she cleared his breakfast, Jeremy looked at his father for some support but the man wasn't very supportive either. "You heard your mother. Come on!"

Jeremy pushed his chair back angrily, making a face at his sister which just got her laughing again. Why, why WHY did he have to go to a stupid Hannah party? He kicked at his bed, he kicked at his trunk, and he kicked at the wall as he got ready for a shower he didn't think he needed. It was while he was in a half-dressed state that he suddenly realized his mom was picking up a present and he ran down stairs to catch her before she left, wanting to tell her exactly what she was to get. The message given, he stomped back upstairs and finished getting ready.

And so it was at promptly 10 o'clock, that Jeremy Taylor found himself on the front doorstep of the Astley home, his mother waiting at the curb to make sure he got in safely. He treid to shoo her away, but she wouldn't budge, probably worried he'd ruin his nice shirt or tear his new sweater or scuff his shined shoes or muss his slicked down hair or lose the wrapped box he carried.

He took a deep breath, grumbled a little to himself, and tried to make his mother go away one more time before knocking on the door.

[spicer]

Braxton had been sitting with Ryan at the breakfast table at Ryan’s dads place when the owl came screeching in. Nearly knocking over the orange juice that he was drinking right into his eggs and sausage. Braxton didn’t know what to think, he was sure that Ryan’s step mom would freak if she saw an owl in her kitchen, but then again maybe not considering she had been handling magic pretty well this past week. Smiling he saw the letter and who they were addressed to. One to Ryan and one to himself. Wondering what that was all about he pulled the letter off of the owl and opened it. It was from Hannah, and it was for today. Well that certainly didn’t leave much time for them to get ready. Good thing it only took Brax a couple of minutes to get done, but the trip to Hannah’s place would take longer. For starters they were in Australia how were they going to get to Hannah’s place in just a few hours? Oh well he would let his dad deal with that small detail.

Looking over in Ryan’s direction he smiled before yelling for his mom and dad to come into the kitchen. Thank heavens everyone was already up or he would have heard it for sure from his mom, especially since they were guests. Handing off the letter to his mom he smiled. As Kylie read it she smiled slightly, it was cute that her little boy had been invited to a birthday party with his friends from school. “Alright well you better get read then,” she said with a smile.

“Yeah we better,” he said beaming over in Ryan’s direction as he ran off towards the shower. It had been decided that Brax’s mom and Ryan’s mom would head off to the shops while they got ready and while Brax’s dad figured out the best way to get them there. It was out of side along apparition or a portkey. The first one was probably the safer of the two, well at least Brax’s dad could make sure they got their alright and everything. Yeah that’s what they would do.

A couple of hours later Braxton was all set to go in his favorite new outfit, a long sleeve orange sweatshirt, Ryan must have told her how much he had liked the other one he had received, a nice pair of blue jeans, and some cool shoes that Ryan’s mom had given them all for Christmas. She had sent every kid an outfit and Braxton had thought that was way cool. Waiting for Ryan to arrive he stood next to his dad ready to go. He wasn’t sure how Ryan would like the method of travel, but it was the easiest way to get there, or so his dad had informed him.

Once everyone was ready to go Brax took his dads hand and Ryan took the other and they were off. Apparating just feet from Hannah’s house. Smiling Braxton let go of his dads hand and waved him goodbye, heading up for the front porch with Ryan in toe. He gave a knock on the door and waited for Hannah to answer.

[scobee]

There hadn’t been an owl in the Scobee residence...well forever. It was the first time that an owl had ever laid foot inside Ryan’s dad’s house and it really was a good thing that his step mom wasn’t in the immediate area of the kitchen. Unfortunately she was only gone for a minute to get Jordan dressed and arrived back at the exact moment that the bird landed in Braxton’s breakfast. With a howl of horror she gave a start and started yelling about wildlife and something about the house not being a bird sanctuary and how did it get in. The list just went on and on, until Ryan informed her it was their to deliver the mail. Giving him a second look she decided that he was probably telling the truth and attempted to ignore the owl that was now eating Ryan’s cereal.

Jordan, on the other hand, thought that the owl was the coolest thing that he had seen in a long time. Rushing to the table for a better look he arrived in time for the owl to give him a contemptuous look, for ruining it’s breakfast, and fly away. Slightly disgruntled he roughly pulled out a chair and sat down. His mom, who had recovered from the shock, was getting him and Corbin something to eat. Corbin had trailed in a little ways after Jordan not finding the owl nearly as neat and Jordan did.

Reading the letter Ryan smiled, but then it turned immediately to a frown. There was no way that they would get to London in that amount of time. Still frowning his dad walked into the kitchen as Braxton screamed for his parents and read the letter over Ryan’s shoulder, as Jordan began going on about the owl that had just flown out of the kitchen. Jason wasn’t alarmed by the news. He was used to the creatures having gotten several owls from Ryan when he had been at Hogwarts. They had never been delivered to the house, it seemed he was always working when they came, but that was probably for the better. He was pretty sure that if Ryan didn’t explain it to his wife she would have tried to beat the poor thing over the head with a broom or something to get it out of the house.

Ryan’s mood went from being sour to excited with the arrival of Brax’s parents and the prospect that they actually might make it to London in time to go to Hannah’s party. “Yeah,” Ryan said forgetting his breakfast and going for a shower. It seemed that all of the details had been worked out between the parents. Braxton’s dad would be taking them, while the rest watched the little kids.

Twenty minutes later, okay maybe thirty, Ryan was dressed and ready to go. He too was wearing his new outfit that his mom had sent him. His was blue and everything from the shirt to the hoody to the shoes matched each other. He was so excited that he had forgotten that they wouldn’t be leaving for awhile. Finding something to occupy his time with he dwindled the minutes away until it was finally time to go.

The experience getting there wasn’t really a pleasant one. It was like he had been stuffed into a straw and then squeegeed out, but he wasn’t complaining. They were there and that was all that mattered, right? Rushing after Braxton he too was on the door step before the door bell was rung. Now all they had to do was wait until it opened.

[hannah]

Sooty came back through the window of Hannah's bedroom and with her were three replies off yes, this was when Hannah went into overdrive. Running out of her room once again and running into her Mum's, not bothering to knock this time, as the door was open, Hannah gave her Mum a huge grin. "They're coming! all three of them are coming!" Hannah stopped, faintly hearing knocking at the door and then the doorbell went off. "They're here! they're here and I'm not dressed yet!" Looking around the room, Hannah noticed that her step-dad wasn't there and she cringed.

"Mum! Where's step-daddy? Don't let him answer the door, you know what he's like when he meets new people. How he likes to predict things for them! You need to save them!" Oops, that was out of Hannah's mouth before she realized she had said it. Hannah loved her step dad, but his eccentric living had let him to think that he was some kind of psychic and her own Dad had said that he would make a great Seer, since he had predicated some things that came true.

"Mu-um!" Hannah yelled again, watching her Mum make the bed. "You know he doesn't mean to do that, Hannah" Elisabeth Astley said, giving her daughter a look. "If this wasn't a special day, I'd make you spend the whole day with the twins" Elisabeth threatened, knowing how much her daughter didn't like spending time with the twins. "But yes, I will go and save them. You go and get dressed and quickly! We'll be going shortly" Hannah gave her Mum a quick hug, muttering a quick thanks before she retreated back to her room.

It was too late for Elisabeth to save her daughter's friends, however. The door was open and Aspen Daly gave each boy a smile, glad to see Hannah's friends for the first time. "Why hello! you must be Hannah's friend. Yes, yes, she told us quite a lot about you three" Aspen informed them, his gaze landing on the boy with the slicked-back hair. "You must be Jeremy. My, you have a strong aura around you, you'd need that around my step-daughter, no?" Aspen moved away from Jeremy and over to Braxton. "And you must be Braxton. Or is it Ryan? No, you're Braxton. You're one of the troublemakers. I can see you're going to do a lot more trouble making as well, Hannah will be pleased" Aspen informed Braxton, giving the boy a smile and coming to a rest in front of Ryan.

"And you must be Ryan, you'd best keep an eye on that puffskein of yours. Oh, hello Elisabeth!" Aspen said, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "I must be off now, busy day. Have a good time today" Aspen finished, wandering through the foyer to his study. "Hello, I'm Elisabeth, Hannah's Mum. Why don't you all come in? Hannah's not quite ready yet, she forgot she needed to get dressed for today" Elisabeth smiled at the three of them, trying to make a joke in the light of Aspen leaving.

Standing off to one corner of the foyer near the kitchen and sneaking quick looks around it were two, blond haired identical twins, each giving the same look of amazement to one another. Hannah had friends that were boys? Nodding at each other, the twins gave a smile at each other, both knowing soon it would be time to tease their sister.

[Jeremy Taylor]

As soon as the door opened and the man greeted them, Jeremy panicked, looking over his shoulder at his mother who was still by the gate. She obviously knew what he had been thinking because she gave him a big smile and a cheery wave before Apperating home. Great, Jeremy was stranded.

He was too nervous to remember his manners until Hannah's mother led the way into the house, at which point he cried out, "Nice to meet you!" in a voice that was a little too loud. He was embarassed but thought maybe they'd kick him out and he'd have to go home anyway.

[hannah]

"It's nice to meet you too, erm... Braxton?" Elisabeth replied, giving all three boys a warm smile. Unlike her partner, Elisabeth had a hard time remembering all three names of Hannah's friends. "And you two must be Ryan and Jeremy, right?" The tall, blond haired mother of Hannah inquired. Looking at Elisabeth was like looking at an older version of Hannah, more or less. Same blond hair, same look, except for the eyes and the height. Elisabeth had blue eyes, while Hannah had brown. It was Henry Astley that had the brown eyes.

"Well, come in, come in!" Elisabeth shooed them all into the lounge area of the house, where the muggle world met the magical world. A huge TV was situated in a brown, antique TV unit, two cream lounge chairs were perched up against a wall and in the middle of the TV and the chairs was a brown, antique coffee table where a plate of sandwiches, chocolate cookies and milk sat in glasses. A vacuum cleaner was cleaning by itself, until Hannah's Mum got out her wand and flicked it off.

"Sorry about that. Hannah should be down here shortly and so should her Dad, he's running a bit late unfortunately. Actually, I might go and see how Hannah's doing, we should be going soon" Elisabeth told the three boys, flicking her wand at a dust feather brush and stopping that from cleaning as well. "Do have some sandwiches and cookies, won't you? Have some morning tea before we go, you never know what you're going to get with stall food" Elisabeth finished off, giving the boys another warm smile before retreating back up the stairs to check how her daughter was doing.

"No, you do it! You're much better at these things than I am" Came a loud, whispered voice from behind the lounge room wall. Alison and Annie had followed their mother and Hannah's guests unnoticed out to the lounge room, but were both hidden by the wall. "Okay, but you're such a baby!" Came another, equally loud, whispered voice. "It's only green slime" At the moment the voice said that, a blob of green slime found it's way to the middle of the lounge room floor, as if being pushed along by a invisible piece of rope. "This is the best plan yet... " The other voice whispered, a bit quieter this time, but still loud enough for the boys to hear.

[spicer]

Braxton just stared up at the man not really sure what to think of him. Had he just called him a troublemaker? And that Hannah would be happy about that? Not to mention what was with Jeremy’s aura and Ryan’s puffskein? Well that certainly was the oddest greeting he had ever had. He was so stunned he hadn’t even had the sense to say nice to meet you or anything before he was off. Trying to shake off the man he turned to look at Hannah’s mom and blinked. “Yeah alright,” Brax said still slightly perplexed by the man.

Hearing Jeremy exclaim Brax just looked over at him before turning his attention back to Elizabeth. “Er...I’m Brax,” he said raising his hand slightly before entering into the house and looking around. He wasn’t in the mood for any food at the moment so he didn’t take her up on her offer of sandwiches and tea.

Then hearing the voices and something about slime Brax turned on the spot sending Ryan and Jeremy a wondering look.

[scobee]

Ryan was on the verge of asking why he might need to keep an eye on his puffskien when Hannah’s mom entered the fray and he didn’t get a chance. He thought that he had a pretty good puffskein that didn’t cause him any trouble and was a bit concerned to learn that there might be something wrong or that he puffskein wasn’t the good pet he thought it was. With a scowl on his face he glance up at the mom and gave her a funny look. He really wanted to know why the dad had said that to him. “I’m Ryan.” he said still slightly puzzled about the earlier conversation.

“Umm...no thank you.” he added in response to the offer for food. He had had a big breakfast and wasn’t hungry at the moment, but he did appreciate the offer and it brought him out of his spaciness worrying about his animal.

“I don’t know what they are doing.” Ryan said in response to Braxton’s look. It was awfully odd that green slime had landed in the middle of the room, but there seemed to be a lot of odd things going on in the house.

[hannah]

The green slime snaked it's way around the floor, up on the table, knocking over the glasses of milk, found it's way back onto the floor and finally resting in the middle of the three boys. 'You said it would work!" Annie's clear voice came from around the corner off the wall, not bothering to be quiet this time. "I said it might work!" Alison replied back to her sister, her voice exactly the same as her sister's. "Never mind! Let's just go and say hello" Alison said, another evil gleam in her eye.

"No!, let's stay here and just look at them!" Annie exclaimed, she was the more reserved twin of the two, Alison was the more impulsive twin. "What fun is that?" Alison asked, looking at her sister weirdly. Annie threw her sister a look, "Okay, Okay!" Two dark brown heads popped around the corner, looking at the three boys with amazement and a touch of jealousy. It was rare for the twins to be jealous of Hannah, but right at that moment, they were.

Right in the middle of the lounge room floor, a crack could be heard and Henry Astley had apparated. "Sorry I'm la-- Oh! hello!" Henry's dark brown eyes sparkled with curiosity when he saw the three boys standing in the middle of his wife's home. "You must be Hannah's friends. My princess has told me a lot about you, I'm Henry, Hannah's Dad" Henry smiled at the three boys, glad to have finally meet the people his Princess has been telling him.

"But wouldn't you rather wear a dress?" Elisabeth's voice could be heard from the top of the stairs. "There's that pretty pink one with the ruffles on it that would look awfully pretty on you" Elisabeth cajoled with her daughter, frowning at the purple fairy top and the blue, glitter jeans she was wearing. "For the last time, I am not wearing a dress! It's too cold out to wear a dress" Hannah told her Mum, rolling her eyes at her. "Hannah, I saw that. I'll owl your Dad and tell him not to come, if that's what you want" Elisabeth threatened, putting the pink dress back in the cupboard.

"I didn't mean to, I'm just not wearing a dress" Hannah explained, giving her Mum one of her smiles. "I think I heard Daddy's voice... " Hannah trailed off, her brown eyes on her Mum. "I'd better get down there, they'll think I'm not coming... " Hannah trailed off, inching towards her bedroom door. "I'll be down in a minute" Elisabeth looked at her daughter, the frown still there. "Just promise me there will be no trouble today, okay?" With three boys and one girl to keep and eye on between two people, it was going to be one hard task for her and her ex-husband.

"I promise" Hannah told her Mum, giving her another smile and thinking that trouble always found her, she didn't purposely go looking for trouble. Giving her Mum one last hug, she hurried out of the room, raced down the steps and into the lounge room. "Daddy!" Hannah exclaimed, giving her Dad a huge hug, not realizing that all three boys were in the lounge room.

[Jeremy Taylor]

Jeremy shrunk back to the wall as the adults left, leaving the sandwiches and milk untouched. He too, had just had a sizable breakfast and besides, his stomach felt kind of jumpy, like he was going to be sick.

The slime oozed in and Jeremy shrugged at the other two boys. Whoever had planted the stuff was really not very smart, talking so loudly about it. He didn't have much time to think about it though because another man popped into the room. Jeremy jumped at this and tried to smile at the man, but didn't do a very good job with it. No matter. Hannah flew down the steps and ignored all three boys. Typical.

[spicer]

Braxton just looked at the slime with a just a hint of interest. He wasn't really to concerned about it, especially considering how loudly they had announced that it hadn't worked. Having been looking down at it he jumped slightly as Hannah's dad apparated into the room before looking around to see who had. He knew the sound well so he wasn't surprised to see a man standing before him. "Hey" Brax said with a smile back at the man, but before he could introduce himself it seemed that Hannah had finally arrived.

[scobee]

Ryan smiled slightly as the twins tried to decide what they were going to do. Didn’t they know that everyone in the rom could, probably, hear what they were talking about? Maybe not, but it was a little strange to hear a conversation on whether of not to come in and meet you. Still smiling slightly at this oddity he jumped as a man apperated right in front of them. He wasn’t used to people just appearing out of thin air on him, when he was least expecting it, but he recovered in a couple of seconds and was introducing himself to the man with a smile. He had always been taught that it was impolite to ignore someone and even more impolite to ignore them when they were directly talking to you. So introducing himself he glanced over at Braxton and Jeremy and introduced them too. He found it odd that Hannah hadn’t even managed a hello to them all, but then again maybe she didn’t get to see her dad much and then it was perfectly understandable for her to go to him first.

[hannah]

"Please to meet you too Ryan, Braxton and Jeremy" Henry replied back, thinking they were three very nice boys and thinking that it was also funny that his Princess hadn't seen them or said hello to them. "Princess!" Henry exclaimed, hugging his daughter back before he gazed down at her. Henry Astley was a tall man, and more often than not Hannah had to crane her neck to look up at him. "You do realize that you have company, don't you?" Henry inquired this of his daughter, slightly frowning at her, his Princess had been taught how to act properly around guests.

"They're in here?" Hannah asked, more to herself than anybody else. Oops. Hannah let go of her Dad and looked around the room and sure enough she saw her three friends' faces. "You are here!" Hannah exclaimed, going over to each boy and giving them each a hug. The girl still found it surprising that they actually did come for her special day, she was sure a couple of them would have said no. "I thought you guys were in the kitchen" Hannah apologetically said to them. Spying the slime, the excited girl looked around, frowning a bit.

"They didn't do anything to you, did they?" Hannah inquired of the three boys. The green slime she knew only too well. It was one prank that she had been gullible enough to fall for. Hannah's Dad looked around too, wandering where his other daughters were. Two identical girls came around the corner and entered into the lounge room. "We didn't do anything to them!" They said in unison, a giggle escaping at them when they saw Hannah hugging the three boys.

[spicer]

Braxton just smiled as Ryan introduced him. He would have done it himself, but he guessed Ryan doing it was just as good. At least the guy would know who they were, well more like which one was which.

Finding the situation a little odd he gave Hannah a nervous smile as she finally decided to greet them or acknowledge their presence. "Nah they didn't," Braxton said with a small smile. They hadn't really done anything to his so he wasn't about to claim that they had. Sure a little slime was there, but it hadn't hit any of them so it was all good, right? In his opinion it was.