Birthday birthday birthday birthday!!!!!! (She will try very hard not to wake Ellie at an ungodly hour but BIRTHDAY!)

She's picked up on Fay's highly suspicious level of secrecy around gifts, of course. It's - pulled her out of her funk, at least for now.

(Presents though!!! She needs to preserve a lot of this wrapping paper, too, all of her friends seem to have realized she likes weird sparkly pretty paper so it's all too pretty to tear up. But she cannot tear them up until Ellie wakes up so instead she is sitting in the kitchen vibrating out of her skin.)

"G'morning," Ellie yawns when she comes down and sets her tea up.

"Happy birthday."

"Morning! Thanks!"

Anathema is only maybe staring at Ellie intently. 

Sip.

"Mm?"

"Present time?"

"...It's your birthday. Why are you asking me?"

"I like having you here for my birthday stuff."

"Well. Here I am." She mutters an incantation under her breath and starts her toast buttering itself.

She sticks her tongue out at Ellie. 

And, presents!

She sorts them, of course, pouting at the temptation of 'open last.' But, well, Ellie's presents are always the most exciting, so, that first!

Ellie got Anathema two things: first, replacement ammunition for the Bedazzler that was last Christmas's present. Second, a thick packet of sheet music for singing, some magical, some not.

Hug! (She's grinning like she has plans for that Bedazzler refill.)

Ellie would be disappointed if she didn't.

They'd have to make sure she's not an imposter.

Check her for Polyjuice.

Not an easy thing to do. 

Just gotta stall for an hour and not let her drink anything.

Distracting her that long might be hard...

Body-Bind Curse.

Kind of boring... But a fake her wouldn't need to be entertained the same way.

Right.

"Though the real me would be very put out if you just guessed wrong."

"Then I won't guess wrong."

"An acceptable compromise."

Ellie munches some toast.

"So what else did you get?"

"Well... A mystery envelope I can't open until last..." Pout. "But let's see the rest."

Classmates: have mostly sent her books! A lot of them are fiction or poetry. One classmate (Lisa, who always sends everyone baked goods for Christmas) has apparently branched out into weird experimental cupcakes and sent Anathema one with crystal clear icing containing roiling clouds of iridescence, topped with little sugar pearls, with a just-melty-enough creamy center. Anathema spends about a minute admiring it before setting to slowly licking off the icing as she opens her other gifts.

Sirius (currently present as Grim): somehow found giant cat toys he's pretty sure are tiger-resistant. Anathema leans down to give Grim some ear scritches and valiantly restrains herself from immediately running out to play.

Fay's father: a card saying he's arranged for knife fighting lessons for her over breaks (and he's looking into shooting lessons and getting her a gun, he has heard about the nonsense at their school). She giggles and puts it somewhere safe.

And then Fay's mystery envelope, opened slowly and dramatically...

Anathema's mouth falls open, her expression stunned. The envelope is a bit inconveniently angled - Ellie can't see what's within from where she is.