The Birthday Bash, A Writing Race Against Time! Options

[McGonagall's Cat]

The first package pushed toward him was tied with an ellegant lavender ribbon. That was Auntie Zaphira's signature. He forced a gracious smile and pretended to be excited, but he knew it would be a pair of new tousers. Every year she gave him school clothes. Gran loved it. He, on the other hand, would have liked a little say in the matter of what he wore out in public.

[lupinsmyman]

Neville could not hide his surprise. It was not a pair of trousers after all but a peice of paper. It looked like it had been torn out of a book long ago. The pictures on it were of ancient plants that he couldn't recognize.

"Thanks," he said giving his great-aunt a confused smile.

[McGonagall's Cat]

The second package was crudely wrapped in wrinkled paper, he knew it was from his relatives in the North Country. He usually liked the gifts they gave him. They were uncomplicated and their gifts tended to be educational.

[lupinsmyman]

And educational it was. Maybe. Inside a slightly crushed box was another peice of wrinkled parchment, similar to the one in his Aunt Zaphira's gift. Now Neville was really confused.

[McGonagall's Cat]

"You thank them Properly, young man!" his Gran reprimanded.

He hadn't intended to hesitate so long, it was just puzzling that the presents had such odd contents. He blushed.

"I'm sorry. Thank you so Auntie and Uncle."

[lupinsmyman]

Neville continued unwrapping his gifts, and thanking everyone graciously. He now had a stack of papers almost as high as his chin. The papers were beautiful. Each was unique and flowing with words that were, in some places, covered by inked leaves. Then he realized that he hadn't yet recieved a gift from his Gran.

[McGonagall's Cat]

He knew it would be rude to ask her if she had a gift for him, especially with people around, so he continued to look at the fascinating pages of flora. Some of the guests seemed to be getting antsy and he was a bit tired of being at the table when Gran's voice broke the silence.

[lupinsmyman]

"Neville, dear. I found this in the attic some years ago. Your mother and father were supposed to get it but, well, seeing as you're here--," she stopped pushing a package wrapped in a silky fabric into his arms.

[McGonagall's Cat]

He ran his hand over the surface of the package and felt a cushion-like invisible pressure. Once when he had been playing with the Muggle boy down the road, the boy had brought out several small brown lumps he called 'magnets'. When Neville had tried to push two of them together, they refused to touch eachother. That was the kind of energy was what he was feeling as he touched the wonderfully soft cloth on the package.

[lupinsmyman]

He smoothed the wrinkles on the silky substance, coming to a barely noticable line. As he ran his finger down it the cloth fell off, unwrapping itself. What it revealed was another substance. It was the strangest, yet most incredible peice of material he had even seen.

[McGonagall's Cat]

The entire structure of it consisted of thousands of leaves and stalks and stems, all woven together into a single continuous sheet. Any individual leaf could be picked up and looked at closely, but as soon as it was released it flew back into the place it had previously occupied. No two pieces of the intricate quilt were the same and they appeared to have come from all over the planet. Neville was fascinated.

[lupinsmyman]

Suddenly the papers in the stack of parchment next to him flew up and around his head. The plant-cloth began to glow a soft green when the papers soared into its folds. They ruffled in an invisible wind and the cloth closed around the pages. It was a book.

[McGonagall's Cat]

Touching it reverently, he gently withdrew a random waxy stem from the cover. Immediately, pages began to flutter until the book split itself open at the exact place where that stem was illustraed. A ghost of the piece he had in his hand grew up out of the information written on the parchment. When he touched it, reams of information filled his head. He could see it growing high on the side of a mountain in Chile, the breezes causing it to sway, the rain causing huge growth spurts, and tiny bees crawling over the clusters of flowers the plant produced.

[lupinsmyman]

He reached out, fingering the leaves. He could feel them, but it was a dream like feeling. He could tell he wasn't really touching the plant. But he was amazed all the same. One of the bees buzzed by his ear and he was back in his dining room again.

[McGonagall's Cat]

Drawing another plant-piece from the cover caused the book to flip itself open at a different page. This time water washed over the submerged fronds while fish darted in and out of the forest of kelp nearby. All of this plant's life cycle and the magical uses for its various parts swirled through his brain completely understandable and crystal clear.

Neville found himself grinning.