InsaneJournal

For most of October, Eloise had not been planning to do much for her birthday.  It was the day before the Cornfoot wedding, for one thing, and really she'd been thinking more about that than her own occasion.  The last time she had celebrated her birthday in what she supposed was the proper fashion was her seventh year at Hogwarts.  Since then she'd been on the move too often to do anything significant, and it sort of felt right that way, anyway.  Didn't people stop making such a big deal of it after a certain age?

But as the thirtieth drew nearer, she started to think it might be nice to do something out of the ordinary.  She was back home, after all.  It seemed right to take advantage of the proximity of family and friends.  Making a dinner date with Jackson and Natalie had been the first idea to pop into Eloise's mind, and even if they weren't going to let her pay for the night, she was going buy everyone dessert.  And drinks.  And possibly the appetizers, if she could convince them.  A birthday was a good day to indulge a little, or a lot.

She had sent them the name and address of the restaurant earlier in the week, and set the time to meet at six o'clock.  Pulling her jacket more tightly around her, Eloise took in the sights of London at dusk as she awaited the arrival of her family.