Happy Birthday
It was the night before
Harry's fifteenth birthday. He was in
his room at the Dursleys' after a bad encounter with Dudley and a
cheesecake. He was expecting his
birthday to be the same as any other year, hardly a birthday at all. He sat on his bed staring at the
ceiling.
If only this year could
be different, he thought. I wonder what it would be like if my
parents were still alive? I wish Voldemort had never been born. Then I could be
with my family, like a normal kid. I
wish that for just one day, they could be here with me. Just one day, that's all I'm asking. With that thought, he fell asleep.
"Wake up, sleepyhead!" a
voice broke through his blissful slumber. He groaned and pulled a pillow over
his head.
"Harry, get up! You don't
want to miss your birthday, do you? Everybody's coming!" he frowned. That didn't sound like the Durlsys at all.
The one voice sounded mysteriously like his own. And who was everybody? There was no everybody.
"Harry Potter! Get up this
instant!" the pillow was yanked off him
and he was yanked out of bed. "Get dressed, Sirius and Mari will be here
any minute." Rubbing the sleep out of
his eyes, he glanced around.
"Sirius and Mari?" he asked.
"Yes. Here are your glasses. You left them on the
table again." So that was why
everything was so blurry. He took the
offered glasses and put them on.
As he did so, he was able to
see everything clearly, and he was shocked by what he saw. The room was not
his, the bed not his, the cloths not his, and the mother bustling around his
room, picking up random clothes, his.
"Mum?"
"yes, Harry?" she stood up.
Sure enough, Lily Potter was standing
before him, live and in person, wearing green robes, her flame colored hair was
pulled up into a loose bun and her identical eyes showed stress and
exasperation.
In a burst of emotion, Harry
pulled her into a hug. Lily, surprised at her teenage son's sudden affection,
hugged him back.
"I missed you." Harry said.
Lily shook her head.
"What? Harry, are you alright?"
"Mum, you're, err, you're
dead." Then she smiled. Patting him on the head, she handed him some clothes.
"You must have had a bad
dream. Don't worry. Everything's fine now. You're safe with your
family." She smiled and pushed the
clothes towards him. "Now get dressed.
Kate, Michael, Sara are
waiting for you to open your presents
downstairs."
"Kate, Michael Sara?"
"Harry, I know you said you
wished you were an only child, but the fact is you have two little sisters and
one little brother and I expect you to be nice to them. No more telling them
that dragons live under their
beds." With that she left Harry to get
dressed, in bewilderment.
After he was dressed, in
clothes that actually fit, he made his way down the stairs. He followed the
voices until he came to a kitchen. Seated at the table were three kids, two
girls' ages ten and eight, and the
boy, age four and a newspaper. They
grinned when they saw him.
"Harry!" the boy jumped off
his seat and ran at Harry, attacking
his legs. The boy's blue eyes were strange to Harry, until he
recognized them as his dads. The girls shared their mum's hair and eyes.
"It's about time you got up,
kid." A voice came from behind the newspaper.
It was set aside and Harry was looking at his father.
"Dad?" James looked at him
and nodded, a confused look on his face.
In a rush, he hugged the older mirror image of himself. James looked
confused but hugged him back.
"You ready for your big
day?" Harry could only nod. He sat down next to the eldest girl who grinned at him. Lily grinned and set a
large plate of pancakes, bacon,
sausage, eggs, and toast in front of him. It was possibly the biggest breakfast
anyone had ever laid before him. James eyed him as he stared hungrily at the
plate.
"Well, don't just sit there,
son. Eat. Your mother worked hard, making that."
"Mum, when are Uncle Sirius
and Aunt Mari coming?"
"And what about Uncle Remus and Aunt Addi?" the younger girl asked.
"And Uncle Peter?" Harry coughed.
"Peter's coming?" everyone
looked at him.
"Yes. Why wouldn't he?" Harry only stared at them in disbelief. But
he was saved from an explanation by the doorbell.
"Harry, why don't you get
that?" Lily asked as she placed new place mats and silver wears
down. Nervously, he got up.
As he made his way towards
the door, he wondered if it was possible. Had his wish come true? It was the
only explanation he could think of. This was a world without Voldemort.
He pulled open the door and
was greeted by a large pile of presents. Then a face poked out from behind
them.
"Hey Harry, could you give
me a hand with these?" Sirius's voice,
but without the hoarseness or the pain.
Harry took several packages and handed them to James who appeared.
"Hey, Padfoot!"
"Prongs!" the two grinned and shook hands. Sirius grinned at Harry and Harry was truly
amazed at what he saw. Sirius's face was so much different. He was still thin,
but not half as thin as he had been.
His face was much fuller and his hair, though still long, was kept tied back in
a neat ponytail. His eyes were full of laughter and light. Not a hint of
Azkaban hovered in them.
There was the sound of
laughter an shouting from behind him and Harry looked up. A streak rushed past
him and Sirius scooped up a small girl before she could run into anything.
"Andy. Slow. Please."
"Yes, da." She said and he let her down. Then a parade of kids made their way
into the room, all hugging James and
Harry. A beautiful but tired looking
woman made her way in behind her. She
hugged Harry and he frowned. Then there
was a horn beep outside. He looked out and saw Professor Lupin, no- Remus. He was arriving in a car with a woman beside
him and four kids in the back. God, how many kids did the marauders have? He
wondered.
"hey, how's the birthday
boy?' Remus asked as he walked up the
door.
"I'm fine."
"Moony!" two voice's
chorused. Sirius and James rushed out
to meet their friend.
"Shesh, you guys. You just
saw me yesterday. It's not like you've been gone for years." Here Harry
coughed. They all looked at him, but
shrugged. A short woman with brown hair
and bright blue eyes came walking up the front steps followed by a parade of
three kids, two girls and a boy. Harry
was engulfed with hugs by all. It was
nice, although it would have been easier had he known who they all were. He recognized Cassi, Sirius's eldest, as one
of Ginny Weasley's friends. After a
while he got used to the noise and settled in.
There were kids everywhere. But
he liked it. He had never been in such
an atmosphere before. This was his
family. The family he would have
had. Or the family he did have, he
wasn't sure. Then Peter pulled up.
"Dad," Harry asked. "Why is Peter here?" James looked at him slightly confused.
"Oh, Wormtail? Because he's family. Why wouldn't he come?" he said. Harry nodded. Peter arrived at the door.
"Hi Harry. Happy Birthday!" he said rather cheerfully.
"Uh, hi Peter," said Harry,
doubtfully.
"Wormtail!" the three other
marauders shouted. The wives all shook
their heads and laughed. The children continued screaming. Peter, Harry noticed, had come alone. He knew that the Peter in this world hadn't
done anything wrong, but he couldn't look at that face that he knew so well and
not feel angry about what had really happened.
Soon everyone began filtering inside. Harry turned and watched them go,
grinning.
"Harry!" Harry spun around
at the sound of the familiar voice. Dumbledore stood there, smiling and holding
a very large mirror. Harry recognized it as the Mirror of Erised. He kept his
gaze away from it and smiled up at the old man.
"Professor!" James called. "Glad you could make it." he took the
mirror from Dumbledore and took it
upstairs, just as an explosion came from the living room.
"Let me guess, Sirius and Remus are here?" Dumbledore asked. Harry nodded. Dumbledore sighed and walked inside where he
was greeted by cries of "Dumbledore!"
then there was another shout
from the driveway.
To his surprise and great
relief, he saw Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George climb out of the car.
"Hey, Mrs. Weasly!" James
called from the doorway, he was back. She
honked and waved. an explosion
sounded from indoors. And Sirius's voice called out, "No! Polaris! Gemini! That
is flammable!"
"Sounds like we're being
paged." Fred cackled. They dashed
inside with a word of hello to James who shook his head.
Soon it was nearly time for
lunch. They were all in the back yard
and James was attempting to barbecue, muggle style. Sirius who was the 'expert' of this sort of thing, being the only
marauder from a muggle family, was helping.
"Do you trust those two to
be barbecuing?" asked Mari.
"Absolutely not!" exclaimed
Addi. "They're good enough at blowing
stuff up without gasoline." Just then,
Remus came running over with a fire extinguisher, just in case. Peter, who had the camera, snapped a
picture. Suddenly, there was a loud
booming noise. James and Sirius stood,
coughing as smoke poured out everywhere.
Remus was now making good use of the fire extinguisher. Fred and George had heard the explosion and
came running.
"Whoa, nice one Mr. Potter and Mr. Black!" exclaimed
Fred.
"Yeah, can we try?" asked
George. James was just about to say yes
when Lily came marching over.
"James Potter, Sirius Black,
what do you think you're doing?" Lily shouted at them.
"Just a nice little
barbecue," said James holding up a char black steak and grinning. Lily rolled her eyes and sighed with
exasperation. Harry laughed. His parents were cool.
After that they ate lunch,
which consisted of nothing but cake since James and Sirius had managed to ruin
everything else. Lily was extremely
angry until Mari and Addi finally calmed her down. They all sang happy birthday to Harry. It was the first time that song had ever been sung only for him. He blinked back tears. After that they ate cake.
Or at least about half of them actually ate it. The other half just threw it at each other. That other half consisted of mainly the
marauders. Lily claimed that they were
the worst 'kids' there. After everyone
was done eating, Sirius announced that there would be a game of quidditch. Marauders vs. everyone else. Dumbledore reclined and was referee, holding the only kid too young to play,. Sirius's daughter
Andy.
"Harry's on our team too,"
announced James. Needless to say the
Marauders won, and there wasn't much cheating occurring. Well that depends on who you ask. Don't ask Lily for the sake of the
Marauders. The game ended when
Sirius yelled "Present time!"
They all returned to their
seats and Harry was presented with a large pile of presents. More presents than he'd gotten total in his
whole life lie before him right now.
The first one he opened was from Hermione. It was (you're never gonna guess this one) a book! The next present was from Fred and
George—dungbombs. He opened present
after present. Finally he was left with
two. One was long and skinny, the other
was short and fat. He reached for the
long skinny one first. The tag read: to
make sure you win every game from the Marauders. He had a feeling he knew what it was. He opened it and he saw a Firebolt broom lying inside. It was identical to the one he had, or used
to have.
"Yes! Thanks!
I know it will help me win," said Harry.
"It was Padfoot"s idea,"
said Remus. Harry nodded.
"I know." He looked at Remus and Sirius expecting them
to know what he was talking about. They
showed no sign of knowing anything about it.
There was one remaining present.
Slowly Harry unwrapped it.
laying in the box was a
silvery, shiny cloth. Harry, knowing exactly what it was, pulled it out and
unraveled it. it was his father's invisibility cloak.
There was a collective gasp
from the Marauders.
"James, I didn't know you
still had that." Remus said, softly.
"Of course I did. How can you get rid of an invisibility
cloak? Why, half of the pranks we're
famous for, we couldn't have done without it. it's only right that Harry has it
now and carries on the tradition with his friends." James said, winking at
Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Cassi, Fred and George.
"But," Sirius said, "We
still may need to borrow it from time to time." Lily simply rolled her eyes. Harry noticed she did that a lot,
but afterwards there was always a smile on her face.
"Now it's my turn." Lily
said, pulling out a small wrapped package. Harry took it and carefully removed
the wrapping. Inside was a gold pocket
watch. On the front was his name, Harris
James Potter. And as he opened it, scribed on the inside cover was a
message. We love you, and we're proud of you, son, love Mum and dad and your
little siblings. He smiled.
Grinning, trying to keep back the tears that strung his eyes, he blinked. Then
he looked up. Lily was looking at him expectantly. But she was not expecting him to throw himself at her.
"Thanks, mum. And dad, and
everybody." Then he hugged his dad.
"Pictures!" Sirius
called.
"Are you in charge of
announcing when we change activities or something?" Harry asked. Sirius
grinned.
"Yes. Now get back in your
chair, birthday boy." Harry did as he
was told. Everyone gathered around the
table as Remus tried to figure out how to work the camera.
"You press the red button!
Red!" James called. Harry laughed.
"There is no red button."
Remus shot back.
"It's right there." Sirius
said.
"No, it's not. There is no
red button." Sirius and James went to
help him. sure enough, there was no red
button.
"It was here a second ago."
"Well, red buttons on camera
just don't disappear, now do they?" Remus asked. Per groaned and came
over.
"You guys need to learn how to do this, the red button is
right-" he stopped in midsentance. "Or maybe not."
"What did you guys do now?"
Lily moaned.
"It wasn't us!" the four men chorused. Then Fred and George burst out
laughing. Everyone looked at them
suspiciously. They started bowing.
"Thank you, thank you!"
"See, we told you it wasn't
us!" the Marauders shouted. Then they applauded for the two Weasleys.
Everyone laughed.
Finally, the red button appeared and Remus was able
to get the camera on timer. He rushed back to take his place beside Sirius.
"Smile!" Sirius shouted and
they did so just as the flash went off.
Everybody blinked for a second, trying to regain their sight.
Just then en explosion
sounded. Everybody jumped as fireworks flew from under the chair in which
Dumbledore was sitting. He laughed
along with the rest of them.
"You never get tired of that
one, do you?" they shook their heads,
unable to talk from laughter.
"That time, it was us."
Peter informed them.
"Peter!' James said, as if
hurt. He gave him a completely innocent look, then grinned.
"Well, we have to get these
kids home to bed." Sirius said as
Andy fell asleep in his lap.
One by one, the guests began
to filter out. Harry gave Remus and
Addi a big hug. Then Sirius gave him a
bear hug, lifting him off the ground. Mari gave him a much small more
reasonable hug, allowing him to breathe, unlike her husband. Ron, Hermione and
the rest of the Weasleys shouted a goodbye as they got into the car and drove
home. Then Peter wished the Potters a goodnight and headed
home. Even Dumbledore left by way of
apperating.
It was a tired, but happy
Potter family who closed the door.
James sent the three youngest off to bed. Harry hugged each of them
tightly as they did. Lily, who was too
tired to actually clean, waved her wand and everything was done. Then she collapsed in her chair. James
fell onto the couch and Harry
sat beside him. They all gave
contented sighs.
"You should go to bed too,
Harry. We're going to Diagon alley
tomorrow." James said.
'Why?" Harry asked.
"To get your stuff and also
Sara needs to get her stuff for school. She's starting this year." Harry nodded, as if he had simply
forgotten. They were quiet for a few
minutes. Then Harry got up to go to his
room. As he reached the stairs he
turned around.
"Mum, dad?" they looked at
him. "Thanks for everything. I mean
it. you don't know how much it means to
me." James and Lily smiled.
"Glad to know you feel like
that, kid." James said. But Lily looked
at him. she got up and walked over.
When she reached Harry, she smiled and
tried to brush back part of his unruly hair.
"You seem much older today,
Harry. You're growing up." Then Harry hugged her. In a way, he never
wanted to let go, and to stay in his mother's embrace forever. But she let go and smiled.
"Now off to bed."
"See you in the morning,
kid." James called. Harry nodded, a
lump in his throat.
"Goodnight. I love you." Now
they looked at him again.
"We love you too, son."
James said. Then Harry trudged up the
stairs to his room.
As he passed the hall
closet, he noticed the mirror. He
didn't mean to, but as he passed, he glanced at his reflection in it. to his
surprise, it was only his reflection.
What was it Dumbledore had said all those years ago? The happiest man in the world would look
into the mirror and show only his reflection. At that moment, Harry truly was
the happiest person in the world.
Then he noticed his
forehead. There was no scar, not even a hint of one. He grinned as he walked back to his room. If only this could last
forever.
As he drifted off, his hand
closed around the watch his mother had given him.
The tapping on the window
was what awoke him the next morning. He groaned, expecting Lily or James to
pull the pillow off and tell him to get up, but they didn't, the tapping continued, and sighing he rolled
over. Right off the bed.
As he sat up, he was
dismayed to realize he was back at the Durlsys. Sighing, he thought, it was only a dream. Then he glanced at the makeshift calendar on the
wall. The date was August first. The day after his birthday.
At the foot of his bed, he
found a pile of presents. There were
the usually ones from Ron and Hermione, and Hagrid. But Sirius's was missing.
Harry hoped nothing had happened to him.
he opened Hermione's, a book on quiddich, and Ron's, a box of chocolate
frogs, then as he lifted Hagrid's, rock hard cakes, home made for course, he
noticed something.
It was a small card, laying
underneath everything. He picked it up
and opened it. what he found nearly made him fall off the bed again. It read happy birthday, and was signed
by everyone who had been in his dream.
There was Mari's neat writing and
Andy's two-year-old scrawl. He could
even see the messy signature of Sirius and the tidy one of Remus. But what
bewildered him the most were the
signatures of his parents. Then
he noticed the small piece of paper attached. He pulled it off and looked. It
was the picture that had been taken of the party after the red button
incident. Everyone was grinning and
waving. Even his parents.
As he sat back, he sat on something. Pulling it out, he was even
more shocked to see the pocket watch his mother had given him.
It read the same, all but
the bottom. His sibling's names were gone, and
there was an extra sentence at the bottom. We're sorry, we can't be
there for you, but we're always watching.
Then Harry heard the tapping
again. He went over to the window and
was shocked to see Sirius. The same
Azkaban Sirius he knew so well.
"Sirius!"
"It's about time." Sirius
grinned.
"Sirius, " Harry asked,
slowly, "What day is it?" Sirius shook
his head.
"I am sorry, Harry. I tried
to get here yesterday. But I couldn't."
he shrugged. "I'm not sure why, but I just couldn't."
then Harry reached over to
the side of his bed and brought out the picture, the card, and the watch.
"You don't remember?" Sirius
took the card, and frowned. Then he saw
the picture. Hands shaking, he took it
and watched with amazement. Slowly, he
shook his head.
