HARRY'S BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT
Harry Potter stood at the bottom of the stairs and bellowed at the top of his voice, "Oi, you lot! Hurry up or we'll be late!" He impatiently tapped the banister rail and patted one foot. Just as he opened his mouth to yell again, he heard several sets of feet on the landing. A red-haired woman wearing a green suit led the way down the stairway, followed closely by a boy of about seven with messy black hair and green eyes, another boy a year or so older, and a tiny red-haired girl of five picking her way down carefully, one step at a time. The harried young woman shot him an annoyed look.
"We could have been ready sooner if you'd helped get the boys dressed," she scolded her husband.
He grinned up at her. "Whenever I do, you always make them change anyway, and that takes even longer."
"I think you dress them badly on purpose, just to get out of having to help," she grumbled. "I don't know what the hurry is anyway. I usually have to threaten you with a bat bogey hex to get you to these family gatherings at Dudley's. " She grabbed the younger boy just in time to prevent him from straddling the banister. "Albus! What have I told you about sliding down the banister?"
"Um…don't do it?" the boy ventured, looking to his father for help.
"Too right! It loosens up the railing and someone might fall if it gives way."
"Oh, yeah."
Shaking her head disgustedly, she put Albus in front of her where she could keep an eye on him. Drawing a relieved breath when everyone was safely in the entry hall, she turned her attention back to her amused looking husband. "This is only a birthday party," she said. "You usually hate these things."
"Ah, but it's not just any birthday."
"Let's see…you're thirty-two, and Cedric is…" she racked her brain for the date of Dudley's youngest son's birth. A light of understanding dawned on her face. "You mean you think…"
Harry shook his head, motioning slightly toward his own sons, who were eagerly listening to their conversation. "You never know," he grinned. "You just never know." Picking up his daughter and firmly grasping his younger son's hand, he asked, "Is everyone ready?"
Ginny took James' hand and nodded. Quickly they turned on the spot and two loud pops echoed through the suddenly empty house, Almost immediately they reappeared on the lawn of a modest country home. Green shutters against grey stone set off multi-paned windows, behind which Harry caught a glimpse of one blond and one red head. Two seconds later the front door flew open and a pair of boys several years older than his own stormed out of the house, shoving each other out of the way in order to be the first to reach them.
"Cousin Harry!" the smaller of the two shouted, tripping his larger and clumsier brother and skidding to a stop in front of the visitors. Usually he would have thrown his arms around his tall second cousin, but suddenly remembering the dignity of his newly acquired year, he thrust his hand toward Harry instead. "Happy birthday!" He greeted.
"Happy birthday to you, too, Cedric." Harry solemnly shook the boy's hand, then gave him a quick hug. "Maybe you're too old for hugs, but I'm not," he laughed, moving forward to pull the second boy up from the ground. "Chumley, how's it going?"
"Okay," the blond said, shooting a dirty look at his brother. "Except Cedric's going to be in so much trouble for getting my new jumper all grass-stained."
"Well, we can't have that on such a festive day." Pulling his wand out of it's sleeve holder, he cast a quick scourgify spell at the offending stain. "There you are-right as rain."
"Uh…thanks Cousin Harry," Chumley mumbled, looking slightly disappointed that his brother was not going to be in trouble after all.
"Come on, Lily," Cedric said, leaning down to smile at his younger cousin. "There's a new litter of kittens in the cellar. Want to see them?"
"Yes! What color are they? How many of them are there? Can I have one?"
Harry watched, amused, as the two redheads, nearly identical in shade, disappeared around the house to the outside cellar entrance. Cedric had adored Lily since the day she was born. Harry knew he'd barely see his daughter again until time for them to go home tonight.
He remembered back to the day his young cousin was born. He knew the baby was due sometime around his own birthday, but was surprised when a large brown owl decorated his breakfast with an envelope in Dudley's messy handwriting. Opening it, he scanned the few words and smiled at his wife across the table.
"Elizabeth's just gone to hospital. The baby's coming."
"Oh, Harry," Ginny enthused, "and on your birthday too."
"Well, I'll stop by on my way to work and see how they are."
"That's good, and I'll go up later in the day."
An hour later, Harry popped into view at the nearest apparition point to the huge London hospital that catered to his muggle relatives. A few minutes later he had received directions to Elizabeth Dursley's room and was knocking lightly at the door.
"Come in…come in!" Dudley opened the door and pulled his cousin in, engulfing Harry's slender hand in his own ham of a fist. "The baby's here-a boy. It didn't take long this time. You're just in time to help us pick out a name." Dudley's round, flushed face lit up in a huge grin, as he pushed Harry toward the bed where Elizabeth cradled a tiny bundle with reddish fuzz on it's head. He shoved a cigar into Harry's shirt pocket. "I think he looks like Elizabeth. What do you think?"
"Uh…" Harry hesitated. Truthfully the red-faced infant looked like every other baby he'd ever seen, but he nodded agreement. "I guess so. It's a little soon to tell, though."
"Hello, Harry," Elizabeth greeted him. "Would you like to hold him?"
"Yes…sure." He gingerly reached for the baby, and wondered for perhaps the dozenth time how his great lump of a cousin had managed to attract the pretty and petite young woman who smiled up at him from her hospital bed. He had always liked Elizabeth, and had to admit that she and Dudley and their first-born son, Chumley, seemed to be a particularly happy family. Chumley was, unfortunately, the image of his father, the exception being that Elizabeth was a sensible young mother who refused to spoil the boy, giving him some hope of growing into a more likable child than Dudley had been.
"We'd like a name beginning with a "C", to go with Chumley, you know; but Elizabeth doesn't care for Clarence or Cecil or any of the other names we can think of. Do you have any suggestions?"
Harry barely hesitated. "How about Cedric?" he suggested.
Dudley's brow furrowed as though trying to remember something. "Cedric…wasn't that…"
"That's perfect!" Elizabeth interrupted. "I knew you'd think of something."
Harry looked down into the tiny face just as the baby woke up, and suddenly found himself staring into emerald green eyes, identical to his own. He barely heard Elizabeth say, "You'll be Godfather, of course?"
"Honored," he managed to reply around the lump that inexplicably blocked his throat.
Every year since, Harry and Cedric had celebrated their birthdays together, much to the discomfort of Petunia and Vernon Dursley, who tolerated their nephew only because "Dudders" for some unfathomable reason seemed to actually like his cousin. Now the front door opened and Dudley lumbered out to welcome the Potters.
"Glad you could make it," he said enthusiastically, slapping James and Albus on the shoulders and nearly knocking them down, then engulfing Ginny in a hug that barely let her squeak out a mumbled "thank you", before ushering them into the spotless living room where Elizabeth stood guard over a gigantic birthday cake which read "Happy Birthday Cedric and Harry," and which sported enough candles to start a small bonfire.
"Hello, Harry, Ginny," Elizabeth smiled. "I'm so glad to see you. Cedric's been driving us crazy for the last hour asking if we were sure you were coming." Then she turned toward a door which Harry knew led to the kitchen, and raising her voice she called, "Mom! Dad! Harry and his family are here."
Vernon Dursley lumbered out of the kitchen, drink in hand, and offered Harry a limp handshake. The years had not been good to him. His beefy face, instead of a ruddy pink like Dudley's, was pasty and unhealthy looking. His prodigious girth had reached the proportions of a small hippopotamus and his blond hair was graying and thin, with a definite bald spot on the top of his head. Petunia appeared from behind him, still thin and with a head of steel grey hair pinned into a severe bun. She offered her cheek to first Harry, then Elizabeth, who each gave her an obligatory peck, before stooping to give each of the boys a brief hug. Pleasantries over, the Dursleys settled themselves on the sofa.
"When can we eat cake, Mum?" Chumley asked, just a hint of a whine in his voice.
"Later, Dear," His mother told him. "We have party games to play, then lunch, then cake and ice cream. Why don't you take your cousins up to your room and show them your new video game?"
Chumley glanced at James and Albus and sneered slightly. "They're too little…they wouldn't understand it," he said from his lofty age of almost thirteen..
"Well, go find Cedric and Lily and play with the kittens then, while we visit a little. When you come back we'll play some games."
"Aw…c'mon, then, midgets."
"Chumley!"
"M'sorry. C'mon James…Albus. The cellar is this way." He led the younger boys back out the front door and in the direction his brother and youngest cousin had taken.
"That boy will be the death of me," Elizabeth sighed. "I've had to guard the cake all day to keep him from sampling the frosting. I've slapped his hand at least fifteen times.
"Just like my Dudders," Petunia simpered. "He grows more like him every day." She sent a sickeningly sweet smile toward her son, who flushed slightly at the hated nickname. "Cedric, on the other hand, looks like he should belong to you and Ginny," she told Harry, not intending it as a compliment. "He's the image of your mother-red hair, green eyes. Heredity is a strange thing, don't you think?"
"Yes," Ginny agreed. "We haven't decided yet who James takes after. Sometimes I think he looks like Harry, sometimes like me, but most of the time he's a unique individual who resembles neither of us. Albus, of course, is his father in miniature, and Lily looks like me. All of our children are so different."
After this speech, fairly long for Ginny when in the presence of Petunia, an uncomfortable silence settled on the group of adults. They were relieved when the five children came trooping back into the house all talking at once.
"Mummy!" Lily squealed, "One of the kittens looks like Crookshanks…Aunt Hermione's kneazle, you know…and Cedric said I can have it if you say it's alright. Can I? Can I, please?"
"May I," Ginny corrected automatically. "You'll have to ask your Dad."
"Daddy, can I…I mean, may I have it, please?" She batted her hazel eyes at her father and tugged on his hand in the way that made it very hard for Harry to refuse her anything.
"I suppose it's time for a pet, if your mother doesn't mind." He looked over at Ginny and saw her nod slightly. "You'll have to take very good care of it, though. Feed it and make certain is has plenty of fresh water, and change it's box every day. Mum has enough to do without adding another job to her repertoire."
Lily had no idea what a repertoire was, but she eagerly agreed and would have immediately returned to the cellar to get the kitten if her mother hadn't stopped her.
"We'll get it before we leave, but you'll want to play games and eat first, and you can't do that and carry a kitten around."
"Right you are," Elizabeth said, shooing the children back outside and grabbing a snowy white handkerchief. "Right now we're going to have a game of Blindman's Buff."
The rest of the afternoon passed pleasantly, as the children played all the traditional party games. Come lunchtime, each child had won a small prize of some kind for excelling in at least one game, though Harry suspected the boys had let Lily win at Pin the Tail on the Donkey, putting the donkey poster down on her level and pointing her directly toward it, while they, themselves pretended to get turned around and completely miss the poster. Cedric, in fact, had come nearly pinning the tail on his brother; and only Chumley's yell prevented him getting a pin in the middle of his back.
"Serves you right," Cedric giggled. "You're so big you feel like a wall."
"Very funny," the bigger boy grunted, resolving for the hundredth time to go on a diet.
Lunch was over and everyone was gathered around the huge cake watching Elizabeth light the candles, when Ginny saw Harry surreptitiously slip over to the window and open it. Then just as Harry and Cedric drew in deep breaths preparatory to blowing out the candles, a large snowy owl flew in the window with a parchment envelope in it's mouth.
"Oh no…no…please…" Petunia paled and swayed slightly; and to his credit, Harry hesitated only a moment before sliding a chair under her with a flick of his wand, just as she sank down into a dead faint. For a few minutes pandemonium reigned while Petunia was revived and Cedric slid open the envelope, which had his name on it. He read the contents over twice, then looked up at his older cousin, a look of mixed confusion and hope in his green eyes.
"Cousin Harry?"
"Congratulations, Cedric." Harry's grin was so wide Ginny half expected his face to crack. "You've been accepted to Hogwarts. The owl is a present from Ginny and me, and we'll take you to Diagon Alley next week to get your school things. Now…" he turned back to the cake, "…I think we'd better blow out these candles before the house catches fire."
When the candles were out and Cedric cut the cake, Ginny sidled over and asked Harry what he had wished for.
"Nothing," he whispered back. "I already got my wish."
Late that night when they were cuddled up in bed, Ginny had a sudden thought. "Harry, how did you know Cedric would get his letter today…and that it wouldn't have already arrived before we got there?"
Harry turned his green eyes on his wife, with a twinkle in them that would have done Albus Dumbledore proud. "I do, after all, still have a little influence at Hogwarts." He pulled his wife closer and sighed contentedly. "Best birthday present I ever received."