The Birthday Wish
Harry Potter held in his hands a letter from Professor McGonagall and a package.
Dear Mr. Potter,
This was found among Albus Dumbledore's belongings with a note I am sending it to you express.
Sincerely,
Headmistress McGonagall
With shaking hands Harry opened the box. Inside was a rather ordinary looking childs top. It was wooden and a bit battered, some of the paint was chipping off the outside. The note inside the box read:
Dear Harry,
This was given to me by my father on my 17th birthday and I am passing it on to you. It is a wish granter. For exactly 24 hours on the anniversary of the day of your birth the wish granter will grant your hearts greatest wish. Once the day is over, the wish will end but you will retain your memories of the day. I hope you use it wisely.
Best birthday wishes and many happy returns of the day!
Your Friend,
Albus Dumbledore
Harry found his heart tight with the familiar ache of grief. He smiled at the kindness of Professor McGonagall to send him this and the though of Professor Dumbledore remembering his birthday was beyond words. He missed his parents, he missed Sirius and he missed Professor Dumbledore.
He pulled the top out of the box, cleared a space on his desk and looked at the clock. 11:58pm only three more minutes until his birthday. Harry pondered the minutes away, what was his greatest wish. To have those loved ones he'd lost back in his life was a pretty good one, but he wanted more than that. He wanted the fear that had come back into the world with the return of Lord Voldemort to disappear, he wanted Voldemort defeated.
Harry glanced at the clock again 12:01am. With a determined yank he set the top spinning on his desk and began to hum 'Happy Birthday' to himself. The top did not slow down as Harry would have expected a normal toy to do but rather began to pick up speed and start to glow. Harry found himself hypnotized by the glow and his eyes began to drift shut, he lay on his bed and felt himself slip into the warm comfortable sleep that is the beginning of a dream.
Through half closed eye lids he saw the door to his room open, his mother and father entered to tuck him into bed. Even though he was now an adult wizard of seventeen and far too old for tucking in, Harry felt the pin pricks of tears begin in the back of his throat and creep towards his eyes. His heart was filled with such happiness that he though it might burst. He felt his father pull off his trainers as his mother gently removed his glasses. The pulled the covers over him and he snuggled deep into his bed, sighing in blissful contentment. He felt his mother lean over him and kiss his check, "Good night Harry. Happy birthday son" she whispered softly. "G'night mum" he heard himself mutter softly. He felt his father rub his back and tuck the covers in tighter, "G'night son, you've got a big day tomorrow" his father said gently. "G'night dad, I love you" Harry breathed out. Sleep was almost dragging him too far down to speak more. He parents left the room and turned out the light. Tears of happiness wetted Harry's sleeping cheeks and pillow. This was the best dream yet.
The morning sun woke Harry and he found himself feeling more rested than he had his entire life. What a great dream to be tucked in by his parents. He sniffed the air and smelled his favorite breakfast, pancakes. He put on his glasses and looked about the room. It wasn't his room at the Dursleys, but it was filled with his things and pictures of him from his childhood. He glanced at the walls and watched himself grow from a baby to a small boy, soon he was joined by two other children. His brother and sister! Harry felt a lump in his throat that he could not swallow away. He watched himself and his siblings grow. He remembered the details of his life with the Dursleys as if it was a bad nightmare, very real but quickly fading away. The memories of this life came rushing into him, he felt his head spinning as the top he'd set in motion last night. THE TOP! Was this his birthday wish, the secret of his heart?
The door to his room burst open and his thirteen year old brother Edward and his twin sister Violet burst into the room and dog piled him on his bed. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY!" They shrieked in unison as they tackled their elder brother and tag team tickled him. Harry laughed and cried at the same time as the twins merrily pinned him. He hugged them both so hard they begged for mercy. Suddenly their mother was there prying the twins off of Harry and pushing everyone out of the room. "All right you three, I've had just about enough of this. Lets get breakfast going so we can start Harry's big day. Uncle Sirius and Aunt Cordellia will be here soon with the children, lets not make them wait while we finish eating."
"Yes mom." Answered the twins in unison and bolted down the hallway, racing to be the first one at the table.
Harry looked at his mother with awe and love. Lilly Evans Potter was still beautiful even with a few strands of silver beginning to creep into her hair and the laugh lines leaving permanent crease about her mouth and eyes. "Mom –" began Harry, the words choking his throat. There was so much he wanted to say, so much he was feeling and thinking. Not wanting to break the spell he was afraid to speak.
She tosseled his already very disheveled hair even more and laughed, "You'd better hurry if you want anything to eat, you know how Eddy and Vi are about pancakes." Harry nodded and walked out of his room, down the photo lined hallway of the Potter house. He drank in every memory. Saw himself with his new baby brother and sister. Watched as he was ring bearer at his "Uncle" Sirius's wedding and saw the years of vacations and holidays pass with each step he took bringing him closer to the delicious smell of breakfast, a noisy kitchen and his father flipping pancakes for his family.
"Well, well, well! Decided to join us after all did you Mister big seventeen year old adult wizard!" Jested his father with an infectious laugh that filled the room and had all the Potters giggling. Harry hugged his father tight and helped him finish making breakfast.
When breakfast was finished with a flick of her wand his mother cleared the table. Another flick brought coffee tea and cakes. As Eddy reached for a cake his mother lightly slapped his hand, "Those are for company young man!" she said with arched eyebrow and knowing look that Harry knew all too well. He found himself laughing out loud at the scene. He heard the familiar pop of an apparition and the twins took off like mad-men for the front door, shouting in unison, "UNCLE SIRIUS!" He heard Sirius's voice bellow out a greeting and once again a lump too big to be swallowed filled his throat.
"Harry," prompted his father gently with a smile, "don't just sit there like a lump son, go and great your godfather." Harry stood and walked to the kitchen door, just then in burst open and he found himself being picked up in a bear hug. "Hullo, Hullo! Who's seventeen today!" Laughed Sirius. He was so tall, filled out with physical health and good humor that Harry almost didn't recognize Sirius. A little brown haired boy of about four years old said with a lisp, "Hawwy is today daddy!"
"So he is Jamie, so he is!" said Sirius to his son, picking him up and putting him on his shoulder. Harry laughed, hugged his godfather again and tickled his little cousin Jamie. "Cordelia wanted to be here Harry but she just wasn't feeling up to apparating so close to her due date." Harry nodded, remembering his Aunt was due to have a baby any day now. "I'm going to be a big bwothah soon!" said little Jamie proudly. Harry smiled at him and said, "It's a big job Jamie, just look at what I have to put up with!"
At that the twins pulled him away from Sirius and pushed him into a chair, "Time for presents Harry!" they shouted again in unison. He though of the Weasly twins who finished each others sentences and wondered if it was worse to have that or the endless stereo sound from his own siblings. He smiled and felt that he would be happy to have a lifetime to be sick of them.
After his gifts were opened the twins begged Harry, Sirius and James for a quidditch game in the back yard. It was the best game Harry had ever played. He was so impressed by the twins moves he could hardly believe they were that good for thirteen year olds. James noticed his son's far off look and said, "Don't tell me that you're regretting teaching those two all your best moves already." Sirius joined in saying, "Its okay Harry, we know you still have a few tricks up your sleeve."
"They call them the Potter trio, can you believe that! My kids the stars of the Griffindor quidditch team!" James swelled with pride to look at his children. The slowly setting sun caught the gray in his hair making it almost glow like a hallow.
As the broom sticks were put away and the younger children headed into the house to clean up for dinner Harry savored the moment alone with his father and his uncle. "Dad, Uncle Sirius, can I ask you something?" he said tentatively.
"Certainly son, anything, just ask." Said James with smiling eyes, a comforting voice and a warm reassuring hand on his son's shoulder.
"How did you defeat Voldemort."
Both James and Sirius paled, they looked at each other and then back at Harry. "Well son, that was a long time ago, you couldn't have been more than a year old." Said James remembering. "We didn't want to tell you kids a lot about it because we didn't want to scare you or make you think the glory stories were true." Said Sirius looking uncomfortable.
They all sat down at the table, Sirius and James took turns telling the tale of how James and Lily went into hiding with baby Harry. How Sirius was their secret keeper and how Peter Pettigrew still managed to betray them to the dark lord. It wasn't just any one person, it was the entire order of the phoenix working together as team. "It was love," said Lilly entering the room. "Even though we were surrounded by fear, we had love. Many of the order had just starting having families, our love was growing and that was the greatest threat to Voldemort."
"But how, was it some spell that you used?" questioned Harry, his voice rising with a tone he never used with his parents.
"I knew this would upset you son. I think this might be a story for another day. I don't want the other children to over hear us and get upset as well." Said James with a calm voice and a concerned look on his face.
"But dad, this is important." Insisted Harry.
"No son, your father is right. The important thing is that Voldemort is dead, his followers have been in prison for years and his reign of terror is over." Sirius said with a smile and knowing nod to Harry to let this conversation go.
"I think its time for our little Wizard to go to bed." Said Lilly with a hug and a kiss for her eldest son.
"I don't want this day to ever end," said Harry fervently hugging his mother in return and burring his face in her shoulder to hide his tears.
"I know son, I know. Its not everyday you turn seventeen. Soon you'll be returning to Hogwarts for your final year and then you'll be off to some exciting career. We've got the rest of our lives together. It will be alright Harry, go on up to bed, we'll tuck you in a moment." Sad James, patting Harrys back and putting his arms around his son and wife in a group hug.
"I love you Mom and Dad." Said Harry bravely facing the end of his day, he could almost feel the moment coming to and end. "Uncle Sirius, I love you too."
They all smiled and said their good nights. Harry walked quietly through the house, making his way past the pictures towards his room. He passed Eddy's room and then Vi's. "Good night Harry, happy birthday." They whispered loudly in unison as he walked past. "Good night you two, thanks for the great birthday day. I love you Eddy. I love you Violet." He said trying to be the brave big brother and not cry in front of the twins. "We love you too Harry" they said as they turned over in the same directions to sleep even though they were in separate rooms. Harry smiled in spite of himself. It has always been like this he thought. Those two doing the same thing at the same time, make me laugh, making me crazy with having to keep track of them. I love being a big brother he though to himself and trudged into his room and lay down on his bed.
He glanced at the clock on his night stand, 11:58pm.
He could feel the top winding down, he could almost hear the whirring slow and see it spinning slower and slower out of the corner of his eye. He closed his eyes and let sleep take him.
Tears of happiness wetted Harry's sleeping cheeks and pillow. That was the best dream yet.