Chapter 2

My Birthday

I woke up way too early on August the seventh. I still couldn't believe that my parents had gone on holidays over a period of time that fell on my birthday. I woke up in a bit of an annoyed mood. Then I remembered the night's happenings. That cheered me up a reasonable amount, or had it been a dream? I looked at my hand and saw the ring. Now I definitely knew it wasn't a dream. It had all been real.

I went downstairs beaming and Al asked, "What are you so happy about?"

"Oh, I just had a good dream that's all."

"Okay, whatever."

"Happy Birthday, my present's outside," called James from the kitchen, his favourite room. Outside a beautiful gift was waiting for me. It was a Lightning Strike 3000. The best broom out there. "Is that for me?" I cried out, surprised.

"Yes, it is," replied James, looking extremely satisfied with himself.

"But, I don't even play Quidditch."

"I know, but you still like riding on brooms."

Al came outside and said, "Oh come on, James! How am I supposed to top that?"

"Al it's the thought that counts." I said beaming.

"Right, well my gift is inside so, come on."

We walked back inside and Al handed me a box with holes in it. Curiosity overwhelmed me as I opened it. I looked inside and a baby dragon popped out her head. I accidentally dropped the box screaming, "Augh! You got me a dragon?"

"Yeah, I did. He was just so cute in the store I had to get him."

"I don't think Mum and Dad will let me keep her."

". I already asked them. How do you know it's a girl?"

"Here, check for yourself."

"Oooooh..." he said going slightly red with embarrassment. "What are you going to name her?"

"Hmm..." I was really drawing a blank. I mean, what do you name a female dragon? "How about...Alexandrite?"

"It sounds like a guy name."

"I like it. She's mine so I can name her."

"It is a very nice name," commented James.

Alexandrite made a little screech that only baby dragons can. I looked at her. She was a Norwegian Ridgeback. I wondered why Al would get me such a weird gift. I mean, if it had been Hagrid, our god father I would understand, but Al? I bet that it had something to do with well... something. She gave me what looked like a smile. I smiled back, beginning to love my new pet.

"Oh no! What will the Ministry say? It's kind of hard to hide a fifty foot high dragon and I doubt Dad's old Invisibility Cloak won't cover her when she's fully grown."

"Duh! Mum and Dad have gotten special permission from the Minister himself. Dad can get anything he wants at the Ministry just because he's famous," pointed out James.

"I suppose the fact Uncle Percy's Minister has nothing to do with it." I said

"Oh yeah," he remembered sheepishly

"I should take her outside. I bet Uncle Charlie would be scandalized if he found out I had a pet dragon. Maybe we shouldn't tell him."

"I can see him saying 'That is so dangerous! Having a dragon for a pet, what was Hagrid thinking!'" I giggled. He did tend to overreact.

We heard a noise and looked up. A big snowy owl was carrying a large package. Sherum, my parents' snowy owl, landed on the table with a loud thud. He put out his leg and I untied the package. Poor Sherum just about had a heart attack when he saw Alexandrite.I got some food for him and gave him some water. "Hurry up, Lily! I want to see what Mum and Dad got you," said Al impatiently. I tore the wrapping paper off the package and found a book inside called Girl's Guide to Boys. I wrinkled my nose. What was the point of getting me a- "It's a Muggle book!" yelled Al as if it were the end of the world. "Calm down Al, it's just a book. Who cares if the pictures don't move? You do know that there are twenty eight people coming over this evening, right? And they're all wizards so don't get too scandalized yet."

"Twenty eight people, so, Victoire and Teddy are coming after all? I haven't seen them in ages!"

"Me too, Oooooh, Victoire will be so big now!"

"Girly moment alert!" said James, entering the kitchen. He had been taking Alexandrite outside and was covered in burn marks. I guessed that even though she was just a baby she could be quite ferocious. "Shut up, James!" I laughed, playfully aiming a punch at him.

At eight people started arriving. Uncle Charlie and his kids didn't come because they still live in Romania, but they had invited us for Christmas and they would give us all our Christmas and birthday gifts then and so would we. First, Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione, Rose and Hugo came. Rose is tall with red hair and blue eyes, but Hugo is short with brown hair and brown eyes. Hugo's fifteen (like me), and Rose is almost seventeen.

Afterwards Uncle George came. Aunt Alicia was sick though, so she didn't come. Craig's nineteen, with red hair and gray eyes (almost everyone in my family has red hair); Ashley and Jamie are twins and they're both sixteen with red hair (of course) and brown eyes; Sean's fourteen and he also has red hair and brown eyes; Fred's thirteen, but he's turning fourteen in December while Sean was born in January, he has hazel eyes and red hair; Mark and Peter are twelve and have blond hair and blue eyes.

Next Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur came. Fleur looked dashing in a brown shirt and pink skirt. Uncle Bill had actually cut his hair ("Oh no! What'd you do that for?" exclaimed Al) and was wearing his usual casual clothing. After them were Victoire and Teddy, and I had been right. Victoire was huge! "I'm having twins," she explained. Teddy's hair was a neon lime green (as it always was when he was excited). I smiled at the fact he was so happy about being a future father.

Uncle Percy and Aunt Penelope had given Jeremy, Sri and Will a ride. All his sons have red hair. Michael's twenty one, identical to Bill with very long hair and brown eyes; Josh is eighteen with glasses framing his grey eyes ; Nathan's sixteen, he wears green glasses that clash terribly with his blue eyes and he's as tall as Michael; Alex's fourteen with green eyes and freckles all over the place. Will, Jeremy and Sri are my best friends, they're all my age. Will Sumter's like Nathan, so tall he looks like he's seventeen instead of fourteen; he's got blue eyes and auburn hair. Jeremy Jordan is Lee Jordan's son. He's a bit taller than me with brown hair, brown eyes, much tanned skin and he's covered in freckles. Sri Creevey is Dennis Creevey's daughter; her blond hair highly contrasts with her brown eyes, her nose is filled with orange freckles and she's slightly shorter than me.

"Thanks for coming everyone!" I said hugging each person and giving my aunts a kiss on the cheek. We all sat down at tables that all the over age but not parents, conjured. Aunt Fleur had baked a splendid looking cake and Aunt Alicia had made a bunch of other sweets and treats. The cake Fleur had brought was shaped like a Lily and was decorated with white icing. Written in blue frosting ("To match your beauteeful eyes," had said Fleur) was Happy 15th Birthday Lily. Even though my parents weren't there I had a really great time. All the cousins played about twenty games of Exploding Snap.

At around half ten, everyone wanted to watch me open gifts. Since I don't really like people staring at me it was the most awkward half an hour since that time in my first year when Scorpius had lead me to the Room of Requirement and forgot to let go of my hand. I got too many gifts to even list them all here. That tends to happen to everyone in our family. Out of all my gifts, my favourite was still Scorpius'.

Since I was describing people earlier, I should describe my own two brothers. James' nineteen, has red hair (surprise, surprise!) brown eyes and rectangular shaped glasses. Dad feels terrible that James inherited his eyesight. Al's name is actually Albus but we call him Al for short. He's very skinny and identical to my father, except for the fact that he doesn't wear glasses. He's seventeen in November. I'm fifteen and have red hair and blue eyes. Just like my Uncle Ron.

Sri and I had decided earlier that day that she would stay at my place until the beginning of school and our parents had obliged. "Oh, crap!" she cried out. "I've left my things at home! I am such an idiot."

I grinned evilly and looked at James. I knew he had been fancying Sri for a while because I'd overheard him telling Al. "James can get them for you," I beamed. Tons of other people could have done it but I had known that James would be more than willing to. "James! Can you summon Sri's things for her? You're nineteen in October and passed you're NEWTs with flying colours. Even Sri agrees." I added giggling to myself. Sri pinched my arm hard and whispered, "Shut up!" in my ear, turning scarlet. Grinning at the chance to impress her he waved his wand and a trunk full of her stuff appeared and he looked surprised. "Sri, how long are you staying!"

She looked a bit hurt, "Until the beginning of school."

We went upstairs to my room, the one that used to belong to Regulus Black. I'd set up another bed for Sri to sleep in. I sat on my bed and beckoned Sri to sit beside me. She sat on my bed, fuming. "You're brother's a jerk, you know! He didn't have to be so rude. Ugh!"

"He's just doing because he fancies you," I said before clamping my hand over my mouth to stifle a sudden giggle attack that had overcome me. I could just picture James telling a girl he actually loved her. Then I couldn't help but burst out laughing. Sri looked at me sceptically and crossed her arms. "What's so funny about that? Well except for the fact that it isn't true at all."

"Oh, it's just something this friend told me. Sorry."

Sri crossed her legs and smiled at me. "You're a funny one, Lily Potter. No wonder why Scorpius looks at you like that at lunch." Now it was her turn to clamp her hand over her mouth. I acted as if Scorpius hadn't kissed me less than twenty four hours earlier. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, never mind. You didn't hear anything, okay?"

"Right."

I wondered what to say. There were lots of things I didn't know about Sri. She was really mysterious; she usually sat and listened to me rant about things. So I decided to get the most girly question that had been haunting me for a while. "So Sri, have any boys caught your eye?"

She looked at me, slightly embarrassed. "Well... yes but I'd rather not say. It's kind of embarrassing."

"Come on, please, please, please tell me!"

"All right! Stop begging and I'll tell you." I shut up immediately. "It's... it's your oldest brother, James." She said in hurry as if that would make a difference. I pretended to react. "Wow! You like James? I just never thought of either of you actually liking each other that way!" I hoped it had been convincing. Apparently it was, because she blushed and hid her face in my pillow. I sighed and said, "That'll just make your face redder." I heard a muffled "Whatever" and felt a pillow hit my face. I laughed and threw it back at Sri.

We talked well into the night. Right until a very grumpy looking Al came in our room and just screamed at us to shut up and saying that he would "never understand why girls chose to talk late at night when there's plenty of day" Sri and I had looked at each other and got a sudden attack of the giggles covering our mouths so that we wouldn't wake Al up again and make him murder us. "I'd hate to have Al locked up in Azkaban," I said. And then I realized that it had truly been one of the most wonderful birthdays in the world.