Everyone except Ron and Hermione, looked, around at Harry, beaming and jerking their heads towards Kingsley, indicating he should go to him.
"Hello, Potter." came Kingsley's deep voice. "The battle, with the Seven Harrys, it was the order's fault, we organised it. It was our fault you lost your owl, Hedwig. I hope she can help you forgive us." Then, the auror withdrew a cage from under his robes. Hermione gasped "Oh!"
Ron shouted "Blimey, Harry!" The adults were still smiling away. Inside the cage was a furry baby hippogriff. Harry did not know whether it was chick or foal, but it didn't matter. The rabbit-sized hippogriff was asleep, a snow-white head with long eyelashes and, as Harry later discovered, big, black, marble-sized eye. Its body was also pure white, transitioning smoothly from eagle to horse, with a long, silky tail and slender, dainty hooves and popcorn-coloured talons. Its delicate wings were also white, but with flickers of gold on every other feather. The paper-white feathers looked so familiar.
"Hedwig." Harry breathed. "I'll name her Hedwig." The tiny creature made a soft hooting sound in her sleep, somewhere inbetween a whinny of delight and a caw of recognisation.
"I hope you like her, Potter." Kingsley smiled.
"And, when she grows big enough," began George. "You might have a rival for that firebolt of yours, Harry" continued Fred.
"Best-looking hippogriff I've seen since Hogwarts! Do you remember, Molly? Old Talontrot?" Arthur said reminiscently. Molly chuckled.
"Oh! Ze beauxbaton horses look 'orrible compared to 'zis!" Stated a delighted Fleur, clasping her hands.
"She's beautiful, Harry!" Ginny exclaimed, rushing over to get a closer look.
"Dobby hopes master is happy with his hippogriff, sir." Dobby was small enough to ride Hedwig II.
Everyone was fussing over little Hedwig, the noise made her wake up. She stretched her wings, shook her tennis-ball head and began to look through the bars at her owner. Her shiny, black marble eyes met his and Harry felt an instant connection between them, then a pang of sadness, for he felt the same when he first saw his owl. He let her out of her cage. With a cautious look around, she trotted out the unlocked door, circled Harry's breakfast plate (being the size of a bunny) then, with a little hop, leapt into the air, loop-the-looped, then glided elegantly down again. She went to perch on Harry's shoulder as Mr and Mrs Weasley started magically doing the dishes.
"Kingsley!" Molly shouted over her shoulder.
"Yes, Molly," he replied, opening the door.
"Remus, Tonks and Mad-Eye are staying with us, I'm afraid we have no more bedrooms spare, but you can bring a sleeping bag, like Moody," she suggested.
Kingsley agreed and -waving his wand in a beckoning motion- raised his voice to say "Accio sleeping bag, Accio trunk!"
Kingsley's sleeping bag and trunk zoomed through the open door into his awaiting hands. Kingsley and the rest all headed into the lounge. After a few games of exploding snap and wizard chess, Mrs Weasley called "Remus, Tonks and Teddy are here, everyone!". Everyone rushed into the hallway to see Teddy in the flesh. Harry and the others a had only ever seen the metamorphmagus baby in photos. Remus Lupin, wearing a navy blue, slightly shabby-looking jacket and trousers, was carrying his dark brown suitcase, the cover peeling off in the corners, a large vibrant backpack enchanted to change colour from sandy brown, bubblegum pink and ocean turquoise, a Comet 260 broom and a large cauldron labelled: 'Moony's Wolfsbane' in Tonks' bold and looping handwriting.
"Hello Remus!" ; "Hi, Professor Lupin!"; "Hey Lupin! Where's Teddy?" and various other greetings echoed around the burrow.
"Hello, everyone, Dora's just outside- I was talking him about what his godfather, you, Harry, looked like and he, well, tried to turn into him. It was a very..inaccurate transformation- she's trying to teach him to change back." said Lupin's soft voice.
"I'm coming! Don't worry everyone, he's back to normal, well, not really, he doesn't particularly do normal. Does this look normal, Remus?" Babbled Tonks' chatty voice from outside. Lupin looked over his shoulder.
"He looks great, Dora." He said, his hands over his face to hide his laughter. In ran Tonks, hair a blue pixie cut, knocking over a plant pot and tripping over the step on the way. Balanced on her hip was Teddy, a fluffy teal mop upon his head, matching his mum's. Her hair turned long and red at the sight of all the Weasleys, Teddy imitated her, looking slightly like Bill. Hedwig pecked Harry's ear to let him know she was still there and then took off, performing a miniature air show for the giggling baby.
"Where's Mad-Eye?" Asked Percy sophisticatedly.
"E went and joined zat Kingsley, to set up zeir 'sleeping bags'." answered George, imitating Fleur and smirking at Fred. Bill shot his brother a nasty glare.
"Come on through! We've all got presents for dear little Teddy!" Mrs Weasley said.
"Molly! You really didn't need to!" repeated Tonks as they all headed to the lounge again. They all sat on the sofa, except the Lupins. On the floor, Teddy sat on Tonks' knee, Hedwig nestled beside him on the other. Lupin was sitting leaning against the sofa and Tonks, his arm resting around her neck. First, a present from the Weasleys. The baby, inheriting his father's dog-like traits, tore open the wrapping paper with his hands, feet and mouth, shaking it viciously, his red hair going darker into crimson, darker into black, along with his eyes going blood red. Inside was a crisp new copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard and a toy wand that could cast harmless spells when waved, like 'lumos' or making colourful puffs in the air. Hermione had torn out all her beloved diary entries mentioning his family in and made them into a memory, created a miniature pensive and poured all of her happy or exciting memories with his family into it, to be re-lived whenever Teddy desired. Harry had bought him, as he had once owned as a baby, a baby-sized broomstick, a firebolt, to be exact. Teddy, eyes turning pink with happiness, tried to transform into every person that gave him a present, and ended horribly with a mixture of Harry's scar and glasses, Hermione's clothes, the Weasley's trademark red hair, his mum's body and his dad's face. After he had dived to pure memory, Hedwig lightly nipped Teddy until he got onto the broom and, with a wave of the his new 'wand' (Tonks wouldn't let anyone say it wasn't real in front of him.) that caused a pink flame to light at its tip fire a second, was zooming around the house, screaming, "I FIND SNITCHY LIKE HAWWY!". The snitch that teddy was chasing was poor Hedwig. After a while, Hedwig began to enjoy it, and her and Teddy began a sort of air hide-and-seek that he named "Find Snitchy".
"Lunch, everyone!" called Molly and "Oh, for the love of Merlin's single chest hair!" Cursed Tonks, who'd just spilled her and Fleur's butterbeers on the floor.