Characters and anything else you recognize belong to J.K. Rowling!
Birthday Surprises
When Hermione arrived the following morning, the Golden Trio instantly threw themselves into conversation full of un finished sentences and inside jokes that left the occupants of the house more than a little bemused.
"Oh, Professor Lupin, I didn't see you there! How are you? And Snuffles...I, uh, I mean Sirius, you look great! Gosh it's great to see you all!" Hermione broke out of the conversation she was having with her boys when she noticed the two old friends standing in the doorway to the kitchen.
"Hello there, Hermione, I'm doing just fine. However, seeing as I haven't been your professor for over a year now, perhaps you should call me Remus," the werewolf gently chided her with a soft smile.
"of course, Remus."
"Now, is the older Mr. Weasleys would be kind enough to bring your bags up to the room you will be using for the rest of the summer, Harry and Ron her can give you the grand tour," Dumbledore commented to get the day moving.
Bill and Charlie stepped forward and picked up Hermione's bags, garnering an odd look from the girl when she noticed their hair. However, Ron had already grabbed her arm and began leading her out of the entrance hall, leaving her no chance to comment or ask about what was obviously a prank by the twins. Harry silently followed the two down the hall shaking his head at Ron's antics.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The two boys decided to start the tour on the top floor and work their way down so they could meet up with everyone else for lunch in the kitchen on the first floor. So, the three of them climbed the huge spiral staircase up to the third floor.
The third floor of the manor had the master suite, which was used by Albus Dumbledore since it was, after all, his home. The master suite consisted of a bedroom, a bathroom, and a sitting room/study. On the floor, there were also two more bedrooms; these were being used by Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Sirius and Remus since they were larger than the bedrooms that took up the majority of the second floor. Moony also had a room in the basement, although the room was just as much Padfoot's because he joined him each and every month.
When she noticed through the slightly ajar door that there appeared to be only on bed in the marauders' room, Hermione felt compelled to ask: "Is there something going on between those two? I mean, first their behavior that night in the shack, and now I'm pretty sure they're sharing a bed..."
Ron looked at Hermione like she was off her rocker, while Harry just looked thoughtful.
Storing this new information away for later, the bookworm noticed the library. The two story library with hundreds of books just waiting for her to read.
"Oi, mate. I think we've lost her."
Laughing Harry replied, "Oh, I'm sure she'll be out of there in a week or so! Well, since our tour seems to have ended, I say we find Moony and Padfoot and prepare for our first prank."
"Sounds like a plan to me."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The four pranksters were sitting in a hidden back corner of the library, the last room anyone would look for Harry, Ron or Sirius, planning just what they were going to do to Fred and George. The whole time Harry kept watching the two marauders to see if perhaps Hermione was right, and they romantically involved. What he was seeing was leasing him to believe that they were. Harry saw this as very good thing; one, because they deserved to be happy, and two, he needed someone to talk to about the fact that he had a crush on another guy.
Ron was clueless to whole situation, of course.
When Sirius and Ron went to gather some supplies, Harry decided to confront the werewolf with his suspicions.
"Are you and Sirius together?" He also decided to be blunt about it.
"I...Uh...Excuse Me," Remus sputtered.
"I'm just curious. I mean, you act like, for the last hour you've both been touch each other at very opportunity. So are you?"
"Yes, yes we are. Does that bother you?" Remus really didn't want there to be anything that hindered the relation that seemed to be building between the three of them. They needed their cub as much as Harry needed parental figures.
"Not at all...I actually kinda wanted to ask you, because you see, well," Harry trained off while blushing a brilliant shade of Weasley red.
"Did ya miss me?" Sirius called out as he and Ron returned with supplies for the prank.
Remus just gave Harry a look before they started to get everything ready.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
One week later found Harry sitting on his bed, with Hedwig on his shoulder, at 11:45 getting ready to count down to his 15th birthday. What Harry didn't know was that his friends remembered this tradition of his, and had no plans to let him celebrate alone this year. So, at five minutes 'til midnight, Ron got out of bed and Hermione and Ginny came in from their room, leaving Harry speechless.
At exactly midnight the twins entered the room with a bang, literally. They had set off four or five small spheres that burst open and released confetti. The confetti was actually little snitches that continued to fly around the room for a full ten minutes; Hedwig was NOT a fan of this new invention of the twins' and had flown out of the room in a huff.
By this point Harry was so overwhelmed, he was practically in tears. For the first time in his life he was celebrating his birthday with people he cared about and, more importantly, people who cared about him.
The group continued to hang out and celebrate until Hermione said, "OK guys, it's time to go to sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow."
"But Mione..."
"I didn't say we all had to go back to our rooms, Ron. I just said that it was time to actually get some sleep, it is two in morning."
At this point Ginny threw down the two sleeping bags she had brought. The two girls then proceeded to take over Ron's bed, while George snuggled up under the cover of Harry's bed. Ron wasn't happy when he realied he would be sleeping on the floor, but he knew that if he complained Harry would move to the floor and refuse anyone's offer of bed space. He was just that kind of guy.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The next morning Harry had a slight moment of panis when he first woke-up and found that there was a rather heavy object on top of him. When he realized that object was George, who had managed to roll on top of Harry so that his head rested over Harry's heart, Harry proceeded to turn bright red. Gently shaking him, Harry whispered, "George is time to wake-up. C'mon George."
"Pillows aren't supposed to move!"
"Um, George, I'm not a pillow."
"Pillows aren't supposed to talk!"
"George! Wake! UP!" Harry proceeded to give George a shove that knocked him right off the bed. He landed directly on top of Fred, who gave a loud yelp that woke-up the other three teenagers.
"Was goin' on?"
"Wha' happen'd?"
"Ev'ryone ok?"
"KIDS, IT'S TIME FOR BREAKFAST," came Mrs. Weasley's voice up the stairs.
The six teenagers tiredly made their way into the kitchen. Hermione and Ron were the only two who were fully awake. Hermione because she was Hermione, and Ron because there was food in front of him.
Harry, who had been the last down the stairs, stood in the doorway simply staring at the far counter. Said counter was buried under a rather large pile of presents.
"C'mon Harry! Eat first, presents later," encouraged Ginny.
"Uh, right. Food, yeah."
At that they all sat down to a delicious meal of cooked and saugages cooked to perfection by Mrs. Weasley.
"So mate, what'da ya wanna do today? It's your call all day long birthday boy!" Ron couldn't help but laugh at his friend's reaction to having an actual birthday!
"Just don't forget about the picnic at noon. Also, I believe Sirius was going to try and get a small quiditch game organized for this afternoon. Now odd you kids go. Have fun, but be safe!"
At Mrs. Weasley's word they all dispeared back upstairs to play games and watch the twins' antics. They decided to leave the presents for lunch so that everyone could watch Harry open them.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
That afternoon all of the residents of the manor had a picnic on one of the large empty fields. The group spent lunch talking and joking around, and just enjoying each other's company.
When they finished eating, Harry opened his presents. He got new quiditch gloves from Bill and Charlie, a planner from Percy, a jumper and scarf in Gryffindor colors from Mrs. Weasley, a book on wizarding customs from Mr. Weasley, a bag full of their candies from the twins, a bunch of t-shirts with various lettering and graphics from Hermione and Ginny, a box of chocolates from Honeydukes (that Remus kept eyeing) from Ron, a book on defense from Remus, a snake from Hagrid, a book on wandless magic from Dumbledore, and a new set of dress robes and (Harry's personal Favorite) on a book on becoming an animagus from Sirius.
After Harry finished thanking everyone and having a quick conversationwith his snake, Sirius got his quiditch game started.
"Okay, so we're gonna play four on four. No snitch and no bludgers. Team 1 has: Ron, Harry, and George; with Bill playing seeker. Team 2 has: Fred, Charlie, and myself; with Ginny playing keeper. I spent a lot of time figuring out these teams, so no complaints, just trust that I have my reasons. Grab your brooms and Let's Go!"
The game that followed had to be the most ridiculous game of quiditch ever played! The twins kept switching teams, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Sirius was laughing too hard at them to pay any attention to the rest of the game, and everyone got a good view of why Harry and Charlie ONLY played as seekers. They could catch passes just fine, but throwing them was another matter altogether. Ron spent the whole time trying to organize a strategy for his team, but failing miserably because no one was paying any attention to what he was saying. The keepers were the only ones not making total idiots of themselves, but that was only because no one was making any decent shots against them.
All of a sudden, when the score was...well, no one knew the score, but Harry's team was winning because he was the birthday boy..., Harry froze about 10 ft higher than the rest of the players.
"Hey Harry,you gonna sit up there all day or come and try to get one past me," Ginny called out.
"Huh, what? Could you come up here for a second, Sirius?"
"What's up, Kid," he asked as he stopped next to his godson.
In response Harry just pointed over a hill way off to the right of the Manor. When Sirius looked over he got quite confused because he didn't see anything interesting, just a boring field. A very boring field. Too boring.
