RECAP: Why do you have flour on your face?
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Why do you have flour on your face?" Harry asked, his breaths coming in quick rasps, his body slightly shaking.
"Well . . .it . . .well it is in a way . . .well . . .I Sort of . . .WAIT why are you the one interviewing my, you are the one who woke up screaming Bloody Mary!" Harry slightly blushed and then his eyes suddenly turned distant and frightened. This change did not go unnoticed.
"You had another nightmare about 'HIM' again didn't you?" Minerva asked understandingly. Harry nodded, the distant look still in his eyes.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Minerva asked soothingly. At this she received no reply. She decided that she would get it out of the boy sooner or later, and today was his Birthday so it would have to be later. "Well as for an answer to your question I had a little accident in the kitchen." This seemed to snap Harry back o reality and a small smirk began to curve around his mouth.
"You, in the kitchen. Doing what?" Harry asked, his smirk growing into a miniature smile as he watched his professor's face take on a light pink color. "Well that is something that I know and something that you will have to find out on your own"
DING DONG Minerva's door deep doorbell rang throughout the large house. This was Minerva's time to smirk.
"Excuse me, I need to get that. Stay here will you?" she said and left before Harry got a chance to reply.
Harry took the opportunity to fling the sheets away from him and 'slowly' stand up. His first attempt failed miserably as the room began to spin. He tightly clamped his eyes shut and took 5 or 6 deep breaths before attempting to open his eyes again. He looked down at himself in disgust as he tried to peel his pajamas free from his body. He must have been more frightened then he thought. He quickly gathered a pair of blue jeans and a plain midnight blue T-Shirt from one of his drawers and quietly left his room and ventured down the hall to the bathroom.
Five minutes later he emerged from the bathroom and started to make his way to his room when he heard hushed whispers coming from the living room. His curiosity got the best of him so he started to slowly walk toward the room where he had heard the voices. The door to the living room was shut, 'well that's weird, McGonagall never shuts the living room door' Harry thought suspiciously. He pulled his wand from out of his front pocket (Moody would kill him if he EVER saw it in his back pocket) and placed his hand on the doorknob. He slowly began to turn it to the right and it let out an audible SQUEAK. At this the murmurings quickly ceased. Harry thought 'its now or never' and he flung open the door and jumped into the dark room.
The lights suddenly flicked on and Harry heard a loud:
"SURPRISE"
Harry looked around the room, which had balloons floating everywhere and a HUGE banner stretching across the entire room reading "HARRY 16th BIRTHDAY HARRY". Ha also noticed that EVERYONE was there. Ron, Hermione, Mr. &Mrs. Weasley, Fred, George, Ginny, everyone from the order, Dumbledore, and the rest of his friends from school. Everyone was smiling broadly at him.
All of the grinning must have been contagious because Harry's face suddenly broke down and spread out to a smile that could swallow the moon. This was the first genuine smile that had had created in a long time. In that moment he remembered how much he really did love smiling and laughing.
"WOW" was all that he could say.
Minerva walked up to him, placed her arms around his shoulders and whispered into his ears "Happy Birthday Harry. You deserve it." She then walked away from him and stood in front of the door that led to the patio. She put her hand on the doorknob and began her mini speech.
"Welcome all of you, to Harry's 16th Birthday party" a cry of whistles and cheering erupted from the crowd. Minerva raised her hand for silence.
"Now I do believe is the time in which EVERYONE looks forward to on their Birthday" she turned the knob and opened the door leading to the outside patio "Presents" she said and she backed away from the door and watched as Harry's mouth dropped open.
Harry had never seen so many presents in his ENTIRE life. It was a mountain. Boxes upon boxes towered into the night air. They even lined the patio edge (and the patio was a good size.
"What . . .who. .How . . .how many. . How is this . . .why. . I . . .WOW" Harry pronounced and everyone started to laugh.
"Well were not getting any younger you know, open, open, open." Fred pronounced.
"Now Fred if Harry is not ready to open his gifts then he certainly does not have to" Mrs. Weasley pronounced scolding at Fred.
"Oh come on mum, there is a MOUNTAIN of presents," Fred said "Everything that he could ever want," George continued "A pile of presents that children could not even POSSIBLY dream up and you do not think that he is ready." Fred finished "Don't be so thick Mum" They both said on at the same time.
Everyone began chuckling as Fred and George walked up behind Harry and pushed him into the seat that was comfortably seated in front of MT. Gift and preceded to hand him gift after gift.
He received a book on the GREATEST seekers in the history of Wizardry from Ron, a new copy of HOGWARTS: A HISTORY from Hermione,
"Gee Hermione, I can't wait to read this monster" Harry commented He came to a small package that looked rather like a jewelry box. He opened it to find a small silver locket with a rose and the word 'FOREVER' engraved into the front. He opened it and a small tear came to his eye.
On one side was a picture of his mother and father kissing on their Wedding day and on the other side was his favorite picture in the entire world. It was the picture of his mother holding him with one of his father's arms around his mother's waist and the other was one his baby hand and he was making his hand wave. His parents smiles in that photo where the smiles that he saw every night before he went to sleep. There was also a card that went along. Harry opened it up and read it to himself:
Dear Harry,
This is the least that I could give you. I wish you could have known them and be able to remember the feeling that they gave you. They loved you with all of their hearts Harry and so do all of your friends. You must NEVER forget that. If you are ever lost or need help just open this locket and decipher what their smiles mean. They mean that they love you and that they are SO proud of you, as are we all.
With Love, Professor Dumbledore
Harry looked up from the card, a few stray tears making their way down his face and onto his chin. Dumbledore smiled at him and motioned for him to put the necklace on. Harry gently pulled the fragile necklace out of its velvet case and slipped it over his head where it perfectly hung around his neck. It was a perfect fit; Harry wondered how he could have possibly made it through life without it.
An hour and a half later his pile was gone and now he had the gifts AND the wrapping paper which belonged to the gifts towering over him.
"O.K. Birthday boy, what next" Mrs. Weasley asked in her motherly voice.
"Well I think . . ." but Fred and Georges screams of cut him off:
"CAKE" the twins yelled and they ran to the kitchen.
"FRED, GEORGE GET YOUR BUTTS BACK HERE RIGHT NOW, WHAT IF THAT IS NOT WHAT HARRY WANTS. WHAT IF HE WANTS TO . . ." But Mrs. Weasley suddenly stopped her ranting and silence filled the house. Everyone soon grew suspicious of the abrupt silence and started to murmur and follow to where they saw the Weasleys go. Then their murmuring suddenly stopped.
'What the Hell' Harry thought to himself and looked over to Professor McGonagall who was trying to suppress a smile. This only shot up Harry's suspicion as he followed his guests and politely pushed his way to the kitchen door where his thoughts also suddenly stopped. It was the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen.
On the Kitchen counted sat a 6 layer double chocolate cake covered in chocolate fudge icing and accented by large pieces of
Dark and Milk chocolate shavings surrounded each and every inch of the scrumptious cake. Lining the bottom of the enormous cake were several lumps of chocolate-peanut butter ice cream (Harry's favorite). Followed by glasses filled with foaming Butter Beer. Harry stared at the cake in AW, while Fred and George licked their lips expectantly. Minerva showed up a moment later, no longer suppressing her grin. Harry noticed her arrival only when she put her hands on his shoulders.
"It's beautiful," Harry whispered with an appreciative grin on his face.
"Technically I did not do it," She whispered back. In confusion Harry asked,
"Then who did"
"Well I made it, but I made it with magic." Harry nodded in understanding until once again a question racked his brain.
"Then why did you have flour all over your face if you made the cake by magic?" Harry asked and once again Minerva's face turned a light shade of pink. This time Harry was not able to notice because his back was to her.
"Well . . .I just wanted to give you an actual birthday and I thought that that must inquire an actual cake so . . . I kind of . . .tried to make the cake myself. Lets just say that this idea did not work out very well"
At this Harry let out a burst of laughter that drew everyone's attention away from the cake and onto Harry who was holding his stomach in laughing cramps. Minerva soon also joined Harry in his fit of laughter. Everyone just stared at them as if they were complete Weirdo's. Especially the students, they had never seen this king, open side of McGonagall before and in the end they figured that they liked it and that they could get used to it.
After a few minutes the pair had calmed down enough to tell everyone to dig in. and that is EXACTLY what everyone did. Within no more than 20 minutes that HUGE cake was nothing but half a layer and the only remainder of the ice cream was a large chocolate puddle that surrounded the almost eaten cake.
Everyone sat at the dinning table holding their stomachs as if they were going to explode. Small talk surrounded the house.
Harry was talking to Ron about the next Quiditch World Cup and Hermione was in deep conversation with McGonagall about Transfiguration. Suddenly something hit Harry's mind and he just had to ask.
"Professor Dumbledore"
"Yes my boy?" Dumbledore asked after pulling himself away from the conversation with Tonks.
"I was just wondering how what happened to Professor Snape. We left in such a hurry, is he O.K.?" At this question everyone at the table fell silent and waited for Dumbledore's response.
Dumbledore heaved a deep sigh before he began. "Well, He was on a mission for me (none of the children were supposed to know that Snape was actually a spy and was going to Death Eater meetings) when he learned about the attack that was to happen at you Aunt and Uncles house. He also found out about how your Aunt was under a spell. Voldemort found out that he was going to come and warn us so he captured him and tortured him with the crutatious curse. Before Voldemort could do much more damage he apparated away. He is currently at ST. Mungos. He took quite the beating. But do not worry he will be back and healthy before the start of term"
At this all of the kids groaned in displeasure and Dumbledore grinned, "Come now, he cannot possibly be THAT bad"
"OH MY MERLIN yes he can and yes he is" Ron said and all the students started to erupt in mutual conversation on how TERRIBLE Snape was. Harry though did not take place in the conversation. He HATED Snape yes, but he had risked his life to save him, the least he could do was not talk about him behind his back 'at least for the meantime' Harry thought to himself.
A few hours passed until all of the guests left after wishing Harry a Happy Birthday and thanking Minerva for inviting them. Both Minerva and Harry started to clean up when Minerva noticed that Harry was not looking very happy, she wanted to know why.
"So Harry, did you have fun"
"What . . .oh yes, lots, thank you Ma'am" Harry said without looking up.
"Harry for one thing, if we are going to be living together I will grant you permission to call me Minerva and second, if you had such a 'swell' time then why do you look like Quiditch has been permanently canceled?" Minerva said. Harry sighed deeply and did not answer for a few moments.
"I don't know" he lied. He did know why and Minerva knew that he knew why.
"I think you do, come here" Minerva said and led Harry over to the couch where they both sat down. Harry's eyes were glued to his hands, which were lying on his lap and Minerva's eyes were glued on him.
"So, do you want to tell me something?" Minerva asked.
Harry once again sighed and began, "Well, the cake was perfect and all of my friend were there and I got everything that I could possibly want except . . ." "Except?" Minerva prompted "Except Sirius. I just wanted him to be here. I miss him so mush," Harry stated as he forcibly whipped away the stupid tears that were freely falling.
Minerva gently lifted his chin with her hand and looked into his tear filled eyes. "I know you miss him Harry, and I know that you wanted him to be here more than anything, but you must know that it is O.K. to miss him. It is O.K. to cry and to just wish for him to come back. You need to let your feelings out. You can come to me whenever, I'm here for you I hope you know that." She said and Harry leaned his head on her shoulder. She softly began to stroke his hair, she felt his unshed tears drip through her robes. About 30 minutes later both were asleep. Harry was lying on McGonagall's lap and McGonagall had a protecting arm around him. This was the first full night of sleep that they had both received, and it would probably be one of their last.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Hey guys. . .for those who have read this story already, I had to take it off of the website and do some grammer checks.I was getting a LOT of comments about them. That is also why I did not have a chance to update. Well thank you anyways and keep the reviews comin:)