Story: The Enemy of My Father
Author: Mihra~Attar
Chapter: Birthday Books
Chapter rating: not M
Disclaimer: Don't own, etc.
A/N: Yay. And in a timely fashion. Lesse. I's back in school now, so updates on everything are going to be slower, as I have to do homework first or I'll get behind.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Two weeks after starting classes Harry stood in front of the testing panel: Three teachers, all outstanding musicians, who would judge whether or not he was ready to move to the next class. This was a nerve-wracking experience for many reasons, but the one that stuck with Harry the most was that he was the one to chose when he would be tested. He could ask for his teacher's advice, but he had to make the choice.

Of course, allowances were made for nerves, but still, he didn't want to be considered arrogant. He absently smoothed the front of his vest-robes, robe-length garments (of a shimmering red-approaching-black) with no sleeves that buttoned from throat to navel, and forced his body to relax so as not to break the neck of his violin or the frog of his bow.

"Mister Potter, if you would." The head of the music department gestured for him to begin, and he raised the violin to playing position, bringing his bow to rest centimeters from the strings. He'd already tuned the violin with his teacher's help, and he closed his eyes for a moment before snapping them open and drawing his bow across the d-string for the opening note. Slowly the Alphabet Song, or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star if that's what you heard, took shape, and Harry buried his distaste of the song deep within his mind.

His playing wasn't wonderful. The tempo was off a bit, slower at first and then rushed at the end, and he still had to root for the notes, but each class was only six weeks apart, and he'd been playing between two and four times as much as his classmates on any given day so the outcome was to be expected.

*&*

"Congratulations Harry." Draco slapped him on the back as he stepped out of the testing room, grinning from ear-to-ear, with a small red ribbon tied to the handle of his violin case. It was one of the ways people knew what class each student was in: what ribbons were on their cases. First class had none, second had a single red, through the rainbow until seventh had singles of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Then the next twelve classes ran through the rainbow of colors again. Students who graduated from the highest class received black ribbons, and helped tutor the youngest. Students somewhere between double-red and triple-yellow were the ones typically chosen as mentors for entrants.

All in all it was a simplistically complex system that worked, and Harry let Draco lead him to his new classroom with a goofy smile on his face.

*&*&*&^&*&*&*

At the stroke of midnight that turned July 30th to July 31st Harry was woken by a bundled something falling on him. Anticipation keeping him from deep sleep, he felt it immediately and tumbled from bed with a strangled yell. Less than a minute later Severus ran into the room, candles flaring to life when he didn't see Harry on the bed.

"Harry?" He took a step closer, but Harry only had eyes for the bundle lying on top of his blanket. Severus, being the deductive genius he was, saw what Harry was looking at, and checked it for booby traps before picking it up. As it fell open to reveal a cloak a piece of paper slipped out. Severus saw the paper and picked it up.

"Hmm." He handed it to Harry.

Harry,

If you're reading this two things are true: Your mother and I are both dead, and Dumbledore can no longer be trusted. This is my invisibility cloak. Use it well.

I can't say much more here. If you go into the Potter vault and say 'Severus Snape' a trunk will appear. Check it out as soon as you can.

I love you my son.

-Dad

"Huh." Harry grunted.

"Now I know how he avoided getting caught." Severus shook his head and folded the cloak, putting it in Harry's trunk with his winter gear. "If I find you using it to break school rules I will confiscate it." Harry was just glad he'd let him keep it.

"Okay. G'night Severus."

"Good night Harry."

*&*&*&^&*&*&*

"Harry!" Draco ran over. "Go put Uriel in the basket so we can play Quidditch!" Harry hastened to comply, grinning at Vince, Greg, Kira, Blaise, Draco, Hermione, and an amused Lucius, who was somehow holding a conversation with Hermione without, as far as Harry could tell, insulting her heritage.

With six players -Hermione had refused,- Kira became keeper with Vince as her beater, Blaise, Draco, and Harry were chasers with Greg as their beater, they played with the Quaffle, one Bludger, and no Snitch. Harry learned that he was a decent chaser, but his glasses were a problem. On the other hand, all of them worked up a huge appetite that was well sated by fish and chips, mini-burgers, and soda.

Harry had been shocked when he saw the spread, turning incredulous eyes to Draco, who shrugged nonchalantly.

"What? You told me about your cousin's birthday parties, and I told Father. Besides, 'know your enemy'." Draco turned to the food without another word, and left Harry gaping.

*&*&^&*&*

Presents came after lunch and before cake, except for the restocking of Harry's wardrobe, which had finished a few days previous.

Presents.

A whole pile of presents.

For Harry.

He hadn't actually noticed them, sitting there on the end table, waiting to be opened. Yes, he had gotten gifts at Christmas, but this was his birthday, and all of those were for him?

Harry didn't notice the looks that the others, particularly the adults, were trading. Didn't notice Blaise sidling up to Lucius to engage in a whispered debate. He stared at the pile, and for a minute he dared to hope that the presents were for him, dared to believe it wasn't all a dream.

"Come on Potter, open a present already!" Draco stepped to the table and threw a small-ish box at Harry, who caught it without thinking, a grin he couldn't feel spreading across his face like an outbreak of acne. (Difficult to control, harder to remove).

The box Draco had tossed turned out to be from Ron, and had a modest assortment of candy. Harry put it aside in time to catch a card Draco flicked to him, which was, surprisingly, from Dudley. Even more shocking was the slip of lined paper that fell out of it...the slip of paper addressed to 'Draco's Dad...I think'. Harry handed that piece to Lucius with a frown, and read the card.

Hey Harry,

Happy birthday I guess. Things are really strange here and I just wanted to say I'm glad the scary, poncy man got you out. Dad's been real angry, but you're gone so there isn't much he can do. Just be safe and learn a lot at that freak school of yours, ok?

-Dudley

Harry actually chuckled at Dudley's use of the word 'freak'. Even before he'd gone to Hogwarts it had become a code word between them. 'Freak' between them meant alternately 'wicked', 'cool', and 'amusing', among a few other situational translations.

Harry tucked the card back in its envelope, not letting the others read it, and turned to take the next present from Draco. It was a snake basket shaped parcel wrapped in happy silver paper with green presents that had gold ribbons. It was light, and didn't rattle, though it rasped a bit when Harry removed the paper.

"Great! Thanks Lucius!" Harry grinned up at the tall, blond man, Uriel happily exploring his new home. It was rather special, with a number of features that included a Forget-Me charm, a strong flame-retardant spell, and a 'snitch-catcher' hex that would mark anyone planning on telling unapproved persons about the snake held within.

The box from Gregory held what was quickly becoming the traditional gift between him and Harry, namely school supplies. Five bottles of ink: Two black, one color changing, one green, and one red; three new quills with metal nibs, and enough blank parchment for at least a term.

Next was a book-shaped present from Blaise. When Harry unwrapped it he grinned at her, fingering the embossed BoS on the black cover. It was a Book of Sins, a diary of sorts in which he could write anything that might nag at his conscience later. Beyond that were its organizational properties, as noted by Blaise's own BoS, in which she stored all her 'personal' information on everyone to ever matter in her life and a few people who didn't. He would be using it, yes indeed, and the best part was that most everyone would read it as his 'Book of Shadows', a slightly outdated (according to British Wizarding custom) form of magical journaling.

Draco managed to grab his own gift next, a book entitled Don't Get Caught: Remote Hexing for the Cultured Teen. This was followed by The Slytherin's Guide to Habitually Slytherin Families from Marcus Flint via owl-shipping.

The eighth was a box of Zonko's products from Kira, which Harry was about to put away when he noticed something at the bottom. He shuffled the prank supplies around until he could clearly see what lay below, and smiled at the quiet girl. She'd hidden pages and pages of violin music below the more mundane gift, and somehow that made more of an impact on Harry than anything but the violins themselves had, and those had been so sudden that he hadn't been able to process them until much later.

After Harry got himself back under control, not that anyone but Severus and Kira noticed anything was off, he took the next package, and pulled the wrappings off. Lost Potions sat in his hand, a slip of paper serving as a card.

"Severus, what have you done?" Lucius broke the verbal silence that had fallen since Harry opened his first gift. Most children would jump around, yelling 'thank you' and not actually remembering the gifts later. Harry hadn't said 'thank you', but everyone could see it in his eyes when he sought out each present-giver in turn. They knew, though he didn't know they did, that his silence was not out of arrogance, but out of being overwhelmed by unusuall kindness, and it made them very, very angry.

Vincent had also gotten a book: Pureblood to Muggleborn: A Guide to Western Wizarding Culture, which Hermione immediately asked to borrow. Finally the last present was set before Harry, the one from Hermione herself, and he opened it with care to reveal a broom servicing kit.

It was as Harry stared at this last piece of proof that his friends truly did care for him that Harry broke. He whirled and tackled Hermione in a hug, pulling Kira, who had been sitting next to Hermione, into the hug as well. A second later Blaise tackled the three of them, Vincent, Gregory, and Draco quickly following.

*&*&*&^&*&*&*

Albus was incensed. The cloak had gone. Of course, he figured it might happen. After all, James had told him to give it to Harry for his 11th Christmas. Yet he'd begun to hope; when the cloak had failed to disappear that December night he'd thought 'maybe'. Well, he'd just have to go get it back. After all, he couldn't have Slytherins sneaking about. It wasn't safe.

Albus knew nothing of the note, nothing of Harry's new location. He set out to Privet Drive with a light heart, knowing he would be able to talk the cloak out of the boy in minutes.