George rummaged through his shelves, dropping more than a few things as he did. Marbles rolled around his feet, a small statue of a unicorn whinnied at him angrily, ink spilled out onto the floor – it was invisible, that was alright – and a couple of painted butterflies flew around the room as if unsure of where to go. He and Fred had gotten them at a party a few weeks ago – or was it months – maybe last year, and whose party had it been? Well, it didn't matter.

A ship-in-a-bottle began to fall and George, noticing it just in time, caught it before it hit the ground. He set it back on the shelf and thought again that it was a bit of a shame that underage wizards couldn't use magic outside of school. Dad didn't mind casting some little spells for them, but Mum was the one who was good at Charms and she always wanted to know why she was doing it – and very rarely, if ever, liked the answers that they gave her.

"Ah!" he exclaimed, reaching for something at the back of the shelf. "There you are!"

He took out a badly wrapped but very colourful bundle, which had been hidden away behind The Mysterious Disappearance of Xavier Rastrick and some quills too worn-down to be useful. George grinned at the package and slipped it under his arm so that he wouldn't lose it again. The butterflies were still fluttering about, rather forlornly, so he cracked open his window to let them out.

The room he shared with Fred was at the very top of the house. When he looked out the window he could see all the plains and hills surrounding the Burrow, and even a bit of the Muggle village just out to the west. There was a river close-by, with its own section of marches, and he could see nearly everything – except, of course, the house itself, and the chicken cages and pig pens that were on the other side of the house – and the garage as well, when he thought about it, and it was a little hard to make out the shed, which he could only see one corner of...

The butterflies flew out the window and down to the yard, where the rest of his family was gathered. Snatches of conversation floated up to him. He could hear Ron laughing and the sounds of Quidditch balls making impact. It was sunny outside, not too much of a breeze – or he might have felt badly for the butterflies he'd freed – and altogether a very good day. Harry had come to visit and brought his parents with him, since it was his birthday today. Already twelve years old, what a marvel! With all the stress the papers put him through it was a wonder he hadn't gone from eleven to forty.

George pulled the window down so it was only half-open, made sure he still had the package, and went out of his room and down the precarious stairs to the rest of the house. The floorboards creaked underneath his feet and he moved around piles of books and chairs and Muggle things that Dad was always leaving out. The hallway became more orderly, signifying that he was near Percy's room.

He stuck his head in and then knocked, just to be polite. "Oi, Perce, you coming downstairs? I think some of us have forgotten what your face looks like."

Percy was sitting on his bed, and scrambled – far too obviously – to hide some parchment behind his back, going red with embarrassment. His owl Hermes, a small thing that always looked suspicious – much like Percy himself, really – was sitting just behind him. "Can't you show any manners?" his brother said angrily. "Out! Now! And I don't want to hear you calling me that again! Bloody Oliver, I knew it would catch on..."

Rather than getting the door slammed in his face George left him alone. He was probably writing to a girl, although what kind of girl would write back to Percy Weasley he didn't know. George whistled the Gryffindor song loudly to annoy him as he went further down the stairs, jumping the last one and landing artfully in the living room. A banner hit him in the head as he walked through – Happy Birthday Harry! it said, and then in increasingly smaller print, We all hope you have a very good day today and we're really so proud of you and you know that we'll always be here... before the writer had run out of room. Mum, obviously.

There were streamers hanging everywhere, and a Muggle thing that Dad had brought out specially – 'it's a balloon, you fill it up with air and it...it...well, Muggles use them at parties' – and there were cups and plates all set out for lunch, and flowers at the table – they never had flowers at the table unless it was someone's birthday. When he went into the kitchen there were piles of homemade pumpkin pies and biscuits and sweets, and little cakes Mum had made with Ginny and iced lightning shapes onto, and jugs of lemonade and punch. Harry's parents had made his actual birthday cake and only they and Mum knew where it was, so that no one ended up eating it before this afternoon.

He grabbed one of the cupcakes, moved the package from one arm to the other, and went outside. Ron, Fred and Harry were playing Quidditch – well, Ginny was playing as well, but only as Keeper and only so long as an adult was watching. Loud clanking noises were coming from the garage, so that was probably where Dad had gone. Mum was fussing around as usual, around a table of food that she had set up for them, making sure that the Chocolate Frogs weren't going to jump away and that the chairs she'd brought out were arranged just so.

Standing off to the side were Harry's parents, so George went over to them, eating the cake as he did. The lightning bolt tasted delicious. "Look at that!" James was saying as he watched the game, smiling hugely. "Utterly fantastic! Fred was made to be a Beater, I tell you, but anyone can do it, and if he's got the brains to be a Chaser then Wood would be a fool not to use him as one. Look at that form! I'm glad we brought those brooms over today, Lily. Maybe we should keep them here, the boys don't tend to play at ours as often."

Lily laughed. "Well I've warned them enough times not to hurt the garden, and I don't think they like to be careful."

"Oh, no, dear. It's the space, the space! But really, I know that Nimbus 2000 cost a bit, and they're coming out with a new one soon, but doesn't it suit Fred so well? Better for speed, better for manoeuvring. Ginny's doing well with that Cleansweep 7, I wasn't sure because I haven't seen her play before – quite good, isn't she? A little nervous but holding up well. She'll beat her brothers one day, you watch. The Cleansweep, you see, is careful, it's considerate. It'll take you as high as you could even think to go, and safely, but it won't take you as far as fast as a Nimbus. It's a thinker's broom. I hear the Ravenclaws are using it this year, there you have it.

"I'd like to have seen George on that Comet 260, I really had a hunch it was the right one for him. Good for darting around, but powerful, you see? He's a Chaser through and through, he plays smart but fast. Ron had a turn with it before but it just didn't suit. Ron's a bit of a puzzle as a player – you get that from people who love to watch the game more than play it themselves – he's careful and he knows strategy but he doesn't stick to any particular one. He hasn't got the instincts. But he's good, of course he's good, he's learned against the twins. They just haven't come out with a model that I would really recommend to him. Not yet, anyway. Oh, George! We were just talking about you," James said with a smile.

"I think he knows, James. He was standing right there," Lily told him wryly. "Hello George. Are you going to join in with the game?"

George grinned at them. They were both a bit odd so they fit right in here. With her red hair Lily even looked a bit like a Weasley, and she acted so much like his mum at times that when a distant cousin had come round for a visit once, he'd thought they were sisters – which had, of course, annoyed both of them. James loved Quidditch even more than Oliver Wood did, loved mischief even more than Fred did, and loved his son more than either. It was extraordinarily hard not to like them.

"'Fraid not, I hurt my arm last week when I fell off the shed."

"Does it hurt? Which arm was it?"

"This one." George lifted his left arm. Then he looked at it intently. "Or maybe this one," he amended, moving the package and lifting his right arm. He smiled at her.

"Great job, Ginny! Great job! That was a brilliant save, Gryffindor will get you, I swear it! It was a good shot, Ron, but just look at how she caught it! Ten years old! Brilliant!" James called out excitedly.

"Is that a present for Harry?" Lily asked, ignoring her husband and gesturing at the bundle.

"Yes. Do you think he'll like it?"

Lily gave him the same sort of look Mum always did. But the mood was so good that she began to smile, and then started laughing. "I'm sure he will!"

"It's not dangerous," he reassured her.

"I should hope not," she said easily. "Do you want me to hold on to it so you can go get some food?"

Just as he was about to take her up on her offer, James made a noise of surprise and George followed his eyes up to the players in the air. The game was still going on, Fred performing a magnificent serve to Ron, who directed the Quaffle cleanly to the makeshift goal-posts, where Ginny was lying – flying? – in wait. It was Harry that looked off. His broom appeared to have stopped and was jerking up and down in the air. After a moment the others realised that something was wrong with him and flew over.

"Are you all right, Harry?" James shouted up to him.

"I don't think so!" came Harry's hesitant reply. Ron had come up beside him and was trying to get him onto his broom, but it flew up suddenly, out of his reach.

Ginny landed, the Quaffle struggling in her gloved hands. George handed his present to Lily and rushed over to help her return it to its box. As soon as they had done it – remarkably quickly, James must be right about her having potential – George asked to use her broom and ascended into the air.

There was no wind to be messing with Harry's broom – even if there was he was much too good to be blown around by it. It looked like a hex. But there was no one around who could have done it...his eyes met Fred's and realised that Harry's safety was their priority just now. They could think about the hows and whys later.

He held out his hand to Harry, and Fred, as usual, understood exactly what he was planning to do. "I'm going to need you to flip upside-down!" he told Harry.

"Are you sure?" Ron asked him nervously.

"Just trust us!" Fred said, as much to their brother as Harry himself. Even if something went wrong, there were adults all around to help them, so they were confident that everything would be fine. All they needed to do just now was get Harry off the malfunctioning broom. That was easy enough to do.

Harry took his hand and held it tightly, and George followed him as he flipped. There Fred took his other hand. They shouted together, "Now let go!"

Remarkably, Harry did.

It was Fred who got him onto his broom and took him down to the ground. George wasn't foolish enough to touch it, but he stayed with Harry's broom which was still jerking about. Ron gave him a questioning look and he nodded. It was okay for him to go with Harry. Ron smiled at him gratefully and went down to check on his friend, leaving George to look at the broom thoughtfully. He'd seen something like this before...

It struck him suddenly. In the game last year, when Harry had almost swallowed the Snitch! He looked around the pitch for whoever could be casting the spell, and saw movement in the kitchen windows. George landed so fast he almost broke his leg. "It's a spell! There's someone in the house, quickly! Mum! James, Lily, we can't use our wands, you have to be quick!"

All at once things began to happen. Behind him Harry's broom dropped straight to the ground. His dad came round the corner of the house with his wand drawn. There was a crashing noise inside. Mum swore, which startled George so much he almost stopped where he was. Out of the house ran a house-elf, who knocked into the table, ran in a circle and tried to get past Ron, who looked incredibly confused. A moment later a man followed him, shouting, "Stop, Dobby! You can't do this!" and threw himself at the elf, tackling him to the ground. Lily shrieked – not out of fear, but anger.

"HOW DARE YOU, SIMON, AND ON HIS BIRTHDAY!" she cried.

Mum, Dad and James advanced on the man, who was trying to keep the house-elf from escaping. Lily had her wand out but wasn't pointing it at him. Instead, her hands were on her hips. Ron looked shaken, Fred looked grim, Ginny was holding onto his arm, Harry looked surprised, and George didn't know how he felt, beyond happy that the table hadn't tipped over.

Having gotten the house-elf to stop moving around so much, the man looked up at all of them with an embarrassed smile on his face and just a bit of fear. "Ah, about this..."

"Petrificus Totalus," Mum cast.

The man dodged it, rolling over and pulling out his wand to counter the spell. "No, don't let him get free-" he shouted.

"Stupefy," Dad cast quickly.

The house-elf got up and ran around the garden. James went after it, grabbing it by the collar of its dirty tunic. He talked with it angrily, warning it not to Disapparate, saying that he would tell its masters if he did, and brought it back to where they were standing.

"Thank Merlin," the man said when he saw. He countered another curse, from Lily this time, who looked more than a little annoyed. "Hi Harry. Happy Birthday," he said brightly, deflecting another curse. "I brought you-" Deflect. "A present-" Dodge. Deflect. "I left it inside." Counter. "Didn't expect-" Deflect. "To see you today, so-" Dodge. "I'm really very-" Deflect. Counter. "Sorry about this!"

"Oh," appeared to be all that Harry could manage. "That's alright. Thanks for coming by on my birthday, anyway."

The man had gotten to his feet and had his hands out defensively. He made a point of putting his wand down. "Okay, can we stop this now? I wasn't the one messing with his broom. It was that idiot." He gestured to the house-elf. "I was trying to stop him. I know Harry. I wouldn't hurt him. Lily, please can you tell them?"

They all looked to Lily, who thought for a moment. "Ventus," she cast.

A great gust of wind spiralled out of her wand, pushing the man back slightly, ruffling his hair and robes. When it was gone he gasped for air. "Argh, take advantage of a man's weakness..." With his hair blown about he looked a bit ridiculous. George felt much less worried, and by the looks of things so did everyone else.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

They all sat around the kitchen table, although people kept getting up and moving around. There was more food than all of them could possibly eat and all of it looked wonderful. Everyone had helped with something; making the biscuits or icing the cupcakes or putting up the decorations. George went over to the radio and tried to find a good station, or as he put it 'one that doesn't play anything by Celestina Warbeck'. Fred tried to fix all the banners and streamers that people had walked into. Even Ginny was up and about, helping her mother with anything she could. Harry was glad. She was normally so shy around him.

He sat at one corner of the table, with his mum and dad on either side. Simon was across from him and next to Mr Weasley, and everyone else was walking around so much that even they couldn't really remember where they had been sitting. On the kitchen bench was a pile of presents and owls kept arriving with birthday cards, most of which were tossed aside. A lot of them were from people Harry didn't know, but enough of them were for him to be excited.

It was a shame that neither Sirius nor Remus could be there, but Remus didn't deal well with all that was always going on at the Burrow, and Sirius had to be at the Ministry again today. Apparently because he hadn't told them he was an Animagus for so many years there were a lot of problems. But Simon was here, as well as everyone else that he cared about, and they had passed on their cards for him, so Harry wasn't too disappointed. It was impossible to feel unhappy at the Burrow.

There was a small explosion over where Fred stood. He looked abashed and told them that he'd forgotten about an Exploding Bonbon in his pocket. Soon after Hermes came flying out into the kitchen and up around the ceiling, a letter half-tied to his feet. As Ginny and Ron tried to grab it, Percy ran in looking flustered and coaxed his owl over to him. He apologised, red-faced, and sent Hermes out the nearest window. No matter how much they asked he wouldn't say who the letter was for.

Dad proposed to Mr Weasley that they keep the brooms he'd recently bought – a Comet 260, just like Draco's, a Nimbus 2000 and a Cleansweep 7 – in the shed at the Burrow, since they weren't going to be used as much at Godric's Hollow. Harry liked that idea. He wasn't interested in flying any broom but his own Nimbus 1700. That it was getting old just meant that he got to spend more time taking care of it. Dad knew that and had only really bought the brooms for the Weasleys to use – but it was hard to convince them to accept anything like that, even though the Potters had far too much money anyway and were very happy to spend it on their friends.

Mrs Weasley went around offering people more food. When she got to Simon she gave him twice as much and a big smile. "I'm so sorry about earlier. If I'd only known that you're an Auror!"

"Never seen you at the Ministry before," Mr Weasley said thoughtfully. "Your department's usually getting into all the other ones. Worked with Aurors this past week, going on all these raids..."

"I'm part of a special division," Simon told him seriously, but there was a very faint twinkle in his eyes. "The Ministry's answer to the Order of the Phoenix...it's all very technical. Not many people know. Not many people know that not many people know. I trust that you will keep this confidential."

Mr and Mrs Weasley gasped and nodded. They kept glancing over at Harry, who only knew that Simon hadn't wanted to tell them he was a Seer, and was feeling a bit confused until Simon smiled at him and gestured for him to get back to his cake, which he promptly did. The conversation went to Dobby, the house-elf who thought Harry was in danger and hadn't wanted him to go back to Hogwarts this year, and then to Mr Weasley's Muggle car, and whether Harry liked his cake or not – which he did, very much – and then to things that Harry wasn't very interested in. He stood up and let his mother give him a quick hug before going over to Ron.

"So you're staying over tonight, then?" Ron asked. When Harry nodded he smiled widely. "Brilliant! In my room or with Fred and George? Or Percy, you know, it's your choice."

After everything that had happened with Voldemort the three of them had ended up in the infirmary for a couple of days. The twins had gone to see Ron first, and they'd talked for a while and sorted everything out. Hermione said that they'd been crying. Having still been unconscious at the time, Harry didn't know, but he found that hard to believe. In any case, things were even better than they'd been before. Quidditch today, at least up until his broom had been misguidedly hexed, had been amazing.

"Yours, if that's okay," Harry said.

Ron grinned at him.

Fred came round behind him and clapped his little brother on the back. George put his arm around Harry's shoulders. "Up for a game of Exploding Snap?"

"Four's a good number for it. Mum might even let Ginny join in."

"You've still got that deck from last time, right Ron?" Fred ruffled his hair and pretended that he was in pain when Ron elbowed him in the side.

"Yeah. You up for that Harry? You've still got to open your presents."

"He can do that later. You boys go ahead," Lily called to them and waved them off with a relaxed smile on her face. She hadn't reacted as badly as Harry had thought she would to the attack by the well-meaning house-elf. She hadn't reacted badly at all. It was strange. But good, if it meant he could still stay at the Burrow tonight. He'd been looking forward to it for a month.

When they came back downstairs half an hour later with burnt hands and sooty faces, she just laughed and tried to clean Harry's with a napkin. When he was unwrapping his presents, and George's turned out to be an enchanted stamp that would forge any professor's signature, she was still smiling. When Fred's was a packet of sweets that would turn people different colours when they sucked on them, she didn't mind. When Ron gave him a book on Quidditch and a Vratsa Vulture's scarf, and Hermione's gift was a book on Transfiguration, and Mr Weasley gave him a rubber duck and Mrs Weasley gave him a sweater that she'd knitted, in Gryffindor colours with the word 'Seeker' across the back, Lily didn't say anything.

When Simon gave him a wrapped package and it turned out to be a book, she looked relieved. But when Harry read out the title, she froze suddenly and completely.

"'How to Raise and Train Your Owl'." At those words Harry's heart began to beat quickly. He looked up at Simon with hope in his eyes. Was it alright to get excited? Even if his parents weren't happy, when Simon took out a black velvet pouch and un-Shrunk the contents, and then went over to the window, whistled, and came back with an owl on his arm, he couldn't help but feel that way.

The owl was beautiful. It was large and white with speckles of black along its wings. When Simon spoke to it, it stretched them out. Harry was surprised by how long they were. As beautiful as it was, and as harmless as it appeared sitting quietly on Simon's arm, it must be a powerful creature. It was wonderful. Until Simon said the words, Harry wouldn't believe that it was his.

"Happy Birthday, Harry," he said softly.

Harry touched the owl's snowy feathers, and it rubbed its head against his fingers. It stared at him with huge golden eyes. He stared back, so eager for it to like him. After a time it half closed its eyes, shaking one wing like something was itching it. Harry ran his fingers up that wing, hoping to relieve it, and it cooed at him. It lifted its feet on Simon's arm, signalling that it wanted to move. When Harry raised his, it stepped over to it and walked along his arm to nibble at his hair. He laughed.

"She's heavy, Harry. You'll have to build up your strength before you can hold her for too long. For now use the cage that I brought you and study that book. She needs you to take care of her. She is not just a friend, she's a friend that depends on you to survive. This is not only a gift, but a lesson." Simon spoke to him but was looking at someone else. Harry didn't pay him enough attention to notice who. "She is not a person. Do not treat her like a person. There are things she can and can't do as a bird, that you and I can and can't do as people. Learn her limits and you will understand non-human beings better. And, unlike people," he smiled and rubbed the side of the owl's face. "If your owl loves you then you can be certain that you deserve it."

Finally Harry was able to wrench his eyes away to look at him. "Thank you," he said reverently.

Simon smiled. "You're welcome. Do your best this year." And with those words he Disapparated, to nearly everyone's surprise.

The Weasleys were all very impressed with the owl, and Harry was asked at least ten times what he would call her. His parents weren't as happy. There was a reason he'd never been given one before, they knew. But it wasn't a problem anymore. He was at Hogwarts year-round, and during the holidays Ron could take care of her. It would make sending letters home much easier, as he wouldn't have to worry about a school owl getting lost or not knowing where to go. He convinced himself that there weren't any problems because he so desperately wanted to keep her.

Her.

A name popped into his head, one that he'd thought was interesting.

"Hedwig. I'm going to name her Hedwig."