Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters.

Web of Lies.

A few days later, Alec was finally allowed to move back into his own room. Dumbledore had been staying at the house a lot, and they had often talked about the third task, with Dumbledore centring his attention more on the child's feelings than in the event itself. The nightmares were finally getting better, and now they only disturbed their sleep every three or four nights.

The sound of a door opening startled Harry out of his peaceful sleep. Blinking slightly, he looked up and saw the blurry form of his grandfather bending over him. The occurrence in itself was strange enough since Dumbledore usually allowed him to sleep all he wanted, but the wide smile gracing the old man's face convinced the boy that something was going on.

"Good morning, Birthday Boy!"

Harry blinked and frowned deeply. He was completely sure that today was not his birthday. In fact, the day before he had realized that he had been fifteen for four days and he hadn't even noticed. Sitting up on his bed, he looked at his headmaster, who was at the moment rummaging through his drawer, seemingly intend to pick out his clothes. "Mmh, Granddad, today is not my birthday."

The old man didn't even look up. "I realize that my boy, but we couldn't celebrate it then, for obvious reasons, so I'm saying that today is your birthday."

Alec gapped at him for a long moment, but in the weeks that he had been there he had soon learned that the man usually got what he wanted. Besides, it would be nice to celebrate his birthday with someone who cared about him. What did it mater what day it was? After all, they would probably not be celebrating his 'fifteenth' birthday, more likely his eleventh. Chuckling slightly at that thought, he grinned happily at Dumbledore when he returned to his bedside with a pair of black jeans and a bright blue T- shirt in his hands. "Here you go, child. Get dressed and come downstairs, the guests will be arriving soon."

Harry looked up alarmed from his clothes. "Guests?"

But the old man was already out of his room. Shaking his head, Harry quickly got dressed. He didn't know what the old man had planned, but he might as well go along with it.

Once he was sure that everything was in place, he left the room and headed downstairs, where Dumbledore was already sitting in the living room waiting for him to join him to have breakfast. The meal passed in friendly chatter, with Harry trying to pry out of the older wizard what they were going to do, but Dumbledore simply smiled and asked him if he wanted a bit more of food. While Harry had been doing much better, he was still extremely thin, and Dumbledore used every chance the boy was in a good mood to try and fatten him up a bit. They were just about to get up when Twinkle came bouncing in. She smiled up at the boy largely. "Happy Birthday, Master Alexander!"

The child smiled back at her and hugged her briefly. "Thank you, Twinkle."

Then the elf turned to Dumbledore, who had been looking at everything amusedly from his place at the table. "Master Dumbledore, the guests have arrived, they are waiting outside."

The older man smiled gently at her. "Thank you, Twinkle." The man stood up and tended a hand to Harry. "Well, come on, Alec, let's go outside."

Harry's face brightened up, he had barely been outside since he had arrived. Dumbledore didn't want him to go on his own and when the old man was there they usually spent the time studying. Ignoring the little voice that told him that he was being childish, Harry bounced over to the old man and took his hand. Today, he was going to enjoy; he was not going to bother with what he was or wasn't supposed to do. He would simply act like his heart desired, and if he felt like being childish; no one was going to stop him.

Dumbledore laughed softly as he felt the boy tugging impatiently at his hand, he had never thought Harry could relax this much. He had always been such a serious boy, even when he was younger. His smile saddened a bit, it should always have been this way for the boy. His family should have made sure he had a happy childhood. But fear and dislike had made that impossible, and that was one of the things he regretted the most.

"Granddad?"

Looking down at the concerned blue eyes, the old man squeezed the teen's hand gently and led the way towards the door. Today was going to be a happy day, he could think about the Dursleys tomorrow; for now he was going to make sure Harry had a nice birthday.

Several minutes later, they reached a small lake surrounded by tall trees. Standing in the shadow of one of those trees were Severus and Minerva. They had both agreed to come and spent the day with the Dumbledores when they had heard it was Alec's birthday. Albus would have wanted to invite the Weasleys and Miss Granger, but that would have aroused too many questions. Unluckily, Sirius was away, doing a job for him, but Remus had promised he would be by later. Looking down at the boy walking at his side, he was pleased to see him smile; it seemed that Harry didn't mind, but even so he tried to apologise to the boy.

"I'm sorry your friends couldn't come, Alec."

The boy looked up at him and smiled brightly. "That's ok, Granddad, I understand. Besides, I'm sure we're going to have fun."

The older man dropped the child's hand and gently ruffled his hair. "I'm sure we will." Then he bent over so he could talk into the child's ear. "You may even be able to convince Severus to go swim with you."

Harry laughed happily and started to run towards the two awaiting people. Without a second thought, he launched himself towards the potions master, who had a moment to look startled before bending to catch him in his arms. Smirking at the youth's playfulness, the tall man swung Harry high into his arms and over his shoulder, making him laugh in delight. Albus and Minerva joined the laughter while Severus started to tickle the child around the middle. Once Harry was completely out of breath, the potions master bend a bit and slid the child back until he was standing once again, keeping an arm around his shoulder to support him until her had regained his breath.

Alec was grinning widely when he turned towards McGonagall. The woman had been looking at them, smiling fondly from her place at Albus' side. She had never seen Severus so happy, and it was good to know that under the hateful bastard, there was still a young man in there. Her attention was drawn towards the birthday boy when he moved away from Severus' grip and went to greet her.

Smiling up at the stern woman, Harry hugged her briefly around the middle. It was the first time he had done so, but if he was able to be playful with Professor Snape, his bane for the last four years, he sure could afford to be friendly with his own head of house. The woman hugged him back and quickly pecked his cheek, making him blush lightly. "Happy Birthday, Alec."

Stepping back, he grinned up at her. "Thank you, Professor."

The woman frowned a bit, and after exchanging a glance with the headmaster, she stated. "Now, Alec, there's no need to call me "Professor". You can call me "Minerva"."

Harry looked up at her very startled, and he didn't know what to say. There was no way he was going to call the woman by her first name, which would be too weird. Looking up, he immediately turned his gaze towards Dumbledore, asking for his support.

The older man chuckled and went to stand behind him, a hand on his shoulder. "If that's too informal for you, how about 'Aunt Minerva', she surely spends enough time here for you to call her that."

Harry blinked; well, he could deal with that. Looking towards the woman for reassurance, he relaxed slightly when she nodded. A groan from behind him, made him turn to look at his Potions Master, who was looking at the scene amused. "So, I guess I'll have to allow you to call me 'Uncle Severus'?"

Harry looked a bit hopeful at that, but hurried to reassure the man that he would just continue to call him "Professor". He was stopped by the man's laugh. "Alec, calm down, Child. You can call me 'Uncle Severus'." Then he added. "Call me 'Uncle Sev' and I'll have you scrubbing cauldrons, understood?"

Alec nodded vigorously. Albus, who had been looking at it all with amusement, took Harry's hand in his again and started to walk closer to the lake. "Come on now, I think it's time for presents."

To be continued...

A/N: Thanks for all reviews. And thanks to my beta reader, Vinnie.