Disclaimer: Same old, same old, blah blah blah

His Boy

Chapter 35: Weasley Birthday

"Ronnie's birthday, Ronnie's birthday!" Harry chanted excitedly as Sirius hoisted him up onto his shoulder's. Remus had a firm hold on Ronnie's birthday present, a smile on his face. The three of them had been invited to the Burrow today, the first of March. As it was Friday, he had had school that morning, but the party wasn't until the afternoon anyway. Sirius had even taken the afternoon off from work to join them. "I can't wait!"

"I know, it'll be a lot of fun!" Sirius laughed, bouncing him a bit as they traveled over the hill and down through the orchard that separated their house from the Burrow. They lived on the same twisting dirt lane, but it twisted so much that the end of it was actually a mere half mile's walk from their own front steps though, if they had gone by road, it would have been a full two miles.

After traipsing through the slightly melted snow, the three men arrived at the Burrow's front door. Sirius set Harry down and let the little boy knock, jumping up and down until the lower half of the door opened.

"Harry!" Ginny let out a high pitched squeal and she hugged him tightly, tugging him inside while Molly opened the top half of the door to allow Sirius and Remus to enter as well.

"So good of you to come, Ronnie is beyond excited to have a friend for his birthday this year instead of just family." Molly beamed, reaching down to help pry Ginny off of Harry so he could get his boots off.

"Well, it's not everyday you turn five." Sirius beamed, handing her Ronnie's gift and tugging off his own boots, not wanting to track the wet snow into the house further than it already was.

"Harry! Harry, come see!" Ronnie shouted, running into the kitchen with his blue eyes shining brightly. He grabbed hold of Harry's hand and tugged him off into the sitting room. The adults all followed, chatting and laughing as a small swarm of children made noise in the sitting room.

Ronnie led Harry over to the couch and picked up a wooden box from the coffee table sitting there, holding it up proudly. It was beaten in places, but obviously quite a great treasure to the little boy. He pulled it open and, grinning wide, held it out for Harry to see. Inside were stone game pieces, white and black, battered beyond belief.

"What are they?" Harry asked curiously, having never seen anything like them before.

"It's a chess set!" Ronnie exclaimed so brightly that one might have thought he'd won the lottery. "They were my Granddad's. He gave them to me for my birthday. Dad's been teachin' me how to play. It's really hard and fun! All the pieces move different, and you have to be careful, cause if you move wrong, the other person can kill your piece, and that's bad. Dad says you have to get the other person's king piece so they can't move anywhere and save him. That's called a check mate."

"Cool!" Harry laughed, admiring the pieces with even more interest now that he knew they were a game.

"Wanna play? I can show you!"

"Okay!" Harry nodded and he and Ronnie got down on the floor, setting up the pieces on the stone board Ronnie pulled from the bottom of the box. He showed Harry where each piece went and they got them sorted before sitting across from one another.

"Not too long now boys, it's almost time for lunch." Mr. Weasley informed them gently, but he was smiling. He was quite proud of his youngest son. He had taught all of his sons how to play chess, but none of them had been as involved or good at it as Ronnie was already. With five older brothers, it was hard to be unique and stand out. Chess gave Ronnie something that was all his own to be proud of.

Neither little boy was really listening though. They sat on their knees, both intent on the board. Ronnie leaned forward, his left hand on the floor as he used his right to point to each piece, telling Harry how they moved while Harry leaned forward as well, watching closely and listening with attention to his redheaded best friend.

Sirius pulled out his camera and snapped a quick photo of the two, smiling at how they would cherish this memory when they were older.

"Harry, come play with Baby Weasley and me." Ginny begged, tugging at him, the rag doll she had gotten for her third birthday hanging from one of her arms.

"Go away Ginny, we're playing." Ronnie said impatiently. "And then the knight moves like the letter L, the big one, not the little one."

"Okay." Harry nodded in understanding, watching as Ronnie showed how the knight moved across the board. "I'll play later Ginny."

"Noooo, play now!" Ginny stomped her foot, tugging at him harder, Harry pulled away from her, shaking his head.

"No, I'm playing with Ronnie!"

"Har-ry Pot-ter!" Ginny put her hands on her hips angrily, enunciated her syllables, glaring down at the boys with a red face. " We are gonna play! We gotta get married! I need a daddy so I can be the mummy!" She shook a finger at him while Sirius snapped another photo, making her face look serious, voice threatening. "Now come play!"

"Ginny! Stop it!" Ronnie shouted at her, looking angrier and angrier. It was his birthday and Harry was his best friend after all. He didn't want his little sister ruining it.

"Ginny, we can't get married 'til we're big!" Harry heaved a sigh, knowing that only grown ups got married. But then, Ginny was still kind of little, so maybe she didn't know that yet? He was all for playing house, but not so much at getting married. That was much too girly a game for him. "When we're big we will get married and then we will have a baby and you can be the mummy and I will be the daddy."

Ginny stopped in her tracks. One could almost see the gears and cogs turning over in her head as she pondered this. The adults were looking on, trying very hard to keep from laughing at their antics. For the kids, it was a serious situation. Finally, Ginny seemed to come to a conclusion and nodded.

"You promise?"

"Yeah. When we're really big grown ups." Harry nodded in confirmation and Ginny smiled.

"Okay." She beamed, properly sated and skipped away into the kitchen. As soon as she was gone, Sirius burst out, laughing hard and reaching down to ruffle Harry's hair.

"You know she's going to hold you to that, right mate?"

"Yeah." Harry nodded and returned to playing with Ronnie, the two boys discussing which piece was the best to move next, Ronnie showing Harry when he was going to make a bad move beforehand, just as his Daddy had done for him.

After a few minutes, Mrs. Weasley came into the room to announce that it was time for birthday lunch. Hungry as always, the troop of redheads, and the Potter-Black-Lupin family made their way into the kitchen.

Mrs. Weasley had prepared Ronnie's favorite foods for the occasion. Chicken, potatoes, and corn (which he favored above the other vegetables). Quickly following lunch, which was, as always, quite a messy affair with a bunch of kids, who, despite attempting to be clean, managed to somehow get mashed potatoes on the ceiling. When Mrs. Weasley noticed, she sighed, placed her hands on her hips and looked down her full table.

"Alright, who threw their mashed potatoes?"

"It was George, Mum!" Percy reported, pointing to his younger brother.

"Yeah, I think it was George too." Arthur admitted with a nod, having only seen it out of the corner of his eye. Mashed potatoes were easily cleaned up though, and he hadn't wanted to ruin the festivities.

"No, no! It was Fred!" Ronnie clambered for his voice to be heard, knowing that it had, indeed, been Fred who'd thrown the potatoes.

"Yeah, Fred!" Ginny nodded, wanting her two cents to count. "I saw him!"

"It was both of them." Harry sat up, pointing his fork directly across the table to where the twins sat. He had a perfect view of them.

"Boys, go sit in the corner. You know better than to throw food." Mrs. Weasley sighed, pointing to the corner where there sat not one, but two little stools.

"But Mum!" Fred began.

"We didn't throw it!" George continued.

And then they looked at one another and then at their mother, grinning cheekily, before stating in unison. "We catapulted it!"

"Either way, food should not be flying. That was wrong of you boys, so do as your mother says." Mr. Weasley pointed to the stools as well. Fred and George heaved identical sighs and moved from their chairs over to the stools while their mother set a Muggle timer Arthur had procured from work to six minutes.

"Harry, d'you wanna play more chess when we're done?" Ronnie asked once the hubbub was over. He and Harry had chosen seats beside one another, Ginny monopolizing Harry's other side. She was being fairly quiet for the most part, glancing at him occasionally and rocking the rag doll in her lap while she ate.

"Yeah, okay." Harry agreed, knowing that Ronnie seemed to really want to play more chess. So far he found it quite difficult to understand, but as Sirius normally said when it came to new games, it just took time to learn all of the rules. He had had the same problem with their game of Monopoly at home, but now he got it for the most part. "Then maybe snowball tag?"

"Yeah!" Ronnie nodded enthusiastically. They all liked snowball tag. Harry had played it a lot with the Weasleys over the course of this winter so far, getting together at least once a week to hang out with Ronnie as either one of their houses. Snowball tag was a lot like freeze tag, only the person who was 'it' had to throw snowballs in order to make you freeze. Then someone else had to clap a snowball into your hand to save you from being frozen. It was a lot of fun, especially when one of the grown up enchanted the snowballs to make it so you really stood frozen on the spot.

They finished lunch and sang a rousing number of 'Happy Birthday' before Ronnie blew out the candles on his chocolate cake covered in gummy salamanders that crawled through the frosting until you bit their heads off. Ginny seemed to find this particularly amusing and asked for extras of the salamanders.

Then Harry presented Ronnie with his gift, a tin full of different Wizarding candies. Harry had thought it was the best, because Ronnie liked sweets and the tin had animals on the cover. Ronnie opened it excitedly, having usually only received gifts from the family before and let out a cry of happiness when he saw the tin. "Ooo! Thanks, mate! I can put my chocolate frog cards in this! Look Mum! Harry got me an animal box, isn't it pretty?"

"Yes dear, it's very pretty!" Mrs. Weasley smiled at her son's happiness while Harry laughed.

"You gotta open it, Ronnie!" He reached out and together the two boys pried the top off of the tin and Ronnie let out a howl of pure delight.

"Woah! Chocolate frogs, liquorices wands, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Droobles gum!" Ronnie danced about like a five year old who had just been presented with a ton of candy (which he had) and set the tin down to hug his best mate excitedly.

"Make sure you don't eat too much at once though, Ronnie." Remus warned with a smile. "Don't want to get sick."

"I know!" Ronnie continued to whoop before closing his tin. Ginny eyed it, watching it close with sad eyes. She stared at her big brother before jutting her lower lip out and tugging at his sleeve. He looked at her. "Dun worry, Ginny, I'll share. We're gonna snowball tag now."

"Yay!" Ginny squealed and ran to get her winter gear on. The rest of the children chased after her excitedly. Jackets were zipped, hats were firmly pulled down over ears, fingers were encased in mittens, and feet were shoved into boots. The Weasley children didn't really have snow pants, they just changed when they got inside, so, Harry took a little longer getting ready in his red snowsuit. Once they were all set, they marched outdoors, ready for battle.

"Who's gonna be it?" Ginny asked as she jumped down from the front step of the house. The boys all looked at one another before Percy spoke, obviously deciding he should pick who went first based upon his being the oldest child.

"I will be it first since I am the oldest. Then Fred, then George, then Ronnie, then Harry, then Ginny." Percy stated simply, bending down to start making a snowball. "Remember, no snowballs in the face. If you get hit, you're frozen until someone unfreezes you." He raised his hand in the air, snowball ready. He could manage to be fun sometimes, when it mattered. "Run!"

"Aaaaah!" The younger kids scattered, screaming and dashing away through the snow, arms flailing like their lives depended on it. Percy went easy on them though, being older and faster. He'd had practice with this before, so he knew that Ginny was especially easy to catch, but it was also more fun for her if he pretended to miss her a few times.

"AH!" Fred screamed as a snowball hit him square in the back. He held out a hand, 'frozen' in place. George quickly gathered a snowball and ran for him, but Percy got their first, hitting him in the side. George dropped the snowball and froze in place as well.

"Harry! We've got to save them!" Ronnie shouted, pointing to Fred and George.

"Alright! You get Fred and I'll save George." Harry bent down, gathering up the snow like Remus had shown him, balling it up the best he could in his mittens. Both boys hid behind a snow drift, watching Percy as he stalked after Ginny who was hiding behind a tree. When his back was turned, Harry and Ronnie took off, running as fast as their little booted feet could carry them through the knee deep snow.

Harry slammed his snowball into George's hand just as he heard the cry from Ronnie. He turned and found his friend standing, quite frozen in one place with Ginny not far behind him. She always had a little trouble standing still and was bouncing a bit, but doing her best to remain within her spot.

"Let's go, Harry!" George commanded, rolling up a snowball. Harry did the same. George ran to Fred, dodging Percy's flying snowballs as Harry did the same, making a beeline for Ronnie.

And then a snowball hit in right in the leg. Harry paused, looking down and then looking over at Percy who grinned at him smugly. He'd been hit! He was frozen now too. It was up to the twins to save them now.

Fred and George cam running to the rescue, each planting a snowball in Ronnie and Harry's hands before all four of them ran for Ginny who had moved about five feet away from her original frozen spot. She was being a fairly good sport about it so far, which was saying something. Normally when she got frozen she lasted about thirty seconds before she shouted for help or gave up. It was hard being three.

"Got you Ginny!" Harry laughed as he slapped a snowball into her mittened hand. Ginny squealed with delight.

"Let's get Percy!' Fred shouted. The five children ran at Percy who threw snowballs at them. They were hit repeatedly, but it didn't stop them now. They were impenetrable! And they didn't care.

Percy was promptly tackled down into the snow in a frenzy of flying flakes. Harry laughed as he rolled about with the others, the bunch of them resembling a pile of gamboling puppies. Percy laughed, pushing himself up out of the mess.

"You guys, we're supposed to be playing snowball tag."

"Let's build a fort instead." Suggested George. After an uttering of agreement from the others, they made for the fence where the snow was piled the highest and set to work, digging and gathering, stacking and packing. They had managed to make a fairly good sizable wall when Sirius came out of the house and made his way towards them. The sun was beginning to fade behind the hills in the distance, the sky turning a brilliant, bright orange while the clouds went pink.

"It's time to be thinking about coming inside you lot. It'll be dark soon." Sirius announced.

"Awwww, do we have'ta?" Fred groaned. He and George had been into building the fort the most, working on making it taller and weaving intricate tunnels into a bank behind it for better protection.

"Yeah, we were gonna sleep in our fort as soon as it's finished." George nodded, having made this suggestion fifteen minutes earlier.

"It's too cold for that, you'd freeze. You can play more tomorrow, it's time to come in now." Sirius continued, knowing that negotiating would get him nowhere. The sun would be gone in a matter of minutes and the temperature would drop quite low.

"He's right. We can do this more tomorrow." Percy rose from where he sat and brushed the snow off of his pants. The other kids followed suit, letting Sirius lead them inside to the warmth of the Burrow.

"Harry, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley have invited you to stay over tonight if you'd like." Sirius said before they'd reached the door. Harry's eyes lit up and he looked at Ronnie before looking at Sirius.

"Oh can I, Paddy!? Can I please!?" Harry had never spent the night at the Burrow before. Ronnie had been to his house at night several times now, but never vice versa.

Sirius laughed and tousled his kid's yarn hatted head. "Of course you can." He nodded, knowing it would be good for Harry to spend a night away from home with his friend. He'd been back from his ordeal with the Ministry and having to stay with McGonagall for about six days now and while he wasn't clinging as much during the day time, he had been having a lot of trouble sleeping in his own bed past ten. He would get tucked in at the usual eight and then be up and requesting to sleep in Sirius's bed two hours later without fail. Sirius could swear he sat up waiting to hear him go by on his way to bed before he did so. Spending the night with Ronnie might help him with that a bit as he wouldn't be sleeping alone and would probably be pretty worn out from a day of good playing. "I can send over your night things when I get home."

"…you aren't staying?" Harry blinked after a moment, his smile fading before he attached himself to Sirius's leg, just outside the Burrow door.

"Nah. Grown ups don't have sleepovers like kids do, Harry."

"But Lexie sleeps at our house lots of the time." Harry frowned, confused now.

"That's because she's going to live with us all the time soon, remember? Most of her things are already at our house." Sirius explained simply, knowing this would make much more sense to the four year old than having to explain the who process of girlfriends.

"Oh yeah." Harry nodded, remembering now that Sirius mentioned it. "I think I wanna go home instead."

"Oh Harry, but don't you want to spend the night with Ronnie? It would be so much fun!" Remus suggested as they entered the kitchen.

"Yeah Harry, stay! We can play chess and I'll show you all of my chocolate frog cards." Ronnie offered as he shucked off his hat and mittens.

"I dunno…" Harry pondered. It did sound like a lot of fun to stay the night with Ronnie… but then he also didn't want to be away from his Padfoot and Moony and Lexie for too long…

"Tell you what. How about we give it a try and if you still want to go home by eleven, I'll bring you." Mr. Weasley suggested cunningly. He and Molly were aware of Harry having dependency issues at night, having been asked for advice on the issue by Sirius. Molly had suggested Harry spend the night to sort of break the habit and make it easier for him to realize home and his family would be waiting for him come morning. They weren't going anywhere.

Harry pondered the suggestion over for a minute. He could stay and play with Ronnie a lot more for now and then go home later if he wanted to. He nodded. "Okay, I'll stay."

"Yeah!" Ron whooped excitedly. He'd never had a friend over for the night before and hoped Harry would stay until at least breakfast.

Harry tugged off his winter gear as well now, placing his boots down next to Ronnie's while his mittens and hat were pinned onto a string along the mantle piece to help them dry. Sirius hugged him tightly, followed by Remus. "You be the best behaved boy that we know you can be."

"I will." Harry nodded. "I love you."

"Love you too. See you tomorrow." Moony smiled, kissing the boy's cheek. They bade the Weasley clan goodbye and set off on the trek back home. Harry stood by the door for a moment, getting quite anxious as they left before Ronnie grabbed hold of his sleeve.

"C'mon, Harry. Let's go play some chess."

The two little boys went into the sitting room to resume their game for a while before it was time for dinner. Mrs. Weasley made French onion soup, spaghetti, and freshly baked bread warm from the oven for them to eat. Harry was still a little bit worried about spending the night away from his Padfoot and Moony, but he was glad to be with Ronnie and the rest of the Weasleys. It was always fun watching the twins do something silly and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were also so nice. Even Percy put in a bit extra effort to make him feel at home by offering to let the younger kids pick out one of his precious books to be read later at bedtime. And of course, Ginny was bright and happy about him being there, as she always was.

After dinner, Mrs. Weasley led the three preschoolers upstairs for a bath. Harry had never had baths with others before and was quite excited about this. He and Ronnie had been given a shower together once by Lexie when they'd gone to the beach in the summertime, but never a good old bubble bath! And with Ginny as well! This was going to be so much fun.

As Mrs. Weasley filled the tub with warm water and bubbles, Harry and Ronnie tugged off their clothes before taking turned helping Ginny with the buttons on the back of her dress. There were four of them, that meant they each got to do two each, something they were quite proud of. It was nice, being older and being able to help undo Ginny's buttons for her, Harry thought. It made him even more excited to be a big brother once August rolled around. But for now, he could help look after Ginny.

"Alright you three, in you get." Mrs. Weasley smiled, turning off the tap. Ronnie climbed in with ease. Harry followed after him, the side of the tub a big taller than what he was used to, so he had to maneuver a bit before he flopped down into the warm bubbly water. Ginny needed a little help from her mother to lift her up and into the tub.

As Ginny slid down into the water, Harry blinked, pausing in his reaching for a plastic hippogriff. He turned his attention to Ronnie, remembering something else from the beach trip. When he and Ronnie had changed into swim suits, Hermione had changed in the bathroom, because she was a girl. Ronnie had explained why she was a girl, because he knew from personal experience with Ginny all about girls… but Harry was still a little shocked. "Ronnie, you were right! She dun have a weewee!"

"I does so!" Ginny stated offended, placing her hands on her hips and standing up. She pointed. "I does so! See? It's right dere!"

Mrs. Weasley covered her mouth to keep from laughing. There were some things young children had to work out amongst themselves, though she was there to give appropriate answers to questions and redirect when needed. She'd been through this before though, with all of her boys when Ginny had been born. She had learned it was best to just let the curiosity get out of the way and then life would continue on as it always did.

"But there's no weewee there!" Harry stated back, eyes wide.

"Is so! It's just a different shape cause I'mma girl. And it's better dan yours!" Ginny stuck her tongue out.

"Alright Ginny. That's enough, sit down." Mrs. Weasley stated simply watching as her daughter plopped back down in the water. "Remember, weewees are private and we keep them to ourselves."

"Okay Mummy." Ginny nodded and resumed waving her hands back and forth in the water, making the bubbles move about. Harry, curiosity sated, grabbed up the hippogriff and made it fly about the tub over their heads. Bath time turned out to be just as fun as he had expected it to be. After all of their hair had been washed (they had helped one another with the scrubbing while Mrs. Weasley did all the rinsing), they were allowed to play for a bit. Ronnie was a monster making waves roll over Harry and Ginny, who had to protect the boat from the waves by trying to float it on top of the bubbles.

"Mr. Black sent Harry's bedtime things, Mum." Percy stated, carrying Harry's school bag into the bathroom.

"Oh good, just in time. Thank you, Percy dear." Mrs. Weasley smiled as she scooped one child after another out of the tub and wrapped them in a soft, fluffy towel.

"You're welcome, Mum." Percy smiled and headed back down the stairs, knowing he didn't have to go to bed until eight thirty. The little ones were normally put to bed at eight. Fred and George were eight fifteen because they were a bit older and it was only fair. Right now it was nearly eight.

After everyone had been dried properly and dressed in warm, snuggly, footed winter jammies, Mrs. Weasley had them all brush their teeth at the sink, taking turns with spitting and rinsing. With three clean, happy kids in tow, she led them all into Ginny's bedroom where the youngest of the bunch was properly tucked into bed. "Who do you want to read you your story tonight, darling?"

"You!" Ginny laughed, reaching up to hug her mother around the neck. Harry admired Ginny's little bedroom with a smile. It was happily colored, with teddy bears on the walls and a quilt like the one Ronnie had, only more pink and yellow and purple, made from Ginny's baby clothes.

"Alright dear. You wait right here while I get the boys upstairs, alright?"

"Okay." Ginny nodded. "Roooonnie!" She reached for her brother and Ronnie climbed up onto her bed to hug her.

"Night night Ginny."

"Night night Ronnie. Harrrrry!" Harry climbed up onto the bed as well and gave Ginny a hug too. "Night night Harry."

"Night night Ginny." Harry smiled, glad to be acting like a big brother just like Ronnie always got to. Then they followed Mrs. Weasley up the stairs to Ronnie's room. The two boys clambered into the bed and were tucked in tightly, Mrs. Weasley giving them each a kiss.

"Daddy will be up in a few minutes to read to you. Sweet dreams dears. I love you very much."

"Night night Mummy." Ronnie smiled, hugging her around the neck and kissing her cheek back with a satisfied smile before leaning back against his pillow.

"Night night Mrs. Weasley." Harry beamed as he got his hug and returned the kiss as well, enjoying the tightness and warmth hug full of love.

Once she had left, the two boys giggled, getting squirmy and sitting up. Ronnie picked up his pillow. Harry, getting the idea, did the same. They climbed out of bed and began whacking each other with the pillows.

"Can't get me!" Harry laughed, jumping onto the bed as Ronnie aimed at him. Ronnie laughed as well, ducking Harry's next shot as the door opened and Mr. Weasley entered, carrying a book.

"Alright boys, that's enough. Time to settle down now." He smiled and drew Ronnie's desk chair over to the side of the bed, sitting down. The boys climbed back into bed, resituating their pillows to the proper pillowy positions and lying back as Mr. Weasley began to read to them.

Around page five, Ronnie fell asleep. By page eight, Harry was out like a light as well, the best friends curling up close to one another beneath the quilt. Mr. Weasley smiled and headed downstairs to Floo Sirius to let him know Harry was asleep.

And he slept too. All night, without needing to rise once or go home. Harry slept away from home, away from Sirius, feeling comfortable and safe where he was at. The morning would be full of more fun and the next night, he would sleep in his bed all by himself without needing to relocate to his godfather's bed for reassurance. Mrs. Weasley's theory, of course, would be proven correct.

Thanks for reading guys! I always, always appreciate it!

Much love,

S.Q.O.