Stripped Bare- Chapter 53
Birthday Party At Hogwarts Part Two- Harry Arrives
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Harry Potter.
Harry felt queasy after having spun around in what he knew to be Floo Fire without being able to see where it was that he was going, but Hermione had insisted that he be blindfolded so that he be completely surprised about what was going to happen. The only thing he knew at this point was that it had to be somewhere in the wizarding world. His fiancée gripped his arm when they exited the fireplace.
He was turned to the right and led through a long room or corridor, then to his left a bit and up two stairs. Hermione moved him into position gently and stepped behind him to uncover his eyes. Harry blinked at the sudden brightness of the light, then looked down. The cake Hermione had been working on that morning sat on a table in front of him, massive in its dimensions, and wishing him a happy birthday. Where she'd gotten the picture that grinned up at him, he had no idea and was about to ask when a shout made him jump nearly clean out of his skin.
"Happy Birthday, Harry!" He spun on the spot and his jaw dropped. He was in the Hogwarts Great Hall, and everyone he'd been put into first year with, save the Slytherins, some schoolmates from the years ahead of him, and to his surprise, his Muggle friends from the Kings of Hearts. When his eyes were nearing the end of their sweep of his surroundings, he nearly passed out. His Aunt, Uncle and cousin were seated a bit away from the rest of the crowd, but they were there all the same. He turned to Hermione.
"How?" he asked.
"With a lot of planning and secrets," she answered, a grin on her face as she took his hand and led him to the Gryffindor table. "Now come open your presents." The crowd of people gathered around him, piling their presents on the table as he sat down. There were so many that the tower soon blocked him from view, and he had to stand back up to be seen over the ones on top, making the others laugh. Vernon and Petunia had Dudley put their rather small gift on the pile as they didn't seem to want to be included in all the abnormality. Harry wondered if they were only there because Dudley had asked them to come with him. This seemed likely when Harry looked at his cousin, who smiled briefly, then at his aunt and uncle, who didn't even acknowledge him.
"How did you get them to come?" he whispered to Hermione, jerking his head slightly in the direction of his now retreating cousin.
"I remembered you telling me about what Dudley had said about you when you were all leaving Privet Drive and thought that maybe he would want to come. I decided to invite your aunt and uncle as well, but didn't think they'd be interested. Dudley must have talked them into it."
"I guess that means they still do anything he wants them to. Wonder if he's still living at home, or has he gotten away from them like I did?"
"Do you still resent them for what they did to you?" Her fiancé looked at her for a second then shook his head.
"No. I realized that it didn't do me any good to think about why they hated me, and after seeing the memory Snape had been carrying around with him all those years, I finally knew that more than likely Aunt Petunia was jealous of my mum." He smiled and turned to the massive pile of packages on the table in front of him, and all the people waiting for him to open them. Picking one up and reading the card to see who it was from, he saw that it was addressed to him and Hermione. When he looked to Parvati Patil, she grinned and told him congratulations on his engagement. He thanked her and looked at the rest of the present tower.
"How many of them are for both of us?" Hermione asked, giggling.
"I'd say at least half. That would explain why there look to be twice as many presents as there are people here." He handed the gift to her. "Why don't you open this one?" She began tearing off the paper and gasped when she saw what had been inside. It was a photo album with a picture of her and Harry on the outside. They were in their Hogwarts uniforms and laughing at something that was out of the picture.
"Parvati, where did this picture come from?" she asked. "I don't remember it being taken."
"Dennis Creevy took after his brother. When you, Harry and Ron were on your way to see Hagrid one day after classes, you know, when you came back for your seventh year? He got in that shot of you and Harry while Ron was getting hit around the head by Ginny when he'd been teasing her about her relationship with Seamus." Harry remembered the little crowd that had surrounded them that day. He chuckled to himself now. "The two of you looked so happy, and I thought you should have all the shots that Dennis and Colin took of you."
"That's so sweet!" Hermione sniffled as she looked through the album. There were pictures of her, Harry and Ron walking to classes, Harry studying in the library, Harry talking to one of their housemates, her staring at Harry proudly while he held up the Quidditch cup at the end of the season. She found that most of the pictures of her and Harry were of her staring at him, in fact. She blushed, hoping that Harry wouldn't realize that, it made it look like she'd been obsessed with him then.
She glanced at him and saw that he'd been separating the presents into birthday and engagement piles. He was holding what seemed to be the largest parcel and reading who it was from at the moment, then sat down in astonishment and began to open it. She took the paper from him and read the tag. It was to them from his aunt and uncle! She'd thought that they'd only given him the small present for his birthday.
Harry pulled the lid off the top of the box in the gift and moved aside the tissue paper. He gasped and pulled out an elegantly stitched quilt that appeared to be hand made. He stood and Hermione took one end as she got up as well and the two of them opened up the blanket to view it better. Harry turned and was surprised to see Petunia smiling faintly at him. He handed the quilt to Hermione and hurried over to where the Dursleys were sitting.
"Why?" he whispered when they looked up at him. "Why after all this time and all that happened between us...?"
"Because even though we treated you the way we did for all those years, and even though you obviously hated us for it, you didn't leave us to die when you left Privet Drive for good. You could have, but you didn't. It may have just been because of Lily..." Harry shook his head, inturrupting his aunt.
"No, it was because even though you treated me the way you did and I obviously hated you for it," she chuckled as he repeated her words back at her. "You were innocent. You had nothing to do with Voldemort wanting to kill me. Neither did my parents," he added when Vernon looked as if he were going to comment. "The only thing that they knew was that a prophecy had been made about a child that was going to be born at the end of July to someone that had defied him three times. My parents didn't know if the prophecy was about me, or Neville Longbottom. They just wanted to keep me safe, so they went into hiding. The reason they're dead is because the person they trusted as their secret keeper was a spy for Voldemort. He betrayed them and they paid the price. But as you know, that's how you ended up with me. None of us had anything to do with Voldemort's lunacy, he was just evil through and through." He leaned down to hug his aunt. She flinched the tiniest bit when Harry's arms wrapped around her shoulders.
"Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you for keeping me safe and for the quilt." He smiled at the Dursleys and returned to the presents to find that Hermione had opened three more large packages and was giggling furiously at what was in a smaller one that now sat in her lap.
"Harry, you have to see this, you're going to love it." He sat down next to her and looked to see what was in the box.
"Oh my God," he muttered as she pulled the tissue paper aside. Underneath lay a suspender belt and black silk stockings, along with a pair of crotchless knickers. Harry felt himself instantly getting hard. Hermione noticed that he was shifting his position and grinned over at Andrea, who was responsible for the present, giving her a thumbs up. Her fiancé groaned under his breath next to her.
"I take it we're going to have to open the rest of the gifts rather quickly?"
"Unless you don't think anyone would mind if we disappeared up to Gryffindor tower for a few hours." He looked back down at the box on Hermione's lap. "Or a few days." Hermione merely chuckled and reached for the next present.
