Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter One Hundred Eleven

Harry's Birthday

Harry found himself making progress in his meditation training even though it wasn't as quick as he had hoped for. He did notice that it was much easier now whenever he felt himself getting annoyed or angry about something for him to take a deep breath and relax his mind, though he was still finding it hard to clear his thoughts completely. Especially now on his birthday, he couldn't wait to see his friends again. Other then the meditation practices, Harry found that there wasn't much to do at Grimmauld Place. Sure he talked to Kreacher, catching up with the elf about all that had happened since the last time he was home. He also played wizarding chess with Hermione and Remus, along with other games, wizard and Muggle ones alike, and though that was fun, it wasn't really too exciting. He was hoping things would liven up a little once the Weasleys got here.

"Why don't we call it quits for the day," Remus said an hour earlier than usually, "you two don't seemed to be doing very well today."

"Sorry," Harry said opening his eyes, "I just can't seem to concentrate today."

"It's all right," Remus smiled at him. "I understand."

"So you were having a hard time too, Hermione?" Harry asked her and for some reason she blushed before she simply nodded her head at him. "Er … did I say something wrong?"

"What … oh no … it's nothing," Hermione said distracted.

"Oh … and what were you thinking about?" Harry asked, raising an amused eyebrow at her.

"It's nothing," Hermione said hastily, and when she noticed that Harry was going to ask her more about this she got up quickly, "I might as well get ready for the party if we're done here."

"Seriously Hermione … whatever were you thinking about that has you running away so fast," Harry called after the retreating Hermione, but she didn't turn around to answer him. She was sure he realized what … or she should say, who, she was thinking about. Over the last few days she couldn't keep herself from wondering about what was going to happen when she saw Ron again.

Things between them had been so unclear since the Yule Ball. She had no idea where they stood anymore and that confusion was even more profound after the second task when she had kissed him on the cheek. Sometimes it felt like he was going to say something to her but he never seem to get it out. Not that she could blame him; she had been on the verge of admitting her feelings for him, only to find herself unable to talk. Still she couldn't help but think about what happen after the third task when they had waited in the hospital wing to see if Harry was okay. He had wrapped his arms around her and everything felt so clear and perfect in that moment that she was sure that they had an understanding, only to be thrown back into confusion as Ron avoided talking to her the last few days of the term.

"Hermione, I thought you were going to get ready for the party," Harry's voice broke into her thoughts and she found herself standing in front of the door to her room. "It works better if you actually go into your room."

"Shut up Harry," she blushed.

"So what are you planning on wearing to impress a certain red headed friend of ours?" Harry asked her.

"That's none of your business."

"I would suggest something blue … that's his favorite color," he went on.

"I didn't realize that you noticed so much about Ron's like and dislikes," Hermione snapped at him.

"So you admit that's what you've been thinking about?" Harry asked. "What's been going on between you two anyways? You go from holding each other, to being too polite with each other, to arguing to the silent treatment …"

"I don't know what's going on," Hermione sighed.

"Do you want me to talk to him?" Harry asked, shifting uncomfortable, he had just planned on teasing Hermione, but seeing his friend's nerves, he wanted to do something to help her.

"No," Hermione shook her head. "Thanks though, Harry."

"Yeah, well," Harry rubbed the back of his head. He wasn't able to say anymore than that before she walked into her room and he was left to himself for the next hour or so before people came over.

O

"I'm not sure you got the dirt that was behind your ears," Fred said looking at his youngest brother with narrowed eyes. "I think you should go back to the bathroom again to clean that up."

"Shut up," Ron grumbled, his ears turning red. He had been extremely nervous the entire morning, waking up with the sun rise and getting dress in his nicest clothes only to change them a minute later. He ended up wearing the first outfit that he had on.

"I didn't realize that you liked Harry so much that has you this nerves," George grinned at him. "Or is it …"

"Shut up!" Ron hiss again before George could finish, all the while blushing more than he had before.

"Oh, leave him alone, I think it's sweet …" Ginny started.

"Sweet my arse," Ron grumbled at his sister, she was worse than the twins sometimes. "Just get off my case already."

"Come on Ronniekins … if we don't tease you, we wouldn't have anything else to do," Fred said.

"And you don't want us to be bored, now do you?" George asked.

"Yes I do," Ron snapped at him, "besides, don't you have joke products to invent or something."

"Not today," Fred shrugged, "and we rather enjoyed the show you've been putting on for us."

"Whatever," Ron grumbled yet again, though their teasing was actually keeping him from feeling as nervous as he was when he was upstairs trying to figure out the best thing to wear. He wasn't really sure why he cared so much, it's not like he was making a first impression or that he could be impressive just because he was dressed nicely. It's not like she would notice him at all …

"Oh, no you don't," Ginny said grabbing Ron's arm as he got up to go to his room again. "Mum said we were about to leave … you don't have time to chicken out now …"

"Oh good, you're all ready!" Molly said walking into the living room, Arthur right behind her, "it's time to go. Oh, Ronnie, don't you look dashing," she added as she looked at her youngest son, an amused look twinkling in her eyes as she looked at him.

"Mum!" Ron groaned, not her too!

"Come on, let's go," Arthur said, grabbing hold of Ginny as Molly did the same for Ron. Since Grimmauld Place wasn't on the Floo Network the family Apparated there. The twins showed up there moments later, looking proud by the fact that they were able to Apparate on their own. Arthur then knocked on the door.

"Oh good, you made it," Sirius said opening the door wide so the Weasleys could come inside before he lead them to the living room where Harry, Hermione, Remus, the Tonkses and Emmeline were already there talking happily. Harry and Hermione got up and walked over to the new arrivals.

"Happy birthday mate," Ron said, slapping Harry on the back. He smiled at his friend until Harry moved on to get the same treatment from Fred and George, and Ginny one upped them by hugging him. As Harry walked to greet the others, Ron's eyes fell automatically onto Hermione, who was wearing a very pretty blue summer dress thingy. He watched as she greeted his brothers with a hug and then she was standing in front of him.

"Hello Ron," she said nervously before she gave him the briefest of hugs (much shorter than the one she gave the twins his mind complained) and before he knew it she was gone. Or was it that he turned away from her as soon as she let him go because he could feel his face turn red and he forced himself to walk to the Tonks family … why the hell did he do that? He wanted to talk to Hermione! He'd been a nervous wreck all day just thinking about what he was going to say to her and now that he had the chance, he couldn't even say Hi!

"So Ron, how was your holiday so far?" Harry asked after the greetings were all over and everyone was talking in groups. He realized quickly that it was just him and Harry and that Hermione was talking with Ginny and the twins.

"Alright," Ron answered.

"Really mate, if you would rather talk with someone else, you just have to say so," Harry said amused and Ron snapped his attention back to his friend.

"Sorry," Ron said, shook his thoughts of talking to Hermione alone and said, "actually it was pretty cool … did you hear that the Cannons won at game last week …"

"Yeah, I actually did, Sirius wouldn't shut up about it," Harry said making a face, "and I would appreciate it if you don't bring that up to him … I can't take …"

"That's right, Sirius's a fan too, I better go talk to him," Ron said, deaf to Harry's plead.

Harry rolled his eyes at his friend as Ron walked over to Sirius and the two of them talked for a good half hour about the great game the Cannons had played. The rest of the population was doing their best not to be part of that conversation. Harry went over to where the twins were explaining to Hermione their newest experiment, which sounded rather interesting.

"… you see that's where the fun comes in," Fred said, "the more you try to stop them, the better the explosions become."

"Explosions? What are you blowing up this time?" Tonks came over too, looking amused. "I remember you had something to do with what happened in the corridor to the potions dungeon my last year at Hogwarts …"

"Oh yeah, we did do that, didn't we," George chuckled. "It was a complete accident of course … how were we suppose to know dropping our potion would cause such an explosion …"

"Because you were brewing the exploding potion," Tonks answered.

"Little details," Fred said waving a hand at her impatiently. "Besides, we're not talking about destroying things now … we were just explaining about the new fireworks that we have been developing. You see when you tried to curse them to stop with … let's say you try to stun it … well that will just cause an explosion that will make us proud. Of course, not all curse will have the same effect, that would be boring, so if you tried to vanish it, it will multiply … and if you try to transfigure it … well it will be transfigured all right … only it will turn into something really cool like a dragon or something. It all depends on what you're trying to do."

"Impressive," Tonks whistled. "You don't happen to have any that we might be able to try out."

"No go," George sighed. "They're still in the prototype phase. We got the anti curse effect down, but they just don't last as long as we'd like. What's the point of having fireworks that you can't curse to go away if they'll die after only fifteen minutes?"

"I still think it would be cool to have seen that," Tonks shrugged but she saw their point at the same time.

"Yeah, well, if you want to see something, you can always try this," George held out a cookie to her.

"Thanks, but no thanks," Tonks chuckled.

"Suit yourself, though you might want to be careful about what you eat here … you never know what might happen," George said and just as he said that there was a commotion coming from the corner of the room.

"'at oing on?" someone said, obviously having trouble pronouncing words properly. Everyone turned to Sirius, who was holding something in front of his mouth. "M' ungue."

"It's a … Ton -Tongue … Toffee …" Ron was saying through gasped of breaths as he laughed at the expression on Sirius's face.

"On -Ugue?" Sirius said as his tongue swelled even farther and he could no longer hide it from view.

"FRED! GEORGE! WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Molly turned on her twins then, both of which gave her their most innocent expression. "Reverse the curse at ones."

"It's not a curse …" Fred started to say.

"NOW!"

"All right, all right," Fred said, "it's not like it's that hard to reverse, you just have to use a simple reducio on it …" he muttered as he walked over to Sirius. "And your tongue is only a foot long …"

After his tongue was back to the normal size, Sirius laughed along with most of the people in the room. "Brilliant prank, mate," he said to Fred. "Do you know how long the tongue can get before the charm wears off …"

"George let his tongue get five feet before he had too much trouble breathing and we had to reduce it," Fred answered chuckling.

"There better not be any more Ton-Tongue Toffees here," Molly said still glaring at her twin sons.

"Don't worry Mum, there was only one Ton-Tongue Toffee …" George assured her just as there was another commotion. Everyone turned to see a rather large canary standing in the room.

"GEORGE!" Molly exclaimed, trying to look irritated but the twins were surprised to see that there was a certain amount of amusement in her eyes.

"What Mum? It's not a Ton-Tongue Toffee!" George was bold enough to say as the room laughed as the unfortunate person, Ted Tonks, turned back into himself, giving a nice belly laugh to the group.

With all the tension broken in the room, everyone was able to enjoy themselves more, though no one quite trusted the snack food that was on the table, not sure if the twins had left more surprises. This also caused a round of stories to start going around where each person would tell of some kind of prank or amusing story they were part of. The Weasley children seemed to find the one their mum told about how she was able to get the better of her trickster brothers quite enjoyable. And the twins were rather impressed by her.

By the end of the night, Harry had to admit that this had been the best birthday he could remember, surround by his friends and family, though he felt the absence of Neville more because of it. He also wondered how things were going to be starting next term, but as he laughed with the Weasleys and Hermione he felt like he didn't have to worry about anything.