At the bottom portion of Fissick Alley, at the opposite end to where the street met with five others at the plaza of the Central Square to merge with Diagon Alley, and about half way down again from Hooch and Hardbroom's Magical Flight Centre, the street curved in a sweeping arc into a series of quaint avenues and arcades in front of the grand marble façade of the Hippodrome. It was here that Fissick Alley led into the array of restaurants and coffee shops and bistros, that was the bustling social centre of Innphorm Alley, via magical London's French Quarter, which was affectionately known by the locals as the Joan d'Arc on account of its unusual shape.
And it was also here that Harry's favourite place to get breakfast happened to be. It was a little cafe called La Bijou Baguette, and as birthday breakfast location options went, there was simply no other choice in Harry's mind.
The sun was baking down on the bright cobble streets as Harry and his parents dug into an array of crepes with chocolate or sugar and lemon, a selection of French pastries, and jugs of coffee and orange juice. They had been lucky enough to snag prime seats on the cafe's verandah overlooking the Alley, and simply world-watched as they ate their way through their sumptuous breakfast.
Harry spent much of his time looking over at the Hippodrome opposite. They were staging a Summer run of an adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, and Harry thought he wouldn't mind getting a ticket himself. The book was one of his favourites and he'd love to see it play out on the stage. He wondered if Hermione would be willing to add taking in the show to their list of Things to Do on future dates, if it ever ran again.
Not that they would be actual dates or anything, of course ...
It might be quite fitting, Harry thought brightly, for Marici would be the lion and Hermione would be the witch ... though that would leave him as the wardrobe, and he wasn't sure what that said about his role in this dynamic!
Chuckling to himself, Harry reached over for a croissant and looked out towards the Underground Station just beyond the Hippodrome, watching the people coming in and out of the terminus and idly wondering what they all might be doing with their days. This naturally led Harry to think about what Hermione might be doing on this, his birthday, and the unfortunate collision of circumstances that promised to add a tinge of misery to his special day.
But on top of that was knowing the actual reason for Hermione returning to her own world in the first place, and the guilt of his own role in it stirred awkwardly in Harry's gut, and was enough to rob him of his appetite a moment.
Lily noticed Harry's vexation, and turned to him curiously from her place across the table. "What's on your mind, Harry? You're not supposed to look so mopey on your birthday, you know. Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really," Harry frowned back.
"That wasn't actually a question," Lily quirked pointedly. "But maybe I'll answer it for you ... you're worried about Hermione, aren't you?"
Harry nearly spat out his orange juice as he looked over at his mother in surprise. "How do you know?"
"I'm your Mum, it's sort of my job," Lily smiled warmly, feeding Seren a bit of toast as she grumbled from her pushchair. "So I can tell when something's up."
"You're still worried about her going home, aren't you?" James cut in, sagely. "Why? Are you afraid she wont come back?"
"No!" Harry blurted out as his face reddened. He was suddenly very afraid of that possibility, consumed with this horrible thought, one that hadn't crossed his mind until his father had put it there. He was such an annoyance for doing things like that. Harry scowled bitterly at him. "I'm quite sure Hermione will come back. I hope she does, at least."
"What is it then? Or will you just miss Hermione that much while she's gone?" Lily teased.
Harry scowled at his mother now. "If you want to talk, I'll talk ... but stop trying to be as annoying as Dad! Or I'll just talk to Seren instead of either of you! I might get more sense from a baby, anyway!"
Lily laughed softly, causing Harry's sister to gurgle happily, too. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. I was just teasing you. But go on, tell us what's wrong."
"Well, it's just that Hermione going home for so long has got me thinking ... thinking about stuff to do with her that I've never really thought about before," Harry began, nervously.
"Ah, I think I see where this is going," Lily replied wisely, placing her coffee cup down onto the table and facing up to Harry with considered purpose, as though she were about to have one of those talks with him, the ones you see in movies and hear horror stories about. Harry shivered with the potential awkwardness that had suddenly snaked onto his horizon, and moved swiftly to dispel it.
"No, no ... I don't mean stuff like that!" Harry muttered out at speed, his words a mere jumble of fraught anxiety. "I mean things to do with where Hermione has come from, and what has happened to her since she's been here, and all that."
"Oh, okay," Lily breathed in obvious relief. She picked her coffee back up and smiled at Harry encouragingly. "Go on."
Harry reached out on instinct and dug his fingers into Marici's lush mane for courage. She was sat at his side under a Disillusionment Charm at the moment, and she mewled deeply in a show of solidarity, emboldening Harry to continue.
"Well, I suppose that I've never really stopped to consider all of the sacrifices and suffering that Hermione has gone through over the last few years," Harry confessed. "She's endured so much, given up so much, and all at such a young age, too ... and it's all my fault."
Lily turned to her son with concerned eyes. "Now why in the world do you think that?"
"Because it's the truth," Harry countered, glumly. "And I've never appreciated the extent of it, really. But I've just been thinking about Hermione going home to see her parents, to cure them of what they went through this past year, and it got me thinking about how everything has suddenly become so real for us both.
"And every time I do I feel so guilty, and so stupid ... so very, very stupid. There's this huge part of Hermione and her life that I know so little about, but she gave it all up, gave up everything she knew, to come and help me. And all for what? To be possessed by the most evil wizard alive and nearly have Papageno killed by him? To have her parents attacked, too ... made victims of Riddle's war against me through Hermione, because he couldn't get to either of us directly?
"I don't know what would have happened to Hermione if Riddle and Lockhart had succeeded, and I don't think I want to. But Tom Riddle possessing Hermione for much of the year, and so abhorrently abusing her dæmon at the end of it, is probably the worst part of it all ... it might be the worst memory I've ever had. I see it when I sleep, relive it when I dream. I cant stop thinking about it, Mum ... and I don't know how to stop it.
"And the only reason any of it has happened is because Hermione is here in this world, as my friend, when she could be safe and sound in the Oxford where she grew up. She'd be away from all of this ... it would just be her and Papageno, her parents and a normal life, with no greater danger than crossing the street without looking properly.
"So, yeah, it is all my fault ... but I feel so selfish, because I've gotten so much out of knowing Hermione ... and I feel really guilty about wanting her to come back, even if it means facing more risks with me. I'm a horrible person, Mum."
At that point, Marici stirred and climbed up onto the bench seat next to Harry, laying her head in his lap. Harry smoothed his invisible dæmon lovingly, as she stretched out across his thighs. At the sound of Harry's wobbly voice, Lily rose and moved to him, sliding a protective arm around his shoulders, drawing him motherly close, eyeing Harry's movement in deep curiosity, as she always did.
But Lily seemed to know that even she wasn't allowed to touch the dæmon, unless in the most extreme circumstances, without Harry's express permission ... which she had no idea how to ask for. But it still didn't stop her academic mind being fascinated by the whole thing.
"I suppose I don't really know what this is like, do I?" Lily mused, nodding towards the invisible Marici. "Not with my dæmon being stuck inside me, and everything?"
Harry shook his head. "No, Mum, you really can't. I know Chi's only been corporeal for a short while, but I feel like she's been with me since the day I was born. It's sort of like suddenly realising that I have an extra limb or a new sense that I hadn't noticed before, but that I always knew was there on some subconscious level. I suppose Hermione going home has made me think about what my life would be like without my best friend, or my dæmon, or all of the things that they both bring to me ... and it makes me sad."
Lily smoothed Harry's hair gently. "But what is it about this that makes you so morose? We're supposed to be celebrating your birthday, you know. You don't seem to have much luck with your special days, do you?"
"I know, maybe I'm cursed," Harry fretted, easing free to rest against the back of the bench. "I cant explain what it's like, Mum ... but it's such a frightening idea. I suppose it just got me thinking about other things, too."
"Such as?"
"Such as ... all of it!" Harry whined. "I've never given it as much thought as it deserves, but the amount of sacrifices that Hermione has made ... it's actually insane. She's suffered so much ... and all because of me."
"Yet you still haven't convinced me about that," Lily replied, softly. "I think you are being far too hard on yourself."
"Do you!" Harry cried, incredulously. "I didn't ask for this life, Mum, or this responsibility. I never had a choice in it, and neither did you or Dad. Some other power decided for us. I didn't ask for Tom Riddle to have whatever bad experiences turned him into a Dark Lord, and I didn't ask for some prophet to say that I had the power to beat him somehow. I didn't ask for him to find out about that, or to target me and then force you and Dad to go underground for ten years and all the rest of it.
"But all of that happened. Then Voldemort goes into Hermione's world, and I don't know if his being there caused her to somehow become involved in my prophecy or what, but I didn't ask for Lyra's truth reader to tell Hermione that she had to get to this world to save my life, or to help me fight Voldemort in the end. I don't even know how I'm supposed to do that. I don't think Hermione does, either, to be honest.
"Neither of us asked to be so involved with all of this, but still Hermione came for me. Without knowing who I was, or what sort of person I might be, or even what we had to do, she still came to help ... because she thought that it was the right thing to do. She didn't ask to be drawn into this, but once she had been she was determined to get to me, no matter what."
James smiled fondly from the other side of the table. "And that is why we all like her so much. We could all use a friend like that in our lives!"
"But look at what it's cost her!" Harry shot back, hotly. "She was barely eleven years old when she decided to leave her parents behind. Eleven! And she left not only her parents, but her entire world ... for me, a boy she didn't even know. She left her family, everything she knew, and crossed into this world to try and find me and hope that I wasn't a dickhead not worthy of her help.
"And look at how I've repaid her! By getting her into near-death situations bordering on half-a-dozen times already! Not only that, but because of Dust or Lyra's alethiometer, Voldemort knows that Hermione is the key to unlocking my weird power to defeat him. So he isn't targeting me anymore ... his goal is to destroy her before she can get up to this task. And I don't think he'll ever stop.
"But he can't get to her so easily right now. So he uses third-parties ... like Quirrell and Lockhart and whoever else will come next ... and at the same time targets the weaknesses in Hermione's circle, like her parents when he set his basilisk on them last year. Just like you told me he tried to do with your old friend, Peter Pettigrew. So now they've suffered on account of me, too. It's a wonder Hermione doesn't rightly hate my guts."
"Hermione obviously thinks you are worth all of that," Lily consoled, gently. "She wouldn't have stayed friends with you otherwise, would she?"
Harry huffed dismissively. "I'm not so sure about that. I don't know if anyone is worthy enough to warrant all those sacrifices to be made for them."
"Well ... would you make them for her?"
"Of course I would!" Harry snapped back immediately without even thinking. He froze and swallowed awkwardly at the impact of his understanding, as it melted into his mind.
Lily just smiled at him. "There you go then. Look, Harry, I know I'm your Mum, but I'm still a girl, you know ... and I know exactly the kind of motivation it would take to make such sacrifices for someone you like. You're getting to the age where you're starting to understand that, too. Which I why I like Hermione so much ... to do what she's done for you already shows a level of care that goes beyond regular friendship.
"And I could never thank her enough for taking such diligent care with you. It makes me sleep easy knowing that you have someone looking out for you as much as she does. It just so happens that you live in an extraordinary world ... so you need extraordinary friends to help you along in it."
"In any case," James added. "The Mandrake Restorative Draught your mother brewed will have Hermione's parents right as rain in no time. Sirius just thought it might be easier for them to wake up to a friendly face, to ease the shock of being in an unfamiliar environment."
"These things that have happened to Hermione are tough to take for sure," Lily took over. "But it just shows how exceptionally strong a girl she is to have endured them all and still come through it with a smile on her face."
Harry felt a warmth rise in his chest as he thought of Hermione's smile. If that was the last memory he'd have of her, it was a nice one to cherish. But it soothed, rather than placated Harry's guilt.
"I still should have taken more of an interest in her origins," Harry moaned. "I barely even asked Sirius about it, and he lived there for a few years, didn't he? He could have told me as much as Hermione, probably."
"Well, maybe he just wanted you to experience it for yourself."
Harry snapped his head around, deeply shocked to hear his Godfather's voice just behind him. But it wasn't pleasure he felt at seeing him ... it was roiling anger.
"What are you doing here?" Harry scythed.
"Well, I expected a better welcome than that for my surprise appearance!" Sirius chuckled as he vaulted the low trellis fence. "I think he had better manners when I was raising him, you know."
Sirius winked at Lily, who narrowed her eyes in a very nonplussed expression.
But Harry was too irate to be ignored. "Forget about all that and answer my question, you! Why are you here?"
"I told you, I didn't want to miss your birthday," Sirius replied with an infuriating smirk. "So here I am."
"Sod my birthday!" Harry yelled. "You're supposed to be with Hermione! It's your job to look after her while she goes back to see her parents! I don't want you here while she's there and in danger!"
"I am wounded," Sirius mocked, theatrically, stealing bacon from Harry's plate. "I thought you'd want my birthday present at the very least."
"Well, I don't!" Harry sniped. "Not if it's as thoughtless as you!"
Sirius barked out a laugh, his eyes sparkling in his mirth. "Let me show them to you, just in case, eh?"
"No, I don't want to see," Harry stropped, folding his arms over his chest. Even his Mum and Dad were smirking, which stoked his ire even more. He scowled at them all in turn.
But Sirius was not to be derailed from his course.
"Right, let's see what we have here," he began, magically resizing a set of shopping bags from his pockets and disappearing into them a moment. "Okay. We have this rather fetching heavy jacket made of dragonhide and lined with mammoth fur ... great insulator that ... and these trousers made of hydra leather, which are nice and waterproof. We have a set of heavy boots with special snow-melting charms woven in - they'll be useful - and a new hat, scarf and glove set with the Farringdon Fliers branding. Unfortunately, thermal underwear is out of season, so we'll just have to make do without them."
"This is all out of season, you wally!" Harry cried, incredulously. "Have you noticed that these are Winter clothes?"
"I have," Sirius nodded piously.
"And have you noticed that!" Harry shot, pointing at the baking sun and blue skies overhead. "What am I supposed to do with those things in this heat? I'll melt!"
"Well, you can just form a pool with the rest of us then," Sirius grinned. Then he turned to James and Lily, who had returned to her seat. "I found this horrendously cute snow-suit for Seren, you'll love it I'm sure. I packed it along with your things."
Harry halted in his racing anger for a second, replacing it with confusion. "Packed what? What's going on?"
"Oh, I forgot these," Sirius smirked, reaching into a final pocket and resizing three travel cases, which he lined up next to the table.
James nodded over. "Did you remember the sledges? I haven't beaten you in a race since the last time we snuck out of Hogwarts and scaled Ben Nevis for the annual Race of All Races. I even lost to Remus that year ... my ego has never gotten over it."
"So that's where you went!" Lily hooted triumphantly. "I knew it had to be something seriously stupid for you to stand me up on a Hogsmeade date. I nearly went with Severus to the next one, just as a punishment."
"It would have hurt you as much as me, Lil," James sighed, grimly. "But thanks for not doing that. I might have done something very jealous ..."
"Oi!" Harry shouted. "This is my birthday and you're all acting like morons! What the hell is going on?"
"Well, kiddo, it's like this," Sirius smirked. "A couple of weeks ago I told our Hermione that the Mandrake Restorative Draught was ready to take to her parents, and that I thought she should be there to give it to them. I thought she'd be really excited, and she was ... for about five minutes, then she realised that going home would mean missing your birthday.
"And she's been a right misery guts ever since. Even Lyra is getting annoyed with her stroppy attitude, and Lyra dotes on Hermione like she's her own kid. We hardly see her and Pap for their moping these days. I just happened to mention this to your old Dad down the pub the other night, and lo and behold he said that he was having the same problem with you."
"So our solution was to get you a late surprise for your birthday," James took over. "You see, your Mum and I haven't had a proper holiday in over a decade ..."
"... and I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights ..." Lily chipped in eagerly.
"... and we knew that we'd get no joy out of you if you stayed like this all Summer ..."
"... so we thought we'd take a Winter holiday during your Summer break from school," Lily took over. "Namely to the Far North at first, then on into Hermione's World, so that you can learn all about the place that your best friend came from."
Harry's heart leapt like a jumping salmon. "Really? You're not making all this up are you?"
"Of course not," Sirius laughed. "Why do you think I've spent so much on all this cold-weather gear?"
Harry jumped up in a burst of excitement, forgetting all about poor Marici, who hissed at Harry as he knocked her head against the underside of the table in his restless enthusiasm. He ignored her angry yelp of pain and darted to Sirius, hugging him tight.
"Sorry, sorry," he hushed quickly. "I didn't mean all that I said! This is the best birthday present ever!"
"Don't tell Minerva that!" Sirius chuckled. "She still wants to outdo me for getting you a broomstick when we first met!"
Harry laughed and stepped back, his heart lighter than it had been in days. "So, when do we go?"
"Tomorrow," James replied. "We thought we might have a sunny birthday before heading out into the snow."
"And do you really have sledges packed?" Harry beamed. "I reckon I'll beat you both in a race, I bet!"
"But can you beat me?" Lily asked in her amusement. "I'll have you know that I am the final, and so forever reigning, Champion of The Race of All Races."
"Are you really!" Harry grinned. "Cool. I accept your challenge, Mum!"
Then Harry leant over Seren's pushchair and spoke in a quite sickly, babyish voice, one that was quite unlike his own, but that he had caught himself using a few times lately. Had really had to stop it. "And are you looking forward to seeing the snow, little Sis? We can build a snowman and make snow angels ... well, you'll just have to watch, because you're too little to help ... but maybe Hermione can Charm you a warm snowball or something to play with, she's good with things like that, making hot things cold and cold things warm. Ooh, Sirius! Does Hermione know we are coming? I sort of hope not ... it'd be such a wicked surprise!"
"I think, right about now, Lyra will be telling her the good news," Sirius chuckled back. "And, before you get all militant again, Lyra and Hermione are as safe as they can be. Lyra's taken them to see the bears before they head off to Oxford, and once they are under the protection of Iorek Byrnison even Lewd Voldemort wont be able to lay a finger on them. Actually, Lyra has gone to ask for Iorek's help with some disturbing developments involving The Magisterium that Mal was telling us about the other day."
"What developments?" Harry queried.
"Nothing that concerns you," Sirius returned, bluntly but evasively. But Harry was too happy and excited to really pay that very much mind.
For he was going to visit another world. He was going to see proper armoured bears, and more strange witches, and a thousand other sights that would amaze and astonish him. But, more important than any of that, he was going to the one place that he wanted to be more than any other ... to the side of his best friend, the very best person he thought he'd ever meet ever, in this world, her world, or any other they might visit.
And he couldn't wait to see her, to start yet another adventure in their crazy friendship so far.